USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York in the seventeenth century. Vol. I > Part 28
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Baxter also wrote that he had often heard Governor Stuy- vesant say that Winthrop would be 'acceptably welcome unto him.' To the great subsequent profit of Connecticut Winthrop decided to remain where he was.
In 1649 the elder John Winthrop died at Boston. Writing then to Governor Eaton of New Haven Stuyvesant said :
I do really condole with you, we being all of us in these parts par- ticipators in the sad loss of one whose wisdom and integrity might have done much in composing matters between us.
In truth, although Winthrop did not love the New Nether- landers and was over-ready to believe evil reports of them, he had been their best friend in New England and had done what he could to keep the peace between them and their nearer neighbors.
REFERENCE NOTES
PRINCIPAL PUBLISHED DOCUMENTS : Col. Docs., I, XIII, XIV (398) ; Laws and Ordinances of New Netherland (270) ; Cal. Hist. MSS., Dutch (390).
GENERAL AUTHORITIES : Breeden Raedt (76) ; O'Callaghan, Hist. of New Netherland, II (382), and Register of New Netherland (386) ; Brodhead, Hist. of New York, I (405).
FORRESTER : Col. Docs., XIV.
PLOWDEN : see Reference Notes, Chap. I.
STUYVESANT, UNITED COLONIES, AND NEW HAVEN : Acts of the Com- missioners of New England (364) ; Extracts from Hazard's Histor- ical Collections in N. Y. Hist. Soc. Collections, 1809 (214) ; Records of the Colony and Plantation of New Haven (372) ; Winthrop, Hist. of New England (368). - STUYVESANT TO WINTHROP and WINTHROP TO STUYVESANT: in Col. Docs., XII.
THE SAN BENINGO: Col. Docs., I; Records of the Colony and Planta- tion of New Haven; Lindsay, The Extradition . . . of Fugitive Criminals in the American Colonies (183). - CORRESPONDENCE WITH EATON AND GOODYEAR : in Records of the Colony and Planta- tion of New Haven, Appendix, and in Col. Docs., XII.
UNDERHILL TO WINTHROP: in Winthrop Papers in Mass. Hist. Soc. Collections, 4th Series, VII.
STUYVESANT TO WINTHROP ABOUT INDIANS: in Col. Docs., XIII. RENSSELAERSWYCK : Col. Docs., XIV.
WEST INDIA COMPANY : see Reference Notes, Chap. I.
KUYTER AND MELYN: Col. Docs., I, XIV; Breeden Raedt. - MAN- DAMUS: Original among Cornelis Melyn Papers in N. Y. Hist .. Soc. Library ; printed in Col. Docs., I.
REMONSTRANCE: Original in Royal Archives, the Hague; printed in Van der Donck, Vertoogh van Nieu-Neder-Land (423), and in Col. Docs., I. - Asher, Dutch Books ... Relating to New Netherland (7).
PETITION, ADDITIONAL OBSERVATIONS, and LETTER OF CREDENCE : Originals in Royal Archives, the Hague; printed in Col. Docs. I.
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MASSACHUSETTS AND INDIANS : Ellis and Morris, King Philip's War (258). - INCREASE MATHER (quoted) : his Prevalency of Prayer in his Relation of the Troubles which have happened in New Eng- land by Reason of the Indians There, Boston, 1677, and in Mather Papers in Mass. Hist. Soc. Collections, 4th Series, VIII.
SHIRLEY TO BRADFORD : in Bradford's Letter-Book in Mass. Hist. Soc. Collections, 1st Series, III.
BREEDEN RAEDT: Breeden Raedt aende Vereenichde Nederlandsche Provintien (76) ; Asher, Dutch Books . . Relating to New Netherland.
MELYN'S DEFENCE : in Col. Docs., I.
SHORT DIGEST: Original in Royal Archives, the Hague; printed in Col. Docs., I. - VAN TIENHOVEN'S REPLY : in Col. Docs. I, and in O'Callaghan's translation of Van der Donck, Vertoogh. PROVISIONAL ORDER : in Col. Docs., I.
BAXTER TO WINTHROP, JR .: in Winthrop Papers in Mass. Hist. Soc. Collections, 5th Series, I.
STUYVESANT TO EATON: in Records of the Colony and Plantation of New Haven.
CHAPTER X
' SUITABLE BURGHER GOVERNMENT '
1650-1653
(GOVERNOR STUYVESANT)
We have already connived as much as possible at the many imperti- nences of some restless spirits in the hope that they might be shamed by our discreetness and benevolence. . Yet to stop the mouth of all the world we have resolved . . . to permit you to erect there a Court of Justice formed as much as possible after the custom of this city. ... And we presume that it will be sufficient at first to choose one schout, two burgomasters, and five schepens. - Directors of the West India Company to the Governor and Council of New Netherland. 1652.
NEW AMSTERDAM was growing more and more disconsolate. It was not left without spiritual helpers: Domine Megapolen- sis who had finished his term of service at Rensselaerswyck and was about to go home consented to fill the place that Domine Backerus had vacated, the classis of Amsterdam sent out a schoolmaster to replace Jan Stevensen and another for Fort Orange, and there was even talk of founding an academy. But enterprise of every kind was checked by doubt regarding the political future, by Stuyvesant's 'prompt- ness in confiscation' on charges of smuggling, by the lack of any circulating medium except wampum, by the threaten- ing and sometimes murderous conduct of the restless Indians, and by winter weather so cold that the approaches to Man- hattan were impassable and, as one letter-writer explained, the ink froze in the pen. Stuyvesant asked the Company for ten thousand guilders' worth of small coin but got none at all. Food supplies ran so short that he prohibited the exportation
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[1650-
of grain and bread and the use of wheat in brewing; yet by the Company's orders he was obliged to send provisions to its colonists at Curaçoa. Moreover, the commissioners of the United Colonies now struck the hardest blow yet given to the traffic of Manhattan, declaring that, as the Dutch and French forbade all aliens to trade with the Indians within their borders, New England would do the same.
In June, 1650, the prospect brightened. Two of the people's envoys, Bout and Van Couwenhoven, then returned in triumph bearing a copy of the Provisional Order, and New Amsterdam rejoiced as for a victory surely won. Disap- pointment followed fast. Stuyvesant refused to publish the Order of which his superiors did not approve, and his people soon knew as well as he did that the directors of the Am- sterdam Chamber were fighting with all their force against its adoption. He could judge from its tenor, the directors wrote him,
. . . how much trouble we have had and how dangerous it is to draw upon yourself the wrath of a growing community. We must suppose that you have trusted too much to some of these ringleaders or become too intimate with them. Now that their ingratitude and treachery have come to light you must still act with the cunning of a fox and treat them in regard to the past conformably with the above- mentioned resolutions, to prevent that a new mistake may make mat- ters worse than the first one did, and that we may not be troubled any more with such contemptuous bickerings, the more so as the Com- pany is already sufficiently embarrassed.
Even before the Provisional Order was drawn up many would-be emigrants had applied for passage to New Nether- land, and it was proposed that several hundred charity chil- dren should be sent out. The Company did not supply ships to meet these demands, and when the delegates of New Am- sterdam asked permission to take out two hundred farmers the States General decided first to hear what the Amsterdam Chamber had to say. Now, however, the directors them- selves wrote to Stuyvesant that many 'free people' had taken passage in the ship that was to carry their letter,
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1653]
. and we hope that a greater number shall follow by every . vessel. As people here encourage each other with the prospect of becoming great lords there, if inclined to work, it may have a good result.
As a sop to its critics the Amsterdam Chamber issued a new Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions. Confirming the enlargement of the trading rights of New Netherland it also confirmed the autocratic powers of the director and his council. Of course this increased the arrogance of General Stuyvesant. He refused to obey the order of recall from the States General unless the Company should release him from his oath of office, knowing that it had told the States that his return was 'entirely unnecessary'; and even if he had been willing to try he would hardly have been able to display the ' cunning of a fox.' So, as the Nine Men wrote to the com- mittee appointed by the States General to examine into the affairs of the province, the commonalty lived 'in fear and anguish,' all men conscious that the governor could still injure them, and all afraid to associate with their neighbors because 'one friend' could not speak to another 'without being suspected.'
Persistently the governor flouted and insulted the Nine Men, descending even to trivial persecutions like taking their pew in the church for his own use. This treatment gradually shook the faith of the people in their representatives, who wrote again to Holland:
The people are greatly imposed on; men will fain hang and burn the Selectmen and, moreover, while duly observing our honor and oath etc. The affliction which the poor Commonalty here live under cannot be any longer endured; they are more and more oppressed. ... We are obliged to listen every day to scoffs and sneers from many because their High Mightinesses have done nothing in the matter of the Re- dress.
Van Dincklagen wrote to Van der Donck that from these High Mightinesses every one was anxiously expecting 'abso- lute redress':
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[1650-
I have enough to do to keep the people quiet. The abuses and faults are as notorious as the sun at clear noon. . .. To describe the state of this government to one well acquainted and conversant with it is a work of supererogation. 'Tis to wash a blackamoor white. Our great Muscovy Duke goes on as usual, with something of the wolf ; the older he gets, the more inclined he is to bite. He proceeds no longer by words or writing but by arrest and stripes. We daily ex- pect redress and a remedy.
Augustine Herrman wrote, also to Van der Donck:
We are not only threatened, plagued, obstructed, and affronted but shall be also totally ruined. Govert Lockermans is totally ruined because he will not sign that he knows and can say nothing of Director Stuyvesant but what is honest and honorable. ... That infernal wind-bag, Van Tienhoven, has returned here and put the country in a blaze. . . . Your private estate is going all to ruin, for our enemies know how to fix all this and to obtain their object. There is no use in complaining; we must suffer injustice for justice. At present that is our wages and thanks for devotion to the public interests. Yet we shall trust in God.
Even the governor's council took its turn in finding fault with the Company. There was not a man in New Amster- dam, it wrote, but believed that the heavy customs dues were the cause of the 'intolerable scarcity and disorder' and the want of population in the province.
In Holland Cornelis Van Tienhoven had got himself into the courts of law by his licentious course of life. Against the express commands of the States General he returned to America, and he took with him a 'basket-maker's daugh- ter' whom he had seduced under promise of marriage al- though he had a wife in New Amsterdam. When he arrived Stuyvesant trusted and favored him as before, and as before
he 'scattered firebrands through the community.' Know- ing how the Company resented all interference by the States General in the affairs of its province Stuyvesant ignored their order to muster the burgher guard at regular intervals and confiscated two hundred muskets and a stand of colors that they had sent out for it; and he forbade to practise a notary
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public, one Dirck Van Schelluyne, to whom they had given a commission when they learned that New Netherland had no functionary of the kind. Vice-Director Van Dincklagen he deposed and thrust from the council because he had joined with Van Dyck in sending a protest to Holland, and when he would not retire bade the soldiers drag him away and lock him up in the guard-house. Van Dyck, now the schout-fiscal, who seems to have been as intemperate as the Remonstrance de- clared, he punished in unworthy ways, charging him to keep the pigs out of the fort and beating him upon occasion with his cane; and when at last he removed him on charges of drunkenness he put a worse man, Van Tienhoven, in his place, promoting him thereby to a seat on the 'supreme council' of three. So, he said, the Nine Men had desired. They had desired, said the Nine Men, nothing of the kind.
Only his English subjects spoke up on Stuyvesant's behalf. Those at Gravesend had sent a letter to the Company by the hands of Van Tienhoven, and now they despatched an- other signed by George Baxter, who was schout of the town, and a number of others. Asking for a supply of ammunition and a detachment of soldiers for their protection they declared that they desired to 'remain residing without any change' under the authority of the Company. They would be 'un- worthy,' they said, 'to enjoy the benefits and freedoms' it had kindly granted them if they could wish to abridge its rights. Being intrusted with the government of their own town they knew how easily 'manifold troubles' might arise; they were deeply grieved to hear that complaints had been uttered in Holland, and they begged that the Company would take pains to prevent such things in the future, ex- plaining :
· This in our opinion, we humbly conceive, will best be done by maintaining and upholding our present governor against all malignant persons, our superiors in Holland paying no attention to the reports of dissatisfied persons; for we have had such experience of his affec- tion for the general welfare of this place, and of his carefulness over us in the execution of the public service committed to him, that we
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[1650-
are anxious that he be still continued so that we may live under his government.
By this time Stuyvesant had arranged with the New Eng- landers for a conference about boundary lines. In Septem- ber he went, by water of course, with a 'large suite' to Hart- ford where the commissioners of the United Colonies were in session. His hosts greeted him with great civility and honor but, when the negotiations began in writing, refused to re- ceive a letter which he dated 'New Haven in New Netherland,' insisting that he should write 'in New England,' compro- mising upon 'in Connecticut.' All the lands between Cape Cod and Cape Henlopen, Stuyvesant declared, were Dutch 'for matter of title' and those around Hartford were 'the proper demesne' of the West India Company, having been bought and paid for and duly surrendered by 'the then right proprietors, the natives.' After much correspondence the commissioners agreed to his proposal that 'indifferent per- sons' should serve as arbitrators, choosing Simon Bradstreet of Massachusetts and Thomas Prince of Plymouth, both notable personages, while Stuyvesant also chose two English- men - his secretary George Baxter and Captain Thomas Willett of Plymouth. This was the Willett who in earlier years had signed the contract about building the church in Fort Amsterdam, and who was to serve in later years as the first mayor of the city of New York. It has been thought that he was one of the eighteen children of Andrew Willett of Barley in Hertfordshire, an Anglican clergyman widely known in his day as a theological writer. The records of Robinson's Separatist congregation at Leyden show, how- ever, that he was one of its members and give Norwich as his place of birth or residence in England. He came to Plym- outh not with the first band of Pilgrims but twelve years later, in 1632, and, engaging in trade with Holland as well as in coastwise traffic, at least as early as 1639 was a familiar figure on Manhattan.
It was agreed, again on Stuyvesant's motion, that the
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1653]
treaty to be drawn up by the four arbitrators should deal with four matters:
1. A composing of differences; 2. A provisional limit of land; 3. A course concerning fugitives; 4. A neighborly union.
As finally drafted it settled only two of these matters, postponing the neighborly union for protection against the savages until the authorities in Europe could be consulted and referring to them the settlement of differences - that is, of the many wrongs complained of by both parties. On the other hand it pledged the New Netherlanders to observe the regulations about fugitives from justice that were laid down for the United Colonies. This clause has a special historic interest as marking the one and only instance in which, at this or at any other time, the legislative enactments of New Netherland were influenced by those of its neighbors. It has also been regarded by some historians as the prototype of the fugitive slave laws of much later times.
Furthermore, the treaty left open the question of Dutch and English rights in the Delaware region, but elsewhere drew definite boundary lines. The English, it said, were to possess all the eastern parts of Long Island to a line running northward from the ocean to 'the westernmost part of Oyster Bay.' On the mainland the dividing line was to begin west of Greenwich Bay, thence to run northward for twenty miles, and beyond that to be left for future determination by the governments of New Netherland and New Haven, with the provisos that it should nowhere come within ten miles of River Mauritius and that the Dutch should nowhere build within six miles of it. Also, the Dutch were to keep their fort and little plot of ground at Hartford. These 'bounds and limits' were to be kept inviolate
. .. both upon the island and the main . .. both by the English of the United Colonies and all the nation without any encroachment or molestation until a full and final determination be agreed upon in Europe by the mutual consent of the two states of England and Hol- land.
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[1650-
This Hartford Treaty laid down the first international boundary lines agreed upon for any territories in North America. It was not concluded between any New England colony and New Netherland but, as its own words say,
. .. betwixt the delegates of the honored commissioners of the United English Colonies and the delegates of Peter Stuyvesant Gov- ernor-General of New Netherlands.
It was signed by these four 'delegates' on September 29 according to the New Style calendar which the Dutch had used since 1582, on September 19 according to the Old Style mode of reckoning adhered to by the English until 1753. Four days later, spread with other documents upon the records of the federal commissioners, it was 'agreed to and subscribed' by them. The two 'umpires,' as they called themselves, who had acted for the Dutch said in a 'relation of the negotiations' which they prepared in the following year to be sent to Holland that it was also agreed at the time that all persons who might afterwards settle on either side of the determined boundaries should 'absolutely depend on and belong under' the government there existing and 'not have any dependency on the other.' No translation of the treaty exists among our Dutch documents.
In accepting this treaty Governor Stuyvesant granted everything that the New Englanders had yet distinctly claimed except the right to settle on the South River. He sent no word to his people of what he had done, and told them when he returned to Manhattan that 'nothing special was transacted.' The true story came in a letter labelled News from New England which was secretly brought to New Amsterdam and thrown in at the window of an English resident. It showed that Stuyvesant himself had hoped for better terms, saying :
He made a great complaint against his two chosen agents, crying out, 'I've been betrayed, I've been betrayed !' Which hearing, some of the English who were waiting outside supposed that he had
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" SUITABLE BURGHER GOVERNMENT "
1653]
run mad and were disposed to go and fetch people to tie him. It seems he never imagined that such hard pills would be given him to digest. . .. New England is thoroughly united with the Dutch governor to her satisfaction, and is well content with him, and speaks of him in terms of great praise especially because he is so liberal and hath allowed himself to be entrapped by her courtesy and hath con- ceeded Greenwich.
Stuyvesant's disappointment seems to be attested also by the fact that he sent no copy of the treaty to Holland. Prob- ably he could not have got better terms even if he had chosen Dutchmen as his 'umpires.' Naturally his people did not think so. It would have been well for his province if the terms he did get had been ratified at once in Europe, for the wide and valuable tracts he surrendered were too thickly populated by Englishmen ever to be reclaimed for Holland, while the treaty formally asserted that those actually occupied by Dutchmen composed the 'Dutch province of New Nether- land.' But, again, Stuyvesant's people could not understand these truths. They felt that a boundary still unsettled would have been better than one which, depriving them of the great 'wampum factory' at Oyster Bay, forced them 'to eat oats out of English hands,' and which surrendered not only the Fresh River and the Red Mount that the Eng- lish called New Haven but even Greenwich, the English settlement nearest their own, the one that Governor Kieft had compelled to acknowledge his jurisdiction.
When the news of the treaty reached Holland Van der Donck was quick to explain, in a careful Memorial on the Boundaries of New Netherland, how the Englishmen had 'pulled the wool' over Stuyvesant's eyes. This was only one of his many efforts to keep the affairs of the province fresh in the mind of the fatherland and to force the granting of 'redress.' He greatly desired to return with his family to New Netherland but the Amsterdam Chamber, against the advice of the other chambers of the Company, forbade its skippers to receive him on any ship. It might better
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[1650-
have let him go. Standing now alone at the Hague he con- tinued with intelligence and valor to fight the battle of New Amsterdam as well as to further in all possible ways the despatch of emigrants from Holland. The ink at New Amster- dam was certainly not frozen at this time, and Van der Donck laid before the States General all the official letters he received with many private ones bearing witness to the governor's vio- lent words and tyrannical deeds.
Cornelis Melyn sailed from Holland again under a safe- conduct from the States General and in charge of some sev- enty colonists sent out by a wealthy merchant, Jonkheer Van der Capellen tho Ryssel, who had bought a half-share in Melyn's Staten Island patroonship. The Company had instructed Stuyvesant that he need not respect safe-conducts given by the government, so he felt free to arrest Melyn, who was forced to put into a Rhode Island port to repair his ship, on a charge of illegal trading. Melyn rebelled. The gov- ernor confiscated and sold his property on Manhattan and also sold the vessel and cargo which belonged to Van der Capellen, finding a purchaser for the ship in Thomas Willett. For this outrage Van der Capellen afterwards obtained in Holland heavy damages from the West India Company.
Fearing to show himself in New Amsterdam Melyn forti- fied his house on Staten Island and guarded it with Raritan Indians, and Van Dyck took refuge with him when he was released from confinement in the fort. Thus actual resistance was added to almost universal opposition, there were 'up- roars' in the streets of New Amsterdam, the council thought best to give the governor a guard of halberdiers, and letters of complaint from the selectmen and from private individuals flew in flocks across the sea.
Orders from Holland had soon reinstated Van Dincklagen as vice-director, but he refused to serve and the governor was now acting with a council of only two or three mem- bers. In December the Nine Men wrote complaining of the Hartford Treaty and describing the 'sorrowful and utterly prostrate condition' of the country. They themselves, they
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1653]
informed Van der Donck, could undertake naught for they were 'nothing more than ciphers and esteemed as a scoff.' Stuyvesant even refused to act on their nomination of new members to take the place of those whose terms were ex- piring. Yet they remained in office and continued to do what they could to supply Van der Donck with fresh ammu- nition.
Before he left Holland Van Tienhoven had drawn up a reply to the people's Remonstrance which consisted chiefly of abuse of their leaders. To rebut their complaints he did indeed bring forward one valid reason why the Company should collect customs dues, saying that, although the New Englanders paid none, all their 'property and means' were taxed in other ways to support their government, civil and military, while the Company assumed this burden for New Netherland. Speciously, however, he argued that of the three taxes levied in New Netherland - which, he said, were an excise on wine of one stiver per can, an excise on beer of three guilders per tun, and a duty of eight per cent on beavers - only the first fell upon the burgher, the tapster paying the second and not the colonist but the merchant in Holland the third. More intelligently the people's spokesmen had said that however taxes were laid and collected the colonist even- tually paid them. In general the policy of the Amsterdam Chamber and its spokesmen all through this long contention was not to argue and not to try to refute arguments but boldly to maintain that all its acts had been right and wise, that no better director-general than Peter Stuyvesant could be found, and that the remonstrants were a 'mutinous rabble' whose appeals were unlawful because neither the other chambers of the Company nor the States General had 'the least authority over New Netherland.'
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