The reception took place April 23, 1789, one week before his inauguration. From a painting by Charles P. Gruppe, owned by the author] CHAPTER XIII HISTORY OF COFFEE IN OLD NEW YORK _The burghers of New Amsterdam begin to substitute coffee for "must," or beer, at breakfast in 1668--William Penn makes his first purchase of coffee in the green bean from New York merchants in 1683--The King's Arms, the first coffee house--The historic Merchants, sometimes called the "Birthplace of our Union"--The coffee house as a civic forum--The Exchange, Whitehall, Burns, Tontine, and other celebrated coffee houses--The Vauxhall and Ranelagh pleasure gardens_ The Dutch founders of New York seem to have introduced tea into New Amsterdam before they brought in coffee. This was somewhere about the middle of the seventeenth century. We find it recorded that about 1668 the burghers succumbed to coffee[91]. Coffee made its way slowly, first in the homes, where it replaced the "must", or beer, at breakfast. Chocolate came about the same time, but was more of a luxury than tea or coffee. After the surrender of New York to the British in 1674, English manners and customs were rapidly introduced. First tea, and later coffee, were favorite beverages in the homes. By 1683 New York had become so central a market for the green bean, that William Penn, as soon as he found himself comfortably settled in the Pennsylvania Colony, sent over to New York for his coffee supplies[92]. It was not long before a social need arose that only the London style of coffee house could fill. The coffee houses of early New York, like their prototypes in London, Paris, and other old world capitals, were the centers of the business, political and, to some extent, of the social life of the city. But they never became the forcing-beds of literature that the French and English houses were, principally because the colonists had no professional writers of note. There is one outstanding feature of the early American coffee houses, particularly of those opened in New York, that is not distinctive of the European houses. The colonists sometimes held court trials in the long, or assembly, room of the early coffee houses; and often held their general assembly and council meetings there. _The Coffee House as a Civic Forum_ The early coffee house was an important factor in New York life. What the perpetuation of this public gathering place meant to the citizens is shown by a complaint (evidently designed to revive the declining fortunes of the historic Merchants coffee house) in the _New York Journal_ of October 19, 1775, which, in part, said: To the Inhabitants of New York: