“You are called upon to abjure the iniquitous government of Peter Stuyvesant over the inhabitants residing on Long Island.  His rule is too grievous for any brave Englishman and good Christian to tolerate any longer.  All honest hearts that seek the glory of God and his peace and prosperity, are exhorted to throw off this tyrannical yoke.  Accept and submit ye then to the Parliament of England; and beware of becoming traitors to one another for the sake of your own quiet and welfare.”

This proclamation did not meet with a cordial response.  Underbill fled to Rhode Island.  Here he received from Boston a commission, “to take all Dutch ships and vessels as shall come into his power, and to defend himself from the Dutch and all enemies of the commonwealth of England.”

The report of the agents who had visited Manhattan was such that the General Court at Boston voted that they were not “called upon to make a present war with the Dutch.”

There were eight commissioners from the New England colonies in Boston.  Notwithstanding this decision of the General Court, six of them were in favor of instant war.  They sent back to Governor Stuyvesant an abusive and defiant reply, in which they said,

“Your confident denials of the barbarous plot with which you are charged will weigh little in the balance against the evidence, so that we must still require and seek due satisfaction and security.”

The Connecticut colonists were ever looking with a wistful eye to the rich lands west of them.  The Court at New Haven and that at Hartford sent messengers to Massachusetts to urge that “by war if no other means will serve, the Dutch, at and about the Manhattoes, who have been and still are like to prove injurious, may be removed.”  The General Court nobly replied, “We cannot act in so weighty a concernment, as to send forth men to shed blood, unless satisfied that God calls for it.  And then it must be clear and not doubtful.”

“In speaking of these events Mr. Brodhead says,

“At the annual meeting of the Commissioners, Massachusetts maintained her proud position with a firmness which almost perilled the stability of the confederation.  A bitter altercation, between the representatives of the other colonies and the General Court, was terminated by an ambiguous concession which nevertheless averted hostilities.

“The Connecticut governments seemed animated by the most vindictive feelings; and their own recent historian laments the refusal of the Massachusetts authorities to bear part in an offensive war against New Netherland, as an ’indelible stain upon their honor as men, and upon their morals as Christians.’”

There was a strong party in favor of war as the only means of wresting the magnificent domain of New Netherland from the Dutch and annexing it to the New England possessions.  The majestic Hudson was greatly coveted, as it opened to commerce vast and unknown regions of the interior.