Isaac Low was an American politician. He was a prominent merchant and a large real estate holder in the city of New York.
Background
Isaac Low was born on April 13, 1735 at Raritan Landing, near New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States. He was the son of Cornelius, Jr. , and Johanna (Gouverneur) Low, and a descendant of German, Dutch, and French settlers in New York in the seventeenth century.
Career
Low moved to New York, built up a sizable fortune as a merchant, possessed wide commercial connections, and was financially interested in a slitting mill. In the pre-Revolutionary conflict he was an active Whig and was long to head merchants' committees in their efforts to obtain trade concessions from Parliament. He was a delegate to the Stamp Act Congress of 1765 and was chosen in 1768 to head a committee of inspection to enforce the non-importation agreement.
On the eve of the Revolution his liberal attitude brought down upon his head the condemnation of the more fanatical conservatives who held him to be "a person unbounded in ambition, extremely opinionated, " whose principles of government were "inclined to the republican system". Low served as chairman of the Committee of Fifty-one. As Low was essentially a moderate, his adherence to the cause of outright independence was doubted by shrewd observers. As early as 1773, he had, with Jacob Walton, opposed forcible resistance to the landing of the tea, and in the summer of 1774, John Adams, on his way to the First Continental Congress, was a breakfast guest at Low's elegant mansion on Dock Street. While favorably impressed by Low's "rich furniture for the tea table" and his beautiful wife, Adams was frankly skeptical. "Mr Low, the chairman of the Committee of Fifty-one, " his Diary records, "they say, will profess attachment to the cause of liberty, but his sincerity is doubted".
Low was elected a delegate from New York to the First Continental Congress and he signed the Association. After the outbreak of hostilities in April 1775, he declined membership in the Provincial Convention of April 20-22, and thus deliberately rendered himself ineligible for election to the Second Continental Congress. On sober second thought he accepted the chairmanship of the Committee of Sixty of April 26, 1775, which called for an emergency Committee of One Hundred, which he again headed. In this capacity he sought to guide the action of the Provincial Congress which began its sessions in May.
When the British took possession of New York, Low, unlike his brother Nicholas, who embraced the colonial cause, remained and continued to give loyal support to the authorities. Chosen in 1775 president of the New York Chamber of Commerce, Low called a meeting of that body in 1779, which, attended by the Loyalist wing, expressed sympathy with the British cause. Previous to the evacuation he was appointed by Sir Guy Carleton one of the board of commissioners for the settlement of debts due the Loyalists. He was named in an act of attainder of the state of New York of October 22, 1779, and his property, including a tract of land in Tryon County, was confiscated. In 1783 he moved to England.
Achievements
Politics
Low was a member of the Whig Party. He pursued a moderate course, was hostile to independence, and opposed the prohibition of all exports to the West Indies. He was an active speaker against taxation without representation and against the armed conflict with the British Crown.
Connections
Low was married, on July 17, 1760, to Margarita, daughter of Cornelius Cuyler, mayor of Albany. His only son, Isaac, became a commissary-general in the British army.