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Very soon a company of men called the Sons of Liberty began to be heard
of throughout all the thirteen colonies. They were foremost in opposing
the Stamp Act. In many towns they held meetings, and it was not long
before the people were aroused from one end of the country to the other.
Not many months had passed before men were sent from each of the
colonies and met in the City Hall at New York. This meeting was called
a Colonial Congress. For three weeks these men conferred, and during
that time decided that in good truth the Stamp Act was unjust, and that
everything in their power should be done to prevent it.
[Illustration: Coffee-House opposite Bowling Green, Head-Quarters of
the Sons of Liberty.]
In this same year the house which Stephen De Lancey had built close by
Trinity Church, and which James De Lancey had lived in until his death,
had become a hotel. It was called Burns's Coffee-House. It was a solid
structure, with high beams, great fireplaces, and wide halls. If you
go now to look for the spot where it stood, you will find a crowded
business section; but in those days there were open spaces all about,
and a handsome lawn swept away to the river. One October night the
merchants of the city gathered in this coffee-house, and here, late at
night, they signed a paper which bound them one and all to buy no goods
from England so long as the English King should compel them to use the
stamps.
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