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FEBRUARY
 

1, 1656 --New York. Peter Stuyvesant, recently the Vice-Director of Curacao, was wounded in the West Indies in the attack made on St. Martin. With an army of one hundred twenty men he has become the protector of the Dutch settlement of New Netherlands.

     Today, Director General Stuyvesant and the Council issue an ordinance repeating the prohibition of conventicles and of preaching by unauthorized persons. Only Reformed worship conformable to the Canons of Dort of 1619 are to be allowed. Public worship by settlers from New England and family worship by Dissenters will continue to be permitted.

     In 1653, a convention met which was composed of two deputies from each village in New Netherlands. It was an assembly which Mr. Stuyvesant was unwilling to sanction, but one that he could not prevent. At this convention a petition was drafted by Mr. George Baxter and was unanimously adopted by the convention. It read, "The States-General of the United Provinces are our liege lords; we submit to the laws of the United Provinces; and our rights and privileges ought to be in harmony with those of the fatherland, for we are a member of the state, and not subjugated people. We, who have come together from various parts of the world, and are a blended community of various lineage; we, who have at our own expense, exchanged our native lands for the protection of the United Provinces; we who have transformed the wilderness into fruitful farms, --demand that no new laws shall be enacted but with the consent of the people, that none shall be appointed to office but with the approbation of the people, that obscure and obsolete laws shall never be revived."

     Mr. Stuyvesant was amazed. He had never had faith in what he called "the wavering multitude." Because he doubted man's ability for self-government, he replied, "Will you set your names to the visionary notions of an Englishman? Is there no one of the Netherlands’ nation able to draft your petition? And your prayer is extravagant; you might as well claim to send delegates to the assembly of their high mightinesses themselves.

     1.) "Laws will be made by the Director and Council. Evil manners produce good laws for their restraint; and therefore the laws of New Netherlands are good.

     2.) "Shall the people elect their own officers? If this rule become our cynosure, and the election of magistrates be left to the rabble, every man will vote for one of his own stamp. The thief will vote for a thief; the smuggler for a smuggler; and fraud and vice will become privileged.

     3.) "The old laws remain in force; Directors will never make themselves responsible to subjects."

     On December 13, 1653, the delegates responded: "We do but design the general good of the country and the maintenance of freedom; nature permits all men to constitute society and assemble for the protection of liberty and property."

     Enraged, and devoid of power to argue, Mr. Stuyvesant dissolved the Assembly and threatened its members with "arbitrary" punishment, saying, "We derive our authority from God and the West India Company, not from the pleasure of a few ignorant subjects."

1, 1750 --England. John Newton marries Mary Catlett.


 

 

1, 1834 --South Carolina. Henry McNeal Turner is born at Newberry Court House. He will learn to read and write by his own effort while a servant in the Abbeville Court House. As a bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, he will be an ardent advocate of the return of the Negroes to Africa where they should build up a nation of their own. He will organize four annual conferences in Africa at Sierra Leone, Liberia, Transvaal and South Africa.


1, 1845 --Texas. The Texas Baptist Education Society receives a charter from the Republic of Texas for a college at Independence. This will merge with the University of Waco in 1886, when it will become known as Baylor University.
 

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