[The remonstrance made by Jan Baptist van Rensselaer, who calls himself director of the colony of Renselaerswijck on the North River of New Netherland, to their honors, general Petrus Stuyvesant and the councilors of New Netherland, was received and read.[i]
Upon this we answer in the first place, that] the director general and councilors [ have no knowledge of his ] qualification as director of the colony etc., of which nevertheless (according to them) they ought to have been informed pursuant to the 9th and 28th articles of the exemptions.
The annexed documents marked A, B, C, D, (:the first two being extracts or resumptions from the resolutions of the lords representatives to the assembly of the XIX and the two others copies of letters from their high: might: citing or summoning the patroons to appear at a certain time before them:) have little or no reference to the question and therefore require no answer, in so far at least as the director general and councilors have never thought, much less tried to do or intend anything prejudicial to the granted and accepted exemptions. For this reason, in the second place, the protest is absurd, frivolous and unfounded, which the said remonstrant or protester enters against the director general and councilors, who by their commission from their high: might: the States General of the United Netherlands and the lords directors of the General Chartered West India Company represent the supreme government of this province of New Netherland. By virtue of this commission the director general and councilors [ maintain that it is not becoming to their official position and duties to exchange polemic writings with their vassals and subjects, much less to reply to their frivolous and unfounded protests with counter protests: they should ] rather correct and punish such frivolities as an example for others and fine therefore the protester ƒ25, without however depriving him or anybody else of the privilege of petitioning or properly pleading his or their grievances.
Concerning the tax or the excise, for the present laid (not on the general consumption of wine and beer as the remonstrance mistakenly implies) but all on the tappers’ consumption, the director general and councilors maintain and declare that it is very civil and was imposed for good reasons; that it was let to the highest bidder, pursuant to the usages of our fatherland, for the benefit of the community and that the tappers and inhabitants of the colony of Rensselaerswijck are and will remain subject not only to these, but also to all other fair and bearable charges, like the other colonies and inhabitants of New Netherland. This may be deduced and proved not only by the nature and form of all well-regulated governments, but also by the exemptions themselves, Art. 18, by which no infraction of jurisdiction can be sustained much less proven. The director general and councilors therefore decide and direct that the amounts, refused and in arrears, due to the farmer of the excise, which the innkeepers of the colony refused to pay, be promptly paid with damages, losses and interest, and that they shall henceforth submit, like the other tavern and innkeepers in this province, [ to the farmer’s ] gauging. Inasmuch the protesting remonstrant confesses to have been the cause and promoter [causa movens] and to have advised that the tappers should not submit to the general tax and examination; and that they did not appear upon the first, second, nor third citation by the fiscal, nor upon the further order and summons of the director general and councilors themselves; but in contempt of justice and the supreme government of this province, while they still remained contumacious so far. Therefore the director general and councilors of New Netherland repeat their order that the remonstrant be detained here in this city in the most civil and honorable manner at whatever house he likes best, until the still disobedient and contumacious tappers of the aforesaid colony of Rensselaerswijck personally appear here before the director general and councilors and give full and proper satisfaction according to the tenor of the law, or that the remonstrant gives bonds for a penalty of 3000 guilders for sending down the summoned and disobeying tappers at his expense and charges.
As to the demand for tithes from the farms of the aforesaid colony as well as from others, which the remonstrant not only thinks, but absolutely declares, to be contrary to the privileges granted to patroons by the Company, the director general and councilors after rereading of the exemptions printed in 1630 find no article by which the aforesaid colony and all inhabitants, may they have come at the patroon’s or their own expense (as the majority has done), are to be and remain exempted in perpetuity from the general and special taxes and never to contribute anything for the maintenance and advancement of the commonwealth, as the representatives from the aforesaid colony have from time to time, and especially at the provisional assembly[ii] held in September 1653, at which Anthony de Hooges and Johannes de Hulter appeared, maintaining on the point of subsidies, according to their written instructions, that they were neither obliged nor directed to contribute any subsidies, which were then so much needed during the very dangerous situation occasioned by the English troubles, were delayed, since neglected, and still hindered; for, if the oldest and most flourishing farms and inhabitants are not subject to pay the tithes or other taxes for the support and advancement of the commonwealth, the director general and councilors cannot perceive under what pretext of equity the tithes can be demanded from newer and less prosperous farms.
Inasmuch, however, the remonstrant at the end of his protest shows the burdens to be borne by the patroons in supporting their servants and officers, in which we suppose the officers of the church are included, for whom apparently the tithes are ordered to be gathered and set aside in the old testament; the director and councilors provisionally and until further order consent in this point to the request of the remonstrant, so far that this question of the tithes shall once more be referred to the lords superiors in the fatherland; save that an agreement be made with him in regard to the tithes demanded for this year, principally in order to prevent possible exceptions made by others, and if the lords superiors in the fatherland or arbitrators requested by them decide that neither the colony of Renselaerswijck nor any of its farms is subject to tithing, then the director general and councilors engage to refund the sums agreed upon as tithes.
Concerning the further point raised by the remonstrant about the promise made by the Company to protect the patroons in pursuance of the quoted 25th article, he omits either by mistake or intentionally to quote the text in its true meaning, which very clearly states: “assumes assistance in its defense with the forces it has there as much as possible;” as far as we know the Company has now during thirty years never failed to do so, neither will they fail to do so in their present situation.
That the coloniers have two or three times repaired and made ready Fort Orange with the assistance of the inhabitants is stated, but not sufficiently demonstrated. If it was done, we acknowledge it gratefully; also, notwithstanding it was done more for their own than for the general interest. We, the director general and councilors now in office, do not know anything of a war with the French wilden; and during the English troubles, the people of the colony have, it is true, made some promises, according to their letters, to bring the fort into proper shape, but after working four or five days, they dropped it again and the necessary repairs devolved then upon the officers and men of the citizenry in the village of Beverwijck. What they may have done last year during the troubles, the director and councilors do not know.
Thus done at Fort Amsterdam in New Netherland in council of the director general and councilors, the 27th of June 1656. (was signed)
P. Stuyvesant. Nicasius de Sille, and La Montagne.
