Ch. 3.5. Primary Source: Letter from the Governor of New York to the Board of Trade, 1748

This letter was written by George Clinton, a successful British naval officer who served as the royal Governor of New York from 1743 to 1753, where one of his key advisors was Cadwallader Colden (see above). Clinton’s tenure as royal governor was marked by constant conflict with the New York assembly. Unable to gain the authority he felt that his position merited, he resigned in 1753.

That your Lordships may better comprehend the methods which the Assembly have taken to draw unto themselves the executive powers of government I must observe to Your Lordships:

1stly, that the Assembly refuse to admit of any amendment to any money bill; so that the bill must pass as it comes from Assembly, or all the supplies granted for the support of the government, & the most urgent services must be lost.

2ndly, it appears that they take the payment of the [military] forces,  passing of muster rolls into their own hands by naming the commissaries [suppliers] for those purposes in the act.

3rdly, they by granting the salaries to the officers personally by name & not to the officer for the time being, intimate that if any person be appointed to any office his salary must depend upon their approbation of the appointment.

4thly, they issue the greatest part of the money granted to his Majesty without warrant [official authorization], though by His Majesty’s commission to me it is directed that all monies raised by act of the Assembly, shall be issued from the treasury by my warrant & not otherwise.

5thly, they have appointed an agent [lobbyist in London] for the colony who is to take his directions from a committee of Assembly (exclusive of the Council & of the Governor) and to be paid by warrant from the Speaker of the Assembly.

6thly, in order to lay me under the necessity of passing the bill for payment of the officers’ salaries & services in the manner the Assembly had formed it, they tacked to it the payment of the forces posted on the frontier for the defense thereof [New York bordered on Canada, then New France], so that I must either pass the bill, or leave the Colony defenseless, & open to the enemy’s incursions.

Questions: What specific abuses does Gov. Clinton describe, what overall impression of New York’s government does he give, and why are things like this?