USA > New York > New York City > The Memorial History of the City of New York: From Its First Settlement to the Year 1892, Volume II > Part 42
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On the 14th, the mayor and common council (Augustus Van Cort- landt, clerk) adopted an address to the new governor, in which "with hearts elate and full of joy" they congratulate him on his safe arrival. They allude in terms of affectionate gratitude to the administration of General Monckton, who governed the colony with a "spirit of dig- nity, justice and tenderness never to be forgotten by the people of this country." They deplore the state of the colonies in general, "now groaning under the burthen of great grievances and filled with fearful apprehensions of the loss of their most inestimable privileges." They profess the utmost devotion and loyalty to the royal sovereign, and their satisfaction at his (the governor's) arrival at "this critical junction, most ardently wished for and depended upon for the preservation and establishment of the public peace and felicity." Duly engrossed and sealed with the seal of the corporation, the address was accompanied by a resolution tendering him the freedom of the city, inclosed in a gold box with the city arms engraved thereon. The corporation waited on the governor on the 21st with their compliments, and were graciously received with assurances of "his desire to contribute to the public peace and tranquillity and to establish them on a lasting foun- dation." The city was by this time quiet. Indeed, so immediate was the restoration of tranquillity after the delivery of the stamps, that Colden himself wrote on the 9th that "it [the excitement] immediately ceased in every appearance"; and again at a later period, "the mob
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entirely dispersed and the city remained in perfect tranquillity till I delivered up the administration to Sir Henry Moore." Meanwhile the stamps "remained safe with a very trifling guard indeed upon them in the City Hall."
The new governor evidently made a favorable impression. Watts, writing to Monckton, describes him as "an easy sensible well-bred man and experienced in business; everybody likes the change ex- tremely; indeed nobody could come amiss so they were but rid of the old man": i. e., Colden. His first question to the council was, Could the stamps be issued ? to which the unanimous answer was No! The next, whether the fort could not be reduced to its old state, it now appear- ing as menacing and unfriendly, and the gates thrown open as usual; to which they unanimously consented, even Colden voting in the affir- mative. On the 16th, Montresor had his order from General Gage, on the application of the governor, to dismantle Fort George, and on the 29th orders were issued to raze the parapet also. The work was per- formed by the garrison, consisting of the detachment of royal artillery and the Royal Americans, and it was completed in December. The guns on the battery and also the ordnance guns in the artillery-yard had been spiked by the British officers on November 3. This, it must. be remembered, was the Water Battery, not the Battery as it now exists, which is chiefly made land.
The Sons of Liberty again appear publicly on the scene. The lawyers whom Colden accused of writing the stirring letters in the newspapers are not mentioned by him by name. Of the authors of the more inflammatory articles Watts wrote on October 12: "I don't find anybody who so much as suspects the authors of them." John Holt, the editor of the "New-York Gazette and Weekly Post Boy," though repeatedly warned by the government, totally disregarded the warnings and boldly printed his journal on unstamped paper. He must have been sure of personal protection, as he openly published a manifesto of his purpose to defy the law.1 Chancellor Robert R. Livingston, describing the violent proceedings, says that the placard announcing the assault on the fort on November 5 was signed "Sons of Neptune," and it has been seen that the still more significant notice was signed "Vox Populi." This was the name of the secret party,
1 Leake, in his life of John Lamb, asserts, but without naming any authority, that at the non-im- portation meeting of the merchants of New-York, on October 31, it was proposed to raise a committee to correspond with the different colonies; that many leading names were proposed, but that the duty was declined, until at length five gentlemen, Isaac Sears, John Lamb. Gershom Mott, William Wiley, and Thomas Robinson, the most ardent of the associated Sons of Liberty, volunteered their services and were accepted. Dawson, in his " Sons of Liberty," accepts this statement ; but, unsup-
ported as it is by contemporaneous witness, it hardly seems credible that two hundred of the principal merchants of New-York would have selected men of comparative insignificance to rep- resent them in such important matters as were involved in their action. No imputation is here cast on the patriotism of any of these gentlemen, but question is made of their importance. Of the five the first two named were assuredly merchants and popular leaders, but not in harmony with the conservative mercantile class which controlled the meeting in question.
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though at the time no one knew how formidable it was. The placard thrown into Holt's window on November 2, warning him not to desert the people at this critical hour, was signed, in the name and by the order of a great number of the " Free Sons of New-York," by "John Hampden on the Turf," a probable allusion to the Fields. Holt an- swered it on the 14th. Not as yet does the name Sons of Liberty appear. It is first found in Holt's New-York letter of November 21, from which we learn that in the greatest simplicity and without any pageantry the Sons of Liberty had sent Sir Henry Moore a deputa- tion with a congratulatory address. Encouraged by his Excellency's complaisant reception, they met in the Fields on Friday, the 15th, erected inscriptions and pyra- mids in his honour, and one of the grandest bonfires ever seen in the city. The same paper relates that these Sons of Lib- erty, ever vigilant for their country's good, alarmed at a second importation of stamps in the Minerva, which brought out the governor, were inde- BURNS'S COFFEE HOUSE. 1 fatigable in their efforts to have them lodged with the first in the City Hall. On their application the mayor and aldermen asserted themselves, and they succeeded in obtaining for them this destina- tion. Joseph Allicocke, writing to John Lamb, then in Philadelphia, uses the phrase "Liberty boys." He sends Lamb some papers which he requests him "to look at and seal and distribute with speed, pri- vacy and actual secrecy."
The assembly met on November 20, when Robert R. Livingston, chairman of the committee appointed on October 18, 1764, to corre- spond with the other colonies upon the sugar act and other obnoxious legislation by parliament, reported the meeting of the Stamp Act Congress and the representations then adopted, which the assembly unanimously approved, and in accordance with the recommendations of the congress raised a committee to draw up a petition for the New- York province. Still another grievance had disturbed the peace of the colony and alarmed the most thoughtful men. This was an un- precedented attempt made by Ex-Governor Colden, during the recess of the assembly, to introduce appeals from the verdict of a jury. Pop- ular excitement, which had somewhat lulled under the satisfaction felt
1 Burns's Coffee House, so frequently mentioned in the text, stood in Broadway opposite the Bowl- ing Green, near what was formerly the private residence of the Van Cortlandts. The view here
presented is that of its front in Broadway. The illustration on a succeeding page gives the rear view, with its attractive garden.
EDITOR.
THE PART OF NEW-YORK IN THE STAMP ACT TROUBLES 369
in the change of administration, again ran high. As in all popular movements the city was divided into two great classes: the men of property, who had a heavy stake in the preservation of order and the redress of grievances by constitutional or at least conservative methods; and the larger faction of those who had much to gain and little to lose by revolution, led by men who found their interest pro- moted and their pride gratified in their leadership. Livingston, in his account of the troubles, says that a meeting of those conservative men who were " inclined to keep the peace of the city " was called at the Coffee House at ten in the morning; that although "all came prepared to form a Union, few cared openly to declare the necessity of it, so intimidated were they at the secret unknown party which had threat- ened such bold things." A similar division of sentiment again dis- played itself. Business, it seems, had come to a standstill. The well-to-do class could afford to await the issue of the petitions to Great Britain. The middle and lower classes, who depended upon a daily trade, were in distress because of its stoppage, and insisted that busi- ness should go on as before, regardless of the stamps.
On November 25, an advertisement was devised and great numbers of it set up in all quarters of the town, under the heading "Liberty, Property, and no Stamps," inviting a general meeting of the free- holders, freemen, and inhabitants of the city and county on the 26th at Burns's City Arms Tavern (the same where the non-importation agreement was signed October 31 previous), in order to agree upon instructions to their representatives in the general assembly. Per- sons of all ages, ranks, and conditions were notified they could safely attend, as it was resolved by the promoters of the meeting that their proceedings should be conducted with the utmost solemnity and good order. Notwithstanding the admirable temper of this call, the placards were twice pulled down in all parts of the town and as often immedi- ately restored to their places by order of the managers. When it was found that the meeting could not be prevented, an attempt was made by its opponents to control its action and, by diverting its purpose from essential to minor objects, to defeat the original design. About twelve hundred persons assembled. A committee of management was appointed, representing, it would seem, both wings of opinion. An address was then prepared to the city and county members proposing a method for carrying on business without stamps. This paper was read and approved. Another paper was submitted urging remon- strance to the several unconstitutional acts. This also was approved, and being declared by one of the principal persons to be all that was needed, was by the managers substituted for the first. The committee appointed to present the petition, twelve in number, was composed of Henry Cruger, John Vanderspiegel, David Van Horne, James Jauncey, VOL. II .- 24.
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Walter Rutherfurd, John Alsop, William Livingston, William Smith, Jr., Whitehead Hicks, John Morin Scott, James De Lancey, and John Thurman, Jr., who fairly represented the various shades of opinion. Colden describes them as four lawyers, six merchants, and two landed men. The rejected address invited the assembly to make it a condition "that no of- ficer shall be entitled to any salary who refuses to dis- charge the functions of his duty on unstamped paper." Thus the issue was drawn between those who advocat- ed a suspension of trade and those who favored trade on unstamped -i. e., illegal - paper. The committee of twelve published the instruc- BURNS'S COFFEE HOUSE, FROM THE GARDEN. tions and reported that they had presented them in a body to the city members, who assured them that the house had already seriously considered their subject-matter. In fact the journals of the 29th report the adoption by the house of the petitions, drafted by Robert R. Livingston by their order.
While the governor was "behaving sensibly and coolly, and letting the stamps sleep till he can hear from home," he lost little time in informing the assembly of what parliament expected of them. On December 3 he laid before the assembly the act of parliament providing that the expense of furnishing the king's troops in America with quar- ters should be defrayed by the respective colonies. He added a return of the forces, and asked their compliance. The assembly withheld its answer till the 15th, when it declared that wherever the king's troops were quartered in the king's barracks they were supplied without charge to the colonies; that there were barracks in this city sufficient for the king's forces, and, finally, that when the question arose as to the supply of quarters and necessaries on the march, the house would con- sider it after the expenses had been incurred. This was passed without a dissenting voice. On December 18 they passed, also with- out a dissenting voice, a solemn declaration of their rights and liber- ties, claimed the sole right of taxing themselves, and asserted that the late duties were "grievous, burthensome, and impossible to be paid," and already diminished their profitable trade with the West India foreign islands, and must render them unable to purchase the manufactures of Great Britain. In the same session, however, they continued the old act granting to the king the several duties and im-
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positions on goods, wares, and merchandise imported into the colony. The assembly adjourned on the 23d to March 4, 1766.1
The distress of the people grew fast. " The aspect of things was ill- boding, what with the cramping of trade, suppression of paper money, duties, courts of admiralty, appeals, internal taxes, etc., rendered people so poor, cross, and desperate that they don't seem to care who are their masters." So wrote Watts, a calm observer. But Sir William Johnson held the behavior of the New-Yorkers to be "furious and audacious," and the purpose of the persons of consequence who excited and sup- ported them to be, "to effect that democratical system which is their sole aim, and which they may hereafter compass unless a timely check is given to that spirit of Libertinism and Independence daily gaining ground through the artifices and unaccountable conduct of a few pre- tended patriots, but in reality enemies to the British Constitution." Toward the close of November, Peter De Lancey arrived from London, and with his arrival came the news that he had been appointed one of the inspectors of stamps for America ; but finding the temper of the people to be what it was, he made a solemn renunciation of the office, which was published in Holt's "Gazette." Hood, the Maryland offi- cer who, it will be remembered, took refuge in Fort George, was now residing at Flushing, where he was visited by a large delegation from New-York, and compelled to deliver a similar renunciation, which he did on November 28. That these men were Sons of Liberty, and that they were now associated under that name, appears in a letter of thanks of the date of March 6, 1766, from the Baltimore Society to the New-York Sons of Liberty, preserved in the Lamb papers.2
The first of these papers is that of November 21, already quoted, from Joseph Allicocke. The second is a communication dated Al- bany, January 15, 1766, addressed to Messrs. Joseph Allicocke and Isaac Sears, which announces the formation of a society in that town; it is signed " Albany." A letter signed "Son of Liberty," indorsed as from Mayor Durkee, dated Norwich, Conn., February 15, mentions a society in that town; it contained a copy of a letter from the Sons of Liberty at Boston, which closed with the words : "We have nothing more to subjoin except the unanimous vote of thanks from our first- born Sons of Liberty throughout the Province of Massachusetts Bay on the 27th January, 1766." A communication from the Sons of Lib- erty in Philadelphia, dated February 15, 1766, declares their body not numerous, because of dissensions in provincial politics. A letter from the same place, the same day, is addressed to Messrs. Lamb, Sears, Robinson, Wiley, and Mott-the first mention found of a committee.
1 Unfortunately the journals of the house from this date to November 17, 1767, have been lost, it seems, irrevocably. The council minutes exist at Albany, but were never printed.
? A letter of thanks, signed "Marylander," and addressed to the Sons of Liberty in New-York, appeared in Holt's paper on December 26, 1765.
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The society in Boston was governed by a privy council, as appears by a letter from Providence of February 7. From a copy of a letter from the New-York committee of February 20, it seems that this body sub- mitted their resolves to a general meeting, and sent their circulars as far as Charleston by messengers, usually the post-riders. With this evidence the claim of New-York to have originated this practical scheme of an organization which united the colonies in a common pur- pose cannot be disputed; and this was the precursor of colonial union. Sears and Allicocke seem to have been the known authorities in New- York, and it was before them that James McEvers made his formal renunciation on December 2.
In addition to their political differences, there now arose constant quarrelings between the king's troops and the citizens. The royal artillery, a party of whom had barely escaped with their lives when the mob sacked the house of their officer, Major James, while under their guard, held the Sons of Liberty in dire umbrage. Montresor re- lates that a member of the association was stabbed with a bayonet by one of the royal artillery on December 1, 1765; and his journal of De- cember 8 has an entry, "The Sons of Liberty, as they term themselves, openly defying powers, office, and all authority; sole rulers." On the 13th the officer commanding the man-of-war declared his obligation to seize " vessels cleared without stamps, whereon one returned to har- bour." The excitement was so high that Sir Henry Moore invited all the merchants to meet him at the fort on the evening of the 16th, that he might know who reported among them that he had given the officer of the man-of-war such advice. On the night of the 17th ef- figies of Lord Grenville and other obnoxious British leaders were pa- raded through the streets by a large crowd of people, and burned on the common. On the 19th "Freeman " again entreated the people to stand firm in the important and most alarming crisis. "Our business of all kinds is stopped, our vessels ready for sea blocked up in our har- bours as if besieged by an enemy, great numbers of our poor people and seamen without employment and without support, . . . many families which used to live in comfortable plenty daily falling to decay for want of business"-a sad picture. Six inches of snow had fallen the day before. On the 21st, thirty-five of the forty militiamen who un- der a magistrate nightly guarded the stamp papers, voted to burn them on their own responsibility. On the 23d a mob assembled to take the votes of the householders as to whether the papers should be burned or returned, but broke up without reaching a deter- mination. On the 24th a mob gathered to destroy the residence of Captain Kennedy, but was prevented by the mayor's interposition.1
1 Kennedy lived at the building long but erroneously known as Washington's Headquarters, No. 1 Broadway; now the site of the Field Building.
THE PART OF NEW-YORK IN THE STAMP ACT TROUBLES 373
On the 25th it was proposed to the governor to issue a proclama- tion offering the post of stamp-distributer or stamp-master to any who would accept it, well aware that no such person could be found, and should none apply, to issue let-passes to vessels. Apparently the governor declined this subterfuge. The next day a Son of Liberty no- tified his brethren to be ready at a call when the common good should again require their exertions. Some enterprise was contemplated.
The temper of the people now suddenly changed. Advertisements were posted about the streets threatening the effects and even the persons of the captains of the men-of-war should they dare to detain or even bring to any vessel sailing with- out stamped clearances; and the year closed with an attempt to burn Gen- eral Gage in effigy, which was averted only by the joint action of Gage and his officers. The cause of complaint was probably the active measures being taken to survey the town KENNEDY AND WATTS HOUSES. 1 and adjacent country for military purposes. Thus ended this mem- orable year 1765, thenceforth distinguished in history as the year of the Stamp Act Congress. In the very last days of the year Watts justly characterized the temper of the people when he wrote, "he, Governor Colden, and the Stamp Act, at present are exactly alike, without a single friend." The assembly paid no attention to Colden's demand for so much of his salary as he had earned from the time of the last appropriation till the arrival of his successor; and while at a later session they compensated Major James for his losses, they neg- lected to remunerate Colden for his damaged coach-house and burned chariot. Moreover, he was sharply censured and assured of his Maj- esty's displeasure by Secretary Conway for having waived the enforce- ment of the act until Sir Henry Moore's arrival .? It is proper to state here that while all classes were opposed to the use of stamps, the oppo- sition was clearly divided into two classes: first, those who proposed to abandon trade; second, those who insisted on its continuance with-
1 These houses occupied the lots Nos. 1 and 3 Broadway, where now stands the Field or Wash- ington Building. . Captain Archibald Kennedy later became Earl of Cassilis. He was related by marriage to the occupants of the adjoining house. John Watts, the elder, adhering to the Tories, at the time of the evacuation, in 1783, his property
was subjected to confiscation, but it was restored finally to his son.
2 In his complaint to the king, through his min- ister, Colden wrote in January that he wanted only one month of having "lived seventy-eight years complete, of which forty in the Council of the Province."
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out stamps: the first the men of property who dreaded illegal mea- sures; the second the trading people whose support depended on their daily business.
Early in January, 1766, the plans of the Sons of Liberty to associate on a continental basis seem to have been completed, and the mask of secrecy was boldly thrown off in all the colonies. On the evening of Tuesday, January 7, a great num- ber of gentlemen belonging to the Sons of Liberty met at the house of William Howard, an old place of enter- tainment which stood at the upper end of Broadway facing the common, upon a part of Trinity Church farm, and which thenceforward became their headquarters; and after unani- mously declaring their opposition to the stamp act, a great majority agreed to a series of resolutions demanding and engaging action of the most vig- orous nature toward all who "may either carry on their business on Stamped paper or refuse to carry it on independently of the odious act." They then adjourned to meet again in STATUE OF GEORGE III. the same place a fortnight later, and at similar regular intervals thereafter. The same evening the British brig Polly arrived from London, whence she had sailed in October. Information being received that she had ten packages of stamps in her cargo, she was boarded the next night by a body of armed men as she lay at Cruger's dock, when the persons in charge were compelled to deliver up the keys and provide lights for a thorough search. The stamps were found, laden on a large boat, and taken up the East River to the ship-yards, where they were burned in tar-barrels, after which the men dispersed in an orderly manner without the least alarm to the city. The next day placards all over the city declared the popular approbation of the bold act of the Sons.
Sir Henry Moore, who with General Gage had been secretly pre- paring for a possible enforcement of the act, now seems to have held it to be impossible with the forces at hand to carry out this purpose. There appears to have been some division of opinion in the councils of the Sons, perhaps because of the news, which came in on the 18th from Hartford, of a large assemblage there of men who desired a new system of government; some boldly demanding another Cromwell as protector. The majority of the New-York population was, as has been
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stated, truly loyal to the person of the king. Hence the fortnightly meeting in the Fields, for which great preparations had been made, including supper, fell through, for so few attended that it broke up in disorder. Indeed Montresor distinctly asserts this view in his diary under January 18: "From the present crisis, if we may judge of the loyalty of most people here, they acknowledge the King, but not the power of Parliament." This same day another vessel arrived with stamped papers, which were safely lodged in the City Hall. As it was known that those intended for Connecticut were in the fort, the Sons of Liberty in council resolved that on the first news from England of a determination to enforce the act, they would seize and destroy them all, no matter in whose custody they might be. At the regular meet- ing of the Sons of Liberty on February 2, a committee was appointed by unanimous consent to correspond with the Sons of Liberty in the neighboring colonies. This committee was composed of Messrs. Lamb, Sears, Robinson, Wiley, and Mott. News now arrived of great dis- turbances in the southern colonies, particularly in Georgia, where the governor himself headed the troops. Governor Moore summoned his council and informed them of his Majesty's orders to put the act in force, but they again declared against the possibility of such action, the Sons of Liberty having openly threatened that they would "fight up to their knees in blood rather than suffer the stamp act to be put in force in this province, or, if they can assist, even in any others." Carriers and criers patrolled the streets shouting "the downfall of the Stamp Act," and bands of boys roamed about with candles and effigies.
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