At this time Francis Lewis resided at Whitestone, L. I., having removed with his family to his country home early in 1765. His residence in Queens County did not prevent his acting with the Sons of Liberty. In those days many of the prominent officials lived in Brooklyn and on the Island.
The appointment of this committee resulted in the selection of a correspondent in London, who kept the patriots informed as to the projected movements of the British authorities, by which means they were enabled to adopt measures to thwart the purposes of the Crown. The information received from time to time led to a desire for a closer union of the colonies. The old Dutch maxim, which has been preserved and adopted as part of the seal of our good city of Brooklyn, "In union is strength," was uppermost in their minds, and induced them to invite the respective colonies to send delegates to a congress to assemble in New York on the 7th of October, 1765.
Some New England writers have given the credit of the formation of this congress to Massachusetts. This is an unhistorical assumption. Whilst New England men did yeoman service in the cause, they did not enlist in it until they had been spurred on by the "Sons of Liberty" of New York. This congress of delegates owed its existence to the persistency of New Yorkers, and was by them first called together.
The congress was organized by the election of Timothy Ruggles, of Massachusetts, as president. The session lasted for three weeks. The measures introduced and the work accomplished were mainly initiated by the delegates from New York. A declaration of rights, prepared and submitted by John Cruger, Mayor of New York, was adopted; and a memorial and statement of grievances for presentation to Parliament was prepared and introduced by Robert R. Livingston, also of New York. Livingston subsequently was a member of the Continental Congress, and associated with Jefferson on the committee appointed to draft the Declaration of Independence. Livingston's address to Parliament was signed by nearly all the members. The declaration of rights was a vigorous and forcible document. It announced the grand principle that "taxation without representation is tyranny," and declared that as the colonies were so remote as to preclude representation in Parliament, the right of taxation only vested in the legislative authorities. It boldly denounced the Stamp Act as tyrannical, and demanded its repeal.