In a letter to his son Alexander, Colden expanded his remarks concerning Smith's History of New York. In that letter, Colden indicated that during his period of relative detachment from political affairs he was preparing his memoirs of the government of New York. He criticized Smith for attributing the removal of Colonel Schuyler and Mister Philipse from the Council to their opposition to the continuance of the Assembly. Rather, Colden stressed that the reason for their dismissal was that Schuyler had committed the king's seal to Philipse, who received it into his custody—a criminal act (see chapter 2, pp. 29 and 30).
In the letter, Colden continued with a chronicle of events that occurred during Governor Burnet's tenure. Colden recounted Burnet's refusal to qualify James Delancey after he had been elected a member of the Assembly. Delancey, based on his French and Dutch ancestry, was designated not to be a naturalized foreigner, which would have precluded his service. This generated intense party struggles that continued over the years. Colden described the Assembly at that time as consisting of individuals who deemed themselves to be unaccountable to any other authority and who were prone to spread slander and calumny. Colden concluded that “It is not fit that Mr. Smith's history should pass for a chronicle of New York” because “He is so assuming in his manner, especially in giving Characters, often unfair, allwise partial whether his characters be favorable or otherwise, continually biased by his connections, either as to family, political party or religious sect, that some resentment is unavoidable.”4
While Colden remained in Flushing at the house he had rented in 1757, relatively disengaged from political activities throughout 1759 and the first nine months of 1760, the British forces continued on their victorious course over the French. On June 26, 1759, Fort Ticonderoga was taken by Major General Jeffrey Amherst, who replaced General James Abercromby as the commander-in-chief of all British forces in North America. The French commandant of the fort ordered the fortifications destroyed and the troops to withdraw to the Isle-au-Nuits in Lake Champlain. On August 1, Amherst learned that Crown Point had been abandoned. Troops were stationed there and the French withdrew completely from Lake Champlain. The formidable Fort Niagara also fell without a battle on July 25. The British took possession of forts at Venango, Le Boeuf, and Presque Isle, leaving Fort Pontchartrain at Detroit as the only fort in the Lake Erie area under French control.
The most definitive battle of the French and Indian War took place on the morning of September 13, 1759, and lasted about fifteen minutes. The British engaged and soundly defeated the French on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec. The articles of capitulation were signed on September 18. A year later Montreal surrendered without a battle, and, a week after that event, the British flag was raised at the Detroit fort, thereby gaining for Great Britain sole control of North America.
In 1760, Colden penned an essay directed at his nephew who was to embark on a new educational endeavor. The essay entitled “An Introduction to the Study of Phylosophy” summarized Colden's views on both philosophy and science. He emphasized the need to expand one's knowledge in the context of society. Colden paints a self-portrait of his intellectual profile in his conclusion. “The gentleman, who proposes to be generally useful in society, ought not to fix his thought single on one branch of science, but to have a competent knowledge of the principles of every branch…. While he reads and thinks by turns, he should in the intervals, cultivate his intellectual faculties by general conversation, where he may obtain more useful knowledge than can be learned from books.”5
On June 10, 1760, the Assembly, under the leadership of Lieutenant Governor Delancey passed several bills, the most significant of which was the regulation of the practice of “Physic and Medicine.”6 Colden is generally credited with being the force behind the passage of that bill, in which it was specified that an exam was required by those aspiring to practice. This was the first act in the colonies to regulate the practice of medicine, but it was limited to the City of New York and contained a grandfather clause, excusing all those currently practicing medicine.7
On July 29, Delancey engaged in interviews with several politicians on Staten Island and returned that evening. The following morning he was found gasping in a chair at home and died, presumably as a result of asthma of which he suffered for years. Smith's assessment of Delancey's contributions to the colony was most complimentary. Smith wrote, “Upon the whole, his accomplishments rendered him an ornament to the country which gave him birth. None of his predecessors possessed natural talents superior, if equal to his….”8
Colden's life underwent an immediate and dramatic change. In his seventy-third year, he came out of retirement and took up residence in Government House at Fort George (currently, the location of the National Museum of the American Indian in Lower Manhattan), as president of the Council. Colden assumed the title of President of the Council and Commander-in-Chief of the Province of New York.
He received congratulatory letters from several of the colonial governors, including James Hamilton of Pennsylvania, Francis Fauquier of Virginia, Horatio Sharpe of Maryland, and William Bull of South Carolina. He also received congratulatory correspondence from Alexander Garden and Benjamin Franklin, who was in London at the time. In a letter, written from his encampment site on the shore of the St. Lawrence River near Isle Royale, Major General Amherst offered condolences for the death of Delancey, and wrote, “Sir, it some what Alleviates my Grief to find that the Reins of Government have devolved on a Person of so much Experience as Yourself, not doubting but I shall find the same Zeal in You that I have always met with in your Predecessor….”9
Colden used his position to advance his sons. This is evidenced in a letter from the Earl of Halifax to Peter Collinson dated October 12, 1760. The earl wrote, “I was pleased that upon the Death of Lieutenant Governor Delancey, the Administration, of Governmt devolved upon Mr Colden, whose experience, public service and Integrity I have been long Acquainted with. My only doubt was whither his Age might not make it burthensome to him…. I should be very glad to oblige both him and you by making his Son one of the Council, but, when I state then to you, I am Satisfied you will be Sensible of the Weight of the Objections there are to it at present….”10
On October 22, Colden addressed the Assembly in his new position for the first time. He assured the members that he would concur with them in “every measure conducive to the prosperity of the colony.”11 One week later, the General Assembly issued a formal response, in which the members asserted that they “shall cheerfully contribute our utmost assistance to every measure conducive to the ease of your administration, & the true Interest of the People we represent.”12 The session lasted until November 8, when Colden signed the nineteen proposed bills without a single objection, including one that provided him a salary of 1,800 pounds per year.13
King George II died on October 25 and his grandson, George III, rose to the throne. In November the City of New York received Major General Amherst as a triumphal hero, and, with much pomp and circumstance, presented him with the “freedom of their municipality.”14 Throughout the winter, self-congratulations over the recent victory, accompanied by pervasive optimism and patriotism, dominated. This temporarily obscured the previous political polarization. But the arrival of the spring would be accompanied by the early harbingers of a storm that would eventuate in the elevation of Colden to an unenviable position as the most vilified individual in the history of colonial New York, if not in all of the colonies.
The year of 1760 represented a watershed in Colden's life. The most contemporary report of the administrations of Lieutenant Governor Colden and Governor Monckton covered the period between 1760 and 1762, and was written by William Smith, Jr., for the second volume of his The History of the Province of New-York. The chronicle is obviously biased because Smith had been and continued to be one of Colden's severest critics. Smith was a member of the legal profession, for which Colden had little regard and a distinct antipathy. At the time, the three legal leaders in th
e New York colony were Smith, John Morin Scott, and William Livingston. Smith and Livingston had been educated together at Yale, and they were joined by Scott in Smith's father's law office. They were populists who were opposed to absolute rule by the monarchy. They organized the Whig Club in 1752, and held weekly meetings at the King's Arms Tavern, where the walls reverberated with words of independence and the leveling of society, an absolute anathema for Colden.15
After George II died and the new king was crowned, the New York lawyers invoked an unwritten law that mandated the dissolution of extant assemblies and the election of new members. An election took place and little change in the membership resulted. In May, there was a two-week session of the new Assembly, during which the members voted that the laws enacted between the death of the late king and the receipt of notification by the Assembly required legalization. Colden objected because it was contrary to royal and parliamentary instructions, and that it was absurd to restrain a lawful act based on lack of knowledge, which was impossible to attain at the time. He added that the bill would have given lawyers an overriding power.16
The second and more contentious bill indicated that the selection of judges should be independent of the Crown and that the judges of the Supreme Court were to be appointed on the basis of their good behavior. Colden continued his loyalty to the Crown, and offered the chief justice's position to Smith, Sr., who refused. Colden then declared that the renewal of the other positions was dependent upon the Crown. Smith, Jr., in his history, deemed Colden's action to be “universally disgustful.”17 Other unpopular actions of Colden included the curtailment of the illicit trade that had taken place for many years between New York merchants and the French West Indies, and the overturning of land patents that he contended had been granted in violation of instructions from the Crown.18
Although local antagonism toward Colden intensified, he was rewarded by the king with the long-desired position of lieutenant governor. The commission that was dated April 14, 1761, stated,
GEORGE the Third, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain France and Ireland, King Defender of the Faith &c2 To Our Trusty and Well beloved Cadwallader Colden Esquire GREETING, WE, reposing especial Trust and Confidence inn your Loyalty, Integrity and Ability, do by these Presents constitute and appoint you to be Our Lieutenant Governor of Our Province of New York and the Territories depending thereon in America, in the room of James Delancey Esquire deceased.19
On May 12, 1761, Colden leased a 120 acre farm, located about a mile and a half south of the village of Flushing, Long Island, from John and Thomas Willet. A year later, Colden purchased the land and over the ensuing two years built a mansion, which he named Spring Hill (fig. 9).20
Figure 9. “Spring Hill” in Flushing, Long Island. Photo taken 1924. Courtesy of New York Historical Society.
On October 19, 1761, the British warship Alcide arrived in New York with the commission for the new governor, Major General Robert Monckton. The thirty-five-year-old Monckton had a distinguished military career in the War of the Austrian Succession and, more recently, in the Seven Years (French and Indian) War. In 1755, he led the siege that captured Fort Beauséjour, and was named lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia after that victory. He held that position for three years. In 1759, he was appointed second in command to General James Wolfe for the battle of Quebec. On the Plains of Abraham, Monckton commanded the British right flank and sustained a chest wound. He was reassigned to New York for convalescence. In 1760, he was appointed commander of the British forces in the provinces south of New York.
At the time of his appointment as governor of New York, Monckton was in command of troops stationed at Staten Island in anticipation of an expedition to the West Indies. The process of the swearing in of the new governor provided a new occasion for Colden's reputation to be compromised by his political foes. The process called for the governor-elect to formally produce his commission and instructions in Council, after which he was sworn in. On the day, which Monckton had selected for his inauguration, Colden became acquainted with the fact that the instructions had not arrived, and he called for a delay. Colden's persistent nemesis, William Smith, Jr., told Monckton that Colden had known of the absence of the instructions previously and was using the situation to delay the taking of the oath.21 The inauguration proceeded on the originally designated day.
Nineteen days later Monckton sailed with an expeditionary force under his command directed for the capture of Martinique, which surrendered on February 3, 1762. Colden governed New York during Monckton's absence. Monckton returned to New York in June, and assumed his leadership role. He held the position of governor until June 1765 despite leaving New York permanently in June 1763.
Before Monckton left for Martinique, he wrote Colden that in his absence Colden should receive “one full moiety [i.e., half] of the Salary, and of all Perquisites,” which the governor would have received, during his absence.22 Colden informed Monckton that he disagreed and that Governor Burnett, during his tenure, had indicated to him that “the Lieutenant Governor, President of the Council &c, exercising the Administration of Government, upon the Absence or the Death of the Governor in Chief, should have one half of the Salary, and all Perquisites & Emoluments of Government.”23 Monckton maintained his original assertion that “half” rather than “all” perquisites was appropriate.24
Colden solicited the assistance of John Watts, a member of the Council. They conjointly drew up an agreement by which half the profits of government were to be paid to Colden and half to the deputy-secretary in trust for Monckton. Monckton countered with the proposal that, while Colden was in charge, everything was to be paid to the deputy-secretary until Monckton's return. At that time, if specific instructions indicated that the profits were to be divided, Monckton would comply; if not, he would keep all. Colden ignored this, considering it an insult to his character. Smith then drew up an agreement that, if Colden's contention proved to be correct, he would be paid, but was required to submit an accounting under oath, which even Monckton thought was not necessary. Smith's action added to Colden's consideration of his antagonist as “a crafty, malicious smooth-tongued hypocrite.”25
Five days after Monckton's departure for the West Indies, Colden opened a new session of the Assembly with a passionate plea for expediting justice and reducing the expense, thereby allowing him the opportunity to focus on one of his criticisms, that of the bench and the bar. The Assembly sarcastically responded with the statement, “As the complaints your honor mentions probably arise from the want of a legal establishment of fees, we cannot help thinking a general establishment of the fees of all the officers of the government will put a stop to these, as well to several other complaints of the like nature.”26
One bill, which granted salaries to the judges on condition of their acceptance during good behavior, Colden amended to provide fixed salaries for the judges appointed under the new tenure. It was eventually approved. The bill, legalizing the acts of the legislature between the death of George II and its announcement in America was not brought up for reconsideration. A bill authorizing the partition of land grants and the establishment of provision, similar to one that Colden had successfully proposed forty years previously, was introduced. Colden signed a compromised bill after his amendments were added.
Smith ended the final chapter in his History, on “The Administrations of Colden and Monckton” with a parting barb:
Mr. Hardy…who by renewing the judge's commissions during good behavior, taught this colony to believe that it was choice and some sinister motive, and not a dread of administration that prompted Mr. Colden to stickle for a dispensation of justice under the control of the Crown. It was therefore with a malignant pleasure that the public soon after the session discovered Mr. Colden's late promotion to the rank of Lieutenant Governor was not the reward of merit, but the effort of low craft and condescension and fraud. To gain an interest with Mr. John Pownall, a clerk to the Board of Trade, who had the ear of the earl of Halifax,
and to raise the idea of his being able to influence the Assembly, he offered him the agency of the colony—a bait to which the minister could not be indifferent.”27
The year 1762 was one of great personal loss for Colden. In March his wife of forty-seven years died at Government House, and in June his thirty-one- yearold unmarried daughter, Catherine, also died.28 The year was relatively non-confrontational for Colden.
The correspondence of the next year was initiated by a letter from Benjamin Franklin, who reported on the discovery that Quicksilver was a melted metal, that cooling could be effected by evaporation, that he was experimenting with magnetism, and that, while in England, he had invented a new musical instrument [the glass armonica].29 In September a letter from the Earl of Halifax expressed concern over an argument between two New York merchants named Mr. Forsey and Mr. Cunningham that resulted in Cunningham stabbing Forsey. Colden was instructed to report if a trial resulted in a conviction. If conviction ensued, Colden was instructed to delay judgment and execution until the Crown considered the matter.30
Cunningham had previously lost a civil action suit for assault and battery against Forsey. Cunningham was then turned down by the Supreme Court for a review. John Tabor Kempe, who served at the last attorney general for the province of New York (1759–1782), wrote Colden that “On the whole Sir as I humbly conceive the Kings Intent to be, that only Errors in the Law and not matters of Fact tried on Appeal, I think a Writ of Error only should issue to bring the proceedings before your Honor and the Council….”31 Daniel Horsmanden, the chief justice of the province, stated, “An Attempt then to re-examine the Verdict of a Jury, is repugnant to the Laws both of England and this Colony.”32
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