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New York Historical Society* Nov, 1847.
Benjamin P.Butler.
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MR. BUTLER'S DISCOURSE

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF NEW YORK,

DELITERED BEFORE

THE NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY,
NOVEMBRR 19, 1847.

OUTLINE

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF NEW YORK,

ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE, DELIVERED AT THE REQUEST OF THE NEW
YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY, IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK,
NOVEMBER 19, 1847.

BY BENJAMIN FRANKLIN BUTLER.

' In nova fert anunns mntatas dlcere fonnas
Corpora."— Ov. Met.

s
NEW YORK,

BARTLBTT & WELFORD,
NO. 7 ASTOR HOUSE.
1848.

NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

FORTY-THIRD ANNIVERSARY.

At a meeting of the New York Historical Society, held in the Chapel of the
New York University, on Friday evening, 19th November, 1847, to celebrate
the forty-third Anniversary of the Society,
Mr. E. C. Benedict offered the following resolution, which was adopted :
Resolved, that the thanks of the Society be presented to the Hon. Benjamin
F. Butler lor his very able and interesting address, and that he be requested to
furnish the Society a copy for publication. Extract from the Minutes.
ANDREW WARNER,
Recording Secretary.

DISCOURSE.*

Our present anniversary, Fellow Members op the New
York Historical Society, finds us in circumstances of pe
culiar interest. A new frame of government for our State'
has recently been devised by delegates of the people ; has
been submitted to, and approved by the people themselves ;
and, during the last ten months, has been gradually displac
ing the former Constitution. Some of the new provisions
•came into active operation at the beginning of the present
year ; others a few months later ; and the final measures
necessary to the complete organization of the system, have
just been taken.
Standing upon the threshold of this recent fabric, and
marking the peculiarities of its structure and details — per
ceiving how essentially it diffiers from that which it has dis
placed — the first thought which strikes the reflecting mind;
is one of grateful wonder, that a work so serious as the
pulling down of the old, and the building up of the new,
should have been accomplished with so little of mischief or
inconvenience. The change from one system of social econ
omy to another, is often accompanied by convulsions as
great as those which mark the first transition from chaotic
confusion to a state of established order. We are apt to
expect some decay in prevailing forces, some dissolution of
existing restraints, before those that are destined to succeed
them can assume vitality and vigor ; between the laws that
have just expired and those that have just been created, an
interval without law ; a pause to commemorate the passage
from the one era to the other, by its independence of both ;
a period of disorganization unchecked by past legislation
or present authority; a crisis of, abuse which previous
* Note, — In preparing the following Discourse for the press, the author, be
sides retaining some passages omitted in the delivery, and revising the whole,
has endeavored, by the addition of references and occasional notes, to render his
performance more worthy of the Society under whose auspices it is published,
and more useful and therefore more acceptable to those by whom it may be con
sulted.

12 MR. butler's discourse.
wrongs could scarcely justify, and subsequent reio™
hardly atone for. But the change which we are 5}°"^ " g
templating has been accompanied by no such disastr
effects. It has proceeded with much of the physical suu-
ness and something of the moral grandeur, which atten
great processes of Nature. Demanded by the ^^^^encies oi
a free people ; controlled by their active will ; establishea y
their deliberate sanction ; whatever may be our individual
opinions as to its present value or possible results, it is a
fresh illustration of the force and dignity of Republican
Institutions. It teaches, with a new emphasis of cheering
encouragement and significant warning, the great lessons
of American Freedom — change without violence; progress
without disorder ; revolution without anarchy. _ •
As we look more closely at the new edifice, and its various
parts, we are instinctively led to compare it with that in
whose place it stands. Nor are we content thus to limit our
examination. We would visit the original foundation ; trace
the history of the successive superstructures ; and note the
times and the persons, when and by whom, the corner
stones were laid, and the several fabrics erected or demol
ished, altered or renewed. We would mark the form and
style of each, and make some attempt to ascertain its value,
and to determine the merits of its authors.
Aside from the pleasure which a liberal curiosity may
derive from these inquiries, they answer one of the highest
ends of historical research. The organic laws of a com
munity, and the changes which from time to time are
made in them, are the most authentic proofs of its civiliza
tion— the most instructive monuments of its progress.
Assured that my associates participate in this sentiment,
and believing it will unite the sympathies of my whole au
dience, I propose to place before you, the means of compar
ing our present Constitution with the several frames of
government which preceded it ; and to give you some of
the more important facts historically connected with the
changes they have undergone. With this view, I ask your
attention to an outline of The Constitutional History of
THE Colony and State op New York. An outline it must
be, for fully treated it M^ould form a volume.
Using the terms Constitutional History, in their broadest
sense, and as including all the fundamental rules by which
the nature of governments, the powers of rulers, and
the duties of citizens, are defined and regulated — whether
existing in the written compacts of modern times, in ancient

ME. butler's discourse. 13
charters or statutes, or in unwritten customs or usages — I
remark, that my subject naturally divides itself into three
parts, corresponding with the several governments — the
Dutch, the English, and the Independent or State — which
have successively existed in the territory now embraced
within our boundaries.
The Dutch rule, dating its commencement in 1614, lasted,
continuously, but fifty years, ten of which had passed away
before the settlements were placed under a regular local
government. So slow was their after growth, that in 1664,
when the colony was surrendered to the English, its popu
lation did not exceed 10,000 souls. The Constitutional his
tory of New Netherland, is, therefore, less important than
that of the Province or State of New York. Still, it is, on
many accounts, worthy of study, and quite essential to a
correct understanding of our subject.
The territory bounding on the river discovered by Hudson
in 1 609, and explored by the Dutch, between that date and
1614, together with the seacoasts between the fortieth and
forty-fifth degrees of north latitude, received, in the year
last mentioned, from the Charter of the States General op
the United Provinces, the name of New Netherland. The
exclusive right of trading with this extensive region, was
granted by the Charter, for three years, from the 1st of Jan
uary, 1615, to Gerrit Jacob Witsen of Amsterdam, and other
merchants associated with him, who had been concerned in
the previous voyages to the island of Manhattan, and in
the trading houses established there and on Hudson's river ;
and who were no-\y incorporated by the name of the United
New Netherland Company.* The members of this com
pany, on the expiration of their charter, applied for its re
newal ; but other adventurers claiming the right to share
the benefits of the trade to America, and more comprehen
sive plans being presented to the States General, they de
layed their final action on the matter, until 1621. They
then incorporated the Dutch West India Company, and
granted to it, the exclusive right of trade and navigation to
and with the coast of Africa, from the Tropic of Cancer
to the Cape of Good Hope, and the coast of America, from
the Straits of Magellan to the extreme north, with full pow
ers of government over the territories it should explore and
colonize. • See the Charter to Witsen and his associates, of the 11th of October, 1614,
in O'Callaghan's Hist, of New Netherland, vol. i. 74,

14 MR. butler's discourse.
Before the incorporation of the West India Company, the
settlements in New Netherland consisted only of a few-
trading factories, and of the small forts designed for theif
protection. The commandants of these forts, in addition to
their military duties, exercised, also, such civic functions aS
were requisite. By its charter the West India Company
became, and until 1664 continued to be, the immediate sove
reign of New Netherland, subject, however, to the general
supervision, and in matters consistent with its charter, to
to the legislation and control, of the States General, in
whom the ultimate sovereignty resided. The Company ^y as
empowered to establish and maintain, in its several colonies,
such local governments and officers as it might see fit to
prescribe and appoint ; the Governor in chief being com
missioned, and his instructions approved, by the States
General ; and he and all other officers swearing allegiance
to them and to the Company.*
So soon as its home arrangements could be perfected, and
its other affairs allowed, the Company gave its careful atten
tion to New Netherland ; but its views were purely commer
cial. The first institutions of the colony were, therefore,! ramed
with special reference to the convenience and pecuniary
profit of its proprietors, and with little or no regard to the
political condition, immediate or prospective, of the settlers.
The ground work of the system was, indeed, utterly repug
nant to the first principles of modern political science ; for
all the powers of government — the Legislative, the Execu
tive and the Judicial — were vested in the Director General or
Governor and his Council — the latter consisting of an indefi
nite number of persons, usually not exceeding five, appointed
by the Director with the approbation of the Company.f
The union of powers such as these in a single hand or body,
is now justly regarded as the very definition of tyranny. Its
effects in New Netherland form no exception to the rule ; but
as the local government was under the watchful supervision
of the West India Company and of the States General, it
was commonly held in check, by the spirit of justice and
moderation which has so generally characterised the peo
ple, and by the republican principles which then distin
guished the institutions, of the Fatherland. Minuit, Van
Twiller and Kieft, the first three Directors, being justly
» Charter of the 3rd of June, 1621, §§ 2. 3. O'Callaghan's History of New Neth
erland, vol. i. App. A. It was for twenty-four years, but was afterwards extended.
t Moulton'sHist. of New York, vol. i. Part ii. 369. O'Callaghan's Hist, of
New Netherland, vol. i. 90, 101, 142, 180.

MR. butler's discourse. 15
charged with abuse of power, were consequently recalled.*
Stu YVES ANT, the last and most upright, as well as the ablest,
of the Dutch Governors, kept his place for seventeen years ;
but he was involved in frequent collisions with the inferior
magistrates and with others, and incurred, more than once,
the censure of his superiors.f
The first arrangements made by the Company for the
colonization of the country, were not more favorable to the
early and rapid growth of civil Hberty, than the principle
on which the local government was founded. In the rural
districts of Holland and the other United Provinces, the
peasantry yet bore the yoke of feudalism ; and even in the
free cities, and the communes or townships, the ancient dis
tinctions between the nobles and wellborn and the plebians,
and between the burghers and the other freemen, were te
naciously kept up and scrupulously observed.J These fea
tures of the parent State were, more or less, impressed on
the infant Province. In the city of New Amsterdam, such
of the inhabitants, as enjoyed the right of citizenship, were
divided into the great and small citizens.^ In the " colonies"
or manors, planted under the " Charter of Freedoms and
Exemptions," granted by the Company in 1629, the feudal
relations of Patroon and Boor were fully established. This
Charter, which was designed for the special encouragement
of "Patroons, Masters and Individuals who shall settle, or

* O'Callaghan, vol. i. 130, 174, 384.
tin 1650 the States General proposed to recall him; and in 1652 an order
was made for this purpose ; but its execution was prevented by the rupture with
England. Holland Doc. vol. vi. 123. vol. ix. 207, Brodhead's Address be
fore N. Y. Hist. Soc.in 1844, p. 34. See, in Proceedings for same year, p. 51-76,
an instructive and valuable paper on New Netherland, by Rev. T. De Witt, D. D.
in which he reviews the prominent measures of Stuyvesant's administration, and
aw ards him high and not undeserved praise. The forthcoming volume of O'Calla
ghan will give many new and characteristic details of the worthy Governor's sys
tems and methods of procedure, some of which will strike modern readers as
sufficiently summary and despotic ; though, it is believed, nothing will appear to
detract from his well established reputation as an honest, firm, and in his way,
paternal ruler.
t Van Leeuwen's Roman Dutch Law, Book i. ch. 9. Van Der Linden's In
stitutes of the Laws of Holland, Book i. ch. 2, ^ 4.
^ In the class of great citizens, as defined by the ordinance of Feb. 2d, 1657,
which appears to have been regarded as a very liberal concession to the com
monalty, were the members of the Supreme and City Governments, ministers of
the Gospel, and officers of the militia, with their male descendants ; in the lat
ter, all residents of a year and six weeks who kept fire and lights, all persons
born in the city, store keepers, tradesmen, &c. But by this ordinance any per
son might obtain the privilege of the great citizenship, on application to the
Burgomasters and Schenens, by paying for it fifty guilders or their equivalent.
Kent's ed. of City Charters, pp. 243—246.

16 MR. butler's discourse.
plant colonies in New Netherland," provided, that every
person who should plant a " colonie" or manor of fifty souls,
should be acknowledged as a Patroon. It gave to each Pa
troon the absolute title, in perpetuity, of the lands within the
limits of his manor, which might extend four Dutch (equal
to sixteen English) miles along the shore, on one side, or
half that distance, on each side, of a river, and so far into
the country as the situation -of the different occupiers might
permit. The Palroohs Were invested with the power of
holding courts of justice, and with, certain other Baronial
immunities and rights; arid, on founding a city, they were
authorized to establish officers for its government.
Besides having no title to the soil, the tenants were not
to leave their " colonie" except when authorized hy. consent
in writing ; and the Company engaged to apprehend and
deliver to the Patroons, those who should violate. this, rule.
After the expiration of the period for which they had bound
themselves, the Patroon might send to Holland any tenant
who would not. continue in his service.* In addition to the
burdens specified in the Charter, the tenants, by virtue of
the law of Holland' applicable to the relations between
them and their Patroons, were subject to various other ex
actions common to the system. They were obliged to ofier
to the Patroon or his commissary, their surplus grain arid
cattle before they could lawfully sell them to any other
person ; to grind their corn at the PatroorHs mill ; and to
obtain his license before they could be allowed to fi.sh or
hunt within the limits of the manor. The Patroon, on the
exchange or sale of land within his jurisdiction, was enti
tled to the right of pre-emption, and, if he declined to re
sume it, to a certain portion of the purchase money ; and
in cases of intestacy, he succeeded to the estate and prop
erty of the decedent.f
. That the burghers of Amsterdam and of other commer
cial towns, enjoying as they did, and valuing too, the privi
leges of freemen, should have been willing to plant, in the
virgin soil of America, the seeds of the ancient feudalism,
is but another illustration of the selfishness so common to
» See the Charter in Moulton's Hist, of New York, Part ii. p. 389. Dunlap'g
Hist, of N. Y. vol. ii, App. H^ Coll. ofN. Y. Hist. Soc. (2d series) vol. i.
p. 369. O'Callaghan's Hist, of New Netherland, vol. i. p. 112. The English
versions having been made by different hands, some verbal but unimportant dif
ferences exist in the copies now referred t6. For the amendatory Charter of
1640, see O'Callaghan, vol. i. p. 219;
t O'Callaghan, i. 325, 326 and App. i. Van Leeuwen's Roman Dutch Law»
Book ii. ohs. 14, 15, 16, 17.

MR. butler's discourse. 17
our race. In the pursuit of present gain to ourselves, we
too often become careless of the interests of others ; and
we commonly forget the claims of posterity. History is
full of such instances, and of the pernicious effects which
are sure to flow from them. In the case before us, its
usual lessons are not wanting.
Killian Van Rensselaer, a pearl merchant of Amsterdam,
and one of the directors of the West India Company, hav
ing purchased from the natives, through his agents in the
colony, the lands on both sides of the North river, in the
immediate neighborhood of Fort Orange, (now Albany^
founded, in 1630, the Colonie o{ Rensselaerwyck. As finally
confirmed to him it embraced a tract of country extending
twenty-four miles in length from north to south, and twenty-
eight in width from east to west, (the city of. Albany being,
however, excepted from its jurisdiction,) and now compos
ing the counties of Albany and Rensselaer. This was the
only manor, of any great extent, founded under the Charter
of 1629, within that part of New Netherland which now
forms'the State of New York. Others were afterwards es
tablished on the New Jersey side of the Hudson, on the
Delaware, and on Staten Island.*
The system of patroonships was soon found, rather to hin-
'der than to hasten the settlement of the province. Misun
derstandings arose between the Patroons and the Directors,
which, for a long time, disturbed the quiet, and retarded
the progress of New Netherland, and gave much annoyance
to the Company and the States General.f They were tem-
* The following persons, (also Directors of the West India Company) estab
lished, or attempted to establish, in 1630, " colonies^' in New Netherland : Sam
uel Godyn and Samuel Blommaert, the colonie of Zwaenndal, at Cape Henlo-
pen and Cape May, on both sides of the South [Delaware] river bay ; and Michael
Pauw, the colonie of Pavonia in New Jersey, on the North river, opposite to
New Amsterdam. At a- later day, Myndert Myndertsen planted a colonie on
Newark bay in New Jersey ; and Cornelius Melyn obtained a grant of Staten
Island for the like purpose. O'Callaghan, i. 238. Adrian Van der Donck also
established the colonic Of Colon Donck, on the east bank of Hudson's river, at
Spuytenduyval creek. Id. 382. Van Rensselaer, Melyn, and Van der Donck,
were the. only Fatroons in what is now the State of New York.
By agreement between Van Rensselaer, Godyn, and Blommaert, a copart
nership in the colonie of Rensselaerwyck, was formed between them and some
other associates. The common stock of the association was divided into five
shares, of which- Van Rensselaer held two. By the terms of the agreement he
had the exclusive control- of the colonie, and was acknowledged as Patroon
paramount, by the other partners. O'Callaghan, i. 121, 125, 127.
Some of the original partners of Van Rensselaer, or their heirs, continued to
be interested in the colonie of Rensselaerwyck until 1685, when their interests
were extinguished, and the whole title vested in the Van Rensselaer family,
O'Callaghan, i. 127, note.
t O'Callaghan, i. 129, 137, 147, 158, 160, 178, 197.

18 MR. butler's discourse.
potarily allayed by the amended Charter of Freedoms and
Exemptions of 1640, which limited the extent of future
colonies to one Dutch mile instead of four, on the banks
of a navigable water, and to two miles in the interior ; for
bade \ihe occupation of both banks of a river by Patroon
ships opposite to each other ; and modified, in other re
spects, the conditions of the first charter.* New difficul
ties, however, afterwards sprang up between the Patroons
and the local Government, which often required the inter
position of the authorities in Holland, and which finally
ended in the surrender, by amicable arrangement, of all
the colonies, except those of Rensselaerwyck and Colon
Donck, to the West India Company.
The energy and paternal care of Van Rensselaer were
conspicuous in the management of his colonie. By these
qualities, and by the fidelity of his agents, it was preserved
through the Indian wars, so fatal to other plantations, and
its more important privileges were maintained until his
death, in 1646. It then passed to his oldest son, to whose
descendent it was afterwards with such of its manorial
incidents as were compatible with the English law, con
firmed, by the grant of the British Sovereign.!
The existence and the success of this colonie awak
ened the desire, and its confirmation to the Patroon fur
nished a precedent, for obtaining from the English Govern
ment other grants of the like nature. In this way the
system of manors — a system not well adapted to the best
kind of colonization, and little suited to the wants and in
terests of a free State — was deeply fixed in several extensive
districts, in some of which, though in forms greatly modi
fied by the revolution of 1776, by subsequent laws, and by
social changes, it still exists. J
» O'Callaghan, i. 219.
t O'Callaghan, i. 345. Rensselaerwyck was confirmed to Van Rensselaer by
two patents from the British Crown, one granted by James II. and the other by
Queen Anne.
t Besides the colonie or manor of Rensselaerwyck above spoken of, another
manor of less extent, lying in the now county of Columbia, was granted by the
English Government to another member of the Van Rensselaer family. Being
Bometimes called the lower manor of Rensselaerwyck, it has been supposed by
some writers, to have been a part of the original manor of Rensselaerwyck.
Its common and appropriate name was the manor of Claverack.
The other manors alluded to in the text, granted by the English Government,
are the extensive manor of Livingston, in the county of Columbia ; and the
manors of St. George, in the county of Suffolk, of Foxhall, in the county of Ul
ster, and of Corllandt, Pelham, Fordham, PhiUipsburgh and Scarsdale, in the
county of Westchester.
Most if not all of the lands included in these several manors, except the first

MR. bijtler's discourse. 19
Fortunately for the Province, the Charter of Freedoms
and Exemptions of 1029, did not limit its benefits to those
who aspired to the distinction or were equal to the charge,
bf a Patroonship. It embraced anotheir and more desirable
system copied from the better institutions of the father
land. Any individual was allowed to settle personally, or by
his servants, in such places, and on so much land, as the
Director and Council might assign ; and every such settler
was to hold, in his own right, the land he should thus
occupy.* Under this provision, and with various encouragements,
from time to time, aflTorded by the West India Company,
many farms were taken up, and several hatalets and vil
lages established, in the western part of Long Island, and
on the North and Mohawk rivers. A class of independent
freeholders, many of them persons of substance, and some
of them educated men, was thus drawn to New Nether
land ; especially during the latter part of the Dutch rule.
Even after the surrender to the English, immigrants of this
description from the low countries, continued to seek in this
Province, homes for themselves and their posterity. Most
iof the flourishing villages now found in the older parts of
the State, trace their origin to this solid and honorable
Stock.t The colonial government and laws closely conformed to
- those of Holland. The Director and his Council, in the
(exercise of their various powers, and especially in their
judicial functions, were aided by a Schout-Fiscaal, or Sheriff,
who also acted as public prosecutor or Attorney General.
They had also a Secretary, and a gerechts-bode or court
messenger, and various commissaries and other adminis
trative officers. J
manor of Rensselaerwyck and the manor of Livingston, are now held in fee
feimple ; as are also large portions of Rensselaerwyck and Livingston.
After Queen Anne's time, no grants were issued with manorial privileges ;
but during her reign and between that time and the Revolution, many patents
were granted for extensive tracts of land, especially in the counties composing
the late third Senate district. These latter tracts having, in many instances,
been settled under deeds reserving a perpetual rent, or under leases for three
lives or for shorter terms, and being situated in the neighborhood of the manors
of Rensselaerwyck and Livingston, their occupants have taken active part in
the lawless proceedings commenced by the manor tenants in 1839, and which,
for so long a time, disturbed the peace and dishonored the character of the
district. *Charterof 1629, art. 21.
t O'Callaghan, i. 389,390.
} O'Callaghan, i. 101—3, 181.

20 MR. butler's discourse.
By the Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions, the colo
nists of every class were to be free from taxes, imposts-
and other contributions for ten years, and afterthat time
were to pay such customs as then existed in Holland. In
other respects, the spirit of monopoly, which then per
vaded the commercial regulations of every European State,
was conspicuous in these articles. Except in certain cases,
few in number and strictly defined, the colonists were to be
transported in the vessels of the Company, which were also
to be employed in all shipments to Europe ; they might
traffic with the natives and others, but not in the fur trade,
which the Company kept to itself; and all merchandise
purchased by them was to be sent to the island of Man
hattan, and there to pay a duty before it could be sent
elsewhere. The colonists were also expressly prohibited
making any woollen, linen, or cotton cloth, or weaving any
other stuff, on pain of being banished, and of being pun
ished as perjurors.*
Regulations of internal police which had the force of
law, were prescribed by the ordinances of the Director and
Council, subordinate, however, to the will of the Amsterdam
Chamber of the West India Company, expressed in its instruc
tions or declared in its decrees. Laws of property, and other
rules of jurisprudence, civil and criminal, emanated from
the same local or foreign authorities. Cases governed by
no special provisions, were controlled by the Roman civil
law, as modified by the statutes of Charles V. and the
edicts and usages of Holland.f
Long before the founding of the colony, the inhabit
ants of the cities and of many communes or townships in
the fatherland had acquired a good degree of independ
ence, both municipal and personal, and had come into the
settled enjoyment of various definite and important political
rights. Among these was the privilege of choosing, annu
ally, a certain number of pci'-ons from whom the central
Government selected the loral magistrates or Schepens.
To these were added, by the Government, a Schout, a Secre
tary, and a gerechts-bode or court messenger, answering very
nearly, to the constable of the English law and of our own
times. In Amsterdam and some other cities. Burgomasters,
answering to our mayors and aldermen, were chosen by
« This prohibition was abolished by the amended Charter granted in 1640,
which also modified, in several other respects, the provisions of the original
Charter. It is recited, at length, by O'Callaghan, vol. i. pp. 219—222.
1- O'Callaghan, i, 90.

MR. butler's discourse. ,21
the burghers, or selected from nominations made by them.*
In the infancy of the Province, New Amsterdam was under
the rule of the colonial government, of which it was the
seat ; but before the surrender to the English, the city of
New Amsterdam, the village of Breuckelen, (Brooklyn,) and
some other districts were placed under municipal govern
ments, conforming, substantially, to the model above de-
scribed.f In these little republics we find the germs of the town
ships into which the state is now subdivided ; and in their
functionaries the types of many of our present town and
county officers. The influence of this arrangement in the
production and development of popular freedom, is practi
cally familiar to all Americans ; though its philosophy was
little understood, even by us, until .unfolded by De Tocque-
* O'Callaghan's New Netherland,!. 391,392,393, ii. 40. Van Leeuwen's
Roman Dutch Law, Book i. ch. 2. Sir William Temple's Observations upon the
United Provinces, ch. ii. Works, vol. i. 30.
t O'Callaghan, i. 101, 102, 142, 181, 317, 381, 382, 383, 390. The right'of
nominating Schepens and other local magistrates having been granted to Breuck
elen and other townships, by their respective charters from the Director and
Council, was enjoyed by them many years before it was acquired by the inhab
itants of New Amsterdam. O'Callaghan, i. 393. Mr. Danlap supposes, and
other writers on his authority have adopted the same opinion, (Hist, of New
York, i. 39, 40,) that the right not only of nominating the magistrates called
Schepens, but of choosing Burgomasters, and, after the city should contain 200
inhabitants, of choosing delegates to a representative council, was granted to
the city of New Amsterdam in 1623. He even gives (II. Appendix F) a trans
lation of the charter by which he supposes these privileges to have lieen con
ferred. The original of this document is to be found at the end of Van Der
Donck's New Netherland, where however, it is given without dale, and is not
referred to the city of New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island. Van Der Donck,
in Collections of N. Y. Hist. Soc. 2d Series, ii. 238. From the language of
some of the articles, the translator supposed it to relate to this city ; and Mr.
Dunlap assigns it, by conjecture, to the year 1623. Finding no mention of it
in the first volume of O'Callaghan's history, and being perfectly satisfied from
researches made by me in the archives of this city, that it belonged to some
other date, if not to some other place, I applied to the author of that valuable
work for information respecting it, and on his authority am enabled to state,
that it was granted in 1656, to a company then formed for estabhshing a colonie
on the South or Delaware river, to be called New Amstel, after one of the manors
of Amsterdam, at the place afterwards and still known as Newcastle, in the
State of Delaware. In his forthcoming second volume, it will be referred, by
satisfactory proofs, to its true date and place.
In a memorial of the committee of the Gemeente or Commonalty of New
Amsterdam, drawn up by Van Der Donck, and presented to the States General
in 1649, they ask, among other reforms, for a Burgher or Municipal goverti-
ment for the city of New Amsterdam. In the provisional order made on this
application by the States General, in 1650, they accordingly grant to the city, a
Surgher government, consisting of a Schout, two Burgomasters, and five Sche
pens ; but they appear to have been appointed, for some time, by the Direc
tor General and Council. O'Callaghan, ii. 121. In 1653, and again in lt'54,
the Burgomasters and Schepens petitioned the Director General and Council

22 MR. butler's discourse.
ville.* The like arrangement existed from a,n earlier day,
and was also more perfectly carried put, in the New ^^^'
land colonies. With the a,ccomplished historian of the
United States, we may, therefore, well suppose, that in the
establishment of this part of our civil polity, as well as m
other respects, much is c^ue to puritaji ideas brought into
New Netherland, by emigrants from Connecticut. Yet the
origin of the New York township seems plainly referable,
to the institutions and the stock of the fatherland.f
In this connexion, the general law of succession and in
heritance may properly be mentioned. The proprietor had
the right of disposing of his lands, as well as of his move
able property, by testament, with the reservations in favor
of children, or other relatives, prescribed by the laws of
that they might be allowed the privilege of choosing their own Schout, or, at
least, of nominating two, from whom the selection .should be made. They also
ask that they may be permitted to nominate a double number of Burgomasters and
Schepens. These applications were denied by the Director and Council, untij
1658, when the right of recommending' their successors was vested in the city
Magistrates. A Schout or Sheriff, exclusively for New Amsterdam, was com
missioned for the first time in 1660. The corporate existence and franqhises
of the city of New Amsterdam, were recognised in the articles of capitula
tion, and confirmed by Colonel Nicolls, the first English Governor, who in
1665, granted a charter to the inhabitants under the administration of a
mayor, aldermen, and sheriff. Smith, i. 36. Dunlaj), i. 119. The more
formal charter granted in 1685, by Governor Dongan, refers to and confirms
the liberties and franchises anciently enjpyed by the city of New Amsterdam,
and all grants made to its Sqhput, Burgomasters and Schepens, as well as to its
Mayor, Aldermen and Sheriff, &c. City Charter, Kent's ed. 3, 4. Chancellor
Kent in his notes on the City Charter (p. 108) refers to an ordinance or grapt
Iiiade by the Director General &nd Council on the 2d February, 1657, as a char
ter to the city, evidently supposing it to be the first ; and in the journal of the
City Convention held in 1839, it is spoken of as the " original charter of the
city." City Charter, Kent's ed. 242. But by the document itself, a translation
of which may be found in the same book, (pp. 242, 246,) it appears that the sole
object of the grant was to bestow on the inhabitants more fiilly than had before
been bestowed, the privileges of both " the small and great citizenship," and to,
define the qualifications of each class of citizens. (See ante p. 15, note.) The
documents recently brought fi-pjn Holland by Mr. Brodhead, and the researches
of O'Callaglian, have given us on this point, as well as on many others, rnore
accurate Information than we before possessed, which will be greatly extended
by his concluding volume.
* The writer of Junius concludes his preface to the cqllection of his letters,
with a quotation from a foreign writer, De Lolme, whose essay on the English
Constitution he recommends as " a performance, deep, solid, and ingenious."
Lords Chatham and Camdeti bestow on it similar praise. It is not a little re
markable, that the more peculiar and efficient principles of our American C,on-
stitutioiis, should, in like manner, have been first expounded to us, by a foreigner,
writing in the mother tongue of De Lolme.
t Bancroft's Hist, of United States, ii. 304, 305. O'Callaghan, i. 393, avail
ing himself of the new light shed on the subject, by the Holland documents, vin
dicates the c}£(}tna of the Dufch to the parentage of the township.

MK. butler's discourse. 23
Holland ; if he died without a will, leaving children or re
moter descendants, his estate passed to them. If the intes
tate left no children, his parents, or if neither of them was
alive, his brothers and sisters or their representatives, suc
ceeded. There was no preference of males to females, and
no law of primogeniture ; but as in the New England colo
nies, the equal division of estates, among all the children
or other relatives, the best foundation of a republic, was
the general rule.*
As an inducement to colonization, the Company, at an
early day, promised to supply the colonists with blacks ; and
this, through its commerce with Afritea and with nations
engaged in the slave trade, it was enabled to do, with
little inconvenience. Negro slavery was thus introduced
into the Province ; but never, perhaps, did it exist in a form
less objectionable in itself, or more useful to its subjects,
than among the Dutch colonists of New Netherland and
their descendants.!
In the first charter of Freedoms and Exemptions it was
implied, and in the amended charter of 1640, expressly pro
vided, that the Protestant religion, as expounded by the
Synod of Dort, and taught and exercised in the Reformed
Church in the United Provinces, was to be maintain ed hy
the Company and its Governors ; and in the latter docu
ment it was declared, that no other religion was to be toler
ated or allowed. J Yet both before and after 1640, many
Protestant families and individuals, not in communion with
the Dutch Church, were allowed to settle in New Nether
land, and were protected in the enjoyment of their religious
rights.§ The administration of Stuyvesant was less liberal
in this respect ; or rather, he enforced more strictly than
* O'Callaghan, i. 90. Van Leeuwen's Roman Dutch Law, Book iii. Van
Der Linden's Institutes, Book i. chap, ix., x.
t Articles of Freedoms and Exemptions of 1629, art. 30. O'Callaghan, i. 384,
385. Mrs. Grant of Laggan, in her charming Memoirs of an American Lady,
includes in her picture of society in New York a century ago, an interesting
notice of African slavery as it then existed in the Dutch families. Within my
own memory, much of the patriarchal simplicity and kindness of the institution,
as described by her, was to be seen among the substantial farmers of my native
township (Kinderhook) and the neighboring country.
t O'Callaghan, i. 220.
§ The Walloons from France and Belgium, in 1'd24, were allowed to settle
on Long Island, on terms more satisfactory than they could obtain in Virginia.
O'Callaghan, i. 101. During Kieft's lime, and afterwards, many Quakers and
other sectaries, to escape persecution in New England, removed to New Neth
erland. Id. 207. Bancroft, ii. 302. In 1656, a colony of Waldenses, driven
by fire and sword from th«ir mountains of Piedmont, found a secure resting
place in the valley of the Hudson. Bancroft, ii. 309.

24 MR. butler's discourse.
his predecessors, the narrow minded provisions of the chai--
ter. With a noble inconsistency, the Company interposed
for the protection of the persecuted ; reproved the zeal of
their deputy ; and directed him to grant to the Quakers,
and every other peaceful citizen, liberty of conscience and
the right of private worship.*
During the Dutch rule, there was, properly speaking, no re
presentative assembly.! Delegates of the commonalty were,
however, on two occasions of special moment, during the
administration of Kieft, brought iato consultation with him
and his Council ; and the right and capacity of the people to
advise in the management of public affairs, were thus expli
citly acknowledged by their rulers.J In 1 647, Stuyvesant and
his Council, under the like pressure, and in compliance with
the general wish, established a permanent body, " The Nine
men," as " tribunes of the people," to give their advice
when called on by the Government, and to assist in promot
ing the welfare of the country. For the constituting of
this body, the commonalty of New Amsterdam and other
places were to choose eighteen of their •' most expert and
reasonable persons," from whom the Director General and
Council were to select three for the merchants, three for
the citizens, and three for the farmers. Like the delibera
tive assemblies of many European republics, the "Nine
men" were only to meet at the call of the Director and
Council, one of whom was to preside over them ; and were
merely to advise upon such matters as should be submitted
to them by the Director. Six of this body were annually
to leave their seats, which were to be filled by the Direc-
* Bancroft, ii. 300, referring to the Albany Records. De Witt, in Proceed
ings of N. Y. Hist. Soc. for 1844, p. 73.
t The articles of Freedoms and Exemptions of 1629, authorised the colonies
to appoint each a deputy to give information to the Director and Council ; one
of which deputies was to be changed every two years ; but the colonies were not
sufficiently numerous to bring together a number of deputies large enough to
constitute an assembly, nor was there one until April, 1664.
t The first of these occasions was in 1641, when the " Twelve Men" were
chosen by the commonalty, to cooperate with the Director General and Council,
in obtaining satisfaction for the murder of a settler by an Indian. After some
meetings on this subject, the twelve men proposed various reforms in the admin
istration, when their future meetings were prohibited by Kieft, as tending to
dangerous consequences. O'Callaghan, i. 242-249. The other was in 1643,
when in anticipation of the general Indian war which followed the barbarous
massacre of the river Indians, perpetrated by the orders of Kieft, the " Eight
men" were chosen for the purpose of advising the Director General and Council.
They continued to act for about a year, and like the twelve proposed many re
forms, and not obtaining them, made such urgent appeals to the West India
Company as finally to secure his recall. Id. 284, 289, 306, 319.

MR. butler's discourse. 25
tor and Council, from double the number nominated by the
Commonalty.* There was thus a gradual approach to the true idea of a
free, representative government;, and from the progress
made before the transfer of the Province to the English, it
is reasonably certain, that even without the new impulse
given by this event, the inhabitants of New Netherland
would soon have come into the enjoyment of constitutional
liberty. With the increase of population in the city and town
ships, the inhabitants of both claimed a share in the gov
ernment ; especially in the laying and collecting of taxes.
Their complaints and remonstrances, drawn up by Van
Der Donck and enforced by his personal appeals, procured,
in 1650, a partial compliance with their demands. The
States General issued an order, in which, along with other
measures for the protection and improvement of the Pro
vince, it was provided, that the local government should
thereafter be vested iri a Director General, a Vice-Director,
and three Councillors ; the Director and Vice-Director, and
one of the Councillors, to be appointed as before. The
other two Councillors were to be selected on the part of
the States General and the West India Company, from four
persons to be nominated by a local convention consisting of
the Patroons of colonies, or their deputies, and of delegates
from the commonalty; and their terms of service. were to
be so arranged, that at the end of every two years, the
seat of one should become vacant, and his place be supplied
by a new appointment, made on the like nomination.!
This concession, though well designed, produced little
practical good. The people continued to be harassed by
arbitrary taxation, and other oppressive measures. The
discontent became general, and at length led, in 1653, to
the assembling of a convention of delegates from New
Amsterdam, and from Breuckelen and the other Dutch vil
lages in the eastern part of Long Island, chosen freely by
the commonalty, but without the permission of the Govern
ment. They demanded a reform in several particulars, and
especially that no laws should be passed, nor any officers
created, without the consent of the people. Stuyvesant
and his Council dispersed the assembly, and reprobated its
doctrines; and the West India Company approved and
» O'Callaghan, ii. 37.
t O'Callaghan, ii. 127.
SECOND SERIES, VOL. II. 3

26 MR. butler's discourse.
commended their ill judged and obstinate conservatism, lii
the inception of this movement, as well as in the proceedings
of the Convention, the influence of the men and the princi
ples of New England, was palpable and effective. Many
of the members had emigrated from the east ; the remon
strance of the convention was from the pen of George Bax
ter, a Englishman.*
The failure of this attempt only sharpened the desire for
popular enfranchisement. The commonalty continued to
dispute the ordinances of the Director and his Council, and
to demand as a right, a share in the government. The en
croachments of Connecticut and the claims of Massachu
setts on the territory of the Province, the destruction of
Esopus, and the fear of further Indian hostilities, compelled
Stuyvesant, in November, 1663, to convene delegates from
the city and the villages, and to ask the aid of their united
councils ; but as he proposed no enlargement of civil rights
or political privileges, the assembly would do nothing but
refer to the States General. In April, 1664, rumors of an
intended invasion by the English, increased the perplexities
of the Director, and induced him to convene, for the like
purpose, a second assembly ; but this new source of alarm
to the Government, seems little to have disturbed the equa
nimity of the people. The indifference and inaction of the
former assembly were repeated ; the public defence was
devolved on the authorities in Holland; and as no relief
came from that quarter, the way was prepared for the sur
render of the Province, in the following Autumn, to the
arms of England, and the government of James, Duke of
York. The firmness, fidelity, and vigor of Stuyvesant, in
the final hour, command our unqualified respect ; yet when
we consider the course of his administration, and the con
dition of the country, we can scarcelj' blame the passive
submission of the burgomasters of New Amsterdam to the
necessities by which they were surrounded, and we may
well excuse the ready assent of the inhabitants at large,
to a change of rule. No such indulgence can be' extended
to the treacherous invasion of New Netherland. In the
• Bancroft, ii. 306, 307, 308. Extracts from the remonstrance, with the
names of the signers, may be seen in Thompson's Hist, of Long Island, ii. Ill,
112, 2d ed. It may be found entire in Wood's Long Island, p. ] 64. The pro
ceedings of the Convention will be more fully given in O'Callaghan's second
volume. The narrow policy of the Company and the States General, on this
occasion, is in striking contrast with the liberality of their concessions in the
charter of New Amstel, granted about the same time, and referred to in a former
note. Ante p. 14.

MR. butler's discourse. 27
history of the royal ingrates, by whom it was planned, and
for whose benefit it was perpetrated, there are few acts
more base ; none more characteristic*
The articles of capitulation secured to all the inhabiants,
their personal liberties and estates, and to the Dutch, liberty
of conscience in Divine worship and church discipline, and
the enjoyment of their own customs concerning their inherit
ances. All inferior civil officers and magistrates were to
continue, till the customary time of new elections ; when
new ones were to be chosen bj"- the inhabitants. The
twenty-first article expressly provided, that the town of
Manhattan should choose deputies, and that such deputies
should " have free voices in all public affairs, as much as
any other deputies ;" a provision which clearly implied, that
there should be a representative assembly, similar to the
assemblies in the other colonies. In the proclamation of
* The States General, by the treaty of Breda, concluded July 21, 1667, ceded
New Netherland to Great Britain, in lieu of Surinam. After the temporary re
sumption of the Dutch rule consequent on the retaking of the Province in 1673,
it was again ceded by the States General to the English, by the treaty of Lon
don, concluded July 9, 1674. These cessions embraced all the territory claimed
by the Dutch under the name of Novum Belgium or New Netherland, which, as
possessed at the surrender of 1664, extended on the south to the Delaware bay and
river. The Dutch settlements in this quarter were on both sides of the river;
but the most important were on its west bank, and chiefly within what now forms
the State of Delaware. Of these last, the first was begun in 1638, by the
Swedes, under Minuits, who, on being dismissed by the Dutch West India Com
pany, had entered the service of Sweden. O'Callaghan, i. 188. Kieft pro
tested against this encroachment on the territory of New Netherland ; but with
out effect. Id. 191, 365 — 375. Other settlements followed, so that in 1655, when
Stuyvesant reduced them to subjection, the Swedes on the Delaware numbered
about seven hundred souls. See J. W. Beekman's paper on the Early European
Colonies on the Delaware, in the Proceedings of the New York Hist. Soc. for
June, 1847, pp. 86 — 108 ; a paper which will well reward perusal, not only by
the information it contains, but by the very agreeable manner in which it is com
municated. 1
In the east. New Netherland, after long controversy, had been limited by
the treaty of Hartford, made in 1650, with the Commissioners of the New
England colonies, as to Long Island, by a line from the westernmost part of
Oysterbay, south to the sea ; and as to the main land, by a line from the west
side of Greenwich bay, running northerly into the country twenty miles, and
thence as should be afterwards agreed on, but not within fen miles of Hudson's
river. This arrangement secured to Connecticut the eastern two-thirds of Long
Island, and a correspondent portion of the territories between Hudson's river and
the Connecticut. It may be found at length in Thompson's Hist, of Long Island, ii.
305. It was to be in force and to be kept by the parties, " until a full and final
determination be agreed upon in Europe, by the two States of England and
Holland." It was not ratified by the Slates General until 1656 ; (lb.) but was
observed by the authorities of New Netherland, before and after that date ;
though for some years before the surrender, new difficulties arose between them
and their neighbors, from the encroachments of the latter. Smith, i. 12, 13,
Dunlap, i. 96—114.

28 MR. BUTLEll's DISCOURSE.
Col. Nicolls, the deputy of the Duke of York, which accom
panied his summons, the inhabitants were promised all the
privileges of English subjects ; and, in various ways, ex
pectations were held out, that all the popular privileges
enjoyed under the Dutch, would be greatly enlarged by the
English Government.* We shall hereafter see in what
manner these promises and expectations were fulfilled.
I cannot leave this part of my subject, without acknow
ledging my obligations to the author of the History of New
Netherland ; nor can I refrain from congratulating my as
sociates and fellow citizens, and especially such of them
as are of Dutch extraction, on the appearance of a work
which promises to supply what has so long been due, from
our favored commonwealth, to the memory and honor of its
founders. The discharge of this duty, though it should not
have been left to a native of Ireland, could not have fallen
into better hands. It is evident from the volume already
published, that Dr. O'Callaghan has applied himself to his
laborious undertaking with the heartiness and zeal which
belong to his own race, and with the patient diligence, the
scrupulous care, and the strict integrity which distinguish
the people to whose history it relates. They who have
read it will, I am sure, unite with me, in the hope that the
concluding volume may soon be given to the public, and
that the entire work may receive its liberal .patronage.
The Enslish rule, from the acquisition of the colony in
1664, to the era of the American Revolution, may be con-
venientlj'' divided, in reference to our present subject, into
two general periods. We have, first, the Proprietary gov
ernment, under the Duke of York, extending to 1685, when
as James II. he succeeded to the crown, and the province of
New York became a part of its dominions ; and secondly,
the Royal government.
The grant of Charles H. of the 12th of March, 1664,
to " his dearefet brother" James. Duke of York, from which
the Proprietary government was derived, was founded on
claim of title t.o the whole of New Netherland, as a part
of the American continent, first discovered and occupi
ed by the English.' Treating the title of the Dutch as
invalid, and their possession of half a century as a lawless
intrusion on the rights of the British crown, this grant con-
» See the Articles and Proclaniatioii, in Smith's Hist, of New York, edit, of
N. Y. Hist. Soc. i. 25, 26.

MR. butler S discourse.

29

veyed to ' the Duke Hudson's river and all land from the
west side of Connecticut river to the east side of Delaware
bay, together with Long Island. With similar disregard of
grants previously made, if included the seacoast from St.
Croix to Pemaquid, a-nd the back country " to the river of
Kennebeck, and upward to the- river of Cnnada," and the
islands of Martin's Vineyard and Nantucket. These terri
tories were granted to the Duke, his heirs and assigns for
ever, upon the tenure of free and common soccage, and upon
the yearly rent, when demanded, of forty beaver skins.
The king also grants to the Duke, his heirs, deputies, agents,
commissioners and assigns, full and absolute power and
authority, to correct, punish, pardon, govern and rule all
subjects of the EngUsh crown inhabiting, or being, within
the granted territory, according to such laws, ordinances,
and directions, as the Duke or his assigns should establish ;
and in defect thereof, in cases of necessity, " according to
the good discretions of his deputies, commissioners, officers,
or assigns ;" all such laws and proceedings, however, to be
¦" as near as conveniently may be, agreeable to the laws,
Statutes and governments of this our realm of England."*
The commission of Richard Nicolls, dated in March,
1664, made him deputy governor under the Duke of York,
over all the territories of his master in America ; but the
Duke, in the following June, conveyed to Lord Berkeley and
Sir George Carteret, in fee, the tract between the rivers
Hudson and Delaware, such tract to be thereafter called
Nova Cgesarea or New Jersey, with all his powers of gov
ernment, in and over this large and important part of the
ancient province of New Netherland.j
¦ The limits of NicoUs's government were also, soon after
the surrender, defined and circumscribed on the east. With
a view to .the settlement of boundaries with the New Eng
land colonies, and in anticipation of the meditated assault
on New Netherland, a commission was issued in April,
1664, by Charles II. to Colonel Nicolls, in conjunction with
* See the grafit at length in Thompson's Long Island, ii. 308.
t Smith, Hist, of New York, i.. 15. Samuel Sniith's Hist, of New Jersey,
60. The pledges given by Nicolls, before and at the surrender, were fairly com
plied with by Berkeley and Carteret. The grants and concessions made by
them to the settlers of New Jersey, were framed in a just and liberal spirit, cor
responding with the most cherished muniments of EngUsh freedom, and nearly
equaUing the most favored of the New England charters. Smith's Hist, ot New
Jersey, 60, 512. Bancroft, ii. 316, 317, 357—363. No such blessings were
allotted to the inhabitants of New York. It was long before they found the
capitulation a, truth ; and in the interval, they h.ad abundant occasion to learn,
how unsafe it is, to put one's trust in Princes.

30 MR. butler's discourse.
others, to determine all differences concerning the bounds
of the several charters and jurisdictions granted to the colo
nies of New England. These commissioners, soon after
the surrender of New Amsterdam, decided that the whole
of Long Island, (the eastern part of which had been claimed.
and exclusively held, by Connecticut,) should thenceforward
belong to the Duke of York ; and they settled, as the boun
dary between Connecticut and the Duke's government, the
Mamaroneck creek or river, and a line from the east side
of its mouth in Long Island Sound, north-northwest to the
line of Massachusetts.*
The residue of the territory included in the grant to the
Duke of York, received from Nicolls the name of New-
York- This name was also given by him to its metropolis,
in lieu of New Amsterdam, its former name-f With the
exception of Pemaquid and the adjacent country, and the
islands of Martin's or Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket,
afterwards surrendered to Massachusetts, the boundaries
of New York on the Atlantic, have ever since continued
as thus fixed. J
» Smith, i. 32, 34.
t Smith, 5. 15, 36.
t The starting place on Long Island Sound, and the northerly line therefrom,
being complained of, a new agreement was made in 1683, with the commission
ers of Connecticut, by which it was agreed that the division line between Con
necticut and New York should begin at the mouth of Byram brook or river, and
should run from that point as particularly described in the agreement. Smith,
i, 243. This last named place is the present starting point on Long Island
Sound, but the whole eastern line between New York and Connecticut was not
finally estabhshed until 1731. The eastern line farther north was settled with
Massachusetts at a still later date. Beyond the northwestern bounds of Massa
chusetts, as claimed by New York, it extended northerly to Canada, in such a
direction as to include a considerable part if not the whole of the territory
which now forms the State of Vermont. For a full collection of the documents
relating to the controversy between the Province and State of New York, and
the settlers under the New Hampshire grants, up to the final cession of New
York, and her consent to the admission of the State of Vermont into the Union,
in 1790, see Slade's Vermont State Papers, published by direction of the Legis
lature of Vermont, in 1823.
The possessions of the Dutch on the west bank of the Delaware, though not
included within the grant to the Duke of York, continued under his government,
as an appendage to the Province of New York, until 1682. In that year the
Duke conveyed all his right to this territory, being the same which was aftei-
wards divided into the counties of Newcastle, Kent, and Sussex, and which now
forms the State of Delaware, to William Penn. Proud's Hist, of Pennsylvania,
i. 201, 306, 358, 454.
For the boundaries of the State of New York, as now finally established, see the
statutory description of them in the Revised Statutes of New York, i. * 62 ; the
note of the Revisers, Id. iii., 2d. edition. Appendix 422 ; the agreement with
New Jersey of 1834 ; and the act of the Legislature of New York confirming
the same. Id. iii. 175.

MR. butler's discourse. 31
During the whole period of the Proprietary government,
the constitutional history of the colony is involved in much
obscurity. No printing presses being allowed, the official
acts of the Governors, and Councils by which they were
assisted, were left only in the public records and other
manuscripts ; and these were so defective, that when, in
the middle of the last century, the colonial legislature re
solved to collect and publish the acts of the Assembly, they
directed the compilers to begin with the acts of 1691.
Smith, our earliest historian, affirms this to be the era of
legislation in the colony ; and though he alludes to certain
laws previously passed, says they are " for the most part
rotten, defaced, or lost." From the researches of Bancroft
and other modern writers, and the publications of this Soci
ety, many facts, applicable to this period, but not mentioned
by Smith, may be gleaned. I shall select from these vari
ous sources, such particulars as belong to my subject, and
may properly be included in my present sketch.
'The powers of government granted by Charles II. to
the Duke of York, were, as we have seen, limited only
by the duty of conforming, in their general character and
administration, to the laws and government of England —
a limitation too vague to impose much restraint on the
Prince, or to afford much protection to his subjects. These
powers were delegated to Nicolls, and he exercised them at
pleasure; though, as it would seem, with prudence and
moderation. To give to the proprietors of lands the security of titles
conforming to the English claim of original right, and to
the tenure on which the Province was held by the Duke of
York, Nicolls issued letters patent in confirmation of the
Dutch grants.* He also published conditions inviting new
planters to the Province, who were invited to make pur
chases of the Indians, and assured of protection and en
couragement. The lands so purchased were to be held in
fee, subject, after five years, to public rates and assessments.
The settlers, except servants or day laborers, were to be
deemed freemen; and, in their respective townships, to
have the free choice of all officers, both civil and military ;
to make ^heir peculiar laws ; to decide all small cases
within themselves ; and to choose their own clergyman,
who was to be paid by the township. Liberty of con
science, was, however, allowed, provided it was not con-
• Smith, i. 35, 41.

32 MR. BUTLER S DISCOURSE.
verted to licentiousness or the disturbance of others in the
exercise of the Protestant religion.*
Besides incorporating the city of New York, with a
mayor, aldermen and sheriff, he also introduced in other
parts of the province, such of the English methods of gov
ernment as he thought applicable. The people of eastern
Long Island, being accustomed, under the charter of Con
necticut, to many of these methods, and familiar with the
general principles, of the English law, naturally desired
their establishment in New York. In this wish, the inhab
itants of the Dutch towns, and especially such of them as
were of New England origin, heartily united. Nicolls
wisely complied with this general sentiment, by calling a
convention of delegates to be chosen by the freemen of the
several townships, both Dutch and English, in the island,
for the purpose of obtaining their advice and information
" in the settlement of good and known laws, within his gov
ernment." They were also to bring with them evidences
and draughts of the limits of their respective townships.f
This Convention, which met on the 8th of February,
1665, though it did not represent the whole constituency,
deserves particular notice, as the first legislative assembly
in the province. The limits of the townships were ad
justed, and some other local matters settled ; but the most
important measure which attended the meeting, was the
promulgation to the Convention, and, through its members,
to the people, of a body of laws for their future govern
ment, prepared by Nicolls and his assistants, and after
wards known as "The Duke's Laws."J
This code was compiled, for the most part, from the laws
* Smith, i. 39, edition of Hist. Soc. gives a copy of this document. It was
not contained in the work as originally published, and is remarkable for the lib
erality of its provisions.
t See the Proclamation of Nicolls, at length, in Thompson's Hist, of Long
Island, i. 131.
t Smith, i. 41, speaks of this Convention as confined to the adjustment of
limits; and though he mentions the Duke's laws, does not speak of their pro
mulgation through its members. But Wood, in his Historical Sketch of Long
Island, p. 42, and Thompson, i. 131, 143, say, that the code was presented to
the Convention, and that copies were delivered to the deputies and filed by them
in the different clerks' offices. They also suppose, that at this meeting. Long
Island was formed into a shire by the name of Yorlcshire, and divided into three
ridings, and that the names of many of the Dutch towns were then changed. These
writers point out the mistake of Smith (i. 47) in supposing that Lovelace was the
first who organized the Court of Assizes. This error, and others of a like na
ture, might easily be made in 1752, when Smith wrote, though so much nearer
the time referred to ; for the Duke's laws were not then printed, and having
been long obsolete, were not readily accessible.

MR. BUTLER S DISCOURSE.

33

then in force in the other English colonies, but it contains
many provisions evidently new ; the whole being arranged .
in alphabetical order. It was published only in manuscript,
and as it was of considerable length, but few copies were
prepared. These were deposited, one in the office of the
Colonial Secretary, and others in the record offices on Long
Island. After the retrocession, in 1674, it was republished
by Gov. Lovelace, and two or three copies have come down
to the present century. In 1809, it was, for the first time,
printed by this Society, and may be found in the first vol
ume of its collections. There is much in it to attract re
mark ; but I can only stop to say, that it authorised the
election of town officers ; established town courts, courts of
sessions, and a court of assize — the latter to be held once
a year in New York, by the Governor and such magis
trates as he should call to his assistance ; that it assumed,
throughout, that matters of religion, as well as of trade
and politics, were subject to governmental rule ; and that
many of its penal regulations were exceedingly severe.*
The Duke's laws made no provision for a general assem
bly ; the sheriffs and other principal officers were appointed
by the Governor, and held at his will ; and the same union
of executive, legislative and judicial powers, which had
given so much dissatisfaction under the Dutch rule, con
tinued to exist. Nicolls and his successor, Lovelace, im
posed and levied taxes, by the aid of officers appointed by
themselves, and without receiving or asking the assent of
the people. f This system of procedure was far from satis
factory to the people. The Dutch complained of it as a
* A synopsis of the civil and criminal laws contained in this code, and of the
administrative arrangements made by it, may be found in Thompson's Hist, of
Long Island, i, 132 — 143. As a specimen of the former the following may be
mentioned. Persons in any wise denying the true God and his attributes, are
punishable with death ; so also are children above the age of sixteen, smiting
their natural father or mother, unless thereto, forced by self preservation from
death or maiming, provided the, complaint be made by the father and mother,
(and not otherwise,) who are to be sufficient witnesses of the fact. No minister
of the gospel was to be allowed to preach unless licensed by the governor ; and
ministers of every church to preach every Sunday, and to pray for the King, Queen,
Duke of York and the royal family ; and to pray and preach on the 25th of No
vember, the anniversary of the gunpowder treason, and on the birth-day of Charles
II. and on the 30th of January, to manifest detestation of the barbarous. murder of
Charles I. of blessed memory ; but all persons professing Christianity were to have
liberty of conscience.
These laws were altered and amended at the General Assizes held in 1665,
1666, 1672, and 1676. See the original laws in Collections of N. Y. Hist. Soc.
i. 307—397 ; and for the amendments. Id. 398^25.
t Smith, i. 37. 42.

34 MR. BUTLER S DISCOURSE.
violation of the articles of capitulation ; and the English
were loud in their remonstrances. Nurtured in the spirit
and accustomed to the rights, of Puritan democracy, they
brooked with little patience the exercise of these arbitrary
powers, and clamored for the representative assemblies and
other free customs of New England.*
In this state of the public feeling, there was little dispo
sition to aid Lovelace, in defending the city or province,
when invaded by the Dutch fleet under Evertse and
Benkes, to whom both were surrendered, without a strug
gle, in August, 1673. The people, except those in the
eastern part of Long Island, (who would gladly have re
turned to the dominion of Connecticut,) quietly submitted
to the Dutch rule, until October, 1674, when the colony was
again and finally transferred to the English, pursuant to
the treaty of London, f
Andross, the Governor to whom the colony was surren
dered in 1674, (afterwards so notorious in New England,)
re-established the Duke's laws, and like his predecessors,
exercised, alone or with his council and subordinates, all
the powers of Government. In 1676, he endeavored, by
consulting the people as to the amount of taxes they were
competent and willing to render, to make the system of tax
ation more acceptable. But the principle which forbids
taxation except by the free vote of the people through their
lawful representatives, had taken strong hold of the public
mind ; and the dissatisfaction of the inhabitants continued
to increase. The impatience of the English extended to
the Dutch; until, at length, in 1682, both united in a de
mand for popular representation, so plain and urgent, that
the Duke, who five years before could " see no use in as
semblies," yielded to the claim. Thomas Dongan, a military
officer who shared his religious faith and enjoyed his per
sonal confidence, was sent over in the place of Andross,
with directions to call a legislative assembly.J
Dongan did not arrive until August, 1 683. He immediately
issued orders to the sheriffs to summon the freeholders of their
* Bancroft, ii. 321, 322, and the several Historical Sketches of Long Island ;
Wood 91 ; Thompson, 2d edition, i. 147.
t To prevent doubts as to his title, the Duke of York, after the treaty, ob
tained from Charles II. a new grant, dated June 29th, 1674, for the same terri
tories described in the original grant of 1664.
tSmith, i. 59. Bancroft, ii. 406, 407, 415, 416. Dunlap, i. 133, 134. It
is said that the advice of William Penn, who had recently visited New York,
and who knew the state of things existing there, had, on this occasion, a con
trolling influence with the Duke.

MR. butler's DISCOURSE. 35
respective districts, to choose representatives to meet him
in assembly on the 17th of October, 1683, on which day
the delegates of the people convened in this city.* The
event is memorable, not merely as the era of representa
tive government in New York, but from the character of
the laws which were then enacted. Three of them — the
charter of liberties and privileges — the act to divide the
province and dependencies into shires and counties — and
the act to settle courts of justice — though not printed
until the present century, are now easily accessible, and
well deserve attention and remark. By the first of these
laws, the Supreme Legislative power under the Duke of
York, Lord proprietor of the province, was declared to be
vested in a Governor and Council, and in the People, met
in a general assembly, to be chosen by the freeholders,
once at least in every three years, by a majority of voices.
The usual privileges of Parliament were conferred on the
Assembly and its members ; no tax was to be levied with
out their consent ; and all the guaranties of life, liberty
and property, contained in Magna Charta, in the petition
of right, and the habeas corpus act — trial by jury, with
entire freedom of conscience to all Christians, in matters of
religion — and various other beneficial provisions of the
English law — were proclaimed and established as the
rights, liberties, and privileges of the inhabitants of New
York.t By the second law, the province is divided into twelve
counties, each of which is divided into towns ; thus organ
izing the whole province upon that system of townships to
which allusion was made under a former head of this dis
course. J
The act to settle courts of justice, established town courts,
to be held by commissioners of the peace ; county courts and
courts of oyer and terminer, of criminal and civil jurisdiction,
to be held by judges and justices ; and a court of chancery,
which should be deemed the supreme court of the province,
to be held by the Governor and 'Council ; with power to the
former to depute a chancellor in his stead, and with a right
of appeal from the courts of oyer and terminer, and from the
* Smith, i. 59, 61. Bancroft ii. 416.
t See this Charter, at length, in the Appendix to the Revised Laws Of 1813,
Vol. ii. Appendix iii. No. ii.
t Revised Laws of 1813, ii. App. vi. No. 3. Two of these counties, Buies,
containing the island of Nantucket and the neighboring islands, and Cornwall,
containing Pemaquid and the territories and islands adjacent, claimed by the
Duke, was afterwards, as mentioned ante p. 30, surrendered to Massachusetts.

"36 MR. butler's DISCOURSE.
court of chancery, to the King, according to a reservation
in the letters patent to the Duke.*
These measures were followed, in 1685 and 1686, by
charters to the city of New York, and to the city of Albany,
confirming to the former, with important additions, the
rights it had enjoyed under the Dutch, and granting to both
all necessary municipal privileges and powers. But the
assembly promised and provided for by the Charter of Lib
erties and Privileges of- 1683, was not summoned ; the
Governor and Council continued to exercise legislative as
well as executive powers ; and in 1685, when the Duke of
York became James IL and the royal government commen
ced, a new commission was issued to Dongan, by which he
was empowered, with the advice and consent of his coun
cil, to enact ordinances for the government of the province.
In this commission he was expressly enjoined to suffer no
printing press to be put up ; and the same arbitrary spirit
pervaded others of its provisions. These theoretic viola
tions of natural right and of chartered pledges were fol
lowed by the total omission to convene a general assembly,
and by other overt acts of the like stamp. f
The great mass of the inhabitants, both Dutch and Eng
lish, were Protestants by birth, and for the most part, in
communions far removed from the church of Rome. The
Charter of Liberties and Privileges, in accordance with the
general policy of James II. , had ' taeen so framed as to ex
tend to all Christians and Christian churches equal tolera
tion; though public offices could only lawfully be held by
Protestants. It was known that several of the new settlers,
including the collector and some others of the King's offi
cers, were Roman Catholics ; and it was generally believed,
that Jesuit priests had been, or were to be, introduced into
the province. To this, the people, whose hereditary aver
sion from the Romish faith was greatly heightened by the
barbarous persecution then driving to these shores the Hu
guenots of France, were utterly opposed. The popular
feeling, by this infusion of religious zeal became more in
tense and inflammable. J
Similar abuses of the royal power, perpetrated simulta
neously, but on a grander scale, at home, soon called forth
that torrent of public, indignation by which the dynasty of
the Stuarts was overwhelmed and forever swept away.
* Revised Laws of 1813, ii. App. viii.
t Thompson,!. 162, 163.
t Smith, i. 79. Dunlap, i. 148 — 152. The edict of Nantz was repealed in 1685.

MR. butler's discourse. 37
The revolution of 1688, though it freed the British isles
from despotic sway, confirmed the throne in the Protestant
succession, placed it on the narrow ground of popular
consent, hedged it in with many barriers of aristocratic
power and with some of democratic liberty ; and though it
restored to the New England colonies their violated char
ters,, brought to New York any thing but good. Hailed
with joy by the people, and especially by the Dutch, who
dielighted to resume their old relations to a Prince of the
House of Orange, and regarded by devout Protestants as
the greatest of blessings, it was yet, by a strange fatality,
made-the occasion, if not the cause, of the foulest blot in
our colonial history.
With the first hews of the event, the friends of constitu
tional freedom here, acting under the same high impulses
with, their more illustrious compatriots abroad; sharing, in
an equal degree, their dread of Popery and of arbitrary
power ; and not exempt from the like exciting prejudices
and passions ; proceeded, like them, to take such revolution
ary measures as they deemed necessary to the safety of the
people. Jacob Leisler, a Dutch burgher, conspicuous be
fore, for his patriotism and his courage, and more daring
now than the wise and prudent of the higher class, took
the lead in these measures ; expelled Lieutenant Governor
Nicholson, the successor of Dongan and the representative
of James II. ; and seizing, with strong hand, the govern
ment of the province, avowed his determination to hold it ,
for William and Mary, the new Sovereigns of Great Britain,
whom he also proclaimed as the Sovereigns of New York.*
Dearly did he answer for his rash pre-eminence in heroic
virtue. In , the conjuncture in which he was placed, men wiser,
more experienced and better advised than he, would have
found it difficult to avoid mistakes. Leisler, imperfectly
acquainted with the English tongue, and with English
usages and institutions, and necessarily dependent for in
formation in respect to them on his son-in-law Milborne,
and others of English birth or extraction, committed an
error, if indeed it can be called such, which proved, in the
hands of his enemies, the instrument of his ruin. In De
cember, 1689, despatches arrived from the government of
William and Mary, directed to " Francis Nicholson, Esquire,
or in his absence to such as, for the time being, take care
» Smith, i. 80 ; Danlap, i. 153 ; Bancroft, ii. 450.

38 MR. butler S DISCOURSE.
for preserving the peace and administering the laws, in
their majesties province of New York, in America," and
empowering Nicholson, or such other as should receive
them, to take upon him the title and command of Lieutenant
Governor until further orders. Leisler, under the advice
and with the co-operation of the Committee of Safety, re
garded the letter as addressed to himself; and dropping
the title of president of the committee, assumed the name
and authority of lieutenant governor. Nothing, under the
circumstances, was more natural or more excusable than
this step ; for Nicholson had fled from the province, and
Leisler, though opposed by " people of figure" in the city
of New York, and repudiated by the local authorities at Al
bany, had been, for several months, in the actual exercise
of the chief executive power, with the full consent of the
great mass of the inhabitants. He had, moreover, at the
time the despatches reached this city, the hearty support of
the common council then recently elected, as well as of the
local magistrates in the southern parts of the province ;
and they also concurred in the propriety of his assurhing
and exercising the functions of lieutenant governor. As a
consequence of this measure, he refused, and if the meas
ure was itself lawful, properly refused, to surrender to cap
tain Ingoldsby, on his arrival with a company of English
soldiers, in January, 1691, the possession of Fort Willjam,
and the government of the province. Whatever we may
think of the wisdom of his refusal, the pledge by which it
was accompanied, that the fort and province should be
delivered up to Sloughter, the newly commissioned gov
ernor, (w^hose appointment and approach were heralded by
Ingoldsby,) and the prompt redemption of this pledge, though
powerless, at the time, to prevent his condemnation, should
be sufficient, at this day, to protect his motives from sus
picion and his memory from reproach.*
Yielding to the infiuences by which he was surrounded,
Sloughter, by a special ordinance, immediately erected a
* It would seem from Srnith (i. 96) that Leisler refused to deliver up the fort
to Sloughter ; but his account of Leisler's movement and proceedings is one
of the most unsatisfactory portions of his work. Bancroft and Dunlap, the
latter of whom appears very thoroughly to have investigated the subject, both
say, that on the very evening of Sloughter's arrival, Leisler (then besieged in
the fort by Ingoldsby) sent messengers to receive his orders ; and as they were
detained as prisoners, he addressed a letter the next day, to Sloughter, (given at
length by Dunlap,) asking to whom he should surrender the fort. The letter
was unanswered except by the immediate arrest of Leisler and his Council.
Bancroft, ii. 53, 54. Dunlap, i. 202 — 205.

MR. butler's DISCOURSE. 39
court, for the trial of Leisler and the members of his coun
cil. Arraigned before this tribunal, which was wholly
composed of his personal enemies, on a charge of high
treason against William and Mary, Leisler denied the
competency of the governor to create such a court for his
trial. He therefore refused to plead, and in conformity to
the act to settle courts of justice, of 1683, appealed to the
King and Queen in Council. Milborne, his son-in-law, did
the same ; their appeal was disregarded by the court, and
they were both convicted as traitors and sentenced to death.
The other prisoners, six in number, pleaded, and were tried
and convicted ; but reprieved and subsequently pardoned.*
Sloughter, left to himself, would probably have spared
Leisler and Milborne ; but the Assembly, summoned im
mediately on his arrival, and chosen under influences fatal
to the fair expression of the popular will, was composed of
their enemies, and by several resolves urged their execu
tion. Sloughter, though profligate and venal, was indis
posed to such needless cruelty ; and, therefore, says Smith,
" when no other measures could prevail with the governor,
tradition informs us, that a sumptuous, feast was prepared,
to which he was invited. When his excellency's reason
was drowned in his cups, the entreaties of the company
prevailed with him to sign the death warrant ; and before'
he recovered his senses the prisoners were executed."!
Thus fell, by a judicial murder, base and cruel as any
which history relates, Jacob Leisler and Jacob Milborne —
men branded by the aristocracy of their day, both whigs
and tories, with the name and guilt of traitors, and de
scribed by them, in contemporary accounts (and this, per
haps, may go far to explain the tragedy) as belonging " to
the meaner sort of the inhabitants." The obscurity in which
some of the more important facts were Jeft by Smith, our
first historian — who, though he condemns the mockery of the
trial and the grossness of the execution, displays little sym
pathy for the victims — tended, for a long season, to becloud
the judgment of posterity, and to fasten upon Leisler the
opprobrium of heading a criminal insurrection. The pre-
* Smith says of this court, that the judges, instead ofdeciding for themselves
whether Leisler was justifiable in treating the British despatches as addressed
to himself and acting under them, referred the question to Sloughter and his
Council, and on receiving an answer in the negative, decided that all Leisler's
proceedings were illegal and treasonable, and accordingly gave judgment against
the prisoners, i. 97.
t Smith, i. 103.

40 MR. BUTLER S DISCOURSE.
sent age — thanks to our plain but laborious annalist, and
more especially to a gifted member of our own Society —
has recalled the sentence, and atoned for the injustice, of
its predecessors.*
The same Assembly which pressed the execution of Leis
ler and Milborne, passed an act for the pardon of all others
who had been active in the .late disorders ; declared, in the
strongest terms, its adhesion to William and Mary; and
passed several laws for. settling and regulating the govern
ment of the province. Of these, the most, important was
an act " declaring what are the rights and privileges of
their majesties' subjects, inhabiting wjthin . this province of
New York." This act, in respect to political matters, was
in almost >the same words as the Charter of Liberties and
Privileges, passed in 1683., It, however, differed from tha,t
law in extending free toleration in religion to Protestants
* Dunlap, in his History of New Yb'ik; i. 152 — 211, gives a very full accoutit of
all the facts, many of which he lias drawn from the documents of the New York
Historical Society..
C. F. Hoffman's " Administratioii' of Jacob Leisler,, a chapter in Ameripan
History," in Sparks'' Library of American Biography, 2d series, vol. iii. vindi
cates, with spirit and success, the character ,'. of Leisler, and has secured him a
place among American worthies.
Leisler's administration may be regarded as commencing with his appoint
ment, by the Committee of Safety, to the command of Fort James, or as cailled
by him. Fort William, June 8th, 1689. It continued, nominally, until the ar
rival of Governor Sloughter, March 19, 1691, though for several weeks imme
diately preceding, Leisler was shut up in Fort William, and closely besieged by
Captain Ingoldsby.
The attainders of Leisler and Milborne were reversed in 1698 by act of Par
liament. Their bones had before been taken up and buried, with appropriate
honors, in the Dutch church. Smith, i. 104, 140.
Violent measures multiply themselves, not merely by the necessity they beget
for supporting them by like measures, and by their influence as precedents, but
by the retaliatory acts to Which they lead. An outrage of this latter description
occurred in 1702, under the government of Lieutenant Governor Nanfan. The
firiends of Leisler having then a inajority in the Assembly, and having the sup
port of the lieutenant governor and, council, Nicholas Bayard, who had been one
of the most active in the destruction of Leisler, caused addresses to King Wil
liam, to the Parliajnent, and to Lord Cornbury, (who had been commissioned
as Governor, and was shortly expected in New Yoi-k,) to be prepared and signed
at a public meeting of the adherentsof his party. In these papers, the proceed
ings of the Leisler party and of the lieutenant governor and council were severely
censured. For this act. Bayard was indicted for high. treason, convicted and
sentenced, and narrowly escaped execution. The conduct of the court, and es
pecially of Atwood, the chief justice, is a faithful copy of the methods adopted
by Scroggs and Jeffries. Seethe trial, xiv. Howell's State Trials, 471. John
Hutchins, who assisted Bayard in his movement, was also tried, convicted and
condemned for the same offence. Nakfan granted a reprieve until the arrival
of Lord Cornbury, when the prisoners were pardoned and their attainders re
versed. Id. 516.

MR. butler's DISCOURSE. 41
only, and in expressly subjecting Roman Catholics to the
disabilities prescribed in the English statutes.*
This act of 1691 was repealed by King William.f Yet
BO late as the year 1725, it continued to be printed in the
editions of the colonial laws, published in New York ; and
the rights which it claimed, were uniformly asserted by the
people, and never relinquished by the Assemblies. As the
former increased in numbers and intelligence, and the lat
ter gained confidence and strength, these claims to English
rights and liberties became, with both, the rallying point of
opposition to the Crown and the Parliament.
We have now reached the confines of recorded legisla
tion and authentic history ; and I shall therefore, content
myself, with a rapid glance at some of the remaining topics
and occurrences belonging to this portion of my subject.
The colonial government, as settled in 1691, and as sub
stantially continued until the revolution of 1776, was vested
in a Governor, appointed by the King's commission and
holding at his pleasure ; a Council, consisting at first of
seven but afterwards increased to twelve members ; and a
General Assembly, chosen by the freeholders of the several
counties. No formal charter, like those held by the New
England colonies, having ever been granted to the inhabit
ants of New York, and the act of 1691 being rejected by
the King, it was the theory of the Governors, and their
superiors, that all the immunities enjoyed by the People,
not only fiowed from, but were absolutely dependent on, the
grace and will of the Crown. Their commissions and in-
* It was unanimously resolved by this Assembly that all the laws consented to
by the General Assembly, under James, Duke of York, and also the several or
dinances made by the late Governors and Councils, were null and void, the former
because they were not observed and ratified by the Duke nor by the late King,
and the latter as contrary to the English constitution and the government of the
other plantations in America. In accordance with this resolve, the first printed
collection of the Colonial Laws, and all subsequent collections commenced with
the acts passed by this Assembly, which was regarded as the true era of legisla
tion in the Province. Smith, i. 98, note. Smith, however, calls attention to the
fact, that the laws passed before 1691 were never formally repealed ; and inti
mates that one design of the resolution was to get rid of an act which gave a
perpetual revenue to the Crown, and to introduce in its stead an act granting a
temporary supply, i. 101. It may, I think, be well suspected, that this Assem
bly had other and more potent reasons for the extraordinary acknowledgment,
that all former acts of Assembly and other laws and ordinances, were void and
of no effect. If they were in force, all the proceedings in the case of Leisler
and his associates were null and void, not merely because contrary to the modes of
procedure estabhshed by the former laws, but because of the illegality and utter
incompetence of the court in which they were had.
t Smith, i. 102.
SECOND SERIES, VOL. II. 4

42 MR. butler's DISCOURSE.
structions seem to have been framed upon this basis ; and
they were accordingly invested with " a vast plenitude of
power."* The councillors might be appointed and suspended by the
Governor until the King's pleasure should be known ; but
were more prbperly appointed by the King's mandamus and
sign manual. They formed a privy council to the Governor ;
had a legislative power, analogous to that of the House of
Lords ; and like that body, they also formed the court of
last resort.f
Assemblies wei-e chosen upon writs of election issued by
the Governor, and at first without limitation of time. In
1737, they were restricted by a colonial act to three years ;
but this law was the next year repealed by George II. In
1743, a septennial law was passed which continued in
force until the revolution.J
The Governor had an absolute negative on all bills pass
ed by the Assembly and Council, and also the power of
proroguing and dissolving the Assembly. All laws passed
by the Colonial Legislature were to be submitted to the
King, for his approbation or disallowance ; and such as he
disapproved, became void — a prerogative which, in theory,
placed the Province at the mercy of the crown, and which,
in practice, was often exercised. §
* Smith, i. 295, 307, Appendix, chapter 5. The commission and instructions
of Queen Anne to Lord Cornbury (1702-3) imply an absolute control, in the
Crown, over all the great interests of society. Liberty of corfscience was to be
extended to all persons, except Papists, provided they are content with its quiet
and peaceable enjoyment, and give no offence or scandal to the Government.
The Church of England, as by law established, was to be recognised by the
Government and maintained at the common charge ; and, for ecclesiastical pur
poses, the colony was placed under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of London. No
schoolmaster thereafter to come from England, could be employed, unless he
brought with him the license of the Bishop ; and no person then in the colony,
or coming within.it, from other parts, could be permitted to keep school, without
license from the Governor. The illiberal acts of trade and navigation are to be
strictly put in execution ; Captains of her Majesty's ships, under the direction of
the Governor, are to have the power of impressing seamen ; the Assembly is to
be urged to make competent provision for the support of Government ; and to
prevent inconvenience from the liberty of printing, the Governor is to provide,
that 710 person keep any press for printing, and that no book, pamphlet or other
matter whatever, be printed, without his especial leave and license first obtained.
The commission and instructions for New Jersey (of which Lord Cornbury was
also Governor) may be found in S. Smith's Hist, of New Jersey, i. 230 — 261.
Copious extracts from those for New York have been recently published in
many of our newspapers.
t Smith, i. 305.
t Smith, i. 307, and the acts in the Colonial Statutes under the dates named.
§ The titles of some of the Provincial acts repealed, from time to time, by the '
Crown, will very significantly illustrate the nature of this prerogative, and the

Mr. butler's DISCOURSE. 43
The revenue act for defraying the expenses of the Pro
vince, passed by the Assembly of 1691, was limited to two
years. In 1693, harassed by the importunities and dra
gooned by the violence of Fletcher, the Assembly granted
a revenue for five years ; but in consequence of the " em
bezzlements" of Lord Cornbury, such grants were after
wards reduced to a shorter term.* In 1737, the Assembly
refused to make provision for any longer time than one
year ; and to this resolution they adhered until the revo
lution.! The law of the Province, in cases not provided for by
colonial legislation, was understood to be that of England,
so far as it applied to the condition and circumstances of
the colonists ; but the courts exercised an almost unlimited
discretion, in determining what parts of the common and
statute law of England were in force. During the whole
period of the British rule, this important subject was in
volved in much uncertainty ; and many were the questions
and controversies, especially on ecclesiastical matters, to
which this uncertainty gave rise. J
The English law of primogeniture and the other pecu
liarities of the English law concerning estates in lands,
seem, however, to have come into general operation imme
diately after the surrender — notwithstanding the provision
in the articles of capitulation, that " the Dutch should en
joy their own customs concerning their inheritances." At
all events, this part of the English law was firmly estab
lished in the Province, as early as 1683 ; and it continued
in force until after the revolution of 1776.§
principle on which it was used. The repeal of the Bill of Rights and Privileges
of 1691, has been mentioned in the text. The following acts passed in 1702,
1708 and 1709, were promptly repealed by Queen Anne — An act for augment
ing the numbers of the representatives in the colonial assembly ; an act declaring
and confirming the liberties of the city of New York, in the election of their
magistrates ; an act to relieve the colony from divers in'cgularities and ex
tortions ; and an act for regulating and establishing fees. Van Schaack's ed.
of Colonial Laws, i. 47, 75, 76.
» Smith, i. 307.
t lb. and the annual supply bills.
t Smith, i. 163 ; 258 ; 284-294.
^ The Charter of Liberties and Privileges of 1683, expressly provided, that
from thenceforward no lands within this Province should be accounted a chattel or
personal estate, but an estate of inheritance according to the customs and prac
tice of England ; and it contained many other provisions which proceeded on
the assumption, that the English law of real estates was in force. The rule of
succession as to lands of the Dutch inhabitants, between 1664 and 1683, does not
appear to have been settled by any authoritative decision of our courts ; but
Chancellor Walworth has expressed the opinion, (17 Wendell, 587,) and higher

44 MR. BUTLER S DISCOURSE.
The Assembly of 1691 passed a temporary act establish
ing courts of justice, which was, from time to time, re
newed until 1697. In May, 1698, Lord Bellamont, then
Governor of the Province, with the advice of his Council,
issued an ordinance embracing the substance of the ex
pired act, but with some further provisions. This ordinance
recognised or constituted the following courts and magis
trates : a Supreme Court, with civil and criminal jurisdic
tion, the justices of which were also to hold Circuit Courts,
with commissions of oyer and terminer, in the several coun
ties ; a Court of Common Pleas and a Court of General
Sessions of the Peace in each county ; the courts of the
Mayor and Aldermen in the cities of New York and Al
bany ; and Justices of the Peace in the towns with juris
diction in small cases.*
In 1701, a Court of Chancery, to consist of the Governor
and Council, or any two of the Board, for the time being,
was, in like manner, established by an ordinance of Lieu
tenant Governor Nanfan. t Soon after, the powers of this
Court were vested, by ordinance, in the Governor alone,
who continued to exercise them until the revolution. He
also exercised, by delegate, the powers of a Prerogative
Court, in cases of wills and intestacy.J At a later day, a
Court of Admiralty was established, by commission under
seal of the English Admiralty.^
The establishment of the higher courts, by ordinance,
without the aid, intervention, or assent of the Legislature,
was always complained of by the People and their repre-

living authority on such a point cannot now (April, 1848) be named, that the
laws of England took effect in this colony, so far as applicable to its condition,
on the instant of the surrender ; and that as the grant of Charles II. to the Duke
df York expressly declared, that the laws of the Province shouH be agreeable to
the laws and statutes of England, the Duke had no power to retain the ancient
Dutch laws. In the final settlement of this cjuestion, it will be necessary to ex
amine, with great care, the historical facts and documents connected with the
epoch to which it refers — a consideration which may show the importance, to the
lawyer as well as to the antiquarian, of researches like the present.
* See the ordinance in Revised Laws of 1813, ii. App. No. 5, It gave the
Supreme Court the like jurisdiction as the English Courts of King's Bench, Com
mon Pleas and Exchequer. About thirty years afterwards, it became a ques
tion, whether the Court, by virtue of its powers as a Court of Exchequer, could
take cognizance of cases in Equity. This question, which became connected
with the pohtics of the times, and was discussed with great warmth, was decided
by the general sense of the colony, in which the Court appears to have acqui
esced, in the negative. Smith, i. 312-316.
+ Smith, i. 137.
X Id. 316.
Id. 316.

MR. butler's DISCOURSE. 45
sentatives, as a public grievance, and was, with both, a fre
quent topic of discussion and remonstrance. The Court of
Chancery, as held by one man, and that man generally a
stranger to the country, and always the immediate repre
sentative of the Crown, was especially obnoxious to public
prejudice; and the assembly more than once protested
against it, as contrary to law, unwarrantable, and of dan
gerous consequences to the liberties and properties of the
People.* Pursuant to their instructions, the Royal Governors la
bored hard to procure the passage of laws, for settling, and
for maintaining at the public charge, the ministry of the
Church of England ; and after much resistance on the part
of the Assembly, such a law was passed, in 1693, in refer
ence to the city of New York, and the counties of Rich
mond, Westchester and Queens. As amended by subse
quent laws, this act, though, in its principle, always ob
jected to by members of the other Churches in the colony,
and though, in practice, often the occasion of exciting and
protracted controversies, remained in force until the revo
lution of 1776.t
If the policy and measures of the Government were hostile
to the true principles of religious liberty, these principles, it
must be admitted, were as little understood by the People ;
for not content with the general exclusion of Roman Cath
olics from the liberty of conscience enjoyed by other Chris
tians, the Assembly, in 1700, passed an act declaring, that
every Jesuit and Popish Priest, who should continue in the
colony, after a given day, should be condemned to perpet
ual imprisonment ; and if he broke prison, or escaped and
was retaken, he was to be put to death. J
Besides the local clogs and restraints which have been
named, legislation, in this Province, as in the other colonies,
was subject, in matters of trade and navigation, to the con
trol of the British Parliament — a control exercised always
with rigor, often with gross injustice, and afterwards claim
ed, by the Parliament and Crown, to extend to all cases
* Smith, i. 318. Journal of Colonial Assembly of 6th November, 1735, and
7th September, 1737.
t Acts of 1693, 1704, 1705, 1721, 1741, 1745, 1755, 1756, 1770, and 1775.
These acts were all repealed by the act of the 17th of April, 1784, " for making
such alterations in the Charter of trinity Church, as to fender it more conform
able to the Constitution of this State," and by the repealing act of the 20th of
April, 1784, as contradictory to the equality of religious rights, designed by the
Constitution of 1777. Jones &. Varick, i. 128 ; 131.
t Smith and Livingston's Colonial Laws, i. 38.

46 MR. butler S DISCOURSE. '
whatsoever. The assertion of this claim, and the tyran
nical measures by which it was enforced, led to the Ameri
can Revolution.
The people of New York and their assemblies, accus
tomed, for three-quarters of a century, to controversies with
the representatives of the Crown, and owing little to the
Crown itself, entered at once, and with an energy propor
tioned to the oppressions they had endured, into this new
contest. The resolutions and remonstrances of the Colonial
Assembly against the Stamp Act were drawn up with con
summate ability, and breathed a spirit (says Pitkin) ¦<' more
bold and decided Ihan those from any other colony."* Our
metropolis has the proud distinction of having been selected,
as the place of meeting of the Colonial Congress of 1765 ;
the first in the series of those illustrious councils, which
with such ability and eloquence, such " solidity of reason
ing, force of sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion,"! ascer
tained, vindicated, and established the liberties of America.
Justice has not yet been done by the historians of the
Revolution, to the early and efficient instrumentality of
New York, in the cause of American Independence.
The peculiar condition of the Province, without a charter
or other satisfactory limitation on the royal prerogatives ;
the arbitrary conduct of most of the individuals to whom
the government was successively entrusted ; the odious
doctrines avowed by many of them ; and the great number
of serious and exciting questions which grew out of their
acts and pretensions ; compelled the people of New York
to place themselves, almost from the beginning of their po
litical contests, on the high ground of natural and inherent
rights, irrespective of grants and prescriptionsij Our co
lonial annals give us many instances of this kind, which
must have greatly contributed to the spread of liberal
opinions, not only among the people of this Province, but
in the other colonies. One of these — the acquittal of John
Peter Zenger, who was tried in this city, in 1735, upon
an information filed against him for a seditious libel on
Governor Cosby and his Council — was declared by Gouver-
neur Morris to be " the germ of the American Revolution; §"
» Political and Civil History of United States, i. 166.
tLord Chatham of the Congress of 1774.
t Bancroft, iii. 56 — 61. Anniversary Discourse of Chancellor Kent, in Col
lections of N. Y. Hist. Soc. 2d series, 15 — 17.
§ Address of J. W. Fkancis, M. D., (to whom this declaration was made,) at
the 40th anniversary of the New York Hist. Soe., in published account of this
celebration, p. 86.

MR. butler's DISCOURSE. 47
Other facts of the like nature, might be mentioned ; but
the time already consumed, and the duties yet before me,
compel me to bring to a close this part of my discourse,
without so much as naming various interesting passages,
to which, under other circumstances, it would be proper to
refer. I do so the more readily, since I have good reason
A very good account of the case of Zenger may be found in Dunlap, i. 299.
Four numbers of Zenger's newspaper, " The New York Weekly Journal,"
were ordered by the Governor and Council,in November, 1734, to be burnt, un
der the order of the magistrates, by the common hangman. The Court of
Quarter Sessions was moved for such an order ; but refused to make it. The
act was then done by the Sheriff, or rather by his negro, in the presence of the
Sheriff and some pther functionaries.
Zenser was then arrested on a warrant for a seditious libel. Being brought
up on a habeas corpus, for the purpose of being discharged or bailed, Zenger
made oath, in reference to the amount of bail, that he was not worth, over
his debts, forty pounds, the tools of his trade and his wearing apparel excepted.
The Court ordered him to give bail, himself in £400 with two sureties in X200
, each. Being unable tb do this he was remanded to jail. The grand jury re
fused to indict him ; whereupon the King's Attorney General filed, in the Su
preme Court of the colony, an ex officio information against him for seditious
matter contained, not in the papers which had been burned, but in two others.
His counsel, James Alexander, (father of Lord Stirling of revolutionary mem
ory,) and William Smith, (father of the historiail,) took exceptions to the com
missions of Chief Justice Delancey and Judge Phillipse, two of the judges,
whereupon the Court, (having previously forewarned them of their displeasure
if they should sign the exceptions,) excluded Messrs. Alexander and Smith from
practice at the bar.
The cause was tried, before a struck jury, on the 4th of August; 1735, before
the court at bar. Zenger was defended by Andrew Hamilton of Philadel
phia, an old barrister who came to New York for the purpose. He admitted
the publication of the papers ; but insisted that the prosecutor should prove the
falsehood of the matters charged as false and libellous. This being overruled,
he then offered to prove the truth of these matters, and insisted on his right to
do so, in justification thereof, and also on the right of the jury to give a general
verdict. His doctrine, on both points, was overruled ; but the trial resulted in
the acquittal of Zenger, in the face of an express and positive charge of the
Chief Justice. The Common Council of New York thereupon voted to Mr.
Hamilton the freedom of the city, which was presented in a gold snuff box with
the motto on the lid " Demerste leges — timefacta libertas — hac tandem emer-
g'uni"— within " Non nummis virtute paratur," and on the front of the rim. Tal
ly's wish, " Ita cuique eveniat, ut de republica meruit."
The trial may be found at length, in Howell's State Trials, vol. xvii. 675 to
726. It was published in a pamphlet form by Zenger, and incorporated in Har-
grave's edition of the State Trials, published in 1778, and was thus known to Eng-'
lish lawyers. The same propositions and train of reasoning, afterwards employed
by Erskine, in the case of the Dean of St. Asaph, and other cases, in support of
the liberty of the press, with many illustrations similar to those used by the great
British orator, were presented and most ably maintained ; though I am sorry to
add, there is not, in any of his speeches, the slightest recognition of his Ameri
can predecessor.
It is a coincidence not unworthy of note, that nearly seventy years afterwards,
another Hamilton, still more eminent both at the bar and in political life, should
have maintained the same doctrines, and essentially contributed to their estab
lishment, in this State.

48 MR. butler's DISCOURSE.
for believing, that the share of New York, in our countpy'i^
heroic age, is duly appreciated by the distinguished writef
who now so honorably represents the American Republicj
at the Court of London ; and that the names and services
of her sons will find their just place, and shine in native
lustre, in the future pages of his great national work.
The Independent or State Government began its exist
ence, under the Constitution of the 20th of April, 1777, of
the formation and details of which, I shall now proceed to
give some account.
At the commencement of the revolutionary struggle, the
wants and impulses of the times brought into existence, in
this colony as well as in the others, governments by con
gresses and committees, informal and temporary, in charac
ter and duration. As the confiict went on, and the hope
of reconciliation with the King and Parliament declined,
the patriots and sages who, at first, thought only of defend
ing their natural and chartered liberties, were foi^ced to
contemplate the prospect of a final separation, and to pro
vide for the ground of absolute independence. Accordingly,
on the 15th of May, 1776, a resolution was passed by the
Continental Congress, then sitting at Philadelphia, by which
it was recommended to the respective assemblies and con
ventions of the United Colonies, where no government suf
ficient to the exigencies of their affairs had been established,
to adopt such government as should, in the opinion of the
representatives of the people " best conduce to the happi
ness and safety of their constituents in particular, and
America in general."
Of the thirteen original colonies, all, except Connecticut
and Rhode Island, pursued the course thus recommended.
The charters of these two colonies, as has been well re
marked by our venerable President, reserved to the Crown
no control over the acts of internal policy emanating from
the colonial legislative bodies, nor even any share in the
executive power ; the acts of the former did not require the
royal sanction, and the latter was chosen by the colonists
themselves ; nothing, therefore, was necessary to their con
venient action as sl;ates, but the casting off of their de
pendence on Great Britain.*
The constitution of Virginia, which was the first in the
* Gallatin's Inaugural Address in Proceedings of New York Hist. Soc. for
1843, p. 5.

MR. butler's discourse. 49
order of time, was adopted on the 12th of June 1 776. New
Jersey, Maryland, and North Carolina, following her ex
ample, completed their constitutions, during the same year.
The Constitution of New York, was the fifth in the series ;
having been finally adopted on the 20th of April 1777.
The Provincial Congress of New York, elected in April
1776, assembled in the City of New York, a few days after
the passage of the resolution of the Continential Congress,
mentioned above.
They proceeded, without delay, to consider this resolu
tion. It was fully discussed, and on its true grounds. It
was treated as involving, substantially, the question of In
dependence. Gouverneur Morris, then a delegate for the
County of Westchester, appears, though one of the youngest
members, to have taken a leading part in this debate ; and
as may be seen by the extracts from his speech, in the work
of Mr. Sparks, he strongly argued the duty and necessity of
abandoning, forever, the phantom of reconciliation, and of
seeking peace, liberty and security, by a new and inde
pendent government. Being, however, of opinion, that the
Congress had not the power to enter on the plan of a new
government, he proposed that a committee should be ap
pointed, to draw up a notice to the people, recommending
the election of delegates, for the express purpose of assem
bling and forming a new government. Other members
thought, and of this opinion was a majority of the bouse,
that the subject should be referred to a committee, to con
sider and report thereon ; and a resolution to this effect
was accordingly adopted.* The Committee, on the 27th of
May, reported, that the right of framing or new modelling
civil government belonged to the people ; and that as doubts
existed of the authority of the Provincial Congress to form
a new government, the people should be called together to
express their sentiments on the subject, by the usual mode
of election.
This report is worthy of special notice, as one of the ear
liest and most explicit expositions of the doctrine of the
popular sovereignty, put forth in this State. It was ap
proved by the Congress ; and on the 31st of May, this body
passed a series of resolutions prepared by Mr. Jay, calling
on the people of the several counties to elect deputies to a
* Life of Morris by Sparks, oh. 6. Journal of the New York Provincial
Congress, published in 1842, p. 460. This committee was composed of Messrs.
Scott, Haring, Remsen, Lewis, Jay, Cuyler, and Broome.

50 MR. butler's discourse.
new Congress, with power to establish a form of govern
ment.* The general movement towards independence, was now
proceeding with such strength and swiftness, that before
the sense of the people of New York could be. taken, the
Provincial Congress was obliged to anticipate, in some de
gree, the action it had invited.
The convention of Virginia had passed a resolution on
the 22d of May, instructing the representatives of Virginia
in the Continental Congress, to bring forward and sustain a
proposition for declaring the United Colonies free and in
dependent States.
On the 7th of June, the Delegates from Virginia made
such a motion, which was discussed on the 8th and 10th.
As it then appeared, (to use the language of Mr. Jefferson,)
" that the Colonies of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylva
nia, Delaware, and Maryland, were not matured for falling
from the parent stem, but that they were fast advancing
to that state ; it was thought most prudent to wait awhile
for them, and to postpone the final decision to the first of
July, but that this might occasion as little delay as possible,
a committee was appointed to prepare a Declaration of
Independence."! This Committee reported on the 28th of June ; and, as
is well known to every American, the immortal Declara
tion was adopted on the 4th of July.
In the mean time, delegates had been elected in the
several counties of this State, who were to meet in the
City of New York on the 8th of July. Before that day. Sir
William Howe arrived at Sandy Hook with a British fieet
and army : and the city of New York, which had for some
time been occupied by Washington and the American
troops, became the immediate centre of the great military
operations about to ensue. The new Congress, unable to
assemble in the city, came together at White-Plains, and at
the moment of its meeting, received ofiicial notice of the
decisive step which had been taken at Philadelphia. Its
first acts (July 9th) were to pass, by unanimous vote, a reso
lution approving the Declaration of Independence, and to
order its publication throughout the State. It then changed
its title from that of the " Provincial Congress of the Colony
» Journal of Provincial Congress of N. Y. 462 ; 468. Life of Morris, i. ch. 6.
Life of John Jay, i. 44.
t Madison Papers, i. 16.

MR. butler's discourse. 51
of New York," to that of the " Convention of the Represen
tatives of the State of New York ;" and in view of the new
exigencies pressing upon the country, immediately took
measures for relieving the city, and for maintaining, by
military power and by all the infiuence it could exert,
the cause of liberty and independence.*
These duties compelled the Convention to defer its en
trance on the special labor for which it had assembled, un-'
til the 1st of August, when a committee was appointed to
draw up andreport a Constitution. John Jay was the chair
man of this committee ; and the duty of preparing the draft
appears to have been assigned to him.f But he was also
chairman of the committee of safety appointed by the Con
vention ; and with his associates in both bodies, was en
gaged day and night in the toils and cares of that most
perilous conjuncture.
The Convention, acting sometimes in this character, and
sometimes as a General Committee of Safety, watching the
progress of military events, and migrating from place to
place, sat, successively, at White-Plains, Haerlem, Fishkill,
and finally, from February, 1777, to May in that year, at
Kingston. While at Fishkill, the members supplied them
selves with arms and ammunition for their defence in case
the British or their armed adherents, of whom there were
many, should assail them in their retreat. J Like the high-
souled Hebrew leader and his brave companions, these
equally fearless builders " had every one his sword girded
by his side, and so builded."§
On the 12th of March, 1777, the committee reported the
draft of a Constitution, which, on the 20th of April, 1777,
was adopted by the Convention. Though more than a
month intervened between the report and the final vote, the
Convention was compelled to give to the subject a very hur
ried consideration. Mr. Jay, the chief author of the draft,
ascribes, to this circumstance, the striking out of some pro-
« Life of Morris by Sparks, i. ch. 6. Life of John Jay, i. 43 — 46, 68, 69.
Journal of the Provincial Congress of New York, p. 516-518.
+ The persons who composed this important committee, were John Jay, John
Sloss Hobart, William Smith, William Duer, Gouverneur Morris, Robert R.
Livingston, John Broome, JohnMorin Scott, Abraham Yates, jr. Henry Wisner,
senior, Samuel Townsend, Charles De Witt, and Robert Yates. Journal of
Convention, 552. James Duane was afterwards placed on the Committee, and
the draft of the Constitution was reported by him ; Mr. Jay who had prepared
it, being absent. Id. 833.
t Lives of Jay and Morris, n/pra.
§ Nehemiah, ch. iv. 18.

S2 MR. butler's discourse.
visions which he regarded as impprta;nt, and the insertion
of others which he deemed objectionable.*
The Constitution, as finally adopted by the Convention,
bears, on its face, many of the intellectual and moral
traits of its principal author. It begins with a preamble
in which are set forth, in explicit terms, the causes which
demanded the erection of a new government ; the several
steps taken for the purpose, under the sanction of the Con
tinental Congress, by the People of New York ;' and the
authority of the Convention to represent them in this solemn
and momentous work. Among other things, it recites at
large, the Declaration of Independence, and the unani
mous resolution of the Convention, of the 9th of July, 1776,
approving the Declaration and pledging the colony to its
support. As a consequence of this measure and of the
other matters thus recited, the preamble concludes, that all
power whatever, in the State of New York, " hath reverted
to the People thereof;" and that the Convention, having
been appointed, by their suffrages and free choice, is au
thorized to institute and establish for the "good people of
the State, a new form of government.
By its first article the constitution declared, that no au
thority should, on any pretence whatever, be exercised in
the State, but such as should be derived from, and granted
by, the People.
It then proceeded to vest the legislative power in a sen-i
ate and assembly — the members of the former body, twenty-
four in number, being chosen from four senate districts into
which the State was divided, for four years, from and by the
freeholders of the districts respectively, possessed of freeholds
of the value of £100 ($250) over and above incumbrances j
and of the latter, who were to be at least seventy in number,
for one year, from and by the inhabitants of the respective
counties, possessing freeholds of the value of twenty pounds,
or renting tenements of the yearly value of twenty shillings
* Life of John Jay, i. 69. Several questions of interest, appear, from the
Journal, to have been discussed in the Convention, upon some of which divis
ions were taken. The Constitution, as finally settled, was adopted with but one
dissenting vote. Journal of Convention, 892.
The whole number of delegates elected to the Convention, was ninety-six ;
but it does not appear that more than sixty-six attended its sittings, between the
Report of the Committee for drawing the Constitution, and the adjournment of
that body ; although the other thirty had beeti more or less in the Convention'
before. The names of the members (more than one third of whom appear to
have been of Dutch extraction), may be found at the end of the Constitution as
published with the Revised Statutes of 1830, vol. i. 34.

MR. butler's discourse. 53
and paying taxes.* Provision was made for increasing
both branches with the increase of population, but the Sen
ate was never to exceed one hundred, nor the Assembly
three hundred.f
The Executive power was vested in a Governor, and as his
substitute, a Lieutenant Governor, to be chosen by ballot, by
and from the freeholders qualified to vote for Senators, for
three years ; and the Judicial, in a Chancellor, and Judges
of the Supreme Court, and first Judges of counties, to hold
respectively during good behavior until the age of sixty
years, and in other courts, judges and inferior magistrates,
holding at the pleasure of the appointing power.J
A court of last resort and for the trial of impeachments,
was formed on the principle of the English House of Lords,
and of the Colonial Council. It was to be composed of
the Lieutenant Governor, the Senators, the Chancellor, and
the Judges of the Supreme Court ; the Chancellor having
no voice in the determination of appeals from his decrees,
nor the Judges in that of writs of error.§
The appointing power was vested in a Council of Ap
pointment ; consisting of four senators selected annually by
the assembly, who, with the Governor, were to form the
Council. To this body, was given, the power of appointing
and removing, at pleasure, all officers in the State, except
the Chancellor, Judges of the Supreme Court and first
Judges of counties.ll
To prevent the passage of laws inconsistent with the
spirit of the constitution, or with the public good, there was
established, a Council of Revision, composed of the Gov
ernor, the Chancellor, and the Judges of the Supreme Court,
in which was vested the power of negativing all acts passed
by the Senate and Assembly ; the veto of the Council being
absolute, except when the bill should be repassed by a vote
of two-thirds of each house.lT
The constitution, after reciting that the opinion had long
prevailed, among the people of New- York, that voting by
• Articles 2, 4, 7, 10, 11, 12. Altered by amendments of 1801 ; by Consti
tution of 1821 ; by amendment of 18^6 ; and by Constitution of 1846.
t Articles 5, 16. Id.
t Articles 17, 20. 24, 28. Term of office altered as to governor and lieutenant
governor, and first judge, by Constitution of 1821 ; as to all judicial oflSoes by
Constitution of 1846.
§ Arts. 32, 33. Court abolished in 1846.
II Arts. 23, 24, 27, 28. Council of appointment abolished in 1821.
IT Art. 3. Council of Revision abolished in 1821, ajid qualified veto given to
the Governor, who still retains it.

64 ME. butler's discourse.
ba;llot, would tend more to promote the liberty and freedorti
of the People, than voting viva voce, directed the Legisla
ture, after the termination of the war, to prescribe, by law,
the mode of voting, for Senators and Representatives in the
House of Assembly, by ballot ; with power to recur to the
former mode, if, after a full and fair experiment, it should be
thought best so to do. But during the war with Great Brit
ain, all votes for those officers, were to be given viva voce.*
It was provided that such parts of the Common Law of
England, and of the Statute law of England and Great Bri
tain, and of the Colony of New York, as, together, formed
the law of the Colony on the 19th day of April, 1775, (the
day of the battle of Lexington,) should continue subject to
alteration by the Legislature, to be the law of New- York ;
except that all such parts of the Common and Statute law,
as might be construed to establish or maintain any particu
lar denomination of Christians, or th^ir ministers, as well as
those which concerned the allegiance before yielded to, and
the sovereignty clairned by, the King of Great Britain, or
were otherwise repugnant to the constitution, were express
ly abrogated and rejected.f
Grants by the King of Great Britain, after the 14th
of October, 1775, were declared to be void ; but those
made by him or his predecessors, before that day, were pre-
served.J To prevent frauds upon the natives, the power of
making Indian purchases, was so limited, as to make the
authority and consent of the Legislature, necessary to their
validity.^ Besides abrogating such parts of the Common and Sta
tute law as gave any preference to any particular church,
the constitution also expressly declared, that the free exer
cise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship,
without discrimination or preference, should be forever al
lowed within the State, to all mankind. This clause was
preceded by a preamble, expressed with remarkable energy
and point:
" We are required/' (say the Convention as their reason
for the article), "we are required, by the benevolent princi
ples of rational liberty, not only to expel civil tyranny ; but
also to guard against that spiritual oppression and intoler-
« Art. 6. Vote by ballot, for Senators and Assemblymen, prescribed by act of
' February 13th, 1787, and ever since retained.
t Art. 35. Retained, substantially, in 1821 and in 1846.
t Art. 36. Retained. § Art. 37. Retained.

MR. BUTLER S DISCOURSE. 65
ance, wherewith the bigotry and ambition, of weak and
wicked priests and princes, have scourged mankind."*
In contrast, as has been thought in later times, with this
liberality, is the next clause, in which, after reciting that
" the ministers of the gospel are, by their profession, dedi
cated to the service of God and the cure of souls, and
ought not to be diverted from the great duties of their
function," the constitution provides, that " therefore, no
minister of the gospel, or priest of any denomination what
soever, shall, at any time hereafter, under any pretence or
description whatever, be eligible to, or capable of holding,
any civil or military office or place within this state."f
The constitution contained no formal bill of rights ; but
besides the full protection of religious freedom already
mentioned, the right of trial by jury was made inviolate;
acts of attainder, except for crimes committed during the
then existing war, were prohibited ; no person was to be
disfranchised, unless by the law of the land or the judgment
of his peers ; quakers were to be excused from military ser
vice on paying an equivalent in money ; freedom of debate
in the Legislative bodies was secured ; parties impeached, or
indicted for crimes were to be allowed counsel as in civil
cases ; town officers and other officers before eligible by the
people, were to continue so ; and the Legislature were for
bidden to institute any new court, except such as shoiald
proceed according to the course of the common law. J
Finally — the Legislature were authorised to pass natural
ization laws ; but persons of foreign birth were to take an
oath of allegiance to this State, and to abjure all allegiance
and subjection to all and every foreign potentate and
State, in all matters ecclesiastical as well as civil.§ ^
The Constitution was received with general favor, not
only within the State, but elsewhere. " Our Constitution,"
says Jay, in a letter to Leonard Gansevoort, the President
of the Convention, " is universally approved even in New
England, where few New York productions have credit."T[
And well might it be approved ; for when the unfavorable
circumstances under which it was formed, and the little ex-

* Art. 38. Clause retained in 1821 and in 1846 — ^preamble omitted.
t Art. 39. Omitted in 1846.
t Arts. 41, 13, 40, 9, 34, 29. Many other provisions of the like nature in
serted in Constitution of 1821 and 1846.
§ Omitted in subsequent Constitutions, the power of passing naturalization
laws having been devolved on Congress by the Federal Constitution.
T Life of Jay, ii. 12.

S6 MS. butler's discourse.
perience of its authors, or of the world, in free representa?
tive government, are duly considered, it will be regarded,
by every candid mind, as a noble monument of the wisdom,
the justice, and the patriotism of its founders.
In some respects, its merits were peculiar. All the con
stitutions which preceded it, recognised in express terms,
the natural and absolute right of every man to worship
God, according to the dictates of his own conscience. The
constitution of Virginia, was, however, the only one of the
number, which did not contain provisions more or less re
pugnant to this principle. The constitutions of New Jersey
and North Carolina confined the equal and full enjoyment
of all civil rights to Protestants ; the constitution of Mary
land confined it to Christians. The constitution of Mary
land allowed the legislature to require a declaration of belief
in the Christian religion as a qualification to office ; while
that of North Carolina made every person who should deny
the truth of the Protestant religion, or the Divine authority
of the Holy Scriptures, or hold religious opinions, deemed
by the civil power, incompatible with the freedom or safety
of the State, ineligible to civil office. No such inconsisten
cies found their way into the constitution of New York.
With all its excellencies, the Constitution of 1777 con
tained some serious defects. It violated, in some material
respects, the fundamental maxim which calls for the sepa
ration of the legislative, executive and judicial powers. In
the Council of Revision, it connected the higher judicial
officers with the executive and the legislative, and placed
in their hands the qualified negative on the doings of the
Legislature. In the infancy of the Government, this pro
vision was, no doubt, useful. In after times it was prolific
of evil. The disposition of the appointing power was also
unfortunate, though less so in the constitution as originally
framed, than it afterwards became.
The Government created by the constitution, was tempo
rarily organised and put in force, by an ordinance, passed
by the Convention, on the 8th of May, 1777.*
* This ordinance appointed a Council of Safety to act until the Legislature
should be duly convened — and a chancellor, judges of the supreme court, attor
ney general, judges of county courts, sheriifs and clerks of counties — to act
until others should be duly commissioned.
Elections were directed to be held in the several counties, except New York,
Kings, Queens and Suflfolk, which were then in the possession of the enemy, for
governor, lieutenant governor, senators and assemblymen. Senators for the
southern district, and assemblymen for the counties above named, were ap
pointed by the ordinance, as no elections could be held in them. "The persons se-

MR. butler's discourse. 57
The first session of the State Legislature was appointed to
be held at Kingston, in the month of July ; but the invasion
of the State at all points — by Burgoyne in the north, by St.
Leger and the Indians and loyalists who acted with him, in
the west, and by Sir Henry Clinton in the south— compelled
the Governor to prorogue this body until the 1st of Sep
tember, when it assembled at Kingston. The active mili
tary operations still going on kept many of the members in
the field, and prevented the attendance of a quorum until
the 9th. On the next day, George Clinton, the first Gov
ernor, addressed the first "^Legislature, of free and indepen
dent New York. The fall of Fort Montgomery, and the
rapid advance of the enemy up the Hudson, broke up the
session before any laws could be matured.*
The surrender of Burgoyne and the retreat of the forces
under Vaughan, to New York, enabled the Legislature to
re-assemble in January, 1778, at Poughkeepsie. They here
passed various acts to complete the organization of the
Government ; gave the consent of the State, to the Articles
of Confederation ; and made such provision, as circum
stances allowed, for the defence and safety of the State.
During the continuance of the war, the attention of the
Legislature was, necessarily, very much confined to the
perils and duties growing out of it ; and many acts of
strong mark are to be found among their proceedings.f On
lected by the Convention, or by the People, for the more important offices, and
who had the courage to take them in the face of the enemy, and at one of the
most gloomy periods of the war, were Geokse Cliuton, then a Brigadier Gen
eral in the Continental army, who was elected to the offices both of governor
and lieutenant governor, and who took the former of them, and held it, by suc
cessive elections, for eighteen years, and afterwards for three years, when he was
elevated to the vice presidency of the United States, in which office he died :
Pierre Van Coktland, who, as president of the senate, became lieutenant gov
ernor ; Robert R. LiviuesTOif, one of the committee to prepare the Declara
tion of Independence, who was appointed chancellor, and held the office until
1801, when he went as minister of the United States, to France : John Jay, the
principal author of the constitution, who was appointed chief justice, which of
fice he held for two years, when he resigned it for the purpose of resuming his
seat in Congress, and whose subsequent career is too well known to need re
mark : Robert Yates and John Sloss Hobart, judges of the supreme court :
and Egbert Benson attorney general. Journal of Convention, 916 — 918.
* The Legislature adjourned on the 7th of October. As if to punish the in
habitants of Kini{ston, then the third town in the State, for harboring the rebel
Convention and Legislature, Gen. Vaughan, on the 15th of October, caused the
village to be burnt. Only a single house escaped the flames. The pretext for
this act of barbarism was, that the people had fired from the houses on his men.
Sparks's Washington, v. 130, note. Barber & Howe's Historical Collections of
New York, 557.
t The act of 22d October, 1779, (Jones & Varick, i. 39,) by which the Earl of
Dunmore and fifty-eight other persons are, by name, attainted ef the offence of
second series, vol. II. 5

58 ME. butler's discourse.
the establishment of peace, and national independence, the
State authorities applied themselves, with great zeal and
ability, to the preparation of such measures as were de
manded by the principles of the new government. With
this view, an act was passed, in 1782, by which existing
estates tail were turned into estates in fee simple absolute,
and entails aboUshed for the future ; and by which, also,
the law of primogeniture was abolished and the estates of
intestates made to descend to all the issue equally.* In
1784, the charter of Trinity Church was so amended, as to
conform to the equality of religious rights established by
the Constitution ; and it was expressly enacted, " that an
universal equality between every religious denomination,
according to the true spirit of the constitution, towards each
other, shall forever prevail." By another act simultane
ously passed, all the colonial acts^ by which ihe inhabitants
of New Yoric, Richmcmd, Westchester and Queens coun
ties had been compelled to pay taxes for the support of the
Episcopal clergy, commencing with the act of 1693, were
repealed, as repugnant to the constitution ; and this repeal
was also expressly extended to the act of 1700, against
Jesuits and Popish priests.f Many other alterations of the
colonial statutes were made, and many new statutes passed,
with a further view to the same end. J
Simultaneously with these efforts to perfect her own in
stitutions. New York took an early and leading part, in the
various measures for reforming the government of the Con
federation, which finally gave to the American Republic
the Federal Constitution. Her share in these proceedings
forms ani interesting part of their history ; but is not within
the plan of my present discourse.^
adhering to the enemy ; forever banished from the State, on pain of death in case-
of return j and their estates forfeited ; — is, perhaps, the strongest of the class.
But it does not stand alone ; the helium internecinum waged against the Stater
compelled it to exert, to the utmost, all the rights of war.
* Act of 12th July, 1782, abolishing entails, &c. Laws of New York by
Holt and Loudon, 258 ; 3 Revised Statutes, 1st edition, App. 47. The act was
repealed and a new and fuller one passed 23d February, 1786 ; Jones & Var
ick, i. 245 ; 3 Revised Statutes of 1830, 1st ed. App. 48.
t Jones and Varick, i. 128, 131.
IBy the act of the 15th of April, 1786, SiMtreL Jones and Richard Varic*
were appointed to revise and digest' the whole body of the statute law, with a
view to its more thorough conformity to the new institutions. They reported a
Bill of Rights ; an act concerning tenures , and many other important lawa,
•which may be found in the second volume of their edition, and most of which
continued in torce, with little change,.until 1830.
§ It is believed, that New York is entitled to the honor of originating the first
legislative proposal for the revision of the Articles of Cenfederation. On the

MR. Sutler's discourse. 59
The constitiifion of 1777 continued unchanged until
1801. In that year a convention of delegates, elected by
the people, pursuant to an act of the Legislature previously
passed, was held, for the purpose of considering the expe
diency of limiting the number of senators and members of
Assembly ; and also to determine the true construction of
that part of the constitution, which created the Council of
Appointment. Experience had shown the inconvenience of legislative
bodies, so large as the Senate and Assembly were gradu
ally becoming ; and during the latter part of the adminis
tration of Gov. Jay, a serious controversy had arisen in the
Council of Appointment, in respect to the right of nomina
tion — the Governor claiming, that it belonged exclusively
to him, subject to the advice and consent of the other mem
bers ; and three of the senators insisting, that each mem
ber possessed it, concurrently with the Governor and every
other member.*
The Convention adopted a series of amendments, fixing
the number of assemblymen, for that time, at 100 ; and de
claring that they should never exceed 150.t They fixed
the number of the senators, permanently, at 32, eight for
each of the four great districts into which the State was
divided.^ In regard to the Council of Appointment, they
decided, that the right of nomination was vested concur
rently in the Governor, and in each of the members, for the
time being.§
The changes made in the composition of the Senate and
Assembly, were judicious; but the decision of the Conven
tion in regard to the Council of Appointment greatly ag
gravated the mischiefs inherent in the system. As the State
grew in population and in wealth, the offices, at the diposal
of the Council, increased in number and in value ; and they
also increased who sought them. And as the senators an-
22d of July, 1782, resolutions were unanimously passed by the Senate and As
sembly, in which, after pointing out the defects of the existing system, they urged
on Congress and the other States, the necessity of calling a general convention to
revise and amend the Confederation. These resolutions were introduced by
Gen. Schuyler, at the instance, doubtless, of Hamilton, who was in attendance
on the Legislature, as Receiver of Continental taxes for the State of New York.
Life of Hamilton, i. 405.
» Hammond's Political History of New York, i. 155 — 157.
t Amendments of 1801, arts. 1, 4, number altered in 1821, to 128, which is
still retained.
t Art 3, number of senators, 32, still retained ; number of districts altered in
1821, and again in 1846, when the tenure of the office was also shortened.
§ Art. 5.

60 MR. butler's discourse.
nually placed in the Council by the Assembly, were, in all
practicable cases, taken from one and the same political
party, the effect was, to set up, from year to year, all the
offices in the State, (except those held by the higher mem
bers of the judiciary or under their authority,) as prizes to
the party, which, by superior activity or skill, could obtain
a majority in this body. " If the ingenuity of man had
been exercised," (said one of the most distinguibhed Gov
ernors of our State, one, too, who, as a member of the Coun
cil in 1797, insisted on the concurrent right of nomination
afterwards established,) " to organize the appointing power
in such a way as to produce continual intrigue and commo
tion in the State, none could have been devised with more
effect than the present arrangement."* The evil tenden
cies and results of the system led to repeated proposals for
a Convention ; but as reform in this particular was not
very anxiously desired by the mere politicians of any party,
it would probably have been long deferred, had not another
question arisen, more interesting to the masses, if not more
important in itself.
This was the question of the extension of the right of
, suffrage. The freehold qualification required of voters for
governor, lieutenant governor and senators, was found, as
the population of the State increased, to operate injuri
ously. Large portions of the people, many of them persons
of great intelligence and possessed of personal property, or
of interests in lands less than freeholds, far exceeding the
value of the freehold demanded by the constitution, were,
so far as regarded the choice of these officers, practically
disfranchised. The injustice and impolicy of this exclu
sion attracted more and more of the public attention, and
in the year 1820, became a prominent topic of discus
sion. As relief could only be obtained by an amendment
of the constitution, and as there was then no way of ef
fecting such an amendment, but by the call of a con
vention, the friends of the reform made this measure
their rallying point, and pressed it, with such earnestness,
that on the 18th of March, 1821, an act recommending a
convention ot the people of the State, was passed by the
Legislature. f
•Speech of DeWitt Clinton to the Legislature in November, 1820.
t The legislative histciry of the two bills for calling a Convention, the first of
which was rejected, in November, 1820, by the Council of Revision — a measure
which led to tbe abolition of that board — is briefly, but fairly git en, by Ham
mond, i. 542—551 ; 558—561.

MR. butler's discourse. 61
This act authorized the taking of the sense of the elec
tors, on the question whether a convention should be held ;
and in case of a decision in the affirmative, provided for
the choosing and assembling of delegates. Such being the
decision, a convention was accordingly chosen, and in Au
gust, 1821, it entered upon its duties.
The delegates to this body, immediately resolved to take
up the whole Constitution, with the view, not only of mak
ing the particular amendments' so loudly called for by their
constituents, but of giving the instrument a thorough revi
sion. It soon became evident, that to carry out the views
of the Convention, it would be necessary, to prepare an en
tirely new Constitution. This was accordingly done ; and
the instrument, on being submitted to the people was ap
proved by a large majority of votes, and came into full
eflfect on the 1st of January, 1823.
By this instrument, which was arranged in a lucid order,
and expressed, for the most part, in a neat and perspicuous
style, the general frame of the government was retained ;
but the changes in some of its most material arrangements
were many and important.
The number of the senators was retained at 32, and the
the term of service was unaltered ; but the number of the
senate districts was doubled, the State being divided, for the
election of senators, and also for judicial purposes, into eight
districts.* The House of Assembly was fixed at 128f.
The numbers of these two branches, as thus settled, still re
main. The compensation of members of the Legislature was
permanently fixed ; they were prohibited from receiving
civil appointments from the Governor and Senate, or the
Legislature ; officers of the Federal Government were pro
hibited from sitting in either house ; and the Legislature
were empowered to remove, by a vote of two-thirdis of the
Assembly and a majority of the Senate, the highest judicial
officers.J All these provisions have been retained in the
Constitution of 1846.
The term of service of the Governor and Lieutenant
Governor, was reduced to two years ; the Council of Revi
sion was abolished ; and the qualified vetb power, before pos
sessed by that board, vested in the Governor.|l These pro
visions remain in force.

» Constitution of 1821, art. i, i 2. Altered 1846. t Article i, ^ 2.
t Art. i, §§ 9, 10, 11, 13. |) Art. i. § 12. Art. iii. § 1.

62 MR. butler s discourse.
The right of suffrage, (except as to persons of color,) was
placed on a new and enlarged basis. The freehold quali
fications prescribed by the Constitution of 1777 were abol
ished ; but the payment of taxes, or some equivalent con
tribution to the public service, was still required.* In lfe26,
this article was amended, so as to require only citizenship,
inhabitancy and residence— thus introducing, in effect, uni
versal suffrage, which yet exists.f
Men of color (except when citizens of three years stand
ing, owners of freeholds of the value of $250, and tax pay
ers) were prohibited from voting.J This arrangement,
though a provision for its alteration was separately submit
ted by the Convention of 1846, to the decision of the people,
remains unaltered. §
It was provided, that all elections, by the citizens, should
be by ballot, except for such town officers, as might, by
law, be directed to be otherwise chosen.|| This provision is
retained. The appointing power was placed on an entirely ne-vv
footing. The Council of Appointment was abolished. Mi-
» Art. ii. § 1.
t Amendment No. 2 of 1826.
t Art. ii. § 1. .
^ At the time of framing the Constitution of 1777, there were few or po fi-ee
persons of color, possessed of the qualifications required of voters, within the
State ; and the question, whether the right of suffrage should be confined to
white persons, seems not have arisen. By the act of February 22d, 1788, new
facilities were provided for the manumission of slaves. Under its operation, the
number of free persons of color continued to increase, from year to year ; and as-
these persons, when possessed of the requisite qualifications, were entitled to vote,
the number of electors of color increased in almost equal proportion, though it
remained small, until after 1817. The act of March' 29th, 1799, provided for
the gradual abolition of slavery, by declaring that every child born after the 4th
of July, 1799, of a slave, should be free — if a male, on attaining the age of 28
years, and if a female on attaining the age of 25. By this law, a largi number
of persons of color became free in 1817 ; and thus the number of colored voters
was largely increased. The act of March 31st, 1817, declared, that after the
4th of July 1827, every colored person bom before July 4th, 1799, should be
free — thus completing the abolition of slavery within this State. The Conven
tion of 1821 — ^in view of the rapid increase of free colored persons, by the oper
ation of these laws, and by immigration from other States, and of the inexpedi
ency of entrusting the right of suffrage to a class practically ineligible to even
the hufliblest office, and doomed by positive enactment, as well as by the stronger
law of public opinion, to a degrading social inferiority — thought it necessary, to
insert in the Constitution, the prohibitory clause mentioned in the text ; and the
like reasons, it may be presumed, led to the rejection of the amendment stlb-
mitted by the Convention of 1846. As a consequence of their exclusion from
the list of voters, the Constitutions of 1821 and 1846, carefully provide, that per
sons of color shall not be subject to direct taxation, unless seized and possessed
of real estate sufficient to entitle them to vote.
II Art. ii. § 4.

MR. butler S DISCOURSB. 63
titia officers, except a few of the highest grades, were made
elective.* The appointment of the higher judicial officers
was assigned to the Governor with the consent of the Sen-
ate.f Justices of the Peace were to be appointed by the
boards of supervisors, and the county judges ; J a provision
which was altered in 1826, when these officers were made
elective.^ The Secretary of State and other State officers were to
be appointed by the Senate and Assembly.|| Sheriff's, Cor
oners and Clerks of counties were made elective ; and they
so continue.^
The higher courts were empowered, as in the Constitu
tion of 1777, to appoint their own clerks.** Local officers
were, in some cases, made appointable by local authorities,
and a discretionary power was given to the Legislature, to
fix the manner in which officers not specially provided for
in the Constitution, should be elected or appointed.f f In the
exercise of this power, the appointment of many adminis
trative officers was afterwards devolved, by law, upon the
Governor and Senate — thus greatly enlarging the patronage
of the former, and making more close, the connection of
the latter with the appointing power.
All these provisions, except such as gave the appointing
power to the people, or to local authorities, have been
swept away by the Constitution of 1846,
The Constitution of 1821, retained the CoUrt of Chancery,
the Supreme Court, and the Court for the Correction of Er
rors, as established in 1777 ; except that the Judges of the
Supreme Court were relieved from circuit duties.|$
The official tenure of the higher judicial officers, as fixed
by the Constitution of 1777, was retained ; but they were
made removable by joint resolution of the Senate and As
sembly, to be passed with the concurrence of two-thirds of
the latter and a majority of the former,§§ The like power
of removal is contained in the Constitution of 1846.
For the trial of issues of fact, and of criminal cases, and
for such equity jurisdiction as the Legislature might assign
to them, eight circuit judges were created.|||| This arrange
ment was soon found to be inadequate, and as the State in-
» Art. iv. ^ 1. 2. •* Art. iv. § 9.
t Art. iv. § 7. t+ Art. iv. §§ 10, 13, 14, 15.
t Art. iv. § 7. n Art. v., ?§ 1, 3, 5.
^Amendment No. 1 of 1826. §§ Art. i. § 13.
II Art. iv. § 6. Illf lb.
VArt. iv. §§ 8, 11.

64 MR. butler s discourse.
creased in population, the deflcieney became more and more
apparent; until, in 1845, it formed one of the chief ne
cessities for calling a new Convention.
The provisions of the Constitution of 1777, for the secur
ity of personal rights, were retained ; but as they were not
deemed sufficiently comprehensive, several new sections,
mostly taken from the first amendments to the Constitution
of the United States, were added.* These provisions, thus
enlarged, are repeated in the Constitution of 1846.
Provision was wisely made for further amendments, with
out the agency of a convention. Amendments rnight be
proposed in either house. If agreed to by a majority of
the members elected to each house, and by two-thirds of
each house of the Legislature neit elected, they were then
to be submitted to the people ; and if ratified by amajority
of the electors, to become a part of the Constitution.f In
the mode thus prescribed, several amendments, some of
which have been alluded to, were adopted by successive
legislatures, approved by the people, and thus added to the
constitution. J
The Convention of 1846, had its origin in the failure of
certain amendments on the subject of State debts and lia
bilities, proposed in 1844, to obtain, in the following year,
the assent of two-thirds of each house, though they com
manded that of a majority of each.
These amendments were directed to two objects : First,
to confirm the pledges and guarantees of the memorable act
of 1842, "to provide for paying the debts and preserving
the credit of the State ;"§ and secondly, to limit and control
the debt-contracting power of the Legislature. They had
called out so general a discussion, and had been so favor
ably received by large portions of the people, and there was
also so general a conviction, that the judiciary establish
ments required a thorough re-organization, that the Legis
lature of 1845, on the failure of the proposed amendments
to receive the constitutional majority, passed an act recom
mending a Convention to revise the Constitution ; and direct-
* Art. vii. t Art. viii, § 1.
X Two amendments were finally ratified in 1826 — one providing for the elec
tion of justices of the peace ; and the other extending the right of suffrage.
Two in 1833 ; one reducing the salt duties ; and the other providing that the
mayor of New- York should be chosen by the people ; — and two in 1835, one pro
viding for the restoration of the salt duties to the General Fund ; and the other
providing for the choice of mayors in all the cities of the State, at the discretion
of the Legislature.
§ Laws of 1842, p. 79, ch. 114.

MR. BUTLER S DISCOURSE. 65
ing the question, whether such a Convention should be held,
^ to be submitted to the People at the annual election in No
vember, 1845. In the event of an affirmative decision, an
election for delegates was to be held in April, 1846, and
the delegates then elected were to assemble in June, 1846,
for the execution of their trust.*
The People having decided for a Convention, delegates
were chosen and assembled. The result of their labors
appeared, in due time, in the form of a new Constitution,
which having been approved by a large majority of the
People, is now, as to all matters within the circle of State
sovereignty, the supreme law of the State, and of the three
millions of souls dwelling within its bounds. To us and to
our posterity, so long as it shall remain in force, it is also
the charter of our rights and liberties as freemen ; the bond
of our social union ; the standard of civic duty ; and the
measure of political power.
Well then does it deserve our careful examination : and
to this I shall now proceed.
On a general view of the instrument, we perceive, that
the changes introduced by it, are not only more numerous
than those ever before made, at any one time, but far more
important. Let us look at them with some attention to details.
All the provisions of the Constitution of 1821, with the
amendments made to it, by which the right of suffrage,
and other civil rights were extended or more fully secured,
are preserved in this instrument. It contains, in addition,
many new provisions of the like nature, conceived in a
still larger spirit of democratic liberty, and giving new effi
cacy and vigor to the popular will.
Thus — the Governor is no longer required to be either a
native citizen or a freeholder ; the general power of ap
pointment before vested in him and the Senate, is given di
rectly to the People ; and the Legislature are authorized to
confer on the board of supervisors, in the several counties,
such further powers of local legislation and administration
as they may prescribe.f By these changes and by other like
provisions, the central power before existing at the seat of
Government, is broken up ; the number of elective officers
much increased ; and the immediate agency of the people
in the practical administration of the government, very
greatly enlarged.
» Laws of 1845, p. 270, ch. 252. t Art. 4 § 1 ; Art. 5 ; Art. 3 § 17.

G6 .,MB». BUTLERS BISC^QURSE.
The principle of these changes receives its boldest- illus
tration, in the establishment of an entirely new judiciary,
elective in all its parts, and for short terms of service.*
Clerks of courts and district attorneys, and all judicial
officers of cities and villages, are also to be chosen in the
same way.f The secretary of state, comptroller, trea
surer, and attorney general, instead of being appointed
by the senate and assembly for three years, are also to be
chosen by the People, and to hold for but two years. J _ A
state engineer and surveyor, canal commissioners, and in
spectors of state prisons, are also to be chosen, and for short
terms, by the People. §
All county officers, whose appointment is not otherwise
provided for, are to be elected by the people, or to be ap
pointed by the boards of supervisors, as the Legislature
may direct : and they may also direct all city, town and
village officers, whose appointment is not otherwise pro
vided for, to be chosen by the electors of their respective
municipalities.il Along with these proofs of undoubting confidence in the
• Art. G. The court for the correction of errors, the court of chancery, the
supreme and circuit courts, and, except in the city of New York, the county
courts, as they existed under the Constitution of 1821, are all abolished. In lieu
of them, the Constitution of 1846 creates ^r«(—=-a court of appeal* to consist of
eight judges, four to be elected by the electors of the State, for eight yeao's, and
four to be selected, from the class of justices of the supreme court, having the
•shortest time to serve : — secondly — a supreme court, having jurisdiction in law
and equity, to consist of thirty-two justices, to be chosen in eight separate dis
tricts, the electors of each district choosing .four ; the justices first chosen to be
classified, so that one justice, in each district, shall go out of ofiice every two
years; but every justice afterwards chosen , is to hold for eight years; general
terms of the court to be held, in the several districts, by three or more of the
justices ; and special terms of the court, and circuit courts, to be held by any
one or more of the justices, any one or more of whom may also preside in
courts of oyer and terminer ;^and thirdly, a county court, of civU jurisdiction,
in each county (except in New York, where the court of general sessions, the
court of common pleas, and the superior court are left in existence subject to the
direction of the Legislature) to be held by a single judge, chosen by the electors
of the county, for four years ; which judge may be charged, by the Legislature,
vrith equity jurisdiction, in special cases, and in certain counties with the duties
of surrogate, and with two justices of the peace may hold courts of sessions of
criminal jurisdiction. Art. 6. §§ 2, 3, 4, 6, 12, 14 ; Art. 14 § 12. It is much
to be regretted, that the new method of appointing judicial officers, should be
associated, at its commencement, with a judicial system, in many respects, not
well arranged. The elections of 1847 have fully sustained the confidence, re
posed by the Convention of 1846, in the capacity of the People to select upright
and able judges ; but there seem to be defects in the system, which no amount
of ability or integrity in the jtidges can entirely overcome, and which will soon
demand material and extensive changes.
t Art. 10 § 1. Art. 6 § 18. § Art. 5 § 2, § 3, § 4.
tArt,5 §^1. . II Art. 10, § 2.

MR. butler's DieCOVRSE, 67
People, there is displayed,.throughout the whole instrument,
a jealousy of their representatives, which h;as led to the
forbidding of sorne powers before pgssessed by the Legisla
ture, and to the limiting' of others yet entru.sted to that
body. The principle of responsibility on the part of legis
lators and of other public agents, is also more fully devel
oped, by bringing them nearer to the People, by giving
greater publicity to their proceedings ; and by subjecting
such proceedings and their authors, at shorter intervals, to
the public judgment.
Thus — the senators, instead of being chosen for four years,
and in large districts, are to be chosen for only two years,
and in single districts.* A like change is made in regard
to the Assembly, the members of which are also to be
elected in single districts, f
The Governor is required annually to communicate to
the Legislature, each case of reprieve, commutation or
pardon, granted by him, with its particulars.^
The compensation of members of the Legislature, as be
fore provided, is not to exceed three dollars a day ; and it
is also now added, that such pay shall not exceed, in the
aggregate, three hundred dollars, for per diem allowance,
except in proceedings for impeachment, and except that
the members may also be paid for their attendance at ex
tra sessions, convened by the Governor. §
No bill can be passed unless by the assent of a majority
of all the members elected to each branch ; and the yeas
and nays in every case, are to be entered on the journal.
Private and local bills are to embrace but one subject, and
that is to be expressed in the title. |1
The Legislature are absolutely prohibited from granting
divorces ; from authorising lotteries, or allowing the sale of
lottery tickets ; and from sanctioning, in any manner, the sus
pension of specie payments, by banks or bankers.il They
may authorize the forming of banking and other corporations
under general laws ; but corporations are not to be created
by special act, except for municipal purposes, and where
the object cannot be attained under general laws. Dues
from corporations are to be secured by the individual lia
bility of the corporators, and by other means to be pre
scribed by law.**
*Art. 3 §2 §3. II Art. 3 5 15, 16.
t Art. 3 § 5. IT Art. 1 § 10 , Art. 8 § 5.
X Art. 4 § 5. ** Art. 8 § 4 §§ 1, 2.
§ Art. 3 § 6.

68 MR. butler's discourse.
But the most important of the new provisions, especially
as affecting the power and duties of the Legislature, are
those which relate to the funds, property and credit of the
State. It was, as we have seen, in the anxieties of the people
touching this great interest, that the Convention had its
birth. Accordingly, on this point, the provisions of the
Constitution are most thorough and explicit. To secure to
its true uses, the public property ; to prevent the increase
of the existing State debt ; to provide for its full and early
payment ; and to guard, in future, the resources and credit
of the State, against debt, improvidence, and hazard —
these were the chief ends which the Convention labored to
accomplish. Wise and worthy ends, all, I think, must ad
mit them to be ; however any may doubt as to some of the
details of which I am to speak.
The provisions of the constitution of 1821, making the
capital of the common school fund inviolate are retained,
and are extended to the literature and United States de-
posite funds. The revenues of the literature fund are to
be applied exclusively to academies. Of the revenues of
the United States deposite fund, $25,000, annually, are to
be appropriated in aid of the common school fund.*
The canal fund and its revenues are made the subject of
regulations still more careful and minute. After paying
ordinary expenses and repairs, there is set apart, out of
these revenues, in each year, the sum of $1,300,000 until
1855 ; and from that time the sum of $1,750,000, in each
year, as a sinking fund to pay the canal debt ; until it shall
be wholly paid. Of the surplus revenues, $350,000 in each
year, until payment of the entire canal debt is provided
for, and after that period, $1,500,000 in each year, are to
be set apart as a sinking fund, to pay the General Fund
debt. From the same source, there is made a further an
nual appropriation, of not exceeding $200,000, for the use
of the General Fund, in defraying the expenses of the
State ; and the remainder of the surplus canal revenues is
to be applied by the Legislature to the completion of the
Erie Canal enlargement, and the Genessee and Black river
Canals.f There are some further provisions of a prospective na
ture, to meet certain contingencies ; but it is expressly pro
vided, that if the sinking funds for the payment of the ca-
*Art. 9. t Art. 7 §§1.2, 3.

MR. butler's discourse. 69
nal debt, and the General Fund debt, or either of them,
prove insufficient to satisfy the public creditors, as their
claims become payable, the Legislature shall, by taxes, .so
increase the revenues of these sinking funds, as to make
them sufficient perfectly to preserve the public faith.*
Thus much for the past and the present; let us now look
at the provisions for the future.
Lawrs appropriating public moneys are only operative to
authorize payments of such moneys for two years. Every
law making a new appropriation, or continuing or reviving
an appropriation, must distinctly specify the sum appropri
ated, and the object to which it is to be applied ; and it
shall not be sufficient for such law to refer to any other
law to fix such sum.f The like provision is made in re
spect to every law imposing, continuing, or reviving a tax ;
and on the final passage in either house of every such act,
and of every act creating a debt or charge, or making, con
tinuing, or reviving any appropriation of public or trust
money or property, or releasing, discharging, or commuting
any claim or demand of the State, three-fifths of all the
members elected to the house are required to be present to
constitute a quorum ; and the question is to be taken by
ayes and noes, which are to be entered on the journals. J
The credit of the State is not, in any manner, to be given
or loaned to, or in aid of, any individual, association, or
corporation. §
The Legislature may authorize the contracting of debts,
to meet casual deficits or failures in the revenues, or for
expenses not provided for ; but such debts, direct and con
tingent, singly or in the aggregate, cannot at any time ex
ceed one million of dollars ; and they may also contract
debts to repel invasion, suppress insurrection or defend the
State in war. With these exceptions, no debt can be con
tracted on behalf of the State, unless authorized by a law,
for some single work or object, to be distinctly specified
therein ; and such law must provide for imposing and col
lecting a direct annual tax, sufficient to pay the interest on
the debt as it falls due, and to pay the principal within
eighteen years. On the final passage of every such law,
the question is to be taken in a special form ; and more
over, before the law can take effect, it must have been sub
mitted to the People at a general election, and have re-
* Art. 7 § 5. t Art. 7 §§ 13, 14.
tArt. 7§8. §Art. 7§9.

7© MR.'BU'riER's DISCOURSE.
ceived a majority of all' the votes cast for and against it.
Whenever any such law shall have been duly passed by
the Legislature and approved by the People, it may be re
pealed by the Legislature ; but the tax imposed by it, is
irrepealable, so far as may be necessary to pay any debt
contracted under it.* . -
In hereafter organising cities and villages, the Legisla
ture are so to restrict their power of taxation, of contract
ing debts, and of loaning credit, as to prevent the abuse of
these powers, f
The instrument exhibit;s an earnest desire, on the part of
its framers, to reform and simplify the practice of the law,
and to render the administration of justice less dilatory and
expensive than heretofore. Admission to practice in all
the courts, is secured to every male citizen of good moral
character, possessing the requisite learning and ability ;
provision is to be made by law, for enabling parties in civil
cases to waive a jury trial ; testimony in equity cases is to
be taken in like manner as in cases at law ; witnesses are
not to be unreasonably detained ; and no person is to be in
competent as a witness, on account of his opinions on reli
gious subjects. Provision is to be made for the speedy
publication of all statute laws, and of such judicial decis
ions as the Legislature may deem expedient.J
Tribunals of conciliation for the decision of controversies
voluntarily submitted may be established by law.§
To secure further reforms in the methods of procedure,
the Legislature, aPtheir first session after the adoption of
the Constitution, are to appoint commissioners to simplify
and abridge the rules of practice, pleadings, forms and pro
ceedings of the courts.ll
But the views of the Convention were not limited to a
mere improvement in the forms of procedure. They con
templated a bold, and in the judgment ol some, a startling
innovation in our system of jurisprudence ; for the Legisla
ture are also directed to appoint commissioners to reduce,
into a written systematic code, the whole body of the law,
or so much, and such parts thereof, as they shall think prac
ticable or expedient.1 The two boards, thus provided for,
have accordingly been appointed, and are now engaged in
the performance of their difficult but important and honor
able tasks.
• Art. 7 §§ 10, 11, 12. t Art. 8 §9.
X Art. 6 § 8 ; Art. 1 § 2 ; Art. 6 § 10 ; Art. 1 § 5 ; Art. 15 3; Art. 6 & 22.
§ Art. 6 § 23. II Art. 6 § 24. IT Art. 1 § 17.

ME. butler's DISCOURSE. 71
The guarantees for the security of life, liberty and prop
erty contained in the former constitutions, are continued,
and with some additional safeguards in respect to property
when taken for public use.*
To ensure the soundness and stability of the circulating
medium, all bank notes are to be registered, and ample se
curity is to be required for their redemption in specie ; the
stockholders in every banking association or corporation,
after the first of January, 1850, are to be individually re
sponsible to the amount of their stock, respectively, for all
its debts contracted after that day ; and in case of the in
solvency of any bank, the bill-holders are to have preference
in payment over all other creditors, f
In another matter of much importance to the interests of
trade, a great and long needed reform has been effected.
All offices for the weighing, measuring, or inspecting of any
merchandise, produce or commodity, are abolished ; and no
such office can hereafter be created. J
In view of the unfitness of long leases of agricultural
lands, to the genius of our government and the habits and
temper of our people," and moved probably by facts of re
cent occurrence — too familiar to require, and too discredit
able to allow, me to dwell on them — the Constitution pro
vides, that no lease or grant of such lands for a longer pe
riod than twelve years, hereafter made, shall be valid ; and
it declares that all fines, quarter sales and other like re
straints upon alienation, hereafter reserved, shall be void.§
Some other new provisions, of a miscellaneous nature,
deserve to be mentioned.
The Constitution of 1821 authorized the passing of laws,
excluding from the right of suffrage, persons convicted of
infamous crimes. The Constitution of 1846 authorizes the
extension of such laws to persons convicted of bribery or
larceny. It also authorizes the passing of laws, depriving
persons making, or interested in, bets or wagers on any
election, of the right to vote at such election. 1|
The Secretary of State and other State officers, the
judges of the Court of Appeals, and the justices of the Su
preme Court, are to receive fixed compensations, which can
neither be diminished nor increased during their continu
ance in office ; and they are not to receive, to their own
» Art. 1 ; id. §§ 1, 8, 10. § Art. 1 §§ 14, 15.
t Art. 8 §§ 6, 7, 8. II Art. 2 § 2.
t Art. 5 §8.

72 MR. butler's DISCOURSE.
use, fees or perquisites of office. This latter prohibition is
also extended to all judicial officers except justices of the
peace.* In addition to the power of removing officers for official
misconduct contained in the Constitution of 1821, the Con
stitution of 1846 directs provision to be made by law, for
the removal, in such cases, of certain of the new officers
hereafter to be elected at the general elections.f
Two omissions remain to be mentioned — the one — of a
provision contained in the Constitution of 1821 requiring
the assent of two-thirds of the members elected to each
branch of the Legislature, to bills creating, altering or re
newing corporations — and the other — of the provision, con
tained in the Constitutions of 1777 and 1821, rendering min
isters of the gospel and priests of every denomination, in
eligible to any civil or military office. Experience had
clearly shown the inexpediency of the first named of these
provisions, and the omission of the last obliterates an ano
malous distinction. It may, however, be questioned, whether
the theoretic equality now secured to the clergy, will, in the
long run, be found of as much practical benefit to them or
to their docks, as both have heretofore derived from the
distinct recognition, in the two former Constitutions, of the
sacred character and pre-eminent usefulness of the clerical
profession. The new Constitution, like that of 1821, contains a dis
tinct recognition of the power of the People, to alter or ab
rogate, as they may ffnd occasion, in part or in whole, their
existing government, and to establish new systems in its
place ; and it closes with a most emphatic avowal, not only
of their right but of their dutj% at frequent intervals, to ex
amine the principles and to scrutinize the working of their
organic laws. For this purpose, in addition to the former
mode of amendment, through the action of the Legislature,
approved by the People, it is now provided that at the gen
eral election to be held in the year 1866, and in each twen
tieth year thereafter, and at such other times as the Legis
lature may direct, the question whether there shall be a
Convention to revise and amend the Constitution, shall be
submitted to the People, and if a majority of the electors
decide in the affirmative, the • Legislature, at its next ses
sion, shall provide by law, for the election of delegates to
such Convention. J
» Art. 5 § 1 ; Art. 6 §§ 7, 20. t Art. 10 § 7. X Art. 13 § 2.

MR. butler's DISCOURSE. 73
This outline of the Constitutional History of New York,
may give us a tolerable conception of the origin and rise,
the nature and progress, of our political institutions.
In their infancy, under the Dutch, though necessarily
simple, and in some respects narrow and despotic, they yet
contained the elements of a sound and expansive polity,
which afterwards, on the change in the colonial , govern
ment, readily blended with the free principles of the Eng
lish law and constitution. These principles, it is true, were
neither adequately secured nor perfectly enjoyed, during
the British rule ; but the arbitrary prerogatives claimed,
and often exercised, by the Crown and its deputies, and the
grievances to which the People were subjected, awakened
reflection, and nourished in their bosoms, an intelligent and
unquenchable loye of liberty. In spite of opposing influ
ences of great power, some of them peculiar to the colony,
the inhabitants were thus fitted to embark in the revolu
tionary struggle. This they did under the leadership of
men, in whom genius and talent, courage and fortitude,
energy and caution, were remarkably combined with per
sonal virtue and supreme love of country. The metropolis
soon fell into the hands of the enemy, and was held by him
until the termination of the conflict — his fleets and armies,
with fire and sword, carried havoc and devastation to the
centre of the State — its northern and western frontiers
were often given up to savage warfare, and repeatedly
drenched in blood — yet, amid all these discouragements,
this hardy, unyielding, and indomitable People gave to the
common cause a patient and unwavering support, which
essentially contributed to its triumph. In the patriotic,
right-principled and well balanced Constitution of 1777,
these traits of character were practically exemplified.
We may also see, in the provisions of our several Con
stitutions, the effects of the intermixture of the different
races — the Dutch — the English, Scotch and Irish — the
French, Swedes and German — the Anglo-Americans, from
the eastern colonies — from whom our People have been de
rived. To this cause, and to the great number and diversity
of religious sects and opinions which have ffowed from it,
may especially be ascribed, the absolute freedom and perfect
equality, in matters of religion, and the utter separation of
the Church from the State, secured by these instruments.
The new tide of immigration to this city, and to the interior
of the State, from New England, and from various parts of
Europe, which began immediately after the peace of 1783,
6

74 MR. BUTLER S DISCOURSE.
and has ever since continued, still keeps us a mingled pop
ulation. This state of things, if it has made our people less
homogeneous than those of the neighboring States, has also
made them more liberal in their opinions, and more ready
to adopt and to carry out, the spirit of progress and reform.*
It is but seventy years since the establishment of our first
Constitution; and yet, besides the amendments of 1801, to
that instrument, and the amendments to the Constitution of
1821, there have been framed, during this period, two entire
Constitutions, each introducing very great changes, and each
going beyond its immediate predecessor, in limiting official
power and patronage — in abolishing monopoly and privi
lege — in freeing the People from needless burthens — in se
curing the rights of person and of property — in protecting
the credit and resources of the State — and in bringing
nearer to the ballof, and more completely within its action,
all tl^e organs and measures of the Government. Accord
ingly,' our present Constitution — it may safely be affirmed —
is the freest and most democratic that has ever existed in
a territory so extended and populous as our own ; and it
invites the People — as we have seen — at the end of every
twenty years, to apply to its provisions, if the public voice
shall demand it, the hand of thorough revision and unspar
ing reform.
The founders of our first Constitution were an industri
ous and sober-minded, a refiecting and virtuous people.
However different in origin and language, in habits and
condition, they agreed in their love of order, their respect
for law, and their reverence for religion. In some parts of
the colony, the means of education were scanty and de
fective, and the masses had little iiistruction, except such
as they could gain from the pulpit, and, when the art of
reading Avas possessed, from the Dutch or English Bible.
* Since the delivery of this Discourse, the influence of the mixed origin
of the People of New'York, on our government and history, has been ably dis
cussed, by Mr. C. F. Hoffman, in his Anniversary Discourse, delivered in De
cember last, before the St. Nicholas Society of Manhattan, and recently pub
lished. In the same performance he also vindicates the claims of the Pioneers
of New York to the authorship of the early civil privileges of the colony.
I observe, in passing, that Mr. Hoffman has adopted (p. 22) the mistake of
Dunlap, in applying to New Amsterdam, in 1621, the charter to New Amstel in
1656, pointed out ante p. 21. His general strain of reasoning is, however, well
sustained by the other historic facts to which he appeals ; and the New Amstel
charter, though granted at a later day and referring to a different place, may yef,
to a certain extent, be vouched for the same purpose, since it shows the liberal
principles which the Dutch, before the loss of New Netherland, were prepared
to introduce in the management of the colony.

MR. butler's DISCOURSE. 75
From this source they derived much of their knowleHge,
and all their morality ; and from this same fountain of
light and truth, the ablest and most useful of their leaders
evidently derived much of their political philosophy, and
many of their principles of government. In both classes,
there was a sufficient amount of available intelligence and
active virtue, large as was the demand for these qualities,
to put in motion the new system. With the advance of
the State in population and resources, there has been a
constant, if not a corresponding, advance, in the means of
intellectual and moral culture ; and, at all times, so much
of enlightenment and virtue in the body of our People, as
to enable them to maintain, with success, their republican
institutions. With the larger duty they have now assumed,
let us hope, that they will be still more sedulous, to fit
themselves for its faithful execution. And let each of us
resolve, as the lesson of these inquiries and reflections, to
cherish and foster, so far as in us lies, and in every way
commending itself to our consciences and judgments, the
great interests of knowledge and religion, as the best and
surest means of securing, in this great commonwealth, the
advancement of society and the perpetuity of freedom.

THE END.

3 9002