Governor Sloughter, a man "licentious in his morals, avaricious, and poor," *** died of delirium tremens two months after the death of Leisler, and was succeeded by Benjamin Fletcher, another weak, dissolute man; "a soldier of fortune." Fletcher became the tool of the aristocracy, and with their aid attempted to establish Episcopacy in New York, and make it the legal religion of the province. The popular Assembly was too strong for them, and defeated the scheme. Earl Bellomont, **** who succeeded Fletcher in 1698, was a better and a wiser man. Death removed him just as his more liberal policy was about to bear fruit,1701 and Edward Hyde (afterward Lord Cornbury), a libertine and a knave, cursed the province with misrule for seven years, when the people successfully demanded his recall. From that period until the arrival of William Cosby as governor, in 1732, the royal representatives, unable to resist the will of the people, expressed by the popular Assembly, allowed democratic principles to grow and bear fruit. Rip van Dam, "a man of the people," was acting governor when Cosby came. They soon quarreled, and two violent parties arose; the Democratic, who sided with Van Dam, and the Aristocratic, who sup-
* For interesting papers connected with this event, see Documentary History of New York, iii., 80-99 inclusive; also Valentine's Manual of the Common Council of New York, 1852, p. 415-435 inclusive.
** Jacoh Leisler was a native of Frankfort, in Germany. He came to America in 1660, and after a brief residence in Albany, he became a trader in New York. While on a voyage to Europe, he, with seven others, was made a prisoner by the Turks, to whom he paid a high price for his ransom. Governor Dongan appointed him one of the commissioners of the Court of Admiralty in 1683. In 1689, while exercising the functions of governor, he purchased New Rochelle for the persecuted Huguenots. His death, by the violence of his enemies, lighted an intense flame of party spirit, which burned for many long years. Abraham Gouverneur, Leisler's secretary, was condemned at the same time, but was pardoned. He afterward married the widow of Milborne, and became the ancestor of the large and respectable family of Gouverneurs in this country, and its collateral branches.
*** Chief Justice Smith.
**** It was during the administration of Bellomont, that efforts were made to suppress prevailing piracy. The governor, Robert Livingston, and others, fitted out an expedition for the purpose, intrusted the command to the famous Captain Kidd, and were to share with him in all the profits arising from the capture of piratical vessels. Kidd was hung as a pirate in 1701, apparently the victim of a political conspiracy.
Attempt to Muzzle the Press.—Triumph of Democracy.—The Negro Plot.—Death of Sir Danvers Osborn.
ported the governor. Each party had a newspaper at command, * and the war of words raged violently. The governor finally ordered Zenger, the publisher of the paper opposed to him, to be arrested on a charge of libel. After an imprisonment of thirty-five weeks, Zenger was tried and acquitted by a jury. The excitement was intense, and, as on other occasions, the heat of party zeal stimulated the growth of democratic ideas. **
The remarkable event in the history of judicial proceedings, known as The Negro Plot, occurred in the city of New York in 1741. The idea became prevalent that numerous negro slaves in the city had conspired to burn the town, murder the white people, and set up a government under a man of their own color. A panic appeared to subvert all reason and common sense, and before it was allayed, four white people were hanged; eleven negroes were burned, eighteen were hanged, and fifty were transported to the West Indies and sold. All the local histories contain accounts of this affair in detail.
During the administration of George Clinton (of the family of the Earls of Lincoln), from 1743 till 1753, disputes ran high between the government and the people. Clinton's haughty demeanor, exactions, and injudicious assumption of privileges, disgusted the people, and they treated him with scorn. Clinton menaced them with punishments; they defied him, and boldly pronounced his conduct "arbitrary, illegal, and a violation of their rights." Yielding to the democratic pressure, Clinton left the province, and was succeeded by Sir Danvers Osborn, on whose goodness and integrity the people relied for quiet and just rule. Four days after his accessionSept. 12, 1753 to office, he went down into the suicide's grave, *** and his deputy, Janies Delancey, officiated as governor. The "Seven Years' War," now kindling in Europe, and its counterpart in America, the "French and Indian War," absorbed public attention, and the local politics of New York became, in a measure, a secondary consideration with the people. **** In that war, the people of New York, like those of her sister colonies, perceived their true strength, and learned a lesson of vast importance to them in the crisis which was now approaching. We have too often, in these volumes, considered the events which led to this crisis—the open resistance of the people to the supreme government—to require a repetition here, except those circumstances of local interest which marked the reception of the Stamp Act in New York.
When intelligence of the passage of the Stamp Act came over the sea, the people of New York boldly avowed their opposition. Cadwallader Colden, (v) a venerable Scotchman of