about to test her power to tax the colonies by forcing the importation of
tea through the East India Company in order to establish a precedent, and
preparations were made to resist. The Sons of Liberty again organized in
November, 1773, and prepared for action. They drew up a number of
resolutions which expressed their sentiments and which they engaged to
faithfully observe. The first of these was, "that whoever should aid or
abet or in any manner assist in the introduction of Tea from any place
whatsoever into this Colony, while it is subject by a British act of
parliament to the payment of a duty for the purpose of raising a revenue
in America, he shall be deemed an enemy to the Liberties of America." On
the back of a printed copy of these resolutions was written a letter of
appeal, signed by the committee of the association, addressed to the
Friends of Liberty and Trade, inviting an union of all classes in a
determined resistance, and urging harmony.
At a meeting held at the City Hall on the 17th of December by the Sons of
Liberty to which all friends of liberty and trade of America were
invited, it was firmly resolved that the tea which was expected should not
be landed.
In Boston the consignee of the tea refusing to return it to England, the
vessels were boarded by a number of men disguised as Indians, the chests
of tea broken open and the contents cast overboard in the water. This
occurred on the 16th of December, 1773.
At a meeting held at the tavern of Captain Doran a committee was appointed
to wait on the merchants who had been appointed commissioners for the sale
of the East India Company's tea and ask their intentions. They replied to
the committee that, finding that the tea will come liable to American
duty, they have declined to receive it. Thomas Doran had been captain of a
small but fast sailing privateer, and did good service in the late French
war. He had since been keeping a tavern on the new dock near the Fly
Market. His house had been the usual place of meeting of the Marine
Society for many years. In May, 1774, notice was given that a committee of
the Chamber of Commerce would meet at the house of Thomas Doran to receive
claims for bounty on fish brought into the city markets. The assembly, in
1773, had granted the sum of five hundred pounds per annum for five years,
"for the encouragement of fishery on this coast for the better supplying
of the markets of this city with fish," to be paid to the treasurer of the
Chamber of Commerce, and the awarding of the premiums was entrusted to
that association. This was the first distribution of premiums.
[Sidenote: The Tea-Ship Arrives]
The tea-ship for New York, long overdue, was anxiously expected. In March,
1774, the Sons of Liberty were notified to meet every Thursday night at
seven o'clock at the house of Jasper Drake till the arrival and departure
of the tea-ship. The ships for the other ports had arrived at their
destinations and been disposed of. No tea had been allowed to be sold. The
ship Nancy, Captain Lockyer, with the tea for New York on board, driven
off the coast by contrary winds, did not reach the port until April 18th,
and the pilot, advised of the situation, refused to bring her up to the
city. The people had resolved that the tea should not be landed. The
captain was allowed to come up on condition that he would not enter his
vessel at the custom house. He was received by a committee of the Sons of
Liberty and conducted to the consignee, who, declining to receive his
cargo, he at once made preparation to return. On Friday, April 22,
handbills were distributed, stating that although the sense of the people
had been signified to Captain Lockyer, nevertheless it was the desire of
many of the citizens that, at his departure, he should see with his own
eyes their detestation of the measures pursued by the ministry and the
East India Company to enslave this country. Accordingly, on Saturday
morning, about eight o'clock, all the bells in the city rang as a notice
to the people that the tea which had been brought over in the Nancy was
about to be sent back without allowing it to be landed. About nine o'clock
the people assembled at the Coffee House in greater numbers than ever
before known, Captain Lockyer came out of the Coffee House with the
committee and was received with cheers, while a band provided for the
occasion played "God Save the King." He was then conducted to Murray's
Wharf, at the foot of Wall Street, where, amid the shouts of the people
and the firing of guns, he was put on board the pilot boat and wished a
safe passage. He joined his ship, the Nancy, at the Narrows, and the next
morning put to sea.
[Sidenote: Tea Thrown Overboard]
On Friday, amidst all the excitement, Captain Chambers, who from
information received from different sources was suspected of having tea on
board his ship, the London, arrived at the Hook. The pilot asked him if he
had any tea on board and he declared that he had none. Two of the
committee of observation went on board, to whom he declared that he had no
tea. When the ship came to the wharf about four o'clock in the afternoon
she was boarded by a number of citizens and Captain Chambers was told that
it was in vain for him to deny having tea on board his ship for there was
good proof to the contrary, whereupon he confessed that he had on board
eighteen chests. The owners of the vessel and the committee immediately
met at Francis' Tavern to deliberate over the matter where Captain
Chambers was ordered to attend. Here he stated that he was the sole owner
of the tea. The Mohawks were prepared to do their duty but the people
became impatient and about eight o'clock a number entered the ship, took
out the tea, broke open the chests and threw their contents into the
river. The resentment of the people was so great against Captain Chambers,
whom they had considered a friend of their rights and deserving of their
confidence, that it was thought that if he could have been found, his life
would have been in danger. He was, however, concealed and succeeded the
next day in getting on board the Nancy with Captain Lockyer and sailed
away to England.
The news of what had been done by the little tea-party in Boston Harbor,
December 16, 1773, reached England on the 22d of January, 1774, and
created intense excitement in London. On March 7 the King sent a special
message to parliament on the American disturbances and soon after a bill
was prepared providing for the closing of the port of Boston to all
commerce on June 1, at the King's pleasure, and ordering indemnification
to be made to the East India Company for the tea destroyed. This bill
passed both houses of parliament without a dissenting vote. The news of
its passage came to New York by the ship Samson, Captain Coupar, which
arrived May 12, twenty-seven days from London. By the same packet came
news that General Gage, commissioned governor of Massachusetts, had
engaged with four regiments to reduce Boston to submission and was to sail
for his government on April 15.
[Sidenote: Committee of Correspondence]
In consequence of the alarming news from England, a notice was posted at
the Merchants' Coffee House inviting the merchants to meet at the tavern
of Samuel Francis on Monday evening, the 16th, to consult on measures
proper to be taken. Accordingly, a large number of merchants and other
inhabitants appeared at the appointed place. The object was to appoint a
committee of correspondence. There appeared some differences of opinion as
to the number and composition of this committee, but the result was that
fifty names were nominated, fifteen of the number to be sufficient to do
business. To confirm the choice of this committee or to choose others, it
was resolved before adjournment that the inhabitants of the city should be
requested to meet at the Merchants' Coffee House on Thursday, the 19th, at
one o'clock.
[Sidenote: Paul Revere, the Post Rider]
In the interim Paul Revere, the famous post-rider and express, arrived on
the 17th with a message from the people of Boston, urging a cessation of
all trade with Great Britain and the West Indies until the port bill
should be repealed. In the evening of the same day there was a large
meeting of the mechanics at Bardin's Tavern. Bardin had come to the
neighborhood where he formerly lived and was keeping the house at one time
kept by John Jones in the Fields, and known after that as Hampden Hall.
The mechanics sided with the radical party.
At the meeting called at the Merchants' Coffee House the merchants
prevailed, as they had done at the previous meeting. The name of Francis
Lewis was added to the committee and it was known as the committee of
fifty-one. Gouverneur Morris, writing to Penn, said: "I stood on the
balcony and on my right hand were ranged all the people of property with
some few poor dependents, and on the other all the tradesmen, etc., who
thought it worth their while to leave daily labor for the good of the
country." There was some opposition to the committee named, but after the
meeting those who had opposed it, for the sake of union, sent in their
agreement to the choice. The mechanics also sent a letter to the committee
concurring in the selection.
[Sidenote: Answer to the Boston Letter]
The committee of fifty-one met at the Merchants' Coffee House on Monday
morning, the 23d, at ten o'clock for business, and after appointing a
chairman, secretary and doorkeeper, and agreeing upon sundry rules for the
conduct of business, the letters from Boston and Philadelphia were read.
A committee composed of Messrs. MacDougal, Low, Duane and Jay was
appointed to draw up an answer to the first and report at eight o'clock in
the evening, to which time the meeting adjourned. At the appointed time
the committee appointed to draw up an answer to the Boston letter made
report of a draft of such letter, which was unanimously agreed to and
ordered to be engrossed and forwarded with the utmost dispatch. On Tuesday
it was delivered to Paul Revere, the express from Boston, who had been as
far as Philadelphia and was now on his way back to Boston. He immediately
set out on his return. A copy was ordered to be transmitted to the
Committee of Correspondence of Philadelphia. "The letter proposed to the
people of Boston that a Congress of the colonies should be convoked
without delay to determine and direct the measures to be pursued for
relief of the town of Boston and the redress of all the American
grievances," a recommendation which was accepted and resulted in the
Congress which met at Philadelphia in September.
Monday evening, June 6, the Committee of Correspondence met and read and
answered the dispatches brought from Boston by the express rider,
Cornelius Bradford, and on Monday, the 13th, the New York Mercury stated
that they were to meet again that night, when, it was hoped, their
proceedings would be made public, saying "the times are critical and big
with interesting events." On Wednesday, June 15, the day on which the
harbor of Boston was closed by act of parliament, a great number of the
friends of American liberty in the city procured effigies of Governor
Hutchinson, Lord North and Mr. Wedderburn, persons who were considered
most unfriendly to the rights of America, and after carrying them through
the principal streets of the city took them to the Coffee House, "where
they were attended in the evening of that day, it is thought, by the
greatest concourse of spectators ever seen on a similar occasion, and
there destroyed by sulphurous Flames."
The Committee of Correspondence held their meetings at the Merchants'
Coffee House during the summer. It was the center of most of the political
agitation and unrest which pervaded the community. On the evening of
Wednesday, July 13, the committee met and drew up a set of resolutions on
the alarming situation of affairs, which were printed in handbills and
distributed about the town the next morning, for the approbation of the
people who were to assemble at the Coffee House at twelve o'clock on the
19th to approve or disapprove of them. It had been settled that there
should be a Congress of the colonies, to meet at Philadelphia in
September, and the people were at the same time to testify their
approbation of the five gentlemen nominated by the committee to attend as
delegates. These were James Duane, Philip Livingston, John Alsop, Isaac
Low and John Jay. There was so much controversy that the men nominated
declined to accept the trust until confirmed by the people. Accordingly,
on the 24th an election was ordered in the ordinary manner by a poll in
the several wards which was held on the 28th, resulting in the unanimous
choice of the five gentlemen above named as delegates.
[Sidenote: Delegates to Congress]
About the first of September there was much excitement on account of the
departure of the delegates for Philadelphia and the arrival of delegates
from the New England colonies, passing through the city. On Monday, the
29th of August, John Jay quietly set out for Philadelphia to attend the
congress, and on Thursday, September 1st, the four other delegates left
the city for the same laudable purpose. Isaac Low, accompanied by his
wife, who wished to go by way of Paulus Hook, was escorted to the ferry
stairs at the foot of Cortlandt Street by a large number of citizens, with
colors flying, and with music. A few accompanied him over the river with
musicians playing "God Save the King." The people then returned to the
Coffee House in order to testify the same respect for the other three
delegates, James Duane, John Alsop and Philip Livingston. The procession
began about half past nine o'clock. When they arrived at the Royal
Exchange, near which they embarked, James Duane, in a short speech,
thanked the people for the honor they had conferred upon them and declared
for himself and for his fellow delegates "that nothing in their Power
should be wanting to relieve this once happy but now aggrieved Country."
As they left the wharf, "they were saluted by several Pieces of Cannon,
mounted for the occasion, which was answered by a greater Number from St.
George's Ferry. These Testimonials and three Huzzas bid them go and
proclaim to all Nations that they, and the virtuous People they represent,
dare _defend their Rights as Protestant Englishmen_."
The Massachusetts delegates, Thomas Cushing, Samuel Adams, Robert Treat
Paine and John Adams, set out on their journey from Boston in one coach on
the 10th of August and arrived in New York on the 20th. John Adams, in his
diary, says: "We breakfasted at Day's and arrived in the city of New York
at ten o'clock, at Hull's, a tavern, the sign of the Bunch of Grapes." The
arms of the province on the old sign must have been pretty well
weatherbeaten to have been taken for a bunch of grapes. The best tavern in
Boston and the best tavern in Hartford each hung out this sign and Adams
was thus easily led into an error.
[Sidenote: The Congress at Philadelphia]
The congress at Philadelphia passed a non-exportation act to take effect
on September 15, and a non-importation act to be put in force on December
1. A committee of observation or inspection was appointed in New York city
to secure the strict observance of these acts. In the spring of 1775
deputies were elected in New York to a provincial congress which met on
April 20, and the next day appointed delegates to represent the province
in the Continental Congress which was to assemble at Philadelphia in the
following May. News of the battle of Lexington, forwarded by express
riders from Watertown, Massachusetts, reached the chambers of the New York
committee of correspondence at four o'clock in the afternoon of Sunday,
April 23. It was war. The news reached Williamsburg, Virginia, on April
28, and on the next day Alexander Purdie published it in an extra of his
Gazette. In commenting on the situation his closing words were: "The sword
is now drawn and God knows when it will be sheathed."
IX
THE PROVINCE ARMS
[Sidenote: Great Excitement in the City]
In the early part of the year 1775 a state of uneasiness and expectancy
pervaded the community. Trade was prostrate. The merchants met at the
Exchange or at the Coffee House and nervously talked over the situation,
for which there seemed to be no remedy; while they looked out on the quiet
docks, now almost deserted. They were calmly waiting for something to
happen, and it came in the news of the battle of Lexington. This was the
crisis which produced a decided change in conditions. The dissatisfied
people now showed that they had lost all respect for English rule.
Companies of armed citizens paraded the streets aimlessly, and there was
great excitement everywhere. The regular soldiers in garrison prudently
confined themselves to their barracks. The machinery of government was out
of joint and it was very soon apparent that something should be done to
maintain order and form some regular plan of government.
A meeting was called at the Merchants' Coffee House when it was agreed
that the government of the city should be placed in the hands of a
committee. Isaac Low, chairman of the committee of observation, issued a
notice stating that the committee were unanimously of opinion that a new
committee should be elected by the freeholders and freemen for the present
unhappy exigency of affairs, to consist of one hundred persons,
thirty-three to be a quorum. It was also recommended that they should at
the same time choose deputies to represent them in a provincial congress
which it was considered highly advisable should be summoned. A committee
such as was recommended was chosen May 1, and, at the same time,
twenty-one deputies for the city and county of New York, to meet the
deputies of the other counties in provincial congress May 22.
The excitement had in no wise abated when the eastern delegates to
congress entered the city, Saturday, May 6, on their way to Philadelphia
and were received with the greatest enthusiasm. They were met a few miles
out of town by a great number of the principal gentlemen of the place and
escorted into the city by near a thousand men under arms. John Adams, in
his diary, says that from Kingsbridge the number of people continually
increased, until he thought the whole city had come out to meet them. The
roads, it is said, were lined with greater numbers of people than were
known on any occasion before. All the bells of the city rang out a
welcome. They were conducted to the tavern of Sam Francis, where they
lodged, and a newspaper states that double sentries were placed at the
doors of their lodgings, for what special purpose we are not informed,
probably simply to keep the crowd in check and maintain order.
The British soldiers garrisoned in the city were powerless to maintain the
authority of the crown and were ordered to join the troops at Boston.
There were some who advised that they should be made prisoners. The
committee, however, agreed to let them depart with their arms and
accoutrements without molestation. They accordingly marched out from the
barracks to embark about ten o'clock on the morning of June 6, 1775. At
the time there were at the tavern of Jasper Drake, in Water Street near
Beekman Slip, a place well known as a rendezvous of the Liberty Boys and
those opposed to the British measures, about half a dozen men, when word
came to them that the British soldiers were leaving the barracks to embark
and were taking with them several carts loaded with chests filled with
arms.
[Sidenote: Transfer of Arms Stopped]
They immediately decided that these arms should not be taken from the
city. One of the men was Marinus Willett, and what he did that day has
become a landmark in the history of the city. They started out on
different routes to notify their friends and obtain assistance. Willett
went down Water Street to the Coffee House where he notified those who
were there of what was to be done and then proceeded down to the Exchange
at the foot of Broad Street. When he saw the troops and the carts laden
with arms approaching he went up to meet them, and not hesitating a
moment, seized the horse drawing the leading cart by the bridle, which
caused a halt and brought the officer in command to the front. The crowd
that immediately collected, including the mayor, gave Willett little
support, but soon John Morin Scott came to his assistance, asserting that
the committee had given no permission for the removal of the arms. The
result was that the soldiers made no resistance to the seizure of the arms
and quietly embarked without them. These arms were used by the first
troops raised in New York under the orders of Congress.
[Illustration: MARINUS WILLETT STOPPING THE TRANSFER OF ARMS]
[Sidenote: The Coffee House]
Nesbitt Deane, the hatter, whose shop was in the old Coffee House
building, advertised in 1775, to let the two or three upper stories of the
house, "being noted for a Notary Public's office these two years past,"
which he further describes "as being so pleasantly situated that a person
can see at once the river, shipping, Long Island and all the gentlemen
resorting to the House on business from the most distant climes." Although
the Coffee House was generally the resort of strangers as well as
citizens, yet, in 1775, on account of the stagnation of business caused by
the cessation of all trade with Great Britain, it was almost deserted.
This is made plain by an article which appeared in the New York Journal of
October 19; and as this has some interesting statements about coffee
houses in general and about the Merchants' Coffee House in particular, we
have thought it well to reproduce it entirely.
"TO THE INHABITANTS OF NEW YORK:
"It gives me concern, in this time of public difficulty and danger, to
find we have in this city no place of daily general meeting, where we
might hear and communicate intelligence from every quarter and freely
confer with one another on every matter that concerns us. Such a place
of general meeting is of very great advantage in many respects,
especially at such a time as this, besides the satisfaction it affords
and the sociable disposition it has a tendency to keep up among us,
which was never more wanted than at this time. To answer all these and
many other good and useful purposes, Coffee Houses have been
universally deemed the most convenient places of resort, because at a
small expense of time or money, persons wanted may be found and spoke
with, appointments may be made, current news heard, and whatever it
most concerns us to know. In all cities, therefore, and large towns
that I have seen in the British dominions, sufficient encouragement
has been given to support one or more Coffee Houses in a genteel
manner. How comes it then that New York, the most central, and one of
the largest and most prosperous cities in British America, cannot
support one Coffee House? It is a scandal to the city and its
inhabitants to be destitute of such a convenience, for want of due
encouragement. A coffee house, indeed, here is! a very good and
comfortable one, extremely well tended and accommodated, but it is
frequented but by an inconsiderable number of people; and I have
observed with surprise, that but a small part of those who do frequent
it, contribute anything at all to the expense, of it, but come in and
go out without calling for or paying anything to the house. In all the
Coffee Houses in London, it is customary for every one that comes in,
to call for at least a dish of Coffee, or leave the value of one,
which is but reasonable, because when the keepers of these houses have
been at the expense of setting them up and providing all necessaries
for the accommodation of company, every one that comes to receive the
benefit of these conveniences ought to contribute something towards
the expense of them.