Nominations i)i Colonial Nciv York 273 A little later ' ' ere are some indications of half-clandestine meet- ings in the natur of caucuses. At first the evidence of these meet- ings comes in the form of ridicule and burlesque — an indication probably that they had not been at all requent before/ In spite of ridicule, however, these meetings tended necessarily to become more frequent and to take on more and more an open and public char- acter. This need for formal organization found expression also in the foundation of the " Whig Club" in 1752, under the direction of the leaders of the Livingston party." The club was composed of William Livingston, William Smith, Jr., and John Morin Scott. They met " once in each week at the popular tavern of the King's Arms," and, we may imagine, served as well as possible the pur- poses for which county and state central committees now exist. Passing over much that would serve still further to illustrate the growing publicity and he tendency toward formal organization in methods of nomination, it w 11 be sufficient perhaps to indicate the stage which had been reached in this development at the last formal elections in 1768 and 1769. By 1768 the practice of self-nomination had already begun to excite adverse comment ; ^ for self-nomination was a survival of the old system in that it implied a more or less private and secret agree- ment behind . It was now passing away as these private agree- ments were changing into formal public meetings which did their own nominating. By this time, too, the publication of long and elaborate letters and addresses in newspapers and handbills, had come to be a firmly established practice,^ — a practice to which we 'See burlesque in New Yuk Gazcl/i-, Feb. 3, 1752. In same connection see ibid., Feb. 17. '^ Memorial History of Menu York, II. 346. The King's Arms Tavern was located on the northeast comer of Broad and Dock (now Pearl) streets, opposite " Black Sam" Fraunces's tavern. The building was destroyed in 1890 ; the old Fraunces tavern build- ing is still standing. ^ New York Mercury, Feb. 15, 22, 1768. «See broadside entitled, "The Watchman No. I," in the New York Historical So- ciety library. Vol. I. of the collection. The article is an attack on the De Lancey family and belongs to the year 1768. See also an address to "The Freeholders and Freemen of the City and County of New York" in the same collection. It probably belongs to the election of 176S or 1769. The author descants on the blessings of repre- sentative government, and exhorts the freeholders to choose men of " Sincerity and Pro- bity and Capacity." He would e.act from candidates a declaration " that they «nll not accept any office of honor or profit under the government . . . while they represent you ; that they will do all in their power to get an agent appointed at the court of Great Britain , ... At all events choose men ability and no Boys." See also, same col- lection, broadside entitled, " To the Citizens of New York on the present critical situa- ation of affairs," etc. The Lenox Library collection of broadsides of this period and later has been conveniently described and summarized in the Bulletin of the New York Public Library, Jan., 1899, pp. 23 ff.
