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 47
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In May, 1769, the council concurring, an act to explain and amend the act of 1699 (2 William III.) regulating elections was passed. The governor signed this bill the next day. The text of this act does not
1 This was formerly the De Peyster house, standing in Queen (now Pearl) street, opposite Cedar street. For illustration of the house in its original condition, see page 37 of this volume.
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appear in any of the bound volumes of New-York laws. It was an- nulled by the king, December 9, 1770. Its purpose was presumably to carry out the resolution of the assembly excluding judges of the Supreme Court from their body. In December, 1769, Robert R. Liv- ingston presented an indenture showing his election as a representa- tive of the manor of Livingston, returned the 8th of the same month, but he was refused admission under the provisions of the act of May, because he was at the time judge of the Supreme Court. In January, 1771, Judge Livingston again ap- peared and demanded a seat, but the house by a large ma- jority declined to admit him. The house was jealous of its authority. In January, 1770, it passed a bill that all elec- tions of representatives should be by ballot only. This also had been repealed by the king on June 6, and proclamation made by Colden in August of the same year.
There was one important in- cident of personal and, in a manner, of political interest THE BOSTON MASSACRE. (FROM AN OLD PRINT.) in the proceedings of this as- sembly. On December, 13, 1770, McDougall, who was out on bail from his imprisonment for the alleged libel of December, 1769, was sum- moned to the bar of the house. Attending, and being asked as to whether he was the author of the paper, he declined to answer,-first, because the assembly had declared it a libel; and secondly, because he was at the time under prosecution by the Supreme Court. He was de- clared in contempt, and, refusing to ask " pardon of the House for the said contempt," was ordered into custody of the sergeant-at-arms to be lodged in the common jail. In January, 1770, the house was in- formed by the high sheriff that he had been served with a writ of habeas corpus for the person of McDougall, issued by the Supreme Court; whereupon the house ordered notice to be given to the judges that he was committed on the authority of the house. Some question of authority arising, the house ordered search of the journals of the Commons for precedents in similar cases. An elaborate historical search was made from the year 1604, and may be found on the jour-
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nals. No further record appears of action in the McDougall case, and the house soon adjourned. McDougall from the new jail on December 22, 1770, delivered an elaborate vindication of his action, which ap- peared in Holt's journal of January 24 and January 31, 1771. He was still in jail when the assembly was adjourned. It was not until April 17 that, after nearly a year's imprisonment, on demand of John Morin Scott, his counsel, Captain McDougall was discharged on his recog- nizance and was released from prison. The assembly was censured by the press, but in veiled terms. The king's speech on the opening of parliament reached New-York on January 17. He expressed satis- faction with the general departure in the colonies from "combina- tions which were calculated to distress the commerce of this king- dom," but also his discontent with the unwarrantable practices and lawless violence in the Massachusetts Bay. The same packet brought news of the death of George Grenville of his Majesty's privy council, author of the objectionable legislation of the British parliament as to the colonial rule.
While the people at large and the Sons of Liberty were in full sym- pathy with MeDougall in his confinement, they were reconciled to the assembly somewhat by their action in refusing the arrearages for the barracks. The Sons of Liberty, or rather such of the old organization as still gathered about Hampden Hall, as early as February 21, 1771, issued a notice to all the Friends of Liberty, "that ample provision would be made for the celebration of the 18th of March, the anniver- sary of the Repeal of the Stamp Act, with proper festivity and decency." The day passed without excitement. At the Hampden Hall dinner the usual toasts were drunk, including one to "the Liberty of the Press," which McDougall was held to represent; and another more directly pertinent to his case before the assembly: "No answer to interrogatories when tending to accuse the person interrogated." Parker's "Post Boy " gave notice of a similar entertainment at De La Montanye's, where the more conservative class met the year before; but there is no record of its having been given. It probably was not.
St. George's Day, April 23, was also celebrated with unusual cere- mony. One hundred and twenty gentlemen sat down at the Province Arms, and as guests of honor the Earl of Dunmore, General Gage, and all the other dignitaries, civil, military, and naval. On May 27 the earl attended the commencement of King's College at Trinity Church. The Latin oration was by Clement Cooke Clarke, on "Moderation." Gouverneur Morris discoursed in English on "Love." The king's birthday, June 4, was also observed "with the usual demonstrations of Joy, with toasts and discharges of artillery at the fort, on board his Majesty's ships in the harbour, the Deal Castle, Captain Jacobs, the armed Schooner St. John, Captain Murray, and other vessels in the
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harbour." The twenty-sixth regiment and the train of artillery ap- peared under arms "without the city," where they fired salutes. There was a difference in the amount of military force displayed, and in the manner of its display, from that of past years.
On Monday, July 8, William Tryon, the newly appointed governor of the province, arrived in the sloop Sukey in five days from Newbern, North Carolina, with his wife and daughter. He was visited on the sloop by the Earl of Dunmore, and, accompanied by him, landed at the Whitehall stairs under salute from the battery, being there received by the council and the gentlemen of the city, and escorted to the fort. The next day his commission was published with the usual ceremonies and entertainments, and the city was in the evening illuminated. Addresses were delivered by the several bodies corporate, but the assembly was already some months prorogued. The journals were filled with these addresses and Tryon's replies. On September 8, according to Parker's "Post Boy," the Earl of Dunmore, "our late worthy Governor," set out from New-York for his government of Virginia. He had returned to the city from a visit to Albany a few days previously. He took barge for the Jersey shore at the Whitehall ferry, amid the firing of salutes from the Battery guns. He reached Philadelphia on the 12th, and, leaving that city on the 15th, arrived at Williamsburg, the seat of the government of Virginia, on the 26th. His delay at New-York after receiving his appointment had some- what chafed the proud Virginians, and he frankly owned in one of his addresses that he had conceived a sincere affection for the people of New-York and really desired to remain at that post.
The stay of Dunmore in New-York was so short and his rule so uneventful in one of the quiet intervals of this stormy period that it is not easy to form any opinion of the impression he left behind him at this time. Colden condemned him as "capricious." Burk, in his history of Virginia, says of him that "though harsh and unpre- possessing in his manners his Lordship had decided talents and an ability for diplomacy upon which the English Court placed some reliance." Elsewhere he speaks of "his haughty spirit," and Wirt, in his "Patrick Henry," describes him as "coarse in his person, rude in his manners and unscrupulous in his morals; he wanted the courtesy, the refinement, the sensitive love of justice possessed by his prede- cessor (Lord Botetourt) in so eminent a degree." He evidently re- gretted New-York, and did not win a welcome from the Virginians. If it be permitted to form an independent judgment at this day from his acts and his letters to the home government, he must be held as a wise and prudent official. He seems to have recognized the free, fearless spirit of the New-York province and to have tempered his authority with moderation and kindness. Tryon, in one of his ad-
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dresses, expresses his hope to approach the truly honorable principles of his predecessor. Better for Dunmore's historic fame had he con- tinued that moderation in his new command.
Lieutenant-General William Tryon received a commission as captain of the first regiment of foot-guards in 1751, and in 1758 became captain and lieutenant-colonel in the guards. He had influence at court, and was in 1764 made lieutenant-governor of North Carolina, and on the death of Governor Dobbs, in 1765, was gazetted governor of that province. From a letter of Dunmore to the Earl of Hillsborough, written July 9, the day after Tryon's arrival in New-York, it appears that Hillsborough had intimated an exchange of the two govern- ments, but that Tryon was at first unwilling, though he afterward acquiesced in the ex- change, and, as has been seen, at once as- sumed the reins of gov- ernment. The hesita- tion must have been on some details, as to in- structions perhaps, as Tryon, in his letter to Hillsborough of the same date, states that he arrived in New-York "in pursuance of his Majesty's commands." In a postscript he men- tions meeting, in New- York, Mr. Martin, who ST. PAUL'S CHURCH. had been appointed to the North Carolina government. Tryon ar- rived with a prestige for vigor and conduct, having in person led his forces in the summary suppression of the formidable insurrection of the "regulators," as they styled themselves, in North Carolina in the month of June preceding. Still opinions were divided, some reports stating that he had "broken up peaceful settlements to their ruin and depopulated a large part of the province," while others held, as was published in the New-York province, that "Colonel Tryon had done more for the support of Government in North America than all the Governors in it"; and further, that had not "that most dangerous and daring rebellion that has happened in this age been quelled by him, a VOL. II .- 27.
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universal revolt would have succeeded in all the colonies." The year closed without any matter of public interest except the news that Dunmore had dissolved the Virginia assembly and that there was no talk of a further meeting. He had issued the proclamation of the king forbidding the committee of that assembly to meet with those of any other governments. On January 7, 1772, the New-York assembly met after sundry prorogations from March 4, 1771. In his speech opening the session, Gov- ernor Tryon ascribed his appointment to the king's leave, in consequence of his own health Win Gryon and that of his family impaired by a southern climate. He alluded to the revolt, the suppres- sion of which had delayed his immediate repair to his new seat of government. Being without any special commands from the king, he confined his requests to the framing of a proper militia bill and a thorough repair of the fortifi- cations of the city, defaced by storms and time, and the supplies and support bills. In their address in reply, the house express their satisfaction with his appointment, and their feeling for Dunmore, "who justly merited our affection and applause." There was no more to be said. One of its earliest acts was to define the residence of a representative, as far as eligibility was concerned, to be six months before the writ of summons. In February Judge Livingston again appeared and demanded to sit for the manor, and was again refused. The supplies to the troops were granted without dispute, and one thousand pounds besides to make good a deficiency in the grant of January, 1770, which occurred because of the failure of the loan-office act. The assembly voted the governor the usual salary of two thou- sand pounds, but were at once notified by him, by special message inclosing a copy of the king's instructions, that he was forbidden to consent to any law granting either to himself, the commander-in-chief, or the president of the council, any gift or present whatever. This was in accordance with the precedent in Dunmore's case. The policy of the home government had changed, but that of the province was as inflexible as their own : the policy of independence and the control of the purse in the old Whig fashion. In his opening message the governor recommended to their consideration the claims of the society recently established, that of the New-York Hospital. The session passed off smoothly, without friction between the legislative and
1 " I am sorry to say," writes Admiral Sir George Tryon from Malta, "that I know of no existing miniature or portrait of my ancestor William Tryon, who was Governor of New-York. On a previous occasion I endeavored to find one, but
without success. I greatly regret it, for I am proud to think that I had an ancestor in America, in the early part of its history, who was of some use in his day, and who was respected by both sides, as I believe he was." EDITOR
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executive, and the assembly was finally prorogued on March 24 till May 4, and did not meet again until 1773.
The repeal of the stamp act was again celebrated in March, 1772, with an entertainment at De La Montanye's tavern, which, it will be remembered, was now the rendezvous of the more conservative class. Their toasts indicate the moderation of their sentiments. Two are significant: "Loyalty, Unanimity, and Perseverance to the true Sons of Liberty in America." "May the authors of Discord and promoters
I Do hereby certify, that Elita Rayner Aged 26
of Southampton Townfhip, has voluntarily fwore before me, to bear Faith and true Allegiance to his Majefty King George the Third; and that he will not, directly or indirectly, openly or fecretly, aid, abet, counfel, fhelter or conceal, any of his Majefty's Enemies, and thofe of his Go- vernment, or moleft or betray the Friends of Government ; but that he will behave himfelf peaceably. and quietly, as a faithful Subject of his Majefty and his Government.
this 221 defit, Given under my Hand on Long-Iiland, 1778.
Wm Tryon Gov !.
THE TRYON CERTIFICATE.
of intestine feuds meet with their just demerits." No doubt the gen- tlemen of Hampden Hall met in festivity, but Holt makes no mention of it. While there seems to have been a general feeling of gratitude for the services which Pitt had rendered to the colonial cause, it does not seem to have been universal. In 1772 occurred the first "deface- ment of the Statue." Holt mentions it in a characteristic news item:1
A truth on a late exploit. Oh tempora! Oh mores! Here Black Guards in safety exhibit such wit As scandal abuse or demolishing Pitt. See his Statue.
The soldiery appear to have behaved themselves with such propriety as to merit comment. Noticing the departure of the last four com- panies of the twenty-sixth regiment for Albany, on their way to the Montreal station, the patriot journal says: "To do justice to the offi- cers and private men of this regiment we can affirm that during their residence in this city they have behaved with such order and decorum as gave universal satisfaction to the inhabitants." They were relieved by a detachment of the twenty-first regiment, or the Royal North British Fusileers, commanded by Major Southerland. The first divi- sion of this regiment left the city for Quebec on June 5, and three companies of the sixtieth regiment, or Royal Americans, arriving from
1 Holt's " New-York Journal," May 21, 1772.
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Quebec, took their place in the New-York garrison. The last of the twenty-first was moved to Quebec at the close of the month, and two companies of the royal artillery were marched to Hempstead Plains for a summer encampment. In the spring the Irish portion of the population, which was of considerable importance, especially in the walks of trade, were interested by the melancholy accounts of the con- dition of the northern counties of that island, which were represented to be in the greatest confusion ; and early in June by news of a bloody collision in which the king's troops were defeated; of which a regiment destined for America was a part. All England was reported in the greatest distress.1
In November the second battalion of the sixtieth or royal American regiment, under the command of Major George Etherington, embarked for Antigua, leav- ing behind them, wherever stationed, "an extraordinary good character." In the same month there was a brilliant review of the two companies of his Excellency 2.M. Johnson the governor's guards, commanded by the lieutenant-colonel, John Harris Cruger,: and Major William Walton, in the Fields. The town was delighted with their handsome uniform, their good discipline and drill, and their gallant appearance. In the evening they supped at the Province Arms, then under Hull's management. Tryon had just ordered the publication of a new system of military discipline, "Manual exercises, prepared by Colonel Guy Johnson, Adjutant-General for the northern district." In response to Tryon's opening message, the assembly, on March 24, 1772, had passed an act establishing a militia. Nine companies were raised, amounting to seven hundred men, of which three were artillery. They were clothed, armed, and accoutred at the expense of their officers, who were gentlemen of the first families and distinction. In December there was another general review, in the Fields, of seven indepen- dent companies of the militia, formed into a battalion in the fol- lowing order: The grenadiers, two companies of the governor's guards, the rangers, the Germans, one of the companies of the artil- lery, and the light infantry. The review was witnessed by "a splen-
1 The king's birthday was celebrated with the usual formality and with a display of curious fire- works in the evening before the fort gate - a de- parture from the ordinary bonfire and window illumination ; but there is no notice of any excep-
tional demonstrations of loyalty on the part of the people in general.
" Cruger was later celebrated for his successful defense of " Post Ninety-Six " in the Carolinas against the attack of the patriot General Greene.
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did Assembly of the principal Ladies and Gentlemen." After the review the officers were entertained by the governor. Tryon wrote to Lord Dartmouth that "it was the most brilliant militia review that ever was had within his Majesty's American dominions." Dart- mouth did not oppose this measure, which he held to be a "very con- stitutional establishment," but he did not encourage it. Perhaps he foresaw the danger of encouraging a military spirit in the colonies, now that the French were out of possession and the Indians at peace. He thought that the useful arts ought to be cultivated in times of " so great public tranquillity." Tryon felt the coldness of the response. In June following he sent to Dartmouth an abstract of the state of the militia in the province, by which it appears there were twenty-six regi- ments, and eleven troops of light horse, of which one regiment and one troop were in New-York County. Oliver De Lancey, who had made himself so obnoxious to Governor Clinton after the latter's quarrel with his brother James, was colonel-in-chief of the southern district.
Governor Tryon seems to have had little trouble in the government of the province in the long recess of the assembly. Yet he felt him- self called upon to excuse to the home government his course in not interfering in behalf of Judge Livingston's right to sit in the house, on the plea that he could not have publicly interfered without dissolv- ing the assembly in case of non-compliance, of which he was privately assured, the majority being determined on his exclusion. He had warned the speaker of the consequences which might ensue under in- structions from the king in his sovereign displeasure, but received no encouragement from him. John Cruger was the speaker of this the last colonial assembly. Tryon expressed his intention to keep " clear as possible of parties," as he found that all denominations were " affec- tionate and loyal subjects to his Majesty." This word denominations seems to explain this controversy, and to show that it had degener- ated into a contest between the high churchmen and the dissenters, of whom Livingston was in a sense the chief. Otherwise it is not easy to understand how such a stanch supporter of popular rights should, as Tryon says in his letter to Hillsborough of June 4, 1772, have himself "solicited his Majesty to dissolve the Assembly." In July and August Tryon paid a visit to the Indian country. He also, like his predeces- sors, bore witness to the wonderful " influence of Sir William Johnson over the tribes, and the steadfast loyalty of the Mohawks." Of this nation he says: " They appear to be actuated as a community by prin- ciples of rectitude that would do honor to the most civilized nations. Indeed, they are in a civilized state, and many of them good farmers." A conference was held at Johnson Hall with the Canajoharie tribe during this visit. At the close of August the governor was again in New-York city.
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In August, the Earl of Dartmouth was appointed one of his Majesty's principal secretaries of state, and charged with all the business relat- ing to the colonies. To him Judge Livingston appealed in November with an elaborate argument in defense of his claim for a seat in the assembly. For four years after his appointment as judge by General Monckton he had sat as representative, and now in three years had five times been chosen and refused admission. He then applied for the office of chief justice on a new appointment, Horsmanden, as has been stated, being far advanced in years. He declared with some pride that in all the warmth of his struggle with the assembly no objection had ever been made to him on account of his behavior as a judge. In December, Colden again returns to the charge. He writes to Dartmouth that now, after fifty years' service in his Majesty's council, and twelve as lieutenant-governor, he was neglected by the New-York administration - "not only neglected, but even, My Lord, marked by measures that indicate displeasure." He closes by saying that he was now near the end of his eighty-five years; that the period of his days could not be distant, and asked for a salary as lieutenant- governor to "recompense his losses" during the stamp-act troubles, "the same to commence on October 18, 1770, the day that Lord Dun- more arrived here." Alas! the old gentleman's appeal was unavail- ing; Lord Dartmouth returning him a prompt and decided refusal to recommend it to the king.
The excitement of the year came from the eastward, and sprang out of the arbitrary conduct of the commanding officer of the Gaspee, a British revenue schooner, in the Narragansett waters. In his corre- spondence with the governor of Rhode Island, he added insolence to his officious exactions, and he was marked for punishment. His vessel running aground in the bay, she was boarded by Captain Whipple with a band of volunteers raised in Providence by beat of drum, the crew driven below, and the insolent officer wounded. In the morning he was set on shore and the Gaspee burned. Large rewards were offered in England for the arrest of the offenders and their removal to England for trial, but this demand was disregarded, and even the prosecutions undertaken were dropped. Hutchinson of Massachusetts proposed the annulling of the charter of Rhode Island. New-York, still chafing under the non-importation imbroglio with New Eng- land, quietly awaited the issue. The entire continent was in an ex- pectant attitude, Dartmouth not having as yet shown his hand.
The assembly met, after several prorogations, on January 5, 1773, a year which will be found of more eventful interest than its immediate -predecessors. The session continued until March 8 following. The journal contains but little of interest. Without specific recommen- dations from the home government, Tryon had but little to ask of
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the New-York legislature. He congratulated the assembly "on the present flourishing state of this country and the good order, industry, and unanimity among its inhabitants." The Livingston controversy disappears. Eight hundred pounds were voted for the supplies of the king's troops quartered in the colonies "with neces- saries"; and on a message from the governor that this was inadequate, on a close division, which was decided by the speaker's vote, two hundred pounds were added. Moreover, four hundred pounds were voted for repairs of the city barracks, and three hundred pounds for the purchase of short brass six-pounder field-pieces, and one thousand pounds of gunpowder for Fort George and the battery. It is well here to note that there was a minority in the house opposed to granting any moneys for supplies to the king's troops. No salary appears to have been voted to the governor, but allowances for firewood and candles in Fort George (four hundred pounds), and the reimbursement of moneys advanced by him for running the Canada boundary from Lake Champlain to the Connecticut. In his letters to Dart- mouth, Tryon declared the practical impossibility of carrying out the recommendation of the board of trade as to the land in controversy between the New-York province and the Massachusetts Bay, from which he foresaw little trouble, their interests not clashing; yet he invited an early decision by the king in the matter of the Hampshire grants, to which the Bennington settlers had declared their readiness to submit. Tryon A COLONIAL WATCH. entered upon more dangerous ground when he urged the earl to permit the governors to appoint chaplains of the Church of England, with a salary from the crown.
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