WEBVTT NOTE 34. New York Succumbs to Independence 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.000 Volume 4, Chapter 34, New York succumbs to independence. 2 00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:12.000 The Declaration of Independence had been proclaimed and the colonies were now United States. 3 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:15.000 But New York had not yet signed. 4 00:00:15.000 --> 00:00:19.000 Surely it would not hold out against all the other American colonies. 5 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:22.000 And yet its ruling landed oligarchy. 6 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:29.000 The Livingstons, Jays, Duanes, Schulers and others were set against independence. 7 00:00:29.000 --> 00:00:37.800 The New York Left had been effectively silenced, and its latest April 1776 arch-conservatives, 8 00:00:37.800 --> 00:00:45.120 a large bloc of whom strongly opposed independence, swept the New York elections, defeating radicals 9 00:00:45.120 --> 00:00:48.280 selected by the New York Committee of Mechanics. 10 00:00:48.280 --> 00:00:54.160 The revolutionary cause was fortunate in having the Continental Army stationed in New York 11 00:00:54.160 --> 00:01:00.160 from mid-April on to defend New York City from the expected British attack. 12 00:01:00.160 --> 00:01:05.680 In the course of his stay, Washington was able to cowl the province's Tories and to 13 00:01:05.680 --> 00:01:11.760 pressure the Central Committee of Safety into prohibiting supplies to British ships. 14 00:01:11.760 --> 00:01:17.560 Congress's Anti-King Resolution of May 15 made little impression on New York, however 15 00:01:17.560 --> 00:01:23.320 in early June the New York Provincial Congress approved Congress's plan for an enlarged 16 00:01:23.320 --> 00:01:27.520 Army to Fight the War and pledged its support to Washington. 17 00:01:27.520 --> 00:01:32.400 The Provincial Congress also appointed the Committee of Seven to investigate, prosecute, 18 00:01:32.400 --> 00:01:36.960 convict and imprison suspected Tories aiding the enemy. 19 00:01:36.960 --> 00:01:42.600 This committee was eminently conservative, including, as it did, Philip J. Livingston, 20 00:01:42.600 --> 00:01:45.440 John Jay and Gouverneur Morris. 21 00:01:45.440 --> 00:01:51.560 But the very imminence of the British military threat necessarily drove them to more radical 22 00:01:51.560 --> 00:01:53.800 Anti-Tory Measures 23 00:01:53.800 --> 00:02:00.680 New York was faced with the specter of a mighty British invasion fleet, carrying nearly 35,000 24 00:02:00.680 --> 00:02:04.000 troops, which appeared off New York in mid-June. 25 00:02:04.000 --> 00:02:11.280 And on June 22, David Matthews, the royally appointed Mayor of New York City, was arrested 26 00:02:11.280 --> 00:02:16.840 for being secretly in league with Governor Tryon, recruiting Tories for enlisting in 27 00:02:16.840 --> 00:02:20.520 British arms and plotting to kidnap Washington. 28 00:02:20.520 --> 00:02:26.500 The action against the Tory Matthews implied recognition of American independence. Furthermore, 29 00:02:26.500 --> 00:02:32.620 New York collaborated with Washington in arresting Tories in Ulster, in suppressing armed Tories 30 00:02:32.620 --> 00:02:38.400 on Long Island, in raising a patriot militia to cowl the Tories of Dutchess County, and 31 00:02:38.400 --> 00:02:45.360 in bilating 500 troops on the numerous Tories of Queens County. Even so, an outright move 32 00:02:45.360 --> 00:02:52.040 for Independence was extremely difficult for most of the New York aristocracy. Their Whig 33 00:02:52.040 --> 00:02:58.600 peers however displayed here, as on later occasions, a shrewd ability to compromise 34 00:02:58.600 --> 00:03:04.680 with the spirit of the times in order to keep control of affairs at home. By the end of 35 00:03:04.680 --> 00:03:12.020 May, Jay, Morris, Livingston and John Moran Scott were beginning to move cautiously toward 36 00:03:12.020 --> 00:03:13.860 Independence. 37 00:03:13.860 --> 00:03:18.860 On the other hand, the New York Committee of Mechanics was ardently for independence 38 00:03:18.860 --> 00:03:20.540 from Great Britain. 39 00:03:20.540 --> 00:03:27.540 On May 27, the Provincial Congress began cautiously by decreeing the dissolution of the old royal 40 00:03:27.540 --> 00:03:29.580 government in New York. 41 00:03:29.580 --> 00:03:34.260 Still the Congress dallied, refusing to hurry its instructions to their delegates on the 42 00:03:34.260 --> 00:03:37.500 burning issue of independence. 43 00:03:37.500 --> 00:03:42.700 New province-wide elections at the end of June secured a large majority of supporters 44 00:03:42.700 --> 00:03:44.180 of independence. 45 00:03:44.180 --> 00:03:50.420 And on July 9, the fourth New York Provincial Congress meeting at White Plains sedately 46 00:03:50.420 --> 00:03:56.300 voted unanimously to join the Continental Declaration of Independence. 47 00:03:56.300 --> 00:04:02.580 New York's acceptance was read to the Continental Congress on July 15 and occasioned the angry 48 00:04:02.580 --> 00:04:09.760 Resignation of New York's John Alsop, an arch-conservative, irreconcilable to the last. 49 00:04:09.760 --> 00:04:14.640 In the course of providing for June elections to the Fourth Provincial Congress, the conservatives 50 00:04:14.640 --> 00:04:20.080 in control of the Third Congress had made sure that any new constitution written by 51 00:04:20.080 --> 00:04:25.640 the new Congress would not have to be ratified by the people, but would go automatically 52 00:04:25.640 --> 00:04:27.340 into force. 53 00:04:27.340 --> 00:04:31.780 This decision provoked a heated protest from the New York Committee of Mechanics, which 54 00:04:31.780 --> 00:04:36.860 which pioneered in America in asserting the right of the people to vote on any constitution 55 00:04:36.860 --> 00:04:38.660 in a referendum. 56 00:04:38.660 --> 00:04:45.580 Such a referendum was the only characteristic of the true lawfulness of government, a requirement 57 00:04:45.580 --> 00:04:49.280 that derived it from a God-given right of all men. 58 00:04:49.280 --> 00:04:55.540 If New York moved in measured steps toward independence, affairs were not nearly so placid 59 00:04:55.540 --> 00:05:01.020 and in New York's proclaimed Northeast, the New Hampshire-grant lands that were to become 60 00:05:01.020 --> 00:05:02.580 Vermont. 61 00:05:02.580 --> 00:05:07.660 The first flush of common enthusiasm for the war against Britain could not long obscure 62 00:05:07.660 --> 00:05:14.140 the basic conflict between New York land monopolists and Vermont settlers. 63 00:05:14.140 --> 00:05:20.860 New York continued to claim the Vermonters' land, and the presence of Duane, Livingston 64 00:05:20.860 --> 00:05:29.300 and other New Hampshire grantees in the Continental Congress did nothing to allay Vermont's suspicions. 65 00:05:29.300 --> 00:05:38.100 On January 16, 1776, representatives of Westside Vermont towns met at a convention in Dorset. 66 00:05:38.100 --> 00:05:43.060 The meeting agreed to petition the Continental Congress to agree that their loyalty to the 67 00:05:43.060 --> 00:05:48.620 American cause did not include fealty to New York as well. 68 00:05:48.620 --> 00:05:53.860 The Westsiders asked Congress to tell New York to refrain for the duration of the war 69 00:05:53.860 --> 00:05:59.580 from imposing its authority on the New Hampshire grant lands. 70 00:05:59.580 --> 00:06:04.760 The petition was presented to the Congress in early May by Captain Heman Allen, brother 71 00:06:04.760 --> 00:06:06.440 of Ethan. 72 00:06:06.440 --> 00:06:12.940 The Congressional answer was to counsel the grant region to submit loyally to New York 73 00:06:12.940 --> 00:06:20.660 rule until the end of the war, with all land quarrels to remain, meanwhile, in abeyance. 74 00:06:20.660 --> 00:06:27.020 This recommendation greatly alarmed Allen, for he and his brother Ira had already quietly 75 00:06:27.020 --> 00:06:34.500 conceived a grand design for preserving the settlers' property intact against depredations, 76 00:06:34.500 --> 00:06:39.060 the creation of a free and independent republic of the Grant lands. 77 00:06:39.060 --> 00:06:45.660 To advance this goal, the grants must not acknowledge New York rule. Agile, Allen withdrew 78 00:06:45.660 --> 00:06:51.780 his petition on the suddenly invented ground that he had neglected to bring various vital 79 00:06:51.780 --> 00:06:59.460 documents. Thanks to this stratagem, the Vermonters retained freedom of action. Meanwhile, the 80 00:06:59.460 --> 00:07:05.300 Vermont Eastsiders were also growing restive, and a meeting of East Side Committees of Safety 81 00:07:05.300 --> 00:07:11.100 at Westminster at the end of June hinted that they might prefer shifting their allegiance 82 00:07:11.100 --> 00:07:17.580 from New York to Massachusetts. A West Side Convention received news of the Declaration 83 00:07:17.580 --> 00:07:24.540 of Independence at the end of July with great interest. The declaration, coming after Congress's 84 00:07:24.540 --> 00:07:31.380 resolution of May 15, was so clearly applicable to the Vermonters' own conditions that they 85 00:07:31.380 --> 00:07:40.020 could not fail to get the idea. Led by Ira and Heman Allen, Dr. Jonas Fay and the canny 86 00:07:40.020 --> 00:07:47.220 farmer Colonel Thomas Chittenden, the Dorsett meeting moved slowly toward independence by 87 00:07:47.220 --> 00:07:54.320 pledging loyalty to the new United States, but also expressing its distinct lack of enthusiasm 88 00:07:54.320 --> 00:08:00.100 for association with New York. The meeting then proclaimed the Grant area a separate 89 00:08:00.100 --> 00:08:05.700 District. These sentiments were embodied in the Articles of Association which were sent 90 00:08:05.700 --> 00:08:12.060 to all the towns of the Grant District for endorsement. It was now unanimous. All the 91 00:08:12.060 --> 00:08:18.420 states were united on independence. The Declaration of Independence was proclaimed throughout 92 00:08:18.420 --> 00:08:25.420 the land. Toast rang out to liberty and to the union of states, to freedom and independence. 93 00:08:25.420 --> 00:08:40.420 The royal arms were everywhere stripped and burned. An effigy of the king was paraded through Baltimore and a lead statue of King George in New York City was happily toppled and melted down into bullets. 94 00:08:40.420 --> 00:08:48.420 Predictably, the Declaration of Independence gladdened libertarians in Europe and deeply angered the conservatives. 95 00:08:48.420 --> 00:08:54.200 The French government warmly approved of the fact of independence, but the French people 96 00:08:54.200 --> 00:08:59.420 were enthusiastic over the libertarian philosophy as well. 97 00:08:59.420 --> 00:09:04.620 The great French liberal Marquis de Condorcet put the case well. 98 00:09:04.620 --> 00:09:07.020 Here was theory put into practice. 99 00:09:07.020 --> 00:09:12.300 It is not enough that the rights of man be written in the books of philosophers and in 100 00:09:12.300 --> 00:09:18.500 In the hearts of virtuous men, it is necessary that men should read them in the example of 101 00:09:18.500 --> 00:09:25.220 a great people. America has given us this example. The Act which declares its independence 102 00:09:25.220 --> 00:09:33.220 is a simple and sublime exposition of those rights so sacred and so long forgotten. 103 00:09:33.220 --> 00:09:39.820 English reaction to the Declaration was predictably hostile, although the brilliant young liberal 104 00:09:39.820 --> 00:09:45.660 Charles James Fox declared that the Americans had done no more than the English had done 105 00:09:45.660 --> 00:09:47.840 against James II. 106 00:09:47.840 --> 00:09:53.720 The virtually official reply to the declaration was written by the barrister John Lind, who 107 00:09:53.720 --> 00:09:59.680 largely devoted himself to refuting the Calumnies against the King. 108 00:09:59.680 --> 00:10:05.520 As for the philosophy of the declaration, Lind thought it sufficient to make the penetrating 109 00:10:05.520 --> 00:10:13.280 observation that these doctrines put the axe to the root of all government, since every 110 00:10:13.280 --> 00:10:20.760 existing or conceivable government alienates some of these supposedly inalienable rights. 111 00:10:20.760 --> 00:10:27.200 In short, that the logical conclusion of the natural rights philosophy was anarchism.