USA > New York > The Empire State: a compendious history of the commonwealth of New York > Part 9
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Excepting troubles occasioned by the arbitrary rule of the director- general, the religious intolerance practised and fostered by him, and occasional outside pressure from the Puritans and others, New Nether- land enjoyed peace and prosperity for almost ten years after the conquest of New Sweden and the suppression of Indian hostilities.
There was some serious trouble at one time in 1659 with the barbarians at Esopus, in (present) Ulster County, among whom the Dutch had made a settlement. The latter brought a dreadful calamity that befell them upon themselves. Some Indians, sleeping off the effects of a drunken carouse, were wantonly fired upon by the soldiers of a Dutch garrison on the site of Rondout, and several were killed. The Indians flew to arms. Farms were desolated, buildings were burned, cattle and horses were killed, and many human beings perished. Stuyvesant, when he heard of the trouble, hastened to Esopus and soon quelled the great disturbance.
The Dutch were also much disturbed in 1659 by claims made for the proprietor of Maryland to the whole region embraced in New Sweden. An embassy composed of two sturdy burghers-Heermans and Waldron-was sent to Maryland to confer with the authorities there. Dining with Secretary Calvert, they were surprised by his claiming that Maryland extended to the limits of New England.
" Where, then, would remain New Netherland ?" asked the envoys.
69
SOCIAL ASPECTS OF NEW AMSTERDAM.
" I do not know," replied the secretary, with provoking calmness.
The envoys were provoked. They utterly " denied, disowned, and rejected " the claim for Lord Baltimore, and with great spirit maintained that of the Dutch. The con- ference was ended without any immediate results, and the envoys returned to New Amsterdam.
The New Englanders were again pressing territorial claims, and within and with- out New Netherland the Anglo-Saxon progressive ele- ment was menacing the integ- rity of the Dutch realm in America. New Amsterdam increased in wealth and popu- lation. A wooden palisade or "wall," extending from river to river along the line of (present) Wall Street, from A DUTCH WIND-MILL. which it derives its name, was constructed. A village was founded on a fertile plain in the upper part of Manhattan Island, and it was called "Harlem." It was planted there "for the promotion of agricultural gardening-and the amuse-
.
A DUTCH PLEASURE WAGON.
ment for the people of New Amsterdam." They erected a wind-mill there like those in Holland. Between the city and the village might frequently be seen farm wagons on the only road, laden with garden
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THE EMPIRE STATE.
products, and occasionally a Dutch pleasure wagon so familiar to travel- lers in Holland, at that time, conveying a part of the family to a social gathering. The little city contained many happy homes, where people of cheerful but often uncultivated minds and affectionate hearts .domiciled, and life was enjoyed in a dreamy, quiet blissfulness which is quite unknown in these days of bustle and noise. Very little attention was given to political matters by the commonalty or the mass of the people, but there were many thoughtful men and women who were restive under the rule of the director-general. Some of them declared they would be willing to endure English rule for the sake of English liberty. They were soon given an opportunity to try the experiment.
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AN ASYLUM FOR THE OPPRESSED OFFERED.
CHAPTER VI.
A CRISIS in the affairs of New Netherland now approached. Mon- archy was restored in England in 1660, and a son of the decapitated Charles I. was set upon the throne of his father as Charles II. This had not been done by the voice of even a majority of the people, and the new monarch, wishing to conciliate all parties, proclaimed "liberty to tender consciences" in all his dominions. But this was only a State trick, as the sad experience of the Dissenters soon taught them.
The Dutch West India Company determined to follow the example of King Charles by expressing " tenderness" for consciences, for their own benefit. They claimed the domains of New Jersey as a part of the realm of New Netherland. It was almost wholly unoccupied by settlers. De- siring to allure the disappointed and persecuted Dissenters in England to their domain, they prepared a charter, which was approved by the States-General, to meet the aspirations of tender consciences. The States-General passed an act in February, 1661, granting to " all Chris- tian people of tender consciences, in England or elsewhere oppressed, full liberty to erect a colony in the West Indies, between New England and Virginia, in America, now within the jurisdiction of Peter Stuyve- sant, the States-General's governor for the Dutch West India Company." All concerned were forbidden to hinder Dutch colonists, and were enjoined to afford them " all favorable help and assistance where it shall be needful."
This widening of the tents of toleration and the freedom of the citizens again troubled the soul of the aristocratic Stuyvesant, who was bigotedly loyal to the doctrines and discipline of the Dutch Reformed Church, and he now began those petty persecutions already alluded to which made the Manhattan people more than ever displeased with his adminis- tration. He seemed to have a special dislike of the Quakers, and dis- ciplined them with imprisonments and banishments. To a fiery temper like that of Stuyvesant their imperturbability was an offence and annoy- ance. Their serenity of deportment made him angry. But his persecu- tions had very little effect in suppressing the aspirations of the people.
Emigrants from Old and New England settled here and there between the Hudson and Delaware rivers, and in 1662 a colony of Mennonites from Holland-followers of Simon Menno, who were Anabaptists-settled on
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THE EMPIRE STATE.
the Hore Kill, in the region of ruined Swaanendael (see p. ), and there formed an association and adopted seventeen articles of agreement for their government. The Association was composed of married men, at least twenty-four years of age, and out of debt. No clergyman was admitted to the Association. Their religious rites were few and simple. Desirous of maintaining harmony, they excluded " all intractable people -such as those in communion with the Roman See ; usurions Jews ; English stiff-necked Quakers ; Puritans ; foolhardy believers in the Millennium, and obstinate modern pretenders to revelation." With Peter Plockhoy as their leader, they flourished until the colony was plundered and ruined by the English, in 1664, " not sparing even a raile."
Another Dutch colony was founded on the Delaware in 1656 by the city of Amsterdam and named New Anistel. The land was bought by the city from the Dutch West India Company. It suffered many mis- fortunes, and finally perished with New Netherland. This colony was
Kik: Brockmank
SIGNATURE OF WILLIAM BEECKMAN.
planted under Stuyvesant's jurisdiction, who, in order to have more direct and sure control of its affairs, appointed William Beeckman Vice- Director and Commissary of New Amstel .*
In the summer of 1663 the peace which had reigned at Esopus for three years was suddenly broken. A new village called Wiltwyck (now Kingston) had been built up, and in comfortable log cottages the inhab- itants had been living in fancied security for some time. The village
* William Beeckman was born in Overyssel in 1623, and came to New Netherland in the same ship with Stuyvesant. His wife was Catharine de Bergh, by whom he had six children, one of whom married a son of the governor, Nicholas William Stuyvesant. Beeckman was a schepen or alderman of New Amsterdam, secretary and vice-director of New Amstel, where he managed judiciously in diplomacy with the English representatives of Maryland. He was at one time commissary at Esopus. He was alderman in 1679 under English rule, having been burgomaster when the Dutch last possessed the city. He re- tired from public life in 1696, and died in 1707, in the eighty-fifth year of his age. " William" and " Beekman" streets, in New York, derived their names from him, and still retain them.
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WAR WITH THE INDIANS-REVOLT ON LONG ISLAND.
was palisaded, and at the mouth of Rondout Creek the Dutch built a ronduit-a redoubt-which made the Indians suspicious of their inten- tions. One day in early June, while the men were working in the fields and the village gates were wide open, bands of barbarians entered, and with friendly pretence offered beans and corn for sale at the doors of the cottages. Suddenly they began to plunder, burn, and murder. As the men rushed from the fields toward their blazing dwellings they were shot down. The living men were finally rallied by the schout, Swartwout, and drove the Indians away. Twenty-one lives had been sacrificed, nine persons were wounded, and forty-five, mostly women and children, were carried away captives.
Great alarm was spread throughout the province, and expeditions were sent against the Esopus Indians from Fort Amsterdam and Fort Orange. These chased the offenders far into the wilderness. Thirty miles from Wiltwyek they destroyed an Indian fort and rescued many of the captives.
The power of the barbarians was now broken, and it was soon erushed. Meanwhile the hostilities of the Indians among themselves on the borders of the white settlements made the Europeans constantly fearful and vigilant. At the same time the Connecticut people were continually encroaching. There was a revolt on Long Island, and the very existenee of New Netherland was threatened. There were ever premonitions of such an event, which actually occurred the next year.
Informed late in 1663 that King Charles had granted to his brother James, Duke of York, the whole of Long Island, several of the principal English settlements combined in forming a sort of provisional govern- ment in that region. There was then among them Captain John Scott, who had been a disturber of the peace for several years. He had lately come back from England with pretended powers. He had elaimed that the Indians had sold to him a large portion of Long Island, and he issued fraudulent deeds. This man the combined English settlements made their provisional president until " His Majesty's mind should be known." With an armed party he sought to force Duteh settlements to join the league, but failed. At the beginning of 1664 Seott departed for Eng- land after a conference at Hempstead with representatives of Stuyvesant, when he informed them that the Duke of York was resolved to possess himself not only of Long Island, but of the whole of New Netherland. Stuyvesant was startled and perplexed by this announcement of the " usurper," as he called Scott, and he asked the advice of his Council and the municipal authorities of New Amsterdam. They recommended the complete fortifying of the city. The director-general then ordered
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THE EMPIRE STATE.
an election of delegates for a General Provincial Assembly, to meet in New Amsterdam in April. They assembled in the City Hall. There were delegates from Fort Orange, Rensselaerwyck, Esopus, and all the Dutch settlements ; but they were powerless to avert the impending blow, which was to annihilate Dutch dominion in North America .*
The profligate British monarch resolved to rob the Dutch of all New Netherland. With no more right to the domain than had the arch- tempter to " all the kingdoms of the earth," but governed by the ethies of the mailed hand-" might makes right"-and that cannons are the " last arguments of kings," he gave to his royal brother, the Duke of York, a patent for the Dutch terri- JEREMIAS VAN RENSSELAER. tory-" all the lands and rivers from the west side of Connecticut River to the east side of Delaware Bay." The patent included Long Island, Staten Island, and all the adjacent islands.
As Lord High Admiral of the Royal Navy, the duke at once detached four ships-of-war for service in asserting his claim by Richard nicholls force of arms, if necessary. The king provided four hun- dred and fifty regular soldiers SIGNATURE OF RICHARD NICOLLS. for the same purpose, and intrusted the command of the expedition to Colonel Richard Nicolls, a staneh Royalist and court favorite, who had served under the great
* This General Provisional Assembly was presided over by Jeremias van Rensselaer, the second patroon and director of Rensselaerwyck. New Amsterdam was represented by Cornelis Steenwyck, burgomaster, and Jacob Bachker ; Rensselaerwyck, by Jeremias van Rensselaer and Dirck van Schelluyne, its secretary ; Fort Orange (Albany), by Jan Verbeek and Gerritt van Slechtenhorst ; Breuckelen, by William Bredenbent and Albert Cornelis Wantenaar ; Midwout, by Jan Strycker and William Guillians ; Amersfoort, by Elbert Elbertsen and Coert Stevensen ; New Utrecht, by David Jochemsen and Cornelis Beeckman ; Boswyck (Bushwick), by Jan van Cleef and Gyshert Teunissen ; Wiltwyck, by Thomas Chambers and Gyshert van Imbroeck ; Bergen, by Engelbert Steenhuysen and Hermann Smeeman ; and Staten Island, by David de Marest and Pierre Billou, This was the third and last popular assembly convened at New Amsterdam.
25
A BRITISH ARMAMENT APPEARS.
Marshal Turenne, and bore the commission of governor of the province after it should be secured to the duke. Associated with Nicolls were Sir Robert Carr, Colonel George Cartwright, and Samuel Maverick, as royal commissioners, instructed to visit the several colonies in New England and demand their assistance in reducing the Dutch to submission.
Stuyvesant had been assured by the misled Amsterdam Chamber that no danger need be apprehended from the Brit- ish expedition, for it had been sent out to visit the English-
Robert Carr
SIGNATURES OF CARR AND CARTWRIGHT.
American colonies to settle affairs among them and to introduce episco- pacy. Soothed by this assurance, the work of fortifying New Amster- dam was suspended, vigilance was relaxed, and the director-general went up to Fort Orange at near the close of July to look after affairs there.
This dreamed-of security was suddenly dispelled. Early in August intelligence came from Boston that the expedition was actually on the New England coast on its way to New Amsterdam. Stuyvesant, apprised of the fact, hastened back to his capital, and the municipal authorities ordered one third of the inhabitants, without exceptions, to labor every third day in fortifying the city. A permanent guard was organized, and a call was made on the provincial government for artillery and ammunition. Twenty great guns and a thousand pounds of powder were immediately furnished. But the inhabitants did not work with much enthusiasm in preparations for defence, for English influence and the director-general's temper and deportment had alienated the people, and they were indifferent. Some of them regarded the expected invaders as welcome friends. Stuyvesant had shorn himself of strength, and when now, in his extremity, he began to make concessions to the people, it was too late. The sceptre had departed from him. Loyal to his masters in Holland, he resolved to defend the city until the last, and entreated the people to sustain him.
At the close of August the British armament anchored outside the Narrows -- the entrance to the harbor of New Amsterdam-and on Satur- day, the 30th, Nicolls sent to Stuyvesant a summons to surrender the fort and city. He also sent a proclamation to the inhabitants promising perfect security of person and property to all who should submit to " His Majesty's Government." Stuyvesant immediately called his
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THE EMPIRE STATE.
council and the burgomasters to a conference at the fort. He would not allow the terms offered by Nicolls to the people to be communicated to them. "It would not be approved in Fatherland," he said, for he believed " calamitous consequences" would follow by making them insist upon capitulating. There was also a meeting of other city officers and the burghers, at the City Hall, who determined to prevent the enemy from surprising the town, if possible, and yet they leaned toward submission, seeing resistance would be in vain.
The Sabbath passed by and no answer was returned to the summons of Nicolls. The people, uncertain as to what was going on, became much excited. On Monday the citizens assembled, when the burgo- masters explained to them the terms offered by Nicolls. This was not sufficient. They demanded a sight of the proclamation. Stuyvesant went in person to the meeting, and told the people that such a course would " be disapproved in Fatherland." They were not satisfied, and clamored for a sight of the proclamation.
Meanwhile, Governor Winthrop, of Connecticut, who was on friendly terms with Stuyvesant and had joined the squadron, received from Nicolls a letter repeating his terms offered in the proclamation, and authorizing Winthrop to assure the Dutch governor that Hollanders, citizens or merchants, should have equal privileges with the English if he would quietly surrender.
Winthrop, under a flag of truce, delivered this letter to Stuyvesant out- side the fort and urged him to surrender. The proud director-general promptly refused, and withdrawing to the Council-room within he opened and read the letter before the assembled Council and burgo- masters. They urged him to communicate the letter to the people, as " all which regarded the public welfare ought to be made public."
The governor stoutly refused to yield. The Council and burgomasters as stontly insisted upon the just measure, when the director-general, who had fairly earned the title of "Peter the Headstrong," unable to control his passions, tore the letter in pieces and threw it upon the floor. When the people who were at work on the palisades heard of this scene they dropped their implements and hastened to the City Hall. Thence they sent a deputation to Stuyvesant to demand the letter. In vain he attempted, in person, to satisfy the burghers and urge them to go on with the fortification. They would not listen to him, but uttered curses against his administration.
" The letter ! the letter !" they shouted.
The governor stormed. The people shouted more vociferously :
" The letter ! the letter !"
SURRENDER OF NEW NETHERLAND DEMANDED.
The burghers were on the verge of open insurrection. To avert sueh a calamity, the sturdy old governor yielded. He allowed the fragments of the torn letter to be picked up from the floor of the Council chamber and a fair copy to be made and given to the people ; and he sent off in silence that night, through the dangerous strait of Hell Gate, in a small Dutch vessel, a despatch to the Amsterdam Chamber, saying : "Long Island is gone and lost ; the capital cannot hold out long." This was Stuyvesant's last official despatch as Governor of New Netherland.
Receiving no reply from Stuyvesant, Nieolls landed some troops and anchored two ships-of-war in the channel between Fort Amsterdam and the Governor's Island. Stuyvesant saw all this from the ramparts of his fort, but would not yield. He knew the extreme weakness of the fort and city, yet his proud will would not readily bend. Yielding at length to the persuasions of Dominie Megopolensis * (who had led him from the ramparts), he sent a deputation to Nicolls with a letter, in which he said that, though he felt bound to " stand the storm," he desired, if possible, to arrange an accommodation. Nicolls curtly replied :
" To-morrow I will speak with you at Manhattan." Stuyvesant as curtly replied :
" Friends will be welcome if they come in a friendly manner."
Johannes Megapolenfie
SIGNATURE OF JOHN MEGOPOLENSIS.
" I shall come with ships and soldiers," answered Nicolls. " Raise the white flag of peace at the fort, and then something may be eon- sidered."
When this imperious message became known men, women, and chil- dren flocked to the director-general beseeching him to submit. The brave old soldier said : " I would much rather be carried out dead ;"
* Dr. John Megopolensis, a learned clergyman, was brought to Rensselaerwyck with his family from Holland at the expense of the patroon, and employed there as a clergy- man for six years, when he went home. He soon came back, became a patentce of Flat- bush, on Long Island, and organized a church there. His jealousy of and intolerant con- duct toward the Lutherans called an admonition from Holland. He was a man greatly beloved by Stuyvesant, and became the governor's most trusted adviser in public affairs. He accompanied Stuyvesant on his expedition against the Swedes in 1655. His carnest missionary spirit caused him to form a warm friendship for Father Le Moyne, the French Roman Catholic missionary among the Indians. He bore communications to Nicolls from Stuyvesant, and advised the surrender of the province to the English. After the surrender he and the English chaplain preached alternately in the church at the fort. He preached on Long Island also. Dominie Megopolensis died in New York, when his widow returned to Holland.
THE EMPIRE STATE.
but when the city authorities, the clergy, and the principal inhabitants of the city, and even his own son, Balthazar, urged him to yield, " Peter the Headstrong," who had a heart " as big as an ox and a head that would have set adamant to scorn," consented to capitulate.
On the morning of September Sth, 1664, the last of the Dutch gov- ernors of New York led his soldiers from the fort down Beaver Lane to the place of embarkation for Holland. An hour later an English cor- poral's guard took possession of the fort and raised over it the red cross of St. George, when its name was changed to Fort James, in honor of the duke. Nicolls and Carr, with nearly two hundred soldiers, then entered the city, when the burgomasters duly proclaimed the former the deputy-governor of the province, which, with the city of New Amster- dam, he named " New York" in honor of the duke's first or English
18Hmyfamily
Or donnantw Dando Soloci mig
SIGNATURES OF STUYVESANT AND HIS SECRETARY, VAN RUYVEN .*
title. The surrender of the garrison at Fort Orange soon followed, and the name of that post was changed to " Albany" in honor of the duke's second or Scotch title. Long Island was named " Yorkshire," and the region now known as New Jersey was named " Albania." Very soon
* Cornelis van Ruyven was appointed provincial secretary in 1653, and performed excellent service for Governor Stuyvesant for about eleven years. He was employed in diplomacy at various points in the province, on the South River and at Hartford. He was one of a committee who carried the letter from Governor Stuyvesant to Colonel Nicolls consenting to a surrender of the province to the English. Above is the signature of Van Ruyven signed officially below that of Stuyvesant to a Dutch document in my possession, dated May, 1664. The document bears the seal of New Netherland, seen on page 27 of this volume. Stuyvesant also had an Englishi secretary-George Baxter-for a few years.
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GOVERNMENT OF NEW NETHERLAND.
every part of New Netherland quietly submitted to the English, and so passed away forever Dutch dominion in North America.
The government of New Netherland under Dutch rule was little better than a caricature of the political system under which the Dutch colonists had lived happily in their native land. The province during its whole career of forty years had been controlled by a close commercial corpora- tion, whose chief aim was the selfish one of pecuniary profit. The magistrates sent to preside over its public affairs were selected as sup- posed fit representatives of the great monopoly's aims and interests, and are not to be judged by the standard of those in power, whose chief aim is the happiness of the people and the building up of a State on the per- manent foundations of wisdom and justice. The Dutch then (as now) were distinguished for their honesty, integrity, industry, thrift, and frugality.
NEW AMSTERDAM, 1664.
The purity of their morals and the decorousness of their manners were always conspicuous. This may, perhaps, be justly ascribed to the influ- ence of their women, who were devoted wives and mothers and modest maidens. The women were remarkable for their executive ability in managing affairs, and their housekeeping was perfect in cleanliness and order.
As population and wealth increased at New Amsterdam much taste was frequently displayed in their dwellings. At the time of the sur- render the city, within the palisades, or below Wall Street, contained about three hundred houses and fully fifteen hundred inhabitants.
Colonel Nicolls described it as "the best of His Majesty's towns in America." At first the houses were built of logs ; the roofs were thatched with reeds and straw ; the chimneys were made of wood, and the light of their windows entered through oiled paper. Finally the thatched roofs and wooden chimneys gave place to tiles and shingles and
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brick. The better houses were built of brick imported from Holland, until some enterprising citizens established a brickyard on the island during the administration of Stuyvesant.
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