The Conduct of Cadwallader Colden, Esq; Lieutenant Governor of New-York; Relating to the Judges' Commissions, --Appeals to the King, --and the Stamp-Duty
- Cadwallader Colden (author)
- Jack P. Greene (collection editor)
Published in London in 1767, this essay is a self-vindication written by Colden, the late Lieutenant-Governor of New York, in response to a public censure passed by the New York General Assembly. Printed for distribution among members of Parliament and the ministry, the pamphlet defends his conduct on three contested points: his refusal to grant judges' commissions during good behavior (insisting instead on royal instructions requiring commissions “during pleasure”), his support of the Crown’s right to hear appeals from colonial courts, and his deference to the Stamp Act.
Throughout, Colden frames his actions as loyal obedience to the King’s instructions against a factious colonial Assembly that sought to make the judiciary dependent on the legislature rather than the Crown.
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The text of these 18th century pamphlets has been converted by machine from scanned PDFs of the original microfilm copies. While the text has been machine-proofed, transcription errors may still remain. For example, the 18th-century long S, ſ , may be rendered as “f,” some words may be incorrectly transcribed, and there may be repeated words or phrases.