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 44
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On Monday, September 29, John Cruger, who had held the office of mayor of the city for ten consecutive years from 1756 with the highest honor and respect, resigned the dignity, and Whitehead Hicks was appointed by the governor in his stead. On October 11, Governor Moore, who with Lady Moore had made a visit to Lake Champlain with Governor Carleton, returned to the city.' Immediately on his arrival from Albany, the governor met his council and summoned the general assembly, which had stood prorogued from July 3. They met on November 10, in obedience to the circular letter requiring their attendance; but the session was prorogued to November 15. The
1 During his absence he had spent a few days with Captain Schuyler, and later with Sir William Johnson, at Schenectady. While engaged with General Carleton, in settling the boundaries be- tween Canada and the New-York province, they
were visited at the upper end of Lake Champlain by the Canawagha Indians living on the St. Law- rence, and the usual courtesies, gifts, and belts of wampum were exchanged. The English governors pledged themselves to respect their hunting rights.
THE PART OF NEW-YORK IN THE STAMP ACT TROUBLES 385
governor addressed them in a cordial manner and, without allusion to any past or present grievances, announced the consent of the king to the "striking of Bills of Credit and issuing the same in lieu of money," and asked for an appropriation for the extension of the boundary line between the provinces of New-York and Quebec.
Yet between the summons of the governor and their session, still another serious disturbance was made by the soldiers, who, armed with bayonets, entered several houses of ill fame in the Fields, where they complained they had been ill-treated the night before. This was in October; and again, in November, a number of soldiers, said to be- long to the forty-sixth regiment, entered the house of a cartman and, without provocation, cut and slashed him in a cruel manner. A soldier with blood-stained clothes was arrested and confined. In consequence of these troubles the magistrates publicly warned the inhabitants to sell no liquors to any soldier between the setting and rising of the sun, under heavy penalty of both fine and imprisonment." On the day fixed for the session of the assembly important news arrived from England that William Pitt was made lord privy seal, with the title of Earl of Chatham; and word came also that the general toast in Lon- don was: " May the Earl of Chatham retain the integrity of Mr. Pitt." The pulse of New-York responded as usual to every touch of English sentiment.
The assembly, in reply to the governor's speech, sent in an address as cordial as his own, and as careful in the avoidance of any possible subjects of difference or discontent. Yet, only a few evenings later, there was again a serious riot between a party of sailors and a num- ber of soldiers at a public house on the common, when one of the former was seriously, if not mortally, injured. Among the changes in the English ministry was the appointment of Lord Shelburne as sec- retary of the southern department, which included the British-Ameri- can colonies. On November 18 Governor Moore sent in to the gen- eral assembly Shelburne's instructions to him of August 9, which contained this significant passage: "I am ordered to signify to you, at the same time, that it is the indispensable duty of his Majesty's Sub- jects in America to obey the Acts of the Legislature of Great Britain; the King both expects and requires a due and cheerful obedience to the same; and it cannot be doubted that his Majesty's Province of New-York, after the lenity so recently extended to America, will not fail duly to carry into execution the Act of Parliament, passed last ses- sion, for quartering his Majesty's troops, in the full extent and mean- ing of the Act, without referring to the usage of other parts of his Majesty's dominions, where the Legislature has thought fit to pre-
1 Not many days later the law was enforced : a tavern-keeper was arrested,
and the fine imposed.
VOL. II .- 25.
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HISTORY OF NEW-YORK
scribe different regulations, &c." There was a gleam of consoling hope in the private news that "a plan of Lord Chatham for uniting the colonies with the Mother Country " would certainly be laid before parliament at the next session; but that Americans entirely appreci- ated the change in his position appears in a warning by Britannicus in the same journal in which this was announced, "that by quitting the House of Commons, Lord Chatham quitted his intrinsic power, and has no more now left than those who possess his Majesty's ear have a mind to give him."
The bombshell thrown in by the menacing instruction of Lord Shel- burne came at an unfortunate moment, as a meeting of the merchants had been called at Burns's Long Room in the City Arms, for getting their signature to an important petition, prepared by the principal merchants, representing the grievances of trade of the colony ; a meet- ing of which there appears no later notice. The meeting was called for November 28. The assembly was in no haste to lift the dangerous explosive contained in Shelburne's instruction. They only replied to the governor's address on December 15. In a firm but determined manner they refused to lay upon the colony the expense of quarter- ing the regiments marching through their territory. They pleaded the provision made at the last session for quartering two battalions and a company of artillery as excessive compared with that made by their neighbors, and as an evidence of their loyalty; but the tone of the address is sufficient indication of their determination not to quar- ter any considerable force. The word they use, "non-compliance," admits of no two meanings. In answer Governor Moore simply de- clared his concern, and his intention to submit their sentiments to the secretary of state. The governor then summoned the assembly, who presented themselves with their several acts of the session, and were on December 19 prorogued to March 15, 1767. The bills contain no extra provision beyond the annual limited supply for the usual barracks, voted the preceding session.
The year 1767 opened with great suffering in England from short crops, and a great depression in trade in the colonies. The political situation in New-York was peaceful, Sir Henry Moore carefully avoid- ing all occasion of dissidence; but the people at large were intensely interested in the dispute in the Massachusetts colony between the governor and the legislature. Bernard, the governor, was a man of different temper from Moore, more tenacious of his own as well as of the king's authority. The sympathy with Boston was kept active by the constant exertion of such men as Isaac Sears, who was of New England birth, and the mechanics of the Presbyterian and Dutch Re- formed belief, who were jealous of church as well as of state authori- ties. No further disturbances of the peace seem to have taken place.
THE PART OF NEW-YORK IN THE STAMP ACT TROUBLES 387
On Wednesday, March 18, occurred the first anniversary of the repeal of the stamp act. The day was celebrated with enthusiasm. A great number of gentlemen dined at the King's Arms, to which the old keeper, Edward Barden, appears to have returned, Howard having been in possession the year before. The toasts were twenty-three in number, and, with one or two exceptions, in honor of the leading friends of America in parliament. On the night following the dinner there was a general illumination, but the harmony of the occasion was later marred. The liberty pole (the third, which stood on the common and which was inscribed to the king, Pitt, and liberty) was again cut down. The act was attributed to the sol- diers. The next day a fourth mast was set up, larger and more sub- stantial, and secured with iron to a con- siderable height above ground. Attempts were again made to cut it down and to undermine it by digging, but with- out effect. Three nights later there was an at- tempt to destroy it by W Smith gunpowder. The next night (Sunday) a strong watch was set by the citizens in a house near by, probably the King's Arms. A party of soldiers appeared with their coats turned, armed with bayonets and sticks, but without their guns. They were interrogated by the watch, and withdrew. The evening after a party of soldiers passed by the post and fired their muskets, two of the balls lodging in the walls of Barden's tavern. Still another attempt was made, but was frustrated by an officer. The government and city authorities now found it necessary to interfere.
As the spring drew on, the aspect of American affairs in Great Britain grew dark and threatening. Private letters brought advices that the parliament would shortly take measures to enforce the billet- ing act, and the London merchants, alarmed at the outlook, allowed the packets for America to sail without cargo. It seemed certain that eight or nine regiments, with two detachments of artillery, were ready
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HISTORY OF NEW-YORK
to embark for New-York. The address of the New-York assembly was making "a great noise and disturbance throughout the King- dom," and the petitions of the merchants were coldly received by parliament. The New-York assembly, after sundry prorogations, met at the City Hall on Tuesday, May 26. In his address opening the session, Governor Moore laid stress upon the limitations in the provisions for the supply of the king's troops, and recommended a further supply. In reply the house voted the sum of three thousand pounds, five hundred pounds less than that expended the previous year, but without the restrictions of their last supply. The sum voted was that prescribed by the act of parliament. The house adjourned on June 6. The king's birthday was this year celebrated with unusual solemnity. There were a review of the seventeenth and forty-sixth regi- ments and the artillery detachment by General Gage on the Battery, and a dinner at Fort George, where, at the toasts to his Majesty, a royal salute was fired, which was answered with twenty-one guns from the liberty pole, from which the Union Jack was flying. Toward the close of July the proceedings of the House of Commons of May 13 to May 18 reached New-York. They were certainly of an alarming nature. Of the 13th Bancroft says, " A more eventful day for England had not dawned in that century." On that day Townshend brought in his vote to punish the refractory colonies. The doors of the House of Commons were by special order shut against every agent of the colonies and every American merchant. The limitation of the New- York assembly to supplies for two regiments only, and those articles provided in other parts of his Majesty's dominions, and their renewed refusal in December, marked that province for special chastisement. Townshend moved that until New-York complied with the billeting act her governor should be ordered to assent to no legislation. A board of commissioners of the customs was to be stationed in America; a revenue to be raised on direct importations of wine, oil, and fruit from Spain and Portugal; and a duty to be laid on glass, paper, lead, colors, and especially on tea,-this revenue to be placed at the disposal of the king for the payment of the civil list, while governors and chief justices were to have fixed salaries. The friends of America endeavored to have the resolutions recommitted, but they were adopted on the night of the 16th without a division. On this occasion Burke prophesied that Great Britain would "never see a single shilling from America." Both the act of the disfranchisement of New-York and that of the duties were agreed to on May 26.
The disfranchisement of New-York was of little practical account, the assembly having complied with the requisition of parliament before the passage of the bill. But the purpose, the intention of it alarmed the colonies. It meant coercion. The revenue bill was more
.
THE PART OF NEW-YORK IN THE STAMP ACT TROUBLES 389
immediately mischievous, but the news of its passage was shortly followed by the report that to prevent any further misunderstandings between the mother-country and the colonies the expediency of grant- ing the Americans representatives in the British parliament would be considered immediately on the formation of a new administration, which was daily expected. French observers better understood the situation, Choiseul considering that the estrangement would break up the British colonial system. The first symptom of dissatisfaction with the new measures appeared in Boston, where, on October 28, the free- holders, at a great meeting in Faneuil Hall, over which James Otis presided, agreed to prevent the unnecessary importation of foreign commodities, especially of the duty-taxed articles, glass and paper, and to encourage American manufactures. The agreement was gen- erally entered into, but the measure of retaliation was mild compared with the action in the stamp act controversy.
The New-York assembly met on November 17. The subject-matter of the governor's address was the pending dispute with the Massachu- setts Bay colony as to the boundaries of the jurisdiction. The house agreed that unless the dispute were shortly settled in an amicable manner it would petition the king to intervene with a decision. A further supply of fifteen hundred pounds was voted for the king's troops. The assembly adjourned on February 6, 1768. A curious incident in their proceedings was their inquiry into the authorship of a pamphlet entitled "The Conduct of Cadwallader Colden, Esq., Lieu- tenant Governor of New-York, relating to the Judges' commissions, appeals to the King, and Stamp Duty." John Morin Scott, among others, was summoned before them. The pamphlet was a vindication of Colden's action, and was originally published in London, but a few copies being reprinted in New-York. It was held to contain reflections on the dignity of the assembly. It had been presented by the grand jury in October as a libelous reflection on the council, the assembly, and the courts of justice in the New-York province. Judge Living- ston brought the matter before the assembly. No conclusion seems to have been reached until the close of the session, in which time the author had not been discovered. The lieutenant-governor had sulked in his tent ever since the arrival of Governor Moore, attending the meetings of the council-board only once, and not leaving his country- seat for the city. He was not idle, however, as is shown by his con- stant letters to Lord Mansfield, the Earl of Shelburne, the Earl of Hali- fax, and Lord Grenville, defending himself and abusing his enemies. In his list of enemies he includes the members of the council who were on the joint committee of inquiry-John Watts, Roger Morris, and William Smith, Jr. The assembly had finally relented, and or- dered the payment of his arrears of salary, but declined to reimburse
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HISTORY OF NEW-YORK
him for the value of his coach; but he had long before this provided himself with a new post chariot from London. He was greatly pleased with it, and wrote there was not a "handsomer in this place."
The legal limit of the sessions of the assembly (seven years) being reached, it was dissolved by the governor on February 6, 1768, and on the 10th writs were issued for a new election, returnable on March 22, 1768. The polls were opened on Monday, the 6th, and the election was disputed with unexampled ardor until Friday evening, the 10th, when 1929 votes had been cast. The representatives chosen, in the order of the votes received, were Philip Livingston, who led the list with 1320 votes, James De Lancey, Jacob Walton, and James Jauncey; John Morin Scott received the highest of the opposition votes, but failed of an election. The election was proclaimed, but the session deferred by prorogation.
March 18, the third anniversary of the repeal of the stamp act, was again celebrated with zeal, the principal merchants on this occasion taking an active part. The friends of constitutional liberty and trade met at the tavern opposite the common, kept by Barden, and at Jones's, which are described as "nearly adjoining." Union flags were displayed. Among the toasts were "the spirited Assembly of Virginia in 1765; the spirited Assembly of Boston; May the merchants and tradesmen of this city [New-York] ever be firmly united to pro- mote the true interest and prosperity of this Province"; and finally, "Unanimity to the Sons of Liberty in America." The occasion seems to have been one of entire harmony.
It would seem, indeed, that the merchants had taken fresh courage, for on April 8 twenty-four gentlemen engaged in foreign commerce met in the Long Room at the Queen's Head, or Fraunces' Tavern, on the corner of Broad and Dock (now Pearl) streets, then temporarily kept by Bolton and Sigell, and there formed themselves into a society which they styled the New-York Chamber of Commerce, electing as their officers: John Cruger, president; Hugh Wallace, vice-president; Elias Desbrosses, treasurer. This was the first mercantile society formed in the colonies, and the modest beginning of the important institution which has since maintained its organization without break, and to-day has a membership of one thousand of our prin- cipal merchants, and the finest gallery of merchant portraits on the American continent.
CHAPTER XI
THE SECOND NON-IMPORTATION AGREEMENT, AND THE COMMITTEES OF CORRESPONDENCE AND OBSERVATION 1769-1775
HERE still was a feeling of uneasiness at the threatening measures of the ministry, which needed little to stimulate it into expression or activity. This was brought about by the action of the Boston merchants. On March 31, 1769, an anonymous advertisement in Holt's "New-York Journal" gave notice that a letter had been received from a committee of Bos- ton merchants to the merchants of New-York which would be sub- mitted to such as would gather that evening at Bolton and Sigell's (Fraunces') Tavern. A few gentlemen met as requested, but not in sufficient num- bers to warrant action, and a second ad- vertisement followed calling a meeting at the same place on the evening of April 7. Meanwhile a strong appeal, signed "A New-Yorker," urged an agreement to pre- vent the importation of European goods as before. This appeared on April 2, though sent to the journal for publication the week previous. It seems that at this second meeting a committee was appoint- ed to arrange a second "non-importation agreement." This was in the form of a " voluntary engagement to each other that they will not sell on their own account or on commission, nor buy or sell for any Jammera person whatsoever, any goods [save a few enumerated articles] which shall be shipped from Great Britain after the first day of October next, until the Act of Parliament im- posing duties on paper, glass, etc., be repealed; provided Boston and Philadelphia adopt similar resolutions by the first of June next." The committee of merchants who passed this agreement found hardly an importer who was not willing to subscribe.
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HISTORY OF NEW-YORK
From a communication to the journal of April 21, it seems that the merchants of Philadelphia were not in full accord as to the expediency of the plan. While the merchants still hesitated to put the retaliating scheme in operation, the answer of the Earl of Hills- borough, then lately appointed secretary of state for America, to the circular letter of the House of Representatives of the Massachusetts colony to the sister colonies, reached the city, dated at Whitehall, April 21. Its contents were known in Boston on June 24. It denounced the Massachusetts document as "of a most dangerous and factious tendency." With the text came rumors that the right of England to tax America was to be deter- mined by the presence of a fleet and army. Some excitement had already occurred in New-York by THE DUNMORE SEAL. the assumption by General Gage, as commander-in- chief, of precedency over Sir Henry Moore, the chief civil authority, which was, however, instantly decided in favor of the governor by Hillsborough, who declared that "nothing could be more foreign to his Majesty's intentions than the introducing a military government into his provinces in America upon the ruins of the civil power." Nevertheless the crown returned to its former policy, and in June Hillsborough notified the lords of trade that all of Shelburne's re- forms in the business with the colonies were to be abrogated.
The colonies looked upon Hillsborough's April circular as an attempt to suppress all interchange of sentiments between the col- onies, and to prevent their united prayers from reaching the king's ears, and they asserted the right of petition to the throne. Colony after colony appointed standing committees to petition the king and to correspond with Massachusetts and Virginia; and assembly after assembly declined to rescind their resolutions as demanded by Hills borough, and were prorogued by the governors. The people were moved as one man in resolution never to surrender their inherent rights and privileges. The agreement of non-importation had been very generally signed in New-York. As September 1 approached, a meeting of the merchants and traders was called at Bolton and Sigell's for the evening of August 25, for a further consideration.
The Sons of Liberty had already revived their organization in Bos- ton at a great public meeting held on August 15, the anniversary of the first opposition in that town to the stamp act. They gathered at the liberty tree with music and high ceremony, and it appears from the account of the proceedings that the merchants, with greater unanimity than even in the time of the stamp act, had already agreed to import no duty-goods, with a few exceptions, from January 1, 1769, to January 1, 1770, and called upon the merchants of the other prov-
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THE SECOND NON-IMPORTATION AGREEMENT
inces to act with as much patriotic disinterestedness. The merchants of New-York answered this summons at once, and engaged to coun- termand all orders that had gone out to Great Britain since the 16th of the month, and to seize and store all goods that might come in on consignment in contravention of their agreement. Nearly every merchant and trader in the city signed. The tradesmen signed on September 5. The shipping ports in New England quietly followed the example of Boston. Philadelphia was more deliberate. It was not till September 22 that her mer- chants were summoned to meet at the court-house.
The tension of the situation increased daily. News reaching Boston that an armament was on its way to enforce submission, the selectmen of the town (the assembly being prorogued) notified all the towns of the colony to prepare for the emergency. On the 28th the squadron arrived from Halifax, with two regiments of regulars and artillery. On October 1 the men-of-war threat- ened the city from off the wharves, while the soldiers, about seven hun- dred in number, landed with their equipage and artillery, and marching J. Simon. through the city from the Long Wharf, encamped upon the common. That night they slept in Faneuil Hall, where were lodged the town arms of four hundred muskets. On October 3 the Boston people initiated their agreement to drink no more tea-one of the taxed articles. By the middle of October information came from Boston of the enforcement of the billeting act, Captain Montresor, who had returned from England as chief barrack-master of the ordnance for North America, having quartered the troops on several dwelling- houses as well as warehouses and sugar-houses. Governor Bernard having declined to summon the assembly, the province was under military rule. The troops, however, behaved with decency, and their parade on the common was without arms.
On October 27, pursuant to a call from Governor Moore, the New- York assembly met at the City Hall. New-York city was represented by Philip Livingston, James De Lancey, Jacob Walton, and James Jauncey. Three of these gentlemen were merchants, and had been elected on a straight division as against the lawyers. Philip Living- ston was chosen speaker. There was nothing in the address of the as- sembly, nor in the brief reply of the governor, to attract any comment.
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HISTORY OF NEW-YORK
The main subject of interest now was the failure of the Philadelphia merchants to adopt the non-importation resolutions; it appearing that their disposition was frustrated by the refusal of a few dry-goods houses to join the compact. From Boston also came the news of quar- rels in the streets between the soldiers and citizens, and the reap- pearance on the scene of the Liberty boys. But notwithstanding this menace, and regardless of the indisposition of their Philadelphia friends, the merchants of New-York resolutely clung
HOBOKEN AT THIS PERIOD.
to their non-importation agree- ment. To make this resolution per- fectly patent to every citizen, a few of the more active spirits took pains to as- " certain their intentions by a personal visit to the merchants, and this brought out the fact that the true spirit of the agreement had been maintained. These matters, ap- parently unimportant, will develop their real importance as the struggle goes on; but on this very head the patriots of New-York have been often misrepresented.
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