USA > New York > History of the state of New York Vol I > Part 72
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739
PETER STUYVESANT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
the burgomasters explained to a meeting of the citizens CHAP. XX. the terms offered by Nicolls. But this would not suffice ; a copy of the paper itself must be exhibited. Stuyvesant 1664. then went in person to the meeting. "Such a course," Stuyvesant said he, "would be disapproved of in the Fatherland-it to with- endeavors would discourage the people." All his efforts, however, hold them .. were vain ; and the director, protesting that he should not be held answerable for "the calamitous consequences," was obliged to yield to the popular will .*
Nicolls now addressed a letter to Winthrop, who with 2 Sept. other commissioners from New England had joined the ter to Win- Nicolls' let- squadron, authorizing him to assure Stuyvesant that, if throp. Manhattan should be delivered up to the king, "any people from the Netherlands may freely come and plant there, or thereabouts; and such vessels of their own country may freely come thither, and any of them may as freely return home in vessels of their own country." Visiting the city under a flag of truee, Winthrop delivered this to Stuyvesant Handed to outside the fort, and urged him to surrender. The director sant Stuyve- deelincd; and, returning to the fort, he opened Nicolls' let- ter before the council and the burgomasters, who desired that it should be communicated, as "all which regarded the public welfare ought to be made public." Against this Stuyvesant earnestly remonstrated ; and finding that the burgomasters continued firm, in a fit of passion he " tore Stuyvesant the letter in pieces." The citizens, suddenly ceasing their olls' letter. tears Nic- work at the palisades, hurried to the Stadt-Huys, and sent three of their number to the fort to demand the letter. In vain the director hastened to pacify the burghers and urge them to go on with the fortifications. "Complaints and curses" were uttered on all sides against the company's misgovernment; resistance was declared to be idle; "the letter ! the letter !" was the general cry. To avoid a mu- tiny, Stuyvesant yielded, and a copy, made out from the collected fragments, was handed to the burgomasters. In
* Lond Doc., i., 181-187 ; N. Y. Col. MSS., iii., 65-67 ; New Amst. Rec., v., 552-554 ; Alb. Rec., xviii., 302-304, 312-315 ; xxii., 307, 385 ; Hol. Doc., xi., 242-244 ; xii., 98-103, 121, 143-153 ; xiii., 24, 50 ; Kingston Rec. ; Oyster Bay Rec. ; Smith, i., 17-20, 398 ; O'Call., ji., 520-523 ; Bancroft, ii., 314 ; Thompson. ii., 196.
740
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
1664. 2 Sept. Replies to the sum- mons.
CHAP. XX. answer, however, to Nicolls' summons, he submitted a long justification of the Dutch title ; yet, while protesting against any breach of the peace between the king and the States General, " for the hinderance and prevention of all differ- ences and the spilling of innocent blood, not only in these parts, but also in Europe," he offered to treat. "Long Island is gone and lost;" the capital " can not hold out long," was the last dispatch to the "Lords Majors" of New Netherland, which its director sent off that night "in si- lence through Hell-gate."
Last dis- patch to Amster- dam.
English ships an- Fort Am- sterdam.
Observing Stuyvesant's reluctance to surrender, Nicolls directed Captain Hyde, who commanded the squadron, to reduce the fort. Two of the ships accordingly landed their troops just below Breuckelen, where volunteers from New England and the Long Island villages had already encamp- ed. The other two, coming up with full sail, passed in front chor before of Fort Amsterdam, and anchored between it and Nutten Island. Standing on one of the angles of the fortress-an artilleryman with a lighted match at his side-the director watched their approach. At this moment, the two Domi- nes Megapolensis, imploring him not to begin hostilities, led Stuyvesant from the rampart, who then, with a hundred of the garrison, went into the city to resist the landing of the English. ' Hoping on against hope, the director now sent Counselor De Decker, Secretary Van Ruyven, Burgomaster Steenwyck, and Schepen Cousseau, with a letter to Nicolls, stating that though he felt bound "to stand the storm," he desired, if possible, to arrange an accommodation. But the English commander merely declared, "To-morrow I will speak with you at Manhattan." "Friends," was the an- swer, "will be welcome, if they come in a friendly man- Reply of Nicolls. ner." . "I shall come with ships and soldiers," replied Nic- olls ; "raise the white flag of peace at the fort, and then something may be considered."*
25 August.
4 Sept. Stuyvesant proposes an accom- modation.
When this imperious message became known, men,
* Alb. Rec., xviii., 302-304, 316-320 ; xxii., 314-318 ; Gen. Entries, i., 12-26 ; Hol. Doc., xii., 25, 145-163 ; xiii., 54, 55, 94 ; New Amst. Rec., v, 567 ; Drisius to Classis, 15th of September, 1664 ; Smith, i., 20-27 ; Bancroft, ii., 314 ; O'Call., ii., 523-527 ; Thompson, 1., 128, 129.
741
PETER STUYVESANT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
women, and children flocked to the director, besecehing him CHAP. XX. to submit. His only answer was, "I would much rather be carried out dead." The next day, the city authorities, 5 Sept. 1664. the clergymen, and the officers of the burgher guard, as- Remon- strance of the citizen- to Stuyve- sant. sembling at the Stadt-Huys, at the suggestion of Domine Megapolensis adopted a remonstranee to the director, ex- hibiting the hopeless situation of New Amsterdam, on all sides " encompassed and hemmed in by enemies," and pro- testing against any further opposition to the will of God. Besides the sehout, burgomasters, and sehepens, the remon- stranee was signed by Wilmerdonck and eighty-five of the principal inhabitants, among whom was Stuyvesant's own son Balthazar. At last the director was obliged to yield. Although there were now fifteen hundred souls in New Am- Condition sterdam, there were not more than two hundred and fifty of New Amster dam. men able to bear arms, besides the one hundred and fifty regular soldiers. The people had at length refused to be called out, and the regular troops were already heard talk- ing of "where booty is to be found, and where the young women live who wear gold chains." The city, entirely open along both rivers, was shut on the northern side by a breast- work and palisades, which, though sufficient to keep out the savages, afforded no defense against a military siege. There were scarcely six hundred pounds of serviceable powder in store. A council of war had reported Fort Amsterdam un- tenable; for though it mounted twenty-four guns, its single wall of earth, not more than ten feet high and four thiek, was almost touched by the private dwellings clustered around, and was commanded, within a pistol-shot, by hills on the north, over which ran the " Heereweg" or Broadway.
Upon the faith of Nicolls' promise to deliver back the city and fort, " in case the difference of the limits of this province be agreed upon betwixt his majesty of England and the High and Mighty States General," Stuyvesant now commis- 5 Sept. sioned Counselor John de Deeker, Captain Nicholas Varlett, Doctor Samuel Megapolensis, Burgomaster Cornelis Steen- wyck, old Burgomaster Oloff Stevensen van Cortlandt, and old Schepen Jacques Cousseau, to agree upon articles with
Dutch com- ners appointed.
742
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
1664. English commis- sioners.
27 August.
6 Sept. Capitula- tion agreed to at Stuy- vesant's bouwery.
CHAP. XX. the English commander or his representatives. Nicolls, on his part, appointed Sir Robert Carr and Colonel George Cartwright, John Winthrop and Samuel Willys, of Connec- ticut, and Thomas Clarke and John Pynchon, of Massachu- setts. "The reason why those of Boston and Connecticut were joined," afterward explained the royal commander, " was because those two colonies should hold themselves the more engaged with us, if the Dutch had been over-con- fident of their strength." At eight o'clock the next morn- ing, which was Saturday, the commissioners on both sides met at Stuyvesant's "bouwery," and arranged the terms of capitulation. The only difference which arose was re- specting the Dutch soldiers, whom the English refused to convey back to Holland. The articles of capitulation prom- ised the Dutch security in their property, customs of in- heritance, liberty of conscience, and church discipline. The municipal officers of Manhattan were to continue for the present unchanged, and the town was to be allowed to choose deputies, with "free voices in all public affairs." Owners of property in Fort Orange might, if they pleased, "slight the fortifications there," and enjoy their houses " as people do where there is no fort." For six months there was to be free intercourse with Holland. Public records were to be respected. The articles, consented to by Nic- olls, were to be ratified by Stuyvesant the next Monday morning at eight o'clock, and within two hours afterward, the " fort and town called New Amsterdam, upon the Isle of Manhatoes," were to be delivered up, and the military officers and soldiers were to "march out with their arms, drums beating, and colors flying, and lighted matches."*
8 Sept. Surrender sterdam. 'On the following Monday morning at eight o'clock, Stuy- of Fort Am- vesant, at the head of the garrison, marched out of Fort Amsterdam with all the honors of war, and led his soldiers down the Beaver Lane to the water side, whence they were Occupation embarked for Holland. An English corporal's guard at the by the En- same time took possession of the fort; and Nicolls and Carr, of the city glish. with their two companies, about a hundred and seventy
* See articles at length in Appendix, note S.
743
RICHARD NICOLLS, GOVERNOR.
strong, entered the city, while Cartwright took possession CHAP. XX of the gates and the Stadt-Huys. The New England and Long Island volunteers, however, were prudently kept at 1664. the Breuekelen ferry, "as the citizens dreaded most being plundered by them." The English flag was hoisted on Fort Amsterdam, the name of which was immediately Fort Am- changed to " Fort James." Nieolls was now proelaimed called Fort sterdanı by the burgomasters deputy governor for the Duke of York ; James. in compliment to whom he directed that the eity of New Amsterdam should thenceforth be known as "New York." City of To Nieolls' European eye the Dutch metropolis, with its carthen fort inclosing a wind-mill and high flag-staff, a prison and a governor's house, and a double-roofed church, above which loomed a square tower, its gallows and whip- ping-post at the river's side, and its rows of houses which hugged the citadel, presented but a mean appearance. Yet, before long, he described it to the duke as " the best Nicolls' of all his majesty's towns in America," and assured his the city. opinion of royal highness that, with proper management, "within five years the staple of America will be drawn hither, of which the brethren of Boston are very sensible."*
The Dutch frontier posts were thought of next. Colonel Cartwright, with Captains Thomas Willett, John Manning, Thomas Breedon, and Daniel Brodhead, were sent to Fort 28 Sept. Orange, as soon as possible, with a letter from Nieolls re- of Fort Or- Surrender quiring La Montagne and the magistrates and inhabitants ange. to aid in prosecuting his majesty's interest against all who should oppose a peaceable surrender. At the same time, Van Rensselaer was desired to bring down his patent and papers to the new governor, and likewise to observe Cart- wright's directions. Counselor De Deeker, however, trav- elling up to Fort Orange ahead of the English commission- ers, endeavored, without avail, to exeite the inhabitants to opposition ; and his conduct being judged contrary to the
* New Amst. Rec., v., 567-570 ; Alb. Rec., xviii., 321-334 ; Hol. Doc., x., 129-148 ; xi., 164-274 ; xii., 57-64, 104-290 ; xiii., 51, 53 ; Lond. Doc., ii., 53, 64 ; N. Y. Col. MSS., iii., 103, 106 ; Gen. Entries, i., 22-33 : Bushwick Rec. ; Smith, i., 27-32 ; O'Call .. ii., 527-536 ; Bancroft, ii., 315 ; Drisius to Classis, 15th September, 1664 ; Montanus, in Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv., 116 ; Heylin's Cosmography.
New York.
744
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
Fort Or- ange named Fort Albany. 24 Sept. Treaty with the savages.
CHAP. XX. spirit of the capitulation which he had signed, he was soon 1664. afterward ordered out of Nicolls' government. The garri- son quietly surrendered, and the name of Fort Orange was changed to that of "Fort Albany," after the second title of the Duke of York. A treaty was immediately signed between Cartwright and the sachems of the Iroquois, who were promised the same advantages "as heretofore they had from the Dutch ;" and the alliance which was thus renewed continued unbroken until the beginning of the American Revolution .*
3. Sept. Carr sent to the South Riv- er. It only remained to reduce the South River; whither Sir Robert Carr was sent with the Guinea, the William and Nicholas, and "all the soldiers which are not in the fort." To the Dutch he was instructed to promise all their privi- leges, "only that they change their masters." To the Swedes he was to "remonstrate their happy return under a monarchical government." To Lord Baltimore's officers in Maryland he was to say, that their pretended rights be- ing "a doubtful case," possession would be kept until his 30 Sept. majesty "is informed and satisfied otherwise." A tedious 10 October. Reduction of New Amstel. voyage brought the expedition before New Amstel. The burghers and planters, "after almost three days' parley," agreed to Carr's demands, and Ffob Oothout, with five others, signed articles of capitulation which promised large privileges. But the governor and soldiery refusing the En- glish propositions, the fort was stormed and plundered, three of the Dutch being killed and ten wounded. In vio- lation of his promises, Carr now exhibited the most dis- graceful rapacity ; appropriated farms to himself, his broth- er, and Captains Hyde and Morley ; stripped bare the in- habitants, and sent the Dutch soldiers to be "sold as The colony slaves in Virginia." To complete the work, a boat was at the Hore- kill. dispatched to the city's colony at the Horekill, which
* General Entries, i., 35-43 ; Lond. Doc., i., 188 ; ii., 84; N. Y. Col. MSS., iii., 67, 149 ; Renss. MSS .; Smith, i., 33 ; ante, p. 81. Captain Daniel Brodhead, one of the witnesses to this treaty, was a native of Yorkshire, in England, and accompanied Nicolls' expedi- tion to America. Before he left England, he was married to Ann Tye, by whom he had three sons, Daniel, Charles, and Richard. On the 14th of September, 1665, Captan Brod- head was appointed by Governor Nicolls to command the soldiers at Esopus, where he remained until his death in 1670 .- Patents, i., 159, 167, 172.
745
RICHARD NICOLLS, GOVERNOR.
was seized and plundered of all its effects, and the ma- CHAP. XX. rauding party even took "what belonged to the Quaking Society of Plockhoy, to a very naile." 1664.
The reduction of NEW NETHERLAND was now accom- plished. All that could be further done was to change its name ; and, to glorify one of the most bigoted princes in English history, the royal province was ordered to be called "NEW YORK." Ignorant of James' grant of New Jersey to New York. Berkeley and Carteret, Nicolls gave to the region west of the Hudson the name of " Albania," and to Long Island Albania that of " Yorkshire," so as "to comprehend all the titles" shire. and York- of the Duke of York. ' The flag of England was at length triumphantly displayed, where, for half a century, that of Holland had rightfully waved; and, from Virginia to Can- ada, the King of Great Britain was acknowledged as sov- ereign. Viewed in all its aspects, the event which gave to the whole of that country a unity in allegiance, and to which a misgoverned people complacently submitted, was as inevitable as it was momentous. But, whatever may have been its ultimate consequences, this treacherous and violent seizure of the territory and possessions of an unsus- pecting ally was no less a breach of private justice than of public faith. It may, indeed, be affirmed that, among all the acts of selfish perfidy which royal ingratitude con- ceived and executed, there have been few more character- istie, and none more base .*
So passed away the Dutch dominion in North America. Step by step, we have traced the circumstances of the dis- covery and occupation of the Batavian province ; the in- troduction of the religion, jurisprudence, and customs of the Fatherland ; the establishment of its system of town- ships and municipal governments ; the transfer of local names in the Old World, which the colonists of the New always remembered with affection; the intermingling of various creeds and races ; the growth of foreign commerce ;
* General Entries, i., 58, 59 ; Hol. Doc., xi., 230, 231 ; Lond. Doc., i , 196-206 ; ii., I, 23, 61, 95; iv., 178-180; N. Y. Col. MSS., iii., 70-74, 83, 92, 105, 115, 345, 346 ; O'Call., ii., 537, 538, 593, 594 ; B. F. Butler, in ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., il., 27 ; ante, p. 701, 736.
746
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. XX. and the development of principles of civil liberty under try- 1664. ing and adverse circumstances. We have noticed the ori- gin of the feudal relation of patroons and colonists or ten- ants, and the predominance of the better class of independ- ent freeholders. We have seen the aboriginal red man made a friend and an enemy; and we have observed the progress of foreign encroachment ending in the supremacy of foreign power.
It has been remarked that the system of political ad- ministration, which at first oppressed New Netherland, dif- fered widely from that which the Dutch colonists enjoyed in the country of their birth. The province had been un- wisely intrusted to the government of a close commercial corporation, than which no government can be less favor- able to popular liberty. In its scheme of political admin- istration, the West India Company exhibited too often a mercantile and selfish spirit ; and, in encouraging com- merce in negro slaves, it established an institution which subsisted many generations after its authority had ceased. Its provincial agents, burdened at length with the added care of Curacoa, generally displayed more devotion to the interests of the directors in Holland than to those of the community over which they were placed. Nevertheless, the popular voice, coming far across the sea, was heard and respected in the palace at the Hague; and the grievances of the earnest remonstrants were, from time to time, abated by the interference of the States General. Against all the withering influences under which they laid the broad foun- dations of a mighty state, the colonists of New Netherland steadily achieved their own purposes, and, by degrees, won for themselves the franchises of their brethren who remain- ed at home. In the end, happier principles of government prevailed; and the unnatural spirit of bigotry and persecu- tion, which for a time blemished the administration of the province, yielded to the maxims of toleration and magna- nimity which distinguished the people of the Netherlands.
Enjoying an admirable geographical position, New York possesses annals not surpassed by those of any other state
747
CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE OF ITS FOUNDERS.
in the American Union in topics of varied character, ro- CHAP. XX. mantic incident, and instructive lesson. Nor does her ear- ly history relate alone to those confines which now limit 1664. her territory. New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Con- necticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts, either wholly or in part, were comprehended within her original bound- aries, and they all partake, to a greater or less degree, in the interest of her peculiar story.
The pioneers of New York left their impress deep upon the state. Far-reaching eommeree, which had made Old Amsterdam the Tyre of the seventeenth century, early pro- voked the envy of the colonial neighbors of New Amster- dam, and, in the end, made her the emporium of the West- ern World. Longer lines of barges than those which onee crowded the Batavian canals are now drawn, from the great lakes to the ocean, through those magnificent chan- nels which the experience of Holland suggested, and the enterprise of her children helped to construet. Buildings, as solid and as quaint as those which graee the " Heeren- Gracht," stood as monuments of the olden time, until ne- cessity, the desire of gain, or a distaste for what is venera- ble, doomed them to destruetion. Cherished holidays yet recall the memory of the genial anniversaries of the Fa- therland ; and year by year the people are invited to ren- der thanks to their God, as their forefathers were invited, long before Manhattan was known, and while New En- gland was yet a desert. Those forefathers humbly wor- shiped the King of kings, while they fearlessly rejected the kings of men. The children of such ancestors were well fitted to aet an important part in the great work of opening the continent of Anierica to the eivilization of Eu- rope. They added no ignoble ingredient to the Union's blended masses.
The emigrants who first explored the coasts and reelaim- ed the soil of New Netherland, and bore the flag of Hol- land to the wigwams of the Iroquois, were generally bluff, plain-spoken, earnest, yet unpresumptuous men, who spon- taneously left their native land to better their condition,
748
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. XX. and bind another province to the United Netherlands. They 1664. brought over with them the liberal ideas, and honest max- ims, and homely virtues of their country. They introduced their church and their schools, their Domines and their schoolmasters. They carried along with them their huge clasped Bibles, and left them heir-looms in their families. They gave the names which they had loved in their Low- land homes to the new abodes which they chose among the red men of the forest. They came with no loud-sound- ing pretensions to grandeur in purpose, eminence in holi- ness, or superiority in character. They were more accus- tomed to do than to boast; nor have their descendants been ambitious to invite and appropriate excessive praise for the services their ancestors rendered in extending the limits of Christendom, and in stamping upon America its distinguishing features of freedom in religion and liberal- ity in political faith. Born in a land where the first les- sons of childhood were lessons of self-reliance and unceas- ing toil, they brought into the wilderness their hereditary habits of industry and thrift, that they might win and en- joy the rewards of active labor. Benevolent and social, they desired to see all around them happy ; the enfran- chised African might, and did obtain a freehold; while the negro who remained under an institution of patriarchal simplicity, scarcely knowing he was in bondage, danced merrily as the best, in "kermis," at Christmas and Pinck- ster. Husbandmen and traders they chiefly were. Yet men of science and acquirement were not wanting among the fathers of New York. Van der Donck, Megapolensis, and De Vries published valuable materials for our early history ; while the correspondence of Stuyvesant, Beeck- man, and Van Rensselaer sufficiently attests their scholar- ship and capacity. The clergymen of the province were all men of thorough education ; Van Dincklagen, Van Schelluyne, and De Sille were learned in the law; La Montagne, Staats, Kierstede, Van Imbroeck, Du Parck, Curtius, and Megapolensis were eminent as physicians and surgeons. In the annals of no other state are there names
749
CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE OF ITS FOUNDERS.
more patriotic and honorable than those of Kuyter, Melyn, CHAP. XX. and Van Curler.
Although Hollanders formed the chief element in the population of New Netherland, a happy intermixture of other races contributed to insure the prosperity of the state. Venerating the liberal example of their ancestral land, the first occupants of the province looked upon commeree as the solvent of national antipathies ; and, without requir- ing uniformity in doetrine, or a homogeneous lineage, they made the hearth-stone the test of citizenship, and demand- ed residence and loyalty as the only obligations of their multifarious associates. Thus Walloons, Waldenses, Hu- guenots, Swedes, Roman Catholics, German Lutherans, Anabaptists, and English Quakers all planted themselves beside the natives of Holland. The Dutch provinee always had both popular freedom and public spirit enough to at- tract within its borders voluntary immigrants from the neighboring British colonies. If the Fatherland gave an asylum to self-exiled Puritans of England, New Nether- land as liberally sheltered refugees from the intolerant gov- ernments on her eastern frontier. And in the cordial wel- come which her earliest burghers gave to all who sought permanent homes among them, may be traced the origin of that large and comprehensive spirit which has made the island of Manhattan the attractive metropolis of the Co- lumbian World.
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