History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 46

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, ed
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co.
Number of Pages: 1354

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was among the earliest to become its nominal opponent ; and, subse- quently, to pose as a distinguished " patriot " aud as a uot less distin- guished republican statesman :

" DEAR SIR :

"NEW YORK, May 20, 1774.

"You have heard, and you will hear, a great deal about politics ; " and in the heap of Chaff you may find some grains of good sense. Be- " lieve me, Sir, Freedom and Religion are only watchwords. We have "appointed a Committee, or, ratlier, we have nominated one. Let ine " give you the history of it.

"It is needless to premise, that the lower orders of Mankind are more "easily led by specious appearances than those of a more exalted statiou. " This, and many similar propositions, you know better than your hum- " ble servant.

"The troubles in America, during Grenville's Administratiou, put our "Gentry upon this finesse. They stimulated some daring Coxeombs to "rouse the Mob into an attack upon the bounds of order and decency. " These fellows became the Jack Cades of the day, the Leaders in all the " Riots, the Bellwethere of the Flock. The reason of the mancenvre, iu " those who wished to keep fair with the Government and, at the same "time, to receive the incense of popular applause, you will readily per- " ceive. On the whole, the Shepards were not nmeh to blame, in a po- " litieal point of view. The Bellwethers jingled merrily, and roared "out, 'Liberty,' and 'Property,' and 'Religion,' and a multitude of " cant terms, which every oue thought he understood, and was egregi. "ously mistaken ; for you must know the Shepherds kept the Dictionary " of the Day ; and, like the Mysteries of the ancient Mythology, it was " not for profane eyes and ears. This answered many purposes : the " simple Flock put themselves entirely under the protection of tliese " most excellent Shepherds.

" By-and-bye, behold a great metamorphosis, without the help of Ovid "or his Divinities ; but entirely effectnated by two modern Geuii, the " God of Ambition and the Goddess of Factiou. The first of these "prompted the Shepherds to shear some of their Flock ; and, then, in " conjunction with the other, converted the Bellwethers into Shepherds. " That we have been in hot water with the British Parliament, ever " since, every body knows : consequently these new Shepherds have had " their hands full of employment. The old ones kept themselves least in "sight ; and a want of confidence in each other was not the least evil " which followed. The Port of Boston has been shut up. These Sheep, " simple as they are, cannot be gulled, as heretofore. In short, there is " no ruling them ; and, now, to leave the metaphor, the heads of the " Mobility grow daugerons to the Gentry ; and how to keep them down "is the question.

"While they correspond with the other Colonies, call and dismiss " popular Assemblies, make Resolves to bind the Consciences of the rest " of Mankind, bully poor Printers, and exert with full force all their "other tribunitial powers, it is impossible to curb them. But Art some- " times goes farther than Force; and, therefore, to trick them hand- " somely, a Committee of Patricians was to be nominated ; and into their "hands was to be committed the Majesty of the People ; and the highest "trust was to be reposed in them by a mandate that they should take "care, quod respublica non capiat injuriam. The Tribunes, through the " want of good legerdemain in the senatorial order, perceived thie finesse ; "and, yesterday, I was present at a grand division of the City ; and, "there, I behield my fellow-citizeus very accurately counting all their

a people, at such a time, and under such circumstances as then existed, and which would probably continue to exist, might, also, sensibly or insensibly, weaken if where existed, that such an organization, among such it should not destroy all those bonds of recognized dependence, and loyalty, and love, which, hitherto, had so firmly bound the Colony to the Mother Country. But, uotwithstanding the evident intentions of those among whom the thought of creating such a Com- mittee had originated; notwithstanding the purposes for which it had been created included no such pur- pose; and uotwithstanding a separation of the Colo- nies from the Mother Country had uot yet become one of the questions of the day, that Committee of Corre- spondence in the City of New York, created and

"Chickens, not only before any of them were hatched, but before above "oue half of the Eggs were laid. In short, they fairly contended about "the future forms of our Government, whether it should be founded "upon aristocratic or democratic principles.

" I stood in the Balcony ; and, on my right hand were ranged all the "people of property, with some few poor dependants ; and, on the other, "all the Tradesmen, etc., who thought it worth their while to leave "their daily labour for the good of the Country. The spirit of the "English Constitution has yet a little influence left, aud but a little. "The remains of it, however, will give the wealthy people a superiority, " this time ; but, would they secure it, they must banish all Schoolmas- " ters aud confine all Knowledge to themselves. This cannot be. The " Mob begin to think and to reason. Poor Reptiles ! it is, with them, a " verual Morning ; they are struggling to east off their Winter's Slongli ; "they bask in the Sunshine; and, ere Noon, they will bite, depend "upon it. The Gentry begin to fear this. Their Committee will be "appointed ; they will deceive the People; and, again, they will forfeit "a share of their Confidence. And if these instances of what with one "side is Poliey, with the other Perfidy, shall continue to increase, and " become more frequent, farewell, Aristocracy. I sec, and I see it withi "fear and trembling, that if the Disputes with Great Britain continue, "we shall be under the worst of all possible dominious ; we shall be "under the domination of a riotons Mob.

"It is the interest of all men, therefore, to seek for re-union with the "parent State. A safe Compact seems, in my poor opinion, to be now "tendercd. Internal taxation to be left with ourselves. The right of "regulating Trade to be vested iu Britain, where alone is found the "power of protecting it. I trust yon will agree with me, that this is " the only possible mode of union. * * * *

" I am, Sir,, etc,,

" MR. PENN. "GOUVERNEUR MORRIS."

It was never pretended, if onr memory serves us correctly, that the writer of this letter was a democratic republican : our readers can easily determine, from his contemptnons words, while describing the unfranchised Mechanics and Working-men of this City, how little of a republican of any other elass, how much of a believer of the political dogina of the unqualified equality of all men, he was, notwithstanding what some historians, so called, have written of him.

Iu the same spirit, was that note written by James Rivingtou, of New York, and received by Henry Knox, of Boston, subsequently a General in the Army of the Revolution and Secretary of War nnder l'resident Washington, and (in his own estimation) never one of the people, which note was detected by the revolutionary leaders in Boston, and commu- nicated to the "Sons of Liberty, " in New York, by note, dated 19 June, 1774. The words used by Rivington were these: "You may rest as- " sured that no non-im-, nor non-ex-portation will be agreed upon "either here or at Philadelphia. The power over our crowd is no "longer in the hands of Sears, Lamb, and sneh unimportant persons, " who have for six years past, been the demagogues of a very turbuleut " factiou in this City ; but thicir power and mischievous capacity ex- "pired instantly upon the election of the Committee of Fifty-one, in "which there is a majority of inflexibly honest, loyal, and prudeut "citizens."-( MS. letter of Thomas Young to John Lamb, "BOSTON, 19th " June, 1774," iu the "Lamb Papers," New York Historical Society's Library.)

189

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1774-1783.

fostered by the most aristocratie of her citizens, from the beginning of its existence, was one of the most powerful of those instrumentalities which, at that very time, were sapping the foundations of the Throne, in the Colonies ; and it was through the proposition and the persistent effort of that particular Committee, that, very soon after it was organized, another and yet more influential body was created, composed of influential and able men, mainly from the higher classes of society, by whom, uot long afterwards, the Home Government was arraigned before the bar of the entire world, on well-sustained charges of Usurpation and Oppression ; by whom, also, the standard of a united Rebellion of all the Colonies was raised ; and by whom a revolutionary power, united and energetie, extending throughout the entire seaboard, was raised for its support. In opposition to the purposes and the demands of the small revolutionary element, in New York-in opposition, also, to the leaders and the revolutionary populace, in Boston, with whom the revolutionary leaders in New York were in constant correspondence and in entire harmony-the Com- mittee which the conservative, anti-revolutionary aristoeraey of New York had thus ereated for the protection and the promotion of its own partieular interests, the domestie as well as the foreign, originally proposed and persistently insisted on the organization of a Congress of Delegates from all the Colonies, for the united consideration of all the matters in difference between all the Colonies and the Home Goverument ; and it was that Congress, thus ealled into existence by an anti-revolutionary body, by assuming authority which had not been delegated to it and by disregard- ing the expressed opinions and intentions of those who were represented therein-at the expense, also, of its own consisteney, in excepting one of the Colo- nies from the provisions of its Association, in order to secure the vote of that Colony for the enforcement of that Association upon all the other Colonies-which not only elosed the door of reconciliation with the Mother Country, which it was expected to have opened to its widest extent ; but, practically, it organ- ized a systematie and general Revolution, throughout the entire seaboard, which, ultimately, led to the over- throw of all monarchial power, within the entire territory of each and every one of its several constitu- ent Colonies. Such a notable instance of the thing which had been created for a specific purpose, having been turned, in the progress of events, by the tact of a small proportion of its members, without violenee and by some of those who had favored and assisted in the construction of it, against the greater number of those who had ereated it and for the overthrow of their purposes in having done so, as was seen in the instance of that Committee of Correspondenee in New York and in its notable results, is worthy of notice and remembrance; and it may well serve, also, as a perpetual reminder, to those whose political conduct has not been altogether honest, and whose inelinations

have, sometimes, been directed toward something else than that which has been indicated by their professions, that

"There's a Divinity that shapes our ends, " Rough hew them how we will."

While the consolidated Opposition, in the City of New York, was thus actively employed in making preparations for a vigorous opposition to the latest measures of the Home Government and, in order to make that opposition more effective, in transferring the leadership of the eonfederated party of the Oppo- sition from the few who had previously assumed to lead the revolutionary portion of the unfranchised masses, in the violent proceedings in which, fron time to time, the latter had been engaged, to the greater number, of higher social and peeuniary and political standing, who formed the large majority of the Com- mittee of Correspondenee which it was ereating, as its leader, in its opposition to the Ministry, the Town of Boston, also, was anxiously and earefully preparing for the coming catastrophe.

On the evening of Tuesday, the teuth of May,1 Cap- tain Shayler arrived in the latter plaee, bringing intelligence of the passage of the Aet of Parliament elosing that Port. On the following day, Weduesday, the eleventh of May, the Committees of Correspond- enee from eight of the adjacent Towns were invited to meet the Boston Committee, for consultation ; 2 and on Thursday, the twelfth of May, those Committees assembled at Faneuil Hall, with Samuel Adams in the Chair and Joseph Warren acting as the leader, on the floor, and determined to send "Cireular Letters " to the several Committees of Correspondence, where such Committees existed, in the other Colonies, urging, as the only proposed remedy for the threat- ened grievances, a renewal of that Non-Importation Association which, during the excitement which had followed the passage of the Stamp-Aet, had been produetive of so much success.3 On Friday, the thirteenth of May, a Meeting of the Freeholders and other inhabitants of the Town, legally qualified and duly warned, was holden in Faneuil Hall, Samuel Adams being in the Chair, at which it was voted, " that it is the opinion of this Town, that, if the other "Colonies come into a joint Resolution to stop all " Importation from Great Britain and Exportation to " Great Britain and every part of the West Indies, till

1 The Massachusetts Gazette of Thursday, May 12, 1774, printed the text of the Boston Port-bill, in full, with the following heading : . Tues- " day arrived here Captain Shayler, in a Brig from London, who bronglit " the most interesting and important Advices that ever was received at "the Port of Boston."

Sve, also, Bancroft's History of the U'nited States, original edition, vii., 34 ; the same, centenary edition, iv., 321 ; Frothinghan's Rise of the Re- public, 320 ; etc.

2 Bancroft's History of the United States, original edition, vit., 35 ; ! sume, centenary edition, iv., 321 ; Frothingham's Rise of the Republic , . _ I. a Bancroft's History of the United States, original edition, vii., 35-37 ; the same, centenary edition, iv., 321-323; Frothinghan's R. of the Republic, 321, etc.

190

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

" the Act for blocking up this Harbour be repealed, " the same will prove the Salvation of North America " and her Liberties. On the other hand, if they con- " tinue their Exports and Imports, there is high reason " to fear that Fraud, Power, and the most odious Op- " pression will rise, triumphant, over Right, Justice,

" Social Happiness, and Freedom." It was also " Ordered, that this Vote be forthwith transmitted by " the Moderator to all our sister Colonies, in the " Name and Behalf of the Town."

It will be seen, in these faithful statements of the doings of the leaders of the revolutionary party and of the doings of the revolutionary party, itself, in Boston, in May, 1774, that Massachusetts-men, there and at that time, recognized the existence of no grievance whatever, in any of the Colonies, except that which had been inflicted on Boston, in the pas- sage of the Boston Port-Bill; that they elevated that local grievance, which had been inflicted only as a penalty for local offences against existing Statutes, to the level of that general Stamp-Act, which had been inflicted on every Colonist, throughout the entire Continent, not as a penalty for wrong doing, but as a general Tax, levied only for the increase of the national Revenue ; that they considered that a general determination, by all the Colonies, from Nova Scotia to Florida, to hold no commercial intercourse what- ever with the Mother Country and with all the West Indian Colonies, foreign as well as British, was necessary for the protection of the delinquent Town from the threatened consequences of its persistent violation of the Laws of the Nation ; that they arro- gantly assumed that gencral action of all the Colonies must be taken, uniformly, in a distinct and clearly defined line, which those Massachusetts-men

specifically and definitely laid down, and in no other line whatever, leaving nothing to the choice or the better judgment or the existing circumstances of any others, any where; that even their New England ingenuity contrived no other remedy for their merely local grievance than that specific suspension of the entire agricultural and manufacturing industries of all the Colonies, except to the extent of supplying the demand for the productions of their industries for home-consumption only, as well as the specific sus- pension of all the Comunercc of all the Colonies, except that with the French Colonies of St. Pierre and Miquelon, on the coast of Newfoundland-with which, by the bye, so large a portion of the smuggling by Massachusetts-men was, then and subsequently, carried on2-all of which, without any possible abatenient, they definitely proposed and positively insisted on ; and that, in their complacency, they dared, also, to assert, if not to threaten, that the con- sequence of disobedience to their audacious proposi- tion, in any of the Colonics, would be the triumphant rise of Fraud, Power, and the most odious Oppression, over Right, Justice, Social. Happiness, and Freedom.3 In short, the principles and "patriotic" impulses of those men of Boston began and ended in the proposed promotion of nothing else than their own individual and local interests, at the expense of the entire prostration of business, internal as well as external, except that of Smuggling, from one extremity to the other of the Atlantic seaboard-the warp, the woof, and the filling of their neatly woven web were, in fact, nothing else, whatever, than unadulterated, audacious selfishness; and that selfishness, in that particular connection, was seen, more distinctly than it had previously been seen, when, a few weeks after- wards, the alms of the Continent, which had been sent for the particular relief of the sick and suffering poor of Boston, whom, it was said, the Port-Bill had

1 Proceedings of the Meeting, in Force's American Archives, Fourth Se- ries, i., 331, and in Dawsou's The Park and its Vicinity, 32.

See, also, Letter from Thomas Young to John Lamb, "BOSTON, May 13, " 1774 ;" Holt's New-York Journal, No. 1637, NEW-YORK, Thursday, May 19, 1774 ; Rivington's New-York Gazetteer, No. 57, NEW-YORK, Thursday, May 19, 1774 ; Gaine's New-York Gazette and Mercury, No. 1178, NEW- YORK, Monday, May 23, 1774 ; Lieutenant-governor Colden to Governor Tryon, " SPRING HILL 31st May, 1774;" the sume to the Earl of Dart- enouth, " NEW-YORK Ist June, 1774;" Annual Register for 1775, 4 ; His- tory of the War in America, Duhlin : 1779, i., 19, 20 ; Andrews' History of the War with America, Loudon : 1785, i., 134 ; Gordon's History of the Ameri- can Revolution, Loudon : 1788, i., 361 ; Ramsey's History of the American Revolution, London : 1791, i., 112; Stedman's History of the American War, London : 1794, i., 93 ; Adolphus's History of England, London : 1805, ii., 122, 123 ; "Paul Allen's" History of the American Revolution, Baltimore, 1822, i., 181 ; Morse's Annals of the American Revolution, Ilart- ford : 1824, 179, 180; Pitkin's History of the United States, New Haven : 1828, i., 270 ; Grahame's History of the I'nited States, London : 1836, iv., 347, 348 ; Hildreth's History of the United States, New York : 1856, First Series, iii., 34 ; Leake's Memoir of General John Lamb, Albany : 1857, 84-86; Lossing's Seventeen hundred and seventy-six, New York: 122; Lo-sing's Field-book of the Revolution, New York : 1851, i., 507; Ban- croft's History of the United States, original edition, Bostou : 1858, vii., 37 ; the same, centenary edition, Boston : 1876, iv., 323 ; Frothinghan's Rise of the Republic, Boston : 1872, 321, 322 ; Lodge's History of the Eng- lish Colonies, New York : 1881, 489 ; etc.

Lendrum, (History of the ['wited States ; ) Lossing, (History of the United States, 1854 ;) aud Ridpath, (Hestory of the United States ; ) made no allusion to this very important Meeting.

2 " LORD SANDWICH .- Do not the New England Fishing-ships carry on "an illicit Trade with the Freuch ?

" COMMODORE SHULDIAM .- Certainly ; their Ships meet at Sea ; and " they supply them with Provisions, Rum, Stores, and the Ships thein- "selves ; and return loaded with French Manufactures."-(Examination of Commodore Shuldham, Governor of Newfoundland, before the House of Lords, March 15, 1775.)

8 It will not he out of place, in this connection, to state the fact that Boston could have averted all the evils ascrihed to the Boston Port-Bill, by paying for what some of her lawless inhabitants had destroyed -as property destroyed by mohs, in our day, must he paid for by the County in which it is destroyed, as Alleghany-county, Pennsylvania, sorrowfully knows, as one of the several results of the notable " Pittsburg Riots" of 1877. She was evidently inclined to do so, in the beginning; hut she was counselled hy the Caucus of Town Committees, prompted by Joseph Warren, uot to do so ; and the Committee of Correspondence at Phila- delphia subsequently urged her to pay, without success. As will he seen, in another part of this Chapter, however, the infliction of the Bos- ton Port- Bill was a pecuniary advantage to that Town ; and it is not im- possible that it was foreseen, at that time, that a payment for the Tea which had been destroyed by one of her mobs, wouhl deprive the Town of all the pecuniary advantages to be derived from a refusal to do so.

What wonderful results, arising from that refusal to pay for what a mob had destroyed, have been seen, throughout the world, from that day to this.

191

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1774-1783.

deprived of their usual means of support, were diverted from the particular purposes for which they had been contributed, and employed, instead, for the particular benefit of Boston's tax-payers, in relieving them from the neces-ity of levying an unusual Poor- tax for the relief of the more than usually large number of those who were willing to live on charity ; and in " cleaning Docks, making Dykes, new laying " of old Pavements in the public streets, etc."-all of them "public concerns, of no advantage to any in- " dividual, any further than as a member of the " community to which he or she belonged. Not a " single Wharf, Dock, Dyke, or Pavement, belonging "to any individual, was ordered to be made or " repaired," notwithstanding many of those who had been really throwu out of employment could have found renumerative occupation in such works of private concern; "but only such " were thus made or repaired " as, by the constant usage of the Town, had "always been supported at the expense of the pub- " lic"-in other words, at the expense of the tax- payers, the aristocracy of that peculiarly democratie and peculiarly . revolutionary Town. One of "the "chief concerns of the principal iuhabitauts " was "for those Tradesmen, whose small funds, though " sufficient for the small purposes of hfe, yet would " soon be exhausted, if their resources were cut off"- in other words, for the payment of debts, due by those Tradesmen to those "principal Inhabitants," which, otherwise, would have been worthless-and Nails, and Ropes, and Baizes, and "Shirt-clothis," and Shoes, and other articles were manufactured, at the expense of the charitable, elsewhere, which were disposed of, by the "Gentlemen " who managed the speculation, to whom and at such prices as best answered the purposes of all concerned.1 Nced there be any surprise that, as one of their countrymen has since said, without a blush, " the people of Boston, " then the most flourishing commercial Town on the "Continent, never regretted their being the principal " object of ministerial vengeance ; " telling us, at the same time, that the "thousands who depended on their " daily labor for bread said: 'We shall suffer in a "'good cause ; the righteous Being who takes care of "' the Ravens that cry unto him, will provide for us "'and ours'" ?2 Need there be any surprise, also,

1 A paper, dated "BOSTON August 29, 1774," responsive to "a report "industriously propagated in New York "-but without any indication by whom written or where published-which was printed in Force's American Archives, Fourth Series, i., 743, 744.

See, also, a Letter from William Cooper-the well-known Town.Clerk of Boston-to a Gentleman in New York, dated " BOSTON : September 12, "1774," written in response to inquiries, and with the knowledge of " some of the Committee appointed to receive donations."

" Bancroft's History of the United States, original edition, vii., 48 ; the same, centenary edition, iv., 332.

On the thirty-first of May, 1774, John Scollay wrote, from Boston, to Arthur Lee, in London, "Thousands that depend on their daily labour "for support, must be reduced to the greatest degree of distress and "want. However, they will suffer in a good Canse, and that rigliteons " Being who takes care of the Ravens who cry unto Him, will provide " for them and theirs."

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History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 46

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, ed Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co. Number of Pages: 1354

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, ed
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co.
Number of Pages: 1354