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CH. III.]

LORD BELLAMONT'S ADMINISTRATION.

The war between the French and Five Nations was carried on more or less vigorously according to the means and opportunities of the aged Frontenac. The most revolting feature connected with this protracted contest was the savage and detestable barbarity practised on both sides. We give an example drawn from La Potherie's History of North America. "The prisoner being first made fast to a stake, so as to have room to move round it, a Frenchman began the horrid tragedy, by broiling the flesh of the prisoner's legs, from his toes to his knees, with the red-hot barrel of a gun. His example was followed by an Utawawa, who, being desirous to outdo the French in their refined cruelty, split a furrow from the prisoner's shoulder to his garter, and filling it with gunpowder, set fire to it. This gave him exquisite pain, and raised excessive laughter in his tormentors. When they found his throat so much parched that he was no longer able to gratify their ears with his howling, they gave him water, to enable him to continue their pleasure longer. But at last his strength failing, an Utawawa flayed off his scalp, and threw burning hot coals on his scull. They then untied him, and bid him run for his life. He began to run, tumbling like a drunken man. They shut up the way to the east, and made him run westward, the country, as they think, of departed miserable souls. He had still force left to throw stones, till they put an end to his misery by knocking him on the head. After this every one cut a slice from his body, to conclude the tragedy with a feast." Such dis

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gusting outrages as these were, for a time at least, put an end to, by the peace of Ryswick, in 1697.

1698.

The next year, 1698, Lord Bellamont, who had been appointed governor of New York in 1695, arrived in the colony: he was charged with the duty of investigating Fletcher's conduct, enforcing the acts of trade, suppressing piracy, etc. Bellamont took the opposite side to that which Fletcher had favored, and it was in a measure through him that Leisler's son obtained from the Assembly a vote of £1,000, to be paid to him for damages resulting from the proceedings against his father. The attainder was reversed by act of parliament, and Leisler and Milbourne were reburied in the Dutch Church.* Bellamont also originated a Court of Chancery, which afterwards was looked on with a jealous eye. The governor's speech to the Assembly, convened in May, is well worth quoting from: "I cannot but observe to you, what a legacy my predecessor has left me, and what difficulties to struggle with; a divided people, an empty purse, a few miserable, naked, half-starved soldiers, not half the number the king allowed pay for; the fortifications, and even the governor's house, very much out of

*"This year (1700,) no fewer than a thousand Scottish fugitives from the unfortunate and ill-used Scottish colony of Darien arrived at New York, in

various ships, during the absence of Lord Bellamont

at Boston. Nanfan, the lieutenant governor, in con

formity with instructions from England, refused even adventurers. Two years before, the royal governors

the slightest relief or assistance to these unhappy

of New York and New England had issued procla

mations, forbidding all correspondence with, or asHolmes, quoted by Grahame, vol. i., p. 453.

sistance to, the Scottish colony." Oldmixon and

repair; and, in a word, the whole government out of frame." After this introduction, he puts them in mind that the revenue was near expiring. "It would be hard," he adds, "if I, that come among you with an honest mind, and a resolution to be just to your interest, should meet with greater difficulties in the discharge of his majesty's service than those that have gone before me. I will take care there shall be no misapplication of the public money. I will pocket none of it myself, nor shall there be any embezzlement by others; but exact accounts shall be given you, when, and as often, as you shall require."

1701.

1702.

Church's interests, while disgracing the truths which the Church of England has ever held forth; and accordingly we find that he promoted all such schemes as zealots of party and seekers after emoluments in religion concocted. Cornbury, on more than one occasion, put into his own pocket the money raised for public service, and the Assembly, naturally not liking this, complained of such treatment; but all the satisfaction they got was a pretty sharp scolding from his lordship and fresh applications for money.

In a few years matters came to such a pass that the Assembly appointed a committee of grievances, which drew many and heavy charges against the governor. The Resolutions approved by the House were pointed, and clearly showed its fixed determination to assert its just rights. One of these Resolutions is well worth quoting, inasmuch as it significantly indicates a principle which, just before the Revolution, was set forth as lying at the basis of our resistance to the claims of England. It is as follows: "Resolved, That the imposing and levying of any moneys upon her majesty's subjects of this colony, under any pretence or color whatsoever, without consent in General Assembly, is a grievance, and a violation of the people's property."

Lord Bellamont's sudden death, in 1701, left the government for a time in the hands of Nanfan, the lieutenant governor, who proceeded with some haste and violence against Livingston and Bayard, two active men in the anti-Leislerian party. Lord Cornbury, a grandson of the first Earl of Clarendon, having arrived in New York, in 1702, as governor, put a stop to these proceedings: he also espoused the views of those opposed to the Leislerian party. Cornbury was a profligate and unprincipled man, sent out to a governorship rather to get rid of him than because of any fitness which he possessed for the duties of the office. Being deeply in debt, it was one main purpose of his acts to get money, in any and every way, for his necessities; and his whole administra-sembly of that province joined tion was marked by rapacity, meanness, and outrageous violations of ordinary decency and decorum. Not unlike Fletcher, he was very zealous for the

Lord Cornbury being no less obnoxious to the people of New Jersey than to those of New York, the As- 1707.

with New York in making a formal complaint against him to the queen. Her majesty, though Lord Cornbury was her cousin, removed him, saying

CH. III.]

POST OFFICE SYSTEM IN AMERICA.

that she would not countenance oppression by any, even though he were her own flesh and blood; whereupon his creditors threw him into prison. Soon after, his father's death opened the way to him for release, for now become the Earl of Clarendon, he was discharged from arrest and returned to England.

1708.

1709.

Lord Lovelace was appointed Cornbury's successor in the spring of 1708, but he did not reach New York till near the close of the year. His administration gave promise of being acceptable and serviceable to the province; it was, however, very brief; for early in the year 1709, Lovelace died, and Ingoldsby again had charge of public affairs. It was while Ingoldsby was acting governor that another fruitless expedition against Canada was made. Five hundred men were raised, and bills of credit were issued to pay the expense. New York showed herself equally zealous with her New England neighbors. Schuyler went to England with some of the Mohawk chiefs, and they were admitted to an audience with the queen. Aid was promised; but the reverses of war in Spain prevented at the time, and all this expense and preparation, which were beyond anything the colonies had yet made, proved of no avail. Had the plan been energetically carried out of a combined attack by land and sea, there can be hardly a doubt but that Canada would have fallen into the hands of the English.

The patent of Thomas Neal for "colonial posts having expired, an act of parliament extended the British postoffice system to America. A chief

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1710.

The same act re

office was established at New York, to which letters were to be conveyed by regular packets across the Atlantic. across the Atlantic. gulated the rates of postage to be paid in the plantations, exempted the posts from ferriage, and enabled postmasters to recover their dues by summary process. A line of posts was presently established on Neal's old routes, north to the Piscataqua, and south to Philadel phia; irregularly extending, a few years after, to Williamsburg, in Virginia, the post leaving Philadelphia for the south as often as letters enough were lodged to pay the expense. The postal communication subsequently established with the Carolinas was still more irregular.

Robert Hunter, a Scotchman by birth, who had risen from an humble station to high military rank, was appointed Lovelace's successor in the gubernatorial chair. Three thousand Germans, who had been compelled by the ravages of war, to leave their homes on the banks of the Rhine, were sent out with the new governor to be settled on the banks of the Hudson. The experiment was not a successful one while they served under indentures to the queen, for their maintenance was a positive loss; but when they were allowed the privileges of free citizens, they soon became thriving and industrious denizens of the German Flats, on the upper waters of the Mohawk. A part of the same company settled in Pennsylvania, and another part in North Carolina. It is owing to

Hildreth's "History of the United States," vol. ii., p. 262.

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1722.

Hunter, in 1719, left the province, and William Burnet, a son of the famous bishop of that name, was appointed to succeed him. The new governor seems to have been aware of the importance of resisting the progress of the French in Canada and the West. He caused a trading post to be established at Oswego, thus taking possession of the south shore of Lake Ontario, pleading that the Five Nations were under the protection of England, and that they had granted their hunting grounds to their white protectors. In 1727, a fort was built by Burnet at the same place; but the French were not idle; they also erected a fort at Niagara, which commanded the communication into the upper lakes and the Mississippi. Burnet, meanwhile, was involved in embarrassments with the Assembly and people. Much complaint having been made by the latter, he dissolved the Assembly who had now been in office for eleven years. The new Assembly was not more favorable to the governor,

1727.

and complained of the Court of Chancery, in which Burnet presided, as without the authority of law, and oppressive in the fees exacted. Shortly after, Burnet was removed from New York and made governor of Massachusetts.

1732.

After the brief administration of Montgomery, who succeeded Burnet in 1728, at which time the city of New York numbered something over eight thousand inhabitants, Colonel William Cosby was made governor. At first he had the promise of a popular administration, but as he was of a violent temper and mercenary spirit, he soon after became involved in quarrels with members of the Council, and with John Peter Zenger, proprietor of the Weekly Journal, a newspaper opposed to the governor and his party. Cosby instituted a suit for libel, and both ordered the Journal to be burned by the sheriff and arrested Zenger. Andrew Hamilton, a Philadelphia lawyer, defended Zenger's cause successfully, so that he was acquitted at once, and the freedom of the press was thereby vindicated.* Poor Zenger,

1733.

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Сн. III.]

GOVERNOR CLARKE AND THE ASSEMBLY.

however, was left to struggle with debt and official censure; and he complains warmly of the neglect and ill usage of many of those who professed to be his friends and supporters: "My country subscribers," he says, "are earnestly desired to pay their arrearages for this journal, which if they don't speedily, I shall leave off sending, and seek my money another way. Some of these kind customers are in arrears upwards of seven years! Now, as I have served them so long, I think it is time, aye and high time too, that they gave me my outset, for they may verily believe that my every-day clothes are nearly worn out. N. B. Gentlemen, If you have not ready money with you, still think of the printer; and when you have read this advertisement and considered it, you cannot but say, come, dame, (especially you inquisitive wedded men, let the bachelors take it to themselves,) let us send the poor printer a few gammons, or some meal, some butter, cheese, poultry, &c."

1735.

1737.

Cosby died suddenly, in 1735, and after disputes between members of the Council as to who was entitled to act ad interim, George Clarke, in 1736, was made governor. The Assembly took ground against any but an annual grant for revenues, and this policy was thereafter adhered to in New York. Clarke, offended at their proceedings, dissolved the Assembly; the popular party, however, triumphed in the new election. A portion of their address to the Governor is worthy of quotation: "We therefore beg leave to be plain with your honor, and hope you will not take

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it amiss when we tell you, that you are not to expect that we will either raise sums unfit to be raised, or put what we shall raise into the power of a governor to misapply, if we can prevent it; nor shall we make up any other deficiencies than what we conceive fit and just to be paid; nor continue what support or revenue we shall raise, for any longer time than one year; nor do we think it convenient to do even that, until such laws are passed as we conceive necessary for the safety of the inhabitants of this colony, who have reposed a trust in us for that only purpose, and which we are sure you will think it reasonable we should act agreeably to; and by the grace of God we shall endeavor not to deceive them."

revenue was

Clarke deemed it unwise to enter into a contest with men who avowed their sentiments thus decidedly, and so he promised his co-operation in all measures calculated to promote the welfare of the province. In his speech, however, at the opening of the next session, he declared that unless the revenue granted for as long a time as it had been granted by former Assemblies, his duty to his majesty forbade him from assenting to any act for continuing the excise, or for paying the colonial bills of credit. The House unanimously resolved, that it would not pass any bill for the grant of money, unless assurance should be given that the excise should be continued, and the bills of credit redeemed. He thereupon immediately ordered the members to attend him. He told them that "their proceedings were presumptuous, daring, and unpre cedented; that he could not look

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