USA > New York > Westchester County > History of Westchester County, New York, from its earliest settlement to the year 1900 > Part 26
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October 29, 1733.
On this day, Lewis Morris, Esq., late Chief Justice of this Province, was by a majority of voices elected a Representative from the County of Westchester. It was an Election of great Expectation; the Court and the County's interest 'was exerted"(as is said) to the utmost. I shall give my readers a particular account of it. Nicholas Cooper, Esq., Iligh Sheriff of the said County, having by papers affixed to the Church of Eastchester and other publie places, given notice of the Day and Place of Election, without mentioning any time of Day when it was to be done, which made the Electors on the side of the late Judge very suspicious that some Fraud was intended-to prevent which about fifty of them kept watch upon and about the Green at Eastehester (the Place of Election) from 12 o'clock the night before till the Morning of the Day. The other Electors, beginning to move on Sunday
244
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
afternoon and evening, so as to be at New Rochelle by Midnight, their way lay through Harrison's Purchase, the Inhabitants of which provided for their Entertainment as they passed each house in their way, having a table plentifully covered for that Purpose. Abont midnight they all met at the house of William Le Court at New Rochelle, whose house not being large enough to entertain so great a number, a large fire was made in the street by which they sat till daylight, at which time they began to move. They were joined on the hill at the East end of the Town by abont seventy horse of the Eleetors of the lower part of the County; and then proceeded toward the place of Election in the following order, viz: First rode two trumpeters and three violins; next, four of the principal Freehoklers, one of which carried a banner, on one side of which was affixed in gold capitals " King George " and on the other in golden capitals "Liberty and Law "; next followed the Candidate, Lewis Morris, Esq., then two Colours; and at sun rising they entered upon the Green at Eastchester, followed by above three hundred horse of the principle Freeholders of the County, a greater number than had ever appeared for one man since the settlement of that County.
After having rode three times round the Green, they went to the houses of Joseph Fowler and Mr. Child, who were well prepared for their reception; the late Chief Justice was met on his alighting by several Gentlemen who came there to give their votes for him. About 11 o'clock appeared the Candidate of the other side, William Forster, Esq., the schoolmaster, appointed by the Society for Propagation of the Gospel, and lately made, by commission from his Excellency the present Governor, Clerk of the Peace and Common Pleas in that County; which commission it is said he purchased for the valuable consideration of one hundred pistoles given the Governor. Next came two ensigns borne by two of the Freeholders; then followed the Honourable James De Lancey, Esq., Chief Justice of the Province of New York, and the Honourable Frederick Phillipse, Esq., Second Judge of the said Province and Baron of the Exchequer, attended by about a hundred and seventy horse of the Freeholders and friends of the said Forster and the two Judges; they entered the Green on the East side; and riding twice round it, their word was " No Land Tax."
As they passed, the second Judge civilly saluted the late Chief Justice by taking off his hat, which the late JJudge returned in the same manner, some of the late Judge's party erying out "No Excise," and one of them was heard to say (though not by the Judge), " No Pretender," upon which Forster, the Candidate, replied, " I will take notice of you." They after that retired to the house of Mr. Baker, which was prepared to receive and entertain them. About an hour after, the lligh Sheriff came to town, finely mounted; the housings and holster eaps being scarlet, richly laced with silver. Upon his approach, the Electors on both sides went into the Green, where they were to elect, and, after having read his Majesty's writ, bid the Eleetors proceed to a choice, which they did, and a great majority appeared for Mr. Morris, the late Judge; upon which a poll was demanded, but by whom is not known to the relator, though it was said by many to be done by the Sheriff himself.
Morris, the Candidate, several times asked the sheriff upon whose side the majority appeared, but could get no other reply but that a poll must be had; and, accordingly, after about two hours' delay in getting benches, chairs and tables, they began to poll. Soon after, one of those called Quakers, a man of known worth and estate, came to give his vote for the late Andge. Upon this, Forster and the two Fowlers, Moses and William, chosen by him to he inspectors, questioned his having an estate, and required of the Sheriff to tender him the book to swear in dne form of law, which he refused to do, but offered to take his solemn affirmation, which both by the laws of England and of this Province was indulged to the people called Quakers, and had always been practiced from the first election of representatives in this Province to this time, and never refused, but the Sheriff was deaf to all that could be alleged on that side; and, notwithstanding that he was told by the late Chief Justice and James Alexander, Esq., one of his Majesty's Council and Couneillor at Law, and by William Smith, Esq., Councillor at Law, that such a procedure was contrary to law, and a violent attempt of the liberties of the people, he still persisted in refusing the said Quaker to vote, and in like manner did refuse seven-and-thirty Quakers more-men of known and visible estates.
This Cooper, now High Sheriff of the said County, is said not only to be a stranger in that County, but not having a foot of land or other visible estate in it, unless very lately granted, and it is believed he had not wherewithal to purchase any. The polling had not long been continued before Mr. Edward Stephens, a man of a very considerable estate in the
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THE ELECTION OF 1733
said County, did openly, in the hearing of all the Freeholders there assembled, charge William Forster, Esq., the Candidate on the other side, with being a Jacobite, and in the interest of the Pretender, and that he should say to Mr. William Willet (a person of good estate and known integrity, who was at that time present and ready to make oath to the truth of what was said) that true it was that he had not taken the oaths to his Majesty King George, and enjoyed a place in the Government under him which gave him his bread; yet notwith- standing that, should King James come into England he should think himself obliged to go there and fight for him. This was loudly and strongly urged to Forster's face, who denied it to be true; and no more was said of it at that time.
About 11 o'clock that night the poll was elosed, and it stood thus:
For the Late Chief Justice 231
The Quakers 38
269
For William Forster, Esq.
151
The Difference
118
Total 269
So that the late Chief Justice carried it by a great majority without the Quakers. Upon closing the poll the other candidate, Forster, and the Sheriff, wished the late Chief Justice much joy. Forster said he hoped the late Judge would not think the worse of him for setting up against him, to which the Judge replied he believed he was put upon it against his inelinations, but that he was highly blamable, and who did or should know better for putting the Sheriff, who was a stranger and ignorant npon such matters, upon making so violent an attempt upon the liberty of the people, which would expose him to ruin if he were worth $10,000, if the people aggrieved should commence suit against him. The people made a loud huzza, which the late Chief JJudge blamed very much, as what he thought not right. Forster replied he took no notice of what the common people did, since Mr. Morris did not put them upon the doing of it. The indentures being sealed, the whole body of Electors waited on their new Representative to his lodgings with trumpets somding and violins playing, and in a little time took their leave of him, and thus ended the Election to the general satisfaction.
The rallying eries of the two parties, " No Land Tax " and " No Excise," related to a current political issue of some importance. Phil- ipse had opposed the levying of quit-rents on his manor, which his partisans fermed a " land tax," and instead of it had advocated the raising of revenue by excise duties. This issue, however, was only an incidental one in the great contest of 1733. Quit-rents had always been exceedingly objectionable to the rural population, and excise Inties were almost equally unpopular. As the Philipse and de Lan- cey party chose to take their stand against the so-called land tax, the Morrisites met them by raising the counter issue of no excise. But in reality it was a'contest on the sole question of the governor's outrageous abuse of authority, and as such it became a perfect test of the disposition and readiness of the people to shake off the fetters of an odious government and to array themselves for free institu- tions. There was no mistaking the true nature of the emergency, and the minds of the people were not to be confused by the pre- tense that it was an ordinary struggle over the opposing doctrines
246
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
of " land tax " and " excise." All the government influence was ar- rayed against Morris, and with a formality and determination most conspicuous. The Morris party, on the other hand, stood just as un- mistakably and resolutely for the principle of popular defiance of op- pressive government. The electors of the county were conscious that the verdict which they were called upon to render would have the greatest moral weight, and would be taken as a crucial test of the state of public opinion. In these circumstances, emphatic as was the majority for Morris, the character and composition of his fol- lowing were even more significant than the mere proportions of his vote. We are told that his supporters from the lower part of the county " mumbered only about seventy horse." The remainder came from far and wide, contributed by every portion of the county except the borough Town of Westchester, which was a constituency by itself, and the Manor of Philipseburgh, which, under the influence of its proprietor, was a unit for his antagonist. From Pelham and New Rochelle to the remotest parts of the Manor of Cortlandt the word had gone forth to gather on the Green at Eastchester early on the morning of Monday, the 29th of October. Even the Quakers, the strictest of Sabbath observers, joined in the throng which began to move thither on Sunday morning and afternoon. It was a sponta- neous assembling of the people to register their votes in a great cause. On the other hand, the government candidate commanded practically no support, except that which was directly subordinate to the will of the powerful landlord Philipse and the influence of Chief Justice de Lancey. This support was in the aggregate of no mean propor- tions, but when measured against the sentiment of the untrameled people of the county it was utterly overborne.
The cry of the Morris party, " No Pretender! " and the altercation about the supposed Jacobite principles of Forster afford added illus- tration of the fundamental character of the contest. At that period the exiled Stuarts were still scheming to make their way back to the throne of England. In the minds of the plain people, particularly in the American colonies, the associations of the degraded dynasty were entirely those of oppressive rule, licentiousness, corruption, and religious intolerance. No severer political reproach could attach to an American subject (especially if he sought elective office) than the suspicion of being a Jacobite or supporter of the Stuart Pretender. Hence the alacrity with which that reproach was flung at the govern- ment candidate by the democratie Morrisites. With such an accu- mulation of aristocratie sins upon him, it was truly an inconvenient position in which Forster stood when he faced the Westchester yeo- manry.
247
THE ELECTION OF 1733
The newspaper report of the election reproduced above was writ- ten by a printer from New York, one John Peter Zenger, who had gone to Eastchester to witness the struggle, and doubtless intended his account of it for the columns of the New York Weekly Gazette, at that time the only newspaper in the province. The first number of the Gazette appeared on October 16, 1725, under the direction of William Bradford, who was originally a printer in Philadelphia, but since 1693 had been government printer in New York on a salary of £40 per anmumm over and above what he might earn at his craft. The Gasctle, naturally a government organ, had, throughout the Van Dam controversy, been serupulously careful to print nothing objec- tionable to the governor and his partisans; and Zenger's strongly pro-Morris report of the Westchester County election was therefore quite un- adapted for insertion in it. It is said that Zenger, before returning to New York, showed his manuscript to a lead- ing Friend, who, referring to the Quak- er vote, said: "Send me eight-and- thirty copies." At all events, he at once took steps to begin the publication of a rival newspaper; and a week later the first issue of the New York Weekly Jour- nul came from the press. The election report accompanied the edition proper as a broadside, or supplement; and, in OLD DUTCH CHURCH, NASSAU STREET. addition, appeared the following notable piece of news:
On Wednesday, the 31st of October, the late Chief Justice, but now Representative, landed in this city about five o'clock at the Ferry stairs. On his landing he was saluted by a General Fire of the guns from the merchant vessels lying in the Roads, and was received by great num- bers of the most considerable Merchants and Inhabitants of the city, and by them with loud acclamations of the people as he walked in the streets, conducted to the Black Horse Tavern [northwest corner of Smith Street, now William, and Garden Street, now Exchange Place ], where a handsome entertainment was prepared for him at the charge of the gentlemen who received him, and in the middle of one side of the room was fixed a tablet with golden Capitals, " King George, Liberty and Law."
Indeed, the greatest enthusiasm prevailed among all classes of the people except those immediately identified with the governor's cause, and the news was hailed with rejoicing in distant paris of the coun- try. The bells of the Middle Dutch Church, on Nassau Street, of which Rip Van Dam was a member, rang out a jubilant peal, and the bellringer, to commemorate the event, carved deep in the wooden wall of the cupola the inscription " L. M. Oct. 31, A.D. 1733," which could still be deciphered at the time when that ancient edifice was dismantled, some twenty years ago.
248
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
Zenger's attendance as a self-constituted reporter at the election at Eastchester, and his resulting establishment of the New York Weekly Journal, led to a train of remarkable consequences. Like Leisler, Zenger was a German by birth-a typical representative of the early class of alien immigrants who came to America to better their condition, and readily adapted themselves to the institutions which they found here. He came over as a lad in the Palatinato immigration of 1710, served as an apprentice at the printing trade with William Bradford for eight years, and later opened a printing office of his own, which was located on Stone Street, near the corner of Whitehall. Zealously devoted to the principles of the anti-Cosby party, he embarked boldly in his opposition newspaper publishing venture without weighing and doubtless without caring for the con- siderations of caution which naturally should have suggested them- selves to a person assuming such a responsibility in those times of very limited license for the press. He was immediately supported and encouraged by the foremost leaders of the popular party-men like Van Dam, Morris, and the two most eminent New York lawyers of the period, James Alexander and William Smith, both of whom had been present in Morris's behalf at the Westchester County elec- tion. These and others furnished him, for his paper, numerous able and aggressive articles upon topies germane to the absorbing ques- tion of popular rights, which were printed over noms de plume. The tone of the Weekly Journal gradually became more direct, personal- ities were indulged in, and unsparing poetical effusions, of very man- ifestly personal application to the governor and his creatures, were provided from time to time for a smiling public. Governor Cosby endured these wicked polemies and exacerbating satires, though not without much misery of soul, for the space of about a year. Then, unable longer to restrain his rage, he resolved to crush the atrocious sheet forever and to visit condign punishment upon its owner.
In this undertaking the governor had the cordial assistance of Chief Justice de Lancey, who applied to the grand jury to find an indictment against Zenger. But that body, made up from the ranks of the people, ignored the demand. Next, Cosby caused his council to send to the general assembly a message on the subject of the scurrilous publications. The assembly, no more complaisant than the grand jury, calmly laid the matter on the table. Finally, in con- sequence of some new and particularly flagitious publications, de Lancey procured from the grand jury a presentment against the spe- cial numbers of the paper containing them, which were accordingly burned by the hangman. But what was most desired, the indictment of Zenger, was still refused. He was nevertheless arrested on an in-
249
THE ELECTION OF 1733
formation for libel, and, after languishing in prison several months, was brought to trial on a charge of printing matter that was " false, scandalous, and seditious." His counsel, Alexander and Smith, cour- ageously took the ground that the whole proceedings before de Lan- cey were illegal, inasmuch as the new chief justice had been ap- pointed by the mere executive act of the governor, without the con- sent of the council. De Lancey met this contention by summarily disbarring the two lawyers. With their exit from the scene the entire defense seemed doomed to fall to the ground, as there was no other sufficiently able lawyer in New York to take it up. In this emergency Andrew Hamilton, of Philadelphia, an advocate of con- summate intellectual qualities and fascinating eloquence, and the Nestor of the whole colo- nial bar, was persuaded to come to New York and assume the defense of the unfortunate printer. Hamilton admitted the publication of the matters complained of, but demanded that witnesses be summoned to prove them libelous. This was not to the taste of the chief justice, and was denied on the principle that "the greater the truth, the greater the libel." Thereupon, accepting with good grace the ruling of the court, Hamilton pro- ceeded to address a power- ful plea to the jury as judges ANDREW HAMILTON. both of the law and the facts. He urged them, as patriots and freemen, to dismiss all prejudice from their minds and determine from the facts whether the ac- eused had not really published the truth, or what represented legiti- mate public opinion, which he had the right to do and which there was need of doing under a free government. "I make no doubt," said he, in prophetic words, " but your upright conduct this day will not only entitle you to the love and esteem of your fellow- citizens, but every man who prefers freedom to a life of slavery will bless and honor yon as men who have baffled the attempts of tyranny, and, by an impartial and incorrupt verdict, have laid a noble founda- tion for securing to ourselves, our posterity, and our neighbors that
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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
to which nature and the laws of our country have given us a right- the liberty of both exposing and opposing arbitrary power in these parts of the world, at least by speaking and writing truth." To this unanswerable argument the jury responded by an almost immedi- ate verdiet of acquittal. Hamilton was hailed by the people with acclaims even more enthusiastic and flattering than those which had greeted Morris. He was presented by the common council with the freedom of the city in a gold box, and upon his departure for Phila- delphia a salute was fired in his honor. It was in the month of An- gust, 1735, that this crowning victory of the people over their tyran- nous governor was won-just two years after the humiliation of Chief Justice Morris.
The Zenger verdict established forever the principle of the liberty of the press in America. During the long controversy and agitation which preceded it, the people had familiarized themselves with the doctrine of resistance to tyrants. " If all governors are to be rever- enced," said one of the writers in Zeuger's Journal, " why not the Turk and old Muley, or Nero?" It became decidedly the fashion to exalt the people above their rulers, and to make pungent retorts to those who urged the old ideas of obedience to authority. In the spirit of political independence nurtured and matured during that period, reflective historieal writers have recognized one of the earliest foun- dations of the American Revolution. That spirit, as an active force, underwent a suspension after the realization of its immediate ob- jeet, only to be revived, however, with increased energy, when the issues antecedent to the Revolution began to take shape. From that October day, when the people of Westchester County gathered in front of the old Eastchester church to rebuke the presumption of the royal governor, the ultimate attitude of New York concerning any question of popular right never could have been in doubt. The sentiment so emphatically expressed by Westchester County was most heartily sustained by the people of New York City whenever the citizens of that municipality had opportunity to make their at- titude felt. The publie bodies of the city were uniformly opposed to Cosby's attempts. In September, 1734, when the agitation arising out of the Van Dam matter, Morris's dismissal, and the course of the Weekly Journal was at its height, an election for aldermen and assistants was held, at which only one of the government candi- dates was successful. As we have seen, the grand jury from first to last refused to indiet Zenger; and the common council was equally refractory when demands were made upon it by the governor, and at the happy termination of the Zenger prosecution celebrated the grand popular victory by awarding the highest public honors to
THE New - York Weekly JOURNAL
Containing the frefheft Advices, Foreign, and Domeftick.
MUNDAY November 12, 1733.
Mr. Zenger.
Ncert the following in your next, and you'll oblige your Friend,
Mira temporum felicitas ubi Sentiri que velis, & que feutras dicere licit. Tacit.
'T HE Liberty of the Prefs is a Subject of the great- eft Importance, and in which every Individual is as much concern'd as he is in any other Part of Liberty : Therefore it will not be improper to communicate to the Publick the Senti- ments of a lite excellent Writer upon this Point. fuch is the Elegance and Perfpicuiry of his Writings, fuch the inimitable Force of his Reafoning, that it will be difficult to fay any Thing new that he has not faid, or not to fay that much worfe which he has faid.
their Sovereign, the fole fupream Ma- jiftrate ; for there being no Law in thofs Monarchies, but the Will of the Prince, it makes it necelfary for his CATO. Minifters to confult his Plcafure, be- fore any Thing can be undertaken : He is therefore properly chargeab != with the Grievances of his Subjects, and what the Minifter there acts being in Obedience to the Prince, he ought not to incur the Hatred of the People ; for it would be hard to impure that to him for a Crime, which is the Fruit of his Allegiance, and for refufing which he might incur the Penalties of Trea- fon. Befides, in an abfolute Monar- chy, the Will of the Prince being the Law, a Liberty of the Prefs to complain of Grievances would be complaining againft the Law, and the Conftitution, to which they have fubmitted, or have been obliged to fubmit; and therefore in one Senfe, may be faid to deferve Punifhment, So that under an abfo lute Monarchy, I fay, fuch a Liberty is inconfiftent with the Conftitution, having no proper Subject in Politics, on which it might be exercis'd, and if exercis'd would incur a certain Penalty
There are two Sorts of Monarchies, an abfolute and a limited one. In the firft, the Liberty of the Prefs can never be maintained, it is inconfiftent with But in a limited Monarchy, as Fng it ; for what abfolute Monarch would land is, our Laws are known, fixed
and eltablifhed. They are the ftreigh Rule and fure Guide to direct the King, the Minifters, and other his Subjects : And therefore an Offence againft the Laws is fuch an Offence againft the Conftitution as ought to receive a pro
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