USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York, 1609-1909 > Part 8
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
seeing that something must be done for New Amsterdam, directed Governor Stuyvesant to organize for that town a suitable burgher government, author- ized him to appropriate 250 guilders per annum to pay a schoolmaster, and removed the duty on tobacco in the hope of promoting trade with Virginia. The chamber also sent Domine Samuel Drisius as assistant to Domine Mega- polensis. About the same time the States-General again summoned Governor Stuyvesant home to give an account of his administration of New Netherland and of his negotiations with the New Englanders. But as war between England and Holland broke out the States-General, on the earnest solicitation of the Amsterdam Chamber rescinded the order for Stuyvesant to report at The Hague, feeling that his military experience and knowledge of the condi- tions were much needed, now that invasion threatened New Netherland.
SEAL OF PETRUS STUYVESANT
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NEW AMSTERDAM UNDER THE BURGHER GOVERNMENT-WAR WITH ENGLAND INVASION AND SURRENDER OF NEW AMSTERDAM
Under the instructions of the Amsterdam chamber, the people were to be permitted to elect "as much as possible after the custom of Amsterdam," a burgher government composed of a schout (or sheriff and public prosecutor, who also had the duty of presiding over the meetings of the magistrates), two burgomasters (or mayors), and five schepens (or aldermen). But this was too much like democracy for the autocratic Stuyvesant, whose constant aim was to keep in his hands every possible function of government; so instead of allowing the people to elect, he chose the officers himself, naming Arendt van Hattem and Martin Cregier as burgomasters, and as schepens Allard Anthony, Maximilian van Gheel, Willen Beekman, Paulus Leendertsen van der Grist, and Peter van Couwenhoven (brother of Jacob of the Nine Men, which organization was disbanded when the new city government was organized). So jealous of power was Stuyvesant that he did not even permit to the new magistrates the right of appointment of their own secretary, but himself appointed Jacob Kip to that place. These appointments were all good ones, although the method of their selection was not in accord with the custom of Amsterdam; but with respect to the schout, the most important office of all, Stuyvesant decided not to give the burghers a schout of their own, but vested the duties of that officer in the schout-fiscal of the province of New Netherland. As that happened to be the licentious and much hated Van Tienhoven it is needless to say that the people were much displeased.
In the custom of Amsterdam the magistrates had administrative and legislative, as well as judicial functions, but in Manhattan they were at first confined to the holding of court every two weeks; and afterward, every Monday; Stuyvesant would sometimes consult them in an advisory way, but he himself issued all orders and ordinances. The city government was pro- claimed in force from the second day of February, 1653, and it was only a few months after that the first conflict between the magistrates and the governor came. They wanted the same powers that similar officers had in Holland: 'he desired to keep all authority in himself.
The first important issue that arose was in connection with the public defence; and the magistrates agreed to raise funds for that purpose, provided that Stuyvesant would turn over the receipts from the wine and beer excise to the city instead of to the company. Stuyvesant refused, and the burghers in a public meeting, August 2, 1653, supported the magistrates. The matter
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remained in suspense, both sides remaining firm until lack of funds caused Stuyvesant to agree, in November, to turn the excise receipts into the city fund. The magistrates then began to raise a defence fund, but finding soon after that only a part of the excise money was being turned to municipal use, the magistrates notified Stuyvesant that either he must turn over the entire excise to city use or they would resign in a body. But Stuyvesant would not yield; nor would he accept the resignation of the magistrates.
These and other acts of the governor caused the magistrates to make an appeal to the directors of the company, not only for the surrender of the
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excise, but also for the right to elect the city schout ; to have a city seal; to impose taxes; to lease the ferry to Breuckelen; for arms and ammuni- tion for city defence, and for the power to administer the affairs of the city on a basis similar to that of the government of Amsterdam.
There was a considerable amount of piracy and privateering going on along the Atlantic Coast about that time, and November 26, 1653, a meet- ing gathered in the Stadt Huis, after a call by Governor Stuyvesant, at which were present two members of the governor's council, two city mag- istrates of New Amsterdam, and delegates from the English towns of Gravesend, Flushing and Middle- burg. The English delegates, on the initiative of George Baxter, of Gravesend, made the point that the councilors had no right to be present, THE "STADT HUIS" Built in 1642 A tavern in Kieft's time. Later public school; finally City Hall until 1700 and as the city magistrates agreed with them, the councilors retired from the meeting. The English com- plained bitterly of the raids of Thomas Baxter, of Rhode Island, and others, who were coming constantly by sea and land to rob or levy tribute on the set- tlers; and they declared they would pay no taxes if they could get no protec- tion ; and they also declared that they would make a union of their own for protective purposes if the Dutch would not unite with them. The magis- trates declined to commit themselves to any course unless the other Dutch
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THE MEETINGS IN THE STADT HUIS
settlements would unite with them. Stuyvesant expressed displeasure at the exclusion of the councilors, which he said "smelt of rebellion;" but there was no member of the governor's council present at the adjourned meeting held December 10, 1653, at which the Dutch towns of New Amsterdam, Breucke- len, Amersfoort (Flatlands) and Midwout (Flatbush), and the English towns of Flushing, Newtown (Middleburg), Gravesend and Hempstead were repre- sented, there being nineteen delegates, ten Dutch and nine English. As the output of this meeting, George Baxter drafted for the convention "The Re- monstrance and Petition of the Colonies and Villages in this New Netherland Province," which was presented to the governor and council.
This document set forth as specific grievances, that the Indians were restless and dangerous because they had received insufficient compensation for their lands; that as Stuyvesant had acted with a council from which he had excluded lawful members, the land grants he had made were of questionable validity; that some of his grants to single individuals were grossly excessive in area; that autocratic ordinances of which the people had little or no information were used as instruments of oppression; that officials were appointed without the consent or nomination of the people; and that the government was an arbitrary one which was not founded upon the consent, knowledge or election of the Commonalty, and therefore "odious to every free-born man," and further declared that laws which might be good in com- munities in the Old World might frequently be found inapplicable to a com- munity in America. The governor and council were stated to be represen- tatives of the company, which only held such powers as were given to it by the States-General, who were supreme in the United Netherlands and all its dependencies. An explicit answer to each grievance enumerated was demanded of the governor.
The Amsterdam Chamber of the West India Company had contended that it was supreme in the affairs of New Netherland; and Stuyvesant claimed that his commission made him supreme, often speaking of the people of the province as his "subjects." The ideas and specific demands of this "Remonstrance and Petition" made him furious; and he denounced the meeting as illegal and unauthorized, and ordered the delegates to disperse and not to meet again under penalty of arbitrary correction. Various docu- ments crowded on the authorities in Holland, especially the Amsterdam Chamber, in regard to the disputes between the governor and the various municipalities in the province. Meanwhile, Nicasius de Sille was sent by the company to be first councilor to the governor and Cornelis van Ruyven to be secretary of New Netherland.
Invasion of New Netherland was threatened from England, in 1654, and Oliver Cromwell sent four ships with two hundred sailors, which were to
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
join a force from New England to take New Netherland for the English; but while the New England forces were being gathered news of peace between the English and Dutch stopped the further progress of the expedition.
At the conclusion of peace the Amsterdam Chamber found the oppor- tunity to answer the petitions which had been sent in the previous year. It assumed its old attitude of displeasure that appeals should be made to Holland against the decision of the constituted authorities in New Netherland. But concessions were made. They were to have a schout of their own instead of that office being given to the schout-fiscal of the province. They were to have a city seal, and could have the receipts of the excise if they would pay the municipal salaries, and were given additional powers of taxation. The Amsterdam Chamber had selected Jochem Pietersen Kuyter to be the city schout, but he had been killed by the Indians; so Stuyvesant named Jacques Cortelyou for the position. He declined, and Van Tienhoven continued to act.
Stuyvesant and the magistrates soon had another dispute. The governor insisted that they had not paid for fortifying the city, and that they should pay for the support of the soldiers who had been sent from Holland as well as its own officials. The magistrates said they would support a schout (who must be their own), the burgomasters, schepens, a secretary, a court messenger and such other official servants as the city might need; one minister, one precentor, who should also serve as a schoolmaster, and one beadle. They would not support the soldiers, and thought the entire province should contribute to the defenses of the capital; but, if the magistrates were empowered to levy a property tax, they would contribute 3000 guilders, or a fifth, toward the cost of fortifying the city. Stuyvesant again took possession of the receipts from the tapsters' excise and made threats of an annual tax on cattle, land and other property; but did not put this threat into execution.
Trouble arose between New Netherland and New Sweden. Governor Rising, who had succeeded Governor Prinz in New Sweden, turned the Dutch Garrison out of Fort Casimir and made a proclamation to the effect that all Dutch in that territory must come under the Swedish jurisdiction. The news of this action created a sensation in New Amsterdam, and a Swedish ship which came into the lower harbor without a pilot was seized and confiscated by Stuyvesant. The governor, who was under instructions to be careful in his relations with New Sweden, wrote to the West India Company for instructions. Meanwhile, starting on Christmas Eve, 1654, he took a trip to Barbadoes to try and establish trade with that island. Unfortunately, he arrived at a time when, under the new British navigation laws, an embargo was laid on all foreign vessels in the port; and it was four months before he was permitted to leave for New Amsterdam, where he arrived in July, 1655.
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NEW NETHERLAND VERSUS NEW SWEDEN
During his absence the council had appointed successors to the magistrates whose terms had expired; Oloff Stevensen being appointed burgomaster in place of Martin Cregier, and Johannes de Peyster and Jan Vinje being two of the four schepens appointed.
Soon after Stuyvesant's return, he received orders from the company to proceed against the Swedes in the Delaware River, as a reprisal for the seizure of Fort Casimir by Governor Rising, and sent him a ship for the expedition. The forces were in two companies, of which one was commanded by Stuyvesant and the other by Nicasius de Sille, chief councilor. Monday, September 6, they reached Delaware Bay and within a day or two they had recaptured Fort Casimir, captured Fort Christina, made the people acknowl- edge allegiance to Holland, and took many of them to Manhattan. With this expedition was ended the last vestige of Swedish dominion on the American Continent.
While Stuyvesant was away with every able-bodied soldier from the fort, and a majority of the burghers, the River Indians broke out. Nineteen hundred of them had gathered on the North River and over seven hundred had landed on Manhattan. It was thought at first that they were on their way to Long Island, but many of them appeared in the city. The follow- .75 ing morning an Indian wounded Hendrick van Dyck with an arrow, and after that the burghers armed, under the advice of Cornelis van Tienhoven, and a few on both sides were killed. The Indians left THE STUYVESANT MANSION the city and crossed to Pavonia, where they burned every house, killed almost every man and took the women and children captive. Thence they went to Staten Island, destroyed the eleven bouweries of the island and killed twenty-three people out of the ninety living on these bouweries. Two bouweries near the Harlem, one being the Kuyter bouwerie, were raided and the inhabitants killed; and several others on Long Island. Within the three days a number of colonists, variously stated at from fifty to one hundred, were killed; one hundred and fifty were captured, among whom was Cornelis Melyn. Hundreds were rendered homeless and destitute by the savages, their recently gathered crops having been destroyed; the property loss altogether being valued at a hundred thousand guilders. The Indians did not attack the city, chiefly because they had so many prisoners.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
When the governor returned he ordered that no vessel should leave the harbor, nor any able-bodied man go away from the city except on order. Guards were stationed in the outlying settlements and negotiations were opened with the Indians, who exchanged seventy prisoners for some powder and shot. Stuyvesant consulted with his council about Indian affairs. Van Tienhoven, as usual, was for war; but De Sille and La Montagne as well as the governor himself, thought that the best plan was increased vigilance. After that no Indian was permitted to remain overnight in New Amsterdam.
The English, resident in New Netherland as well as those beyond, began to create another troublesome problem. Thomas Pell, who had been a gentleman of the bedchamber to Charles I, had brought a party from Fair- field in the colony of New Haven in 1654; bought some land from the Indians, although they had already sold it to the Dutch, and declared his party to be under the protection of the Commonwealth of England. Several criminals who fled from Manhattan had been harbored by them, and in 1656, Stuyvesant arrested these colonists, forced them to acknowledge his juris- diction, and gave them authority to organize a burgher government on the Dutch plan. In 1657 they took an oath of allegiance to the government of New Netherland as long as they should reside within its limits. The English called the town Westchester.
During the absence of Governor Stuyvesant in Barbadoes, George Baxter, who had for many years been English secretary to Governors Kieft and Stuyvesant, with James Hubbard as associate, endeavored to inaugurate an insurrection in Gravesend, hoisting the English flag and claiming for them- selves and their associates the rights of English subjects. The council placed Baxter and Hubbard under arrest and for a year they were imprisoned. Sir Henry Moody, of Gravesend, asking their release, Hubbard was freed on an understanding of good behavior. Baxter, pledging his property that he would not try to escape, was transferred from the cell in the fort to the debtor's room in the Stadt Huis. He made his escape from there to Long Island and thence to New England. His property, which was sold by the council for his debts, included a farm which embraced the present site of Bellevue Hospital.
Stuyvesant's destruction of Swedish sovereignty on the Delaware River had cost him a good deal of money; and soon there came a troublesome claim by Governor Fendall of Maryland, that the region recently occupied by the Swedes was included in Lord Baltimore's patent, and there was some show of forcible assertion of the claim; which, however, never culminated in anything very serious, though it was a part of the general discussion of the rights of Dutch and English in the New World. There was a desire on the part of New England for an extension of its borders west and south; and there was a party in England which desired especially that there should be no foreign power
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LONG ISLAND SENDS DELEGATES TO HARTFORD
wedged in between New England and Virginia. The discussion lulled for awhile after the death of Oliver Cromwell in 1658, and after Charles II came to the throne in 1660, the West India Company tried, through the States- General, to procure a settlement of the question of boundary between New England and New Netherland; which, however, was not pushed by the ambas- sadors of the United Netherlands in London.
In April, 1662, Governor John Winthrop of Connecticut secured the charter for that colony. It gave to that colony the territory of New Haven colony, much of the mainland of New Netherland, Long Island, Manhattan and Staten Island. This charter, which was proclaimed at Hartford in October, 1662, created a great sensation. The New Haven colonists were incensed at the idea that the identity of their colony was merged in that of Connecticut. The English towns in Long Island both in the eastern and western portions, sent delegates to the assembly at Hartford, upon the invitation of the authorities of Connecticut, James Hubbard being the delegate from Gravesend. A protest against these proceedings was sent by Stuyvesant to Hartford, who said that this nullification of the Hartford Treaty gave New Netherland the right to claim its original territories, which included everything as far as the Fresh River; but the only answer he got from the Connecticut authorities was a warning to him not to interfere with anyone in their colony, which, they claimed, included Westchester.
A settlement had been made up the river in the Esopus district, and a town was established there which was called Wiltwyck and is now named Kingston. The settlers had been driven out by the Indian uprising in 1655, but returned in 1658. The Indians again made trouble, and in 1659 killed several settlers and besieged the others in a stockade they had made, until Stuyvesant arrived with reinforcements. The following year, after surprising and capturing some Esopus Indians, treaties were made with them and also with the Indians near Manhattan, the Mohegans and Mohawks. The Esopus region built up with settlers, but in June, 1663, the Esopus Indians, partly because Stuyvesant had sent some of his captives of 1660 to be sold in slavery in Curaçoa, rose in another raid on the settlements and killed or captured about seventy of the Dutch. Stuyvesant collected a volunteer force which, led by Martin Cregier, almost wiped out the Esopus tribe.
In the years which had passed there had been an accession of rights and privileges to the citizens. In April, 1657, burgher-right was granted to the people of the city entitled to it, this ordinance being the first city charter. In Amsterdam, Holland, a distinction was made between the Great and Small bur- gher-right. It was a class distinction, though one had equal commercial privi- leges with the other; but the great burghers were exempt from arrest upon the order of an inferior court, and they only could hold important offices.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
The holders of the Great Burgher-Right included all members of the pro- vincial government, all former and present magistrates of the city, all clergy- men and militia officers, all male descendants of such persons, and any other persons, approved by the magistrates, who would pay fifty guilders for the privilege. The Small Burgher-Right included all persons born in the city, all who had lived there for a year and six weeks before the date of the ordinance, and all who had married the native-born daughters of burghers; also any other person, acceptable to the magistrates, who would pay twenty guilders for the right. After 1658, as a consequence of frequently reiterated demands, the magistrates were permitted to nominate their own successors. In 1660 the demand for their own schout was acceded to, though not by the election of the magistrates, but by appointment of the West India Company; the first city schout being Peter Tonneman, who was also a member of the governor's council. The office of city treasurer, established in 1657, was first held by Oloff Stevensen van Cortlandt.
Connecticut continued to boldy claim Long Island and much of the main- land. Stuyvesant, who had tried to get Massachusetts and New England generally to reaffirm the Hartford Treaty, but had been put off several times, and who found most of the Long Island English who had formerly been his chief supporters, now expousing, with more or less boldness, the English side of the controversy, began to be more and more insistent that the West India Company must secure from the States-General a settlement of the boundary question.
George Baxter was taking an active part in the endeavor to secure action from England detrimental to the Dutch sovereignty over New Netherland. With him was associated Captain John Scott. The latter was a son of an English officer who had been killed in the service of Charles I, and had been, so he said, sent out to Massachusetts and bound out as a servant because, when a young boy he had been caught cutting the bridles and girths of a Parliamentary troop. After his term of service had expired he became an adventurer, claimed to have bought land on Long Island from the Indians and sold large tracts to various individuals, giving deeds which were after- ward declared void by the courts. He was representative to England, in 1660, of the Atherton Company; composed of prominent men of Connecticut and Massachusetts, who claimed title to lands on the western shore of Narra- gansett Bay, which they claimed under a dubious patent of 1643, but which was really included in the Providence Plantations. He was constantly identified with crooked land transactions. He got the ear of the King's Council for Plantations, which advised with him, as well as with George Baxter and Samuel Maverick, author of the "Brief Description of New England," who had written letters to Clarendon suggesting the conquest of New Netherland.
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GEORGE BAXTER AND JOHN SCOTT MAKE TROUBLE
Stuyvesant only had a few soldiers at the fort in the autumn of 1663, as the Indian troubles at Esopus were not yet over, but finding that some of Captain Scott's emissaries were trying to buy up land on the mainland back of Navesink, he sent Captain Cregier with a small force to expel them. Captain Scott himself went to Long Island as the representative of Connecticut, having been sworn in as one of three agents to incorporate the Long Island towns with Connecticut; but when he found that the inhabitants of Hempstead, Jamaica, Newtown, Flushing and Gravesend were averse to Puritan rule and had come to an agreement to ask for separate government under the Crown of England, he fell in with their views, and then informed them of the plan to make the Duke of York the proprietor of all New Netherland; this being the plan under discussion by the King's Council for Plantations. So when the English towns asked him to act as their "president" until the Duke of York should come into possession, he agreed as readily as though he was not under oath to serve the interests of Connecticut. He had a troop of almost two hundred men which New Haven had provided for him, and with them seized the blockhouse at New Utrecht and made hostile demonstrations at Midwout and Amersfoort. Three envoys sent by Stuyvesant to meet him, as the agent of Connecticut, in order to come to an understanding of the matters in dispute, were met with threats and rudeness; but after some dis- cussion said he would return in April with his commission, and that the Duke of York would soon be in possession of all New Netherland.
Long Island continued to be in a turmoil. English adventurers, pretending to have new grants from the Indians, drove Dutch settlers in various parts of the island from their lands, and the Five Dutch Towns issued a Remonstrance to the governor and council, demanding prompt relief from the West India Company; failing which, they said they would be com- pelled "to their heart's grief" to submit to another government in order to secure the protection which was so urgently needed. The governor sub- mitted this Remonstrance to the magistrates, who replied that it was the burghers' duty to protect and defend New Amsterdam, and the duty of the company's soldiers to protect the villages and the open country; and they offered to use all the revenues and raise a larg loan to make New Amsterdam secure, if the governor would surrender to them the tapsters' excise, which he agreed to do. Thereupon the city borrowed 27,500 guilders.
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