Loyalty and timidity again developed their fruit in the Revolutionary committees, and by adroit management moderate men and royalists gained the ascendency. Afraid openly to oppose the popular will, they insidiously cast obstacles in the way of efficient co-operation with other colonies. Soon two distinct parties were formed among professed Republicans, marked by a line of social distinction—the Patricians and the Tribunes—the merchants and gentry, and the mechanics. They coalesced, however, in the nomination of delegates to the Continental Congress, and on the twenty-seventh of July,1774 the people, by unanimous voice, ratified their choice. * This was an act of the people alone, for the Assembly, too timid or too loyal, refrained from any expression of opinion concerning the proposed Congress. **
The American Association, adopted by the first Continental Congress, was popular in New York, and a committee of sixty was immediately organized to enforce its provisions. Warmly supported by the true Sons of Liberty, they took the lead in political matters By their recommendation, the people in the several counties chose representatives for a Provincial Congress, and on the twenty-second of May, 1775, that body convened in the Exchange, at the foot of Broad Street, in New York. *** The General Assembly had adjourned a month previously, and never met again. ****
The great crisis was now approaching, and the occurrence of many local circumstances inflamed the minds of the people, and prepared them for open rebellion. (v) Intelligence of the martyrdom of patriots at Lexington and Concord came at the moment when Captain Sears, the popular leader, was in official custody,April 24, 1775 because he had made, it was alleged, treasonable propositions. (vi) Aroused by that first clarion-blast of war, the
* Philip Livingston, John Jay, James Duane, John Alsop, and Isaac Low were chosen. They were adopted as delegates by other districts, and the name of Henry Wisner was afterward added. The people of Suffolk county elected William Floyd, and the credentials of all were presented together.
** Governor Tryon's house was destroyed by fire at midnight on the twenty-ninth of December, 1773. So rapidly did the flames spread, that the governor's family had great difficulty in escaping, and Elizabeth Garret, a servant girl sixteen years of age, perished in the flames. The governor lost all of his personal effects. The Assembly made him a present of twenty thousand dollars in consideration of his misfortune. The great seal of the province was found among the ashes, two days after the fire, uninjured. Tryon went to England in April, 1774, and on his departure he was honored with addresses; a public dinner by the Common Council; a ball by General Haldimand, then in command of the troops; and King's (now Columbia) College, then under the care of Dr. Cooper, conferred upon him the degree of LL.D.
*** Peter van Brugh Livingston was chosen president, Volkert P. Douw, vice-president, and John M'Kisson and Robert Benson, secretaries. Nathaniel Woodhull, of Suffolk county, was soon afterward called to the presidential chair. He was appointed a brigadier the following year.
**** Fifteen of the twenty-four members of the Assembly were Loyalists, and during their last session, efforts to pass resolutions approving the proceedings of the Continental Congress were fruitless. A motion to that effect, offered by Nathaniel Woodhull (afterward slain by the British), was lost by a party vote. Those who voted in the affirmative were George Clinton, Nathaniel Woodhull, Philip Schuyler, Abraham Tenbroeck, Philip Livingston, Captain Seaman, and Messrs. Boerum, Thomas, and De Witt.
* (v) On the twentieth of December, the ship Lady Gage, commanded by Captain Thomas Mesnard, arrived with ten cases and three boxes of arms, and a barrel of gunpowder, consigned to Walter Franklin. The collector ordered these to be seized, because, as he alleged, they had been lying in Franklin's warehouse several days without cockets. While on their way to the custom-house, a small party of the Sons of Liberty took them from the officers in charge, but before they could conceal them, they were retaken and placed on board an armed ship in the harbor. On the same day a letter for the collector was put in the post-office, * containing menaces of vengeance, and that night a very inflammatory hand-bill was left at almost every door in the city. **
* (vi) When General Gage began to fortify Boston Neck, the people refused him labor and materials; and in the spring of 1775, he sent to New York for both, in order to erect barracks for the soldiers on Boston Common. The patriots were informed that a sloop laden with boards was about to sail for Boston. A meeting was ealled at the Coffee-house, and it was resolved to seize the vessel. At that meeting, Sears exhorted the people to arm themselves with muskets and twenty-four ball-cartridges each. For this he was arrested and taken before the mayor. He refused to give bail, and was about to be carried to prison when the people took him from the officers, and bore him in triumph through the town, preceded by a band of music and a banner. That night Sears addressed the people in "the fields," and a few days afterward he was elected a member of the Provincial Congress. The names of Burling, Ivers, Alner, M'Dougal, Roorbach, and Richard Livingston are preserved as among those of Sears's friends on that occasion.
* A scheme for the establishment of an independent post-office, proposed by William Goddard, the publisher of the Maryland Journal, was put into partial operation in 1775, and on the eleventh of May, John Holt, the printer, was appointed postmaster. The office was kept at Holt's printing-house.