George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 4, 15th edition.

To the Assembly which met in October, 1748, Clinton, faithful to his engagements, and choosing New York as the opening scene in the final contest that led to independence, declared, that the methods adopted for colonial supplies ‘made it his indispensable duty at the first opportunity to put a stop to these innovations;’ and he demanded, what had so often been refused, the grant of a revenue to the king for at least five years. The Assembly, in reply, insisted on naming in their grants the incumbent of each office. ‘From recent experience,’ they continue, ‘we are fully convinced that the method of an annual support is most wholesome and salutary, and are confirmed in the opinion, that the faithful representatives of the people will never depart from it.’² Warning them of the anger of ‘parliament,’³ Clinton prorogued the Assembly, and in floods of letters and documents represented to the secretary of state, that its members ‘had set up the people as the high court of American appeal;’ that ‘they claimed all the powers and privileges of parliament;’ that they ‘virtually assumed all the public money into their own hands, and issued it without warrant from the governor;’ that ‘they took to themselves the sole power of rewarding all services, and in effect, the nomination to all offices, by granting the salary annually, not to the office, but, by name, to the person ⁴ ’