Yet the colonists were no less vigilant, and efforts to enforce a repeal of the obnoxious act were every where made. Non-importation agreements were numerously signed; the hum of spinning-wheels and the clatter of shuttles were heard in almost every household, and rich men and women, who commonly walked in broadcloths and brocades, now appeared, on all occasions, in homespun garments.
On Tuesday, the sixth of May,1766 the joyful intelligence of the repeal of the Stamp Act reached New York. ** The city was filled with delight. Bells rung a merry peal, cannons roared, and placards every where appeared, calling a meeting of the citizens at Howard's the next day to celebrate the event. Hundreds assembled, and marching in procession to "the fields," they fired a royal salute of twenty-one guns upon the spot where the City Hall now stands. An immense table was spread at Howard's, where the Sons of Liberty feasted, and drank twenty-eight "loyal and constitutional toasts." The city was illuminated in the evening, and bonfires blazed at every corner. Another celebration was had on the king's birth-day,June 4, 1766 under the auspices of Governor Moore. The governor, council, military officers, and the clergy, dined at the King's Arms (now Atlantic Garden), where General Gage resided, and great rejoicings were had by the people in "the fields." *** The Sons of Liberty feasted at Montagne's, and with the sanction of the governor, they erected a mast (afterward called Liberty Pole) a little northeast of the present City Hall, in front of Warren Street. It was inscribed, "To his most gracious Majesty, George the Third, Mr. Pitt, and Liberty." The loyalty of the people, and their idolatry of Pitt, were boundless, and at a meeting at the Coffee House,June 23 corner of Dock (now Pearl) and Wall Streets, petition was numerously signed, praying the Assembly to erect a statue to the great commoner. The Assembly complied, and on the same day voted an equestrian statue in honor of the king. These were erected in 1770, but within six years that of the king was destroyed by the Republicans, and Pitt's was mutilated by the Royalists soon afterwards. ****
Even while the people were singing alleluiahs, there were some in New York, who, like Christopher Gadsden of Charleston (see page 748), were sagacious enough to perceive the tendency of Pitt's Declaratory Act, which accompanied the Repeal Bill, and were bold enough to warn the people, even in the midst of the loyal excitement.
The liberal press of England immediately denounced
* Less than a month after this, some stamps, which were brought in a brig, were disposed of in a more summary way. Ten boxes of them were seized by some of the citizens, put into a boat, and taken to the ship-yards at the foot of the present Catharine Street, on the East river, where they were burned in a tar barrel. Governor Sir Henry Moore arrived on the third of December, and his conciliatory course tended to confirm the quiet which Colden had restored to the province.
** The intelligence was brought by Major James, who came passenger in the Hynde, from Plymouth. She was six weeks on her voyage.
*** An ox was roasted whole; twenty-five barrels of beer and a hogshead of rum were opened for the populace; twenty-five pieces of cannon, ranged in a row where the City Hall now stands, thundered a royal salute; and in the evening twenty-five tar barrels, hoisted upon poles, were burned, and gorgeous fire-works were exhibited at Bowling Green.
**** The statue of the king was placed in the center of the Bowling Green, and the iron railing which now incloses the spot was placed there for its protection. We shall notice it more in detail presently. The statue of Pitt was pedestrian, and made of marble. It was placed at the intersection of William and Wall Streets. The figure was in a Roman habit; in one hand was a scroll partly open, on which was inscribed Articuli Magna Charta Libertatum. The left hand was extended in oratorical attitude. On the south side of the pedestal was the following inscription: "This statue of the Right Honorable William Pitt, earl of Chatham, was erected as a public testimony of the grateful sense the colony of New York retains of the many services he rendered to America, particularly in promoting the repeal of the Stamp Act. Anno Dorn., 1770." While the British soldiers occupied the city they knocked off the head and arms of the statue, and other wise defaced it. It was removed after the war, and for many years laid among rubbish in the corporation-yard, from which it was conveyed by Mr. Riley, of the Fifth Ward Hotel, to the corner of his house, within an iron railing, where it yet (1852) remains. The engraving on the preceding page is a repre sentation of its present appearance.
Murmuring against the Mutiny Act.—Liberty Pole several times cut down.—Excitement—Pitt Caricatured.
it, * and Pitt's plea of expediency could hardly save him from the anathemas of the Americans, when they gravely considered the matter. However, the Sons of Liberty regarded the repeal of the Stamp Act as a secession of the ministry from their authoritative position, and believing that a full redress of grievances complained of would follow, they dissolved their association, but agreed to meet each year on the anniversary of the repeal, to celebrate the event.