Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919). New York. 1906.
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| the other hand their opponents were led by a man named Jacob Leisler, who was strongly seconded by his son-in-law, one Jacob Milborne. New York City, then as now, contained within its population many different races only beginning to fuse together; and then as now, the lines of party were only subordinately affected by the lines of race,—each faction possessing representatives of all the different elements, while the leaders were found, as is still the case, among men of diverse origin and nationality. Religious animosities, as ever since, had much effect in sharpening party differences. |
| Leisler was a merchant of property, a deacon in the Dutch Reformed Church, and a captain of one of the six militia trainbands over which Bayard was colonel. He was a zealous Protestant and Republican, a fanatical hater of the Roman Catholic Church, and only less opposed to the Episcopacy of the English. He seems to have been an earnest man, of much power and energy, honest in his purpose to help the poorer people and to put down civil and religious tyranny. It is easy to imagine circumstances in which he would have done much good to the community wherein he lived. But he was of coarse, passionate nature, and too self-willed and vain not to have his head turned by sudden success and the possession of power. Moreover, like most popular leaders of |