The Revolutionary War.   ms-ms.    123
 

CHAPTEE X.

THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.   1775-1783.

The year 1775 was for New York City one of great
doubt and anxiety. All classes had united in sending
delegates to the first Continental Congress. The most
ardent supporters of the Crown and Parliament were op¬
posed to the Stamp Act and Tea Act, and were anxious
to protest against them, and to try to bring about a
more satisfactory understanding between the mother
country and her colonies. On the other hand the pop¬
ular party as yet shrank from independence. The men
who thus early thought of separation from Britain were
in a small and powerless minority; indeed, they were
but a little knot of republican enthusiasts, who for
several years had been accustomed at their drinking-
bouts to toast the memory of the famous English
regicides.

With the summoning of the second Continental
Congress this unity disappeared, as the Whigs and Tories
began to drift in opposite ways, — the one party toward
violent measures with separation in the background,
the other toward reconciliation even at the cost of
submission. A Tory mob tried to break up the meeting
at which delegates to the second Congress were chosen,
and were only driven off after a number of heads had
been broken.