After the annexation of New York to the British Crown, the population began to assume a more mixed character of Dutch and English. These differences in origin produced distinct classes, with not a particle of assimilation for each other. The stern Dissenters opposed the Churchmen; and among the Dutch, the greater portion of them, who belonged to the lower classes, had but little sympathy in common with high-bred Englishmen, or, as they designated them, “gentlemen of figure." A political feud ensued. From the first, feudal distinctions had existed among the emigrants from Holland. Leister, in assuming power, rested chiefly for his support upon the uneducated Dutch residents, while he was bitterly opposed by the English Dissenters. The acting Governor of New York, accordingly, with his son-in-law, fell victims to party rage, and in May, 1691, were led to the gallows. Leister was succeeded by Fletcher, a covetous and passionate man, whose fickleness and feeble judgment forced the colonists into more decided resistance to the Royal government, although they were not at that time disloyal to the Throne. They were more distracted upon religious questions-which had become entangled with secular affairs-than on politics, which complication had assumed an aggressive form.

1

LAW A DEAD LETTER.

169

The desire for aggrandizement in trade, and the extension of territorial limits, excited the passions of the New York settlers, so they began to cast a longing eye upon the Canadian shores. Individually, personal dissensions rankled in their bosoms. In matters of religion, the English inhabitants, though partially admitting the Anglican establishment, yet bordered on the Puritanism of New England. They were subject to that influence which shaped the political dissensions of the day, in obedience to the passions of religious sects. The original settlers from Holland were Calvinists; but their Church organization was less popular than the New England system, probably because they assimilated, in many particulars, with the ecclesiastical polity of Episcopacy.

When the colony became English, the conquest was made by men devoted to the Anglican Church, and this influence predominated in the legislation of the colony. The city of New York, composed, in part, of aliens by birth and feeling to the British authority, united by no bonds of common history, kindred, or tongue, refused obedience to the laws; and no voice of conscience declared their violation a moral offence, respect for them being only the calculation of gaina species of moral deformity congenial with Northern character, which has not declined even

with the progress of time. Truly does our great

Dramatist affirm

"Oh, when degree is shak'd,

Which is the ladder of all high designs,

The enterprise is sick! How could communities,
Degrees in schools, and brotherhoods in cities,
Peaceful commerce from dividable shores,
The primogenitive and due of birth,
Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels,
But by degree, stand in authentic place?
Take but degree away, untune that string,
And, hark, what discord follows! each thing meets
In mere oppugnancy. The bounded waters
Should lift their bosoms higher than the shores,
And make a sop of all this solid globe:
Strength should be lord of imbecility,

And the rude son should strike his father dead:
Force should be right; or rather, right and wrong,
(Between whose endless jar justice resides,)
Should lose their names, and so should justice too."

Before and after the Revolution, the civil and domestic aspect of New York exhibited almost continual dissensions and bickerings, a circumstance which has stamped the political and social relations of the colony with a permanent character, from which that State has not recovered. How, indeed, could it be otherwise, when the colony has received a constant increase of population from every source of emigration that could be engendered by poverty, oppression, ignorance, and crime, in every kingdom of Europe. There

CORRUPTION OF MORALS.

171

was a population of every lineage and language, of every religion and every propensity, bound by no sympathy, restrained by no ties, impelled by no reverence for the laws, and actuated by no principle but that of gain. As Lord Macauley appositely observes: "A people which takes no pride in the achievements of remote ancestors, will never do anything worthy of remembrance by remote descendants."

The morals of the colony were further corrupted, at the beginning of the last century, by becoming the recipient of a large body of felons, who were transported thither from England. Even at this advanced period of its history, individuals who have forfeited all claim to consideration, and even legal protection, in a foreign country, may here become "lionized," receive the privilege of citizenship, and the rewards due only to probity, morality, and merit.

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CHAPTER VI.

THE CAVALIER OF THE SOUTH.

The "Old Dominion "-First Settlers in Virginia-Attachment to the Constitution and Church of England-Utopia Realized A Catholic Colony-Lord Baltimore—The Fruitful Mother of States-Temporizing Policy-North Carolina-Foundation of Charleston-Oglethorpe, the Founder of Georgia-Character of the Emigrants.

HAVING in the preceding chapter drawn a few outlines of the New England Puritan, I now proceed to offer an agreeable contrast by presenting a portrait of the Southern Cavalier. It is only by becoming conversant with the discordant elements which have always existed between both people, that a just idea can be formed of the causes that have led to the present American dis