USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York, from its earliest settlement to the present time > Part 25
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* Colden had served as a drummer in 1745 in the army of the Pretender, hence the allusion.
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burned carriage, gallows, effigies and devil. Hitherto the proceedings had been conducted with the utmost decorum. But the fury of the populace could be restrained no longer, and, despite the remonstrances of the more moderate of the Sons of Liberty, an excited party broke loose from their companions, and, proceed- ing to Vauxhall, on the corner of Warren and Green- wich streets, at that time occupied by Major James of the British army, a stanch friend of the Stamp Act, who had incensed the people by some insolent expressions, broke open the house, rifled it of its rich furniture, kindled another bonfire and consumed the whole in the flames. Not an article was spared, with the exception of the royal colors, which were borne away as a trophy by the party-pictures, mathematical instruments, books, curtains, carpets and furniture-all were involved in the general ruin. Major James was afterwards indemnified for his losses by the corporation, but, regarding the act in the light of a just punishment, they refused the same satisfaction to Colden.
The next evening, the people assembled again upon . the Commons, and determined to march to the fort and to demand the delivery of the stamped paper. But before this resolution could be carried into effect, Colden wisely determined to withdraw from the contest, and issued a bulletin declaring that he would have nothing at all to do with the stamps, but would leave them to Sir Henry Moore, the new governor, now hourly expected, to dispose of them as he pleased upon his arrival. In the next issue of the Gazette and Post Boy appeared the following notice :
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"The governor acquainted Judge Livingston, the " mayor, Mr. Beverly Robinson and Mr. John Stevens " this morning, being Monday the 4th of November, that " he would not issue nor suffer to be issued any of the " stamps now in Fort George.
(Signed) " ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON, " JOHN CRUGER, " BEVERLY ROBINSON, " JOHN STEVENS."
The following notice also appeared without signa- tures :
" The freemen, freeholders and inhabitants of this " city, being satisfied that the stamps are not to be issued, "are determined to keep the peace of the city, at all "events, except that they should have other cause of " complaint."
But this anonymous communication failed to express the sentiments of the people. On the following evening, pursuant to a call issued a few days before, an armed body of citizens assembled on the Commons, resolved to storm the fort and obtain forcible possession of the papers. Alarmed at this demonstration, the governor, who had been fruitlessly negotiating with Captain Kennedy of the ship of war Coventry, then lying in the harbor, to receive the stamps on board his vessel, consented to yield, and delivered them from the fort gate to the mayor and cor- poration, who had previously demanded them at his .
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hands, promising to be accountable for their safe-keeping, accompanied with a letter which we transcribe entire :
" FORT GEORGE, Nov. 5th, 1765.
" consequence of your earnest request, and engaging to "Mr. Mayor and Gentlemen of the Corporation : In
"make good all such sums as might be raised by the " destruction of the stamps sent over for the use of this
"advice of his majesty's council, and the concurrence of "the province, and in consequence of the unanimous " province that shall be lost, destroyed, or carried out of
" the commander-in-chief of the king's forces, and to
" civil war which might ensue from my withholding "prevent the effusion of blood and the calamities of a
"them from you, I now deliver to you the packages of
" stamped paper and parchments that were deposited in
"my hands in this his majesty's fort; and I doubt not
" that you will take the charge and care of them con- " formably to your engagement to me.
"I am, with great regard, gentlemen, " Your most ob'dt humble servant,
" CADWALLADER COLDEN."
The mayor and corporation received the stamps amid the huzzas of the people, returning to the governor the following receipt :
" Received from the Honorable Cadwallader Colden, " Esq., his majesty's lieutenant-general and commander- "in-chief of the province of New York, seven packages
" containing stamped papers and parchments, all marked
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CITY OF NEW YORK.
" 'No. 1, James McEvers, I. M. E., New York,' which "we promise, in behalf of the corporation of the city of "New York, to take charge and care of, and to be " accountable in case they shall be destroyed or carried. " out of the province. Witness our hands. (Witness) " JOHN CRUGER, Mayor,
" L. F. CAREY, " Major to the 60th Reg't.
" JAMES FARQUAHAR." -
The formalities of the transfer having thus been con- cluded amid the ironical cheers of the multitude, the Sons of Liberty escorted the civic authorities to the City Hall, and, after seeing the stamps deposited there in safety, quietly dispersed. It was not long before a new outrage roused them to action. Previously to the delivery of the papers, the cannon in the king's yard and on Copsey's battery had been spiked, as was alleged, by the orders of Colden, to prevent the people from making use of them in case of an attack upon the fort. It was never clearly proved that the governor was guilty of this charge, but the majority of the people were fully persuaded of it at the time, and loudly expressed their indignation. A petition was even addressed to the Assembly, entreating them to deduct the amount of damages from the governor's salary ; but the request, which came from an unknown source, was at once rejected, and a reward was offered for the discovery of the writers. The excitement, however, continued for some time, the citizens inveighed bitterly against Colden as the author of the mischief, and even burned his
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effigy, seated on a spiked cannon, one night on the Commons.
The Committee of Correspondence that had been appointed on the 31st of October wasted no time in idleness, but at once addressed circulars to the merchants of the sister-cities, inviting them to join in the non-in- tercourse agreement as the best method of frustrating the designs of Great Britain. These unhesitatingly answered to their summons, and the suspension of trade soon became universal. To lessen the inconveniences felt by the citizens, a fair was opened a little below the Exchange for the sale of articles of home manufacture, and the citizens soon learned to appreciate the internal resources of their own country, and to sacrifice foreign luxuries on the shrine of patriotism. To wear silks and broadcloths was accounted a disgrace, the wealthiest and most fashionable appeared clad in the homespun linsey- woolsey, and the grand-dames cheerfully exchanged the once indispensable tea and coffee for decoctions made from the fragrant wild herbs of the American soil. Docu- ments continued to be written and newspapers printed on unstamped paper, and betrothed couples, dispensing with the now hateful licenses, were proclaimed in church by bans as in olden time.
Nor was this all ; the Committee of Correspondence, impressed with the idea that union was power, framed articles of confederation banding the colonies together in resistance to the Stamp Act, and providing for the assembling of a general congress to concert measures for future action in case the British ministry should persist in enforcing it. These articles were sent to the eastern
-1
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and southern colonies for their concurrence, by whom they were at once unanimously adopted.
On the 11th of November, the corporation tendered an address to General Gage, the commander-in-chief of the British forces in America, congratulating him upon the restoration of the city to tranquillity and its preser- vation from the horrors of a civil war, and imputing the result to his prudence in not heightening the spirit of discontent already so prevalent in the colonies, by firing on the citizens on the night of the riot. In truth, whether from prudence or otherwise, a remarkable spirit of for- bearance had been manifested, for the guns of the fort had been turned upon the rioters during the whole of the proceedings on the Bowling Green, and, with the aid of the ships of war then lying in the harbor, nothing would have been easier than to have accomplished the destruc- tion of the city. It is true that the act would have called forth a terrible retribution ; but that was in the future, while the chances for an easy capture lay close at hand. Gage curtly replied to this bold address, that the spirit which so lately had been shown among them had been carried almost to open rebellion, and recommended them to show their respect to his majesty less in words than in deeds, and to use their best efforts to calm the madness of the people, and to bring them back to a sense of the duty which they owed their superiors. The two parties were now generally distinguished as Whigs and Tories, names originally imported from England ; but the New York patriots still continued to retain their favorite appellation of Sons of Liberty.
About this time, the ship Minerva, Captain Tillet,
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arrived in the harbor, bringing a second shipment of stamps and a new stamp distributor in the person of Peter De Lancey, jr., who had been appointed in the stead of the recreant McEvers. With her also came the newly-appointed governor, Sir Henry Moore, who at once won the affections of the people by declaring that he would have nothing at all to do with the obnoxious papers. The stamps were deposited with the rest in the City Hall, and a Committee of the Sons of Liberty waited on De Lancey, and warned him that his wisest course would be to resign. De Lancey yielded with a good grace to the necessity, and, protesting that. when he received the appointment, he was ignorant of the objections of the people, resigned his commission and published a disclaimer in the papers of the day. A formal renunciation was also exacted of McEvers, and the city was thus freed from these dreaded officials. But the Sons of Liberty went even further ; on learning that Zachary Hood, one of the stamp distributors for Mary- land, had fled for protection to Governor Colden, and had taken shelter at Flushing, on Long Island, they sent a deputation to compel him to resign, and to abjure his office publicly by oath -- a service for which they afterwards received the grateful thanks of their Maryland brethren.
Delighted with the favorable disposition evinced by the new governor, the civic authorities gave him a cor- dial reception, and the Sons of Liberty held a grand mass meeting in the Commons, now the rallying-place of liberty, where they erected a pyramid and kindled bonfires in his honor. They had previously tendered him a congratulatory address, which had been received
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.CITY OF NEW YORK.
with favor. In fact, everything augured well for the good intentions of the new governor. Anxious to conciliate his subjects, he ordered the fortifications which had been commenced by Colden at the fort and the battery to be discontinued, and declared that he did not intend to meddle with the enforcement of the Stamp Act. The Assembly, which met on the day of his arrival, confirmed the action of their committee in the colonial congress, and adopted resolutions of the same import.
About the same time, the ship Hope, commanded by Captain Christian Jacobson, arrived from London, and the fact was chronicled with the comment that Captain Jacobson was the first who had had the honor of refusing to bring stamps to America.
On the 25th of November, the merchants met again at their usual place of rendezvous, and resolved to con- tinue their non-importation agreement, despite the deadly blow which it inflicted on their interests. A committee was also appointed to frame an address to be presented to the Assembly, complaining of the restric- tions on trade, and especially protesting against the appeal from the decision of juries, which Colden had sedulously endeavored to introduce.
The vigilant Sons of Liberty, meanwhile, had received information that stamps were yet on board the Minerva, designed for the sister colony of Connecticut. A call was issued at once for the gathering of the brotherhood, and at midnight on the 26th, the vessel was boarded, but no papers were found. They had been transferred to another vessel. . Gaining a clew to this fact from their brethren of Philadelphia, the patriots kept a lookout for
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HISTORY OF THE
the suspicious craft, and as soon as she hove in sight, boarded and searched her. This time, the search was not in vain. Ten packages of stamps were discovered by the self-appointed custom-house officers, which were taken up to the ship-yards at the foot of Catharine street and burned there. Soon after, it was discovered by the indefatigable Sons of Liberty that a merchant of the city by the name of Lewis Pintard had sent a bond to Philadel- phia written on stamped paper. The vender of the stamp was immediately sought out, his house searched, and the stamped paper which was found there committed to the flames. Mr. Pintard screened himself from their ven- geance by taking an oath that he was ignorant at the time of its transmission that the bond had been written on stamped paper. These energetic measures elicited the approbation of the other colonies, and encomiums were lavished by the members of the sister cities on the gallant conduct of the patriots of New York.
About the middle of December, Captain Blow arrived from Quebec, bringing with him a stamped pass from General Murray, the governor of Canada. This was the first piece of stamped paper that had appeared in the city. It was immediately posted up at Burns' Coffee- House, the general rendezvous of the Sons of Liberty, and gazed at by the dejected citizens as the epitaph of their freedom. In the evening, a procession of patriots paraded the streets of the city, bearing a gallows on which was suspended three effigies-that of Lord Gren- ville, the author of the Stamp Act ; of Lord Colville, who had endeavored to enforce it by stopping colonial vessels ; and of General Murray, who had signed the first
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CITY OF NEW YORK.
piece of stamped paper that had made its way into the city of New York. The march ended, the effigies were taken to the Commons and burned there. .
Not less energetic were the demonstrations of the other colonies in respect to the odious Stamp Act. Seeing the determined attitude of the people, the ministry at length determined to recede, and repealed it on the 20th of Feb- ruary, 1766. On the 20th of May, the news reached New York, where it was received with the greatest enthusi- asm. On the following day, the people assembled on the Commons, and manifested their delight by every possible demonstration. Bells were rung, cannon fired, and a public dinner given by the civic authorities. In the evening, bonfires were kindled in the fields, and the whole city was illuminated in honor of the triumph of liberty.
Not content with this, the patriots assembled again on the Commons on the 4th of June-the king's birth- day-for a second celebration, and Moore, hoping thus to strengthen their loyalty, politically encouraged them in their rejoicings. An ox was roasted, and twenty-five barrels of strong beer were provided, with a hogshead of rum, and the necessary ingredients to convert the whole into punch. A pole was erected, about which were piled twenty-five cords of wood, with twelve blaz- ing tar-barrels suspended at the top, while at another part of the Commons, twenty-five cannon fired a salute, to the sound of which the royal standard was raised amid the shouts and huzzas of the excited populace. But the crowning event of the day was the erection of a pole or mast inscribed, "The King, Pitt, and Lib- "erty"-a Liberty-Pole which served as the rallying-
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1
point for many a sharp contest during the succeeding years, and which came to stand for a principle almost as dear to the New Yorkers as that of personal taxation.
The repeal of the Stamp Act served, in the first flush of victory, to cover a multitude of sins. But it was not long before the colonists looked more closely at the con- ditions which surrounded it. In the first place, the right of Great Britain to tax the colonies was distinctly asserted, even by Pitt, the so-called champion of Ameri- can liberty. Yet, despite this, a large meeting of the citizens assembled at Burns' Coffee House on 23d of June, and petitioned the Assembly to erect a statue in honor of William Pitt. The request was granted. It was also determined to erect an equestrian statue of George III. on the Bowling Green, and a hundred pounds were appropriated for the purchase of a service of plate for John Sargent, in token of the faithful ser- vices which he had rendered in England as agent of the colonies. The statue of Pitt was of marble, and was set up in Wall street on the 7th of September, 1770. The statesman was represented in a Roman toga, with a half- open scroll in his right hand, on which were the words, Articuli Magna Charta Libertatum. The left hand was extended, as if in the act of delivering an oration. The pedestal bore the inscription : "This Statue of the "Right Honorable William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, was "erected as a public testimony of the grateful sense the " colony of New York retains of the many eminent ser- " vices he rendered to America, particularly in promot- "ing the repeal of the Stamp Act, Anno Domini 1770." It did not long retain its place. After the occupation
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CITY OF NEW YORK.
of the city by the British in 1775, the head and right hand were struck off by the soldiery, in revenge for the insults before offered by the Americans to the statue of George III. The headless trunk remained standing until after the evacuation in 1783, when it was removed to the Bridewell Yard. It was thence transferred to the yard of the Arsenal near the Collect, and finally found its way to the corner of Franklin street and West Broadway, where its headless trunk may now be seen in front of the basement entrance of the Museum Hotel.
Nor did the leaden equestrian statue of George III., which was erected on the Bowling Green in front of Fort George on the 21st of August, 1770, amid the noise of artillery and the huzzas of the people, meet a better fate. In the revulsion of feeling which followed the imposition of the duty on tea, the horse and rider was thrown from its pedestal and dragged through the streets by the indignant patriots ; then run into bullets for the use of the Revolutionary soldiers. The pedestal of the statue remained standing for some time longer, and was finally removed a few years after the close of the war .*
We have already mentioned the erection of a Liberty
* This statue has a curious history. Erected during the outburst of loyalty that followed the repeal of the Stamp Act, upon the reception in New York of the news of the Declaration of Independence, it was dragged from its pedestal by a band of patriots headed by Belden, and sent, hewed in pieces, to Litchfield, then the resi- dence of Oliver Wolcott, the patriot governor of Connecticut, by whose wife and daughters it was run into bullets, of which the Whigs of the surrounding country were invited to come and take freely. In their hands, they did good service, killing four hundred British soldiers during the subsequent invasion of Connecticut by Governor Tryon. Forty-two thousand bullets were made from the statue. The saddle-cloth was sunk in a marsh opposite the house of Wolcott, where it was quite recently discovered by accident and exhumed, and, after passing through various
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Pole on the Commons, on the 4th of June, 1766. This formed the pretext for a series of outrages which kept the city in a perpetual ferment, and goaded on the peo- ple to open civil war. The British soldiers detailed for the protection of the city were at that time quartered in the barracks standing on the line of Chambers street, and were thus brought in daily contact with the people. Enraged at some triumphant expressions of the Sons of Liberty, on the 10th of August, a party belonging to the 28th Regiment cut down the Liberty Pole which had been erected on the king's birthday. The next day, the citizens assembled on the Commons, and were preparing to erect another in its stead, when they were attacked by an armed party of soldiers and forced to disperse. Several of their number were seriously wounded, among whom were Isaac Sears and John Berrien, both promi- nent members of the Sons of Liberty. The citizens complained loudly of this outrage, and Theophilus Hardenbrook and Peter Vandervoort made affidavits before the mayor, charging the soldiers with having, without provocation, commenced the assault. But the conduct of the soldiers was approved by their officers, and their commander, Major Arthur Brown, coolly told the mayor that the whole charge was an utter falsehood and, though the affidavits were sustained by abundant testimony, refused to punish or even reprimand the offenders. The Liberty Pole was set up again by the
hands, was purchased by Mr. Riley of the Museum Hotel, where it still remains, a fitting companion for the statue of Pitt; though the question naturally arises, whether the rooms of the Historical Society would not be the fitter repository for these interesting relics.
CITY OF NEW YORK.
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Battery and Bowling Green during the Revolution.
28
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CITY OF NEW YORK.
citizens and suffered to stand a few days longer, then levelled to the ground on the night of the 23d of Sep- tember. Before two days had passed, a third one was erected in its stead, and the soldiers, restrained by the orders of Moore, permitted it to stand without further molestation.
During the whole winter, the city was harassed by continual outrages on the part of the soldiers. Houses of peaceable citizens were broken open and plundered under pretext of searching for proofs of rebellion. On one occasion, a soldier forced his way into the dwelling of an industrious carman, and, after wounding him severely with his bayonet, hamstrung his horse and thus deprived him of his only means of support for his family. No notice was taken by the officers of these aggressions ; on the contrary, they rather countenanced them in secret, and urged on the soldiers to fresh assaults, hoping thus to break the spirit of the people, and to awe or coerce them into abject submission.
On the 18th of March, 1767, the people met on the Commons, and celebrated the first anniversary of the repeal of the Stamp Act with the greatest enthusiasm. This demonstration awakened the ire of the British soldiery, and, before morning, the Liberty Pole was again levelled to the ground. Nothing daunted, the next day the Sons of Liberty set up another and more substantial one, well secured with iron bands, in its place. On the same night, an attempt was made to destroy it, but without success. The next night, another attempt was made to blow it up with gunpowder, which also proved a failure. Incensed by these repeated assaults, the Sons
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of Liberty set a strong guard around the pole. For three successive nights, the soldiers renewed their attacks, but each time were beaten off by the people. At length the governor, who had himself been suspected of secretly inciting the soldiers, interfered and peremp- torily commanded them to desist. The pole continued to stand, a trophy of the victory of the people, and on the king's birthday, which happened not long after, the Union flag was run up to its top, and cannon planted at its foot answered derisively, gun for gun, to the royal salute from Fort George.
Let us return to the proceedings of the New York Assembly of 1761-1768,-a body which, by its daring acts in the cause of liberty, won for itself political mar- tyrdom from the British ministry and a crown of lasting glory from all true patriots. Through the whole of the eventful Stamp Act epoch, the Assembly of New York stood true to the interests of the country, and to its bold protests against the enactment of the odious Stamp Act, its determined attitude in the struggle which ensued, and most of all, its earnest advocacy of the union of the colonies, aided by the efforts of the vigilant Sons of Liberty, may be attributed much of the almost miracu- lous success which attended the coming struggle for independence.
We have already spoken of the Declaratory Act, asserting the right of Great Britain to tax the colonies. Simultaneously with this was passed the Mutiny Act, requiring the citizens to furnish quarters for all the soldiers that might be stationed among them by the royal orders, and to provide them with various necessaries ;
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and Sir Henry Moore was instructed to lay the matter before the Assembly on his arrival, and to see that the troops were supplied according to the provisions of the Act. New York was at this time full of soldiers ; it was the head-quarters of the British army under General Gage, and new regiments of troops were daily expected. The people at once detected in these movements the fixed determination of the ministry to establish a stand- ing army among them-a measure utterly abhorrent to their spirit of independence-and refused to comply. The Sons of Liberty banded together in open opposition, and the Assembly of 1766, to whom Moore communi- cated his instructions on his arrival, resolved that they could only legally be required to provide for soldiers on the march, and that, as there were already barracks enough to accommodate the soldiers then in the city, the requisition was wholly unnecessary for the present. They offered, however, to appropriate a sum which had been left over from the appropriation of a preceding year, to the support of two battalions not exceeding five hundred men each, but absolutely refused to maintain any more, or to furnish vinegar, salt and liquors as the provisions of the act required, limiting the supplies to candles, bedding, fuel and cooking utensils, as actual necessaries of life. They also refused to indemnify Colden for the damages which he had sustained on the night of the riot, in opposition to the express commands of the king, alleging that he had suffered through his own misconduct ; though they granted Major James the required compensation, attributing his losses to the excitement of the mob. During this year, Whitehead
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