General Schuyler), Major General Oliver Delancey and Brigadier General Cortlandt Skinner (both Schuyler family descendants). During the American war of Independence the Dutch were active allies of the American revolutionaries. From the island of Sint Eustatius they gave the Thirteen Colonies one of the few opportunities to acquire arms. In 1778, British Lord Stormont claimed in parliament that "if Sint Eustatius had sunk into the sea three years before, the United Kingdom would already have dealt with George Washington". The Dutch were the first to salute the flag and, therefore, the first to acknowledge the independence of the United States on November 16, 1776. The American Declaration of Independence is said to have in many ways been influenced by the Dutch "Plakkaat van Verlatinghe" (Act of Abjuration). Several American Presidents had Dutch ancestry: Martin Van Buren, 8th President. He was a key organizer of the Democratic Party and the first president who was not of English, Irish, Scottish, or Welsh descent. He is also the only president not to have spoken English as his first language, but rather grew up speaking Dutch. Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President. Roosevelt is most famous for his personality, his energy, his vast range of interests and achievements, his model of masculinity, and his "cowboy" persona. In 1901, he became president after the assassination of President William McKinley. Roosevelt was a Progressive reformer who sought to move the Republican Party into the Progressive camp. Warren G. Harding, 29th President. His mother's ancestors were Dutch, including the well known Van Kirk family. Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd President. Elected to four terms in office, he served from 1933 to 1945, and is the only U.S. president to have served more than two terms. A central figure of the twentieth century, he has consistently been ranked as one of the three greatest U.S. presidents in scholarly surveys. George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush, 41st and 43rd Presidents, respectively. They count members of the Schuyler family and the related Beekman family among their ancestors. Dutch language and Dutch names in North America The first Dutch settlers lived in small isolated communities, and as a consequence were barely exposed to English. As the Dutch lost their own colonies in North America to the British, the Dutch settlers increasingly were exposed to other immigrants and their languages and the Dutch language gradually started to disappear. In 1764, Archibald Laidlie preached