Document: Letter from George Baxter with the foregoing orders to Director General Stuyvesant

[1] [ Honoured Sir ]

[ According to your order, I have here sent you the Coppie of these orders, that were most materiall in our setling this place & you may please to understand that according to our Custome the townsemen haue made a new election, being without Judgment or reason, but according to theyre owne dispositions & affections for ] according to our Eng[ lish prouerb birds of a ] feather will flye togeat[ her & such as care not to ] be regulated by gouemt eit[ her Chiefe men like themselves, that ] they may have the more liber[ tie to breake oute into ] all disorder, or such they know they [ may trample ] under foote: amongst the small number [ wee haue ] there was no lesse than ten proposed in th[ eyre votes, they ] being almost of as many seve[ rall opiniones ] in theyre choice as they were in th[ eyre ] Ju[ dgements ] about the sewan, the which we had never issued, if [ I had not ] vsed another waye, but now such as it is, yo[ u haue it ] herewith sent;

I shall only humblie propose to your Consideratio: th[ at by our pattent ] wee are bownd to choose the ablest, wisest and dis[ creetest amongst ] us and of the which, you are to be the Judge, not [ they and for myne ] owne parte, & some others wee cannot approve of the cho[ ice of ] some of them, my reasons being it is a great dishonour [ to government ] and to your owne person to have an undeserving or an unworthy man [ represent ] your place: it is likewise a greate reproach to them of hon[ ourable ] respect heere, and others in this towne, to have men of small [ or noe ] abilities in any respect to sitt as it were in your place in the seate of Justice; to whom they must then give more respect [ than ] they deserve, besides wee shall be the mocke & laughing st[ ocke ] of our fellow townes, I shall therefore humblie request you, that when they are presented unto you, you will deman[ d of ] them wheather the towne have attended the rule in theyre pa[ ttent ] in the Choice of theyre men. 2ly: if they have or had anything to object against those they had made choice of for s[ oe ] long tyme, that you might doe them right, if not wherefore they were removed and other men putt in theyre places, you having experimentallie found that they have kept the towne in peace and quiett without any disturbance to yourself & Courte, therefore untill you are satisfied in those poynts you may please to put them of to another tyme; for after this rate, the most undeserving men may be Choosen in place to the trouble & undoeing of honest men of good estate for theyre lives & Conversations I have nothing to object, only theyre want of abilities to perform the trust reposed in them & soe I take leave and rest Jan. the 9th, 1651.

Geo. Baxter