USA > New York > New York City > The story of the city of New York > Part 17
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Moore interposed, and commanded the soldiers to cease their aggressions.
The next attempt to destroy the pole occasioned the massacre to which we have referred. Three years had passed, and although several attempts had been made upon it, Liberty's staff still remained erect ; but on the 16th of January, 1770, a party of soldiers, by concealing themselves in an old building near by, succeeded in sallying upon the pole, and cutting it down, and piling it beside the door of Montague's tavern, where the Sons of Liberty were in the habit of holding their meetings. The next day, we are told, nearly the whole city came to- gether in the Common, and, after considering the subject, passed resolutions declaring that all soldiers below the rank of orderly, who appeared armed in the streets, were enemies to the peace of the city, and therefore liable to arrest, as were also those, whether armed or unarmed, who were found out of their barracks after roll-call. This was met with an insulting and taunting placard signed "the 16th Regiment of Foot," which was posted throughout the city by the soldiers. Three of the latter engaged in this work were arrested by two stalwart Sons of Liberty-Isaac Sears and Walter Quackenbos-who attempted to escort them to the mayor's office, but were discovered by a party of soldiers from the lower barracks, who rushed to the rescue. The Liberty boys were on the alert, however, and at once ran to the aid of Sears and Quackenbos, and being armed with canes, bludgeons, knives, paving stones, and whatever else came to hand, a lively skirmish
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ensued. The soldiers, finding themselves outnum- bered, retreated to a small eminence then called Golden Hill, on the present line of John Street be- tween Cliff and William, where, meeting a reinforce- ment, they made another stand; the bells had by this time alarmed the city ; shops were closed; arti- sans and laborers threw down their tools and rushed by hundreds to the aid of their brethren, and a gen- eral mêlée ensued. The patriots, however, had harder heads and stouter arms than the soldiers, and the latter were forced steadily back and soon found themselves on the summit of the hill tousled and torn, their arms gone, and themselves quite at the mercy of the people, who hemmed them in on every side. The latter had not escaped injury. One had been thrust through with a bayonet. Several were bleeding from wounds. Francis Field, a Quaker, while standing on his own doorstep, had been cut severely in the cheek. At this juncture, another detachment of the 16th came up, and seeing the condition of affairs, called to their fellows to charge through the cordon of people and they would sup- port them by an attack in the rear. Further blood- shed was stopped by the officers of the regiment, who appeared and ordered the soldiers to their bar- racks. The latter, however, smarted under a sense of defeat, and renewed the fight early next morning by attacking a woman who was returning from mar- ket, and who was rescued from her tormentors with a bayonet thrust through her cloak. About noon the military resumed the battle by making a wanton attack on a party of sailors passing through the
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street. Soon an old man, a sailor, was thrust through and fell, whereupon the mayor tardily appeared and ordered the combatants to disperse. The soldiers derided him, and when a messenger was sent to ap- prize their officers, they prevented him with drawn swords from proceeding. Fortunately a party of Liberty Boys playing ball near by heard the shouts and sound of blows, and hurrying to the spot drove the assailants off. Still not satisfied, a party of mil- itary appeared in the afternoon while a large body of the citizens were gathered in the Common, and charged upon them, though not the slightest provo- cation had been offered. The crowd opened right and left to give them passage, but, bent on quarrel- ling, they began snatching canes from the gentlemen present, assailing them meantime with insulting epithets. The gentlemen resisted, however, and so stoutly cudgelled their assailants that they fled in confusion to their barracks. This two days' battle with the military began January 18, 1770. The Boston massacre occurred March 5, 1770, or nearly two months later. The Sons of Liberty, however, erected their pole, which stood until the opening of the great conflict. It was a true liberty pole, far superior to any that had preceded it. It is described as having been " of great length," protected for nearly two thirds its height by iron bands and rivets, and on its topmast was a vane which bore the magic word, "LIBERTY."
The next event of significance in this epoch was " the Tea Party," which occurred in April, 1774.
We have all read of the famous Boston " Tea
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Party " of December 16, 1773. New York held hers also, though it did not take place until some three months later, simply because the tea ship destined for New York was driven from her course by a tem- pest and nearly wrecked, so that she did not reach port until long after due. The Americans were so bitterly opposed to taxation without representation that Parliament decided to abolish nearly all im- posts; that on tea and a few other articles was re- tained in order, as Lord North observed, "to try the question with America." The colonists promptly accepted the gage. When news of the "Tea Act" first reached them (October 20, 1773), the patriots of New York met and "declared that tea commission- ers and stamp distributers were alike obnoxious," and passed votes of thanks to the masters of vessels who had refused to charter their ships to convey tea cargoes. The first tea ship was due in New York November 25, 1773, and "The Mohawks," an order identical with that which destroyed the tea in Bos- ton, held themselves in readiness to receive her. At the same time the Sons of Liberty, which as an order had nearly died out, was revived. December 15th news of the arrival of the tea ship at Boston reached New York, and a meeting of the Sons of Liberty was at once held in the City Hall. After letters from the committees of Boston and Philadelphia had been read, and while speakers were urging the union of the colonies for united resistance, the mayor and recorder of the city entered with a proposition from Governor Tryon (who had become governor in 1771), that on the arrival of the tea, it should be taken into
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the fort at noon-day, where it should remain unti disposed of by the king, the council, or the owners; a stern, emphatic " No," three times repeated, nega- tived the proposition. When the meeting adjourned, it was " until the arrival of the tea ship." By and by (April 18, 1774) the long-expected vessel was re- ported off Sandy Hook. She was the Nancy, Cap- tain Lockyer, and on the voyage, in a terrible storm, had lost her mizzen-mast and an anchor, sprung her main-top-mast, and sustained other injuries. As Holt's Journal of April 21st wickedly said :
"Ever since her departure from Europe, she has met with a continued succession of misfortunes, having on board something worse than a Jonah, which, after being long tossed in the tempestuous ocean, it is hoped, like him, will be thrown back upon the place from whence it came. May it teach a lesson there as useful as the preaching of Jonah was to the Ninevites."
In this spirit the people received the privileged East India Company's tea.
Although so battered, the New York pilots refused to bring the Nancy farther than Sandy Hook. There, by agreement, a committee of the Sons of Liberty met her, and took possession of her boats that the crew might not escape, and thus prevent her being sent back to England. A part of the committee, however, kindly escorted Captain Lockyer to the city, where, under their guidance, he was permit- ted to visit his consignee, Mr. Henry White, and was given every facility for repairing his ship and procuring supplies for his return voyage, but under
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no pretext was he permitted to approach the custom- house to enter his vessel. Three days passed, and the captain was able to say when he would be ready to depart. Next morning (April 2Ist) the city awoke to find the following placard posted on the doors and street-corners :
" To the Public :
"The sense of the city relative to the landing of the East India Company's tea being signified to Captain Lockyer by the Committee, nevertheless it is the desire of a number of the citizens that at his departure from hence he shall see with his own eyes their detestation of the measures pursued by the ministry and by the East India Company to enslave this country. This will be declared by the convention of the people at his departure from this city, which will be on next Saturday morning at 9 o'clock, when, no doubt, every friend to this coun- try will attend. The bells will give the notice about an hour before he embarks from Murray's Wharf."
Before Captain Lockyer could get away, however, the London, Captain Chambers, was announced. At the Hook the vessel was brought to and boarded by the Liberty Boys, as the Nancy had been, but Cap- tain Chambers positively denied having any tea on board. The Philadelphia committee, however, had sent word to New York that tea was on board, and the committee therefore demanded to see his mani- fests and cachets. These were shown, but as they mentioned no tea the ship was permitted to come up to the city. The captain's ordeal, however, wa not yet over. He had had to deal with only a part of the vigilance committee appointed to watch for
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the tabooed tea. As the London reached her berth, -about four in the afternoon,-the entire commit- tee marched on board and ordered the hatches opened, declaring their conviction that tea was on board, and assured Captain Chambers that they were ready to open every package in "the cargo, if neces- sary, in order to find it. The captain, seeing that further concealment was impossible, confessed that he had eighteen chests on board ; whereupon captain and committee adjourned to the great public room in Fraunces Tavern to deliberate over the matter. They decided, says the chronicler,
" to communicate the whole sense of the matter to the people, who were convened near the ship, which was ac- cordingly done. The MOHAWKS were prepared to do their duty at a proper hour, but the body of the people were so impatient that, before it arrived, a number of them boarded the ship, about 8 P.M., took out the tea, which was at hand, broke the cases and started their contents into the river, without doing any damage to the ship or cargo. Several persons of reputation were placed below to keep tally, and about the companion to prevent ill-disposed persons from going below the deck. At 10 the people all dispersed in good order but in great wrath with the captain ; and it was not without some risk of his life that he escaped."
Saturday came, and Captain Lockyer, of the Nancy, made ready to sail, on his return voyage to London, his vessel, meantime, having been riding inside the Hook jealously guarded by the Vigilance Committee. As nine o'clock struck, the committee waited on him at his lodgings, at the coffee-house in . Wall Street, to escort him to the wharf, while the
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people, warned an hour before by the sound of bells, assembled in vast crowds to witness the ceremony. The committee began proceedings by leading the captain on to the balcony of the coffee-house, that he might see the people and be seen by them. As he appeared a band struck up " God save the King," and the people greeted him with shouts. Then a procession was formed, with captain and committee at its head, and to the sound of martial music the orderly throng moved down Wall Street to the dock, where a sloop had been provided to convey the captain to the Nancy. Captain and committee filed on board this vessel. Captain Chambers, glad to escape so easily, was also a passenger. As the sloop moved away every bell in the city, except those on the City Hall and Columbia College, rang triumphant peals, the ships in the harbor ran up their gayest colors, the liberty pole on the Common was decked, and the thunder of artillery at its foot proclaimed the triumph of the people.
The last word we have of this brilliant affair is found in one of the newspapers of the day : " On Sunday, at 10 A.M., the ship and the sloop, with the . committee, weighed their anchors and stood to sea ; and at 2 P.M. the pilot-boat and the committee's sloop left her at the distance of three leagues from the Hook."
These were the leading incidents in New York of the days immediately preceding the Revolution. During this period, in July, 1771, William Tryon, who had had an inglorious career as Governor of North Carolina, came to the city as Governor, and continued in office until deposed by the Revolution.
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THROUGHOUT the pregnant period above de- scribed, entire separation from the mother-country -independence-had been advocated by none. The colonists still spoke of themselves as Britons, strug- gling for a Briton's rights. At last came the battle of Lexington, after which they called themselves, not Britons, but Americans. A nation had been born in a moment. This battle of Lexington was fought on Wednesday, April 19, 1775, at four in the morning. On the Sunday following, at four in the afternoon, as Sears, McDougall, Lamb, and other members of the New York Committee of Safety were sitting in the committee-room, a horseman dashed furiously down Broadway and drew rein at their door. Evidently he had ridden far and fast. His horse's eyes were bloodshot, flecks of foam covered his flanks; he trembled and quivered like an aspen. The man bore a paper, which the committee- men opened and read.
" WATERTOWN,
" Wednesday morning, near 10 of the clock.
" To all friends of American Liberty, be it known that, this morning, before break of day, a brigade, consisting of
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about 1,000 or 1,200 men, landed at Phip's farm, at Cam- bridge, and marched to Lexington, where they found a com- pany of our colony militia in arms, upon whom they fired without any provocation, and killed six men and wounded four others. By an express from Boston, we find another brigade are now upon their march from Boston, supposed to be about 1,000. The bearer, Trail Bissel, is charged to alarm the country quite to Connecticut, and all persons are desired to furnish him with fresh horses as they may be needed. I have spoken with several who have seen the dead and wounded. Pray let the delegates from this colony to Connecticut see this : they know Colonel Foster, of Brook- field, one of the Delegates.
" J. PALMER, " One of the Committee of S. Y." (Safety).
There were endorsements by the town clerk of Watertown, and the various Committees of Safety, telling how far and how fast " this messenger of fear and hate" had ridden. The first endorsement was dated at Worcester, April 19th ; then followed Brook- line, Thursday, II A.M. ; Norwich, Thursday, 4 P.M. : New London, the same evening, at 7 o'clock ; Lyme, Friday morning, I o'clock; Saybrook, 4 o'clock the same morning; Killingsworth, at 7 o'clock, A.M .; East Guilford, an hour later; Guilford, at 10 A.M .; Branford, at noon ; and Fairfield, Saturday morning, at 8, where the committee added additional in- telligence. The New York committee endorsed it on 4 o'clock, Sunday afternoon, and hurried the messenger on. He was at New Brunswick on Mon- day, at 2 in the morning ; in " Princeton," at 6 o'clock; Trenton, 9 o'clock, the same day ; and, as
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appears from an entry in Christopher Marshall's diary, arrived in Philadelphia at 5 P.M. the same day.
As if by magic, behind him the towns and hamlets sprang to arms. So well were the patriots organ- ized in Connecticut that in an instant, as it were, swift riders were spurring with the news to every part of the State. Jonathan Trumbull, her sturdy war governor, at once despatched an express to Colonel Israel Putnam, hero of the French and Indian wars, whom the messenger found ploughing in his field. He at once dropped the harness from his horse and spurred away to Trumbull, at Lebanon, for orders. " Hurry forward to Concord and organize the army," said the latter; "I will urge forward the troops, arms, munitions." Putnam spurred away, rode all that night, and the next morning at sunrise galloped into Concord, which was filled with the "train bands" and militia companies of the patriots sadly in need of a leader-which they found in Putnam. Nearly every town in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut hurried on its minute men to the seat of war. One old gentlewoman in Connecticut sent for- ward her six sons and eleven grandsons, and, like the mother of the Gracchi, told them to come back with honor or not at all. Over the country roads of Connecticut marched the quotas of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, followed soon by the rifle- men of Maryland and Virginia who had been trained to marksmanship in the Indian wars. Indignation meetings were held in every town, their united sentiment being voiced in the glowing words of Dr. Joseph Warren, of Boston: "When liberty is
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the prize, who would stoop to waste a coward thought on life? We esteem no sacrifice too great, no conflict too severe, to redeem our inestimable rights and privileges." Although the government was in the hands of the Tories, the patriots of New York were no whit behind the other colonies in measures of resistance. On the same day that the news was received, Colonel Marinus Willett tells us:
"There was a general insurrection of the population, who assembled, and not being able to secure the key of the arsenal (in the City Hall) where the colony's arms were deposited, forced open the door and took 600 muskets, with bayonets, and cartridge-boxes filled with ball cartridges. These arms were distributed among the more active citizens, who formed themselves into a volunteer corps and assumed the government of the city."
Governor Tryon was in England. For Gov- ernor Colden the people had a hearty contempt. The garrison at this time comprised 100 regulars of the 18th Regiment (Royal Irish) under Major Isaac Hamilton, who confined themselves to their bar- racks. Bodies of men went boldly to the custom- house, demanded the keys, and took possession of the public stores. Two vessels lay at the dock, about to sail with supplies for General Gage's troops in Boston. Isaac Sears and John Lamb, with their Liberty Boys, boarded them and quickly unloaded the cargoes, valued at eighty thousand pounds. Monday came. All business was stopped. Bodies of armed citizens paraded the streets. The regular
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authority was overturned. In Paris there would have been anarchy-the Jacobins and the Commune; but the citizens of New York, eight days after the over- throw (May Ist), quietly elected a Committee of One Hundred to govern them until the Continental Con- gress, which was to meet in Philadelphia in ten days, should constitute other authority. The tribunes, Sears, Lamb, McDougall, Curtenius, Scott, Living- ston, appear among the One Hundred, but the ma- jority were either Royalists or moderate Whigs. At the same time, delegates to a Provincial Congress were elected.
Scarcely were these exciting events over, when it was announced that the delegates from New Eng- land to the Continental Congress were approaching the city, and almost the entire town turned out to give them a royal welcome. The party comprised John Hancock, President of Congress, Thomas Cush- ing, Robert Treat Paine, and Samuel Adams, of Massachusetts ; and Eliphalet Dyer, Roger Sher- man, and Silas Deane, of Connecticut. As it hap- pened, Miss Dorothy Quincy, of Boston, the affi- anced bride of Governor Hancock, had been left behind at the mansion of his friend, Thaddeus Burr, in Fairfield, and to this fortunate circumstance we are indebted for the following sprightly letter to her describing the welcome. The letter is dated at New York, Sabbath evening, May 7, 1775, and proceeds :
" At Kingsbridge, I found the delegates of Massachu- setts and Connecticut with a number of gentlemen from New York and a guard of the troop. I dined, and then set out in procession for New York, the carriage of your
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humble servant, of course, being first in the procession. When we arrived within three miles of the city, we were met by the Grenadier Company and regiment of the city militia under arms ; gentlemen in carriages and on horse- back, and many thousands of persons on foot ; the roads filled with people, and the greatest cloud of dust I ever saw. In this situation we entered the city, and passing through the principal streets amidst the acclamations of thousands, were set down at Mr. Francis' (the popular tavern of the city). After entering the house three Huz- zas were given, and the people by degrees dispersed. When I got within a mile of the city my carriage was stopped, and persons approaching with proper harnesses insisted upon taking out my horses and dragging me into and through the city-a circumstance I would not have had taken place upon any consideration, not being fond of such parade. I begged and entreated that they would suspend the design, and asked it as a favor, and the mat- ter subsided ; but when I got to the entrance of the city, and the number of spectators increased to perhaps seven thousand or more, they declared they would have the horses out, and would drag me themselves through the city. I repeated my request that they would so far oblige me as not to insist upon it. They would not hearken, and I was obliged to apply to the leading gen- tlemen in the procession to intercede with them. They were at last prevailed upon, and I proceeded. To-mor- row morning we propose to cross the ferry. We are to have a large guard in several boats, and a number of the city gentlemen will attend us over. I can't think they will dare to attack us."
The " they " referred to were the Tories. One of the first acts of the Congress to which Governor
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Hancock and his friends were bound, was to appoint George Washington Commander-in-Chief of the army now gathered about Boston. The latter, as soon as news of Bunker Hill arrived, set out for the seat of war, and reached Hoboken on Sunday, June 25th.
There was in New York at this time quite a corps of delightful letter-writers, of whom Gilbert Living- ston, a member of the famous Livingston family ; Solomon Drowne, a surgeon in the army ; and John Varick, a student of medicine, were chief, who in letters to absent friends gave animated pictures of the scenes transpiring in the city. Livingston, for instance, thus wrote of Washington's entry :
" Last Sunday, about two o'clock, the generals, Wash- ington, Lee, and Schuyler, arrived. They crossed the North River at Hoback (now Hoboken) and landed at Col. Lispenard's. There were eight or ten companies under arms, all in uniform, who marched out to Lispe- nard's. The procession began from there thus : The companies first, Congress next, two of the Continental Congress next, general officers next, and a company of horse from Philadelphia, who came with the generals, brought up the rear. There was an innumerable com- pany of people-men, women, and children-present."
By a strange coincidence Governor Tryon arrived the same evening from England, and was escorted by the magistrates and militia to the residence of the Hon. Hugh Wallace, where the usual felicitations were indulged in. Washington next morning met the Provincial Congress, then sitting in the city, and conferred with it on military affairs, chiefly no doubt as to the equipping and officering of the three thou-
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sand men which the Continental Congress had as- signed to New York as her quota for the army about being formed. Four regiments were raised under this call, and Colonels McDougall, Van Schaick, and Holmes were appointed to command them. An ar- tillery company formed part of the force, its captain being John Lamb, whom we have before met. He was soon ordered by the New York Congress to re- move the guns in Fort George to the forts that had been raised to guard the passes of the Hudson in the Highlands. While doing this on the night of Au- gust 23d, he was fired on by a sentinel party in a launch belonging to the British frigate Asia stationed near by. Lamb returned the fire, and killed one man and wounded several. The Asia, in return, fired a broadside into the city, her balls ploughing through several houses in the Whitehall and wounding three of Lamb's men. A great panic then ensued. Gov- ernor Tryon, writing six days after, observed that at least one third of the inhabitants had left the city. As for the Asia, the provincial authorities ordered that as she had fired upon the city she could no longer be allowed communication with it, and that in future fresh provisions destined for her must be left on Governor's Island. The more ardent patriots deemed this too light a punishment, and they seized and burned several inoffensive milk boats and coun- try sloops that supplied the hated frigate with pro- visions. "Such is the rage of the present animosity," wrote Tryon in recording the act. A month later he himself was forced to fly from this animosity to the ship Duchess of Gor . .. under protection of the Asin.
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