New York and Its Institutions, 1609

Pitt, the friend of America, once said in Parliament, "There is not a company of foot that has served in America out of which you may not pick a man of sufficient knowledge and experience to make a governor of a colony there. " This underrating of the American intellect led to the appointment of weak and tyrannical Governors, which yielded at length its legitimate fruit. The colonists resisted taxation because they were not represented in the English Parliament; but the matter of taxation was not so grievous as the wholesale suppression of manufacture. America abounded with iron; but no axe, hammer, saw, or other tool, could be manufactured here without violating the crown law. Its rivers and marshes teemed with beaver, but no hatter was allowed to employ over two apprentices, and no hat of American manufacture could be carried for sale from one colony to another. No wool could be manufactured save for private use, and the raw material could not be transported from one colony to another. Everything must be sent to England for manufacture, and return laden with heavy duties. The colonists were prohibited from opening or conducting a commerce with any but the English nation, and every article of export must be sent in an English ship.

The repeal of the Stamp Act was followed by the duty on tea, glass, etc.,—legislation equally obnoxious to the colonies. The British naval officers were petty lords of the American seas. They compelled every colonial vessel to lower its sails as it passed, fired into them for the slightest provocation, boarded them at pleasure, and rudely impressed into their service sailors who were never allowed to return to their families. These things could but yield a bloody harvest. The failure of the Governors to secure a permanent revenue was followed by the quartering of troops in New York, which the populace felt was another scheme for the destruction of their liberties. The citizens of New York were first to resist these aggressions. It was here that the Sons of Liberty first organized, and raised the first liberty pole. The Manhattan merchants were first to cease the importation of English goods—a contract grossly violated by other merchants in America, but rigorously adhered to in New York, to the ruin of many strong houses. Here the first blood was shed in behalf of liberty. It occurred in a conflict between the citizens and the English soldiers, January 20, 1770 (over five years before the battle of Lexington), on a little hill near the present John street. It was in relation to the liberty pole, and long known as the battle of Golden Hill. New York was the scene of the greatest suffering during the Revolution. Early captured and partly burned, it lay seven years in ruins under the heel of the conqueror, who had here established his principal headquarters, and monopolized all its churches, public buildings, and many private residences. Here the first Federal Congress was organized in 1785, the federal constitution adopted in 1788, and President Washington inaugurated in 1789. First to espouse the cause of independence and organize defence, though its commerce was wholly ruined, and its inhabitants lay starving and bleeding through perilous years, it uttered no murmur of complaint; and since the establishment of independence its citizens have been second to no others in promoting the interests of their country and of humanity.