the burghers, or selected from nominations made by them.* In the infancy of the Province, New Amsterdam was under the rule of the colonial government, of which it was the seat; but before the surrender to the English, the city of New Amsterdam, the village of Breuckelen, (Brooklyn,) and some other districts were placed under municipal governments, conforming, substantially, to the model above described.†

In these little republics we find the germs of the townships into which the state is now subdivided; and in their functionaries the types of many of our present town and county officers. The influence of this arrangement in the production and development of popular freedom, is practically familiar to all Americans; though its philosophy was little understood, even by us, until unfolded by De Tocque

O'Callaghan's New Netherland, i. 391, 392, 393, ii. 40. Van Leeuwen's Roman Dutch Law, Book i. ch. 2. Sir William Temple's Observations upon the United Provinces, ch. ii, Works, vol. i. 30.

+ O'Callaghan, i. 101, 102, 142, 181, 317, 381, 382, 383, 390. The right of nominating Schepens and other local magistrates having been granted to Breuckelen and other townships, by their respective charters from the Director and Council, was enjoyed by them many years before it was acquired by the inhab itants of New Amsterdam. O'Callaghan, i. 393. Mr. Dunlap supposes, and other writers on his authority have adopted the same opinion, (Hist. of New York, i. 39, 40,) that the right not only of nominating the magistrates called Schepens, but of choosing Burgomasters, and, after the city should contain 200 inhabitants, of choosing delegates to a representative council, was granted to the city of New Amsterdam in 1623. He even gives (II. Appendix F) a translation of the charter by which he supposes these privileges to have been conferred. The original of this document is to be found at the end of Van Der Donck's New Netherland, where however, it is given without date, and is not referred to the city of New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island. Van Der Donck, in Collections of N. Y. Hist. Soc. 2d Series, ii. 238. From the language of some of the articles, the translator supposed it to relate to this city; and Mr. Dunlap assigns it, by conjecture, to the year 1623. Finding no mention of it in the first volume of O'Callaghan's history, and being perfectly satisfied from researches made by me in the archives of this city, that it belonged to some other date, if not to some other place, I applied to the author of that valuable work for information respecting it, and on his authority am enabled to state, that it was granted in 1656, to a company then formed for establishing a colonie on the South or Delaware river, to be called New Amstel, after one of the manors of Ainsterdam, at the place afterwards and still known as Newcastle, in the State of Delaware. In his forthcoming second volume, it will be referred, by satisfactory proofs, to its true date and place.

In a memorial of the committee of the Gemeente or Commonalty of New Amsterdam, drawn up by Van Der Donck, and presented to the States General in 1649, they ask, among other reforms, for a Burgher or Municipal government for the city of New Amsterdam. In the provisional order made on this application by the States General, in 1650, they accordingly grant to the city, a Burgher government, consisting of a Schout, two Burgomasters, and five Schepens; but they appear to have been appointed, for some time, by the Director General and Council. O'Callaghan, ii. 121. In 1653, and again in 1654, the Burgomasters and Schepens petitioned the Director General and Council

ville. The like arrangement existed from an earlier day, and was also more perfectly carried out, in the New England colonies. With the accomplished historian of the United States, we may, therefore, well suppose, that in the establishment of this part of our civil polity, as well as in other respects, much is due to puritan ideas brought into New Netherland, by emigrants from Connecticut. Yet the origin of the New York township seems plainly referable, to the institutions and the stock of the fatherland.†

In this connexion, the general law of succession and inheritance may properly be mentioned. The proprietor had the right of disposing of his lands, as well as of his moveable property, by testament, with the reservations in favor of children, or other relatives, prescribed by the laws of

that they might be allowed the privilege of choosing their own Schout, or, at least, of nominating two, from whom the selection should be made. They also ask that they may be permitted to nominate a double number of Burgomasters and Schepens. These applications were denied by the Director and Council, until 1658, when the right of recommending their successors was vested in the city Magistrates. A Schout or Sheriff, exclusively for New Amsterdam, was commissioned for the first time in 1660. The corporate existence and franchises of the city of New Amsterdam, were recognised in the articles of capitulation, and confirmed by Colonel Nicolls, the first English Governor, who in 1665, granted a charter to the inhabitants under the administration of a mayor, aldermen, and sheriff. Smith, i. 36. Dunlap, i. 119. The more formal charter granted in 1685, by Governor Dongan, refers to and confirms the liberties and franchises anciently enjoyed by the city of New Amsterdam, and all grants made to its Schout, Burgomasters and Schepens, as well as to its Mayor, Aldermen and Sheriff, &c. City Charter, Kent's ed. 3, 4. Chancellor Kent in his notes on the City Charter (p. 108) refers to an ordinance or grant made by the Director General and Council on the 2d February, 1657, as a charter to the city, evidently supposing it to be the first; and in the journal of the City Convention held in 1829, it is spoken of as the "original charter of the city." City Charter, Kent's ed. 242. But by the document itself, a translation of which may be found in the same book, (pp. 242, 246,) it appears that the sole object of the grant was to bestow on the inhabitants more fully than had before been bestowed, the privileges of both "the small and great citizenship," and to define the qualifications of each class of citizens. (See ante p. 15, note.) The documents recently brought from Holland by Mr. Brodhead, and the researches of O'Callaghan, have given us on this point, as well as on many others, more accurate information than we before possessed, which will be greatly extended by his concluding volume.

The writer of Junius concludes his preface to the collection of his letters, with a quotation from a foreign writer, De Lolme, whose essay on the English Constitution he recommends as "a performance, deep, solid, and ingenious." Lords Chatham and Camden bestow on it similar praise. It is not a little remarkable, that the more peculiar and efficient principles of our American Constitutions, should, in like manner, have been first expounded to us, by a foreigner, writing in the mother tongue of De Lolme.

+ Bancroft's Hist. of United States, ii. 304, 305. O'Callaghan, i. 393, availing himself of the new light shed on the subject, by the Holland documents, vindicates the claims of the Dutch to the parentage of the township.

Holland; if he died without a will, leaving children or remoter descendants, his estate passed to them. If the intestate left no children, his parents, or if neither of them was alive, his brothers and sisters or their representatives, succeeded. There was no preference of males to females, and no law of primogeniture; but as in the New England colonies, the equal division of estates, among all the children or other relatives, the best foundation of a republic, was the general rule.*

As an inducement to colonization, the Company, at an early day, promised to supply the colonists with blacks; and this, through its commerce with Africa and with nations engaged in the slave trade, it was enabled to do, with little inconvenience. Negro slavery was thus introduced into the Province; but never, perhaps, did it exist in a form less objectionable in itself, or more useful to its subjects, than among the Dutch colonists of New Netherland and their descendants.†

In the first charter of Freedoms and Exemptions it was implied, and in the amended charter of 1640, expressly provided, that the Protestant religion, as expounded by the Synod of Dort, and taught and exercised in the Reformed Church in the United Provinces, was to be maintained by the Company and its Governors; and in the latter document it was declared, that no other religion was to be tolerated or allowed. Yet both before and after 1640, many Protestant families and individuals, not in communion with the Dutch Church, were allowed to settle in New Netherland, and were protected in the enjoyment of their religious rights. The administration of STUYVESANT was less liberal in this respect; or rather, he enforced more strictly than

* O'Callaghan, i. 90. Van Leeuwen's Roman Dutch Law, Book iii. Van Der Linden's Institutes, Book i. chap. ix., X.

† Articles of Freedoms and Exemptions of 1629, art. 30. O'Callaghan, i. 384, 385. Mrs. Grant of Laggan, in her charming Memoirs of an American Lady, includes in her picture of society in New York a century ago, an interesting notice of African slavery as it then existed in the Dutch families. Within my own memory, much of the patriarchal simplicity and kindness of the institution, as described by her, was to be seen among the substantial farmers of my native township (Kinderhook) and the neighboring country.

O'Callaghan, i. 220.

§ The Walloons from France and Belgium, in 1624, were allowed to settle on Long Island, on terms more satisfactory than they could obtain in Virginia. O'Callaghan, i. 101. During Kieft's time, and afterwards, many Quakers and other sectaries, to escape persecution in New England, removed to New Netherland. Id. 207. Bancroft, ii. 302. In 1656, a colony of Waldenses, driven by fire and sword from their mountains of Piedmont, found a secure resting place in the valley of the Hudson. Bancroft, ii. 302.

his predecessors, the narrow minded provisions of the charter. With a noble inconsistency, the Company interposed for the protection of the persecuted; reproved the zeal of their deputy; and directed him to grant to the Quakers, and every other peaceful citizen, liberty of conscience and the right of private worship.*

During the Dutch rule, there was, properly speaking, no representative assembly.† Delegates of the commonalty were, however, on two occasions of special moment, during the administration of Kieft, brought into consultation with him and his Council; and the right and capacity of the people to advise in the management of public affairs, were thus explicitly acknowledged by their rulers. In 1647, STUYVESANT and his Council, under the like pressure, and in compliance with the general wish, established a permanent body, "The NINE men," as "tribunes of the people," to give their advice when called on by the Government, and to assist in promoting the welfare of the country. For the constituting of this body, the commonalty of New Amsterdam and other places were to choose eighteen of their "most expert and reasonable persons," from whom the Director General and Council were to select three for the merchants, three for the citizens, and three for the farmers. Like the deliberative assemblies of many European republics, the "NINE men" were only to meet at the call of the Director and Council, one of whom was to preside over them; and were merely to advise upon such matters as should be submitted to them by the Director. Six of this body were annually to leave their seats, which were to be filled by the Direc

Bancroft, ii. 300, referring to the Albany Records. De Witt, in Proceedings of N. Y. Hist. Soc.. for 1844, p. 73.

The articles of Freedoms and Exemptions of 1629, authorised the colonies to appoint each a deputy to give information to the Director and Council; one of which deputies was to be changed every two years; but the colonies were not sufficiently numerous to bring together a number of deputies large enough to constitute an assembly, nor was there one until April, 1664.

The first of these occasions was in 1641, when the "Twelve Men" were chosen by the commonalty, to cooperate with the Director General and Council, in obtaining satisfaction for the murder of a settler by an Indian. After some meetings on this subject, the twelve men proposed various reforms in the administration, when their future meetings were prohibited by K:EFT, as tending to dangerous consequences. O'Callaghan, i. 242-249. The other was in 1643, when in anticipation of the general Indian war which followed the barbarous massacre of the river Indians, perpetrated by the orders of KIEFT, the "Eight men" were chosen for the purpose of advising the Director General and Council. They continued to act for about a year, and like the twelve proposed many reforms, and not obtaining them, made such urgent appeals to the West India Company as finally to secure his recall. Id. 284, 289, 306, 312.

tor and Council, from double the number nominated by the Commonalty.*

There was thus a gradual approach to the true idea of a free, representative government; and from the progress made before the transfer of the Province to the English, it is reasonably certain, that even without the new impulse given by this event, the inhabitants of New Netherland would soon have come into the enjoyment of constitutional liberty.

With the increase of population in the city and townships, the inhabitants of both claimed a share in the government; especially in the laying and collecting of taxes. Their complaints and remonstrances, drawn up by Van Der Donck and enforced by his personal appeals, procured, in 1650, a partial compliance with their demands. The States General issued an order, in which, along with other measures for the protection and improvement of the Province, it was provided, that the local government should thereafter be vested in a Director General, a Vice-Director, and three Councillors; the Director and Vice-Director, and one of the Councillors, to be appointed as before. The other two Councillors were to be selected on the part of the States General and the West India Company, from four persons to be nominated by a local convention consisting of the Patroons of colonies, or their deputies, and of delegates from the commonalty; and their terms of service were to be so arranged, that at the end of every two years, the seat of one should become vacant, and his place be supplied by a new appointment, made on the like nomination.†

The

This concession, though well designed, produced little practical good. The people continued to be harassed by arbitrary taxation, and other oppressive measures. discontent became general, and at length led, in 1653, to the assembling of a convention of delegates from New Amsterdam, and from Breuckelen and the other Dutch villages in the eastern part of Long Island, chosen freely by the commonalty, but without the permission of the Government. They demanded a reform in several particulars, and especially that no laws should be passed, nor any officers created, without the consent of the people. STUYVESANT and his Council dispersed the assembly, and reprobated its doctrines; and the West India Company approved and