In 1638, Adriaen van der Donck entered the University of Leyden to study law. The school was then the center of enlightened thinking in Europe. In the Republic, it was the center of religious freedom and the city enjoyed complete freedom of expression and the press. A major influence on Adriaen’s thinking were likely the philosophies of Hugo Grotius, often described as the father of modern international law. René Descartes, who taught at Leyden, published his Discourse on Method there in 1637. Even Isaac Newton chose to publish his Discourses and Mathematical Demonstrations Concerning Two Sciences at Leyden in 1638.
Descartes’s thinking was revolutionary. Traditionally churches, of all denominations, and monarchs dictated how and what the people had to believe. Descartes declared thinking was the purview of the individual and could not be dictated by authority. At Leyden, great advances were made in Science, Mathematics, Medicine, Philosophy, Law, and related fields. Hugo Grotius’s philosophies on “Natural Law” were highly popular at the university. Grotius suggested that the determination of right and wrong could be made through the application of human reasoning rather than biblical citations. The Age of the Individual was awakening.
In this environment, Adriaen received his education. An authority on Roman-Dutch law, he graduated in 1641 and would have done well for himself in the booming economy of the rich Republic. However, he wanted to do something more exciting and go to the colony in America, the New Netherlands. ………..
Van Rensselaer managed his affairs on the Hudson River from Amsterdam and had never visited America. The success of his enterprise led to a logical problem: the settlement was without a government to provide it with the leadership, law, and order a growing community required. The young lawyer knocked on the director’s door at exactly the right time. ……….
Adriaen van der Donck chose to ignore some of his employer’s instructions. He did make many sorties into the wilderness and on occasion caught an inattentive smuggler or two. But mostly he used the time to study the natural environment and the culture of the local tribes, whom he learned to respect. He had a strong sense of justice and developed empathy for the people who were under contract with van Rensselaer. Instead of punishing them for non-performance, he tried to improve the conditions of their work environment. His employer’s correspondence became more heated. Van Rensselaer accused Adriaen of behaving like a manager rather than a policeman. It became clear that his job would come to an end. Largely thanks to Adriaen’s peaceful interaction with the locals, Rensselaerswyck did not suffer the fate of its southern counterparts. But headquarters was micromanaging without the benefit of local knowledge. Using his contacts with the Mohawks, Adriaen tried to purchase land of his own. Upon hearing about his lawman’s apparent defection, van Rensselaer quickly instructed his manager to preempt the purchase by buying it himself. Eventually, van Rensselaer’s health failed him and he died in 1643 before the terms of Adriaen’s contract expired. In 1644 the heirs did not renew them. Adriaen had enough of the job anyway. The stubborn young man packed up and located to New Amsterdam.
And that, as they say, is a whole other story.
From MANY HEADS AND MANY HANDS, James Madison’s Search for a More Perfect Union.
Mau VanDuren