The Government of New Netherland

THE College of XIX changed the mode of government in New Netherland in the spring of 1645. All power for the management of the public concerns of the colony was vested in a Supreme Council, consisting of the director-general or governor, a lieutenant-governor, and fiscal or treasurer. At that time Peter Stuyvesant, a brave Dutch soldier, who had served gallantly in the West Indies and lost a leg in an attack upon the Portuguese island of St. Martin, was at Amsterdam. He had been governor of Curacoa, in which capacity he had shown great vigor and wisdom. The loss of his leg compelled him to return to Holland for surgical aid, and the College appointed him to succeed Kieft as governor of New Netherland. He was then forty-four years of age; strong in physical constitution; fond of official show; admiring the arbitrary nature of military rule; a thorough disciplinarian, and a stern, inflexible, just and honest man. Owing to disagreements concerning some of the details of policy in the proposed management of New Netherland, Stuyvesant did not arrive at Manhattan until late in May, 1647. Meanwhile the inhabitants, who had been informed early of his appointment, openly showed their dislike of Governor Kieft. Dominie Bogardus, whom the governor had charged with drunkenness and sedition, denounced Kieft and some of his official companions from the pulpit as men who thought of "nothing but to plunder the property of others, to dismiss, to banish, to transport to Holland." To avoid these severe censures, they absented themselves from church, and the governor encouraged all sorts of noisy amusements near the place of public worship on Sundays. Drums were beaten and cannon were fired in the fort in which the church was situated, while the people were worshipping; and the communicants were insulted. The quarrel ended only when Kieft and Bogardus left for Holland in the same ship and were lost on the coast of Wales.

Stuyvesant came with the commission of director-general over New Netherland and adjoining places, and also over the islands of Curacoa, Buenaire, Aruba, and their dependencies. He was accompanied by Lubbertus Van Dincklagen, who had caused the recall of Kieft, as vice-director or lieutenant-governor. They landed on a fine morning in the presence of all the people, who came out with guns and received them with shouts. So vehement was their welcome that nearly all the breath and powder of the city was exhausted. Stuyvesant marched to the fort in great pomp, displaying a silver-mounted wooden leg of fine workmanship. After keeping the principal inhabitants who went to welcome him waiting for several hours bareheaded, while he remained covered, "as if he were the Czar of Muscovy," he told the people that he should govern them "as a father his children, for the advantage of the chartered West India Company, and these burghers and this land." He assured them that justice should rule; at the same time, he asserted the exclusive privileges of the directorship, and frowned upon every expression of republican sentiment. He declared it to be treason to "petition against one's magistrates, whether there be cause or not;" and he defended Kieft's conduct in rejecting the interference of the Twelve, saying: "If any one during my administration shall appeal, I will make him a foot shorter, and send the pieces to Holland, and let him appeal in that way." These sentiments made the people suspect that the new governor would be an inflexible despot instead of an indulgent father.

Stuyvesant was despotic, yet honesty and wisdom marked all his acts. He set about needed reforms with great vigor. The morals of the people, the sale of liquors to the Indians, the support of religion and the regulation of trade, commanded his attention; and it was not long before he infused much of his own energy into the community, and enterprise took the place of sluggishness. His foreign policy was as decided, and its execution was energetic. He sent a protest southward to the offending governor of the Swedes, and an invitation eastward to commissioners of New England to meet him for the adjustment of mutual rights. His kindness toward the Indians soon won their confidence and friendship; and so affectionate was their bearing toward him, that the foolish story went abroad that he was forming an alliance with the savages to exterminate the English.

The grand principle announced by the founders of our Republic, that taxation without representation in tyranny, had prevailed in Holland for two centuries. The principle was favorable to the growth of republicanism in New Netherland, for Stuyvesant was compelled to respect it. He found the finances of the colony in such a low state that taxation was a necessity. He dared not tax the people without their consent, for fear of offending the States-General; so he called a convention of citizens, and directed them to choose eighteen of their best men, of whom he might select nine as representatives of the tax-payers, who should form a co-ordinate branch of the local government.

Stuyvesant was careful to hedge around this germ of representative government as closely as possible, with restrictions. The first Nine were to select their successors, so that the people should not be choosers after that; and the governor was careful to hold nearly all the power in his own hands. But the Nine were far more potent than the Twelve, under Kieft. They nourished the prolific seed of democracy which burst into vigorous life in the time of Jacob Leisler, fifty years afterward.