Yourself to it. It is a dutch food. There is juice back there. Help yourself. I wanted introduce the speaker. Mau vanduren is an independent scholar, we can safely say. Actually, what brings them here today is a wonderful demonstration of what independence scholars are capable of, particularly in the field of early american constitutional history. Otherld say among his biographical things i found he comes from the netherlands. He is not the only valuable import from the United States. His book points out as the title suggests there were many heads and many hands involved in writing the u. S. Constitution. We always harken back to the main days, locke, rousseau. You might want to determine human or montesquieu. It shows that this is mostly a dialogue with ideas of republicanism that goes further back than that. That is what i hr more of. There will be time for questions and answers afterward. Feel free to open it up. Thank you. Mau can everybody hear me . Did nobody here me . [laughter] mau in the meantime, i will yell. Thank you so much for being here. This is going to be much more interesting than the civil disobedience outside. My name is now vendor in mau vanduren. I am an amateur historian. I got interested in the stuff back when i first came to the United States in 1982, following my sweetheart. The book starts with an episode that goes way back in time. The reason i do that is to show that rules and laws come about for a reason. I started 100 cc 3000 years ago. What does that cave show . It shows that there are people that have developed different skills and if you have different skills, you can trade skills. Then the book flies through time, going to western europe and other places. Eventually, we come to the shores of the americas and eventually the United States. Lets see if this works. There we go. We have our typical american values. That was the battle cry of the resolution, basically. We have freedom of religion, the separation of church and state, a free press, and independent judiciary. These are things that we find more or less in our constitution in different forms. How did the constitution come about . James madison did not write the bill of rights immediately, that came later. He saw the need for a better structure for our country. The act of confederation made us somewhat dysfunctional. If you look at it is government, you may think we are still dysfunctional. That is functionality at the time was really so bad. The states were supposed to work together. They were supposed to trade but they were more working against each other. Madison saw the need to do something about that. There is is montpelier. He locked himself in his library in 1780 678 he could study what other countries had done to design a system that would work to us. If we look carefully, we can see him sitting in the library there. He is reading the newspaper, apparently. Where did these values come from . They came from people. When people came to this country very early on in the early 17th century, they brought with them their families, cattle, tools, furniture. Most importantly, what they brought was what was in their heads. What was in their heads were obviously all of the values they had from back home. The various colonies that they settled each reflected those values. What we see is that one colony, Plymouth Foundation plymouth plantation, was founded by separatists from england, who had also lived in the netherlands. What they picked up their was democratic government, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of speech. The freedom of religion attracted them in the first place but it also eventually repelled them because they thought there was too much freedom. They were losing youngsters to other denominations, is how it goes, right . The attraction of men and women will make you forget your religion. They decided that they needed to leave. In 1620, they sailed to massachusetts. There is a long story in the book about this, why they ended up in plymouth because it was probably not where they were supposed to go. They introduced all of those values in the colonies. Another comedy was the Massachusetts Bay company and they included their values in their system of government. They were puritans. They had not lived in the netherlands. They were not aware of the was going on there. They came to this country with english values. Even though they had a separation of church and state, they also made it very difficult for people who were not puritans to have any say in their government. Then there is the new netherlands, new amsterdam, now new york. They brought with them the values they had in the netherlands. All of the dutch laws apply to, but it is a property of the Dutch East India Company. That meant that the corporate interest trumped appropriate word trumped the civic interest. So there is a real conflict. The director of the Dutch East India Company is also the governor of the colony. One interesting thing at the bottom, there are a lot of records welcome, find a seat anywhere there are a lot of Court Records that show that slaves were indeed suing their owners for mistreatment. Quite interesting. Where are we . So lets go back i am rushing through this a little bit because i am told i only have a half an hour. So, keep your questions for then. Lets go back to massachusetts and see what the effects are of one person who travels through all of these colonies. There are some interesting records about him. He is going to be our forests gump. His name is Francis Doughty. He arrives in plymouth plantation around 1638. He is the son of a brewer. He supposedly ran off with the inheritance and his wife and children. He arrived in plymouth plantation, which is interesting because it has changed somewhat already. They had all of these wonderful values but they were under threat because there was an influx of other people into the company. There were failed colonies to the north, and more rough folks joined them. Apparently, he does not experience any problems in plymouth plantation and stays there for five years. Then he moves to dorchester near boston. His sister followed him from england and is suing him in court for the inheritance. He takes on a position in cohasset, west of plymouth. Yet, he doesnt stick to the law very well. His servant is a drunk and unruly character. Lastly, there is a baptism dispute with the local church. He is a minister, after all. He says if you baptize the parents, the children should also be baptized. Limits effect and find a rightof writeup a bout that a bout that. Shortly after his appointment, a scout arrives from boston. Either they resent to check on francis we do not know, however, trouble came when francis asserted that the children of the baptized also should be baptized. Apparently that belief did not go over well with superior to and. They told him that henceforward, he had to conform to. Views. Francis refused. He has been preaching this way from the beginning. The boston ministers believe that they were in the right and appealed to the local magistrate judge to intervene and rule in their favor. The magistrate who was secular official ordered the constable to arrest the offending minister. Apparently the constable chose to do this during a Church Assembly and francis was dragged out. He lost the case and he was expelled from the colony. So, francis leaves. He goes to rhode island and make some friends there, probably because it is a free place. He decides he doesnt want to stay there. In 1641, he travels to obama and he travels to long island. They go to long island and you see there this is an old map we have here there you go long island, here. New amsterdam is there. Here is the hudson river going up. Rhode island is to the right there. Eventually when he settles there, he meets a fellow, and educated lawyer from the netherlands who traveled up the as a river where he got a job to be a Police Officer in one of the dutch colonies. Instead of policing, he is helping the workers, preventing the natives. In 1643, he doesnt get his contract extended, so he travels to new amsterdam. This guy has the same notion as Francis Doughty. They set up a secret partnership after meeting in new amsterdam. They are each joining a group of people who are trying to get more democracy instituted in the colony. The company doesnt like democratic structures because it has to come from the top down. But the colonists who want to have some influence. Together, they make a piece of paper that they send to the state general in the netherlands to influence the state general to tell these governors that they need to institute a more democratic form of government. How are we doing on time . They send the document off to the netherlands. The governor is hiring this lawyer to help with the natives because after all, he is so familiar with them. They sign a Peace Agreement with the governor is so grateful that he gives a landgrant to the lawyer. A couple of years later, there is a court case. Francis doughty is taking somebody to court, suing him for defamation of his oldest daughter, apparently this fellow had created a song but it was bad and so he is in court. He then meets the oldest daughter and nature takes its course they get married and they moved to the place that we now know as yonkers. Yonkers is a dutch word which means young lord. Is basically named after the lawyer. In the meantime, this paper is in netherlands in the state general more or less agrees that something needs to be done about im skipping over a few things here so we can have more questionandanswer that the governor needs to be recalled and a new governor is coming in. That is a fellow by the name of peter stuyvesant. Vander doncks role is still hidden. He moves to flushing, on the northern shore of long island where he becomes a minister. He was granted limited participation in government. Vander donck is elected to a government board. Just when you think things are going away, outside influences are throwing a monkeywrench into the thing. Around that time, king charles is taken prisoner by parliament. Cromwell decides to end once and for all and that is when he becomes lord protector. In the meantime, vander donck has gone to the netherlands to make his case. He wins the case but a few months later, the english and dutch war breaks out. The state general rescinded all orders. The whole project is off the table. Vander donck is not allowed to return to the colony for a while, so he starts to work on a book about new netherlands, which is really interesting because he describes all of the animals and people that live in that part of the world. He has a vision in the vision is that america should become, just like the netherlands was at that time, a haven for refugees from all over europe, and that they would have a free government and a lot of the things that we have now. This is pretty revolutionary, 1655. In the same year, unfortunately, he dies in and indian attack. The democracy project is dead, so he leaves for maryland and virginia. His starter his daughter follows him. His sons stay behind. The flashing renaissance is quite a unique document. It is a document signed by english protestants in defense of quakers. Quakers were despised in those days i dont know why, but they were. They were not allowed to participate even in the Plymouth Colony government, certainly not in massachusetts. They were persecuted just about everywhere, including somewhat in the dutch colony. It was quite unique that a group of people came together and signed a petition on their behalf to send to the governor. I will be in flushing next month to talk about that same event at the house where it was signed. It is still the original house. Lets see here. We flew through this pretty quickly. Lets see where we have ended up. Daughty goes to virginia. Just before he gets there, virginia is basically at war with england. Never heard of this, right . Weird. The navigation act, the second navigation act stipulated that the colonies, the english colonies could only trade with england, not with the dutch. The dutch was virginias largest trading partner. The dutch were actually the largest trading partner all the way until the 1670s, the largest trading partner in virginia. The virginians refused, saying they are not going to do that. The british sent a fleet, arriving in 1652. The Virginia Governor is asking the dutch to help in the fight. He mobilizes troops. 1200 troops. There is going to be a fight. At the last minute, it gets averted. , ay eventually sign a treaty treaty. A treaty is something that exists between two independent countries, right . They sign a treaty. In the treaty, they give virginia the right to tax itself. Thinking is no longer allowed to tax them. Very revolutionary. They also grant them a continuation of a democratic government that they had ever the 16 20s. Doughty arrives in his particular in this place. Again, becomes a minister. He then settles in Northampton County and becomes the director of an Episcopal Church where he is, of course, love my son, and hated by others and after a while, he leaves. This seems to be his habit. To pay twiceed widow of the ministers of the church. He stays in that circle. Moves in 66 22. If you think that virginia is an enlightened place, you may be interested to hear what the governor of virginia had to say. I thank god there are no free schools for printing, and i hope we shall not have these in 100 years. For learning has brought disobedience and heresy and sex and sects not sex. [laughter] and printing his typology them. Libel against the best government. Forgot he conveniently he was a protestant himself only by the virtue of the reformation which of course was supported by the Printing Press and new ideas and so on and so on. That is how it goes, often. Then, we dont know for sure some records say he went back to maryland. Let me read. One source stated as Francis Doughty moved back to maryland to die there, the dowdy dna project states he died in maryland on march 2, 1682, but this author has not been able to confirm this. In every colony he visited, and this is the significant of our her scope, and every colony visited, he experienced the birth, infancy, or growing pains of virtual republics and saw the development of rule of law and democracy. Smallmindedness of religious intolerance in massachusetts, lived among the free in rhode island, learned about the covers and limitations about the powers and locations of the people had learned about fridges of does participatory government in maryland and virginia. Mostly, he followed the footsteps of others, but in the know the new netherlands, he was briefly at pioneer. He mixed with the movers and shakers and lifted the beginnings of what would become the american nation. I lifted out this particular episode of the book because it of how thesee bit values arrive and what we did with them. Of course, the story doesnt end here. He story doesnt end period we have civil disobedience going on on the step of the capital. We have protests, we have a socialist running for the presidency, we have a demagogue also running. We have everybody. That is a good thing. Americandy said, the experiment is never finished. We will continue to work on it. I think that is one of the things that you see the beginnings of right here and not just in this country, but in other countries further back in history. Lets see if i have any more wisdom to the voltage about this. Two diebold about this. Eventually, we get a constitution. Proved a powerful argument during the convention. Inison repeated the argument the federalist 38, writing that it is not necessarily not necessary the former be perfect. The old rules were worse than a new one. Perfecterstood the officer was an enemy of the good. Many also understood the document was temporary in nature come at a future generations would mold into their needs. Whateverrstood that the provisions, there would be groups of individuals that would recruit the constitution provisions to advance narrow interests and eventually corrupt the system and gain power for themselves. Jefferson suggested there ought to be a revolution at least every 20 years. Have we had one . Go itions you noticed each chapter any questions . You noticed each chapter the gamut medicines quotes. What sources does madison in the writings of european philosophers . He doesnt cite any sources at all. We have his notes. About five or six pages that he wrote of what he studied. The sources of that are not there, but we do have a list of it in his library. In those days they called it minister. List of also a book books that madison recommended in 1783 for the library of congress, because he was disgusted with his colleagues. He thought they were ignorant, small minded, and he saw i need to educate them. Books thatlist of include encyclopedia, french encyclopedia. And then there is the library list that was reconstructed afterwords. At the time, probably 3000 oaks in it. One of his cousins or nieces describe it as you couldnt move around. Eventually he ended up as ended up with 6000 books. The dutch revolution of the 16th and 17th century were part of the study he did . You talked about the influences of the various and the different groups that came. Virginiealk about how a was influenced in terms of social stratification. Stratification in society is very old, that existed in europe and the netherlands much as it existed in other places. A more enlightened thinking, virginia is an interesting case. When the company in england increasingly came under the whoce of edwin eventually became treasurer of the company. He saw fit to give virginia, what was known as the house of he gave them almost an entirely republican constitution. And people were elected by virginians, probably only property owners. Virginia state a fairly democratic place. I think they are a little bit more each gallon tarry in. There was more of a sense of nobility. There were still remnants of it. Let me throw something out there and see where it goes. It may have something to do withs with slavery. A small group of families, white , were benefiting from two things. First fall slavery, which ran parallel to the indentured servitude. And that created a stratification of inequality. Now in the northern states slavery played much less of a role. There were no with tobacco and cotton in the south. Anybody . All right. I have a question about how dowdys story came to your attention. How did you follow that journey . That was by accident. Here im reading a book about the history of long island. About read another book Eastern Shore of for genia. There is the minister. Same n