USA > New York > Civil List and Constitutional History of the Colony and State of New York > Part 7
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Voluntary submission to ancient Law, judicially expounded by their own freely recognized elders, was the simple but secure safe- guard of primitive Aryan liberties. Equality among land-owners, the decisions of all new questions in the popular assembly, and voluntary submission to a freely chosen leader, were the simple but effective securities of equal political rights among early Indo-Eu- ropean races. When the elders or senate infringed upon the rights
54
CONSTITUTIONAL LIBERTY.
of the people, the leader, prince or king became their protector and judge. When petty princes denied popular rights, emperors pre- served them ; when they were invaded by emperors, princes and people combined for their preservation. When all united to crush liberty, it found an asylum in America. Vested rights, popular liberties and ancient law, preserved inviolate by local tribunals, found their best protection in the Netherlands. On the Italian peninsula, the King was Executive and Judge; and he became such in England through the Norman Conquest. But the representatives of the people were the law makers and tax imposers. The Dutch and English colonists of New Netherland combined their ancient inheritances, and affirmed their common rights in the Charter of Liberties, which was a guarantee of the freedom of each as against the other, and of all as against Royal power. The King appointed the Governor and Council, who' constituted the Executive and Judicial powers and shared in the Legislative power. But they were to govern according to law ; the laws of England and the laws of the province. From the earliest days of conflict between Royalty and People, the taxing power had been the effective means of pro- tection to the latter. They secured their rights, by granting or withholding revenue. Thus the colonists expected to preserve their liberties. Governor and Council were the paid executors of their will and the judges of their laws. Their representatives, with these paid servants appointed by the King, constituted the supreme legislative power. In England there was a perpetual conflict for sovereign rights, between Crown and Parliament. It was proposed to settle the question in New York, as between Executive and Legislative authority, by denying sovereignty to either, and affirming it to rest in the people alone. Hence, when they wrote "the People " in the Charter of Liberties, they asserted their own sovereignty and denied the sovereignty alike of King and Legislature. Then, as clearly as to-day, and more clearly in New York than anywhere else, was it perceived that the only enduring foundations of organized society are, Scrupulous regard for the equal rights of all, protected by the securities of Law as expounded by an independent Judiciary, the efficiency of a carefully-guarded Executive, the supremacy of the Legislature and the sovereignty of the People, all alike guaranteed by Charter or Constitution, and impartially maintained by all the powers of Government.
The principles for which the colonists of New Netherland strug- gled so bravely continued to govern the action of the people, and
55
THE EQUILIBRIUM OF POWERS.
were placed in the framework of the organic system and carried out in practical administration, as far as possible. We shall follow the history of their perfection, and trace the record of their struggles. They sought to preserve the widest liberties for the individual, to restrict the governmental power of the people as well as of rulers so far as personal liberty is concerned and the rights of minorities, and to render perfect the autonomy of local as well as general govern- ments, while reserving sovereignty to the people. Governments possessed only such powers as constitutions and laws gave them. When the first State Constitution was framed, the ancient Aryan freehold principle was continued as the basis of suffrage. Reverence for religion and liberty in its exercise were combined with the Dutch and Roman repugnance to ecclesiasticism in civil government, by prohibiting ministers from holding office; a restriction only done away with in 1846, and then by a small majority in the Constitu- tional Convention. The framers of the first Constitution fettered the legislative power with a Council of Revision and the executive power with a Council of Appointment, upon principles still applied in a simplified form, in order to guard against aggressions upon per- sonal rights from either direction.
The principles underlying the New York system were applied in the structure of the Federal Constitution. New York occupied the center of political gravity. It had absorbed Keltie spirituality and German service, vivified by the life and consecrated by the death of the Galilean, but restricted by the Germano-Roman opposition to priestly dominion. It had received the English principle of popularism, regulated by the ancient Aryan principle of non- interference with personal and vested rights, and their judicial interpretation. It had inherited the Roman principle of paternalism, governed by the German principle of free choice of the executive by the people, and the English principle of restraint by the people's representatives. It had the ancient dread of any government with the modern appreciation of its benefits, and it sought to combine both by constitutional regulation and judicial arbitrament. It ap- plied all the resources of statesmanship to the preservation of the equilibrium between these forms of liberal forces, alike in the written and unwritten law, and gave to them energizing vigor as well as conservative power. It recognized the weakness of the old Confederacy, and it feared the strength of a Federal Union. The dangers of each having been avoided, it threw all the weight of its influence in the direction of realizing its exalted ideal in the Union
.
56
THE AMERICAN SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT.
of States as in the Commonwealth itself. With keen foresight and wise statesmanship, it has exerted the power of its superior political system to the development of material and moral greatness ; and all its imperial resources are now as then applied to the common benefit of all the people.
A great commercial artery to-day runs through New York as centuries ago another carried the life current through New Nether- land to England. To-day, a great agricultural region, fertile in soil and rich in production, surrounds the cities which have been built up by this commerce, as centuries ago England was thrifty in agri- cultural life. Thus, under one jurisdiction, New York combines the twin sources of greatness, the municipal life of the Netherlands and the rural life of England, as in the beginning it drew equally from the populations of both ; and it becomes her, while preserving carefully the equal balance between them, now as then, to bestow her fostering care upon each. If to-day we have advanced somewhat beyond our Dutch ancestors; if we have simplified and amplified the machinery of government, broadened suffrage, enlarged the direct power of the people, and lost the ancient fear of the ministry, let us not forget that the underlying principles are and must ever remain the same, and that it is to those excellent honseholders that we owe the American system for reconciling liberty with order and progress with conservatism, to the preservation of ancient Aryan law-pro- tected freedom in its most unrestricted sense, and its energizing in all that concerns the common interests of our common humanity.
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PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENTS.
It was not until the arrival of Peter Minnit as Director-General, in 1624, that the different settlements of New Netherland were properly united under a single goverment. He bought Manhattan island from the Indians, in 1626, for " the value of sixty gnilders,'" and established himself there with his Council, Opper Koopman and Schout. The Opper Koopman was next in authority to the Director and Council. He was the chief commissary, book-keeper and pro- vincial secretary. The Schout was publie proseentor, high sheriff and customs officer. Exclusive executive, legislative and judicial power and anthority were vested in the Director and Council. The Dutch Roman law and the ordinances enacted from time to time constituted the law of the land. Appeals from the judgments of the Court of the Director and Council lay to the States General, or the Court of Holland. Many impediments, however, were thrown in the way of such appeals.'
MANORIAL SYSTEM.
The West India Company's College of Nineteen, June 7, 1629, issued a " Charter of Privileges and Exemptions," which provided that any member of the Company who should purchase of the Indians and found in any part of New Netherland (except Man- hattan), a colonie of fifty persons over fifteen years of age, should be in all respects the feudal lord or Patroon of the territory of which he should thus take possession. The Patroon had power to appoint officers and magistrates in all towns and cities on his lands; to hold manorial courts, from which, in cases where the judgment exceeded fifty guilders, the only appeal was to the Director-General and Con- cil -in short, to hold and govern his great manor with as absolute rule as any baron of the Middle Ages. The power of the Patroons over their tenants was almost unlimited. No " man or woman, son or daughter, man-servant or maid-servant," could leave a Patroon's service during the time they had agreed to remain, except by his written consent, no matter what abuses or breaches of contract existed on the part of the Patroon. This charter also prescribed
I About twenty-four dollars, gold. Minuit also purchased Staten Island, and other places,
z See "Constitutional History," " Executive Department," and " Judicial Department."
58
DUTCH GOVERNMENT.
regulations and granted privileges with regard to trade, gave to the freemen all the land they could cultivate, and exempted them from taxation for ten years. Churches and schools were required to be established, and the manufacture of cloths was prohibited. The Company retained the fur trade, and fettered commerce. Several Directors of the Company availed themselves of the advantages it offered. The Patroon of Rensselaerswyck, however, was the only one who established a manorial court ; and he rendered the privilege of appeal nugatory by exacting of his tenants, as a condition to the occupation of land, that they would not avail themselves of it. This monopoly had a disastrous effect upon the colony ; differences arose between the Company and the Patroons, and a new policy was, therefore, inaugurated. In 1638, free emigration was encouraged ; and in 1640 (July 19) the College of Nineteen passed an ordinance materially modifying the Charter of Privileges and Exemptions. This policy of free emigration, free lands and free trade -incom- plete as it was-increased at once and largely the prosperity of the colony.
PATROONS OF NEW NETHERLAND.
COLONIE.
DATE.
I'ATROONS.
COLONIE.
DATE.
PATROONS.
Pavonla 1
1630
Michael Paauw. Samuel Godyn.
Meyndert Meyndertien. Cornelis Melyn.
Swanendael 2
1630
Samuel Blommaert.
1616
Rensselaerswyck ...
[1631
Kiliaen van Rensselaer.
Achter. Col to Tapaan 3 1611 Staten Island 4 1612 Colendonck 5 Nevesinck and Tapaan. 1631
Adriaen van der Donck. Cornelis van Werkhovenf
ADVISORY COUNCILS.
The Indians in the neighborhood of Manhattan were not included in the treaty of Tawasentha.7 Troubles with them, and complications with the English, now began to seriously embarrass the colony. The first popular assemblage was called by Director Kieft, August 23, 1641, to consider the course best to be taken to obtain the surrender of an Indian who had murdered an aged and quiet settler, Claes Smits, in revenge for the wanton murder of his unele, committed in 1626. The meeting was held August 29. At this meeting it was resolved to appoint "Twelve Select Men," to advise with the Director-General with respect to the condition of affairs in the colony." Thus was constituted the first representative body within the limits of the present State of New York. It possessed no legislative powers, however. "The Twelve Men " were again con- vened January 21, 1642, on account of Indian troubles. At this
I New Jersey City ; surrendered in 1636-7.
2 At the capes of the Delaware river ; surrendered February 7, 1635.
3 From the Raritan river to the Highlands. 4 Surrendered June 14, 1659. 5 Yonkers, Westchester county. 6 Ile abandoned these, and in 1652 established a colonie at Nyack, now New Utrecht, L. I.
7 See page 6. 8 See page 27.
59
ADVISORY COUNCILS.
meeting, they formally demanded popular representation in the government, and an enlargement of the Council. Their demand was refused, and on the 12th of February they were abolished. Peace was concluded with the Long Island Indians, March 22, 1643, and with the Hackingsacks (New Jersey Indians) ou the 22d of April, following.
THE TWELVE MEN, 1641.
David Pietersen de Vries, president, Jacques Bentyn, Jan Jansen Dami,
Hendrick JJansen, Maryn Adriaensen, Abram Pietersen, the muiller,
Frederick Lubbertsen, Jochim Pietersen Knyter Gerrit Dircksen. George Rapalje,
Abram Planck, Jacob Stottelsen, Jan Evertsen Bont, Jacob Walingen.
THE EIGHT MEN.
The River Indians were dissatisfied with the treaty concluded in the spring. The war growing more general and vindictive, Director Kieft called the people together again, in September, 1643, and requested them to choose from among themselves a new advi- sory council.1 " The Eight Men" were accordingly selected on the 13th, and met for the first time on the 15th. They convened every Saturday for deliberation, for some time, and were again convoked . June 18, 1644. The war with the Indians closed in 1645, treaties of peace being executed with some of the Long Island Indians May 29, with the Mohawks at Fort Orange in July, and with the Man- hattans at New Amsterdam August 30. The Eight Men were accordingly dissolved.
The Eight Men seized the reins of power with more vigor than their predecessors. They opposed the administration of Director Kieft, sent pathetic appeals and urgent remonstrances to the States General, denied the power of the Director to impose taxes, and were earnest in their demands for popular rights, in the same measure and to the same extent enjoyed by the people at home. Their peti- tions were heeded, and Petrus Stuyvesant was sent out to govern the province.
THE EIGHT MEN.
1613.
1615.
Cornelis Melyu, president, Jochim Pietersen Kuster, Jan Jansen Dam, 2 Barent Dircksun. Abram Pietersen, the miller,
I-auc Allerton, Thomas Hall, Gerrit Wolphertsen (van Couwenhoven), Jan Evertsen Bout. 3
Jacob Stoffelsen, Jolm Underhill, Francis Donty, George Baxter, Richard Smith,
(ysbert Opdyck, Jan Evertsen Bout, Olotl Stevensen van Cort landt.
1 See pages 25-33.
2 Expelled September 15.
3 In place of Dam, expelled.
60
DUTCH GOVERNMENT.
THE NINE MEN. 1
Director Stuyvesant ruled with rigor, and without success. He soon began to see that he could not administer the government with- out popular support. Taxes were paid, if at all, with reluctance ; the Indians were threatening, and the palisades needed repair ; business was dull, and there was a general condition of discontent, depression and danger. The Director, therefore, very unwillingly, followed the advice of his Council, and admitted the people to participation in the government. A general election was ordered in the autumn of 1647, at which the burghers of New Amsterdam, Breukelen, Amersfoort (Flatlands), and Pavonia (N. J.), were to choose eighteen delegates, from whom the Director and Council were to select nine.
The powers of the Nine Men were defined by proclamation in September, 1647. They were established in order that the colony, " and principally New Amsterdam, our capital and residence, might continue and increase in good order, justice, police, population, pros- perity and mutual harmony, and be provided with strong fortifica- tions, a church, a school, trading-place, harbor, and similar highly necessary public edifices and improvements ; " that " the honor of God and the welfare of our dear Fatherland, to the best advantage of the company, and the prosperity of our good citizens" be promoted; that " the pure Reformed religion, as it is here and in the churches of the Netherlands," be preserved and inculcated. It was only to give advice on such propositions as the Director and Council chose to submit to it." The Board could only meet when called together by the Director and Council, and the Director-General was to preside whenever he thought fit. Six of the Nine Men retired annually, and six new members were appointed by the Director from twelve of " the most notable citizens " to be nominated by the Board.
Three of the Nine Men -one from each class- were to sit in turn at the Council board each week ; were to attend for a month in rotation on the weekly court, as long as civil cases were before it, and to act subsequently as referees or arbitrators in civil suits, with the right of appeal to the Council, on payment of a fee. Thus they constituted the first inferior court in the present city of New York,
I "The Tribunal of well-born Men," or of " Men's Men," as it was sometimes called, was one of very ancient date, having been first instituted in the Low Countries, it is supposed, in the year 1295, It originally had separate criminal and civil Jurisdiction, the first exercised by thirteen and the second by seven men. These courts were united shortly before the Revolution, the bailiff of each district having been then allowed to administer Justice, in both civil and criminal cases, with " Thirteen elected good men." This system, so like the modern jury, continued until the spring of 1614, when the number was altered to " Nine well-born men," who were authorized to administer justice together. [Van Leeuwen's Com., 15.] These tribunals would seem to be a modification of the primitive Witan ( Wise Men), who administered Justice before the Christian era, among German tribes. 2 See pages 33-36.
61
MUNICIPAL SYSTEM.
and were the immediate predecessors of the Burgomasters and Schepens, or Common Conneil of New Amsterdam.
THE NINE MEN.
1
1617.
1619.
1650,
1652.
Augustine Hverman, Arnoldus van Hardenb'gh, Govert Loockermans, merchants, Jan Jansen Dam,
Adriaen van der Donck, president, Augustine Heerman,
Oloff Stevensen van Cort- David Provost, land, president,
Augustine Heerman,
William Beeckman, Jacobus van Curier,
Arnoldus van Hardeub'gh, Jacob van Couwenhoven, Allard Anthony,
Govert Loockermans,
Ettert Elbertsen,
Isaac de Forest, Arent van Hattem.
Hendrick Hendricksen Kip.
Olonl' Stevensen van Cort- Hendrick Hendricksen land,
Kmp,
Jacob Wolpberisen van Hendrick Hendricksen
Kip.
Thomas Hall,
Joebim Pietersen Ruyter Paulus Iwendertsch van der Grist,
Conwenhoven, burgers, Michael Jansen, Jan Evertsen Bout, Thomas Hall, farmers.
Michael Jansen, Elbert Elbertson (Stoot- hoř).
tovert Loockermans, J. Evertsen Bout,
Peter Cornelissen, miller.
Jacob Wolphertsen van Cou wenhoven.
MUNICIPAL SYSTEM.
Agitation continned for the purpose of obtaining the full measure of popular rights enjoyed in Holland, and for the recall of Stnyve- sant, notwithstanding his concessions. . The movement was led by Adriaen van der Donek, President of the Nine Men, and his expul- sion from that Board and from the Council was secured by the Director. Van der Donck, with Jacob Wolphertsen and Jan Evert- sen Bout, were then sent to Holland as agents for the colonists. Van der Donck remained abroad three years, when he returned bringing a favorable decree with him.
In accordance with its concessions, Director Stuyvesant issued a proclamation on the day of the Feast of Candlemas, February 2, 1653. It was the intention of the States General to establish "bur- gher government " in New Amsterdam, in the same form that it existed in Holland ; to confer upon the people the right to elect a schont or sheriff, two burgomasters who were in effect the chief magistrates of the town, and five schepens who were to constitute a court with civil and criminal jurisdiction, with appeal to the Supreme Court, consisting of the Director and Council, and that certain privileges of trade should be extended. Burgomasters had existed in Holland since the fourteenth century ; and it was intended that they should be elected by the burghers of New Amsterdam, for they were to be " the fathers of the " burghery." The Director and Conneil, however, assimned the power to appoint, in the first instance, and continued to exercise the power until 1658, when the Burgomasters were allowed the privilege of nominating a double number, from which the Director and Council selected the members of the Board for the ensuing year.1
1 Sce pages 36, 37. 42. 44.
Michael Jansen,
62
DUTCH GOVERNMENT.
The Burgomasters succeeded the Nine Men. They were, e.c officio, chief rulers of the city ; principal church wardens; guardians of the poor, of widows and orphans; without their consent no woman or minor could execute any legal instrument. They assisted in the enactment of city laws, held all city property in trust, farmed the excise, and were keepers of the city seal. Each Burgomaster attended daily, in rotation, during three months in the year, at the City Hall, for the dispatch of public business; and at the end of the quarter called a meeting of the acting and ancient Burgomasters, to whom he reported the state of the city. Each Burgomaster was allowed a salary of 350 guilders; equal to $140. One Burgomaster retired annually from office, and then became City Treasurer for the next year.1
Local officers, or inferior courts with limited jurisdiction, were authorized in various villages from time to time. Breuckelen was thus incorporated, June 12, 1646.
BURGOMASTERS OF NEW AMSTERDAM.
1653.
1663.
Arent Van Hattem, Martin Cregier.
1637. Allard Anthony, Paulus Leendertsen vant der Grist.
1660. Allard Anthony, Olott Stevensen van Cort- land. 3 1661.
Martin Cregier, Paulus Leendertsen van der Grist. 4
1651.
1658.
Arent van Hattem, Martin ('regier, Allard Anthony. 2
Panlus Leendertsen van der Grist, Oloff Stevensen van Cort- land.
Allard Anthony, Paulus Lendertsen van der Grist.
1604. Panlus Leendertsen van der Gri-t, Cornelis Steenwyck. 1673.
Allard Anthony, Olott Stevensen van Cort- land.
1659.
1662. Paulus Leendertsen van der Grist, Olott Stevensen van Cort- land.
Johannes van Brugh, Johannes de Peyster, Egidius Luyck.
1656.
Martin Cregier.
1663.
1674.
Allard Anthony, Olott Stevensen van Cort- land.
1660,
Olott Stevensen van Cort- land,
Johannes van Brugh, William Beeckman.
REPRESENTATIVE CONVENTIONS.
In September, 1653, delegates from the several colonies and courts met at New Amsterdam,' and, with the Director and Council, enacted divers ordinances against the excessive prices of merchan- dise, provisions, etc. The names of the delegates are not on record.
In October, 1653, delegates from Hempstead, Gravesend, Flushing and Middleburgh (Newtown), met at the last-named place and called a convention to be held at New Amsterdam the next month.5
The convention thus called met November 26, 1653. The occa- sion for the meeting was the war between England and Holland.'
1 O'Callaghan's New Netherland.
2 In place of Van Hattem, returned to Holland.
3 In the absence of the regular Burgomasters.
4 Vice Cregier, who entered the military service. 5 See page 37.
6 Sce pages 37, 38.
1655.
Oloff Stevensen van Cort- land,
Martin Cregier,
63
REPRESENTATIVE CONVENTIONS.
December 10, 1653, a provincial convention assembled at New Amsterdam, pursuant to writs issued by the Director on the 8th, at the request of the November convention.1
July 6, 1663, delegates met at New Amsterdam to engage the Dutch towns to keep up an armed force for public protection."
November 1, 1663, a convention was held at New Amsterdam, which addressed a remonstrance to the Amsterdam Directors. We have failed to find their names in any records, although very impor- tant proceedings are given at length.2
February 27, 1664, a convention3 was held at Flatbush, L. I., to send delegates to Holland, to represent to the States General and the West India Company the distressed state of the country ; and a conventions for a similar purpose was held at the City Hall, New Amsterdam, April 10, 1664.
March 1, 1665, a convention' was held at Hempstead under au- thority of the English Governor. We give the names of members in the lists of delegates below, for the purpose of preserving the chronological order.
September 4, 1673, a convention of delegates from the eastern towns of Long Island was held at Jamaica to confer with the Dutch commanders.
March 26, 1674, a convention of delegates from the Dutch towns was held at New Orange, to confer with Governor Colve.
DELEGATES TO CONVENTIONS.
NOVEMBER, 1653.
Governor's Council. Johannes La Montagne, Cornelis van Werekhoven.
New Amsterdam. Martin Cregier. Paulis Lemdertien van der Grist.
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