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Illustrated Episode · Volume IV, chapter 15 · 23 November 1775

Smashing the Tory press

In a cold bright street a stocky rider leads two ranks of horsemen with fixed bayonets before a brick shop, while men carry out sacks and a wrecked press and a crowd on the pavement cheers.
New York, November 23, 1775. At noon, seventy-five horsemen from Connecticut ride in behind Isaac Sears with bayonets fixed and halt before James Rivington's printing office, while some of them carry off his type. Rothbard says any radical blow in New York had to come from outside, and this one did. Chapter 15 of Conceived in Liberty.

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Adapted from Murray N. Rothbard, Conceived in Liberty (Mises Institute, 2011), CC BY 3.0.

What happened

By the autumn of 1775 Isaac Sears, the old radical leader of New York, had left in disgust for Connecticut. Rothbard says he understood that any radical action in New York would have to come from outside, because of the city's Tories and the conservative Whig oligarchs. On November 20 Sears set out from New Haven with sixteen men to disarm the leading Tories of Westchester and secure the Reverend Samuel Seabury, and the main body of seventy-five men followed into New York. A newspaper of the time described what happened: they entered at noonday on horseback, bayonets fixed, in the greatest regularity, and drew up in close order before the office of the printer James Rivington, whose Gazetteer mocked the patriot cause. A small detachment went in and in about three-quarters of an hour brought out the principal part of his types. The press was destroyed, and the type was said to be melted into bullets. Then the riders wheeled and marched out of town to Yankee Doodle, while a crowd outside the Coffee House gave them three hearty cheers. The city's own committee denounced the raid, and Rivington sailed for London. The blow had come from across the border, as Rothbard said it would have to.

Sources

  1. Murray N. Rothbard, Conceived in Liberty (Auburn, Ala.: Mises Institute, 2011 single-volume ed.), vol. IV, ch. 15, 'Suppressing Tories in New York', pp. 1188-1192. CC BY 3.0. Rothbard
  2. Pennsylvania Journal, 6 December 1775, the account of Captain Sears's party, as reproduced on americanhistorycentral.com, 'November 1775' (accessed 2026-10-02, through two fetch summaries and a search summary): Sears's party leaving New Haven on 20 November; seventy-five entering the city at noonday on horseback with bayonets fixed; drawn up in close order before Rivington's printing office; a small detachment bringing off the types in about three-quarters of an hour; the cheering crowd at the Coffee House; Yankee Doodle; the types lodged in New Haven. The original newspaper was not seen. Primary source
  3. 'James Rivington', Wikipedia (accessed 2026-10-02): his print shop at the foot of Wall Street; Sears and other New York radicals destroying his press and converting his type into bullets; Rivington boarding HMS Kingfisher. Secondary source
  4. NYC Revolutionary Trail, 'Stop 3: Hanover Square' (accessed 2026-10-02, through a fetch summary): Rivington's printshop at Queen (Pearl) and Wall Street; Sears's raid and the destroyed type and press. Secondary source