New York Under the English.
English Governors.
THE Dutch had surrendered themselves to the English government in the hope of obtaining civil liberty. But it was a poor sort of liberty that any province was likely to receive from Charles II. The promised rights of the people were evaded and withheld. The old titles by which the Dutch farmers held their lands were annulled. The people were obliged to accept new deeds from the English governor, and to pay him therefor large sums of money.
2. In 1667 Nicolls, the first English governor of New York, was superseded by the tyrannical Lord Lovelace. The people became dissatisfied and gloomy. The discontent was universal. Several towns resisted the tax-gatherers and passed resolutions denouncing the government. The only attention which Lovelace and his council paid to these resolutions was to order them to be burnt before the town-house of New York. When the Swedes, a quiet people, resisted the governor's exactions, he wrote to his deputy: "If there is any more murmuring against the taxes, make them so heavy that the people can do nothing but think how to pay them."
3. In 1672 Charles II. was induced by the king of France to begin a war with Holland. The struggle extended to the colonies, and New York was for a short time revolutionized. But the conquest was only a brief military occupation of the country. The civil authority of the Dutch was never reestablished. In 1674 Charles II. was obliged to conclude a treaty of peace. All conquests made during the war were restored. New York reverted to the English government, and the rights of the duke of York were again recognized in the province. Sir Edmund Andros was now appointed governor. On the last day of October the Dutch forces were finally withdrawn, and Andros assumed control of the government.
Dutch Costumes and Architecture.
4. It was a sad sort of government for the people. All the abuses of Lovelace's administration were revived. Taxes were levied without authority of law, and the protests of the people were treated with scorn. A popular legislative assembly was demanded, but the duke of York wrote to Andros that popular assemblies were dangerous to the government, and that he did not see any use for them.
5. In July of 1675 Andros made an unsuccessful effort to extend his authority over Connecticut, and later an equally ineffectual attempt to gain control of New Jersey. The representatives of the people at this latter place declared themselves to be under the protection of the Great Charter, which not even the duke of York could alter or annul. In August of 1682 the "Territories" beyond the Delaware were granted by the Duke of York to William Penn. This little district, first settled by the Swedes, afterwards conquered by the Dutch, then transferred to England, was now finally separated from New York and joined to the new province of Pennsylvania.
Popular Assembly Granted.
6. For thirty years the people had been clamoring for a general assembly. At last the duke of York yielded to the demand. Then, for the first time, the people of the province were permitted to choose their own rulers and to frame their own laws. The new assembly made haste to declare THE PEOPLE to be a part of the government. All freeholders were granted the right of suffrage; trial by jury was established; taxes should not be levied except by the assembly; soldiers should not be quartered on the people; martial law should not exist; no person should be persecuted on account of his religion.
7. In July of 1684 the governors of New York and Virginia were met by the chiefs of the Iroquois at Albany, and the terms of a lasting peace were settled. In 1685 the duke of York became king of England. It was soon found that even a monarch could violate his pledges. King James became the enemy of the government which had been established in his American province. The legislature of New York was dismissed. An odious tax was levied. Printing-presses were forbidden; and the old abuses were revived.
Leisler's Insurrection.
8. When the news of the accession of William of Orange reached New York there was great rejoicing. The people rose in rebellion against deputy-governor Nicholson, who was glad to escape to England. The leader of the insurrection was Captain Jacob Leisler. He was appointed commandant of New York, and afterwards provisional governor. The councilors, who were friends of the deposed Nicholson, left the city and went to Albany. Here the party opposed to Leisler organized a second provisional government. Both factions began to rule in the name of William and Mary, the new sovereigns of England. Such was the condition of affairs at the beginning of King William's War. In the spring of 1690, the authority of Leisler as governor of New York was recognized throughout the province.
9. In March, 1691, Colonel Sloughter arrived, with appointment as governor; and Leisler, on the same day, tendered his submission. He wrote a letter to Sloughter, expressing a desire to surrender the post to the governor. But Sloughter preferred to treat him as a traitor, and had him seized and sent to prison.
10. As soon as the government was organized the prisoner was brought to trial. It was decided that he had been a usurper. Sentence of death was passed on him, but Sloughter hesitated to put the sentence into execution. In this state of affairs the governor was invited to a banquet by the royal councilors; and when heated with drink, the death-warrant was thrust before him for his signature. He succeeded in signing his name to the parchment; and before his drunken revel had passed away, his victim had met his fate. On the 16th of May Leisler was taken from prison and hanged.
French Invasion.
11. In 1696 New York was invaded by the French. But they were soon driven back by the English and Iroquois. Before a second invasion could be undertaken, King William's War was ended. In 1697 the Irish earl of Bellomont became governor. His administration was the happiest in the history of the colony. Massachusetts and New Hampshire were under his jurisdiction, but Connecticut and Rhode Island remained independent.
12. To Bellomont's administration belongs the story of Captain William Kidd, the pirate. A vessel was fitted out by a company of distinguished Englishmen to protect the commerce of Great Britain and to punish piracy. Governor Bellomont was one of the proprietors, and Kidd received a commission as captain. The ship sailed from England before Bellomont's departure for New York. Soon the news came that Kidd himself had turned pirate and become the terror of the seas. For two years he continued his career, then appeared publicly in the streets of Boston, was seized, sent to England, tried, convicted, and hanged.
New York and New Jersey United.
13. In May of 1702 Bellomont was superseded by Lord Cornbury. A month previously the proprietors of New Jersey had surrendered their province to the English Crown. All obstacles being thus removed, the two colonies were formally united in one government under Cornbury. For thirty-six years the two provinces continued under the jurisdiction of a single governor.
14. In 1732, New York was troubled with a dispute about the freedom of the press. The liberal party of the province held that a public journal might criticise the acts of the administration. The aristocratic party opposed such liberty as dangerous to good government. Zenger, an editor who published criticisms on the governor, was seized and put in prison. Great excitement ensued. The people praised their champion. Andrew Hamilton, a lawyer of Philadelphia, went to New York to defend Zenger, who was brought to trial in July of 1735. The cause was heard, and the jury brought in a verdict of acquittal. The aldermen of New York, in order to testify their appreciation of Hamilton's services, made him a present of an elegant gold box, and the people were enthusiastic over their victory.
The Negro Plot.
15. In the year 1741 occurred what is known as the Negro Plot. Negroes constituted a large fraction of the people. Several fires occurred, and the slaves were suspected of having kindled them; now they became feared and hated. A rumor was started that the negroes had made a plot to burn the city, and set up one of their own number as governor. The reward of freedom was offered to any slave who would reveal the plot. Many witnesses rushed forward; the jails were filled with the accused; and more than thirty of the miserable creatures, with hardly the form of a trial, were convicted and then hanged or burned to death. Others were transported and sold as slaves in foreign lands. As soon as the excitement had subsided, it came to be doubted whether the whole affair had not been the result of terror and fanaticism. The verdict of after times has been that there was no plot at all.
16. Such is the history of the little colony planted on Manhattan Island. A hundred and thirty years had passed since the first feeble settlements were made; the valley of the Hudson was filled with farms and villages. The Walloons of Flanders and the Puritans of New England had blended into one people. Discord and contention had only resulted in colonial liberty. There were other struggles through which the sons of New York had to pass before they gained their freedom. But the oldest and greatest of the Middle Colonies had entered upon a glorious career, and the foundations of an Empire State were laid.