DISCOURSE.*

OUR present anniversary, FELLOW MEMBERS OF THE NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY, finds us in circumstances of peculiar interest. A new frame of government for our State has recently been devised by delegates of the people; has been submitted to, and approved by the people themselves; and, during the last ten months, has been gradually displacing the former Constitution. Some of the new provisions came into active operation at the beginning of the present year; others a few months later; and the final measures necessary to the complete organization of the system, have just been taken.

Standing upon the threshold of this recent fabric, and marking the peculiarities of its structure and details-perceiving how essentially it differs from that which it has displaced the first thought which strikes the reflecting mind, is one of grateful wonder, that a work so serious as the pulling down of the old, and the building up of the new, should have been accomplished with so little of mischief or inconvenience. The change from one system of social economy to another, is often accompanied by convulsions as great as those which mark the first transition from chaotic confusion to a state of established order. We are apt to expect some decay in prevailing forces, some dissolution of existing restraints, before those that are destined to succeed them can assume vitality and vigor; between the laws that have just expired and those that have just been created, an interval without law; a pause to commemorate the passage from the one era to the other, by its independence of both; a period of disorganization unchecked by past legislation or present authority; a crisis of abuse which previous

* NOTE.-In preparing the following Discourse for the press, the author, besides retaining some passages omitted in the delivery, and revising the whole, has endeavored, by the addition of references and occasional notes, to render his performance more worthy of the Society under whose auspices it is published, and more useful and therefore more acceptable to those by whom it may be consulted.

wrongs could scarcely justify, and subsequent reforms hardly atone for. But the change which we are now contemplating has been accompanied by no such disastrous effects. It has proceeded with much of the physical stillness and something of the moral grandeur, which attend the great processes of Nature. Demanded by the exigencies of a free people; controlled by their active will; established by their deliberate sanction; whatever may be our individual opinions as to its present value or possible results, it is a fresh illustration of the force and dignity of Republican Institutions. It teaches, with a new emphasis of cheering encouragement and significant warning, the great lessons of American Freedom--change without violence; progress without disorder; revolution without anarchy.

As we look more closely at the new edifice, and its various parts, we are instinctively led to compare it with that in whose place it stands. Nor are we content thus to limit our examination. We would visit the original foundation; trace the history of the successive superstructures; and note the times and the persons, when and by whom, the corner stones were laid, and the several fabrics erected or demolished, altered or renewed. We would mark the form and style of each, and make some attempt to ascertain its value, and to determine the merits of its authors.

Aside from the pleasure which a liberal curiosity may derive from these inquiries, they answer one of the highest ends of historical research. The organic laws of a community, and the changes which from time to time are made in them, are the most authentic proofs of its civilization-- the most instructive monuments of its progress.

Assured that my associates participate in this sentiment, and believing it will unite the sympathies of my whole audience, I propose to place before you, the means of comparing our present Constitution with the several frames of government which preceded it; and to give you some of the more important facts historically connected with the changes they have undergone. With this view, I ask your attention to an outline of THE CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF THE COLONY AND STATE OF NEW YORK. An outline it must be, for fully treated it would form a volume.

Using the terms Constitutional History, in their broadest sense, and as including all the fundamental rules by which the nature of governments, the powers of rulers, and the duties of citizens, are defined and regulated--whether existing in the written compacts of modern times, in ancient

charters or statutes, or in unwritten customs or usages-I remark, that my subject naturally divides itself into three parts, corresponding with the several governments-the DUTCH, the ENGLISH, and the INDEPENDENT or STATE-which have successively existed in the territory now embraced within our boundaries.

The DUTCH rule, dating its commencement in 1614, lasted, continuously, but fifty years, ten of which had passed away before the settlements were placed under a regular local government. So slow was their after growth, that in 1664, when the colony was surrendered to the English, its popu lation did not exceed 10,000 souls. The Constitutional history of NEW NETHERLAND, is, therefore, less important than that of the Province or State of NEW YORK. Still, it is, on many accounts, worthy of study, and quite essential to a correct understanding of our subject.

The territory bounding on the river discovered by Hudson in 1609, and explored by the Dutch, between that date and 1614, together with the seacoasts between the fortieth and forty-fifth degrees of north latitude, received, in the year last mentioned, from the Charter of the STATES GENERAL OF THE UNITED PROVINCES, the name of NEW NETHERLAND. The exclusive right of trading with this extensive region, was granted by the Charter, for three years, from the 1st of January, 1615, to Gerrit Jacob Witsen of Amsterdam, and other merchants associated with him, who had been concerned in the previous voyages to the island of Manhattan, and in the trading houses established there and on Hudson's river; and who were now incorporated by the name of the United New Netherland Company. The members of this company, on the expiration of their charter, applied for its renewal; but other adventurers claiming the right to share the benefits of the trade to America, and more comprehensive plans being presented to the STATES GENERAL, they delayed their final action on the matter, until 1621. They then incorporated the Dutch WEST INDIA COMPANY, and granted to it, the exclusive right of trade and navigation to and with the coast of Africa, from the Tropic of Cancer to the Cape of Good Hope, and the coast of America, from the Straits of Magellan to the extreme north, with full powers of government over the territories it should explore and colonize.

*

See the Charter to Witsen and his associates, of the 11th of October, 1614, in O'Callaghan's Hist. of New Netherland, vol. i. 74.

Before the incorporation of the West India Company, the settlements in New Netherland consisted only of a few trading factories, and of the small forts designed for their protection. The commandants of these forts, in addition to their military duties, exercised, also, such civic functions as were requisite. By its charter the West India Company became, and until 1664 continued to be, the immediate sovereign of New Netherland, subject, however, to the general supervision, and in matters consistent with its charter, to to the legislation and control, of the STATES GENERAL, in whom the ultimate sovereignty resided. The Company was empowered to establish and maintain, in its several colonies, such local governments and officers as it might see fit to prescribe and appoint; the Governor in chief being commissioned, and his instructions approved, by the STATES GENERAL; and he and all other officers swearing allegiance to them and to the Company.*

So soon as its home arrangements could be perfected, and its other affairs allowed, the Company gave its careful attention to NEW NETHERLAND; but its views were purely commercial. The first institutions of the colony were, therefore, framed with special reference to the convenience and pecuniary profit of its proprietors, and with little or no regard to the political condition, immediate or prospective, of the settlers. The ground work of the system was, indeed, utterly repugnant to the first principles of modern political science; for all the powers of government-the Legislative, the Executive and the Judicial-were vested in the Director General or Governor and his Council-the latter consisting of an indefinite number of persons, usually not exceeding five, appointed by the Director with the approbation of the Company.†

The union of powers such as these in a single hand or body, is now justly regarded as the very definition of tyranny. Its effects in New Netherland form no exception to the rule; but as the local government was under the watchful supervision of the West India Company and of the States General, it was commonly held in check, by the spirit of justice and moderation which has so generally characterised the people, and by the republican principles which then distinguished the institutions, of the Fatherland. MINUIT, VAN TWILLER and KIEFT, the first three Directors, being justly

Charter of the 3rd of June, 1621, §§ 2. 3. O'Callaghan's History of New Netherland, vol. i. App. A. It was for twenty-four years, but was afterwards extended. + Moulton's Hist. of New York, vol. i. Part ii. 369. O'Callaghan's Hist. of New Netherland, vol. i. 90, 101, 142, 180.

charged with abuse of power, were consequently recalled.* STUYVESANT, the last and most upright, as well as the ablest, of the Dutch Governors, kept his place for seventeen years; but he was involved in frequent collisions with the inferior magistrates and with others, and incurred, more than once, the censure of his superiors.†

The first arrangements made by the Company for the colonization of the country, were not more favorable to the early and rapid growth of civil liberty, than the principle on which the local government was founded. In the rural districts of Holland and the other United Provinces, the peasantry yet bore the yoke of feudalism; and even in the free cities, and the communes or townships, the ancient distinctions between the nobles and wellborn and the plebians, and between the burghers and the other freemen, were tenaciously kept up and scrupulously observed. These features of the parent State were, more or less, impressed on the infant Province. In the city of New Amsterdam, such of the inhabitants, as enjoyed the right of citizenship, were divided into the great and small citizens.§ In the "colonies" or manors, planted under the "Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions," granted by the Company in 1629, the feudal relations of Patroon and Boor were fully established. This Charter, which was designed for the special encouragement of "Patroons, Masters and Individuals who shall settle, or

* O'Callaghan, vol. i. 130, 174, 384.

+ In 1650 the States General proposed to recall him, and in 1652 an order was made for this purpose; but its execution was prevented by the rupture with England. Holland Doc. vol. vi. 123. vol. ix. 207, Brodhead's Address before N. Y. Hist. Soc. in 1844, p. 34. See, in Proceedings for same year, p. 51-76, an instructive and valuable paper on New Netherland, by Rev. T. De Witt, D. D. in which he reviews the prominent measures of Stuyvesant's administration, and awards him high and not undeserved praise. The forthcoming volume of O'Callaghan will give many new and characteristic details of the worthy Governor's systems and methods of procedure, some of which will strike modern readers as sufficiently summary and despotic; though, it is believed, nothing will appear to detract from his well established reputation as an honest, firm, and in his way, paternal ruler.

Van Leeuwen's Roman Dutch Law, Book i. ch. 9. Van Der Linden's Institutes of the Laws of Holland, Book i. ch. 2, § 4.

In the class of great citizens, as defined by the ordinance of Feb. 2d, 1657, which appears to have been regarded as a very liberal concession to the commonalty, were the members of the Supreme and City Governments, ministers of the Gospel, and officers of the militia, with their male descendants; in the latter, all residents of a year and six weeks who kept fire and lights, all persons born in the city, store keepers, tradesmen, &c. But by this ordinance any person might obtain the privilege of the great citizenship, on application to the Burgomasters and Schepens, by paying for it fifty guilders or their equivalent. Kent's ed. of City Charters, pp. 243–246.