Part 15

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people of Boston, urging a cessation of all trade with Great Britain and the West Indies until the port bill should be repealed.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.

[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.

"To each individual the expense is a trifle quite inconsiderable, but to the keeper of one of these houses it is an article of great importance, and essential to the support and continuance of it. I have, therefore, since I frequented the Coffee House in this city and observed the numbers that come in without spending anything, often wondered how the expense of the house was supported, or what inducement the person who kept it could have to continue it. At the same time I could not help being equally surprised at the disposition of people who acted in this manner; or their thoughtlessness in neglecting to contribute to the support of a house which their business or pleasure induced them to frequent; especially as I have met with no Coffee House in my travels better accommodated with attendance or any liquors that could be expected in a Coffee House.

"I have of late observed that the house is almost deserted, and don't wonder that fire and candles are not lighted as usual; it is rather surprising they were continued so long. I am convinced the interest of the person who keeps it, must, without a speedy alteration, soon induce her to drop the business and shut up her house; and I cannot help feeling concern that a very useful and worthy person, who has always behaved well in her station, should not be treated with more generosity and kindness by her fellow citizens. I am concerned, too, for my own conveniency and for the honor of the city, to find that it will not support one Coffee House.

"A FRIEND TO THE CITY."

When the American army came into the city to prepare for its defense Mrs. Ferrari was still the landlady of the Merchants' Coffee House, but on May 1, 1776, it passed into the hands of Cornelius Bradford, who seems to have been a man of energy and enterprise. In his announcement in April he promised that he would endeavor to give satisfaction, that he would obtain all the newspapers for the use of his patrons and render the house as useful and convenient as possible. He says: "Interesting intelligence will be carefully collected and the greatest attention will be given to the arrival of vessels, when trade and navigation shall resume their former channels." He evidently was hopeful of better times, although preparations for war were being made around him on all sides. Bradford was an ardent supporter of the American cause and had been an express rider, carrying important confidential messages between New York and Boston and between New York and Philadelphia. His tenure of the Merchants' Coffee House at this time was of short duration. He abandoned his house and went out of the city with the American troops, but returned and took possession of it again as its landlord at the close of the war.

[Sidenote: Flight from the City]

The year 1776 was a sad one for New York. Before the first of July great numbers of the inhabitants, dreading the impending conflict, had left the city to place their families in security. Many loyalists had left to avoid military service. A letter written in the city July 30, 1776, says: "You would be surprised to see what numbers of empty houses there are in this place. Very few of the inhabitants remain in town that are not engaged in the service." Another by a physician, under date of August 9, says: "The air of the whole city seems infected. In almost every street there is a horrid smell--But, duty to my country, and another consideration, require that I should not quit my post at this juncture." A British document, relating to the commissary department during the war, makes the statement that nineteen-twentieths of the inhabitants with their families and effects had left the city before the entry of the British troops. Added to the calamity of war was a devastating fire which destroyed a large part of the city shortly after the British took possession.

After the occupation of the city by the British troops, the Merchants' Coffee House evidently soon became a favorite resort of the officers of the army. When Captain Alexander Graydon, made prisoner at the battle of Fort Washington, was allowed the freedom of the city within certain limits, on his parole, he one day saw in the newspaper printed by Hugh Gaine something which stirred him with a great desire to write a squib addressed "to the officers of the British army," which he and Lieutenant Edwards, his fellow prisoner, agreed to endeavor to have placed in some conspicuous part of the Coffee House. For the small reward of a quarter of a dollar, a black boy succeeded in placing it in one of the boxes. Captain Davenport, whom Graydon characterizes as certainly a voluntary captive, if not a deserter, called upon them on the following evening and said to them: "You are a couple of pretty fellows. You have made a devil of an uproar at the Coffee House." Graydon and Edwards admitted nothing, for they knew if detected they would get lodgings in the provost prison. Captain Davenport was an Irishman who had joined the same regiment as Graydon as a lieutenant, afterwards becoming captain. After the retreat from Long Island he remained, Graydon says, in New York, sick or pretending to be sick, and stayed there until the British look possession of it. He called himself a prisoner but there was little doubt that he had renounced our cause and made his peace with the enemy. He states that as they had no absolute certainty of his baseness they did not think it necessary to discard him, for, as he frequented the Coffee House, mixed with the British officers and tories, they often received intelligence through him that they could get in no other way. Another officer of the American army who seemed to have made his peace with the enemy, although he called himself a prisoner, was Colonel Houssacker. He claimed that all was over, and in his conversation with the officers held as prisoners his inference was that they should immediately make their peace. He said to some of them: "Why don't you go to the Coffee House and mix with the British army as I do? They will use you well;" but he made no proselytes to his opinions or principles. Graydon describes him as "a man of no country or any country, a citizen of the world, a soldier of fortune and a true mercenary."