USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York : its origin, rise, and progress. Vol. II > Part 17
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On the same day a committee was appointed to correspond with Rob- ert Charles, the agent of New York in England, of which Judge Robert R. Livingston was made chairman. This committee was instructed to cor- respond also, during the recess of the House, " with the several Assem- blies, or committees of Assemblies on this continent," upon the subject of the Act commonly called the Sugar Act ; and concerning the Act re- straining paper bills of credit in the colonies from being legal tender ; and the several other Acts of Parliament lately passed with relation to the trade of the Northern colonies; and specially of the dangers which threaten the colonies of being taxed by laws passed in Great Britain." 1
Each of the other colonies admitted the supremacy of Parliament, and maintained the duty of obedience to its acts, however erroneous, until repealed. Massachusetts was stirred to a defense of chartered privileges. New York had neither " chartered privileges " or " vested rights " to con- tend for, and firmly declared, from the very first, that she " would con- sider a violation of her rights and privileges, even by Parliament, an act of tyranny ; and would abhor the power which might inflict it; and as soon as able cast it off, or perhaps try to obtain better terms from some other power." Illustrious writers have from time to time ably discussed
1 Journals of the Assembly. Bancroft. Dawson.
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the question as to whether Massachusetts or Virginia originated the Revo- lutionary Committees of Correspondence. It has not been the habit of New York to enter into fields of controversy upon such subjects. But the records of her Assembly dispose of the matter. The above Committee of Correspondence was appointed by New York, six years before Massachu- setts immortalized herself in that direction, and nine years in advance of Virginia.
Lieutenant-Governor Colden was a conscientious servant of the crown. He was no favorite among the magnates of New York. There was some- thing in his nature which stimu- lated opposition. He was rigid and exacting, and set like flint in his own opinions. He had al- ways been more of a scholar than a statesman; 1 he now seemed only zealous to promote the interests of the king. There was little confidence and harmony between him and the Council. He rarely saw any of the gentlemen except at formal meetings. John Watts, € polished, witty, and sarcastic, wrote to Monckton, " O, how we pant for a new governor's arrival ! even though he should be as hot as Portrait of Cadwallader Colden. pepper-pot itself, 't is better than the venomous stream we at pres- ent drink from." Oliver De Lancey wrote to Monckton, thanking him for attention to his boys, who were in England at school, and added : "I am truly concerned that the present Ministry have such despotic influ- ence in Parliament as to carry measures that must bring immediate dis- tress on this country, and consequently so on our mother country. The situation we are in with Mr. Colden is deplorable, but can't last long. Government really suffers disreputation in such hands."
1 Gulian C. Verplanck, writing of Cadwallader Colden, says : "For the great variety and extent of his learning, his unwearied research, his talents, and the public sphere which he filled, he may justly be placed in high rank among the distinguished men of his time." Among the products of his industry were : "Observations on the Trade of New York"; " An Ac- count of the Climate of New York " ; " Memorial concerning the Fur-Trade of New York in 1724" ; " History of the Five Nations " ; "State of the Lands in the Province of New York" ; "Reports on the Soil, Climate, etc., of New York"; " A Botanical Description of American Plants"; " Observations on Fevers "; " Observations on Throat Distempers " ; "Reports on
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Colden wrote to the Lords of the faithfulness with which he had inves- tigated the "illicit trade " of New York. He said, since so many of his Majesty's ships had been cruising on the coast, the trade in teas and gun- powder from Holland and Hamburg had been effectually suppressed ; it was suspected, however, that tea in small quantities was imported from the Dutch West India Islands, the vessels running into creeks and har- bors, not navigable for ships of war, all along the New Jersey shore be- tween Sandy Hook and Delaware Bay, and northward, on the Sound, where there were many such harbors. He suggested that if ships were kept continually cruising above and below Sandy Hook it would be difficult even for small vessels coming from sea to escape them.1 He re- ported the New York Custom-House officers as very diligent. He said the merchants complained bitterly that the same vigilance was not main- tained at the other ports ; the merchants elsewhere on the seaboard were thus enabled to undersell them. Captain Kennedy was mentioned as in port with the Coventry, and about to purchase a swift running sloop, with which to "look into and examine the creeks and small harbors within his station."
In the midst of the commotion about taxation, Colden insisted upon the right of appeals from the common law courts of the province to the governor and Council, and finally to the king. It had been usual to bring questions concerning the law and the practice in these courts, by writs of error, before the governor and Council and the king for final adjudication ; but never until now, had an appeal- by which the entire merits of the action, as well as the law and the action of the courts thereon, could be reviewed - been entertained by the provincial government. The judges refused to admit such appeals. The lawyers declared them absolutely un- constitutional. Chief Justice Horsemanden made a speech in Council giv- ing his reasons for refusing an appeal, which was printed and circulated, to the infinite resentment of Colden. The latter talked about suspending the chief justice, but, knowing the temper of the gentlemen of his Coun- cil, and despairing of their concurrence, referred the matter to the king.1
the State of Indian Affairs, 1751 " ; "Principles of Action in Matter, and the Motion of the Planets " ; " A Treatise on the Cure of Cancer " ; "An Essay on the Virtues of the Plant called the Great Water Dock " ; "Observations on Smith's History of New York " ; "An Introduction to the Study of Philosophy " ; " An Inquiry into the Principles of Vital Mo- tion " ; " A Translation of the Letters of Cicero " ; " An Inquiry into the Operation of Intel- lect among Animals " ; "Of the Essential Properties of Light " ; " An Introduction to the Study of Physic " ; and a great variety of other papers on public affairs, and scientific sub- jects ; also an immense correspondence with the most distinguished scholars of the age in Europe and America.
1 Lieutenant-Governor Colden to the Earl of Halifax, October 9, 1764. 45 143
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Judge Robert R. Livingston, who had been appointed to the bench by Governor Monckton, wrote to the latter, that he was confident Colden had misinterpreted the royal instructions ; he believed it was the intention of the Ministry that New York should be governed by the laws of Eng- land; and that those laws were better known and more strictly adhered to in New York than any other province. He could see no possible advantage to the crown from such irregular practice. "It is certainly better," said he, "that causes should be determined before those who make the law their study, than that the time of the governor and Council should be taken up with private concerns."
Colden complained of the dangerous combination which existed be- tween the bench and the bar of New York. He wrote to the Lords that before the administration came into his hands the profession of the law had been encouraged, and had now gained pernicious influence. The judges and principal lawyers were proprietors of extravagant grants of land, or connected with such by marriage. They labored to excite popular dissat- isfaction and tumults, until it was no marvel that the people thought they could intimidate a governor, and were so foolish as to attempt to play a similar game upon the king's ministers and the British Parliament.1
Judge Robert R. Livingston said " the affair might have been managed with much less noise, if Colden's fondness for showing himself in law matters, superior to the whole body of the law had permitted."2 He, Colden, spoke of juries with contempt, represented lawyers as regard- ing only their own interests, said judges were fond of power; and he treated the Council contemptuously because they differed widely from him in their judgments.
Watts wrote to Monckton, that the Council had been accused by the " old mischief-maker " of opposing prerogatives, king's instructions, etc. ; but that the point rested upon the true legal meaning of an instruction, upon which solemn advice had been taken. The opinion expressed by the whole body of law in New York, had been supported by the opinion of the chief justice and lawyers of both Philadelphia and New Jersey. " Greater testimonies were not to be obtained on this side of the water." 3 Referring to Colden, he said, " the old body was always disliked enough, but now the people would prefer Beelzebub himself to him. Whatever be right, I wish the old fellow had had more sense than to bring such a critical thing into dispute in these sore times. It could easily have
1 The petitions and memorials that were sent to England by the New York Assembly were never seen by Colden.
2 Robert R. Livingston to General Monckton, February 23, 1765.
3 IVatts to Monckton, January 28, 1765.
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been avoided; there never was a precedent since the colony was settled, but, like Satan, he would damn himself and his posterity to appear great, which he thinks such controversies make him, having an unbounded opinion of his own parts, and being ready to sink all America, right or wrong, for prerogative."
William Smith, Jr., wrote to Monckton, that the " unseasonable attempt of Colden to introduce an innovation had inflamed the whole country." 1 The people believed the crown was aiming to deprive them of their most valuable rights. Smith said it was vividly remembered that in Clinton's time Colden had been voted an enemy to New York; and now he was the object of suspicion and cordial hatred.
The debate in the House of Commons prior to the passage of the Stamp Act was spirited and obstinate. It had been represented 1765. to the king by the Board of Trade, December 11, 1764, that the Feb. Legislature of Massachusetts, through its votes in June, and the Assem- bly of New York, by its address to Colden in September, had been guilty " of the most indecent respect to the Legislature of Great Britain." The Privy Council reported this " as a matter of the highest consequence to the kingdom." The American question was presented by George III. on opening the session, January 10, as one of "obedience to the laws and respect for the legislative authority of the kingdom."
The Ministry resolved to be temperate but firm, and were complacently confident. Grenville listened to the remonstrances of the American agents in London, and abounded in gentle words. “ Preserve modera- tion," he said. "Resentments indecently expressed on one side of the water will naturally produce resentments on the other. I take no pleas- ure in bringing upon myself the wrath of the colonists, but it is the duty of my office to manage the revenue."
Some of the Lords scoffed at the idea of American representation, while Grenville secretly resolved to propose it indirectly. Others de- clared that America was as virtually represented in Parliament as the great majority of the inhabitants of Great Britain. Beckford, a member of Parliament for London, a friend of Pitt, and himself a large owner of West India estates, declared boldly that " taxing America for the sake of raising a revenue would never do." Barré, the companion and friend of Wolfe, and sharer of the dangers and glories of Quebec, taunted the House with ignorance of American affairs, which brought Townshend, the reputed master of American affairs, quickly to his feet. At the close of an exhaus- tive argument concerning the equity of taxation, as proposed, he said, "will these American children, planted by our care, nourished by our indulgence
1 William Smith, Jr., to Monckton, January 25, 1765.
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to strength and opulence, and protected by our arms, grudge to contribute their mite to relieve us from the heavy burden under which we lie ?"
Barré responded, with eyes emitting fire, and outstretched arm : -
" They planted by YOUR care ! No ; your oppression planted them in America. They fled from your tyranny to a then uncultivated, inhospitable country ; where they exposed themselves to almost all the hardships to which human nature is liable, and among others to the cruelties of a savage foe, the most subtle, and I will take it upon me to say, the most formidable, of any people upon the face of God's earth ; and yet, actuated by principles of true English liberty, they met such hardships with pleasure, compared with those they suffered in their own country, from the hands of those who should be their friends. They nourished by YOUR indulgence! They grew by your neglect of them. As soon as you began to care about them, that care was exercised in sending persons to rule them in one department and another, who were, perhaps, the deputies of deputies to some members of this house, sent to spy out their liberties, to misrepresent their actions, and to prey upon them, - men whose behavior on many occasions has caused the blood of those SONS OF LIBERTY to recoil within them ; men promoted to the highest seats of justice ; some who, to my knowledge, were glad, by going to a foreign country, to escape being brought to the bar of a court of justice in their own. They protected by YOUR arms ! They have nobly taken up arms in your defense ; have exerted a valor, amidst constant and laborious industry, for the defense of a country whose fron- tier was drenched in blood, while its interior parts yielded all its little savings to your emolument. And believe me,- remember I this day told you so, - the same spirit of freedom which actuated that people at first will accompany them still. But prudence forbids me to explain myself further. God knows I do not at this time speak from motives of party heat ; what I deliver are the genu- ine sentiments of my heart. However superior to me in general knowledge and experience the respectable body of this house may be, yet I claim to know more of America than most of you, having seen and been conversant in that country. 'The people, I believe, are as truly loyal as any subjects the king has ; but a. people jealous of their liberties, and who will vindicate them, if ever they should be violated. But the subject is too delicate ; I will say no more."
It was an unpremeditated speech, and was only regarded by the mem- bers at the time as a solid hit at Townshend; but the remainder of the debate seemed languid, and at midnight the House adjourned. In the gallery sat Jared Ingersoll, the agent of Connecticut, who, delighted with Barré's sentiments, sent a report of his speech to New London, where it was printed in the newspapers of the town. May had not shed its blos- soms before the words of Barré were in every village and hamlet in Amer- ica. Midsummer found them distributed through Canada in French.
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And the name, SONS OF LIBERTY, which had fallen so naturally from his lips, rang from one end of the continent to the other.
The petitions of the colonists and the efforts of their agents were of no avail. The tide was irresistible. "We might," said Franklin, "as well have hindered the sun's setting." On the 27th of February the Stamp Act passed the House of Commons. It was to take effect on the first day of the next November. On the 8th of March, the bill was agreed to by the Lords without having encountered an amendment, debate, protest, division, or dissentient vote.1 At that moment the king was ill; absolutely insane. As he could not ratify the Act in person, the royal assent was obtained by commission ; the bit of parchment bore the sign of his hand, scrawled in the flickering light of a clouded reason. And that was what gave validity to the instrument.
The stamped paper was duly prepared. Grenville adopted what he es- teemed the soothing policy of selecting the principal stamp-officers from among the Americans themselves ; and they were duly qualified. "Now, gentlemen," said he, " take the business into your own hands ; you will see how and where it pinches, and will certainly let us know it; in which case it shall be eased."
It was generally believed, even by the American agents, that the stamp tax would be peacefully levied. No one imagined the colonies would think of disputing the matter with Parliament at the point of the sword. Otis and Fitch and Hutchinson had all admitted the right of Parlia- ment to tax, and had said, " If the Act becomes a law we have nothing to do but submit." Franklin wrote from London, "It will fall par- ticularly hard on us lawyers and printers," never doubting it would go into effect.
The statesmen of England were jubilant. No tax was ever laid with more general approbation at the last. The Act seemed sure to enforce it- self. Unless stamps were used marriages would be null, notes of hand valueless, ships at sea prizes to the first captors, suits at law impossible, transfers of real estate invalid, inheritances irreclaimable.
The news was received in America with disgust. "This single stroke has lost Great Britain the affection of all her colonies; what can be ex- pected but discontent for a while, and in the end open opposition ?" wrote William Smith, Jr. "The task may seem easier in theory than prove in the execution ; I cannot conceive there will be silver or gold enough in the colonies to carry this Act through," wrote John Watts.
It was not long before the association known as the SONS OF LIBERTY was organized, and extended from Massachusetts to South Carolina. New
1 Bancroft, V. 247. 147
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York was the central point from which communications were despatched. The post-offices were under the control of the government, and as the ut- most secrecy was esteemed essential, special messengers carried intelli- gence on all extraordinary occasions, and every effort was made to insure harmony in action. An agent in England furnished information of what was transpiring across the water.
Outwardly New York remained quiet. New England was slow to anger, and the States farther south appeared to acquiesce. But it was the quiet which precedes the storm. While consternation took possession of men's minds all along the American seaboard, and threadbare and patched coats became the fashion, an American congress was proposed by Otis, without consent of the king, to deliberate upon the acts of Parlia- ment. Letters were sent to every assembly on the continent, proposing that committees should be appointed to meet in New York, on the first Tuesday of October. It was a novel proceeding. Many pronounced it vis- ionary and impracticable. But union was the hope of Otis. At the same moment Virginia was preparing, at least in theory, to resist the execution of the stamp tax ; resolutions were being passed in her Legislature, that the inhabitants of that dominion inherited from the first settlers equal fran- chises with the people of Great Britain; that their rights had never been forfeited or given up ; that the General Assembly of Virginia had the sole right and power to lay taxes on the inhabitants ; and, furthermore, that no man in the colony was bound to yield obedience to any tax-law other than those made by their own General Assembly, and whoever should, by speaking or writing, maintain the contrary was an enemy to the colony.
Simultaneously with these movements in Massachusetts and Virginia, the reprint of the Stamp Act was hawked through the streets of New York as the " folly of England and the ruin of America." The newspapers were filled with taunts and covert threats, and articles from the pens of able and intel- gent writers appeared in every issue. An essay, signed "Freeman," was continued through several numbers, and is supposed to have been written by John Morin Scott.1 It contained sound sober reasoning. "It is not the tax, it is the unconstitutional manner of imposing it, that is the great subject of uneasiness in the colonies," said the lawyer. "The absurdity of our being represented in Parliament is so glaring that it is almost an affront to common sense to use arguments to expose it. The taxation of America is arbitrary and tyrannical, and what the Parliament of England has no right to impose." The English constitution was carefully analyzed, and declared to have within itself the principle of self-preservation, cor-
1 New York Gazette, Nos. 1170, 1171, 1173.
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rection, and improvement, in short, real excellence, and no color of pre- text for oppression. The writer went on to say : -
" If the interests of the mother country and her colonies cannot be made to coincide, if the same constitution may not take place in both, if the welfare of England necessarily requires the sacrifice of the most natural rights of the colo- nies, - their right of making their own laws, and disposing of their own prop- erty by representatives of their own choosing, - if such is really the case between Great Britain and her colonies, then the connection between them ought to cease ; and sooner or later it must inevitably cease. The English government cannot long act toward a part of its dominions upon principles diametrically opposed to its own, without losing itself in the slavery it would impose upon the colonies, or leaving them to throw it off and assert their own freedom. There never can be a disposition in the colonies to break off their connection with the mother country, so long as they are permitted to have the full enjoyment of those rights to which the English Constitution entitles them. .... They desire no more ; nor can they be satisfied with less."
" Thus," says the distinguished Bancroft, "New York pointed to inde- pendence."
These sentiments were seized and reprinted by nearly every newspaper in America ; they were approved by the most learned and judicious, and even formed a part of the instructions of South Carolina to her agent in England.1
The clergy, beyond any other class of men, nursed the flame which was kindling. The first printed article pointing towards unqualified rebellion when the attempt should be made to enforce the stamp tax, was from the pen of Rev. Stephen Johnson, "the sincere and fervid pastor of the first church in Lyme, Connecticut."2 " Bute, Bedford, and Grenville will be held in remembrance by Americans as an abomination, execration, and curse," he said. His stirring words obtained a place in the Connecticut papers, through the diplomacy of John McCurdy, a Scotch-Irish gentle- man of fortune, residing in Lyme.3 Pamphlets of a similar character
1 South Carolina to Garth, December 16, 1765.
2 Bancroft, V. 320. Rev. Stephen Johnson was the son of Nathaniel Johnson and Sarah Ogden, of Newark, N. J., and the great grandson of John Ogden, who founded Elizabeth- town.
3 John McCurdy was the " Irish gentleman" mentioned by Gordon and Hollister as "friendly to the cause of Liberty." He was an intimate personal friend of Rev. Stephen Johnson. The McCurdy mansion in Lyme, Connecticut, where many of these papers were written, is still standing, an interesting historical landmark, and is occupied by the grandson of the patriot, Hon. Charles Johnson McCurdy, the eminent jurist, Lieutenant-Governor of Connecticut, United States Minister to Austria, etc. Robert H. McCurdy, the well-known great importing merchant of New York City, is also a grandson.
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were privately printed and scattered broadcast. "Treason !" exclaimed the officers of the government, when they saw them upon their tables, without knowing how they came there or by whom written. John McCurdy was in New York in August, and, learning that treasonable resolves were being handed about with great privacy, while as yet no one had the courage to publish them, he asked for, and with marked precau- tion was permitted to take a copy. He carried them to New England, where he caused them to be secretly printed, and immediately afterwards spread far and wide without reserve.
"The weekly newspapers are filled with every falsehood malice can invent to excite the people to sedition and disobedience of the laws," wrote Colden.
" You will think the printers all mad, Holt particularly," wrote John Watts to a correspondent in London. "He has been cautioned over and over again, and would have been prosecuted, but people's minds are so inflamed about this Stamp Act, that it would only be exposing the gov- ernment to attempt it ; what will be the end of all this bitterness, I own I can't see. . . . The wearing of what plain cloths the country affords, and being content with cheap dress, must affect the British manufactures exceedingly, and will raise a riotous mob there as soon as any one thing."
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