Colden was a liberal-minded man, yet duty to his sovereign compelled him to discountenance the proceedings of the people, and his name appears in the records as the enemy of civil freedom. The Sons of Liberty, who organized at this time throughout the colonies, though not numerous at first in New York, were very active, and gave Colden a great deal of trouble. Merchants appended their names to resolutions condemnatory. Correspondence was appointed, **** and measures were adopted regarding the appointed stamp distributor to resign his commission.
The newspapers spoke out moderately but manly, and there were few persons who openly advocated the Stamp Act. As the day approached when the act was to be put in force,Nov. 1, 1765 the tone of the press and the people became more defiant, ** and it was resolved not to allow the stamps to be landed. A general meeting of the citizens was held on the evening of the thirty-first of October. ***
* The association in New York had a correspondent (Nicholas Ray) in London, to whom they gave regular accounts of their proceedings, and from whom they as regularly received intelligence of the movements of the ministry. The most prominent men of the association in the province of New York were Isaac Sears, John Lamb, Alexander M'Dougal, Marinus Willett, William Wiley, Edward Laight, Thomas Robinson, Hugh Hughes, Flores Baneker, Charles Nicoll, Joseph Allicock, and Gershom Mott, of New York city; Jeremiah van Rensselaer, Myndert Rosenboom, Robert Henry, Volkert P. Dow, Jelles Fonda, and Thomas Young, of Albany and Tryon counties; John Sloss Hobart, Gilbert Potter, Thomas Brush, Cornelius Conklin, and Nathan Williams, of Huntington, Long Island; George Townsend, Barak Sneething, Benjamin Townsend, George and Michael Weekes, and Rowland Chambers, of Oyster Bay, Long Island. The house of Richard Howard, "in the fields" (now the Park), which stood very near the site of Howard's Irving House, on the corner of Broadway and Chamber Street, was the usual place of meeting of the Sons of Liberty. They also met at Bardin's (afterward Abraham Montagne's) which stood on the site of Francis's bookstore, on Broadway, near Murray Street. To this house a garden was attached, which extended as far as the present Church Street, and was a place of public resort.
** There were only three newspapers in the city of New York, then containing a population of about seventeen thousand. These were The New York Mercury, published by Hugh Gaine; The New York Weekly Gazette, by William Weyman; and The New York Gazette (formerly Parker's paper), by John Holt. The latter commenced the publication of his New York Journal in 1766.
*** This meeting was held at Burns's "King's Arms," the present house fronting the "Atlantic Garden," No. 9 Broadway.
**** The following-named persons constituted the committee: Isaac Sears, John Lamb, Gershom Mott, William Wiley, and Thomas Robinson. There was also a Committee of Vigilance organized at about the same time, consisting of fifty-one persons.
Arrival of Stamps.—The People demand them.—Colden burned in Effigy.—Destruction of James's Property.
The stamps arrived on the twenty-third of October, and M'Evers, already alarmed by the manifestation of the public feeling, refusing to receive them, they were placed in the hands of Lieutenant-governor Colden (who resided within Fort George) for safe keeping.
