in New York City, Cosby had plunged into a rancorous quarrel with the colony council over his salary, trying to recoup half of the salary of the previous acting governor, Rip Van Dam. Unable to control the colony's Supreme Court, which had ruled against Cosby in the dispute, Cosby removed Chief Justice Lewis Morris, replacing him with the royalist justice James DeLancey.

The first issue of Zenger's New-York Weekly Journal carried a lengthy report on the election for an open seat in the New York General Assembly,