Page:EB1911 - Volume 19.djvu/630

 contempt, and the most that it could do was to remonstrate to the States-General. That body suggested a representative government, but this the Company refused to grant.

Stuyvesant conducted a successful expedition against the Swedes on the southern border of New Netherland in 1655; but he was powerless against the English. The Dutch had long claimed the whole coast from Delaware Bay to Cape Cod, but by the treaty of Hartford (1650), negotiated between himself and the commissioners of the United Colonies of New England, Stuyvesant agreed to a boundary which on the mainland roughly determined the existing boundary between New York and Connecticut and on Long Island extended southward from the west side of Oyster Bay to the Atlantic Ocean. Notwithstanding the good claim to their province which the Dutch had established by discovery and occupancy, the government of Great Britain, basing its claim to the same territory on Cabot’s discovery (1498), the patent to the London and Plymouth companies (1606), and the patent to the Council for New England (1620), contended that the Dutch were intruders. In 1653, during the war between England and Holland, the Dutch, fearing an English attack, built a wall, from which the present Wall Street was named, across Manhattan Island at what was then the northern limits of New Amsterdam. In the following year Cromwell actually sent out an expedition which, with the aid of New England, was to attempt the conquest, but before an attack was made peace was announced. The Connecticut Charter of 1662 included in that colony some settlements acknowledged by the treaty of Hartford to belong to New Netherland, and strife was renewed. Finally, in March 1664, Charles II. formally erected into a province the whole territory from the west side of the Connecticut river to the east side of Delaware Bay together with all of Long Island and a few other dependencies of minor importance, and granted it to his brother James, the duke of York and Albany, as its lord proprietor. The duke appointed Colonel Richard Nicolls governor and placed him in command of an expedition to effect its conquest. Nicolls won over the burgomaster of New Amsterdam and other prominent citizens by the favourable terms which he offered, and Stuyvesant was forced, without fighting, into a formal surrender on the 8th of September. The duke’s authority was proclaimed and New Netherland became New York. The separation from it of what is now (q.v.) was begun by the duke’s conveyance, in the preceding June, of that portion of his province to Berkeley and Carteret, and among numerous changes from Dutch to English names was that from Fort Orange to Fort Albany. A treaty of alliance with the Mohawks and Senecas procured for the English the same friendly relations with the Iroquois that the Dutch had enjoyed. The transition from Dutch to English institutions was effected gradually and the private rights of the Dutch were carefully preserved. The English executive, consisting of a governor and council, was much like the Dutch, but Nicolls, by his conciliatory spirit, made his administration more agreeable than Stuyvesant’s. In the administration of local affairs some of the Dutch settlements were little disturbed until ten years or more after the conquest, but the introduction of English institutions into settlements wholly or largely English was begun in 1665 by the erection of Long Island, Staten Island and Westchester into an English county under the name of Yorkshire, and by putting into operation in that county a code of laws known as the “Duke’s Laws.” This code was based largely on the laws of New England, and, although a source of popular discontent, it gave to the freeholders of each town a voice in the government of their town by permitting them to elect a board of eight overseers which chose a constable and sat as a court for the trial of small causes. Nicolls resigned the governorship in 1668, but his successor, Francis Lovelace, continued his policy—autocratic government, arbitrary in form but mild in practice, and progressive in the matter of religious toleration. In August 1673, Holland and England being at war, a Dutch fleet surprised New York, captured the city, and restored Dutch authority and the names of New Netherland and New Amsterdam. But by the treaty of Westminster, February 1674, the Dutch title to the province was finally extinguished, and in November the English again took possession. A new charter was issued to the duke to perfect his title and Edmund (later Sir Edmund) Andros, the new governor, was instructed to establish English institutions and enforce English law in all sections. In 1675 Andros established at Albany a commission for Indian affairs which long rendered important service in preserving the English-Iroquois alliance. The imperious manner of Andros made him many enemies. Some of them preferred charges against him relating to his administration of the revenue. He was called to England in 1681 to answer these, and during his absence the demand for a representative assembly was accompanied with a refusal to pay the customs duties and so much other insubordination that the duke appointed Colonel Thomas Dongan to succeed Andros, and instructed him to call the desired assembly. It met at Fort James in the City of New York on the 17th of October 1683, was in session for about three weeks, and passed fifteen acts. The first, styled a charter of liberties and privileges, required that an assembly elected by the freeholders and freemen should be called at least once every three years; vested all legislative authority in the governor, council and assembly; forbade the imposition of any taxes without the consent of the assembly; and provided for religious liberty and trial by jury. Other acts divided the province into counties, established courts of justice, and provided for a revenue. In August 1684 when, by its charter, the western boundary of the province was not definitely extended beyond the Hudson, Dongan laid the basis of New York’s claim to the western lands of the Iroquois by a new covenant with them in which they recognized the English as their protectors, and throughout his administration he was busy neutralizing French influence among the Iroquois and in diverting the fur trade of the north-west from the St Lawrence to Albany. The charter of liberties and privileges was approved by the duke, but before the news of this reached its authors the duke became King James II., and in 1686, when a frame of government for New York as a royal province was provided, the assembly was dispensed with. About the same time the new king adopted a policy for strengthening the imperial control over New England as well as for the erection of a stronger barrier against the French, and in 1688 New York and New Jersey were consolidated with the New England colonies into the Dominion of New England and placed under the viceregal authority of Sir Edmund Andros as governor-general. The news of the English revolution of 1688, however, caused an uprising in Boston, and in April 1689 Andros was seized and imprisoned. Francis Nicholson as lieutenant-governor was still in quiet possession of the government of New York, and a majority of the population of the province were satisfied to await the outcome of the revolution in the mother country, but in the southern portion of the province, especially in the City of New York and on Long Island, were a number of restless spirits who were encouraged by the fall of Andros to take matters into their own hands. They found a leader in a German merchant, (q.v.). Leisler refused to pay duties on a cargo of wine on the ground that the collector was a “papist,” and on the 31st of May 1689, during a mutiny of the militia, he and other militia captains seized Fort James. In the following month Nicholson deserted his post and sailed for England, and Leisler easily gained possession of the city. To strengthen his position he called an assembly which conferred upon him the powers of a dictator. Some time after a copy of the order of the new monarchs (William and Mary) to continue all Protestants in their offices in the colonies had been received, Leisler falsely announced that he had received a commission as lieutenant-governor. He then attempted to revive the act of 1683 for raising revenue, but met with so much opposition that he issued writs for the election of another assembly. This, however, brought him chiefly petitions for the redress of grievances. Albany successfully defied his usurped authority until his recognition was necessary to a united front against the French and their Indian allies, who, in February 1690, had surprised and burned Schenectady. Two other French