USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York, 1609-1909 > Part 21
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Clinton insisted on strengthening the fortifications in the North, and in his visit to the Indians he claimed to have discovered that there was much corruption on the part of the Albany Indian commissioners, who afterward joined with the New York politicians in making the governor's way difficult. DeLancey, whose commission, first given by Governor Cosby, was by its terms revocable by the governor at will, persuaded the governor to execute a new commission, valid during good behavior, which was executed September 14, 1744. From the time of the execution of this commission, DeLancey. began to develop indifference, which later became hostility to the governor and his plans.
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SIR PETER WARREN MAKES A CAPTURE
After the declaration of war between the United States and France, New England, led by Massachusetts, planned an expedition against the fortress of Louisburg, on the Island of Cape Breton. When the plan for the expedition was outlined by Governor Shirley to the Massachusetts legislature, that body at first exhibited some reluctance because of the boldness of the enterprise, but finally adopted his suggestion and sent circular letters to the governors of all the provinces south to Pennsylvania, asking for aid in the cause. Pennsyl- vania voted £4000 currency to purchase provisions, New Jersey furnished £2000 toward the expedition but declined to furnish any men, and the New York Assembly voted £3000 currency, which Governor Clinton supplemented with a goodly amount of provisions bought by private subscription, and ten eighteen- pound guns from the public magazine, and his patriotism was rewarded by a resolution of thanks from the General Court of Massachusetts. Commodore Warren, who had been in command in the West Indies, took command of the attacking fleet, and secured the surrender of the fortress and town of Louis- burg and the island of Cape Breton, by the French, June 17, 1745, after a siege of forty-eight days.
Commodore Warren captured the Vigilant, French man-of-war of sixty-four guns, with five hundred men and a large quantity of stores for the garrison, and this he brought to New York. The commodore was knighted as Sir Peter Warren, and besides his prominence in the navy, became a person of influence in relation to New York affairs, in which he became interested in behalf of Chief Justice DeLancey, who was his brother- in-law. The Assembly, which was in constant antagonism to Governor Clin- ton, appointed Warren's private secretary as its agent in London, without any consultation with Clinton and with instruction to be guided by Sir Peter Warren. This action, together with all his other troubles, the governor laid to DeLancey, and he wrote letters to the home authorities bewailing the fatal error he had made in giving DeLancey a new commission which had prac- tically a life tenure, and asking the Board of Trade to recall the commission. At the same time Sir Peter was working with the same authorities for the appointment of his brother-in-law to the office of lieutenant governor of New York, in which he succeeded, the commission being issued in 1747 and sent to Clinton, who withheld it for several years.
Just what was the origin of the break between Clinton and Delancey is not absolutely known. Smith, author of the earliest history of New York and a son of the distinguished lawyer James Smith, says it grew out of a quarrel between the governor and the jurist when both were overheated with wine. DeLancey's version of the case has not been preserved, but Clinton ascribed it to the alleged fact that the chief justice was back of the effort of the Assembly to take the appointing power from the governor.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
When DeLancey ceased to be the close friend and confidant of Clinton, the governor promoted to that relation Cadwallader Colden, who was espe- cially obnoxious to DeLancey, to Judge Daniel Horsmanden, former Mayor Paul Richard, and the other political intimates of DeLancey. Thus there had come about this remarkable transformation: DeLancey, who had been the brains of the court party under Cosby and the head of the hostile court organized to convict Peter Zenger, had now allied himself with the popular party, which tried to place restrictions on the governor, while Cadwallader Colden, who had been one of the shining lights of the popular party and a constant contributor to Zenger's Journal, now occupied the identical relation of closest adviser to Clinton, which DeLancey had formerly held toward Cosby.
Sir Peter Warren owned extensive estates in New York, which were under the management of his nephew, William Johnson, afterward famous in Indian administration. He was born in County Meath, Ireland, in 1715, was educated for mercantile pursuits, and on coming to America went to the Mohawk Valley, about twenty-five miles from the present town of Schenec- tady, settling on a tract of land there and devoting himself to the improvement and colonization of his uncle's lands, and at the same time engaging in trade with the Indians of the Six Nations. He attained close friendship and great influence with them, and acquired thorough familiarity with their language and customs. Governor Clinton, who distrusted the Dutch Indian commis- sioners at Albany, appointed him colonel of the Six Nations, in 1744, and two years later, upon the resignation of Colonel Schuyler, he was appointed com- missary of New York for Indian affairs. It does not appear that in the appointment of the nephew of the distinguished Admiral Sir Peter Warren to these important positions the governor had any idea of securing his influence at the English court, or in fact any other object than to secure the best pos- sible administration of Indian affairs. At any rate, Sir Peter continued to be the friend at court of Chief Justice DeLancey, and Governor Clinton relied upon Johnson implicitly as an adviser in his relations with the Indians. The Dutch commissioners at Albany, who had always been the intermediaries of transactions between the Indians and the government of New York, resented this alliance and strengthened the Assembly by their support, in the contest between the governor and the legislative body. Johnson continued his work with the Indians and at one time during Clinton's administration was able to effect the settlement of a difficulty between the Indians and the colonists.
The Assembly, from session to session, asserted and reasserted its princi- ple in regard to annual and specific appropriations, although year by year Clinton urged that body to grant a revenue for the king's government for at least five years. To these requests the Assembly sent a negative reply, one
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CLINTON AT WAR WITH DELANCEY
of these responses stating: "From recent experience we are fully convinced that the method of an annual support is most wholesome and salutary, and are confirmed in the opinion that the faithful representatives of the people will never depart from it."
Clinton's reports to the home authorities were burdened with complaints about Chief Justice DeLancey, with requests that his commission as lieutenant governor should be withdrawn, and be conferred upon Cadwallader Colden. The governor wished to go to England on leave of absence, but was unwill- ing to go and leave DeLancey in charge. Clinton had secured a majority of the Council by suspending Daniel Horsmanden, Paul Richard and Stephen Bayard, and only DeLancey and Philip Livingston of the hostile faction were now in the Council. Among the new members supporting the governor were James Alexander, John Chambers, William Johnson, and Edward Holland, the latter being mayor of New York. Adolphus Philipse having died, John Chambers was appointed second justice of the supreme court. Bradley, the attorney-general who had prosecuted Zenger, died in August, 1751, and Clin- ton tried to secure the place for William Smith, appointing him to the office ad interim and recommending him to the home authorities, who, however, appointed to the place William Kempe, who arrived November 4, 1752.
A few weeks later Clinton received from the Lords of Trade a letter rep- rimanding him for the factious tone of his letters, and telling him that he must abandon the idea of Colden as his successor, and himself remain in New York until relieved. In June, 1753, an Indian congress met in New York City, at which appeared the Indian chiefs who had prevented the Iroquois from alliance with the French and saved New York from becoming part of French Canada; and these Indians consulted with the Council, which showed them the city, and promised them presents.
Soon afterward news came that Sir Danvers Osborn had been appointed governor, and in October the new governor arrived. Clinton delivered to De- Lancey his commission as lieutenant governor, and afterward was at his country seat at Flushing, L. I., making his preparations for leaving the coun- try. He went back to England in November, became a member of Parlia- ment, was advanced in rank to admiral of the fleet in 1757, and then was appointed governor of Greenwich Hospital, in which office he continued until he died, July 10, 1761.
During the administration of Clinton, New York developed in business, having a large commerce with the other colonies as well as with Europe. The population in 1749 was 13,200, of whom over 2000 were slaves. Dey Street was opened in 1750 and Beekman Street in 1752. The water supply was in- creased by the digging of two new wells, one on John Street, near Broadway, and the other by the Spring Garden, near the Drivers' Inn, which occupied
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
the present site of the Astor House. The first Merchants' Exchange was erected at the foot of Broad Street in 1752.
The Presbyterian church in Wall Street was rebuilt in 1747, a Moravian church was built in Fair Street, now Fulton Street, in 1751, and in 1752 St. George's chapel was erected by Trinity Church at the corner of Cliff and Beekman Streets.
John Peter Zenger died in 1746, and his paper was continued by his wife and son. William Bradford, the first printer and newspaper proprietor of New York, died in 1752, and was buried in Trinity churchyard.
Clinton's administration was an unsuccessful one, for the reason that he was temperamentally unfitted for the duties he had to fulfill. He lacked self- reliance, trusting first DeLancey, then Colden; and he had to contend with factious opposition where he had been used to autocratic rule. He was not free from avarice, and took every possible opportunity to add to his posses- sions, but he was probably not corrupt as some of his enemies claimed. He failed to make a success of his government because he held out for a back- ward step in the direction of the assertion of the king's prerogative. His obstructionist zeal increased the determination of the people, and made the Assembly more and more assertive of the principles of popular government.
ST. GEORGE'S CHAPEL IN BEEKMAN STREET Erected in 1752
CHAPTER TWENTY - ONE
SIR DANVERS OSBORN, JAMES DELANCEY SIR CHARLES HARDY, CADWALLADER COLDEN PERIOD OF THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR
Sir Danvers Osborn, third baronet, was born at the family seat of Chick- sands Priory, Bedfordshire, England, November 17, 1715. His father was eldest son of the second baronet and had married Sarah Byng, daughter of Admiral Sir George Byng, who in 1721 was created Viscount Torrington, and sister of the unfortunate Admiral John Byng, who in 1757 was shot for "error in judgment in retreating before the French at Minorca," but whose exe- cution has been denounced by many historians. "The Honorable Sarah Osborn," as the mother of Sir Danvers Osborn was entitled, was a woman of superior attainments. Her husband died soon after the son was born, and when the latter was five years old his paternal grandfather died and the little boy succeeded to the title. His mother had the management of the estates of the baronetcy during his long minority. When he was twenty- five years old he married Lady Mary Montagu, sister of the Earl of Halifax, who bore him two sons, and died a day or two after the birth of the second.
"His grief over her death seemed inconsolable and he led a restless and wandering life," according to letters of his mother, which under the title of "Political and Social Letters of a Lady of the Eighteenth Century," edited by her descendant, Miss Emily F. D. Osborn, were published in 1891. Ac- cording to the same authority he was elected to Parliament as a county mem- ber from Bedford; raised a troop of men and led them in person during the rebellion of the Young Pretender in 1745, and in 1750 went to Nova Scotia for six months on a visit to the governor, Lord Cornwallis. He had times of brooding reflection, which seemed to affect him deeply, and seemed to find time hang heavily on his hands. Finally through the influence of his brother- in-law, Lord Halifax, then president of the Board of Trade and Plantations, he was appointed governor of New York. It was hoped that new scenes and active duties would restore his spirits and give his mind occupations that would divert him from his melancholy. Appointed in July, he sailed from Portsmouth, August 22, 1753, in H.M.S. Arundel, and arrived in New York harbor, October 6, 1753, and landed the next day, which was Sunday. Gov- ernor Clinton was at Flushing, but came in the next day and had a confer- ence with the new governor, at the official residence at the fort. Both attended a public dinner given by prominent citizens that evening, and as the governor's mansion was undergoing repairs, Sir Danvers was entertained at the house of Mr. Joseph Murray, who was a member of the Council, and
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
whose wife was a cousin of the late Lady Osborn. She was a daughter of the late Governor Cosby, whose mother was a sister of the second Earl of Halifax.
Governor Clinton made a formal call on Sir Danvers, at Mr. Murray's, on Tuesday the 9th, and the freedom of the city was presented to him on the same day, in a gold box. On Wednesday, October 10th, the inauguration of the new governor took place with imposing ceremonies. There was an im- posing procession to the City Hall, where the commission of the new governor was read to the multitude. The new governor, during the procession, was the recipient of popular plaudits, while derisive shouts and words of disap- proval were given to Governor Clinton. The latter made no comment on the rudeness of his assailants, but Sir Danvers said he expected he himself would be similarly derided before he had long been in office. The next day he was presented with an address from the corporation, in which confidence was expressed that "Your excellency will be as averse from countenancing as we from brooking any infringements of our inestimable liberties, civil and religious."
Sir Danvers did not approve of this language or the sentiment it expressed, and so expressed himself to some of those about him, but refrained from any open rebuke at that time. His instructions were, however, very specific that his endeavors should be directed to repress the very spirit of in- dependence which was exhibited in this passage. He explained to a member of the Council what his instructions were and asked how they would be received, and was told that the Assembly would certainly not yield on the issue of annual revenue and specific appropriations, whereat he seemed very much disturbed and exclaimed: "What, then, am I sent here for?"
The night before he had, at the inauguration dinner, asked to be excused because of indisposition, and on this Thursday, at Mr. Murray's, he dined with his host and again complained that he felt poorly. Mr. Murray pro- posed a drive or horseback ride, but Sir Danvers said no, and seemed to be affected with a profound melancholy. Dr. Magraw, said to be the best physi- cian in town, was summoned, but the new governor declined any medical serv- ice and went to his bedroom. The next morning, Friday, October 12, 1753, the body of Osborn was found suspended from Mr. Murray's garden fence. Careful and detailed investigation revealed the fact that the baronet had had many spells of melancholy such as preceded his death, and that this was by no means the first time he had attempted suicide. His funeral took place October 13th, from Trinity Church, the rector, Rev. Henry Barclay, offi- ciating.
The death of Sir Danvers Osborn brought Lieutenant Governor James DeLancey into active government of the colony. His first act after hastily
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DELANCEY IN THE ROLE OF GOVERNOR
summoning the Council into session and reading to them and the officer of the guard his commission, was to appoint a committee to investigate into the cause of Governor Osborn's death, consisting of James Alexander, oldest member of the Council present; John Chambers, second justice of the Supreme Court, and Mayor Holland; a wise move, because there were not wanting, at first, evil persons who would have called the death a case of assassination, a murder ; while the investigations of this committee revealed the facts as before nar- rated.
Lieutenant Governor DeLancey was in a peculiar position. As the active and powerful opponent of Governor Clinton he had been the champion of the theories which had so worked into the legislative mind, as represented in the Assembly, as to become organic; foremost of which was the idea of annual grants and specific appropriations. This theory had been adhered to through the ten years of Governor Clinton's rule, and for about eight years of that time Clinton had, not without cause, regarded DeLancey as the strongest factor in the opposition which ran so counter to the royal demands for a permanent revenue without definite appropriations. Now DeLancey had become a royal governor, and the instructions given to Sir Danvers Osborn were binding upon him. These instructions were as stringently royalist in their theory as to grants and appropriations and the maintenance of the king's prerogative as any which had previously incited the Assembly to defiance.
There had been a strange reversal of political alignments in New York from the coming of Governor Cosby, in 1732, to the accession to gubernatorial power of DeLancey, in 1753. When Cosby came, DeLancey, a young man of twenty-nine years, was an associate justice of the Supreme Court. He was a native New Yorker, son of a French Huguenot, a graduate of Cambridge University and admitted to the English Bar. From his return to his native city, in 1725, he had been active in politics, and under Cosby he was the strongest supporter of the governor's authority and the king's prerogative. He was appointed chief justice at the age of thirty, in place of Lewis Mor- ris, of Morrisania, who was unlawfully dismissed by Cosby, but who after- ward became governor of New Jersey. He it was who had been the presiding judge at the Zenger trial, and whose ruling that the truth could not be proved as a defense to libel had been riddled by the learned Andrew Hamilton. Dur- ing Clarke's administration he had shown a tendency to modify his opinions, and yet he had at first been relied upon as the adviser and most powerful friend of Clinton, who charged him with a sudden change of front, dating from his receiving from that governor's hands a new commission running during his good behavior, in place of that which he had received from Cosby, revocable at the governor's pleasure. This was probably an exaggeration, for while personal influences may have had a good deal to do with the modification
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
and revision of his political opinions, such changes are by no means a rarity in the history of statesmanship. Lord Macaulay, in 1839, spoke truly of Mr. Gladstone as a "young man of unblemished character, and a distinguished parliamentarian, the rising hope of the stern and unbending Tories," and yet that same great man, with character always unblemished, became the greatest of all Liberal leaders. Our own political history has presented many such changes, some of which were, doubtless, the result of personal ambitions, while many others were no less surely produced as the result of changing conditions and the evolution of conviction as affected thereby.
DeLancey's change of front had been no greater than that of several other prominent New Yorkers of his time. James Alexander, William Smith and Cadwallader Colden, early essayists of Zenger's Journal, and champions of the liberty of the press and of popular rights, had all become members of Clinton's Council majority and hostile to the bold and independent attitude of the Assembly. Colden, now senior member of the Council, who had been espe- cially obnoxious to Cosby, had become the spokesman for Clinton, and the writer of articles in support of his side in the controversies with DeLancey and the legislature, while Daniel Horsmanden, who had been appointed by Cosby, was the spokesman and pamphleteer to whose pen the advocacy of the popular side of current questions had been confided in these later years. The personal marshaling of forces had continued much the same as to individuals, but the forces had changed sides.
DeLancey, in his dealings with the Assembly, had the advantage of knowing his ground, and of personal acquaintance and influence with the membership. The Assembly expected him as governor to present to them the royal demands, and he did so, acquainting the Assembly with the purport of Osborn's instructions. He was not disappointed when the Assembly told him that the principle of annual grants and specific appropriations would be adhered to. In communicating this stand to the authorities in London, De- Lancey stated that it would be useless to dissolve the Assembly on that ground, for the principle thus represented reflected public opinion in the colony, and a dissolution on that ground would insure the reelection of the same men. He reported also that he had been successful in securing from the Assembly a decision not to meddle with the executive part of the government which, he says, "I had convinced them was an encroachment on His Majesty's preroga- tive, the executive power being solely in the crown."
The approach of war between the French and English in America being foreshadowed, the Board of Trade and Plantations recommended the holding of an intercolonial convention to "confirm and strengthen the ancient friend- ship of the Five Nations," and consider plans for a permanent union among the colonies. This convention, which met at Albany, June 19, 1754, was pre-
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THE FOUNDING OF KING'S COLLEGE
sided over by Governor DeLancey, and was participated in by commissioners from Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Pennsyl- vania, Maryland and New York. Connecticut had three delegates, Rhode Island and Maryland two each, and the other colonies four each. After con- ferences with the Indians, embellished with the usual exchange of ornate ora- tions, and arrangements for the participation of the Indian tribes in the war, a plan of intercolonial union was presented by Benjamin Franklin, a com- missioner from Pennsylvania, who had been placed at the head of a committee charged with that subject. It provided for a grand council of the colonies with a president general, to manage Indian affairs, authorize new settlements, nominate all civil officers, impose taxes, enlist and pay troops, and construct forts, all of its acts to be valid unless vetoed by the crown within three years. This was adopted by the convention, but afterward being submitted for ratifi- cation was unanimously rejected by the crown and royal governors, because it gave too much power to the colonies, and by the colonial legislatures, because it gave too much power to the crown. William Johnson, who had become the leading authority and executive in connection with Indian matters, was the most influential of the New York delegates to the Albany convention.
KING'S COLLEGE, 1756
One of the earliest happenings in the city after DeLancey became actively lieutenant governor was the founding of King's College. The matter had been canvassed for several years, the Assembly having, in 1746, authorized public lotteries for the establishment of a college in the province of New York. These lotteries had, by 1851, brought proceeds amounting to £3443 18s and this sum was turned over to a board of trustees, of whom seven of the ten were members of the Church of England. The influence of these led to an
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
application for a royal charter, which created much opposition in New York, where the sentiment of a large majority was in favor of a strictly American institution. Rev. Henry Barclay, who, after having been a missionary among the Mohawks, had become especially active in the promotion of the college, had induced his vestry to grant to the institution a part of the farm belonging to the church, which had previously been successively known as "Annetje Jans' Bouwerie," and later, in honor of her second husband, Domine Bogardus, the "Domine's Bouwerie," and then the King's Farm, before its cession to Trinity parish. Smith, the contemporary historian, tells us that the tract set apart for the college was located "in the suburbs of the capital," which has a hu- morous sound now, when it is described, in modern terms, as practically iden- tical with the blocks now bounded by Church Street, College Place, Barclay and Murray Streets. Dr. Samuel Johnson, rector of the Church of England parish at Stamford, Conn., was called into service as first president, in the autumn of 1753, though the king's charter for the institution was not issued until 1754, under the title of King's College. The grant of lands from Trin- ity parish was on condition that its presidents should always be members of the Church of England, and that the church liturgy should be read in the col- lege mornings and evenings. Under the royal charter the management of the college was vested in the Archbishop of Canterbury, the governor of the prov- ince and other crown officers, ex officio, the rector of Trinity Church and the ministers of the Dutch Reformed Churches in New York, and twenty-four gentlemen of New York City. The erection of the first college building at what is now the junction of West Broadway and Murray Street was not begun until 1756. The institution, first as King's College and afterward as Colum- bia College and University, has continued to be the greatest as well as the oldest of the institutions of the higher learning, in the metropolis of America.
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