A Brief History of the United StatesSteele, Joel Dorman
History
A Brief History of the United States
Steele, Joel Dorman
United States -- History
THE ENGLISH GOVERNORS disappointed the people by not granting them
their coveted rights. A remonstrance against being taxed without
representation was burned by the hangman. So that when, after nine
years of English rule, a Dutch fleet appeared in the harbor, the
people went back quietly under their old rulers. But the next year
peace being restored between England and Holland, New Amsterdam
became New York again. Thus ended the Dutch rule in the colonies.
Andros, who twelve years after played the tyrant in New England,
was the next governor, but he ruled so arbitrarily that he was
called home. Under his successor, Dongan, an assembly of the
representatives of the people was called, by permission of the Duke
of York. This was but a transient gleam of civil freedom, for two
years alter, when the Duke of York became James II., king of
England, he forgot all his promises, forbade legislative
assemblies, prohibited printing-presses, and annexed the colony to
New England. When, however, Andros was driven from Boston,
Nicholson, his lieutenant and apt tool of tyranny in New York, fled
at once. Captain Leisler, supported by the democracy but bitterly
opposed by the aristocracy, thereupon administered affairs very
prudently until the arrival of Governor Sloughter (slaw-ter) who
arrested him on the absurd charge of treason. Sloughter was
unwilling to execute him, but Leisler's enemies, at a dinner party,
made the governor drunk, obtained his signature, and before he
became sober enough to repent, Leisler was no more.
[Footnote: For many years the Atlantic Ocean was infested by
pirates. A little after the events narrated above, William Kidd, a
New York shipmaster, was sent out to cruise against these
sea-robbers. He turned pirate himself and became the most noted of
them all. Returning from his cruise, he was at length captured
while boldly walking in the streets of Boston. He was carried to
England, tried, and hung. His name and deeds have been woven into
popular romance, and the song "My name is Captain Kidd, as I
sailed, as I sailed," is well known. He is believed to have buried
his ill-gotten riches on the coast of Long Island or the banks of
the Hudson, and these localities have been oftentimes searched by
credulous persons seeking for Kidd's treasure.]
From this time till the Revolution, the struggles of the people
with the royal governors for their rights, developed the spirit of
liberty and paved the way for that eventful crisis.
* * * * *
NEW JERSEY.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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