USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York : its origin, rise, and progress. Vol. II > Part 16
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But dark and heavy clouds covered the western sky. Notwithstanding the general treaty consummated by Sir William Johnson at Detroit in 1761, there was a savage design taking root to drive the English from the continent. Pontiac, the great king of the Ottawa Confederacy, was at work forming a league with the interior tribes, and in the spring of 1763, fell upon the garrisons along the lakes almost simultaneously, capturing
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seven or eight, and scalping every man, woman, and child to be found. In fierce resentment at the lordly personage who had prevented the Six Nations from joining in the bloody work, Pontiac threatened the life of Sir William Johnson, and Johnson Hall was accordingly surrounded with a strong stockade flanked by two stone towers and guarded by soldiers, while the tenantry were promptly armed. Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Maryland suffered severely along their borders, but the influence of John- son over the Mohawks was so salutary that, with the exception of some slight incursions into Orange and Ulster Counties, New York was left comparatively unmolested.
Monckton returned to New York from the West Indies, but remained only for a brief period, leaving the government again in the hands of Lieutenant-Governor Colden. In March, 1763, Horsemanden succeeded Pratt as chief justice of New York.
The rapid growth of Episcopacy and the alarming decrease in the con- gregations of the Dutch churches induced the consistory of the latter about this time to call a minister who could officiate in the English lan- guage. Intermarriages among the English and Dutch families had from the earliest settlement of New York been frequent, and the educated part of the community understood both languages. The young people dis- liked Dutch preaching, and were constantly straying to Trinity Church. There were many, however, who were wedded to old habits and customs, and opposed the step lest it should involve the loss of doctrines, mode of worship, government, and perhaps the very name of the church. In order to harmonize all difficulties, Rev. Archibald Laidlie was called, through the medium of the Classis of Amsterdam. He was a Scotchman, educated at Edinburgh, and settled over a church in Flushing, Zealand. He arrived in New York in the spring of 1764. A revival of religion almost immediately followed. At the close of a prayer- 1764. meeting one evening, a number of persons gathered about him saying : " Ah ! Dominie, we offered up many an earnest prayer in Dutch for your coming among us ; and truly the Lord has heard us in English."
Such as were blindly attached to the Dutch language refused to be comforted, and instituted a suit in the civil court, which was decided against them, and then they went over to the Episcopal Church, declar- ing that if they must have English they would have all English.1 Peter Van Brugh Livingston said, in relation to the innovation: "Had this hap- pened in the city thirty years ago, the Dutch congregation would have been far more numerous than it is now. The greater half of Trinity
1 Memoirs of Rev. John Henry Livingston, D. D., by Rev. Dr. Gunn, 64, 66, 67, Dr. Laidlie was made a D. D. by the College of Princeton.
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Church consists of accessions from the Dutch Church." As for himself, although his mother was a Dutch lady, and the Dutch language the first he had been taught as a child, and still spoke with ease, he could not un- derstand a Dutch sermon half as well one in English, and of his children he said there was not one who could interpret a sentence in Dutch.
In the mean time the Middle Dutch Church (the late New York City Post-Office) had been remodeled, the pulpit removed to the north end and canopied by a ponderous sounding-board, and galleries been east, west, and south sides. ister preached the first ser- English language within its walls, April 15, 1764. From vices were conducted in both 1803, after which the English used.
built on the The new min- mon in the consecrated that time ser- languages until only.was
Dr. Laidlie impressed the nity fa- and the was soon Within years a house of W S
Rev. commu- vorably, church crowded. three third worship found neces- sary, and me as - taken by sistory to North Church. Richardson. SONY 1758 the Middle Dutch Church. in New City pur- ures the con- build the Dutch About Germans York chased an old building on Nassau Street, formerly used as a theater, for a place of worship, and established the German Reformed Church. The first pastor regularly called was Rev. Johan Michael Kern, a promising young divine of twenty-six, who had been educated at the University of Heidel- berg, and was noted for the excellence of his character and for his rare Christian zeal. He arrived in September, 1763. He from the first took a deep interest in the affairs of the new church. He was not satisfied with its isolated and independent character ; he told his elders and deacons that "independency in church was dangerous to both church and pastor." He
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THE GERMAN REFORMED CHURCH.
did not rest until he had secured the union of the church with the Classis of Amsterdam and Synod of North Holland, June 18, 1764. This brought it into connection with the Reformed Dutch Church of New York, and Dominie Kern was formally installed by the ministers of that organiza- tion, January 27, 1765. The old building where they worshiped was decayed and unsafe, and to save its falling they took it down. It was rebuilt, the corner-stone being laid by the young pastor, March 8, 1765. The expense was more than the congregation were able to meet, there- fore a discouraging debt. The next year an appeal reached the Classis of Amsterdam for pecuniary aid. It was two years before an answer was vouchsafed. And this was the answer : "Though the condition and debt of your congregation are understood, and although all the circumstances are moving to pity, we cannot give any actual help, and recommend to your church sparingness and good housekeeping."
William Franklin was now governor of New Jersey. He had been ap- pointed through the influence of the Earl of Bute. He completed his legal studies in England, and was admitted to the bar prior to 1762. He also traveled with his father through England, Scotland, Flanders, and Holland (France was then closed to English tourists) ; he was present at the coronation of the blundering but well-intentioned George III., en- joyed considerable celebrity through his dexterous experiments, and had gained many friends among the learned and fashionable who courted his father's society. Bute affected literature and science. He was a collector of books, pictures, and curiosities. He was fond of chemistry, and printed several volumes of Natural History for private circulation. He courted Dr. Franklin, and they seem to have been intimate. In 1762 he em- braced the opportunity of making the fortune of the son of the latter. The favor was unsolicited on the part of the Franklins. Lord Halifax, the Secretary of State, did not choose to disregard a recommendation of Lord Bute, then the prime favorite of the king, but it is said that he called the young gentleman into his closet, and subjected him to a rigid exam- ination, before bestowing the vacant governorship upon a native American of only thirty-two inexperienced years. The Penns were astonished and enraged. William Alexander (Lord Stirling) of New York was in Lon- don at the time, and spoke sneeringly of the appointment. But the people of New Jersey were well pleased, and when he reached New Bruns- wick, in February, 1763, he was escorted to the seat of government by " numbers of the gentry in sleighs, and the Middlesex troop of horse "; and the corporations of New Brunswick and Perth Amboy, the trustees of Princeton College, and a deputation of the clergy, presented him con- gratulatory addresses.
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The death of Chief Justice Robert Hunter Morris, in January, 1764, de- prived Franklin of one of the ablest counselors in the province. Smith (the historian) says that Morris went to a rural dance one evening, " led out the parson's wife, opened the ball, danced down six couples, and fell dead on the floor without a word or a groan or a sigh." Lord Stirling, who had returned to New York, immediately wrote, advising Hamilton to fill the office of chief justice as soon as possible, as it was dangerous to leave it open. Some unfit person might be sent from England. "If you fill it during pleasure, and recommend your appointment to the king for confirmation, it will most likely succeed." Among the few lawyers in New Jersey worthy of such a trust, he named Charles Reade, Philip Kearny, James Parker, and Cortlandt Skinner. Charles Reade was the fortunate candidate. Philip Kearny was an eminent and wealthy lawyer, who had filled many public stations. He lived in Amboy, in the house built by Governor Robert Hunter, which was described as having the " best conveniences of any house in town, besides a good stable for three or four horses," with large wine-cellar, etc. His son, Philip Kearny, married Susanna, daughter of Hon. John Watts,1 the elder. His daughter Elizabeth became the wife of Cortlandt Skinner.2 James Parker was ap- pointed counselor, in October, to supply the vacancy occasioned by the death of Chief Justice Morris. He was a man of remarkable strength and vigor of character, and wielded a healthful influence. His wife was Ger- trude, the sister of Cortlandt Skinner. She possessed many of the gifts, ex- cellences, and striking characteristics of her Van Cortlandt and Schuyler ancestry, and not a few literary memorials of her have been preserved.3
Meanwhile changes were taking place in the cabinet of George III. Lord Grenville was promoted to the head of the Treasury. One of his
1 Philip, the son of Philip Kearny and Susanna Watts, married his cousin Susan, daughter of Hon. John Watts (the younger), and their son was Major-General Philip Kearny of the U. S. Army.
2 The mother of Cortlandt Skinner was Elizabeth, the daughter of Hon. Stephanus Van Cortlandt and Gertrude Schuyler (see page 604). His father was the first rector of St. Peter's Church in Perth, Amboy. He studied for the bar in the office of the distinguished David Ogden, of Newark, New Jersey.
3 The children of James Parker and Gertrude Skinner were, John, married Ann, daughter of John Lawrence ; Elizabeth, died unmarried ; Janet, married Edward Brinley, of Newport, R. I. ; Gertrude ;; Susan, died unmarried ; Maria, married Andrew Smyth ; William, died un- married ; James, married, Ist, Penelope, daughter of Anthony Butler, 2d, Catharine Morris, daughter of Samuel Ogden, of Newark. He was member of Congress, and held many other public offices. His children were : James, a distinguished judge in Ohio, married Anna, daughter of Cleaveland A. Forbes ; William, married Lucy C. Whitewell, of Boston ; Marga- ret Elizabeth, married William A. Whitehead of Newark ; Penelope, married Edward Dun- ham of Brooklyn, L. I. ; and Cortlandt Parker, the celebrated lawyer now residing in New- ark, married Elizabeth Wayne, daughter of Richard W. Stites of Morristown.
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first acts was to bring the scheme for taxing the colonies by means of stamped paper into tangible form.1 It provoked warm discussions, but the king favored it, and the majority of the lords urged its accom- plishment. Grenville was not altogether satisfied in his own mind that it was just to tax subjects without first allowing them representatives ; 2 but he claimed that his measures were founded upon the true principles of policy, commerce, and finance. The laws had become as it were invalidated. He regarded the colonies merely as settlements in remote corners of the world for the improvement of trade. If the Acts of Navi- gation were disregarded, then England was defrauded of her natural rights. The monopoly of the exclusive trade with her colonies was no wrong.3 On the contrary, the evasion of the laws in America was a theft upon the commerce and manufactures of Great Britain. It was estimated that of a million and a half pounds of tea consumed annually in the colo- nies, not more than one tenth part was sent from England ! Grenville's reformatory mind leaped into severe conclusions. Custom-house officers had been bribed and corrupted,4 to the great detriment of the nation's purse ; he would show the world that England had one minister who had not only read her statute-book, but dared enforce her laws.
An order sped across the seas, sending all officers of the customs to their posts, and their numbers were increased. Positive instructions reached them also to enforce the Acts of Navigation to the letter, with the warning that he who failed or faltered was to be instantly dismissed from the service.
There had been no such energetic and conscientious interpretation of duty since the time of Lord Bellomont. Grenville would have inter-
1 A revenue from stamped paper had been proposed and considered many years previously. As early as April, 1734, Governor Cosby suggested to the New York Assembly, "a duty upon paper to be used in the Law and in all conveyances and deeds," as an experiment which might bring a considerable amount of money into the treasury. Journal of the Assem- bly, April 25, 1734. The Assembly did not adopt the measure. In 1744 a proposition to tax the colonies by means of stamped paper was made by the aspiring Lieutenant-Governor Clarke to Governor Clinton. But the latter, writing to the Duke of Newcastle on the 13th of December, 1744, describes the people among whom he lived, and doubts the expediency of the proposed measure. Letter of Governor Clinton to Duke of Newcastle, December 13, 1744.
2 Knox, Extra-official State Papers, 11, 31. Grenville to Knox, September 4, 1768. Grenville to J. Pownall. Grenville in Cavendish. Burke's Speech on American Taxation ; Works, I. 460.
3 Bancroft, V. 159. Campbell, 73.
4 The collector's clerk of Salem, Sampson Toovey, declared, on oath, that it was customary for masters of vessels from Portugal to give casks of wine, boxes of fruit, etc., as gratuity for being entered as carrying salt or ballast only, when their cargoes were fruit, etc., and that the Custom-House officer shared his goodies with the governor.
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dicted foreign commerce, and excluded every foreign vessel. His policy was narrow and restrictive. The merchants of New York, with their broader notions and their vessels traversing the ocean, regarded the sheltered harbor and the miles of safe anchorage in deep water along the shores of Manhattan Island, which invited the commerce of the tropical islands, of continents, and of the world, with a prouder sense of possession than ever before, and nurtured the spirit of antagonism which had long since taken root, but which now sprang into rank and rapid growth.
Grenville foresaw difficulties. Hence he invoked the whole force of the king to assist the revenue officers. He ordered the governors in each of the provinces to make the suppression of illicit trade - the forbidden trade with foreign countries - the constant and immediate object of their care. He directed all officers, civil, military, and naval, in America and the West Indies to co-operate ; the commander-in-chief in America must place troops at the service of the officers of the revenue whenever desired. The king in council sanctioned the arrangement.
Admiral Colville was appointed commander-in-chief of the naval forces on the coasts of America, and each of his captains was fortified with a custom-house commission, and authority to enter harbors and seize sus- pected persons or cargoes. Stimulated by the prospect of large emolu- ments, they pounced upon American property as they would have gone in war in quest of prizes. Their acts presently became as illegal as they were oppressive. There was no redress. An appeal to the Privy Council was costly, difficult, and attended with aggravating and harassing delays.
The long and bloody war with the Indians, which had desolated the Ohio Valley, Western Pennsylvania, Maryland, and even reddened the waters of the Delaware, abated with the going out of the year 1763. The French interfered, sent kindly messages to the infuriated chiefs, and suc- ceeded in checking their fierce wrath and hate towards the English. In a few months a definite treaty was signed, and the borders once more at peace.
But the country beyond the Alleghanies was not to be peopled, so said the blind Ministry. Colonies so far remote might not be easy to con- trol. Let the strip of land beyond the present frontiers, "quite to the Mississippi, be a desert for the Indians to hunt in and inhabit." 1
The impossibility of restraining Americans from peopling the western wilderness was quickly apparent. In defiance of proclamations and reit- erated royal mandates, adventurers were constantly pushing beyond the boundaries and discovering wide and rich meadows and beautiful moun- tains, and starting plantations. There was fascination in hunting for
1 Bancroft, V. 163, 164. Lord Barrington's Narrative. 138
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fresh lands, and there was personal freedom in cutting down forests and building log-houses. To be a free-holder was the ruling passion of the age.
Grenville made a show of what he called " tenderness " to the Ameri- can colonies, by postponing the stamp tax for a time. He also attempted to reconcile America to the proposed regulation. He argued the ques- tion with the agents from the colonies, and told them it was highly reason- able for dependencies to contribute towards the charge of protecting themselves, and no other tax was so easy and equitable as a stamp tax, or as certain of collection ; if, however, any other mode of taxation would be more convenient, and of equal efficacy, he would consider a proposi- tion.
Vigorous and manly pens and voices were lifted against the measure through the length and breadth of the colonies. New York told England through her press, If the colonist is taxed without his consent, he will, per- haps, seek a change. New York had, ever since the acquittal of John Peter Zenger, in 1735, maintained a free press, and otherwise led America.1 New York had already been stricken dangerously through her commerce, and another blow might prove fatal.
Never was the arrival of an English packet awaited with more feverish interest in New York, than in the spring of 1764. It came in June. The famous Stamp Act, of which the world has heard so 1764.
1 In 1760 New York, by the protection of the crew of the Sampson, expressed her abhor- rence of the impressment of seamen, and in 1764 betrayed a similar spirit of independence by the release of four fishermen. The account of the latter occurrence appeared in Holt's New York Gazette and Weekly Post-Boy, July 12, 1764 : "We hear that on Tuesday last [July 10] four fishermen who supply the Markets in this City, were pressed from on board their Vessels, and carried on board a Tender from Halifax, belonging to one of his Majesty's Ships on that Station ; And yesterday morning [July 11] when the Captain of the Tender came on shore in his Barge, a mob SUDDENLY assembled and seized the Boat, but offered no Injury to the Captain, who, it is said, publicly declared he gave no such orders, and offered to release the Fishermen, and going into the Coffee-house wrote and delivered an Order for that purpose. Meanwhile the MOB with great shouting, dragged the Boat thro' the streets to the middle of the Green in the Fields [City Hall Park, ] where they burned and destroyed her, and dispersed as suddenly as they met, without doing any other mischief ; some of the Company went on board the Tender with the Captain's order and brought the Fishermen on Shore. The Magistrates, as soon as they had notice, sent to disperse the MOB and secure the Boat, but the business was finished before they could interpose. The Court mnet in the after- noon, but were unable to discover any of the Persons concerned in the Mischief.
"There was method in the movements of this MOB which so suddenly assembled and dragged a boat through the streets from the foot of Wall Street to the City Hall Park, - under the very noses of the military who occupied the Barracks on the line of Chambers Street, - where they burned it, and then dispersed as suddenly as they met, and no one knew or would tell the magistrates who they were or whither they went. It is not improbable but that there existed at that time an organized body of minute-men who assembled on signal, and retired to their several occupations without fear of betrayal by their neighbors." - DAWSON.
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much, and from which it is still reaping so bountiful a harvest, had actu- ally been introduced into the House of Commons. The atmosphere was at once charged, as it were, with angry resentment. "I will wear nothing but homespun," exclaimed one. "I will stop drinking wine," echoed another, amazed that wine must pay a new duty. "I propose," cried a third, "that we dress in sheep-skins with the wool on." Judge Rob- ert R. Livingston,1 of Clermont, exclaimed : "It appears plainly that these duties are only the beginning of evils. The stamp duty, they tell us, is deferred till they see whether the colonies will take the yoke upon themselves, and offer something else as certain. They talk, too, of a land tax, and to us the Ministry seems to be running mad."
Three months later news reached New York that the king in council had dismembered New Hampshire, and thrown into New York the coun- try west of the Connecticut River. " We are tried in Council about lands worse than ever," wrote John Watts. " It has been done without deter- mining property ; New Hampshire had granted a prodigious deal of it, and the proprietors think altering jurisdiction, neither should nor can alter property ; those who obtain emoluments by regranting think other- wise. Some to secure a title at all events renew their grants. Some are sulky and will not. Many are poor and cannot." It was thought this would circumscribe republicanism in New England, for Otis and others were speaking bold words concerning the impending stamp-tax. The views of Otis were printed and sent to the Massachusetts agent in London. They were reprinted there. "The man is mad," exclaimed one of the ministers. " What then ?" said Lord Mansfield, " one madman often makes many. Massaniello was mad; nobody doubted it; yet for all that he overturned the government of Naples." Boston was even then sign- ing a covenant to eat no lamb, in order to encourage the growth and manufacture of wool; and men everywhere were entering into solemn agreement to use no single article of British manufacture, not even to wear black clothes for mourning.
The English statesmen pinned their faith to the superior loyalty of
1 Judge Robert R. Livingston (the same of whom mention has been made, page 598) and Margaret Beekman had ten children, four sons and six daughters. Janet, born in 1743, married General Richard Montgomery, the hero of Quebec ; Robert R., born in 1746, was the celebrated chancellor of New York ; Margaret, born 1748, married Thomas Tillotson of Rhine- beck ; Henry B., born in 1750, was a colonel in the Revolutionary Army ; Catharine, born in 1752, married Rev. Freeborn Garretson of Maryland, one of the pioneers of the Methodist Church in this country ; John R., born in 1755, was a prominent merchant ; Gertrude, born in 1757, married the celebrated general, politician, governor, and judge, Morgan Lewis ; Jo- anna, born in 1759, married the stirring politician Peter R. Livingston ; Alida, born in 1761, married the distinguished General John Armstrong, Minister to France, Secretary of War, etc. ; Edward, born in 1764, was the celebrated mayor of New York, law-giver, author, and statesman, who died in 1836.
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New York; and yet no colony was more impatient of control, and no- where was the spirit of resistance at that moment so strong. The mer- chants had been stung with the obstacles interposed in the way of their business, through the enforcement of obsolete, and, in their opinion, un- just laws, and the great landowners regarded arbitrary taxation as abso- lutely irreconcilable with their rights as British subjects and men. Of such elements was the Assembly composed. This body convened in Sep- tember. Among its members were Philip Livingston, the eminent mer- chant, John Cruger, Leonard Lispenard, Frederick Philipse, second lord of Philipse Manor, Philip Verplanck, William Bayard, Peter De Lancey, Daniel Kissam, Henry Livingston, Judge Robert R. Livingston, and oth- ers of broad intelligence and sterling merit. It was in no humor to wait for concert of action among the colonies. It plunged straight into the very heart of the wrong. It adopted a memorial addressed to the House of Commons, declaring, in bold but courteous language, that Oct. 18. " the people of New York nobly disdained the thought of claiming liberty as a privilege "; but founded the exemption from ungranted and compul- sory taxes, upon an honorable, solid, and stable basis, and challenged it, and gloried in it as their right ; and, wielding a blade of exquisite temper, New York, through her proud, impulsive Legislature, peremptorily de- manded a voice and vote in the administration of public affairs.
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