USA > New York > The history of the late province of New-York, from its discovery, to the appointment of Governor Colden, in 1762. Vol. I > Part 24
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ber of capable workmen in all branches of that manufac- tory."
The money used in this province is silver, gold, British halfpence, and bills of credit. To counterfeit either of them is felony without benefit of clergy; but none except the latter and Lyon dollars are a legal tender. Twelve halfpence, till lately passed for a shilling; which, being much beyond their value in any of the neighbouring colonies, the assembly, in 1753, resolved to proceed, at their next meeting, after the 1st of May ensuing, to the consideration of a method for ascertaining their value. A set of gentlemen, in number seventy-two, took the advantage of the discredit that resolve put upon copper halfpence, and on the 22d of December, subscribed a paper, engaging not to receive or pass them, except at the rate of fourteen coppers to a shilling. This gave rise to a mob, for a few days, among the lower class of people, but some of them being imprisoned, the scheme was carried into execution, and established in every part of the province, without the aid of a law. Our paper bills, which are issued to serve the exigencies of the government, were at first equalled to an ounce of silver, then valued at eight shillings. Before the late Spanish war, silver and gold were in great demand to make remittances for European goods, and then the bills sunk, an ounce of silver being worth nine shillings and three pence. During the war, the credit of our bills was well supported, partly by the number of prizes taken by our privateers, and the high price of our produce abroad; and partly by the logwood trade and the deprecia- tion of the New-England paper money, wich gave ours a free circulation through the eastern colonies. Since the war, silver has been valued at about nine shillings and two pence an ounce, and is doubtless fixed there, till our imports exceed what we export. To assist his majesty for removing the late encroachments of the French, we have issued £80,000, to be sunk in short periods, by a tax on estates, real and personal ; and the whole amount of our paper cur- rency is thought to be about £160,000.
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Never was the trade of this province in so flourishing a condition, as at the latter end of the late French war. Above twenty privateers were often out of this port at a time; and they were very successful in their captures. Provisions, which are our staple, bore a high price in the West-Indies. The French, distressed through the want of them, gladly received our flags of truce, though sometimes they had but one or two prisoners on board, because they were always loaded with flour, beef, pork, and such like commodities. The danger their own vessels were exposed to, induced them to sell their sugars to us at a very low rate. A trade was, at the same time, carried on between Jamaica and the Spanish Main, which opened a fine market to the northern colonies, and the returns were principally in cash. It was generally thought, that if the war had continued, the great- est part of the produce of the Spanish and French settlements in the West-Indies would have been transported to Great Britain, through some one or other of her colonies; whence we may fairly argue their prodigious importance.
The provincial laws relating to our trade are not very numerous. Those concerned in them, may have recourse to the late edition of our acts at large, published in 1752 ; and for this reason, I beg to be excused from exhibiting an unentertaining summary of them in this work.
CHAPTER IV.
OF OUR RELIGIOUS STATE.
By the account already given, of the rise and progress of the acts for settling a ministry in four counties, and the observations made concerning our various christian denomi- nations, I have in a great measure anticipated what I at first intended to have ranged under this head.
The principal distinctions amongst us, are the episcopa- 1 lians, and the Dutch and English presbyterians ; the two
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last, together with all the other protestants in the colony, are sometimes (perhaps here improperly) called by the general name of dissenters; and, compared to them, the episcopalians are, I believe, scarce in the proportion of one to fifteen. Hence partly arises the general discontent on account of the ministry acts ; not so much that the provision made by them is engrossed by the minor sect, as because the body of the people are for an equal, universal, toleration of protestants, and utterly averse to any kind of ecclesiastical establishment. The dissenters, though fearless of each other, are all jealous of the episcopal party, being apprehensive that the countenance they may have from home, will foment a lust for dominion, and enable them, in process of time, to subjugate and oppress their fellow subjects. The violent measures of some of our governors have given an alarm to their fears, and if ever any other gentleman, who may be honoured with the chief command of the province, begins to divert himself, by retrenching the privileges and immunities they now enjoy, the confusion of the province will be the unavoidable consequence of his folly ; for though his majesty has no other subjects upon whose loyalty he can more firmly depend, yet an abhorrence of persecution, under any of its appearances, is so deeply rooted in the people of this plantation, that as long as they continue their numbers and interest in the assembly, no attempt will probably be made upon the rights of conscience, without endangering the public repose.
Of the government of the Dutch churches I have already given an account. As to the episcopal clergy, they are missionaries of the English society for propagating the gos- pel, and ordinarily ordained by the bishop of London, who, having a commission from the king to exercise ecclesiastical jurisdiction, commonly appoints a clergyman here for his commissary. The ministers are called by the particular churches, and maintained by the voluntary contribution of their auditors and the society's annual allowance, there being no law for tithes.
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The English presbyterians are very numerous. Those inhabiting New-York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the three Delaware counties, are regularly formed, after the manner of the church of Scotland, into consistories or kirk sessions, presbyteries and synods, and will probably soon join in erecting a general assembly. The clergy are ordained by their fellows, and maintained by their respective congre- gations. I except those missionaries among the Indians, whose subsistence is paid by the Society in Scotland, for propagating Christian Knowledge. None of the presbyterian churches in this province are incorporated, as is the case of many in New-Jersey. Their judicatories are upon a very proper establishment, for they have no authority by legal sanctions to enforce their decrees. Nor indeed is any religious sect, amongst us, legally invested with powers prejudicial to the common privileges of the rest. The dominion of all our clergy is, as it ought to be, merely spiritual. The episcopalians, however, sometimes pretend, that the ecclesiastical establishment in South Britain ex- tends here; but the whole body of the dissenters are averse to the doctrine. The point has been disputed with great fervour, and the sum of the arguments against it is contained in a late paper, which I shall lay before the reader, at large, without any additional reflections. 1
It was published in September 1753, under the title of the Independent Reflector, and is in these words :-
The arguments in support of an ecclesiastical establishment, in this province, impartially considered and refuted.
- Eripe turpi Colla jugo : liber, liber sum, dic age. HOR.
Whether the church of England is equally established in the colonies, as in the southern parts of Great Britain, is a question that has often been controverted. Those who hold the affirmative, have drawn a long train of consequences in favour of the episcopalians, taking it for granted, that the
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truth is on their side. The presbyterians, independents, congregationalists, anabaptists, quakers, and all those among us, who in England would fall under the general denomination of dissenters, are warm in the negative. I beg leave, therefore, to interpose in the debate ; and, as I promised, in the introduction to these papers, to vindicate the religious as well as civil rights and privileges of my countrymen, I shall devote this paper to a consideration of so important a point: to which I am the more strongly inclin- ed, because such establishment has often been urged against the scheme I have proposed for the constitution of our college. My opinion is, that the notion of a general religious establishment in this province is entirely groundless. Ac- cording to the strict rules of controversy, the onus probandi, or the burden of the proof, lies upon those who affirm the position ; and it would therefore be sufficient for me barely to deny it. I shall, nevertheless, wave the advantage of this rule of the schools ; and, as becomes an impartial advocate for truth, proceed to state the arguments which are generally urged in support of an establishment. I shall then show their insufficiency, and conclude with the particular reasons upon which my opinion is founded.
They who assert that the church of England is established in this province, never, that I have heard of, pretended that it owes its establishment to any provincial law of our own making. Nor indeed, is there the least ground for such a supposition. The acts that establish a ministry in this, and three other counties, do not affect the whole colony ; and therefore, can by no means be urged in support of a general establishment. Nor were they originally designed to establish the episcopalians in preference or exclusion of any other pro- testants in those counties to which they are limited. But as the proposition is, that the establishment of the church of England is equally binding here, as in England, so agreeable thereto, the arguments they adduce are the following :
First, That as we are an English colony, the constitu- tional laws of our mother country, antecedent to the
A
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legislature of our own, are binding upon us ; and therefore, at the planting of this colony, the English religious establish- ment immediately took place.
Secondly, That the act which established the episcopal church in South Britain, previous to the union of England and Scotland, extends to, and equally affects, all the colonies.
These are the only arguments that can be offered with the least plausibility, and if they are shown to be inconclu- sive, the position is disproved, and the arguments of con- sequence must be impertinent and groundless. I shall begin with the examination of the first : and here it must be con- fessed, for undoubted law, that every new colony, till it has a legislature of its own, is, in general, subject to the laws of the country from which it originally sprang. But that all of them, without distinction, are to be supposed binding upon such planters, is neither agreeable to law nor reason. The laws which they carry with them, and to which they are subject, are such as are absolutely necessary to answer the original intention of our entering into a state of society- such as are requisite, in their new colony state, for the ad- vancement of their and the general prosperity ; such, with- out which they will neither be protected in their lives, liberty, or property : and the true reason of their being con- sidered, even subject to such laws, arises from the absolute necessity of their being under some kind of government, their supporting a colony relation and dependence, and the evident fitness of their subjection to the laws of their mother country, with which alone they can be supposed to be ac- quainted. Even at this day we extend every general act of parliament which we think reasonable and fit for us, though it was neither designed to be a law upon us, nor has words to include us, and has even been enacted long since we had a legislature of our own. This is a practice we have intro- duced for our conveniency ;* but that the English laws, so
* This practice is very dangerous, and is assuming little less than a legislative authority.
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far as I have distinguished them, should be binding upon us, antecedent to our having a legislature of our own, is of abso- lute unavoidable necessity. But no such necessity can be pretended, in favour of the introduction of any religious esta- blishment whatsoever; because, it is evident that different societies do exist with different ecclesiastical laws, or, which is sufficient to my purpose, without such as the English esta- blishment ; and that civil society, as it is antecedent to any ecclesiastical establishments, is in its nature unconnected with them, independent of them, and all social happiness completely attainable without them.
Secondly, To suppose all the laws of England, without distinction, obligatory upon every new colony at its implan- tation, is absurd, and would effectually prevent the subjects from undertaking so hazardous an adventure. Upon such a supposition a thousand laws will be introduced, inconsistent with the state of a new country, and destructive of the planters. To use the words of the late attorney-general, sir Dudley Ryder,* " It would be acting the part of an unskilful physician, who should prescribe the same dose to every pa- tient, without distinguishing the variety of distempers and constitutions." According to this doctrine, we are subject to the payment of tithes, ought to have a spiritual court, and impoverished, as the first settlers of the province must have been, they were yet liable to the payment of the land tax. And had this been the sense of our rulers, and their conduct conformable thereto, scarce ever would our colonies have appeared in their present flourishing condition; especially if it be considered, that the first settlers of most of them, sought an exemption in these American wilds, from the establish- ment to which they were subject at home.
Thirdly, If the planters of every new colony carry with them the established religion of the country from whence they migrate ; it follows, that if a colony had been planted when
* Afterwards lord chief justice of the King's Bench. These were his words, in an opinion against the extent of the statute of frauds and perjuries.
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the English nation were pagans, the establishment in such colony must be paganism alone : and, in like manner, had this colony been planted while popery was established in England, the religion of papists must have been our esta- blished religion ; and if it is our duty to conform to the reli- gion established at home, we are equally bound, against conscience and the bible, to be pagans, papists, or protest- ants, according to the particular religion they shall please to adopt. A doctrine that can never be urged, but with a very ill grace indeed, by any protestant minister !
Fourthly, If the church of England is established in this colony, it must either be founded on acts of parliament, or ' the common law. That it is not established by the first, I shall prove in the sequel ; and that it cannot be established by the common law, appears from the following considera- tions :
The common law of England, properly defined, consists of those general laws to which the English have been accus- tomed from time whereof there is no memory to the contrary; and every law deriving its validity from such immemorial custom, must be carried back as far as to the reign of Richard I. whose death happened on the 6th of April, 1199. But the present establishment of the church of England was not till the fifth year of queen Anne. And hence it is appa- rent, that the establishment of the church of England can never be argued from the common law, even in England ; nor could be any part of it, since it depends not for its vali- dity upon custom immemorial. And therefore, though it be admitted, that every English colony is subject to the common law of the realm, it by no means follows, that the church of England is established in the colonies ; because the common law knows of no such religious establishment, nor considers any religious establishment whatever, as any part of the English constitution. It does, indeed, encourage religion ; but that, and a particular church government, are things entirely different.
I proceed now to a consideration of the second argument
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insisted on to prove an episcopal establishment in the colo- nies, founded on the act which established the church of England, passed in the fifth year of queen Anne, recited and ratified in the act for a union of the two kingdoms of England and Scotland. And that this act does not establish the church of England in the colonies, has been so fully shown by Mr. Hobart,* in his second address to the episco- pal separation in New-England, that I shall content myself with an extract from the works of that ingenious gentle- man, which, with very little alteration is as follows :
" The act we are now disputing about, was made in the fifth year of queen Ann, and is entitled, an act for securing the church of England as by law established. The occasion of the statute was this : The parliament in Scotland, when treating of a union with England, were apprehensive of its. endangering their ecclesiastical establishment. Scotland was to have but a small share in the legislature of Great Britain-but forty-five members in the house of commons, which consists of above five hundred, and but sixteen in the house of lords, which then consisted of near an hundred, and might be increased by the sovereign at pleasure. The Scots, therefore, to prevent having their ecclesiastical esta- blishment repealed in a British parliament, where they might be so easily out-voted by the English members, passed an act previous to the union, establishing the presbyterian church within the kingdom of Scotland, in perpetuity, and made this act an essential and fundamental part of the union which might not be repealed, or altered by any subsequent British parliament ; and this put the English parliament upon passing this act for securing the church of England. Neither of them designed to enlarge the bounds of their ecclesiastical constitution, or extend their establishment farther than it reached before, but only to secure and perpe- tuate it in its then present extent. This is evident, not only from the occasion of the act, but from the charitable temper
* A minister of one of the churches. at Fairfield, in Connecticut.
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the English parliament was under the influence of, when they passed it. The lord North and Grey offered a rider to be added to the bill for an union, viz. That it might not ex- tend to an approbation or acknowledgement of the truth of the presbyterian way of worship, or allowing the religion of the church of Scotland to be what it is styled, the true pro- testant religion. But this clause was rejected. A parlia- ment that would acknowledge the religion of the church of Scotland, to be the true protestant religion, and allow their acts to extend to an approbation of the presbyterian way of worship, though they might think it best to secure and per- petuate the church of England within those bounds, wherein it was before established, can hardly be supposed to have designed to extend it beyond them.
" The title of the act is exactly agreeable to what we have said of the design of it, and of the temper of the parliament that passed it. It is entitled, an act not for enlarging but for securing the church of England, and that not in the American plantations, but as it is now by law established ; which plainly means no more than to perpetuate it within its ancient boundaries.
"The provision made in the act itself, is well adapted to this design ; for it enacts, that the act of the 13th of Eliza- beth, and the act of uniformity, passed in the 13th year of Charles II. and all and singular other acts of parliament then in force for the establishment and preservation of the church of England, should remain in full force for ever ; and that every succeeding sovereign should, at his coronation, take and subscribe an oath to maintain and preserve inviolably the said settlement of the church of England, as by law established, within the kingdoms of England and Ireland, the dominion of Wales, and town of Berwick upon Tweed, and the territories thereunto belonging. This act doth not use such expressions, as would have been proper and even necessary, had the design been to have made a new esta- blishment; but only such as are proper to ratify and confirm an old one. The settlement, which the king is sworn to pre-
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serve, is represented as existing previously to the passing this act, and not as made by it. The words of the oath are, to "maintain and preserve inviolably the said settle- ment." If it be asked, what settlement ? the answer must be, a settlement heretofore made and confirmed by certain statutes, which for the greater certainty and security are enumerated in this act, and declared to be unalterable. This is the settlement the king is sworn to preserve, and this settlement has no relation to us in America. For the act, which originally made it, did not reach hither ; and this act, which perpetuates them, does not extend them to us." .
It is a mistake to imagine, that the word territories necessarily means these American colonies. "These coun- tries are usually in law, as well as other writings, styled colonies or plantations, and not territories. An instance of this we have in the charter to The Society for propagating the gospel in foreign parts." And it is the invariable practice of the legislature in every act of parliament, both before and after this act, designed to affect us, to use the words colonies, or plantations. Nor is it to be supposed, that, in so important a matter, words of so direct and broad an intent, would have been omitted. "The islands of Jersey and Guernsey were properly territories belonging to the kingdom of England before the union took place ; and they stand in the same relation to the kingdom of Great Britain since. The church of England was established in these islands, and the legislature intended to perpetuate it in them as well as in England itself; so that as these islands were not particularly named in the act, there was occasion to use the word territories, even upon the supposition that they did not design to make the establishment more extensive than it was before the law passed." Further, in order to include the plantations in the word territories, we must suppose it always to mean every other part of the dominions not particularly mentioned in the instrument that uses it, which is a construction that can never be admitted : for, hence it will follow, that those commissions which give the govern- VOL. 1-44.
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ment of a colony, and the territories thereon depending, in America, (and this is the case of every one of them) extend to all the American colonies, and their governors must of consequence have reciprocal superintendencies; and should any commission include the word territories generally, unre- stricted to America, by the same construction, the governor therein mentioned, might exercise an authority under it not only in America, but in Africa and the Indies, and even in the kingdom of Ireland, and perhaps, in the absence of the king, in Great Britain itself. Mr. Hobart goes on, and argues against the establishment from the light in which the act of union has, ever since it was passed, been consi- dered.
Dr. Bisse, bishop of Hereford, (says he) a member of the society, preached the annual sermon, February 21st, 1717, ten years after the act of union took place; and he says, it would have well become the wisdom wherewith that great work (the reformation or establishment of the church of England,) was conducted in this kingdom, that this foreign enterprise, (the settlement of plantations in America,) also should have been carried on by the government in the like regular way. But he owns the government at home did not interpose in the case, or establish any form of religion for us. In truth (says his lordship) the whole was left to the wisdom of the first proprietors, and to the conduct of every private man. He observes, that of late years the civil interest hath been regarded, and the dependance of the colonies, on the imperial crown of the realm, secured : but then, with regard to the religion of the plantations, his lordship acknowledges that the government itself here, at home, sovereign as it is, and invested doubtless with suffi- cient authority there, hath not thought fit to interpose in this matter, otherwise than in this charitable way: it hath enabled us to ask the benevolence of all good christians to- wards the support of missionaries to be sent among them. Thus bishop Bisse thought as I do, and that the act of union nor any other law prior thereto, did extend the esta-
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