01 August 2008

U.S. Religious Freedom Owes Debt to Colonists’ Radical Document

1657 Flushing Remonstrance urged tolerance, foresaw modern religious rights

 

The Flushing Remonstrance of 1657 was a plea for religious tolerance made by English colonists objecting to the persecution of Quakers in what is now Flushing, New York. Many historians consider it a precursor to the guarantee of religious freedom in the U.S. Constitution.

The Flushing Remonstrance of 1657 was a plea for religious tolerance made by colonists in Flushing, New York.

By Judy Aita
Special Correspondent

New York -- The ancient, fragile document now lies protected in a glass case, its revolutionary, eloquent prose barely visible, its pages scorched.  But the principle of religious freedom promoted by a small group of English settlers in the Flushing Remonstrance has survived the centuries.

Flushing is a neighborhood in Queens -- one of the five boroughs that collectively make up New York City -- and is located about 16 kilometers east of Manhattan, New York.

Dated December 27, 1657, the Flushing Remonstrance is the earliest known document in America to argue for religious freedom. A group of Flushing residents used it to petition the Dutch colonial government to uphold freedom of conscience and permit religious pluralism.  It is considered by historians to be a precursor of the guarantee of religious freedom in the U.S. Constitution.

For its 350th anniversary, the Remonstrance was on rare public display at the Queens Public Library and then the Queens Museum of Art from December 2007 until June 2008.  It has been in the custody of successive New York governments -- Dutch, British and American -- along with 12,000 pages of original Dutch records.  The document on display is a 1657 duplicate, copied by a notary into the colonial council minutes of New Amsterdam.  Its pages were singed in a 1911 fire at the Albany archives.  The original petition is nowhere to be found. 

A TRADITION OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

In 1645, the charter from the Dutch West India Company establishing the town of Flushing in the colony of New Amsterdam granted religious freedom or "the right to have and enjoy liberty of conscience, according to the custom and manner of Holland without molestation or disturbance from any magistrates or any other ecclesiastical minister."

Nevertheless, after his arrival in 1647, colonial governor Peter Stuyvesant would tolerate no religion except that of his Dutch Reformed Church.  Although he persecuted other religious groups such as Lutherans and Jews, Stuyvesant was especially harsh on the Society of Friends, also known as Quakers, issuing an edict forbidding anyone in the colony to entertain a Quaker or allow a Quaker meeting in his or her house.  The townspeople of Flushing were moved to defend their town charter in 1657 after Stuyvesant banished respected citizen Henry Townsend for allowing a Quaker meeting in his home.

Edward Hart, the scholarly town clerk, wrote the document, which was signed by Tobias Feake, the schout (sheriff), and 29 other townspeople.  Feake delivered the plea to Stuyvesant.

The Flushing Remonstrance was remarkable for several reasons, Kenneth T. Jackson, professor of history at Columbia University, wrote in the New York Times on the document's 350th birthday.   The signers stood up for others; none was himself a Quaker.  They backed up their words with action, sending it to the most powerful official in the colony.

In addition, Jackson wrote, "like all great documents, the language of the Remonstrance is as beautiful as the sentiments they express."

"For our part we cannot condemn them [Quakers] in this case, neither can we stretch out our hands against them," the Flushing residents told Stuyvesant.

"Wee [sic] desire therefore in this case not to judge least we be judged, neither to condemn least we be condemned, but rather let every man stand or fall to his own Master," they said.

 

In 1662, John Bowne let Quakers meet in his home, angering the Dutch colonial governor in what is now Flushing, New York. Bowne was jailed, then banished. He made his way to Holland and presented his case to the Dutch West India Company, which backed Bowne and ordered the colonial governor to respect freedom of religion.

In 1662, John Bowne let Quakers meet in his home, angering the Dutch colonial governor. Bowne was jailed, then banished from Flushing.

The colonists mentioned "Jews, Turks and Egyptians ... Presbyterian, Independent, Baptist or Quaker" and said they were "desiring to doe [sic] unto all men as we desire all men should doe unto us, which is the true law both of Church and State."

"Therefore if any of these said persons come in love unto us, we cannot in conscience lay violent hands upon them, but give them free egresse and regresse unto our town, and houses, as God shall persuade our consciences, for we are bounde [sic] by the law of God and man to doe good unto all men and evil to noe man," they said.

An angry Stuyvesant rejected the Remonstrance, demanded the signers recant, levied fines and jailed Hart and Feake.   Despite pleadings from even his own sister and local Indians, Stuyvesant made the entire town suffer, replacing the town government with his own appointees.

In 1662, a young farmer named John Bowne, who had married a Quaker, allowed the Friends to meet in his house.  He was arrested, fined, imprisoned and then banished from the colony.  Bowne made his way to Holland with the Remonstrance and presented his case to the Dutch West India Company.  The company backed Bowne and in 1663 told Stuyvesant that religious freedom must be honored.  "The consciences of men at least ought ever to remain free and unshackled," the company said.

A LASTING LEGACY

According to R. Scott Hanson, a visiting assistant professor of history at the State University of New York at Binghamton, the Remonstrance is best understood in terms of its local context, but it did play an important part in the evolution of religious freedom in America. Often overlooked, it is, nevertheless, "remarkable, and still stands as the earliest document for these principles in colonial America."

"It was a group of ordinary citizens arguing for this idea," Hanson added.  "Historians think of it as a pioneering plea, so eloquent and at length."

Rhode Island and Pennsylvania granted religious freedom after the Remonstrance. And in 1683, the Charter of Liberties, which established a colonial government in New York, guaranteed religious freedom, as did the New York Constitution in 1777.

Whether the Remonstrance itself actually affected other states and the U.S. Constitution is unclear, Hanson said.

While some historians see a link, there is no historical proof that either James Madison, author of the Bill of Rights (the first 10 amendments to the Constitution), or Thomas Jefferson, author of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1779) and the Declaration of Independence, actually had read or heard of the Remonstrance, Hanson said.  Jefferson's writings do comment on the religious freedom in the sister states of Pennsylvania and New York.

The principles of the Remonstrance lived on and grew in the settlement of Flushing and throughout Queens County, New York.  In colonial times the area was the most diverse, with more than 16 languages spoken and several religions practiced, and the diversity continued to flourish over the centuries.  A sense of local pride in the Remonstrance itself resurfaced in the 1900s, Hanson said. 

The Quakers built their own meeting house in 1694 and hold meetings there to this day.  Bowne's house, which was inhabited by his descendants until it became a museum in 1945, was declared "a national shrine to religious freedom."  The farmhouse now shares Bowne Street with 10 different places of worship. 

Today, Queens is the most ethnically diverse county in the United States, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.  Flushing itself is home to more than 200 houses of worship -- churches, temples, Sikh gurdwaras, mosques, synagogues, meeting houses and others -- a fitting legacy of the 30 signers of the Flushing Remonstrance. (See “One New York City Neighborhood Is a World of Religious Diversity.”)

More information on the Flushing Remonstrance can be found at “350th Anniversary of the Flushing Remonstrance,” produced by the Queens Borough president’s office, and the Web site of The Bowne House Historical Society.

For more information on religious diversity in the United States, see Diversity-At Worship.