* Governor Stuyvesant's house was built of small yellow brick, imported from Holland, and stood near the present St. Mark's church, between the Second and Third Avenues. I saw his well in 1851, in a vacant lot between Eleventh and Twelfth Streets, nearly on a line with the rear of St. Mark's. A fine brick building now (1852) covers the spot. A pear-tree, imported from Holland in 1647, by Stuyvesant, and planted in his garden, yet flourishes on the corner of Thirteenth Street and Third Avenue, the only living relic which preserves the memory of the renowned Dutch governor. I saw it in May, 1852, white with blossoms, a patriarch two hundred and five years of age, standing in the midst of strangers, crowned with the hoary honors of age and clustered with wonderful associations. An iron railing protects it, and it may survive a century longer.
Leisler Chief Magistrate.—His Persecution and Death.—Suppression of Piracy.—Captain Kidd.
quest was the work of treason, yet, as the royal libertine on the throne of England doubtless shared in the bribe, the traitor went unpunished. New Jersey and the settlements on the Delaware yielded, and for a short period (from July, 1673, until November, 1674) New York was again New Netherlands. *
During the period of twenty-four years from the English Conquest, until the Revolution, when James was driven from the throne, democratic ideas rapidly expanded, and democratic principles worked powerfully in New York. When, early in 1689, the people heard of the overthrow of the bigot James, and the accession of William and Mary, they appointed a Committee of Safety, and with almost unanimous voice approved the act of Jacob Leisler, the commander of the militia, in taking possession of the fort in the name of the new Protestant sovereigns.
Nicholson, the royal governor, departed, and with the consent of the people Leisler assumed the reigns of local rule until the king should appoint a successor. This whole movement was the spontaneous act of the people, in their sovereign capacity of self-governors. The aristocracy were offended; denounced Leisler as a usurper; and when Governor Sloughter came, they represented the popular leader as an enemy to the king and queen. Never was a man more loyal than Jacob Leisler; never was an accusation more false. His enemies resolved on his destruction, and succeeded.
Leisler and his son-in-law, Milborne, were arrested, tried under a charge of treason, and condemned to be hung. Sloughter withheld his signature to the death-warrants until the leaders of the aristocracy made him drunk at a dinner party. He then signed the fatal instrument, and before he was sober, Leisler and Milborne were suspended upon a gallowsMay 16, 1691 on the verge of Beekman's Swamp, near the spot where Tammany Hall now stands. These were the proto-martyrs of popular liberty in America. **