William Pitt Statue

Like many other Colonial cities, the colonists were delighted with the repeal of the Stamp Act which they credited to William Pitt's rousing speech in Parliament. He declared "The Americans have not acted in all things with prudence and temper. They have been wronged. They have been driven to madness by injustice. Will you punish them for the madness you have occasioned? Rather let prudence and temper come first from this side. I will undertake for America, that she will follow the example…Upon the whole, I will beg leave to tell the House what is really my opinion. It is, that the Stamp Act be repealed absolutely, totally, and immediately; that the reason for the repeal should be assigned, because it was founded on an erroneous principle."  The General Assembly commissioned a statue of Pitt which would be placed in front of New York's City Hall.