Peter Stuyvesant, the Last Dutch Governor of New Amsterdam Part 8

The council, much displeased with the absolutism a.s.sumed 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 pet.i.tioners 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 pet.i.tion against one's magistrate whether there be cause or not."

The unfortunate pet.i.tioners 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 p.r.o.nounced. 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 a.s.sembled 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,

"a.s.sumes 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 doc.u.ment, 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 G.o.dly, 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. n.o.body 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 a.s.semble 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 a.s.sumptions 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 t.i.tle 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 Na.s.sau. 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 Na.s.sau 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.

CHAPTER VII.

WAR BETWEEN ENGLAND AND HOLLAND.

Action of the Patroons.--Settlements on the Hudson.--Alarm of the Home Government.--Recall of Stuyvesant.--His Escape from Humiliation.--Difficulties between England and Holland.--The Breaking out of War.--Directions to Stuyvesant.--The Relations of the Colonies.--Charges against the Dutch Governor.--Their Refutation.--Efforts of Stuyvesant for Peace.--n.o.ble Conduct of the Ma.s.sachusetts Government.--The Advocates for War.

Governor Stuyvesant having removed the obnoxious vice-director, had another, Johannes Dyckman, who he thought would be more subservient to his wishes, appointed in his stead. The commissary of the patroons, whom he had imprisoned at Manhattan, secreted himself on board a sloop and escaped up the river to Beaverwyck. The enraged governor seized the skipper of the sloop on his return, and inflicted upon him a heavy fine.

The patroons were now fearful that the governor would fulfill his threat of extending his authority over the extensive territory whose jurisdiction the Charter of Privileges had entrusted exclusively to the patroons. They therefore, on an appointed day a.s.sembled the freemen and householders who bound themselves, by an oath, "to maintain and support offensively and defensively the right and jurisdiction of the colony against every one."

Among the persons who took this oath we find the name of John Baptist Van Rensselaer. He was the younger half-brother of the patroon, and probably the first of the name who came to New Netherland. It was now reported that Governor Stuyvesant himself was about to visit fort Orange, and that a new gallows was being prepared for those who should attempt to thwart his wishes. The governor soon arrived and, with his customary explicitness, informed the authorities there, that the territory by the Exemptions, allowed to the patroon, was to extend sixteen miles on one side of the river, or eight miles if both banks were occupied. He called upon them to define their boundaries, saying that he should recognize the patroons' jurisdiction only to that extent. These limits would include but a small portion of the territory which the patroons claimed by right of purchase from the Indians.