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* A caricature appeared in London, which represented Pitt upon stilts, his gouty leg resting on the Royal Exchange, in the midst of bubbles inscribed War, Peace, &c. This stilt was called Popularity. The other stilt, called Sedition, he stretched over the sea toward New York, fishing for popularity in the Atlantic. The staff on which he leaned was called Pension. This caricature was entitled The Colossus, and was accompanied by five satirical verses in broken English, as if spoken by a Frenchman.
** No citizen was killed, or very seriously wounded. Isaac Sears and John Berrien each received a wound.
Soldiers Disarmed.—Fifth Liberty Pole.—Political Coalition.—Public Sentiment.—John Lamb.
Hill (Cliff Street, between Fulton Street and Maiden Lane), near Burling Slip, several of the soldiers were disarmed. * Quiet was at length restored; the people erected another Liberty PoleMarch 24upon private ground purchased for the purpose, upon Broadway, near Warren Street, and a few days afterward the soldiers departed for Boston. **
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This fifth Liberty Pole remained untouched as a rallying-place for the Whigs until 1776, when it was hewn down by Cunningham, the notorious provost marshal, who, it is said, had been whipped at its foot.
The Colonial Assembly steadily refused compliance with the demands of the Mutiny Act, until Parliament, early in 1767, passed an act "prohibiting the governor, council, and Assembly of New York passing any legislative act for any purpose whatever," when partial concessions were made. A new Assembly was convened in 1768.Feb 11It was composed of less pliable material than the other, and, notwithstanding the imperial government made the province feel the weight of its displeasure, and would not recede from its position of absolute master, the Assembly refused submission, until May, 1769, when an appropriation was made for the support of the troops. In the autumn of that year Sir Henry Moore died,Sep. 11and the reins of government were again held by Colden. Soon an unlooked for coalition between Colden and Delancey, the leaders of opposing parties, appeared. Opposite political elements seemed to assimilate, and the leaven of aristocracy began its work in the Assembly. A game for political power, based upon a money scheme, was commenced, which menaced the liberties of the people. *** The popular leaders sounded the alarm, and an inflammatory hand-bill appeared,Dec. 16,1769signed "A Son of Liberty," calling a meeting of the betrayed inhabitants in the fields."
It denounced the money scheme, the pliancy of the Assembly, and the unnatural coalition of Colden and Delancey, as omens of danger to the state. A large concourse of people assembled around the Liberty Pole the next day. They were harangued by John Lamb, **** one of the most ardent of the Sons of Liberty, and by
* The late Col. Michael Smith, who died in New York in April, 1846, at the age of ninety-six years, was then a young man of twenty. He was engaged in the affray, and was one of those who disarmed the soldiers. I have seen the musket which he seized at the time, and which, as a soldier, he bore throughout the war that soon followed. It is a very heavy Tower gun, and is preserved by his family as a precious heir-loom.
** At this time the true Sons of Liberty were excluded from Montague's by those who were active with them in 1765, but now leaned toward the government side. With these Montagne sympathized, and to them he hired his rooms, when the day approached for celebrating the repeal of the Stamp Act. The patriots purchased a small house at the corner of Broadway and the Bowery road (where Barnum's American Museum now stands), named it Hampden Hall, and that was their place of assemblage during the four years preceding the bursting forth of the storm of the Revolution.—See Holt's Journal (supplement), No. 1418.
*** This was the issuing of bills of credit, on the security of the province, to the amount of one hundred and twenty thousand pounds, to be loaned to the people, the interest to be applied to defraying the expenses of the colonial government. It was none other than a Monster Bank, without checks, and was intended to cheat the people into a compliance with the requirements of the Mutiny Act, by the indirect method of applying the profits to that purpose.
**** John Lamb was born in the city of New York, on the first of January, 1735. In early youth he followed the occupation of his father (optician and mathematical instrument maker), but in 1760 entered into the liquor trade. He was a good writer and fluent speaker, both of which accomplishments he brought into use when the troubles with Great Britain began. He was active in all the preliminary scenes of the Revolution in New York, and in 1775 received a captain's commission. He accompanied Montgomery to Quebec, was active and brave during the siege, and was wounded and made prisoner at the close. He retired to New York the ensuing summer, was promoted to mayor, and attached to the regiment of artillery under Knox. As we have met him at various times in his military career, we will not stop to repeat the story of his services. He was elected to a seat in the New York Assembly at the close of the war, and was active in civil services until the organization of government under the Federal Constitution, when Washington appointed him collector of customs for the port of New York. He held this office until his death, which occurred on the thirty-first of May, 1800. Never was there a purer patriot or more honest man than John Lamb.
M'Dougal Imprisoned.—Partial Triumph of Toryism.—Arrival of a Tea-ship.—Destruction of Tea.
a vote unanimously condemned the action of the Assembly. They communicated their sentiments to that body by a committee, * when the Assembly adopted measures for the discovery and punishment of the author of the obnoxious hand-bill. Lamb was cited before the House, but was soon discharged; and the guilt being fixed upon Alexander M'Dougal (the Revolutionary general, subsequently) by the printer, he was arrested, and refusing to make any acknowledgment or to give bail, he was cast into prison, where he remained about fourteen weeks, until arraigned for trial. He then pleaded not guilty, gave bail, was arraigned before the House several months afterward (when he was defended by George Clinton), and was again put in prison for contempt. He was soon released, and was never troubled with the matter afterward. These proceedings engendered dissatisfaction. Popular opinion was with M'Dougal, and men and women flocked to the prison to sympathize with him. The growth of democratic principles was promoted by these events.
Gradually the Loyalist party gained ascendency in the Legislature, and the influence of that body was felt among the people. Non-importation agreements were disregarded, and only the Hampden Hall Sons of Liberty maintained the integrity of their principles. Disaffection appeared among the members of the general committee of One Hundred, and of the vigilance committee of Fifty-one, recently organized. The Loyalists rejoiced, and Riv-ington printed in his Gazetteer,
"And so my good masters, I find it no joke,
For York has stepp'd forward and thrown off the yoke
Of Congress, committees, and even King Sears,
Who shows you good nature by showing his ears."
Yet the great mass of the people remained sufficiently democratic to preserve a spirit of hostility to oppressive government measures. We need not here repeat the story of Britain's sins and America's endurance. New York shared in common with the other colonies, and when Tryon came from North CarolinaJuly 3, 1771to rule the province, he found the same loathing for petty tyranny and aristocratic assumptions. Comparative quiet prevailed, however, until intelligence of Lord North's Tea Act came. The flame of excitement then burst out in New York as suddenly and fiercely as in Boston. The Sons of Liberty reorganized; the Committee of Correspondence resumed its labors; tea commissioners and stamp distributors were considered co-workers in iniquity, and in front of the Coffee House in Wall Street, an effigy of Kelly, a New Yorker in London, who had ridiculed popular indignation here, was burned.Nov. 7, 1773The fire in Hampden Hall spread among the people, and when Captain Lockyier, of theNancy, the first tea-ship that came, arrived at Sandy Hook, he heeded the advice of the pilot, and went up to the city without his vessel. The "Mohawks" ** were warned to be in readiness, and the people resolved that no tea should be landed. Captain Lockvier's conference with the committee satisfied him that he had no fair alternative but to return to England with his cargo. Even while he was ashore, a merchant vessel (Captain Chambers) arrived with eighteen chests of tea hidden among its cargo. The vigilant Sons of Liberty searched his vessel, cast his tea into the harbor, and advised him to leave port as soon as possible. He heeded the advice, and left New York with Lockyier, while the people crowded the wharf at Whitehall, shouted a farewell, and amid cannon peals hoisted the royal flag upon the Liberty Pole in token of triumph.
* The committee consisted of Isaac Sears, Caspar Wistar, Alexander M'Dougal, Jacobus van Zandt, Samuel Broome, Erasmus Williams, and James van Yarck (Yarick).
** When it was known that tea-ships were on their way, a notice appeared in Holt's journal, calling the "Mohawks" to action. There appeared to be the same understanding in New York as in Boston, that tea was to be destroyed, if necessary, by men disguised as Indians.
New Parties.—Meeting of Provincial Congress.—Arrest of Captain Sears.—Seizure of Arms.—Post-office.
Loyalty and timidity again developed their fruit in the Revolutionary committees, and by adroit management moderate men and royalists gained the ascendency. Afraid openly to oppose the popular will, they insidiously cast obstacles in the way of efficient co-operation with other colonies. Soon two distinct parties were formed among professed Republicans, marked by a line of social distinction—thePatriciansand theTribunes—the merchants and gentry, and the mechanics. They coalesced, however, in the nomination of delegates to the Continental Congress, and on the twenty-seventh of July,1774the people, by unanimous voice, ratified their choice. * This was an act of the people alone, for the Assembly, too timid or too loyal, refrained from any expression of opinion concerning the proposed Congress. **
TheAmerican Association, adopted by the first Continental Congress, was popular in New York, and a committee of sixty was immediately organized to enforce its provisions. Warmly supported by the true Sons of Liberty, they took the lead in political matters By their recommendation, the people in the several counties chose representatives for a Provincial Congress, and on the twenty-second of May, 1775, that body convened in the Exchange, at the foot of Broad Street, in New York. *** The General Assembly had adjourned a month previously, and never met again. ****
The great crisis was now approaching, and the occurrence of many local circumstances inflamed the minds of the people, and prepared them for open rebellion. (v) Intelligence of the martyrdom of patriots at Lexington and Concord came at the moment when Captain Sears, the popular leader, was in official custody,April 24, 1775because he had made, it was alleged, treasonable propositions. (vi) Aroused by that first clarion-blast of war, the
* Philip Livingston, John Jay, James Duane, John Alsop, and Isaac Low were chosen. They were adopted as delegates by other districts, and the name of Henry Wisner was afterward added. The people of Suffolk county elected William Floyd, and the credentials of all were presented together.
** Governor Tryon's house was destroyed by fire at midnight on the twenty-ninth of December, 1773. So rapidly did the flames spread, that the governor's family had great difficulty in escaping, and Elizabeth Garret, a servant girl sixteen years of age, perished in the flames. The governor lost all of his personal effects. The Assembly made him a present of twenty thousand dollars in consideration of his misfortune. The great seal of the province was found among the ashes, two days after the fire, uninjured. Tryon went to England in April, 1774, and on his departure he was honored with addresses; a public dinner by the Common Council; a ball by General Haldimand, then in command of the troops; and King's (now Columbia) College, then under the care of Dr. Cooper, conferred upon him the degree of LL.D.
*** Peter van Brugh Livingston was chosen president, Volkert P. Douw, vice-president, and John M'Kisson and Robert Benson, secretaries. Nathaniel Woodhull, of Suffolk county, was soon afterward called to the presidential chair. He was appointed a brigadier the following year.
**** Fifteen of the twenty-four members of the Assembly were Loyalists, and during their last session, efforts to pass resolutions approving the proceedings of the Continental Congress were fruitless. A motion to that effect, offered by Nathaniel Woodhull (afterward slain by the British), was lost by a party vote. Those who voted in the affirmative were George Clinton, Nathaniel Woodhull, Philip Schuyler, Abraham Tenbroeck, Philip Livingston, Captain Seaman, and Messrs. Boerum, Thomas, and De Witt.
* (v) On the twentieth of December, the ship Lady Gage, commanded by Captain Thomas Mesnard, arrived with ten cases and three boxes of arms, and a barrel of gunpowder, consigned to Walter Franklin. The collector ordered these to be seized, because, as he alleged, they had been lying in Franklin's warehouse several days without cockets. While on their way to the custom-house, a small party of the Sons of Liberty took them from the officers in charge, but before they could conceal them, they were retaken and placed on board an armed ship in the harbor. On the same day a letter for the collector was put in the post-office, * containing menaces of vengeance, and that night a very inflammatory hand-bill was left at almost every door in the city. **
* (vi) When General Gage began to fortify Boston Neck, the people refused him labor and materials; and in the spring of 1775, he sent to New York for both, in order to erect barracks for the soldiers on Boston Common. The patriots were informed that a sloop laden with boards was about to sail for Boston. A meeting was ealled at the Coffee-house, and it was resolved to seize the vessel. At that meeting, Sears exhorted the people to arm themselves with muskets and twenty-four ball-cartridges each. For this he was arrested and taken before the mayor. He refused to give bail, and was about to be carried to prison when the people took him from the officers, and bore him in triumph through the town, preceded by a band of music and a banner. That night Sears addressed the people in "the fields," and a few days afterward he was elected a member of the Provincial Congress. The names of Burling, Ivers, Alner, M'Dougal, Roorbach, and Richard Livingston are preserved as among those of Sears's friends on that occasion.
* A scheme for the establishment of an independent post-office, proposed by William Goddard, the publisher of the Maryland Journal, was put into partial operation in 1775, and on the eleventh of May, John Holt, the printer, was appointed postmaster. The office was kept at Holt's printing-house.
** This is supposed to have been written by John Lamb. To avoid being betrayed, the Sons of Liberty went to Holt's printing-house at night, and put in type and printed their hand-bills themselves, and then circulated them through the town.
Arming of the People.—Closing of the Custom house.—Arms seized by the Sons of Liberty.—Fortifications Ordered.
people took possession of the City Hall, armed themselves, and with Lamb and Willett at their head, they embargoed all vessels in the harbor laden with provisions for the British army in Boston. They did more; Andrew Elliott, the collector, forbade the landing of a cargo of rum for the patriots. Sears and Lamb ordered the vessel to Cruger's Wharf (between Coenties * and Old Slips), landed the rum, and carted it to its destination in the city; then returning to the custom-house, they demanded and received the keys, dismissed the employees, and closed the building.May 2When they had committed this overt act of treason, they boldly gave notice of the fact to their brethren in other cities. Persons known to be engaged in sending provisions to the British ships in the harbor were seized, and general alarm pervaded the Tory ranks. ** A grand Committee of Safety, consisting of one hundred of the most respectable citizens, was now organized; a military association for practice in the use of fire-arms was formed, under Samuel Broome; a pledge (see page 384, volume i.) was circulated, and numerously signed; six hundred stand of arms were taken from the city arsenals by the committee, and distributed among the citizens; and when an Irish battalion (the last remains of the garrison in Fort George), under Major Moncrief, were on their way to a vessel bound for Boston, with a quantity of spare arms in boxes upon wagons, Marinus Willett and a small body of Sons of Liberty, encouraged by a short harangue by John Morin Scott, boldly confronted the soldiers, seized the arms, and carried them baek to the now deserted fort.Jan 23, 1775These arms were afterward used by Gansevoort's regiment, of which Willett was lieutenant colonel.
When the Provincial Congress assembled,May 22its complexion disappointed the people.
Toryism and timidity prevailed in that Assembly, and the elaboration of schemes for conciliation, instead of measures for defense, occupied the majority. Hard pressed by public opinion, *** and the influence of important events daily transpiring, they were obliged to yield. Four regiments were authorized to be raised; **** fortifications at King's Bridge (v) were ordered, and measures were taken to fortify the Hudson passes in the Highlands. In the mean while, the patriots gathered in force around Boston; the battle of Bunker Hill was fought; a Continental army was organized, and George Washington appointed the commander-inchief. (vi) Rumors of the approach of troops from Ireland came, and the Provincial Congress,
* This is a corruption of Countess's Slip, a name given to it in honor of the Countess Bellomont, the child-wife of Governor Bellomont. She was a mother at the age of thirteen.
** Dr. Cooper, the president of King's (now Columbia) College, becoming alarmed, soon afterward fled to Stuyvesant's house, near the East River, where he remained concealed, under the impression that the Whigs were trying to seize him. He finally escaped to the Asia man-of-war. He had written much in favor of Episcopacy in America, and was a decided Loyalist; so decided, that, next to Tryon, Colden, and Mayor Hicks, he was most detested by the Whigs. Dr. Cooper was eminent for his learning. He succeeded Dr. Johnson as president of the college in 1763. Soon after his flight he went to England. He died suddenly in Edinburgh, on the first of May, 1785, at the age of fifty years, and was buried in the Episcopal chapel there.
*** New York has been unjustly taunted for its adherence to royalty, when the curtain of the Revolutionary drama was first lifted in 1775. Family influence was very great in that colony, and through it the General Assembly and the Provincial Congress were very loyally inclined. But the masses were chiefly republican in feeling, and when Toryism was fairly crushed out of the popular Assembly by pressure from without, no state was more patriotic. With a population of only one hundred and sixty-four thousand, of whom thirty-two thousand five hundred were liable to do militia duty, New York furnished seventeen thousand seven hundred and eighty-one soldiers for the Continental army; over three thousand more than Congress required.—Judge Campbell's Address before the New York Historical Society, 1850.
**** These were commanded by colonels M'Dougal, James Clinton, Ritzema, and Wynkoop. Herman Zedwitz, a Prussian, was M'Dougal's first major. Ritzema joined the Royal army after the battle at White Plains; and about the same time Zedwitz was cashiered for attempting a treasonable correspondence with Tryon.
* (v) King's Bridge spans Spyt den Duyvel Creek, at the northern end of York Island. The first structure there was of wood, erected at the expense of the colony in 1691, and was called the King's bridge.
* (vi) For a notice of Washington's arrival in New York, when on his way to Cambridge, see vol. i., page 564.
Wooster and his Troops at Harlem.—Capture of British Stores.—Turtle Bay.—Committee of One Hundred.
somewhat purged of its Toryism by intelligence from the East, invited General Wooster, then in command of eighteen hundred Connecticut militia at Greenwich, to come to the defense of New York.
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He encamped at HarlemJune, 1775for several weeks, sent detachments to beat off marauders, who were carrying away the cattle of Long Island to the British army in Boston, and by his presence made the New York patriots bold and active. At midnightJuly 20they captured British stores at Turtle Bay, and sent part to the grand army at Boston and a part to the troops then collecting on Lake Champlain to invade Canada; they also seized a tender, with stores, belonging to theAsia,and took possession of provisions and clothing deposited at Greenwich * by the government. **
Governor Tryon returned to New York in theAsiaon the third of July, and was received with respect. His course soon indicated his opposition to the Republicans. The energetic actions of the committee of One Hundred taught him to be circumspect in public, and his private intrigues to gain ascendency for Toryism in the Provincial Congress were abortive. That body, now guided by the popular will, and perceiving a resort to arms to be inevitable, ordered Lamb, who was then a captain of artillery, to remove the cannons from the grand battery and the fort, and take them to a place of security. Assisted by an independent corps under Colonel Lasher, and a body of citizens guided byKingSears, as
* Greenwich was then a village of a few houses, a mile and a half from the city. It has long since been merged into the metropolis, and is now (1852) at about a central point, on the Hudson, between the lower and upper part of the city.
** These acts were done under the immediate sanction of the committee of One Hundred, * who, while the Provincial Congress legislated, were busy in executing according to the known will of the people. The patriots regarded this committee with more confidence than they did the Provincial Congress.
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*** Turtle Bay is a small rock-bound cove of the East River, at the foot of Forty-seventh Street. The banks are high and precipitous, and afforded a safe retreat for small vessels. Here the government had made a magazine of military stores, and these the Sons of Liberty determined to seize. Under the direction of Lamb, Sears, Willett, and M'Dougal, a party procured a sloop at Greenwich, came stealthily through the dangerous vortex of Hell Gate at twilight, and at midnight surprised and captured the guard, and secured the stores. The old store-house in which they were deposited is yet standing upon a wharf on the southern side of the little bay. The above view is from the bank at the foot of Forty-sixth Street. Beyond the rocky point on the north side of the bay is seen the lower end of Blackwell's Island, with the shore of Long Island in the distance. On the left of the old store-house, delineated in the annexed sketch, is seen the bridge across the mouth of Newtown Creek, a locality which will be mentioned presently in connection with a notice of the landing of troops under Sir Henry Clinton.
* The following-named gentlemen composed the committee of One Hundred: Isaae Low, Chairman; John Jay, Fraud's Lewis, John Alsop, Philip Livingston, James Duane, E. Duyekman, William Seton, William W. Ludlow, Cornelius Clopper, Abraham Brinekerhoff, Henry Remsen, Robert Ray, Evert Bancker, Joseph Totten, Abraham P. Lott, David Beekman, Isaae Roosevelt, Gabriel II. Ludlow, William Walton, Daniel Phoenix, Frederick Jay, Samuel Broome, John De Lancey. Augustus van Horne, Abraham Duryee, Samuel Verplanck, Rudolphus Putzema, John Morton, Joseph Hallett, Robert Benson, Abraham Brasher, Leonard Lispenard, Nicholas Hoffman, P. V. Brugh Livingston, Thomas Marsten, Lewis Pintard, John Imlay, Eleazar Miller, Jr.. John Broome, John B. Moore, Nicholas Bogart, John Anthony, Victor Bicker, William Goforth, Hercules Mulljin, Alexander M'Dougal, John Reade, Joseph Ball, George Janeway, John White, Gabriel W. Ludlow, John Lasher, Theophilus Anthony, Thomas Smith, Richard Liates, Oliver Templeton, Jacobus van Landby, Jeremiah Platt, Peter S. Curtenius, Thomas Randall, Lancaster Burling, Benjamin Kissam, Jacoh Lefferts, Anthony van Dam, Abraham Walton, Hamilton Young, Nicholas Roosevelt, Cornelius P. Low, Franeis Bassett, James Beekman, Thomas Ivers, William Dunning, John Berrien, Benjamin Helme, William W. Gilbert, Daniel Dunscombe, John Lamb, Richard Sharpe, John Morin Seott, Jacob van Voorhis, Comfort Sands, Edward Flemming, Peter Goelet, Gerrit Kettletas, Thomas Buchanan, James Desbrosses, Petrus Byvanek, Lott Embree.—See Dunlap's History of New York, ii., Appendix, ccxvi.
Removal of Cannons from the Battery.—Cannonade from the Asia.—Newspapers in the City.
the sturdy Son of Liberty was now called, he proceeded to the battery at nine o'clock on lhe evening of the twenty-third of August. Captain Vandeput, of theAsia, informed of the intended movement, sent a barge filled with armed men to watch the patriots. When they appeared, a musket ball was indiscreetly sent among them from the barge. It was answered by a volley, when the barge hastened to theAsia, bearing several men killed and wounded. That vessel opened her port-holes, and hurled three balls ashore in quick succession. Lamb ordered the drums to beat to arms; the church bells were rung, and while all was confusion and alarm, a broadside came from theAsia. Others rapidly followed, and several houses near the fort and Whitehall were injured by the grape and round shot. * No life was sacrificed, but terror seized the people. Believing the rumor that the city was to be sacked and burned, hundreds of men, women, and children were seen at midnight hurrying with their light effects to places of safety beyond the doomed town. Yet the patriots at the battery were firm, and in the face of the cannonade every gun was deliberately removed. Some of them afterward performed good service in the American cause. **
Deep feelings of exasperation moved the Sons of Liberty in the city after this cannonade, and Tryon's fears wisely counseled his flight. Mayor Hicks and others promised him protection, but he had more confidence in gunpowder, and on the nineteenth of October1775he took refuge on board the British sloop of war Halifax, *** where he received his council, and, like Dunmore, attempted to exercise civil authority. **** Aided by Rivington. (v) with
* Among the houses injured at that time was the tavern of Samuel Fraunce (commonly called Black Sam, because of his dark complexion), on the corner of Broad and Pearl Streets, where Washington parted with his officers more than eight years afterward. That house, known as the Broad Street Hotel, was partly destroyed by fire in June, 1852. Freneau, in his Petition of Hugh Gaine, makes that time-server allude to the cannonade of the Asia, and say,
"At first we supposed it was only a sham,'Till he drove a round ball through the roof of Black Sam."
** There were twenty-one iron eighteen-pounders and some smaller cannon on the battery. Alexander Hamilton, then a student in King's (now Columbia) College, was among the citizens on that occasion. He had organized a corps for artillery discipline among his fellow-students, and fifteen of them were now with him. Among their trophies were two six-pounders, which they buried in the earth on the College Green, despite the menaces of Dr. Cooper, the Tory president. These two cannons may yet (1852) be seen at the entrance gate of the College Green, fronting Park Place.
*** The Continental Congress, on the sixth of October, recommended the several Provincial Congresses and Committees of Safety to seeure every person believed to be inimical to the Republican cause. No doubt this recommendation hastened Tryon's flight.
**** The members in attendance were Oliver Delancey, Hugh Wallace, William Axtell, John Harris Cruger and James Jauncey.
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* (v) James Rivington was a native of London, well educated, and of pleasing deportment. He came to America in 1760, established a bookstore in Philadelphia the same year, and in 1761 opened one near the foot of Wall Street, in New York, where his Royal Gazetteer * was established in April, 1773. No man was more thoroughly detested by the Whigs than Rivington, for he held a keen and unscrupulous pen. His good nature often pointed his severest thrusts. When, in 1781, he perceived the improbability of success on the part of the British, he made a peace-offering to the Americans, by furnishing the commander-in-chief with important information. By means of books which he published, he performed his treason without suspicion. He wrote his secret billets upon thin paper, and bound them in the cover of a book, which he always managed to sell to those who would carry the article immediately to Washington. The men employed for this purpose were ignorant of the nature of their service. While thus playing into the hands of the Republicans, he unceasingly abused them, and kept Clinton, Robertson, and Carleton in blissful ignorance of his perfidy. When the Loyalists fled, and the American army entered the city in the autumn of 1783, Rivington remained; a fact which has puzzled those acquainted with his course during the war. Others, not a tithe so obnoxious, were driven away; in his secret treason lies the explanation. His business declined, and he lived in comparative poverty until July, 1802, when he died at the age of seventy-eight years. The portrait here given is from a fine painting by Stuart, in the possession of Honorable John Hunter, of Hunter's Island, New Rochelle. The signature is half the size of the original. Mr. Hunter remembers Rivington as a vivacious, companionable man, fond of good living, a lover of wine, and a perfect gentleman in his deportment.
* There were three other newspapers printed in the city when Rivington's press was destroyed, namely, Gaine's New York Mercury, in Hanover Square, established in 1752; Holt's New York Journal, in Dock (Pearl) Street, near Wall, commenced in 1766; and Anderson's Constitutional Gazette, a very small sheet, published for a few months in 1775. at Beekman's Slip. Hugh Gaine was a time-server. He was a professed patriot until the British took possession of New York in 1776, when he returned to the city after a brief exile at Newark, became a moderate Loyalist, and, on making an humble petition to the State Legislature at the close of the war, he was allowed to remain. This petition was the subject of one of Freneau's best satirical poems. Gaine kept a bookstore under the sign of the Bible and Crown, at Hanover Square, for forty years. He died on tin: twenty-fifth of April, 1807, at the age of eighty-one years. Previous to the meeting of the first Congress, Holt's paper contained the Snake device (see page 508, volume i.) at its head; in December, after its session, it bore the annexed significant picture as a vignette. This is half the size of the original. Upon the body of the serpent were these words.
"United, now, alive and free,Firm on this basis Liberty shall stand,And thus supported ever bless our land,'Till Time becomes Eternity."
After the destruction of his press, Rivington went to England. When the British took possession of New York, he was appointed king's printer, and in October, 1777, he resumed the publication of his paper, under the original title. On the thirteenth of December, he changed the title to "The Royal Gazette," and published it semi-weekly. During the occupation of the city by the British, a paper was issued every day but one; Gaine's Mercury on Monday; Rivington's Gazette on Wednesday and Saturday; Robertson's, Mills', and Hicks' Loyal American Gazette on Thursday; and Lewis's New York Mercury and General Advertiser on Friday. Rivington alone assumed the title of "printer to the king."—Thomas's History of Printing, ii., 312.
Destruction of Rivington's Printing Materials.—Capture of Seabury.—Rivington and Sears.
hisRoyal Gazetteer, his influence was still great, and and in active propagation.
In total disregard of truth and common fairness, Rivington abused the Republicans with unsparing severity, and none more bitterly than Captain Sears. *
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That patriot, fired by personal insult and political zeal, came from Connecticut, where he had gone to plan schemes for the future with ardent Whigs, and at noonday entered the cityNov. 23, 1775at the head of seventy-five light-horsemen, proceeded to the printing establishment of Seabury ** and two other obnoxious Tories, and managed to keep disaffection alive Rivington, at the foot of Wall Street, placed a guard with fixed bayonets around it, put all of his types into bags, destroyed his press and other apparatus, and then in the same order, amid the shouts of the populace, and to the tune of Yankee Doodle, left the city. They carried off the types and made bullets of them. On their way back to Connecticut they disarmed all the Tories in their route, and at West Chester seized and took with them the Reverend Samuel in triumph to New Haven.
* Isaac Sears was born at Norwalk, Connecticut, in 1729. His ancestors, who were among the earliest emigrants to Massachusetts, were from Colchester, England, and came to Plymouth in 1630. Mr. Sears was a successful merchant in the city of New York, engaged in the European and West India trade, when political matters attracted his attention. When the Stamp Act aroused the colonists, Sears stood forth as the champion of right, and, as we have seen in preceding pages, was one of the most active and zealous members of the association of the Sons of Liberty. He was an active Whig during the whole war, and when it ended, his business and his fortune had disappeared. Before the war he had commanded a vessel engaged in the West India trade. In 1785, we find him on the ocean as supercargo, bound for Canton, with others engaged in the venture. When they arrived at Canton. Captain Sears was very ill with fever, and on the twenty-eighth of October, 1785, he died at the age of nearly fifty-seven years. He was buried upon French Island, and his fellow-voyagers placed a slab, with a suitable inscription, over his grave.
** This was Bishop Seabury of a later day, whose grave we have noticed on page 50. He was born at New London in 1728, graduated at Yale in 1751, took orders in the church, in London, in 1753, and then settled in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He was at Jamaica, Long Island, for ten years, and then removed to West Chester, in the county of West Chester. He took sides with the Loyalists, and was one of those who signed a protest at White Plains against the measures of the Whigs. Sears and his party carried him to New Haven, where he was kept for some time, and then paroled to Long Island. His school at West Chester was broken up, his church was converted into a hospital, and he went to New York, and served as chaplain, at one time, in Colonel Fanning's corps of Loyalists. At the close of the war he settled in his native town. He was consecrated a bishop (the first in the United States) in 1784, and for the remainder of his life he presided over the diocese of Connecticut and Rhode Island. He died on the twenty-fifth of February, 1796.
Disaffection.—Disarming of the Tories.—Troops under Lee in New York.—His Head-quarters.—Sir Henry Clinton.
During the winter of 1775—6, disaffection to the Republican cause prevailed extensively throughout the province, and in Queen's county and vicinity, on Long Island, the people began to arm in favor of the crown.
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Tryon expected to see the province speedily declare in favor of royalty, and from theDuchess of Gordon(armed ship), where he made his headquarters, he kept up an active correspondence with Hicks, Delancey, and other Loyalists in the city. The Continental Congress promptly opposed the progress of disaffection, and vigorous measures were adopted for a general disarming of the Tories throughout the colonies. * Early in January,1776Washington, then at Cambridge, was informed that General Sir Henry Clinton was about to sail on a secret expedition. He doubted not that New York was his destination, where Tryon was ready to head the Loyalists in a formal demonstration in favor of the crown. Fearing that province might be lost to the patriots, Washington readily acceded to the request of General Charles Lee, then in Connecticut, to embody volunteers in that colony, and march to New York. Governor Trumbull lent his aid to the service, and within a fortnight Lee, having the bold Isaac Sears for his adjutant general, was in rapid march toward New York with twelve hundred men. His approach produced great alarm, and many Tories fled, with their families and effects, to Long Island and New Jersey. The Committee of Safety, yet dozing over the anodyne of disaffection, were aroused by fear, and protested against Lee's entrance into the city, because Captain Parker, of theAsia, had declared his intention to cannonade and burn the town if rebel troops should be allowed to enter it. ** Lee was unmoved alike by Parker's threats and the committee's protest, and encamping the larger portion of his troops in "the fields" (the present City Hall Park), he made his head-quarters at the house of Captain Kennedy, No. 1 Broadway. *** He proclaimed his mission, and said, "I come to prevent the occupation of Long Island or the city by the enemies of liberty. If the ships of war are quiet, I shall be quiet; if they make my presence a pretext for firing on the town, the first house set in flames by their guns shall be the funeral pile of some of their best friends." Lee's energy of expression and action was potential. The Tories shrunk into inactivity; a glow of patriotism was felt in the Provincial Congress, and measures were speedily adopted for fortifying the city and the approaches to it, and garrisoning it with two thousand men.
Sir Henry Clinton arrived at Sandy Hook on the day when Lee entered the city. He sailed for North Carolina,March, 1776was followed thither by Lee, and in June
* Resolutions to this effect were adopted on the second of January, 1776, and on the same day Lord Stirling was directed to "seize and secure all the ammunition and warlike stores belonging to the enemy'' then or thereafter in New Jersey.—See Journal, ii., 5, 6, 7.
** Parker did not fire a shot because of the "rebel troops" in the city. His reasons were ludicrous. He said Lee desired the destruction of the city, and he would not gratify him.—Lee's Letter to Washington.
*** This house (yet standing) was built by Captain Kennedy, of the royal navy, at about the time of his marriage with the daughter of Colonel Peter Schuyler, of Newark, New Jersey, in April, 1765. The above engraving exhibits the locality in the vicinity of the Kennedy House. On the extreme left is seen the Broadway front of the Kennedy House (No. 1), where Lee, Washington, and afterward Sir Henry Clinton, Robertson, Carleton, and other British officers, were quartered, and where André wrote his letter, to Arnold. The building next to it (No. 3) is the one occupied by Arnold (see page 209) when Champe attempted his capture. The two high buildings beyond (Nos. 5 and 7) are more modern; the small, low one (No. 9, Atlantic Garden) was Gage's head-quarters in 1765. On the right of the picture is part of the Bowling Green, where the statue of the king stood. The view is taken from the site of the northwest bastion of Fort George.
Fortifications upon York or Manhattan Island.
they were in conflict in Charleston harbor. The army in New York was left in charge of Lord Stirling,March 7and that officer prosecuted with vigor the labor of fortifying the city, begun by Lee. * Already the Tories who remained had been compelled to take an oath to act with the Americans if required, and officers were busy upon Staten Island, and some parts of Long Island, in disarming them.
Washington hastened to New York after the British evacuated Boston,March 17, 1776for he suspected Howe would sail directly to attack that city. He arrived on the fourteenth of April, and approving of the course of Lee and Stirling, he pushed forward the defenses of the city. Fort George was strengthened, and in the course of three months strong works were erected in the vicinity of the city and in the Hudson Highlands. ** Toward the
* On the night of the tenth of April, one thousand Continentals went over to Governors Island and constructed a redoubt upon the west side, a little southeast of Castle William. On the same night a regiment went over to Red Hook, the extreme point of land north of Gowanus Bay, over which South Brooklyn is now spreading, constructed a redoubt for four eighteen-pounders, and named it Fort Defiance. It was upon a small island, close to the shore, near the water termination of Conover and Van Brunt Streets, south of the Atlantic Docks.