USA > New York > The Empire State: a compendious history of the commonwealth of New York > Part 20
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* These collegians were Peter van Brugh Livingston, John Livingston, Philip Living- ston, William Livingston, William Nicoll, Benjamin Nicoll, Henry Hansen, William Peartree Smith, Benjamin Woolsey, William Smith, Jr. (the historian), John McEvers, and John van Horner.
{ William Samuel Johnson, D.D., was born in Guilford, Conn., in 1696, and was sixty years of age when he became president of King's College. He was a graduate of Yale in 1714, and was a tutor there for a while. In 1720 he became a preacher at West Haven, and went to England in 1722 to receive Episcopal ordination. He returned in 1723 with the honor of the degree of M.A., conferred at Oxford. He settled in Stratford, but was per- seented by the other sects there. He left the place, and was absent several years ; engaged mueh in literary pursuits, preparing, among other useful works, a System of Morality, which Dr. Franklin published as a text-book for the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Johnson was a man of great learning. He resigned in 1763, and returned to Stratford the same year. There, resuming the charge of his old parish, he lived until his death in January, 1772.
189
AN ARBITRARY ACT OF THE HOME GOVERNMENT.
The latter regarded the scheme as a weapon of contemplated tyranny. Then was kindled the flame of desire in the hearts of a vast number of English-Americans to have
" A Church without a Bishop, A Throne without a King,"
which burned so fiercely a few years later .*
Dr. Colden, the President of the Council, and then seventy-three years of age, became acting governor on the death of De Lancey, and soon received the appointment of lieutenant-governor. He was continued in that office about sixteen years, and, in consequence of the frequent ab- sence of the governors, was repeatedly at the head of public affairs.
On the death of De Lancey the office of chief-justice became vacant. Colden was urged to appoint an incumbent at once. Wishing to com- pliment the Earl of Halifax, the Secretary of State for the colonies, Colden asked him to nominate a candidate for chief-justice. To the amazement and indignation of the New York Assembly and the people, instead of a nomination there came an appointment to the office by the king of a Boston lawyer named Pratt. He was not appointed, as formerly, to hold the office " during good behavior," but " at the pleasure of the king." This was one of the first of the arbitrary acts of young George III., who had just ascended the throne, which drove the colonies to re- bellion. Indeed, the New York Assembly rebelled at that time. They resolved that while judges held office by such a tenure, and were mere instruments of the royal will, they would grant them no salaries. Colden found himself in trouble at the very beginning.
The authorities of New York had a long and serious quarrel with the inhabitants of the territory of the (present) State of Vermont at this period. After the settlement of the boundary-line between New York and Connecticut mentioned in a former chapter, the boundary be- tween New York and Massachusetts was tacitly fixed on a line parallel to that of the former, and permanently so in 1764. Governor Benning Wentworth assumed that a line parallel to that of the western boundary of Connecticut was the true boundary of his own province. Having
* The chief controversialist on the side of the Dissenters was William Livingston, afterward Governor of New Jersey, and then a young lawyer of much repute. He dealt heavy blows against Episcopacy and in favor of Presbyterianism in a weekly publication called the Independent Reflector, first issued late in 1752. He began his assaults on Epis- copacy in 1753 behind the veil of anonymity. His language was bold and defiant, but dignified and unexceptionable. The influence of the civil authority, the Episcopal clergy, and the aristocracy at length induced the printer to cease printing the Reflector, and with its fifty-second number (November, 1753) it was discontinued.
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THE EMPIRE STATE.
authority to issue grants of unoccupied lands within his province, he gave many patents to settlers west of the Connecticut River.
The New York authorities, who had acquiesced in the boundaries of Conneetient and Massachusetts, now elaimed territorial jurisdiction north of Massachusetts, eastward to the Connecticut River, by virtue of the original grant given to the Duke of York. Regardless of this elaim, Wentworth issued a patent for a township six miles square, which was named Bennington. This brought the question of jurisdiction to an issue. New York vehemently asserted its claim ; Wentworth paid no attention to it ; and when the French and Indian War broke out, he had issued patents for fourteen townships west of the Connecticut River.
The dispute was renewed after the war, and when, in 1763, Lieu- tenant-Governor Colden sent a proclamation among the people in that region declaring the Conneetient River to be the eastern boundary of the province of New York, Wentworth had created one hundred and thirty-eight townships the size of Bennington west of the Connecticut. They occupied a greater portion of the area of the (present) State of Ver- mont, and were called " The New Hampshire Grants" from that time.
The authorities of New York, inspired by grasping land speculators, not content with asserting territorial jurisdiction, claimed the right of property in the soil of that territory, and declared Wentworth's patents to settlers invalid. The crown confirmed these claims, and orders were issued for the survey and sale of farms in the possession of settlers who had paid for and improved them. This act of oppression was like sow- ing dragons' teeth to see them produce a erop of armed men. The set- tlers eared not who were their politieal masters so long as their private rights were respected. But this act of injustice converted them into rebellious foes, determined and defiant. There appeared at once an op- position not only of words, but of sinews and muskets, supported by indomitable courage and inflexible wills-the spirit of true English lib- erty coming down to them through their Puritan ancestors. Foremost among those who took a firm stand in opposition to the oppressors was Ethan Allen, the boldest of the bold.
Finally the governor and Council of New York summoned all the elaimants under the grants of New Hampshire to appear before them at Albany, with their deeds, on a certain day. No attention was paid to the summons. Writs were issued for the ejectment of the settlers from their estates, and surveyors were sent to resurvey the lands. This move- ment brought on a erisis, and for several years the New Hampshire grants formed a theatre where all the elements of civil war excepting actual carnage were in exereise. Magistrates, police, and armed citi-
191
THE NEW HAMPSHIRE GRANTS.
zens were constantly vigilant, and when an officer of the Government or of the land speenlators of New York appeared he was seized and pun- ished by whipping or other severity, and was driven out of the domain. No legal process could be served, nor the sentence of any court estab- lished there by New York be carried out. The settlers effectively spurned the bribes and the threats of the New Yorkers.
The settlers sent an agent to London to lay their case before the crown. He returned in 1767 with a royal order direeting the govern- ment of New York to suspend all proceedings against the people of the " Grants ;" but very little attention was paid to the royal mandate. In 1770 the settlers appointed a Committee of Safety to manage public affairs. They commissioned Ethan Allen colonel commandant, and in 1771 they passed a resolution that no officer from New York should be allowed to exercise any jurisdiction over the people of the " Grants" in any capacity without permission from the committee.
In 1772 Governor Tryon attempted conciliation, but failed. The Legislature of New York passed a law that any offender against its anthority on the " Grants" who should not surrender on the order of the governor within a specified time should be deemed guilty of a felony and punished with death, "withont benefit of clergy," sneh culprit to be tried for the crime in the county of Albany. A reward was offered for the apprehension of Allen and other leaders.
This harsh legislation did not alarm the settlers, and the struggle con- tinned sharply until the beginning of the old war. for independence. It was kept up in a mild form during that war, and afterward until the admission of Vermont into the Union, in 1791, a period of forty years. The defenders of the rights of the people of the " Grants" acquired the name of " Green Mountain Boys." * Allen and other leaders, as well as the " rank and file," played a conspicuous part in the war for inde- pendence.
The story of the conflict between the government of a powerful prov- ince against a few settlers on disputed territory forms one of the most interesting chapters in our national history.
* On account of the loftiest hills in that region being covered with verdure, the name of Vert Mont-Green Mountain-was given to it. In the conflicts with the " Yorkers," some of the settlers were driven from the Champlain slope into the mountains, from which they issued for purposes of resistance, and were called " Green Mountain Boys."
192
THE EMPIRE STATE.
CHAPTER XIV.
ON the morning of October 25th, 1760, Prince George, heir-apparent to the throne of Great Britain, and then about twenty-three years of age, was riding on horseback near Kew Palace with his tutor the Earl of Bute, when a messenger informed him that his grandfather, King George II., had been found dead in a closet. Pitt called upon him the next day at the palace of St. James and presented him with a copy of an address to be read to the Privy Council. The minister was politely informed that a speech had already been prepared and every preliminary arranged. Pitt perceived that the courtier, Bute, had made the arrangements, and he withdrew. SEAL OF GOV. MONCKTON. This circumstance had an important relation to the future destiny of the English-American colonies, and particularly of that of New York, as we shall observe presently.
Robert Monckton, son of Viscount Galway and a major-general in the British army, was appointed Governor of New York, but did not occupy the chair long. He arrived in November, 1761, and in February follow- ing he took command of an expedition destined for the capture of the
hotel bon chon
SIGNATURE OF GOVERNOR MONCKTON.
island of Martinique. He sailed from New York with twelve thousand men, was successful, returned to New York the next June, and " began his administration," says Smith, " with a splendor and magnificence equal to his birth."
193
THE YOUNG MONARCH'S GREAT MISTAKE.
General Monckton remained in New York awhile, and then left the government to Colden. Monckton was succeeded in office early in 176+ by Sir Henry Moore, a gay, affable, good-natured, and well-bred gentle- man. Moore's administration did not begin until late in 1765. It covered a large portion of a stormy period in the history of New York. Sir Henry left the province in 1769, when Colden again assumed the reins of govern- ment.
The young king on his accession had parted with Pitt as his chief adviser, and, as we have just observed, made the Earl of Bute, a Scotch adventurer and a special favorite of the sovereign's mother, prime- minister of the realm. Bute proposed to bring the American colonies into absolute subjection to the crown and Parliament. To SEAL OF GOVERNOR MOORE. do this effectually it was resolved, in accord- ance with the recommendation of the Board of Trade and Plantations, to annul the American charter, to reduce all the American provinces to royal governments, and to gain a revenue by collecting duties to be imposed upon goods imported into the colonies.
Among the first movements toward this end was making the judiciary of New York dependent upon the crown, to which allusion has been made. As we have observed, this act created much alarm and indigna- tion in the public mind. "To make the king's will the tenure of office," Moore said a representative of the people, "is to make the bench of judges the in- strument of the royal prerogative." William Livingston, John Morin Scott, and William Smith, three eminent law- SIGNATURE OF GOVERNOR MOORE. yers of New York, expressed their opinions freely and protested boldly in the newspapers against the measure ; and the New York Assembly resolutely refused to grant a salary to Chief-Justice Pratt, who finally received it from the crown. Governor Moore disapproved the ob- noxious measure, and even Governor Colden advised against it ; but it was persisted in, and the crown continued to appoint judges, paying their salaries and making them independent of the people.
Another cause of popular irritation and resistance was the practical assertion of Parliament of its right to tax the colonists without their con-
194
THE EMPIRE STATE.
sent. Duties were imposed upon goods imported into the colonies, and collectors of customs were sent to enforce the revenne laws. These laws were frequently resisted or evaded, especially at Boston. The Superior Court of Massachusetts gave the collectors warrants, called " Writs of Assistance," which authorized the holders to search for smuggled goods when and where they pleased, and to demand assistance from others. " The meanest deputy of a deputy's deputy" might enter the house of a citizen unchallenged. The people regarded the matter as a violation of their liberties-a violation of the English maxim, " Every man's house is his castle." A solemn protest produced an argument before a crowded meeting of citizens in Boston, when the fiery James Otis vehemently denounced the writs, and said :
" I have determined to sacrifice estate, ease, health, applause, and even my life to the sacred call of my country in opposition to a kind of power, the exercise of which cost one king his head and another his throne." " On that day," said a contemporary, " the trumpet of the Revolution was sounded."
Then followed the fearful popular agitation in the colonies caused by the famous Stamp Act, in which New York appeared conspicuous-an act which declared that no legal instrument used in the colonies should be valid, after a prescribed date, unless it bore a government stamp, for each of which a prescribed sum of money, varying in amount from three cents to thirty dollars, was demanded. With greater boldness or reck- lessness than any former minister had exhibited, George Grenville, at the head of the Treasury and the ablest man in the House of Commons, submitted a bill authorizing stamp duties early in 1764. Even the great minister, Walpole, had said, many years before, " I will leave the tax- ation of America to some of my successors who have more courage than I have ;" and the greater Pitt said, in 1759, "I will never burn my fingers with an American Stamp Act."
This proposed measure caused universal excitement in the colonies. The people were divided. The old English titles of "Whig" and " Tory" now first came into use in America. The great question was freely discussed at public gatherings. The pulpit sometimes sounded an aların. The newspaper press spoke out boldly. "If the colonist is taxed without his consent, he will, perhaps, seek a change," said Holt's New York Gazette, significantly.
Nowhere did the flame of resentment burn more fiercely than in New York, and nowhere were its manifestations more emphatic. Colden, the acting governor, then seventy-seven years of age, true to his sover- eign, endeavored to suppress all opposition to the acts of the imperial
195
THE STAMP ACT OPPOSED.
legislature ; but his efforts were like a breath against a gale. The as- sociation of the Sons of Liberty, which had appeared thirty years before, was revived with great vigor," and a Committee of Correspond- ence to communicate with the agent of the colony in England and with
4+47
FORT GEORGE, BATTERY, AND BOWLING GREEN.}
the several colonial assemblies on the subject of the oppressive measures of Parliament was appointed.
When, in the spring of 1765, the Stamp Act became a law, words of defiance were uttered everywhere in the colonies. Energetic action soon followed. Public sentiment took a more dignified form than popular
* The principal members of the Association in the province of New York at that time were Isaac Sears, John Lamb, Alexander MacDougal, Marinus Willett, William Wiley, Edward Laight, Thomas Robinson, Hugh Hughes, Floris Bancker, Charles Nicoll, Joseph Allcock, and Gershom Mott, of New York City ; Jeremiah van Rensselaer, Myndert Rosenbaum, Robert Henry, Volkert P. Douw, Jelles Fonda, and Thomas Young, of Albany and Tryon counties ; John Sloss Hobart, Gilbert Potter, Thomas Brush, Cor- nelius Conklin, and Nathan Williams, of Huntington, L. I. ; George Townsend, Baruk Sneething, Benjamin Townsend, George and Michael Weekes, and Rowland Chambers, of Oyster Bay, L. I.
+ From an engraving by Tiebout in 1792. Within the Bowling Green is seen the pedestal on which stood the equestrian statue of King George III. The spear-heads of the pickets, as may now (1887) be seen, were all broken off. On the right is No. 1 Broad- way, the headquarters of General Sir Henry Clinton. On the left is seen a point of Gov- ernor's Island ; on the right, in the distance, is Staten Island, and in the extreme distance the Narrows, the open gateway from the harbor to the ocean.
196
THE EMPIRE STATE.
harangues and heated discussions. At the suggestion of the Massachu- setts Assembly a colonial convention of delegates assembled at the city of New York on October 7th, 1765. Nine colonies were represented by twenty-seven delegates. Those of New York were Robert R. Living- ston, John Cruger, Philip Livingston, William Bayard, and Leonard Lispenard. Timothy Ruggles, of Massachusetts, presided. They were in session fourteen days, and sent forth three able State papers-namely, a " Declaration of Rights," written by John Cruger, of New York ; a " Memorial to both Houses of Parliament," by Robert R. Livingston, also of New York ; and a " Petition to the King," written by James Otis, of Massachusetts. The proceedings of this Stamp Act Congress were approved and signed by all the members excepting Timothy Ruggles, of Massachusetts, and Robert Ogden, of New Jersey, who espoused the cause of the crown in the great struggle that ensued.
The first day of November (1765) was the time appointed for the Stamp Act to go into operation. Stamp-distributors for their sale were appointed. James McEvers had been chosen the agent for New York.
The Sons of Liberty demanded his resignation. Colden promised him protection ; but when the stamps arrived, late in November, MeEvers was so alarmed by the manifestations of opposition that he refused to receive them, and they were taken into the fort for safety, where the venerable Colden resided. The people were exasperated, and appearing in large numbers before the fort, demanded the delivery of the stamps to them. A refusal was answered by defiant shouts by the Sons of Liberty, who were not dismayed by the presence of British ships of war in the harbor and the pointing of the cannons of the fort upon them and upon the town.
An orderly procession was formed. It soon became a roaring mob. Half an hour after the governor's refusal he was hung in effigy on the spot where Leisler, the democrat, was executed seventy-five years before. Then the mob went back to the fort, dragged Colden's fine coach * to the open space in front of it, and tearing down the wooden railing that surrounded the Bowling Green, piled it upon the vehicle and made a bonfire of the whole. After committing some other excesses, t the
" Colden's coach-house and stable were outside the fort and easy of access. There were only three or four coaches in the city at that time, and as they belonged to wealthy friends of Government, they were considered by the people as evidences of aristocratic pride.
+ The mob rushed out to the beautiful seat of Major James, at the intersection of (present) Worth Street and West Broadway, where they destroyed his fine library, works of art and rich furniture, and desolated his charming garden. His seat was named
197
NON-IMPORTATION AGREEMENTS.
excited populace paraded the streets with the Stamp Act printed on large sheets and raised upon poles, with the words, "ENGLAND's FOLLY AND AMERICA'S RUIN."
Colden, clearly perceiving that further resistance to the popular will would be futile, ordered the stamps to be delivered to the mayor (Cruger) and the Common Council, on condition that any that should be destroyed or lost should be paid for. Quiet was restored. Soon afterward a brig brought to New York ten boxes of stamps. They were seized by some citizens and burnt at the shipyard at the foot of (present) Catharine Street.
The first of November was Friday-a truly "black Friday" in America. It was ushered in by the tolling of bells and the display of flags at half-mast, as if a national calamity had occurred. Minute-guns were fired. There were orations and sermons adapted to the occasion. As none but stamped paper could be legally used, and as the people were determined not to use it, all business was suspended. The courts were closed, marriages ceased, and social and commercial operations in America were paralyzed. Yet the people did not despair, nor even despond. They felt conscious of rectitude and of inherent strength. They held in their own hands a remedy, and very soon applied it effectually.
On the day before the Stamp Act was to take effect many merchants in New York City, at a meeting held there, entered into a solemn agree- ment not to import from England certain enumerated articles after the first of January next ensuing. The chairman of an active committee of correspondence (John Lamb) addressed a circular letter to the merchants in other cities, inviting their co-operation in the non-importation policy. It was cheerfully acceded to, and merchants great and small followed the example of New York traders. The patriotic people co-operated with the merchants, and began domestic manufactures. The wealthiest vied with the middling classes in wearing clothing of their own mann- facture. That wool might not become scarce, the use of sheep flesh for food was discouraged.
The mighty forces for defence against oppression, which for years worked so potentially in favor of liberty in America, thus put in motion in New York, hurled back upon England with great power the commer- cial miseries which she had inflicted upon her colonies. The most sensi- tive nerve of her political and social organism was so rudely touched that
Ranelagh. A few months afterward it was converted into a place of public resort, and called the Ranelagh Garden. James was a British officer who had become obnoxious to the people.
198
THE EMPIRE STATE.
the British merchants and manufacturers earnestly joined the Americans in efforts to compel the Government to repeal the obnoxious act. They were successful. The Stamp Act was repealed early in 1766, having existed in a helpless state one year. In the words of a couplet upon the tombstone of a little baby, it might have asked,
" If I so soon am done for, I wonder what I was begun for ?"
To New York merchants is due the honor of having invented those two powerful engines of resistance to obnoxious acts of the British
9
BURNS'S COFFEE-HOUSE .*
Parliament, and which worked with so much poteney at the beginning of the old war for independence-namely, the Committee of Corre- spondence and the Non-importation League. The repeal of the Stamp Act caused great rejoicings on both sides of the Atlantic. The city of New York was filled with delight on the beautiful May day when
* This was a famous place of resort for the Sons of Liberty in New York for sev- eral years before the old war for independence. It was a coffee-honse kept by George Burns, at No. 9 Broadway. There the first non-importation league of the merchants of New York was formed, on October 31st, 1765-a consequence of the obnoxious Stamp Act. The league was signed by more than two hundred merchants. The above engrav- ing shows the house as it appeared at the time of that occurrence. It remained a place of public resort until about 1860. Broadway slopes a little at that point.
199
REJOICINGS AND LOYALTY.
the glad tidings arrived. Cannons thundered a royal salute, bells rang out merry peals, and the Sons of Liberty feasted together. A month later, on the king's birthday (June 4th), there was another public cel- ebration, given under the auspices of Governor Moore, when royal salutes were again fired. There was a banquet at the King's Arms Tavern, near the Bowling Green, in which all the magnates of the city participated. Again the Sons of Liberty feasted together ; and in the Fields (now the City Hall Park) an ox was roasted whole, and twenty-five barrels of beer and a hogshead of rum were pro- vided for the people. The town was illuminated in the evening, and bonfires blazed, while the heavens were made brilliant with fireworks. The people erected a tall inast and unfurled a banner, upon it in- scribed, " THE KING, PITT, AND LIBERTY," and called it Liberty Pole.
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