Council of Eight Men
In 1643 Abraham was appointed to a new council of eight men. The council petitioned the States-General and blamed governor Kieft for the declining economic condition of the nascent colony. They requested that a new Director-General of New Netherland be appointed and that the people themselves be given more influence in the new government. Director General Kieft was dismissed, and Peter Stuyvesant took his place and Stuyvesant remained in power until the colony was turned over to the British in 1664. Kieft returned to Holland, but the vessel was lost at sea and his body was never recovered. John Franklin Jameson (1859–1937) writes:
The commonalty were called together; they were sore distressed. They chose eight, in the stead of the previous twelve, persons to aid in consulting for the best; but the occupation every one had to take care of his own, prevented anything beneficial being adopted at that time. nevertheless it was resolved that as many Englishmen as were to be got in the country should be enlisted, who were indeed now proposing to depart; the third part of these were to be paid by the commonalty; this promise was made by the commonalty but was not followed by the pay.
Read more about this topic: Abraham Pietersen Van Deusen
Famous quotes containing the words council of, council and/or men:
“There by some wrinkled stones round a leafless tree
With beards askew, their eyes dull and wild
Twelve ragged men, the council of charity
Wandering the face of the earth a fatherless child....”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)
“Daughter to that good Earl, once President
Of England’s Council and her Treasury,
Who lived in both, unstain’d with gold or fee,
And left them both, more in himself content.
Till the sad breaking of that Parliament
Broke him, as that dishonest victory
At Chaeronea, fatal to liberty,
Kill’d with report that old man eloquent;—”
—John Milton (1608–1674)
“Women’s Liberation is just a lot of foolishness. It’s the men who are discriminated against. They can’t bear children. And no one’s likely to do anything about that.”
—Golda Meir (1898–1978)