§ 131] THE ARTICLES 113 be referred to the several colonial "Courts" for negotiation between them. Special provision was made for the surrender of fugitive criminals or "servants" escaping from one colony to another and for arbitration of differences that might arise between any two colonies of the union. 130. This document compares well with the constitution of any earlier confederation in history. Its weak points were common to all previous unions. The greatest difficulty arose from the fact that one of the confederates was much larger than the others. Each of the three smaller colonies had about three thousand people Massachusetts alone had fifteen thousand. Consequently she bore three fifths of all burdens, while she had only a fourth share in the government. The Bay Colony made an earnest demand for three commissioners, but the smaller states unanimously resisted the claim. 131. Under these conditions, Massachusetts became dissatisfied. In 1653, six of the federal commissioners voted a levy of 500 men for war upon New Netherlands. Massachusetts felt least interested in the war, and her General Court refused to furnish her 300. In the language of later times, she nullified the act of the federal congress (Source Book, Nos. 95, 96). After this, the commissioners were plainly only an advisory body. In 1662-1664, the absorption of New Haven by Connecticut weakened the Confederation still further; and it finally disappeared when Massachusetts lost her charter in 1684 (§§ 147 ff.). PART II COLONIAL AMERICANS CHAPTER XVI THE STRUGGLE TO SAVE SELF-GOVERNMENT (1660-1690) I. THE COLONIES AS A WHOLE 132. The years 1660-1690 are a distinct period in colonial development. The first mark of the period is a vast expansion of territory. In 1660 the English held two patches of coast, one, about the Chesapeake, the other, east of the Hudson. The two districts were separated by hundreds of miles of wilderness and by Dutch and Swedish possessions. And for more than twenty years no new English colony had been founded. Thirty years later the English colonies formed an unbroken band from the Penobscot to the Savannah. To the south of Virginia the Carolinas had been added (1663); to the north of Maryland appeared the splendid colony of Pennsylvania (1681); while the rest of the old intermediate region had become English by conquest (New York, New Jersey, and Delaware). All the colonies, too, had broadened their area of settlement toward the interior. Population rose from 60,000 in 1660 to 250,000 in 1690. 133. This transformation, from isolated patches of settlement into a continuous colonial empire, brought home to English rulers the need of a uniform colonial policy. Charles I had had a "Colonial Council," but it exercised little real control. In 1655, when Cromwell took Jamaica from Spain, one of his officials drew up certain "Overtures touching a Councill § 136] THE NAVIGATION ACTS 115 to bee erected for foraigne Plantations." This paper suggested various measures to make the colonies "understand . . . that their Head and Centre is Heere." After the Restoration, Charles II incorporated much of the document in his "Instructions" to a new colonial council (§ 134). 134. This "Council for Foreign Plantations" contained many of the greatest men of the time. It was instructed to study the state of the plantations and the colonial policies of other countries; to secure copies of the colonial charters and laws; and to have a general oversight of all colonial matters. In particular it was to endeavor "that the severall collonies bee drawn. into a more certaine, civill, and uniform waie of Government and distribution of publick Justice, in which they are at present scandalously defective." In 1674 the first "Council for Foreign Plantations" was succeeded by the "Lords of Trade," and in 1696 by the "Board of Trade and Plantations.” During the period that we are now considering, the Council was hard-working, honest, and well-meaning; but it was ignorant of the affairs, and out of touch with the people, that it was trying to rule. It strove to get three results: (1) uniformity and economy in colonial administration; (2) better military defense; and (3) new commercial regulations (§ 138). 135. European countries valued colonies (1) as a source of goods not produced at home (§ 39), and (2) as a sure market for home manufactures. So each colonizing country adopted “navigation acts" to restrict the trade of its colonies exclusively to itself. Without this prospect, it would not have seemed worth while to found colonies at all. By modern standards, all these commercial systems were absurd and tyrannical; but the English system was more enlightened, and far less selfish and harsh, than that of Holland or France or Spain. 136. At the other end of the scale was Spain.1 For two hundred years all commerce from Spanish America could pass 1 This paragraph is condensed from the admirable account in Bernard Moses' Establishment of Spanish Rule in America, 20–26 and 285–292. |