New Netherland.
To the Binnenhof, at The Hague, repaired deputies from the Amsterdam company of merchants and traders to have an audience with the States-General of Holland, to solicit aSeal of New Netherland. |
State-House in New York. |
While Wouter Van Twiller was governor of New Netherland, Jacob Eelkins, the Dutch West India Company's former commandant at Fort Orange, entered the mouth of the Hudson in an English vessel (April 18, 1633), and avowed his determination to ascend the river and trade with the Indians. He was in the English service, and claimed that the country belonged to the English, because it had been discovered by a subject of England, Hudson. Van Twiller ordered the Orange flag to be raised over Fort Amsterdam as the best defiance of the intruder. Eelkins as promptly ran up the English flag above his vessel (the William), weighed anchor, and sailed up the river. This audacity enraged Van Twiller. He gathered the people, opened a barrel of wine, drank glassful after glassful, and cried, “You who love the Prince of Orange and me do this, and assist me in repelling the insult committed by that Englishman.” Having thus unburdened his soul, the governor retired within the fort. Later in the day the energetic De Vries dined with the governor, and reproved him for his show of impotence. After a few days of hesitation, some small craft with some soldiers were sent after Eelkins, and after the lapse of about a month the William was expelled from the harbor.
The Dutch early took measures to encourage emigration to New Netherland By a new “Charter of privileges and exemptions,” adopted July 17, 1640, patroonships were limited, for the future, to 4 miles of frontage on navigable waters, with a depth of 8 miles; and every person transporting himself and five others to the colony was allowed 200 acres of land; and such villages and towns as might be [392] formed were to have magistrates of their own choosing. A proclamation was issued offering free-trade to New Netherland (in the ships of the West India Company) and transportation thither to all who wished to go; and emigrants were offered lands, houses, cattle, and farming tools at a very moderate annual rent, and a supply of clothes and provisions on credit. At that time, of the ten large patroonships originally established, only Rensselaerswick remained. Immigrants, composed chiefly of persecuted persons or indentured servants who had served out their time, flocked into New Netherland, where they might enjoy freedom such as existed in Holland. They came from New England and Virginia, and very soon there was a considerable English element in society in New Netherland.
The first address of the people of New Netherland to the authorities in Holland was in October and November, 1643. The savage conduct of Gov. William Kieft (q. v.) towards the surrounding Indians had brought the Dutch colony into great distress because of the hostilities of the barbarians. Kieft, in the extremity of perplexity, had called the people together to consult upon the crisis, and begged them to choose a new popular council They chose eight energetic citizens, who seized the reins of government and prepared for defence. On Oct. 24 they addressed to the College of XIX. at Amsterdam, and on Nov. 3, to the States-General, statements of the sad condition of the colony caused by Kieft's bad conduct Two letters were also sent directly by citizens of New Amsterdam, written in simple but eloquent language. In these letters the Eight Men drew a pitiable pict-
Map of New Netherland, with a view of New Amsterdam (now New York), A. D. 1656. |
Uncas, the Mohegan sachem, always bent on mischief, spread a report, in the spring of 1653, that Ninegret, a Niantic sachem, uncle of Miantonomoh, had visited New Amsterdam during the preceding winter, and had arranged with the Dutch governor (Stuyvesant) a plot for a general insurrection of the natives and the murder of the New England settlers. The story caused such alarm (England had just declared war against Holland) that the commissioners of the New England confederacy assembled in special session at Boston in May. They sent messengers to Ninegret and Pessacus to inquire into the matter, and envoys and a letter to Governor Stuyvesant. They also ordered 500 men to be raised, to be ready in case “God called the colonists to war.” The sachems totally denied any knowledge of such a plot, and Stuyvesant indignantly repelled even a suspicion, and sent back a declaration of the grievances of the Dutch. These denials were rebutted by the testimony of English and Indian malcontents in New Amsterdam. On the report of the envoys, the commissioners at Boston determined on war; but the General Court of Massachusetts desired the opinions of the clergy. The latter thought they saw plain evidence of “an execrable plot tending to the destruction of many dear saints of God,” but were opposed to going to war. Other ministers urged war, and so did a majority of the commissioners, but the General Court denied the power to make “offensive war” without unanimous consent. Meanwhile Connecticut and New Haven, bent on war, united in a solicitation to Cromwell to fit out an expedition to conquer New Netherland, and the towns of Stamford and Fairfield, on the Dutch frontier, attempted to raise volunteers to make war against the Dutch on their own account. At another meeting (September, 1653) the commissioners, believing they were “called by God to make present war on Ninegret,” ordered 250 men to be raised for that purpose. The Massachusetts court again interfered, and prevented war. Cromwell, however, sent three ships and a few troops to attack New Netherland, but before they reached America the war with Holland was over, and the expedition, under John Leverett and Robert Sedgwick, proceeded to capture Acadia (q. v.) from La Tour, who laid claim to it because of a grant made to his father by Sir William Alexander.
Late in August, 1664, a land and naval armament, commanded by Col. Richard Nicolls, anchored in New Utrecht Bay, just inside of the present Coney Island There Nicolls was joined by Governor Winthrop, of Connecticut, several magistrates of that colony, and two leading men from Boston. Governor Stuyvesant was at Fort Orange (Albany) when news of this armament reached him. He hastened back to New Amsterdam, and on Aug. 30, Nicolls sent to the governor a summons to surrender the fort and city. He also sent a proclamation to the citizens, promising perfect security of person and property to all who should quietly submit to English rule. Stuyvesant assembled his council and the magistrates at the fort for consultation. The people, smarting under Stuyvesant's iron rule, panted for English liberty, and were lukewarm, to say the least. The council and magistrates favored submission without resistance. The governor, true to his superiors and his convictions of duty, would not listen to such a proposition, [394]
Stuyvesant tearing up the letter demanding the surrender of New Amsterdam. |
Charles II. granted the province of New Netherland to his brother James, Duke of York, without competent authority, and, having the power, the duke took possession by an armed force in 1664, and ruled it by governors appointed by himself. The name of the province was changed to New York. In 1673, the English and Dutch were again at war. A
Surrender of Fort Amsterdam. |
For many years there were sharp disputes between New Netherland and its colonial neighbors concerning boundary lines. On Sept. 19, 1650, Governor Stuyvesant arrived at Hartford, and demanded of the commissioner of the Connecticut colony a full surrender of the lands on the Connecticut River. After a consultation for several days, it was agreed to leave the matter to arbitrators. The commissioner chose Simon Bradstreet, of Massachusetts, and Thomas Prince, of Plymouth; Stuyvesant chose Thomas Willett and George Baxter, both Englishmen. It was agreed that on Long Island a line should be drawn from the westernmost part of Oyster Bay straight to the sea; the easterly part to belong to the English, the remainder to the Dutch. On the mainland a line should begin at the west side of Greenwich Bay, about 4 miles from Stamford, and run northerly 20 miles; and beyond that distance, as it should be agreed by the two governments of the Dutch and New Haven, provided that line should not come within 10 miles of the Hudson River. It was also agreed that the Dutch should not build a house within 6 miles of the dividing line. In 1659 a deputation arrived at New Amsterdam from Maryland to present the claim of Lord Baltimore to the whole territory of the South River, or Delaware, to lat. 40° N. The Dutch resorted to negotiation instead of a hopeless open resistance by arms, though the courageous Stuyvesant was disposed to do so. After much discussion the Baltimore patent was shown to the commissioners, in which was a clause limiting the proprietor's grant to lands hitherto uncultivated and inhabited only by Indians The Dutch commissioners rested their case on this clause. They argued that the South River region was distinctly excluded from Lord Baltimore's patent by its own terms, inasmuch as when the grant was made that country had been purchased of the Indians by the Dutch some time before. The argument was unanswerable. Here the controversy about jurisdiction ceased, but the matter was never adjusted between the Dutch and English.
On the surrender of New Netherland to the English (1664) and the change of its name to New York, the commissioners to whom the conquest of the Dutch province and the settlement of troubles in New England had been intrusted, proceeded to define the boundary between the colonies of New York and Connecticut. It was decided that the boundary should be 20 miles east of the Hudson [397] River and run parallel to it. It was determined that the line should run N. N.W. from tide-water on the Mamaroneck to the southern limits of Massachusetts; but it was found that this line would cross the Hudson in the Highlands and not run parallel with it— certainly not 20 miles east of it The commissioners reversed their decision, and the controversy was renewed. In 1683 another boundary commission was appointed. It was finally agreed to allow New York the whole of Long Island and all the islands in the Sound to within a few rods of the Connecticut shore, and Connecticut to extend her boundaries west along the Sound to a point within about 15 miles of the Hudson, the strip extending an average of about 8 miles north of the Sound; New York to receive a compensation in the north by the surrender of a narrow tract of 61,440 acres, called “The Oblong,” by Connecticut. The lines were established in 1731; but the exact line remaining a subject of dispute, commissioners were appointed in 1856 to fix it, but they failed to agree.
In 1683, when Thomas Dongan was made governor, the people asked for more political privileges, and the duke instructed him to call a representative assembly. It met in the fort at New York on Oct 17, 1683, and sat three weeks, passing fourteen acts, all of which were approved by the governor. The first act was entitled “The Charter of Liberties and Franchises granted by his Royal Highness to the Inhabitants of New York and its Dependencies.” The duke approved the act. It declared that supreme legislative power should forever be and reside in the governor, council, and people, met in General Assembly; that every freeholder and freeman should be allowed to vote for representatives without restraint; that no freeman should suffer but by judgment of his peers; that all trials should be by a jury of twelve men; that no tax should
Petersfield, the residence of Governor Stuyvesant. |