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 32
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In April, 1748, Clinton had begun his schemes with Governor Shir- ley of Massachusetts whereby the American colonies were to send their governors to Albany to meet the Six Nations, and where at a conference measures were to be planned by which the English min- istry would be induced to interpose and suppress the turbulence of the various Oliver De Lancey popular assemblies. "How often had the governor and his advisers joined in deploring 'the levelling prin- ciples of the people of New-York, and the neighboring colonies'; 'the tendencies of American legislatures to independence'; their un warrant- able presumption in 'declaring their own rights and privileges'; their ambitious efforts 'to wrest the administration from the King's officers,' by refusing fixed salaries and compelling the respective governors to annual capitulations for their support! . . . 'The inhabitants of the plantations,' they reiterated to one another and to the ministry, 'are generally educated in republican principles; upon republican princi- ples all is conducted. Little more than a shadow of royal authority re- mains in the northern colonies.' Very recently the importunities of Clinton had offered the Duke of Newcastle, ' the dilemma of support- ing the governor's authority or relinquishing power to a popular fac- tion.' 'It will be impossible,' said one of his letters, which was then
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before the king, 'to secure this province from the enemy or from the faction within it without the assistance of regular troops, two thou- sand men at least. There never was so much silver in the country as at present, and the inhabitants never were so expensive in their habits of life. They, with the southern colonies, can well discharge this expense.'" 1
When the congress met, the news of the preliminaries of the peace of 1748 put an end to the preparations for war, but the schemes for controlling the colonies were continued with increased vigor, as the real necessity for humoring the assemblies had passed away. Governor Clinton took Governor Shirley of Massachusetts with him to New- York and hoped to receive great assistance from the investigations of his colleague into the causes of the disorder in New-York, and his re- port thereon. That Clinton was capable of inviting the successful governor of a rival province not only to examine but to make a report (though that would be an ex parte statement) goes in a great measure to redeem Clinton from the charge of being merely a puppet or an avaricious adventurer. The statements of both the governors agree in the rehearsal of the causes of the factious struggles and the impo- tence of the governor, not only in administrative and political affairs, but also in the control of the most elementary military necessities; in all and everything the assembly, aided by and under the control of the New-York city faction, had usurped the government, and no remedy was possible till the power of the assembly should be checked.
By Shirley's advice Clinton had determined on making the attempt to do this systematically in New-York, and while awaiting Bedford's instructions Clinton had again summoned the assembly. But without a definite promise of support from England, even Clinton had learned that contention was useless. "However the present meeting has brought things to a plain issue, viz. that either His Majesty must sup- port his authority, or the Administration of Government must be given up to the Assembly . . . This Assembly or more properly the pres- ent faction headed by Chief Justice De Lancey will rather give up the Indians to the French and the British interest, than yield any of their claims or expectations of power; as I had gained what no former governor had, through the great interest Colonel Johnson had with the Indians viz. that they should not make peace separately with the French," and all these advantages are likely to be lost by his want of money. This had been the result of the scheme concocted with Shir- ley. Notwithstanding his threats of calling on parliament to inter- pose, the assembly summoned in October had obstinately refused to grant a revenue for the king's government for at least five years. They refused on the ground that: "From recent experience, we are
1 Bancroft " History of United States," 2 : 333, 334.
GEORGE CLINTON AND HIS CONTEST WITH THE ASSEMBLY 273
fully convinced that the method of an annual support is most whole- some and salutary, and are confirmed in the opinion that the faithful representatives of the people will never depart from it." Far from changing their mind, they told Clinton that "governors are generally entire strangers to the people they are sent to govern; they seldom regard the welfare of the people otherwise than as they can make it subservient to their own particular interest; and as they know the time of their continuance in their governments to be uncertain, all methods are used, and all en- gines set to work, to raise estates to themselves. Should the pub- lic moneys be left to their dis- position, what can be expected but the grossest misapplication, under various pretences which will never be wanting?" The consequence was that no supply THE BATTERY IN 1746. bill passed the assembly, and when Clinton and Colden were with- out money they obtained it through the kindness of the speaker, as the faction had rigorously forbidden the passage of a five-years bill. Clinton and Colden grumbled that the province's money was handled as secret-service money, always at the disposal of the assembly; but they had to be satisfied. The assembly's control of the financial ma- chinery was in the hands of their treasurer, who refused to be gov- erned by Clinton or the board of trade. By a continued reissue of paper money brought to him for redemption, he did everything in his power not only to swell the debt, but to strengthen himself. When, therefore, in November, 1749, Bedford informed Clinton of the in- terest the state of the province had awakened at home, the gover- nor instantly began his lamentations over the financial mismanage- ment of the colony, joining to his ceterum censeo the desirability of removing De Lancey, and the hope that the treasurer of the faction would be dismissed, and that the paper money, which was illegally reissued, would be finally funded. In return for the charges of Clin- ton that the provincial assembly profited by their abuse of paper money, the faction so earnestly spread the report of Clinton's malad- ministration and peculation that in April, 1750, the governor felt himself called on to answer. This was easy enough, for his officers had all been salaried annually by name, and the small sums allowed for contingent expenses did not furnish means of peculation; nay, more, Clinton often had advanced money for administrative purposes, with practically no hope of ever having it reimbursed; the assembly waiting for several years before they repaid their indefatigable Indian pacifier, Colonel Johnson, his outlays. Clinton for two years VOL. II .- 18.
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had received not a farthing for colonial expenses, as he had not met the assembly, and there was comparatively little to complain of. Gradually Clinton found that the English board of trade was actually reading his despatches, and these cease to be the long and oft-re- peated historical sketches of the New-York factions, their encroach- ments on the royal prerogative, the insolence of the De Lanceys, the impudence of the councilors, and by antithesis, the robust bravery of the much maligned, deeply hated Colden, who for his attachment ought to be made lieutenant-governor.
The quarrels between Clinton and De Lancey were not always directed to political fields, and the dislike of the governor found its vent in laying bare to the world the violent character of Oliver De Lancey, the chief justice's brother. In June, 1749, he was concerned in a tavern quarrel with Dr. Alexander Calhoun, at the termination of which, Clinton affirms, he stabbed his opponent.1 This gave Clinton a fine opportunity to particularize on the strength of the op- position to him and on the impotence of the government. He was unable to find any lawyer of ability to maintain the king's authority in De Lancey's court; and as the attorney-general, Bradley, had become incompetent through age, he wished to have him withdrawn in favor of William Smith, who was not only in every way fitted for the posi- tion, but besides was willing to prosecute the powerful De Lancey's brother, for he still cherished the enmity which dated from the time of the Zenger trial under Cosby's rule. At the same time Clinton rec- ommended the importation of judges, because the New-York judges were interested in all quarrels of account before them, and by their connections with the politics and the politicians rendered the admin- istration of justice impossible.
This was the more necessary as the province had grown rapidly. The imports and exports of New-York (then a city of thirteen thou- sand two hundred inhabitants, of whom over two thousand were slaves) were of a startling variety, and show a great diffusion of com- fort and differentiation of effective wants, as it was not only the great market for the central provinces, but the real commercial capital of the north, for here all privateers came to sell their plunder and to refit. The English ministry, however, did not come to any resolutions in regard to New-York. They argued that if Clinton had been able to survive it six years, he might endure it some years longer. They thought that Clinton attached great importance to the issue of paper money, and the usurpation of the governor's authority, because by both he suffered, whereas the colony had managed to survive both ; and as it was impossible to change the shiftlessness of fifty years of administration in a hurry, Clinton was not supported.
1 Doc. rel. Col. Hist. N. Y., 6: 513.
GEORGE CLINTON AND HIS CONTEST WITH THE ASSEMBLY 275
In March, 1750, when the French were trying by all means in their power to seduce the Six Nations by underselling the English and by the persuasion of the priests, Clinton again pressed the Duke of Bed- ford for instructions, for "the King has not now one farthing of his revenue in this province at his command for the support of Govern- ment in it, though there be large sums in the treasury and which I have reason to believe, the heads of the faction can find means to make use of to support their interest." Again, "I beg leave likewise to observe that though it be very just and natural for His Majesty's Ministers to think that the people in this province will do everything in their power to preserve and secure themselves; yet in reality it is far otherwise, for nothing is in good earnest thought of but the form- ing of factions in the Assembly, and of converting the Publick money to private uses, by employing persons absolutely ignorant1 of the knowledge requisite for the services in which they are employed, but are only fit tools among the people for factious purposes, and thus the Publick money has been squandered away uselessly." The great prin- ciple of all this escaped the governor's observation. He saw only the surface, and that, being un-English, naturally appeared bad to him. The fact that the New-York city faction managed to cajole the far- mers, who may have been of non-English descent; that the De Lanceys, the most American of the city faction, were only the second genera- tion of French immigrants; that the Dutch of Albany, who preferred to continue their Indian trade with Canada, and therefore objected to the intrusion of Colonel Johnson, had first made the great Indian confederation serviceable against France,- all these things escaped Clinton, and therefore his views of the people he had come to rule over were so fundamentally wrong that the course of the faction in the assembly was undoubtedly right in a higher legality, for it was a lawfully played game of national politics.
To this fact the history of the summer of 1750 bears ample testi- mony. When we recall the constantly repeated tales of insubordina- tion, mutiny, desire for independence of the chief justice, the full control of the government in the hands of a band of conspirators who mortally hated the governor and his favorite, we must wonder at the moderation of this same faction under the most aggravating circumstances. On Thursday, June 7, Colonel Ricketts, with his wife and family and friends, was sailing down the bay on his way to Elizabethtown. The boat carried a flag, which it did not strike on approaching the man-of-war Greyhound, commanded by Captain Robert Roddam, Clinton's son-in-law. As it had failed to salute the
1 The assembly of New-York, says Clinton on another occasion, "consists of ordinary Farmers and shop-keepers of no education or knowledge of publick Affairs or the World, and in this Province, cunning Attorney or Reader of pamphlets."
the greatest numbers are foreigners, or of foreign extract, many of which do not understand the English language and are generally led by some
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man-of-war on previous occasions, the lieutenant in charge of her re- solved to enforce the admiralty rule, and fired a shot across its bows to stop it. As the first shot failed to bring it to, a second shot was fired which passed through the sail and struck a servant named Eliz- abeth Stebbins. The unfortunate woman was brought to New-York, and expired soon after. The assault had been committed between Governor's Island and the Battery, so that the coroner of the city claimed jurisdiction under the Montgomerie charter, and held an in- quest. Captain Roddam, who had not been aboard his ship, returned and instantly put his lieutenant under arrest and sent his gunner's mate to testify at the inquest. Chief Justice De Lancey, on Ricketts' complaint, arrested the gunner's mate for murder, even before he confessed his obedi- ence to orders in the testimony before the coroner.
This brought on an exciting controversy in which Clinton suffered under every disadvan- tage, and the chief justice, whose moderation and manly handling of political affairs never appear in so favorable a light, could not but earn glory and popularity. We can barely imagine what a Bedford fearful uproar this outrage must have called forth in the popu- lous and compact city immediately under the guns of the fort. The fact that it was committed by Clinton's son-in-law was, according to him, taken advantage of by the faction that opposed him to create still greater prejudice against him. "A number of them met at a tavern, where the heads of the Faction have usually made their rendezvous, and Mr. Chief Justice De Lancey among them, where they staid the whole night, as I am informed, and I believe truly, to consult how to make the best use of this incident for increasing and confirming their popularity."
Clinton intended to protect the royal sailors, whom he did not wish to see "exposed to people artfully excited to tumultuousness or vio- lent proceedings by a party or Faction." . . . "He is informed that Mr. Oliver De Lancey, Chief Justice De Lancey's brother, openly, and in all companies, and among the lower rank of people, distinguished himself, in inciting the people against the governor." If to his mind this excitement among the people was not a heartfelt outburst, but
GEORGE CLINTON AND HIS CONTEST WITH THE ASSEMBLY 277
only the machination of a faction of conspirators, Clinton showed a lamentable want of insight into character, and, furthermore, a gross incompetency as a governor striving to reestablish a sinking pre- rogative. Now or never he should have let the faction commit an overt act of sedition, and attempted to suppress it; but he did not dare to let things go to such a point, nor did Colden, the adviser of the governor, desire it. In this case we have an admirable guage for the veracity of the governor's reports. In vain do we read the papers of the day for the news of any tumultuous proceedings. The chief justice certainly did not do anything to stir up feeling against the governor; for if he had but one half of the power which Clinton attributed to him over the assembly and the people, and was in real- ity striving for independence of the government, founded on repub- lican or leveling principles, he could not have been such a sharp schemer and let such a fine opportunity slip by to create an insurrec- tion, either on the model of Virginius or Masaniello. Then or never was the chance for an artful demagogue to incite a people, first made frantic, to rise in revolt. To excite the people there was the royal man- of-war, able to pour its broadsides into the town. High over the town the bastions and newly repaired batteries of Fort George appeared to threaten the inhabitants. For in moments of popular excitement it would have been as easy to have led the people to forget that no guns were mounted on the city side of the fort, as it was in 1789 that the Bastille was not in a threatening state of offensive readiness. But we hear of nothing like it. Nay, more, from the calm demeanor of the chief justice it appears that he tried to treat the affair as a civil assault, which ended in murder, not as of political consequence. For Clinton claimed that Colonel Ricketts, " a hot-headed, rash young man," had " declared before he put off from our wharf, he would wear that pendant in defiance of the man-of-war, which, in all probability, did come to the lieutenant's ears that commanded on board, who had excused him, but the day before, passing close to the ship with the same pendant, as knowing it to be Colonel Ricketts' vessel." Clinton was in a very painful dilemma. As admiral of the fleet, as governor of the province, he knew that his most positive and direct duty would have been to have prevented the commitment and trial of a man-of- war's man by any other court than that of the admiralty at home. The chief justice was bound to know this also, for he held his office only by Clinton's appointment, and all powers the latter had ever possessed arose from his commission, which strictly exempted naval offenses on shipboard from the jurisdiction of his provincial courts and reserved them for the commissioners of the admiralty. For once the governor followed a dignified course, probably because he felt that anything else might harm his son-in-law, Captain Roddam, of the
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Greyhound. He published that part of his commission relating to offenses committed on board, or by men-of-war in service, in the "Ga- zette." Although the governor had not been able to wrest the gun- ner's mate from the hands of the chief justice, yet he made of this a charge of misdemeanor, that De Lancey had wilfully disregarded the royal commands, and had tried to borrow the crown's jurisdiction in admiralty cases, just as he had aided to usurp its executive prerogatives. As Clinton desired to leave New-York, he addressed letters to the crown lawyers, Ryder and Murray (the latter better known as Lord Mansfield), asking whether he could not let De Lancey qualify, then suspend him (for the good of the king's rule), and for the same reason appoint Colden lieutenant-governor. The law offi- cers replied that he had better obtain the revocation of De Lancey's commission by the king.
In the mean while Clinton was awaiting orders from England to crush out the opposition and reestablish a permanent revenue for the crown, which could be controlled all the easier as the paper money was to be restrained. Yet, unless instructions came very soon, Clinton felt that he must surrender to the assembly, who in the course of two years had starved him into submission, as during that period they had not appropriated a penny of supplies. The consequence had been that Clinton had supported the royal troops who garrisoned Oswego ; for without this outlay he well saw that the French, who had for two years been undermining the English influence, would seduce the Six Nations from their English alliance. At the end of August, 1750, his resources were exhausted. He had no more money, and, having waited for instructions till September, he summoned the assembly, well know- ing that he must again surrender to it the prerogatives of appointment and annual supplies. For two years the governor had hoped for aid from England, during which time he had brought disastrous misery on all those dependent on their salaries for support; his obstinacy had been wasted; he surrendered to the assembly. The supplies for the past two years were supplemented, provisions for the Indians were made, the power of the assembly was again recognized to be as great as it had been before the unfortunate attempts of Clinton to curb the usurpations of the people's representatives. For by a remarkable blindness Clinton had actually tried to persuade himself that, in spite of the open electioneering of the chief justice, he could carry the as- sembly by his partizans. As soon as the assembly met, the governor was so completely undeceived that he agreed with the speaker to carry out the faction's plans of government. As he truly says: "There are no instances I believe, where men, who have (by any means) gained power, that they willingly give it up, and much more unwill- ingly, when they find means at the same time to fill their own or
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friends' pockets thereby : My duty therefore obliges me to tell Your Grace [of Bedford] my humble opinion, that the King must enforce the authority of his own Commission or else resolve to give up the government of this province into the hands of the Assembly." These last reports finally led Bedford's secretaries to draw up a very clear résumé of the letters and remonstrances which both as- sembly and governors had since Newcastle's régime been pouring in on the home offices. The one tangible result of his incessant work had been the restoration of James Alexander to the coun- cil and also the appointment of Edward Holland, mayor of New- York, to the same position. Dur- ing the early part of 1751 little else was done in New-York than prepare for the great Indian con- gress at Albany, to which Clin- ton had invited all the English governors from Massachusetts THE ROYAL EXCHANGE, 1752. to South Carolina, and to which only Massachusetts, Connecticut, and South Carolina sent delegates. The New-York assembly had made such a small allowance for presents that public sentiment forced them to reconsider their action, and the speaker of the house allowed the gov- ernor an extra warrant of supply.
On his return from the congress at Albany, Clinton expected to have found a leave of absence (or recall) to England and permission to let Colden serve as lieutenant-governor. His hopes were doomed to disappointment, and he was forced to disembark his household goods from the Greyhound man-of-war and to brave the terrors of another winter. He had on several previous occasions attempted this same trick, and had on each occasion stayed here rather than give De Lancey his deferred commission as lieutenant-governor. Clinton's one aim was to undo the error he had made of exalting De Lancey. For years he had tried by every means to push the candidature of Colden for the lieutenancy, and as the success of this plan grew more and more improb- able he was resolved to build up against De Lancey a strong opposition by giving the places in the council to the opponents of the city faction. Although in July, 1751, this plan had not yet been carried out com- pletely, yet because it suited Clinton's side of the argument, he asks for his recall and thinks it can be sent safely. "As the faction every day decreases and the people's eyes are open, I conceive it will be of no ill consequences to leave Mr. Colden president, till his Majesty's pleasure be known, especially as Your Grace has hinted that you will
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not agree to Mr. Chief Justice De Lancey's being left with the Admin- istration." Thereupon this very simple governor, who had the ad- vantage of possessing a good heart and of supporting his friends, proceeds to again recommend Colden to the ministry's notice, and begs that the "faction may not have the pleasure to see an innocent person sink under the load of calumny which they for that purpose have heaped upon him." While about this time the ministers were drafting additional instructions for Clinton, he was striving with all the energy of a long-nursed hatred to put his friends into the pro- vincial council and to obtain orders sanctioning the suspension of De Lancey's friends.
At the end of August, 1751, Clinton thought he had secured a great prize in that the superannuated attorney-general, Bradley, had died just as Clinton was endeavoring to find a berth for William Smith, the historian's father. About this period John Chambers, the gov- ernor's last appointee to the council, was made second justice of the Supreme Court in place of the late Adolphus Philipse. Chambers had preferred the council-board to a seat in the assembly, even from New- York, where he was said to be very popular, and now, when he was to have a place on the bench, "he declined it unless it were granted dur- ing good behaviour, with such strong reasons, as convinced me of the necessity and fitness of granting of the office to him in that manner, and I have not the least reason to believe that either I or any of my successors, or the people in General will have any cause to wish he had a less tenure in the office." Although we may not doubt Clinton's word, it does seem against the ordinary course of probability to assume that in the granting of this second judicial appointment during good behavior he did not mean to place this man in precisely the same position to De Lancey as the chief justice had assumed toward him. There were but few alternatives, and from them he must draw benefit ; either Chambers would be true to him, or else establish a party of his own and thus neutralize De Lancey's party; or, again, during his suc- cessor's administration put himself on the side of government or dis- rupt the faction. For no one believed it likely that, even if De Lancey obtained his commission as lieutenant-governor, he would ever rule, as the English government meant to send out a new governor.
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