USA > New York > The natural, statistical, and civil history of the state of New-York, v. 2 > Part 36
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Great were the struggles, at the ensuing election, between the Leislerians and the Anti-Leislerians, but the former prevailed.
The Assembly convened on the 19th of August, 1701. The fire of contention, which had lately appeared in the tumultuous elections, blazed out afresh in the house .* A Mr. Nicoll and a Mr. Wessels were excluded by Mr. Nanfan. This occasioned a secession of seven members.
Among the opposers of Leisler there was a Mr. Livingston. The measures of the convention, at Albany, had been very much direc- ted by his advice, and he was now obnoxious to his adversaries, not only on these accounts but because he was a man of sense and re- solution, two qualifications rarely to be found united in one person at that day. His intimacy with the late earl had till that time been his defence against the rage of the party which he had formerly opposed. They were, therefore, now bent upon his destruction. Several charges were made against him which were false ; and it was proposed to pass a law to confiscate his estate. One of the
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charges was his refusing to account for monies received as com- missioner of excise. He could not account because his opponents had, previous to making the charge, drawn out of his hands the books and vouchers, which they declined allowing him access to.
The news of the appoinment of Lord Cornbury, so strongly animated the hopes of the Anti-Leislerians, that about the comence- ment of the' year 1702, one Nicholas Bayard, a violent partizan, promoted several addresses to the king. the parliament, and Lord Cornbury. In that to his Majesty, he assured bim, " that the late differences were not grounded on a regard to his interest ; but the corrupt designs of those who laid hold on an opportunity to en- rich themselves, by the spoils of their neighbours. The petition to the parliament, says, that Leisler and his adherents gained . the fort at the revolution without any opposition ; that lie oppressed and imprisoned the people without cause, plundered them of their goods, and compelled them to flee their country, though they were well affected to the prince of Orange. That the Earl of Bellamont appointed indigent sheriffs, who returned such members to the as- sembly, as' were unduly elected, and in his Lordship's esteem. That he suspended many from the board of council, who were faithful servants to the crown, introducing his own tools in their stead. Nay, they denied the authority of the late assemby, and added, that the house bad bribed both the lieutenant-governor, and the chief justice ; the one to pass the bills, and the other to defend the legality of their proceedings. A third address was prepared to be presented to Lord Cornbury, to congratulate him on his arrival, as well as to possess him in their favour, as to prejudice him against · the opposite party.
Nothing could have had a more natural tendency to excite the wrath of the lieutenant-governor, and the revenge of the council and assembly, than the reflections contained in these addresses. Nanfan had no sooner received intelligence of them, than he sum- moned one Hutchins, an alderman and inn keeper, who had these addresses, to deliver them up to him, and upon his refusal commit- ted him to jail, on the 19th of January. The next day, Messrs. Bayard, Van Dam, French, and Wenham, hot with party zeal, sent an impertinent note to the lieutenant-governor, boldly justifying
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the legality of the address, and demanding his discharge out of pri- › son. Mr. Nanfan, under the shadow of a law, passed in 1691, and which this very Bayard, had been instrumental in getting en- acted, to bear upon the adherents of Leisler, committed him now to jail as a traitor, and lest the mob should interpose, placed a com- pany of soldiers at the prison to prevent it. We shall not recite the act; but content ourselves with observing, that it gave the governor no power to commit.
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The framers of the law, no doubt supposed at the time they made it, and while they were in power, that it gave them the same powers as were now taken. The framers, and interpreters of arbitrary laws, ought to be considerate ; for they do not know but what they may come under their baleful influence.
Parties, like the waves of the ocean, are up and down, and what may suit those in authority, may not when divested of it. Here Bayard complained of its injustice, and justly, and so had others, on whom he and his partizans had brought it to act.
Nanfan issued a commission on the 12th of February, to try Bayard, who shortly after was arraigned, tried, and convicted of high treason, and sentenced to death. Several reasons were offer- ed in arrest of judgment ; but the prisoner was in the hands of an enraged party, and Atwood overruled them.
Bayard applied to the lieutenant-governor for a reprieve, till his . majesty's pleasure might be known; and obtained it not without great difficulty. Several others were also convicted. He was re- leased by Lord Cornbury, and an act reversing his attainder, passed.
After these trials, Nanfan erected a court of exchequer, and again convened the assembly, who thanked him for his late measures, and passed an act to outlaw Philip French, and Thomas Wenham, who had absconded upon Bayard's commitment.
Lord Cornbury began his {administration on the third of May, 1702. He was in very indigent circumstances, and hunted out of England by a host of hungry creditors. Naturally a prodigal, and very avaricious, he determined to squeeze all the money he could
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out of the purses of an impoverished people. His talents were not superior to those of the most inconsiderable of his predecessors. In spiritual concerns, he was a great promoter of the hierarchy. His Lordship, without the least disguise, espoused the Anti-Leislerian party, upon which, the chief justice, and some others, thought pro- per to retire from his frowns.
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On the seventh of November, the house voted one thousand eight hundred pounds, for paying and subsisting one hundred and fifty fuzileers, for five months, and for thirty med, to be employed as , scouts for sixty-two days.
An act for destroying wolves in the province was passed. At this time, the counties of Richmond and Westchester, which had been settled upwards of seventy years, were still infested with these noxious animals.
On the 27th of November, an act for the encouragement of a grammar, or free school, in the city of New-York, went into a law. This appears to have been the first legislative step, taken to pro- mote literature in the colony.
- The act whereby a post office had been erected in New-York, was extended for four years and a half, to be computed from April, 1700 ; and some regulations were made, in order to enforce its rules.
From the tenor of the act, we are induced to believe, that it was an unpopular establishment in its inception, and for some time after.
In the course of this year, some of our people advanced up the · river Mohawk, as far as Caughnawaga, and seated themselves on the lands which the Caughnawagas had formerly occupied.
Anterior to this, the Caughnawagas, who were a clan of the Mchawks, had emigrated to Canada at the solicitations of the French. The reader will recollect, that in the conflagration of Schenectady, in the mouth of February, 1690, some of this clan accompanied the French in their hibernal expedition.
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The summer after his Lordship's arrival, was remarkable for an uncommon mortality, which prevailed in the city of New-York, and makes an epoch among its inhabitants, distinguished by the " time of the great sickness." The fever was brought in a vessel,
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. from the island of St. Thomas in the West Indies. Hitherto, no quarantine had been established. This fever, which in all proba- bility, was the yellow fever, which in our time, has on several oc- casions ravaged the city, proved fatal in almost every instance. The sickness induced Lord Cornbury to change his residence to Jamaica, a village on Long Island, distant about twelve miles from the city.
The Inhabitants of Jamaica, consisted at that time partly of the original Dutch planters ; but mostly of New England emigrants, encouraged to settle there after the surrender, by the duke of York's conditions for plantations, one of which was in these words : " That every township should be obliged to pay their own minis- ters, according to such agreements as they should make with them ; the minister being elected by the major part of the house-holders, and inhabitants of the town. These people had erected an edifice for the worship of God, and enjoyed a handsome donation of a parsonage house, and glebe, for the use of their minister. After the ministry act was passed by colonel Fletcher, in 1693, a few episcopalians crept into the town, and viewed the presbyterian church with a jealous eye. The town vote, in virtue of which, the building had been erected, contained no clause to prevent its being hereafter engrossed by any other sect, ' The episcopal party who knew this, formed a design of seizing the edifice for themselves, which they shortly after carried into execution, by entering the church between the morning and evening service, while the pres- byterian minister and his congregation were in perfect security, and unsuspicious of the zeal of their adversaries, and of a fradulent ejectment, on a day consecrated to sacred rest.
Great outrage ensued among the people, for the contention which was pro aris et focis, was animating and important. The original proprietors of the house, tore up their seats, and afterwards got the keys, and the possession of the church, which was shortly after taken from them by force, and violence. In these controversies, ' the governor abetted the episcopal zealots, and harrassed the others . by numberless prosecutions, heavy fines, and long imprisonments ;
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through fear of which, many who had been active in the dispute, fled out of the province.
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Lord Cornbury's noble decent and education, should have pre- vented him from taking part in so ignominious a quarrel ; but his lordship's sense of honour and justice, was as weak and indelicate as his bigotry was rampant and uncontroulable: and hence, we find him guilty of an act complicated of a number of vices, which no man could have perpetrated without violence to the very last remains of generosity and justice. When his excellency retired to Jamaica, the Rev. Mr. Hubbard, the presbyterian minister, lived in the best house in the town. His Lordship begged the loan of it for the use of his own family ; and the clergyman put himself. to no small inconvenience to favour his request ; but in return for the generous benefaction, his Lordship perfidiously delivered his house into the hands of the episcopal party, and encouraged one Cardwell the sheriff, a mean fellow, to seize upon the glebe, which he farmed for the benefit of the episcopal church.
These tyrannical measures justly inflamed the indignation of the injured sufferers, and that again the more embittered his lordship against them. They resented, and he persecuted ; nor did he confine his pious rage to the people of Jamaica .. He detested all who were of the same denomination : nay, he was averse to every sect, except his own, he insisted, that neither the ministers, nor school masters of the Dutch, had a right to preach, or instruct with- out his gubernatorial licence.
The assembly were so well pleased with his lordship, because he headed their party, that they voted him two thousand pounds, as a present.
Though war was proclaimed by England, on the 4th of May, 1702, against France and Spain, yet as the Agoneaseah had en- tered into a treaty of neutrality with the French in Canada, the province of New-York, instead of being harrassed on its borders, by the enemy carried on a very advantageous trade, to such as were concerned in it. This shows, that the former depredations were occasioned in a great measure by the provincial rulers, who had generally encouraged them to commit depredations upon the
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French in Canada, in order to keep up the national dispute, to the benefit of a few, and the detriment of many.
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The Agoneaseah, although they had been hostile to the French, had been disposed on several occasions to come to peace, and would, had they been left to act according to their own judgment. At length, however, they came to a sense of their own interest ; but it was not till they had been severely made to feel the horrors of invasion.
This neutrality was beneficial for the infant colony. All the predictions of the interested, turned out to be untrue. The French did not molest our borders. -
. Lord Cornbury, however, in consequence of his poverty, ava- rice, and extravagance, continued his solicitations for money, with unremitted importunity, by alarming the assembly and the people, with the prospect of attacks by sea and land.
Fifteen hundred pounds were voted, and raised by the assembly, under pretence of fortifying the Narrows, below New-York; but which his lordship craftily intended, and did apply to his own pur- poses.
Whether it was owing to the sagacity of the house, or their pre- sumption, that his Lordship was as little to be trusted as any of his predecessors, that after voting the above sum for the fortifications ; they added, that it should be for no other purpose. It is certain, they now began to see the danger of placing the public money in the hands of a receiver-general appointed by the crown, from whence a treacherous governor might draw it at his pleasure.
But, although the province of New-York enjoyed peace, it was not the case with the New-England borders.
In August, 1703, five hundred French, and Adirondacks, and others, their allies divided into several small parties, assaulted most of the settlements between Casco bay and Wells. They killed and captured one hundred and thirty persons, and burnt and laid waste most of the settlements.
The whole country was in the utmost consternation, alarms were every where taking place, and the entire frontier from Deerfield on Connecticut river, to Casco bay, was kept in alarm by the enemy's light parties.
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- The province voted a sum to maintain one hundred and thiny fuzileers, on its frontier about Albany. · Four independent compa- nies were at the same time in the pay of the crown. "His lord- ship being under the influence of avarice and poverty, was con- stantly calling for money, for the public service, declaring, that the people were in danger : for he had the faculty, notwithstanding all his vices, of making them believe that he was their friend.
Time, which tests all things, at length exposed this noble lord, and those who had been his ardent admirers, abandoned liim.
The legislature, who were apprehensive at first of incensing the . people against them, had recourse to cunning, in order to elude this prodigal's demands. They prudently declined any further aids, till they were satisfied that he had made no misapplication. For this purpose, they appointed a committee, who reported that there was a balance of nearly one thousand pounds due the colony.
We shall pass over his Lordships dislike to this procedure ; his calling the house, and rebuking them in a very rude manner, and their passively submitting to it. The leading men of a party take rebukes from the leader without a murmur. His Lordship was at the head of the then dominant party, and the assembly were bound as loyal partizans, to accept of his frowns without a murmur. To have acted otherwise, would have been a departure from the wholesome rules of parties, which are these, that party can never do wrong, and that the leaders have full right, and good authority . to prescribe sentiments and rules of action for men.
In the winter of 1704, Mr. Vaudrieul, the governor of Canada, sent ont a part of about three hundred French and Indians, against Deerfield on Connecticut river, which was then the most northerly settlement on that river, a few families at Northfield excepted. They were put under the command of Hertel de Rouville, assisted by four of his brothers, all of whom had been trained up in this mode of war by their father, who had been a famous partizan in the former wars. The rout they took was by lake Champlain, till they came to Onion river in Vermont. Advancing up that stream, they passed over the mountains to Connecticut river, and travelled down that river on the ice, till they arrived near to Deerfield.
In this expedition, as well as that against Schenectady, and that
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against the Mohawks, the French and their allies used snow shoes, a species of shoes fastened upon their feet, which enabled them to walk over the deepest snow, without sinking.
Snow shoes are of large dimensions, and not calculated to directly protect the feet from cold or wet. They are made of wood and cords.
In these hibernal expeditions, the French followed the course of lakes, rivers, and streams, wherever these lay in their way.
When they sacked Schenectady, and the Mohawk castles, lake Champlain, Wood creek, and the Hudson, os low as Saratoga, formed the high way. These were covered with solid mantles of ice.
. The fortifications at this place, consisted of some slight works thrown round two or three houses.
Rouville approached on the 29th day of February. The watch kept the streets till about two hours before day, and then retired to rest. Perceiving all to be quiet, the enemy embraced. the opportunity, and rushed on to the attack. ' The snow was so high, that they had no difficulty in getting over the walls of the fortifications, when they immediately separated into small par- ties, and appeared before every house at the same instant. The place was completely surprised, and the enemy were entering the houses. at the moment the inhabitants had the first suspicion of their approach. The whole was carried in a very short time, with very little resistance; one of the garrison houses only being able to hold out. Forty-seven of the inhabitants were slain, and the rest captured.
. After plundering the village, the enemy set it on fire, and an hour after sunrise, retreated in great haste. A small party of the colonists pursued them, and coming up with them, engaged in a skirmish, in which a few fell on both sides. The enemy returned to Canada on the same rout, carrying with them one hundred and twelve prisoners. They were twenty-five days on their march from Deerfield to Chambly; and depended on hunting for their support. The prisoners, after their arrival in Canada, were treated with great kindness and humanity by the French.
For several years after this period, a continued scene of devasta-
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tion and destruction was kept up. The colonists of New England formed several expeditions against the French and Indians, in the eastern parts, and they in their turn, made several inroads on the exposed settlements. Success often attended both sides.
The harbor of New-York being unfortified, a French privateer entered it, in 1705, and put the inhabitants in great consternation.
In 1706, the legislature at their session, in June, ordered three thousand pounds to be levied, for the purpose of fortifying the Nar- rows, and the city of New-York. This sum was pocketted by the noble lord.
During the same session, a law was made to encourage the baptism of Negro, Indian, and Mulatto slaves. The occasion which gave rise to this law, may appear strange in these times. An opi- nion had gone abroad, that such as received the ordinance of bap- tism would be free : and this detered their humane and Christian like masters from allowing the ordinance to be performed. The legislature, therefore, in their pontificial character, interposed, and interpreted the effects and bearings of baptism on slaves. They declared the opinion noised abroad, to be heterodox ; that those who were slaves before baptism, were slaves after. The per- formance of this ordinance, they say, does not manumit : nor does it deprive masters from exacting menial services from their fellow beings.
The inhabitants of the city of New-York, at this time, consisted mostly of dissenters. Among these, there were a few English and Irish presbyterians, who had neither church, nor minister. These used to assemble every sunday at a private house, for the worship 1
of God.
Such were their circumstances when the Rev. Francis McKemie, and the Rev. John Hampton, two presbyterian ministers arrived in January, 1707.
As soon as Lord Cornbury, who hated the whole persuasion, heard that the Dutch had consented to Mr. McKemie's preaching in their church, he arbitrarily forbid, it. Mr. Hampton preached the same day at the Presbyterian church in Newtown, distant a few miles from the city. Both these clergymen were apprehended two er three days after, by Cardwell the sheriff, pursuant to his Lord-
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ship's warrant, for preaching without his gubernatorial licence. From lience, they were led in triumph through Jamaica to New- York, where they were inducted into the presence of his Lordship ; but they appeared before him with an undaunted courage, and bad a conference with him, in which it is difficult to determine whether his lordship excelled most in the character of a savage bigot, or an ill-mannerly tyrant.
The ministers were no lawyers, or they would not have founded their justification on the supposed extent of the English act of toleration. They knew not that the ecclesiastical statutes had no relation to this colony : and that its religious state consisted in a perfect parity between protestants of all denominations. In vain did they attempt to justify their conduct before this bigoted tyrant, he ordered them to be committed to jail. They remained in close confinement six weeks and four days, through the absence of Mom- pesson the chief justice. On his return, they were brought before him by writ of habeas corpus, and bailed to the next supreme court.
The chief justice, who seems to have been one of those legal persons, that attain eminence from sycophancy, ought to have dis- charged them without bail or cognizance ; but he probably knew very little more about law, than lord Cornbury and the attorney general.
In the heat of party zeal, when men sacrifice their judgments to their feelings, and their interests, any body may become an ex- pounder of the law. Innocent individuals, however, have to smart. These clergymen furnish an example." How many others smarted under the rod of tyranny and ignorance; we know not. We never should have heard of these men, had they not been clergymen. Historians rarely notice ordinary victims.
Great pains were taken to secure a grand jury who would indict them.
Mr. McKimie was tried and acquitted ; but through the shame- . ful partiality of the court, was not discharged from his cognizance, till they had extorted all the fees of his prosecution, which, together with his expenses, amounted to eighty-three pounds and upwards. Mr. Hampton was not tried or detained.
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Lord Cornbury was now daily loosing the favor of the people, who seem to have been displeased with his democratic principles. The Leislerians, whose cause the noble lord had not espoused, bad held him in the utmost abhorence from the beginning, and like true . partizans, being all spies upon his conduct, it was impossible for him to commit the smallest crime unnoticed.
Parties always see on one side, hence, the factions which agitated the province for a series of years, sided with the governors as best suited their interests. But the latter commonly understood what redounded to their interest. In general, the newly appointed go- vernor sided with the party which his predecessor bad born down, and made it buoyant, and solely for his own interest.
The people, who never were initiated into the mysteries of the leaders of these factions, always hoped for the better, and were always disappointed.
Lord Cornbury was poor, needy, and avaricious. He professed love for the people : and fleeced them.
He persecuted the presbyterians. He alarmed the fears of the Dutch in this : that he disputed their right to call and settle minis- ters, and school masters, without his gubernatorial permission :- In fine, his unbounded avarice; his embezzlement of the public money ; and his refusal to pay his private debts, raised such a clamor against him, that his admirers and other adherents, aban- doned him.
The minds of the people being very justly alienated from his lordship and his favourites, they sent representatives to the assem- bly, who were opposed to him.
Among the acts passed in 1708, there was one which provided donations for the Agoneaseah, and for the defence of the frontiers. . Farther provision was made for the continuance of the post office in the city of New-York. The assembly discontinued the reve- nue, owing to his excellency's appling it mostly to his own use.
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