That he was prepared to resist any attack was universally known, but
none was attempted, and perhaps for that reason.
The Mechanics' Bill passed the legislature late in February, and was
sent to the Council of Revision. At that time the chancellor and the
judges of the Supreme Court formed a Council of Revision, and had a
qualified negative on all bills. If they considered a bill
unconstitutional, they returned it to the house in which it
originated, with their objections; after which, if it received the
vote of two thirds of both houses, it became a law. This bill was
returned on the 9th of March by the council, with their objections,
and, two thirds not voting in favour, it was lost. These objections,
in substance, were precisely what had been urged against it by Colonel
Burr on the floor of the assembly. The petitioners were forty-three in
number. The bill gave them unlimited powers in some particulars. It
did not incorporate their successors, only so far as they pleased to
admit them. They might hold landed estate in perpetuity to an
unlimited amount, provided their _income_ did exceed fifteen hundred
pounds beyond their _outgoings_. Their by-laws were to be approved by
the city corporation; thus, by rendering the one dependant on the
other, either the mechanics would influence the magistrates, and the
powers of the corporation of the city and county of New-York be made,
at some future day, instruments of monopoly and oppression; or, which
was more probable, the corporation of the city and county of New-York
obtain a controlling power over the mechanics, and thus add to the
extensive influence which that corporation already enjoyed, thereby
rendering it dangerous to the political freedom of the people.
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