USA > New York > New York City > The Memorial History of the City of New York: From Its First Settlement to the Year 1892, Volume II > Part 29
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He closed his speech with a touching peroration. "I am truly un- equal," he said, "to such an undertaking [the defense of freedom] on many accounts, and you see I labor under the weight of many years and am borne down with great infirmities of body; yet old and weak as I am, I should think it my duty if required to go to the utmost part of the land, where my services could be of use in assisting to quench the flame of prosecutions set on foot by the government to deprive a people of the right of remonstrating and (complaining too) of the arbi- trary attempts of men in power. But to conclude : the question before the court and you, gentlemen of the jury, is not of small nor private concern; it is not the cause of a poor printer, nor of New-York alone, which you are now trying. No! It may in its consequences affect every freeman that lives under a British government on the main of America. It is the best cause, it is the cause of liberty ! and I make no doubt but your upright conduct to-day will not only entitle you to the love and esteem of your fellow-citizens; but every one who pre- fers freedom to slavery will bless and honor you as men who have baffled the attempts of tyranny and by an impartial and uncorrupt ver- dict have laid a noble foundation for securing to ourselves, our pos- terity, and our neighbors that to which nature and the laws of our country have given us a right -the liberty both of exposing and opposing arbitrary power (in these parts of the world at least) by speaking and writing the truth."
The last words of the venerable orator must have thrilled the New- York audience who had so long listened in silence. They were pro- phetic ; in America at least there should be freedom of speech and thought. But to the court party the words of the orator had no meaning. Bradley, the attorney-general, rose and demanded the
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conviction of Zenger; the chief justice charged the jury that they must convict him. The jury boldly refused : they declared the defen- dant "Not Guilty."' The scene that followed is one that has never been repeated nor paralleled in a New-York court-room. The instant the verdict was rendered the audience broke into loud cheers of tri- umph that must have resounded in Wall and Broad streets almost to the governor's mansion in the fort. Rage, amazement, terror, we are told, appeared on the bench. One of the judges threatened with imprisonment the leader of the applause. But Captain Norris, the son-in-law of Morris, rose and said that applause was common in Westminster Hall, and was loudest in the acquittal of the seven bishops. The allusion was at once felt in the excited audi- ence. Before the judge could re- ply the shouts broke out again, and the court-room rang with huzzas for the champion of lib- erty. Hamilton was carried al- most on the shoulders of the crowd to a fine entertainment that had been prepared for him. The next day, when he set out for Philadelphia, the whole city came to the waterside to do him honor. He entered the barge under a salute of cannon. The corporation presented him with the freedom of the city in a gold box, with inscriptions that declared his virtues and his great ser- vices; never lawyer deserved so well the applause of his countrymen.
George II., "by the Grace of God, King, etc.," had confirmed, in 1731, the charter of the city of New-York known as "the Montgom- erie Charter." Very few kings have had less claim to the grace or favor of any one human or divine. He was selfish, cruel, a bad son, a bad husband, ignorant, narrow, vain. His ministers and friends in general were not unlike him. Walpole had all his vices and was utterly unscrupulous; Newcastle was so ignorant and so untrust- worthy as to be the laughing-stock of his contemporaries. It was an
1 The names of the jurors who decided this im- portant question were: Thomas Hunt (foreman), Harmanus Rutgers, Stanley Holmes, Edward Man, John Bell. Samuel Weaver, Andries Maers- chalk, Egbert Van Borsom, Benjamin Hildreth,
Abraliam Keteltas, John Goelet, and Hercules Wendover. "Honest" Henry Beekman, the sheriff, made the panel, or list from which they were taken.
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age of extreme political corruption. At the court of London offices were openly bought and sold : the king's mistresses ruled in politics except where Queen Caroline interposed; bribes were given openly; parliament was a center of corruption; society was degraded by bad manners and open vice. Yet it was to the court of London that New- York was obliged to look for a redress of its grievances, and it was to the manners and fashions of London that Cosby and his associates turned for example and instruction. He was in constant correspon- dence with Newcastle and the lords of trade. At first his letters are full of pleasant anticipation, soon they become laden with com- plaints; they are sometimes of excessive length, and it is not likely that Newcastle ever read them. But on December 6, 1734, Cosby writes one to the duke, full of even more than his usual violence and bad spelling: "The behaviour of a certain member," he says, "I have too much occasion to mention." This was James Alexander. He de- nounces the "scurrilous cabals formed against the government " by Alexander, Morris, Van Dam, and others. "Morris," he says, "has fled to England " to escape punishment. "The most abominable, detestable villany that ever was committed," he thinks, was the Alex- ander letter. William Smith is "another declared incendiary." It is not a flattering picture that he draws of our ancestors, and the Eng- lish ministry, if they ever read the letters, could have formed but a low estimate of the politicians of New-York. Morris and Van Dam wrote to their friends in England with equal severity of their oppo- nents. Morris complained that after " nigh twenty years " of faithful service, he had been driven from office by the sole orders of the gov- ernor. The council had not been consulted, no directions had been sought from the crown. Cosby came to the council and handed to De Lancey a notice of his appointment. He accuses Cosby of taking money illegally, of various misappropriations of the public funds. "No man," he says, " was ever so universally hated as he is."1 Cosby had already charged Morris with "want of probity," with spending nights in "intemperate drinking," and with showing favor to dis- senters. Suddenly New-York, in the autumn of 1734, was surprised to learn that the Honorable Lewis Morris had sailed for England, as Cosby said, "laden with calumnies against the government," and to escape the penalties of the law. The governor had offered a reward for the discovery of the author of certain articles in the "Journal."
The year 1735 passed on, ever memorable in the history of New- York. A fatal accident in July had marked the laying of the first stone of the battery "on the rocks at Whitehall." The governor and a group of spectators had assembled, a salute of cannon was fired, a gun exploded, killing the high sheriff of the city, a Miss Van Cortlandt, and
1 Morris to lords of trade, August, 1733.
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a son-in-law of one of the aldermen. A single ferry to Brooklyn existed at the time: a barge or rowboat was the representative of the countless ferry-boats, swift and splendid, that now cover the harbor of New-York. The cost of ferriage was high; a horse paid one shilling, a wagon five shillings, only a " sucking child " went over free.' Through all its po- litical struggles New-York was still the gay, convivial city it is painted by the historians of the time." It was called "one of the most so- cial places on the continent." The birthdays and other anniversaries of the royal family were celebrated with illuminations, feastings, balls, SHILLING, GEORGE II. and military parades, from which few went home sober. Great inequality of wealth marked the little city. A few held immense estates. Caleb Heathcote, the richest man of the day, died worth one hundred thousand pounds. He left his daughters each twenty-five hundred pounds in money. The large landowners had probably not great incomes. But very great extravagance is complained of in jewels, plate and furniture, horses and slaves. One family had forty negroes. But few in New-York could live without labor or a trade. It is probable that the working-classes lived in abundance of food and in comparative comfort. Fruit, meats, game, and vegetables were cheap. The houses were usually surrounded by a garden. Broad- way was lined with trees, and the heat of summer was tempered by the winds from the bay. In winter the cold was severe. The legis- lature met in October, 1735, but could do little. Cosby had lost the confidence of some of his warmest adherents. It is said that he was universally distrusted. Yet he seems to have been a pleasant companion, an affectionate husband and father. Had he secured better advisers, he might have proved a useful official. One act should be remembered to his credit. He urged the assembly to lay a heavy tax on the importation of negro slaves, as he would discourage the traffic. An almshouse was built about this time in the Fields or park. Here slaves were kept for correction, and the very poor sheltered. But few new buildings were erected in New-York. The bad govern- ment checked population.
The last days of Cosby's administration were filled with mortifi- cation and pain. He had been seized with consumption, and was slowly passing away. Now and then his physicians gave him hopes of recovery, and his amendment was announced in the courtly "Gazette." His mental may have been the cause of his physical suffer-
1 Laws of New-York, 1735, Smith and Livingston. 2 Smith's Hist, N. Y., p. 224; see also Kalm and Burnaby.
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ing: all his plans had failed, all his hopes of wealth and power were gone. The ministry in England had grown weary of his endless complaints, and were convinced of his want of discretion. They had decided in a royal council that Morris had been improperly removed from office. They paid no attention to Cosby's charges against his enemies, and reproved him for voting in the council. He had been guilty, too, of acts that were criminal in their nature and might lead to an impeachment. Some deeds that had been intrusted to him to prove the title of the corporation of Albany to the lands of the Mohawks, when their tribe should dissolve, he threw into the fire. He was resolved to divide the country among new patentees and reap a harvest of fees. He threatened the landholders of Long Island with a new survey of their lands and D a general alteration of their boundaries. GRATIA Here, too, he prob- ably looked for large profits. But soon his fatal disease gained FORCIV in strength; the chill winter of 1735-36 CROWN, GEORGE II. probably hastened
its progress; the winds from the river raged around the exposed fort at the Bowling Green, and the governor grew weaker as the cold deepened. But his passions had not yet died, and a strange scene was enacted in the bedchamber of the dying official. The coun- cil were summoned to meet for the purpose of removing Rip Van Dam from his place as councilor; Cosby ordered his name to be stricken from the list. He thus inflicted a last mortification upon his old enemy. It was his last act of pure tyranny. But his friends and followers evidently thought that with Van Dam at the head of affairs some of their misdeeds might be brought to light, and some of Cosby's ill-gotten gains be reclaimed. Clarke, his friend, the next councilor on the list, was to succeed him in case of his death. Cosby died at the fort soon after, on March 7, 1735, and was buried with proper ceremonies : New-York showed a decent respect to its governor.
Of the subsequent fortunes of the remarkable men whose rare abilities made New-York a center of mental progress at this time, the reader may desire some particulars. Morris, the former chief justice, was appointed governor of New Jersey. Here he passed in honor and ease the close of his active life. His son was married to a de- scendant of Abraham Gouverneur; his grandson was the Gouverneur Morris of the Revolution. Thus were united in one brilliant intellect
WILLIAM COSBY AND THE FREEDOM OF THE PRESS 247
the impulses that awoke Leisler to a rash resistance against religious tyranny and Lewis Morris to a successful struggle for liberty of speech. De Lancey, always one of the leaders of his time, a good scholar, an indifferent writer, died in 1760, lieutenant-governor of New-York. He, too, founded a family often distinguished in politics, letters, and the English Church. Alexander, Colden, and Smith all left descendants well known to American history. The son of William Smith wrote the first English history of New-York. Lord Stirling (William Alexander) might have won a title could he have joined the royal faction ; Zenger's paper was successful; when he died it was carried on by his wife and son. The "New-York Weekly Journal" led the way to the wonderful achievements of the New-York press. The liberty it won for its successors has not been abused; but the monument to the memory of John Peter Zenger has yet to be raised. New-York, we may well remember, was the first of the cities to assert the liberty of the press when, all over Europe and America, thought was chained and intellect imprisoned. In France the satirist or the reformer was fortunate to escape with a few years' imprisonment in the Bastille. Even Holland, declining in energy, had lost much of its early mental freedom. England and Ireland rang with complaints of suffering authors and printers. Faulkner in Dublin, Barber in Lon- don, and later Woodfall, Junius, and Wilkes, showed how sternly the conservative faction held learning, knowledge, wit, and humor in bondage. But in New-York all was changed. The author and the printer had triumphed: the cry, the "Liberty of the Press," had gone over the world from our infant metropolis. The shout of the multitude that celebrated the victory of truth still seems to ring over the site of the old City Hall. It is the liberty of speech and thought that has made New-York fortunate and changed the destiny of mankind.
The populace of New-York, it is said, rejoiced at the death of Gov- ernor Cosby; they were still wanting in the refinement that prevents the modern from exultation even in the death of a foe. They hoped at once to come into power; but they were deceived, and a fierce con- test followed that had nearly led to civil war. The council met, passed over the claims of Van Dam, and selected Mr. George Clarke as its president. Alexander alone of the councilors voted for Van Dam. The popular party, enraged, insisted that the proceeding was illegal. Van Dam assumed the presidency, demanded the seal of the province from Mrs. Cosby, nominated a mayor and other officials, and prepared for resistance.1 Clarke and his party held possession of the fort, armed themselves, and were equally resolved to rule. The
1 Doc. rel. Col. Hist. N. Y., 6 : 46, Clarke to Newcastle, March 16, 1736. Van Dam went to the fort, but was not admitted.
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assembly met, but finding the two parties irreconcilable, adjourned until the autumn. For some months New-York remained on the brink of a violent civil contest, its small population of perhaps ten thousand whites almost ready to come to blows. The court party were evidently in the minority ; but the fort and its garrison held the people in check. At length, in October, 1736, when the contest was at its height, a ship from England sailed into the harbor bringing with it the appointment of George Clarke as lieutenant-governor of New- York. In the face of this decisive action on the part of the home authorities in favor of one of the claimants, resistance ceased, and the patriots were in future to confine themselves to the limits of legal resistance to the foreign rule.
Mr. George Clarke, who soon after received his commission as lieu- tenant-governor, was one more of the impoverished adventurers who were sent from England to rule the people of New-York. He had practised as an attorney in Dublin, had but little education, and his letter describing his voyage to Virginia shows his want of experience and his unfitness for any office that required intelligence and self- control.1 Yet he had powerful friends at court, and in 1703 was appointed by Queen Anne secretary of the province of New-York on the death of Matthew Clarkson. Not long after he married Anne Hyde, a distant relative of the queen and of the famous Clarendon. He had his country-seat at Hempstead Plains, Long Island, where he had purchased a hundred acres of land from Walter Dongan; and here he lived with his wife and children and his wife's mother, Mrs. Hyde, and grew rich rapidly. He was made a member of the council, he aided Cosby in all his violent measures, he was made lieutenant- governor by the aid of his English relations, and he strove in every way to exalt the prerogative of the crown. He sold his estate at Hempstead in 1738 and removed to New-York. He was less pleasing in his manners than Cosby, being cold and severe; but he had more prudence, and knew at times how to yield to the popular will. He was resolved, however, to maintain the royal prerogative, and his opportunities of enriching himself he would never forego.
The whole of this period of seven years in which Clarke held office is marked by the steady rise of the popular party to power .? It is one of the most important in the history of our state. The people, represented in the assembly, took into their own hands the control of the moneys raised and expended by the province. In vain the court party and the lieutenant-governor insisted on a permanent revenue and unrestricted grants; the assembly steadily refused to yield. Step by step it made its way to power. It addressed the English officials
1 "Voyage of George Clarke," O'Callaghan. His letter shows his youth, his bad spelling, and his easy morals.
2 Clarke to Newcastle, May 16, 1736, asserts that they planned an insurrection.
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in language that showed a new spirit had risen among the people. Under the guidance of Alexander, Lewis Morris, Jr., Smith, and others,1 it studied and discussed the principles of free government and suggested many of the ruling ideas that led to the final contest with England and the liberation of the New World. No part of our history deserves more careful study. One of the earliest proofs of the victory of the people was the city election of September 29. Nearly all the officials chosen were of the popular party ; among them were a Roosevelt, Bayard, Beekman, Pintard, Stuyvesant, and several other well-known names. The election had been carried on with all the violence of faction. The court party called their opponents "a Dutch mob"; and Zenger's "Weekly Journal" retaliated with sharp abuse of the "courtiers." Soon after Lewis Morris came over from England, full of his triumph, and was received by the people with wild acclamations. The assembly met in October, and at once recognized Mr. Clarke as president of the council. His commission as lieutenant-governor was published, and Van Dam's claims were set aside. Little was done at its meetings. It soon offended the court- party by guarding against any misapplication of the revenue by the lieutenant-governor and council; the vote was so offensive to Mr. Clarke that he at once called the house together and dissolved it.2 Thus, after nine years of various fortunes, of extravagant expenditures, and of subservience to the wishes of the court party, the assembly separated. For nine years no general election had been allowed to New-York. The new elections were carried on with all the usual violence of our early factions. The court party strove to win by flat- tery and bribes, but their opponents were everywhere successful. The city elected James Alexander; Colonel Lewis Morris, Jr., represented Westchester. The new assembly met on June 15, 1737, and the lieutenant-governor, wiser than his predecessors, sought to win its favor by compliments and fair words. Colonel Morris brought in bills for regulating elections; Alexander, others for encouraging man- ufactures and trade. In September the house met again, and, in a very remarkable address to Mr. Clarke, defined the principles that were in future to control its action. It demanded frequent elections, it spoke of the lavish grants of its predecessors, of the peculations and waste that had led to the present impoverished condition of the pro- vince; it declared that it would grant no more money unless it were protected from misapplication by the governor, and no revenue for a longer period than one year. It spoke too of the "unreasonable dis- regard and contempt" shown to previous assemblies by the former
1 Clarke's numerous letters to the lords of trade show his want of discretion and their folly. All his acts are done under their orders. See Doc. rel. Col. Hist. N. Y., VI, for his correspondence.
2 Clarke had suggested that Alexander, Smith, and Colonel Morris should be arrested and sent over to England. Letter of October 7, 1736, to lords of trade, Doc. rel. Col. Hist. N. Y., 6 : 78.
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governors; and it showed a bold spirit of independence and conscious power that the officials were forced to respect. Clarke yielded grace- fully to the remonstrance, and thanked the house for its address. A disputed election between Messrs. Van Horne and Philipse, however,
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aroused the two factions. Philipse had been elected by the votes of aliens and Hebrews; in the debate that followed, Smith, the famous orator of the liberal side, strove to exclude both, and his unwise and ungenerous assault upon the Jews is said to have been a wonderful example of ill-directed eloquence. The house, carried away by his arguments or his invectives, excluded the Hebrew vote. But the aliens
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WILLIAM COSBY AND THE FREEDOM OF THE PRESS 251
were admitted, and Philipse took his seat. Among the members of this assembly were Colonel Van Rensselaer, Colonel Schuyler, Frederic Philipse, Philip Livingston, Colonel Beekman, Gulian Verplanck, and John Cruger, who was mayor of New-York, the father of the founder and first president of the Chamber of Commerce. The lieutenant- governor required of them a fixed revenue for his term of office : they had voted him a salary of fifteen hundred and eighty pounds, but he insisted that by limiting the taxes to one year they had shown a spirit of disloyalty. He summoned the house before him and dis- solved it,- a dangerous step that only served to rouse anew the free spirit of the people.
War meantime had broken out between England and Spain, and the colonies were threatened with an attack from Havana. But when the lieutenant-governor and the council ordered thirty seamen to be impressed in New-York for the English ship Tartar, the mayor re- fused to obey their order. He would allow no impressment within the liberties of the city, and the English officials were forced to sub- mit. A new election took place for an assembly that met in March, 1739. It soon showed its hostility to Mr. Clarke by reducing his salary 111300* to thirteen hundred pounds. The smallpox now raged in the city, and in August the deputies met at the house of Harmanus Rutgers, near the Fresh Pond, this being thought a safe distance from the in- fected districts. The smallpox and the yellow fever were the frequent scourges of New-York. Colden, who was a physician, wrote useful treatises on their proper treatment. The governor still urged the house to grant him a revenue in gross, leaving its disposition to the officials; they again refused; he was forced to submit, and the house was adjourned until April, 1740. They had voted liberal sup- plies and provided for the support of the credit of the paper currency. The cost of the English war with Spain bore heavily on the provin- cials. New-York under this administration had made some advance in trade and prosperity. It was still weighed down by a heavy debt; its revenue was far exceeded by its expenditure. But the natural advantages of its situation began to make themselves felt in the midst of the dangers of war and of a bad government. Its exports were considerable. New-York flour was already highly valued, and was sent in large quantities to the West Indies. A heavy tax was laid on the importation of African slaves, and formed a considerable part of the revenue. The city showed traces of increasing wealth. Fine country houses were built at Greenwich, Bloomingdale, and on the East River; in the city the De Lancey House, just above Trinity Church, where the City Hotel stood for many years, and Sir Peter Warren's were large and costly buildings. Abraham De Peyster lived in his great mansion in Queen street, in the midst of his extensive gar-
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