Cadwallader Colden (15 page)

Although local antagonism toward Colden intensified, he was rewarded by the king with the long-desired position of lieutenant governor. The commission that was dated April 14, 1761, stated,

GEORGE the Third, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain France and Ireland, King Defender of the Faith &c
²
To Our Trusty and Well beloved Cadwallader Colden Esquire GREETING, WE, reposing especial Trust and Confidence inn your Loyalty,
Integrity and Ability, do by these Presents constitute and appoint you to be Our Lieutenant Governor of Our Province of New York and the Territories depending thereon in America, in the room of James Delancey Esquire deceased.
¹⁹

On May 12, 1761, Colden leased a 120 acre farm, located about a mile and a half south of the village of Flushing, Long Island, from John and Thomas Willet. A year later, Colden purchased the land and over the ensuing two years built a mansion, which he named Spring Hill (
fig. 9
).
²⁰

Figure 9. “Spring Hill” in Flushing, Long Island. Photo taken 1924. Courtesy of New York Historical Society.

On October 19, 1761, the British warship
Alcide
arrived in New York with the commission for the new governor, Major General Robert Monckton. The thirty-five-year-old Monckton had a distinguished military career in the War of the Austrian Succession and, more recently, in the Seven Years (French and Indian) War. In 1755, he led the siege that captured Fort Beauséjour, and was
named lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia after that victory. He held that position for three years. In 1759, he was appointed second in command to General James Wolfe for the battle of Quebec. On the Plains of Abraham, Monckton commanded the British right flank and sustained a chest wound. He was reassigned to New York for convalescence. In 1760, he was appointed commander of the British forces in the provinces south of New York.

At the time of his appointment as governor of New York, Monckton was in command of troops stationed at Staten Island in anticipation of an expedition to the West Indies. The process of the swearing in of the new governor provided a new occasion for Colden's reputation to be compromised by his political foes. The process called for the governor-elect to formally produce his commission and instructions in Council, after which he was sworn in. On the day, which Monckton had selected for his inauguration, Colden became acquainted with the fact that the instructions had not arrived, and he called for a delay. Colden's persistent nemesis, William Smith, Jr., told Monckton that Colden had known of the absence of the instructions previously and was using the situation to delay the taking of the oath.
²¹
The inauguration proceeded on the originally designated day.

Nineteen days later Monckton sailed with an expeditionary force under his command directed for the capture of Martinique, which surrendered on February 3, 1762. Colden governed New York during Monckton's absence. Monckton returned to New York in June, and assumed his leadership role. He held the position of governor until June 1765 despite leaving New York permanently in June 1763.

Before Monckton left for Martinique, he wrote Colden that in his absence Colden should receive “one full moiety [i.e., half] of the Salary, and of all Perquisites,” which the governor would have received, during his absence.
²²
Colden informed Monckton that he disagreed and that Governor Burnett, during his tenure, had
indicated to him that “the Lieutenant Governor, President of the Council &c, exercising the Administration of Government, upon the Absence or the Death of the Governor in Chief, should have
one half of the Salary, and
all
Perquisites & Emoluments of Government
.”
²³
Monckton maintained his original assertion that “half” rather than “all” perquisites was appropriate.
²⁴

Colden solicited the assistance of John Watts, a member of the Council. They conjointly drew up an agreement by which half the profits of government were to be paid to Colden and half to the deputy-secretary in trust for Monckton. Monckton countered with the proposal that, while Colden was in charge, everything was to be paid to the deputy-secretary until Monckton's return. At that time, if specific instructions indicated that the profits were to be divided, Monckton would comply; if not, he would keep all. Colden ignored this, considering it an insult to his character. Smith then drew up an agreement that, if Colden's contention proved to be correct, he would be paid, but was required to submit an accounting under oath, which even Monckton thought was not necessary. Smith's action added to Colden's consideration of his antagonist as “a crafty, malicious smooth-tongued hypocrite.”
²⁵

Five days after Monckton's departure for the West Indies, Colden opened a new session of the Assembly with a passionate plea for expediting justice and reducing the expense, thereby allowing him the opportunity to focus on one of his criticisms, that of the bench and the bar. The Assembly sarcastically responded with the statement, “As the complaints your honor mentions probably arise from the want of a
legal
establishment of fees, we cannot help thinking a general establishment of the fees of
all the officers of the government
will put a stop to these, as well to several other complaints of the like nature.”
²⁶

One bill, which granted salaries to the judges on condition of their acceptance during good behavior, Colden amended to provide fixed salaries for the judges appointed under the new
tenure. It was eventually approved. The bill, legalizing the acts of the legislature between the death of George II and its announcement in America was not brought up for reconsideration. A bill authorizing the partition of land grants and the establishment of provision, similar to one that Colden had successfully proposed forty years previously, was introduced. Colden signed a compromised bill after his amendments were added.

Smith ended the
final chapter
in his
History
, on “The Administrations of Colden and Monckton” with a parting barb:

Mr. Hardy…who by renewing the judge's commissions during good behavior, taught this colony to believe that it was choice and some sinister motive, and not a dread of administration that prompted Mr. Colden to stickle for a dispensation of justice under the control of the Crown. It was therefore with a malignant pleasure that the public soon after the session discovered Mr. Colden's late promotion to the rank of Lieutenant Governor was not the reward of merit, but the effort of low craft and condescension and fraud. To gain an interest with Mr. John Pownall, a clerk to the Board of Trade, who had the ear of the earl of Halifax, and to raise the idea of his being able to influence the Assembly, he offered him the agency of the colony—a bait to which the minister could not be indifferent.”
²⁷

The year 1762 was one of great personal loss for Colden. In March his wife of forty-seven years died at Government House, and in June his thirty-one- yearold unmarried daughter, Catherine, also died.
²⁸
The year was relatively non-confrontational for Colden.

The correspondence of the next year was initiated by a letter from Benjamin Franklin, who reported on the discovery that Quicksilver was a melted metal, that cooling could be effected by evaporation, that he was experimenting with magnetism, and that, while in England, he had invented a new musical instrument [the glass armonica].
²⁹
In September a letter from the Earl of Halifax expressed concern over an argument between two New York merchants
named Mr. Forsey and Mr. Cunningham that resulted in Cunningham stabbing Forsey. Colden was instructed to report if a trial resulted in a conviction. If conviction ensued, Colden was instructed to delay judgment and execution until the Crown considered the matter.
³⁰

Cunningham had previously lost a civil action suit for assault and battery against Forsey. Cunningham was then turned down by the Supreme Court for a review. John Tabor Kempe, who served at the last attorney general for the province of New York (1759–1782), wrote Colden that “On the whole Sir as I humbly conceive the Kings Intent to be, that only Errors in the Law and not matters of Fact tried on Appeal, I think a Writ of Error only should issue to bring the proceedings before your Honor and the Council….”
³¹
Daniel Horsmanden, the chief justice of the province, stated, “An Attempt then to re-examine the Verdict of a Jury, is repugnant to the Laws both of England and this Colony.”
³²

Colden, however, stayed the court's judgment and asked the chief justice to send him the proceedings, arguing that the case was poorly managed. The case was resolved in 1765 when the New York Assembly supported the Supreme Court decision, and the Board of Trade agreed. The constitutional controversy intensified the alienation of Colden by the moderate party and the conservative merchant coalition. The entire populace detested Colden for his unwavering support of the Crown and it was stated that “the old Body was always dislik'd enough, but now they would prefer Beelzebub himself to him.”
³³

Most of the correspondence during 1764, as incorporated in
Colden's Papers
, is related to Indian affairs and emanated from the pen of Sir William Johnson, who served as the British superintendent of Indian affairs for the northern colonies, and, after emerging as the hero of the Battle of Lake George in 1755, was the first colonial to be made a baronet. The Treaty of Paris was signed at Versailles on February 10, 1763. Although it declared
that France surrendered all her possessions east of the Mississippi River, the Indians remained hostile. In April 1763, several tribes banded together under the leadership of Pontiac. In an effort to regain control of the Ohio Valley, they harassed the frontiersman and their families and took possession of several forts and outposts. Forts Pitt and Detroit were blockaded.

In August troops commanded by Colonel Henry Bouquet defeated the Indians at the Battle of Bushy Run, thus ending the blockade of Fort Pitt. The Indians lost their enthusiasm for battle and Pontiac capitulated on October 31, 1763. On April 3, 1764, at Johnson Hall in the Mohawk Valley, Johnson signed a peace treaty with the Seneca nation. In August Johnson wrote Colden that he had met with about two thousand Indians including all the chiefs of the Western Nations with the exception of Pontiac and the Six Nations. Many of their disputes with each other and with the provincials were settled.
³⁴
The Assembly deliberated on the validity of the patents for land in the colony and the fairness of previous purchases from the Indians, but determined that they could make no change.
³⁵

During that year, Colden's correspondence attested to the efficacy of Franklin's lightning rod. The steeple of Trinity Church in New York was struck with lightning and no damage resulted. By contrast, lightning also struck one of the corners fifty to sixty feet below the top of the spire, and this caused an urn below that corner, which was not furnished with a conducting rod, to shatter.
³⁶

On April 5, 1764, during the time that the colonies were in the midst of an economic depression, Parliament passed the Sugar Act, which taxed sugar and also lumber that could be sent only to Great Britain. The New York Assembly wrote Colden: “We hope your Honour will join us, in an Effort to secure that great Badge of English Liberty, of being taxed only with our Consent; to which, we conceive, all His Majesty's Subjects at home and abroad equally entitled, and also in pointing out to the Ministry, the many mischiefs arising from the Act, commonly called the Sugar Act, to
both us and Great Britain.”
³⁷
Colden refused to sign. The act was repealed in 1766.

In August Colden received this first notification of the act, which would lead to his vilification. The Earl of Halifax, secretary of state for the Northern Department, sent a communiqué dated August 11, 1764, stating,

The House of Commons having, in the last session of Parliament, come to a resolution by which it is declared that towards defraying the necessary Expenses of defending, protecting & securing the British Colonies & Plantations in America, it may be proper to charge certain Stamp Duties in the said Colonies & Plantations, It is His Majesty's Pleasure, that you should transmit to me without delay, a List of all Instruments made use of in publick Transactions, Law Proceedings, Grants, Conveyances, Securities of Land or money, within your Government with proper & sufficient descriptions of the same, in order that if Parliament should think proper to pursue the Intention of the aforesaid Resolution, they may thereby by enabled to carry it into Execution, in the most effectual & least bothersome Manner.”
³⁸

In October, on learning of the proposed Stamp Act, the New York Assembly sent a petition to Parliament that was so forceful and argumentative that no member of Parliament would introduce it.
³⁹