USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York, 1609-1909 > Part 19
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William Cosby, an Irishman, was born about 1695, had entered the army, in which he had attained the rank of colonel in the Royal Irish Brigade, and had served as governor of Minorca and the Leeward Islands. Having married Grace, the sister of the Earl of Halifax, his wife held the courtesy title of "Lady," and Colonel Cosby was one of the friends and protégés of the Duke of Newcastle, and was a man of influence in the corrupt court circle where practically every leading man of the government "had an itching palm to sell and mart his office for gold to undeservers." It was the golden age of bribery and corruption in Britain, and Cosby was fully imbued with the spirit of that era. Under that system a colonial appointment was looked upon as an oppor- tunity for amassing a fortune by fair means or foul, and Colonel Cosby had a keen eye for the main chance.
With him came to New York his wife, Lady Cosby, his son, and his two daughters. Arriving at ten o'clock in the evening, he was met by the soldiery of the fort and city, by the members of the Council and the city corporation, and many of the gentry and merchants. The next day he was escorted in state to the City Hall in Wall, at the head of Broad Street, on the site now occupied by the United States Subtreasury, and after he had read his commission and assumed his office he was escorted in like pomp to the governor's house, in the fort.
Those in New York who had come to regard themselves as "people of quality," who were fond of gayety and brilliant functions, were elated that so fine a courtier, so closely allied to the English aristocracy and the ruling faction at the British court, had come to reign over them. Dinners and balls,
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
which in lavish hospitality and splendor had never been surpassed, if equaled, in the colony, were frequent features of the social reign of Governor and "My Lady" Cosby. The governor's son, William, was pro- vided for with a lucrative post in the New Jersey government. The daughters were both attractive figures in social life, and the elder had been an acknowledged belle in the king's court, so popular that she had left many suitors behind. One of these was Lord Augustus Fitzroy, son of the Duke of Grafton and grandson of the first duke, who was a natural son of Charles II. He was so smitten with her charms that he quickly followed her to New York, arriving in October, and sued for her hand. But the governor, though evidently delighted with the semiroyal suitor, whom he entertained royally, was careful. His Grace the Duke, at home, might not be favorable, for the Grafton dukedom was of so high a rank that a union even with so notable a family as that of Cosby might be regarded as a mésalliance. But he was duly obsequious to My Lord Augustus, who was a pleasant, cultured young Briton, and was feted by the governor and the corporation. He was given the freedom of the city, the certificate of his freemanship being received by him from the "worshipful" hands of the mayor in a gold box, on which the arms of the city were engraved, which honor he accepted in a graceful little speech.
The governor remained unresponsive to the pleadings of the distin- guished lover, but "love laughs at locksmiths." In this case the two lovers were inside the fort walls, and a clergyman, the Rev. Mr. Campbell, out- side, who climbed over the wall without challenge, and married the pair without license of the authorities or consent of the bride's father. Rumor, which sometimes hits the mark, credited Lady Cosby with managing the whole affair, but the governor was as righteously indignant against the clergyman for performing an illicit, though perfectly legal marriage, and prosecuted him for it, but he was not given any punishment of importance, and Cosby was proud of the added importance given to his family by this connection. A son of this marriage afterward became Duke of Grafton, and ancestor of the succeeding dukes.
The social splendors surrounding the gubernatorial court shone bril- liantly against a dark background of ignorance, wretchedness and slavery in the lower ranks of society. In the population of less than nine thou- sand there were, besides the fifteen hundred black slaves, several hundred white bondslaves, who were frequently sold from the same auction block as the negroes and other merchandise. Thus an advertisement in the New York Gazette of September II, 1732, during the heydey of the Cosby fes- tivities, advertises as "just arrived from Great Britain, and to be sold on board the ship Alice and Elizabeth, Captain Faire, commander, several likely Welsh and English servant-men, most of them tradesmen." It goes
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SOCIAL SPLENDORS AND WHITE SLAVERY
on to say that these are to be seen at Mr. Hazard's, in New York, where are also to be sold "several negro girls and a negro boy, and likewise good Cheshire cheese." These "Welsh and English" slaves were criminals, ban- ished from their native land for crimes, while negroes were stolen from Africa or bought from traders on the West Coast who had brought them from the interior of the Dark Continent. Under such conditions of slave and convict labor, the more industrious and intelligent class of workmen would not come to the colony, and that is the reason why the population of New York grew so much more slowly than the surrounding provinces. In New England, too, there was a more democratic spirit and a greater measure of self-government, for there the town meeting had been estab- lished in full power, while in New York the government was aristocratic, and the governor ruled with almost despotic power. Coarse manners, civic wrong and injustice were the rule, while liquor was consumed in large quantities by people of all classes and Madeira wine and Jamaica rum were articles of common consumption and were served at all social gatherings. Pirates, African slavers and bad men of the sea from all nations made New York their rendezvous.
Governor Cosby's Council consisted of Rip van Dam, the president ; George Clarke, Francis Harrison, James Alexander, Cadwallader Colden, Abraham van Horne, Archibald Kennedy, James DeLancey and Philip van Cortlandt, all of whom had served under Montgomerie and Van Dam; and two additional members, Daniel Horsmanden and Henry Lane were ap- pointed by Cosby. Before leaving England, Governor Cosby had for sev- eral months after his appointment exercised himself to prevent the pas- sage of a sugar bill which would have been very inimical to the colonial trade, and succeeded in defeating this bill in the House of Lords, and for this and other services he received £2400 before he left.
After the Council was organized for business Cosby produced a royal order for an equal division of the salary, emoluments and perquisites of the office of governor, between Van Dam and Cosby, from the date of the latter's commission until he assumed the duties of the office, and at once made a demand on Van Dam that he should give him half of the amount, less than £2000, which he had received during his incumbency of the gov- ernorship. Van Dam refused, except on the condition that Cosby should in return pay him half of the perquisites he had received in England. Van Dam's refusal was so evidently just and the demand for his salary was so evidently an act of oppression that the stand of the popular president was backed by the approval of a large majority of the inhabitants.
Cosby, whose cupidity was only exceeded by his fatuous obstinacy, determined to prosecute Van Dam to recover the money he claimed, and
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
to effect this he had recourse to the most unpopular means he could have devised. He revived that tribunal, hated by the populace, the Court of Chancery. The legality of such a court had been denied by many of the ablest lawyers, and as the governor was, under the constitution of the court, also ex officio its chancellor, it was regarded as an instrument of oppression. In the case of Van Dam, however, he could not sit as a judge in his own suit, so he appointed James DeLancey, Adolphus Philipse and Chief Justice Lewis Morris to sit as equity judges in the trial of Van Dam, in an Exchequer Court. Cosby was sure of DeLancey and Philipse, but Morris he knew nothing about, except that he was the head of the ju- diciary of New York and New Jersey.
Van Dam was intensely popular, especially with the Dutch citizens, and he had increased in favor with the people, because for more than a year before he had ruled the colony with justice and wisdom. Party spirit was aroused to a white heat by the new attack on the people's liberties, which they felt to be implied in the prosecution of Van Dam.
The charge was the improper withholding of public moneys, and Van Dam was defended by James Smith and James Alexander, men who then and thereafter stood at the front of the New York Bar. They took a bold and defiant stand, objected to the jurisdiction of the court as an illegal tribunal, declaring that neither the governor, the Royal Council or the king himself had any right to establish courts not authorized by the Assembly of New York. Chief Justice Morris, to the surprise and consternation of his colleagues, at once delivered an opinion in favor of this plea to the ju- risdiction, and although DeLancey and Philipse gave opposing opinions overruling the chief justice, the case went no further, no testimony on the merits was introduced and the Court of Exchequer went out of business. Van Dam had won his fight, the public was elated and Cosby was in a rage.
The beaten governor wrote to the Duke of Newcastle in a short time after the trial, asking for the removal of James Alexander, whom he de- clared to be a man of "very bad character," and asked that a Captain Dick be appointed in his place. Of course the strictures upon Alexander were pure inventions, but Cosby pursued all whom he could not control, with implacable hatred. He wrote in a most insulting manner to Chief Justice Morris, asking him for a copy of his opinion in the Van Dam case, inti- mating that it was treasonable and that it had been corruptly procured. Morris had the opinion printed and sent the governor a reply to his letter, which was couched in the most dignified and effective language, and a bold declaration of the independence of the judiciary. Unable to make any an- swer to this, the governor appointed young James DeLancey chief justice in place of Morris; and DeLancey, besides assuming the chief justiceship,
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COSBY DEPOSES CHIEF JUSTICE MORRIS
became the leader of the court party. With him were Clarke, only second in seniority in the Council to Van Dam; Francis Harrison, who was a lawyer of distinction ; and a majority of the Council.
Cosby kept up the social whirl at the governor's mansion in the fort, and continued a correspondence with the court circle in London. Many of the wealthier people maintained their alliance with the Cosby party, and others, who liked to be counted as of the aristocracy, flocked to the balls and din- ners that were given by the governor, and listened with eagerness to the charming gossip there retailed, about My Lord This and My Lady That, and the latest London scandal, in which the names of dukes, marquises, earls and viscounts were freely used.
The legislature, which had been called together after the governor's arrival, was the old Assembly of Montgomerie's time, and although he had received for his services in the sugar bill matter £2400 in London, he de- manded more. The Assembly, though the revenues were low and the province was in debt because of expenditures for the defense of the frontier, reluctantly made a special grant of f1000, besides fixing his salary at £1 500. The legislature asked to be dismissed, but Cosby did not wish to risk an election, so in spite of the generosity (as salaries went in the colonies in those days) of these grants, and other allowances for expenses and per- quisites, Cosby sneered at the smallness of his income, and proceeded to increase his income by selling offices and special privileges, unless he was greatly slandered. The legislature was not permitted to meet, so Cosby and his Council had things their own way, and had the chief justice to back them up.
There was a newspaper, Bradford's Gazette, but Bradford was also public printer and therefore a satellite of the governor, and his paper was closed to any complaint against the actions of the ruling party. Cosby was working in every way possible to discredit Van Dam and Alexander, hoping for permission from the Lords of Trade to dismiss them from the Council. So these men, with Morris and other brilliant and rising men- the Livingstons, Cadwallader Colden of the Council, and more, decided to establish a journal that should be free from official anchorage. For editor and printer they secured John Peter Zender, a German, who had come out to New York as a boy, on a free passage granted by Queen Anne. He had learned the printing art in Bradford's office. To him was entrusted the preparation and issue of The New York Weekly Journal, a small folio sheet printed from old and worn type, on poor paper, with indifferent press work and slovenly proof reading, the first number of which appeared No- vember 5, 1733. Except mechanically it was as good a paper as its con- temporary, the Gazette, and it had as large an advertising patronage. In
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its contributed articles it was brilliant and startling. Essays, under the nom de guerre of "Cato," and lesser literary productions, were supplied from a club of talented men who met weekly and compared notes on the forthcoming number of the paper.
Through all the essays runs the one motif: the Liberty of the Press. Trite as the theme is to us of the Twentieth Century, it had the bloom of novelty when, in November, 1733, Zenger put forth the first number of his Journal. It is true that ninety-nine years before, England's noblest pen had produced the deathless "Areopagitica" on the same theme. But Milton's prose was scarcely known in the province of New York. The press had little liberty in England or its colonies, and in New York or the other colonies there had been little printed comment on the shortcomings of those in authority. In these essays were, for the first time in America, candid discussions of the principles of liberty.
Discussions of the abstract question of the respect due to a governor (unnamed) who has turned rogue, and done a thousand things for which a small rogue would deserve a halter; of wasteful luxury in court entertain- ments ; of sycophantic officials; and of a thousand other things like those going on in New York, and many witty sallies directed at the court party and particularly at Francis Harrison, made the Journal extremely popular, not only at home, but also abroad through Connecticut to Boston, and south to Philadelphia and Charleston, in which latter city it inspired the estab- lishing of another journal to take up the same refrain of liberty and popular rights.
Thus beyond its local bearing, which was important, the little paper of John Peter Zender was a spark which raised the flame of desire for lib- erty that in a half century should drive out all royal governors, and all the hosts of sycophants and timeservers in their train.
A letter found in the house of James Alexander, threatening ruin to hini and all his family, created a sensation. Alexander and his friends, carefully examining the letter, concluded that it was in the handwriting of Francis Harrison, and the Journal made the news public. The matter was presented to the grand jury, which refused to indict on the evidence of a similarity of handwriting. Meanwhile Harrison had denied furiously the charge against him and had gone to the Journal office, threatening to whip the editor.
Meanwhile the wrath of Cosby against the Journal and the literary coterie behind it grew darker and deeper, and had its reflection in the expressed "highest wish" to see Alexander and Smith both on a gallows at the fort gate. Cadwallader Colden, gentleman, scholar and litterateur, figured in the governor's correspondence with England as an "infamous
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MORRIS ELECTED TO THE ASSEMBLY
fellow, not to be trusted." Morris, who had been ousted from the judiciary by the governor, had retired to his estate of Morrisania, but in 1733, there being a vacancy in the Assembly from Westchester, he became a candidate for the place. Against him the governor's party put up William Forster, Esq., formerly schoolmaster, but now, by the grace of Cosby (and, common report had it, the sum of one hundred pistoles to him in hand paid), clerk of the peace and justice of the Common Pleas for the County of Westchester. Besides the insinuation about the hundred pistoles, he was said to be a Jacobite. The story of the election as told in Zenger's paper is full of life and figure: fifty voters watching all night at the polling place at East Chester to guard against fraud by the governor's agents. Large cavalcades massing at New Rochelle in such numbers that after being entertained lavishly at the houses of sympathetic partisans, many of them, for whom there was no sleeping room, bivouac in the street around a big bonfire. Joined at daybreak by seventy more voters from the lower end of the county, a brisk ride takes them all to Westchester, where they move to the polling place, in order led by two trumpeters and two violinists, mounted; then by four free- holders bearing banners inscribed "King George" and, on the reverse, "Liberty and Law." Then followed the candidate, Lewis Morris, and two color bearers, and following, three hundred of the principal freeholders of the county, the whole procession entering the town of East Chester at sun- rise.
The counter procession was headed by the candidate, Forster, two freeholders bearing colors; James DeLancey, chief justice, and Frederick Philipse, second judge. Following were one hundred and seventy free- holders. Forster was greeted with cries of "No Pretender!"
After about an hour's wait the high sheriff appeared. The electors gathered to their groups. Morris had an undoubted majority, but the other side demanded a poll. A Quaker presented himself, one of the largest property owners. The high sheriff refused to receive his vote unless he would take the usual oath, which he would not do. Morris and his friends claimed he had a right to vote on affirmation, but the high sheriff, a Cosby appointee, backed by DeLancey, refused to permit thirty-seven Quakers to vote; but all in vain, for Morris carried the poll by a large majority. A few days after, when Morris entered New York, riding down from Morrisania to New York, it was made an occasion of general rejoicing. Met by a large number of the lead- ing citizens and merchants, greeted by salutes from every vessel in the har- bor, he was conducted in procession (large numbers of the populace follow- ing) until the Black Horse Tavern was reached, and there a banquet was spread, where the triumph of Morris and the things he stood for was cele- brated.
13
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
The Assembly met in April, 1734, and took up the subject of impending danger from France, which was then engaged, in combination with Spain and Sardinia, against the German emperor. England had sent a fleet to Lis- bon to protect the autonomy of Portugal against the ambitions of Spain. Busy in Europe, there was no reinforcement from the Mother Country of the British frontier in America, where the French were busy in intrigue with the Iroquois to secure their cooperation against the English. The garrison at Oswego was evidently in danger and the French frontier forts were being manned more strongly. With the English navy busy in European waters there was great danger of a sea attack upon New York itself. All the news from Europe was of increasing hostilities, and the Assembly, united for the common defense, made liberal grants for the defense of New York, Albany and Schenectady. The majority of the Assembly was controlled by Gover- nor Cosby in a vote to sustain the legality of the Court of Chancery, against which William Smith made a brilliant but futile address, but Morris was suc- cessful in securing the passage of a bill declaring the affirmation of the Friends or Quakers equivalent to an oath. Laws taxing slaveowners a shilling a head for slaves, and imposing duties on all ships entering the har- bor except those owned in New York, were enacted, and then the Assembly asked the governor to order its dissolution. Cosby refused, for he could count on controlling the present body to a considerable extent, while with the recent experience in Westchester in mind, he had great occasion to fear the people in the election of an entirely new Assembly.
He had a taste of the popular view of his administration when on Michaelmas Day (September 29), 1734, the freeholders of the city met in their respective wards, as directed by the charter, and voted for aldermen and assistant aldermen for the seven wards of the city. Both parties had candi- dates in each ward; the fight was hot and heavy, though the forces were nu- merically uneven, for only one of the governor's adherents was elected. The sweeping victory was celebrated by the victors with glee, and by Zenger's Journal with pertinent essays, flamboyant songs and biting satires, while Cosby denied that he had been affected by the election, yet schemed for some means to revenge himself on his adversaries. He had recourse to the judges he had made, and Chief Justice DeLancey, in his charge to the grand jury, denounced the New York Weekly Journal, with much bitterness, as a pro- moter of treason and commanded them to present an indictment against the editor, but they paid no attention to this recommendation. Cosby then had recourse to the Assembly, which met in October, requesting that a committee should be appointed to confer with the provincial officers on measures to pun- ish the editor and writers of the Journal and other "scurrilous" papers. But the Assembly realized how popular was the cry which the Journal had raised
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THE JOURNAL SENTENCED TO BE BURNED
about the Liberty of the Press, a subject which had scarcely been discussed at all before Zenger's paper was launched, but which was now agitated in all the colonies. The Assembly pigeonholed the governor's request.
The governor tried the judiciary again, and DeLancey charged the jury to make inquiry as to the author, publisher and printer of "two scandalous songs" concerning the recent aldermanic election. He denounced these songs in vitriolic terms, and the grand jury took the matter up, finding no indict- ments against any individual, but bringing a presentment against the "two scandalous songs," which were forthwith sentenced to be "burned by the hands of the common hangman." Cosby issued notice of a reward for the discovery of the author or authors of these lyric effusions, and called his Council together to take up the subject. The obedient majority of the Council ordered that numbers 7, 47, 48 and 49 of the New York Weekly Journal, which they declared to be seditious and libelous, should share the fate of the stigmatized songs, to be "burned near the pillory by the hands of the com- mon hangman." To make it more severe they ordered the magistrates and aldermen to attend the burning, and Harrison, the recorder, waited upon the City Council and tried to impress upon them their duty to participate in the proceedings. But the aldermen denied absolutely the right of the governor and Council to control the action of the aldermen or other city officials, and declined to take part in the function. The hangman refused to burn the papers and no one could be found to do so, the duty being finally performed by a negro slave of the sheriff in the presence of Recorder Harrison and two or three of his friends, together with some soldiers detailed to the function from the garrison. Nobody else appeared. The whole thing was a failure.
Cosby and his advisers, blinded by passion, did not have discretion enough to quit. Bradley, the attorney-general, filed an information for libel against Zenger, and the Council ordered his arrest. On Sunday the editor was seized, hurried to the common jail, deprived of pen, ink and paper; allowed to see nobody, and it was many days before he was allowed to speak to his wife and friends, through a hole in the door. His incarceration wrought the populace up to fever heat, and the court was so evidently against the defendant that the arraignment and subsequent trial attracted hundreds of auditors. Some friends who wished to go bail for Zenger had him brought before DeLancey, early in December, but he placed the amount so high that Zenger would not ask his friends to give it. It was, he says in his "Brief Narrative," after- ward published, "ten times so much as it was in my power to counter secure." So he went back to jail. As he was held on information only, and as the January, 1735, grand jury refused to indict him, he should have been dis- charged, but Bradford filed a new information based upon matter alleged to be "false, scandalous and seditious" in numbers 13 and 23 of the Journal."
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