full and ample Power and authority to Destraine for the Rents Services and other Sumes of Mony Payable by Reason of the Premises and all other Law full Remedyes and meanes for the haveing . . . and Enjoyeing the Premissesse and every parte and Parcell of the same and all Wasts Estrayes Wrecks Deodands Goods of felons happening and being forfeited within the said Lordshipp and Mannor," together with the right of advowson and other incidents of feudal tenure, in which these Hudson river domains of the Patroons were closely allied to the "Old Maryland Manors" as set forth in Mr. Johnson's interesting monograph.2

1

So distasteful, to the Dutch settlers who had enjoyed a greater freedom in the Fatherland, were these restrictions of the manors, that the settlements did not rapidly increase.3 The beginnings of governmental life on the Hudson river, therefore, were unfortunate for the growth of free institutions. Monopoly-in trade, in land, and in government—seemed to be the foundation on which the settlers in New Netherland must build their state."

1 Docs. Relating to Col. Hist. of N. Y., III., pp. 375–6.

216 'Studies," supra.

3

3 Evidence of the unpopularity of the manor government may be found in a letter written by the Earl of Bellomont to the Lords of Trade, dated, "New Yorke, Jany 2a 1700/1.” He says: "Mr. Livingston has on his great grant of 16 miles long and 24 broad but 4 or 5 cottagers, as I am told, men that live in vassallage under him and work for him and are too poor to be farmers having not wherewithall to buy Cattle to stock a farm. Collonel Courtland has also on his great grants 4 or 5 of these poor families; " other like cases being mentioned.

In the same letter he adds: "I believe there are not less than seven millions of acres granted away in 13 grants, and all of them uninhabited ... except Mr Ranslaer's grant, which is 24 miles square, and on which the town of Albany stands."-Docs. relating to the Hist. of N. Y., IV., pp. 822-3.

The opinion, here expressed, that the manor system on the Hudson river hampered the early development of representative government, may seem to be inconsistent with Mr. Johnson's statement (Old Maryland Manors, supra, p. 20) that, "it should not be thought that the aristocratic character

No Dutch village community seemed likely to rise under the first charter of 1629, and the need of inducing settlers to colonize New Netherland for agricultural purposes convinced the States-General of Holland that the monopoly they had unwisely established must, to some extent, be broken. In 1638 trade was taken from the exclusive privileges of the West India Company and made free. In 1640 there was granted a more liberal charter,' by which any one who should go to New Netherland with five souls over fifteen years of age was to be acknowledged a master or colonist, and entitled to claim 100 Morgen (200 acres) of land. When the settlements of these masters increased so as to become villages, towns, or cities, the company was bound to confer upon them subaltern or municipal governments.2

of the manor was injurious to the growth of liberal ideas. The manor was a self-governing community." Is it not true, however, that it was "a selfgoverning community," only in so far as the power of the lord of the manor had been restricted by the people? And would not the "liberal ideas" of the Dutch settlers have borne earlier and richer fruit if the character of the manor had not checked their growth? This is evidently the opinion of Mr. Fernow who (in his introduction to vol. XIII. of Docs. relating to Col. Hist. of N. Y.), says that the "object of the Patroons had been, at first when they obtained their privileges in 1629, rather a participation in the Indian trade than the colonization of the country; their new plan was to divide the province into manors for a privileged class to the exclusion of the hardy and industrious pioneer and sturdy and independent yoeman." All the more noteworthy and commendable, is the persistent and successful struggle of the "sturdy and independent yoeman" of Holland in fighting his way towards free representative government when opposed by such extensive manorial grants to the Patroons, who were in favor with the powerful West India Company.

'Docs. Relating to Col. Hist. of N. Y., I., pp. 119–123.

2 The charter of 1640, which thus contained more liberal provisions for agricultural settlement, still retained clauses for erecting manors under Patroons; but they could only claim about a quarter of the territory which they might have claimed under previous charters, and their authority over the colonists was somewhat lessened. In 1655, the Directors of the West India Company reiterated their disinclination, any longer to grant colonies like Rensselaerswyck to Patroons. Docs. Relating to Col. Hist. of N. Y., XIV., pp. 332–3.

The Dutch settlers, at this time established in New Amsterdam and vicinity, had given Kieft, the Director-General, to understand plainly that they demanded a voice in the government. In 1641, the brutal murder of Claes Smits by an Indian was the occasion of the first recognition by the Director-General of the people's demand. "All the masters and heads of families, residents of New Amsterdam, and its neighborhood, were therefore, invited to assemble in the fort on the 28th day of August then and there to determine on 'something of the first importance.'" This, the first popular assembly in New Netherland, promptly chose "Twelve Select Men "-all emigrants from Holland-to consider the propositions submitted by the Director.3

1

4

The step towards freedom gained at this time was never lost. Before Kieft dismissed them, as having served in settling the Indian affair, the purpose for which they were elected, the "Twelve Men" had demanded for New Amsterdam, and the neighboring settlements, the popular representation of Holland, urging that "the Council of a small village in Fatherland consists of five @. seven Schepens." In 1643,

1O'Callaghan, Hist. of New Netherland, I., p. 241.

Mr. Palfrey would apparently have us believe that this selection of representatives by the Dutch settlers at New Amsterdam must somehow be accounted for by a borrowing of the methods of the Dorchester colonists in Massachusetts (see p. 10, supra). Neither perhaps had need to borrow what had been known for centuries to the ancestors of both, but certainly the Dutch knew, even better than the English, the advantages of representative government.

3 Brodhead's Hist. of N. Y., p. 317.

'Hol., Doc. III., pp. 175-180, cited by O'Callaghan, Hist. N. N., Vol. I., pp. 248-9. The Director evidently did not intend that the "Twelve Men" should have any permanent share in the government. Whether he allowed them to be chosen merely "to serve him as a cloak, and as cats-paws,"-perhaps to shield him from responsibility, as Van der Donck strenuously asserts, or whether for some more worthy purpose, the fact remains that it was a concession by the arbitrary ruler in the direction of representative govern

ment.

'Docs. Relating to Col. Hist. of N. Y., I., p. 202.

1

"Eight Men" were chosen by the commonalty and addressed the West India Company upon the serious Indian troubles. They renewed, in vigorous language, the demand of the "Twelve Men" for representative government, and in 1646 the inhabitants of the village of "Breuckelen" (Brooklyn) were given the municipal privileges they desired. "They were to have the right of electing two schepens or magistrates, with full judicial powers, as in the Fatherland. Those who opposed the magistrates in the discharge of their duties were to be deprived of all share in the common lands adjoining the village." 2 Thus at the first conferring of self-government upon this Dutch village, named for an ancient village in Utrecht, the evidence of a system of common land tenure is met with.

Under Stuyvesant, as under Kieft, the people of New Amsterdam clamored for their rights. Reforms were pressed upon him. New Amsterdam was in bad condition. Most of the lots were unimproved. Hog-pens, "little houses," and other nuisances encroached upon the public streets, and, in 1647,"fence "fence viewers" were appointed, by whom, in addition to other duties, every new building had to be approved. In the same year, Stuyvesant and his council granted to the inhabitants of the Island of Manhattan and two or three adjacent towns, the privilege of nominating "a double number

'Docs. Relating to Col. Hist. of N. Y., I., p. 213. "It is impossible," they say in their letter to the Directors, ever to settle this country until a different system be introduced here," and they suggest the election of representatives by the people to vote as deputies with the Director and Council.

2 Brodhead, Hist. of N. Y., pp. 421-2. It is curious to note the strength, at that early day, of the opinion that "public office is a public trust." At New Amsterdam, in April, 1654, the Director-General sends following order to one Jan Everson Boot, who had been elected schepen of "Breuckelen." "If you will not accept to serve as schepen for the welfare of the village of Breuckelen with others, your fellow residents, then you must prepare yourself to sail in the ship 'King Solomon' for Holland, agreeably to your own utterance," he having said he would rather go than serve. Docs. Relating to Col. Hist. of N. Y., XIV., p. 255.

of persons from the most notable, reasonable, honest and respectable of our subjects, from whom we might select a single number of Nine Men to them best known, to confer with us and our council, as their Tribunes, on all means to promote the welfare of the commonalty as well as that of the country."

Not, however, until 1652 did the people succeed in obtaining for New Amsterdam itself a municipal form of government. In accordance with the 17th clause of the Provisional Order of 1650,2 it consisted of "one schout, two burgomasters and five schepens, to be elected by the citizens in the manner usual in this city of Amsterdam,' to act as a Court of Justice with the right of appeal in certain cases 'to the Supreme Court of Judicature." This advance towards a representative government in New Amsterdam marked the beginning of a new era throughout the whole of New Netherland, which was not, however, without its struggles between the people and Stuyvesant's arbitrary exercise of power.5 In

1O'Callaghan, Hist. of New Netherland, II., p. 39.—(Citing Alb. Rec. VII., pp. 72-74, 81-84.)

These “Nine Men" were of more importance in the affairs of the colony than any previous representative body.-Brodhead's Hist. of N. Y., p. 474. * O'Callaghan, Hist. of New Netherland, II., p. 192.—(Citing Alb. Rec. IV., pp. 68, 72, 73, 75; VIII., pp. 8–13, 16–19, 42.)

3 The name and office of the burgomaster in Holland may be traced as early as the 14th century.-O'Callaghan, Hist. of New Netherland, II., p. 211.

The word schepen, meaning, as here, one of the local magistrates in Holland, is older still, probably originating about 1270, says one writer; but that date is not early enough. The word was used in an instrument said to have been signed and sealed in 1217, and quoted by Motley, The Dutch Republic, I., p. 35.

* The difficulties with which the people had to contend are given a ludicrous coloring in a letter from Van Dinclagen to Van der Donck: "To describe the state of this government to one well acquainted with it is a work of supererogation; it is washing a black-a-moor white. Our Grand Muscovy Duke goes on as usual, resembling somewhat the wolf-the older he gets the worse he bites. He proceeds no longer by words or letters but by arrests and stripes."--O'Callaghan, Hist. of New Netherland, II., p. 170; citing Hol. Doc. VI., pp. 5, 7, 53-60, 67, 68. The letter was in Latin.