The Holland Society of New York - Yearbook (New York, NY)

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ll2 with equal heat by Q Dutflll miiiim-iffy, 'milf-if iw half a column from Mr. Asher, who was not :i I2ii1,f lniiian, but the son of a German University of Heidelberg, and who wrote thi' lhflllk r lli 1 to which the greatest attention is given by t :-1 :,u1,lif,f, Berlin bookseller and czonnef-1,1-fl with the while he was yet a student. Of course he vituperates every Dutch Governor the colony had, and especially Stuyvesant, owing to whom, hg claims, the community degenerated into a nest of pirates and smugglers during the first thirty years of English rule. He further declares that in a way the state of affairs in North America in 1661 was very like the state of affairs inthe Transvaal just before the jameson raid, and caps the climax of his vilification of the early settlers of New York with this statement : That the morals of New Amsterdam did not improve under English rule is not sur- prising, because New Amsterdam had no morals. Un the other hand, its immorals-of which its supply was excessive -developed vigorously in sympathy with its vigorously developing commercial life. In the last decade of the seventeenth century, what with our pirates and our slavers and the general disposition of our leading citizens to ride a hurdle race over all known laws, including the Ten Com- mandments, New York certainly was as vicious a little Zeafaring city as was to be found just then in all Christen- om. lag? Ends nothing to commend either in the Nether- U in New Amsterdam. It was to be expected that in the settlement of a new community three hundred years Zio 33' Olliifl-afy failsgrsi tradesmen, merchants, and labor- , me in wou e - but this autlior has f Oiiind not of ihe Very hlghest type' . oun everything to condemn and nothing to commend. One might have supposed that he should have learned what the Dutch founders of New York did for the education of the common people but zgilgglfifii fgclr a single reference thereto. Rev. Dr. of the fraternity of tiiiilsiersrmbrough the Wonderful activity Brethren of the Co ,' egun about I36o' Called the H m-H1011 L1fe,.the Netherlands had the rst system of e flourished in Ommon schools in Europe. These schools every large town and almost in every village, I I V

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I I I atrocities in the Congo Valley have aroused indignation, are of the same people as those- who settled New Amsterdam. He gives an account of the granting of the charter of the Dutch West India Company for of the New Netherland Company, for he is rather hazy about it,j in which no in- considerable part is taken from the work of Mr. Asher, without acknowledging his indebtedness to him and omit- ting quotation points, and then states that though the Assembly did not usually act precipitately, the charter was railroaded through in a week, as the result, we reasonably may assume, of very lively lobbying on the part of a delegation sent to The Hague from Amsterdam. He admits there are no records upon which he can draw for proofs of this statement, but goes on to say that it is not too much to assert that the precedent then was established of sending lobby delegations from New York to Albany, and I see no reason for doubting that The Hague lobby was run then very much as the Albany lobby is run now. Still later he gives aneaccount of the granting of the charter of the West India Company, and says: Very interesting would be the record-if it existed and if we could get at it-2 of what happened that day at The Hague after the morning session stood adjourned. Having no record-to go by, we can only make guesses, being guided a little in our guessing by knowledge of what has happened at Albany, .between two sessions of another Assembly, in later times. This is not the spirit of an historian, but that of a sensational scribe who allows his imagination to drive the romancer's pen. Having no facts, he assumes and guesses, and always against the honor and integrity of the people whose history he professes to be writing. Further on he mentions that Broadhead states that the name New Netherland was used for the first time in 16 14, and that he had declared that the name continued for half a century, until in the fu1111eSS of time right gave way to power, andthe Dutch colony of New Netherland became the English province of New York. Then our author continues: The question of title that Mr. Broadhead has raised in this loose statement of fact is too large a question to be dealt with here. But it is only fair to add that his hot contention that the Dutch had a just title to their North American holdings is denied

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I 1 3 so that popular education was the rule. The Netherlands, as soon as they became a republic, insured their spiritual independence by immediately establishing institutions of education. They founded universities in Leyden, Frane- ker, Groningen, Utrecht, and Harderwyckf' Prof. Andrew S. Draper, New York State Superin- tendent of Public Instruction, in a paper published in the Educational Review, April, 1892, conclusively shows that New York, under the Dutch settlers, was the pioneer in public-school instruction and far in advance of Massachu- setts. He makes one significantx statement: With the dominance of the English government came the English educational theories and policy-high schools for the few, no schools for the people. There is no space here to 'treat of facts in detail. With only a temporary interruption, the English government exercised control over -this terri- tory from 1664 down to the Revolution. No one can show' any act or any disposition on the part of that government, during that century, to promote popular education in New York. The Dutch continued in their local schools so far as they could, in the absence of help from, and even against the opposition of, the government. ' I might continue indefinitely and quote scores of other calumnies and misrepresentations with which these articles teem, for the whole forty pages breathe only the spiritof defamation, and show the evident purpose to besmirch the character of the Dutch settlers of New York, but I have said enough, I think, to evidence that I, am justified, at least, on behalf of our citizens of Dutcliffdescent, in indig- nantly protesting against our public-school system. being used to give standing to this slanderer of our city on this quarter-millennial anniversary of its charter. I must assume that you had notread these articles on which I have commented, and that when you do so you will recognize that its author is not a .proper person to teach the history of the city's foundation to the children of the city, and that you will withdraw your official en- dorsement of this calumniator-Q Yours truly, 4 Qsignedj THEODORE M. BANTA. 8