USA > New York > New York City > The story of the city of New York > Part 16
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27
But these merry-makings, and the brilliant society that gave them birth, had their day and passed,-a sterner age succeeding. In 1760 " the times that tried men's souls" were approaching, and it is quite time that, with lofty purpose and pulses stirred, we turned to consider them,-for New York played no insignificant rôle in the great drama.
XIII.
THE HEROIC AGE.
THE year 1765 is a red-letter year in American history. In March of that year the Stamp Act was passed, and the Stamp Act was the little entering wedge that first opened the rupture between the colonies and the mother country-a rupture which widened and widened until a great gulf, and at last free national existence for the daughter, was the result. This Stamp Act in itself was not an oppres- sive measure. It provided simply that all deeds, receipts, and other legal papers, even to marriage licenses, should be written or printed on stamped paper, this paper to be sold by the revenue collectors, and to form part of the revenue collected from the colonies. The difficulty was that a principle, a right, was involved. If there was one thing that the Briton of that day gloried in, jealously guarded, it was the English Constitution. The people had gotten this grand instrument by piecemeal, as it were, through a thousand years of struggle. First, as students of English history know, came Magna Carta, the Great Charter, which the barons forced from King John in 1215. Next, the Petition of Rights, in 1628, one of the conditions of which was that the king should
258
L
259
THE HEROIC AGE.
have no power to make " forced loans," that is, levy taxes without the people's consent. Third, the Ha- beas Corpus Act, in 1679, "for the better securing the liberty of the subject and the prevention of im- portations beyond the seas." Fourth, the Bill of Rights, of 1689, agreed to when William and Mary came to the throne. And, lastly, the " Act of Settle- ment," of 1700, which still further limited the pre- rogatives of the crown. There were, of course, other grants and concessions, but these are generally regarded as the five great pillars of the English Constitution. The way in which British yoemen regarded this grand instrument has been described by M. Taine, in words imbued with the very spirit of the times :
"Every one, great or small, has his own, which he defends with all his might. My lands, my property, my chartered right, whatsoever it be-ancient, indirect, superfluous, individual, public,-none shall touch it, King, Lords, nor Commons. Is it of the value of five shillings ? I will defend it like a million pounds ; it is my person which they would fetter. I will leave my business, lose my time, throw away my money, make associations, pay fines, go to jail, perish in the attempt. No matter. I shall show that I am no coward ; that I will not bend under injustice, that I will not yield a por- tion of my right."
This was exactly the position taken by the Amer- ican colonists when King George and his ministers sought to lay a " forced loan " on them by means of the Stamp Act. They said the tax was illegal, un- constitutional, because levied without their consent ;
260
THE STORY OF NEW YORK.
that if the ministry had power to lay this tax, they could go on and levy others, and others, until their property was all swept away. They were willing, they said, to pay their just share of the taxes of the realm ; but then they must be allowed to send men to Parliament to defend their rights and look after their interests. A statesman would have foreseen that America must now be made an integral part of the empire, or she would aspire to separate national existence ; but, unfortunately, King George and his ministers were not statesmen, and they rushed blindly on to the dismemberment of the empire.
As the time came for the Stamp Act to go into effect New York was on the verge of revolt. The political fabric was mined and honeycombed, the powder laid ; it needed but to press the button to produce an explosion that would shatter it to frag- ments. There were two parties in the field: the royalists, or Tories, who, with blind devotion, sup- ported the king ; the Whigs, or " rebels," who were for resisting to the last extremity what they called the " tyranny " of king and Parliament. The strife between the two parties soon became intense ; words are powerless to depict it. The very stones seemed to breathe defiance. "Rebellion," " trea- son," " resistance to tyrants," "confiscation of estates," " imprisonment," "death on the scaffold," were the topics ever in men's thoughts. Pamphlets, broadsides, hand-bills, filled the air; ballads, epi- grams, and scurrilous verses were poured forth by the song-writers on both sides. The newspapers -Holt's Journal and Gaines' Mercury for the
261
THE HEROIC AGE.
Whigs, Rivington's Gazette for the royalists, steadily fanned the flame. Read a Whig newspaper of that day, and you find such terms as these : "Tories," "ministerial hirelings," " dependent placemen," " con- tractors," "informers," " banditti," and the like. Read a Tory newspaper, and it is "rebels," " traitors," " despicable pamphleteers," " liars," " fomenters of sedition," " drunken vagabonds," " mobility," " pul- piteers," " sons of licentiousness." The Tory news- papers averred that Congress took its votes after drinking thirty-two bumpers of Madeira, that the riffraff were hired to insult the soldiers in order to provoke a collision, that Whig meetings were com- posed of drunken vagabonds, "raisers of riots," whose deity was the liberty pole, whose ever-staunch friend was the mob. They spoke of Holt's Journal as that " fund of lies and sedition "; . the Sons of. Liberty as being composed of two sorts : those who by their debaucheries and ill conduct had reduced them- selves to poverty, and the Puritan ministers " who belched from the pulpit, liberty, independence, and a steady perseverance in shaking off their allegiance to the mother country." They spoke of the " distem- pered brain," "the violence of the banditti," of liberty as a word they had got " by rote like a par- rot," and described the patriots as gathering at a tavern with " a Cooper or an Adams " at their head, where they got drunk, damned the king, ministers, and taxes, and vowed they would follow any ignis fatuus produced by demagogues."
The Whig writers were even more bitter and sar- castic. They drew parallels between Rome in her
262
THE STORY OF NEW YORK.
decadence and themselves. "The Roman emper- ors," they said, "held the dignity of government in such open contempt that they frequently made their horses consuls. Ours, in this last point, go beyond them by making asses senators." A Tory they de- fined as "a thing whose head is in England, its body in America, and whose neck ought to be stretched." A favorite toast was, " Addition to Whigs, subtrac- tion to Tories, multiplication to friends of liberty, division to the enemies of America." They pictured the " ministerial hirelings" as ready to perform any dirty drudgery for the sake of preserving a titled and lucrative place. The British troops, who had been quartered on them to subdue and overawe them, were their pet aversion ; the soldiers returned the feeling in kind, and improved every chance to insult and annoy them. Naturally men indulging in such abuse soon began to carry arms, their houses became well-stocked. arsenals, collisions occurred, women grew pale as their fathers, husbands, brothers, sons, armed for war and took opposite sides.
This talk of resistance and preparations for resist- ing, it must be remembered, went on in the other colonies as well as in New York, and at last, on the suggestion of the eloquent patriot, James Otis, of Massachusetts, a Congress of the colonies was called to consider the matter. It met in the City Hall in New York on the 7th of October, 1765, nine of the thirteen colonies being represented. Two important state papers-a Declaration of Rights and an address to the king-were the results of this conference. Meanwhile the people were busily talking and acting.
263
THE HEROIC AGE.
Patriotic men vowed to drink no more wine, to go clad in sheepskins, to purchase no more wares from Great Britain, until the obnoxious act was repealed. Patriotic women agreed to wear only homespun, and thus taboo all British-made goods: while the young ladies vowed "to join hands with none but such as would to the utmost endeavor to abolish the custom of marrying with license." The Ist of November had been appointed as the day when the Stamp Act should go into effect. As the day approaches, it is evident there will be trouble if any attempt is made to enforce it. Threats of resistance are openly made. Lord Grenville, the British Prime- Minister, has appointed Americans to sell the stamped paper, thinking thus to placate the colonists. It but adds to their resentment. " If your father must die, will you then become his executioner in order to pocket the hangman's fees? If the ruin of your country is decreed, are you justified in taking part in the plunder?" These questions are asked of the stamp collectors, and they so intimidate them that they flee the country or resign. Oliver, the Massa- chusetts stamp-master, is hung in effigy on an elm in the outskirts of Boston. The Rhode Island stamp- master abdicates at the demand of his infuriated fellow-citizens. Jared Ingersoll, collector for Con- necticut, is met by five hundred mounted men as he is riding full speed to Hartford to secure protection from the authorities there, is conducted to the main street of Wethersfield, and there forced to resign, and to throw up his hat and cry "Liberty and Property !" three times. James McEvers, the Han-
264
THE STORY OF NEW YORK.
over Square merchant, appointed for New York, has resigned ; so has Coxe, of New Jersey ; Hughes, of Pennsylvania, and every collector south of the Potomac. The collector of Maryland is even now in Fort George, hiding from the wrath of his old neighbors and friends. The king is beggared of officers wherewith to enforce his decrees. On Octo- ber 23d, the ship Edwards, bearing the stamped paper, arrives from England and, convoyed by a frigate and a tender, comes to her anchorage under the guns of Fort George. The water front is black with citizens, who receive her with menacing ges- tures, hisses, derisive cheers, while the ships in the harbor fly their colors at half mast in token of grief. That night, men evading the rattle watch steal through the streets and stealthily affix to trees and buildings "hand-bills," on which next morning the people read, written in a bold, free hand :
PRO PATRICI.
The first man that distributes or makes use of stamped paper let him take care of his house, person, and effects. Vox POPULI. WE DARE !
The Sons of Liberty, it was seen, had been abroad that night. The query next arises, " Who were these Sons of Liberty?" They were members of a great secret order of patriots recently organized in New York, and which soon had its branches in every remote town and hamlet. Its own definition of a Son of Liberty was "a friend and asserter of the
265
THE HEROIC AGE.
rights of the people and the English Constitution, a warm patriot and opposer of the tyrannical acts and pretensions of the British Parliament." In royalist eyes, as we have seen, the Son of Liberty was quite à different person. These hand-bills had their effect. McEvers, to whom the stamped paper was consigned, refused to take it. No one would touch the detested paper. At last, in despair, Lieutenant-Governor Colden had it stored in the fort until the Ist of November should arrive.
That the reader may have a clearer idea of what is to follow, we will pause a moment and consider briefly the theatre and the actors in the drama. The rallying point of the people throughout these troublous days was "the Fields," or " the Common," as it was indifferently called, and which we now know as the City Hall Park. It was the people's Aventine, their Sacred Hill, where they met after each aggression of the ministry, where they were addressed by the tribunes, and where they con- certed' measures of resistance. These "tribunes" were men singularly well fitted for the responsibility thrust upon them. Among the most active were John Lamb, a New Yorker by birth, an optician by profession, who later became a colonel in the New York Line ; Isaac Sears, a merchant in the West India trade, the boldest, most alert, and hot-headed of the patriot leaders ; Alexander McDougall, a Scotchman by birth, who later became a major-general in the Continental army ; John Morin Scott, an eminent lawyer ; and Marinus Willett, who had marched with
266
THE STORY OF NEW YORK.
Abercrombie to Lake George and Ticonderoga, with Bradstreet to Fort Frontenac, and who later became a lieutenant-colonel in the New York Line, and in 1807 mayor of New York.
Among the more moderate were Oliver Delancey, justice of the king's bench; Robert Livingston, a famous lawyer ; Phillip Livingston, " hardware dealer near the Fly Market," later known as one of the sign- ers of the Declaration of Independence ; and Peter T. Curtenius, "merchant," later commissary-general of New York in the Revolution. To these were afterwards added, Alexander Hamilton, a student in Columbia College, who later became the greatest statesman of his day; and John Jay, born in New York, December 12, 1745, at this time a law student in the city, later chief-justice of the United States, and a statesman of eminence.
If such were the tribunes, who were the prætors ? First in power was Lieutenant-Governor Cadwallader Colden, who, until the newly appointed Governor Sir Henry Moore should arrive, was clothed with su- preme authority. He was a man eighty years of age, of the staunchest loyalty, but stubborn, obtuse, who knew of no way of governing except by force. There was General Thomas Gage, irreverently styled " Tom Gage" by the patriots, commander-in-chief of the British forces in America, whose large double house, surrounded by beautiful gardens, stood on the present site of Nos. 67 and 69 Broadway ; Major Thomas James, commanding the royal regiment of artillery and owner of "Vauxhall," a beautiful country-seat on the banks of the Hudson, and greatly
267
THE HEROIC AGE.
detested by the people for his arrogance and boast- ful threats ; Rev. Samuel Auchmuty, D.D., rector of Trinity Church; Myles Cooper, D.D., president of Kings College, later banished for his Tory senti-
JOHN JAY.
ments and pamphlets: John Antill, postmaster ; Daniel Horsmanden, chief-justice of the province ; Samuel Bayard, assistant secretary ; Colonel Wil- liam Bayard, the great merchant; John Harris
268
THE STORY OF NEW YORK.
Cruger, treasurer of the city ; John Griffiths, master of the port ; Thomas Buchanan, to whom later the tea ships were consigned; Daniel Matthews, later mayor, and many others, chiefly those who held office or received emoluments from the king. The fact should be emphasized, however, that there were many among the royalists of the noblest character, who were such purely from loyalty to the crown and from love to their country. The prætors had this advantage over the tribunes, that, quartered in the fort and in wooden barracks on the north side of the Common, were several companies of the 16th and 24th royal regiments, who might be trusted to enforce their commands.
Governor Colden had, in the beginning, greatly incensed the people by repairing and strengthening the fort and by calling in troops from the outposts. "Did he mean to frighten them by this show of force?" the Whig newspapers asked. " Was New York a conquered country to be governed at the point of the bayonet ?"
Thursday, the 3Ist of October, came, the day on which the governor was to take the oath required to carry the Stamp Act into effect. The city awoke in a fever of excitement. " The last day of liberty," it was called ; bells tolled ; now and then muffled drums were heard beating the funeral march. At an early hour crowds of country people began flock- ing in. There were, too, many sailors from the ships. The citizens joined them, and all paraded the streets, singing patriotic songs, which mercilessly lampooned the governor, the troops, and the Tories,
THE HEROIC AGE. 269
and threatened dire vengeance on any one having the hardihood to use the stamped paper. In the evening two hundred of the merchants trading to England proceeded to the City Arms tavern, on lower Broadway, in whose large room the belles and beaux of the day held their " assemblies," and at- tended concerts and lectures. Here they made brave and patriotic speeches, and passed spirited resolutions " to import no goods from England while the Stamp Act remained unrepealed" ; " to counter- mand all orders for spring goods already sent" ; " to sell no English goods on commission " ; and " to buy none from strangers that might be sent out." At the same time, a committee of correspondence, to urge similar action on the part of other cities was appointed. The merchants of Philadelphia signed this " non-importation agreement," as it was called, on the 14th of November following, the merchants of Boston on December 9th. So we see that both the famous Non-Importation Acts and the Committees of Correspondence of the Revolution all had their origin in New York.
At the same time it was agreed that a grand mass-meeting should be held next evening, Novem- ber Ist, on the Common. We should have had no stirring, graphic account of what was done at this meeting and afterward, if a young country lad, one E. Carther, had not come to the city from his home in the Highlands, with scores of his neighbors and friends, eager to see and hear all that occurred on this fatal first of November. His letter is one of the classics of the day. It was written, he tells us, when
-
270
THE STORY OF NEW YORK.
" he was in high spirits and full of old Madeira." First, he informs his parents what the Governor did on this Stamp-Act day, in his contest with the patriots :
"He sent for the soldiers from Tortoise ; he planted the cannon against the city ; he fixt the cow horns with musket balls. Two cannon were planted against the fort gate for fear the mob should break in loaded with grape shot ; he ordered the cannon of the Battery to be spiked up for fear the mob should come so far as to break out a civil war and nock down the fort. Major James had said : 'Never fear ; I drive New York with 500 artillery soldiers.' He (Major James) placed sol- diers at the Gaol to prevent the Mob letting out the Prisoners. He ordered 15 artillery soldiers at his house near the Coladge where Black Sam formerly dwelt, and the rest of the soldiers he kept within the fort in readi- ness for an engagement.
"In the evening the citizens began to muster about the streets. About seven in the evening I heard a great Hozaing near the Broadway. I ran that way with a num- ber of others, when the mob first began. They had an ephogy (effigy) of the Governor made of paper, which sat on an old chair that a seaman carried on his head. The mob went from the Fields down the Fly (Pearl Street), Hozaing at every corner, with amazing sight of candles. The mob went from there to Mr. McEvers', who was appointed for stamp master in London. Since he did not accept it, they honored him with three cheers. From thence they went to the fort, that the Governor might see his ephogy if he dare show his face. The mob gave seven Hozas and threatened the officer upon the wall. They jeered Major James for saying that he
271
THE HEROIC AGE.
could drive New York with 500 men. The mob had assurance enough to break open the Governor's coach- house, and took his coach from under the muzzles of his cannon. They put the éphogy upon the coach, one sat up for coachman with the whip in his hand, whilst others drawed it about the town down to the Coffee House and the Merchants' Exchange."
After being addressed there by their leaders, they turned and marched back to the fort, " with about 500 or 600 candles to alight them."
" I ran down to the fort to hear what they said. As the mob came down it made a beautiful appearance. And, as soon as Major James saw them, I heard him say from off the walls : 'Here they come, by -! ' As soon as the mob saw the fort, they gave three cheers and came down to it. They went under the cannon which was planted against them with grape shot. They bid a soldier upon the walls to tell 'the rebel drummer ' (the Governor), or Major James, to give orders to fire. They placed the gallows against the fort gate, and took clubs and beat against it, and then gave three Hozas in defi- ance. They then concluded to burn the ephogy and the Governor's coach in the Bowling Green before their eyes."
After burning the coach the multitude, which seems to have passed beyond the control of its leaders, went to Major James' house, and destroyed his furniture, saving only one red silk curtain and the colors of the royal regiment, which they carried off in triumph.
"The third day," continues our letter-writer, "they was resolved to have the Governor, dead or alive. The
272
THE STORY OF NEW YORK.
fort got up the fascines in order for battle, and the mob began before dark. The Governor sent for his Council which held about two hours, whilst thousands stood by ready for the word. The Governor consented, and promised faithfully to have nothing to do with the stamps, and that he would send them back to London by Captain Davis, of the Edwards."
This account is substantially correct, though written evidently from a royalist standpoint. At the demand of the people, the Governor delivered the stamp paper to the mayor and aldermen, who deposited it in the City Hall, and no further attempt was made to enforce the Stamp Act in New York. The next spring, 1766, a new ministry, with Pitt at its head, having come into power, the odious law was repealed ; the Parliament, however, asserted its right to tax the colonies by passing a "Billeting Act," which forced the colonists to maintain the troops quartered among them.
On the arrival of Sir Henry Moore a change was made in the policy of the government. He sought to rule rather by the graces of the courtier and the arts of the diplomatist, and succeeded so admirably that the New York Assembly was soon under his control, while the royalist party in the city grew to large proportions. He came as "a friend among friends," he said. The fort was dismantled, the troops dispersed, and the Governor, like a skilful surgeon, devoted himself to healing the wounds his predecessor had made. The earlier part of his reign was marked by one very significant event-a collision between the Sons of Liberty and the soldiers, in which
-
273
THE HEROIC AGE.
blood was shed, and which antedates by nearly two months the famous Boston massacre, of which so much has been made by historians.
The quarrel arose about a very little matter-a piece of wood called a " Liberty Pole," perhaps forty feet high, standing in the centre of the Common, di- rectly abreast of the soldiers' barracks. The soldiers wished very much to cut this pole down; and the patriots were as fully determined that it should stand. Here again a principle was involved. The pole had been erected June 4, 1766, on the anniver- sary of the king's birthday, to celebrate the repeal of the Stamp Act. Great rejoicings and gratula- tions attended the act. As day broke, bells pealed and cannon thundered. An ox was "barbecued " on the Common. Twenty-five barrels of beer and a hogshead of punch were provided for the feast. As for the liberty pole, just erected, it flaunted a large banner bearing the electric words : " The King, Pitt, Liberty." Twenty-five cannon were provided to fire a feu de joie, and twenty-five cords of wood were piled about a stout pole, having on its summit a pyramid of tar barrels, which at nightfall would flame into a royal bonfire in honor of His Gracious Majesty and the repeal of the odious act. Now the royalists, and the soldiers especially, were ill-pleased with the repeal of the Stamp Act, which they re- garded as a triumph for the people ; the liberty pole. was to them, therefore, a symbol of defeat. Again, there was bad blood between the soldiers and the citizens, as indeed there ever must be between a spirited people and a body of troops sent out to
4
274
THE STORY OF NEW YORK.
overawe and coerce them. The soldiers, therefore, determined to destroy the pole which flaunted the " Liberty rag " in their faces. On the Ioth of Au- gust they succeeded in cutting it down. This created great excitement, and next day a large body of citi- zens assembled on the Common with the intention of raising the pole again ; but they were at once set upon by a detachment of the 24th regiment and dis- persed, many being well bruised in the melee. Sears, McDougall, Lamb, and others of the tribunes now collected a little army of the Sons of Liberty, and triumphantly reared the pole. There it remained until the 23d of September, when the soldiers again destroyed it; but within two days a third was reared in its place. So close a watch was then kept by the patriots, that the soldiers were unable to cut it down by stealth, and it stood in proud defiance until the 18th of March, 1767, when the people celebrated with much spirit the first anniversary of the repeal of the Stamp Act. This enraged the soldiers, and that night the pole was again prostrated. The next day it was raised, and the craft of the ironsmith invoked to secure it with braces and iron bands. At night the soldiers came against it, but were unable to de- stroy it ; the next night they attempted in vain to blow it up-an attempt which led the patriots to set a watch to guard their cherished piece of wood. As was expected, the valiant 24th soon came out against it, but were attacked by the guard and so soundly beaten that they fled into their barracks. On the 22d and 23d they again attacked the pole, but the whole city having now become aroused, Governor
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.