Everything thus far had favored the patriots. It is true the Colonial Assembly which was controlled by the De Lancey family, and the Common Council were opposed to them, and the Quaker mayor, Mr. Hicks, was lukewarm in his sympathy with them, but public sentiment seemed to lean toward them and their successive victories over the troops, elated them. After the Common Council refused their application for a plot of ground upon which they contemplated to erect a new pole,* the undaunted band of patriots purchased a slice of ground eleven feet wide and one hundred feet deep, near the former site, and here on February 6, 1770, they put in position the fifth liberty pole, a mast of great length, with a plating of iron bars, riveted together two-thirds of its height. A vane surmounted the pole and the word "Liberty" appeared defiantly upon the vane. *The following circular was posted throughout the city. It has been copied from the original in the Library of the New York Historical Society. "To the Sons of Liberty in this City. "Gentlemen-It's well known, that it has been the Custom of all nations to erect monuments to perpetuate the Remembrance of grand Events. Experience has proved that they have had a good Effect on the Posterity of those who raised them, especially such as were made sacred to Liberty. Influenced by these Considerations, a number of the friends to Liberty in this City, erected a Pole in the Fields, on Ground belonging to the Corporation, as a temporary memorial of the unanimous Opposition to the detestable Stamp-Act; which, having been destroyed by some disaffected Persons, a Number of the Inhabitants determined to erect another, made several Applications to the Mayor, as the principal Member of the Corporation, for Leave to erect the new Pole in the place where the old one stood. The Committee that waited on him the last Time, disposed to remove every Objection, apprehensive that some of the Corporation might be opposed to the Erection of the Pole, from a supposition that those Citizens who were for its being raised, were actuated solely by a Party Spirit, offered, when the Pole was finished to make it a Present to the Corporation, provided they would order it to be erected either where the other stood, or near Mr. Van Den Bergh's, where the two Roads meet. But even this, astonishing as it may seem to Englishmen, was rejected by the Majority of the Corporation, and the other Requisitions denied. We question whether this Conduct can be parallelled by any Act of any Corporation in the British Dominions, Chosen by the Suffrages of Free People. "And now, Gentlemen, seeing we are debarred the Privilege of public Ground to erect the Pole on, we have purchased a place for it near where the other stood, which is full as public as any of the Corporation Ground. Your Attendance and Countenance are desired at nine o'clock on Tuesday morning, the 6th instant, at Mr. Crommelin's Wharf, in order to carry it up to be raised. "New York, February 3, 1770." "By Order of the Committee. The soldiers however, were determined to destroy this as they had destroyed the original pole, which had been dedicated to "The King, Pitt and Liberty." They also boasted that they would carry it away with them to their new destination. On March 19, 1770, the Sons of Liberty, enthusiastically and hilariously celebrated the anniversary of the repeal of the Stamp Act at Bicker's, appropriately called "Hampden Hall" which was situated on the corner of Ann street and Broadway, the site of the Herald office and the St. Paul Building of later days. Montanye's which for years had been the headquarters of the Sons of Liberty, had lost caste, custom and favor because of the proprietor's truckling to the royalist governor and to the governor's following. Of course, this conduct was natural in a man of weak understanding and of feeble character, who, unable to look beyond the day, imagined the favor of those in power meant wealth, influence and lasting success. On Monday night, March 26, a few belated citizens in passing "The Fields" "in the dead of night" discovered fifteen soldiers attempting to wreck the pole. The alarm was sounded, reinforcements joined the citizens and the soldiers in affright retreated to their quarters for assistance. Citizens surrounded the pole and the soldiers emerging from their barracks to the number of forty or fifty, charged the patriots with drawn swords and bayonets. The citizens fell back to Bicker's, the alarm bell was sounded from St. George's chapel in Beekman street, and the patriots assembled in multitudes, in time to see an officer who had opportunely arrived on the scene, order the infuriated soldiers back to their quarters, as they were threatening to destroy and burn the headquarters of the Sons of Liberty, which they had surrounded. From March 26th to May 3d, when the troops departed, the pole was strongly guarded by the vigilant and resolute patriots, nor was it molested until the British took posses sion of the city in 1776, when it was cut down. CHAPTER V. JOHN PETER ZENGER AND HIS NEW YORK WEEKLY JOURNAL-THE THE "NORTH BRITON"- ITS HISTORICAL NUMBER "FORTY- -TRIBULA SUPPORT HIM THOMAS PAINE-HIS REMARKABLE CAREER While the pulpit and pamphleteers exercised the greatest influence in manufacturing public opinion, the press exerted no little power in creating and developing the idea of liberty and independence. The morning star of American independence arose in 1734, when John Peter Zenger, who had been an apprentice to William Bradford, was arrested at the instigation of Governor Cosby, because his newspaper, the "New York Weekly Journal," had lampooned, caricatured and assailed the Crown with unprecedented abuse, and had made a deliberate attempt to rupture the relations between the Colonies and England. Zenger at this time was fifty-three years of age, an energetic, progressive and courageous writer. Moreover, he could rely upon the moral support and financial assistance of such influential colonists as Chief Justice Lewis Morris, Rip Van Dam and James Alexander. He was apprehended on the charge of " printing and publishing several seditious libels." The House of Assembly, however, refused to support the Governor, who now ordered the mayor of New York to burn the papers containing the alleged libel, with the aid of the hangman. The grand jury failed to find an indictment against Zenger. The Governor thereupon directed the Attorney-General to file an information against him at the next term of the court. Zenger was fortunate in obtaining the services of Andrew Hamilton, of Philadelphia, as counsel. Hamilton was a native of Scotland, and suspected of living under an assumed name. By a strange coincidence, Hamilton, the lawyer, whose name is indissolubly connected with the liberty of the press through the Zenger case, purchased the land upon which was erected the hall where the independence of America was subsequently proclaimed to all the nations of the earth. It was in this case that Hamilton raised the important legal point that the jury were "judges of both law and the facts." He said, "the question before you is not the cause of a poor printer nor of New York alone; it is the cause of liberty, the liberty of opposing arbitrary power by speaking and writing the truth." Zenger was acquitted and released from imprisonment after an incarceration of thirty-five weeks. From that day the liberty of the press has occupied an unassailable position in the history of the Western continent. The spirit of liberty was aroused and intensified by an equally courageous English writer, John Wilkes, who established the "North Briton" in London to counterbalance the effect of the "Briton" which was established and subsidized in 1762, by the Earl of Bute. Under the brilliant editorship of Wilkes the Court party was lashed with invective, satire and sarcasm. Every error perpetrated by Bute became the object of fierce attack and unsparing denunciation. When Bute ordered the ill-advised tax on cider, the indignation excited by the "North Briton" was extended throughout the Kingdom. Bute's position became un |