a man of his own stamp, for instance a thief would choose for
Magistrate a thief, and a dishonest man, a drunkard, a smuggler,
etc., their likes, in order to commit felonies and frauds with so much
more freedom."[1] Early in the next year the Director and Council, following out their policy of opposition to popular government, required the magistrates and inhabitants of Gravesend to prove by their charter their right to nominate and elect magistrates and to
continue them in office.[2]
The evils of popular government as he saw them must have influenced Stuyvesant in his grants to the two new English towns patented in 1656. Thomas Wheeler and the other English settlers at Westchester (Vreedland) had informed the New Amsterdam authorities that they would submit to the Dutch jurisdiction if they could have the privilege of choosing their officers, of making laws for the good of the township, of distributing lands, and of making choice of new inhabitants. To these demands they received the reply that they might have the "conditions and patents" of the Dutch villages of Middelburg, Amersfoort, Midwout and Breuckelen, and also the right of nominating a double number of candidates for office.[3] The English remained, however, and seem to have interpreted their rights under this grant to suit themselves.[4] In the same year Rustdorp (Jamaica) on Long Island was incorporated "under the same privileges and exemptions and special grants, as the inhabitants of New Netherlands generally enjoy, as well in the possession of their lands, as in the election of their Magistrates on the footing and order in use in the villages of Middelburg, Breuckelen, Midwout and Amersfoort."[5] In this case, also, the English held their town-meetings, and we have left to us some very interesting town orders concerning the allotment of the town lands and the reaping of the common meadow.[6] Both charters of Stuyvesant show his determination to give no more special privileges to the English settlers.[7]
- ↑ N. Y. Col. Doc., XIV. 235.
- ↑ Ibid., 253. In 1655 objections were made to a town election of Gravesend by some Dutch landholders in the town because votes were cast in the names of persons in prison for crimes, of persons who had left the town, and those who had conspired against the government of the country. Ibid., XIV. 330.
- ↑ N. Y. Col. Doc., XIII. 65-66.
- ↑ Bolton, History of Westchester County, revised ed., II. 279-281.
- ↑ N. Y. Col. Doc., XIV. 339-340.
- ↑ Ibid., 504-506.
- ↑ In Flushing, owing to the large number of Quakers who had settled there, Stuyvesant found a good opportunity to repress popular government. Town-meetings were forbidden, and their place was to be taken by seven tribunes elected once and for all, who were to act as counsellors of the schout and magistrates. Laws and Ordinances of New Netherland, 338.
