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

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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

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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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Ilfl, This letter was rlotiwfl l'Y UW WWW fflffl the Tribime, the latter of which joined in critiei:-sing the City Superintendent of Schools Iwi-:mee yu. very indiscreetly gave his lllflUl'SCZlllIfl'll, in 414, vance, etc., The City Siipeririteriderzfs reply expressed thanks to Mr. Banta for calling his attention U, the matters contained in his letter. Letters approving the Presidents course Came in from fellow trustees, vice-presidents and mem- bers of the Society. One trustee characterized the articles in H arper's M agazine as extra. ordinary i and atrocious, another as utterly superficial and common-place, a third regrets that education in this city should be entrusted te Hrnamby-pamby mediocrity. One vice-presi. dent is pleased at this exposure of such mis- representations and falsiiications of history, and another thinks it a shame and an outrage to parade the effusions of janvier as 'history. ' A former vice-president Writes that he has been at once amused and disgusted at these articles, which are amazingly inaccurate. From the foregoing it appears most unmis- l3akab1Y that 3 Strong, sensitive and jealous Dutch patriotism slumbers just below the Sw-. face of the Holland Society, and needs but- the right impulse to start into vigorous action, 'D ,fe