This fifth Liberty Pole remained untouched as a rallying-place for the Whigs until 1776, when it was hewn down by Cunningham, the notorious provost marshal, who, it is said, had been whipped at its foot.
The Colonial Assembly steadily refused compliance with the demands of the Mutiny Act, until Parliament, early in 1767, passed an act "prohibiting the governor, council, and Assembly of New York passing any legislative act for any purpose whatever," when partial concessions were made. A new Assembly was convened in 1768.Feb 11 It was composed of less pliable material than the other, and, notwithstanding the imperial government made the province feel the weight of its displeasure, and would not recede from its position of absolute master, the Assembly refused submission, until May, 1769, when an appropriation was made for the support of the troops. In the autumn of that year Sir Henry Moore died,Sep. 11 and the reins of government were again held by Colden. Soon an unlooked for coalition between Colden and Delancey, the leaders of opposing parties, appeared. Opposite political elements seemed to assimilate, and the leaven of aristocracy began its work in the Assembly. A game for political power, based upon a money scheme, was commenced, which menaced the liberties of the people. *** The popular leaders sounded the alarm, and an inflammatory hand-bill appeared,Dec. 16,1769 signed "A Son of Liberty," calling a meeting of the betrayed inhabitants in the fields."
It denounced the money scheme, the pliancy of the Assembly, and the unnatural coalition of Colden and Delancey, as omens of danger to the state. A large concourse of people assembled around the Liberty Pole the next day. They were harangued by John Lamb, **** one of the most ardent of the Sons of Liberty, and by
* The late Col. Michael Smith, who died in New York in April, 1846, at the age of ninety-six years, was then a young man of twenty. He was engaged in the affray, and was one of those who disarmed the soldiers. I have seen the musket which he seized at the time, and which, as a soldier, he bore throughout the war that soon followed. It is a very heavy Tower gun, and is preserved by his family as a precious heir-loom.
** At this time the true Sons of Liberty were excluded from Montague's by those who were active with them in 1765, but now leaned toward the government side. With these Montagne sympathized, and to them he hired his rooms, when the day approached for celebrating the repeal of the Stamp Act. The patriots purchased a small house at the corner of Broadway and the Bowery road (where Barnum's American Museum now stands), named it Hampden Hall, and that was their place of assemblage during the four years preceding the bursting forth of the storm of the Revolution.—See Holt's Journal (supplement), No. 1418.
*** This was the issuing of bills of credit, on the security of the province, to the amount of one hundred and twenty thousand pounds, to be loaned to the people, the interest to be applied to defraying the expenses of the colonial government. It was none other than a Monster Bank, without checks, and was intended to cheat the people into a compliance with the requirements of the Mutiny Act, by the indirect method of applying the profits to that purpose.
**** John Lamb was born in the city of New York, on the first of January, 1735. In early youth he followed the occupation of his father (optician and mathematical instrument maker), but in 1760 entered into the liquor trade. He was a good writer and fluent speaker, both of which accomplishments he brought into use when the troubles with Great Britain began. He was active in all the preliminary scenes of the Revolution in New York, and in 1775 received a captain's commission. He accompanied Montgomery to Quebec, was active and brave during the siege, and was wounded and made prisoner at the close. He retired to New York the ensuing summer, was promoted to mayor, and attached to the regiment of artillery under Knox. As we have met him at various times in his military career, we will not stop to repeat the story of his services. He was elected to a seat in the New York Assembly at the close of the war, and was active in civil services until the organization of government under the Federal Constitution, when Washington appointed him collector of customs for the port of New York. He held this office until his death, which occurred on the thirty-first of May, 1800. Never was there a purer patriot or more honest man than John Lamb.
M'Dougal Imprisoned.—Partial Triumph of Toryism.—Arrival of a Tea-ship.—Destruction of Tea.