USA > New York > The Empire State: a compendious history of the commonwealth of New York > Part 21
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Pitt, who had been the chief instrument in Parliament in securing the repeal, was idol- ized by the people. At a meeting of citizens (June 23d) a petition was unanimously signed praying the Provincial Assembly to erect a statue in honor of the "Great Com- moner" in the city of New York. The Assembly complied, EQUESTRIAN STATUE OF GEORGE III. and at the same time voted an equestrian statue of the king. Both were set up in 1770, that of Pitt . being of marble, and that of the king lead. Pitt's statue was erected at the junction of Wall and William (then Smith) streets ; the king's was set up in the centre of the Bowling Green." Six years afterward the statue of the king was pulled down by an indignant populace, and a little later British soldiers mutilated the statue of Pitt.
* By a singular oversight the artist omitted to give the king's saddle stirrups, as will be seen in the sketch. The Whigs of New York said, in 1776, " Good enough for him ; he ought to ride a hard-trotting horse without stirrups."
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Popular discontent soon followed the hallelujahs of joy, for the repeal act was accompanied by another which declared that the British Parlia- ment had the right to " bind the colonies in all cases whatsoever." Sagacious men clearly saw in this declaratory act an egg of tyranny con- cealed, out of which might proceed untold evils. Events soon justified their forecast. The incubation was not protracted.
Almost at the moment when the people were celebrating the king's birthday in a spirit of hearty loyalty, Governor Moore informed the New York Assembly, then in session, that he hourly expected troops from England to garrison the fort there, and desired them to make immediate provision for them, in accordance with the requirements of the British Mutiny Act, which commanded citizens to billet troops upon themselves when necessity called for the measure. The Assembly declared that the power of the act did not extend to the colonies, and that there was no necessity for more troops at New York. The gov- ernor persisted, but the Assembly were firm in their refusal to comply with his requisition.
The troops came with authority to break into houses in searching for deserters, and to do other arbitrary things. The people were indignant. The Sons of Liberty were aroused to vigorous action. They rallied around the Liberty Pole which they had erected under the inspiration of true loyalty to their sovereign. The insolent soldiers cut down the symbol of liberty, and when, the next day, the citizens were setting it up again they were attacked by the troops. Still another pole was erected, and Governor Moore forbade the soldiers to touch it.
In January, 1770, soldiers went out from the barracks at midnight, prostrated the Liberty Pole, sawed it into pieces, and piled them before the headquarters of the Sons of Liberty. The bells of St. George's Chapel in Beekman Street rang an alarm, and very soon fully three thousand indignant citizens stood around the mutilated flag-staff. The city was fearfully agitated for several days, and affrays between the citizens and soldiers occurred. Finally they had a severe encounter on Golden Hill (between Cliff and William, John and Fulton streets), in which the soldiers were worsted and several of them were disarmed. The citizens were armed with varions missiles. The conflict on Golden Hill in New York City may be regarded as the initial battle of the old war for inde- pendence.
The New York Assembly steadily refused to comply with the require- ments of the Mutiny Act. The press spoke out boldly. William Livingston wrote prophetically in a New York newspaper :
"Courage, Americans ! Liberty, religion, and science are on the
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wing to these shores. The finger of God points out a mighty empire to your sons. The savages of the wilderness were never expelled to make room for idolaters and slaves. The land we possess is the gift of Heaven to our fathers, and Divine Providence seems to have decreed it to our latest posterity. The day dawns in which the foundation of this mighty empire is to be laid, by the establishment of a regular American Consti- tution. All that has hitherto been done seems little beside the collection of materials for this glorious fabric. 'Tis time to put them together. The transfer of the European family is so vast, and our growth so swift, that before seven years will roll over our heads the first stone must be laid."
Seven years afterward the first Continental Congress assembled at Philadelphia.
The rebellious spirit manifested by the New Yorkers amazed and incensed the British Ministry, and they resolved to bring the refractory Assembly into humble obedience. Parliament forbade (1767) the " gov- ernor, Council, and Assembly of New York passing any legislative act for any purpose whatever" until they should comply with the require- ments of the Mutiny Act. Parliament levied duties upon certain neces- sary articles imported into the colonies with the avowed purpose of drawing a revenne from them, and authorized the establishment of a Board of Trade, or Commissioners of Customs, to regulate and collect the revenue thus ordered. They also attempted to suppress free discus- sion in the colonies by means of Committees of Correspondence.
This last act aroused the free spirit of the people to instant resistance. When Governor Moore transmitted to the New York Assembly instruc- tions from Lord Hillsborough against " holding seditious correspondence with other colonies," and called upon the Legislature to yield obedience, they boldly remonstrated against this ministerial interference with the inalienable right of a subject, and refused to obey.
On the death of Governor Moore, in September, 1769, Colden again became acting governor, when he coalesced politically with the De Lancey party. Very soon a gradual change in the political complexion of the Provincial Assembly was apparent. The leaven of aristocracy had begun a transformation, and a game for political power, based upon a proposed financial scheme, was begun.“ It was a scheme which menaced the liberties of the people.
* This was issuing bills of credit, on the security of the province, to the amount of $300,000, to be loaned to the people, the interest to be applied to defraying the expenses of the colonial government. It was really a proposition for a monster bank without checks, and intended to cheat the people into a compliance with the requirements of the Mutiny Act by the indirect method of applying the profits to that purpose.
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The popular leaders, discerning the danger, sounded the alarm. An incendiary hand-bill, signed " A Son of Liberty," was posted through- ont the city, calling a meeting of the "betrayed inhabitants" in the Fields. It denounced the money scheme and the Assembly, and pointed to the political coalition as an omen of danger. Obedient to the call, a very large concourse of citizens gathered around the Liberty Pole on a cold December day, who, after a harangue by John Lamb, by unanimous vote condemned the proceedings of . the Assembly. Another hand-bill from the same pen appeared the next day, and more severely denounced the Assembly in terms which were deemed libel- lons. A reward was offered for the name of the author. He was soon found to be Alexander McDougal, a seaman, who was afterward a major-general in the Continental Army. He was arrested, and re- fusing to plead or give bail, was sent to prison. On his way to jail he said :
" I rejoice that I am the first to suffer for liberty since the commence- ment of our glorious struggle."
Being a sailor, McDougal was regarded as the " true type of impris- oncd commerce ;" also as a martyr to the cause of liberty. His prison was daily the scene of a public reception. The most respectable citizens visited him. Ile was toasted at a banquet of the Sons of Liberty, who went in a procession to the jail to visit him. Ladies of distinction daily thronged there. Popular songs were written and sung below his prison- bars, and emblematic swords were worn. He was finally released on bail, and he was never tried.
Open rebellion in the colonies now seemed imminent. British soldiers were stationed in New York and Boston to overawe the people. Their insolence in words and manner produced continual irritation. There was a collision in Boston on March 5th (1770) between the citizens and soldiers, which aroused the indignation of all the colonies. Three persons were killed by the soldiers, and five were dangerously wounded. This event is known in history as the Boston Massacre.
On the day of the massacre the British prime-minister (Lord North) introduced into Parliament his famous Tea Act, which repealed all duties imposed upon articles imported into the American colonies, excepting upon tea. This one article was excepted as a practical asser- tion that Parliament had a right to tax the Americans without their con- sent. But this was the substance of the vital principle involved in the dispute, and the grand political postulate, " Taxation without representa- tion is tyranny," was vehemently asserted. The non-importation power was set in motion, and the people warmly co-operated by refusing to
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use tea. * The stubborn king and the stupid ministry could not compre- hend the idea involved, that a tax upon a single article, however small, was as much a violation of the spirit and letter of the postulate as if laid, in oppressive measure, upon a dozen articles.
Meanwhile the leaven of Toryism in the Assembly had extended its influence among the people. The Sons of Liberty in New York had formed a General Committee of One Hun- dred and a Vigilance Committee of Fifty, charged with the duty of watching the movements of the Whigs and Tories, and preventing, if possible, violations of the non- importation agreement. The Committee of One Hundred became widely disaffected by Toryism. The Vigilance Committee, PUE RTH more radical, denounced them, and the ORTUNE patriotic citizens of New England uttered indignant protests, but in vain. The New York merchants at large became disaffected, SEAL OF GOVERNOR DUNMORE. and at midsummer, 1770, the Committee of One Hundred, composed largely of merchants, resolved upon a resumption of importations of everything but tea. They issued a circular letter justifying their course. It was indignantly torn and scat- tered to the winds in Boston. The merchants of Philadelphia received it with scorn, and the sturdier patriots of that city said : "The old Liberty Pole of New York ought to be Summeve transferred to this city, as it is no longer a rallying-point for the votaries of free- dom at home." The students at Prince- ton College, with James Madison at their head, burned the letter on the cam- pus.
In October (1770) John Murray, Earl SIGNATURE OF GOV. DUNMORE. of Dunmore, succeeded Sir Henry Moore as Governor of New York. He remained such for only about nine months, when he was succeeded by Sir William Tryon, an Irish baronet, who had misruled North Carolina and stirred up a rebellion there. The Assembly, now thoroughly imbued with Tory-
* In Boston the mistresses of three hundred families subscribed their names to a league, binding themselves not to drink any tea until the Revenue Act was repealed. Three days afterward the young women followed their example. It was imitated in New York and Philadelphia.
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ism, complimented the retiring governor, who was transferred to Vir- ginia, and in a most cringing address, written by Captain Oliver de Lancey, replied to Tryon's opening message, at the beginning of 1772.
SEAL OF GOVERNOR TRYON.
The state of political society in New York at this time was peculiar. Social differences had produced two distinct parties among the professed republicans, which were designated respectively Patricians and Tribunes. The former consisted chiefly of the merchants and gentry, and the latter were mostly mechanics. The latter were radicals, the former were conservatives, and joined the Loyalists or Tories, who were trying to check the infin- ence of the more zealous democrats.
Comparative quiet had prevailed in New York for nearly three years, when an attempt to enforce North's Tea Act set the colonies in a blaze again." The East India Company, who had the monopoly of the tea trade, having lost their valuable custom- ers in America by the operations of the non-importation measures, Bryon asked Parliament to take off three pence a pound levied upon its im- portation into America, and agreed to pay the Government more than SIGNATURE OF GOVERNOR TRYON. an equal amount in export duty, in case the change should be made. Here was an excellent opportunity for the Government to act justly and wisely and to produce a reconciliation ;
* An event occurred in Narraganset Bay in the summer of 1772 which produced wide- spread excitement and widened the breach between the mother country and the colonies. The armed schooner Gaspé was stationed in the bay to enforce the revenue laws. Her commander haughtily ordered every American vessel when passing his schooner to lower its colors, in token of obedience. The master of a Providence sloop refused to bow to this nautical Gesler's cap, and was fired at and chased by the Gaspe. The latter grounded upon a sand-bar. That night Abraham Whipple (who was a naval commander during the Revolution), with sixty armed men, went down the bay in boats, captured the people on the schooner and burned her. Although a large reward was offered for the apprehension of the perpetrators they were not betrayed. Four years afterward, when Captain Wallace, a British naval commander near Newport, heard that Whipple was the leader of the offenders, he wrote to him, saying :
" On June 9th, 1772, you burned His Majesty's vessel the Gaspe, and I will hang you at the yard-arm !"
To this Whipple instantly replied : " Sir, always catch a man before you hang him !"
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but the stupid ministry, fearing it might be considered a submission to "rebellious subjects," refused this olive branch. They allowed the company to send their tea free of export duty, but retained the import duty.
This concession to a great commercial monopoly, while spurning the appeals of subjects governed by a great principle, created indignation and contempt throughout the colo- nies. As this would make tea cheaper in America than in Eng- land, the Government and the East India Company unwisely concluded that the Americans would not ob- ject to paying the small duty. They were mistaken, as they very soon learned. Assured that Governor Tryon at New York would enforce the law, the company sent several ships laden with tea to that and other American ports early in 1773.
Already the Americans had re- solved not to allow a pound of tea to be landed in any of the seaports. JOHN LAMB. At a meeting held at New York on October 20th (1773), it was declared that the tea consignees and stamp distributors were equally obnoxious. The consignees, alarmed, prom- ised not to receive the tea, notwithstanding Governor Tryon had prom- ised them ample protection. The governor declared the tea should be delivered to the consignees, even if it should be " sprinkled with blood." John Lamb (afterward a commander John Lamp. of artillery in the war for indepen- dence, and one of the foremost of the Sons of Liberty) said to his informer of these words : "Tell Tryon, for SIGNATURE OF JOHN LAMB. me, that the tea shall not be landed ; and if force is attempted to effect it, his blood will be the first shed in the conflict. The people of the city are firmly resolved on that head." Tryon took counsel of prudence.
At the middle of December the famous Boston Tea Party occurred, when three hundred and forty-three chests of tea were taken from ships moored at the wharves, broken open, and their contents cast into the waters of the harbor in the space of two hours, by men disguised as
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Indians. The next day a meeting was held in the Fields at New York, which was addressed by John Lamb .* Strong resolutions in favor of resistance were passed ; a Committee of Fifteen to carry on correspondence with the Sons of Liberty elsewhere was appointed, and the meeting was adjourned " till the arrival of the tea ships."
The ships did not arrive until April following, when the Nancy, Captain Lockyer, appeared at Sandy Hook with a cargo of tea. Apprised of the state of feeling in the city, and heeding the advice of the con- signee, Lockyer prudently concluded to return to England with his cargo. A merchant vessel arrived at about the same time with several chests of tea concealed among her cargo. They were discovered, seized, and their contents were thrown into the waters of New York Harbor. The captain took refuge from the hands of the indignant people on board the Nancy, and sailed away in her.
At about this time a new Committee of One Hundred, also a Vigil- ance Committee, composed of the most substantial citizens, who were wise, watchful, and active, was created. The governor and a majority of the Assembly, being in political accord, needed watching ; henee the forma- tion of these two committees.
A misfortune befell the governor at this juncture which won for him public sympathy. At near the close of 1773 his house, with all his personal property, was accidentally burned. The Assembly voted him $20,000 in consideration of his loss, and with this money he left the province in charge of Dr. Colden, and went to England in the spring of 1774.
The destruction of tea in Boston Harbor created intense excitement in Great Britain. The exasperated ministry conceived several retaliatory measures, which were authorized by Parliament, the most conspicuous of which was an order for the closing of the port of Boston against all commercial transactions whatever, and the removal of all public offices thence to Salem. This prostration of all kinds of business occasioned widespread distress and created more widespread sympathy. Even the
* John Lamb, an artillery officer of the Revolution, was born in New York City January 1st, 1735 ; died there May 31st, 1800. He was one of the most active Sons of Liberty, and when the old war for independence began he entered the military service. He was in command of the artillery under General Montgomery at the siege of Quebec, where he was wounded and made prisoner. With the rank of major he served in the regiment of Colonel Knox the next summer, and on January 1st, 1777, he was commis- sioned a colonel of New York artillery. Lamb performed good service throughout the war, and ended his military career at the siege of Yorktown. He afterward became a member of the New York Assembly. President Washington appointed him (1789) collector of the customs at the port of New York.
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city of London, in its corporate capacity, sent aid to the sufferers at Boston of the money value of fully $150,000. Another measure levelled a deadly blow at the charter of Massachusetts ; another provided for the trial, in England, of all persons charged in the colonies with murder committed in support of the Government, giving, as Colonel Barre said on the floor of Parliament, " encouragement to military insolence already insupportable." A fourth provided for the quartering of troops at the expense of the colonies. The port of Boston was to be closed in June, and in May General Gage was sent to enforce the measure.
The people were intensely excited by these cruel measures. They despaired of justice at the hands of the British ministry. They began to feel that war was inevitable, and proceeded to arm and discipline themselves, and to manufacture guns and gunpowder. Every man capable of bearing arms enrolled himself in a company pledged to be ready to take the field at a minute's warning. So was created the vast army of Minute Men. Its headquarters was under every roof. It bivouacked in every church and household ; and mothers, wives, sisters, and sweethearts made cartridges for its muskets and supplied its com- missariat.
A crowded meeting in Faneuil Hall, in Boston, resolved to resume the non-importation measures with all their stringency. They sent Paul Revere with their resolutions to the Sons of Liberty in New York, whom the Loyalists called " Presbyterian Jesuits." The Committee of Fifty-One did not approve the resolutions, but favored the assembling of a general congress of deputies. In their reply to the communication from Boston they said :
"The cause is general, and concerns a whole continent, who are equally interested with you and us ; and we foresee that no remedy can be of avail unless it proceeds from their joint acts and approbation. From a virtuous and spirited union much may be expected, while the feeble efforts of a few will only be attended with mischief and disap- pointment to themselves, and triumph to the adversaries of liberty. Upon these reasons we conclude that a CONGRESS OF DEPUTIES FROM THE COLONIES IN GENERAL is of the utmost importance ; that it ought to be assembled without delay, and some unanimous resolutions formed in this fatal emergency, not only respecting your deplorable circumstances [the destruction of all commercial business by the closing of the port], but for the security of our common rights."
This recommendation for a General Congress, written, it is believed, by John Jay, found a hearty response everywhere. While the Bostonians approved the measure and suggested the time for holding the Congress,
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they adopted stringent non-importation measures. The people in other colonies did the same, and New York stood almost alone in refusing to acquiesce. At this the Loyalists rejoiced, and Rivington, the King's Printer, published the following lines in his Gazetteer :
" And so, my good masters, I find it no joke, For YORK has stepped forward and thrown off the yoke Of Congress, committees, and even King Sears, * Who shows you good-nature by showing his ears."
At this time there were two prominent political committees in New York-namely, the old Vigilance Committee of Fifty and a newly- organized Committee of Fifty-One. The former was composed of radicals, Sons of Liberty, led by McDougall, Sears, and Lamb, and favored non-importation measures ; the latter consisted of conservatives, and favored a General Congress rather than non-importation measures. Adherents of the former called Isaac Sears a meeting in the Fields on July 6th (1774), which, on account of its numbers, was known as "The Great Meeting." On SIGNATURE OF ISAAC SEARS. that occasion a student of King's (now Columbia) College, known as the " Young West Indian," a delicate boy, girl-like in personal grace and stature, only seventeen years of age, made a speech, and astonished the multitude by his eloquence and logie. He was Alexander Hamilton, from the island of Nevis, who was destined to play an important part in the drama of our national history.
The Great Meeting denounced the Boston Port Bill and deelared that an attack upon the liberties of one colony concerned the whole. The meeting pledged New York to join with others in a non-importation league, and to be governed by the action of the contemplated General Congress. The Committee of Fifty-One denounced these proceedings
* Isaac Sears was one of the most active and energetic of the Sons of Liberty. He was a native of Norwalk, Conn., where he was born in 1729 ; he died in Canton, China, in 1786. He was a successful merchant in New York, engaged in the European and West India trade. Having commanded a merchant vessel, he was generally known as Captain Sears, and because of his valiant leadership in opposition to the Government he was called " King Sears." He was thoroughly hated, maligned, caricatured, and satirized by his political enemies. Rivington, the King's Printer, abused him shamefully, and in retaliation Sears entered the city in 1775 with some Connecticut light horsemen and destroyed his maligner's printing establishment. At the end of the war his business and fortune were gone. In 1785 he went, as supercargo, to China, and died soon after his arrival at Canton.
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as " seditious and incendiary." This offended a dozen of their members, who withdrew from the committee. But these feuds were soon healed by the exigencies of the occasion, and the patriots of New York, early in July (1774), chose delegates to represent the province in the General Congress to be convened at Philadelphia on the 5th day of September. They chose as representatives of the city of New York : Philip Living- ston, John Alsop, Isaac Low, James Duane, and John Jay. Suffolk County, on Long Island, elected William Floyd ; Orange County, Henry Wisner and John Herring ; and King's County, Simon Boerum. Duchess and Westchester counties adopted the New York City delegates as their representatives ; so also did the city and county of Albany .*
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