USA > New York > New York City > History of the New Netherlands, province of New York, and state of New York : to the adoption of the federal Constitution. Vol. I > Part 36
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In October, of the year 1732, arrived a young man, the son of a duke, and himself entitled my lord. He was received as a visi- ter by the noble family in the fort, and I find it recorded, that on the 20th, " the corporation being informed that the right honour- able lord Augustus Fitzroy, son of his grace the Duke of Grafton, lord chamberlain of his majesty's household, etc., arrived in this city to pay a visit to his lady and family," therefore the aforesaid corporation resolve, to wait upon his lordship in a full body, and besides congratulating him upon his safe arrival, to present him with the freedom of the city in a gold box.
This important resolution was carried into effect on the 23d ; and the largest article of intelligence to be found in the journals of this year, is, that the mayor, recorder, aldermen, assistants, and other officers of the city, "being informed the Lord Augustus Fitzroy, son of his grace, Charles Duke of Grafton, was arrived at Fort George, on a visit to his excellency, our governour, waited upon the lord, in a full body, and the recorder addressed his lord- ship, in a speech of congratulation, returning him thanks for the honour of his presence, and presented the freedom of the city in a gold box." I find by another record, that the common council VOL. I. 40
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paid for the said box, £14 Ss. ; and that for one quarter's salary to the public schoolmaster, they paid £10.
A few lines more, and I will dismiss this subject. The Lord Augustus Fitzroy was a youth, and Mrs. Cosby had another daugh- ter (besides that Miss Grace, who was congratulated by the cor- poration on her marriage with Mr. Freeman,) whose rank and for- tune were to be advanced by a marriage with my lord : as this must appear as if done without the consent of the governour, a clergyman was introduced over the ramparts of the fort, and the ceremony performed without license.
If all this appears to be below the dignity of history, it must be remembered, that it is only by such details, that we can esti- mate the state of society in any given place, at a given time ; or form a true notion of the persons sent by England to rule a province in 1732.
. When Governour Cosby died in New York, his wife returned to England, expecting to enjoy the honour secured by the marriage of her daughter to a lord ; but it is said, the great family frowned upon the intrusion, and the lady, like many other match-makers, only reaped shame and disappointment.
1735 The triumph of the people over the governour and his adherents, by the result of Zenger's trial, was not lost upon the leaders of the democracy. Objections were again raised to the exercise of the office of chancellor, by the governour. The citi- zens by petition represented the long sitting of the assembly, mo- delled to the governour's views, as a grievance. They attacked the existence of the court of chancery, without the consent of the people.
1736 On the 10th of March, 1736, Governour Cosby died. It may have been observed, that during the persecution of Zenger, by the governour and council, Mr. Van Dam absented himself from the meetings of the second member of the govern- ment. He was an oppositionist, and although the oldest counsel- lor, took no part in the governour's measures. On the death of Cosby, the people looked to him as the temporary successor in the government.
The interference of Cosby in the grants by which property was held-his project for a re-survey of the old patents-in all which the people only saw designs for enriching himself-had rendered him extremely odious, and the accession of Van Dam to the rule, was hailed with joy and triumph. But this exultation was checked, by a report that Van Dam had been suspended by the governour, on the 24th of the previous November, although such act had not been made public.
The disappointment was aggravated, by learning that the repre-
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CONTROVERSY BETWEEN CLARKE AND VAN DAM.
sentations of Mr. Morris, (who was gone to England for the pur- pose of removing Cosby,) had been deemed insufficient.
The council consisting of Clarke, Alexander, Van Horne, Ken- nedy, De Lancey, Cortlandt, Lane, and Horsemanden, met, and recognizing the suspension of Van Dam, administered the oaths to Mr. Clarke, and issued a proclamation accordingly.
The proclamation was called the unanimous deed of the council, although Alexander protested against it. It is evident, that he must have been in the opposition during all the struggle, and in a very small minority-standing alone, as Van Dam had not appeared for some time.
Posterity has been inclined to judge Cosby more favourably than did Smith, the historian of the time, whose extreme partiality to his father, may have misled him : yet, when we consider the secret suspension of Van Dam, ( whom as governour, he had a right to remove,) left to take effect at his death-after he had escaped from the effect of the suspension upon the people, which he knew would draw reproach and bitter enmity upon him ; it must appear, as it was, a dastardly deed of policy-the arrow, like that of the Par- 'thian, was sped while shunning the victim, and only intended to take effect when the archer had escaped from the dangers of the fight.
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Van Dam, knowing his strength with the people, disputed the validity of this post mortem suspension ; and Clarke, supported by the creatures of the late governour, and the party united with them, immediately commenced to officiate as president of the council. Van Dam demanded the seals. Clarke appealed to the king. Van Dam claimed the government as oldest counsellor, and de- clared the suspension invalid, as being the act of an insane man, delirious at the time with the disease which caused his death. This contradicts the assertion of Smith, that the suspension had existed in private from November to March, and exhibits Cosby as gratifying his enmity on his death bed.
The 14th of October, being the day for appointing officers, each rival exercised that extraordinary function of the presiding office. Parties raged, and violence was threatened; but a mandate arrived from England in favour of the aristocracy. George Clarke was declared the legal occupant of the colonial throne, and shortly afterwards appointed lieutenant-governour .* Previous to attaining this mark of ministerial favour, Clarke, on the 14th of October, met the assembly, and declared his first speech, in which he reminded them of their promises respecting the revenue made to Cosby,
" The reader is referred to the abstract of the minutes, of the common council, under the head of miscellaneous matters, for traces of this dispute.
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touched on his intention to encourage ship building, strengthen the fortifications, and gain the good will of the Iroquois, by settling blacksmiths among them. He likewise introduced the practice of the governour's absenting himself from the council, when that body sat as part of the legislature.
The new lieutenant-governour was born in England, and had been sent out by a friend, to mend his fortune in New York. He came to this country during the reign of Anne, and had sagacity enough to see that the aristocracy possessed the offices of profit, and were supporters of the authority derived from England. Clarke sided with the governours, and they rewarded his services, until as we see, he stood the oldest member of the council, if Van Dam could be suspended, and at the same time his friends in England, were power- ful enough to procure his nomination for lieutenant-governour upon Cosby's decease. He now had the game in his own hands, · and in a short time could retire home with a governour's, if not a · princely fortune.
Morris who had failed in his attempt to overthrow Cosby, ma- naged to secure the government of New Jersey for himself; and seeing that the party who had supported Cosby, and now went with Clarke, were too strong for the democracy in the legislature of New York, he abandoned his seat (for he was at the same time a representative in one province and governour of another,) as an assembly man, and retired to the chair of state, beyond the Hudson.
Property was at this time considered as sufficient qualification for vote or office, without residence ; and Mr. Morris was a great proprietor in both New York and New Jersey. He, his son Lewis, and his son-in-law Ashfield, had all rendered themselves obnox- ious to the aristocratick party, by supporting Van Dam, and equal- ly popular with the party who were defeated by Clarke's appoint- ment in England.
While Morris was chief justice of New Jersey, he was regularly returned as a member of the assembly in New York, and the rule, which a more enlightened age has established, that resi- dence is necessary to a qualification as a voter or candidate, was considered absurd, and is so represented by Chief Justice William Smith, the historian of New York, although it was even in 1736, upheld by his fathers' coadjutor, James Alexander.
Clarke, who is allowed by Smith to have been a man of genius, exerted himself to gain friends among the people, and at the same time to retain the opposite party. His management was sufficient for both : but he had to fear the appointment of a governour-in- chief, who would wrest the glorious opportunity for accumulating wealth from him. His letters to England, were such as to dis- courage candidates for the office, and while they hesitated, he employed the time to advantage. The length of time Mr. Clarke
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had been in the province, and his acknowledged talents, enabled him to manage the judges, (men thoroughly known to him, and who held their offices at his pleasure,) the council-men within his . 'power-and even the more unmanageable house of assembly, for his purposes. Smith and Alexander were restored to the bar.
1737 The house met in the summer of 1737. James Alex- ander represented the City of New York. Lewis Morris, the son of the Governour of New Jersey, was chosen speaker. The democratick or party of the people, prevailed in this branch of the legislature. Their address, in reply to Clarke's very concilia- tory speech, was bold and uncompromising. They impute the deficiency of the revenue to prodigality ; impeach their predeces- . sors in granting permanent funds, and tax the receivers with ingra- titude ; roundly assure him that they mean to discontinue that prac- tice ; "for," to use their own words, "you are not to expect that we either will raise sums unfit to be raised, or put what we shall raise into the power of a governour to misapply, if we can prevent it ; nor shall we make up any other deficiencies than what we con- ceive are fit and just to be paid, or continue what support or reve- nue we shall raise, for any longer time than one year; nor do we think it convenient to do even that, until such laws are passed as we conceive necessary for the safety of the inhabitants of this colo- ny, who have reposed a trust in us, for that only purpose, and which we are sure you will think it reasonable we should act agrecably to : and by the grace of God, we will endeavour not to deceive them."
Notwithstanding this, the lieutenant-governour was able to pass throughi a long session, from August to December, much to his mind. Many popular bills were passed : as to such as were rejected, the people placed the odium on the council, rather than to the opposition of the lieutenant-governour. The militia was remo- delled; the practice of the law amended ; triennial elections or- dained ; the importation of base copper money restrained; courts for the summary decision of petty suits established ; a mathematical and grammar school encouraged; interest reduced from eight to seven per cent. ; the fort at Oswego supported ; the Indian trade promoted; paper money emitted for paying the provincial debt ; a loan-office erected, and a precedent established of an annual pro- vision by the legislature for the government .*
Clarke is said to have destroyed the popularity of many leaders of the democratick party, by inducing them to accept offers of offices, which he never intended to bestow.
* See Gordon's Gazetteer of New York.
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1738 Chief Justice Smith, in his history, attributes the disfran- chisement of the Jews to his father's eloquence, and sup- poses the orator sincere. We have already noticed that this histo- rian, an eminent lawyer in times long subsequent to those of which we treated, censures his father's coadjutor in Zenger's affair-Mr. Alexander-for entertaining an opinion that residence was necessary in a candidate for office. The Chief Justice of Canada upholds the contrary doctrine, which was received and acted upon in 1738 and afterward, and by which a man holding property in Albany was qualified to represent Westchester, or any other portion of the province, of which he knew nothing. We find in the case of the disfranchisement of the Jews, that the same historian praises his father's eloquence, when he persuaded the house of representatives to reject the votes of the Israelites, because their fathers, seventeen hundred years past, had demanded the death of one condemned by their rulers. What must we, at this day, think of either the orator or his audience, who by their decision, sanctioned such monstrous · injustice ? In a contested election, Mr. Smith is praised by his son, the historian, for asserting that the Jews of New York, though . freeholders, were not entitled to vote for the candidate to whom he was opposed. Such were the opinions of men long after 173S.
I must not omit to mention, that Mr. Clarke visited Albany, and endeavoured to prevail upon the Iroquois to reject the offers of the French for the Valley of Irondequoit, where a settlement was pro- jected by the Canadians, much to the injury of Oswego. He not only wished to defeat the designs of the French, by his negotiations with the Indians, but to establish a colony at Irondequoit for the support of the garrison of Oswego : here is a bay formed by an inlet of Lake Ontario, and the soil (now lying between the present Pen- field and Brighton,) is rich and fertile. . The governour was, how- ever, unable to accomplish his purpose. Another of Lieutenant- governour Clarke's schemes, was to induce a body of Highlanders to emigrate to New York, and settle them as a frontier guard against the encroachments of the French, by the way of Lake Champlain ; for they, by building a fort at Crown Point, com- manded that lake, and contemplated advancing to what has since been called Skenesborough, and is now Whitehall, and by that means to seize the entrance of Wood Creek. Clarke intended granting to the Scotch emigrants, lands on Wood Creek, and thus throwing them as an avant-guard to impede the French. But Chief Justice Smith asserts, that avarice induced the governour to speculate in this as in other affairs of government.
One of the most atrocious acts of the government of New York, under Mr. George Clarke's administration, according to the state- ment of William Smith, the historian, was the inducing Laughlin Campbell to sell his estate in Scotland, and with the produce bring
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out eighty-three families of Highlanders, to settle upon the wild lands of the north, induced by a promise of Mr. Clarke to grant 30,000 acres to Captain Campbell, for the purposes of cultivation, and as his own property, he becoming lord of this manor. The fact of Campbell being induced by the promise of the government to enter into this speculation, although asserted by Smith, and re-asserted by all who have followed him, is positively denied by Cadwallader Colden, then one of the council, and for many years subsequently, governour of the province.
That Campbell came to this country, (and visited the lands about Wood Creek, so memorable in our history, and which falls into Lake Champlain) is certain; and that, pleased with the soil and the prospect of becoming a great proprietor, he returned home and brought out with him 423 adults with their children, in the hope to settle them on our frontier ; but Mr. Colden denies that he did this upon a promise of Governour Clarke to grant him 30,000 acres, or to make any agreement with him for more land than he could bring under cultivation ; and he says, positively, that Cap- tain Campbell's application to the government for 30,000 acres, was the first intimation the government had of his pretensions. Mr. Colden further says, that the greater number of the people who came out with Campbell, emigrated at their own expense, and with a view to becoming proprietors ; only a part, and that the lesser portion, being brought out by the Highland chieftain, at his cost, and to become tenants to him .*
* For the whole of Governour Colden's letter, I refer the reader to the Appendix.
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CHAPTER XXI.
Madness of the people of New York, in what is called the Negro Plot-Horsemanden-Hughson and family-Peggy Cary-Kane -Price-John Ury-Executions-Trial of Ury, and his ex- cution-Reward of Mary Burton ..
1742 Negro slavery, the curse of a portion of the United States of America, is a subject that cannot be passed over in silence, by any historian of New York ; particularly when we reflect that its abolition has been one, and not the least efficient of the causes of the prosperity and greatness of the EMPIRE STATE. The first evidence of its existence within the territorial bounds, to which I limit myself, is on the first page of the Dutch Records, of 163S, as translated by Adrian Vander Kemp, and deposited in the secretary of state's office, being an agreement between Wil- liam Kieft, director-general of New Netherland, and John Damen, for the lease of two lots of land, "the largest"' it recites " thus far, has been cultivated by blacks." The date of this agreement, is the 19th of April, 163S.
In 1517, under the Emperour Charles V, commenced the prac- tice of transporting Africans as slaves to America. We know in 1562, Sir John Hawkins, with the aid of Sir Lionel Duchet, Sir Thomas Lodge,and Sir William Winter, fixed the stigma upon England, of introducing the slave trade, as a branch of commerce at this early period, among the inhabitants of that trading country.
This trade in the blood, lives, and liberties, of human beings, was then, and has since been excused, and attempted to be justified, by stating that the negroes were benefitted by being kidnapped, chained, confined in floating prisons, of the most loathsome des- cription, murdered if resisting, subjected to disease and death, to the cool mercantile calculation of the number per hundred to be thrown overboard, and to endless labour and stripes, on their arrival in America, inasmuch as the survivors, were transported to a land where they would become civilized, and taught the lessons of christianity.
Such arguments reconciled princes, and nations, to this most in- human of all the practices which have disgraced civilized man. Such was the theory. In practice the negro was treated as a brute, and by law, prohibited from being taught either in a school, or the
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church. But this practice is confined to those countries, where plantations are worked by gangs of slaves. Among the Dutch of New Netherland, and New York, slavery had generally a milder as- pect. The number of slaves was comparatively small. The mas- ter and his children, if agriculturists, shared the labour of the farm, and in the towns domestick slavery was deprived of many of its odious features in the the early days of the colony of New Nether- land, and again at a later period ; but in 1741, the accumulation of slaves, and the fear from various causes, of their attempting to free themselves, had caused their condition in New York, to be worse than at the earlier or later period.
But these are general characteristicks attached to the practice of slave holding which have their influence, more or less, at all times. It has been observed, that in some languages, the same . word expresses slave and thief. When the slave is not a thief, he or she, must be an exception to a general rule. Habituated to ex- perience injustice, debarred from instruction, deprived of the opportunity to accumulate property and the right to possess it, there is a propensity to appropriate the goods of the master, which is only restrained by fear of punishment .*
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* Ten years before this period, (in which we, on the subject of slavery, were involved in total darkness,) in which, men hugging themselves in the notion of per- fect guiltlessness, while accumulating property by buying and selling their fellow. men, or seizing and wresting them from their homes; in which, men fattening in idleness upon the compelled labour of others, could think they were without sin: even then, Anthony Benezet had settled in Philadelphia, and become a quaker .- This good man was born in England, though of French protestant descent, in 1713; and we may probably date the enlightenment of his mind on the subject of slavery, from the day he was converted to quakerism. He published several books on the subject-the first of which, was in 1762, wherein he exposed the iniquity of the African slave trade. In 1767, he published his " Cantion to Great Britain" respect- ing the slavery in her dominions. He died somewhere about the termination of our revolutionary war ; and it is said that an American officer, on viewing his funeral, exclaimed, "I had rather be Benezet in his shroud, than Washington in his glory !"
I must record, as a prominent feature in the picture of New York, an event only paralleled by the madness occasioned by panick in England, during 1679-80, when Titus Oates was so prominent an actor in scenes, that on a smaller stage have, in many of the circumstances and features, a striking resemblance. In New York, the dread of popery, which had produced the efforts of Leisler in 1691, was in 1741 capable of violent effects, and was combined with the natural fear suggested by having in every house persons held as slaves, and suspected of being enemies. The negro slave was supposed to be a fit instrument for the Romish priest to wield, in the destruction of the protestant master ; and the desire of the papist, especially the clergymen of the faith of Rome, to substitute his religion for the protestant, could not be doubted. The celibacy of the clergy of the Church of Rome, one of the boldest as well as most efficacions devices, was conceived for the formation of a body distinct from society, was justly dreaded by every thinking man, and caused a chimerical dread at times in the unthinking. The fear of popery alone, drove England mad, in 1679; but in New York, it was combined with the dread of ven- geance to be taken by the victims of the pernicious system of negro slavery. The Englishman imagined priests and Jesnits, but saw none : the inhabitant of New York could not turn his eyes in any direction, without seeing a black face, and every black was a slave.
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That guilt which the state of slavery engenders, is chargeable to the master of the slave. To possess unlimitted power over a human being, makes the possessor a tyrant, he is corrupted by its influence, while the subject of his power is debased. The tyrant may be merciful and kind, and the slave may be grateful. It has been so in empires and in families : but when so, it is from causes adverse to tyranny and slavery ; their influence is ever the same.
The slave only works from the fear of punishment, and neglects his labour as much as possible. When he refrains from exertion, he only resumes a portion of that which has been forced from him. Every traveller who passes from a state where labour is per- formed by freemen, for their own profit, into a state where it is performed by slaves, will at once be struck by the contrast on the face of every thing produced by labour. Another evil is, that em- ploying slaves to work, makes labour disreputable. The white man prides himself upon his idleness. The history of New York, in 1741, elucidates all this.
Panick in its most common form, is known to seize bodies of mi- litary men, and even whole armies ; who, losing all self-possession, and dreading they know not what, fly from a supposed enemy, and rush upon certain destruction. But we have records, of panick and consequently, the most atrocious acts of cruelty and injustice, suffered and inflicted by whole communities, and even nations. Such an event and its consequences, I have to recite; and the po- pish plot of 1679, in the reign of Charles II, when the whole of the people of England, were panick struck, is the best parallel I know of the negro plot of New York, in 1741.
" Each breath of rumour," says David Hume, " made the peo- ple start with anxiety : their enemies they thought, were in their bosom. While in this timorous jealous disposition, the cry of plot all on a sudden struck their ears ; they were wakened from their slumber ; and like men affrighted, and in the dark, took every figure for a spectre. The terror of each man became a source of terror to another. And an universal panick, being diffused, reason and argument, and common sense, and common humanity, lost all influence over them."
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