Aan het Volk van Nederland

Aan het Volk van Nederland (English: To the People of the Netherlands) was a pamphlet distributed by window-covered carriages across all major cities of the Dutch Republic in the night of 25 to 26 September 1781. It claimed the entire political system, dominated by the Orange hereditary stadtholderate, was corrupt and had to be overthrown in favour of a democratic republic. The pamphlet became the creed of the Patriots.

The Provincial and Confederal authorities took heavy punitive measures against the pamphlet, and tried to find out who wrote it. It was not until 1891, over a century after the pamphlet appeared, that it could be proven without doubt that the author had been prominent Patriot leader Joan Derk van der Capellen tot den Pol (1741–1784).

In December 1780, the British Empire declared war on the Dutch Republic for intending to join the First League of Armed Neutrality, through which the Dutch sought to secure their right to trade with the American colonies in revolt. This Fourth Anglo-Dutch War was a disaster for the Netherlands, putting a heavy burden on the Dutch economy because of the British naval blockade. Orangists blamed the always obstructive city of Amsterdam, but Patriot pamphleteers opined stadtholder William V of Orange and his accomplices were the real perpetrators. They sought an alliance with America and France against Britain (and Prussia).

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