GOVERNOR STUYVESANT.
New Netherland in 1646.--Early Years of Peter
Stuyvesant.--Decay of New Amsterdam.--The Germs of a
Representative Government.--Energetic Administration.--Death
of Governor Winthrop.--Claims for Long Island.--Arrogance of
the Governor.--Remonstrance of the Nine Men.--The Pastoral
Office.--Boundary lines.--Increasing Discontent.--Division
of Parties.--Dictatorial Measures.
It is estimated that the whole population of New Netherland, in the
year 1646, amounted to about one thousand souls. In 1643, it numbered
three thousand. Such was the ruin which the mal-administration of
Kieft had brought upon the colony. The male adult population around
Amsterdam was reduced to one hundred. At the same time the population
of the flourishing New England colonies had increased to about sixty
thousand.
On the 11th of May, 1647, Governor Stuyvesant arrived at Manhattan. He
was appointed as "Redresser General," of all colonial abuses. We have
but little knowledge of the early life of Peter Stuyvesant. The West
India Company had a colony upon the island of Curaçoa, in the
Caribbean Sea. For some time Stuyvesant had been its efficient
Director. He was the son of a clergyman in Friesland, one of the
northern provinces of the Netherlands.
He received a good academic education, becoming quite a proficient in
the Latin language, of which accomplishment, it is said that he was
afterwards somewhat vain. At school he was impetuous, turbulent and
self-willed. Upon leaving the academy he entered the military service,
and soon developed such energy of character, such a spirit of
self-reliance and such administrative ability that he was appointed
director of the colony at Curaçoa. He was recklessly courageous, and
was deemed somewhat unscrupulous in his absolutism. In an attack upon
the Portuguese island of Saint Martin, in the year 1644, which attack
was not deemed fully justifiable, he lost a leg. The wound rendered it
necessary for him to return to Holland in the autumn of 1644, for
surgical aid.
Upon his health being re-established, the Directors of the West India
Company, expressing much admiration for his Roman courage, appointed
him Governor of their colony in New Netherland, which was then in a
state of ruin. There were also under his sway the islands of Curaçoa,
Buenaire and Amba. The Provincial Government presented him with a
paper of instructions very carefully drawn up. The one-man power,
which Kieft had exercised, was very considerably modified. Two
prominent officers, the Vice-Director and the Fiscal, were associated
with him in the administration of all civil and military affairs. They
were enjoined to take especial care that the English should not
further encroach upon the Company's territory. They were also directed
to do everything in their power to pacify the Indians and to restore
friendly relations with them. No fire-arms or ammunition were, under
any circumstances, to be sold to the Indians.
Van Diricklagen was associated with the Governor as Vice-Director, and
ensign Van Dyck, of whom the reader has before heard, was appointed
Fiscal, an important office corresponding with our post of Treasurer.
Quite a large number of emigrants, with abundant supplies, accompanied
this party. The little fleet of four ships left the Texel on Christmas
day of 1646. The expedition, running in a southerly direction, first
visited the West India islands. On the voyage the imperious temper of
Stuyvesant very emphatically developed itself.
Holland was then at war with Spain. A prize was captured and the
question arose respecting its disposal. Fiscal Van Dyck claimed, by
virtue of his office, a seat at the council board and a voice in the
decision. The governor rudely repulsed him with the words,
"Get out. Who admitted you into the council. When I want you I will
call you."
When they arrived at Curaçoa, Van Dyck again made an attempt to gain
that place in the Council to which he thought his office legitimately
entitled him. Stuyvesant punished him by confining him to the ship,
not allowing him to step on shore. All the other officers and soldiers
were freely allowed to recruit themselves by strolling upon the land.
Upon reaching Manhattan, Stuyvesant was received by the whole
community with great rejoicing. And when he said, "I shall reign over
you as a father governs his children," they were perhaps not fully
aware of the dictatorial spirit which was to animate his government.
With wonderful energy he immediately devoted himself to the reform of
abuses. Though he availed himself of absolute power, taking counsel of
no one, all his measures seem to have been adopted, not for the
advancement of his own selfish interests, but for the promotion of the
public good.
Proclamations were issued against Sabbath desecration, intemperance
and all quarrelling. No intoxicating liquors were to be sold to the
savages under a penalty of five hundred guilders. _And the seller was
also to be held responsible for any injury which the savage might
inflict, while under the influence of strong drink_. After the ringing
of the nine o'clock bell in the evening, intoxicating drinks were not
to be sold to any person whatever.
To draw a knife in a quarrel was to be punished with a heavy fine and
six months imprisonment. If a wound was inflicted the penalty was
trebled. Great faults accompanied this development of energy. The new
governor assumed "state and pomp like a peacock's." He kept all at a
distance from him, exacted profound homage, and led many to think that
he would prove a very austere father. All his acts were characterized
by great vigor.
New Amsterdam, at that time, presented a very dilapidated and
deplorable appearance. The fort was crumbling to ruins. The skeleton
of an unfinished church deformed the view. The straggling fences were
broken down. The streets were narrow and crooked, many of the houses
encroaching upon them. The foul enclosures for swine bordered the
thoroughfares.
A system of taxation upon both exports and imports was introduced,
which speedily replenished the treasury. Governor Stuyvesant was a
professing christian, being a devout member of the Reformed Church of
the fatherland. He promptly transferred his relations to the church at
fort Amsterdam. He became an elder in the church, and conscious that
the christian religion was the basis of all prosperity, one of his
first acts was the adoption of measures for the completion of the
church edifice. Proprietors of vacant lots were ordered to fence them
in and improve them. Surveyors of buildings were appointed to regulate
the location and structure of new houses.
The embarrassments which surrounded the governor were so great that he
found it necessary to support his authority by calling public opinion
to his aid. "Necessity," writes Brodhead, "produced concession and
prerogative yielded to popular rights. The Council recommended that
the principle of representation should be conceded to the people.
Stuyvesant consented."
An election was ordered and eighteen "of the most notable, reasonable,
honest and respectable persons" in the colony were chosen, from whom
the governor was to select nine persons as a sort of privy council. It
is said that Stuyvesant was very reluctant to yield at all to the
people, and that he very jealously guarded the concessions to which he
was constrained to assent. By this measure popular rights gained
largely. The _Nine Men_ had however only the power to give advice when
it was asked. When assembled, the governor could attend the meeting
and act as president.
Governor Stuyvesant, soon after his arrival at fort Amsterdam,
addressed courteous letters to the governors of all the neighboring
colonies. In his letter to Governor Winthrop, of Massachusetts, he
asserted the indubitable right of the Dutch to all the territory
between the Connecticut and the Delaware, and proposed an interview
for the settlement of all difficulties.
An Amsterdam ship, the Saint Benino, entered the harbor of New Haven,
and for a month engaged in trade without a license from the West India
Company. Stuyvesant, ascertaining the fact, sent a company of soldiers
on a secret expedition to New Haven, seized the vessel on the Lord's
day, brought her to Manhattan, and confiscated both ship and cargo.
Emboldened by success, Stuyvesant sent a letter to the authorities at
New Haven claiming all the region from Cape Henlopen to Cape Cod as
part of the territory of New Netherland, and affirming his right to
levy duties upon all Dutch vessels trading within those limits.
Governor Eaton, of the New Haven colony, sent back a remonstrance
protesting against the Dutch governor as a disturber of the public
peace by "making unjust claims to our lands and plantations, to our
havens and rivers, and by taking a ship out of our harbor without our
license."
Three deserters from Manhattan fled to New Haven. Governor Eaton,
though bound by treaty obligations to deliver them up, yet indignant
in view of what he deemed the arrogant claim of Governor Stuyvesant,
refused to surrender them, lest the surrender should be deemed as
"done in the way of subordination." The impetuous Stuyvesant at once
issued a retaliatory proclamation in which he said:
"If any person, noble or ignoble, freeman or slave, debtor
or creditor, yea, to the lowest prisoner included, run away
from the colony at New Haven, or seek refuge in our limits,
he shall remain free, under our protection, on taking the
oath of allegiance."
This decree excited strong disapprobation at home as well as in the
other colonies. The inhabitants of Manhattan objected to it as tending
to convert the province into a refuge for vagabonds from the
neighboring English settlements. After a few months the obnoxious
proclamation was revoked. But in the meantime Governor Stuyvesant had
bribed the runaways, who had been taken into the public service at New
Haven, to escape and return home.
As a precaution against fire, it was ordered that if a house were
burned through the owner's negligence, he should be heavily fined.
Fire-wardens were appointed to inspect the buildings. If any chimney
was found foul, the owner was fined and the sum was appointed to
purchasing fire-ladders, hooks and buckets. As nearly one-fourth of
the houses were licensed for the sale of brandy, tobacco or beer, it
was resolved that no farther licenses should be granted. It was
ordered that cattle and swine should be pastured within proper
enclosures. And it was also ordained that, "from this time forth, in
the afternoon as well as in the forenoon, there shall be preaching
from God's word." Many of the Indians were employed as servants or day
laborers. They were often defrauded of their wages. A decree was
issued, punishing with a fine those who neglected to pay these debts.
In January, 1649, Charles I., of England, was beheaded in front of his
own banqueting hall, and England became nominally a republic. The
event created the most profound sensation throughout all Christendom.
The shock, which agitated all Europe, was felt in America. The prince
of Wales and the duke of York, escaping from England, took refuge in
Holland with their brother-in-law, the stadtholder, William, prince of
Orange. A rupture between England and Holland appeared imminent. The
Puritans in America were well pleased with the establishment of a
republic in their native land. A war between the two European nations
would probably bring all the Dutch colonies under the control of
England. The West India Company, in view of these perils, urged
Stuyvesant "to live with his neighbors on the best terms possible."
On the 24th of March, of this year, the venerable Governor Winthrop,
of Massachusetts, died, at the age of sixty-one. Governor Eaton, of
New Haven, proposed to Stuyvesant a meeting of the Governors, at
Boston, to discuss the affairs of the colonies. The meeting was held
in August. It was not harmonious. The Dutch were forbidden from
trading anywhere with the Indians within the territory of the English
colonies, and Stuyvesant was very emphatically informed that the
English claimed all the territory between Cape Cod and New Haven.
Lady Stirling, widow of Lord Stirling, determined to maintain her
title to the whole of Long Island. She sent an agent, who announced
himself to the English settlers at Hempstead, on the northern portion
of the island, as governor of the whole island under the Dowager
Countess of Stirling. Intelligence of this was speedily sent to
Stuyvesant. The Dutch Governor caused his immediate arrest, ordered
him, notwithstanding his "very consequential airs," to be examined
before the council, took copies of his papers, and placed him on board
ship for Holland. The ship put in at an English port, the agent
escaped and was heard of no more.
The council, much displeased with the absolutism assumed by
Stuyvesant, resolved to send one of their number, a remarkably
energetic man, Adrien Van Der Donck, to Holland to seek redress from
the home government. The movement was somewhat secret, and they
endeavored to conceal from the governor the papers which were drawn
up, containing the charges against him. The spirit of Stuyvesant was
roused.
He went in person, with some officers, to the chamber of Van Der
Donck, when he was absent, seized his papers, and then caused him to
be arrested and imprisoned.
The Vice Director, Van Diricklagen, accompanied by a delegation from
the people, protested against these proceedings, and demanded that Van
Der Donck should be released from captivity and held on bail.
Stuyvesant refused, saying that the prisoner was arrested, "for
calumniating the officers of government; that his conduct tended to
bring the sovereign authority into contempt." Van Der Donck was
punished by banishment from the council and from the board of Nine
Men.
Just before this, two prominent men, Kuyter and Melyn, demanded an
appeal to the people in reference to some act of Kieft's reckless
administration. Stuyvesant took the alarm. If the people could judge
of Kieft's administration, his own might be exposed to the same
ordeal. Convening a special council, he said,
"These petitioners are disturbers of the public peace. If we
grant their request, will not the cunning fellows, in order
to usurp over us a more unlimited power, claim even greater
authority against ourselves, should it happen that our
administration may not square in every respect with their
whims. It is treason to petition against one's magistrate
whether there be cause or not."
The unfortunate petitioners were now arraigned on various charges. The
Governor and his subservient Council acted both as prosecutors and
judges. The prisoners were accused of instigating the war with the
savages, of counselling the mortgaging of Manhattan to the English,
and of threatening Kieft with personal violence. The case was speedily
decided and sentence was pronounced. Stuyvesant wished Melyn to be
punished with death and confiscation of property. But the majority of
the Council held back the Governor's avenging hand. Still he succeeded
in sentencing Melyn to seven years' banishment, to a fine of three
hundred guilders, and to forfeit all benefits derived from the
Company. Kuyter was sentenced to three years' banishment and to a fine
of one hundred and fifty guilders. They were also denied the right of
appeal to the fatherland.
"If I were persuaded," said the Governor, "that you would divulge our
sentence, or bring it before their High Mightinesses, I would have you
hanged at once, on the highest tree in New Netherland."
Again he said, with characteristic energy, "If any one, during my
administration, shall appeal, I will make him a foot shorter, and send
the pieces to Holland and let him appeal in that way."[7]
Melyn and Kuyter being sent to Holland as criminals, did appeal to the
home government; their harsh sentence was suspended; they were
restored to all the rights of colonists of New Netherland, and
Stuyvesant was cited to defend his sentence at the Hague. When Melyn
returned to Manhattan with these authoritative papers, a great tumult
was excited. Anxious that his triumph should be as public as his
disgrace had been, he demanded that the Acts should be read to the
people assembled in the church. With much difficulty he carried his
point. "I honor the States and shall obey their commands," said
Stuyvesant, "I shall send an attorney to sustain the sentence."
The Indians loudly, and with one accord, demanded the right to
purchase fire-arms. For years they had been constantly making such
purchases, either through the colonists at Rensselaerswyck, or from
private traders. It was feared that the persistent refusal to continue
the supply, might again instigate them to hostilities. The Directors
of the West India government therefore intimated that "it was the best
policy to furnish them with powder and ball, but with a sparing hand."
Stuyvesant ordered a case of guns to be brought over from Holland.
They were landed openly at fort Amsterdam and placed under the care of
an agent of the governor. Thus Stuyvesant himself was to monopolize
the trade, which was extremely lucrative; for the Indians would pay
almost any price for guns, powder and shot. This increased the growing
dissatisfaction. The Indians would readily exchange skins to the
amount of forty dollars for a gun, and of four dollars for a pound of
powder.
"The governor," it was said,
"assumes to be everything. He establishes shops for himself
and does the business of the whole country. He is a brewer
and has breweries. He is a ship-owner, a merchant, and a
trader in both lawful and contraband articles."
The Nine Men persisted in their resolve to send a remonstrance to the
fatherland. The memorial was signed and forwarded the latter part of
July. In this important document, which first gave a brief account of
the past history of the colony, the administration of Stuyvesant was
reviewed with much severity.
"In our opinion," said the remonstrants,
"this country will never flourish under the present
government. The country must be provided with godly,
honorable and intelligent rulers, who are not very indigent,
and who are not too covetous. The mode in which this country
is now governed is intolerable. Nobody is secure in his
property longer than the Director pleases, who is generally
strongly inclined to confiscating. A good population would
be the consequence of a good government. Many would be
allured here by the pleasantness, situation, salubrity and
fruitfulness of the country, if protection were secured."
Three of the signers were deputed to convey the remonstrance to the
Hague and lay it before the authorities there. The pastor of the
church at Manhattan, Domine Backerus, returned to Holland with the
commissioners. He was greatly dissatisfied with the regime of the
governor, and upon his arrival in Holland, joined the complainants.
Domine Megapolensis, who had been pastor of the church at
Rensselaerswyck, having obtained letters of dismission from his
church, was also about to sail to the fatherland. The colonists,
generally religiously disposed, were greatly troubled, being
threatened with a total loss of the gospel ministry. By the earnest
solicitation of Stuyvesant, he consented to remain at Manhattan, where
he was formally installed as pastor of the church, upon a salary of
twelve hundred guilders, which was about four hundred dollars. At the
same time the energetic governor manifested his interest in education
by writing earnestly to Amsterdam, urging that a pious, well-qualified
and diligent schoolmaster might be sent out. "Nothing," he added, "is
of greater importance than the right, early instruction of youth."
The governor was sorely annoyed by the action of the States-General,
reversing his sentence against Melyn and Kuyter. He wrote that he
should obey their decision, but that he would rather never have
received their commission as governor, than to have had his authority
lowered in the eyes of his neighbors and friends.
The three commissioners, bearing the memorial of the Nine Men, reached
Holland in safety. The States-General received their memorial, and
also listened to the reply of the agent, whom Stuyvesant had sent out
to plead his cause. The decision of the States was virtually a rebuke
of the dictatorial government of Stuyvesant, and several very
important reforms were ordered. This decision displeased the West
India Company. Those men deemed their rights infringed upon by this
action of the States-General. They were therefore led to espouse the
cause of the governor. Thus strengthened, Stuyvesant ventured to
disregard the authority of the States-General.
The Dutch at Manhattan began to be clamorous for more of popular
freedom. Stuyvesant, hoping to enlist the sympathies of the governors
of the English colonies in his behalf, made vigorous arrangements for
the long projected meeting with the Commissioners of the United
Colonies.
On the 17th of September, 1650, Governor Stuyvesant embarked at
Manhattan, with his secretary, George Baxter, and quite an imposing
suite. Touching at several places along the sound, he arrived at
Hartford in four days. After much discussion it was agreed to refer
all differences, of the points in controversy, to four delegates, two
to be chosen from each side. It is worthy of special remark that
Stuyvesant's secretary was an Englishman, and he chose two Englishmen
for his delegates.
In the award delivered by the arbitrators, it was decided that upon
Long Island a line running from the westernmost part of Oyster Bay, in
a straight direction to the sea, should be the bound between the
English and the Dutch territory; the easterly part to belong to the
English, the westernmost part to the Dutch. Upon the mainland, the
boundary line was to commence on the west side of Greenwich bay, about
four miles from Stamford, and to run in a northerly direction twenty
miles into the country, provided that the said line came not within
ten miles of the Hudson river. The Dutch were not to build any house
within six miles of said line. The inhabitants of Greenwich were to
remain, till further consideration, under the Government of the Dutch.
It was also decided that a nearer union of friendship and amity,
between England and the Dutch colonies in America, should be
recommended to the several jurisdictions of the United Colonies.
Stuyvesant reported the result of these negotiations to the Chamber at
Amsterdam but, for some unexplained reason, did not send to that body
a copy of the treaty. Upon his return to Manhattan he was immediately
met with a storm of discontent. His choice of two Englishmen as the
referees, to represent the Dutch cause, gave great offence. It was
deemed an insult to his own countrymen. There was a general
disposition with the colonists to repudiate a treaty which the Dutch
had had no hand in forming. Complaints were sent to Holland that the
Governor had surrendered more territory than might have formed fifty
colonies; and that, rejecting those reforms in favor of popular rights
which the home government had ordered, he was controlling all things
with despotic power.
"This grievous and unsuitable government," the Nine Men wrote,
"ought at once to be reformed. The measures ordered by the
home government should be enforced so that we may live as
happily as our neighbors. Our term of office is about to
expire. The governor has declared that he will not appoint
any other select men. We shall not dare again to assemble in
a body; for we dread unjustifiable prosecutions, and we can
already discern the smart thereof from afar."[8]
Notwithstanding these reiterated rebukes, Stuyvesant persisted in his
arbitrary course. The vice-director, Van Diricklagen, and the fiscal
or treasurer Van Dyck, united in a new protest expressing the popular
griefs. Van Der Donck was the faithful representative of the
commonalty in their fatherland. The vice-director, in forwarding the
new protest to him wrote,
"Our great Muscovy duke keeps on as of old; something like the wolf,
the longer he lives the worse he bites."
It is a little remarkable that the English refugees, who were quite
numerous in the colony, were in sympathy with the arbitrary
assumptions of the governor. They greatly strengthened his hands by
sending a Memorial to the West India Company, condemning the elective
franchise which the Dutch colonists desired.
"We willingly acknowledge," they wrote,
"that the power to elect a governor from among ourselves,
which is, we know, the design of some here, would be our
ruin, by reason of our factions and the difference of
opinion which prevails among us."
The West India Company, not willing to relinquish the powers which it
grasped, was also in very decided opposition to the spirit of popular
freedom which the Dutch colonists were urging, and which was adopted
by the States-General. Thus, in this great controversy, the governor,
the West India Company and the English settlers in the colony were on
one side. Upon the other side stood the States-General and the Dutch
colonists almost without exception.
The vice-director was punished for his protest, by expulsion from the
council and by imprisonment in the guard-room for four days. Upon his
liberation he took refuge with the Patroon on Staten Island. The
notary, who had authenticated the protest, was dismissed from office
and forbidden any farther to practice his profession. In every
possible way, Stuyvesant manifested his displeasure against his own
countrymen of the popular party, while the English were treated with
the utmost consideration.
In the treaty of Hartford no reference was made to the interests of
the Dutch on the south, or Delaware river. The New Haven people
equipped a vessel and dispatched fifty emigrants to establish a colony
upon some lands there, which they claimed to have purchased of the
Indians. The governor regarded this as a breach of the treaty, for the
English territory terminated and the Dutch began at the bay of
Greenwich. The expedition put in at Manhattan. The energetic governor
instantly arrested the leaders and held them in close confinement till
they signed a promise not to proceed to the Delaware. The emigrants,
thus discomfited, returned to New Haven.
At the same time Governor Stuyvesant sent a very emphatic letter to
Governor Eaton of New Haven, in which he wrote: "I shall employ force
of arms and martial opposition, even to bloodshed, against all English
intruders within southern New Netherland."
In this movement of the English to get a foothold upon the Delaware
river, Stuyvesant thought he saw a covert purpose on their part, to
dispossess the Dutch of all their possessions in America. Thinking it
not improbable that it might be necessary to appeal to arms, he
demanded of the authorities of Rensselaerswyck a subsidy. The
patroons, who had been at great expense in colonizing the territory,
deemed the demand unjust, and sent a commissioner to remonstrate
against it. Stuyvesant arrested the commissioner and held him in close
confinement for four months.
The Swedes were also making vigorous efforts to get possession of the
beautiful lands on the Delaware. Stuyvesant, with a large suite of
officers, visited that region. In very decided terns he communicated
to Printz the Swedish governor there, that the Dutch claimed the
territory upon the three-fold title of discovery, settlement and
purchase from the natives. He then summoned all the Indian chiefs on
the banks of the river, in a grand council at fort Nassau. After a
"solemn conference" these chiefs ceded to the West India Company all
the lands on both sides of the river to a point called by them
Neuwsings, near the mouth of the bay.
The Swedes were left in possession only of a small territory
surrounding their fort, called Christina. As Stuyvesant thought fort
Nassau too far up the river and inconvenient of access, he demolished
it. In its seclusion in the wilderness it had stood for twenty-eight
years. A new fort called Casimir was erected, on the west side of the
river near the present site of New Castle, four miles below the
Swedish fort Christina. Having thus triumphantly accomplished his
object, Stuyvesant returned to Manhattan.