ELECTION OF DELEGATES FROM NEW YORK TO

THE SECOND CONTINENTAL CONGRESS

THE history of political parties in New York during the Revolution is the history of the differentiation of the popular party into revolutionist and loyalist. It is true that from the first there was the germ of a loyalist party in the so-called court faction which in the early part of the eighteenth century played an important part in provincial politics. But after 1733 the important fact was the growth of the popular faction under the lead of the Livingston family until in the early period of the Stamp Act troubles the court faction all but disappeared. For the moment the province found unity in a somewhat undiscriminating anti-British protest. But this unity was momentary only: from 1765 to 1776 the central fact was the gradual differentiation of the anti-British party into various factions, out of which were ultimately formed the irreconcilable parties of loyalist and revolutionist.

As early as the Stamp Act riots in November, 1765, the landed class began to draw away from the popular movement, estranged by the mob violence which threatened its property, and by the increasing importance of the unfranchised classes which threatened. its political supremacy. In 1770 the merchants also separated from the popular party. The commercial disadvantage of absolute non-intercourse had driven them to advocate a policy of partial non-intercourse - non-intercourse, namely, in respect to those commodities only which were subject to parliamentary taxation. With the arrival of the East India Company's tea-ships in 17731774, the popular party was reorganized under the name of the Sons of Liberty; and the merchants and landed classes in a sense drew together and formed what may be called the conservative party. By 1774 the separation of radicals and conservatives was measurably complete. The latter, who wished to direct resistance. along lines of compromise and conciliation, were in favor of partial non-intercourse and negotiation; the former, who were not unwilling to carry resistance to the very edge of revolution, were in favor of absolute non-intercourse and mob violence.

Such were the main issues round which centered the struggle for the delegates to the Continental Congress. The key to the

situation is to be found in the effort of the conservatives. While the progress of events from 1774 to 1776 in America and in England tended steadily to define the issue more and more precisely in terms of revolution and loyalism, the conservatives attempted throughout to steer a clear course between absolute resistance on the one hand and absolute submission on the other. They attempted to do this by gaining control of the popular organization and dictating through this organization the election of delegates to the first Continental Congress, and by opposing the effort of the radical organization to control through a provincial convention the election of delegates to the second Continental Congress. The significance of the period consists in the practical failure of the conservative programme, and in the ultimate disintegration of the conservative faction. In a previous paper1 conservative activity in respect to the election of delegates to the first Continental Congress was considered. It is the purpose of this paper to show in some detail how the struggle for delegates to the second Continental Congress operated to complete the disintegration of the conservative faction.

While the conservatives were nominally successful in electing their delegates to the first Continental Congress, the action of that body was of immense importance in the party transformations of the immediate future was, in fact, the first step in the disintegration of the conservative faction. Its immense importance lay in the fact that in sending delegates to a general congress the two factions in New York virtually agreed to throw the burden of forming a policy of resistance upon an authority outside the province; consciously or unconsciously, they thereby surrendered the privilege of having a policy of their own. The decision of Congress, while it carried no legal sanction with it, would necessarily exercise a profound influence, especially if it adopted the policy of one faction and rejected that of the other. This is almost precisely what the first Continental Congress did; it adopted a policy of absolute non-intercourse and drew up an Association to that effect, recommending that committees be appointed in every province, county, and town to see that it was signed as generally and enforced as rigorously as possible. The radicals then had only to continue as they had begun. To the conservatives, on the other hand, two paths were openeither to use the decision of Congress as an excuse for changing their attitude, or to put themselves in opposition to the united decision of the colonies. It was manifestly impossible to follow both 1 Political Science Quarterly, March, 1903.

3

24 American Archives, I. 913.

Cf. Thomas Young to John Lamb, Oct. 4, 1774, MS. Papers of John Lamb, 1774-1775. The John Lamb Papers are in the New York Historical Society Library.

paths; composed, as the conservative party was, of incipient revolutionists and of incipient loyalists, it was impossible to follow either as a party. Practically, the result of the first Continental Congress was to split the conservative faction in two; a part followed one path, a part followed the other. The voice of all the colonies, speaking out, as it were, in sharp rebuke against the policy which the conservatives in New York had advocated, came like an ultimatum both to those who were ready for forcible resistance and to those who were prepared to remain faithful to the home government when no other alternative offered.

This result was realized with measurable completeness in the events leading up to the election of delegates to the second Continental Congress. Meanwhile, the question immediately in hand was whether the action of the first Continental Congress should be approved or not, and, if approved, how its recommendations respecting the Association could be most effectively carried out. In the city this led to the election of a new committee — the Committee of Sixty, sometimes called the Committee of Inspection.

On November 7 the Fifty-One resolved that the freemen and freeholders should be requested to assemble on November 18 at the usual places of election and choose eight persons in each ward to act as a committee of inspection for the enforcement of the Association. In passing this resolution without a division the conservative committee may appear to have accepted the verdict of Congress without reservation. On closer inspection, however, it will be found that the committee was principally intent on making the best of a bad situation. In its recommendation for the election of committees Congress had suggested that the suffrage be limited to freeholders and freemen. There was some consolation for the FiftyOne in the fact that this limitation, if observed in New York, might place the control of the Association there in conservative hands. It is to be observed further that the resolution by which the conservative committee called for the election of committees of inspection made no provision for the dissolution of the Fifty-One; and it is more than likely that the new committees were intended to serve merely as ward committees under the supervision of the Fifty-One as a central committee. If the conservatives, therefore, took the first step in response to the recommendations of Congress, it was only that they still hoped to direct where they were no longer able to control; an initial willingness to act upon the suggestion of Congress might save, it was hoped, the life and influence of the conservative organization.

14 American Archives, I. 328, 329.

It was hardly to be expected, perhaps, that the radicals would fail to see the tendency of such action. On Sunday, November 13, the Mechanics Committee, which now represented the radicals, published a broadside calling for a special meeting of that body at 4 o'clock and a general mass-meeting of all radicals at 5 o'clock on the following day, for the purpose of discussing the questions raised by the resolutions of the Fifty-One.' It is not known precisely what was done at either of these meetings, but it is obvious that the proposals of the conservative committee were found unsatisfactory. The Fifty-One on the evening of the same day addressed to the Mechanics Committee a letter requesting a conference on the day following, in order that a "mode that shall be agreeable to their fellow citizens in general" might be arranged. This conference resulted in the adoption of a plan widely different from the original proposition of the conservatives. Instead of ward committees, there was to be a general committee of inspection of not more than seventy nor less than sixty members. It was to be elected by the freemen and freeholders, not in ward elections, but at the city hall, under the supervision of the vestrymen. Finally, it was understood that the election of the new committee should be followed by the immediate dissolution of the Fifty-One.3

2

If this arrangement is to be regarded as a compromise, it was a curiously one-sided one. There were two points which it was of serious importance for the conservatives, if they wished to remain conservative, to hold to the limitation of the suffrage, and the continued existence of the Fifty-One. Virtually, both points were given up. It is true the suffrage was not technically extended, but the method of election was so changed that the suffrage ceased to be a matter of any importance: to say that the committee should be elected by the freemen and freeholders, at the city hall, under the supervision of the vestrymen, was only crudely to conceal the fact that the decisive method of election by ballot was to be replaced by the indecisive method of election in general mass-meeting. The second point was given up without reservation, and this was, after all, the matter of vital importance. Its importance consisted in the fact that in losing the Fifty-One the conservatives were

1 Broadsides, I. (Broadsides used in this paper are from the collection in the New York Historical Society Library.)

2 The letter was dated 6 o'clock, November 14, and addressed to Daniel Dunscomb, chairman of the Mechanics Committee. 4 American Archives, I. 329.

4 American Archives, I. 330. In announcing this change the Fifty-One explained that whereas there was apprehended certain inconvenience from the first plan, and "this committee having taken the same into further consideration, and having consulted many of their fellow citizens, and also conferred with the Committee of Mechanics," etc.

losing their independent organization. The new committee, nominated by both factions, could not represent the conservatives as the Fifty-One had represented them. On the contrary, it would stand quite as much (more, indeed, as the sequel proved) for radicalism as for conservatism. There was, consequently, no more inherent reason for the dissolution of the old conservative Committee of Fifty-One than there was for the dissolution of the old radical Committee of Mechanics. But by the present arrangement, after both parties had united in the formation of a new joint organization, one party was required to dissolve its old special organization, the other

was not.

The Fifty-One accordingly issued a second notice on November 15, indicating the change which had been agreed to. The election was fixed for Tuesday, November 22.1 On that day a respectable number of "freeholders and freemen" appeared at the city hall; and the ticket which had been prepared according to agreement was elected without a dissenting voice. With the election of the Committee of Sixty the Fifty-One ceased to exist.

The election of the Committee of Sixty and the dissolution of the Committee of Fifty-one was the logical result of the first Continental Congress. It prepared the way for the disappearance of the conservatives as a party. Since the colonies as a whole had taken a stand, it was out of the question for a local party to direct the resistance to the home government on lines laid down by itself. It was necessary to take the stand that all of the colonies had taken, or to stand against them: and to stand against them was very nearly the same, in the indiscriminating popular mind, as to stand with the home government. Increasingly the question which confronted each party was whether it would stand with Congress and the colonies or against Congress and with England. This question now confronted the conservatives in New York. As a party, there was no longer any place for them; as individuals, would they prefer ultimately to become loyalists or revolutionists? Some were ready for the latter; some could do no less than the former. The result was that just as the old Committee of Fifty-One had from the first practically had a large majority for conservative measures because the moderates were then prepared to work with the extreme conservative wing of that committee, so the new Committee of Sixty now had practically a large majority for radical measures because the same moderates were now prepared to work with the extreme

1 Ibid.

2 Ibid.; Colden, Letter-Book, II., New York Hist. Soc. Coll., Fund Series, X. 372; Rivington's Gazetteer, November 24, 1774; New York Mercury, November 28, 1774.