As the Zenger case developed step by step in New York, Cosby was being
forced to a more energetic defense on the London front, where Van Dam
was waging a pamphlet war against him, and where Morris was present in
person.
Months before the newspaper war began Van Dam had resolved to keep the
New York public and the London authorities informed of the way in which
the Cosby suit for half of his salary was going, and he began to publish
successive accounts, with Peter Zenger doing the printing for him just
as for the rest of the Popular party. Zenger’s business got better as
the political controversy got worse. In the summer of 1733 he turned out
for Alexander and Smith their arguments against the validity of the
equity court. Shortly afterward Van Dam gave him the job of handling two
protests in which the stubborn old Dutchman expressed his personal
indignation at the way he was being treated by the Governor.
These partial attacks on Cosby were followed by a general indictment, a
full bill of particulars drawn up to expose him point by point with the
most meticulous exactitude. Almost everything that could be alleged
against him with any degree of plausibility at all was set down in Van
Dam’s _Articles of Complaint_.
The apparent author was not the real one. Van Dam undoubtedly had a hand
in formulating the charges, but the writing must have been due to
someone else since Van Dam was not skillful with the pen. James
Alexander springs to mind as the obvious candidate for the role of ghost
writer, a suspicion that is strengthened by the accusations that Cosby
leveled at both him and Morris. Nevertheless, Van Dam was responsible
for the _Articles_, a fact on which he insisted with dogged
self-righteousness.
The indictment is composed of 34 separate counts. Not all of them are
watertight, for some descend into carping criticism about trivialities.
One, for instance, accuses Cosby of accepting a gift of French wines
from the commander at Louisbourg:
You received of the said Frenchman by way of present all of the said
brandy, claret and salad oil, which were carried into the fort and
lodged in your cellar; and this, I suppose, induced you to grant a
liberty to trade here, which you ought not to have done.[25]
Another charges that Cosby’s candidate in the Westchester election,
William Forster, was “a known Jacobite,” an astonishing grievance in
this context since James Alexander was himself a Jacobite, a veteran of
the rising of 1715.
These are mere debaters’ points (at the most charitable estimation), and
they prove that the leaders of the Popular party could be just as
unscrupulous as the Governor when they put their minds to it. They did
not disdain to use against him the weapons that he used against them.
Too often the struggle has been painted in stark tones of black and
white, when it was really a matter of degree, with neither side having a
monopoly of either vice or virtue—which is to say little more than that
we are dealing with the factional politics of real men rather than with
the stereotypes of melodrama.
Again, some of the _Articles_ are of doubtful validity, as when Cosby is
accused of destroying a deed given to the City of Albany by the Mohawks,
and of permitting the French to map and sound New York harbor on the
pretence of trading there. The Governor retorted that the deed was
unjust to begin with, and that to have kept it in force would have
driven the Indians into the arms of the French; and that trade with
Louisbourg was legitimate and humanitarian because the garrison was
close to famine.
But if a number of the _Articles_ have a dubious ring, others do make
fundamental points. They mention the dismissal of Morris from the
Supreme Court, the Van Dam lawsuit, and the attempt to rig the
Westchester election. Several are devoted to Cosby’s contemptuous
treatment of his Council:
You have, contrary to your instructions, displaced Judges, Justices of
the Peace, Sheriffs, etc., without the advice of Council.[26]
The Council being part of the legislature, as above, you have taken it
upon you (in order to influence their debates) to sit among them and
act as their President, though by your patent His Majesty has given
you a negative voice to prevent the passing of any law prejudicial to
His Majesty’s prerogative and the public good.[27]
Where the advice of the Council has been thought necessary you have
not given general summonses as usual, but have only summoned so small
a number as would constitute a quorum, in which you were sure of a
majority to carry such point as you thought proper, and by this method
seem to support your proceedings by the sanction of advice of
Council—when three makes a majority of such a quorum, and nine might
have been dissenting had they been summoned.[28]
You have taken it upon yourself to act as President of the Council in
receiving bills and messages from the General Assembly.[29]
By these methods you have rendered the Council useless in their
legislative capacity of being that check and balance in government
that His Majesty intended they should be.[30]
Van Dam’s _Articles of Complaint_ constituted a deadly blow at Governor
Cosby, what with his Minorca past added to his present troubles in New
York, nor was he slow to recognize the fact. We have already seen how he
was warned by the Board of Trade because of reports in the _Journal_.
Fearing the effect of the _Articles_ in London, he prompted his
confederates of the Council to draw up for the Duke of Newcastle a point
by point “refutation”—which does not, however, actually refute anything
fundamental, for if it deals validly enough with the trivialities, it
sedulously avoids, or else boldly denies, the facts about Cosby’s
maladministration and misdemeanors. At the same time the Cosby
councillors appended a note that gives the Court party’s version of the
New York situation:
We have been, while we traced Mr Van Dam through a labyrinth of
detestable falsehoods, very often at a loss how to believe that a man
of his years could forge so many and so notorious scandals, but we are
to inform your Grace that the resentment, malice and revenge of some
of the wickedest men are thrown to his assistance. No government or
administration can please these restless minds. Nothing will satisfy
them but the power which they joyfully would exercise to the
destruction or ruin of their fellow subjects. We beg Your Lordship to
be assured that we know, and daily are made more sensible of, our
happiness under His Excellency’s administration.[31]