The garrison was strong, and under the command of General Gage, then chief captain of the British troops in America. In view of impending troubles, Colden had strengthened the fort and replenished the magazine. A knowledge of these facts increased the indignation of the people, but did not alter their resolution. Notwithstanding armed ships were riding in the harbor, and the guns of the fort were pointed upon the town, the people assembled in great numbers, appeared before the fort, and demanded the delivery of the stamps to their appointed leader. A refusal was answered by defiant shouts, and half an hour afterward the lieutenant governor was hung in effigy, * in "the fields," near the spot where Leisler was gibbeted seventy-five years before. Thence they paraded through the streets, back to the fort, dragged Colden's fine coach to the open space in front, tore down the wooden fence around the Bowling Green, and after making a pile, cast the coach ** and effigy upon it, and set fire to and consumed all together. The mob then proceeded out of town to the beautiful residence of Major James, of the royal artillery, where they destroyed his fine library, works of art and furniture, and desolated his choice garden. *** Isaac Sears and others, leaders of the Sons of Liberty, who had issued strict orders forbidding injury to private property, endeavored to restrain the mob, but the storm they had raised could not be quieted till the appetite for violence was appeased. After parading the streets, with the Stamp Act printed upon large sheets, and raised upon poles, headed "England's Folly and America's Ruin," the populace quietly dispersed to their homes. ****
* The effigy had a drum upon its back, a label on its breast, and in one hand a stamped paper. The drum was in allusion to the fact that Colden was a drummer in the army of the Scotch Pretender in 1715. An effigy of the devil hung by his side, with a boot in his hand, to indicate the people's detestation of the Earl of Bute. By the ad vice of Colden, Gage wisely refrained from firing upon the people while these outrages were occurring.
** There were only three or four coaches in the city at that time, and as they belonged to wealthy friends of government, they were considered by the people evidences of aristocratic pride. Such was the prejudice against the name of coach, that Robert Murray, a Quaker merchant who owned one, called his "a leathern conveniency." Mr. Murray owned a country seat near the intersection of Fourth and Fifth Avenues, and Thirty-sixth and Fortieth Streets, long known as Murray Hill. Colden's coach was made in England for Sir Henry Moore, the absent governor-in-chief at the time. Colden's coach-house and stables were outside the fort, and easy of access by the populace.
*** James's house stood on an eminence a little east of the present intersection of Anthony Street and West Broadway, and was called Ranelagh. I find in the newspapers of the day, the Ranelagh Garden advertised, a few months after this outrage, by John Jones, as a place of public resort, where fire-works were exhibited and refreshments furnished. Vauxhall, the seat of Sir Peter Warren, was at the foot of Warren Street.
**** During the evening of excitement, the cannons on Capsey battery (near the present flag-staff, toward the Whitehall end of the Battery), and also several in the government store-yard near by, were spiked, and rendered unfit for service.
Stamps delivered to the Mayor.—Quiet.—Repeal of the Act.—Rejoicings.—Pitt's Statue.
Excitement still prevailed in the city, when Colden, perceiving further resistance to the will of the people unavailing, ordered the stamps to be delivered to the Mayor (Cruger) and Common Council, the former giving a receipt for the same, and the corporation agreeing to pay for all stamps that should be destroyed or lost. * This was satisfactory to the people, and quiet was restored.
