New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1857-12-30

Barber, was man likely enough to add fuel to bis
military ardor. A few years after, when the Rev
olutionary war broke ont, he gave up his school,
Joined the army, served with Distinction and rose
to be Colonel.
After few months spent at Elizabethtown, Ham,
ilton entered Kings (now Columbia) College. he
also attended lectures on anatomy, with the idea OF
becoming physician.
While he was engaged in these studies, the quar-
rel with the mother country about the tea tax came
10 head. A Continental Congress was resolved
upon. Some difficulty arose in New-York as to the
selection of delegates to this Congress between the
ardent party headed by Sears, and the City Com
mttee of Fifty .one lately appointed. This difference
led to public meeting held in the fields on the 9TH
of July, IVA, at which McDouga presided. Ham,
ilton attended and is even said to have addressed
the assembled multitude. At all events, it is certain
that very shortly after he began to employ his pen
actively upon the pending dispute. He became
correspondent of Hollis Journal, the organ OF the
New-York patriots, and before the end Of the year
he also published in a pamphlet reply to two
pamphlets written by Sesbury-afterward the hrst
Episcopal Bishop Of Connecticut-n which the
proceedings of the Continental Congress had been
attacked with considerable art and ability. This
reply drew out rejoinder, to which Hamilton re-
Piled in a still more elaborate pamphlet He placed
the right of the cOlOnsts upon the basis not merely
of the Colonial Charters, by which, as he main'
tanned, the idea of Parliamentary taxation was ex-
cluded, but also upon the sacred rights OF man.
kind, which are not to be rummaged for among old
parchments or rnusty records; they are written as
with sunbeam in the whole volume of human ma
ture, by the hand of the Divinity itself, and can
never be erased or obscured by mortal power"
These pamphlets, which show maturity Of intel.
lect exceedingly unusual at HamiltOns age, at once
drew the eyes of the popular leaders upon him.
In June, l775, he published Remarks on the
Quebec Bill" which measure, not less by its favor
to the Catholics than by its arbitrary principles of
colonial administration, gave great Ofense to the
insurrectionary Colonies.
Meanwhile he had joined a volunteer corps,
which met every morning for exercise in the
church-yard Of st. Georges Chapel. It was his
fortune to be present august % I77o) tho
first brush of arms which took place at New-YOrk.
A party engaged in removing some cannon from
the Battery was fired at from boat of the Asia,
British ship-Of:war which lay in the harbOr.
The fire was returned by vOey, which drew
a broadside from the Asia, woundng several cit
liens, damaging number Of houses, and OCCASION.
ING no little alarm. Hitherto, New York had been
in a somewhat equvOcal position. The Assembly,
having met in April, had refused to approve the
proceedings of the Continental Congress. 1t had,
in consequence, been superseded by Provincial
Congress-; but this new revolutionary body, though
it co6perated with the Continental Congress-.
w,s very moderate, and anxiousy bent on con-
citation. Tryou, the Royal Governor, who re-
turned from England about tho same time that
Washington passed through Newly York on his way
to assume the command Of the army before
Boston, was received with precisely the same mill
tary honors which had been extended to the Com
mander.in-C Chief But the collision at the Battery
brought matters to a crisis. Wooster, who lay
encamped with Connecticut regiment at Harlem,
was invited into the city. The Tories were beset
by armed mobs, and it was not without difficulty
that Hamilton succeeded in saving DR.. Cooper,
the President of the College, and a warm partisan
of the mother country, from the consequences of
his obnoxious politics. Tryon, obliged to q. the
city, took refuge on board ship in the river. Not
long after, Sears, who had withdrawn to Connect
cut, dashed into the city one day at the head of
Connecticut troop Of horse, which drew up before
the Office of RiyingtOn, the Tory printer. They
destroyed his press and carried off his types taking
with them, as they returned TO New-Haven, the
Tory Mayor Of the borough of Westchester, and
also Seabury, author (under the name of "A West
chester Farmer") of the pamphlets against the
Continental Congress, to which Hamilton had
replied.
This operation of Sears produeeda good deal OF
excitement. Hamilton, whose pamphlets Riving-
ton had printed, did not like this attack on the
printing office. He considered it violation of the
the ntruders and recovering the types. The mat
ter ended, however in a remonItrance to the Gov
ernor Of COnnectictt.
There was at this time not great deal of spirit
or energy of any sort in the New-YOrk Provincial
Congress Schuyler, in command on the northern
frontier, was very eebly supported and the men
and means for the INVASION of Canada were drawn
chiefly from Connecticut and Vermont. The New
Workers. warmly opposed Lees entrance into the
city with troops from Connecticut; and, in the ex-
pectation of the arrival of the German mercenarles
taken into the British service, they ayowed their
"unshaken loyalty to their sovereign" and prom
sed protection to Trycn if eWould return. New
York, nevertheless, WAS carried along by the gen.
eral current, and joined, though somewhat hesltat-