USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York, 1609-1909 > Part 23
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tionality of the Stamp Act and declared that if the welfare of Great Britain "necessarily requires a sacrifice of the most valuable natural rights of the colonies: their right of making their own laws and dis- posing of their property by representation of their own choosing-if such is really the case between Great Britain and her colonies, then the con- nection between them ought to cease; and sooner or later it must cease."
This was one of the earliest pronouncements of independence as the ultimatum-the inevitable result of taxation without representation. Not all the printed assaults on the act came in this thoughtful and philosophic guise. Pamphlets, lampoons and squibs were distributed broadcast; copies of the Stamp Act were sold on the streets with a title page, "The Folly of England and the Ruin of America." In all of the cities those who
BRICK CHURCH IN BEEKMAN STREET, 1768
had accepted appointments as distributors of stamps were made to feel the censure of the populace. In Boston, Newport, New Haven and Nor- wich effigies labeled with the names and titles of the distributors were hanged and burned. The Sons of Liberty made themselves felt, and brought such intimidation and terror to the agents that they resigned, some of them before the stamps arrived. This was the case with James McEvers, who had accepted the office for New York and given bonds, but who resigned August 30th, as a consequence of personal threats as well as of the news from Boston and elsewhere. There were riots in Boston, in which several buildings were wrecked, and on September 2d, Lieutenant Governor Colden asked General Gage, in command of the troops at New York, to furnish a force for the protection of the government property, and on September 3d notified Captain Kennedy, commanding H.M.S. Ken-
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FROM PETER HASENKLIVER'S IRON WORKS
nedy, in New York harbor, to watch for incoming ships and to protect what- ever vessel brought the stamps.
Mr. Hood, who had been appointed stamp master for Maryland, was driven out of Annapolis, and, coming to New York, took lodgings at The King's Arms tavern, but hearing from the local Sons of Liberty that his resignation would be acceptable, he asked Colden for protection and was given quarters in Fort George. Many publications of an underground character appeared on the street. One entitled the Constitutional Courant, advocating union, and especially bold in tone, was printed in New Jersey and circulated on the streets of New York. Lawrence Sweeny, who dis- tributed the sheet, being asked where he got it, replied that he procured it from Peter Hasenkliver's Iron Works in East Jersey. This joke was passed around, and the next day the Courant came out with a date line from "Peter Hasenkliver's Iron Works." Its headline bore the device of a snake cut up into segments, representing, respectively, New England, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, with the legend "Unite or Die," which had been used eleven years before by Franklin, to urge cooperation of the col- onies to repel the French invasion.
During all this time, General Monckton, the governor general, remained in London. His opinion, like that of his friend, Sir Isaac Barré, was against the government's plan of taxation for America, and he felt so strongly on the subject that afterward, when the Revolution was in progress, he declined a command offered him, because he would not fight the comrades who had fought under him in Canada. So Colden's letters to him in the summer of 1765 led him to resign the governorship of New York, and Sir Henry Moore was appointed to succeed him.
Active preparation for the congress proposed by Massachusetts, to con- sider the situation, was in progress, New York being designated as the place of meeting. Meanwhile the stamps began to arrive in various places, amid menacing opposition to their being landed, and for a time they were kept on board the ships bringing them, guarded by men-of-war. Early in October the delegates arrived in the city, and the Stamp Act Congress asembled on October 7th, in the City Hall. Delegates were there from Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, the government of the counties of Kent, New- castle and Suffolk upon Delaware, Maryland and South Carolina. Only six were duly authorized committees appointed by the legislatures, as had been designated in the call for the convention. The Georgia Assembly had been enjoined by the governor from sending a committee; and the Assem-
15
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blies of Virginia and North Carolina had been prorogued by their gover- nors. New Hampshire sent word that it could not send a committee. The New York Assembly had not been in session, but the members of the Committee of Correspondence, chosen at its last session, were accepted as delegates to the convention, making an especially strong delegation, includ- ing Robert R. Livingston, Philip Livingston, William Bayard and Leonard Lispenard. Among the members from other colonies were several states- men who attained distinction. Boston sent James Otis; Connecticut sent William Samuel Johnson, jurist and educator; while from Pennsylvania came John Dickinson, "penman of the Revolution": from Delaware came Thomas Mckean, jurist, and signer of the Declaration of Independence; from South Carolina, Christopher Gadsden, later a general in the Revolu- tion, and John Rutledge, afterward governor of his state. The president, General Timothy Ruggles, had served in the French and Indian War. The convention appointed a committee to prepare a declaration and met again on October 19th, and following days, adjourning finally on October 28th. The "Declaration of Rights and Grievances" was agreed on after some careful deliberation and slight amendment. It is an able, fearless and dignified paper, and whether written by John Cruger (who that year went out of office as mayor of New York), or by John Dickinson, of Pennsyl- vania, as has been variously claimed, was distinctly creditable to the writer. This was forwarded with a formal address to the king, and peti- tions to each house of Parliament. General Ruggles, the president, would not sign the document, as "against his conscience"; nor would Ogden, of New Jersey, but all the others subscribed their names. "This Congress," says John Richard Green, in his History of the English People, "was the beginning of the American Union."
Prominent in the agitation of that period were Isaac Sears and John Lamb, who were the local leaders in the Sons of Liberty, the latter having charge of much of the correspondence with similar organizations in other cities. He was a native of New York, thirty years old, and prior to 1760 had worked with his father, who was a skilled optician. After that date he was in the liquor trade. Isaac Sears was born in Harwich, Massa- chusetts, in 1729, but had come to New York as a young man, had com- manded a privateer, and from 1758 to 1861 had cruised against the French. In the latter year he lost his vessel by shipwreck, and then engaged in the European and West Indian trade. In the early part of the disputes between the colonists and the British government he became a leader of the most radical element, and especially of the Sons of Liberty, who were busy day by day in working up an active opposition to the landing and dis- tribution of the stamps.
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McEVERS RESIGNS THE STAMP AGENCY
In the other colonies the receiving of stamps was resisted, and the stamp agents constrained to resign. In New York, McEvers had resigned the stamp agency, and there was no one authorized to distribute them. The stamps arrived here later than in any of the other colonies, coming in on October 23d, while the Stamp Act Congress was still in session. They were brought in the ship Edward, forty-five days out from Fal- mouth, where they had been stowed in different parts of the ship, in ten packages. It was claimed by the captain that they had been thus stowed away without his knowledge, and it is certain that none of the passengers aboard knew anything of their presence on the ship. In accordance with the arrangement with Lieutenant Governor Colden, the ship was boarded at Sandy Hook by a guard from the frigate Coventry, which, in command of Captain Kennedy convoyed the Edward into the harbor, bringing to anchor under the guns of the fort. The river front and wharves were filled with an excited throng; all the vessels in the harbor lowered their colors in token of mourning and humiliation over the arrival of the hated stamps. The next morning manuscript placards were found affixed to the doors of all public buildings and at all street corners. They were all alike, and read: "Pro Patria. The first Man that either distributes or make use of Stampt Paper, let him take Care of his House, Person & Effects. Vox Populi. We dare."
Of the seven members of the Council who were in town at the time, only three, Judges Horsmanden and Smith and John Reade, appeared at a meet- ing specially called by Colden at this juncture. They declined to advise the lieutenant governor in the absence of a full board, upon the ground that if they acted to detain the ship they would become liable to suit, by any person having goods on board. Finally it was decided to unload the vessel until the stamps were reached, and an effort was made to hire a sloop for that purpose, but no master of vessels would hire them for the service. The governor then requested the captains of the king's ships to undertake the work, and they agreed to do so, and began to remove the cargo, but by the time seven pack- ages of the stamps were reached there were signs of an approaching storm and they did not deem it safe to break the cargo further. Another element of worry was the absence of any writing or bill of lading. The captain of the Edward stated that when he left Falmouth there was a report that the new governor, Sir Henry Moore, was about to embark on H.M.S. Minerva, from Portsmouth, whereupon Colden decided to postpone opening the packages until his arrival. The seven packages were brought to land by H.M.S. Gar- land, and brought to the fort without any show of opposition.
The fort contained a garrison of one hundred men besides their officers. Major James, of the artillery, who was in command, had given great offense
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to the people by his manners. He had threatened that if there was any up- rising he would drive the participants out of town with two dozen men, and as to stamps, he would cram them down the people's throats with the point of his sword. Hearing of this speech, the Sons of Liberty sent a reply stating that they would storm the fort and burn the stamps. On October 31st, rumors flew thick and fast. The lieutenant governor sent word to the major that he had heard rumors that a riot was impending on that or the next day, one of the details planned for it being a design "to bury Major James alive."
On that morning a meeting was called by notice in the Gazette, addressed to the "gentlemen merchants" of New York, at the City Arms Tavern, at Thames Street and Broadway, to meet at four o'clock that afternoon. The meeting was a very large one and enthusiastic in its purpose, to take such measures as would be best to avert what all felt to be the outrage involved in the Stamp Act. Resolutions were unanimously adopted and subscribed by two hundred merchants ( I) to accompany all orders to Great Britain for goods or merchandise of any kind with instructions that they be not shipped unless the Stamp Act be repealed; (2) to countermand all outstanding orders unless upon the same condition; (3) not to vend any goods sent on commission and shipped after January I, except upon the same condition ; and finally, not to buy from Great Britain any goods, wares or merchandise after January 1, 1766, unless the Stamp Act were repealed. New York thus led in the great and effective movement which proved to be America's greatest commercial attack upon Great Britain. Philadelphia, on November 7th, and Boston on Decem- ber 3d, took similar steps, and orders amounting to over £700,000 sterling were countermanded. It caused considerable privations at home, but it was the be- ginning of general manufacturing in the colonies. Homespun became popular wear, and city people drank sassafras tea instead of the imported article. Many manufactures started then, became permanent, and the nonimportation agreements, which at first proved embarrassing to trade, turned out to be of the utmost benefit to the colonies.
The Gazette of that day was a notable number, as it contained in addi- tion to the call for the nonimportation meeting a "Funereal Lamentation on the Death of Liberty, who finally expires on the thirty-first of October in the Year of Our Lord MDCCLXV, and of our Slavery I," and the number was printed with black headlines and footlines. The next day, November Ist, was the date upon which the Stamp Act was to become effective, and it was the expectation that there would be disturbances, although Colden had deferred the issuing of the stamps pending the arrival of the new governor. In the morning the city magistrates notified the lieutenant governor of the expected uprising and a request was sent to Captain Kennedy to send all the marines from the king's ships in the harbor as a reinforcement of the forces at the fort.
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SOME HANGINGS IN EFFIGY
The mob materialized as expected, collecting in the fields near the Com- mons, where a movable gallows was erected, to which was dangling an effigy of Lieutenant Governor Colden, with various satirical inscriptions. By his side hung the Devil with a boot in his hand, the latter being the emblem then and afterward used in derision of Lord Bute, who was regarded as the demon of the international drama then being enacted. After the crowd had become quite large, it was augmented by another large assemblage, who had a figure made of paper, also representing the lieutenant governor in "gray hairs," a term often appearing in lampoons upon Colden during this period. This effigy, sitting in a chair, was carried in parade of the principal streets, attended by men carrying about six hundred lights. Marching through the meadow, this party went southward to Wall Street, cheering as they passed the house of Mc- Evers, who had renounced the stamp agency. At the City Hall the mayor, John Cruger, had called together the aldermen, consisting of Nicholas and Cornelius Roosevelt, Whitehead Hicks, George Brencoten, Francis Filkin, Dirck Brinck- erhoff, and John Bogert, Jr. These worthy magistrates attempted to halt the procession, and succeeded in overturning the effigy, but it was straightened up again and the city fathers were warned by the leader of the mob to stand aside. Westward to Broadway went the greatly augmented procession and south on that thoroughfare to the fort, at its foot. The governor's house was inside the walls, but his coach house was outside. This they broke open, taking the governor's chariot and installing the effigy within, one of the men perched upon the driver's seat while others pulled the chariot over various streets back toward the fields. On their way they met the other party and stopped while a proclamation was made forbidding the throwing of stones, the breaking of windows or injury to any person. The two parties amalga- mated into one and went down to the fort, bearing the gallows on its frame illuminated by many lanterns. Though they knew the guns of the fort were loaded and soldiers manned the ramparts, they knocked loudly at the gate with their staves and demanded admission, and they called to the sentinel to tell Colden or James to give orders to fire. Some of the cooler heads prevented an attempt to force the gates and finally the multitude went to Bowling Green, built a large bonfire around the gallows, Devil, effigies and governor's coach, until they were all consumed in the conflagration. Most of the two thousand participants went home when this was completed, but some of the more reck- less went out to Vauxhall, a beautiful mansion on the shore of the North River, at the foot of Warren Street, which had been a summer resort, but had more recently been bought by Major James and beautified for his own use. This they broke open and sacked, destroying fine furniture, books and clothing, and finding a supply of wines and liquors, the mob drank freely of these and destroyed the remainder. They made a fire outside and threw in everything
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that would burn, broke all the doors, windows and sash, and went off with many trophies and military insignia, including the colors of the artillery regi- ment which Major James commanded.
On the next day, November 2d, Lieutenant Governor Colden received many threats of death if he did not deliver up the stamps. He made a dec- laration that he would not distribute the stamps, but would deliver them to Sir Henry Moore on his arrival. Only a few were satisfied with this, and, except a rest on Sunday, the agitation continued, the people declaring that the stamps must be removed from the fort or they would be taken out by force. On Tuesday the City Council appointed a committee which waited upon the governor, with the request that the stamps be delivered to the city authorities and be stored in the City Hall. Colden finally agreed to this, and the stamps were turned over and receipted for by John Cruger, the mayor. A great concourse witnessed the transfer and when they saw the obnoxious stamps safely in the custody of their own officers they dispersed in quiet.
Colden summoned the Assembly to meet on November 12th, and on that day twelve members appeared and adjourned until the next day. That turned out to be a gala day, because Sir Henry Moore, the new governor gen- eral, arrived on the Minerva, and was received with great rejoicing. His commission was read and he was waited on by the officials-provincial and municipal, by the members of the Assembly, and the leading inhabitants. On the 14th the municipality presented the governor with an address, and the freedom of the city, in a gold box engraved with the city's arms. Other hon- ors were conferred upon him, and the Sons of Liberty sent him a deputation with an address, which he received with much graciousness of manner.
A large meeting was held at Burns' City Arms Tavern on the 25th, in which a committee was appointed to wait on the Assembly and present resolutions defining their views in relation to the stamp question. The governor, on December 3d, informed the Assembly of the act of Parlia- ment requiring that the expense of providing the king's troops in America should be paid by the respective colonies. To this the Assembly replied, on the 15th, that the king's troops, when quartered in the king's barracks, were supplied without charge to the colonies, and that the barracks in the city had sufficient accommodations for the troops, and that when it became necessary to supply quarters and necessaries on the march, the Assembly would take up the matter after the expenses had been incurred. On December 18th the Assembly made a declaration of their rights and liberties, claimed the sole right of taxation for the colony, and declared that the lately imposed duties were "grievous, burthensome and impos- sible to be paid," and that in consequence of them the trade of the port of New York with the foreign islands of the West Indies had so diminished
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SIR HENRY MOORE LETS THE STAMPS SLEEP
as to greatly reduce the ability of the merchants to purchase the manu- factures of Great Britain. The old act granting to the king the duties on imports was continued in force and the Assembly then adjourned on December 23d to meet March 4, 1766.
Trade fell off during that winter. The course of the governor, Sir Henry Moore, was admirable. He had declared his purpose to "let the stamps sleep until he could hear from home," and additional stamps which had come with him on the Minerva were turned over to the munici- pality and "slept" beside the others in the City Hall. But while the gov- ernor gained the confidence of the people, they did not relax their vigi- lance, for while the Stamp Act was in abeyance it was still on the statute book. Its repeal was the one desideratum of the colonists. Party lines, which had been everywhere accentuated in religion and politics for many years, were obliterated in the practically unanimous execration of this act of Parliament. Only Colden and one or two others, crown appointees, had any desire to see the act made operative. Sir William Johnson was, how- ever, a strong partisan of the royal and parliamentary authority to do as it would to the colonies, and denounced the New Yorkers as aiming at build- ing up a democratical system, being possessed with a spirit of libertinism and independence-pretended patriots who were really enemies of the British Constitution.
Late in November Peter DeLancey, who had been in London, arrived in the harbor. He had been commissioned inspector of stamps for America, but when he found what the feeling on the matter was, he made prompt renunciation of the office, which he published in Holt's Gazette. Hood, expelled stamp agent for Maryland, who had taken refuge in the fort, had later settled at Flushing, and there he was visited by a delegation of the Sons of Liberty, at whose emphatic persuasion he was induced, on Novem- ber 28th, to make renunciation of the place. Securing these renunciations was a part of the system which by correspondence had established a work- ing intercolonial organization, and the societies in Boston, Philadelphia, Charleston and other cities interchanged, with the utmost speed afforded by the then known means of communication, accounts of each other's methods and doings. This organization was the most active and effective of the forces which led up to colonial union.
There were several personal conflicts between soldiers of the fort and the citizens. The wrecking of the Vauxhall mansion of Major James was charged by the members of the Royal Artillery (of which he was com- mander) to the Sons of Liberty. Some of these same artillerists were guarding the place when the sacking party appeared, and had been driven off by the rioters. Several encounters occurred between members of the
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artillery and of the Sons of Liberty, one of the latter being stabbed with a bayonet, on December I. The Stamp Act agitation was fanned into a new flame by the statement of Captain Kennedy, commanding the man-of-war, that it was his duty to seize vessels whose clearance papers were not authenticated by stamps. Because of this announcement one vessel returned to the harbor, and excitement ran high. There being a report that Kennedy had taken his action on the advice of Sir Henry Moore, the governor called the merchants of the city into consultation at the fort, on the evening of December 16th, to inquire of them who had circulated the false report. The next night a great procession marched through the streets with effigies of Lord Grenville and other unpopular members of Parliament, which they carried to the Common and burned. Several other demonstrations were made; and one, organized to burn Captain Kennedy's residence at No. I Broadway, was prevented by the efforts of the mayor. Notices were posted about the city threatening the property and persons of captains of men-of-war who should detain or hinder any vessel sailing with unstamped clearances; and a mob which met on the last day of the year with the intent to burn General Gage in effigy was with difficulty dis- persed. The grievance against him was that a survey of New York City and its surroundings, for military purposes, was being made under his auspices.
The Sons of Liberty, which had been heretofore ostensibly a secret organization, though many of its members were known, came out in the open, in a public meeting at a place of entertainment kept by William Howard on the Trinity Farm, opposite the Common, which afterward became the headquarters of. the organization, and among the resolutions adopted was one of unanimous opposition to the Stamp Act, and announ- cing their intention to punish those who either carried on their business on stamped paper, or refused to carry it on independently of the odious act. That evening the British brig Polly, which had left London in October, arrived, and the news was spread that she had ten packages of stamps in her cargo. The next night an armed force visited the brig, which was lying at Cruger's Dock, compelled those in charge to surrender the keys and provide lights for a complete search, and finding the stamps, took them on a large boat up East River to the shipyards, where they burned them in tar barrels, after which the men dispersed in perfect order.
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