Antill family index [OCR source: The Antill Family by R.V. Pockley]

The Antills ...page 19

Cosby brought suit against Van Dam but was unwilling to leave the case to the ordinary courts, and ordered his Council to elect a Court of Chancery as a special Tribunal. This caused considerable indignation. Cosby appointed Chief Justice Morris as the official Chancellor. Immediately the Court was assert)led, Morris sustained the submission of the opposing counsel, and declared that the Tribunal was an illegal creation. IThe enraged Governor now instituted a bitter feud a9ainst Morris.

He wrote him a discourteous letter, which included personal reflectlions and innuendoes. Morris replied with great dignity on the essential point involved - his sworn duty to administer the law without favour, and also without fear of executive intimidation. Touching on the pesonal allusions, he wrote: "If a bow awkwardly made, or anything of that kind, or some defect of ceremonial in addressing you, has occasioned that remark, I beg it may be attributed to want of Courtly education, or anything else rather than to want of respect to His Majesty's representative. As to my integrity, I have given you no occasion to call it in question. I have been in office almost twenty years . My hands were never soiled with a bribe, nor am I conscious to myself that power or poverty hath been able to induce me to be partial in favour of either of them: and as I have no reason to expect any favour from you, so I am neither afraid nor ashamed to stand the test of the strictest enquiry you :x-- make concerning my conduct. I have served the public faithfully and honestly, according to the best of my knowledge, and I dare and do appeal to it for my justification".

Without further ado, on 21 August, 1733, Cosby removed Morris from office. This vindictive act was received with immense general indignation. The practical remedy was a test of public feeling, so one of the Assembly members from Westchester County resigned, an election became necessary, and Morris stood. The election, held at Eastchester on the 29 October, 1733, resulted in a complete victory for Morris. The result was received with wild enthusiasm throughout the Colony, especially in New York City, where bells were rung, guns were fired, and the triumphant ex-Chief Justice was greeted as a hero by the populace and feted by the principal citizens.

Among the many people stirred by the excitement of the occasion ws a young New York printer, John Peter Zenger. Stimulated by the scenes, and ardent in the great popular cause, he wrote an extended account of the event, and published it a week later in the first number of his famous New York weekly, Journal, launched expressly in opposition to the government. Its appearance was welcomed by all people of liberal minds, and Morris and other prominent citizens became contributors. Its columns were filled with weighty discussions of the principles of government, with merciless satires directed against the Governor and his "Court", and similar outbursts hitherto unprecedented in America. Cosby tried by every means in his power to suppress the paper and punish the publisher, but both ...