In Aug. 1673, Holland and England being at war, a Dutch fleet surprised New York, captured the city, restored Dutch authority and the names of New Netherland and New Orange. But by the Treaty of Westminster, Feb. 1674, the Dutch title to the province was finally extinguished, and in November the English again took possession. In 1675 Governor Andros established at Albany a commission for Indian affairs which long rendered important service in preserving the English-Iroquois alliance. The imperious manner of Andros made him many enemies. Some of them pre ferred charges against him relating to his administration of the revenue. He was called to England in 1681 to answer these, and during his absence the demand for a representative assembly was accompanied by a refusal to pay the customs duties and so much other insubordination that the duke appointed Col. Thomas Don gan to succeed Andros, and instructed him to call the desired as sembly. It met at Ft. James in the City of New York on Oct. 17, 1683, was in session for about three weeks, and passed 15 acts. The first, styled a charter of liberties and privileges, required that an assembly elected by the freeholders and freemen should be called at least once every three years ; vested all legislative authority in the governor, council and assembly; forbade the imposition of any taxes without the consent of the assembly; and provided for religious liberty and trial by jury.
The king, in an attempt to strengthen the imperial control over New England as well as to erect a strong barrier against the French, in i688 consolidated New York and New Jersey with the New England colonies into the Dominion of New Eng land and placed it under the viceregal authority of Sir Ed mund Andros as governor-general. The news of the English revo lution of 1688, however, caused an uprising in Boston, and in April 1689 Andros was seized and imprisoned. The fall of Andros encouraged a number of the restless spirits, especially in the City of New York and on Long Island to take matters into their own hands. They found a leader in a German merchant, Jacob Leisler (q.v.). On May 31, 1689, the militia captains seized Ft. James and Leisler assumed command later. In the following month Nicholson, the lieutenant-governor, deserted his post and sailed for England, and Leisler easily gained possession of the city. He called an assembly which conferred upon him the powers of a dictator. Some time after a copy of the order of the new mon archs (William and Mary) to continue all Protestants in their offices in the colonies had been received, Leisler falsely announced that he had received a commission as lieutenant-governor. Albany defied his usurped authority until his recognition was necessary to present a united front against the French and their Indian allies, who, in Feb. 169o, had surprised and burned Schenectady. French attacks had at the same time been directed against New England, and to meet the dangerous situation Leisler performed the one statesmanlike act of his public career, notable in American history as the first step toward the union of the colonies. At his call, delegates from Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut and Maryland met in New York city with delegates from New York on May 1, 1690 to consider concerted action against the enemy, although the expedition which they sent out was a failure.
Leisler had proclaimed the new monarchs of Great Britain and had declared that it was his purpose only to protect the prov ince and the Protestant religion until the arrival of a governor appointed by them, but he was enraged when he learned that he had been ignored and that Col. Henry Sloughter had been ap pointed as the new governor. Leisler refused to give up the fort, and after some bloodshed was arrested and executed. The exe cution was regarded by many as an act of revenge, and for many years the province was rent by the Leislerian and anti-Leislerian factions.
Governor Sloughter, as his commission directed, re-established in 1691 the assembly which James II. had abolished in 1686, and throughout the remainder of the colonial era the history of the province relates chiefly to the rise of popular Government and the defence of the northern frontier. Until Gov. Cornbury's admin istration (17o2–o8) both the Leislerians and the anti-Leislerians repeatedly bid for the governor's favour by supporting his meas ures instead of contending for popular rights. But Cornbury's embezzlement of £1,500, appropriated for fortifying the Narrows connecting upper and lower New York bay, united the factions against him and started the assembly in the important contest which ended in the establishment of its control over the public purse. In 1706 it won the right to appoint its own treasurer to care for money appropriated for extraordinary purposes, and in 1737 the custom of continued revenue acts was replaced by annual appropriations.
The first newspaper of New York, the New York Gazette, was established in 1725 by William Bradford, as a semi-official organ of the Administration. In 1733 a popular organ, the New York Weekly Journal, was established under John Peter Zenger (1697 1746), and in 1735 both the freedom of the press and a great advance towards the independence of the judiciary were the out come of a famous libel suit against Zenger. He was arrested for libel in Nov. 1734 for printing criticisms of the administration. When his counsel, James Alexander (169o-1756) and William Smith (1679-1769), took exception to the commissions of the chief justice, James de Lancey (1703-6o) and one of his asso ciates, because by these commissions the justices had been ap pointed "during pleasure" instead of "during good behaviour," the chief justice disbarred them. Their places, however, were taken by Andrew Hamilton, speaker of the assembly of Pennsyl vania and a lawyer of great reputation in the English colonies. The jury quickly agreed on a verdict of not guilty, and the acquit tal was greeted by the populace with shouts of triumph. The further independence of judges became a leading issue in 1761 when the assembly insisted that they should be appointed during good behaviour, and refused to pay the salaries of those appointed during pleasure ; but the home Government met this refusal by ordering that they be paid out of the quit-rents.