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§ 144]

FRICTION WITH ENGLAND

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chise be extended to all men "orthodox in religion and of competent estate." The colony complied with the first de mand, ignored the second, and evaded the third. An act of General Court did provide that a non-churchmember might be made a freeman, if his good character were testified to by the minister of his town and if he paid a ten-shilling "rate" (local tax). But the Puritan ministers gave few such certificates to those outside their own folds, and few men were then called upon to pay ten shillings in a single rate. So the number of freemen did not much increase.

143. Connecticut, New Haven, and Rhode Island had no legal standing in England. The people were squatters, and the governments unauthorized. Now that order was restored in England, it was plain that something must be done to remedy this condition; and all three colonies sent agents to England to secure royal charters.

144. Connecticut and Rhode Island were successful almost beyond belief. They were left with self-government nearly as complete as before. In neither colony did the crown appoint the governor or any other important official. This remarkable liberality was due partly to the careless good nature of Charles in the early portion of his reign; partly to an enthusiasm among English officials just then for the colonies; and partly, perhaps, to a willingness to build up other New England gov ernments so as to offset the stiff-necked Bay Colony.

All that the Massachusetts charter had become, — this and more these new charters were from the first. They made the settlers a "corporation upon the place," and sanctioned democratic self-government (Source Book, Nos. 97, 98). With good reason they were cherished and venerated. At the time of the Revolution they received the name of constitutions; and they continued in force, without other alteration, in Connecticut until 1818, and in Rhode Island until 1842.

A glance at the map on page 107 shows sufficient reason why New Haven and Connecticut should not both receive charters. The question was which should swallow the other. New Haven used little diplomacy in her

negotiations;1 and possibly she was too much of the Massachusetts type to find favor in any case. Her territory was included in the Connecticut grant. This began the process of consolidation which was soon to be tried on a larger scale.

145. Friction with Massachusetts continued. Episcopalians there complained still that for thirty years they had been robbed of civil and religious rights. So in 1664 Charles sent commissioners to regulate New England and to conquer New Netherlands from the Dutch - with whom England was at war. In their military expedition the commissioners were entirely successful. Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Plymouth then recognized their authority cordially, and even permitted them to hear appeals from colonial courts; but Massachusetts still gave them scant welcome.

146. The matter of appeals (§ 141) was a chief point in the commissioners' instructions. It was to be the means of enforcing royal authority. But in Boston, they were completely thwarted. After weeks of futile discussion, they announced a day when they would sit as a court of appeals. At sunrise on that day, by order of the Massachusetts magistrates, a crier, with trumpet, passed through the town, warning all citizens not to recognize the court. No one ventured to disobey the stern Puritan government, and the chagrined commissioners returned to England.

147. There the commissioners at once recommended that Massachusetts be deprived of its charter. But the next year

the victorious Dutch fleet was in the Thames. Then came the great London fire and the plague. The Colonial Board did repeatedly order Massachusetts to send an agent to England to arrange a settlement; but the colony procrastinated stubbornly, and for ten years with success. In 1675, however, the great Indian outbreak, known as King Philip's War, weakened Massachusetts. Just at this time, too, Charles, entering upon a more despotic period at home, began to act

1 See Johnston's Connecticut for material for an interesting report.

§ 150]

THE RULE OF ANDROS

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more vigorously toward the colonies; and in 1684 the highest English court declared the charter of 1629 forfeited and void.

148. The Lords of Trade (§ 134) had decided that to have so many independent governments "without a more immediate dependence upon the crown" was "prejudicial" to England's interest; and they drew up a plan for the union of Massachusetts, Plymouth, and the Maine and New Hampshire towns, under one royal governor-general.

They would gladly have included Connecticut and Rhode Island in the plan, and so consolidated all New England into one province, but charters stood in the way; and, unlike Massachusetts, the two smaller colonies had given little excuse for legal proceedings against them. Still, when Charles died in 1685, James II forced the consolidation, in spite of the charters. He appointed Sir Edmund Andros governor-general of all New England, and instructed him to set aside the gov ernments of Connecticut and Rhode Island by force.

149. The original plan of the Lords of Trade had provided one elected legislature for New England. James struck out this clause, leaving the government despotic1 as well as unified. He also once more extended the territory to which the plan should apply. He was already proprietor of New York and New Jersey (§ 171), and these colonies were soon united with New England under the rule of Andros.

150. Andros was a bluff, hot-tempered soldier. He was commander of the soldiery he brought with him and of the militia; and, with the consent of an appointed council, he was authorized to lay taxes, make laws, administer justice, and grant lands. His management of military affairs was admirable, and he saved New England from serious Indian danger; but the colonists gave him scant credit. In other matters, naturally, he clashed violently with the settlers.

He insisted that Episcopalian services should be held on at

1 This was done despite the declaration of the attorney-general in England that the colonists had the right "to consent to such laws and taxes as should be made or imposed on them."

To

least part of each Sunday in one of the Boston churches. the Puritans this was a bitter offense. Land titles, too, were a fruitful source of irritation. In granting lands, the colonies had paid little attention to the forms of English law or to proper precaution against future confusion (Source Book, No. 89). Andros provided for accurate surveys, and compelled old holders to take out new deeds, with small fees for registration. He treated all the common lands, too, as crown land.

More serious was the total disappearance of self-government and even of civil rights. Andros ordered the old taxes to be continued. Some Massachusetts towns resisted; and at Ipswich a town meeting voted that such method of raising taxes "did infringe their liberty as free-born English subjects." The offenders were tried for "seditious votes and writings," not before the usual courts, but by a special commission. The jury was packed and was browbeaten into a verdict of guilty, and leading citizens who had dared to stand up against tyranny were imprisoned and ruinously fined.

151. This absolute government lasted two years and a half. Massachusetts was getting ready to rebel; but under ordinary conditions a rising would have been put down bloodily. Thanks to the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688 in Old England,' the rising when it came was successful and bloodless.

In April, 1689, came the news that James II was a fugitive. The new king, William of Orange, had issued a "Declaration," inviting all boroughs in England, and all officials unjustly deprived of charters and positions by James, to resume their former powers. The colonists assumed that this sanctioned like action by them also. The people of Boston and neighboring towns seized a war vessel in the harbor, imprisoned Andros, and restored the charter government. Connecticut and Rhode

Island also revived their former charters.

152. William III would have been glad to continue part of the Stuart policy in America. He wished, so far as possible, to consolidate small jurisdictions into large ones, and to keep the

1 Modern Progress, p. 209, or Modern World, § 455.

§ 153]

SETTLEMENT OF 1691

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governor and judges in each colony dependent upon himself. The Connecticut and Rhode Island charters stood in the way of a complete rearrangement of this sort; and the King's lawyers assured him that

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153. The Charter of 1691 (Source Book, 110, b) created a government for Massachusetts more like that of Virginia than like that of Connecticut. Six features may be noted.

The crown appointed and removed the governor. The Assembly nominated the Council, but these nominations were valid only after the governor's approval.

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SIR,

O

April 18 1689

Ares as well as maup others the Inhabitants of this Com and laces adjacent, being furprized with the Peoples fudden tasing to Arms, in the first motion whereof we were wholly ignorant, are driven by the prefent Engence and effir to acquaint your Excellency, thit for the mening and Security of the People Inhwing this Counter from the imminent Dangers they many waves lie open, and are crpiled unto, and for your own Safety; T¿ judge it neceflary that you tortmanth Surrender, and Deliver up the Government and Fortifications to be Preferved, to be Difpoleo according to Croci and Dirit on from the Crown of England, which is fuoscule irputed may Acribe, Promiling all urity from molence to your self, or any otbec of your Gentlemen and ders in prion or Clare: or tifs we are allured they will Endebour the taking of the Fortifications by Storm, if any op pofition be made.

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The governor could adjourn or dissolve the Assembly at will; and he, and the crown, held an absolute veto upon all its acts.

1 To conciliate William, the promised reform in the franchise was at last made effective. The certificate of a clergyman as to the applicant's fitness was not required, and the taxpaying qualification was reduced from ten shil

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