crippled. Herrman and Loockermans, the two most prominent merchants and influential men of the town, suffered most. They appealed to Stuyvesant to ask aid of the home government against New England’s gradual encroachment upon their maritime rights that up to the time were undisputed. For various reasons, partly because of his naturally arbitrary temperament and partly because he entertained a jealousy of the power and wealth already controlled by these men, the governor would not yield to their pleas. He continued in his usual obstinate mood and ruled more arbitrarily than before. In 1649 the energetic and capable scholar and jurist, Adriaen Van der Donck was given a seat in the Council. Van der Donck, Herrman and Loockermans, finely matched for energy, wits and accomplishment, formed a kind of triumvirate against Stuyvesant and from that time on there was nothing but incessant trouble. These men fully realized that the Nine Men was a popular tribunal chosen at an election at which all the inhabitants of Manhattan, Brenckelen (Brooklyn), Amersfoort and Pavonia chose “eighteen of the most notable, reasonable, honest and respectable persons” from their towns; and from whom, “as it is customary in the Fatherland”, the Director and the Council were to choose a group of Nine Men to represent New Amsterdam and the outlying jurisdictions, whose duty it was “to advise and assist, when called upon, in promoting the welfare of the province at large.”[1]
This action was an additional development toward representative government and, as we have pointed out, any theory or practical accomplishment that tended toward popular rule outraged the governor. The duties and powers of the Nine Men were proclaimed by the Council, much against Stuyvesant’s wishes. “Nothing is more desirable than that New
- ↑ Brodhead, Vol. I. p. 474.
