Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919). New York. 1906.
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| began to leave the Dutch churches, and to join the Episcopalian and Presbyterian congregations in constantly increasing numbers,—doing exactly what we see being done by the Scandinavian and German Lutherans in portions of the Northwest at the present day. The drain was so serious that in 1764, as the only means of putting a stop thereto, it was decided to hold the church services in both English and Dutch; and forty years afterward Dutch was entirely abndoned. These measures arrested the decay of the Dutch Reformed Church, and prevented its sharing the fate of total extinction which befell the Swedish Lutheran bodies on the Delaware; but they were not taken in time to prevent the church from falling much behind the place which it should have occupied, taking into account the numbers, intelligence, and morality of its members,—for throughout the colonial period the Dutch remained the largest of the many elements in New York’s population. |
| As the wealthy Dutch and Huguenot families assimilated themselves to the English, they intermarried with them, and in many cases joined the Episcopal Church; though a considerable number, especially among those whose affiliations were or the popular party, remained attached to one or the other of the Calvinist bodies. The Episcopal Church—or, as it was then the Church of |