DOCUMENTS. PROCLAMATION. By SILAS WRIGHT, Governor of the State of New-York. The sheriff, district attorney, judges of the county courts, and other officers of the peace and citizens of the county of Delaware, have laid before me a body of evidence, to satisfy me that the execution of civil and criminal process in that county has been forcibly resisted by bodies of men; that combinations to resist the execution of such process by force, exist in that county; and that the power of the county has been exerted, and is not sufficient to enable the sheriff and his deputies, having such process, to execute the same; and have applied to me to exert the authority with which I am clothed by the 19th section of the act entitled "An act to enforce the laws and preserve order," passed April 15, 1845. The evidence presented to me, establishes satisfactorily the following among other facts: That the execution of civil and criminal process began to be resisted by bodies of men, in the county of Delaware, as early as March last. That combinations to resist the execution of such process by force, under the denomination of anti-rent, or equal rights associations, commenced being formed in that county, more than one year ago. That these associations have engrafted upon their organization a force of disguised, masked and armed men, subject to the orders and directions of the officers of the associations, and by and through which force, under the protection of its disguises and masks, the resistance to the execution of legal process is to be made, and is made. That the members of this armed force are denominated Indians, or natives; are organized in bands called tribes, and have their leaders and commanders, called chiefs, having names in imitation of Indian chiefs. That the officers of the associations, and all the members of the armed force, are sworn to observe and support the constitution of the association, and to keep secret all things communicated, or known to them, which require to be kept secret, and, in the case of the dis[Assembly, No. 3.] 7 guised and armed men, the further clause is added, that they will stand by each other as long as life shall last. That the avowed and declared object of the associations is to prevent by force the collections of rent, and that the express duty of the armed force, is to resist the execution of process issued for that object; but that the cases of resistance by force against the execution of legal process, and the discharge of their duties by the officers of the law, have not been entirely confined to proceedings for collection of rents, but have been extended, in some instances, to other legal process. That these association and organizations of a disguised, masked and armed force, are not confined to the county of Delaware, but exist to a great, if not to an equal extent in several adjoining counties, and that the organizations, armed and unarmed, wherever they exist, have and avow a common object, make common cause, and act in entire concert and co-operation. That in all the prominent and flagrant cases of resistance to the process and officers of the law, in Delaware and other counties, the members of these armed bands of disguised and masked men have been the prominent actors; and that, in the county of Delaware, before the passage of the law above referred to, this resistance had been carried to such an extent, as to require the utmost exertion of the power of the county to preserve peace and order, and execute criminal process only. That early in the month of May, after the passage of the law of the 15th of April last, above referred to, the sheriff of the county of Delaware applied to the Governor, under the 2d section of that law, and received authority to organize an armed guard of 400 men to aid him in the preservation of order, and the execution of civil and criminal process within the county. That a strong feeling has existed in the county against that provision of the law, which charges upon the county, the expense of such an organized and armed force; the citizens contending that it was unequal and unjust to require of them to encounter, in their persons, the labor and peril of enforcing the law against these armed combinations of their own and the adjoining counties, and thereby subject the property of Delaware county only to the taxation necessary to meet the expenses thus incurred; and that the sheriff has been unable to organize a guard, under the 2d section of the act, of sufficient strength and permanency to enable him to execute the civil process placed in his hands, or calling for execution. That the consequence of this state of things has been a substantial suspension, in the county of Delaware, of all process for the collection of rents, from the close of the serious disturbances there, in March last, until a very recent and very signal instance, to be hereafter particularly noticed; the sheriff having undertaken, within that time, to execute and carry out such process in but one instance, and in that, a voluntary settlement between the parties relieved him, before the point was reached, at which resistance has been usually met; and he having, in numerous other instances, declined to receive and attempt to execute such process. |