1657 жылғы Флашинг петициясы: Діни бостандыққа шақыру

Demand for religious liberty made to Peter Stuyvesant in 1657

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 Flushing 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.

In 1645, New Netherland governor Willem Kieft granted a patent to a group of English colonists from the New England Colonies to settle in the colony. The majority of the colonists settled down in the newly established colonial settlement of Vlissingen. Kieft's patent granted the English colonists, most of them non Anglican Protestants, the same freedom of religion which existed in the Dutch Republic, which was one of the most religiously tolerant nations in Europe. Eleven years later, new governor Peter Stuyvesant, having adopted a hardline stance towards the practice of any faiths which were not part of the Dutch Reformed Church (including the various forms of Protestantism practised by the English colonists), issued an ordinance in 1656 which formally proscribed all religious congregations in the colony not part of the Reformed Church. Stuyvesant's policy was not very 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, turning a blind eye to non conformist religious practices. At the same time, Stuyvesant also opposed Jewish arrival in New Amsterdam. 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 many English colonists in Vlissingen, Rustdorp and 's Gravesande, all of which had been host to previous Quaker missions. Stuyvesant's actions, however, also met with the support of other English colonists, including local magistrates, who informed on those embracing unorthodox teachings and meeting in small and unsanctioned religious meetings of lay people called conventicles. Thus, Stuyvesant found himself drawn into the religious debates of the English Atlantic World 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. 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 English colonists, and six colonial militiamen to gather information on dissidents. The militiamen 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 English took control of the colony.

The Flushing Remonstrance was signed at the home of Edward Hart, the town clerk, on December 27, 1657, by a group of Dutch citizens who were affronted by persecution of Quakers and the religious policies of Stuyvesant. None of them were Quakers. The site of the signing is presently occupied by the former State Armory, now a police facility, on the south side Northern Boulevard between Linden Place and Union Street. The Remonstrance ends with:

In response Stuyvesant dismissed the local government and chose new Dutch replacements as leaders. Four who signed were arrested by order of Stuyvesant. Two immediately recanted, but the writer of the remonstrance, Edward Hart, and sheriff of Flushing Tobias Feake remained firm in their convictions. Both men were remanded to prison where they survived in isolation on rations of bread and water for over a month. After friends and family petitioned Stuyvesant on behalf of the elderly Hart, the clerk was released on penalty of banishment. Feake held out for a few more weeks, but eventually recanted and was pardoned after being fined and banned from holding public office. Stuyvesant asserted that he was not violating the signers' "freedom of conscience," only their right to worship outside of family prayer meetings. In addition he proclaimed March 13, 1658 a Day of Prayer for the purpose of repenting from the sin of religious tolerance. The Quaker Meeting House in Flushing, built 1694, is now the oldest house of worship in continuous use in New York State.

John Bowne's account of the Flushing Remonstrance and its aftermath is found in his journal of events. Bowne, who had arrived in 1651, soon began to host Quaker meetings in his home, although he did not convert until 1659. He was to become a leader of American Quakers and a correspondent of Quaker founder George Fox.

The earliest version of the document in English dates also from 1657 as an official copy of the original, but the original, likely in Dutch, has been lost.