The Watchman, No. 1.
Lacoon ardens summa decurrit ab arce
Et procul; O miseri quĉ tanta insania cives?
Creditis avectos bostes? aut ulla putatis
Dona carere dolis Danaum? Sic notus Ulysses?
THE dangerous unconstitutional innovations and infringements made by the General Assembly of the province of New-York in their two last sessions on the liberties of their constituents, have greatly alarmed the impartial friends of liberty and the colony in this city and other parts of the province. In a day when the American pulse beats very high for liberty; when it is the theme of almost every tongue, and the subject of every public paper; it might justly be expected, that no American assembly would be so hardy as to violate the rights of their constituents; and if any such monster should appear in this land of liberty, that there would not be wanting advocates for so glorious and important a cause; especially to represent the injuries done to it by this House in its trampling on the sacred rights of the people. I have waited with great impatience, expecting that some abler hand would undertake the benevolent task, to put the conduct of the Assembly in a proper point of light, and draw the attention of the province to its danger; but finding, that, although it is now eight months since the termination of the first session no one has yet appeared to found the friendly alarm to the almost sleeping colony; I have therefore determined to essay what I have so ardently wished might have been done by a more descriptive and perspicuous pen. While we are straining every nerve to baffle foreign attempts to enslave us, surely it must be very criminal in the descendants of Britons, who love life and liberty alike, to be silent, and to suffer their legal rights to be invaded and torn from them by their own Representatives; which in this day of constitutional light, must be attributed either to gross ignorance or to a want of public virtue in those who ought to be the guardians and not the betrayers of the liberty of their constituents. But before I proceed to the particulars by which this Assembly has violated the sacred rights of the people; it will be necessary to inform the reader of the springs and causes, that induced the principal movers of these measures, to forget their duty to their constituents and posterity by a sacrifice of their liberties on the base altar of tyranny and party spirit. There are in this province two ancient and respectable families, viz. the De Lancey and the Livingston, who are (as families) the only competitors in it for power. The former has an insatiable thirst for domination, to gratify which they spare no pains and stick at no expence, not even at that of the invaluable liberties of the people committed to their guardianship, when a sacrifice of them is necessary to offer to their darling idol; which shall be abundantly proved hereafter. The most considerable of this family that has appeared on the stage of action was James De Lancey, Esq; who was Lieutenant Governor of the province. This Gentleman was a sage of the law, and a great politician; by which means he and his family governed the colony in a period of ignorance for some time before, as well as while he was at the head of the province. Certain it is, if he had been possessed of as much public virtue as he was of popular talents and influence, no man had it more in his power to serve the province than he had, and to leave a laudable lasting monument of it in the colony; but I am sorry to say, that, instead of doing that, he has left us, in the laws of the province the most glaring evidence of the prostitution of his uncommon political genius and influence, to which he was prompted by a lust for universal dominion in the colony; and every thing that did not tend to that point, as lines from the circumference to the centre, was sure to be rejected. The following extracts from the acts of his administration, shewed how little regard he had (with all his influence & pretended patriotism) to the liberties of the good people of this colony, or to the constitution; when a violation of them coincided with his darling object. Vide laws of New-York, vol. 2. chap. 51. sect. xiii. "And to the end articles of war may be established within this colony: Be it further enacted, that the field officers of the several regiments shall be summoned to meet for that purpose, at the time and place to be expressed in such summons. And if at any meeting or meetings in consequence thereof, there shall be one field officer at least from each respective regiment in this colony; such articles as the Governor or commander in chief shall establish, with the consent of a majority of the field officers so met shall, by virtue of this act, have full force and effect for the punishment of all offenders against the said articles, or any thing therein contained. Provided such punishment be by fine or imprisonment only, or both." xxxvi section. "Be it also enacted by the authority aforesaid, that whenever it shall be found necessary to constitute and appoint a court martial, in any of the regiments of this colony, the Colonel shall return himself, and the next commanding officer of the regiment, and twenty-four other commissioned officers of his regiment, to the Governor or commander in chief for the time being; who shall commissionate under the great seal of this colony, thirteen out of the said twenty-six, to be a court martial, of whom a field officer shall always be one; which field officer shall be president of the court." Vol. 2 laws of New-York, chap. cxxxvii. sect. xxix. "Be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, that in case a sufficient number of volunteers do not offer by the fifteenth day of April next, to compleat the full number of two thousand six hundred and eighty effective men, including officers, it shall and may be lawful for his Honor the Lieutenant Governor, or commander in chief for the time being, and he is hereby enabled and empowered to supply the deficiency, by detachments to be made from the militia of the several and respective cities and counties of this colony, where such deficiency may happen." Can any judicious American son of liberty read these sections without the utmost abhorrence of the memory of the man, by whose influence the Representatives of the people were so besotted, as to resign their liberties into the hands of an artful and ambitious Governor, who aimed to make a merit with the ministry of his influence in enslaving the freemen of this province, to agrandize himself and his family? Surely he cannot. He must be as ignorant and insensible of the extent and value of his constitutional rights, as a Turk is of freedom, or an Hotrentot of delicacy, who cannot see at first view, that these sections are more like parts of the despotic edicts of that detestable tyrant Lewis the fourteenth, than sections of the laws of a free people. For, only take away the recital of the authority that enacted them, and I defy the most penetrating critical and fertile genius to discern the difference betwixt the spirit of them, and the arbitrary ordinances of despotic monarchs. By the xiiith section the Lieutenant Governor and his creatures, viz. the majority of the field officers were to make laws, to fine and punish the freemen of the province. This was a government within a government unheard of and unknown to our happy constitution. A despotism formed by a free government and that while the form of the latter remained pure.--A glorious constitution indeed for men who valued themselves on being free! or more properly, a tyrannical political engine to awe the whole militia to our Grand Signior's sovereign nod. This was so flagrant a breach of the trust reposed in the Representatives by the people that it needs but little comment. If these acts did not enslave the freemen of the province, I confess, I have no idea of what slavery is. The people were to be subject to laws made by men under dangerous influence; to whom they never delegated any power whatever, and who were under no checks from which the people could derive any security; but on the contrary, they were will and pleasure minions of his honor's, that must expect to be superseded, whenever they refused to be his humble slaves: So that the people, governed by laws made by the Lieutenant Governor and these officers; were as much slaves as the Mahometans; because they had no agency in the choice of any of the legislators; the want of which in the opinion of every true whig is the very essence of slavery; as the contrary constitutes freedom. Our Lord Paramount not satisfied with the influence arising from his power as Governor of appointing and commissionating the officers of the militia, and his being with the majority of the field officers, invested by our obedient Assembly with a power to make articles of war for the government of the militia, must needs have the choosing of these military judges; before whom the transgressors were to be tried; (which he was empowered to do by the xxxvi section) that so he might have it in his power to crush any of his political enemies, that durst oppose any of his arbitrary measures. Yet after all not contented with even these terrible powers of despotism (for such they were) to make his power compleat, he was, by the xxxix section of chap. cxxxvii, invested with authority to detach as many as would make up the quotas out of the militia; if the number of men to be raised were not compleated in a certain time. By this section he had as absolute power over his political opposers, as the most despotic monarch could wish to be possessed of; he had but to order a militia officer, to detach the man that he would have punished and removed from his opposition, and it would be done. Thus he formed an iniquitous power, which operated in a circle as it originated from and was directed to himself; by which means he had the absolute command of the province, viz. he commissioned the officers of the militia, justices, &c. He, with the majority of the field-officers, was to make articles of war for governing the militia. A field officer, with such of the commissioned officers of the militia as he chose, was to constitute the court-martial; by whom all the militia were to be judged:*1 To which add his influence on the judges and justices. By a law of the province, all the men from 16 to 60 years, except the council and assembly and ministers of the gospel, were to inlist in the militia or in default to pay a fine. This militia under these powerful and tyrannical restraints with only the shadow of liberty, were to choose the Assembly; who not only had the liberties of the people in their power, but the purse strings of the province; or to speak more properly, at his Honor's command. For who would dare, under such a complication of tyranny, to oppose a candidate countenanced or put up by him, when he was in danger of losing his commission; of being tried by a court-martial; or detached to go into the army and torn from his family, who perhaps depended entirely on him for their support? Or what representative, thus chosen by his influence, would have courage to oppose his measures or requisitions to the Assembly, when he knew that his seat would be in danger? Few, very few, under such restraints and elected by such means, would have the virtue to do it. The truth of these observations is abundantly evinced in the acts in question, for surely nothing short of such undue and powerful influence, together with a total privation of public virtue in the leading members could prevail on the House of Assembly, to betray the trust committed to them, in instances so manifestly subversive of the liberties of the people, as these were.
And now let me request the candid reader, to pause a little and recollect, if he can, any acts of legislation of any free government properly exercised, more subversive of the rights of the people than these: I am persuaded he cannot; for the xiii section has the very essence of despotism in it, viz. The legislatures being entirely independant of the people; which is the very criterion of an arbitrary government. And the other sections with many others of the acts passed during Mr. De Lancey's administration are full of the same spirit; which the reader may see, by perusing the laws and journals of his administration. If Charles the first deserved the ax, and James the second the loss of his kingdoms for changing the constitution, and thereby trampling on the natural and legal rights of their subjects, I leave the reader to judge, what this gentleman and his tools deserved. No patriotic King of England, notwithstanding the many lucrative offices in his gift, ever aimed at such an unlimited and arbitrary power as this American Steuart artfully seized from the people; nor did the House of Commons, although under great influence of corruption, ever presume, to make so daring a breach on the liberties of the people of England, as to invest the King and militia officers with a power to make articles of war for the government of the militia. This is done by the three estates of the realm, but our despotic James would not be satisfied with the limits assigned by the constitution to his matter and him. No, he must be absolute governor of the province.
Happy is it for this colony, that he made his exit before our troubles with the mother country began; for the man that would make such inroads on the liberties of the people as he did, to gratify his thirst for power, and to give administration an high idea of his influence in the province, in order to secure him in the government, would from the same principle, exert every nerve of influence, to carry ministerial mandates into execution, at the expence of the liberties of the people, which he held very cheap when they came in competition with his interest. And I could wish, that, as he was the chief of his family, the spirit of despotism had died with him; if it had, the public interest would not have suffered new injuries, and it would have saved me the trouble of alarming the province. But, as families are fond of imitating the conduct of their leaders, and that of his, having the long example of his artifice at the head of the politics of the colony, they could ill brook the thoughts of falling from their former importance; which could not be supported, but by the same means by which they had attained it. This despotic spirit induced them, to exert their influence, to bring about the detestable measures of the last sessions of the Assembly; which were from the same source with that, which infatuated the Assembly who were the obedient slaves of this artful genius, and betrayed the liberties of the people in the acts before-mentioned. The bill that formed the 51st chap. aforesaid, was sent on the 18th of February 1755 ingrossed from the council to the assembly, which the latter passed without any division, or proposal of amendment. (Vide journals of the assembly, vol. 2. page 437.) Doubtless owing to the influence of the relations and tools the Lieut. Governor had in the lower house. And its more than probable, that he had it drawn up himself, and sent it to the council, of which it was likely the assembly was not entirely ignorant, For John Watts, Esq; reported the bill from the committee of the lower house, without any amendment; and, as he was his brother in-law, and upon good terms with him, there is the highest reason to conclude, that he, together with Messrs. Henry Cruger, Peter De Lancy, William Walton, Frederic Philipse, and John Thomas, who were members of that assembly, with several others, were consulted on the bill, before it was sent to either of the houses, and to the influence of these gentlemen must be attributed the unanimity, with which it passed their house; for, had they exercised their understandings and exerted their influence, they could have made such amendments in the bill, as would have preserved the liberties of the people. But far from this, they made not the least objection or opposition to it; so that they are justly chargeable with the guilt of betraying the liberties of their constituents: And this will be the judgment of every judicious impartial man who reads the journals and acts of this assembly. What confidence then can we repose in these men, who have with their eyes open, betrayed the liberties of the people? very little indeed; but of this more hereafter.
From these few specimens of this gentleman's dispotic administration, would any judicious reader of the least modesty imagine, that his family would have the consummate effrontery to give him the appellation of the best Patriot that America ever bred; which they did in the two last elections, as a reason, why the good people of this city and county should give his son their suffrages? certainly he would not.--But it is the spirit of THE FAMILY to brazen out and support the most glaring misrepresentations and absurdities: This may be seen at large in a review of the military operations in North-America, from the commencement of the French hostilities to the surrender of Oswego; in a letter to a nobleman; published in London in 1757; in which this gentleman's character is amply drawn, with several other interesting matters that happened in this province; very necessary to be known, by such as desire to be informed of the politicks of this colony, from Governor Cosby's time to the demise of Mr. De Lancey.*2 I would not have animadverted so much on this gentleman's political character; if his family had suffered his ambitious and dangerous spirit which is con-natural to them to lie dormant with his dust. But, instead of that, actuated by the same unfriendly principle to mankind, they are restless in their endeavours, to impose his political vices for virtues; on a people, among whom inquiry, arts and sciences are very thin sown, in order to make them subservient to their ambitious designs. And were it not necessary, in order to give such as are not acquainted with the pursuits of the family, an idea of their intolerant temper, the better to enable them to judge of the source of the new and tyrannical doctrines adopted by the last session of assembly, to expose which is the design of the papers that shall be hereafter published. If neither of these reasons made it necessary, it is not only justifiable to expose the public enemies of a country, whether living or dead; but it is a duty which every man, that can do it, owes to the public, to prevent and deter others from attempting to follow their malignant and domineering examples. And in support of this sentiment. I have the authority of sacred and prophane historians. The {Begin deleted text}latter{End deleted text} {Begin inserted text}
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{End inserted text} of whom recorded and exposed, even the private as well as the public faults of the persons they designed most to celebrate, intending thereby to hold up their iniquities, as beacons to caution us to avoid the rocks on which they were shipwrecked. But it is not for me to animadvert on the private crimes of individuals; for them they must answer at the bar of their Maker, to whom they are accountable. It is the sins of men against the public, I, as a member of society, have to do with; and to the bar of the public I will bring them to be tried; where no doubt they will receive an impartial sentence.
Mount Look-Out, in the colony
of New-York, February 8, 1770...........P.
*1 His brother, Oliver De Lancey, Esq; being Colonel of the New-York regiment, would doubtless have been of the court-martial, in order, effectually to influence the determinations of it so as to answer the purposes of the family.
*2 This gentleman inlisted in life under the black and abominable {Begin inserted text}
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{End inserted text} banner of despotism, which the reader will see by a perusal of John Peter Zenger's trial, to which his family has generally faithfully adhered ever since.
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