Cadwallader Colden, a representative eighteenth century official ...

Front matter

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Book ca^'l-ft^

HiKSKNTKl) liY

Preface

It would be idle to affirm that patriotism depends on knowledge, or even on tradition ; it would be equally idle to deny that a sense of kinship with a country's past, springing from at least a general familiarity with its development, and sustained by many visible reminders of its history, has much to do with the making of good citizens. Surely, in the face of much contrary evidence, England's storied cities have had a large share in forming the character of her people ; while here in America, despite political corruption and social frivolity, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts stand for the ideas for which their fathers fought to an extent perhaps impossible were not the old houses and halls in which these men lived and spoke still so full of their spirit. It must therefore be regretted that New York has so few landmarks, and that, perhaps for this reason, so Httle is known of the men and women who made her history in the century that elapsed between Father Knickerbocker's nominal departure and the Revolution. Too cosmopolitan even then to produce a type, that fact in itself is a Hnk with the present, and it was in the hope of suggesting that there are many more such links that this sketch of one of the predominant characters of this middle period was undertaken. So far as possible the four phases of his life here considered have been treated independently of each other, the detailed account of his work as surveyor-general, for instance, being quite unnecessary to an understanding of his career.

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Preface

With the exception of the printed authorities mentioned in the text, the materials for these pages have been found in the manuscript collection known as the Golden Papers and owned by the New York Historical Society. The courtesy of the society in permitting their use is hereby gratefully acknowledged, thanks being also due, in an especial manner to Professor H. L. Osgood, of Columbia University, without whose mvaluable suggestions and advice this study could not have been completed.

Contents

PAGES

Colden's education in Scotland — Settlement in Philadelphia — Removal to New York — "The Five Indian Nations" — His correspondents — Peter Collinson — John Bartram — John Rutherford — Benjamin Franklin — " An Explanation of the First Causes of Action in Matter, etc." — Attempts at mechanical invention — A botanical success — Views on education — A practical achievement — Other accomplishments . . . 1-26

Golden appointed surveyor general of New York — Condition of the land records — Land policy of the proprietary governors — The great grants of Dongan and Fletcher — Bellomont's restrictive policy — Free subdivision under Governors Nanfan and Cornbury — Instructions to Lovelace — Colden's early surveys — His struggle for accuracy — His memorial to the home government — His opposition to the partition acts — A second memorial — Its results — The Connecticut boundary — Colden's part in the settlement of 1725 — The Oblong — Governor Cosby's hunger for land — Letters from Daniel Horsmanden — Colden's memorial to Cosby — More letters from Horsmanden — Cosby's illness and death — Statesmanlike schemes of Lieutenant-Governor Clarke — Protection of Indian rights — Casual correspondents — Colden's carelessness in settling the Oblong account — Interval in land speculation caused by King George's War — Colden's commission granted for life — Governor Clinton's suspicions of Colden's good faith — His growing interest in land — Characteristic letters — Effects of the last French War — Delancey's proclamation — Colden's land policy as chief magistrate — Difficulty with New Hampshire — The "Hampshire grants" — Inconsist-

II

Governor Clinton — His character — His submission to Delancey — King George's War — The assembly's indifference — Capture of Louisburg — New assembly — Colden on Indian affairs — Clinton's break with Delancey — Canadian expedition — Colden becomes Clinton's prime minister — His task — Indian conference and rendezvous of colonial forces at Albany — Clinton commander-in-chief — Winter plans — Return of Colden and Clinton to New York . 132-149

III Colden's opportunity — Clinton's speech to the assembly — Its effect

— Report of the seizure of provisions at Albany — The assem-

Contents xi

PAGES

bly's action — Colden's failure to read tlie situation — The council's attack on Colden — His departure for Coldengham — The council's charges — Colden's defence — Letters from Kennedy and Rutherford — Military aifairs — Recall of Colden . 1 50-1 66

IV The assembly's resentment at Colden's recall — Colden's vindication of Clinton — The assembly's reply — Mutiny of the volunteers — Clinton's departure for Albany — The ministry's silence — Letters from Colden — Clinton's difficulties 166-176

Return of Clinton and Colden to New York — Colden's tactics — The administration's proposition for the fall campaign — The assembly's demand for details — Its refusal — Destruction of Fort Clinton — The Indians — CUnton's demand — Its evasion — His peremptory speech — Assembly dramatics — Two points of view

— Confused poHcy of the ministry — Dissolution of the assembly

— Colden's position — His return to Coldengham . . 176-193

VI An election campaign — Political literature— Clinton's helplessness

— His suspicions — James Delancey lieutenant-governor — Clinton's attempt to be his own prime minister — James Alexander

— The assembly's advantage — Colden again recalled . 193-206

VII

Indian conference at Albany — Sympathy between Governor Shirley

and Colden — Shirley's report on the province of New York —

Prestige of the Delanceys — Mrs. Clinton — Colden returns to

New York on Shirley's suggestion — Clinton's dread of the result

— Affair of the prisoners — Wrangling of governor and assembly

— Delancey's attack on Colden — Colden's defence and departure from town 206-215

VIII

Continued silence of the ministry — Importunities of Colden and Clinton — Clinton's fears — Colden's refusal to come to New xii Contents

PAGES

York — His proposition for the conduct of Indian affairs — Oliver Delancey's escapades — Colden's continued refusal to come to town — Prorogation of the assembly 215-224

IX

Colden's return and the assembly — The administration's sensible demands obscured by bitter quibbling on parliamentary procedure — The session resolved into a personal controversy — The governor's financial position — Colden's description of the situation to Shirley — Clinton's new friends — Chief Justice Morris — Memorial to England — Excitement over the excise bill — Confusion of parties — Bedford's oracular approval — The episode of the Greyhound 224-241

X

Colden's refusal to meet a new assembly — Clinton suspects Colden of sarcasm — Alexander as peacemaker — The Board of Trade's report on New York — Inter-colonial Indian conference at Albany

— Colden's "State of Indian Affairs" — Another new assembly

— Colden's disgust at Clinton's vacillation — The ministry's decision to uphold prerogative in New York — Arrival of Sir Danvers Osborne — His death — Delancey's succession and Clinton's retirement 242-259

I

Colden succeeds Delancey — French and Indian War — Social changes during Colden's retirement — Colden's negotiations with Pownall for the lieutenant-governorship — Surrender of Canada — Accession of George III 260-268

II

New York's lawyers — The Whig Club — Colden's antipathy to the

Independents — Colden's refusal to pass a bill changing the

tenure of Supreme Court judges — Arrival of his commission as

■ lieutenant-governor — His efforts to correct abuses in the land

Contents xiii

PAGES

system and to maintain the laws of trade — Effect of his unpopularity — Mr. Benjamin Prat — General Monckton governor of New York without instructions — Colden's request for them — Smith's use of Monckton's friendship — Disposition of the returns of government — Monckton's departure for Martinique — Assembly yf^^jj^ — Land grants — Discovery of Colden's negotiations with Secretary Pownall 268-289

III

The assembly and the volunteers — T/te Atnerican Chronicle — Land fever — Monckton's return from the South — His departure for England — England's colonial policy — Assembly of 1 764 — The Sugar Act — Other threatened trade restrictions — The assembly's address — Colden's unfortunate reply . . . 290-300

IV

Thomas Forshey vs. Waddell Cunningham — The attorney-general's attitude on appeals — Colden issues a writ opposed by the council — Attitude of the judges — The council's declaration on appeals — Colden's reply to the judges — The 32d and 33d instructions — Journalistic wit 300-312

The Stamp Act — Riot at Boston — New York stamp distributor resigns — Colden's protest against the Stamp Act congress — Arrival of the stamps — Their removal to the Fort — Decision of the privy council on appeals 312-319

VI

Excitement caused by Colden's renewal of his oath of office — Wild rumors — Riot of November ist — Colden's agreement to let the stamps alone — New demands — "The rebel drummer " — Stamps yielded to the mayor — Arrival of Sir Henry Moore — Departure of Colden for Flushing — " State of the People of the New York "

— Resemblances between Colden and Grenville — The new governor's policy — Verdict of the assembly on Colden's attitude towards appeals — England's rebuke of his cession of the stamps

— The Stamp Act considered — Colden's vindication — Its indictment by the Supreme Court 3 19-33 5 xiv Contents

VII

A Whig defeat — Dissolution of the assembly — The Whigs again unsuccessful — Sir Henry's death — Colden chief magistrate once more — Paper money bill passed by Colden — Motives attributed to him — "To the Betrayed Inhabitants of the City and Colony of New York " — Action of the assembly — Alexander Macdougal

— His indictment — Pivotal state of New York — Royal disapproval of Colden — Reactionary tendencies . . . 335-348

VIII

Lord Dunmore's arrival — His claim on Colden's receipts — His suit to recover — Colden's victory — William Tryon governor — Returns home on leave of absence leaving Colden in charge — New York's committee of correspondence — Radicals disapproved — The Charlotte rebellion — Congress at Philadelphia — Non-importation agreement — Loyalist victory in the assembly of 1775

— Radicals regain ascendancy by a iour deforce — Colden's final retirement — His career considered as a whole . . . 348-369