General Hunter quitted the province in 1719, and his authority devolved on Peter Schuyler, the oldest member of the council. William Burnet succeeded him in the following year. He was a man of good sense, and kind feelings, and he entertained just views of policy. His most vigilant attention was directed to Indian affairs, and to the danger to be apprehended from the vicinity of the French.
Turning his views towards the wilderness, he perceived that the French, in order to connect their settlements in Canada and Louisiana, to secure to themselves the Indian trade, and to confine the English to the sea-coast, were busily employed in erecting a chain of forts from the St. Lawrence to the Mississippi. He endeavored to defeat their design, by building a trading-house, and afterwards a fort, at Oswego, on lake Ontario. But the French had the command of more abundant resources, and applied them to the accomplishment of their object with great activity and zeal. They launched two vessels upon that lake; and, going farther into the wilderness, erected a fort at Niagara, commanding the entrance into it; they had previously erected fort Frontignac, commanding the outlet. The Jesuit Charlevoix does no more than justice to Mr. Burnet, in declaring that he left no stone unturned to defeat the French at Niagara. Besides supplanting his favorite trade at Oswego, these operations tended to the defection of the Five Nations; and, in case of a rupture, exposed the frontiers of the southern colonies to the ravages of the French and their allies. Mr. Burnet, upon whom these considerations made the deepest impression, laid the matter before the house, remonstrated against the proceedings to Longuiel, in Canada, wrote to the ministry in England, who complained of them to the French court, and met the confederates at Albany, endeavoring to convince them of the danger they themselves would be in from an aspiring, ambitious neighbor.
He spoke first about the affair privately to the sachems, and afterwards, in the public conference, informed them of all the encroachments which the French had made upon their fathers, and the ill-usage they had met with, according to La Potherie’s account, published with the privilege of the French king, at Paris, in 1722. He then reminded them of the kind treatment they had received from the English, who constantly fed and clothed them, and never attempted any act of hostility to their prejudice. This speech was extremely well drawn, the thoughts being conceived in strong figures, particularly expressive and agreeable to the Indians. The governor required an explicit declaration of their sentiments concerning the French transactions at Niagara, and their answer was truly categorical. ‘We speak now in the name of all the Six Nations, and come to you howling. This is the reason why we howl, that the governor of Canada encroaches on our land, and builds thereon.’ After which they entreated him to write to the king for succor. Mr. Burnet embraced this favorable opportunity to procure from them a deed, surrendering their country to his majesty, to be protected for their use, and confirming their grant in 1701, concerning which there was only an entry in the books of the secretary for Indian affairs.
It was an unfortunate circumstance, which tended to prevent the execution of Mr. Burnet’s vigorous designs, that the electors of the colony had become dissatisfied at the length of time which had elapsed since they had been called on to exercise their functions. The assembly elected in 1716 had been on such good terms with the governor, that he continued its existence during the long period of eleven years. In the year 1727, however, the clamors of the people induced him to dissolve it; and, as might be expected, that which next met, was composed almost exclusively of his opponents. The court of chancery, in which he presided, had become exceedingly unpopular. It had been instituted by an ordinance of thegovernor and council, without the concurrence of the assembly, and some of the decisions had given great offence to powerful individuals. The house passed resolutions, declaring it ‘a manifest oppression and grievance,’ and intimating that its decrees were void. Mr. Burnet no sooner heard of these votes, than he called the members before him, and dissolved the assembly. They occasioned, however, an ordinance in the spring following, as well to remedy sundry abuses in the practice in chancery, as to reduce the fees of that court, ‘which, on account of the popular clamors, were so much diminished,’ says Smith, ‘that the wheels of the chancery have ever since rusted upon their axles, the practice being contemned by all gentlemen of eminence in the profession.’
Mr. Burnet was soon after appointed governor of Massachusetts, and was succeeded at New York by colonel Montgomery, who devoted himself so much to his ease that he has left nothing else to distinguish his brief rule. Upon his death, in 1731, the supreme authority devolved upon Rip Van Dam, the senior member of the council. Under his inefficient administration, the French were permitted to erect a fort at Crown Point, within the acknowledged boundaries of New York, from which parties of savages were often secretly despatched to destroy the English settlements.
In August, 1732, Van Dam was superseded by William Crosby. Having been the advocate in parliament of the American colonies, he was at first popular, but he soon lost the affection and confidence of the people. One of his most unpopular acts was the prosecution of Zenger, the printer of a newspaper, for publishing an article derogatory to the dignity of his majesty’s government, bringing him to trial, after a severe imprisonment of thirty-five weeks from the printing of the offensive articles. Andrew Hamilton, an eminent lawyer of Philadelphia, though aged and infirm, learning the distress of the prisoner and the importance of the trial, went to New York to plead Zenger’s cause, which he did so effectually that the jury brought in the prisoner not guilty. The common council of the city of New York, for this noble and successful service, presented Mr. Hamilton the freedom of their corporation in a gold box.
Governor Crosby was succeeded, in 1736, by George Clark. During his administration, the contest which had ended, twenty years before, in the victory gained by governor Hunter over the house of representatives, was revived. The colony being in debt, the house voted to raise the sum of six thousand pounds; but, in order to prevent its misapplication, declared that it should be applied to the payment of certain specified debts. Offended by this vote, Clark immediately dissolved the assembly. At the election which ensued, the popular party was triumphant. In their second session the house voted an address to the lieutenant governor, in which, after stating some of the vital principles of free government, and referring to recent misapplications of money, they say, ‘We therefore beg leave to be plain with your honor, and hope you will not take 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 are 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 passedas 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 agreeable to; and, by the grace of God, we shall endeavor not to deceive them.’
With men so resolute in maintaining their rights, Clark wisely declined to contend; and promised his cordial co-operation in all measures calculated to promote the prosperity of the colony. Harmony did not, however, long continue. Clark, in his speech at the opening of the next session, declared that unless the revenue was 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. The lieutenant governor immediately ordered the members to attend him. He told them that ‘their proceedings were presumptuous, daring, and unprecedented; that he could not look upon them without astonishment, nor with honor suffer the house to sit any longer;’ and he accordingly dissolved it. In April, 1740, the assembly again met. It had now risen to importance in the colony; and the adherence of the representatives to their determination, not to grant the revenue for more than one year, made annual meetings of the assembly necessary. Their attachment to liberty was construed by the lieutenant governor into a desire for independence: in a speech delivered, in 1741, he alludes to ‘a jealousy which for some years had obtained in England, that the plantations were not without thoughts of throwing off their dependence on the crown.’
George Clinton superseded Clark in the government of the colony in 1743. Like most of his predecessors he was welcomed with joy; and one of his earliest measures confirmed the favorable accounts which had preceded him, of his talents and liberality. To manifest his confidence in the people, he assented to a bill limiting the duration of the present and all succeeding assemblies. The house evinced its gratitude by adopting the measures he recommended for the defence of the province against the French, who were then at war with England. In 1745, the savages in alliance with France made frequent invasions of the English territories; and their hostilities were continued, with little intermission, till the war which terminated the French dominion in Canada.
In the middle of the seventeenth century, the whole colony of New York contained scarcely one hundred thousand inhabitants,[100] not half the number which the city of New York alone can now boast. That the population would have been much more numerous at this time, had not the inhabitants been so continually exposed to the irruptions of the French and their Indian allies, is evident from its rapid increase when those unfavorable circumstances ceased to exist. The consideration of this period belongs, however, to another department of the work.