Democrats and Aristocrats 247
The Prince and his supporters, less sensitive on these matters, accused the Am-
sterdam merchants of stirring up a needless war with England to satisfy their own
greed. The Patriots, rallying to the defense of Amsterdam, accused the Orange
party of subverting Dutch national interests through a ruinous partiality for
Great Britain.
Two pamphlets of 1781 drew the issues. One, A Political Remonstrance against
the True System of Amsterdam, by the Orangist R. M. van Goens, denounced the
antistadtholderian machinations of that city back to 1581, with especial emphasis
on its recent disgraceful involvement with the American rebels. It was followed by
An Address to the Netherlands People, written anonymously by Van der Capellen tot
de Pol. Copies were found in the streets of the Dutch cities, scattered at night by
men secretly organized by the pastor Van der Kemp. The pamphlet caused an up-
roar. “The press cannot be restrained,” wrote the delighted Adams, who was there.
The Estates of Holland condemned it as subversive, forbade people to read it, and
offered a reward to anyone revealing its author’s identity, which nevertheless re-
mained unknown for many years. The historian Pieter Geyl calls An Address to the
Netherlands People the first piece of writing in which anyone ever addressed the
Dutch people as a national unit. The author of this inflammatory tract, writes an-
other, was no Loevesteiner—hij was democraat!^7
Capellen’s pamphlet was a long tirade against the House of Orange, which, he
said, had conspired to become a monarchy for two hundred years, had always de-
spised the merchants of Amsterdam, ingratiated itself with England and embroiled
the country with France, preferring to build up an army for its own purposes, while
neglecting the navy, and surrounding itself with a fawning lot of grandees. Capel-
len likewise assaulted the regent oligarchs, whom he also accused of entrenching
themselves since the sixteenth century. It was time for the Dutch people to recover
their rights. A nation, he said, was like a commercial concern in that its magistrates
were only employees; the Dutch people owned the “Society of the United Nether-
lands,” just as shareholders owned the East India Company. He pointed also to
America, which now had a good government because its officers were elected. He
denounced William V for getting his own sycophantic admirers into the town
councils, the Provincial Estates, the Estates General, and the administrative de-
partments of the union. Only determination and a show of force would make
them responsible to the country.
Assemble in your towns and villages. Meet peaceably, and elect from
among yourselves a moderate number of courageous, virtuous and pious
men; choose good Patriots that you can trust. Send these as your deputies
to the places of assembly of your several provincial estates, and order them
in the name and by the authority of this nation, to make an inquiry, by
and with the estates of the other provinces, into the reasons for the ex-
traordinary inertia with which the arming of the country against a formi-
dable and active enemy is being handled. Order them also... to choose a
council for His Highness...7 Geyl, 53; Vijlbrief, 136.