USA > New York > The history of the late province of New-York, from its discovery, to the appointment of Governor Colden, in 1762. Vol. II > Part 5
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* There is a clause in king William's charter to the Massachusetts Bay, " That no laws, ordinances, elections, or acts of government, whatsoever, shall be of any validity without the consent of the king's governor, signified in wri- ting." And it is probable the usage commenced here, in consequence of an instruction. The clerk prepares his note at the foot of every bill-" I assent to this bill enacting the law, and order it to be enrolled." This he reads with the title, and the governor subscribes his name in the presence of the council and assembly,
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judge in 1737, they allowed seventy five pounds for his past services, and, in future, a salary of fifty pounds. The session ended on the 17th November.
The inattention of this day to the emigrants from Scotland, was unpardonable. They were objects of compassion, and the measure of establishing them upon the northern frontier, as they desired to be, was recommended by every motive of sound policy. There was no excuse for neglecting so fair an opportunity, not only of forming a barrier against the new encroachments of the French at Crown Point, but of encouraging other useful adventurers to follow their fortunes to a colony weakened by the removal of many in the late troubles. Colonel Morris, who was an active member of the assembly at that day, but not present at the rejection of a motion made by Mr. Livingston, for a gift of seven pounds to every one of the seventy Scotch families imported by captain Campbell, informed the author, that it was owing to a discovery that the lieutenant- governor and Mr. Colden, the surveyor-general, in- sisted upon their fees and a certain share of the lands; and that he could make no other apology for the public neglect of those unfortunate adventurers than an abhorrence of being duped by the self-interested motives of the public officers. Had that object been patronized by the legislature, we might have seen vast forests, between the waters of Hudson's river and the two northern lakes on the west, and the river Connecticut on the east, cultivated by a hardy and useful multitude, to the great augmentation of the commerce of the colony, and then have saved it from tempting the avarice of a neighbouring governor,
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whose ill-founded claims, representations, and intru- sions have given rise to controversies and law-suits, injurious to private property, and destructive of the public tranquillity .*
The Spanish war commencing soon afterwards, there was a short session in the summer of 1740, in which the assembly contributed money to accelerate the levies of several hundred men, under colonel Blakeney, for an expedition against the island of Cuba, and many of Campbell's followers, who were starving, through his inability and the public parsi- mony, enlisted for that service, and perished in the expedition afterwards directed against Carthagena.
There was a hotter meeting in September, when Mr. Clarke pressed them to provide for further levies, towards the defence of Oswego ; a law to prevent desertion from the sea and land forces ; the repair of the chapel of the Mohawks, among whom Mr. Barclay had officiated with a small salary from the colony with some prospects of success; and the revenue act being expired, he renewed his request for the ancient support.
The assembly would not add to their late gift of two thousand five hundred pounds towards the expedition ; thought the British statutes gave suffi- cient relief against desertions : that the Indian fort, in the Mohawks' country, was sufficient for assem- bling all the christian converts of that tribe, and that, if they increased, a church ought to be built by private contributions. They then called upon the council for a committee to aid them in forming a
* See note B.
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fee bill, and sent up another to limit the continuance of assemblies.
The governor took no public notice of these transactions ; but when they had made provision for the war, according to the modern example, pro- rogued them.
The attempt to regulate the fees of officers failed by the neglect of the committee of the assembly to meet on the subject, but the septennial bill, passed by the lower house, was lost by the non-concurrence of the council.
The lieutenant-governor could not avoid being displeased with the dependence created by the new mode of a yearly revenue, raised by one act, and the settlement and payment of salaries and debts by another ; especially as, at the last session, a division had been called on the question, whether instead of thirteen hundred pounds he should not be stinted to seven hundred and eighty pounds ; and for allowing nothing to the two puisne judges : and therefore, when he met them again, on the 15th of April, 1741, he addressed them in a long speech, in which he applauds their felicity, excites them to gratitude, and charges them with the wanton abuse of prosperity in demanding a treasurer of their own, and then insisting that the revenue should pass into his instead of the receiver-general's hands, who had a salary out of the royal quit-rents, observes, that to rid themselves of the check of the auditor-gene- ral, an officer established in the reign of Charles II, the assembly, after the expiration of the revenue in 1709, (which had been before given without any application,) had refused to support the government.
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unless they had the appointment of the salaries, nor would provide for the auditor-general, who, from soon after the revolution, had a constant allowance. " Thus (to use his own words) fixing on themselves the dependence of the officers for whom they pro- vided, (for men are naturally servants to those who pay them,) they, in effect, subverted the constitution, assuming to themselves one undoubted and essen- tial branch of his majesty's prerogative." He then imputes their not returning to a just sense of their duty to the late disorders, and recommends their re-adopting the parliamentary example-"to remem- ber, as to this province, a jealousy, which (says he) for some years has obtained in England, that the plantations are not without thoughts of throwing off their dependence on the crown of England. I hope and believe no man in this province has any such intention. But neither my hopes or belief will have the weight of your actions ; and as you have it in your power, so it is your duty and true interest, to do it effectually, by giving to his majesty such a revenue and in such a manner as will enable his majesty to pay his own officers and servants-where- by they will be reclaimed to their proper dependence -and such as the flourishing condition of the pro- vince will amply admit; which, from the great increase of trade and people, is well known to be vastly better than it was above forty years ago, and for many years before and after such a revenue as I speak of was given by the then assemblies; at the same time that large sums of money were raised to pay detachments of the militia, which were sent to the frontiers for their defence in time of war."
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After hinting his apprehensions of a war with France, he advises the erection of batteries for the ordnance and stores lately supplied by the crown ; the support of Oswego, and presents to secure the Indian alliance ; and adds, " I have done my duty and discharged my conscience, in giving you this warning : do yours, and save your country from ruin. At present, if any part of the province should be invaded, and money absolutely necessary for any service be required, even in such an exigency I can- not, either with or without the advice of the council, draw for a penny, a circumstance well worth your consideration."
He then proposed a more efficacious militia act ; the appointment of an agent in England ; the erec- tion of new buildings in the room of those lately burnt in the fort ; and a night watch, upon the sus- picion of a conspiracy among the slaves.
A diversion of men's minds from their usual objects of attention to the negro plot, the governor's losses in the late conflagration, and the fresh in- stance of the bounty of the crown, seemed to favor Mr. Clarke's exertions at this juncture, for convert- ing the assembly to their ancient confidence in the executive.
It was at his instance the cannon and stores were increased : there had been no warlike supplies to the colony since the year 1708. Those now sent, were valued at six thousand seven hundred and seventy-three pounds, fifteen shillings and eight pence sterling. Their iron ordnance consisted of ninety-six guns, fifteen of which were 32-pounders, twenty-four 18-pounders, and twenty 12-pounders ; the rest were of various inferior sizes.
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The assembly could not avoid an argumentative address, for they were determined not to cede the advantages they had gained in the late patriotic struggles.
They confess their gratitude to the crown for many favours, but balance the account by their ample and cheerful supports to it; admit the confidence of their ancestors in the officers of government, but assert that it was forfeited by misapplications of the revenue, and that queen Anne, on that account, consented to their having a treasurer of their own. They appeal to his own knowledge, that the squan- dering of the public money gave rise to the two long bills for discharging the debts of the colony, and that the excise on strong liquors was a fund applied to, and which still stood mortgaged for, that purpose.
They observe, that formerly the crown rents, and the casual revenue by forfeitures, contributed to the support of government, though this was now dis- continued. They boast of contributing beyond their neighbours ; that they provide fuel and lights for the troops posted here, and presents to the Indians ; allege that they have erected a large battery in the capital, and others elsewhere, and victualled five hundred volunteers for an expedition to the West Indies.
They deny that wantonness of prosperity or the late division had any influence upon the modern scheme of annual supplies, or that any of the officers of the crown or public creditors have suffered by the change.
They avail themselves of his consent, and that of
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other governors, to bills making particular applica- tions of public money, and intimate that the lords of trade think the practice reasonable.
To the insinuation of a suspicion of a thirst in America to independency, they " vouch that not a single person in the colony has any such thoughts or desire; for (as they add) under what government can we be better protected, or our liberties and properties so well secured ?"
They then declare their disinclination to pass any bill for supporting the government, till the present one is nearly expired, nor then, unless according to the late model. They promise an attention to what he recommended respecting the forts, Oswego, and the militia ; agree that an agent may be useful, if he is made totally dependent upon the assembly. After lamenting the conflagration of the fort buildings, they give oblique insinuations that no provision will be made for the future residence of governors within the walls of the fort ; and after confessing the king's favour in the late gift, they ungraciously reflect upon the omission of powder, and indulge a degree of ridicule on the utility of such an ample supply of ordnance without it.
Mr. Clarke did not forget to mention in his answer, that queen Anne's consent to their appointment of a treasurer, respected not the ordinary revenue, but sums raised for extraordinary uses ;* and he promised that justice should be done for any mis- application of the public money they could point out : adding, that though Mr. Horatio Walpole, the
* See note C.
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auditor-general, had a salary, yet fees were due to him for auditing the accounts of the revenue, which in other provinces were usually paid out of the money accounted for, as they had formerly been here; and that he saw no reason why it should not be so in future. Only two acts passed at this meeting, which continued to the 13th of June ; one, putting the fortifications in a respectable condition, and another for a military watch.
The winter which ushered in this year, (ever since called the hard winter,) was distinguished by the sharpest frost, and the greatest quantity of snow, within the memory of the oldest inhabitant. The weather was intensely severe from the middle of November to the latter end of March. The snow, by repeated falls, was at length six feet above the surface of the earth ; and the Hudson river passable upon the ice, as low as the capital, within thirty miles from the open sea : cattle of all sorts perished by the want of fodder ; and the deer of the forests were either starved or taken, being unable to browse or escape through the depth of the snow The poor, both in town and country, were distressed for food and fuel; and, by the scarcity of these articles, the prices of almost every thing else was raised, and though since reduced, yet never so low as in the preceding year. When the frost relaxed, there was a continuation of the flight of wild pigeons from the southward, in greater flocks than was ever before known; and what was still more singular, in the month of March, five or six weeks earlier than in more temperate seasons. These birds nestle in the northerly woods of the continent, and retire towards
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autumn to the southerly provinces. Their flesh is admired here, and being taken in nets in such plenty, greatly contribute to the relief of the poor. While nestling, the males and females resort alter- nately to the salt meadows for food, and by turns brood over the eggs. The two sexes at this season are never taken together, though the flocks are innumerable, and sometimes miles in length. It is often asserted, and generally believed, that undi- gested rice has been found in their crops; and because the pigeon is a bird of very swift wing, it is conjectured that they bring this food from the Carolinas ; and yet there certainly in the spring is no standing ripe rice in the fields.
The conflagration of the chapel and buildings in the fort, on Wednesday the 18th of March, was at first imputed to accident, or the carelessness of an artificer employed in soldering one of the gutters of the main edifice, the residence of our governors. The roof, which was of shingles, had taken fire without observation, and the wind blew fresh from the south-east. The usual alertness of the inhabi- tants was checked by their dread of the explosion of the magazine, and the flames soon communicated to the chapel; the barracks, and the secretary's office erected over the fort gate, were utterly consumed.
Mr. Van Horne, a militia officer, who indulged a blind credulity that the fire was premeditated by the negroes, and who, for beating to arms, and putting up a night watch, was nicknamed Major Drum, propagated his own fears to others, and in a few days afterwards the consternation was universal.
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A second fire broke out on the 25th, a third on the 1st of April, and two on the 4th. Coals disposed for burning a haystack, were discovered on the 5th, and the day after, two other houses took fire; and while the magistrates were convened for enquiring into suspicious words dropped by certain slaves, another house was in flames, and before that was extinguished, a blaze appeared from another build- ing, and a negro was discovered flying over fences from the spot.
No man now doubted of the reality of a plot, but for what end was only conjecture. That a few slaves would hope to effect a massacre of their masters, or thus vindicate their liberties, was the height of absurdity : but the fears of the multitude led them to presume nothing else ; and perhaps that extravagance then gave birth to the proofs by which it was afterwards supposed to be incontestably confirmed.
When Mr. Clarke spoke to his assembly, on the 15th of April, he ascribed the destruction of the fort to accident, in mending a gutter, and the rest of the fires to design. But no discovery was made, till the grand jury of the supreme court found a clue by the examination of a girl of the name of Mary Bur- ton, who was a bought servant to John Hughson, a shoemaker, and keeper of a low tavern in the west quarter of the town.
There had been a burglary committed in the house of Robert Hogg, on the 28th of February. The goods stolen were brought to Hughson's, and, as the girl said, by Wilson, a lad belonging to the Flamborough ship of war, and three negroes. They
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were received by another maid-servant of the house, who, with two of the negroes, were committed upon the accusation of Mary Burton. The inquest pressed hard upon the witness concerning the transactions at that house, it being known that it was often frequented by negroes, who were served there with liquor. She confessed, after much importunity, that certain slaves caballed there in private, and had formed a conspiracy to set the town on fire ; but denied that any white person was present at either of the consultations for that purpose, except herself, Hughson, his wife, and the other maid. From this testimony, which varied upon further examinations, the jails were crowded with the accused, amounting to twenty-one whites, and above one hundred and sixty slaves.
The whole summer was spent in the prosecutions ; every new trial led to further accusations : a coinci- dence of slight circumstances, was magnified by the general terror into violent presumptions ; tales collected without doors, mingling with the proofs given at the bar, poisoned the minds of the jurors ; and the sanguinary spirit of the day suffered no check till Mary, the capital informer, bewildered by frequent examinations and suggestions, lost her first impressions, and began to touch characters, which malice itself did not dare to suspect. But before this, thirteen blacks were burnt at the stake, eighteen hanged, and seventy transported upon conditional pardons. Hughson, his wife, and the maid, with one Ury, died at the gallows, and Hughson and a . negro were gibbeted.
Ury was capitally accused, not only as a conspi-
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rator, but for officiating as a Popish priest, upon an old law of the colony, passed at the instance of the earl of Bellamont, to drive the French missionaries out of the territories of our Indian allies; and he was convicted on both indictments. A letter from general Oglethorpe, the visionary Lycurgus of Geor- gia, to Mr. Clarke, of 16th of May, gave weight to the suspicions against this wretch. After the dis- covery that some Spanish catholic slaves, taken in certain late prizes, were accomplices in the plot, the letter contained the following passage :- " Some intelligence I had of a villanous design of a very extraordinary nature, and it was very important, viz. that the Spaniards had employed emissaries to burn all the magazines and considerable towns in the English North America, thereby to prevent the subsisting of the great expedition and fleet in the West Indies ; and that for this purpose many priests were employed, who pretended to be physicians, dancing masters, and other such kinds of occupa- tions, and under that pretence to get admittance and confidence in families.""Mr. Smith assisted, at the request of the government, on the trial against Ury, who asserted his innocence to the last ; and when the ferments of that hour had subsided, and an opinion prevailed that the conspiracy extended no farther than to create alarms, for committing thefts with more ease, the fate of this man was lamented by some and regretted by many, and the proceed- ings against him generally condemned as harsh, if not cruel and unjust, There was no resisting the torrent of jealousy, when every man thought himself in danger from a foe in his own house. The infec- VOL. II .- 10
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tion seized the whole legislature, who were convened when these tragedies were acting in the court and the fields. The grand jurors presented a petition for severer laws against these unfortunate Africans ; and they had the thanks of the house for their zeal and vigour in the detection of a conspiracy to burn the town and murder the inhabitants, encouraged by their opportunities of assembling at taverns, and at the common reservoir of tea-water in the suburbs, and their indulgences on Sundays for sport and recreation.
The old laws were thought not sufficiently severe; and yet this enslaved part of our species were under regulations demonstrative of the dangerous spirit of petty legislatures, even under all the sunshine of the benevolent and merciful doctrine of Christianity.
Their children were made slaves, if such was the condition of the mother, by a law in 1706, which contained no provision in their favour, even when they were the offspring of a lawful marriage ; so that it remained a question whether the father's slavery did not subject the legitimate issue of a free woman to servitude. They were witnesses in no case against a free man ; and by the act of 1730, they were incapable of any contract, or the purchase of the minutest article necessary or convenient to the comfort of life. The power of the master in cor- recting them was dispunishable in all cases, not extending to life or limb. They were exposed to forty lashes, by the decree of a single magistrate, as often as three of them were found together, or any one walking with a club out of his master's ground without leave; and two justices might inflict any
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punishment short of death and amputation, for a blow, or the smallest assault upon any christian or jew. Nay, their masters are punishable for pardoning or compounding for their faults, and all others for harboring or entertaining them, who when suspected are made subject to an oath of purgation. Every manumission of a slave is invalid, without security in two hundred pounds to indemnify the parish. They are subjected to the summary trial of but three justices and five freeholders, without a chal- lenge, even on accusations touching life ; and in the case of a negro, every homicide, conspiracy, or attempt to kill a freeman, unless in the execution of justice, or by misadvantage ; a rape, or an attempt to commit one; the wilful burning of a dwelling- house, barn, stable, out-house, stacks of corn or hay; nay, or mayhem, if wilful, exposes to the punish- ment of death.
Ought not humanity to revolt at these sanguinary institutions ? I should be chargeable with partiality if I did not add, that, like other immoderate laws, either neglected or working their own remedy, they are seldom executed; negroes, when capitally im- peached, being often tried in the ordinary course of justice, and admitted to the rights and privileges of free subjects under like accusations.
Mr. Clarke brought his assembly together again, and spoke to them, on the 17th September. General Wentworth having called for fresh recruits to the army in the West Indies, the lieutenant-governor asked their aid for victualling them, and the repa- ration of the ruins in the fort. He renewed his demand for a generous and durable revenue, as what
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the king expected, and the expected governor would insist upon, and what he thought it their interest, as well as duty, to grant ; concluding with the remark, that as this would be his last speech, these instances could flow from no selfish motives, which weak minds might ascribe to them.
The members firmly attached to the new and po- pular mode, soon after presented him with a long, harsh, ill-penned address, expressing great exultation on the prospect of Mr. Clinton's arrival, and their hope that he would bring with him the expected military stores, with presents for the Indians. They intimate, that the quit-rent fund ought to contribute to the erection of a new house for the governor ; testify their disinclination to give money for the levies, till they are actually raised ; refer him to their former address for an answer to his last speech, on the subject of the revenue; adding now, as a reply to what dropped from him in words after it was delivered, that the revenue, properly considered, was a term only applicable to the quit-rents and other dues to the crown, and that these then did, and always had, passed to the hands of the receiver- general, and that since they had ceased to be applied to the support of government, the assembly had not demanded any accounts of their amount. Then, to prove an assertion in their former address, they observed, that though a thousand pounds were given at the beginning of the last French war, for building batteries at the Narrows, not a single stone was ever laid out towards that work ; whereas the late erection of forts showed the propriety of giving the trust to commissioners of their own appointing.
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