So zealous was Lord Cornbury for the episcopal church, that he forbade preachers or schoolmasters to exercise their vocations without a licence from the bishop; he commenced also to persecute dissenting missionaries, but was obliged to desist in consequence of the general indignation, the majority of the people being themselves dissenters. Twice had he dissolved the assembly, and the third time “proved only how rapidly the political education had advanced under his administration. Dutch, English, and New England men were now all of one spirit.” The real birth of liberty in the popular heart was owing to the abuses and follies of Lord Cornbury. For some time, we are informed, he endeavoured to maintain his authority by a greater display of imperiousness; but falling deeply into debt, he suffered himself to be humbled by the assembly, whose rights he had so haughtily disputed, and became contemptible in the eyes of the people by parading the fort in the dress of a woman, and by similar acts of folly.
“Disguised alike with his antics and his knavery, the public indignation at length vented itself in clamorous demands for his recall, which was granted in 1709, when he was succeeded by Lord Lovelace. No sooner was Cornbury divested of the dignity of office, than his creditors threw him into prison, from which he was only released by succeeding to the earldom of Clarendon on the death of his father.
Lord Lovelace found the assembly much wiser from the vices of Cornbury, and they refused to advance more money than was necessary for the annual expenditure; but all conflict on this or any other subject was spared by the hand of death, which removed the new governor within a few weeks, Ingoldsby, the lieutenant-governor, succeeded him. During the short time of his administration, another attempt was made by New York and the New England provinces to invade Canada. The design was to co-operate with the British fleet in an attack on Quebec, and troops from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire assembled at Boston, waiting the arrival of the squadron; while the troops of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, about 1,500 in number, marched to Wood Creek, near the head of Lake Champlain, where fortifications were erected and provisions stored. The British fleet, however, was despatched to the aid of Portugal instead; and, to the mortification of New York, which had incurred for this purpose a debt of £20,000, the levies were recalled and disbanded. Besides the regular troops, the colony had enlisted 600 Iroquois warriors, the wives and children of whom, amounting to about 1,000, they had undertaken to support at Albany. For this reason New York refused to join in an attack upon Acadia, which was soon afterwards made, excusing themselves to the Queen on the plea that their frontiers were left undefended.
The following year Colonel Schuyler proceeded to England to urge upon parliament the conquest of Canada, accompanied by five grand Mohawk chiefs, who produced a vast sensation wherever they appeared. They paraded the streets of London dressed in black clothes, over which they flung scarlet mantles trimmed with gold. On the 19th of April they were introduced to Queen Anne, when one of them, having referred to the scheme for the conquest of Canada, said:—
“We were mightily pleased when we heard our great Queen had resolved to send an army to conquer Canada; and immediately, in token of friendship, we hung up the kettle and took up the hatchet, and, with one consent, assisted Colonel Nicholson in making preparations on this side the lake; but at length we heard that our great Queen was prevented in her design at present, which made us sorrowful, lest the French, who had hitherto dreaded us, should now think us unable to make war against them. The reduction of Canada is of great weight to our free hunting; so that, if our great Queen should be unmindful of us, we must, with our families, forsake our country, or stand neuter, either of which would be against us.”
So saying, he presented belts of wampum, in proof of the sincerity of the Five Nations; and having received a gracious reply from the Queen, withdrew.
In June, 1710, Robert Hunter arrived in New York as governor. The history of Hunter is striking. A native of Scotland, he was in his youth apprenticed to an apothecary, but running away from his master, he enlisted as a common soldier. Gifted with fine talents and address, and handsome in person, he became the friend of Swift and Addison, and the husband of Lady Hay. Military promotion followed his marriage, and in 1707 the appointment of lieutenant-governor of Virginia was conferred upon him. On his voyage to that province he was captured by the French; and, now on his return to England, received a commission as governor of New York and New Jersey.
Three thousand Germans, who had been driven from the Palatine by the devastations of war, and taken refuge in England, accompanied the new governor. Many of these immigrants settled in New York; others on the Hudson, on the manor of Livingstone; and others again in Pennsylvania, as we have already mentioned; and there, finding the country so much to their taste, invited their friends at home to follow them, who accordingly flocked over in great numbers.
Hunter soon came into collision with the assembly on financial questions. The people, now too wise not to keep some power in their own hands, made the post anything but a sinecure. “Here,” writes the governor to his friends, “is the finest air to live upon in the universe; the soil bears all things, but not for me; for, according to the custom of the country, the sachems are the poorest of the people.” And again, after three years’ experience, “I am used like a dog, I have spent three years in such torment and vexation, that nothing in life can ever make amends for it.”
In 1687, Andros, governor of New York, appeared in Connecticut, and under the commission from King James, appointing him governor of all New England, demanded the surrender of the charter from the assembly which was then sitting. This unwelcome demand led to a long discussion, which lasted till night, when the court was thronged with citizens. All at once the lights were extinguished, and though the utmost decorum was preserved under this extraordinary occurrence, yet when the candles were re-lighted, the charter was nowhere to be found. This was a scheme for its preservation. It was secreted by Captain Wadsworth in a hollow tree, which is still standing, and known as the Charter Oak. Andros, nevertheless, assumed the government of the province, which he held till the Revolution.