Westchester County, New York, during the American Revolution, Part 3

Author: Dawson, Henry B. (Henry Barton), 1821-1889. 4n
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Morrisania, New York City : [s.n.]
Number of Pages: 592

USA > New York > Westchester County > Westchester County, New York, during the American Revolution > Part 3

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The tea-laden Nancy, Captain Lockyer, had been turned back to Europe, without having been permit- ted to enter the harbor ; " the cargo of the London, Captain Chambers, had been overhauled, in Whitehall- slip, in open day, by men wearing no disguises; and eighteen chests of Tea, which had been concealed in her hold, had been emptied into the East-river ; 3 and the populace was quietly reposing on the revolution-

1 Although there is abundant evidence to support this statement, it has been so completely aul so graphur uly ; resented by Gouverneur Morris, in a letter adireza-d to Mi . Prun, which will be printed, in ertenso, on page 12-32, post, that to) other is regarded as necessary, in this place.

" Holt's Nie - York Journal, No. 1133, New- YORK. Thursday, April 21, and No. 1994, NEW-YORK, Thursday, April25, 1774; Gaine's New- York Gazelle and Mercury, No. 1174, NEw-Yonk, Monday, April 25, 17:4: Lieutenant governor C. Men to the Earl of Dartmouth, "NEW YORK, 4th "May, ITTA," and the em Mosure therein : the same to Geterner Tryon, " NEW " YORK, Ith May, 1774; " Dunlap's History of the New Netherlands, Pror- Ence of New York, and State of Nor York, i., 152, 453 ; Leake's Memoir of the Life and Times of Covered John Lumb, El-sk ; Dawson's The Park and its . Vicinity, in the City of New York, 20-31 ; Grabari's History of the United States, IV, SED; Hedrethe's History of the United States, iii., 31 ; Gordon's History of the American Revolution, 1, 332-324 ; etc.

3 Holt's Nur- York Journal, No. 1631, NEW-YORK, Thursday, April 28. 1774 ; Gaine's Nor-York Gazette and Mercury, No. 11TH, NEW-YORK, Mon- day, April 25, ITT1; Lieutenant governor Colden to the Earl of Dartmouth, "New-YORK, 4th May, 1224," and the out ware therein ; the same to Give-

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WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

ary honors which, in the interest of the commercial cias-es, it had again svenred.1 The master-spirits of

Helroth al wird Wife, In., 31.

A to thefairin the greater significance of the equation of Now 1 akt ton I n'as, which was when in the recente relamal to allow the Kans of alleged bias to enter the bustor ; in the examination of the MF 11. Ist, and the open destruction of her concealed Tea, in i woz a i'm the return of the Nancy, to England, by the Committee Ja! talen passion of her, at Sandy Hook ; it has been the cus- I In. & Srw England writers to withhold whatever of honor or dishonor 1, was in there doing, of the party of the Opposition, in New York, . ¿ the ts- significant "tea-party " of Roston has been elaborately ;rented as a feat of great daring and of the highest grade of patriot-

that May be known men who saw no reason for diging themother, was unnatural, and could not be lasting ;

Th44, Mercy Warren | History of American Revolution ; ) " Paul Allen " (History of American Revolution ;) Thatcher (Military Courant ;) More Annaof the American Revolution ;) Pitkin History of the United States:) Frahingham ( Rise of the Republic ;) Lodge (Short History of English Col- omeu; and a multitude of others, make no mention whatever of the w;lyject of the opposition in New York ; and Bancroft, in the octavo edi- tion of his History of the United States, after alluding, in a dozen words, to the storm which had driven the New York tea-ship to the West In- J:rt, very conveniently said no more on the subject-a suppression of the truth which he shabbily attempted to mitigate, in his centenary and " thoroughly revised" edition of that work, by an interpolation of five line-, nearly two of which have no relation whatever to the subject of New York's opposition to the tax ; and nearly two others state, in con- nection with the Noury, what every novice in the history of those times knows is entirely untrue, in one of its ofy two statements concerning ler.

Strange to say, Lossing, a New York writer, with all the original ma- Torial within his reach and perfectly accessibile, in his Seventeen hundred I + centy ir (page 111.) stated that the Money was returned to Europe, sely " because no one could be found that would venture to receive the "tes," without an allusion to her having been stopped at Sandy-Look, and returned, thence, to Enrope ; and, also, without the slightest allusion to the Land s and to what hecame of her tra. In his History of the Cui -. (1 : 00, 12 21) all that appears, concerning either the Sracy of the 1. when is that they " returned to England with their cargoes " ; although the Nanny was the only one which thus returned, and then only because she was compiled to return. In his Fiehl Book of the Berolution, after having devoted five jueces to the Boston "Tea-party" (i., 457-30) he ventured to appropriate ten lines to the greatly more significant longs of New York, on the same sut-jeet.

! On the fifth of March, 1770, while the motion of Lord North for "leave to bring in a Bill to repeal the Tax Act,'as far as related to the " tax on Puper, Glass, and Painters' Colours," was under consideration, before the House of Commons, Governor Pownali, than whom toube was, then, better informed on every subject connected with America and the Americans, replied to the Minister, and moved an amendment, to in- . consequences. cInde Tea, also, in the proposed Bill.

In the course of his exceedingly important Speech, on introducing his motion to amend, the Governor said, " The drawback upon these "Tens, exported to America, of twenty-five per cent, does not amount. "as this argument supposes, to one shilling per pound-it amounts to "wady sevenpence half penny, or thereabouts-so that, did it operate as " a bounty, at all, it would amount to only fourpence halt-jenny. But "this is hot material to the point ; for it does not operate as a bounty, "s! all, lecanse whatever duty the East India Company tous, originally, "at ili C'estom-house, on the importing of Tens from Asia, that som is " added to the price of their Tea, in their sales ; so that, although the "exporter to Viorica may be allowed a drawlack, yet he draws lack " that suite ofily which he hath already paid in the price of his purchase, " by trhu ha mame, is this article of supply were stands, there is an advantage " in favour of the Beach Tens imported into the Colonies, against the British " Teax, of twenty rice per cent. diference."- Debrett's History, Fechales, and Proceedings of both Houses of Parliament, 1743 to 1774, v., 294.

The realer will perceive, therefore, that the opposition to the importa- tion of Tea, into Anterica, with its parliamentary tax impared on it, which the Merchants instigated and enconraged, in the seaports-the opposition was seen no where else than within the shadows of those ports -was composed less of " patriotism " than of love of pelf. The Enitch Tras

the confederated party of the Opposition-the Gov- ernment and those who favored it having no part in that matter of division among those who were oppos- ing its policy-were evidently sensible, however, as has been said, that that unseemly confederation of radically antagonistic elements, entirely for the pro- motion of the interests of one of those elementy without securing a corresponding advantage to the and it was evident, al-o, to every one, that an open conflict between the conservative aristocratic and the revolutionary democratic elements of the population, without reference to matters of governmental policy, and only for the control of the political power, within the City and Colony, was likely to be commenced, at any moment.

Just at that critical period, in May, 1774, advices were received from Europe,2 of the Government's pro- posal to close the Port of Boston, with a possibility that that of New York would shortly share the same fate; and it was also said that the Home Government also intended to remove the principal offenders against the Laws, within the Colonies, that they might be tried and punished in England." With great tact and plau- sibility and a greater pretension to patriotism, the confederated " Merchants and Traders" and those who possessed their confidence promptly seized that much desired opportunity, for the accomplishment of their sinister purposes; and, with that end in view, they boldly and promptly occupied the place of leaders of the entire City and Colony, in protesting against those measures of the Home Government, and in pro- viding for a systematic opposition to those measures, under their own particular direction, without, how- ever, having recognized the existence or invited the co-operation of the respectable popular element, within the City, nor those of the very few who really repre- sented and controlled that more unruly element of which mobs were composed, both of which omissions, the meaning of which was very evident, subsequently produced serious, if not unexpected and unwelcome,

For the purposes of the promoters of the proposed change in the leadership of the politicians of the City, to which reference has been made, " an Advertisement" was posted at the Coffee-house, in Wall-street, a noted place of resort for Shipmasters and Merchants, recit- ing " the late extraordinary and very alarming advices " from England; " and " inviting the Merchants to "meet at the house of Mr. Samuel Francis, on Mon- " day evening, May 10, in order to consult on mea-

aford & a much larger profit ; add a disturbance of that line of truite was not, therefore, desirable.

" They were received on Thursday, May 12, by the Semson, Captain Couper, the latest ship from Lotulou.

3" Extracts from private letters from London, dated April and , to " persona in New York and Phibut phin," printed on the lack of copies of the Boston Port Bill, ant circulated, in broadside Forma, in New York, May 14, 1774.

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WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

"shires proper to be pursued on the present critical "and important occasion." 1

rence from any one. There was no appearance of deception in the " Advertisement" through which the It will be seen that no others than " the Merchants" of the City were invited to attend the proposed Canens, at Sam. Francis's Long-room ; 2 and that the published purpose was only " to consult on measures proper to "be pursued on the present critical and important "occasion," in neither of which features of the " _Id- " vertivement," prima facie, can it be reasonably said that any stretch of authority had been attempted by those who had called the proposed Caucus-surely. it ; Caucus had been invited, in the instance under con- sideration; and, subsequently, when the Caucus assembled, no attempt appears to have been made to do anything more than the "Advertisement" had authorized, notwithstanding those who had been spe- cifically invited and were present, so largely ontnum- 'bered those uninvited intruders who oppo-ed them, that any change from the terms of the " Advertisement" which they were inclined to make, could have been will not be said there might not be consultations, made-indeed, it appears to have been intended, by among Merchants as well as among other classes of the citizens, on any subject whatever, especially on subjects in which they were especially interested, without interference from any other class; and it will hardly be pretended by any one, that, in the instance now under consideration, the Merchants of the City were not peculiarly interested in the subjects of " the " late extraordinary and very alarming advices from " England;" that they might not properly " consult," among themselves, " on measures proper to be pur- "sued on the present critical and important occa- "sion ; " that, for the purpose of such a "consulta- "tion," they might not invita whomsoever they pleased, to meet at a place and time designated, with- out consulting with any other persons or asking permission from any others; and that such a Caucus, thus invited, might not be had, without any interfe-

1 Minutes of the New York Committee of Correspondence. Monday, May 19, 1774 ; Lientenant-governor Collen to Gorernor Tryon, " SPRING HILL, "Elst May, 1974;" the same to the Jul of Dartmouth, " New YORK, Ist " June, 1771 ;" Governeur Morris to Mr. Pena, "NEW YORK, May 2), "ITT ;" Jones's History of New York, during the Revolutionary War, i., 34 ; etc.

" "Sam. Francis," at that time and during many years subsequently, was a noted rest-routeur, known to and respected by every one, of every sect and party, in the City of New York, during the later Colonial period, during the entire War, andafter the restoration of Peace.

" Francis's Tavern," where this Caneus was held, had been, at an ear- lier period, the residence of the De Lancey Family. It was built in 1701, by Etienne De Lancey, on a lot of ground which Stephanus Van Cort- landt halgiven to his daughter, Anne, when, in the preceding year, that lady was married to Mr. De Landey; and it is still standing on the north - eastern corner of Broad and Pearl-streets, the oldest building in the City of New York.

" Frauto;is's Long-room," in which this Caneus was held, subsequently became muore famous than it had previously been, because it was the root in which the Officers of the Army of the Revolution assembled, on Thur-lay, the fourth of December, 1783, after the enemy had evacuated the City aml the Peace had been entirely established. to take their hnal have of their illustrious Chief ; and from which, accompanied by his sorrowful friends-" a solemn, inte, und mournfut procession, with " keal- hanging down and dejected countenances "-he walked, directly. to Whitehall -- lip, and was rowed, thenre, to Powle's Hook, now Jersey City, on his way to Annapolis, to which, place the Congress had ad- journet, to resign the Command of the Army, with which he bal been invested, in 175,-Gordon's Motory of the War of the Revolution, iv., 326 384 : Marshall's Life of Washington, (Phila. Edit. ) iv., 19, 62) ; et .: )

3 The Meeting, at Burns's Coffee-house, on the evening of the thirty- : first of October, 1765, for the adoption of nivanimes to prevent the execit- tion of the stamp-Act, appointed a Committee of Correspondence, com- posed of Isaac Sears, John Lands, Gershom Mott, William Wiley, and Thomas Robinson, to give better effect to its Resolutions, ly securing harmonious action, thereon, throughout the entire Continent. The re- It is proquer to be sail, in that connection, that Samuel Francis was " n tuan of thaik complexion, " probably a mulato; that he was known, enilharaty, as." Black Sam ; " and that, when General Washington eu- Peal of that obnoxious statute, of course, rendered that appointment inoperative ; But those who had constituted that Committee, with a half dozen associates, continued to exercise an authority and leadership, terad the first on the twenty fifth of November, " he took up his head- ! among the unorganized and mark tatde elements, in the City, until the "quarter at the Tavern " of that dusky landlord. -¿ Dunlap's History of Ser York I., 233, the author of which related these circumstances 'paz his own personal knowledge of them.)

the Merchants, only for consultation and for the orderly preparation of measures to be submitted to the body of the inhabitants of the City, at a Meeting to be called for that purpose, for their approval or disapproval, without losing sight, however, of what was the real, substantial purpose of the movement. But those who had hitherto assumed to be the leaders of the unfran- chised masses-the leaders, in fact, however, of only the radically revolutionary portions of those mas-es, -saw, or assumed to have seen, in that proposed Caucus, a movement which promised to break the hold on the unfranchised element which, since the era of the Stamp "Act, they lund unceasingly claimed to have maintained ; " and to transfer, to some extent, at least, some portion of the leadership of that uncer- tain and, sometimes, unruly element, in the political affairs of the Colony, to others; and Isaac Sears and his handful of kindred associates, with that audacious disregard of the unquestionable Rights of others which, subsequently, became so conspicuously noto- rious and oppressive, not only determined to thrust themselves into a Caucus to which they had not been invited, but to turn the action of that Caucus from the purposes of those who had called it, and to give to that action a character and direction which would be entirely foreign to the purposes for which the Caucus : had been invited. The consequences of that proposed intrusion and the ill success of that scheme to oust those who had invited the Caucus and to turn into other channels than those which the latter had pro- posed, the action and influence of the Caucus itself, will be seen in the published narrative of the proceed- ings of that notable assemblage-meanwhile, it will be evident to every careful observer, that that separa- tion of the radically antagonistic social and political elements which, united, formed, at that time, the.

opening of the War, in 1773, when several of these la lors secured of- fices, and ceased to be the "patriotic " lenders of those who, then, more that ever, needed intelligent leaders.

WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

juditical conglomerate in which had been combined, sonne who were not " Merchants " and who had not been invited, those who assumed to be the leaders of the unfranchised masses, who had also secured harmoni- tor purely selfish pirjames, the fragmentary opposition, in the Colony of New York, to the Home Govern- men: which was then in authority (each of those ous action, among themselves, by previous factional anter miste armut Iming, in pretension, if not in consultation." Isaac Low,s a prominent Merchant, was called to the Chair; and Resolutions were adopted, "by a great Majority," in each instance, First, that it was necessary, then, " to appoint a Com- " mittee to correspond with the neighbouring Colo- " nies on the present important Crisis;" Second, that "a Committee be nominated, on that Evening, for "the Approbation of the Public;" and, Third, that the Committee consist of fifty persons.5 ! ! equally zalone in its loyalty to their common was produced by less of respect for ws in politics and of a genuine patriotism " .. . . . thie -: for individual gain to be derived, as esta supposed, from the internal control of the >> of the Opposition and of what should be gained to:gh it -- just such a factional contest, within a fatty composed of radically discordant elements, imate! for purposes which had served to combine these elements into one body, indeed, as have been sven, very frequently, and such as may be seen, now, ! not only in New York, but in every other commun- ity in which such ill-formed parties are permitted to ; probable that any material opposition was made to exist, and to intrigue, and to deceive.1

tioned by any contemporary writer-but when the third was proposed, those who assumed to represent the unfranchised masses made an attempt to reduce the number from fifty to twenty-tive, by which means they hoped to be able to control the action of the Committee, notwithstanding they were so few in num- ber; but their proposed amendment to the original Resolution was promptly rejected, " by a great Ma- "jority." 7

With very great good judgment, the majority of the Caucus evidently treated the minority with respectful consideration, notwithstanding the former steadily

1 The reader need only turn to the history of existing political parties, holl together by "the cohesive power of public plnuder," for an illus- tration of the structure, the aims, and the policy of that confederated party of the Opposition, in Colonial New York, and of the factional strug- sie, within itself, for the control of its united action and, most of all, for that of the distribution of auch "spoils " as, in case of the party's snc- (and. should fall into the hands of the " victors."

"We are not insensible of the fact that the Caneas is generally stated to have been held at the Exchange, which occupied the middle of Brond- mirent, nearly opposite the Tavern ; and that an entry in the Minutes of the Committee of Correspondence stated, specifically, that it was held in that building. But it was called, in the original " .Advertisement," very JEnitruly, "to meet at the house of Mr. Sauenel Francis ;" in none of for contemporary descriptions of the Caucus which we have seen, was it wat or intuusted that the assemblage left the Tavern, for any purpose, tot. re the formaladjournment of the Caneus ; and in the second " Ad- " sestaeinem! " jadished on the day after the Cancus, by its officers and n &F Hs authority, inviting the body of the inhabitants of the City to ore st the Coffee house, to confirm or amend the official acts of that :. .. : w i scription of that preliminary meeting, after . . ... . (the fact that it was called " to meet at the House of Mr. San- : w/: ! $4. 4 " that " a very respectable and large number of the Mier- · Faxtastatur Inhabitants did accordingly appear at the time and n'y . = apportdel, and then and there nominated for the approbation of "terje an, a tuhantre of fifty persons," etc. With them as our all- Brottis, we perfect litter from those who have preceded us; and to hast, at were nett, the the Caneus was held, without interruption or r-benal, mu son. Fratiris's Long-room.

For the past. stitel, we prefer to diller, also, from our friend, Ed- word F. de Larey, who has stated, in his carefully prepared Sex to Jones . History of Nie York during the Revolutionary Har (i., 15, 49) that the fanchis was held in "the Exchange, to which place it wijourned "from Frannecy - Tavern, where it was called, on account of the great ." attendance."

3 Compare the terms of the " Advertisement" calling the Cancus, " in- "viting the Merchants to meet, " etc., with the official description of those who had been present at that Caucus, which was contained in the pub- lished call for the meeting at the Coffee-house, to confirin or amiend the doings of that Caneus-"a very respectable and large number of the ". Merchants and other Inhabitants did accordingly appear."

+ A small broadsi le, containing a list of twenty-five names of persons who were " nominated by a Number of respectable Merchants and the " Body of Mechaines of this City, to be a Committee of Correspondence "for it, with the Neighboring Colonies," may be seen in the Library of the New York Historical Society. It was evidently the result of a cor- sultation of those who assutied to have been the leaders of the mises of the unfranchised inh bitants of the City.

It is a noticeable tet, however, that that list of nominees, with only three of the names stricken from it, was incorporated in the larger list which was nominated by the Caneus

3" Low belonged to the Church of Englind, a person unbonnled in "ambition, violent anl turbulent in his disposition, remarkably ofsti- "nate, with a good shareof un lerst in ling, extremely opinionated, fond "ot bring the head of a party, and never so well pleased as when " Chairman of a Committee or principal spokesman at a mob meeting. "His principles of government inclined to the republican system."- (Julies's History of New York during the Arter ican Bicolution, i., 35.)

Mr. Low, sulquently, became a loyalist ; was stringmed of his prop- erty, by confiscation ; was attainted; and retired to England, where be died in 1791 .-- Sabine's Biographical Sketches of Loydists of the American Revolution, original edition, 439 ;- the same, second edition, ii., 32, 33.)

Proceedings of the Canews, printed on a broadside, for general circu- lation, a copy of which is in the Library of the New York Historical Society.

: Proceedings of the Ciens, original edition : de Landey's Mit-a to Jones . History of New York, i., 130 ; Lake's Memur of General John Lund, ST ; Dawson's Park and it's Vicinaly, 31 ; Bancroft's Titel States, original edition, vii., 41, 42 ; the same, centenary edition, iv., 326. 327.

As the matter in dispute, between the two antagon- istic factions, related only to the designation of those who should control the local politics of the day and what should be realized from those politics, it is not the first and second of the three Resolutions which At the appointed hour, on Monday, the sixteenth I were adopted by the Caucus-none has been men- of May, the Long-room, in Sam. Francis's Tavern," was crowded with anxious and determined men, evi- ; dently not entirely of one mind, and not indisposed, in some instances, at least, to enforce whatever differ- - ences of opinion and purpose might arise, with some- thing more tangible than words, should such au enforcement, in their opinion, become necessary.

Those whom the " Advertisement" had invited were . present, in large numbers, and evidently well-pre- pared for harmonious and decisive action, limited only by the terms of the invitation ; and there were ; present, also, in much smaller numbers, including

WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

It appears to have been a part of the plan of those who had called and controlled the Caucus, to submit the result of its deliberations to the body of the in- habitants of the City, for its consideration and ap- prova! ; and nothing had occurred, within the Cau- cus, to make any change in that plan necessary. Accordingly, on the day after the meeting of the Caucus [ Tuesday, May 17] they published a Card, ad- dressed "To the Public," in which "the Inhabitants "of this City and County " were "requested to attend "at the Coffee-house, on Thursday. the 19th in-tant, "at 1 o'clock, to approve of the Committee nominated " as aforesaid, or to appoint such other persons as, in

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Westchester County, New York, during the American Revolution, Part 3

Author: Dawson, Henry B. (Henry Barton), 1821-1889. 4n Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Morrisania, New York City : [s.n.] Number of Pages: 592

Author: Dawson, Henry B. (Henry Barton), 1821-1889. 4n
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Morrisania, New York City : [s.n.]
Number of Pages: 592