The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-01-31

weston Jenkins. honorary member of this Chapter.
 The Eeriy History es New Amstesdsm. The early history of New Afnsterdam Ia. to most of us little else than the frresistibiy iadicroustpanorama sketch ed by the vefaciops Diedrich Kntcker- booker
 Through the reigns of the impsrturb- ! able wonter Van TYiiier. the fussy, fuming Kfeft and stout old. wooden ! legged Peter stuyyesanta the stolid Dutch burghers smoked their pipes titled their fields and traded glass beads for beaver skins win the T. In : the magnificent future of their little settlement. a 7
 But even before the town passed in. to English hands in 16e4. some faint hints of it's future wealth and great ness might have been discussed. 1. Unlike the other earliest settlements. New Amsterdam had hourlshed from the very start The Dutch were both the most skiIifui agricuiturlsts and ai- most the shrewdest traders of the time, and they had hit upon a spot singular 1y we'll placed both for farming and for trading. The Dutch peasants and burghers were the most prosperous of afi the industrial classes in Europe. and In their households were to be
 
 ings. fine siiverwork and carved wood furniture in which. the low countries surpassed all Europe. with the excep- tion of Italy. Already, New York. when 1t first took that name. had be- gun to possess sopething of that char acter of cosmopolitan which has mark ed it ever since. French Caivanists driven from home by the Revocation Edict of Nantes. had in some numbers found a home here. among fellow Pro- testatns. ~
 spanish Jews. driven from the West India Islands first became an element in the English- -Americar colonies in New York and in Newport.
 That New York was to be liberty-l loving town was clearly indicated In an eventful trial which took place in 1735. Peter zenger. the editor of a. newspaper. having published some crit feism of the Chief Justice, De Lancey. and Of other members of the govern. :. ment. was punished bysthe seizure and burning of the offending issue of his paper, and was further prosecuted for criminal libel.
 De Lancey was not ashamed to sit as Judge in his own case, and when coun- sel for the defendant objected he promptly disbarred them. !. Andrew Hamilton. of Philadelphia. reprted the ablest lawyer in the coun- try, took up the defense and pleaded so eloquently for the liberty of the press that in the teeth of the judges charge to convict. the jury at once rendered a verdict of acquittal. estab- iishlng-perhaps contrary to what was then the law but certainly according to tfie principles of justice-the pre- cedent that in suits for libel the truth may be pleaded in Justification. In England long after that date. the ie- s..u la ttrTh6 greater the truth. the greater the IT, bel"
 < Tn i7s5. again. New. York was the center of the first audible defnonstra- ton of that general diseontent which was to swell Into the American Rev olution. 1t was in this city that the Stamp Congress. composed of delegates from several of the colonies. called to take measures against the enforce ments of the Stamp Act. met in that year and voiced the remonstrance of the American people against taxation without representation. It was while this body was In session that the first shipment of stamps was received in New York, and gave occasion for a. de- monstration not less audacious than the far-famed Boston. Tea Party ]"
 A crowd gathered by night, paraded inc streets broke open the stables Of the chief revenue officer and made a bonfire of his carriages.
 The aristocratic element Tn New york was, however. strongly inclined to Toryism, and even, to this. day. among the -Four Hundred" Tory great grandfather is a social asset of considerable value. A Na.4+
 z In 1774 again New York came to the front in the councils of the patriots when a meeting of citizens. called 10 take action upon the proposal by Mas sachusetts for 8 general agreement of Mpn-iuportation Ga boycott as we Mould say} of British goods. after careful deiiberation issued a recom- Iiendation for Congress of all the