CHAPTER II.
1774-1830
REVOLUTION, POLITICAL CONSEQUENCE, AND SOCIAL GLORY
A CLOUD settled over Wall Street with the first dawn of the Revolution. The residents were subjected to an endless variety of panic and disturbance. All the freshly awakened impulses and activities gravitated toward the City Hall, the chief seat of every commotion, the soul of every political movement. The one thought of the hour in its blazing intensity seemed to consume within itself all other ideas common to the public mind. Tyranny and resistance were topics flying from lip to lip, in every quarter, among all classes, in polite circles, in the workshops, at the fireside, and in the street. Some were for peace at any cost, caring little whether America was ruled by a crowned head over the water, or a crown of heads on this side, so that the business and pleasures of life met with no hindrance; others were for principle regardless of pecuniary, personal, or domestic considerations. Friends disputed, quarreled, and separated, and households scattered. Sharp controversies in the hitherto charmed home circle caused members of the same family in numerous instances to range themselves under different banners. Disputations among servants and laborers ended in riotous proceedings. The violent heats in the Assembly drew crowds into Wall Street to listen to the debates, and to criticize results. The legislators were about equally divided on the question concerning the appointment of delegates to the Second Continental Congress. The opponents of the measure pronounced the action of the first Congress "treasonable," and flatly refused "to repeat an experiment which would be nothing less than open treason in the broad light of day." By a small majority they won the victory. But real power cannot be pushed aside and fettered. The determined minority saw a way in which their purpose might be accomplished, and presently were foremost among the citizens in taking one of the most heroic steps of the period. A Convention was resolutely called to elect the delegates, the
