As population increased on the adjacent lands, they began taking
leases from the Patroon, paying rent for their farms, and this
produced one of the bitterest conflicts known in American politics,
the New York "Anti-Rent War." After the Revolution the inhabitants
increased rapidly, and General Stephen Van Rensselaer, then the
Patroon, leased farms in perpetuity, upon the nominal consideration
for eight years of "a peppercorn a year," and at the expiration of
this time these leases drew a rent estimated at six per cent. interest
on the land value, about $5 per acre, payable in the produce of the
soil, fowls, and days' service with wagons and horses, the latter
designed to secure road-making. When the old General died in 1839, the
entail being abolished, he divided the manor between his two sons,
Stephen getting Albany County on the west bank, and William,
Rensselaer County on the east bank, including Troy. He had been a
lenient landlord, but the tenants became anxious, especially about
what was known as the "quarter sales clause" in their leases, giving
the landlord the right to claim one-fourth the purchase money whenever
the land passed by purchase, this condition being really inserted to
prevent alienation, as it did not become operative when the land was
sold or descended to one of the original tenant's family. The tenants
proposed that the landlord should sell the reservations, releasing
them from the rentals and making them owners in fee, but this was
declined. The tenants then employed counsel, who advised that the
landlord's right was absolute, but suggested, while there was no legal
remedy, that it would be good policy to make the rent collections so
difficult, the landlord would be willing to come to terms; that they
band together and give each other notice of the approach of bailiffs,
so the service of legal process would be troublesome. William H.
Seward, Governor of New York, espoused their cause, and to this
advice, he being a candidate for re-election in 1840, he added the
recommendation that the "anti-renters" should organize and send to the
Legislature men who would hold the balance of power between the great
parties, thus forcing the passage of laws relieving them.
Then began the "anti-rent" conflicts convulsing New York politics for
years. They formed an active and powerful political party, and created
other organizations, disguised as Indians, who attacked the law
officers. These supposed red men killed a man at Grafton in Rensselaer
County, and all legal efforts failed to discover the culprits. Other
similar manors existed in different parts of New York State where
payment of rents of much the same character was resisted, and these
regions also were excited. Outbreaks continued several years, until in
1845 Governor Silas Wright issued a proclamation declaring Delaware
County, on the western verge of the Catskills, in a state of
insurrection. This caused additional trouble, but the "anti-renters"
disposed of Wright by defeating him for re-election in 1846, and he
died soon afterwards. They elected their own candidate for Governor,
John Young, who pardoned out of jail nearly everybody imprisoned for
"anti-rent" crimes. The disputes finally got into the courts, and the
Van Rensselaers, fatigued with the controversy, sold all their rights
to a Colonel Church. He was sustained by legal decisions, and then
adopted a compromising policy, which quieted the agitation. He
released the rentals and gave fee-simple titles, so that at least
three-fourths of the old manor became without rental. His method of
compromise was based on a scale: for a farm of one hundred and sixty
acres where the annual rent was twenty-two and one-half bushels of
wheat, four fat fowls and one day's service, the value was fixed at
$26, being six per cent. interest on $433, and by paying this the
tenant got his fee-simple title. Thus the harassing conflict which
frequently required troops to be called out at Albany and elsewhere
was finally adjusted.