USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York : its origin, rise, and progress. Vol. II > Part 15
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DEATH OF GEORGE II. - GEORGE III.
said that in his travels through the Mohawk country in the execution of the office of surveyor-general, distinguished Indians had talked with him often, and discoursed with much vehemence about cheats in their land- trades ; but he suspected that the interpreters did not always fairly rep- resent what the Indians said, and the Indians seemed to entertain similar suspicions, for they expressed by signs many times their earnest wish that they might understand the English language. All that he could learn with certainty was, that some persons had fraudulently obtained a conveyance from them, but he never could ascertain who the persons were, probably from the unwillingness of the interpreters to have the fraud discovered. Should the instructions be carried into execution, there was no predicting the calamities which might follow. Many of the patentees were men of wealth and influence, and would resort to extreme methods to circumvent the power of the governor. The boundaries of estates were indefinite, from whence arose great trouble; the running of intelligible lines by the king's surveyor-general seemed to be the first necessary step towards the settlement of difficulties.
George II., the aged King of England, had died suddenly of apoplexy, on the morning of October 25, 1760; his grandson, then twenty-two years of age, while riding with the Earl of Bute, was overtaken with a secret message announcing the interesting intelligence that he was sov- ereign of the realm. The young man manifested neither emotion nor surprise, but, as an excuse for turning back, he said his horse was lame. To the groom at Kew, he remarked, "I have said my horse was lame ; I forbid you to say to the contrary," and he went directly to Carlton House, the residence of his mother.1
The changes in the Ministry which followed bore heavily upon the colonies. To place himself above aristocratic dictation, and dictation of any sort whatever, was the ruling passion of George III. The Earl of Bute, who was noted neither for vigor of understanding or energy of character, and who was without experience, political connections, or pow- erful family friendships, was his confidential companion. The young king was daring and self-willed. Bute was timid, aspiring, ignorant of men, ignorant of business, and obsequious.
Negotiations for a general peace progressed slowly. Choiseul, in the judgment of Pitt, was the greatest minister France had seen since the days of Richelieu. In depth, refinement, and quick perceptions he had no superior. But he was an agitator, lively, and indiscreet, often dis- cussing the gravest questions of state in jest. Pitt was always stately, and his nature was hard and unaccommodating. He wanted to impress
1 Walpole's George III., I. 6. 123
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the superiority of England upon the treaty of peace. The object of the war had been accomplished, but he delayed reconciliation for the purpose of making more extended acquisitions ; the fleet had sailed for the West Indies, and the chances of conquest were too great to be sacrificed.
George III. mourned over the war, and asked his lords why it was be- ing continued for no definite purpose whatever. Newcastle and others intrigued against and were determined to thwart the policy of Pitt. Choi- seul covenanted with Spain to stand towards all foreign powers as one state, which was the basis of the famous treaty that secured to America in advance, aid from the superstitious, kind-hearted, and equitable Charles III. of Spain. George III. was married, on the eighth day of September, 1761, to the not very lovely German princess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, a girl of seventeen, who was afterwards the well-known and correct Queen Charlotte. Five days later propositions came from France, which Pitt received with scornful irony. The negotiations were broken off. Thus war with Spain must be accepted. Pitt submitted to the cabinet his written advice to recall Lord Bristol, the British ambassador, from Ma- drid. The Earl of Bute, speaking the opinion of the king, opposed the project as rash and ill-advised. Newcastle and all the great Whig lords objected, until Pitt, standing with his brother-in-law, Temple, alone, de- feated, haughtily declared that he would not remain in a situation which made him responsible for measures he was no longer able to guide.
On Monday, October 5, William Pitt, the greatest minister of his cen- tury, among orators the only peer of Demosthenes, and who, finding Eng- land in disgrace, had conquered Canada, the Ohio Valley, and Guada- loupe, sustained Russia from annihilation, humbled France, gained dominion over the seas, won supremacy in Hindostan, and whose august presence at home had overawed even majesty itself, stood in the presence of the youthful king and resigned the seals of power. Little did he fore- see how effectually he had destroyed the balance of the European colo- nial system, and confirmed the implacable hostility of France and Spain to such a degree, as to leave England without a friend in its coming contest with America.
The consummation of peace languished and was delayed. Bute became First Lord of the Treasury. He favored American taxation by act of Parlia- ment, and expressed his extreme delight when the measure of subjecting the halls of justice to the prerogative was adopted. "We shall have much less difficulty in making the colonies dance to the tune of obedi- ence than the croakers pretend," said the self-satisfied monarch of three- and-twenty to Bute, as he laughed over the probable increase of the na- tion's funds.
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SANDY HOOK LIGHTHOUSE.
The death of the king dissolved the New York Assembly, and writs were issued for a new election returnable on the 3d of March, 1761. Seven new members only were chosen. The Livingston party was strong, but the De Lancey party hoped much from the superior address of John Watts, who was at all times very near the lieutenant-governor, and it was surmised that the latter, on account of his advanced years, might possibly yield to a leader.
The mayor and aldermen of the city were seriously agitated over a theater which was opened, under countenance of Colden, on Beekman Street about this time. The mayor introduced the subject into the As- sembly, and tried to obtain the passage of a law prohibiting all dramatic performances within the city limits. Not succeeding in this, attention was turned towards the suppression of lotteries, which had become singu- larly common. But although a bill was passed subjecting all games of chance to a penalty of £ 3 (half to go the church wardens and half to the informer), the lottery fever prevailed for many subsequent years.
On the 8th of May the House passed the following : " An Act for rais- ing a sum not exceeding three thousand pounds by way of a lot- 1762. tery for building a lighthouse." The merchants had petitioned the May 8. lieutenant-governor for a lighthouse at Sandy Hook, and Colden strongly recommended the enterprise in his message to the Assembly in April, 1761. Thus originated the Sandy Hook Lighthouse, which was first illuminated, for the benefit of mari- ners, in May, 1763.
Shortly after a bill passed the House for a lottery to raise funds to complete the new jail. The corporation about the same time introduced lamps upon public lamp-posts, to supersede suspended lanterns, which had hitherto been ........ .... the only mode of lighting the city. Fulton - then known as Partition Street - had long had a partial existence, but, simultaneously with the introduction of street lamps, it was paved, as was also Frankfort Sandy Hook Lighthouse. Street. A variety of municipal or- dinances marked this year, some regulating weights and measures, and others the markets, docks, etc. The modes of punishment inflicted upon
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criminals arrest the eye with wonder as we turn over the records. One instance must suffice : -
" On Thursday, the 20th instant, between the hours of nine and eleven, Mrs. Johanna Christiana Young and another lady, her associate from Philadelphia, being found guilty of grand larceny last week, at the mayor's court, are to be set on two chairs exalted on a cart, with their heads and faces uncovered, and to be carted from the City Hall to that part of Broadway near the old English Church, from thence down Maiden Lane, then down the Fly to the White Hall, thence to the church aforesaid, and then to the whipping-post, where each of them are to receive thirty-nine lashes, to remain in jail for one week, and then to depart the city."
King's College was yet in its infancy. The excellent Rev. Dr. Samuel Johnson wrote to Archbishop Secker, under date of April 10, 1762, that besides attending to his regular business of overseeing and governing the college, reading prayers, moderating disputations, prescribing exercises, holding commencements, and giving degrees, he was obliged to act as tutor to one and often two classes. He was pleased with the prospect of release from the drudgery of tuition through the appointment of a vice-president, who would be expected to live in a collegiate way at the common table (the expense being "six shillings per week for mere board "), but he regretted that Myles Cooper, who had been named for the position, and who might otherwise suit very well, was not a little older. He requested that royal instructions might be given to the New York governors never to grant patents for townships, villages, or manors without obliging the patentees to sequestrate a competent portion for the support of religion and education. He said that Dr. Jay, "an ingenious young physician," was going to England on business of his own, and would be employed to solicit contributions for the college.
Dr. James Jay, afterwards Sir James Jay, Knight, was at this time thirty years of age. He was one of the elder brothers of Hon. John Jay. It was while on his visit to England as agent for the college that he received the honor of Knighthood. He became involved in a suit in Chancery arising out of the collections for the college, but returned to New York prior to the Revolution.1 He was the fourth son of Peter Jay and Mary Van Cortlandt (the daughter of Jacobus Van Cortlandt and Eve Philipse), and the grandson of Augustus Jay and Ann Maria Bayard (daughter of Balthazar Bayard and Maria Loockermans). The Jay family were among those who were driven from France through the troubles and violences connected with the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Pierre Jay, the father of Augustus, was a wealthy merchant, owning
1 He died October 20, 1815.
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THE JAY FAMILY.
vessels engaged in Spanish commerce. Upon one of these (laden with iron) he effected his escape, having found means of withdrawing his family secretly from his house, who, taking with them only a few arti-
Van Cortlandt Mansion at Kingsbridge built in 1748.
cles of value, succeeded in reaching England. Augustus was at the time with one of his father's ships trading upon the coast of Africa, and re- turned to France without knowing of the troubles and flight of the family. He escaped to America, and took up his abode in New Rochelle ; after- wards (in 1697) marrying into the Bayard family as above. He was a successful merchant to the end of a long life. He died in New York in 1751. Peter Jay (born in 1704) was sent to England to be educated, and placed in the counting-house of his uncle, Mr. Peloquin of Bristol. He returned to New York, and was married in 1728; he also was a merchant ; he declined to participate in the political and other disturb- ances of the colony, and having acquired a competence retired from business before he was forty years old. He settled upon an estate in Rye, a few miles from New Rochelle; he had ten children, two of whom were blind, caused by the small-pox in infancy, and with the assistance of his cultivated wife, devoted his remaining years to their education and happiness. John, the eighth son, was named for Judge John Chambers, whose wife was a sister of Mrs. Jay.1 He was now one of the students in the college, having entered in 1760, at the age of fourteen.
1 Mrs. Abraham De Peyster, the wife of the treasurer (it will be remembered), was a sister of Mrs. Peter Jay and Mrs. Judge John Chambers.
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
Before the end of 1762, Havana, then as now the chief place in the West Indies, with a harbor large enough to shelter all the navies of Europe, had been captured, and George III. had offered to return it to Spain in exchange for the Floridas or Porto Rico. France was humiliated, but, yielding to necessity, the preliminaries of peace, so momentous for
1763. America, were signed between France and Spain on the one side, Feb. 10. and England and Portugal on the other; but it was not until February 10, 1763, that a formal treaty was ratified at Paris.
" What can we do ?" said Choiseul, who in his despair had for a time resigned the foreign department to the Duke de Praslin. "The English are furiously imperious ; they are drunk with success ; and, unfortunately we are not in a condition to abase their pride."
The English, indeed, assumed a very different position from that taken at Aix-la-Chapelle. It had been discovered, at a fearful cost of blood and treasure, that there was no safety along the American frontiers while Canada remained under French dominion. Hence the terms of the treaty were that the whole of Canada should be ceded to England ; also Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, and its dependent islands, and the fisheries, except a share in them, and the two islets, St. Pierre and Miquelon, as a shelter for the French fishermen. And it was expressly agreed that the boundary between the French and English possessions should forever be settled by a " line drawn along the middle of the Mississippi, from its source as far as the river Iberville, and thence by a line drawn along the middle of this latter river, and of the lakes Maurepas and Ponchartrain to the sea." France on the same day indemnified Spain for the loss of Florida, by ceding to that power New Orleans and all Louisiana west of the Missis- sippi, - boundaries undefined.
England acquired Senegal in Africa, with the command of the slave- trade. France recovered in a dismantled and ruined state the little she possessed on January 1, 1759, in the East Indies. In Europe each power took back its own; Minorca, therefore, reverted to Great Britain.
" England," said the king, " never signed such a peace before, nor, I be- lieve, any other power in Europe."
" The country," said the dying Granville, " never saw so glorious a war, nor so honorable a peace."
" Now," said the princess dowager, "my son is indeed king of England."
"I wish," said the Earl of Bute, " no better inscription on my tomb than that I was its author."
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OPINIONS OF FRENCH STATESMEN.
CHAPTER XXIX.
1763 -1770.
FORESHADOWING OF THE REVOLUTION.
OPINIONS OF FRENCH STATESMEN. - BOUNDARY DISPUTES. - HON. JAMES DUANE. - IN- DIANS ON THE WAR PATH. - ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN THE DUTCH CHURCH. - THE MID- DLE DUTCH CHURCH. - THE GERMAN REFORMED CHURCH. - THE NEW JERSEY LAWYERS. - LORD GRENVILLE. - STAMPED PAPER. - NEW YORK IMPATIENT OF CON- TROL. - FIRST COMMITTEE OF CORRESPONDENCE. - LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR COLDEN. - RIGHT OF APPEALS. - BARRE SPEECH. - PASSAGE OF THE STAMP ACT. - SONS OF LIB- ERTY. - REV. STEPHEN JOHNSON. - RESIGNATION OF STAMP OFFICERS. - THE STAMP ACT CONGRESS. - ARRIVAL OF STAMPS. - THE NON-IMPORTATION AGREEMENT. - STAMP ACT RIOT. - VICTORY OF THE PEOPLE. - SIR HENRY MOORE. - DEBATES IN PARLIAMENT. - REPEAL OF THE STAMP ACT. - NEW YORK DENOUNCED AS REBELLIOUS. - NEW YORK DISFRANCHISED. - BOSTON IN TROUBLE. - THE FOUNDING OF THE CHAM- BER OF COMMERCE. - REPEALS. - TAX CONTINUED ON TEA. - DEATH OF SIR HENRY MOORE. - EMISSIONS OF BILLS OF CREDIT. - VIOLENT EXCITEMENT.
T THE consequences of the entire cession of Canada are obvious. Eng- land will erelong repent of having removed the only check that could keep her colonies in awe ; they stand no longer in need of her protec- tion ; she will call on them to contribute towards supporting the burdens they have helped to bring on her; and they will answer by striking off all dependence," said the sagacious and experienced Vergennes, the French ambassador at Constantinople, when he heard of the conditions of the peace.
"We have caught them at last," said Choiseul to those about him when Louisiana was surrendered, and turned over immediately to Spain. His eager hopes anticipated the speedy struggle of America for a separate ex- istence.
During the negotiations for peace, the kinsman and bosom-friend of Edmund Burke had employed the British press to unfold the danger to the nation of retaining Canada; and the French minister for foreign af- fairs frankly warned his adversaries, that the cession of Canada would lead to the independence of North America.1
1 Hans Stanley to William Pitt, 1760, printed in Thackeray's Chatham.
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
The war was closed ; but a standing army of twenty battalions was to be kept up in America, and as the new Ministry were harping upon economy, it was designed that the expense should be defrayed by the colo- nists themselves.
While the king and his lords were measuring the resources of their American possessions, and contemplating the enormously increased debt of England with dismay, New York was engaged in a spirited tilt with both New Hampshire and Massachusetts concerning boundaries. The latter continued to claim a part of the Livingston and Van Rensselaer manors. Governor Wentworth of New Hampshire granted lands west of the Connecticut River, in what is now Vermont, which were claimed by New York, until all at once Lieutenant-Governor Colden discovered that one hundred and sixty townships, each six miles square, were in the hands of speculators, and publicly offered for sale at low rates.1 The quit-rents in New Hampshire were much less than in New York, which was an inducement for settlers to purchase under the former province. Colden, who had been forty years a counselor, and was conversant with every detail of New York affairs, was greatly disturbed. He wrote to the Lords that New Hampshire's claim must be resisted. If the controverted territory was given up, the crown would be deprived of a quit-rent amounting yearly to a sum greater, in his opinion, than the amount of all the quit-rents that would remain. He argued that the New England gov- ernments were formed on republican principles, while the government of New York, on the contrary, was established as nearly as possible after the model of the English constitution. It was therefore impolitic to permit the power and influence of New Hampshire and Massachusetts to extend to the injury of New York.
John Watts wrote to Monckton, December 29, 1763 :-
"We were yesterday in council declaring war against New Hampshire for scandalously hawking about townships to the highest bidders, and taking in every ignorant peasant both in this colony and the Jerseys. When will they make the colonies so happy as to settle their limits ?"
He wrote further, January 21, 1764 :-
"The case from the beginning, as I understand, is simply this. Eternal quarrels subsisted between the borderers, in which several lives were lost, and commissioners were appointed by the different governments to settle a line of jurisdiction or peace, to prevent the effusion of more blood. I was one of them myself ; but we could agree upon nothing, their demands were so high. We ar- gued for land to the Connecticut River, they for land to the South Sea ; think
1 Lieutenant-Governor Colden to the Lords of Trade.
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HON. JAMES DUANE.
how we were to meet ! Afterwards, when the quotas of the colonies were settled in a grand congress at Albany, the thing was then more solemnly treated than ever, though to as little purpose ; they would not allow us even the twenty miles from the Hudson River."
James Duane, a rising young lawyer, who had married Mary, the elder daughter of Robert, third lord of Livingston Manor, in 1759, was one of the most efficient advocates employed in the vain attempt to settle the question of rights and jurisdiction. He was the life and soul of the private suits between land-owners on the borders of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Jersey ; he defended New York against the claimants along Lake Champlain under the French grants ; he was so actively conspicuous in the New Hampshire quarrels that the coarse wit and abuse of the Ver- monters were showered bountifully upon him; and he conducted much of the correspondence with the New York agents in England. It was he who drew up a concise and comprehensive summary of these agitations in a letter to the celebrated Edmund Burke. The king in council (in 1764) decided that the territory in dispute belonged to New York, and, within the next three years, Duane had purchased over sixty-four thousand acres among the Vermont hills, and founded the town of Duanesburg.1 And it was Duane, who, during the Revolution, while the dispute about "the grants " perplexed Congress, was the main reliance of New York, and prevented, not without much difficulty, that body from yielding to the powerful influence of New England, and hindered New York from vindi- cating her rights by force.
These disputes, when at their height, in 1763, nearly fomented a civil
1 James Duane was born in the city of New York in 1733. His father was Anthony Duane, a prosperous merchant, and his mother was Altea, the daughter of Abraham Kettletas. He studied law in the office of James Alexander. He acquired such eminence in his profession before the Revolution as to be retained in many suits, which, on account of the principle in- volved, interested large masses of the people both in New York and New Jersey, -as, for instance, that against the proprietors of East Jersey ; that between the partners in the cop- per-mine company ; Trinity Church against Flandreau and others ; Sir James Jay against Kings College ; Schermerhorn against the trustees of Schenectady patent ; the king against Lieutenant-Governor Colden, in which case he was employed for the defendant, under- taking it after other counsel had declined through fear of Governor Monckton, who was really the plaintiff as well as judge ; the suit being for fees received by Colden, and tried be- fore Monckton, as chancellor. He was also attorney for Trinity Church in suits against intruders upon the king's farm, so noted in the revived claims of the numerous descendants of Anetje Jans. His briefs and written arguments, in these and similar cases, display pro- found legal learning. His subsequent career will appear more fully in future chapters. The late James C. Duane of Schenectady was his son. His oldest daughter married General North of Duanesburg ; his second daughter married George W. Featherstonhaugh, an English gentleman, who was for some years consul at Havre. Another daughter married Alfred S. Pell of New York City.
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war. At the same time Sir William Johnson was actively espousing the cause of the Mohawks and German settlers at Canajoharie, in their chronic controversy with William Livingston over the " planting grounds of the Mohawks." This property was included in the old Livingston patent (ob- tained by Philip Livingston, the father of William), to which reference has already been made. It was essential to a valid conveyance, that the sachems of a whole nation should affix their signature in full council. The Indians claimed that this had not been done, and collected of the Germans who were settling upon the land, annual rents either in corn or money. Matters had remained quiet because of the war, and for the reason that many of the Livingston heirs were minors. Since the winter of 1762 the settlers had been repeatedly served with ejectments by order of William Livingston. The affair was complicated through the conduct of George Klock, a German who owned a share in the patent, and acted as agent for the Livingston claimants. He invited several of the Indians to his house, and, having made them drunk, persuaded them to sign a paper acknowledging the legality of the original purchase, which he for- warded to the governor. Johnson convened the Indians, and a long examination followed. The Mohawks persisted in asserting that the land had been stolen from their grandfathers and privately surveyed in the night; and that they had always been beguiled and ruined with liquor. Livingston finally executed a release, and the savages were satisfied.
Almost immediately a knotty question came up respecting the rich lands in the beautiful Wyoming Valley. Agents from Connecticut ap- peared in Albany provided with £400 in money, and three barrels of pork, expecting to meet the Mohawk sachems, and enter into some ami- cable arrangement. The Indians were determined never to part with those hunting-grounds, and failed to put in an appearance. Sir William Johnson conversed with the gentlemen, who grew warm, and insisted upon the legality of their title by virtue of the old Connecticut claim " as far west as the Pacific Ocean," and expressed their determination to settle the valley and defend themselves. The Indians were full of wrath when the rumor reached them, and another convention was summoned. Pacific messages from Governor Fitch, of Connecticut, finally quieted them for the time.
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