Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919). New York. 1906.
Page 63
| were held in various places, and mob violence was threatened,—the Puritan element of course taking the lead. Equally of course, and very properly, the friends of free government took advantage of the confusion to strike a blow for greater liberty. When under a despotic rule which nevertheless secured order and material prosperity, there was small hope of effecting a change; but the instant the tyrant for the time being became weak, there was a chance of success in moving against him, there being no longer, to the minds of the citizens, any substantial offset to atone for his tyranny. Accordingly, a New York jury formally presented to the court that the lack of a Provincial Assembly was a grievance. Popular feeling declared itself so strongly to this effect that the court adopted the same view. Accordingly, it accepted as its own and forwarded to the duke a petition drawn up by the high sheriff of Long Island. This petition set forth that New York had long groaned under the intolerable burden of being subjected to an arbitrary and irresponsible government, whereby the colonists were forced against their wills to pay revenue, while their trade was burdened, and they themselves practically enthralled. The document pointed by way of contrast to the freer and more flourishing colonies by which New York was flanked on either hand, and besought that thereafter the province should be ruled by a governor, |