HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
 

CHAPTER   X

1650 -1654.
THB SPIRIT OP POPULAR FREEDOM.

The Confiscated Vessel. —Goveknor Stuyvesant's Body-Guakd. —Rensselaerswick.
— The Schuyler Family.—The Navigation Act. — Rev. Samuel Drisius.—
African Slavery.—The Birth of the City.—The First City Fathers.—
Allard Anthony. —William Beekman. —The Prayer op the City Fathers.—
Military Prepaeations.—Van der Donck. — Hon. Nicasius De Sille.—The
Diet of New Amsterdam. — Oliver Cromwell. — Peace between England and
Holland.

" /~\ UE great Muscovy duke keeps on as of old; something like the

\_J wolf, the longer he lives the worse he bites."    Thus wrote Van

Dincklagen to Van der Donck.    The West India Company, unwilling to

relinquish any of its power, was arrayed like a bulwark of iron against

the spirit of popular freedom which the colonists were urging

and which was countenanced by the States-General.    It was a

struggle for the elective franchise, and its long subsequent effects were

of  such a character that, while  few portions of our history are more

obscure, none are more important or instructive.

In this extraordinary controversy, the governor, the West India Com¬
pany, and the English residents of New Netherland were on one side,
and the States-General and the Dutch colonists on the other. " The
power to elect a governor among ourselves would be our ruin," was the
expression of the English residents, in a Memorial sent to the company.
" I shall do as I please," was Stuyvesant's reply more than once, when
his attention was called to some order or suggestion from the States-
General which had not been indorsed by the Amsterdam Chamber.
His mind was vigorous and acute, and he never lacked the courage
to carry out to the veiy letter the pecuUar policy of his immediate
employers.

Van Dincklagen was a constant thorn in the governor's side. He was
a quick-witted, sagacious politician, — a man who was considered eligi¬
ble to the highest office, and %vho had accepted a subordinate position with