No More Learning

326 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
joint non-intercourse, as proposed in the Boston circular
letter of May 13; and Providence instructed her deputies
in the General Assembly to propose a continental congress
as the best means of devising an effective plan. 1 In Con-
necticut New Haven responded favorably to the Boston
circular letter on May 23; and in June, town meetings in
at least fourteen towns pledged their support to any reason-
able plan of non-intercourse drawn up by a general con-
gress. * In almost every case committees of correspond-
ence were appointed; and thus this occasion marks the ex-
tension to Connecticut of the plan of municipal committees
for radical propaganda.
The truth was that the Covenant was a device that was
particularly well adapted to the purposes of the radicals of
Massachusetts, where there had been imminent danger that
the conservative merchants would stem the tide of opposi-
tion. But there was no very good reason why other New
England provinces should join in the measure; the Boston
1 These instructions, adopted May 17, were the first instance of agi-
tation for a continental congress by a public body. R. I. Col. Recs. , vol.
vii, pp. 280-281, 289-290; 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 343-344.
1 Canterbury, Farmington, Glastenbury, Groton, Hartford, Lyme,
Middfctown, New Haven, New London, Norfolk, Norwich, Preston,
Wethersfield, Windham. Five towns adopted similar resolves later:
Bolton, Enfield, Goshen, Greenwich, Windsor. Vide files of Conn. Gas. ,
Conn. Cour. and Conn. Journ. in this period. Only two communities,
Brooklyn parish in Pomfret and the town of Stonington, entered an
immediate agreement of non-consumption along the lines of the Cove-
nant. Bos. Com. Cor. Papers, vol. ii, 199-200, 215-218, 237-239. As late
as September an effort was made by the Hartford Committee, while
Silas Deane was absent at the Continental Congress, to call a provin-
cial convention in order to adopt a general non-consumption agreement
for the province. On September 15, delegates from four counties
gathered to consider the matter, but concluded upon vigorous resolu-
tions in support of the anticipated measures of the Continental Con-
gress. Conn. Cour. , Sept. 19, 1774; Conn. Hist. Soc. Colls. , vol. ii, pp.
15I-152.
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? CONTEST IN COMMERCIAL PROVINCES 327
invitation of May 13 for co-operative measures among the
provinces commended itself as a more feasible mode of pro-
cedure. As the movement for a continental rones'; fpineH
jrround in other provinces, the New England provinces did
not lag in taking effective action in that direction. The
radicals used the instruments which came readiest to hand.
On June 15 the General Assembly of Rhode Island chose
delegates to the Continental Congress. 1 In Connecticut the
House of Representatives delegated the function to the
legislative committee of correspondence, which designated
delegates to the congress on July 13. " The path of the
radicals in New Hampshire was beset with greater difficul-
ties. Early in July the legislative committee of correspond-
ence called a meeting of the late members of the House of
Representatives at Portsmouth for the selection of dele-
gates to Congress; but when the gentlemen convened, Gov-
ernor Wentworth confronted them with doughty speech
and deterrent proclamation, and they betook themselves to
the tavern where, over the warming victuals, they agreed to
call a provincial convention to accomplish what they had
failed to do. This convention, composed of representatives
from many towns, met on July 21 and duly chose delegates
to the congress. 1
The Boston circular letter of May 13 was carried to the
main ports throughout the commercial provinces by Paul
Revere. Before the swift rider had started for New York,
however, a copy of the Port Act had arrived there; and
Isaac Sears and Alexander McDougall, acting, it would
appear, for the ultra-radical committee of correspondence
appointed during the anti-tea commotions, transmitted to
1 Mass. Spy, June 23, 1774; also 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 416-417.
1 Conn. Hist. Soc. Colls. , vol. ii, p. 138 n.
'Letters of Wentworth, 4 Ant. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 516, 536, 745-746.
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? 328 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
the Boston Committee a promise of ardent support. The
writers stated that they had " stimulated " the merchants to
meet on the next evening in order to agree upon non-inter-
course with England and a limited non-exportation to the
West Indies. 1 Apparently they had no suspicion that they
would not be able to carry things their own way; but they
had strangely misapprehended the situation. For their task,
the radicals, confronted with heavy odds, needed a leader
of the caliber of Sam Adams. Could their forces have been
directed by a man of dominant personality, with a mind
skilled in political artifice and a single-minded devotion to
a great idea, the story of the subsequent two months might
have been different. Instead, these qualities were possessed
by the moderate party; and the fate of the radical cause
was in the hands of men of second-rate abilityj^ho sought
to promote their ends by a species of indirection and who
were, in the disappointing sense of the word, opportunists^
McDougall was regarded by the moderates as "the Wilkes
of New York," 2 Sears as "a political cracker" and a
"quidnunc in politics;" s and they experienced "great
pain . . . to see a number of persons [such as John Morin
Scott and John Lamb, no doubt] who have not a shilling to
lose in the contest, taking advantage of the present dispute
and forcing themselves into public notice. " * As for the
committee of correspondence, it was composed "of eight
or teji flaming patriots without property or anything else
hut jmpuHence. " 5 Colden correctly pictured the reaction
1 Bos. Com. Cor. Papers, vol. ii, pp. 343-346. Letter of May 15.
1 Colden to Dartmouth, Letter Books, vol. ii, pp. 346-347.
5 " A Merchant of New York" in N. Y. Gasetteer, Aug. 18, 1774.
4"Mercator" in ibid. , Aug. 11, 1774.
* Letter from New York in London Morning Post, reprinted in N. Y.
Journ. , Aug. 25, 1774; also 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 299-302 n. Vide
also Colden's characterization, Letter Books, vol. ii, pp. 339-340.
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? CONTEST IN COMMERCIAL PROVINCES 329
which had set in since the destruction of the tea at New
York, when he wrote on September 7, 1774: " the Gentle-
men of Property and principal Merchants attended the
meetings of the populace, when called together by their
former Demagogues, who thereby have lost their Influence
and are neglected. The Populace are now directed by Men
of different Principles & who have much at stake. " 1
The merchants' meeting was duly held on Monday eve-
ning, May 16, and the radicals who attended found that,
instead of having their own way, the existing committee
was discharged, their slate for a new committee of twenty-
five was rejected, and a new gntnnjfrtee of fifty, proposed
hy_ $\c men yf property, wns nnnTJnnted2 The committee
thus nominated included in its membership such men as
Sears and McDougall as a concession to the radicals, but
the majority of the members were "the most considerable
Merchts and Men of cool Tempers who would endeavour
to avoid all extravagant and dangerous Measures. " * Some
of them had never before " join'd in the public proceedings
of the Opposition and were induced to appear in what they
are sensible is an illegal Character, from a Consideration
that if they did not the business would be left in the same
rash Hands as before. "* Others, such as the chairman,
Isaac Low, had been the prime movers in the earlier con-
tests for remedial trade legislation, and were now deter-
mined to master the whirlwind which they had then so
recklessly sown. At least twenty-five of the fifty committee-
1 Letter to Dartmouth; Letter Books, vol. ii, pp. 359-3&>-
*4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 393-394. In this and all later accounts of
New York politics, the author has frequently and gratefully consulted
Professor Becker's History of Political Parties in the Province of
New York, 1760-1776.
* Colden, Letter Books, vol. ii, pp. 346-347.
4 Ibid. , vol. ii, pp. 339-341. Vide also unsigned letter, 4 Am. Arch. ,
vol. i, p. 302 n.
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? 330 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
men had been among those merchants and traders who had
"exerted themselves in a most extraordinary manner" to
cause New York to break through the non-importation
agreement in July, 177O. 1
A mass meeting of the city and county was called for
Thursday, May 19, to confirm the nominations made at the
merchants' meeting. 2 When the citizens assembled, Gouv-
erneur Morris stood watching them from the balcony of the
Coffee House. . "On my right hand," he wrote later, "were
ranged all the people of property, with some poor depend-
ants, and on the other all the tradesmen, &c. , who thought
it worth their while to leave daily labour for the good of
the country. " * The merchants quickly showed their supe-
rior strength by the selection of Isaac Low as chairman of
the meeting. The merchants' slate was confirmed with little
difficulty; as an eleventh-hour and unimportant concession
to the radicals, the name of Francis Lewis was added to the
committee by unanimous consent, making the membership
fifty-one. 4 At the very first meeting of the Fifty-One, the
Committee of Mechanics, which had now superseded the
Sons of Liberty as the radical organization, sent in a letter,
according their concurrence in the election of the new com-
mittee. 6
1 Vide list of the latter in Bos. Gas. , July 23, 1770. Nineteen members
of the committee later became avowed loyalists. Becker, op. cit. , p.
116, n. 16.
2 The notice of the meeting declared, by way of reassurance, that
"the gentlemen appointed are of the body of merchants; men of
property, probity, and understanding, whose zeal for the public good
cannot be doubted, their own several private interests being so inti-
mately connected with that of the whole community . . . " 4 Am. Arch. ,
vol. i, p. 293 n.
1 Sparks, Gouverneur Morris, vol. i, pp. 23-26.
'4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 204-295.
For names of the original fifty,
vide ibid. , p. 293.
5 Ibid. , vol. i, p. 295.
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? CONTEST IN COMMERCIAL PROVINCES
331
Gouverneur Morris, who himself possessed strong mod-
erate sympathies, reflected upon the election of the Fifty-
One in this wise:
The spirit of the English Constitution has yet a little influence
left, and but a little. . . . The mob begin to think and to
reason. Poor reptiles! it is with them a vernal morning; they
are struggling to cast off their winter's slough, they bask in
the sunshine, and ere noon they will bite, depend upon it. The
gentry begin to fear this. Their Committee will , . . deceive
the people, and again forfeit a share of their confidence. And
if these instances of what with one side is policy, and with
the other perfidy, shall continue to increase, and become more
frequent, farewell aristocracy. 1
At their very first meeting on May 23, the Committee of
Fifty-One, thus constituted and controlled, drew up a . reply
to the Boston cjrc11lar lettgr of May 13. Phrased with ex-
cessive caution, this answer expressed deep concem_aL. the
dilemma of Boston, but dfirl"TM"*-"1 faw>r
active measures until an iptfrprpvinrial congress should be
held? On June 3, they sent a letter to the supervisors of all
the counties, proposing the appointment of committees of
1 Sparks, op. <<'/. , vol. i, pp. 23-26.
* 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 297-298. No course could have been more
unsatisfactory to the leaders of the popular party at Boston, as they at
once made clear. The Boston Committee responded fhat, even if the
congress assembled with the greatest possible expedition, it would be
many months before a non-intercourse could become effective, whereas
an immediate suspension of trade would have "a speedy and irresis-
table operation" upon the British government. Bos. Com. Cor. Papers,
vol. x, pp. 807-808. Furthermore, the Bostonians were aware, even if
they were silent on the point, that the postponement opened a wide
door for the importation of British goods at New York in anticipation
of a possible non-intercourse later. The New York Committee remained
unmoved. 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 303-304; N. Y. Journ. , June a, 1774
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? 332
THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763. 1776
correspondence in the various towns. 1 The motive of the
Fifty-One seems to have been to adapt the Massachusetts
plan of radical agitation to the sterling purposes of con-
servative indoctrination. They took this step with the
greater assurance, because the rural towns, except Albany,
had been notoriously apathetic, if not unsympathetic, dur-
ing the troubles over the Stamp Act and the Townshend
duties. The instinctive conservatism of the great land-
owners, and the natural intellectual torpidity of the small
farmers, undisturbed by the yeast of a constant exercise in
local government or by the machinations of a group of city
politicians (as in Massachusetts), seemed in this instance
to make the rural population the natural allies of the great
merchants. The latter failed to perceive, however, that the
mass of inland people, engaged in the pressing task of mak-
ing a livelihood, would be inclined to be unresponsive to any
approaches from outside, whether from the one side or the
other; either that, or, as the canny Colden feared, "the
Business in the Counties will be left to a few forward in-
temperate Men, who will undertake to speak for the whole
>>a
Both eventualities seem to have occurred. The invita-
tion of the Fifty-One met with little response, only four
towns, it would appear, appointing committees of corres-
pondence in the subsequent two months; and three of these
towns belonged to Suffolk County at the eastern end of
Long Island, which had been founded by natives of Con-
necticut. The resolutions of these towns were more ex-
treme than the Fifty-One wished, all of them favoring
some form of non-intercourse along the lines proposed by
1 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 300-301.
1" Could their sentiments be fairly known I make no doubt a large
Majority would be for the most Moderate & Prudent Measures. " Col-
den to Tryon, June a, 1774; Letter Books, vol. ii, p. 345.
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? CONTEST IN COMMERCIAL PROVINCES
333
Boston. 1 In Cumberland County, the supervisors deliber-
ately withheld the letters from the towns; but when in Sep-
tember the existence of the letters became known, delega-
tions from two towns insisted that the instructions of the
Fifty-One be carried out, and in October a county conven-
tion was held at Westminster, which adopted vigorous reso-
lutions of a radical character. 2
Defeated in their original fight for a friendly committee
of correspondence, the radical jeaders at New York City
now undertook to turn the tables on the moderates by de-
vising a method of selecting delegates to_ the impending
congress, who would go pledged to carry out radical ideas.
Realizing their inability to attain their ends through the aid
of the moderate majority of the Fifty-One, the radicals
now began to claim for the Committee of Mechanics a co-
ordinate authority in nominating a ticket of delegates to the
congress. 8 On June 2g, McDougall made a motion that a
ticket of five names should be proposed by the Fifty-One,
sent to the Committee of Mechanics for their concurrence,
and then submitted to the freeholders and freemen of city
and county for their ratification. When the discussion be-
came protracted, a vote on the question was postponed until
the next meeting on July 4, when the radical plan was
swamped by a vote of 24 to 13. 4 A motion providing for
1 Southhaven, Easthampton and Huntington in Suffolk County;
Orange Town in Orange County. Becker, op. cit. , pp. 136-138 and
references. Other towns may have acted.
14 Am. Arch. , vol. ii, pp. 218-219, 1064-1066.
1 It will be recalled that the election of the Fifty-One had been for-
mally assented to by the Committee of Mechanics, though this action
came without any solicitation from the moderates.
* This vote reveals the personnel of the radical minority, as follows:
Abraham Brasher, John Broome, Peter T. Curtenius, Joseph Hallett,
Francis Lewis, Leonard Lispenard, P. V. B. Livingston, Abraham P.
Lott, Alexander McDougall, John Moore, Thomas Randall, Isaac Sears,
Jacobus Van Zandt. However, on later votes Moore sided with the
majority. Ibid. , vol. i, pp. 307-308.
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? 334
THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
exclusive nomination by the Fifty-One and later ratification
by the freeholders and freemen was at once adopted b/
nearly the same numbers. Sears immediately placed in
nomination the names of Isaac Low, James Duane, Philip
Livingston, John Morin Scott and Alexander McDougall
for the coveted positions. This list was offered by the
radicals with a genuine hope of its adoption, for it was
composed of two confirmed moderates, Low and Duane,
merchant and lawyer; the merchant, Livingston, who pos-
sessed inclinations both ways; * and the two out-and-out
radicals. But the majority failed to see any occasion for
compromise; and they substituted the moderates, John Jay
and John Alsop, lawyer and merchant, for the two radical
nominees. They then passed a motion calling a public meet-
ing for Thursday, July 7, to concur in their nominations or
tochoose others in their stead. 2
VT. he radicals had an interval of two days before the meet-
ing of the seventh in which to retrieve the disaster which
had again been visited upon them, and they set to work to
accomplish this through the agency of the Committee of
Mechanicsj On Tuesday, July 5, that body took under
consideration the nominations made by the " Committee of
Merchants," as they preferred to style the Fifty-One, and
placed a negative on Duane and Alsop, substituting Mc-
Dougall and Lispenard in their stead. They issued an ap-
peal to the public, explaining that " the Committee of Mer-
chants did refuse the Mechanics a representation on their
body, or to consult with their committee, or offer the names
of the persons nominated to them for their concurrence,"
and they exhorted " the mechanics . . . and every other
friend to the liberty of his country " to rally to the support
1 Vide Becker's note on Livingston, op. cit. , p. 122, n. 29.
1 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 308-309.
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? CONTEST IN COMMERCIAL PROVINCES
335
of the new ticket at the Thursday's meeting. 1 The radicals
next arranged a public demonstration in the Fields on the
following evening, July 6, the night before the meeting
called by the Fifty-One. Naturally no moderates attended;
and the "numerous meeting" under the chairmanship of
the energetic McDougall adopted unanimous resolutions in
support of Boston, and forthwith "instructed, empowered
and directed" the New York delegates to the congress to
agree for the city to a non-importation and to "all such
other measures" as Congress should deem necessary for a
redress of American grievances. 2 The radicals expected to
accomplish a coup d'etat; obviously the giving of instruc-
tions properly belonged to the public meeting regularly
called by the Fifty-One.
The labors of the radicals were not without effect, al-
though the results fell short of what they desired to accom-
plish. When the public meeting assembled Thursday noon,
it was unanimously voted that a canvass of the freeholders,
freemen and taxpayers of the city should be made on the
two tickets, under the joint supervision of the Fifty-One
and the Committee of Mechanics. 8 The moderate majority
had thus been forced to recognize the Committee of Me-
j'hpnicj; and tqjiXteH +h. f f^^KJgn. beyond the freeholders
and freemen; indeed, all later canvasses of the city, with a
single unimportant exception, were on the basis of this ex-
1 Advertisement of July 6; Broadsides (N. Y. Hist. Soc. ), vol. i.
*N. Y. Gas. , July 11, 1774; also 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 312-313.
1 Ibid. , vol. i, pp. 309-310. Freemen were those who had purchased
the privilege of engaging in certain occupations within the corporations
of New York and Albany. The electoral freeholders were those who
possessed, free of incumbrance, an estate in fee, for life, or by cour-
tesy, of the value of ? 40. The proportion of electors to the total popu-
lation was about 12 per cent in 1790, and no doubt smaller in the earlier
years. Becker, op. cit. , pp. 10-11.
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? 336 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
tended suffrage. But in a session the same evening, the
Fifty-One formally disavowed, by the usual majority, the
proceedings of the irregular meeting of the night before on
the ground that they were intended to reflect on the Fifty-
One and create divisions among the citizens; and they ap-
pointed a committee of their own to draw up proper in-
structions. 1 While a motion was being made to depart
from the usual custom of secrecy maintained by the Fifty-
One and to publish this vote of disavowal, a number of the
radicals withdrew in a rage, ordering their names to be
struck from the committee roster and shouting along the
streets, " The Committee is dissolved, the Committee is dis-
solved. " 2
On the next day matters between the radicals and the
moderates came to a head.