24 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 



The Roval Letters Patent under which James, Duke of York and 

 Alban3^ acquired tithe to T>ong Island empowered the Duke to establish a 

 government, and clothed him with powers of well nigh regal extent. The 

 condition of Long Island was represented at Whitehall as surpassingly ex- 

 cellent. Among the aims of the Duke the supremacy of this portion of 

 the possessions granted him by his brother seems paramount. John Scott 

 had moved his cupidity by tales of wealth that were founded wholly upon 

 imagination. Careful in the selection of subordinates, James found in 

 Richard Nicholls an incomparable agent for his financial work. "You 

 may inform all men that a great end of your design is the possessing of 

 Long Island, and reducing that people to us and our government, now 

 vested in our brother, the Duke of York," wrote Clarendon in his commis- ' 

 sion of instructions to Nicolls, and the other Commissioners dispatched by 

 the Duke to regulate the affairs of the provinces. Winthrop, Governor of 

 Connecticut, attends upon Nicolls at Gravesend before the surrender of 

 New Amsterdam, examines his Commission and the letters patent, and 

 yields all claim on behalf of his colony to iurisdiction over Long Island, 

 and declares it "in view of His Majesty's pleasure to have ceased and be- 

 come null." And thus in August, 1664, the various towns of this County 

 passed from a state of independence and elementary government into one 

 of rigor, method and oppression. However great the difficulties attending 

 their separation from other colonies in the parent State the inestimable boon 

 of freedom and self-dependence was an ample requital. We shall witness 

 its fruits in the Assemblv, whose acts we reverence now. 



The intervention of Nicolls was marked by the Convention of Depu- 

 ties from Long Island, Staten Island and Westchester, ,at Hempstead in 

 1665. Here a body of Laws was submitted by Nicolls and approved by 

 the delegates. This code, well known as the "Duke's Laws," was fami- 

 liar to our eastern towns. It simplv embodied regulations in force in New 

 England, but in its application to the tenure and institution of office in the 

 towns, it wrought a radical change and was bitterly offensive. No states- 

 man needs to be taught the elementary lesson that a people once pos- 

 sessed of power never yields it without resistance. The Duke's Laws sub- 

 stituted appointment of magistrates and other officers by the Governor for 

 the old usage of election. To the remonstrances of the delegates upon 

 this measure, Nicolls candidly responded that the election of magistrates 

 was entirely unknown to the laws of England, and a Parliament of En- 

 gland could neither make a Judge nor Justice of the Peace. All legisla- 

 tion was vested in the Governor and Council and Court of Assize, whose 

 officers were of the Governor's appointment. Petty town tribunals were 

 suffered, the overseers of which were subjects of popular choice, but the 

 free voice of the people in the selection of their other officers was now 

 silenced by despotic power. 



The propagation of the Duke's Laws and the general labors of the 

 Assembly stirred the Puritan population of the East-Riding of Yorkshire, 

 as this County was styled by Act of this Assembly. The Deputies return- 

 ing to their homes met no such cordial welcome as they had chosen to 

 convey to His Royal Highness in an address that followed the end of their 

 legislative labors. Exactions attended in the train of the new govern- 

 ment. Titles were questioned and confirmation refused, except upon 

 payment of excessive charges. Perhaps none of ^the colonial Governors 

 surpassed Nicolls in integrity, prudence, or fidelity to trust as representa- 



