USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York : its origin, rise, and progress. Vol. II > Part 25
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Through the length and breadth of New England no time was con- sumed in asking if resistance were practicable; no delay for the want of a union formed or leaders proclaimed. Men hurried from the fields, the work-shops, and the barns, and ministers came from their studies,2 every one with a gun, and a bit of lunch in his hat or pocket; possibly a few necessaries packed in a pillow-case by wife or daughter. In some towns, companies were organized after a fashion on the village green. For the most part the enlistments were on the prime condition of individual con- venience or pleasure. Thus the volunteer was as free to go away as to
1 A humorous writer of the day, after recording the action of the inhabitants of Duchess County in refusing to subscribe to the doctrine of passive obedience and non-resistance, thus ridicules the "advocates of ministerial oppression " who were at the same time assembled in Convention : " After business, then a dinner, which is to consist of many dishes, but I can- not pretend to express the sumptuousness nor variety of them ; there is, however, to be good English roast-beef, ewe mutton, and lamb, both roast and boiled, and all well seasoned with certain spices brought from the East Indies ; next is to come a pompous pye, on one side of which is to be seen a viper, and on the other a pigeon, both curiously formed in paste, denot- ing the wisdom of the serpent and the innocence of the dove, and on the top a cormorant, with a ministerial mandate in his mouth ; the salad is to consist entirely of celery and penny- royal, which it is expected the guests will devour very greedily. But how vain would it be to attempt a description of the whole entertainment ; all will be elegant, sumptuous, and polite, though there will be no dessert ; as for the wines, they are to be particularly such as have been lately imported from Maderia or the Western Islands, if such are to be had ; for you must know that they intend to eat and drink what they please, consistent with the laws of the land ; notwithstanding the Association entered into by the Continental Congress. Towards evening
the TEA-table, with all its equippages and appurtenances, is to be brought in ; the landlady will be confoundedly puzzled to suit the company, as there's no India Company's TEA to be had, and TEA they will have, notwithstanding this meeting is to be after the first day of March. What then is to be done ? Why, give us Dutch TEA, if you have no other. . ... How comfortable to the more ignorant part of the Convention, who have been drawn in to sign the creed, to see their leaders indulge in diversions and pleasures, which is a sure sign that the ship is safe, and in a calm." New York Gazette, March 20, 1775.
2 In Danvers, Asa Putnam, a deacon of the church, was chosen Captain of the minute-men and Rev. Mr. Wadsworth, the pastor, was made his First Lieutenant.
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
rush into the fray. There were no uniforms, and no equipments. On the soldiers' rapid march to the seat of the disturbance the inhabitants along the route gladly spread their tables, and all things were in com- mon. The British officers were confounded when they saw the besiegers perched in Cambridge as a central camp, with wide-spread wings stretch- ing from Chelsea on the left, almost round to Dorchester on the right, covering about three quarters of a circle of headlands, slopes, peninsulas, and eminences, themselves thus hemmed in by an unorganized, fluc- tuating mass of humanity filled with the spirit and intent of a military host. The bitter mortification of the proud and most experienced soldiers of the English realm, freshly laureled in recent wars, was only equaled by the sufferings which came with their confinement, since their magazines were unfilled, and supplies of every description were cut off, rendering their diet unwholesome and meager. They were rich in every form of water-craft, ships of war, gun-boats, transports, floats, and barges; but even with these they could not venture near the shore of main or island. The tide-soaked marshes between the two combating forces then doubled the present width of the rivers ; and there were no bridges in the region, save on the side of Cambridge towards Brighton. The salt flats had no cause- ways over them, and the only route between any two places was by a long detour. The chief roads and all the high points were cautiously guarded. Hence the humiliated generals of England's monarch saw no way out of their disgraceful dilemma, until reinforcements should reach them from the other side of the Atlantic. General Gage, at the solicitation of some of the leading citizens of Boston assembled in Faneuil Hall, agreed to allow such of the people as desired, to remove from the city, if they would leave their arms behind them and covenant to abstain alto- gether from hostilities. Many of the suffering and frightened families, whose means of procuring food were made precarious by the seige, availed themselves of the permission. But their effects were subjected to a rigid examination ; and presently the devoted loyalists, of whom there were not a few, objected to the liberty afforded their neighbors of removal, under whatever circumstances, as it would furnish the provincials more excuse for violence should they attack the city. There were timid neu- trals, and there were spies, who remained quietly in Boston. These latter watched all movements and communicated with their friends outside. The population of Boston, independent of the military, was then about eighteen thousand. The town of Charlestown, which lay under the Brit- ish guns, contained some two or three thousand souls. The interruption of employment brought poverty, and the people fled from Charlestown in every direction, until there were less than two hundred remaining.
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THE COMMITTEE OF ONE HUNDRED.
The colonial forces were loosely officered, and under no national author- ity whatsoever. No war had been declared, and there was no nation to declare war. The Continental Congress had not as yet decided upon the need of an army. They had no munitions of war nor the means with which to procure them. A self-constituted Provincial Congress discharged legislative functions in Massachusetts, and a Committee of Safety directed in military affairs. A Council of War was also instituted, with an unde- fined range as to advice and authority, sometimes mischievously interfer- ing with or confusing the arrangements and measures of the Committee of Safety. The field officers held place and rank according to the inclination and partialities of the privates, and were liable to be superseded or dis-
obeyed at any moment.1 Indeed, the fighting elements, drawn together by the excitement of the hour, were subject to discord and disintegration, and could act in concert only by yielding themselves to the influence of the spirit which had wrenched them from their various occupations at the busiest season of the year. They did not feel their lack of discipline nor realize its probable consequences. They were restless under restraint, and eager for action. In the Committee of Safety and in the Council of War there were directing minds, and a wide difference of opinion, as to the safe and expedient course to be pursued. Daring enterprises were discussed, but little could be attempted while there was hardly powder enough in the camp for a successful target expedition.2
In accordance with the call, New York city and county elected, on May 1, a new Committee of One Hundred to control in all general May 1. affairs 3 ; and as the powers of the Convention (so recently in ses- sion) had expired with the choice of delegates to the Continental Con-
1 History of the Battle of Bunker's (Breed's) Hill, by George E. Ellis.
Lord Mahon's History of England, 64, 65, 66. 2
3 The following are the names of the Committee of One Hundred chosen in this emer- gency : -
1. Isaac Low. 15. Gabriel H. Ludlow.
2. Philip Livingston.
16. Nicholas Hoffman.
30. Francis Bassett.
3. James Duane.
17. Abraham Walton. 31. Victor Bicker.
4. John Alsop. 18. Peter Van Schaack. 32. John White.
5. John Jay.
19. Henry Remsen.
33. Theophilus Anthony.
34. William Goforth.
. Isaac Sears.
21. Abraham Brasher.
35. William Denning.
36. Isaac Roosevelt.
9. Alexander McDougall.
23. Abraham Duryee.
37. Jacob Van Voorhees.
10. Thomas Randall.
11. Leonard Lispenard.
12. William Walton.
13. John Broom.
27. Thomas Ivers.
41. William W: Gilbert.
14. Joseph Hallett.
24. Joseph Bull.
38. Jeremiah Platt.
25. Francis Lewis.
39. Comfort Sands.
26. Joseph. Totten.
40. Robert Benson.
42. John Berrien.
28. Hercules Mulligan. 217
29. John Anthony.
6. Peter V. B. Livingston.
20. Peter T. Curtenius.
8. David Johnson.
22. Abraham P. Lott.
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
gress,1 all parts of the colony of New York had been summoned, and at the same time (May 1) elected delegates to represent them in a Provincial Congress.
Eighty-three members of the new Committee of One Hundred met as soon as chosen ; and on the motion of John Morin Scott, seconded by Alexander MacDougall, an association was projected, engaging under all the ties of religion, honor, and love of country, to submit to committees and to Congress, to withhold supplies from British troops, and at the risk of lives and fortunes to repel every attempt at enforcing taxation by Parliament. Colden described in a letter to Dartmouth, under date of May 3, how the people of New York had " entirely prostrated the powers of Government, and produced an association by which this Province has solemnly united with the others in resisting the Acts of Parliament."
On the 5th of May a packet sailed for England. Among the passen- May 5. gers were two agents sent by the counselors of the disabled gov- ernment of New York, to represent to the Ministry how severely the rash conduct of the army at Boston had injured the cause of the king. The Committee of One Hundred addressed by the same vessel the mayor and corporation of London, and through them the capital of the British Empire and people of Great Britain, saying : -
"This country will not be deceived by measures conciliatory in appearance. America is grown so irritable by oppression, that the least shock, in any part, is, by the most powerful sympathetic affection, instantaneously felt through
43. Gabriel W. Ludlow. 63. Augustus Van Horn.
44. Nicholas Roosevelt. 64. Garrat Keteltas.
45. Edward Fleming. 65. Eleazer Miller.
84. David Beekman.
85. William Seton.
47. Samuel Jones.
67. John Morin Scott.
68. Cornelius Clopper.
87. Robert Ray.
49. Frederic Jay.
88. Mich1s Bogert (Broadway).
50. William W. Ludlow.
70. John Van Cortlandt.
89. William Laight.
51. John B. Moore.
71. Jacobus Van Zandt.
90. Samuel Broom.
52. Rudolphus Ritzind.
72. Gerardus Duyckinck.
91. John Lamb.
53. Lindley Murray.
73. Peter Goelet.
92. Daniel Phoenix.
93. Anthony Van Dam.
55. John Lasher.
75. Thomas Marston.
94. Daniel Dunscomb.
56. George Janaway.
76. John Morton.
95. John Imlay.
57. James Beekman.
58. Samuel Verplanck.
78. Jacobus Lefferts.
97. Lewis Pintard.
59. Richard Yates.
79. Richard Sharp.
98. Cornelius P. Low.
60. David Clarkson.
80. Hamilton Young.
99. Thomas Buchannan.
61. Thomas Smith.
62. James Desbrosses.
82. Benjamin Helme.
83. Walter Franklin.
46. Lawrence Embree.
66. Benjamin Kissam.
86. Evert Banker.
48. John DeLancey. 69. John Read.
54. Lancaster Burling.
74. John Marston.
77. George Folliot.
96. Oliver Templeton.
81. Abraham Brinkerhoff. 100. Petrus Byvank.
1 Journal of the Provincial Convention, New York Hist. Soc.
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REPUBLICANISM.
the whole continent. The city (of New York) are as one man in the cause of liberty ; our inhabitants are resolutely bent on supporting their committee, and the intended Provincial and Continental Congresses ; there is not the least doubt of the efficacy of their example in the other counties. In short, while the whole continent ardently wishes for peace upon such terms as can be acceded to by Englishmen, they are indefatigable in preparing for the last appeal.
" We speak the real sentiments of the confederated Colonies, from Nova Scotia to Georgia, when we declare that all the horrors of civil war will never compel America to submit to taxation by authority of Parliament."
These brave words were written in the full light of the knowledge that there were not five hundred pounds of powder in the length and breadth of the metropolis, that British troops were already ordered to New York, that it was commanded by Brooklyn Heights, and that the deep water of its harbor exposed it on both sides to ships of war. The letter was signed by eighty-nine of the One Hundred, of whom the first was John Jay.
The following day the delegates from Massachusetts and Connecticut to the Continental Congress at Philadelphia drew near ; they were met on Murray Hill, three miles from the city, by a company of May 6. grenadiers, and a regiment of the city militia under arms, and by carriages and a cavalcade, and many thousands of persons on foot ; and along roads which were crowded as if the whole city had turned out to do them honor, and amid shouts and huzzas, the ringing of bells and every demonstration of joy, they made their entry into New York, where they spent the Sabbath.
On Monday, two days later, they were joined by several of the New York delegates, and with great ceremony escorted by several hun- dred of the militia under arms, and by a much larger number of May 8. patriotic citizens, across the water on their way to Philadelphia, pausing in Newark and Elizabethtown, where triumphal honors awaited them.
Events followed each other with the swiftness of the whirlwind. Rev. Myles Cooper, the second President of King's College, who had been elected to that honorable position in 1763, while only twenty-eight years of age, had been writing for the press with great force and elegance of diction, on the subject of colonial relation to England. A tract had re- cently appeared from his pen entitled "A Friendly Address to all Reason- able Americans on the Subject of our Political Confusions." His habits and opinions had been fashioned from the old Oxford pattern, and the popular party were not in any humor to tolerate his scholarly arguments against opposing the king's troops. On the night of the 10th of May a mob forcibly entered his lodging in the college with mur- May 10. 219
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
der intent. A student warning him in time, he escaped, half-dressed, by jumping over the college fence, and found shelter in the house of one of the Stuyvesants until he could reach a vessel bound for England.1
John Holt, who edited the New York Journal, was one of the most fearless of printers ; having in 1774 discarded the arms of the king as an ornamental heading for his ES.S. 001 paper, and substituted the device of a snake cut. VER into parts, with "Unite or die" for a motto, he HIS about this time issued the snake joined and coiled, MAGNA with the tail in its mouth, forming a double ring; within the coil was a pillar standing on Magna Holt's Snake Device. Carta, surmounted with the cap of Liberty.
As the delegates of New England and New York were traveling through New Jersey and bearing with them to their goal the sense of the popula- tion as well as the declaration of the New Jersey Assembly " to abide by the united voice of the Continental Congress," a scheme, discussed in private by Adams and Hancock with the governor and council of Con- necticut while in Hartford a few days before, was taking effect in a master stroke of military policy. A party of volunteers under the command of Ethan Allen were on the march towards Ticonderoga. They were chiefly from Salisbury, Berkshire, and Bennington, having been fitted out from the funds in the Connecticut treasury. In the gray of the morning of that eventful 10th of May which inaugurated the opening of the second Con- tinental Congress, the fortress of Ticonderoga, which cost England
May 10. eight million pounds sterling, a succession of campaigns, and an immense amount of human life, fell into the hands of the Americans after a siege of ten minutes, without the loss of a single man.
Allen's party numbered eighty-three; they broke through the closed gate of the fort, disarmed the guards, raising at the same instant the Indian war-whoop, - such an unnatural yell as had not been heard in all that region since the days of Montcalm, -and formed on the parade in hollow square so as to face each of the barracks. One of the sentries, after receiving a slight wound, cried for quarter, and guided Allen to the apartment of the commanding officer.
"Come forth instantly, or I will sacrifice the whole garrison !" Allen shouted through the door.
1 Rev. Myles Cooper, LL. D., was born in England in 1735. He was educated at Oxford, and afterwards made a Fellow of Queen's College. He published an octavo volume of poems in 1761. He enjoyed a distinguished reputation for scholarship. After his escape to England he was made pastor of the First Episcopal Chapel in Edinburgh, where he died in 1785. His portrait is preserved in Columbia College ; he is said to have borne a striking resemblance to the poet Dryden.
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CAPTURE OF TICONDEROGA.
Delaplace, the commander, appeared undressed, with his garments in his hand.
" Deliver to me the fort instantly !" was the salutation with which he was welcomed.
" By what authority ?" he asked in amazement.
"In the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress !" was the quick response.
Delaplace attempted to speak again, but was peremptorily interrupted by Allen, who flourished a drawn sword over his head. Seeing no alter- native, Delaplace surrendered the garrison, and ordered his men to be paraded without arms.
With the fortress were captured fifty prisoners, more than a hundred pieces of cannon, one thirteen-inch mortar, and a number of swivels, stores and small arms. Crown Point was taken a little later by a detachment under Seth Warner, the garrison of twelve men surrendering upon the first summons. And furthermore, the only British vessel on Lake Cham- plain yielded to the bravery of Benedict Arnold. Alas ! Great Britain was actually at war with herself.
And now all eyes were turned towards the Congress at Philadelphia. A more doubtful body of men was probably never convened since the world was made. They could copy nothing past, be guided by no prece- dent, proceed not after the manner of great inventors, but depend entirely upon the gradual unfolding of the internal necessity of the community. They had no place of meeting, but were indebted to the courtesy of the carpenters of the Quaker City for the use of the hall wherein they held their sessions ; they had no treasury ; they had no authority to levy taxes or to borrow money; they had no soldiers enlisted, and not one civil or military officer to carry out their orders ; they were not an executive government, they were not even a legislative body ; they had no powers save those of counsel. They represented simply the unformed opinions of an unformed people.
The thirteen American provinces were inhabited by men of French, Dutch, Swedish, and German ancestry, as well as English. This new directing intelligence must respect the masses, one fifth of whom had for their mother tongue some other language than the Anglo-Saxon. They must not ignore the Quakers, who considered it wicked to fight; nor yet the Calvinists, whose religious creed encouraged resistance to tyranny. They must remember the freeholders, whose pride in their liberties and confidence in their power to defend the lands which their own hands had subdued rendered them impatient and headstrong; and also the mer- chants, whose ships and treasures were afloat, and who dreaded war as the.
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
foreshadowing of their own bankruptcy. The immediate declaration of independence was an impossibility. Massachusetts, almost exclusively of British origin, might reach a result with short time for reflection. Congress must take a broader view. Not only the various nationalities, but the religious creeds, numerous as embraced by all Europe, must be molded into something like unity before the American mind could be liberated from allegiance to the past and enlisted in the formation of one great state. A creative impulse waited for the just solution of an intri- cate problem. Time and circumstances were to foster a sublime sentiment superior to race or language. Meantime it was the sense of oppression rather than exalted love for country which now ruled the multitude. The members of Congress saw with fatal clearness the total want of any prepa- ration for war. The narrow powers with which they were intrusted by their constituents argued forcibly against any change, where change was not demanded by instant necessity. They were divided and undecided. They resisted every forward movement, and made none but by compulsion. And yet it was their glorious office, through the natural succession of in- evitable events, to cement a union and constitute a nation.
On the following day the New York Committee of One Hundred ad- dressed lieutenant-governor Colden in a carefully worded and digni- May 11. fied document, setting forth how the city and county, as well as the rest of the Colony of New York, had waited with patience, in vain, for " a redress of the many unconstitutional burdens under which the whole con- tinent had groaned for many years," and that at this most interesting crisis, when their all was at stake, and the sword drawn by the adminis- tration against the people of Massachusetts for asserting their invaluable rights, the common inheritance of all Britons, whether in England or America, they had proceeded to associate in the common cause, and claimed as their birthright a total exemption from all taxes, internal or external, by authority of Parliament. At the same time they were deeply concerned in regard to the mischief and bloodshed which would ensue from the encampment of British troops in the city of New York, and besought Colden to apply to General Gage for orders to prevent the land- ing of such as were on the sea bound for this port, and daily expected.
The final paragraph of the communication was as follows : -
" Give us leave, Sir, to conclude by assuring you, that we are determined to improve that confidence with which the People have honored us, in strengthen- ing the hand of the civil Magistrate in every lawfull measure calculated to pro- mote the Peace and just Rule of this metropolis, and consistent with that jeal- ous attention which above all things we are bound to pay to the violated Rights of America."
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31
THE NEW YORK CONGRESS.
Colden replied May 13, saying, he could not conceive upon what grounds a suspicion was entertained that the city of New York was to be reduced to the present state of Boston. He denied hav- May 13. ing had the least intimation that any "regular troops were destined for this province." And he specially exhorted the committee to carry into effect their assurances of strengthening the hands of the civil magistrates, adding : "Let this be done immediately, and with impartial firmness on every occasion ; that the houses, persons, and property of your fellow- citizens may not be attacked with impunity, and every degree of domestic security and happiness sapped to its foundation."
The Provincial Congress assembled in the city May 23. Colden wrote to Dartmouth shortly afterward : -
"You will not be surprised to hear that congresses and committees are estab- lished in this government and acting with all the confidence and authority of a legal government. The Provincial Congress of this province, now setting, con- sists of upwards of one hundred members. The city committee and sub- committees in the country places are likewise kept up; that the new plan of government may be complete for the carrying into execution the determination of the Continental and Provincial Congresses."
The names of those who organized themselves into a legislative body at this critical juncture reveal much more of the real republican spirit which pervaded New York, than shining narrations of riotous outbreaks from gifted pens.1 Many of them are already associated in the reader's mind with the most important events of colonial New York. Others
1 Members of the First Provincial Congress which met in New York City, May 23, 1775.
Isaac Low,
Peter Van Brugh Livingston,
George Folliot, Walter Franklin,
Zephaniah Platt, Richard Montgomery,
Alexander McDougall, Leonard Lispenard,
For City & County of N. Y. Ephraim Paine,
Joseph Hallett,
Robert Yates,
Gilbert Livingston, Jonathan Landon,
Abraham Walton,
Abraham Yates,
Gysbert Schenck,
Abraham Brasier, Isaac Roosevelt,
Jacob Cuyler,
Nathaniel Sackett,
John De Lancey, James Beekman,
Peter Silvester,
For Duchess County.
Samuel Verplanck,
Walter Livingston,
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