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 9
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The prospect of the desertion of the fort of Sara- toga by the New-Jersey troops posted there, for want of provisions, however, filled every man with
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terror ; and after a call of the house, they requested the governor either to send a part of the New-York levies there, or, if his powers over them were deter- mined, a detachment from the independent fusiliers, for whom they in that case promised supplies of provisions.
He repeated his declarations, that he would no longer disburse money at the charge of the crown ; and they, their instances for the preservation of Saratoga. Holding up the consequence of their refusal to secure the Indian interest, and guard the frontiers, the governor adds, "If you deny me the necessary supplies, all my endeavours must become ineffectual and fruitless : I must wash my own hands, and leave at your doors the blood of the innocent people that may be shed by a cruel and merciless enemy."
On the 17th of September they were adjourned to the 22d ; only two bills being then passed, there was another adjournment to the 29th, and again to the 5th of October. These provoked to a resolve, that to him were to be ascribed the delays in providing for the defence of the frontier ; and that a remonstrance be presented on the condition of the colony, to be prepared by Messrs. Clarkson, Van Horne, Richard Cruger, Philipse, Thomas, Jones, and Cornel.
Before the draft was reported, the governor, by a message of the 6th of October, laid before them a compact of their own commissioners with others from Massachusetts bay and Connecticut.
These gentlemen had so concerted matters, as to cast the burden of maintaining the Indian alliance entirely upon the crown, though Mr. Clinton had
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importuned them to make that and the erection of forts subjects of contract. The message, therefore, warns them of the necessity of an immediate atten- tion to these objects, as well as those for which the contracting colonies were to provide ; and to show them the expectations of the Indians, he communi- cated a copy of the conferences he held with some of their chiefs on the 26th of September last, with colonel Johnson's report to a committee of the council on the 3d of October.
This was soon followed with resolves to execute their part of the plan concerted by the commission- ers; to provide for the, defence of the northern frontier, and for presents for the Indian sachems then in town ; that eight hundred pounds be devoted to supply the governor's failure to support the Indian interest, though he had made large drafts for that purpose, and of which they had heard of no disposi- tion ; that the usual provision be made for Oswego ; that they would bear their proportion of the expense towards erecting forts in the Indian cantons, as asylums to their wives and children, while their war- riors were abroad ; that they will take a part of the army for the security of the frontiers into pay, as soon as they are advised of their being discharged by the crown; that they would victual the garrison of Sara- toga, and transport the provisions wanted there ; and the messenger sent with a copy of these resolves, was also to request information whether any, and what number of troops was ordered to Saratoga.
The answer of that day was so extraordinary, that the author cannot help transcribing it.
" By your votes, I understand you are going upon
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things very foreign to what I recommended to you. I will receive nothing from you at this critical junc- ture, but what relates to the message I last sent you ; viz. by all means immediately to take the preserva- tion of your frontiers and the fidelity of the Indians into consideration. The loss of a day may have fatal consequences. When that is over, you may have time to go upon any other matters."
They then resolved it to be their undoubted right to proceed in such order as they conceived most conducive to the interest of their constituents; that the attempt to prescribe to them, was a manifest breach of the rights and privileges of that house and of the people ; that the governor's declaration was irregular, unprecedented, and manifestly tended to the subversion of their rights, liberties, and privi- leges : and that his adviser had attempted to under- mine and infringe them, violate the liberties of the people, subvert the constitution of the colony, and was an enemy to its inhabitants.
The next day, the 9th of October, Mr. Clarkson brought in the remonstrance, to which the house, immediately after reading it, ordered their speaker to set his name: they sent it to the governor that morn- ing by seven members,* who reported that he would neither hear it read, nor suffer it to be left with him. While they were in suspense upon the next step to be taken, he sent them a message on the 13th of October.
That he was pleased with their approbation of the scheme concerted by the commissioners of the three
* Mr. Clarksen, colonel Philipse, Mr. Thomas, Mr. Cruger. colonel Beekman colonel Chambers, and colonel Lott.
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colonies, so nearly agreeing with that he had planned in October last, with governor Shirley and commo- dore Warren.
That he was also pleased that his council, before the commissioners met, had approved of his proposal concerning the erection of two forts at the carrying place, and had made it an instruction to their com- missioners to effect it at the charge of the colonies.
He observes, in an air of triumph, that when he had before urged these things, they were to have been executed at the expense of the crown ; and that now they became a colony charge, through the obstruc- tions he had met with by their clogs on the transpor- tation of provisions to the army.
He then proceeds to refute the insinuation, that the money raised by his drafts for Indian expenses was not expended; recounts the Indian services ; alleges that last year he could not get twenty of them on a scout, but that now colonel Johnson could collect a thousand of them for service ; that this gentleman had detached many of them from the French ; that their object in the denial of money for these services, was to wrest the prerogative of making treaties from the crown, and place it in the hands of popular agents of their own appointing. He accuses them also with a design to share in the military authority of the executive ; declares he will not consent to it ; avers that Saratoga was burnt, and afterwards abandoned, by their negligence of his requisitions. He then attempts to justify his mes- sage to confine them to what he had recommended for the care and preservation of the colony ; calls their late votes to shut their door, a farce, unless it
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was designed to exclude his messages ; and if so, in that case he pronounced it a high insult on the king's authority, and the withdrawing their allegiance for a time.
He denied their authority to act as an assembly, except by virtue of the royal commission and instruc- tions, alterable at the king's pleasure. After which he thus expressed himself: You seem to place it upon the same foundation with the house of com- mons of Great Britain, and if I mistake not, by the resolves of the 9th of this month, assume all the pri- vileges and rights of the house of commons of Great Britain. If so, you assume a right to be a branch of the legislature of the kingdom, and deny your depen- dence and subjection on the crown and parliament. If you have not the rights of the house of commons of Great Britain, then the giver of the authority, by which you act, has or can put bounds or limitations upon your rights and privileges, and alter them at pleasure, and has a power to restrain you when you
endeavour to transgress. And I must now tell you, that I have his majesty's express commands not to suffer you to bring some matters into your house, or to debate upon them ; and for that reason, the cus- tom has been long established of the clerk of your house to show every day to the governor, the minutes of the proceedings of your house : and it is undutiful behaviour to keep any thing secret from me, that is under your consideration. In short, gentlemen, I must likewise tell you, that every branch of the legis- lature of this province, and all of them together, may be criminal in the eye of the law; and there is a power able to punish you, and that will punish you, if
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you provoke that power to do it by your mis- behaviour, otherwise you must think yourselves independent of the crown of Great Britain."
He then complained of the late method of serving him, by members, with copies of their resolutions, as ill-mannerly and unconstitutional ; and then adds- " This leads me to consider a most indiscreet beha- viour of some of the members of your house, who, in a quarter of an hour after I was served with a copy of your resolves of the 9th instant, came into an apartment of my house, where I was busy, and, with- out the least previous notice, one of them offered to read a large bundle of papers, which, he said, was a remonstrance from the house. Does not every pri- vate man in this country think his own house his castle ? And must your governor, when in his private apartment, be thus intruded upon ? Would any private man bear such behaviour in a stranger ; and must your governor bear it with patience ? I think, therefore, from such behaviour, without any other, I had too much reason to refuse to receive it, or to suffer it to be left with me : and from some past re- presentations which have been openly made by your house, I never will hereafter receive any thing from your house in public, the contents of which are not previously communicated to me in private, that I may judge whether it be necessary for his majesty's ser- vice and the public good, to give access to me for that purpose."
He charged their omission to acquaint him of their first meeting, to design; their resolves against his late adjournments and prorogations, as encroach-
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ments upon the prerogative ;- taxes them with unreasonable precipitation in adopting drafts of representations, as marks of their being led by a spirit of faction ; with an attempt to defame him, and with asserting known falsehoods.
To oppose the malignant imputation of his em- bezzlement of the Indian presents, he states all his receipts at but eighteen hundred pounds currency ; and urges to show the reduction of it before the goods were delivered, the necessary expenditures for maintaining such vast numbers at Albany, private gifts to particular sachems, a sum to the Senecas for a release of their claim to Oswego, the transporta- tion of the Indians in wagons from and to Schenec- tady, and provisions for their return.
He insisted that, if they had any suspicions of waste, they ought to have asked information, or complained to the king.
He denied that they were moved by any zeal for their country in this attack ; remarks that, though they have put sixty thousand pounds into the hands of their relations and friends, no accounts are as yet exacted.
He ascribed their attacks on his friends and assistants to malice ; and declares that he will with- draw the independent fusiliers from Albany, unless they will supply them with provisions as they do others ; desires them to reflect whether their con- duct is not owing either to a firm principle of disloyalty for delivering up the country to the king's enemies, or to support a neutrality with Canada, as in Queen Anne's reign, to the prejudice of the other colonies, or to overturn the constitution ; or,
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lastly, to gratify the malice of a few, known to have a share in their private consultations.
He concluded with renewing his demands for securing the frontiers and the fidelity of the Indians; and, to prevent delays, informs them that he will not assent to any bill for issuing the public money, but as his commission and instructions direct, or to limit or clog the prerogative respecting the disposi- tion of the troops. " If you make any thing," says he, " contrary to his majesty's commission or instruc- tions, a condition of your granting the necessary supplies for the safety of the people of this province, I now tell you, that it will be trifling with the lives and estates of your constituents, by exposing them, in this time of danger, without policy, for I never will yield to it."
It was agreed by the commissioners, that gun- smiths should be sent to each of the six cantons, except the Mohawks and Tuscaroras, with goods to the value of three hundred pounds, for presents ; and, as the season advanced, the assembly signified (15th October) to the governor, their willingness to advance the money on the credit of the confederate colonies, that he might forward this service before the winter. But he put them in mind the next day of other provisions equally urgent, especially as he informed them on the 19th, that the king had laid aside the expedition against Canada, and ordered the troops to be discharged, except such as were necessary for the defence of Nova Scotia ; and that, by his majesty's command, he was to recommend it to them to pay their own levies, and trust to a parliamentary reimbursement.
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The privates had been paid up by the governor to the 24th of July last, and two months' pay given to the subalterns.
He renewed his desire for taking them, or a part of them, into the service of three colonies; and they immediately voted to pay half of their levies, or eight hundred men, to the first of August, leaving it to the rest of the colonies to act at their pleasure ; but they declined the discharge of the arrears, assigning their poverty and distresses for their disappointment of the royal expectations.
On the 24th of October, the governor thought proper, by a written order under his hand, to forbid James Parker, who usually printed the journals of the house, to publish the assembly's remonstrance, which provoked Mr. Clarkson to relate, and the rest of the committee to confirm, the history of what passed at the offer of it to the governor. That they knocked at the outward door, and told the servant who attended, that they had a message. That after retiring to an inner room, he came out, followed by a gentleman, and showed them into it, where they found the governor, who expressed no displeasure. They informed him that they came as a committee of the assembly with a remonstrance, and Mr. Clarkson offered to read it, which the governor would not permit, nor suffer it to be left ; on which they decently withdrew, Mr. Clinton only intimating, that this proceeding without the speaker was not parliamentary. Upon this, Parker was ordered to attend, and having produced the governor's prohibi- tion, a copy of which he had published in his gazette, they resolved that the attempt to prevent
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the publication of their proceedings, was a violation of the rights and liberties of the people, and an infringement of their privileges; that the remon- strance was a regular proceeding ; that the gover- nor's order was unwarrantable, arbitrary, and illegal, a violation of their privileges, and of the liberty of the press, and tending to the utter subversion of all the rights and liberties of the colony ; and that the speaker's order for printing the remonstrance was regular, and consistent with his duty. 1.
That the reader may form his own judgment of it, we here give him a succinct analysis of its principal parts.
It professes their design to open to him the state of the colony.
They conceive that his late messages reflect upon their conduct ; and that his prorogation of the 29th of September and adjournment of the 5th of Octo- ber, were designed to prevent their vindication of themselves. Bewailing the alteration of temper and sentiments in the several branches of the legislature, they proceed to its causes.
Their proceedings discover that there was per- fect harmony on the 6th of June, 1746, when the king's pleasure for an expedition to Canada was announced-all conspired with one heart to promote the service, and his speeches and messages were clear, express, and intelligible ; but ever since he had put his confidence in the person who styles himself, " the next in administration," arts have been used to distract and divide.
They esteemed his falling into the hands of a man so obnoxious, aiming at nothing but his own.
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interest, a great misfortune to the country. To prove their suggestions, they proceed to a history of their late intercourse.
On the 9th and 11th of September, they had importuned him to keep up a garrison at Saratoga, and agreed not only to supply but transport pro- visions to it. On the 16th, they voted for the preservation of Oswego, and to consider, (though he had taken all risks upon himself,) of colonel Johnson's demands for subsistence, if by unforeseen accidents he was likely to suffer.
To the governor's assertion, that they were acquainted with the temper of the Indians before his treaty of last year, they answer with a denial of any such knowledge, on account of the secresy he had affected respecting Indian affairs, which he had diverted from their ancient channel by taking the business out of the hands of the commissioners, and to this they assign their present perplexity and distraction.
They admit the reluctance of the Indians to engage in the war ; and, for removing aspersions, observe, that the Caghnuagas, in Canada, are re- lated to the Six Nations ; that they were, therefore, inclined to a neutrality, and the rather as they had declared, because their wars end only in extirpation ; and they avow the opinion, that such a neutrality would have been most advantageous to the public.
Against his boasting of their utility, they deny that there has been any conflict between ours and the French Indians, or that they had brought in more than three French scalps and some prisoners ; and impute his magnifying the late treaties, to a
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design to countenance his drafts on the crown for Indian presents, some of which drafts they suggest as being made the last summer, when no gifts were made, and that therefore he had a considerable sum in bank on that score.
They dispute his professions of zeal for the welfare of the country; charge the blood spilled at Saratoga in 1745, to his withdrawing the garrison from that post ; blame him for not ordering the new levies at Albany to go up and assist the farmers in the vicinity of that village to gather in their harvest ; calling in the troops from the frontiers to Albany, and then posting them on the opposite side of the river, where they could more easily desert ; for not sending out the one hundred and fifty rangers they had raised ; for injustice and unfairness in his agents, respecting the musters of the army : "a matter," as they assert, " worthy of the most strict inquiry."
They then charge him with contemptuous speeches both of them and their constituents, " from a very early time of his administration, in terms so oppro- brious as are not fit to be published ;" and, to vindi- cate themselves from the charge of neglecting the general interest of the colonies, they recite his requisitions, their compliances, and his obstacles to their further designs, by adjournments and proro- gations.
In the close, they aver that, since the war, the colony had expended near seventy thousand pounds; and as a caution against the advice of managing an assembly by harassing them with adjournments, they declare, " that no inconveniencies will divert
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them from, or induce them to abandon, the interests of their country."
Mr. Clinton alarmed the house by a message, requiring supplies for detachments he purposed to make from the militia, for the defence of the fron- tiers. As nothing could be more disgusting to the multitude than a call to services of that kind, the house dreaded their rage, and the committee to whom the message was referred, reported their surprise at this requisition ; and, considering the intimation of the king's orders to discharge the army, and their late vote to take eight hundred men into pay, for the defence of the frontiers, declared their opinion, that whilst his excellency was governed by such unsteady councils, his messages were continually varying and ambiguously penned, and that they were embarrass- ed with difficulties in providing for the public safety.
'The governor, says the entry of the day, in the copy brought by their clerk, (for they did not, on this occa- sion, pursue their late practice of sending it by their members,) and by another message of the 2d of November, reproaches them with refusing to give the king credit for the army's arrears of pay, till pro- vision could be made by parliament ; and though they had voted to take eight hundred men of these levies into service, yet have you not, says he, by your speaker, communicated to me as terms of that vote, that there be a reduction of one half of the pay of the officers ; which no man deserving trust will accept, it being below the earnings of tradesmen and the wages of laborers? Will any man be retained but on the footing on which he was enlisted ? Having no hope of engaging men upon these terms, he saw no way of
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saving the country without the aid of the militia ; and charged their affectation of surprise to a desire of exciting the disobedience of the militia. " And for what other purpose," says he, "are the reflections of unsteady councils, continually varying, &c. thrown out at this time ? Certainly councils must vary, as the events on which they are founded do. You only have given occasion to any variation in my councils."
In the reply, they confess that he had proposed to retain both officers and privates in the British pay : that on the speaker's objecting as to the officers, the governor then expressed doubts of their success, but promised that he would do all he could for the service of the colony, when he had fixed, with Mr. Shirley and Mr. Knowles, a time for the dismission of the army. They therefore repeat their surprise at the requisition for supplies to detachments of the militia, before the result of his consultations respecting the day of general discharge was published; and think this a justification of their late answer of instability, and a proof " that it was neither his intention nor inclination that these forces should be received into the pay of the colony, but rather that, through want of clothing, and other hardships, they should be driven to the necessity of desertion; that the frontiers being by that means left defenceless, he might be furnished with a plausible pretence (in order to harass the poor people of this colony, for whom he continually expresses so great concern,) to make detachments from the militia for the defence thereof. They conclude, that any further expectation of having the new levies continued on the frontiers, will be vain;" and immediately voted for raising VOL. II .- 18
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eight hundred other volunteers. They requested him to issue warrants, and to take all the proper measures to expedite the enlistments, and to pass a bill, then ready, for forming a magazine of provi- sions at Albany.
The governor refused to see the messengers, or receive a copy of the vote, without the speaker.
Upon this, they compelled the printer to publish their remonstrance, and deliver ten copies to each member ; and presented an address in form, implor- ing him to pass the bill for provisions, before the winter rendered it impracticable to transport them to Albany. It was now the 13th of November. He gave them this answer :
That he took blame to himself for passing two bills of that nature. He had urged the necessity of the service in his excuse, and he would venture once more ; but warned them, in their bill for paying the forces, to insert no clauses derogatory to the pre- rogative, but to guard against misapplications and embezzlements. He added a demand of provisions for the independent companies at Albany, who, for want of supplies, were upon the point of deserting.
On the 25th of November he passed the provi- sion bill; another for a new tax of twenty-eight thousand pounds, for the defence of the frontiers, with two others of lesser moment; and then deli- vering his mind in a free speech, he dissolved the assembly.
We shall neither abstract this, nor a composition published in answer to it, under the title of " a letter to the governor," from some of the members, as they lead to a repetition of the history of transac-
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tions, which have perhaps already exhausted the patience of the reader.
They are both in the printed journals of the house, and are further specimens of the scribbling talents of doctor Colden and Mr. Horsmanden, the latter having held the pen for the assembly, or rather for Mr. Delancey, for which he was suspended from the council, and removed from that bench and the recorder's place, and cast upon the private bounty of the party by whom he was employed, applauded, and ruined : for such was his condition, until he raised himself by an advantageous match, and, by forsaking his associates, reconciled himself to Mr. Clinton, when that governor broke with the man, whose indiscretion and vehemence the chief justice had improved, to expose both to the general odium of the colony. Until his marriage with Mrs. Vesey, Mr. Horsmanden was an object of pity; toasted, indeed, as the man who dared to be honest in the worst of times, but at a loss for his meals, and, by the importunity of his creditors, hourly exposed to the horrors of a jail; and hence his irreconcilable enmity to doctor Colden, by whose advice he fell, and to Mr. Delancey, whose ambitious politics exposed him to the vengeance of that minister.
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