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The Flushing Remonstrance was a 1657 petition to Director-General of New Netherland Peter Stuyvesant, in which some thirty residents of the small settlement at Vlishing requested an exemption to his ban on Quaker worship. It is considered a precursor to the United States Constitution's provision on freedom of religion in the Bill of Rights. Its 350th anniversary was celebrated in 2007 in ceremonies throughout Queens, New York. According to Kenneth T. Jackson, the Flushing Remonstrance was remarkable for four reasons: * it articulated a fundamental right that is as basic to American freedom as any other, *the authors backed up their words with actions by sending it to an official not known for tolerance, *they stood up for others in articulating a principle that was of little discernible benefit to themselves, *and the language of the remonstrance was as beautiful as the sentiments they expressed. ==Background== Vlissengen, or "Vlishing," now the community of Flushing in Queens, New York, had been part of the Dutch colony of New Netherland. It was originally settled by English people operating under a patent, issued by Governon Willem Kieft in 1645, granting them the same state of religious freedom existing in Holland, then the most tolerant of European countries. Stuyvesant, however, with his 1656 ordinance against illegal religious meetings, had formally banned the practice of all religions outside of the Dutch Reformed Church, the established church of the Netherlands, in the colony.〔 His often-derided decision should be evaluated against the approximate hundred-year evolution of religious tolerance in the Netherlands. During this time the country was revolting against Spanish rule, rebelling against an imposed Inquisition, attempting to form a national identity, and trying to unify Calvinist and Catholic provinces. The Dutch toleration debates were lengthy, bumpy, heated, and full of political intrigue and even assassination. Broderick states, "I believe the true Dutch legacy is not one of toleration but of discussion. New Amsterdam and the Republic show us that a robust, open public discourse is the surest way to eventual social improvement. Toleration and acceptance are political and moral imperatives, and the Flushing remonstrance and great Dutch toleration debates in Europe and North America teach us that social change takes time, open dialogue, disagreement, and failure before progress is to be made." Stuyvesant's policy was not much different from the one evolving in the Netherlands: an official recognition of the Dutch Reformed Church bundled with broad tolerance within the church and a policy of connivance, looking askance at non-conformist religious practices. On another front, the Stuyvesant family was broadly tolerant. Judith, Stuyvesant's wife, was a fierce advocate for New York's slaves, promoting the practice of Baptism as a first step toward freedom. His policy met with resistance from some English settlers in the towns of Vlissingen (currently Flushing), Rustdorp (currently Jamaica, Queens), and 's-Gravesend (currently Gravesend, Brooklyn), places where Quaker missions were sent. Stuyvesant's actions, however, also met with the support of other English settlers and magistrates who informed on those embracing unorthodox teachings, and who met in small and unsanctioned religious meetings of lay people called conventicles. Thus, Stuyvesant found himself drawn into the religious debates and bickering of the English community in the Atlantic colonies and debates in England which culminated in the Conventicle Act 1664. This policy resulted in numerous acts of religious persecution and harassment. In 1656 William Wickenden, a Baptist minister from Rhode Island, was arrested by Dutch colonial authorities, jailed, fined, and exiled for baptizing Christians in Flushing.〔(''A History of the Baptists'' by Thomas Armitage )〕 In the same year Robert Hodgson was arrested, tried, and sentenced to two years of manual labor with slaves for his preaching of Quakerism. In 1661, in the town of Rustdorp, Henry Townsend (Norwich) and Samuel Spicer were fined for holding Quaker conventicles and Townsend was banished as well. Stuyvesant sent three new magistrates, all Englishmen, and a half dozen soldiers to gather information on dissidents. The soldiers were billeted in the homes of the dissidents until they agreed to conform. In 1662, in 's-Gravesande, Samuel Spicer and his mother, Micha, along with John and Mary Tilton were imprisoned and later banished. They moved to Oyster Bay, then outside of the authority of New Netherland, and returned to their town after 1664 when the British took control of the colony.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Flushing Remonstrance」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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