admin CHAPTER X.
LANDING TEA PREVENTED CONGRESSIONAL ACTION – THE BATTLE OF LEXINGTON – CANADA INVADED.
IN October Lord Dunmore arrived in New York and superseded Colden in the government of the province. Meanwhile the duties had been removed from all articles except tea, and the non-importation agreement was restricted to that article. The new governor brought the news of the royal approval of the act authorizing the emission of colonial bills of credit. This strengthened the spirit of loyalty, and affairs went on more smoothly. On the 8th of July, 177 1, William Tryon was commissioned as governor in place of Lord Dunmore, who was transferred to the government of Virginia. By a recent order of the crown the governor’s salary was to be paid from the revenue, thus rendering the executive independent of the people. The East India Company were suffering severely from the non-importation agreement in regard to tea, and in 1773 urgently petitioned the British government to abolish the duty levied upon that article in the colonies, offering to submit to double that duty as an exportation tariff. This would increase the amount of revenue twofold, but the party in power, deluded by false views of national honor, would not in the least relinquish its declared right to tax the colonies. It preferred to favor the East India Company by a special act allowing them to ship their tea to the colonies free of export duty, which would enable them to sell it at a lower rate than in England. By this act the ministers imagined they had outwitted the colonists, and that this appeal to their pockets would end their resistance. Ships were laden with tea and consignees appointed in the colonies to receive it, with the expectation that this new act would secure its ready sale. When information of this arrangement reached the colonies their indignation was deeply aroused. The Sons of Liberty rallied and resolved that the obnoxious article should not be landed under any pretense. The tea commissioners appointed for New York resigned in view of such decided demonstrations of resistance.
Expecting a consignment of tea would soon reach the city the citizens held a mass meeting, and regardless of the efforts of Governor Tryon to secure its reception, emphatically resolved that it should not be landed. The expected vessel was delayed and did not make its appearance until April, 1774. When it arrived off Sandy Hook the pilot, acting under the instructions of the vigilance committee, refused to bring the ship any nearer the city. Captain Lockyer, the commander, under escort of the committee, was allowed to come up and consult with the consignee, but the latter refused to receive the cargo, and advised the captain to return to England immediately. Meanwhile Captain Chambers, of New York, professing to be a patriot, arrived in the harbor. His vessel was boarded by the committee, and upon being questioned he denied having any contraband goods; but on being informed by the committee that with the evidence they bad to the contrary they should search his ship, he admitted that there was tea on board which he had brought out on a private venture The hatches were forced open and the chests brought on deck and given air and water. The next morning Captain Lockyer was conducted by the committee to his ship, together with Chambers, his companion in the tea trade, and they were sent on an outward voyage.
The New Hampshire grants continued a source of serious contention. The civil officers were opposed by force in their efforts to enforce the judgments obtained in the ejectment suits, and the New York Assembly passed an act declaring resistance to be felony. A proclamation was issued by Governor Tryon offering a reward for the apprehension of Ethan Allen and other conspicuous offenders. This was followed by a burlesque proclamation from the proscribed, affirming their determination to resist and offering a reward for the arrest of the governor of New York. In the spring of 1775, at the time appointed for the session of court in the disputed territory, the settlers took possession of the court-house and prevented the New York officers from entering. The officers thereupon collected a force, and being again refused admittance fired into the house, killing one of the occupants and wounding several others. Some of the officers were arrested by the enraged inhabitants and lodged in jail, and matters appeared to be approaching a crisis; but the battle of Lexington occurring at this juncture, active hostilities between Great Britain and the colonies began and caused a cessation of these difficulties.
A cargo of tea had arrived in Boston harbor considerably earlier than in New York, and the Bostonians resolved that it should not be landed. The vessels containing the obnoxious article were boarded and the chests emptied into the water. The ministry, enraged at this spirited resistance, determined to subjugate the colonies. Various measures were determined upon which were ruinous to the liberties of the American people; among them was the celebrated “Boston Port Bill,” closing the harbor and destroying the trade of the city to punish the citizens for having destroyed the tea. The people everywhere were awakened to a lively sympathy with Boston, seeing by its treatment what was in store for them. A brisk correspondence was carried on between Boston and New York through the agency of committees appointed for that purpose. Public meetings were held for the consideration of their common grievances, and among the measures devised and recommended were the restoration of the non-importation agreement and the convening of a colonial congress. On the 5th of September, 1774, this congress met at Philadelphia and adopted a declaration of rights, setting forth wherein those rights had been violated; agreed on a petition to the King for the removal of their grievances and also on an appeal to the people of Great Britain and Canada; and then adjourned to meet again in May of the following year. The Assembly of New York was the only colonial assembly that withheld its approval of the proceedings of this congress. It, however, addressed a remonstrance to Parliament, which was treated as all others had been, with disdain. The Assembly adjourned on the 3d of April, 1775, and was never again convened. Its refusal to appoint delegates to the Continental Congress give great dissatisfaction, and a provincial convention of county representatives was called by the people to perform that duty.
At midnight on the 18th of April, 1775, General Gage sent a detachment of British regulars from Boston to destroy the military stores collected by the Americans at Concord, Massachusetts. The expedition was conducted with great secrecy, but the troops were discovered and the people warned of their coming. On reaching Lexington the following morning they found the militia assembled on the green. The latter, disregarding a command to disperse, were fired upon and several of them were killed. The British troops proceeded to Concord, but the inhabitants, having been apprised of their design, had concealed the greater part of their stores, and the British troops on their return were severely harassed by the militia who had gathered from the neighboring towns
When intelligence of this event reached New York the excitement was intense. The affair was in fact the signal for a general rush to arms throughout the colonies. The Sons of Liberty took possession of the arms at the arsenal in New York city and distributed them among the people. At the suggestion of the Committee of Observation a provincial government for the city was formed, consisting of one hundred of the principal citizens, who were to control affairs until Congress should otherwise order. The British troops at New York having been ordered to Boston, the provisional government allowed them to depart on condition that they should take nothing but their own arms with them Regardless of this stipulation they attempted to carry off some military stores belonging to the city, but were defeated in their designs by Colonel Marinus Willett with a party of the Sons of Liberty, who confronted them and succeeded in retaking the property and replacing it in the fort.
While the patriots were flocking toward Boston the Connecticut Assembly was in session, and several of its members agreed upon a plan to seize the cannon and military stores at Ticonderoga and Crown Point for the use of the patriot army. They appointed a committee to repair to the frontier and raise an expedition, under Colonel Ethan Allen, to surprise and capture the posts named. A force of two hundred and seventy men was soon collected, and marched by night under Colonels Allen and Benedict Arnold to a point on Lake Champlain opposite Ticonderoga. They had but few boats, and when day began to dawn only the officers and eighty-three men had crossed. Fearful that delay would be hazardous, Allen resolved to make an attack before the rear division had crossed, and marched at the head of his men directly to the sally port. The sentinel snapped his musket at him and retreated to the parade with the patriots close at his heels. The garrison were aroused and taken prisoners. Colonel Allen went directly to the apartments of the commander and demanded and obtained a surrender of the fort “in the name of the Great Jehovah, and the Continental Congress.” Crown Point was taken without resistance two days afterward, and the command of Lake Champlain was thus secured.
The Continental Congress reassembled and organized on the 10th of May, the same day that Colonel Allen captured Ticonderoga, and proceeded at once to raise and equip an army for the defense of the colonies. New York was ordered to raise three thousand men as her proportion. The population of the province during the preceding year had increased to 182,251. George Washington was commissioned commander-in-chief of the American forces. A provincial congress of New York, convened on the 22nd of May, authorized the raising of troops, encouraged the manufacture of gunpowder and muskets in the province, and projected fortifications at King’s Bridge and the Hudson passes in the Highlands.
Captain Lamb was ordered to remove the cannon from the battery at the foot of the city to a place of greater security. On the evening of August 23d he proceeded to the execution of the order. The captain of the British war-ship “Asia,” being informed of the intended movement, sent a barge filled with men to watch it A shot was fired from the barge into the American force, which was immediately answered by a volley, killing one of the crew and wounding several others. The “Asia ” then opened a cannonade upon the city, doing considerable damage to the buildings in the vicinity of the battery, but the patriots were undismayed, and in the face of the cannonade deliberately removed every gun. Governor Tryon returned from England in June and strenuously exerted himself to promote the royal cause. Finding that his position was growing more and more unsatisfactory, and having fears for his personal safety, he abandoned the city and took refuge on board a British sloop of war.
The Continental Congress directed General Schuyler to collect an armament at Ticonderoga, and put the post in a state of defense, preparatory to an expedition against Canada. The forces under Generals Schuyler and Montgomery appeared before St. John’s in September. General Schuyler was compelled by ill health to relinquish the command to General Montgomery and return to Ticonderoga. The fort at Chambly, twelve miles below, was captured on the 19th of October by a detachment of the American force, aided by friendly Canadians. The spoils taken at Chambly materially aided in carrying on with vigor the siege of St. John’s, which after several unsuccessful assaults and numerous mishaps was on the 3d of November compelled to surrender. General Montgomery moved forward to Montreal, which was taken without resistance. Later in the month Montgomery and Benedict Arnold assaulted Quebec, but the former was killed and the colonial force repulsed and soon after driven out of Canada.
SOURCE: History of Wyoming County, N.Y., with Illustrations, Biographical Sketches and Portraits of Some Pioneers and Prominent Residents; F. W. Beers & Co.; 1880