Before the echoes of repeal rejoicings had died away, the low mutterings of another storm were heard. When intelligence of the Stamp Act riots reached England, Parliament passed the Mutiny Act, which provided for the quartering of troops in America, at the partial expense of the colonists themselves. In June, Governor Moore informed the people of New York that he hourly expected the arrival of a re-enforcement for the garrison, and that he desired the Assembly to make immediate provisions for them, according to the demands of the Mutiny Act. The Sons of Liberty were aroused, and at a meeting at Montagne's, they solemnly resolved to resist this new measure of oppression to the uttermost. The troops came; angry feelings were soon excited between them and the people, and thirty-six days after the Liberty Pole was erected with so much harmony and loyalty it was cut down by the insolent soldiery.Aug 16, 1766 The people re-erected it the next evening, in the face of the armed mercenaries; not, however, without a fracas, in which blood was shed. ** Little more than a month afterward,Sept. 23 the soldiers again prostrated the Liberty Pole, and again the people upreared it, and from its top they flung the British banner to the breeze.Sept. 25 The autumn and winter passed without serious trouble in the city, but when the people met to celebrate the anniversary of the repeal,March 1767 and with great rejoicings inaugurated the "mast" as a "Liberty Pole," the soldiers again interfered, and that night the cherished emblem of freedom was prostrated for the third time. The people again erected it, bound it with iron, and placed a guard there. The soldiers came with loaded muskets,March 22 fired two random shots into Montagne's house, where the Sons of Liberty were assembled, and attempted to drive the people from "the fields." Fearful retaliation would have followed this atrocious act, had not the governor interfered and ordered the soldiers to refrain from further aggressive movements. On the king's birth-day,June 4 they made another unsuccessful attempt to destroy the Liberty
Pole, but it stood in proud defiance until 1770, when armed men came from the barracks at midnight.Jan. 16, 1770 prostrated it, sawed it in pieces, and then piled it up in front of Montagne's. The perpetrators were discovered, the bell of St. George's Chapel, in Beekman Street, was rung, and early the next morning three thousand people stood around the stump of the pole, and, by resolutions, declared their rights, and their determination to maintain them. For three days the most intense excitement prevailed. In frequent affrays with the citizens, the soldiers were generally worsted; and in a severe conflict on Golden
* A caricature appeared in London, which represented Pitt upon stilts, his gouty leg resting on the Royal Exchange, in the midst of bubbles inscribed War, Peace, &c. This stilt was called Popularity. The other stilt, called Sedition, he stretched over the sea toward New York, fishing for popularity in the Atlantic. The staff on which he leaned was called Pension. This caricature was entitled The Colossus, and was accompanied by five satirical verses in broken English, as if spoken by a Frenchman.
** No citizen was killed, or very seriously wounded. Isaac Sears and John Berrien each received a wound.
Soldiers Disarmed.—Fifth Liberty Pole.—Political Coalition.—Public Sentiment.—John Lamb.
Hill (Cliff Street, between Fulton Street and Maiden Lane), near Burling Slip, several of the soldiers were disarmed. * Quiet was at length restored; the people erected another Liberty PoleMarch 24 upon private ground purchased for the purpose, upon Broadway, near Warren Street, and a few days afterward the soldiers departed for Boston. **