USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York, 1609-1909 > Part 20
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Being arraigned on this new charge, Zenger's counsel, Smith and Alexander, boldly attacked the competency of the judges and the consequent jurisdiction of the court, alleging that Morris had been illegally removed from the chief justiceship by Cosby, who had no right to take that step without the action of the Council; and that the appointments of DeLancey and Philipse were also void, because made to continue during the pleasure of the governor instead of "during good behavior." The offer of Mr. Alexander, in court, on April 15, 1735, to argue these points, worked DeLancey up to a white heat and after warning Smith and Alexander that they would repent of their boldness, ad- journed the court until the following day, when, as soon as the court met, he attacked the counsel, charging them with a desire to secure applause and pop- ularity by opposing this court as they had the Court of Exchequer, "but," said DeLancey, "you have brought it to the point that either we must go from the bench or you from the bar." He then ordered them to be expelled from the New York Bar, and would not permit them to say a word in their own behalf.
The court party was jubilant over this move; no other lawyer of the first class was left who would defend Zenger, but word was sent to Philadelphia to the aged lawyer, Andrew Hamilton, asking him to appear in the case. He was the most eminent man of his profession in the colonies. Zenger continued in the jail, and at last the trial day was set for August 4, 1735. John Cham- bers, a young lawyer, had been assigned by the court to defend the prisoner, who was to be tried by a struck jury selected from an array of freeholders. In their selection the clerk attempted some irregularity, but Chambers objected, and the attempt was so glaring that DeLancey was forced to correct the clerk. Then Bradley stated the charge against the prisoner, which he said consisted of "false, scandalous and seditious" passages in his paper. He read passages to the jury from what was supposed to be an account, by a New Yorker about to remove to Philadelphia, of the sorry condition of the citizens of New York, whose liberty and property were in danger. It told how judges had been removed without cause, deeds and papers of great value destroyed, new courts erected and trial by jury set aside, besides other charges of misgovernment, amounting to a biting satire upon Cosby's administration. Bradley argued that nothing but disorder could come from the publication of comments like these, and that government must fall into contempt if such publications should be allowed.
Then a sensation occurred. Andrew Hamilton, whose fame was famil- iar to New York but whose face was not, arose and saluting the court, an- nounced that he was interested in the defense of Mr. Zenger, then addressing Bradford, told him that he would save him the trouble of calling witnesses by admitting the publication, by the defendant, of the matter which had been
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read to the jury. Thereupon Bradley called for conviction, but Hamilton con- tended that it was necessary to prove the words libelous. Then followed a discussion between the court and the defendant's counsel. DeLancey declared the law to be that, the truth of a libel could not be pleaded in justification. Hamilton, however, held that not only could the truth of the facts alleged as libelous be used as a defense, but that the jury were judges of both the law and the facts. DeLancey repeated his ruling and warned Hamilton that he was expected to use good manners, but the great lawyer disclaimed any in- tention to be discourteous. He asked leave to introduce testimony to prove the statements alleged to be libelous, but was not permitted to do so. He addressed the jury with an eloquent appeal to say, from the evidence they had met in their daily lives, that the contents of the defendant's articles were not false, and he argued the cause of the indicted printer and the greater cause of a free press and a free people. He spoke of the evils of unbridled author- ity, and he made more strong points in favor of a free America than had ever been heard in the colonies. For hours he held the jury and the crowd. Interruptions by the court, frequent and irritable, were lightly and skillfully parried, and he finished with a thrilling peroration. When he ended, Brad- ley rose and demanded the conviction, and DeLancey charged the jury that the words, the publication of which had been admitted, were libelous, and in- structed the jury to convict the defendant. The jury bravely disregarded the instruction and at once returned a verdict of "not guilty," and were wildly cheered by the great crowds inside and outside the court room. The judges were astounded and dismayed, and well they might be, for the decision of that jury was the beginning of the Revolution, and Andrew Hamilton had that day earned the title later conferred upon him by Governor Morris-that of the "Day Star of the Revolution."
The names of the members of that jury deserve to be preserved on the same plane of merit with those of the later signers of the Declaration of Independence. They were: Thomas Hunt (foreman), Hermanus Rutgers, Stanley Holmes, Edward Man, John Bell, Samuel Weaver, Andries Maerschalk, Egbert van Borsom, Benjamin Hildreth, Abraham Keteltas, John Goelet and Hercules Wendover, and the list includes family names still prominent in New York.
From the time of his suit against Van Dam; and his dismissal of Morris from the chief justiceship, Cosby had sent a continuous series of complaints to the home authorities against these two, and against Alexander and Smith. They were villians, incendiaries, men of bad character, drunkards, and every- thing else he could think of, for his statements about them bore no relation to the truth. But the other side was also given to the home authorities through friends and correspondents of Van Dam; and late in 1734 Morris
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went to England himself to state his side of the case and to present the charges of the people against Cosby. It included many oppressions, many peculations, illegal grants, the selling of offices and other crimes; of illegally voting in the Council, of destruction of records and other things. The ministry decided that the removal of Morris had been illegal and reproved Cosby for other in- discretions, and the other charges against the governor were still under con- sideration.
Meanwhile a majority of the Council sided with Cosby. Van Dam, find- ing himself wholly ineffective, absented himself from the meetings and Clarke acted as president; and Alexander, still a member, was never notified of the meetings. The meeting of the Assembly in October, 1735, was perfunctory. Nothing of importance was enacted; and although the governor refused to dis- solve the Assembly, he had lost his influence with it.
Winter came on and the governor fell ill. He developed tuberculosis of the lungs, and although the physicians, from time to time, announced through the Gazette their hopes of his recovery, he became steadily weaker. Feeling his end near, Cosby called the Council to his bedchamber and ordered Van Dam's name to be stricken from its membership, so that Clarke, the gover- nor's unswerving supporter, might succeed him; and a few days after thus satisfying his revenge, on May 7, 1736, he died. He was buried with the usual ceremony and a show of decent respect, but except during the obsequies, there were many who did not try to conceal their joy at his death. The action with regard to Van Dam was not generally known, and the people hoped to come to their own under his leadership.
The Council, meeting, passed by the claims of Van Dam, then for the first time making known his secret removal, and selected George Clarke for the office of president. Alexander's being the only vote for Van Dam, Clarke was sworn in, but Van Dam claimed the office, appointed a mayor and other city officers, and went to the fort, but was not admitted. He organized a force for resistance, while Clarke and his party, in possession of the fort, were equally assertive on their side. For several months a bloody conflict in the streets seemed imminent. There was a meeting of the Assembly, but that body finding the disputants irreconcilable, adjourned to meet again in the autumn. The situation was terminated when, in October, 1736, a ship arrived from England, bringing a commission for George Clarke as lieutenant gover- nor, whereupon Van Dam and his adherents ceased resistance.
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GEORGE CLARKE AND GEORGE CLINTON AND THE CONTEST BETWEEN THE ASSEMBLY AND THE KING'S PREROGATIVE
George Clarke, who was for seven years governor of New York, was a native of England, of little education. He had for a short time practised as an attorney in Dublin, but through friends at court had secured from Queen Anne, in 1703, appointment as secretary of the province of New York, in succession to Matthew Clarkson. He married Anne Hyde, a distant relative of the queen and of Clarendon, and this connection added to his influence at the court. Buying a hundred acres from Walter Dongan, at Hemptead Plains, on Long Island, he established his country seat there, where he lived with his wife and children and Mrs. Hyde, his mother-in-law, until he sold the place in 1738, and removed to New York.
He had come to America to retrieve his fortunes, and he never forgot that object. His riches rapidly increased and his influence also. William Dunlap's History of New York says of him that "he had sagacity enough to see that the aristocracy possessed the offices of profit, and were supporters of the authority derived from England." Following this policy he sided with the successive royal governors, in every dispute with the popular party, and became a member of the Council, whose every act was trimmed to accord with the governor's wish. He had upheld every tyranny and every illegal act of Governor Cosby, and every intrigue against the people by the court party. When Cosby died and the dispute with Van Dam arose, he wrote to his friends at court and thus secured the commission that ended the dispute.
Clarke was by no means a brilliant or able man. He was hampered by no principles or ideals, and his sole ambition was to enrich himself and to strengthen his influence at court. To do this he was steadfast in asserting the royal prerogative, but he was more politic than Cosby, and endeavored to curry favor with both parties. He was not socially pleasing as the late gov- ernor could be, and the gayety of the gubernatorial court was far from being as brilliant as in the days of his predecessor, but he was more of a practical politician. So he cajoled adherents of the popular party with intimations of favor and possible offices and in such ways secured many a vote which he would otherwise have lost.
In spite of the plots and blandishments of the new governor the popular party grew in power. At the annual election on September 29, 1736, nearly all the aldermen elected were of the popular party, and the familiar names, Stuyvesant, Pintard, Roosevelt, Bayard, and Beekman appear in its member-
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ship. The contest was spirited and acrimonious, but the popular party, with the aid of Zenger's Weekly Journal, was victorious all along the line. Lewis Morris, returning victorious from England, was given a rousing reception by the citizens. The Assembly, at its October meeting, recognized Clarke as lieu- tenant governor and published his commission. It passed an act to safeguard the revenue against misapplication by the lieutenant governor or Council; which so incensed Clarke that he dissolved it after it having been in existence for nine years, first being called together by Governor Burnet and continuing with- out change except as it had been necessary to elect to fill vacancies. The new election called by Clarke gave the people an opportunity to express them- selves, and party spirit ran high. Bribes and promises were used in profusion by the court party and every possible device of political trickery was tried, but the opposition was successful in all the counties. James Alexander was elec- ted from the city and Colonel Lewis Morris, Jr., from Westchester, and only a few of the court party were elected.
Clarke, beaten at every turn, had political sagacity enough to realize that he could accomplish nothing with the Assembly by an attitude of hos- tility. A bill was brought into the first session, held in June, 1737, by Colo- nel Morris, to regulate elections; and others by Alexander, for the promotion of commerce and manufactures. At the September session the Assembly adopted an address to the lieutenant governor outlining a reform program, which included frequent elections, deprecated the lavish grants of its prede- cessors, and the wastefulness and peculations of previous administrations, which were the cause of the low state of the provincial funds; declared that it would grant no money which was not protected from misapplication by the governor, nor for any period longer than one year, and hoped that there would be an end to the disregard and contempt which had been shown by former governors to previous assemblies. Clarke, to whom the independent spirit shown in the address was very repugnant, nevertheless received it with good grace, and thanked the Assembly for the address. The lieutenant governor
asked the Assembly for a fixed revenue for his entire term of office, but though they voted him the then liberal salary of £1580, they limited the taxes to one year. This so angered Clarke that he summoned the Assembly before him, and declaring that this limitation was an act of disloyalty, he dissolved the house.
The new Assembly, which met in March, 1739, was even less friendly to the lieutenant governor than its predecessor, its membership being largely the same in personnel as the one he had dissolved, with some additions to the popular majority, for not only the membership, but the electors, also, had been incensed at the arbitrary dissolution of the previous Assembly. So the new one cut down the governor's salary to £1300, and although Clarke strongly urged a revenue in gross for the officials to use at discretion, they insisted on
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an annual appropriation for specific purposes. War had been declared between England and Spain, Admiral Vernon had appeared off the coast with an English fleet and captured Porto Bello, and France, which had been wait- ing for such opportunity, took this occasion to declare as her settled policy that she would not consent to any English settlement on the mainland of South America, and dispatched two squadrons to that coast. New York, with war threatening, found its Assembly liberal in voting supplies for defense against France. While there was no lack of loyalty, the municipality took a sturdy stand against the impressment of seamen in the harbor of New York. H. M. S. Tartar appeared in the harbor and the captain having asked for men, the lieutenant governor and his Council ordered that thirty men be im- pressed in New York City, but Paul Richard, the mayor, declared that he would permit no impressment within the liberties of the city, and by firmness carried his point.
The lieutenant governor's wife, Anne Hyde Clarke, who was much be- loved for her virtues and her charities, died in 1740 and was buried in the vaults of Trinity Church, where her mother had been buried two years before by the side of Lady Cornbury. The Assembly meeting of that year was pro- ductive of good legislation. The militia system of the province was remodeled, courts were set up for the trial of petty suits, and measures were taken for the promotion of the Indian trade. The Assembly still adhered to its doctrine of an annual provision for the provincial government. John Cruger had been appointed mayor in October, 1739, and served until 1744. He was of Eng- lish birth, came to New York in boyhood, and in 1698 was employed as super- cargo of a slave ship. Later he engaged in business as a merchant in the Bristol trade, becoming very successful in commerce and having a handsome and elegantly appointed home in Broad Street. He was elected alderman of the Dock Ward in 1712 and served by successive elections until 1734.
The Negro Plot of 1741 was the most serious event, local to the city, occurring during the Clarke administration. Slavery, the worst blot upon American history, was never worse in its aspects than it was in the City ot New York at that time. The negro slaves, who constituted one-fifth of the population, had for the most part been caught wild in Africa. The laws for these savages, who had no conception of law, were ferocious in the extreme. The whipping post and torture were used for the punishment of trivial offenses. . So when several fires occurred in the early part of that year it be- came rumored that they were a part of a negro plot. A robbery committed February 28th, was traced to the house of a person of low character named Hughson, who harbored there negroes who drank, gambled and made the place the depository for goods they had stolen. Hughson had an indentured serv- ant named Mary Burton. Hughson and his wife and Mary were under arrest
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on account of the robbery, the latter as a witness. When some fires occurred, in March, Mary gave the authorities a story which seemed to clinch as facts the rumors of a negro conspiracy. In fact, she averred that the whole thing had been arranged at the house of Hughson, who, with his wife, and another maidservant were particeps criminis. The plot was, to destroy all the white inhabitants except a few who were in league with the negroes. Hughson was to be king, and Cæsar, a negro, was to be governor. She added day by day to her story, implicating more people. Arthur Price, a servant held on a larceny charge, also gave testimony which seemed to corroborate the Berton woman, as did Peggy Salinburgh, a courtesan. The tales told by these informers increased in luridity, but the town and the magistrates were wrought up by them. Mary Burton, had at first said that Hughson, his wife and Peggy were the only white persons at the meetings of the conspir- ators, but she added the name of John Ury, a teacher, who being a nonjur- ing clergyman of the Church of England, was suspected of Romanist ten- dencies. She declared that Mr. Ury was a Jesuit, and later "confessed" that Curry, a dancing master, was also in the plot. The jail was full and several apartments in the City Hall were also used for detention purposes. Mary Burton received the fioo reward offered for proof of the plot. Twenty- six white persons were arrested, and of these, Hughson, his wife, the maid and John Ury were executed, the latter solemnly declaring his absolute innocence; and of the one hundred and sixty negroes arrested, thirteen were burned at the stake, eighteen hanged, seventy-one transported and the remain- der discharged. Mary continued her "confessions," which soon began to take in people of unquestioned respectability. Although at the time, the best people in the community firmly believed in the existence of a plot and the judges were doubtless sincere (Judge Horsmanden publishing in a ponderous quarto an account of the case), there is little doubt that the whole of the evidence in the case was manufactured, and that the poor wretches who were executed were in fact the victims of popular hysteria. A day of thanksgiving for de- liverance from the plot was appointed and duly observed.
When the Assembly met, in September, 1740, it had refused a request of the lieutenant governor to vote money for the expedition against Spain, de- claring that England should pay for its own wars; and also tabled a sugges- tion that they should rebuild or repair Trinity Church, of which Rev. Henry Barclay was then the rector. In April, 1741, Mr. Clarke opened the session with a speech, in which he declared his belief that the colonists were becoming disloyal and desired to throw off their allegiance to the British crown. He deprecated the unseemly displays of independence which were being made, and urged upon them a dutiful obedience to the king and his representatives and the need for permanent appropriations instead of doling out the money annually.
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This brought a written reply which denied any spirit of disloyalty or desire of severance from the English crown, but it declared against voting the money of the province to aid England in its wars, especially as the parent country had burdened the colony in many ways. Loyal the province was, but it would raise its revenues and spend its money in its own way.
The winter of 1740-1741 was unusually severe and known for many years as "the hard winter." The Hudson was frozen from shore to shore.
Changes of importance had come to New York politically. Lewis Mor- ris, the former chief justice of New York, had become governor of New Jersey, and his name is still commemorated by the name of an important county of that State; but he was still interested in New York affairs, and his son, Colonel Morris, was an influential leader in the Assembly and in the councils of the popular party.
Lieutenant Governor Clarke was superseded in 1743 by the arrival of George Clinton, who had been appointed in 1741 as governor. Soon after his successor's arrival, September 22, 1743, Clarke went to England, where, with a fortune of £100,000, he bought a fine estate in Cheshire, on which he lived until his death, at a ripe old age, in 1763. He had used his opportunities to secure valuable grants in exceptionally good locations and his descendants became substantial and honored citizens of New York.
Commodore George Clinton was the youngest son of Francis, sixth Earl of Lincoln, and at the time of his appointment as governor of New York was uncle of the then earl. He was relative, by marriage, of the Duke of Newcas- tle, second in power in the Walpole administration, which then ruled British affairs. He had entered the navy, in which he attained distinction, reaching the rank of captain in 1716. He was promoted to commodore in 1732 and appointed governor of Newfoundland, serving until 1737, when he was trans- ferred to the Mediterranean fleet. He was commissioned governor of New York May 21, 1741, but did not arrive in New York for more than two years afterward, assuming the duties of the office in September, 1743. Through the influence of the Duke of Newcastle he was promoted to the rank of rear- admiral of the Red Squadron, in December, 1743. With Governor Clinton came his wife and several young children.
Clinton, who as a naval officer was something of a martinet and a man of dogged will, was chosen as one able to cope with the turbulent and, from the standpoint of officialdom, none too loyal members of the New York Assem- bly, who were asserting their right to run things, and not only to demand of governors and crown officials strict accountability for expenditures, but also to limit revenue grants to a single year. During the Clarke administration the lieutenant governor had been unable to cope with the spirit of independ- ence, which had deepened year by year after the Zenger trial.
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Governor Clinton realized the fact that he was handicapped by lack of knowledge of New York affairs, so he looked about for some man whose record was inspiring, as an aid to his plan to establish more strongly the royal prerogative. Chief Justice DeLancey had been the chief supporter of Cosby and the leader of the court party. He was at the head of the judiciary and was, withal, a man of much abil- ity and great energy. So the chief justice became the trusted adviser and fidus Achates of the new governor.
DeLancey and others advised the new governor to dissolve the old and call a OLD BROOKLYN FERRY HOUSE IN 1746 new Assembly. This he did. with the result that the new body was composed of the same individuals as the old one, with the exception of seven changes, and the election had been a very quiet one. The Assembly began its session November 8, 1743, and because war threatened, was asked for revenue for the public defense, also for the pur- pose of making the presents usually given to the Six Nations upon the installation of a new governor, besides providing for the governor's civil list. The governor claimed that during the time which had intervened between the date of his commission and his departure from England he had sedulously labored for the benefit of the province and the Assembly allowed him £1000 as compensation for his time and expenses in that con- nection, in addition to his salary of £1500 as governor, £650 as fees, and £800 for the Iroquois. The other appropriations were specific salaries to certain officers named; and this, together with the careful limitation of all appropriations to one year, brought back adverse comment from the British Board of Trade.
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