USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York, 1609-1909 > Part 26
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The two societies celebrated, on March 18, 1772, another anniversary of the repeal of the Stamp Act, the conservative Friends of Liberty and Trade, at De La Montagne's, and the more radical Sons of Liberty, in Hampden Hall, as usual. The Assembly, as Tryon had recommended, had passed an act estab- lishing a militia, and soon nine companies, aggregating seven hundred men, of which three were artillery, were raised, officered by "gentlemen of the first families and distinction," who at their own expense clothed, armed and accou-
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THE CASE OF PHILIP LIVINGSTON
tred their companies. In June the force had increased to twenty-six regiments and eleven troops of light horse in the province, one regiment and one troop being in New York County. Oliver DeLancey, brother of the late Lieutenant Governor DeLancey, was colonel in chief of the Southern District. He was one of the most prominent citizens of New York, and his daughter Susanna, according to the newspapers of the day, had married Sir William Draper, Knight of the Bath, in Trinity Church, on October 13, 1770.
One of the controversies which had created some acrimony at this period, was the Livingston dispute, referring to the claim of Judge Philip Livingston, of the Supreme Court, of a right to sit in the Assembly as a representative of Livingston Manor, the great family estate on the Hudson. He had served without question for four years after his appointment to the Bench by General Monckton, and in 1768 had been the speaker of the Assembly, but the follow- ing year was denied admission, based on two grounds : first, that he was a resi- dent of New York and not of Livingston Manor; and second, that he was ineligible because of his judicial position. Therefore, while elected five times in three years, he had been kept out. While these seem in our day to be good grounds for refusing to admit him to the Assembly, they were not valid either by law or custom when first raised against Livingston, and laws afterward made by the Assembly purposely to exclude him were vetoed by the king. The objection to Livingston seems to have been more denominational than partisan, as Livingston was foremost among the Presbyterian laymen of that day, and as such, obnoxious to the high churchmen, who were usually favored in all offi- cial matters, and who wished to be alone eligible to office, as Episcopalians were in North Carolina, and some other colonies. The appeal made by Liv- ingston to the home authorities, in 1772, met with no response, and he was not returned in 1773. The Assembly meeting, from January 5th to March 8, 1773, was chiefly given to appropriations and routine matters, and the first half of the year passed in an exceptionally peaceful manner in New York.
Public opinion was perturbed by the news from Virginia and New Eng- land. During several years past Massachusetts had been under more austere and autocratic governors than had New York. Sir Francis Bernard, from 1760 to 1769, and Thomas Hutchinson, from 1769, had represented unwaver- ing hostility to the popular cause. Conflicts between the soldiery and citizens had been frequent. The Boston Massacre, as the bloody emeute on King Street, March 2, 1770, between soldiers and citizens had come to be called, was a fiercer and more sanguinary onslaught than that on Golden Hill in New York City a few weeks before. Samuel Adams and others of the pa- triots had practically dropped the idea of loyalty to the crown which denied the colony its liberties, although Adams still, in his speeches, spoke of the ministers rather than the king, and had devised a plan of a committee of correspond-
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
ence to arouse and consolidate the patriots of the various colonies. In the spring of 1773, young Dabney Carr rose in the House of Burgesses in Vir- ginia and argued in favor of the appointment of committees of correspond- ence, such as had been established in New England, for the preservation of their rights and liberties and providing to systematize the plan by the designa- tion of councils in each State, who should meet at some central place with the others, to unify their plans; and the Virginia house appointed a committee charged with the duty "to watch Britain, and communicate with the other colo- nies." Lord Dunmore dissolved the house, but the committee had been ap- pointed and the New England assemblies appointed similar committees. New York could not now do so, as the Assembly had already been prorogued.
RHINELANDER'S SUGAR HOUSE, 1763 Used as a Prison during the Revolution
CHAPTER TWENTY - FIVE
TEA AND THE TROUBLE IT BREWED BOSTON CLOSED AND THE REVOLUTION OPENED CONTINENTAL AND PROVINCIAL CONGRESSES
The granting of a charter to the East India Company, authorizing it to export tea, duty free, to America, and to sell it through commissioners of its own appointment, in Philadelphia, New York, Boston and other American ports, was the signal for a revival of the resentments which had been before aroused by the Stamp Act, for, as will be remembered, the second or modified nonimportation agreement of the merchants had been singly and specifically directed against tea. The company was thus endeavoring to accomplish through its own commissioners what it could not compass through the regular trade. A series of letters, headed "Alarm," and signed "Hampden," as well as other articles, directed against the proposed shipment, with warnings to East India commissioners that they were on a par with stampmasters and would not be tolerated by the freemen of America, appeared in Holt's Journal.
A notable circular was issued, November 29, 1773, in handbill form, announcing the formation of an association known as the Sons of Liberty of New York, asking signatures promising faithful compliance with certain resolutions declaring that all who aided or abetted in the intro- duction of tea into the colony; or in the landing or carting of tea from any ship or vessel; or should hire any premises for the storage of tea; or contribute to the sale or purchase of tea-while that commodity should be subject, by a British act of Parliament, to the payment of a duty for the purpose of raising a revenue in America-should be deemed enemies to the liberties of America, without reference to whether the duties should be paid in Great Britain or America. And the resolutions further declared that whoever should transgress these resolutions the signer would not deal with or employ, or have any connection with. On the reverse side of the circular was an appeal from the "Friends of Liberty and Trade" (the more conservative organization) inviting signatures to the agreement of the asso- ciation, and advising harmony and a union of all classes, in a quiet but determined resistance.
The document was signed by people of all ranks and stations, and a meeting called for December 17th, at the City Hall, was largely attended in spite of a blustering storm. Previous to this the merchants, Henry White (member of the Council), Abraham Lott and Mr. Benjamin, who had received commissions from the East India Company for the sale of tea in
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
the colony, had been waited on by a committee, and had decided to resign their commissions and decline to receive or sell the tea. At the City Hall meeting John Lamb presented communications from the committees of correspondence of Boston and Philadelphia declaring the determination of those communities to prevent the landing of the tea, and as New York as yet had no similar committee of its Assembly, one of fifteen members was chosen on the spot and named the New York Committee. Mayor Hicks, accompanied by the recorder, entered the meeting and announced a mes- sage from the governor in regard to what should be done with the tea when it should arrive (the commissioners having resigned). It read: "The gov- ernor declares that the Tea will be put in the fort at noonday ; and engages his honour that it shall continue there until the Council shall advise it to be delivered out, or till the king's order or the proprietor's order is known; and then the Tea will be delivered out at noon-day." The mayor thereupon asked the meeting if such an arrangement would be satisfactory, and was answered with loud cries of "No!" John Lamb then read the act of Par- liament, which provided that the duties should be paid upon landing, and then asked if those present believed, under this circumstance, that the tea should be landed, and received a vociferous and almost unanimous nega- tive answer. Then, after passing a resolution approving the stand taken by Boston and Philadelphia, the meeting adjourned to convene again on the arrival of the tea ship.
A report reached New York the same day that the tea ship for the port of Charleston, South Carolina, had arrived, but had not been permitted by the citizens to land its cargo. This turned out to be an erroneous state- ment. The tea was, in fact landed, but was stored in damp cellars where it was guarded and was allowed to rot, so that it was never marketed. On the night of the same day as the Anti-Tea Meeting in New York, the "Boston Tea Party," which was the most thrilling episode of the entire tea agitation, occurred. The Philadelphia tea ship "Polly" arrived on Christ- mas Day, but was returned to England with its cargo the following day. It was several months later before the New York tea ship arrived.
On the night of December 29, 1773, an accidental fire destroyed the Province House in the fort, and it burned so rapidly that in two hours it was entirely consumed. The inmates had difficulty in escaping, the gov- ernor and his wife making their exit from a door leading to the ramparts. Miss Tryon, jumping from the second-story window, fortunately landed in a deep snowbank and was unhurt, but a maidservant perished in the flames. Practically all the personal effects of the governor and his wife were consumed, but the great seal of the province was found in the ruins, two days later, uninjured. If the fire had occurred in dry weather it would
THE ASSEMBLY OF 1774
257
doubtless have destroyed many more houses, but as it occurred just after a heavy snowstorm, when every roof was covered thick with snow, it was confined to the Province House.
The General Assembly met January 6, 1774. Judge Livingston, who had again been returned for Livingston Manor, was again refused admis- sion, and on a new poll Peter R. Livingston was elected and admitted to
POLLY.
DEPARTURE OF THE "POLLY"
a seat. The governor's address had chiefly to do with the boundary lines between the province and Quebec, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and said that he had been ordered to England in connection with the New Hampshire grants. He also called attention of the Assembly to the fire which destroyed the Province House. Besides the usual expense and supply bills the Assembly voted £5000 as an allowance to the governor for his losses in the fire. It would have been lost by a tie vote if the speaker, John Cruger, had not given the casting vote for the bill. A bill was also passed providing for the raising of £12,000 by lottery or lotteries, toward building a province house and secretary's office, but it was never built.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
Governor Tryon prorogued the Assembly, on March 19th, and sailed for England in the Mercury packet, on April 7, 1774.
The departure of Governor Tryon called back Lieutenant Governor Colden from his country house at Flushing to take up again, in his eighty- sixth year, the reins of provincial government. Before Governor Tryon's departure news had arrived, on March 10th, from St. Eustatius via Philadel- phia, to the effect that the ship Nancy, Captain Lockyer, having been blown off the coast by contrary winds, had put into Antigua. So the vigi- lance of the Sons of Liberty committee was redoubled, and was rewarded, on April 18th, by news that the vessel was in the outer harbor. The pilot did not deem it safe to take the vessel into the harbor, but the committee of the Sons of Liberty called on the captain and advised him that he could safely come up on condition that he should not enter his vessel at the Custom House. Coming ashore he was received with kindness, visiting his consignees, who refused to receive his cargo. He made his arrange- ments to leave without unloading, and a handbill invited the citizens to see him off, on May 29th, stating that the bells would be rung half an hour before he should leave Murray's wharf. By private advices the Sons of Liberty were led to watch also for the ship London, Captain Chambers. When the vessel arrived at the Hook, the captain denied to the pilot that he had any tea on board, but the Sons of Liberty, then a power not to be despised, called the captain and the owner before them, and the captain admitted that he had eighteen cases of tea on board, of which he was sole owner. A deputation from the Sons of Liberty visited the ship in the evening, broke open the cases and emptied their contents into the river. The next day Captain Lockyer was escorted from the Coffee House to the end of Murray's Wharf, followed by cheering crowds, and put upon the pilot boat. The committee of observation at Sandy Hook reported that the Nancy had departed not only with the tea, Captain Lockyer and her crew. but also with Captain Chambers, who had thus put himself at a safe distance from punishment at the hands of unfriendly citizens. All these proceed- ing's about the tea went on without the lieutenant governor knowing any- thing about them until they were all over.
News which came from England told of the reception there of the news of the Boston Tea Party, of the intense excitement in London, and the passage through both houses of Parliament of the Boston Port Bill, which provided for the closing of the port of Boston, on June Ist, to all commerce, to remain closed during the king's pleasure, and in addition, for the indemnification of the East India Company for the loss of its tea, the value being placed at about £8000. This news came by the ship Samson, from London, which arrived May 12, 1774. By the same ship also came
259
THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTY-ONE
advices that General Gage had been appointed civil governor of Massa- chusetts; that four more regiments of soldiers were embarked, and that a considerable fleet had been ordered into American waters.
A meeting of merchants was called to meet at Fraunces' Tavern, on Monday, May 16th, and when they gathered it was found that the tavern did not afford sufficient room, so removal was made to the Exchange Build- ing, just opposite. Isaac Low was chosen chairman of the meeting, and it was proposed to elect a committee of correspondence. Isaac Sears, for the Sons of Liberty, offered a list of twenty-five; but the merchants offered a list of fifty. There was a close contest, but the merchants won. On both lists the names were for the most part those of merchants, and when they were compared it was found that not more than two of the Sons of Liberty ticket were omitted from the larger list. The meeting adjourned to meet on Thursday, the 19th, at the Merchants' Coffee House. At that meeting the name of Francis Lewis was added to the committee, which thus took its name of Committee of Fifty-one. Meanwhile Paul Revere, postrider for the Boston Committee, had brought in news of a meeting held at Faneuil Hall, in Boston, on the 13th, at which resolu- tions were passed urging the colonies to stop all importations from and exportations to Great Britain and the West Indies until the Boston Port Bill should be repealed.
The proceedings of the committee are preserved in the New York His- torical Society collections, and it will be interesting to transcribe the names of the members, many of whom became distinguished in the subse- quent history of the city, and most of them representative of families still prominent in New York. They were John Alsop, William Bayard, The- ophylact Bache, Peter V. B. Livingston, Philip Livingston, Isaac Sears, David Johnston, Charles McEvers, Charles Nicoll, Alexander McDougall, Captain Thomas Randall, John Moore, Isaac Low, Leonard Lispenard, Jacobus van Zandt, James Duane, Edward Laight, Thomas Pearsall, Elias Desbrosses, William Walton, Richard Yates, John DeLancey, Miles Sherbrooke, John Thurman, John Broome, John Jay, Benjamin Booth, Joseph Hallett, Charles Shaw, Alexander Wallace, James Jauncey, Gabriel W. Ludlow, Nicholas Hoffman, Abraham Walton, Gerardus Duyckinck, Peter van Schaack, Henry Remsen, Hamilton Young, George Bowne, Peter T. Curtenius, Peter Goelet, Abraham Brasher, Abraham P. Lott, David van Horne, Gerardus W. Beekman, Abraham Duryee, Joseph Ball, William McAdam, Richard Sharpe, Thomas Marston, Francis Lewis. The committee organized with Isaac Low as chairman and John Alsop, deputy chairman. The committee at once broached the proposal for a congress, with delegates chosen from each colony, and in answer to the circular of the
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
Boston meeting, urging complete nonintercourse with Britain, preferred to leave that and all intercolonial matters to the Congress when convened. On June 17th, the Massachusetts Assembly appointed five delegates to meet the delegates of other colonies at Philadelphia, September Ist, and for this action General Gage dissolved the Assembly.
On receipt of the news, the Committee of Correspondence decided that as the New York Assembly was not in session they would choose five to go as delegates to Philadelphia, being the same number as were selected at Boston. Several nominations were made, and five selected: Philip Living- ston, John Alsop, Isaac Low, James Duane, and John Jay, three merchants and the two last lawyers. The selection not being unanimous, and several being dissatisfied, it was ordered that a call be issued to the inhabitants to meet at the City Hall at noon on Wednesday, July 7th, to concur in these nominations, or choose others. On the 5th, another call was issued for a meeting in the Fields on the following day, and a great gathering appeared. Alexander McDougall was called to the chair, and resolutions were adopted recommending nonintercourse with Great Britain, and instructing the deputies to the Congress to agree for the city upon a nonimportation agreement ; a sub- scription voted in aid of the suffering inhabitants of Boston, and the City Com- mittee of Correspondence directed to carry out this resolution.
The committee objected to this attempt to instruct delegates before they were chosen, and the clash of views led to the withdrawal of Messrs. Lewis, Hallett, McDougall, Peter V. Livingston, Isaac Sears, Thomas Randall, Abraham P. Lott, Leonard Lispenard, John Broome, Abraham Brasher and Jacobus van Zandt, from the Committee of Fifty-one. The meeting at the City Hall was not harmonious, and handbills were circu- lated which tended to increase the d ssension, one signed "Son of Liberty," deprecating discord between the merchants and the mechanic class. Sen- sibly the Committee of Correspondence made overtures to the Mechanics' Association for a joint meeting, and it was arranged that a regular election at the usual polling places be held for delegates, with the result that on the 28th there was a unanimous vote for the five delegates.
The Congress met in Philadelphia, September 5th, put forth a Declar- ation of Rights, and passed a Nonexportation Act to take effect Septem- ber 15th, and a Nonimportation Act to be in force after December Ist, following. They recommended the election of a committee in every city, county and town of each of the colonies, and ordered the election of dele- gates to meet May 14, 1775. The idea of union was now in full possession. After the Congress, the Committee of Correspondence, after a conference with the Mechanics, ordered a poll to be held in the City Hall, on Novem- ber 22d, for the election of sixty persons as a Committee of Observation.
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NEWS COMES FROM LEXINGTON
The election was unanimous in its choice, and the list of its members is about half made up of members of the original Committee of Fifty-one, and the other half of new names, including, among others, two Roose- velts (Isaac and Nicholas) and Lindley Murray, the famous grammarian. This committee in New York, and similar ones in all the colonies, took up their duties with zeal, the Nonimportation Act was rigidly enforced.
On January 10, 1775, the General Assembly met at the call of Lieutenant Governor Colden, at whose suggestion it adopted a petition to the king, set- ting forth their rights and grievances, disclaiming any desire for independence of the British Parliament; and also adopted an address to the Lords and Commons, in which they declared that the people of the colonies were entitled to equal rights and privileges with their fellow subjects in Great Britain. The Assembly was conservative but patriotic, and after attending to several mat- ters of administration and making the routine appropriations, it adjourned April 8th. It was the last meeting of the colonial Assembly in New York.
The Committee of Observation called for a meeting of the freeholders and freemen of the city, at the Exchange, on March 6th. At nine o'clock of that day a union flag was hoisted on the liberty pole and a large number of the people marched thence to the Exchange, where they authorized the com- mittee to nominate eleven delegates for the purpose of choosing delegates to the general congress. The delegates selected to represent the city and county of New York in the Provincial Congress were Philip Livingston, John Jay, James Duane, John Alsop, Isaac Low, Francis Lewis, Abraham Walton, Abra- ham Brasher, Alexander McDougall, Leonard Lispenard, and Isaac Roosevelt. They were elected by a large majority at the poll, on March 15th, and on April 20th they met in Provincial Congress, of which Philip Livingston was chosen president. The next day they chose Philip Livingston, James Duane, John Alsop, John Jay, Francis Lewis, Simon Boerum, William Floyd, Henry Wisner, Philip Schuyler, George Clinton, Lewis Morris and Robert Living- ston, Jr. (the first five from the city and county of New York), to represent the colony in the Continental Congress.
A travel-stained horseman, being one of the regular express of the com- mittee at Boston, dashed into town at noon on Sunday with news of the Battle of Lexington, and handed to Isaac Low, chairman of the Committee of Observa- tion, a dispatch announcing the fact. After he had countersigned it and passed it on for transmission to Philadelphia, he spread the news. The excite- ment was intense, and the patriots were fired with the desire to prepare for a struggle which was now inevitable. Isaac Low, on April 26th, issued on be- half of the committee, a call for the election by the freeholders and freemen, of a new Committee of One Hundred, to take charge of affairs in the present emergency, polls to be held on the 28th, at the usual places of election in each
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
ward, and also recommending at the same time that a Provincial Congress should be immediately summoned and that twenty delegates to represent the city and county should be elected at the same time. The election was held, the recommendations adopted and the General Committee of One Hundred was chosen, including the leading patriots, as follows:
Isaac Low
Lancaster Burling
Jeremiah Platt Comfort Sands
James Duane
George Janeway
Robert Benson
John Alsop
James Beekman
William W. Gilbert
John Jay
Samuel Verplanck
John Berrien
P. V. B. Livingston
Richard Yates
Gabriel W. Ludlow
Isaac Sears
David Clarkson
Nicholas Roosevelt
David Johnson
Thomas Smith
Edwin Fleming
Alexander McDougall
James Desbrosses
Lawrence Embell
Thomas Randall
Augustus van Horne
Samuel Jones
Leonard Lispenard
Garret Keteltas
John DeLancey
William Walton
Eleazar Miller
Frederick Jay
John Broome
Benjamin Kissam
William W. Ludlow
Joseph Hallett
John Morin Scott
Tohn White
Gabriel H. Ludlow
Cornelius Clopper
Walter Franklin
Nicholas Hoffman
John Reade
David Beekman
Abraham Walton
John van Cortlandt
William Seton
Peter William Schaack
Jacobus van Zandt
Evert Banker
Henry Remsen
Gerardus Duyckinck
Nicholas Bogert
Abraham Bragster
John Marston
William Laight
Abraham P. Lott
Thomas Marston
Samuel Broome
Abraham Duryee
John Morton
John Lamb
Joseph Ball
George Folliot
Daniel Phoenix
Francis Lewis
Jacobus Lefferts
Anthony van Dam
Thomas Ivers
Hamilton Young
John Imlay
Hercules Mulligan
Abraham Brinckerhoff
Oliver Templeton
John Anthony
Theophilus Anthony
Lewis Pintard
Francis Buffer
William Goforth
Cornelius P. Low
Victor Bicker
William Denning
Thomas Buchanan
Tohn B. Moore
Isaac Roosevelt
Petrus Byvanck
Rudolphus Ritzema
Jacob van Voorhees
Benjamin Helme
Lindley Murray
The names of the twenty-one deputies chosen for the city and county of New York, to meet deputies of other counties in Provincial Congress, were: Leonard Lispenard, Isaac Low, Abraham Walton, Isaac Roosevelt, Abraham Brasher, Alexander McDougall, Samuel Verplanck, David Clarkson, George Folliot, Joseph Hallett, John van Cortlandt, P. V. B. Livingston, James Beek- man, John Morin Scott, Thomas Smith, Benjamin Kissam, Richard Yates, John Marston, Walter Franklin, Jacobus van Zandt and John DeLancey.
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