USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York, 1609-1909 > Part 27
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82
These met on the day designated, May 22, 1775, and began to legislate in a provisional way, independent of king or royal governor. The Revolution had become an active force in New York City.
Philip Livingston
John Lasher
Robert Ray
Peter T. Curtenius
Peter Goelet
Joseph Totten
Richard Sharp
Daniel Dunscomb
CHAPTER TWENTY - SIX
THE REVOLUTION IN NEW YORK CONTINENTAL CAMP IN THE CITY-MOVEMENTS OF TWO ARMIES IN AND AROUND THE CITY
On Sunday, June 25, 1775, there were two important arrivals in the City of New York. One was Governor Tryon, who had been sent back to his province by Lord Dartmouth, and arrived to find it largely controlled by an independent government. The other was General George Washing- ton, who, on June 15, 1775, had been appointed by the Continental Con- gress, sitting at Philadelphia, to be "General and Commander in Chief of the United Colonies and of all the forces now raised or to be raised by them," and who, on the day of Governor Tryon's return, passed through the city on his way to the camp at Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Colden, for the last time, surrendered the reins of what little authority was now left, to his superior officer. During Tryon's fourteen months' absence, he had been passive, presenting no noticeable obstruction to the course of the patriot leaders. He had known nothing about the measures taken to prevent the landing of tea until the forces of resistance had triumphed, and political power and executive authority had slipped from his hands almost without his knowledge. Evidently the government of New York, as a royal colony was, at that period, no job for a man of
eighty-seven years. So with the return of Governor Tryon, he retired finally to his home at Flushing, where he died, September 21, 1776. He was a man of much ability and considerable learning, a Scotchman, and tenacious of his views and opinions, and therefore in the five separate inter- regnums during which he filled the gubernatorial office he was in conflict with the radical element of the patriot party. The periods of his rule began in August, 1760, when he was president of the Council, and seventy-two years of age. He was commissioned lieutenant governor, March 20, 1761, and filled the office until his death, acting as governor for periods aggregating a total of six years and five months. He was one of the most distinguished scholars of his century in America, devoted much attention to the study of the sciences, and especially of botany, and was the first to introduce the Linnæan system of classification in America. He published a History of the Five Indian Nations of Canada (1727), a work of great value, and a less important work on The Principles of Action in Matter (1752).
When the Committee of One Hundred was formed, after the news of the Battle of Lexington was received in New York, one of the first resolu- tions it adopted was to recommend that "every inhabitant perfect himself
264
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
in Military Discipline and provide himself with Arms, Accoutrements and Ammunition as by law directed." The existing militia organizations were promptly filled up, and several new ones formed. A party of citizens went to the City Hall, where there were about five hundred muskets, provincial property, and removed them to a safer place. Congress, through the New York delegates, addressed the people of the colony, advising them, in view of the expected arrival of British troops, to act on the defensive as long as possible, to permit the troops to remain in their barracks as long as they behave peaceably and quietly, but not to suffer them to erect fortifications or cut off communications between town and country. On the other hand,
OLD VIEW OF JAMAICA VILLAGE, LONG ISLAND
if the troops should commit hostilities, or invade private property, the inhabitants were advised to defend themselves and their belongings, and repel force for force. It was also advised that the warlike stores should be removed from the City of New York; that a place be provided as a retreat for the women and children in case one should be needed, and that suffi- cient men be enlisted and kept in constant readiness for home protection.
On May 26, 1775, H.M.S. Asia, sixty-four guns, under command of Captain George Vandeput, arrived off the Battery, with orders that the Royal Irish Regiment, which was at the Upper Barracks, should go on board, and arrangements were also made with the civil authorities for the removal of the regimental laundresses, with their belongings, to Governor's Island. The departure of this regiment, on June 4th, to the place of embarkation, was the occasion of one of the most daring of the deeds of the Revolution. The regiment was carrying with it not only the arma- ment for its men, but also a considerable number of spare guns, which they had loaded on carts. The order to permit the British to retire with their arms and accoutrements was not much relished by some of the more
265
MARINUS WILLETT HALTS THE TROOPS
radical of the patriots, and one of these, Marinus Willett, deemed it his duty to take a hand in regulating matters. So, as the procession, coming down Broad Street, reached the corner of Beaver Street, he ran into the road and stopped the horse that was drawing the front cartload of arms, thus halting the march. Major Hamilton, commanding the regiment, came forward to discover the cause of the halt, and Willett told him that he had halted the column to prevent the spare arms from being carried off, as the authori- zation of the committee covered no arms except those the soldiers carried on their backs. At this juncture David Matthews, a Tory alderman, who, a year later became mayor of New York by British appointment, stepped up and defended the right of the troops to carry the extra arms with them, but Willett held his ground. He was rather staggered when Gouverneur Mor- ris, of whose patriotic standing there was no question, sided with Matthews as to the authority of the troops to move the guns. Just then John Morin Scott, who besides being one of the most influential members of the Committee of One Hundred, was one of the leading lawyers of New York, came on the scene and backed up Willett's argument. Thereupon Willett turned the front cart to the right, ordering the cartman to drive up Beaver Street, and the others to follow. Willett jumped on a cart and addressed the soldiers, saying, that "if it was their desire to repeat the bloody business going on in Boston, that the people of New York were ready to meet them ; but if they felt a repugnance to the unnatural work of shedding the blood of their countrymen, and would recover their arms and march forward they should be protected." Just then one of the soldiers at the front shoul- dered his musket and began to march, followed by his comrades and the cheers of a great throng of citizens who had gathered during the prelim- inary altercation. The five carts, loaded with chests of arms, went out of Beaver Street, up Broadway to a large yard, where the arms were deposited, to afterward form part of the equipment of the first New York troops raised under the orders of the Continental Congress. This auda- cious exploit is commemorated by a bronze tablet on the wall of the build- ing at the northwest corner of Broad and Beaver Streets, the scene of its enactment. Marinus Willett, who was a native of Jamaica, L. I., born July 31, 1740, was a lienteuant in DeLancey's regiment, serving under General Abercrombie in the French and Indian War, in 1758. He became an ardent member of the Sons of Liberty, captain in the first Revolutionary regiment organized in New York, was promoted lieutenant colonel in 1777, and colonel in 1779; distinguished himself at Fort Stanwix, and continued actively in the field during the Revolution, making the last attack of the war, on the British at Oswego, in February, 1783. He was appointed by President Washington, in 1792, commissioner to treat with the Creek
266
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
Indians. He was a member of the New York Assembly, 1783-1784; sheriff of New York, 1784-1792, and mayor of New York, 1807-1808. He was actively engaged in the War of 1812, and died August 22, 1830.
When Governor Tryon took the seals of office from Cadwallader Colden, in June, 1775, he took with their possession about all there was to remind him that he was governor. The chief activity was the organization of troops. The counties of New York, Albany, Ulster and Dutchess each furnished a regiment on the first call of the Continental Congress for the organization of "The American Continental Army." The First (or New York City) Regiment was organized with Alexander McDougall, colonel; Rudolphus Ritzema, lieutenant colonel; and Herman Zedwitz, major. John Lamb was made captain of the company of artillery. These officers were commissioned June 28, 1775, three days after Tryon's return.
Lamb's Artillery Company caused the first interchange of hostile shots. Under orders from the Provincial Congress the company, supporting a considerable party of citizens, went, about eleven o'clock on the night of August 23d, to the Battery to remove the guns that were mounted there; and while they were engaged in the work, one of the Asia's boats coming near enough to discover what was being done, fired a musket as a signal to apprise the Asia of the activity of the Americans, and Lamb's men replied with a sharp volley from their muskets. Soon after, the firing of ordnance from the ship began, and nine, eighteen and twenty-four pound shot began to fly shoreward, as well as musket balls fired by the marines. Some of the houses on Whitehall Street, near the fort, were damaged in their upper stories, and three men were wounded. But all the pieces of cannon that were mounted on carriages were secured by the party, who carried off twenty-one guns. One of the Asia's misdirected shots went through the roof of the famous and historical tavern of Samuel Fraunces, who, because of the dark tint he had acquired through his French West Indian blood, was popularly known as "Black Sam." Freneau, the most notable of the American patriot poets of the period, commemorates this casualty in a satirical poem, including the following quatrain:
Scarce a broadside was ended 'till another began again. By Jove! It was nothing but fire away Flanagan ! Some thought him saluting his Sallys and Nancys 'Till he drove a round-shot thro' the roof of Sam Francis.
Captain Vandeput, of the Asia, calling upon Mayor Hicks the following day, protested against the action of the Continentals in carrying off the guns, with significant threats to become effective in the event of future demonstra- tions of the kind.
ISAAC SEARS WRECKS RIVINGTON'S OFFICE
267
The most difficult problems of the Provincial Congress were occasioned by the excessive zeal of the more radical patriots, some of whom perpetrated acts of lawlessness directed against citizens of Tory politics, which the Com- mittee of Safety were unable to prevent. Large numbers of loyalists left the city, and many of those whose sympathies were with the Revolution also left New York with their families for places less exposed to the possibilities of active warfare. On October 13th, Governor Tryon sent word to Mayor Hicks that he had been advised that the Continental Congress had recommended that the Provincial Congress "should seize the officers of this government, and particularly myself by name," saying that such an attempt would meet with stubborn resistance from the king's forces. He also declared his wish to go
SOUTHWEST VIEW OF NEW YORK FROM BEDLOE'S ISLAND
on board the Asia with his wife and family and his private effects, and would like the local authorities to protect him from interference in carrying out this resolution. In answer, he received, through the mayor, a communication from the Committee of One Hundred, declaring that the report of which he spoke was unfounded, and expressing in most polite terms a hope that His Excel- lency would continue his residence among a people who had "the most grate- ful sense of his upright and disinterested administration." To this missive the governor made an equally courteous rejoinder, but removed to the Asia with all possible despatch.
Isaac Sears, who was himself a member of the Committee of Safety, com- mitted one of the most flagrant violations of its rules by heading a company of armed Connecticut horsemen, and with them at noon rode up to the printing office of James Rivington, editor and publisher of the New York Gazetteer, which they entered and, after breaking up the presses, carried off all the type to New Haven. The same party had, the day before, arrested three of the
268
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
leading citizens of Westchester for pernicious political activity on the royal side. Although the horsemen received an uproarious ovation when they re- turned to Connecticut, their conduct was condemned by the Committee of Safety, which endeavored to get the Provincial Congress to act in the matter. The Congress addressed the governor of Connecticut in regard to the matter, asking that the stolen property should be restored to its owner, and Riving- ton addressed the Continental Congress asking for protection, but nothing was done about the matter, the public mind being occupied with more important matters.
Washington learned early in January, 1776, of the proposed departure of Sir Henry Clinton from Boston with an expedition which he believed was intended to bring about a British occupation of New York. He therefore ordered General Charles Lee to assemble a volunteer army quickly and march to New York, to put the city in the best possible condition of defense. There was much opposition to the military occupation of the city, and deputations waited upon General Lee to convey them. The people of New York were more hopeful of a compromise with the British government than were those of New England, and while the number who justified Britain's arbitrary leg- islation which had brought on the Revolution was confined to only a few of the more aristocratic class, there were many, even among the Whigs, who were at heart only reformers and not revolutionists, and whose highest hopes went no further than a substitution of the Assembly for the Parliament as a taxing body, with, perhaps, a representation of the colonies in the British Parliament. Those who favored immediate independence were probably in a minority. There was a general dread of military occupation, and when General Lee entered the city there was great alarm among the inhabitants, and a large requisition for carts and boats to remove families from the city. Lee came in with fifteen hundred Connecticut troops on Sunday, February 4th, the same day that brought General Sir Henry Clinton to Sandy Hook with the British contingent. Sir Henry came up to the harbor to consult with Governor Tryon and to look over the situation, and he expressed great surprise when he was not allowed to land. He declared that he could not understand why there was so much alarm on his account; that the place was his boyhood home, to which he was much attached (he was son of Admiral George Clinton, who had been governor of New York from 1743 to 1753), and he sent for Mayor Hicks and asked him to assure the people that he had only come on a visit.
Lee busied himself with defenses, throwing up barricades and bordering the island with earthworks on which he mounted more than a hundred guns. He chopped into some prized timber preserves for material and temporarily spoiled the beauty of several garden spots, and he was impatient of com- plaints, showing it by military bluntness of speech. Congress voted eight
WASHINGTON IN NEW YORK
269
thousand men for the defense of the city, on March 14th, and requested the governors of New Jersey to have their militia ready to march to New York on short notice. Tories were still leaving the city as fast as they could, and had set up some temporary buildings on Bedloe's Island as a first way station, but the Continental troops burned the buildings, carried off the tools which were being used for making intrenchments, and also carried away stores of clothing and an abundance of poultry.
PIANO
FLIRTTH POND & C.
FORTES
FRANKLIN HOUSE, 1760
184 Pearl Street, Franklin Square. Residence of Washington when inaugurated, 1789
General Israel Putnam was sent to supersede General Lee on April 4th. and continued the preparations, fortified Red Hook and Governor's Island and protected the heights of Long Island opposite the city by a chain of redoubts. from Gowanus north to Wallabout Bay. Three companies of the rifle bat- talion were sent to Staten Island to act as a corps of observation, and in the early part of April had a sharp skirmish with boats' crews coming ashore for water, in which two or three British seamen were killed and a dozen captured. The Asia went out through the Narrows, to be ready to welcome the expected fleet. General Washington arrived in New York, April 14th, from Cam-
270
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
bridge, inspecting, on the way, the brigades of Greene and Spencer, who were making a slow march to New York because of the bad condition of the roads. When he arrived he inspected all the preparations that had been made, and added some practical suggestions.
More than by the military preparations, Washington was tried by civic obstruction. The enemy drawing near was composed of perfectly trained troops. His own forces were chiefly made up of untrained and untried farmers and working people unaccustomed to arms. Around him in the city were friends and foes, the latter including several thousands of citizens whose sym- pathies were in favor of British rule, and neutrals, who taking no sides, were much incensed at the order which prevented them from trade and correspond- ence with the Asia in the harbor. The Committee of Safety showed great reluctance about turning over the city to military rule, and Washington replied to their objections in a letter characteristic of that great man, declar- ing his great desire to go hand in hand with the civil authority, and the re- luctance and pain which it caused him when his manifest duty compelled him to encounter the local convenience of individuals or even of a whole colony, but that in the present important contest it was necessary to prefer the least of two evils, and he added: "In the weak and defenseless state in which this city was some time ago, political prudence might justify the correspondence that subsisted between the country and the enemy's ships of war; but as the largest part of the Continental troops is here, as strong works are erected and erecting for the defense of the city and harbor, these motives no longer exist, but are absorbed in others of a more important nature." After further re- marks pertinent to the subject, he concludes: "In effecting the salutary pur- poses above mentioned I could wish for the concurrence of your honorable body. It certainly adds great weight to the measures adopted when the civil authority cooperates with the military to carry them into execution."
Washington, after Howe's evacuation of Boston, had sent General Thomas to Canada to head off an attack from that section, but the troops under that command had been driven back and were now in a fever-laden camp on Lake Champlain, and large detachments had to be sent to rein- force that army. The political situation was becoming tense. Congress contained many who were disheartened by the defeats which had thus far been registered by the patriot army. As a whole, it was determined to uphold the popular cause, but as to policies was much divided, and lacking in harmony. The Virginia Convention had passed a resolution favoring independence, and later resolutions were passed in North Carolina, Massachusetts, Virginia, Connecticut and New Hampshire, in order, instructing their delegates to concur with other colonies in declaring independence.
271
THE BRITISH FLEET IN NEW YORK HARBOR
The plan of the British began to develop. Howe was to attack New York, ascend the Hudson and meet an army from Canada, thus cutting the provinces in two, while Clinton should occupy the southern seaports, driv- ing the Americans back to the interior. Great Britain had made arrange- ments for an auxiliary force of mercenary troops from Germany, whose par- ticipation made the name "Hessian" an opprobrious one for many years after in America.
While making preparations to meet the enemy, whose approach was now certain, Washington found it necessary to deal with a conspiracy at his door. Tryon, on the Asia, had found means, with the aid of some loy- alists who remained in the city, to corrupt with bribes some of those who had access to the American headquarters. A vagrant, who had been imprisoned for some minor offense, gave the first clew which led to the arrest of David Matthews, who, in the summer before, had taken the Tory side in the altercation with Marinus Willett about the guns at Broad and Beaver Streets, as well as several other citizens, including a gunsmith, and private Thomas Hickey, who was a member of General Washington's body- guard. The charge was a conspiracy to capture or assassinate Washing- ton and his principal generals, to blow up the magazines and to spike the guns. The investigation which followed showed transactions in small arms and ammunition between Matthews and others on one side, and Gov- ernor Tryon on the other, but they were let go; but as the guilt of Hickey was clearly proved, he was convicted "of mutiny and sedition and of holding treacherous correspondence with his country's enemies," and sen- tenced to death. He was hanged June 28th, in the presence of a large con- course of citizens, and of the troops.
The first sail of the British fleet came within sight of Sandy Hook on June 29, 1776, and was followed by the others until, on July 2d, there were 130 vessels in the upper and lower bays-the greatest fleet that had ever been seen in America. General Howe, who arrived July Ist, on the Grey- hound, was visited by Governor Tryon, from whom he received a full and detailed account of the preparations made by Washington. The British troops landed and made camp on Staten Island, the American riflemen having before that been withdrawn.
On June 7th, Richard Henry Lee had risen in the Continental Congress and read: "Resolved, That these United Colonies are and ought to be free and independent States, and that all political connection between us and the State of Great Britain is and ought to be dissolved." John Adams, in a glowing and impassioned speech, had seconded the motion. It was not immediately adopted, although it evidently expressed the views of the majority of the membership. Some States had already expressed them-
272
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
selves as favorable to independence, but others (as New York) were delib- erating, and therefore they favored a postponement. One recommendation of the Continental Congress was, that the respective colonies should each take up a form of government for themselves. Therefore the Provincial Con- gress had, on motion of Gouverneur Morris, called a convention to meet June 19th, when delegates were elected for a new provincial body, to meet July 9th, at White Plains, which became the temporary capital.
The Declaration of Independence, adopted at Philadelphia, July 4th, was published to the troops in the city on their several parades, in obedience to Washington's order, which ended with an appeal to every soldier to act with fidelity and courage, "as knowing that now the peace and safety of his country depends (under God) solely on the success of our arms, and that he is now in the service of a State possessed of sufficient power to reward his merit and advance him to the highest honors of a free country." The troops and patriotic citizens were greatly elated by the news, but there were no salutes or other exercises wasteful of powder. At night, however, the statue of George III was overturned from its pedestal and carried away. The statue, which was of lead heavily gilded, was after- ward, for the greater part, melted into bullets for the use of the Connec- ticut troops. The destruction of the statue called forth a rebuke from head- quarters, but its terms were not very scathing.
The same day, at White Plains, the newly elected body met, adopted the name of "The Convention of the Representatives of the State of New York," and adopted the Declaration of Independence, which was publicly read to an assemblage of the people of White Plains. In New York the Committee of Safety proclaimed a meeting, which was held July 18th, in the City Hall, to a great gathering, who, after the reading had been com- pleted, tore down the royal coat of arms which had held place over the seat of justice in the courthouse, and burned it amid the plaudits of thousands of spectators, and the picture of George III, in the Council Chamber, was treated in a similar manner ; another British arms, wrought in stone, in front of the City Hall, was also thrown down and broken to pieces. The same day the British arms from all the churches were ordered to be removed and destroyed, and wherever that insignia of royalty appeared, including several signs on taverns, it was destroyed.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.