Van der Capellen and the new Dutch Patriots, 1778, 1779, 1781
Introduction: During the seventeenth century both sides in the debates between the States Party
and the Orangists used the term “Patriots” to describe themselves. During the late 18th century a
new and more radical group of reformers revived the term to call for a transformation of the
Republican oligarchy with a hereditary House of Orange stadholder into a democratic Republic.
They demanded a severe limitation of the stadholder’s power, or even its entire elimination; the
election of town governments by ordinary male citizens, rather than the dominant Regent
oligarchies; and the end of the use of government offices for private profit. Although most of the
Patriot membership was drawn from the ordinary merchants and professional classes, its most
eloquent spokesman was a nobleman from Overijsel (an eastern province), Joan Derck van der
Capellen van de Pol (1741-1784). Inspired by the democratic ideas of the Radical
Enlightenment, he was a supporter of the American Revolution and a translator of the writings of
the English radical, Dr. Richard Price. Van der Capellen’s political advocacy and ideas played an
important role in the overthrow of the Regent Oligarchy in 1787. While the Republic’s much
more democratic constitution was annulled by the intervention of the Prussian army, Patriot ideas
formed the basis of the revolutionary Batavian Republic, which was created in 1795 by a French
invasion supported by much of the Dutch population. The letters below offer an interesting
commentary on he American Revolution and show van de Capellen’s interests in reform. The
first two selections were translated from the French and Dutch by Herbert T. Rowen, ed., The
Low Countries in Early Modern Times: A Documentary History (New York, 1972), pp. 233-240.
Van der Capellen To Jonathan Trumbell, Governor of Connecticut, From Zwolle, December 7,
1778.
To His Excellency Mr. Jonathan Trumbull, Governor, CaptainGeneral, and Commanderin-Chief of the State of Connecticut at Lebanon in New England.
To be the object of the public esteem of the brave Americans, worthy and virtuous
people, is so great a thing that all the reputation of your name and Mr. Erkelens will not be able
to persuade me that I have merited even the slightest part of the gratitude which you desire to
express to me on their part for the small service that I have tried to render them. It is true, Sir,
that beginning with the year 1775 I espoused the good cause of your compatriots with a zeal
inspired in me by love of freedom, esteem for those who dare to defend it, and horror for all
kinds of oppression. But, after all, what I did was no more than an act of pure justice. By my
birth a member of the nobility of my province and (just like the lords in England) called in this
capacity to sit in the Assembly of States (not the States General, as is erroneously believed in
foreign countries, but those of the Province of Overijssel), I would have felt responsible for the
innocent blood spilled by our troops if I had let them depart without taking a stand against it.
Because I have been disturbed to see faulty translations published in Holland of the little speech
which I had hastily composed, to which l owe the honor of being known and applauded in
America, I take the liberty of offering you a very correct French translation.
The results of this action, the hardship and pinpricks it has caused me, and an
unequivocal proof that I have not cooled since in my affection for the American people, are to be
found in the appended copy of a letter of April 28 of this year which I could not refrain from
writing to Mr. Ambassador Franklin. Until now I have received no answer to it or to that of
September 6 following. Nevertheless, I so revere this great man that I am convinced that he has
good reasons for not replying.
As for your kind letter, which Mr. Erkelens tells me was sent at the instructions of the
President and members of the honorable Congress, you may be sure, Sir, that, placed among my
family papers, it will be forever more precious to me than the most illustrious order of
knighthood with which any monarch could have decorated me. My ancestors have been counted
since time immemorial among the members of noble bodies and chapters. My house has given
knights to Malta and the Teutonic Order; but this testimony of the approbation with which the
American people is pleased to honor my efforts, which were well intended but too weak indeed
to be helpful, is more valuable to me than any such things. It is my heart which speaks, for it has
been touched. Be so kind as to convey what it says to those in whose name you have done me the
honor of writing to me.
As for the good offices which you do me the honor of asking that I continue "as far as
will consist with my duty to my own country."--My influence in this Republic in fact amounts to
what can be achieved by the weak voice and the pen of a magistrate who has nothing to favor
him but reason embattled against interests, prejudices, and passions. What could I do as an
individual in this country, when even the voice of the mighty city of Amsterdam has counted for
naught in a case which, under our form of government, absolutely requires unanimity? Faithful
to its principles, enlighted as to its own interests and those of the Republic, and disdaining to
bow beneath the English yoke, it sought a few days ago to communicate some of its own fire to
other members of our state in order in prevent acceptance of the absurd and imperious proposals
of England that it refrain from using its right, which is founded upon the law of nations as well as
upon treaties, to furnish building timber to France: proposals which they dare to make to us, or
rather laws which they dictate to us after having deprived us by force of a hundred ships and
committed every kind of cruelty against our sailors, for whom there is no protection. But, alas!
the truly patriotic endeavors of this worthy city, which is a friend to America and did not hesitate
to declare during the month of October last that it was all necessary to fit out a fleet (these are its
precise words) "at a time when the independence of America will soon be recognized and trade
with the colonies will be in great need of protection against the envy of those who might wish to
deprive the inhabitants of this state of it"; these endeavors were all fruitless. The English party
has won out; by a plurality of voices we have abandoned the most important advantage which
neutrality offers us and have sacrificed at the despotic demand of our eternal rival in trade one of
its richest branches!
What, then, are the services which America may expect from me?
In my capacity as a magistrate, as you can see, Sir, I can give none. -As an individual, I
shall strive (if this is a service) to support by my example and my encouragement, as far as I am
able, the negotiation undertaken for the Congress by Messrs. Horneca and Fizeaux at
Amsterdam. I am not a capitalist: my patrimony consists completely in landed property. I will
nevertheless invest a rather substantial sum -which has come into my disposal by the death of my
mother-in-law, although I could have made use of it to pay off debts which I had to contract in
order to obtain a noble estate and thereby a seat in the States Assembly.
Furthermore, the ties which still bind me to my native country but which are beginning to
become burdensome and by their nature are nothing less than indissoluble, prevent me, as long
as they subsist, from putting forth my energies as I should wish for the interests of America and
to devote myself to its service without reservation. Nonetheless, there are societies which do
their best service when they are dissolved: a civil society which does not protect its most useful
members, such as businessmen, sailors, and farmers, a society whose directors may not perform
their duties according to the light of their consciences and work for the public good without
being exposed to ruinous persecution-such a society which, as you may guess; Sir, is in the
position of which I speak. Satisfied to live in obscurity, and even without a well-known name, I
decided, in entering the Order of the Nobility, to undertake (as I did) a vigorous attempt to
arouse open and declared opposition-an ingredient which there is the greatest need to preserve in
a constitution like ours, which has a large dose of monarchy in it. In its very nature my purpose
required that I renounce entirely any idea of making a fortune. I have calculated upon being able
to do without one. Several years of retreat in the countryside plus a little philosophy had entirely
weaned me from the attractions held by offices and the favor of the powerful. A rigid frugality, a
very bourgeois style of living, without a coach or numerous servants or hunting dogs, etc.,
assured my independence. Who should know better than you, Sir, the annoyances inseparable
from such an undertaking! Having foreseen them, in part, I accepted them with patience, in the
constant hope that eventually I would be useful to my country ....
I should bring to a close here a letter which is already impermissibly long. I cannot do so,
however, without informing you that I have observed that the negotiation of Messrs. Horneca
and Fizeaux would probably be more successful if Congress issued bonds in proper form, signed
in the name of the entire assembly by its president and secretary, and under its seal, instead of the
promises signed by Messrs. Franklin, Lee, and Adams. This is approximately what the Dutch
expect in contracts from their States. Congress should bind itself in the most explicit manner
(and this is the cardinal point upon which all public credit rests) never to reduce the rate of
interest during the promised terms. The term of ten years seems somewhat short to me. I would
suggest 20 years at the option of the lender. The commissioners of Congress should be
authorized to give receipts when they receive money, with a promise to furnish as soon as
possible duly signed bonds to replace the receipts. Congress, to my way of thinking, should not
omit anything which can contribute to its credit in this country. What resources does England
find in her credit in critical circumstances! How much more vigorous would the naval operations
of France be if she had not taken the imprudent step which has perhaps lost her forever the
confidence of the Dutch! She ought to attempt to regain it at any price, even at the cost of
complete compensation for the losses which the Dutch suffered during the most recent reduction
of interest on government bonds. How easily the aid provided by a firm credit would enable
United America to rid itself of a war which continues to interfere with its trade and sometimes
still makes its friends tremble! Please excuse these reflections, Sir. They are the result of the
most sincere affection for a people whom I have held dear since childhood, whom I held dear
even before it existed.
Another cause of distrust which affects the credit of America is the false news reports
which the English constantly put into circulation and the friends of the Americans cannot refute
for lack of information. It is a matter of the highest importance to enable them to give an idea of
what is really happening on that side of the ocean and the present state of affairs by means of
authentic accounts, containing nothing which is not exactly true, not dissimulating even the
mishaps inseparable from the chances of war. If you choose, Sir, to honor me with such a
correspondence, you may be confident that I will put it to very good use. News reports
communicated in semi-secrecy are more effective than those which are made public. Your letter,
which I distributed among others in Amsterdam (with discretion, to be sure, and until now
without providing copies) made a strong impression upon all those who read it. They are all
sorry that such a fine and vigorous defense of the American cause remains buried in the
correspondence file of an individual. A description of the present state of United America, its
pleasures, the form of government of its various Republics, the ease with which foreigners can
settle and earn a living, the cost of wild and cultivated land, food, supplies, etc., with a brief
history of the present war and the cruelties committed by E...... --this would work wonders in a
country where America is known only by what appears in the gazettes, but where there are, I
assure you, a great number of honest people who. . . . But I was almost forgetting to be a
Dutchman myself.
You may continue to write to me in English. As I have read a great deal in this language,
I am quite at home in it, although I have never had occasion to write it. I believe, nonetheless,
that I would soon be able to express myself intelligibly in it for it is only recently that I began to
write in French, which I had cultivated only by reading. I hope, indeed, Sir, I pine to make our
exchange of letters serve as a base for a friendship which, founded upon our common affection
for freedom and the interests of mankind, could only be of the firmest. I will strive to deserve
such friendship while I beg you to believe that I am, with all the respect due to your virtue, your
talent and your position, etc.
Van der Capellen to Dr. Richard Price, July 1, 1779.
Dear Friend,
Mr. Dentan has handed to me on your behalf the sermon mentioned. I have also received your
letter of May 28. I am infinitely indebted to you for so much kindness. The marks of friendship
with which you honor me are a great solace in my present situation. My affairs are so embroiled
that it is impossible to predict how they will turn out, or at least that they will turn out well. I am
the first whom they have dared to attack in this way. The privileges of the nobility were
respected until now, but in the end nothing is sacred. They persist in refusing to try me according
to the laws of the country, which my antagonists earlier had declared to be their intention; when
they came to see that they would not be able to crush me by legal procedures, and that if they
brought me to trial as they had threatened, they would certainly lose in a fair trial, they have
changed their weapons and invented the expedient of attaining their goal (which is to expel me
from the States Assembly of my province) without being compelled to institute an action for
slander against me. . . .
Here is the letter of G[overnor] T[rumbull], of which you asked to have a copy. I have
taken the liberty to add another by G[overnor] L[ivingston] of New Jersey] , which I received
recently. A Dutch translation is now in press. These letters have strongly impressed all who read
them. That of G. L., being more recent, convinced many persons that the disunity which was said
to be reigning in America and the widespread disposition to return to British rule are lies
invented by those who find their profit in throwing a veil over the events in America. You can
make whatever use of these letters you please; you are the master. Only, be so kind as not to say
in public that you have got them from me. I believe that they would do good work published in
several newspapers. Your sermon will be translated into Dutch. Everything which comes from
you is well received here.
America is free and independent. Nothing seems more certain. But I am sorry, as you
are, that intolerance should have had so much influence in the establishment of this new
Republic. I hope nevertheless that in the future they will endeavor to broaden its base in this
respect, and that even the Americans, as soon as they will be free and safe, will not lose from
sight the interests of the poor Negroes who still groan under the yoke of slavery among them.
Under present circumstances, it would be dangerous to give them freedom all at once; but not to
do it when the situation is opportune and to perpetuate slavery in the thirteen States would be an
action which would give the lie to the principles which America has always professed. A people
which can bear the sight of human creatures treated like animals does not deserve to be free-the
Dutch today have this callousness. --For three years now the Negroes have been no freer than
before if they live in this so-called Republic. I am the only one to have protested against this
revolting law. How happy I would be to quit this fatal continent! My nation, dear friend, has not
become the enemy of England. It does not seek and does not want anything but freedom of trade
based upon the Law of Nations and treaties-but England has violated treaties endlessly, despite
all our protests, so that they no longer exist. henceforth, only the Law of Nations should control
the actions of the two powers.
An Address to the People of the Netherlands, on the Present Alarming and Most Dangerous
Situation of the Republic, Joan Derck van der Capellen van de Pol. It was published in Dutch in
1781 and in English in 1782. The text below is from a translation from the Dutch by Arie
Wilschut at http://members.casema.nl/wilschut/ahvvne.htm.
PEOPLE OF THE NETHERLANDS!
FELLOW CITIZENS!
Not since yesterday or the day before have you been misled and mistreated; during nearly
two centuries, not to mention earlier periods, have you been at the mercy of several ambitious
persons, who have aimed - pretending to care for your interests and freedom - at nothing else, by
God to whom I shall have to account for these writings, absolutely nothing else but pressing a
hereditary yoke on your free necks.
If peoples are to safeguard their freedom, they should constantly be vigilant and have no
unlimited confidence in any human being - whoever he may be. On the contrary, they must
thoroughly distrust all persons having any authority or power, especially princes and aristocrats,
constantly keeping an eye on them, because experience of all periods from the beginnings of the
earth until our time have shown that even the best are usually weak enough to try to increase the
power with which they are entrusted. Power is sweet! So my fellow countrymen, be vigilant and
you will remain free!
O my fellow citizens, the great are the ones that you must watch! The Prince leads them
nearly all. They will do anything for offices and commissions, for a meal at the court. They
usually care little for oaths and duties or the well-being of the fatherland. The losses they and
other people suffer from the decay of trade and prosperity will amply be compensated, they
think, by the favours of our lord the Prince, who always has the power to keep their chimneys
smoking, as he faithfully does.
My dear fellow countrymen, beware of all who command troops, for it is well known that
they have nearly always and everywhere domineered over their own landsmen and fellow
citizens. In Europe no freedom has existed since princes have started to keep permanent armies
in their service. In earlier times, when no soldiers existed yet, the vassals went to war with
burghers and peasants. The cunning princes, knowing that these people in arms would not be
willing to help them dominate their countries, proposed to the people to pay money rather than
serve in wars personally while neglecting their businesses and endangering their lives. The
money would be used to hire soldiers in their place. The simple inhabitants were wonderfully
pleased by this idea, but they did not understand what would be its natural consequences. As
soon as the princes had a permanent army at their disposal, exclusively depending on them and
completely separated from the other parts of the nation, they could do whatever they liked. No
city or land could defend its rights or privileges any longer. History shows that the peoples
around us, who are nowadays sighing under arbitrary one-headed governments - even the
Spaniards, the French and all of Germany - have been free men not so long ago and became
enslaved only by hired troops, without being able, until this hour, to defend their rights and
freedoms, however beautifully these were to be read on sealed old parchments.
O my fellow countrymen! Arm yourselves all together and take care of the affairs of this
whole country, that is: of your own affairs. The country belongs to all of you together, not only
to the Prince and his great men, who consider and treat you, all of us, the whole Netherlands
people, the descendants of the free Batavians, as their hereditary property, as their oxen and
sheep, which they can and may shear or slaughter as they think fit to do. The people who live in
a country, the inhabitants, townsfolk and countrymen, poor and rich, the great and the little ones
- all together - they are the true proprietors, the lords and masters of the country and can say how
the country's affairs should be managed, in what manner and by whom they wish to be governed.
A people is nothing different from a large company. The regents, the authorities and magistrates,
the Prince or whoever has any powerful position - they are only the managers, administrators and
stewards of the company and as such less than the company's members, that is to say: the whole
nation or the whole people. For example. The East India Company is a large corporation or
company of tradesmen who have united to trade with the East Indies. Their number is too large
and they live at too long distances from each other to be able to meet continuously when
necessary, or to be able to manage the company's affairs in person. Also, to be able to do this,
skills and qualities are required which are not to be found in all of the participants. For this
reason, the participants have wisely decided to appoint administrators and stewards. They pay
them for their work and give them exactly enough power, but no more than necessary, to be able
to do what they are called, hired and appointed for. The administrators of course have more
power in the company's affairs than any of the participants individually, and even more than
quite a lot of participants together, who are not the majority. But if all of the participants together
or an absolute majority among them desire changes in the company's policy - changes in their
own affairs that is - it is the duty of the managers or administrators, who in this respect are
servants to the participants - to obey and act according to the participants' wishes. For not they
administrators, but the participants are the company's true proprietors, lords and masters. The
situation of the great people's company is similar. The great that are governing you, the Prince or
whoever has any authority in this country, only do this on your behalf. All of their authority
derives from you. You are the participants, the proprietors, the lords and masters of the people's
company which has been established in this region under the name of United Netherlands. The
great, the regents on the contrary are no more than administrators, managers and stewards of
this people's company. You are paying them with your own money, that is the people's money.
They are therefore in your service, they are your servants, and subjected to your majority, to
which they owe obedience and responsibility. Again. All men are born free. By nature, no one
has any authority over anyone else. Some people may be gifted with a better understanding, a
stronger body or greater wealth than others, but this does not in the least entitle the more
sensible, stronger or wealthier to govern the less sensible, the weaker and the poorer. God, our
Father, has created men to become happy and has given the duty to all men - excluding no one to make each other as happy as possible. To be able to reach this good aim of their Creator, that
is: to promote their happiness, people have found that they can do no better than to assemble in
large numbers - sometimes a few millions - and to establish large companies, the members of
which are all each other's equals by nature (this is something you must always keep in mind) and
one not subjected to another. In these companies, usually called civil societies, peoples or
nations, the members or participants pledge to promote each other’s happiness as much as
possible, to protect each other with united force and to maintain each other in an uninterrupted
enjoyment of all property, possessions and all inherited and lawfully acquired rights.
These are the people's rights! These are your rights, o people, o Netherlanders! Those
who teach you differently - even from the pulpit - are your enemies and bribed by the Prince and
his great ones, or they understand nothing about it. So do not believe them, but consider all of
which I have taught you here so clearly and simply. And then, you yourselves will feel, yes, feel
that things are such and cannot be different, whatever people want to make you believe and
however they want to declare these eternal truths to be dangerous heresies. Again, do not believe
them, they are deceiving you.
O, fellow countrymen! Our dear Orange princes, however beautifully they have
themselves pictured by their flatterers and wage-slaves, are princes just like others in the world.
They are raised in the same perverted kind of courtly education; from their youth they suck up
the same sentiments, the same arrogance, pride, ambition, the same desire to lift themselves up
above everything. From their youth they are used to never experiencing any resistance, and that
is the reason why later on they cannot bear the resistance of the country's rights and privileges,
the reason why these are intolerable to them. They have the same kind of court, the same way of
living, in one word: they are princes and act like princes. They would like to have rich slaves,
just like other monarchs who favour the trade of their inhabitants. They would like to see
Amsterdam's trade flourishing, which is now perishing, if only that city would open its gates for
the Prince's garrison and would leave the appointment of its governors to him. But mighty
inhabitants who are free and who come to bore them with petitions and bother them with their
plans, are intolerable to them. The saying is correct that freedom of the people is the slavery of
the prince.
Can such a Prince, my fellow countrymen, say with old father Samuel: Behold, here I am,
witness against me before the Lord: whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken? or whom
have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed and out of whose hand have I received any bribe?
Can such a Prince, who openly declares that he considers it an invaluable privilege for himself to
be the subject of the love of a FREE PEOPLE, and nevertheless accepts authority which he
attaches to his family as a heritage, can such a prince demand that one believes him? Believe me,
my friends! Whatever one tells you or preaches to you, whatever attestations our hereditary
stadtholders make to you that they will always do everything in their power for your freedom
which they will defend into eternity. Believe me! Deceiving and misleading fits princes just as
well as their constant striving for higher authority. There is no freedom and no freedom can exist
in a country where one single person has the hereditary command over a large army, appoints
and dismisses the country's regents and keeps them in his power and under his influence, deals
with all the offices, and by his influence on the appointments of professors controls the subject
matter that is being taught to the country's youth studying in universities, where the people is
kept ignorant, where the people is unarmed and has nothing in the world, God, nothing to say!
This is your situation, Netherlanders!
Anything which is attempted at this time to save our truly almost irretrievably lost
fatherland will be in vain, if you, o people of the Netherlands, remain passive bystanders any
longer. So do this! Assemble each and everyone in your cities and in the villages in the country.
Assemble peacefully and elect from the midst of you a moderate number of good, virtuous, pious
men; elect good patriots whom you can trust. Send these as your commissioners to the meeting
places of the Estates of your Provinces and order them that they must assemble as soon as
possible to make, together with the Estates, in the name of and on behalf of this nation, a precise
enquiry into the reasons for the extreme slowness and weakness with which the protection of this
country against a formidable and especially active enemy is being treated. Order them as well
that they, again together with the Estates of the various provinces, elect a council for His
Highness, and that they, the sooner the better, help to devise and deploy all such means as will be
considered suitable for the salvation of the endangered fatherland.
Let your commissioners publicly and openly report to you about their actions from time
to time by means of the press. Take care of the freedom of the press, because it is the only
support for your national freedom. If one cannot speak freely to one's fellow citizens and warn
them in time, it is only too easy for the oppressors to play their role. That is the reason why those
whose behaviour cannot endure any enquiry are always so much opposed to freedom of writing
and printing and would like to see that nothing could be printed or sold without permission.
Arm yourselves, all of you, and elect yourselves the ones that must command you. Act
with calmness and modesty in all things (like the people of America, where not one drop of
blood was shed before the English attacked them in the first place), and Jehova, the God of
Freedom, who has led the Israelites out of slavery and made them a free people, will also without
doubt support our good cause.
I am, People of the Netherlands!
Your faithful fellow citizen.
Ostende, 3 September, 1781.