USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York : its origin, rise, and progress. Vol. II > Part 24
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60
Many of the English statesmen besides Chatham believed that every motive of justice and policy, of dignity and prudence, urged the removal of the troops from Boston ; that haughty England would be forced ulti- mately to retract. The illustrious nobleman's words made a profound impression upon the crowd of Americans who were listening with breath- less attention, particularly when he added : -
" If the ministers persevere in thus misadvising and misleading the king, I will not say that the king is betrayed, but I will pronounce that the kingdom is undone ; I will not say, that they can alienate the affections of his subjects from his crown, but I will affirm that, the American jewel out of it, they will make the crown not worth his wearing."
Suffolk replied with angry vehemence, boasting that he was one of the first to advise coercive measures, and that the government was resolved to bring the Americans to obedience. Shelburne signified his approval of the sentiments of Chatham " because of their wisdom, justice, and pro- priety." Camden exclaimed : -
" This I will say, not only as a statesman, politician, and philosopher, but as a common lawyer : My Lords, you have no right to tax America ; the natural rights of man and the immutable laws of nature are all with that people. Kings, lords, and commons are fine sounding names ; but kings, lords, and com- mons may become tyrants as well as others ; it is as lawful to resist the tyranny of many as of one."
Lord Gower, with a torrent of sneers, declared himself in favor of en- forcing every measure. Rochford and others followed, each attacking Chatham with biting sarcasm, and reproaching him with "seeking to spread the fire of sedition." But the greatest statesman of the realm closed the debate, as he had opened it, by insisting on the right of Amer- icans to hold themselves exempt from taxation save by their own con- sent. His reasoning, the essence of the true spirit of English opinion, availed nothing. His motion was lost by a vote of sixty-eight against eighteen. And the king was well pleased.
206
15
THE MINISTRY COURTING NEW YORK.
Attention was at once turned towards severing the chain of union in the Colonies which Chatham had proclaimed as "solid, permanent, and effectual." The ministry fixed their eyes upon New York, which was the central point, geographically, commercially, and financially. New York won over to a separate negotiation, and the backbone of the "rebellion " was broken. Every device was resorted to, and every exertion made to accomplish the desired result. Very little doubt of ultimate success existed in the minds of the king and his influential courtiers. New York had acquired individual strength and stood out alone, a distinct character, as it were, among the colonies. Having no charter, and being the seat of a royal government which dispensed commissions, offices, and immense grants of land, New York was alive for them with signs of promise. A corrupt influence had grown out of contracts for the army ; the New York Assembly had been continued from session to session by the king's prerog- ative for a series of years ; New York City was the seat of a chartered college which taught that Christians should be subject to the higher powers, and of the Church of England, whose ministers were strictly loyal ; and over and above all, the shadow of a great terror might be turned to account, for the widely scattered and defenseless population of the province shuddered at the possibility of the countless savages being let loose from the north in case of war. It would seem as if New York would accept the olive-branch, and welcome almost any plan of accom- modation.
The recent death of Sir William Johnson (July 11, 1774) had created fresh apprehensions in regard to the movements of the Indians. On the very day of his death a congress of six hundred braves were assembled at his baronial hall, and he had spoken two hours with the fire and vivacity of an Iroquois orator, endeavoring to persuade the great sachems of the Six Nations from participating in the bloody war which was then raging fiercely along the savage borders of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, a war which involved their own blood - for Logan was a Mingo chief - and which was marked by atrocities so awful that history recoils from their re- cital.1 Sir William was succeeded in his title and estates by his son Sir
1 This Indian war broke out in February, 1774. Michael Cresap (a young Maryland trader) was at the time clearing an extensive tract of land which he had purchased in that region, with a large force of laborers in his employ. He was considered the bravest man west of the Alleghanies. When hostilities became a fixed fact, he was chosen captain of the militia, and became a terror to the men of the forest. He was young, not over thirty-three years of age ; his name has been made familiar to every school-boy for many generations, through the famnous speech of Logan, the tall, straight, lithe, athletic, sentimental Indian . chief, who, reeking with his own bloody cruelties, defeated, despairing, and for once thor- oughly afraid of his resolute foe, burst into a strain of accusation which has been pronounced
207
.
16
HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
John Johnson, then thirty-two years of age, who, in 1773, had mar- ried Mary, daughter of Hon. John Watts of New York City; but the control of Indian affairs fell into the hands of Colonel Guy Johnson, who was less powerful as well as less popular than his father, and whose efficiency in managing the uneasy savages remained to be proven.
This succession of butcheries which crimsoned the Alleghany and Mo- nongahela Rivers, was virtually brought to an end through the action of the old Seneca warriors in preventing their bloodthirsty young men from rushing to the assistance of the defeated tribes in that extensive wild ; but these same suspicious and treacherous beings were now sniffing the rumors of possible civil war among their white brethren, and any prophecy concerning their probable conduct in such an event was idle in the extreme.
Dartmouth quickly ordered the governors of the colonies "to use their utmost endeavors " to prevent the appointment of delegates to the con- templated Congress. Tryon was in England, and the aged Lieutenant- Governor Colden at the head of affairs in New York during his absence. Colden had never swerved for an instant from his allegiance to the crown; he esteemed it a religious duty to obey the instructions of his superiors to the letter. In reply to Dartmouth's communication he wrote, under date of January 4, 1775 : -
" Enthusiasm is ever contagious ; and when propagated by every artifice be- comes almost irresistible. The Assembly of this Province, as I formerly informed your Lordship, are to meet next Tuesday. If I find that there will not be a Majority for prudent measures, I shall incline to prorogue them for a short time, that the Plan of the New Parliament may be known here before the Assembly do anything."
This legislative body was slow in coming together. It was the 26th of Jan. 26. January before twenty-one out of thirty members were in their seats. Abraham Ten Broeck immediately moved to take into con- sideration the acts of the Congress held at Philadelphia in the pre- ceding autumn. He was ably seconded by George Clinton (afterwards
the finest specimen of Indian rhetoric and eloquence in the history of the race. It is be- lieved, however, that Captain Cresap, although so notably accused, was in no way responsible for the massacre of the chieftain's family, as he was many hundred miles away at the time of its occurrence. He traveled over the mountains and through the vales of Pennsylvania to the seat of government for instructions, and receiving a royal commission, was one of the effi- cient officers in Lord Dunmore's expedition against the Western savages in the summer of 1774. A tombstone in Trinity Churchyard marks his resting-place, he having died in New York in the autumn of 1775, while on his way from Boston (where he was captain of a com- pany of riflemen under Washington) to his home in Maryland, his journey from the seat of war having been occasioned by sudden and severe illness.
208
17
ACTION OF NEW YORK ASSEMBLY.
governor of the State of New York), by the brave Philip Schuyler, by Simon Boerum, who had represented King's County since 1761, by the afterwards famous Colonel Woodhull, by Philip Livingston, and, indeed, by nearly all the members who were of Dutch descent. A most intensely exciting debate en- sued. The motion, however, was re- jected by a vote of eleven against ten.
The news reach- ing England, George III. and his minis- ters became infat- uated with their courting scheme. Henceforth no pains must be spared. The game must be well played. Not a trick lost. New York must be secured. Favors and indul- gences to the loyal. Praise accorded the Portrait of General Philip Schuyler. good disposition towards reconciliation as shown by the vote of the As- sembly. "Ah," said Garnier to Rochford, "that one vote was worth a million sterling." But his tone changed when he was in company with Vergennes, and he explained how that one "insignificant " vote was not worth the counting by the Ministry, for New York was sure to act with the rest of the continent, - she only differed in the modes.
Governor Tryon was ordered to return to New York without delay, and empowered to give " every reasonable satisfaction to England's faith- ful subjects in New York." Diplomatists were to convey promises to the landed gentry ; the chronic disputes in the land department, and boundary difficulties, were to be settled in favor of New York; the claims of New. York speculators to Vermont territory, under which populous villages had grown up, were to be supported against the New Hampshire grants ; in short, all claims or pretensions were to be honored where the VOL. II. 209 2
18
HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
petitioners would pledge themselves not to obstruct the importation or exportation of goods to and from Great Britian. New York was to be excepted from the restraints imposed on the trade and fisheries of the other colonies.
There were hot debates in the New York Assembly, particularly when the question was argued whether delegates should be appointed to the second Congress. It was claimed that the proceedings of the first Congress were violent and treasonable, and, instead of healing the unnat- ural breach with the mother country, had the effect to widen it immeasur- ably ; that "to repeat the experiment in the present emergency was to be guilty of open treason in the broad light of day." Against a very de- termined minority the House refused to appoint delegates.
This action was extensively quoted by the hopeful on the other side of the water; and it subjected New York to all manner of unmerited asper- sions from the neighboring colonies. But its weight was of little account in the general balance of sentiment. Never was a pivot of the policy of ministers more grievously misunderstood than New York. Never was the character of a community more blunderingly misinterpreted. The foundation of the structure was moderation, inflexibility, and an inherited predilection for republicanism. An ancestry of which New York was proud had proven to the world that a small people under great discourage- ments could found a republic. The results of the daring and heroism which distinguished the long period of the contest between Holland and Spain were fresh in the public mind ; and men reminded each other in their daily walks and conversation how Great Britain herself owed the renovation of her own political system in 1689 to Holland. The New- Yorkers who were actually in sympathy with the British system of min- isterial oppression were much fewer than has been generally supposed ; and they were found chiefly on the surface. The landed aristocracy were divided; they naturally dreaded the confiscation of their vast estates. But we shall see presently that it was no insignificant proportion of them who nobly risked their wide possessions, whether inherited or accumulated, in the cause of liberty. The mechanics of the city were almost to a man enthusiasts for resistance. They were excitable and headstrong; and men of means and broader intelligence feared that through the very fact that this class had nothing personally to lose, and little care for or con- ception of possible future events, irreparable mischief might be wrought through their rash perversity.
Notwithstanding the conservative element, and the generally estab- lished belief to the contrary, in no American colony was English dominion less welcome than in New York. The reader will observe that with all
210
19
NEW YORK REPUBLICAN IN SENTIMENT.
the corrupting influences which the ingenuity of a corrupt Ministry could devise bearing down upon her, without any legally constituted body as a rallying point, with perils menacing her on every side, and in defiance of the logic which had been a part of every man's education - that an established government must be sustained - we find New York proceed- ing exclusively by the methods of revolution, and under circumstances of difficulty which had no parallel in any of the other Colonies. At the criti- cal moment when the king was most obstinately and serenely confident in regard to the future conduct of New York, the Committee of Sixty were laughing at the vote of the Assembly, which by a majority of four refused to forbid importations, and in the very face of this counter-legislative action strictly enforced the non-importation agreement of the condemned Congress. While the smiling monarch was lavishing flattery upon his " well-disposed subjects in New York" and issuing orders that they should be " gratified in every reasonable request," the self-directing Com- mittee of Sixty, wishing to test the real mind of New York concerning the Assembly's refusal to appoint delegates to another Congress, caused a poll to be taken throughout the city, and against one hundred and sixty- three, eight hundred and twenty-five declared in favor of representation. A convention was unhesitatingly summoned to elect the delegates, in which the counties co-operated with the city. On the 20th of April, April 20. under the direct gaze of the "supreme legislative government of New York," forty-five undaunted electors chose from among their ranks fourteen delegates for the second Continental Congress. Colden wrote despairingly to Dartmouth : " It is not in the power of gov- ernment to prevent such measures; they are supported by individuals in their private characters, and do not come within the energy of the laws."
Several of these newly elected delegates will be recognized as members of the Assembly. Philip Livingston, the great merchant - president of the convention - was the first choice; John Alsop, with immense mer- cantile interests at stake ; Francis Lewis, also a merchant, a man of liberal education and extensive foreign travel ; James Duane, a lawyer of large practice and universally conceded abilities ; John Jay, already in the front rank among lawyers, scholars, and political economists, despite his brief twenty-nine years; Philip Schuyler, the valiant champion of popular rights in the Assembly ; Robert R. Livingston, versatile, brilliant, and influential; George Clinton, as wise in council as he was afterwards gallant in warfare; Henry Wisner, from Orange County, the chief manufacturer of powder for the American army at a later date ; Simon Boerum, the assemblyman from King's County during fourteen consecu-
211
20
HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
tive years1 ; William Floyd, intelligent, active, and discreet 2; and Lewis Morris, the worthy scion of a powerful family whose influence for more than a century had been arrayed against the arbi- trary encroachments of the crown. Thus were the varied interests of New York represented in this important movement towards independence. Men of high moral dignity, of sound discretion, of wealth and position, of active business habits, and ** cultivated intelligence, men well known and in whom the community trusted, and who were in no humor to shirk responsibility or hasten war, were PATRIA CARA CARIOR LIBERTAS to take their seats in the second Continental Con- gress which England had tried in vain to suppress. Clinton Arms. Their real as well as professed object was to " con- cert measures for the preservation of American rights, and for the restora- tion of harmony between Great Britain and the Colonies."
New York had as much more at stake than either New England or Virginia, as she was better prepared through generations of schooling in the methods of government to cope with the adversaries of liberty. For upwards of three fourths of a century New York had been steadily advan- cing upon arbitrary power, while the neighboring colonies were compara-
1 Simon Boerum was born in Holland in 1724, and came to this country with his parents. when quite young. He married Maria Martense Schenck of Flatlands. He was clerk of King's County from 1750 until his death in 1775, and also clerk of the Board of Supervisors some twenty-three years. He owned a considerable tract of land in Brooklyn.
2 William Floyd was the eldest son of Nicoll Floyd, who was the youngest son of Richard Floyd and Margaret, daughter of Secretary Matthias Nicoll and sister of the famous William Nicoll, patentee of the Islip estate. (Vol. I. pp. 208, 374, 507.) He was born December, 1734. He was major-general of the militia of Suffolk County ; member of both the first and second Continental Congresses ; signed the Declaration of Independence ; and served in the Congress of 1779, and again in 1788, the first Congress which convened in New York after the adop- tion of the Federal Constitution. He was, in 1777, a member of the first Constitutional Legislature of the State ; in 1800 he was one of the Electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, and on several subsequent occasions acted in the same capacity. For a period of more than fifty years he was honored by his fellow-citizens with offices of trust and responsibility. During the war he was driven with his family for shelter to Connecticut, and his elegant mansion was appropriated by the enemy, his produce seized, and his woods cut down. At the end of seven years the soil was nearly all that remained to him. His first. wife was Isabella, daughter of William Jones of Southampton, Long Island. His second wife was Joanna, daughter of Benajah Strong of Setauket. His children were Nicoll, who was the father of Hon. John G. Floyd, member of Congress from Oneida ; Mary, who married Benjamin Tallmadge of Litchfield, Connecticut, - the mother of Frederick A. and Henry Floyd Tallmadge of New York ; Catharine, who married Rev. William Clarkson ; Ann, who married George W. Clinton, son of the vice-president, and for her second husband Abraham Varick ; and Eliza, who married James Platt of Utica, New York. Thompson's Long Island, Vol. II. 431.
212
19th of April, to little groups of Sunday worshippers." Page 21.
"A horseman, riding furiously down the Bowery Road into Broadway, reined in his steed here and there to recite the events of Wednesday, the
511099028
ISISSUISSOS ISSS SSSS SSSS SSSS SSSS SSSS
21
NEWS OF THE BATTLE OF LEXINGTON.
tively at rest under well-defined chartered rights. The question whether English or French civilization should control in the development of the American continent had been chiefly determined by New York; and the principles which underlie our republican institutions had first found ex- pression in New York. In short, the tree of freedom had been planted in the Empire State long before the little plantation of a Dutch mer- cantile company had come under kingly rule; it had taken firm root ; it had grown rank despite the frosts of severe displeasure, sometimes shooting forth its branches in one direction and sometimes in another, putting out a leaf here and a leaf there, and finally budding and blooming under the stray sunbeams of a living affection for liberty even while constantly assailed by stormns of foreign wrath ; and now its ripening fruit is falling- into its neighbors' fields, indeed, who, with their baskets ready, hasten to gather it in.
The New York Convention adjourned on Saturday. The quiet of the next morning (Sunday) was broken by the startling news of the
battle of Lexington. As the people were assembling for morning April 22. service in the various churches of the metropolis, a horseman, riding furiously down the Bowery Road into Broadway, reined in his April 23. steed here and there to recite the events of Wednesday, the 19th
of April, to little groups of Sunday worshipers on the street. Written documents, authenticated by the chief men of all the prominent towns he had passed through from Boston to New York, confirmed his every state- ment. Amazement, alarm, and indignation took possession of the public mind. The British army had attempted to seize and destroy the military supplies at Concord ; an ill-advised and inglorious expedition had resulted in a chapter of horrors with which the world is familiar, and in the igno- minious flight of well-trained troops before an outraged people ! The king's army at this moment were closely beleaguered in Boston with no mode of exit except by the sea !
New York was aflame with excitement. The news traveled with the speed of a whirlwind, and the whole city before noon seemed to have risen in resentment. Men hurried to and fro, women were met weeping on the sidewalks, the churches were deserted in the great feverish impulse to learn the miserable truth, and the dinner-hour was forgotten. Although it was the Sabbath, men in a body took possession of the City Hall, and armed themselves with the munitions it contained. Two vessels laden with flour and supplies for the British troops at Boston, just upon the eve of sailing, were at once boarded by an impromptu force, headed by Isaac Sears and John Lamb, and the cargoes, to the value of eighty thousand pounds, swiftly unloaded. All vessels about to sail for any of the British
213
22
HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
possessions were detained. The royal government was powerless in New York; the people ruled the hour. The keys of the custom-house were demanded and the officers dismissed.
On Monday, while volunteer companies paraded Broadway in defiance
April 24. of the administration, the Committee of Sixty met in earnest con-
sultation ; being invested with no special power except in regard to the non-importation agreement, a new committee with wider authority seemed indispensable. Hence the following call was issued : -
NEW-YORK, COMMITTEE-CHAMBER, WEDNESDAY, 26th April, 1775.
T HE Committeehaving taken into Confideration the Commotions occafioned by the fanguinary Meafures purfued by the British Miniftry, and that the Powers with which this Committee is inverted, respect only the Affociation. are unanimously of Opinion, That a new Committee be elected by the Freeholders and Freemen of this City and County, for the prefent unhappy Exigency of Affairs, as well as to obferve the Conduct of all Perfons touching the Affociation; That the faid Committee confift of 100 Perfons; that 33 be a Quorum, and that they diffolve within a Fortnight next after the End of the next Seffions of the Continental Congrefs. And that the Senfe of the Freeholders and Freemen of this City and County, upon this Subject, may be better procured and afcertained, the Committee are further unanimously of Opinion, That the Polls be taken on Friday Morning next, at 9 o'Clock, at the ufual Places of - Election in each Ward, under the Infpection of the two Veftrymen of each Ward, and two of this Committee, or any two of the four; and that at the faid Elections the Votes of the Freemen and Freeholders, be taken on the following Queftions, viz. Whether fuch New, Committee fhall be conftituted ; and if Yea, of whom it fhall confift. And this Committee is further unanimously of Opinion, That at the prefent alarming. Juncture, it is highly advifeable that a Provincial Congrefs be immediately fummoned; and that it be recommended to the Freeholders and Freemen of this City and County, to choofe at the fame Time that they vote for the New Committee aforefaid, Twenty Deputies to reprefent them at the faid Congrefs. And that a Letter be forthwith prepared and difpatched to all the Counties, requefting them to unite with us in forming a Provincial Congrefs, and to appoint their Deputies without Delay, to meet at New-York, on Monday the 22d of May next.
By Order of the Committee, ISAAC LOW, Chairman. 214
23
ACTION OF THE COMMITTEE OF SIXTY.
The counties of New York had many of them prior to this call assured the public through the press of their willingness to stand or fall with American liberty.1 Hitherto there had been no occasion for the appoint- ment of a Provincial Congress in New York. It was supposed that such a movement would obstruct all business, prevent the collection of debts, destroy the liberty of the press, and involve the country in distress. But with the shifting scenes minor considerations were overlooked, and one grand impulse seemed to inspire action. While the war-message was speeding from village to village through New England, and the popula- tion responding in a manner which has found no parallel in history, New York unhesitatingly took another firm, unfaltering step in the direction of Independence.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.