THE MOVING WORLD.
If we could look down the long vista of ages,
And witness the changes of time,
Or draw from Isaiah's mysterious pages
A key to this vision sublime;
We'd gaze on the picture with pride and delight,
And all its magnificence trace,
Give honor to man for his genius and might,
And glory to God for his grace.
--PAXTON.
After the surrender of New York to the English, in the year 1665 Peter
Stuyvesant went to Holland to report to his superiors. In order to shift
the responsibility from their own shoulders, they declared that the
governor had not done his duty, and they asked the States-General to
disapprove of the scandalous surrender of New Netherland. Stuyvesant
made a similar counter-charge and begged the States-General to speedily
decide his case, that he might return to America for his family. The
authorities required him to answer the charges of the West India
Company. He sent to New York for sworn testimony, and at the end of six
months he made an able report, its allegations sustained by
unimpeachable witnesses. The company made a petulant rejoinder, when
circumstances put an end to the dispute. War between Holland and England
then raging was ended by the peace concluded at Breda in 1667, when the
former relinquished to the latter its claims to New Netherland. This
brought to an end the controversy between Stuyvesant and the West
India Company.
Stuyvesant went to England and obtained from King Charles permission for
three Dutch vessels to have free commerce with New York for the space of
seven years. Then he sailed for America, with the determination of
spending the remainder of his life in New York. He was cordially
welcomed by his old friends and kindly received by his political
enemies, who had learned by experience that he was not a worse governor
than the Duke had sent them. Stuyvesant retired to his _bowerie_ or farm
on East River, from which the famous Bowery of New York City derived its
name, and in tranquillity passed the remainder of his life.
The people of New York soon discovered that a change of masters did not
increase their prosperity or happiness. Brodhead says: "Fresh names and
laws they found did not secure fresh liberties. Amsterdam was changed to
New York and Orange to Albany; but these changes only commemorated the
titles of a conqueror. It was nearly twenty years before the conqueror
allowed for a brief period to the people of New York even that partial
degree of representative government which they had enjoyed when the
tri-colored ensign of Holland was hauled down from the flagstaff of Fort
Amsterdam. New Netherland exchanged Stuyvesant and the West India
Company and a republican sovereignty for Nicolls, a royal proprietor and
a hereditary king. The province was not represented in Parliament, nor
could the voice of its people reach the chapel of St. Stephen at
Westminster as readily as it had reached the chambers of the Binnenhof
at the Hague."
Nicolls was succeeded by Francis Lovelace in 1667. Lovelace was a quiet
man, unfitted to encounter great storms, yet he showed considerable
energy in dealing with hostile Indians and French on the northern
frontier of New York. He held friendly intercourse with the people of
New England, and in the summer of 1672, when a hostile squadron of Dutch
vessels of war appeared before his capital, he was on a friendly visit
to Governor Winthrop of Connecticut. War had again broken out between
England and Holland, and the Dutch inhabitants of New York had shown
signs of discontent at the abridgment of their political privileges and
a heavy increase in their taxes without their consent. Personally, they
liked Lovelace; but they were bound to consider him as the
representative of a petty tyrant. When, in menacing attitude, they
demanded more liberty and less taxation, the governor in a passion
unwisely declared that they should "have liberty for no thought but how
to pay their taxes." This was resented, and when the Dutch squadron
came, nearly all the Hollanders regarded their countrymen in the ships
as liberators. When Colonel Manning, who commanded the fort, called for
volunteers, few came, and these not as friends but as enemies, for they
spiked the cannon in front of the statehouse.
The fleet came up broadside to the fort, and Manning, sending a
messenger for Lovelace, opened fire on the enemy. One cannon ball passed
through the Dutch flagship from side to side; but the balls from the
fleet began pounding against the walls of the fort. Six hundred Holland
soldiers landed on the banks of the Hudson above the town and were
quickly joined by four hundred Dutch citizens in arms urging them to
storm the fort.
With shouts and yells of triumph the body of one thousand men were
marching down Broadway for that purpose. They were met by a messenger
from Manning proposing to surrender the fort, if the troops might be
allowed to march out with the honors of war. The proposition was
accepted. Manning's troops marched out with colors flying and drums
beating and laid down their arms. The Dutch soldiers marched in followed
by the English troops, who were made prisoners of war and confined in
the church. It was the 9th of August, 1672, and the air was quivering
with heat, when the flag of the Dutch Republic once more waved over Fort
Amsterdam, and the name of the city of New York was changed to New
Orange, in compliment to William Prince of Orange.
The Dutch had taken New York.
The New Netherland and all the settlements on the Delaware speedily
followed the capture of New York. The other English colonies near the
province were amazed and prepared to defend their own domains against
the encroachments of the Dutch, and Connecticut foolishly talked of an
offensive war. Anthony Clove, the governor of reconquered New
Amsterdam, was wide-awake. He kept his eye on the movements of the
savages and Frenchmen on the north, watched every hostile indication in
the east, and sent proclamations and commissions to towns on Long Island
and in Westchester to compel hesitating boroughs to take the oath of
allegiance to Prince William of Orange. His forts about New Orange were
strengthened and mounted with one hundred and ninety cannon. A treaty
of peace between the Dutch and English, however, made at London in
1674, restored New Netherland to the British crown. Some doubts arising
as to the title of the Duke of York after the change, the king gave him
a new grant of territory in June, 1674, within the boundary of which was
included all the domain west of the Connecticut River, to the eastern
shores of the Delaware, also Long Island and a territory in Maine. King
Charles had commissioned Major Edmond Andros to receive the surrender of
this province of New Netherland (New York) to which he was appointed
governor. The final surrender was made in October, 1674, by the Dutch
governor, who delivered up the keys of the fort to Major Andros, and the
English never lost possession of the colony and city, until the united
colonies gained their independence.
The political changes in New York had its effect on the settlements to
the west and south. Eastward of the Delaware Bay and River (so called in
honor of Lord De la Warr) lies New Jersey. Its domain was included in
the New Netherland charter. So early as 1622, transient trading
settlements were made on its soil, at Bergen and on the banks of the
Delaware. The following year, Director May, moved by the attempt of a
French sea-captain to set up the arms of France in Delaware, built the
fort called Fort Nassau at the mouth of Timmer Kill or Timber Creek, a
few miles below Camden, and settled some young Walloons near it. The
Walloons (young couples), who had been married on shipboard, settled on
the site of Gloucester. This was the first settlement of white people in
New Jersey that lived long; but it, too, withered away in time. It was
seven years later when Michael Pauw made his purchase from the Indians
of the territory extending from Hoboken to the Raritan River and,
latinizing his name, called it Pavonia.
In this purchase was included the settlement of some Dutch at Bergen.
Though other settlements were attempted, it was forty years before any
of them became permanent. Cape May, a territory sixteen miles square,
which Captain Heyes bought of the Indians, all the time remained an
uncultivated wilderness, yielding the products of its salt meadows to
the browsing deer.
After the trouble with Dutch and Swedes the English came under the agent
of the Duke of York and captured the New Netherland. While Nicolls was
on his way to capture the Dutch possessions in America, the Duke of York
conveyed to two favorites all the territory between the Hudson and
Delaware rivers from Cape May north to the latitude of forty degrees and
forty minutes. Those favorites were Lord Berkeley, brother of the
governor of Virginia and the duke's own governor in his youth, and Sir
George Carteret, then the treasurer of the admiralty, who had been
governor of the island of Jersey, which he had gallantly defended
against the forces of Cromwell. In the charter this province was named
"Nova Caesarea or New Jersey," in commemoration of Carteret's loyalty
and gallant deeds while governor of the island of Jersey. Colonel
Richard Nicolls, the conqueror of New Netherland, in changing the name
of the province to New York, ignorant of the charter given to Berkeley
and Carteret, called the territory west of the Hudson Albania, in honor
of his employer, who had the title of Duke of York and Albany.
Berkeley and Carteret hastened to make use of their patent. The title of
their constitution was: "The concessions and agreement of the Lords
Proprietors of the Province of Nova Caesarea or New Jersey, to and with
all and every new adventurers and all such as shall settle and plant
there." It was a fair and liberal constitution, providing for governor
and council appointed by the proprietors, and deputies or
representatives chosen by the people, who should meet annually and, with
the governor and his council, form a general assembly for the government
of the colony. It provided for a choice of a president by the
representatives when in session, in case of the absence of the governor
and deputy governor. All legislative power was vested in the assembly of
deputies, who were to make all laws for the province. These were to be
consistent with the laws and customs of Great Britain and not repugnant
to the interests of the proprietors. Emigration to New Jersey was
encouraged. To every free man who would go to the province with the
first governor, furnished with a good musket and plenty of ammunition
and with provisions for six months, was offered a free gift of one
hundred and fifty acres of land, and for every able man-servant that
such emigrant should take with him so armed and provisioned, a like
quantity of land. Even the sending of such servants provided with arms,
ammunitions and food was likewise rewarded. And for every weaker servant
or female servant over fourteen years, seventy-five acres of land was
given. "Christian servants" were entitled, at the expiration of the term
of service, to the land so granted for their own use and benefit. To all
who should settle in the province before the beginning of 1665, other
than those who should go with the governor, was offered one hundred and
twenty acres of land on like conditions.
It was expected that these tempting offers would rapidly people the
country with industrious settlers. Philip Carteret, a cousin of Sir
George, was appointed governor, and with about thirty emigrants,
several of whom were Frenchmen skilled in the art of salt-making, he
sailed for New York, where he arrived about the middle of July, 1665.
The vessel having been driven into the Chesapeake Bay the month before,
anchored at the mouth of the James River, from whence the governor sent
dispatches to New York. Among them was a copy of the duke's grant of New
Jersey. Governor Nicolls was astounded at the folly of the duke's grant,
and mortified by this dismemberment of a state over which he had been
ruling for many months with pride and satisfaction. But he bottled his
wrath until the arrival of Carteret, whom he received at Fort James with
all the honors due to his rank and station. That meeting in the
governor's apartments was a notable one. Mr. Lossing graphically
described it as follows:
"Nicolls was tall, athletic and about forty-five years of age, a
soldier, haughty and sometimes very irritable and brusque in speech when
excited. Carteret was shorter and fat, good-natured and affable, with
polished manners which he had learned by being much at court. He entered
the governor's room with Bollen, the commissary of the fort, when the
former arose, beckoned his secretary to withdraw, and received his
distinguished visitor cordially. But when Carteret presented the
outspread parchment, bearing the original of the duke's grant with his
grace's seal and signature, Nicolls could not restrain his feelings. His
temper flamed out in words of fierce anger. He stormed, and uttered
denunciations in language as respectful as possible. He paced the floor
backward and forward rapidly, his hands clasped behind his back, and
finally calmed down and begged his visitor's pardon for his
uncontrollable outburst of passion.
"Nicolls yielded gracefully yet sorrowfully to circumstances, and
contented himself with addressing a manly remonstrance to the duke, in
which he urged an arrangement for the grantees to give up their domain
in exchange for 'a few hundred thousand acres all along the seacoast.'"
The remonstrance came too late. New Jersey was already down on the maps
as a separate province. Governor Carteret at the head of a few followers
crossed over to his domain with a hoe on his shoulder in significance of
his desire to become a planter. For his seat of government he chose a
beautifully shaded spot, not far from the strait between Staten Island
and the main, called the Kills, where he found four English families
living in as many neatly built log cabins with gardens around them. The
heads of these four families were John Bailey, Daniel Denton, and Luke
Watson and one other not known, from Jamaica, Long Island, who had
bought the land of some Indians on Long Island.
In compliment to the wife of Sir George Carteret, the governor named
the place Elizabethtown, which name it yet retains. There he built a
house for himself near the bank of the little creek, and there he
organized a civil government. So was laid the foundation of the colony
and commonwealth of New Jersey.
The restoration did not so materially change the New England colonies as
might have been supposed, considering that they were hotbeds of
Puritanism. In the younger Winthrop the qualities of human excellence
were mingled in such happy proportions that, while he always wore an air
of contentment, no enterprise in which he engaged seemed too lofty for
his powers. He was a man whose power was felt alike in the commonwealth
and the restoration. The new king had not been two years on the throne
when, through his influence, an ample patent was obtained for
Connecticut, by which the colony was independent except in name.
After his successful negotiations and efficient concert in founding the
Royal Society, Winthrop returned to America. The amalgamation of New
Haven and Connecticut could not be effected without collision. New Haven
had been unwilling to merge itself in the larger colonies; but
Winthrop's wise moderation was able to reconcile the jarrings and blend
the interests of the united colonies. The universal approbation of
Connecticut was reasonable, for the charter which Winthrop obtained
secured to her an existence of unsurpassed tranquillity.
Civil freedom was safe under the shelter of masculine morality, and
beggary and crime could not thrive in the midst of severest manners.
From the first, the minds of the yeomanry were kept active by the
constant exercise of the elective franchise, and, except under James
II., there was no such thing in the land as a home officer appointed by
the English king. Under the happy conditions of affairs, education was
cherished, religious knowledge was carried to the highest degree of
refinement, alike in its application to moral duties and to the
mysterious questions on the nature of God, of liberty and of the soul. A
hardy race multiplied along the _alluvion_ of the streams and subdued
the more rocky and less inviting fields. Its population for a century
doubled once in twenty years, though there was considerable emigration
from the valley. Religion united with the pursuits of agriculture gave
to the people the aspects of steady habits. The domestic wars were
discussions of knotty points in theology. The concerns of the parish and
the merits of the minister were the weightiest affairs, and a church
reproof the heaviest calamity. The strifes of the parent country, though
they sometimes occasioned a levy among the sons of the husbandmen,
never brought an enemy over their border. No fears of midnight ruffians
disturbed the sweetest slumber, and the best house required no fastening
but a latch, lifted by a string.
Happiness was enjoyed unconsciously. Beneath a rugged exterior, humanity
wore its sweetest smile. For a long time there was hardly a lawyer in
the land. The husbandman who held his own plough and fed his own cattle
was the greatest man of the age. No one was superior to the matron, who,
with her busy daughters, kept the hum of the wheel incessantly alive,
spinning and weaving every article of their dress. Fashion was confined
within narrow limits, and pride, which aimed at no grander equipage than
a pillion, could exult only in the common splendor of the blue and white
linen gown, with short sleeves, coming down to the waist, and in the
snow-white flaxen apron, which, primly starched and ironed, was worn on
public days. There was no revolution except from the time of sowing to
the time of reaping, from the plain dress of the week to the more trim
attire of Sunday. Every family was taught to look to the fountain of
all good.
Life was not all sombre. Frolic mingled with innocence. Sometimes
religion itself wore the garb of gayety, and the annual thanksgiving to
God was, from primitive times, as joyous as it was sincere. Nature
always asserts her rights, and Christianity means gladness.
The English colonies of the south after the restoration began to show
evidence of improvement. Mr. William Drummond, the sturdy Scotch
emigrant to Virginia, having been appointed governor of North Carolinia
brought that country into the favorable notice of the world. Clarendon
gained for Carolinia a charter which opened the way for religious
freedom. One clause held out to the proprietaries a hope of revenue from
colonial customs, to be imposed in colonial ports by Carolinia
legislatures. Another gave them authority to erect cities and manors,
counties and baronies, and to establish orders of nobility with other
than English titles. The power to levy troops, to erect fortifications,
to make war by sea and land on their enemies, and, in cases of
necessity, to exercise martial law was granted them. Every favor was
extended to the proprietaries, nothing being neglected but the interests
of the English sovereign and rights of the colonists. Imagination
encouraged every extravagant hope, and Ashley Cooper, Earl of
Shaftesbury, the most active and the most able of the corporators, was
deputed by them to frame for the dawning states a perfect constitution,
worthy to endure throughout all ages.
The constitutions for Carolinia merit attention as the only continued
attempt within the United States to connect political power with
hereditary wealth. America was singularly rich in every form of
representative government. Its political life was so varied that, in
modern constitutions, hardly a method of constituting an upper or
popular house has thus far been suggested, of which the character and
operation had not already been tested in the experience of our fathers.
In Carolinia the disputes of a thousand years were crowded into a
generation.
"Europe suffered from absolute but inoperative laws. No statute of
Carolinia was to bind beyond a century. Europe suffered from the
multiplication of law-books and the perplexities of the law. In
Carolinia not a commentary might be written on the constitutions, the
statutes, or the common law. Europe suffered from the furies of bigotry.
Carolinia promised not equal rights, but toleration to 'Jews, heathens
and other dissenters,' to 'men of any religion.' In other respects, 'the
interests of the proprietors,' the desires of 'a government most
agreeable to monarchy,' and the dread of 'a numerous democracy,' are
avowed as the motives for forming the fundamental constitutions of
Carolinia.
"The proprietaries, as sovereigns, constituted a close corporation of
eight, a number which was never to be diminished or increased. The
dignity was hereditary, but in default of heirs, the survivors elected a
successor. Thus was formed an upper house, self-elected and immortal."
[Footnote: Bancroft, vol. i., page 495.]
Carolinia was an aristocracy, the instincts of which dreads the moral
power of proprietary cultivators of the soil, so enacted their perpetual
degradation. The leet-men, or tenants holding ten acres of land at a
fixed rent, were not only destitute of political franchises, but were
adscripts to the soil: "Under the jurisdiction of their lord, without
appeal," and it was added: "all children of leet-men shall be leet-men,
and so to all generations."
In 1665, Albemarle had been increased by fresh emigrants from New
England and by a colony of ship-builders from the Bermudas, who lived
contentedly with Stevens as chief magistrate, under a very wise and
simple form of government. A council of twelve, six named by the
proprietaries, and six chosen by the assembly. An assembly, composed of
the governor, the council, and twelve delegates from the freeholders of
the incipient settlements, these formed a government which enjoyed
popular confidence. No interference from abroad was anticipated, for
freedom of religion, and security against taxation, except by the
colonial legislature, were conceded. As their lands were confirmed to
them on their own terms, the colonists were satisfied.
The authentic record of the legislative history of North Carolinia
begins with the autumn of 1666, when the legislators of Albemarle,
ignorant of the scheme which Locke and Shaftesbury were maturing, formed
a few laws, which, however open to objection, were united to the
character and manner of the inhabitants. While freedom struggled in the
hearts of the common people to assert its rights and declare that all
men were equal and ought to be free, scheming nobles sought to enchain
them in one form or another of slavery.