will be found much more so if these bounds be reduced to too narrow a compass.

Due encouragement to Privateers is in other words only to tempt both Landsmen as well as Seamen by the most powerful inducements, that of making it their Interest, to resort from all parts of the Continent to this port. Nor has any Maxim obtained more universal assent than that all wise Governments should assiduously consult and attend to the Temper and Genius of the people, and it is notorious that the Genius of no people was ever more peculiar or conspicuous than that of the Americans for Privateering. If, therefore, that Genius be counteracted it must necessarily produce the evils inseparable from such conduct in all other Cases.

No answer appears to have been received to this protest, for a month later it was ordered by the Chamber

That the President do write to General Robertson, requesting to know whether the Letter written to him on the subject of Privateering had been laid before the Admiral, and whether any or what Answer had been given thereto; and also that he write to the Admiral, representing that the Trade and Fishery was unprotected, and requesting that some means may be pursued so as to encourage the Fishermen to take Fish for a supply to this Garrison, and that its Commerce may not be annoyed by the Privateers and Whaleboats that infest even the Narrows.

This was in June, 1782, and only a few meetings of the Chamber were held after that date till its final session in May, 1783. The British evacuated the city in November of that year.

CHAPTER VIII

BRITISH EVACUATION OF NEW YORK

RETURN OF WASHINGTON AND PATRIOT EXILES-BANQUET CUSTOMS OF THE FATHERS

1783

WITH the triumphant American army, General Washington at its head, that took possession of the city on the afternoon of November 25, 1783, there came a great throng of patriot exiles who had been living in neighboring colonies during the British occupation. Among them were a number of men who had been members of the Chamber of Commerce during the colonial period, including John Alsop, one of the founders, and Isaac Roosevelt, one of the founders who was not at the first meeting but had given his approval to the project. Isaac Low and many of his fellow members who had supported the British authorities left the city and country, never

to return.

It was a joyous populace which greeted the conquering general and his army, but its high spirits do not seem to have infected the office of the Independent New York Gazette, for in its issue of the Saturday following there appeared this terse and passionless record of the events of one of the most memorable of days in all history: "Last Tuesday morning the American troops marched from Harlem to the Bowery Lane. They remained there till about one o'clock when the British troops left the posts at the Bowery, and the American troops marched in and took possession of the city."

The Chamber of Commerce was in too chaotic a condition

to participate as a body in the popular rejoicing which marked the great deliverance, but there is abundant evidence that

Isaac Roosevelt and other former members took prominent part in the hilarious celebration which began on the 25th and continued for several days. Washington was in the city till December 4, and during his stay was subjected to an almost unbroken series of banquets from which none of the participants, if we may judge by the itemized bills for the entertainments which have come down to us, could have emerged either hungry or thirsty. The first of the series was given to Washington and his officers at Fraunces's Tavern, where Washington established his headquarters, by Governor Clinton on the evening of November 25. There was a large attendance at this feast and thirteen formal toasts were drunk. That there was no lack of liquor in which to drink them is made evident by the bill which Samuel Fraunces presented and which the State paid later:

November 25, 1783.

His Excellency, Governor Clinton to Saml. Fraunces, Dr.

The above Bill is for an Entertainment of taking possession of the City when the British evacuated the Southern District. Rec'd the Contents in full 2d Feby. 1784.

SAML. FRAUNCES.

The second banquet was given at Cape's Tavern on November 28, and that Isaac Roosevelt and his fellow exiles were the hosts on this occasion is shown by Washington's itinerary,

in which it is recorded that on that date "the citizens who have lately returned from exile gave an elegant entertainment to his Excellency the Governor and the Council for governing the city; his Excellency General Washington, and the officers of the Army; about three hundred gentlemen graced the feast." No itemized bill for this entertainment has been preserved, as it was not paid by the State, but by private individuals.

Cape's Tavern was a famous hostelry in its day. It stood on Broadway, just north of Trinity Church. It had been built by Etienne De Lancey as a residence in 1730. In 1754 it was converted into a tavern under the name of the Province Arms. During the Revolution it was the favorite resort of the British army and navy officers. Shortly before evacuation it passed into the control of a patriotic hotel-keeper named John Cape, who removed its old-time royalist sign and renamed it after himself. It was the scene of the third banquet to Washington, on December 2. This also was given by Governor Clinton, at the expense of the State, and was also in honor of the French ambassador to the United States, the Chevalier de la Luzerne, who had just arrived in the city from Philadelphia. It is recorded in the Gazette as "an elegant entertainment at which were present his Excellency General Washington, the principal officers of this state and of the army and upwards of an hundred private gentlemen." That Isaac Roosevelt was connected with this banquet is shown by Cape's bill, of which he was one of the auditors. Theodore Roosevelt, who is a descendant of the brother of Isaac Roosevelt, reproduces this bill in his "Autobiography," saying that it came down to him among other Roosevelt documents and that it illustrates the change that has come over certain aspects of public life since the time which pessimists term "the earlier and better days of the Republic." The bill is reproduced here, with the one on a previous page, both as historic documents of large illuminating power: