The report of the agents who had visited Manhattan was such that the General Court at Boston voted that they were not "called upon to make a present war with the Dutch."
There were eight commissioners from the New England colonies in Boston. Notwithstanding this decision of the General Court, six of them were in favor of instant war. They sent back to Governor Stuyvesant an abusive and defiant reply, in which they said,
"Your confident denials of the barbarous plot with which you are charged will weigh little in the balance against the evidence, so that we must still require and seek due satisfaction and security."
The Connecticut colonists were ever looking with a wistful eye to the rich lands west of them. The Court at New Haven and that at Hartford sent messengers to Massachusetts to urge that "by war if no other means will serve, the Dutch, at and about the Manhattoes, who have been and still are like to prove injurious, may be removed." The General Court nobly replied, "We cannot act in so weighty a concernment, as to send forth men to shed blood, unless satisfied that God calls for it. And then it must be clear and not doubtful."
"In speaking of these events Mr. Brodhead says,
"At the annual meeting of the Commissioners, Massachusetts
maintained her proud position with a firmness which almost
perilled the stability of the confederation. A bitter
altercation, between the representatives of the other
colonies and the General Court, was terminated by an
ambiguous concession which nevertheless averted hostilities.
"The Connecticut governments seemed animated by the most
vindictive feelings; and their own recent historian laments
the refusal of the Massachusetts authorities to bear part in
an offensive war against New Netherland, as an 'indelible
stain upon their honor as men, and upon their morals as
Christians.'"
There was a strong party in favor of war as the only means of wresting the magnificent domain of New Netherland from the Dutch and annexing it to the New England possessions. The majestic Hudson was greatly coveted, as it opened to commerce vast and unknown regions of the interior.
Hartford and New Haven discussed the question if they were not strong enough without the aid of Massachusetts to subdue the Dutch. Stamford and Fairfield commenced raising volunteers on their own account, and appointed one Ludlow as their leader. A petition was sent to the home government, the Commonwealth over which Oliver Cromwell was then presiding, praying
"that the Dutch be either removed or, so far, at least,
subjected that the colonies may be free from injurious
affronts and secured against the dangers and mischievous
effects which daily grow upon them by their plotting with
the Indians and furnishing them with arms against the
English."
In conclusion they entreated that two or three frigates be sent out, and that Massachusetts be commanded to assist the other colonies to clear the coast "of a nation with which the English cannot either mingle or set under their government, nor so much as live near without danger of their lives and all their comforts in this world."