William Elliot Griffis

“ Dutch, the Germans being “High Dutch.” The reference being to geographical, not moral conditions, the English were the lowest of all three levels. As English became increasingly the language of New York and accurate knowledge of Holland faded away, both New Yorkers and New Englanders, who were copyists of the English, sank to shameful depths of ignorance concerning Patria and the Netherlanders.
It was increasingly felt by the Dutch Churchmen that they must attend to church business themselves, and have student candidates and ministers raised up on this side of the Atlantic. ”

“ Article LIX is especially worthy of mention, as showing that attitude of the Church, in regard to the servitude of Africans, which gave the Reformed Dutch Church in the nineteenth century its unique position throughout the whole slavery agitation and the Civil War. “In the Church there is no difference between bond and free, but all are one in Christ. Whenever, therefore, slaves or black people shall be baptized, or become members in full communion of the Church, they shall be admitted to equal privileges with all other members of the same standing ”

“ Men are influenced by precedents, and gladly receive the lessons of experience, while profiting by the mistakes and successes of others. This Plan of Union, by men of the four Middle States, with its masterly written constitution of 1771 powerfully influenced the Constitutional Convention of the United States in 1787. ”

“ Later, in place of the burnt collage, the trustees built a two-story frame house, painted white, without a cupola or belfry, facing the north. in true Dutch style, it was set with its gable end toward George Street.
During the first troublous but fruitful period, “Old Rutgers,” “on the banks of the old Raritan,” graduated over sixty young men, ten of whom became ministers. Others were leaders in politics and science. The “new” building, still called Queen’s College, not reared until 1809, was planned by the architect of the City Hall in New York. Dr. ”