Page:History of Delaware County (1856).djvu/282

 268 HISTORY OF tised on the renters of Rensselaer and Livingston manors, has an improper hearing on the elective franchise, through fear of oppression. " Fourthly, The right and power of ejecting tenants of their farms for the non-payment of rent, when there is personal pro- perty enough on the premises to pay it, is held to be extremely arbitrary, and is often done to favor a friend. Fifthly, They declare against the injustice of being exposed to ejections from their farms and homes, merely on account of failing to pay the rent every year. It is the principle or power of this trait of the leases, that they object to; though it were never put in force. And also, from being exposed to forfeit their leases if they failed to live up to every requirement in those instruments. Sixthly, But it may be said, that men ought to abide by their bargains, and that they need not to have taken such leases. To this it is replied, that those leases were in a manner forced upon all families who now live upon leased premises, which was done as follows : At first, when the country was new, the Patroon was very good and indulgent, to such as would settle on his manor, even sometimes giving the use of the land for seven years for nothing, with the promise of a good and indulgent lease at the end of that time. During this period, be the same longer or shorter, considerable improve- ments were sure to be made on the land. But now comes the pinch : a lease is made out, which the renter sees at once is in a considerable degree subversive of his own natural rights as a free citizen. What can he do? He must either accept of it, or lose several years' labor. Thus it is asserted, that these '- leases were in a manner forced upon the rentees. Seventhly, The rentees hold that the land they occupy is their own, on account of what is called legal possession : that is, being actually on the land, and by enclosing it, while the Patroon' s possession is hy proxy only. But if it is neither the