106 HISTORY OF BROOKLYN

often arbitrary. Directly or indirectly, he appointed and commissioned all public officers, framed all laws, and decided all important controversies. He also heard all appeals from subordinate magistrates, who were required to send such cases as were pending before them to the Council, for their decision. He directed churches to be built, installed ministers, and even ordered them when and where to preach. Assuming the sole control of the public lands, he extinguished the Indian title thereto, and allowed no purchase to be made from the natives without his sanction; and granted at pleasure, to individuals and companies, parcels of land, subject to such conditions as he saw fit to impose. In the management of these complicated affairs the Director developed a certain imperiousness of manner and impatience of restraint, due, perhaps, as much to his previous military life as to his personal character; and it is not strange that he sometimes exercised his prerogative in a capricious and arbitrary manner, and with little regard to the wishes of his people. During the whole of his predecessor's unquiet rule a constant struggl e had been going on between the personal prerogative of the Executive and the inherent sentiment of popular freedom which prevailed among the commonalty, leading the latter constantly to seek for themselves the franchises and freedoms of the Fatherland, to which, as loyal subjects, they deemed themselves entitled in New Netherland. The contest was reopened soon after Stuyvesant's installation, and the firmness of both Director and people, in the maintenance of what each jealously considered their rights, gave indication of serious disturbance to the public weal. In 1647, however, the doughty Governor found himself in a predicament from which only the good people could relieve him. Trouble was brewing among the Indians, whose promised annual presents were considerably in arrears, and there existed an imperative necessity for certain repairs upon Fort Amsterdam. But the provincial treasury was bankrupt ; and Stuyvesant, well knowing that the people would never submit to be taxed without their consent, found it convenient to yield his much-valued prerogative to the sentiment of the community, and, by advice of his Council, demanded a popular representation in the affairs of government. An election was therefore held, at which the inhabitants of Amsterdam, Breuckelen,