3 9002 05350 1020 ' jf(jj- ¦ Me/i>i^ridmg^i>f a College oi iJW&tonyri D Deposited by the Linonian and Brothers Library 1908 COMPENDIOUS HISTORY OP ¦'¦''•,, THE FIRST CEHTURY OF ^> ' 0 / NEW ENGLAND. JOHN GORHAM PALFREY. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. IIL BOSTON : PUBLISHED BT H. 0. SHEPAED, 22 COURT STREET. 1872. Entered according to Act of Congress, in tlio year 1872, by JOHN GOKHAM PALFREY, in tlie Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Wa^ihington. University Press: Welch, Bigelow, & Co., Cambridge. ADVERTISEMENT. This volume is a sequel to fhe work, in two volumes, published in the year 1866 as an abridg ment of my "History of New England during the Stuart Dynasty." I have aimed at perfect accuracy as to the facts of the narrative ; but I may be found to need indulgence for a failing memory. J. a. P. Cambridge, Massachusetts ; 1872, Mail 2. CONTENTS OF THE THIRD VOLUME. — » — BOOK IV. PROGRESS IN THE REIGNS OF KING WILLIAM THE THIRD AND QUEEN ANNE. « CHAPTER I. prospects disclosed bt the english revolution. Page Condition of the New England Colonies 1 Position of liing Williani 3 Religious and Political Questions 4 New Official Organization in England .... 7 Religious Administration 11 Defeat of Measures of Toleration 12 Defeated Movement for restoring the abrogated Charters . 13 Oppressiye Colonial System of England . . . . 15 Revival of the Board of Trade and Plantations . . .17 CHAPTER II. TROUBLES IN NEW ENGLAND APTER THE REVOLUTION. Royal Sanction to the Provisional Government of iVIassa- chusetts 20 Internal Condition of the Colony 21 War with the Indians 23 Their Inroads into New Hampshire 2.'5 Their Maraudings in Maine 27 Declaration by England of War against France . . 29 Frontenac, Governor of New France 30 Confederacy of the Five Nations 31 Their Hostility to the French 33 VI CONTENTS. French Intrigues with the Eastern Indians . Sack of Schenectady by French and Indians . Renewed Invasions of New Hampshire and Maine Capture of Port Royal by Sir William Phipps His Unfortunate Expedition against Quebec Issue of a Paper Currency . . , . Depressed Condition of Massachusetts 3739 404243 52 53 CHAPTER III. PROVINCIAL CHARTER OF MASSACHUSETTS. Agency of Mather and Phipps in England Complaints of Governor Andros and his Friends Obstacles to a Renewal of the Charter of Massachusetts Arrival in England of Andros and his Partisans Discouragement of the Agents . . ' , Their Solicitations to the King and Queen . The King's Views embodied in a new Charter Provisions of the Provincial Charter . Its Unsatisfactory Features ... Nomination of the chief Executive Officers Annexation of Plymouth to Massachusetts Condition of the newly constituted Pro'i^ince Return of Phipps and Mather to Boston Inauguration of Phipps as Governor . 54 SS5861656667 717578 79 818283 CHAPTER IV. CLOSE OP ERADSTREEt'S ADMINISTRATION. THE ¦WITCHCRAFT TRAGEDY. Incidents of the Indian War 86 Depressed State of Massachusetts ..... 88 Supposed Cases of Witchcraft in New England in early Times 90 Bewitched Children in Boston ....... 92 Alarm of Witchcraft in Salem 95 Apprehension, Trial, and Execution of Persons charged with Witchcraft 97 Extension of the Excitement 102 Pause and Reaction 1 02 Insignificance of the Confessions of arraigned Persons . .109 CONTENTS. Vll Defects in the Trials 112 Prevalence of the Superstition in other Times and Places . 115 Predisposing Circumstances in Massachusetts . . . 119 CHAPTER V. ADMINISTRATIONS OF PHIPPS AND STOUGHTON. Embarrassments of Legislation 126 Recon stitution of a Judiciary 127 Change in tlie Qualifications of Representatives . . . 130 Indian Hostilities at the Northeast 131 Abortive Enterprise against Canada 133 Imprudences and Quarrels of Phipps . . . . 134 His Recall from the Government 138 Renewal of Indian Hostilities 138 The Peace of Ryswick 146 Pacification with the Indians 147 Increased Rigor of the Colonial Policy of England . . 148 Aspirations of Joseph Dudley -. 149 Lord Bellomont made Governor of Massachusetts . .150 Death of Governor Bradstreet 151 CHAPTER VL ADMINISTRATION OP THE EARL OF BELLOMONT. Insecnrity of the Pacification at Ryswick . . . .153 Lord Bellomont's Arrival in Massachusetts . . . 155 Revision of the Judicial System of Massachusetts . . .156 Lord Bellomont's Deportment and Observations in Massa chusetts 159 His Prosecution of Pirates 161 Adventures of Captain William Kidd . . . . 163 Episcopacy in Boston 169 Establishment of the Church in Brattle Street . . . 170 Movements respecting the College 172 Death of Lord Bellomont 177 Death of Lieutenant-Governor Stoughton . . . .178 Renewed Danger of the Charters 178 Renewed Hopes of Dudley 181 Appointment of Dudley to be Governor . . . 1 83 Death of the King 184 Vlll CONTENTS. CHAPTER VII. NEW HAMPSHIRE, CONNECTICUT, AND RHODE ISLAND. New Hampshire after the Revolution . New Hampshire constituted a Royal Province . Samuel Allen and John Usher in New Hampshire Quarrel between Phipps and Usher . Disagreement between Usher and the Legislature Lord Bellomont in New Hampshire . His Dissatisfaction with Allen Charters of Connecticut and Rhode Island Share of Connecticut in the War . Attempted Usurpation of Governor Fletcher Internal Condition of Connecticut . Questions of Boundary revived Condition of Rhode Island after the Revolution Phipps's Claim to command the Militia of Rhode Island Lord Bellomont's Prejudices against Rhode Island 185188188191193 195 196 198 200205209214215 218221 CHAPTER VIIL administration op dudlet. Dudley's Arrival at Boston 225 His Journey to Maine 229 Legislative Proceedings 229 Dudley's Rejection of Counsellors 234 War with French and Indians 235 Sack of Deerfield 240 Prolongation of the War 244 Defeated Expedition against Port Eoyal .... 250 Abortive Project against Canada 255 Conquest of Nova Scotia 257 Disastrous Expedition against Canada 258 Peace of Utrecht 265 CHAPTER IX. administration of DUDLEY, CONTINUED. Dudley's Claim for fixed Salaries 266 Disagreements between him and the General Court . . 267 Financial Difficulties 272 CONTENTS. IX Claim of the Govemor to reject a Speaker Lieutenant-Governors Povey and Taller iBcreased Confidence of the General Court . Heavy Charges against Dudley Trials of his supposed Accomplices . Complaints of him in England His Attempts at Vindication " Deplorable State of New England " . Reply to the "Deplorable State'' 273274275 277 279 281282283 289 CHAPTER X. ADMINISTRATION OF DUDLEY, CONTINUED. The Mathers and Harvard College 291 Vice-Presidency of Samuel Willard 292 Presidency of John Leverett 293 Quarrel between the Governor and the Mathers . . 294 Discontinuance of the Governor's Claim to a fixed Salary . 299 Truce to his Dissensions with the General Court . . 301 Moderated Expectations of Massachusetts .... 302 Condition of the Colony at the Close of Dudley's Adminis tration .303 Post-Office and Taxation 305 Financial Embarrassments 310 Financial Expedients 311 Agency for Massachusetts in England .... 312 Estimation of Dudley in Massachusetts ..... 314 Colonel Burgess appointed to be his Successor . . . 315 Dudley's Death 316 CHAPTER XI. NEW HAMPSHIRE, EHODE ISLAND, AND CONNECTICUT. Dudley, Governor of New Hampshire .... 317 Controversy of New Hampshire with John Mason's Assign . 318 John Usher, Lieutenant-Governor of New Hampshire . 318 Trials of Allen's Claim to Lands 319 Forged Deed of Lands in Exeter . . . . . 321 Differences between Dudley and Usher 321 Condition of New Hampshire ...... 324 CONTENTS. Usher superseded by George Vaughan Dudley in Rhode Island His Unfriendly Judgments of that Colony Threatening Movements of the Board of Trade . Boundaries of Rhode Island on the West and North Internal Condition of Rhode Island Part taken by Rhode Island in the War . Part taken by Connecticut in the War . Sound Financial Policy of Connecticut Adjustments of her Boundaries .... Claims of John Mason and the Mohegans Hostile Pretensions of Dudley and Lord Cornbury The Saybrook Platform of Congregationalism . Yale College Condition and Legislation of Connecticut . Death of Queen Anne, and Accession of King 324 325326328 328329331 333334335 337 338 341343345 348 BOOK V. PROGRESS IN THE REIGN OP KING GEORGE THE FIRST. • CHAPTER I. ADMINISTRATION OF SHUTE. Security and Contentment of Massachusetts . Ministry of King George the First . Policy of Massachusetts Lieutenant-Governor Tailer .... Appointment and Resignation of Govemor Burgess Governor Shute and Lieutenant-Governor Dummer Condition of Massachusetts Discouragements of the Governor His Instructions from the King .... His Disagreements with the General Court Proceedings relative to Supplies of Naval Stores . Increased Dissensions with the General Court . Duty on the Importation of English Goods . 350352353354356356357 358 362363364 373 374 CONTENTS. XI CHAPTER II. ADMINISTRATION OP SHUTE, CONTINUED. Question of the Right of the Representatives to organize their House 378 Increased Disaffection of the Representatives . . . 379 Nova Scotia constituted a Royal Province .... 381 Question as to the Right of the Representatives to adjourn themselves 382 Encroachments of the Representatives on the Governor's Mil itary Power 383 Hai-vard College . . . ' 384 Jesuit Station at Norridgewock 386 Assault upon it by Colonel Hilton 387 Treaty of Shute with the Abenaquis 388 Preparations for renewed Hostility 389 Expedition to Norridgewock ....... 391 Operations in the Eastem Country 393 Altercations in the Government in relation thereto . . 394 Departure of the Governor for England .... 398 Condition of Massachusetts 398 Project of a Central Government 400 CHAPTER IIL ADMINISTRATION OP LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR DUMMER. Lieutenant-Governor Dummer Continued Recusancy of the House Progress of the War Sack of Norridgewock Communication with Vaudreuil . Lovewell's Fight Peace with the Indians . Financial Arrangements . Shute's Complaints in England Explanatory Charter . Project of a Synod Death of King George the First 401402404407410411412414 415419421 423 xii CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. NEW HAMPSHIRE, RHODE ISLAND, AND CONNECTICUT. Condition of Now Hampshire in 1716 424 Lieutenant-Governor Vaughan 425 Disputes between Shute and Vaughan 426 Extension of New Hampshire Settlements . . . 427 -Armstrong, Deputy-Surveyor of the Woods . . . . 429 Condition of Rhode Island in 1715 430 The Charter of Rhode Island threatened .... 431 Share of Rhode Island in the War 432 Ecclesiastical AlFairs in Rhode Island 435 Military and Civil Arrangements 438 Successive Agents of the Colony in England . . . 438 Condition of Connecticut in 1715 439 Ecclesiastical AflFair;s 440 Yale College 442 Affairs of the Mohegan Indians, 444 Share of Connecticut in the War 447 Measures of Eeform 448 Mob at Hartford . 449 Western and Eastern Boundary ... . . 450 The Charter in Danger 453 Dummer's "Defence of the Charters'' 455 Death of Govemor Saltonstall 456 New England Polities in the First Quarter of the Eighteenth Century 463 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. BOOK IV. PEOGEESS IN THE EEIGNS OF KING WILLIAM THE THIED AND QIIEEN ANNE. CHAPTER L PROSPECTS DISCLOSED BY THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION. The early dreams in' New England of an in dependence of the parent country had faded away. Repeated disappointments, and new' views of ex isting advantages and dangers, had checked that enthusiasm for absolute liberty which prompted the emigrations. The interests of business had come to rival the interests and to modify and complicate the plans of politics. The local una nimity had been dissolved. Permanent parties had been formed with opposing judgments both upon local questions and upon questions of the rela tions of the colonies to the empire ; the men qualified to lead opinion were not, as formerly, agreed in opinion among themselves. As bodies politic, the colonies of New England were disabled. The most powerful and resolute of them, after triumphing in a sharp contest with the Ministry of King Charles the Second, had 2 PEOSPECTS AFTEE THE EEVOLUTION. afterwards been stricken to his feet. The charter of Massachusetts, the only unquestionable title of her citizens to any rights," proprietary, social, or political, had been vacated by regular process in the English courts. The condition of the four towns which were collectively called New Hamp shire was undefined ; they were awaiting a new organization. Plymouth, never endowed with a charter, was at the royal mercy, as indeed she always had been except so far as she had been protected by the influence' or the imputed power of Massachusetts. The charters which Connec ticut and Rhode Island had owed to Lord Clar endon's jealousy of the confederacy and hatred of Massachusetts were understood to have been surrendered — the latter with little reluctance — to the usurpations of Randolph and Andros. They had been resumed, but it was uncertain whether that anomalous proceeding would be allowed in England. On the other hand, the reasons which had prompted the desire for independence did not now exist in the same strength as in earlier times. Except in the twenty years that intervened be tween the assembling of the Long Parliament and the restoration of King Charles the Second, New England, through her whole history, had been agitated by fears for her religious freedom. Throughout that" period she had been disquieted by apprehension of encroachments frorn the Eng lish -hierarchy, and during no small part of it by POSITION OF KING WILLIAM. 3 alarm lest the government that claimed her alle giance should itself fall into vassalage to the Ro man see. On the British throne, she at length saw a prince not only unquestionably Protestant, but understood to be strictly orthodox after the standard of her own doctrines and forms, — an unflinching Dutch Calvinist according to the pat tern of the Synod of Dort. King William the Third was indeed no enthu siast for the creed in which he concurred with the colonists. He was ardent only for the humilia tion of France. During the seventeen years since he had been summoned, at the age of twenty-two, to direct the defence of his country against a devastating invasion of the French king, a suc cession of intrigues and wars against that mon arch had been his perpetual occupation. Louis the Fourteenth, in his declining life, was, after his incongruous manner, a furious devotee to the Romish religion "which he had always professed; and the defence of the reformed faith in England, Holland, and the North of Europe was involved in resistance to his power. But the Protestantism of William of Orange was not so fastidious as to withhold him from alliances with the King of Spain, with the Emperor of Germany and other Catholic princes of the empire, and even with the Pope. It might be true that, though the doctrine of predestination was dear to him, as it made an uncalculating courage easy, his religious belief, on the whole, had no strong hold of his mind; 4 PEOSPECTS AFTEE THE EEVOLUTION. for he was no brooder upon theories, but a busy man of affairs. But if, in that case, his Calvinistic subjects might not hope encouragement from him as a sympathizer, they might expect frora him toleration as an indifferentist. Toleration had, on the whole, been the policy of his race, though his rough predecessor, Maurice, had bro ken the continuity of the tradition. William's position as Protestant head of coalitions com posed of Catholics on the one hand, and on the other of Protestants of different names, imposed upon him as a necessity the professing of tolera tion. And he had given reason to believe that he would favor such legislation for the Church of England as should offer easy terms of compre hension to dissenters. The disaffection with which the new settlement was regarded by many of the clergy inclined him to favor the sectaries, who were warmly its friends. But if King William was head of the Church of England, that body was constituted of warring members ; nor would the degree of respect with which the rights of non-conformity were to be treated in his colonies be determined by his friend ship or his discretion. In the danger which had lately distressed the Church, the dissenters, to whom the Church had all along been so cruel, had helped in its extrication. Had the Church learned moderation and lenity, and was it capa ble of gratitude ? and if it should be indisposed to relent, how far would it prove able to overrule QUESTIONS FOE THE FUTUEE. 5 or to persuade a tolerant sovereign ? The iggg. "Claim of Right," which constituted the^^"!"- settlement for Scotland, contained an express dec laration against episcopacy in that kingdom ; if one form of dissent from the established religion of England might be established in Scotland, why not another form be permitted in Massachusetts ? Weighty questions of a different tenor were waiting for solution. As well at home as in the colonies, charters had been arbitrarily dissolved ; would justice prevail for their restoration, now that liberty was won, or would the new govern ment profit by the misconduct of the old, and refuse to redress wrongs which it never would have ventured to inflict ? or would right be ac corded to the strong and withholden from the weak, and London be reinstated while Massachu setts was denied? In the recent controversies, the colonists had claimed an interest, which the crown lawyers had disallowed, in the Great Char ter ; would the claim be still rejected, or would the birthrights of Englishmen to life, liberty, and property be henceforward understood in West minster Hall as rights of Englishmen living in a colony ? The colonists were well able to manage « their internal affairs ; would their discretion and public spirit be respected, or would they be em barrassed and teased by a meddlesome policy at court? Would the Privy Council continue to superintend them with an intermitting and lax control, or would they be placed, as repeatedly in 6 PEOSPECTS AFTEE THE EEVOLUTION. former times, under a special jurisdiction likely to be more vigilant and more vexatious ? Would this new close alliance with Holland, or would any consequences of the great change in .England, aff'ect the strictness of that administration of the Navigation Laws which had lately threatened so much trouble ? If ever the people of New England imagined that in their king, born the citizen of a repiiblic, they were to find a friend by reason of his being a friend to popular institutions, no calculation could have been more erroneous. Hard experi ences had strengthened that love of power "which belonged to his stern, self-relying, and ungenial nature. His life had been a long lesson of the inconvenience of restraints, and of divided au thority, to one fated to act a great part. His enemy, the King of France, was master of his own resources ; he could keep his secrets in his own breast ; he could choose his agents ; he could conceive and shape his own plans, mature them with his own silent observations, and put them in execution whenever he saw the time to be ripe. William's moment of greatest apparent power was when he was at the head of the rpost nu merous coalition which for the time being he had* been able to form. But the more parties he had won to his alliance the raore unraariageable had he raade it. In projecting a negotiation or a campaign he must consult and persuade a cabinet of equals, with rival interests to be conciliated ; NEW OFFICIAL OEGANIZATION. 7 with stupidity and ignorance in sovereigns and ministers to be cautiously approached ; with whirasical apprehensions and jealousies to be allayed ; with conceit to be huraored ; with sensi tive obstinacy to be overcome, or soothed, or eluded. He who has thus felt the embarrass ments of restricted authority naturally comes to covet absolute authority with a disinterested am bition. If he is prompted by generous aims, the restraints which disable him are felt with the more impatience and resentment. He can scarce ly fail to become tenacious and greedy of power. As it could not be supposed that the imported king was well acquainted with the conditions of English administration, his choice of advisers was a matter of much interest to his colonial subjects. And its interest increased as his own qualities and tastes became better known. Though a brave and skilful, he had not been an eminently suc cessful, soldier. But he was the ablest political manager in Europe. He knew all the schemes, intrigues, and factions of all the courts, and had gauged the abilities and characters of all the con trolling courtiers. It followed, that the special function which he assuraed for himself when seated on the throne of England was the charge of the foreign relations of his realm. This de partment of affairs, including the military ar rangements incident to it, he not only superin tended, but personally conducted, with not much consultation, and not much aid. For other busi- 8 PEOSPECTS AFTEE THE EEVOLUTION. ness of the government he had little taste or preparation, and allowed himself but little time, leaving it mainly to his great ministers of state. When matters relating to it were necessarily brought to his notice, he was apt to make a sum mary disposition of them ; the leading principle of his decisions being to take care that what the Revolution had left of the royal prerogatives should not be invaded, and that such opportuni ties for extending the sovereign's power as the existing jealous state of the public mind ad mitted should not fail of being put to use. Of the official advisers of the king, the Treas urer and the Secretaries of State were those whose policy would most affect the interests of the col onies. Danby, formerly Lord High Treasurer, was not enough trusted to be restored to that post, though he had raaterially aided in the recent Revolution. The Treasury was put in commis sion; the eccentric Lord Mordaunt, afterwards Earl of Peterborough, being nominally at its head. But its efficient chief was Sidney Godol phin, under whose administrations, while former ly holding the sarae place at two different tiraes, Randolph and Andros had perpetrated their odi ous usurpations. The Earl of Sunderland, from whom the colonies could have expected no kind ness, was not at first reinstated in the office which he had forfeited by his treachery to King James. The new Secretaries of State were the Earl of Nottingham and the Earl of Shrewsbury. The NEW OFFICIAL" OEGANIZATION. 9 latter was too young to be yet known except for his brilliant personal qualities, and for the brave part which he had taken in the subversion of the late despotism. Lord Nottingham was a grave and moderate Tory; an undisguised lover of prerogative, though his loyalty had not been proof against recent exigencies ; and a fanatical devotee of the Church of England. The legal proceedings which terminated in the vacating of the cliarter of Massachusetts had been conducted in the courts of King's Bench and of Chancery, and had been pressed on by Sir Robert Sawyer, as Attorney-General. The new constitution of those courts was an occasion of concern to the colonies. The Great Seal was in trusted to a commission ; the chief commissioner being Sir John Maynard, a statesman nearly ninety years old, universally respected in that corrupt age for courageous probity, and recog nized as the greatest lawyer of his time. He had been a prominent member of the Long Parlia ment on the popular side, and one of the prose cutors of- the Earl of Strafford. The new Chief Justice of the King's Bench was John Holt, a young man just risen into professional eminence and general esteem. He was known to entertain liberal sentiments in politics, and for his contu macy in respect to the dispensing power had been removed by King James from the office of Re corder of London. The first Attorney- General under the new order of things was Sir George 10 PEOSPECTS AFTEE THE EEVOLUTION. Treby, who, as spokesman foir the corporation of London, had greeted the Prince on his arrival there as the representative of a fine " consecrated from generation to generation to defending truth and freedora against tyrants." The leaning of the king's mind iy respect to the religious administration was thought to be indicated when presently after his accession he gave the bishopric of Salisbury, the only see then vacant, to - Gilbert Burnet, a frank and active enemy to all intolerance, and even reputed to be a doubtful churchman. And the appointment of a successor to Archbishop Sancroft, when that fastidious prelate refused to take the oath of al legiance, afforded a further acceptable assurance _ of the bias of the royal raind. It was irapossible that the enlightened and generous Tillotson should ever lend himself to a vexatious treatment of dissent. Accordingly the course of reUgious administra tion in "this reign was such as, if it did not give complete satisfaction to the dissenters of New England, yet afforded them sufficient practical 1689. security. An early proceeding of the con- Teb. 13. vention which, after recognizing the Prince May 24. ^nd Priuccss of Orange as King and Queen of England, resolved on the same day to declare itself-a parliament, was to pass an Act commonly known as the Toleration Act, "for exempting their Majesties' Protestant subjects from the pen alties of certain laws." It left the Corporation ECCLESIASTICAL ADMINISTEATION. 11 Act and the Test Act still in force. But all Trin itarian Protestants who should take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, and make the legal declaration against popery, were now permitted to absent themselves from church and to attend conventicles, provided that their places of meeting should be open during religious services, and that their preachers should subscribe the doctrinal arti cles of the Church of England. It has been sup posed that the terms of the Toleration Act were negotiated by John Locke. His writings show that he must have considered them inadequate to the ends of justice. A repeal of the Test Act, and a measure of Cd'mprehe'nsion, as it was called, including such alterations of the Liturgy and Articles as raight satisfy the consciences of orthodox non-conform ists and bring them into the Church, were both proposed. Patrick, Tillotson, Burnet, and Ten- nison were among the eminent churchmen who favored the compromise. But difficulties which proved to be insurmountable intervened. Even Whigs could not be persuaded to a unanimous agreement upon measures of so radical a charac ter. Lord Nottingham, whose vast influence in the ecclesiastical circle might have brought about a generous indulgence, was well disposed to a comprehension, but the Test Act he was more inclined to strengthen than to rescind. The em barrassing subject was gotten rid of by a shift which only saved both parties from the morti- 12 PEOSPECTS AFTEE THE EEVOLUTION. fication of confessing a defeat. The houses pe- j^prii titioned the king to summon a Convoca tion of the clergy to give their advice. The Nov. 20. Convocation met, and its temper was shown when Dr. Jane, the chief Oxford cham pion of the doctrine of passive obedience in the late reign, was chosen Prolocutor of the lower house by a majority of two to one over the liberal Tillotson. The bishops, as a body, were not averse to some indulgence to nonconformists. But the inferior clergy, disinclined to any concession of the sort, interposed all sorts of obstacles to the transaction of business. They wearied out the other party, and nothing was done. The favor able time for action by the civil government had been lost, for in the next Parliament the Tory party was so strongly reinforced, that there was no encouragement so much as to propose any plan of ecclesiastical reform, and the exclusive policy of the Church of England remains in vigor to the present day. Another signally important measure of relief appeared to meet with favor on all sides, and if it had been matured in Parliament, would probably, in the circumstances, have encountered no opposi tion from the King, though on this subject he had practised a somewhat suspicious reserve, saying nothing in his " Declaration of Right " of either the restoration of charters, or the colonial mal administration of King James. In a bill which was introduced for the restoration of their char- ABROGATED CHAETEES. 13 ters to corporations which had been wrongfully deprived in the late reign, the colonies of New England were expressly specified. The bill was lost by the indiscretion of its advocates, isgo. who insisted on attaching to it some pro- "'™" ^°" visions of an unreasonably vindictive character. The king did not like this far-reaching severity against Tories, and being at the same tirae dis pleased at sorae expressions in the House of Commons of disapprobation of an intention which he had announced of going over to com mand his troops in Ireland, he suddenly prorogued the Parliament. It was presently dissolved, and writs were issued for another election. The opportunity had gone by. The Whig party, which had taken the lead in the late Revolution, was offended and weakened by the want of a more liberal confidence on the king's part, and this demoralization, and the displeasure produced by the harsh tenor of measures proposed by it in the late Parliament against political offenders, gave the control of the new Par liament to the Tories, whose sensibility to the abuses of the late reign was already blunted. The question about the charters was to be soon resolved, but from this time another element of discord in the relation of the colonies to the par ent country was to grow in strength, till at length it should avail to sunder the tie between them. With the Revolution which seated the Prince of Orange on the English throne, the commercial 14 PEOSPECTS AFTEE THE EEVOLUTION. interest in England obtained new importance, and the colonial system was vigorously developed. The colonial empire of England, now so vast, at that time comprehended not very much more than the settlements on the eastern seaboard of North America between Florida and New France, and a few islands of the West Indies, though already there were factories and forts on the Spanish Main, oji the Gold Coast of Africa, and on both sides of the peninsula of Hindostan. At so late a time as almost in the last days of the colonial subjection of New England, Edmund Burke set forth in a few words the accepted theory of the relation of colonies to their metropolis in terms expressing no sense of the vicious charac ter of that system : " The ends to be answered are to make the new establishment as useful as possible to the trade of the mother country ; to secure its dependence; to provide for the ease, safety, and happiness of the settlers ; to protect them frora their eneraies ; and to raake an easy and effectual provision to preserve them from the tyranny and avarice of their governors, or the ill consequences of their own licentiousness ; that they should not, by growing into an unbounded liberty, forget that they were subjects, or, lying under a base servitude, have no reason to think themselves British subjects. This is all that colo nies, according to the present and best ideas of them, can or ought to be." Adam Sm'ith recog nized the fact of the application of this theory COLONIAL SYSTEM. 15 in the dealings of England with her colonies in North America. " The first regulations," he says, " which she made with regard to them had always in view to secure to herself the monopoly of their commerce ; to confine their market, and to enlarge her own at their expense; and consequently rather to damp and discourage than to quicken aud for ward the course of their prosperity." And he made no secret of his opinion of the character of this policy. He called it one of the " mean and malignant expedients of the mercantile system." " To prohibit a great" people," he said-, " from making all that they can of every part of their own produce, or from employing their stock and industry in the way that they judge most advan tageous for themselves, is a manifest violation of the most sacred rights of mankind." The legislation for restraining colonial trade for the benefit of the native Englishman began as far back as the tirae of the Commonwealth, when, by the " Act for Increase of Shipping and lesi. Encouragement of Navigation," commonly °°'" ®' called the First Navigation Law, the colonist, prohibited from shipping his goods except in ves sels built in Britain or a British colony, was pre cluded from making his bargain for freight wher ever it could be had on the most favorable terms. Trora regulating the carrying trade, the legislation of Charles the Second passed to regulating the destination of the cargoes. By an Act of the first year after his restoration, colonial pro- 16 PEOSPECTS AFTEE THE EEVOLUTION. duce could be carried nowhere else till it had first been landed in England ; in other words, the colo nial producer was obfiged to sell his property on such terras as he could get frora the native Eng lishman, or else to charge himself with a double freight, and with port dues and other expenses for entry and clearance in England. From thus corapelling the colonists to sell in England, the next step was to compel them to buy from that country, which was done by another law -1 ceo *' ' " forbidding importations into the colonies of " any commodity of the growth, production, or manufacture of Europe," except from " England, Wales, or Berwick-upon-Tweed," and in vessels built in England. To a strict execution of these laws the colonial governors were bound by their official oath, and the local revenue officers ap pointed in England for the colonies had all the same powers as in the parent country. The cu pidity of the landholder was stimulated by that of the merchant. An apprehension arose that the industry of the colonial grazier and weaver would " sink the value of English land," and an 1699. Act of Parliament in one of the last years of King William forbade the loading "in any ship or vessel," or " upon any horse, cart, or other carriage," of " any wool, or manufacture made or mixed with wool, being the produce or manufac ture of any of the English plantations in America," to be conveyed " to any other of the said planta tions, or to any other place whatsoever." COLONIAL SYSTEM. 17 For thirteen years before King William came to the throne the colonial administration i676. had been conducted by a coraraittee of the ^'"'- ^^¦ Privy Council. The new committee appointed from that body on his accession pronounced the management to have been unsatisfactory. They represented that " the present circurastances leso. and relation the colonies stood in to the ^^^'' government of England was^ matter worthy of the consideration of Parliament, for the bringing of those proprieties and dominions under a nearer dependence on the crown, as his Majesty's revenue in the plantations was very much concerned there in." He had too many affairs on his hands to be able to spare attention for questions that raight be deferred ; and a reference to Parliaraent, which might involve a concession of prerogative, was not to be rnade without consideration. Com plaints from the merchants of Bristol and Liver pool that the Navigation Laws were evaded to their private loss, and to the daraage of the coramercial interests of*the realm, awoke a' new jealousy on the subject of colonial lawlessness, and steps were taken in Parliament towards the establishment of" a Council of Commerce, which it was thought would have been followed up but for a diversion of public attention to a plot for the assassination of the king. Taking the question into his own hands, he proceeded to revive the Board of Trade and Plantations, with au- 1595. thority to ascertain the condition of the ''«'=• i^- 18 PEOSPECTS AFTEE THE EEVOLUTION. colonies in respect both to internal administra- 1696. tion and to coraraerce ; to exaraine the May 15. ingtructious which had been given to co lonial governors, and propose amendments; to recommend suitable persons for colonial appoint ments ; and to scrutinize the acts of colonial legislatures. The Board, now constituted of fifteen commissioners, continued to exist till the close of the was of American Independence. John Locke, who had been Secretary to the Council for Trade in the time of King Charles the First, was one of the commissioners 1697. now appointed, but he soon withdrew, •'™" finding the studious habits which he cherished inconsistent with the active duties of the place, and the necessity which it imposed of converse with nurabers of men. An Act of Parliament confirmed the existing regula- tions of trade, and increased their oppres siveness by some minor provisions. Edward Randolph was appointed Surveyor-General of the Customs for America; and the enforcement of English doctrines as to colonial coraraerce seeraed effectively provided for by the establish ment, in all the colonies, of Vice- Admiralty courts empowered to decide questions without a jury. CHAPTER II. TROUBLES AFTER THE REVOLUTION. The emancipation from the tyranny of Gov ernor Andros and of his infatuated master was an iraraense relief to New England ; but it would have been without a parallel araong political revolutions, if it had been followed at once by a satisfactory condition of affairs. In Massachu setts, the gOvernraent which was set up was on all hands understood to be provisional merely. This admission was unfortunate for the public repose, both as indicating tiinidity on the part of the per sons at the head of affairs, and as keeping alive a question which left the obligations of citizens undetermined. The case of Massachusetts differed from that of Rhode Island and Connecticut in ' the very important particular that her charter had been formally vacated by legal process. But this had been done with circurastances of such in justice, and so resembling those which in Eng land had excited extreme resentment when the municipal corporations were the sufferers^ that the new King and his servants would not probably have taken offence had Massachusetts reconsti tuted her ancient government as still of right ex- 20 TEOUBLES AFTEE THE EEVOLUTION. isting ; while the local adrainistration would have derived respect and authority from the confidence displayed in that pretension. The first General Court, constituted according to 1689. the ancient charter, adjourned after a five July 13. .peeks' session, having first declared all laws to be provisionally revived which were in June 22. forde at the time of the inauguration of Julys, the council under Dudley's presidency, and instructed the judicial courts to resume their functions as exercised at that tirae. This was all which for the present could be done, and every thing remained in suspense till, near the end of the year, Bradstreet was able to commiinicate to the court a letter from the King giving authority to the persons now in office to " continue the administration of the government " till his further pleasure should be made known, which did not come to pass till after nearly three years more. Instead of retaining their places by virtue of this sanction, as it seems they would have been justified in doing, the Magistrates chose to inter pret it as authority for maintaining the old char ter government, and annual elections were accord ingly ordered and held for the present as in for mer tiraes, resulting in three successive elections of Bradstreet and Danforth to the two highest offices. The General Court must have considered i690_ itself as increasing its chances for a re- seb. 12. newal of the charter when it modified the INTEENAL CONDITION OF MASSACHUSETTS. 21 law for admission to the franchise, reducing the amount of the pecuniary qualification, and repeal ing the provision which required a testimonial to the candidate's religious character from his min ister, a certificate from selectmen to the effect that he was " not vicious in life " being recognized as an equivalent. Bradstreet was probably infirm in health during the first winter, of his new admin istration, as he appears to have been absent from all the meetings of the Magistrates for six i689. ° , , . , Deo- 4- rnonths. On an alarm from Albany, which jgg^ is presently to be spoken of. Wait Win- May 28. throp was made " Major-General of the Feb. 13. military forces." The degree of good order which prevailed during this long suspension of a legitimate gov ernment gave evidence, on the whole, of the peaceable disposition of the people, and of their attachment to the leaders whom they had em powered for the existing crisis. But it was impossible that quiet and content should be com plete, while questions of such moment were un settled. Would the old charter be restored, with or without alteration of its grants? If not, what frame of governraent would succeed it? What degree of self-government would be allowed ? What force would be conceded, not only to acts of the -existing provisional authority, but to the colonial legislation of two generations, during which the powers conveyed by the charter had been differently understood in the colony and in 22 TEOUBLES AFTEE THE EEVOLUTION. England ? Nor was there wanting a party spirit to take advantage of the solicitudes excited by such uncertainties. Besides persons who were prompted by considerations of direct personal ad vantage, there was a class not inconsiderable for nurabers or capacity, among the recent irarai- grants especially, who, either from genuine sym pathy with the absolutist party in England, or making what appeared to them the better choice among evils, disapproved the recent rising, and who, when not venturing on active measures to obstruct the patriot authorities, viewed them with a malign or suspicious eye, and at best afforded thera no cheerful support. The embarrassraents thus occasioned could not but perplex a governraent which had not, in a high degree, the strength of personal ability and character. Well-raeaning and painstaking as he was, the now aged governor, had never been emi nently fit for difficult occasions. Danforth, besides being in only a secondary place, was occupied with his special business in the administration of Maine ; and, except him, no other Counsellor pos sessed capacity equal to that of some of the partially disaffected persons, whoj like Stoughton, retained more or less traditional hold upon the public confidence. So loose, in fact, proved the bonds of authority, that a press of men foj- mili tary service was sometimes resisted. So was, in repeated instances, the collection of taxes. A court constituted for Middlesex County, under WAR WITH THE INDIANS. 23 comraissions frora Governor Andros, persisted in exercising its jurisdiction, and was only stopped by its members being sent to gaol. One consequence of this uncomfortable state of affairs was the inefficient prosecution of the war in which Andros had had such imperfect success. To the hostile movements made by the natives in the last sumraer of his adrainistration he had at first attached little iraportance, though they appeared in a different light to his associates in the government. The indulgence which he preferred to practise towards the savages had so little of the expected effect, that he presently fefb obfiged to abandon that policy, and undertake a winter campaign in the eastern country. 1 fiSS 1 RRQ The recall by the provisional government ' of the troops which he had posted there, however justified by other considerations, had an unfavor able influence on the prospects of the war. The nuraber of Indians remaining within the closely settled portions of New England was not now considerable enough to require any spe cial precautions against disaffection which might arise among thera. Four years before the Ififi'i Revolution, Governor Hinckley estiraated their number, including all ages, in Plymouth, where they were much more numerous than in the other colonies, at less than six thousand. Thirteen years later it was believed that in Massachusetts proper there were not many more than two hundred. These were all reckoned 24 TEOUBLES AFTEE THE EEVOLUTION. among -pr aping Indians, though experience had shown that in respect to security for their harm- lessness their small numbers were to be more regarded than their religious profession. But the force of the tribes which roaraed over the wide tracts now occupied by Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Western Massachusetts was still unbroken, and ha'd probably even been largely in creased by the resort of savages who had been expelled from their seats in the war which had been waged almost continuously since the out break of King Philip. Leaving out of view the seven outlying towns on Connecticut River, which, in sorae sort, though iraperfectly, were covered by New York and the friendly Iroquois Indians, the frontier of Massa chusetts at this tirae may be traced by a line beginning at Falmouth on Casco Bay, and run- ¦ning along the towns of Scarborough, Saco, Wells, York, Dover, Exeter, Amesbury, Haver hill, Andover, Dunstable, Chelmsford, Groton, Lancaster, and Worcester. The withdrawal of the troops from the eastern country was a signal to the tribes in that quarter to renew their turbu lence. Of the four towns of New Hampshire, Portsraouth and Hampton lay a little out of the track of the marauders as they passed westward from their chief places of strength on the Penob scot and the Kennebec ; and Portsmouth had num bers and defences which afforded it sorae security. It is matter of wonder that the brave inhabitants ATTACK ON DOVEE. 25 of the other two towns should have persevered to maintain their position through that miserable war which raged during the greater part of King- William's reign of thirteen years. Dover, lying at the lowest convenient crossing- place of the Pisoataqua, and with an ungarrisoned territory to the north of it, was kept in perpetual alarra. In the first days of the anarchy, as it may be strictly called, which in New Hampshire followed upon the deposition of Andros, the In dians undertook an enterprise, dictated, it seems, by resentments which had been nursed through thirteen years. At Dover, by the lower falls of the tributary river Cochecho, were five of those garrison-houses, as they were called, which were common at outposts ; that is, houses slightly forti fied for the purpose of receiving a number of neighbors in case of any alarra. One of these belonged to Major Waldron, who by a stratagera had made prisoners of four hundred Indians to wards the close of Philip's war. To each of these houses on a sumraer evening came two Indian women, and begged for a lodging, i689. which was refused them at only one. J™^^-. When the other inmates were asleep, the women unbarred the doors, and "whistled as a signal to their confederates, who had been approaching in the darkness. A hand-to-hand fight with the whites was what the Indians always shunned, but they had now a great advantage while the just awak ened sleepers were groping for their arms. One 26 TEOUBLES AFTEE THE EEVOLUTION. house was alarmed by the barking of a dog, in time for the inmates to rally and defend it. Araong thera was a minister, who threw himself on his back with his feet against the door, and so held it till the muskets of his friends began to take effect. The house which had not admitted the spies seemed safe, but its owner was son of his next neighbor, whom the savages brought within his hearing, and threatened to kill if a surrender continued to be refused. Filial affec tion prevailed, and the occupants of both houses were put together in a separate building, to be carried away to the eastern country. But they were negligently guarded, and managed to es cape. Both of the two other garrison-houses were burned. Waldron's was, of course, the object of special attention. He was eighty years old. At the first disturbance he leaped from his bed, and, seizing his sword, drove before him some Indians who had already entered his chamber. While he returned for fire-arms, one of the savages followed him closely and struck him on the back of the head with a hatchet. The blow of the coward was feeble, and Wal dron was only stunned ; but while for the mo ment he was helpless the Indians dragged him into his hall, and tied him in a chair placed upon a table. Then they gashed his body with their knives, one saying after another, " I cross out my account." They cut off" his nose and ears, and THE WAR IN MAINE. 27 crammed them into his mouth, and at length put an end to his sufferings with his own sword. Twenty-three white people were killed at this time, and twenty-nine made prisoners. Several of the latter were sold to the French in Canada, being, as has been believed, the first English cap tives who were thus disposed of. The easy suc cess which had attended this enterprise invited a repetition of it, and within only two ^ ' ¦^ August. months another part of Dover called Oys ter River (now Durham) was attacked. Eighteen men were killed while at work in the fields. Two boys, who with some women and young children were in a house "where there were fire-arms, de fended it till it was set on fire, when they sur rendered on a promise that their lives should be spared. The conquerors impaled one of the children, killed two or three others, and carried away the rest of their prisoners. A gang of In dian strollers murdered four Englishmen at ^ ^ July. Saco, but, firing upon a party which went out to bury the bodies, were driven off" with loss. The important post at Pemaquid was assailed. The officer in command sur rendered himself and his fifteen men on the con dition of being dismissed in safety; but several of the garrison were put to death or led away captives. The scattered settlers east of what is now Portland (if settlements their places of pre carious habitation can be called) withdrew into a few poorly fortified houses. 28 TEOUBLES AFTEE THE EEVOLUTION. In the course of these operations there was treacherous communication, not suspected at the time, between French priests in Canada and In dians about Boston. It was this which, accord ing to a stateraent of the French governor-general, led during the sumraer to the death of no fewer than two hundred Englishmen, and the capture of sixteen fortified places, with twenty cannon. The General Court of Massachusetts, suddenly convened by the governor, resolved to raise Aug. 21. ¦' ° ... six hundred men for service in the eastern country, and appointed Jeremiah S wayne to the comraand. The enlistraent for this seryice did not proceed with energy, owing partly to causes that have just been explained, and partly perhaps to want of confidence in the coraraander, who had his reputation still to raake. But a consider able body of Massachusetts troops took the field, Septem- under Major Church, the soldier of Philip's ''™' war, who brought from Plymouth and Rhode Island a reinforcement of two hundred and fifty men, English and Indians. Church's former good fortune did not follow him. He went by sea to Casco, and thence marched as far as the Kennebec, fighting on the way an 'inde cisive action, in which he sustained considerable loss. He proceeded some distance up that river without finding the enemy, and before winter returned to Boston. These were but operations of a little war, though of a sufficiently distressing one. In the WAE BETWEEN ENGLAND AND FRANCE. 29 next year there appeared openly a new party to it, occasioning it thenceforward to be conducted on a vastly larger scale. The New England people now began to be acquainted with the price they were to pay for the happiness of see ing the Calvinistic Prince of Orange on the British throne. He had not reigned three months when England declared war against France. A series of wars between New England and New France begJln, which with short intervals. lasted for seventy years, both parties availing themselves of aid from the savages, the French especially, who by their missionaries succeeded best in establishing an interest with the tribes. A line of French sta tions, adraitting of coraraunication, though some tiraes far apart, already extended through the interior of the continent, from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to the mouth of the Mississippi, enclosing the whole line of English colonies on the Atlantic shore. From the rivers Mississippi and Ohio, France pressed upon Carolina and Virginia with her Indian allies ; from the great lakes, on New York ; from the Penobscot and the upper waters of the Connecticut, on Massa chusetts. In her relations to the North Araerican tribes, proselyting was -her object everywhere, her agents being Jesuit and Recollet missionaries. In her relations to the tribes of the North she had two further objects, — the command of the cod- fishery and of the fur-trade. 30 TEOUBLES AFTEE THE EEVOLUTION. The population of New France at this time did not amount to more than twelve thousand persons, or about one eighth part. of the popula tion of New England. For nearly thirty year's 1663. the government, relinquished by a partner- 1^27. ship of adventurers which was instituted by Cardinal Richelieu under the style of the Hundred Associates,, had been supervised for the King by Colbert and Louvois, who found most efficient auxiliaries in the ecclesiastics con gregated at Quebec and Montreal, and scattered thence over the hunting-grounds of the native tribes. M. de Callieres, royal governor of Mon treal, and coraraander-in-chief of the forces in Canada, was in France when the news of the English Revolution reached that country. He J689. imraediately submitted to the Minister of January. Marine a plan for a general attack on the northern English Colonies. He had already in his governraent thirteen or fourteen hundred regular soldiers. With thera and six hundred militia he proposed to capture, first, Albany, ap proaching it by the way of Lake Champlain, and then New York. The scheme was approved, and to' execute it an officer who had formerly for several years had experience as governor of New France, was restored to that posi tion. Louis de Buade, Comte de Frontenac, now nearly seventy years old, was a man of energy and talent equal to the great occasion which now demanded them. His instructions THE FIVE NATIONS. 31 required him to execute the conquest, if possible, in season to return to Canada before winter, with as many of his troops as should not be required to secure the new possessions. He was at the same time "to profit by circumstances to con clude a solid and advantageous peace with the Iroquois." Iroquois was the collective name given by the French to those tribes which, called by the Eng lish the Five Nations, acted frora this time for ward so ira portant a part in the confficts between New England and New France. When they first becarae known to Europeans, these tribes, bear ing severally the names of Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas, possessed most of the territory which now constitutes the State of New York, extending themselves in the order in which they have been named from Hudson Rirer to Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, while by conquests in their perpetual wars they had spread their power on the one side over a considerable region north of those lakes, and in the opposite direction, to the western borders of Virginia and Maryland. From an early time the New England colonists had had some knowledge of the Mohawks, who claimed a sort of jurisdic tion over the Mohegans of Connecticut, but it was not till a half-century after the colonization that New-Englander and Iroquois were brought face to face. The Indians of the Five Nations were a su- 32 TEOUBLES AFTER THE EEVOLUTION. perior race to the aboriginal people of New Eng land. Though not less ferocious and cruel, they had more sense> of truth, more intelligence, and more courage. The permanent alliance of the tribes with each other, which constituted them so great a power, could only have existed on the basis of sorae capacity for political organization. Bach nation was in the last resort independent ofthe rest, and, raoved by interests or passions of its own, a single nation would sometimes con tract engagements and pursue measures incon sistent with the objects of the confederacy. But interferences on the part of one or more tribes with the policy of the rest as to peace or war were a departure from their usual course of action. Owing to various causes, such as their physical constitution, their perpetual and destructive wars, their occupation as hunters, which required large spaces of land, and their wretched domestic habits, giving to their progeny a poor chance for life, the population of the Five Nations was sraall in cora- parison with the extent of their domain. Their whole nuraber was never rated at above ten thou sand persons, of whora their males of military age were believed to be three thousand, — a little less than one third part. In the rivalry of European interests on this continent, the Iroquois were generally friends to the English; though not Vi^^ithout those fluctua tions which belong to the caprice and impress!- THE FIVE NATIONS. 80 bility of savages. They found the best custom ers for their furs in the foreigners who cora- manded the mouth of the Hudson, and, on the other hand, their jealousy was constantly reawakened by the persistency of the French in attempts to establish themselves on their soil by means of posts~ on the way from the great lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. Bent on chastising an attack of the Senecas upon some French whom they accused of supplying their sav age enemies with fire-arms, De Barre, governor- general of Canada, led a force of fifteen hundred men into the country of the Five Nations. By the time that he had reached the southeast corner of Lake Ontario, he found his soldiers so much disabled by the fatigue of the march and the heat of the summer, as to make pacific meas ures prudent, and he undertook a negotiation, the result of which was that the Indians contempt uously allowed him to withdraw without further damage. The Marquis de Nonville, succeeding to the government of Canada, came resolved to remove the discredit which had fallen on his master's power. With an army of fifteen i68v. hundred French and five hundred friendly ¦'™''' Indians, he penetrated as far as the country of the Senecas, the tribe which was the chief object of his resentment. There, falling into an ambus cade, he met with heavy loss, and was compelled to a precipitate retreat. The Indians did not 34 TROUBLES AFTEE THE EEVOLUTION. pursue their advantage with the vigor which they might have exerted had they had proper sup port from the governor of New York, who had orders from the King, dictated by his subser viency to the crown of France. As it was, after some fruitless attempts "of the French to ob- 1689. tain a pacification by treaty, twelve hun- Juiy26. (jped Iroquois warriors came to the island of Montreal, and spread a terrible devastation around that city, burning the houses, and killing, it was said, more than a thousand of the people. A further consequence of these transactions was, that for the time the French lost most of the Indian allies, whose fidelity to them , had hith erto been steady. This took place just after the overthrow of the government of King James the Second in the parent country, and of Governor Andros in New England. New France appeared to be in an alraost desperate condition. Her pecuniary dis tress was not what in similar circurastances was brought about in New England, for the King took care of her military outlays ; but her loss of men in the war had been severe ; her- husbandry had unavoidably been neglected ; her interior trade was cut off; and an exasperated savage enemy was at her doors, riot less powerful, probably, in numbers, than her own people ; well united to gether, for the present, by a common hate and fear ; with plenty of recent experience in the kind of warfare in which they were most formi- THE FIVE NATIONS. 35 dable ; animated to new action by their recent success. If New France in such circumstances seemed unequal to cope with the vigorous Five Nations alone, its doom might appear to be certain when, war having been declared by King William against France, the hostile savage power was backed by the equally interested hostility and superior military efficiency of New YorJc and New England. But precious tirae passed and nothing was done. After the deposition of Governor Andros, the governments of New Eng land remained in an undefined and ineffective state. In New York, incapacity in the successive rulers, party spirit and turbulence among the English people, and the chronic dissensions and jealousies between them and their more numer ous Dutch fellow-citizens, whose behavior pro voked from the contemporary historian the comment that " many of them had none of the virtues of the country of their origin, except their industry in getting money," and that " they sacrificed everything other people think honor able or most sacred to their gain," were at the all-important crisis fatal obstacles to strenuous action. The threatening 'attitude of the Five Nations, and the recent demonstrations of their strength and boldness, necessarily embarrassed and post poned the enterprise with which the new gov ernor of New France was charged. Immediately 36 TEOUBLES AFTEE THE EEVOLUTION. 1689. after his arrival at Quebec he proceeded °'''"^" to Montreal, whence he sent emissaries to endeavor to engage the tribes in a negotiation for a peace, with the less chance of success, as ^t a Septem- great council at Albany the chiefs had ^^'' just been renewing their engagements with the English. At Onondaga they convened aii- 1690. other council to consider his proposals, Jan. 22. ^^^ j|.g j-gg^K; .^^s a Tcnewed declaration of their purpose to " adhere to the old chain " with Corl^ar (the planters of New York), and prose cute the war against Onondio (the French). But they were not satisfied with the military arrange ments of one division of their allies. They thought they saw a more promising course of action. " Brother Kinshon," they said to the messengers present from New England (which country they symbolized by the Oneida word for fish), "we hear you design to send soldiers to the eastward against the Indians there, but we advise you, now so many are united against the French, to fall immediately on them. Strike at the root ; when the trunk shall be cut down, the branches fall of course. CorMar and Kinshon, courage ! cour age ! In the spring, to Quebec ! Take that place, and you will have your feet on the necks of the French, and all their friends in Araerica." But while they announced and counselled so correct a policy in relation to the French, they were not prepared for such action as would have made them immediately useful to New England. ABENAQUI INDIANS. 37 At the conference which had lately been 1689. held with them by commissioners fi-om^"'""™*"''^- Massachusetts, Plymouth, and Connecticut, while the chiefs were profuse of protestations of friend ship, they could not be brought to undertake hostilities against the Eastern Indians, with whom they said they had no quarrel. The better information which Frontenac obtained concerning these Eastern tribes gave him' -en couragement as to the use which they might be made to serve. " The Abenakis or Cannibas ordinarily reside on the river Quinebaqui [Kennebec], and disperse themselves for the pur pose of hunting as far as Quebec, whither they have been attracted by the raissionaries. Of all the Indians these are the bravest and raost for midable to the English. The experience of what they effected last year by the capture of Fort Pemcuit [Pemaquid] and sixteen palisaded settle ments, ought to be an assurance of what may be expected from them, were they to receive some assistance for the expeditions on which they can be led against the Iroquois in the direction of Quebec, and against the English towards Aca dia The preservation of Acadia is due to these Cannibas. They alone have prevented the English invading and settling it; and its security depends for a solid foundation on the continuance of the war they will wage against the English." Such was part of a report submitted by the gov ernor to fhe King, and he concerted his meas- 38 TEOUBLES AFTEE THE EEVOLUTION. ures accordingly. The King concurred in his opinion. " As the settlement of the Cannibas," he wrote, " is particularly towards Acadia and in the vicinity of the New England settlements, where they seized Fort Pemkuit and several fortified posts, they ought to be encouraged 'to continue the war there." As the new French governor viewed the cir cumstances in which he stood, he found it ma terial to give the English colonists eraployment at home, to restore the spirit of his own people by action, and to re-establish with the savages the credit of the French arms. To quell the pre-^ sumption of the Iroquois it was necessary to convince them that their reliance on the protec tion of the governor of New York was insecure, and that, notwithstanding present appearances, the pledges by which they expected to avert un friendliness on his part would expose them to at least equal trouble from the resentraent of the French. Proceeding on these considerations, Frontenac organized three parties for attacks on , , as many points, distant from each other, of the English border. Schenectady, called by the French Corliar, by which name, believed to have been the name of a Dutch inhabitant of the place, the Indians also designated the colony of New York, lies twenty miles northwest from Albany. At the tirae now treated of, it contained perhaps five hundred in habitants. Being considered as exposed to an SACK OF SCHENECTADY. 39 inroad, Connecticut sent a few soldiers, under Captain Bull, for its protection. A party of a hundred and ten Frenchmen and about as many natives reached the place by a difficult raarch of three or four weeks frora Montreal. They were so exhausted when they reached their destination, as to be all ready to surrender had they encountered any resistance. But to their great joy they found the place unguarded. The inhabitants had not believed such an invasion ' to be possible ; and on account of the incleraent weather had allowed their sentries to be with drawn. The surprise was complete. At 1690. two o'clock of a severely cold morning the ^*' ^• assailants entered through a gate which they found open. " The massacre," according to the French officer's report, " lasted two hours." " There were upwards of eighty well-built and well-furnished houses in the town," of which all were burned but two. " The lives of between fifty and sixty per sons, old men, women, and children, were spared," they having escaped the first fury of the attack. Thirty prisoners were led away. A list is pre served of the names, mostly Dutch, of sixty per sons who were killed, of both sexes and all ages. Of the two gates of the town, the invaders had not been able in the darkness to find that which opened towards Albany, and by it some of the miserable people escaped through " snow above knee-deep," several of them being so frozen on the way as to be maimed for life. Of fifty horses 40 TROUBLES AFTER THE REVOLUTION. which they captured, the victors had to kill almost all for food on their return march. The details of the massacre are of the most revolting description. Of the three parties despatched at the same Jan. 18- time by Count Frontenac for depredations March 18. jjj (Jiffgrent quarters, another, led by an experienced officer, named Hertel, and consisting of fifty men, of whom one half were Indians, reached by a winter march of two months the village of Salmon Falls, in Dover. Making their attack just before daylight, as was their practice, they found their victiras unprepared. They killed thirty raen, burned the village, and led away more than fifty prisoners, most of whom were women and children. The third party, leaving Quebec on the day of the departure of the last mentioned from Three Rivers, and taking such a direction towards the coast as alraost to traverse a forraerly inhabited part of the province of Maine, reached May 17 Casco Bay after a tramp of four months, prolonged by a want of provisions which forced them to supply themselves by the chase. At the spot where they came to the sea, a hundred Eng lishmen were collected in an intrenchment, which was mounted with eight pieces of 'cannon. Ob serving the French to be preparing to push a siege with regular approaches, the garrison sur rendered at discretion on the second day of the investment. The fort was demolished, and WAR IN THE EASTERN COUNTRY. 41 all the buildings around it reduced to ashes. The flag had scarcely been struck, when four vessels sent from Boston to relieve the place appeared in the offing. There was nothing for them but to put to sea again. The garrison were led into captivity at Quebec. A portion of the victorious party took the ill-fated Dover on their way back. There, at a hamlet called Fox Point, they cap tured six persons, killing twice as many, and burning some houses. Later in the sura mer a party of Indians fell upon Exeter, "^ where on one day they killed eight persons whom they found mowing in a field, and in the next put to death as many more belonging to a garrison- house, from which, however, the savages were repulsed. Two companies of English, following an Indian track, found at Wheelwrights' Pond, in Dover, a superior force, which they attacked without success, being obliged to" draw off- after the loss of several men, of whom twelve were killed. The alarm was great throughout New York and New England, the greater because the Mo hawks, disgusted with what they considered the pusillanimity of the Dutch and English, many of whom, terrified by the disaster at Schenectady, had moved down the river, seemed to be wavering in fidelity to their alliance. Connecticut, not her self iramediately exposed, sent troops to secure the upper towns on Connecticut River. The Gen eral Court of Massachusetts invited a consulta- 42 TROUBLES AFTEE THE EEVOLUTION. tion of commissioners from the several colonies as far south as Maryland. A meeting ^^ ' took place at New York, and part of the result of its deliberations is tp be seen in the ex pedition against Quebec which is presently to be described. Meanwhile a spirited enterprise was proceeding which Massachusetts had set on foot. That colony despatched seven or eight hundred men in eight small vessels for an attack ^° ' on Port Royal in Acadia, from which place privateers had been fitted out to prey upon her coraraerce. The expedition was under the com mand of Sir William Phipps, who was now for the first time made a freeman, having " voluntarily offered himself" for the service. It had complete success. Port Royal, surprised and unprepared for resistance, surrendered at the first summons, and Phipps followed up his good fortune by cap turing and destroying the French fort at the mouth of the river St. John. Unfortunately, this gratifying exploit gave new encourageraent to the more ambitious scheme, the consideration of which had hitherto been only approached with a reasonable and warning con viction of its difficulty and hazards. The con quest of New France was indeed no new idea. The project had formerly found favor in England, and, encouraged by the remembrance of this ap- ¦ proval, the General Court sent a vessel to ' solicit from the King a supply of arms and ammunition, and the aid of a naval force, — the EXPEDITION AGAINST QUEBEC. 43 first time that ever Massachusetts asked military help from England, and now with the purpose of a foreign conquest for the crown. The fruitless- ness of the application did not defeat the enter prise. The present time, if any, seemed in some respects highly suitable for its prosecution. It was believed that Quebec was not in a good condition for defence. The existing animosity of the Five Nations against the French proraised a forraidable auxiliary force, and their urgency for the movement was even such as it might not be prudent to oppose. The conquest would be an immense benefit to Massachusetts, in respect to her security for the future against disturbances from the Eastern Indians, as ""well as to hostile relations always likely to exist with the French, whose aggressions had hitherto been so brutal. A special reason for energetic action at the pres ent moment was presented by the position of Massachusetts at the British Court. Soliciting as she was from the King a restoration of her charter, in no way could she better recommend herself to his good-will than by laying at his feet the dominion of New France, the conquest of her arms. A solemn proclamation was sent out, ex horting the people to seek by repentance for sin the Divine intervention, never needed more. We " are now arriving," it declared, " to such an extremity that an axe is laid to the root of the trees, and we are in imminent danger of perishing." 44 TEOUBLES AFTEE THE EEVOLUTION. The expedition was projected on a scale pro portioned to the magnitude of the object. Its costliness presented a formidable difficulty. The government issued -proposals to farra it out, by contract, the persons who should furnish the money to have half the net proceeds of the spoils for their remuneration. This plan did not find favor, and the sums immediately necessary were borrowed on the credit of the colony. An embargo was laid to prevent intel- junei2. ligence and to detain supphes. Sir Wil- Mareii22.1iara Phipps's recent achieveraent caused hira to be appointed General, and John Walley of Barnstable was made Lieutenant-General, of the forces to be sent by sea. The fleet, consisting of thirty-two vessels, the largest mounting forty-four guns, sailed ^^' ' from Nantasket, near Boston, having been detained till too near the autumn, "waiting for the supplies which it was hoped would come from England; but there was too much going on just then in Ireland to allow the governraent to con cern itself about America. The stock of amrau nition was scanty. The fleet conveyed two thou sand men, with provisions for four months. The plan of the campaign contemplated a diversion to be made by an assault on Montreal by a force composed of English from Connecticut and New York, and of Iroquois Indians, at the sarae tirae with the attack on Quebec by the fleet. And a second expedition into Maine under EXPEDITION AGAINST QUEBEC. 45 Captain Church was to threaten the Eastern Indians. As is so apt to happen when a plan involves the simultaneous action of distant parties, the condition of success failed. The movement of Church, who had with him but three hundred men, proved ineffective as to any contribution to the main undertaking. In the peril in geptem- which he found himself, Frontenac could ^^'^' not afford to send Ms Abenaqui afiies any succor, -nor was it to be imagined that the Engfish com mander should penetrate across the country to make hiraself useful on the St. Lawrence. Land ing in an inlet of Casco Bay, in what is now the town of Brunswick, Church went forty miles up the Androscoggin, taking two or three Indian forts, killing a few scores of the savages, and liberating a number of their captives. He left a hundred men at Wells, and with the rest of his force returned along the coast, to meet at Boston a cold reception, which he thought cruelly unjust. Certainly he had achieved nothing brilliant. But it may have been in consequence of his inroad, against which the savages found that they got no aid from Quebec, that they sent some of their sagamores to the Kennebec, who agreed with commissioners of Massachusetts on a truce foriive months, and a restoration of their prisoners. Only three towns. Wells, York, and Kittery, now remained to the English in the province of Maine. 46 TROUBLES AFTER THE REVOLUTION. The fleet from Boston did not arrive in ^^'' ¦ the St. Lawrence till after a voyage of seven weeks, and meanwhile the overland ex pedition against Montreal had miscarried. The commanders respectively of the Connecticut and the New York troops had disagreed, and could not act effectively together. The troops were bewildered by false reports, which Frontenac con trived to have spread among them, of obstructions in their way. The Indian auxifiaries were, or pre tended to be, frightened by rumors of the appear ance of small-pox. The supply, both of boats and of provisions, was found to be insufficient. The disastrous result was that a retreat was ordered, without so much as an embarkation of the troops on Lake Champlain. Frontenac was at Montreal, whither he had gone to superintend the defence of the place, when this intelli gence reached him, and presently after came the tidings of Phipps's fleet being in the St. Lawrence. Nothing could have been more opportune than this coincidepce, which gave the governor liberty to hasten down to direct his little force of two hundred soldiers at the capital. The French historian says that, if he had been three days later, or if the English fleet had not been delayed by contrary winds, or had had better pilots in the river, Frontenac would have come down from the upper country 6nly to find the English commander in his citadel. As it was, there ensued a terrible mortification and sorrow EXPEDITION AGAINST QUEBEC. 47 to Massachusetts. New France was made much more formidable than ever. More than sixty years were to pass before Quebec should receive an English garrison. When Frontenac reached his capital, he learned that the English fleet in the river was already close upon him. Major Prevost, a capable officer in command there, had used dili gently the few days since the first alarm, in con structing defences, and making dispositions of the neighboring militia, who were directed not to re treat into the fort till they should have done their best to repulse any landing which might be at tempted below. Frontenac had left orders with the commander at Montreal to follow him with all speed with the soldiers who could be spared from that place, and with as many militia as he could collect by the way. The day after the governor's arrival, the English ships were only four leagues from the town, and at dawn of the following day they doubled Point Levi, and came to anchor beneath that magnificent cliff which now bears the riame of Cape Diaraond. According to the French governor's official account, they " nurabered thirty- four sail, four of which were large ships, some others' of inferior size, and the remainder small vessels." He supposed them to "have brought "no less than three thousand men." Early the next forenoon a boat showing a white flag put off from the admiral's ship with 48 TROUBLES AFTER THE REVOLUTION. a messenger, who, when brought blindfolded to the governor's quarters, delivered a summons ex pressed in peremptory terms. Phipps wrote that, without regard to- the war between the two crowns, "the destruction made by the French and Indians upon the persons and estates of their Majesties' subjects of New England might, upon the present opportunity, prompt unto a severe revenge," but that he, acting for, " their most excellent Majesties William and Mary, King and Queen of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, Defenders of the Faith, and by order of their aforesaid Majesties' government of the Massachusetts Colony in New England," desired to avoid unnecessary carnage in obtaining the unconditional surrender of the garrison with its stores and "the persons and estates" of-the colonists. This surrender made, he added, " You may expect mercy from me as a Christian, accord ing to what shall be found for their Majesties' service and their subjects' security. Which if you refuse forthwith to do, I am come provided, and am resolved, by the help of God in whom I trust, by force of arms to revenge all wrongs and injuries offered, and bring you under subjection to tbe crown of England, and, when too late, make you wish you had accepted of the favors ten dered." And " upon the peril that would ensue," a positive answer was demanded within an hour. The messenger showed his watch, which indicated -ten o'clock, and said he could not wait after eleven. EXPEDITION AGAINST QUEBEC. 49 Frontenac replied that he would not trouble him to stay so long. " Tell your general," said he, " that I do not acknowledge your King Wil liam, and that the Prince of Orange is a usurper who has violated the most sacred rights of blood in wishing to dethrone his father-in-law Though your general had offered me better terms, and I was disposed to accept them, how could he suppose that so many brave men as there are here [the governor stood surrounded by his offi cers] would advise me to place confidence in the word of a man who has violated the capitulation he had entered into with the governor of Port Royal ; a rebel who has failed in the fidelity he owed to his lawful king, forgetful of all the favors conferred upon him ? " The messenger asked for a written answer. " No," said the spirited governor, " I have no answer to give your general, but from the mouths of my cannon and musketry, that he may know that a man of my rank is not to be summoned after this fashion." During the rest of this day the invaders were inactive. On the evening of the next day, the officer left in command at Montreal came into Quebec with the welcome reinforce ment of eight hundred men. The English pre pared to go on shore, but a high wind obstructed the movement, and one of their vessels, carrying sixty men, ran aground, and was with difficulty floated off. The day following, Phipps landed a 50 TROUBLES AFTER THE REVOLUTION. large number of men (supposed by the governor to be no fewer than two thousand, but said by the English to be only fourteen hundred) on the right bank of the river, two miles below the town, and the fleet cannonaded the fort, but to little purpose, on account of its great height above the water. A second cannonading was so well returned from the work as greatly to encourage the assailed party, two of the four largest ships appearing to have suffered severely, while the other two changed their raoorings to a place a league above the town. Then an attempt was made at an assault by land, but it was intercepted and discomfited by a party which had been placed in an ambuscade ; and a second trial had the same ill-success. The night after this second failure the English went on board their vessels, abandoning five pieces of cannon in their retreat ; and the fleet dropped two leagues down the river. The small-pox had appeared among the crews. The cold had set in with a severity unusual for the early autumn, and " several of the men were so frozen in their hands and feet as to be disabled from service." It was believed that the expedi tion to Montreal, on which so much reliance had been placed, had miscarried and been abandoned ; and a deserter reported that Frontenac had rein forced the garrison " with no fewer than thirty hundred men," — nearly twice as great a force as that of the assailants. The weather was getting EXPEDITION AGAINST QUEBEC. 51 constantly worse ; the ships, with unskilful pilots, were in a perilous situation, among storms of snow that fell day by day. A council of war de termined that, in such circumstan.ces, to persist in the enterprise would be a tempting of Providence. An arrangement was made to give up some pris oners taken during the week in exchange for English captives, who had been brought into Quebec by the Indians. Tempestuous weather daraaged the fleet on the voyage home. One vessel was wrecked in the river; two or three foundered at sea ; some others were blown off to the West Indies. The loss of men upon the expedition, by disease and casualties, was esti mated by the agent Dummer at no less than a thousand, though only thirty fell by the hands of the enemy before Quebec. The money sacri ficed was reckoned at fifty thousand pounds. Phipps came baek to Massachusetts mortified and distressed. There had been trouble enough there before his departure. This dismal discomfiture brought it almost beyond the point of possible endurance. The money for the outfit of the expedition had been mostly bor rowed, in the imprudent expectation of a reim- burseraent from the enemy's spoils. The colonial treasurer had no funds. The returning soldiers needed their pay, and were almost in a state of mutiny. A heavy tax was assessed, but time would be necessary to collect it, and a delay of payments was out of the question. The govern- 52 TROUBLES AFTER THE EEVOLUTION. ment had recourse to an expedient which proved fruitful of mischief to the colony through two generations. They issued a paper currency, called bills of credit, in denominations from two shillings to ten pounds. These bills were receiv able in payment of all sums due to the treasury. They fell at once, so that the soldier who received them for their nominal value had to part with them at a discount of one third. At the time when the outcry was loudest, Phipps showed his generosity, and at the same time did soraething to avert the odiura which naturally fell upon him, by exchanging a considerable amount of hard money for those securities. It may be guessed that he was not a little relieved when it was presently decided that he should go to England on business for the colony. The ostensible object was to obtain aid towards the renewal of the enterprise against Quebec. But it was also be lieved that he might be useful at court in solicit- irig the restoration of the ancient charter. It was fully time that something was done to wards restoring a legitimate and acknowledged government. The people were in that state of distress and alarm in which a questionable authority does not suffice. An exulting and ferocious enemy was mustered all along their border. Mourning was already in many of their houses. They had spent more than all their money, and they had paid it for a miserable defeat. The wav between France and England DEPEESSED CONDITION OF MASSACHUSETTS. 53 interfered with their supplies frora the latter country, and the Navigation Laws forbade thera to seek supplies elsewhere. While the vessels which they had been at so much cost to arm for the disastrous foreign expedition were prevented by the winter weather frora returning for their protection, their property, afloat along all the coast, was the prey of a swarm of French priva teers, which had been so bold as even to land marauders on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. Heavy taxes were to be paid, and the paper substitute for money which was to pay them was driving out of the country what little reraained of the coin which intelligibly expressed the worth of property and furnished a safe basis for the transactions of business btetween raan and raan. The only agreeable circumstance of the tirae ^as the reception by the governor of express authority from England to carry on the governraent. By the sarae convey ance carae an order to hira to send Andros and his fellow-prisoners to England. Danforth and four others were appointed to draw up complaints against him in order to an arraignment before the Privy Council. Elisha Cooke and Thomas Oakes were appointed to proceed to England, to be associated with Mather ' in his agency. CHAPTER III. PROVINCIAL CHARTER OF MASSACHUSETTS. On his return to England, where, almost two years before, he had left Increase Mather making interest at court for the renewal of the old charter, 1691. Phipps found small encouragement to hope February. ^^^^ ^j^^j- Q^jgct would provc attainable. This was not the fault of Mather, who had been unwearied in his exertions. At first the new King seeraed to raake fair professions ; but they were in general. terras ; and the ministers, in their hurry of business, had little thought to. spare 1689. for New England. The convention, which Feb. 2. pj-ggently declared itself a parliament, was advised by Sir Robert Sawyer, the Attorney- General, that "cities, universities, and the plan tations " ought to " be secured against quo war- rantos and surrenders^ and their ancient rights restored." But the principle did not obtain a place in the Claim of Right, presented to the can didate for the throne. In an order issued by the new Privy Council for proclaiming Feb 19 r o ¦ the King and Queen in the plantations, " New England was passed over, the further con sideration thereof being respited until the busi- INCEEASE MATHEE IN ENGLAND. 55 ness of taking away the charter there shall be heard by the coraraittee, and the true state there of reported to his Majesty." The Cora raittee (for Trade and Plantations), then just appointed frora the Privy Council, consulted the Attorney- General, who reported to them that there was no law to prevent the placing of a gov ernor over Massachusetts forthwith; and they matured a measure to that effect. This, however, as well as the earlier scheme for reinstating Andros, Mather succeeded by the royal favor in defeating. The King in Council, having considered a petition pre sented by hira and Phipps, ordered that the com mittee should prepare a new charter, and that, instead of a successor to Andros as governor, two commissioners should be empowered " to take upon them the adrainistration of the govern ment there, with directions imraediately to pro claim the King and Queen." The directions were sent, but not the com missioners. The scheme of a general governor, with the extensive jurisdiction which had been given to Andros, was still entertained. Lord Shrewsbury, Secretary of State, was instructed by the Council, " upon inquiry from those who have the most considerable interest ^ in New England, New York, and the Jerseys, to present to the King the names of such as raay be thought fit at this tirae to be governor and lieu tenant-governor of those parts," — an arrangement 56 CHAETER OF MASSACHUSETTS. which the Council judged conducive to the May 2. ^f^^'^Q^^y ^f ^]^g colouics iu the war now on foot with France. But they entertained a doubt of " his Majesty's right to appoint a ^^^ ' general governor for those parts," which they reserved for future examination. The arrival of the important news of the Revo lution in New" England awakened a new interest in -the affairs of that country. John Riggs, An dres's servant, appeared before the Privy "^ ' Council with his and his master's account of what had taken place, and a copy of the " Declaration " of the insurgents ; and Ran dolph's wife and others presented petitions for the deliverance of their friends who were in durance at Boston. Randolph' had written "^ ' a long letter in his own elaborate and venomous manner. Captain George, of the Rose June 12 frigate, made his complaint to Pepys, Sec retary of the Admiralty. The Commis- ¦'"^^ ¦ sioners of the Custoras asked for an order prohibiting the exportation of powder to Boston, " not knowing in what condition the governraent of New England at present stands." But the prompt measures which had been taken by the provisional governraent in Massachusetts pre vented any hasty acts of resentment in England. The addresses to the King and Queen frora the " President and Council for safety of the '^^ ' people and conservation of the peace," and from the " Governor and Council, and Convention OBSTACLES TO A RENEWAL. 57 of Representatives," had come over as ^ ' June 6. early as the complaints of the other party, and they had had such good effect, that, as "^"S" ^°" has already been told, the King in Council au thorized Bradstreet and his associates to con tinue to administer the government till further orders. Riggs was sent back with an in struction to "such as for the time being "^"'' take care for the preserving the peace and ad ministering the laws in Massachusetts," to " set at liberty or send in safe custody into England" the late governor and his fellow-prisoners, — tak ing care in the latter case that they should be civilly used in their passage. Before this order arrived, Andros had made a second, and this tirae a successful, atterapt to escape from his im prisonment. He got as far as Rhode Island, "°' where he may have imagined that he would be safe ; but he was arrested there, and was brought back under the guard of a troop of horse de spatched after him from Boston. The war was now hot both in Scotland and in Ireland ; matters of the first consequence relating to the settlement of the internal administration were pending in England, and the government had again no leisure to attend to Massachusetts. In better heart, as the prospect that his position would be recognized seemed to brighten, oct. 26. Bradstreet wrote to Lord Shrewsbury re specting the useful operation of the charter °°'' ^°' government while it was in force, the difficulties 58 CHARTER OF MASSACHUSETTS. which it had encountered from the disconte July 13. and misconduct of new-comers, and t Aug. 3. present danger frora French hostility ; ai Oct. 24. his representations of the exposed state the country were seconded by various mem rials of private parties. Weary of the delays which had occurred, M ther was led to consider whether he might n have a better chance with the legislature thi with the King and his ministers ; and by the a vice of English friends of the colony, he det( mined to pursue his object by first soliciting reversal by Parliament of the decree in Chance against the old charter. That obtained, he pr posed to proceed by applying to the King for tl grant of some new privileges, to cure the defec of that instrument in respect to its applicabili to the existing state of things. At one morae the former point seeraed gained. As has bei before related, the House of Commons passe first, a resolve declaring the abrogation of chf ters in the late reign both within the realm ai in New England to be " illegal and a grievance 1690. and then a bill for restoring them. T Jan. 10. jjjjj went up to the House of Lords, whe there was equally good reason to expect that would be carried. But before there w time for that house to act upon it, Parli ment was prorogued ; and presently after, it w dissolved. An opportunity was lost which could not pi OBSTACLES TO A EENEWAL. 59 sent itself a second time. Mather's endeavors had been obstructed by an opposition which, so far from having yet spent its force, was constantly growing more forraidable. In letters frora their prison in New England, Randolph and his allies had been plying their English friends with earnest dissuasives from according any favor to the col onists ; and other letters to the like effect carae frora persons less liable to the suspicion of being goaded by personal resentment. Randolph i689. wrote : " This people having dared to pro- ¦'"'^ ^' ceed to this height upon hope only of receiving their charter privileges (as they term them), what can we expect upon the arrival of their agents laden with such favors, but that they proceed to try us upon their laws, or, if it be his Majesty's pleasure to direct other methods for governing this country, the guilt of their crimes already done, and the fear of deserved punishment, is such that they will massacre us, and at the same tirae cast off their allegiance to the crown, ac counting themselves his Majesty's nominal and not real subjects, as one of their chief ministers lately declared in public." He hoped that the King had already " sent hither a sufficient force to quiet the present disorders, and reduce this country to a firm dependence upon the crown. Here," he wrote, " is no government, no law ; customs, excise, and the Acts of Trade and Navi gation are cried down. All things are carried on by a furious rabble, animated and encouraged by 60 CHAETEE OF MASSACHUSETTS. the crafty ministers." He contrasted the Sep'- 6- inefficiency of the late operations against the Indians with those which had been conducted by Andros, to show " the desolation brought upon the country by the turaultuous designs of an anti-monarchial faction " ; and he " hurably pro posed it absolutely necessary for the honor and interest of the crown, and for the lasting well- being of New England, that fifteen hundred, or at least a thousand, good soldiers be speedily sent hither to reduce this people to a firra dependence upon the crown, and to regain what is already lost." Randolph played on a variety of stops. " ° ¦ To the Lords of Trade he wrote that the Massachusetts people paid " no regard to the Acts of Trade," and " held fast the anti-mo narchial principles spread among them by Sir Henry Vane, Hugh Peter.s, etc. ; and Venner, who made the insurrection in London soon after the restoration, had his education here also." He irritated the ecclesiastical sensibility of the Bishop of London, who was a member of that board, by informing him that " Mather's book against the Common Prayer " had " per suaded the people that we were idolaters, and therefore not fit to be intrusted longer with the government"; and that the ministers had en couraged the widow of an oificer in her refusal " to let him be buried in the bury ing-place of the Church of England, though wished in his will, and the grave ready." He OBSTACLES TO A EENEWAL. 61 bespoke the vengeance of the Commissioners of Customs by acquainting them with the arrival in Boston of vessels excluded by the Acts of Trade. As the tirae drew near for his embarking for England agreeably to i69o. the royal instruction, he urged that no J''°¦^''¦ decision on the old charter should be raade before his arrival, and that in the mean time its incon sistency with past practices under it should be considered. Mr. Ratcliffe, too, had come over, the angry minister of the Episcopal chapel in Boston. The King's " raost loyal and dutiful subjects of the Church of England in Boston" represented their grievances and " ™^^' apprehensions in acriraonious language. John Usher, Aijdros's treasurer, a plausible op- leso ponent, was hiraself in England, in no^'^''™''^'^' good temper, within six months after his dismissal from that office. W^hile the political complexion of the new Par liaraent was so different from that which it succeeded as to discourage the bringingMarch2o- . May 23. of the business of New England to its notice in the sarae form as it had been presented in before, the royal comraand respecting Andros, Randolph, and their friends had taken effect, and they had arrived in England, prepared to exert themselves to the disadvantage of the col- r-v 1 March. ony. About the same time came Oakes and Cooke, deputed by the General Court to be associates of Mather in his agency. The 62 CHARTER OF MASSACHUSETTS. agents on the one part, with Sir Henry Ashurst, who had before been acting with Mather under an appointraent frora Massachusetts, and on the other part Andros, Dudley, Randolph, West, Gra ham, Palmer, Sherlock, and others, being sum- raoned before the Lords of the Coraraittee, the agents asked for tirae to prepare their ' charges against King James's officers. A week being allowed them for that purpose, the singular result followed that the agents de- ' dined to sign a statement of the grievances of their constituents, which had been prepared by Humphreys, their legal counsel. The Lords accord ingly " agreed to offer their opinion to his Majesty that Sir Edmund Andros and the persons lately imprisoned in New England, and now attending his Majesty, be forthwith discharged and set at liberty ; and that the paper or charge which had not been signed or owned might be dismissed." The Privy Council passed an order to that ^" ' effect, and the culprits were accordingly set free. Their liberty was not all that they recov ered. Before- the end of the year, Dudley ¦ sailed for Boston with a coraraission as counsellor of New York; and Andros, though 1692. riot until after longer waiting, was made Feb. 11. governor of Virginia. As to the abandonment of the complaints, the truth was that Somers, with whom the agents advised, thought it unsafe for them to pursue the investigation in the existing state of the home INCREASE MATHER IN ENGLAND. 63 government. Of the same nature with the charges against Andros' were charges which could be brought against Lord Danby and others now at the height of power, but of a power felt by thera selves to be insecure. It was of the first impor tance to avoid the opposition of these great men ; but their good- will would be forfeited by persist ence in a prosecution which would turn the public attention, now peculiarly sensitive, upon themselves. The occupation, of all rainds during the sum mer with the momentous campaign in Ireland allowed the agents no good opportunity for a hearing, even if the influences of the new Pai-lia- ment had been less unpropitious. It is likely, ^Iso, that they were willing to await the issue of the expedition against New France, which they hoped would be such as to recomraend thera to the royal favor. Their suit would be greatly facilitated if they should prove able to back it with intelligence of the conquest of Quebec by their constituents. Nor in that case raight it prove necessary for them to stop with urging that Massachusetts de sired the^_restitution of her old charter. They might perhaps further represent with confidence that it would be for the King's interest to add the conquered New France to her domain. Meanwhile their opponents were not idle. The discharged prisoners had brought with them and now presented an " Address of divers gen- 1689. tlemen, merchants and other inhabitants ^p'^'^*- 64 CHARTER OF MASSACHUSETTS. of Boston and the adjacent parts, to the King, signed by seventeen persons, to appoint a gov ernor and council to prevent further ruin and -losses." " An ingenious merchant of Boston " wrote that " a great many good ingenuous ^^ ' men there, with some of the rising genera tion, were clearly for a general governor and to live under the laws of England"; and that "if they should have their charter, all the super stitious party, as they reckon the Church-of-Eng- land raen, must move to New York " and else where. Andros told his own story, largely and artfully, in an elaborate raeraorial pre sented to the Lords of Trade. Randolph renewed June 12, his complaiuts against the irregularities June 19. Qf ^j.j^jjg Ijj ^^^ England. Carefully pre pared memoirs on both sides were presented, the authorship of many of which is now unknown. One pamphlet exhibited an " Abstract of the printed laws of New England which are either contrary or not agreeable to the laws of England, which laws will iraraediately corae in force in case the bill in Parliament for the restoring the charters of the plantations doth pass." Another undertook to show that the charters were " seized for the abuse of their power in destroying, not only the woollen and other manufactures, but also the very laws and navigation of England, and making themselves, as it were, independent of this crown." The business of the agents made no progress INCREASE MATHER IN ENGLAND. 65 in the direction last followed. They turned their attention next to devising some method for bring ing it, by a writ of error, before the Court of King's Bench, where Holt was presiding, with a view to a revision of the Chancery decree ; but this was found impracticable. " There was now but one way left," Mather concluded, "for the settlement of New England, etc., — to implore the King's royal favor. It was not in the King's power to reverse the judgment against the old charter; nevertheless, his Majesty had power to reincorporate his subjects, thereby granting them a charter which should contain all the old, with new and more ample privileges." When the King carae bacls frora the battle of the Boyne and his decisive carapaign in Ireland, the Parhament was about to begin its second o<=*- ^¦ session. As soon as its approaching proroga tion released something of his attention, the agents proceeded with the method now deter mined on. The King had his fixed notions on the principles of government, and they were far from being lib eral. Probably the special subject of colonial administration was new to hira. His Dutch corapatriots had pursued the raethod of raanaging their colonies by incorporated corapanies, which had scarcely any subordination to the States- General beyond a liability to inspection. And as to desert, it is not likely that his partial or indifferent eye would distinguish unfavorably be- 66 CHARTER OF MASSACHUSETTS. tween the rough dealers in gin and peltry at the mouth of the Hudson, and the representative of cultivated English thought and manners on the coast of Massachusetts Bay. The agents, in their ignorance of the temper and habits of their mon arch, hoped not a little from the influence of his religious Queen. Their petition for a new charter with additional provisions was referred to the law officers of the crown, who, through the chief justice, reported favorably upon it, though in general terms, and in this new forra the subject was again placed by 1691. ^^^ Privy Council in the hands of the ¦'''" ^- Lords of Trade. It was about this time that Phipps arrived from Massachusetts. The King had iramediately gone off to Holland to confer with coramissioners of his allies on the management of the war with France. With the interval of only a couple of weeks, he remained on the continent till the autumn ; and the agents could not reach him with personal solicitations. Mather, however, lost no opportu nity for advancing his business. Just before the King came to England for his short visit in the spring, Mather obtained an audi ence of the Queen, in which he entreated her Majesty's good offices for her subjects in Massa chusetts, and she replied, " I shall be willing to •do aU I can for them." The King admitted April28. , . ^ , ,. . ° , , him to two audiences, saying at the latter of them that he would see what might be done NEGOTIATION OF MATHER AND PHIPPS. G7 when he should receive a report he was expecting from the Lords of Trade. The Lords had called upon the Massachusetts agents for ^" an account in writing of the existing state of that colony, and the Council had had before them Sir William Phipps and other persons " concerned in New England " to give " a relation of the late proceedings and expedition of the people of New England against Canada under his coramand." The Lords reported that before proceeding further it was necessary for thera to know whether it was the King's " pleasure to have a gov ernor or single representative, of his own appoint raent frora tirae to tirae, to give his consent to all laws and acts of government." The King being understood to declare that such was his pleasure, it was " ordered that the Lords of Trade forth with prepare the draft of a new charter upon that foundation." On their advice the duty of fraraing the charter was coraraitted to the Attorney-General, Sir George Treby. Mather insisted that the King had been rais- understood as to a determination to have a gov ernor in Massachusetts of his own appointment. He obtained the concurrence of sorae merabers of the Privy Council in this view, and wrote to Lord Sidney, who, having succeeded Lord Shrews bury as Secretary of State, was in attend- i6go ance on the King in Flanders, to urge it i^e^^s. upon the royal attention. But he obtained no answer. King Williara was no raore disposed 68 CHARTER OF MASSACHUSETTS. than King Jaraes to relax the dependence of Massachusetts on the crown. The At torney-General's draft of a charter was silent as to a power of the governor to arrest a law by his negative, and it empowered the freemen " to choose the deputy-governor and the other general officers." This did not please the Privy Council, and the Attorney-General was in structed to make another draft with provisions more favorable to the prerogative in these par ticulars. Mather and Ashurst waited upon him to protest, and the former went so far as to declare "that he would 'sooner part with his life than consent to the minutes, or anything else that did infringe any liberty or privilege of right belong ing to his country." On reflection he thought he had " expressed his dissatisfaction, perhaps, with a greater pathos than he should have done." His language gave offence, and he was told on the part of the ministers that his "consent was not expected nor desired ; for they did not think the agents frora New England were plenipotentiaries from another sovereign state, but that, if they declared they would not submit to the King's pleasure, his Majesty was resolved to settle^ the country, and they must take what would follow." There was no doubt that they were dealing with a person apt to be as good as his word, when his word was of this tenor. The Attorney- General presented his amended draft. ^^ ' The Lords applied themselves diligently NEGOTIATION OF MATHER AND PHIPPS. 69 to the consideration of it, and in a fortnight's time came to a final decision respecting July 2- the main features, as they are presently July 17. to be described, of the instrument to be recom mended to the King. On a conference with the Attorney-General, the agents reduced their ob jections to two. They urged that judicial as well as other officers should be appointed by the General Asserably, and not by the governor in Council, and that the choice of counsellors ought to be made as formerly by the two branches of the Court, without being subject to a revisal by the governor. The agents drew up a statement of their views, which they submitted in one copy to the Privy Council, while aiiother was j„iy3o. sent to the King in the Netherlands, with a request, which was also urged upon the '"'y^g. Queen, that proceedings might be stayed till his return to England. The Queen was understood to engage her influence with him in favor of their application. But the answer frora the other side of the channel was " not only that the King did approve of the minutes agreed unto by the Lords of the Committee, but that he did by no means approve of the objections which the agents of New England had made against them." Nothing seemed further to be practicable in respect to the great point of saving for Massa chusetts something like its former degree of inde pendence of the parent state. " Resolved," how- 70 CHARTER OF MASSACHUSETTS. ever, " to get as much good and prevent as much hurt to the country as possibly might be," "^' ' the agents presented a petition to the effect, " that no property belonging to that col ony, or to any therein, might by the new charter be taken from thera, nor any privileges which they had a right unto ; that the province of Maine might be confirmed; Nova Scotia added to the Massachusetts " ; and that New Hampshire, which, 1690. at the request of its own people, had been March 19. j^jjj^gj^gj to Massachusetts in the first year after the Revolution, might be placed by the royal authority under that government. Mather was also authorized by Plymouth to represent that, failing to obtain a separate charter, that colony desired to " be united to Boston rather than to New York." He prevailed in obtaining two araendraents to the instruraent which had been prepared. " That phrase of corporal oath was altered, that so no snare may be laid before such as scruple swearing on the book " ; and a clause was added, confirming past grants made by the General Court, " notwithstanding any defect that might attend the form of conveyance, that so men's titles to their lands might not be invali dated, only for that the laws which gave thera 1691. 'their right had not passed under the public Sept. 17. seal in the tirae of the former governraent." These arrangeraents finished the transaction. The Privy Council directed Lord Nottingham, as Sec retary, to " prepare a warrant for his Majesty's THE NEW CONSTITUTION. 71 royal signature, for passing said charter under the great seal of England in the usual raanner." The charter created a province called Massa chusetts Bay, comprehending the old colonies of ' Massachusetts and Plymouth, and the territories of Maine and Nova Scotia, with all lands lying between the two last-named jurisdictions. Thus, except for the little interruption at the mouth of the Pisoataqua, the coast line of Massachusetts, as now constituted, extended from Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket at the south to the mouth of the St. Lawrence at the north, while, with the exception of a narrow strip along the Hudson, recognized as belonging to New York, her territory reached westward to the Pacific Ocean. The charter provided that there should be a governor, lieutenant-governor, and secretary, to be appointed from time to tirae by the King. . There was to be a Legislature or General Court in two branches ; naraely, a House of Represent atives chosen as heretofore annually by the towns, and a Council, consisting of twenty-eight raembers, to be selected in the first instance by the King, and afterwards, from year to year, on the last Wednesday in May, by the General Court, subject to the governor's refusal. Eigh teen, at least, of the counsellors were to be in habitants or landholders in Massachusetts proper, four in what had been Plymouth Colony, three in Maine, and one in the country between the Kennebec and Nova Scotia ; and seven were to 72 CHARTER OF MASSACHUSETTS. be a quorum. It was required of the representa tives to be freeholders, and each town for the present was to have two representatives and no more ; but this arrangement was made subject to be changed by law. Bills passed by the Council and representatives might be rejected by the governor. Laws ap proved by him went at once into effect, but were to be forthwith reported to the King, who might , annul them at any time within three years from their enactment. The governor was to be com mander-in-chief of the militia, and to appoint military officers. He was also, with the consent of the Council, to appoint judges and all other officers connected with the courts. The General Court was to constitute judicial courts (except Courts of Admiralty, which were reserved for the jurisdiction of the crown, and except Probate Courts, which were to be constituted by the gov ernor in Council) ; to appoint, with the governor's concurrence, all officers, besides such as were military or judicial; and to levy taxes on all pro prietors and inhabitants. A General Court was to come together on the last Wednesday in May of every year, and at other times when sum moned by the governor, who might also adjourn, prorogue, or dissolve it. A great step was, that the religious element was elirainated from the government; the qualification of a voter was no longer to be membership of a church, but the possession of a freehold worth two pounds ster- THE NEW CONSTITUTION. 73 ling a year, or of personal property to the amount of forty pounds sterling. Liberty of conscience and of worship was secured to all Protestants ; and it was provided that, in litigated civil cases not affecting real estate, appeals might be made from the courts to the King in Council when the amount in controversy exceeded three hundred pounds. Natives and inhabitants of the province were to enjoy "all liberties and immunities of free and natural subjects as if they were born within the realm of England." Trees of two feet in diameter at a foot's distance from the ground, growing on common land, were to belong to the King, for the use of the royal navy. The conferring of the franchise upon freehold ers by the new charter, and the power given to the King to repeal the laws, — for this was the sense of his right to revise them, — to entertain appeals from the courts of justice, and to appoint a gov ernor with prerogatives liable to pernicious abuse, — sorae of these provisions were enough to make the instrument unpalatable to Mather and to the best men of that constituency for which he was acting. The powers were dangerous in the best of circumstances. In any hands they were susceptible of being used in ways to humble and distress the province. Neither the character of the reigning sovereign, — though as yet that was little known, — nor the influences which surround ed hira, afforded assurance that even by him they would be leniently used. But what might they 74 NEW CHARTER OF MASSACHUSETTS. become -r- though this was a consideration which the agents could not urge — if the insecure throne of the Dutch invader should be overturned, and his father-in-law should again be able to wreak his anger on the Puritan colony which had so affronted him ? He who could so act without law as King James had done in the usurped gov ernraent of Andros, how would he act when on his side he should have law which the most upright judges of England must respect and enforce ? On the other hand, there were features of the constitution of the Legislature, of a favorable as pect to popular rights. The first branch was to be nominated by electors, of which the second branch, consisting of representatives of the towns, constituted the major part, though the nomina tion did not constitute a choice without the gov ernor's approval. Further, by the provincial charter the power of the purse was formally given to the General Court. The Court, and not the governor, might impose and levy taxes, and moneys could not be drawn by the governor frora the treasury, except by a warrant issued with the advice and consent of the Council. By the char ter the governor could have no money from Mas- " sachusetts except what the people of Massachu setts might see fit to grant him. Here, in the last resort, was the security for what remained of the degree of independenpe which had been once "possessed. Herein consisted the guaranty for ITS UNSATISFACTORY CIURACTER. 75 some degree of self-governraent. Future cir cumstances might be such as to require in Mas sachusetts a repetition pf the experiment, made in England a half-century before, to determine whether executive usurpation could be checked by the tax-laying power. Of the new arrangement touching the extent of her territory, Massachusetts had no reason to complain. If she had failed of retaining New Hampshire, she had received the governraent of the more congenial people of Plymouth ; i69i. her title to Maine, fruitlessly opposed "'"'y®" again by the heir of Gorges while the charter was in dispute, was quieted by it; and the whole extensive territory of Nova Scotia, and of what is now New Brunswick, was a new acquisition, however questionable its value might be when estimated in relation to the cost of its defence, and to the fact that, by virtue of the treaty of Breda, it was still a property of the King of France. The agents well knew what disapprobation awaited them at home for whatever share they had had in bringing their constituents into this new condition of formal and definite subjection io England. Cooke and Oakes could not bring themselves to express any assent to the trans action. With sincere, and not, as many thought, simulated reluctance, Mather made up his mind to accept the arrangement as the best that it was possible to obtain. Nor was it by any means 76 NEW CHARTER OF MASSACHUSETTS. without its advantages as compared with a mere recovery of the old charter unaltered. It ex pressly raade some things lawful which had hitherto been assumed by raore or less violent construction, as the right to tax non-freeraen, to conduct the public business by representa tives, to inffict capital punishraent, to create courts of justice, and to prove 'wills. But in dependently of substantial reasons for apprehend ing that under some future sovereign of England, if not in the present reign, the new charter might be made an instruraent of practical misrule, it was a heavy blow to the pride of patriots who had scarcely ceased to cherish the vision of ulti mate independence. But what could be done? Mather was assured with united voice by the lawyers with whom he advised, that the annulling of the charter which had taken place was unquestionably valid in law, hasty and unjust as the proceedings had been; that it was impossible at present to obtain a legal reversal of it ; and that an atterapt to do so, if encouraged by any future circurastances, would not be prejudiced by his accepting the present settleraent, inasrauch as neither could his assent bind the colony, nor could the present submission of the colony bar a future deraand for its rights. Direct resistance was out of the question. There was not even an approach to unaniraity in the colony. Even among native cit izens there was not a preponderance of agreement ITS UNSATISFACTORY CHAEACTEE. 77 as to any one right policy for the tirae. Besides native citizens, there were now in Massachusetts numbers of people of English birth — and they important and active. Church and King men — who cared nothing for her interest or her pride. She was helpless through her poverty. Her pub lic treasury was empty. Many of her rich in habitants were probably merchants recently corae over, who syrapathized with prerogative. She stood alone, without an ally in New England. Rhode Island, besides having little power, and having never had a generous policy, had strong motives for compliance with the English court. She was contented with her charter; she was not immediately threatened with the loss of it; and in order to keep it, it seemed her interest to stand well with the King's servants. The position of Connecticut in respect to her charter was the same. The feeble colony of Plyraouth, which had never had a charter, was soliciting one frora the King's indulgence. Massachusetts had no help to hope for frora fiiends in England. The experiraent had shown it. Danby and the Tories ruled in Parliaraent ; and, as to the liberal religious party, it had, even with the King for its well- wisher, been miserably defeated in the Convoca tion, and had as much as it could do to secure its own immunity. Before the final action of the Privy Council, Mather must have made up his mind as to the course necessary to be taken ; for, a fortnight be- 78 NEW CHAETEE OF MASSACHUSETTS. fore the order for the charter to pass- the ^'''' ¦ seals. Sir Henry Ashurst had applied to him for a noraination of the persons to be ap pointed to office by the King, — a singular trust, which appears to have been coraraitted by the Ministry to hira alone. His norainations were adopted, the new governraent being in that re spect constituted in exact conforraity with his wish. He was probably understood by the courtiers to be the most considerable man in Massachusetts, and the most important to be gratified. Phipps was made governor, and sworn into office by the Privy Coun cil ; a man whom, alike by reason of the close intimacy between them, and of his moderate abilities and superficial character, Mather might well promise himself that he should have little difficulty in raanaging. Stoughton was selected for the place of lieutenant-governor. After all his misdeeds, he remained a favorite with the clergy, to whose order he had formerly, in a cer tain sense, belonged ; and he had regained some credit with the people by taking part with them, in his own reserved and churlish way, in the rising against Andros. Isaac Addington, who in the last two elections under the old charter had first been made Speaker of the House and then an Assistant, was appointed Secretary, in which capacity he had served the provisional govern ment since the Revolution. Bradstreet's name stood first in the new list of Assistants. Such as PLYMOUTH. 79 in the old board had been strenuous friends of the old charter — Danforth, though lately deputy- governor, and Elisha Cooke and Thomas Oakes, though lately associated with Mather in thc agency — were not included. When the King carae back to England, Mather ob tained an audience, at which " on the behalf of New England he most humbly thanked his Maj esty " fpr having " been pleased by a charter to restore English fiberties unto them ; to confirm them in their properties ; and to grant them some singular privileges." In Plyraouth, after the resumption of its an cient governraent, Thoraas Hinckley was chosen to be governor each year till the end of the sep arate existence of that colony. An ad- lesg. dress of congratulation was proraptly sent J"™ 6. to the King and Queen. Plyraouth responded with spirit to an application from Massachusetts to take a part in the operations against the Indians in the summer after -the Revolution, ap pointing Captain Church to the command "^' of its volunteers and impressed raen. Concur ring with the plan of the Congress at Albany, Plyraouth raised sixty men " to be sent by 1590. "water to Albany or elsewhere, to join with ^°'^ ^''• the forces of New York, Massachusetts, or Con necticut, etc., for the defence of said places or other service of their Majesties against the cora raon enemy." On further information frora Massachusetts respecting the proposed ex- 80 PLYMOUTH. pedition against Canada, another levy was made of a hundred and fifty English soldiers and fifty Indians, for whose outfit and pay Plymouth, with better judgraent than was shown by Massachu setts on the sarae occasion, provided by a tax amounting, according to the valuation of the Not. i. time, to one thirteenth part of the whole property of her citizens. Being informed ^'°' ' from England that the design of annexing their colony to New York had been defeated by Mather, and that the plan for attaching it ' to Massachusetts had been for the present postponed in consequence of the remonstrances of their agent, Mr. Wiswall, the General Court voted, to call meetings of the towns for delibera tion on the subject, " that it be known whether it be their minds we should sit still and fall into the hands of those that can catch us, without using means to procure that which raay be for our good, or prevent that which may be our incon venience ; or if they will act, then to know what instruments they would improve, and what money they can raise ; and must also know that if a patent can be procured, it will not take up less than five hundred pounds sterling, which will take nearly seven hundred pounds of our money." " Though the colony labored under many in conveniences, being small in number, low in es tate, and great public charges," it preferred stiff greater straits to a loss of its independence. March 3. A hundred pounds sterling were " sent CONDIUON OF MASSACHUSETTS. 81 unto Sir Henry Ashurst, towards the charge of procuring a charter," besides gratuities to hiraself of fifty pounds, and of twenty-five pounds each to Mather and Wiswall. But it was too late for any effective inffuence in that direction. Wis wall naturally thought that, in eoraparison with hiraself and his meritorious colony, Massachu setts and her agents were treated with undue consideration. " You know," he wrote home, " who it is that is made to trot after the Bay horse." The province of Massachusetts Bay, as now constituted, may have contained sixty thousand , inhabitants. These were distributed in seventy- five towns, seventeen of which belonged to Plym outh ; and the number of congregational churches was nearly the same, alraost all the churches hav ing one minister, and some being served by two. Boston had not far from seven thousand inhabi tants, being much the most considerable place on the continent. Other principal commercial and fishing towns were Salem, Charlestown, Ipswich, Newbury, and Plyraouth. Phipps, while in England, had not been forget ful of the business with which he was charged, relating to a renewal of the expedition against New France. In the King's ab sence he presented a memorial to the Queen, set ting forth that, in order to secure his conquest of Nova Scotia, it was indispensable to " send over a frigate, and a quantity of warlike ammunition," 6 82 GOVEENOE PHIPPS IN BOSTON. and that " the inhabitants of New England had their hearts filled with thankfulness and zeal for his Majesty's service by reason of the preparation and passing of a charter, and would set out the frigate at their own expense with a nuraber of war and other ships, not only to preserve Nova Scotia, but also to reduce Quebec and the other parts of Canada." He prayed to be placed in command of an expedition for these pur- ' poses, and he presented the " names of harbors and races in the eastern part of New England and in Nova Scotia fit for settlement in townships, every town consisting of at least thirty thousand acres of land." But he does not appear to have obtained much attention to this scherae, and not improbably his own interest in it may have abated when other interests were awak ened in his mind by his recent high promotion. He still lingered with Mather in England. Perhaps they did not incline to disturb the ex isting governraent of the colony before the tirae when in due course it would be dissolved by the expiration of the political year. Besides, Mather liked to lengthen out his stay in a society frora which he received rauch flattering attention, and he may well be supposed to have shrunk from the cold reception which he too well knew awaited him at his home. 1692. At length, the governor, with his col- Mayi4. jgague in the agency, arrived in Boston. The easy transfer of the chief magistracy to him INAUGUEATION OF THE CHAETEE. 83 had been provided for. Bradstreet, at his last inauguration, only a few days before, ^^ had taken " the oath of his place or office for this year, or until there be a settlement of government from the crown of England." At the town-house, whither the new governor was conducted with imposing civil and military parade, the new char ter was first read in the presence of the Gen eral Court, and then the governor's coraraission. The oaths of office were adrainistered first to hira, and then by him to the counsellors, and writs were issued for an election of deputies to corae together in the following raonth. Before adjourning, the Court appointed " a day of soleran thanksgiving to Alraighty God for granting a safe arrival to his Excellency our Governor, and the Reverend Mr. Increase Mather, who have industriously endeavored the service of this people, and have brought over with thera a settleraent of governraent in which their Majesties have graciously given us distinguishing marks of their royal favor and goodness." Under such courteous words were the chagrins of the time covered over. One thing was certain ; that, in a sense different frora that of earlier times, Massa chusetts was now a dependency of the British crown. CHAPTER IV. THE WITCHCRAFT TEAGEDY. The aged and feeble Braiistreet must have been quite as well pleased to retire from the gov ernment of the province as his enterprising suc cessor was to assume it. The management of the Avar had been too much for his failing strength. The adrainistration of the last three years had been honest and careful, and in the circum stances the degree of good order which was maintained was highly creditable to the people. But it was impossible that a government which from the beginning had been declared by itself to be only temporary should be capable of a vigor ous rule, and respect for it had been weakened during the unexpectedly long agitation of the question of a perraanent settleraent. The war languished for a tirae after the defeat- of the invasion of New France. The strenuous governor of that country would have followed up his advantage by a raovement against New York, and he applied to his court for reinforceraents for that purpose ; but he was told that the King had now employment nearer home for all his forces. WAE WITH THE INDIANS. 85 and for the present it was necessary that his views for New France should be confined to pre cautions for defence. While the exhausted con dition of Massachusetts forbade a renewal of offensive operations on her part, the French gov ernor's chief iraraediate solicitude was for the conduct of the Iroquois Indians; and the year after the repulsed invasion was mostly passed by him in a succession of unsatisfactory negotiations and indecisive hostilities with that crafty, capricious, and formidable confederacy, though New Eng land was at the same time annoyed with a desul tory maritirae war. Though the result of Colonel Church's expedi tion into Maine had disappointed expectation, it appeared to have been not without a salu- i69o. tary effect in alarming the Indians in that o<='°''«"^- . quarter, for it was scarcely over, when sorae of their chiefs appeared at the town of Wells, with proposals for a pacification. A treaty was accordingly raade between three coramis sioners from Boston, and six representatives of the Abenaqui tribes. The Indians restored ten English captives, and agreed to deliver up their remaining prisoners at Wells, and contract for a permanent peace, at the end of five raonths, and meanwhile to abstain from hostilities and to give notice of any which they might know to be medi tated by the French. On the day ap- legi. pointed, President Danforth, with some *'*^-'" raembers of his Council and a guard, came to 86 CLOSE OF BRADSTREET'S ADMINISTRATION. meet the chiefs at Wells ; but, the favorable season for their inroads having returned, the savages had changed their minds, and, after waiting for them a sufficient time, Danforth withdrew to York. A reinforcement of thirty-five men sent by him to Wells reached that place in season to repel an attack which, within an hour after their unexpected arrival, was raade upon it by a band of two hundred Indians. The defeated party fell upon an outlying settleraent of York, which they satisfied their vengeance by burning, along with a vessel anchored there, of which they. massacred the greater portion of the crew. Their further moveraents were for the present arrested by a detachraent of four cora panies who, landing in their rear at the head of Casco Bay, went in pursuit of them as far as Pejepscot (Brunswick). Sorae Indians ' landed from canoes at a detached settle ment, now the town of Rye, and carried away twenty-one of the inhabitants. On or about the same day they murdered four men and two woraen at Dunstable. York and Wells, with Kittery, which was protected by its contiguity to Portsmouth, were now the only towns remaining to the English in Maine. At York, which was a place of some conse quence, having three or four hundred inhabitants, 1692. there were several fortified houses. Early Jan. 25. jjj ^ winter morning the town was sur prised by a numerous party of French and In- \\'AR WITH THE INDIANS. 87 dians, who had raade their raarch on snow-shoes. A brave, but unorganized defence was overcorae. Seventy or eighty of the English were killed. A larger nuraber were raiserably dragged away to Canada, freezing, hard driven, and half faraished. Four of the houses were resolutely defended, till the enemy were tired out, and, setting on fire the buildings they had taken, withdrew into the woods. The fate of the minister, Mr. Duraraer, was rauch deplored. He was found on the door step of his house, dead by a gunshot wound. His wife, one of the prisoners, died of misery and fatigue. At Wells, with fifteen soldiers, sent to aid the inhabitants in its defence, was the brave Captain Converse, who had repulsed the Indians frora it in the last year. Moxus, then defeated, was the brother of Madockawando, who was reported by a redeeraed captive to have strongly resented that raishap, and to have threatened a bloody ven geance. At Wells, as at York, there were several fortified houses, built of timber, with angles ad justed with sorae skill. Five hundred French and Indians came against the place, guided by the two brother chiefs. The day before three small English vessels had arrived, bringing the relief of their freight of provisions and ammunition, besides the seasonable reinforce ment of the fourteen men who navigated them. Two days the enemy assaulted the place. They fired from behind breastworks of 88 CLOSE OF BRADSTREET'S ADMINISTRATION. timber and hay. They attempted the vessels un successfully with blazing rafts. They rolled up to within a few yards of the fortification a large cart, faced with thick boards, which gave protec tion from musketry. But the English had two or three twelve-pound cannon which were gallantly served; the men loading and pointing them, and the women, who brought aramunition, touching them off. On the evening of the second day the assailants were discouraged and withdrew. They had sustained considerable loss, while they had killed only one Englishman, a seaman, who acci dentally fell into their hands as he went on shore from one of the vessels. Out of teraper by reason of their disappointment, they treated hira ferociously, hacking him in pieces with their knives, and inserting lighted splinters into the wounds. In the mean time Lieutenant Wilson, with eighteen men, had destroyed a party which had imprudently made another attack on Dover. Such was the state of the war at the tirae of the accession of the new governor. In other re spects there had been little change in the outward appearance of affairs since his departure. But there was as yet no beginning of a recovery from"^ the great depression and embarrassments which had been experienced>; and though a certainty had now succeeded to the grievous anxieties -respect ing the fate of the charter, it was by no means attended with a universal sense of relief. The bankruptcy of the treasury, in consequence of DEPRESSION AND DISOEDERS. 89 the expenses of the ill-fated expedition to Quebec, was a fact but too well ascertained. The public creditors, including all persons employed by the public, alike without as with their own consent, had to put up with paper money in payraent of their dues. As tirae proceeded, bearing with it the necessity of further outlays, there was a multiplication of public promises to pay in the form of treasury bills, and a continually deterio rating currency came into the place of what ever coin had been in circulation. In the gen eral poverty the payment of heavy taxes was extreraely burdensome, and the collecting of them sometiraes required compulsion, which was sometimes resisted. Military service against the French and Indians was in the circumstances indispensable, but the prevailing discouragement rendered it unattractive, and sometimes it was refused, and could only be obtained by the use of force. The authority of the tribunals of justice was disputed, and a sort of rriutiny, got up by a court which had been comraissioned by Andros, was maintained for a while with obstinacy. In this disturbed and enfeebled condition of the col ony, there were well-founded apprehensions of an attack in force from the French, much more serious than the annoyance of the cruisers which through the last two years had been marauding in Massachusetts Bay and Long Island Sound. Industry, in every form except the mere tilling of the ground, was brought almost to a stand. The 90 THE WITCHCRAFT TEAGEDY. fear of real want impending was not simply im aginary. A yet worse trouble confronted the new gov ernor. He found a part of the people whom he was to rule in a state of distress and consterna tion by reason of certain terrible ra a nife stations during the last few weeks before his coming, at tributed by them to the agency of the Devil, and of wicked men, women, and children, whom he had confederated with himself, and was using as his instruments. The people of Massachusetts in the seventeenth century, like all other Christian people at that time and later, — at least, with extremely rare in dividual exceptions, — believed in the reality of a hideous crirae called ivitchcraft. They thought they had Scripture for that belief, and they knew they had law for it, explicit and abundant; and with them law and Scripture were absolute au thorities for the regulation of opinion and of con duct. In a few instances witches were believed to have appeared in the earlier years of New Eng land. But the cases had been sporadic. The 1647. first instance of an execution^ for witch- May 30. pyg^f^ Jg gj^jjj |.Q jjg^g occurred in Con necticut, soon after the settlement; but the cir cumstances are not known, and the fact has been doubted. A year later, one Margaret Jones, of Charlestown, in Massachusetts, and, it has been said, two other woraen in Dorchester and INCREASE MATHEE'S TEEATISE. 91 Cambridge, were convicted and executed for the goblin crirae. These cases appear to have excited no raore attention than would have been given to the coraraission of any other felony, and no judicial record of them survives. A case much more observed was that of Mrs. Ann Hibbins, the widow of an immigrant of special distinction. He had been agent for the colony in England, and one of the Assistants. He had lost his prop erty, and the melancholy and ill-temper to which his disappointed wife gave way appear to have 'exposed her to misconstructions and hatred, in the sequel of which she was convicted as a witch, and after some opposition on the part of 1666. the magistrates was hanged. ¦'"'"'¦ With three or four exceptions, — for the evidence respecting the asserted sufferers at Dorchester and Cambridge is imperfect, — no person appears to have been punished for witchcraft in Massachu setts, nor convicted of it, for more than sixty years after the settlement, though there had been three or four trials of other persons, suspected of the crime. At the time when the question respecting the colonial charter was rapidly ap proaching an issue, and the public mind lesi. was in feverish agitation, the ministers ^"^^ sent out a paper of proposals for collecting facts concerning witchcraft. This brought out a work frora President Mather entitled " Illustri ous Providences," in which that influen- 1684. tial person related numerous stories of '''^'^¦^' 92 THE WITCHCEAFT TRAGEDY. the performances of persons leagued with the Devil. The imagination of his restless young son was stimulated, and circurastances fed the flame. In the last year of the government of Andros, a daughter' thirteen years old, of .Iohn Goodwin — a mason living at the South End of Boston — had a quarrel with an Irish washerwoman about some missing clothes. The woman's raoth- er took it up, and scolded provokingly. There upon, the wicked child, profiting, as it seems, by what she had been hearing and reading on tho mysterious subject, " cried out upon her," as the phrase was, as a witch, and proceeded to act the part understood to be fit for a bewitched persouj in which behavior she was presently joined by three others of the circle, one of them only four or five years old. Now they would lose their hearing, now their sight, now their speech ; and sometimes all three faculties at once. They mewed like kittens ; they barked like dogs. They could read fluently in Quaker books, in the " Oxford Jests," and in the " Book of Coraraon Prayer," but not in the " Westminster Catechism," nor in John Cotton's " Milk for Babes." Cotton Mather prayed with one of thera ; but she lost her hearing, he says, when he began, and recovered it as soon as he finished. Four Boston ministers and one of Charlestown held a meeting, and passed a day in fasting and prayer, by which exorcisra the youngest imp was de- WITCHES IN BOSTON. 93 livered. The poor woman, crazed with all this pother, — if in her right mind before, — and de fending herself unskilfully in her foreign gibberish and with the volubility of her race, was inter preted as making some confession. A gossiping witness testified that, six years before, she had heard another woman say that she had seen the accused corae down a chiraney. She was re quired to repeat the Lord's Prayer in English, — an approved test ; but, being a Catholic, she had never learned it in that language. She could recite it, after a fashion, in Latin ; but she was no scholar and raade sorae raistakes. The help less wretch was convicted and sent to the gal lows. Cotton Mather took the oldest " afflicted " girl to his house, where she dexterously played upon his self-conceit to stiraulate his credulity. She satisfied hirn that Satan regarded hira as his raost terrible eneray, and avoided him with especial awe. When he prayed or read in the Bible, she was seized with convulsion fits. When he called to family devotion, she would whistle and sing and scream, and pretend to try to strike and kick him ; but her blows would be stopped before reaching his body, indicating that he was unas sailable by the Evil One. Mather published an account of these transactions, with a collection of other appropriate matter. The treatise, circu-. lated not only in Massachusetts, but widely also in England, where it obtained the warm com- 94 THE WITCHCEAFT TEAGEDY. mendation of Richard Baxter, may be supposed to have had an important effect in producing the more disastrous delusion which followed three years after. The Goodwin children soon got well ; in other words, they were tired of their atrocious foolery; and the death of their victim gave them a pretence for a return to decent be havior. Mr. Samuel Parris was minister of a church in a part of Salem which was then called Salem Village, and which now as a separate town is known by the name of Danvers. He was a man of talents, and of repute for professional endow ments, but avaricious and wrong-headed. Araong his parishioners, at the time of his settleraent and afterwards, there had been angry disputes about the election of a rainister, which had never been coraposed. Neighbors and relations were embit tered against each other. Elizabeth Parris, the minister's daughter, was now nine years old. A niece of his, eleven years old, lived in his family. His neighbor, Thomas Putnam, the parish clerk, had a daughter named Ann, twelve years of age. These children, with a few other young women, of whom two were as old as twenty years or thereabouts, had become possessed with a wild curiosity about the sorceries of which they had been hearing and reading, and used to hold meet ings for study, if it may be so called, and practice. They learned to go through mo tions similar to those which had lately made the WITCHES IN SALEM. 95 Goodwin children so famous. They forced their limbs into grotesque postures, uttered unnatural outcries, were seized with craraps and spasras, becarae incapable of speech and of motion. By and by, they interrupted public worship. Abigail Williams, Parris's niece, called aloud in church to the minister to " stand up and name his text." Ann Putnam cried out, " There is a yellow bird sitting on the rainister's hat, as it hangs on the pin in the pulpit." The families were distressed. The neighbors were alarmed. The physicians were perplexed and baffled, and at length declared that nothing short of witchcraft was the trouble. The families of the " afflicted children " as sembled for fasting and prayer. Then the neigh boring ministers were sent for, and held at Mr. Parris's house a prayer-meeting which lasted through the day. The children performed in their presence, aud the result was a confirmation by the ministers of the opinion of the doctors. Of course, the next inquiry was, by whora the manifest witchcraft was exercised. It was pre sumed that the unhappy girls could give the an swer. For a time they refused to do so. But at length, yielding to an importunity which it had becorae difficult to escape unless by an avowal of their fraud, they pronounced the names of Good, Osborn, and Tituba. Tituba — half Indian, half negro — was a ser vant of Mr. Parris, brought by him from the West India Islands or the Spanish Main, where 96 THE WITCHCRAFT TRAGEDY. he had formerly been a merchant. Sarah Good was an old woraan, raiserably poor. Sarah Os born had been prosperous in eai'ly life. She had been married twice, and her second husband was still living, but separated from her. Her reputa tion was not good, and for some time she had been bedridden, and in a disturbed nervous state. , In the meeting-house of Salem ViUage, March 1. , ° _ ^ with great solemnity, and in the presence of a vast crowd, the three accused persons were arraigned before John Hathorne and .Tonathan Curwen, of Salem, raerabers of the Colonial Council. The " afflicted children " were con fronted with thera ; prayer was made.; and the examination proceeded with a questioning of Sarah Good, the other prisoners being for the time withdrawn. When Good declared that she was falsely ac cused, " Hathorne desired the children all of them to look at her ; and so they all did ; and presently they were all tormented." The prisoner was raade to touch thera, and then their torraent ceased, the received doctrine being that by this contact the Satanic influence which had been emitted from the witch was drawn back into her. Similar proceedings were had with the other two prisoners. Tituba, whether in collu sion with her j'oung mistress, or, as was afterwards said, in consequence of having been scourged by Mr. Parris, confessed herself to be a witch, and charged Good and Osborn with being her accom- WITCHES IN SALEM. 97 plices. The evidence was then thought unex ceptionable, and the three were committed to gaol for trial. Martha Corey and Rebecca Nourse were next cried out against. Both were church-members of excellent character ; the latter, seventy years of age. They were examined by .1 • J. J. J J. J. • March 24. the same magistrates, and sent to prison, and with them a child of Sarah Good, only four or five years old, also charged with diabolical practices. Mr. Parris preached upon the text, " Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil ? " Sarah Cloyse, under standing the allusion to be to Nourse, who was her sister, went out of church, and was accord ingly cried out upon, examined, and committed. Elizabeth Procter was another person charged. The deputy-governor and five magistrates carae to Salem for the examination of ^^ the two prisoners last named. Procter appealed to one of the children who was accusing her. " Dear child," she said, " it is not so ; there is another judgment, dear child " ; and presently they denounced as a witch her husband, who stood by her side. A week after wards, warrants were issued for the apprehension of four other suspected persons ; and a few days later for three others, one of whom, ^" Philip English, was the principal merchant of Sa lem. On the same day, on the information of one of the possessed girls, an order was sent to Maine 7 98 THE WITCHCRAFT TRAGEDY. for the arrest of George Burroughs, formerly a candidate for the ministry at Salem Village, and now minister of Wells. The witness said that Burroughs, besides being a wizard, had killed his two first wives and other persons whose ghosts had appeared to her and denounced him. Charges now carae in rapiJly. George Jacobs, an old man, and his granddaughter, were sent to prison. " You ta* me for a wizard," said he to the magistrates ; " you may as well tax me for a- buzzard ; I have done no harm." They tried him with repeating the Lord's Prayer, which it was thought impossible for a witch to jdo. According to Parris's record, " he missed in several parts of it." His accusers persisted. " Well, burn me or hang me," said he, " I will stand in the truth of Christ ; I know nothing of the matter, any more than the child that was born to-night." Among others, John Willard was now apprehended. As a constable he had served in the arrest and custody of sorae of the reputed witches. But he came to see the absurdity of the thing, and was said to have uttered something to the eff'ect that it was the magistrates that were bewitched, and those who cheered them on. Willard was forthwith cried out against as a wizard, and committed "^ ' for trial. Affairs were in this condition when the King's governor arrived. About a hundred al leged witches were now in gaol, awaiting EXECUTIONS OF WITCHES. 99 trial. Their case was one of the first raatters to which his attention was called. Without au thority for so doing, — for, by the charter which he represented, the establishment of judicial courts was a function of the General Court, — he pro ceeded to institute a special coraraission of Oyer and Terrainer, consisting of seven raagistrates, first of whora was the hard, obstinate, narrow- rainded Stoughton. The coramissioners applied theraselves to their office without delay. Their first act was to try Bridget Bishop, against whom an accusation twenty years old, and retracted by its author on his death-bed, had been revived. The court sentenced her to die by hanging, and she was accordingly hanged at the end of eight- days. Co*ton Mather, in his account of the proceedings, relates that, as she passed along the street under guard, Bishop " had given a look towards the great and spacious meeting-house of Salem, and immediately a dasmon, invisibly entering the house, tore down a part of it." It raay be guessed that a plank or a partition had given way under' the pressure of the crowd of lookers-on collected for so extraordinary a spectacle. At the end of another four weeks the court sat again, and sentenced five women, two of Salem, and one each of Amesbury, Ips wich, and Topsfield, all of whom were , .... T July 19- executed, protesting their innocence. In respect to one of them, Rebecca Nourse, a matron 100 THE WITCHCRAFT TEAGEDY. eminent for piety and goodness, a verdict of acquittal was first rendered. But Stoughton sent the jury out again, rerainding them that, in her examination, in reference to certain witnesses against her who had confessed their own guilt, she had used the expression, " they came araong us." Nourse was deaf, and did not catch what had been going on. When it was afterwards repeated to her, she said that by the coming among us she meant that .they had been in prison to gether. But the jury adopted the court's interpre tation of the words as signifying an acknowl edgment that they had met at a witch orgy. The governor was disposed to grant her a par don. But Parris, who had an ancient grudge against her, interfeted and prevailed. On the last communion-day before her execution, she was taken into church, and formally excommuni cated by Noyes, her minister. Of six persons tried at the next session of the court, the Reverend George Burroughs, a "^' ¦ graduate of Harvard College, was one. At a certain point of the proceedings the young people pretending to have suffered from him stood mute. Stoughton asked who hindered them from telling their story. " The Devil, I suppose," said Burroughs. " Why should the Devil be so careful to suppress evidence against you ? " re torted the judge, and with the jury this encounter of wits told hardly against the prisoner. "^' ' His behavior at his execution strongly EXECUTIONS OF WITCHES. 101 impressed the spectators in his favor. j"When he was upon the ladder, he made a speech for the clearing of his innocency, with such solemn and serious expressions as were to the admiration of all present ; his prayer (which he concluded by repeating the Lord's Prayer) was so well worded, and uttered with such composedness, and such (at least, geeraing) fervency of spirit as was very affecting, and drew tears from many, so that it seemed to many the spectators would hinder the execution." Cotton Mather, who vi^as present on horseback, made them a quieting harangue. The accusers said the Black Man stood and dictated to hira. In the course of the next raonth, in which the governor left Boston for a short tour of inspec tion in the Eastern country, fifteen persons — six women in one day, and on another, eight Sept. 9. woraen and one raan — were tried, con- Sept. 17. victed, and sentenced. Eight of thera Sept. 22. were hanged. The brave Giles Corey, Sept. 19. eighty years of age, being arraigned refused to plead. He said that the whole thing was an im posture, and that it was of no use to put himself on his trial, for every trial had ended in a convic tion, — which was the fact. It is shocking to re late that, suffering the penalty of the English com mon law for a contumacious refusal to answer, — the peine forte et dure, — he was pressed to death with heavy weights laid on his body. By not pleading he intended to protect the inheri- 102 THE WITCHCEAFT TEAGEDY. tance of his children, which, as he had been in formed, would, by a conviction of felony, have been forfeit to the crown. In the following month the malady broke °'' "¦ out in another neighborhood. One Bal lard, of the town of Andover, whose wife was ill in a way that perplexed their raedical friend, sent to Salem to see what light could be- obtained from the witch-detectors there. A party of thera came to his help, and went to work with vigor. More than fifty persons at Andover- fell under ac cusation, some of the weaker-minded of whom were brought to confess themselves guilty not only of afflicting their neighbors, but of practis ing such exercises as riding on animals and on sticks through the air. There were no executions, however, after those which have been raentioned as occurring on one day of each of four successive months. There had been twenty human victiras (Corey included), besides two dogs, their accoraplices in the mys terious crime. Fifty persons had obtained a par don by confessing; a hundred and fifty were in prison awaiting trial ; and charges had been made against two hundred more. The accusers were now flying at high quarries. Hezekiah Usher, known to the reader as an ancient magistrate of fair consideration, was complained of, and Mrs. Thacher, mother-in-law of Curwin, the justice who had taken the earliest examinations. Zeal in pushing forward the prosecutions began to WITCHES AT ANDOVER. 103 seem dangerous ; for what was to prevent an ac cused person from securing himself by confession, and then revenging hiraself on the accuser by ar raigning hira as a forraer ally ? Mrs. Hale, wife of the rainister of Beverly who had been active in the prosecutions, and Dudley Bradstreet, of Andover, the old governor's son, who had granted warrants for the coraraitraent of some thirty or forty alleged witches, were now accused. The faraous name of John Allyn, Sec retary of Connecticut, was uttered in whispers. There had even begun to be a muttering about Lady Phipps, the governor's wife, and Mr. Wil lard, then minister of the Old South Church in Boston, and afterwards head of the College, who, after yielding to the infatuation in its earliest stage, had made himself .obnoxious and suspected by partially retracing his steps. People began now to be almost as wild with the fear of being charged with witchcraft, or having the charge made against their friends, as they had been with the fear of suffering from its spells. The visita tion, shocking as it had been, had been local. It had been almost confined to sorae towns of Essex County. In other parts of the province the public raind was calmer, or was turned in the different direction of disgust at the insane tragedies, and elread of their repetition. A person in Boston, whose name had begun to be used dangerously by the inforraers at Andover, instituted an action for defaraation, laying his damages at a thousand 104 THE WITCHCRAFT TRAGEDY. pounds ; a raeasure which, while it would prob ably have been ruinous to him, had he made a mistake in choosing his time, was now found, at the turning of the tide, to have a wholesome effect. After the convictions which were last men tioned, the Commission Court adjourned for two months. Thanks to the good sense of the people, it never met again. Before the tirae designated for its next session, the General Court of the province assembled, and the cry of the oppressed and miserable came to their ear. The General Court superseded the Court of Special Commission, the agent of all the cruelty, by con stituting a regular tribunal of supreme ' jurisdiction. When that court raet at the appointed time, reason had begun to resume her 1693. sway, and the grand jury at once threw Jan. 3. Q^.j^ more than half of the presentments. They found true bills against twenty-six persons. The evidence against these was as good as any that had proved fatal in former trials ; but only three of the arraigned were found guilty, and all these were pardoned. One of them may have owed her conviction to a sort of rude justice ; she had before confessed herself a witch, and charged her husband, who was hanged on her infor mation. Stoughton, who had been made Chief Justice, showed his disapprobation of the par dons by withdrawing from the bench " with pas- Fcb 21. sionate anger." Phipps wrote to the REFLECTION AND REACTION. 105 Lords of Trade a disingenuous letter in which he attempted to divert frora himself, chiefly at Stoughton's expense, whatever blame might be attached to the recent transactions ; it even ap peared to imply, what was contrary to the fact, that the executions did not begin till after 1692. his departure from Boston to the Eastern September. country. The drunken fever-fit was now over, and with returning sobriety came profound contrition and disgust. A few still held out. There are some raen who never own that they have been in the wrong, and a few men who are forever incapable of seeing it. Stoughton, with his bull-dog stub bornness, that might in other tiraes have made him a Saint Dominic, continued to insist that the business had been all right, and that the only mis take was in putting a stop to it. Cotton Mather was always infallible in his pwn eyes. In the year after the executions, he had the satisfaction of studying another remarkable case of posses sion in Boston ; but when it and the treatise which he wrote upon it failed to excite much attention, and it was plain that the tide had set the other way, he soon got his consent to let it run at its own pleasure, and turned his excursive activity to other objects. Saltonstall, horrified by the rigor of his colleagues, had resigned his place in the commission at an early period of the opera tions. When reason returned, Parris, the Salem minister, was driven from his place by the calm 106 THE WITCHCRAFT TRAGEDY. and decent, but irreconcilable indignation of his parishioners. Noyes, his well-intentioned but in fatuated neighbor in the First Parish, devoting the reraainder of his life to peaceful and Christian service, caused his church to cancel, by a forra al and public act, their excoraraunication of 1712 the blaraeless Mrs. Nourse, who had died his peculiar victim. Merabers of some of the juries, in a written public declaration, acknowledged the fault of their wrongful verdicts, entreated forgiveness, and protested that, " according to their present minds, they would none of them do such things again, on such grounds, for the whole world, praying that this act of theirs raight be accepted in way of satisfaction for their offence." A day of Gen eral Fasting was proclairaed by authority, to be observed throughout the jurisdiction, in which the people were invited to pray that " whatever mis takes on either hand had been fallen into, either by the body of this people, or by any orders of men, referring to the late tragedy raised araong us by Satan and his instruraents, through the awful judgment of God, he would humble them therefor, and pardon all the errors of his servants 1696. and people." On that day. Judge Sewall Jan. 14. j.Qgg jjj Yih pew in the Old South Church in Boston, handed to the desk a paper, acknowl edging and bewailing his great offence, and ask ing the prayers of the congregation " that the Divine displeasure thereof raight be stayed against REFLECTION AND REACTION. 107 the country, his faraily, and hiraself," and re mained standing while it was read by the rain ister. To the end of his long life, the penitent and much-respected man kept every year a pri vate day of huraifiation and prayer on the sarae account. Twenty-eight years after, he prays in an entry in his diary in reference to the transac tion : " The good and gracious God be pleased to save New England, and me and ray faraily ! " Ann Putnara, one of the three beginners of the mischief, after thirteen years, carae out of the long conflict between her conscience and her sharae, with a most affecting declaration of her remorse and grief, now on record in the books of the Danvers church. Twenty years after, the General Court raade grants to the heirs of the sufferers, in acknowledgraent of their pecuniary losses. "Sorae of thera [the witch accusers] proved profligate persons," says Governor Hutchinson, " abandoned to all vice ; others passed their days in obscurity and contempt." ^ It is not to be supposed that at this day the testimony can be all elucidated or the juggles ex posed, which beguiled so many people, otherwise discerning and right-rainded, alraost two centuries ago. Nor does it properly belong to the province of an historian of New England to account for phenoraena which have been exhibited on a much larger scale in other times and places than those of which he writes. Governor Hutchinson re counted these transactions seventy years after 108 THE WITCHCRAFT TRAGEDY. their occurrence, when the traditions relating to them were fresh. He had heard the story of them told by not a few eye-witnesses, and he had a mass of writings in relation to them which now have perished. He was a man eminent for force and acuteness of mind. As head of the judiciary of Massachusetts, he had had large practice in the weighing of evidence ; and his judgraent on the .whole raatter was, " that a little attention must force conviction that the whole was a scene of fraud and imposture, begun by young girls, who at first perhaps thought of nothing more than being pitied and indulged, and continued by adult persons, who were afraid of being accused themselves. The one and the other, rather than confess their fraud, suffered the lives of so many innocents to be taken away, through the credulity of judges and juries. There are," he says, " a great number of persons who are willing to sup pose the accusers to have been under bodily dis orders which affected their imaginations. This is kind and charitable, but seems to be winking the truth out of sight." Recent investigations have further established a strong probability that in the principal scene of the tragedy, after the cruel facility of. the tribunals had been manifested in the course of the first trials, raore or fewer of the charges were instigated by personal vindictiveness and malice growing out of quarrels which had existed in the preceding years. In short, impu dent craft, on the one part, under one or another WORTHLESSNESS OF THE CONFESSIONS. 109 wicked excitement, had practised upon a prepara tion, on the other part, for being deluded. The confessions raade by the accused in nu merous instances — fifty or more — were in the early trials received as weighty evidence ; nor, taking fairly into view the state of opinion at the time, ought this estimation of them to create sur prise. It was not long, however, before circum stances disclosed their worthlessness. It soon became raanifest that, an accusation once raade, confession was both the sure and the only way to save life. Without exception, in the first trials, every person arraigned was convicted ; and every person who confessed was spared; and all who did not confess were executed. In sorae in stances confessions were retracted, though, as long as the frenzy was raging, this had to be done at the sacrifice of life ; and in every remaining in stance they were retracted at a later time, when matters again were quiet. These facts are suf ficient to account for them. But, further, they were extorted in such ways that the persons who made them were in no state of mind to justify any reliance on their declarations. They were subjected to appliances such as drive clear and robust minds to insanity. Kept day- and night, day after day, night after night, in a state of high nervous excitement ; plied perpetually by en treaties and reproaches ; bewildered by the de testable legerdemain practised against them by the inforraers; frightened by their prison solitude. 110 THE WITCHCEAFT TEAGEDY. and weakened with their prison fare ; teased while awake, and affrighted while asleep, by phantoms of the infernal world conjured up in the imaginations of others to be reflected into their own : one cannot wonder if raany of them should become sufflciently distracted to think that they verily were what other people^said they were, and to own that they had joined in Satan's sacrament, or set their names to his black book, or any other foolish thing that was asked of them. The fol lowing is a declaration of six women at Andover, who had confessed, and respecting whose char acter raore than fifty of their most respectable neighbors testified that " by their sober, godly, and exemplary conversation, they had obtained a good report in the place, where they had been well esteemed and approved in the church of which they were members." Relating first the cir cumstances of their apprehension, they go on to say: — " After Mr. Barnard had been at prayer, we were blindfolded and our hands were laid upon the afflicted persons, they being in their fits, and falling into their fits at our coming into their presence, as they said ; and some led us and laid our hands upon them, and then they said they were well, and that we were guilty of afflicting them. Whereupon we were all seized as prison ers, by a warrant from the justice of the peace, and forthwith carried to Salem. And by reason of that sudden surprisal, we knowing ourselves WOETHLESSNESS OF THE CONFESSIONS. Ill altogether innocent of that crirae, we were all exceedingly astonished and araazed and conster nated and affrighted, even out of our reason ; and our nearest and dearest relations, seeing us in that dreadful condition, and knowing our great danger, apprehended there was no other way to save our lives, as the case was then circura- stanced, but by our confessing ourselves to be such and such persons as the afflicted represented us to be ; they out of tenderness and pity per suaded us to confess what we did confess. And, indeed, that confession that it is said we raade was no other than what was suggested to us by sorae gentlemen, they telling us that we were witches, and they knew it, and we knew it, which made us think it was so ; and our understanding, our reason, our faculties alraost gone, we were not capable of judging of our condition; as also the hard measures they used with us rendered us in capable of making our defence, but said anything and everything which they desired, and most of what we said was but in effect a consenting to what they said. Some time after, when we were better coraposed, they telling us what we had confessed, we did profess that we were innocent and ignorant of such things ; and we hearing that Sarauel Wardwell had renounced his confession, and was quickly after condemned and executed, sorae of us were told that we were going after Wardwell." Perhaps the fictitious character of the charges 112 THE WITCHCRAFT TRAGEDY. would have been satisfactorily evinced at the tirae of the trials, if the accused had been de fended by able counsel, learned in the laws of evidence and skilled in exposing falsehood by cross-examination. But there were no trained lawyers in the province. The few persons who were in the habit of acting as counsel had had no regular education in the law. The alleged witches had no counsel whatever. Nor had their judges the competency which that station de mands for instructing a jury on an intricate case of felony. Stoughton and Sewall had been educated for the pulpit; two of their five asso ciates were physicians, and one was a merchant ; not one was a lawyer. When such raen did cruel injustice, it was partly from imperfect knowledge of the rules of proof, and partly be cause their rainds were prepossessed with rais- leading iraaginations. On the whole, the court represented the sense of that portion of thc people, with whom a merciful incredulity or a mere natural relenting was least likely to prevail against the bewildering theory of the age. The court was not constituted by the people of Massa chusetts, but, without their authority, by the gov ernor set over them by the King ; and it was con stituted, not of persons possessing the confidence of the people, but largely of former functionaries recently discharged by the popular vote. Stough ton was its head and soul, and he was a man so ' stubborn that, when his theory had been adopted, POPULAR FANATICISM. 113 any humane reluctance was to him only an im pertinence and a sin. The tiraid conscientious ness of Sewall precisely prepared him for the sway of his positive and grim associate. Wait Winthrop was rather a feeble person, and sorae thing of a courtier. Saltonstall was disgusted with the proceedings frora the outset, and refused to sit. Bradstreet's heaviness was wiser than the mercurial temperament of some of his eminent contemporaries. He had steadfastly refused to order the execution of a convicted witch four years before the Salem tragedy ; he is not known to have done anything to countenance the follies which had been rife in the last three raonths of his administration ; and there is every probability that, had he continued to be Chief Magistrate, the misery and shame which inaugurated his suc cessor's administration would have been spared. The transactions which have been described have been visited by the severe reprobation of later times. Yet epidemic delusions, and de lusions having tragical issues, have not been so uncommon in history, as that their occurrence should excite surprise as monstrous deviations from the order of human things. Not fifteen years before the alarm of witchcraft in New England, large numbers of innocent raen in Eng land had fallen victims to a popular madness, ex cited by the flagitious fiction of the Popish plot ; and in New York, half a century later than the tragedy at Salem, fifty persons were transported 114 THE WITCHCRAFT TRAGEDY. and sold, twenty-two were hanged, and eleven were burned to death, on regular legal conviction, for being concerned in a conspiracy, which no sane person has the slightest belief in at the present day, and the history of which only re mains to confound the notions of those who de sire to place confidence in the truth of testimony, the rectitude of magistrates, and the common sense of men. Especially, no doubt, are such delusions contagious and dangerous when they are associated with religious superstition and with the mysteries of the invisible world. But it needs not they should have that association, to make them capable of interfering with the right eous adrainistration of justice. Judges and juries in the witchcraft trials did not appear raore pas sionately bent on preposterous mischief than did the English courts which fourteen years earlier made theraselves the bloody instruraents of Oates and Dangerfield, or the New York court which fifty years later transported, hanged, and burned the confederates in a plot that never was made, or the comraissioners who administered the Fu gitive-Slave Bill of the United States more than a century later yet. There is one class of thinkers fully entitled to take the ground that- an allegation, in any case', of demoniacal agency in huraan affairs is raere fraud and folly. It consists of those who, reason ing frora the attributes of God and his relations to his world, have arrived at the conviction so PREVALENCE OF THE SUPERSTITION. 115 wisely maintained in the work of Hugh Farraer, that " all effects produced in the systera of na ture, contrary to the general laws by which it is governed, are proper rairacles, and that all mir acles are works appropriate to God." But this result of careful thought is certainly not the state of raind of the great majority of those who now without hesitation reject as essentially incredible all narrations of diabolical intervention. At all events, it is to the last degree improbable that instances of that state of mind were to be found in the seventeenth century. That belief in a possible demoniacal agency which, partly by force of thought and reasoning, and much more by force of a vague prevailing scepticism, has now to a large extent lost its hold on the popular raind, was apparently the universal belief of the earlier time. The person who, in a careless state of general unbelief, condemns the credulity of believers in witchcraft, has certainly not as defi nite and respectable a foundation for his theory as they for theirs, however much nearer to the truth he may happen in this particular instance to be. The estimation of witchcraft as a crime equally real as murder and more heinous, and the practice of punishing it accordingly, were much older than the Puritan occupation of New England. They were rauch older than the Protestant Reforraa- tion. Treatises had been written upon it, laws against it had been enacted, persons charged with 116 THE WITCHCRAFT TEAGEDY. it had been tortured and killed, through ages of Christian history and in distant parts of Chris tian Europe. It had been punished with a wide carnage as early as the century when the Roman empire became Christian. The superstition had shown no symptoms of decline in the modern ages. In the century of the Revival of Learning patriots and heretics suffered for it. Joan of Arc was burned as a witch because she delivered her country, and vast numbers of the Waldenses of France and Savoy because they denied the real presence in the Eucharist. A Bull of Pope Innocent the Eighth proclaimed the wide prevalence of the crirae, and enforced on all good Catholics their responsibility for its extirpation, — a measure which, as has been calculated, caused the death of not fewer than a hundred thousand persons in Germany alone. In the district of Como in Lombardy, a thousand witches are related to have been slaughtered in 1524. one year, and one hundred in each of sev- 1615. eral years afterwards. A little later, five hundred persons charged with witchcraft were put to death in the canton of Geneva, which had then a population not more than half as great as was the population of Massachusetts at the time when the frenzy there cost twenty lives. Within twenty-five years of the popular infatua tion in Massachusetts, Sweden had been the scene of a sirailar delusion and raisery, brought about by a similar instrumentality of some un- PREVALENCE OF THE SUPERSTITION. 117 naturally wicked children. Eighty-eight witches in one neighborhood, including fifteen chil dren, were executed, while large numbers, ^^^^' as has continually occurred elsewhere, saved their lives by confessing themselves to be guilty of the imaginary crime. As to the currency of the superstition among the British race, the executions for witchcraft in Scotland, in the reign of King Jaraes the Sixth, are believed to have been so numerous as to re quire to be reckoned by thousands. The coming of that monarch to England as James the First gave an impulse there to the study of a depart ment of learning and law in which especially he prided himself on his proficiency. His treatise on Deraonology discusses the character and diag nostics of witchcraft, with just as absolute a con viction of the reality of the crirae described as would be felt by the author of a treatise on poaching ; and in his reign an Act of Parliament was passed which gave vigor to the application of his theory. Nor in this matter was common wealth wiser than royalty, — the sage Chief Jus tice Hale than the foolish King James Stuart, In the days of the Long Parliament there were more than a hundred executions for witchcraft in the English shires of Essex and Sussex, with the approbation of the minis ters Baxter and Calamy, than whom there were no higher authorities for New England. The Eng lish statutes against witchcraft were repealed only 118 THE WITCHCRAFT TEAGEDY. forty years before the American colonies ceased to be part of the Bi 'sh empire. The popular comraentary upon English law, which was pubhshed alraost at the end of the seventeenth century, recognizes w"itchcraft as a real crirae. When the course of proceeding in Massachusetts against witchcraft was brought to the notice of the Privy Council of King William the Third, they did not order their governor to be instructed that it was all cruel nonsense, and that an immediate stop must be put to it. Nothing of the kind. They took on theraselves no respon sibility so rash. They paraded no such auda cious eccentricity. They bade the King's Sec- 1693. retary of State to instruct the governor — Jan. 26. gyjjji jg i\^q language of their journal — " that in all proceedings for the future against persons accused for witchcraft, or being possessed by the Devil, the greatest raoderation and all due circuraspection be used, so far as the sarae raay be without impediraent to the ordinary course of justice." At the board where this recognition of the reality of witchcraft was registered, was col lected the ripest intelligence of England. It was not to be expected of the colonists of New England that they should be the first to see through a delusion which befooled the whole civilized world, and the gravest and most know ing persons in it. Men are not omniscient, nor is it coramon, any more than just, to blame them for not being so. We do not find fault with PEEDISPOSING CIECUMSTANCES. 119 Aristotle for being ignorant of the law which directs the movements at once of an apple falling from a tree, and of a comet in the distant realms of space. We do not pronounce Galileo incapable because he did not know the weight of the planet Jupiter, nor Franklin because he did not invent the magnetic telegraph. It is rash to say that men should rise above their age. They should strive to do it; but, after all, what better is it possible for them to seize than what is within their reach ? A sober consideration of the tenor of huraan affairs expects occasional disturbances of thera frora " fears of the brave and follies of the wise." Nor was the condition of the people of New England in the seventeenth century at all favor able to that iraraunity frora a superstitious panic and madness of the sort in question, which in the most propitious circurastances would then have been no easy attainraent. If any may be special ly excused for being led astray by gloomy super stitions, it is they who are surrounded by circura stances, and pressed by griefs and anxieties, such as incline to sad and unhealthy raeditation. The experience of the three heroic generations of Eng lish exiles in Massachusetts had been hard and sorrowful. Of those who were living when the provincial charter carne into effect, the raemory of the oldest went back to the primitive times of want and misery ; the middle-aged men had been out in arms in the most dreadful of the Indian 120 THE WITCHCRAFT TEAGEDY. wars, and the middle-aged women had passed years pf raourning for the husbands, lovers, and brothers whora it had swept away. The genera tion just entered upon the stage had been born and reared in melancholy homes. The present was full of troubles 'and forebodings. The ven erated charter had been lost. Social ties had been weakened. Social order was insecure. The paths of enterprise were obstructed. In dustry had little irapulse. Poverty was already felt. There was danger of destitution. A power ful foreign enemy threatened, and the capacity for defence was crippled by penury. A people in the mood to which such surroundings naturally lead could scarcely be expected to set the exaraple of a release frora glooray fancies which ensnared the rest of mankind. Nor would it be preposterous to ascribe some influence on the spirits and the imagination to the loneliness of the homes of the settlers, and the harsh aspects of the scenery amid which their temper had been educated and their daily life was passed. But, with or without pecuhar exposures to de lusion, the people of New England believed what the wisest men of the world believed at the end of the seventeenth century, and never was a people in whom honest conviction, of whatever kind, was surer to shape itself in act. They read in the Bible the command, " Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live," and, instead of under standing the Hebrew legislator as denouncing in IMPULSES TO THE CEUELTY. 121 these words a class of juggling impostors, whose tricks were connected with that idolatry which in every form was a capital crime under the Mosaic polity, they understood him to recognize the ex istence of practitioners really possessing super natural powers derived from the Prince of the power of the air, and using them for purposes mischievous to men and hateful to God. Oracles of their faith from the other side of the water had taught that on the good Christians of New England God had peculiarly iraposed the re sponsibility of defeating the Devil, in the place where he could " show most malice," because there "he is hated and hateth raost." That the Devil, with all the vast and malignant power which they ascribed to him, was their enemy, was an unquestioned fact which to them carried not an overmastering but an arousing terror. They must give him battle bravely, and abide the issue ; for they were the Lord's soldiers, and since the adversary did not wear a bodily shape for them to strike at, they must make his nefarious instru ments feel their unsparing blows. Nor, as an independent influence, is the naked fact to be overlooked that witchcraft was a felony , by statute. There is no denying that a vital, constitutional, ingrained reverence for law as such, additional to and even irrespective of considerations of the equity or wisdom of any of its provisions at a given time, has been in all times a charac teristic of the people of New England ; and the 122 THE WITCHCEAFT TRAGEDY. hanging of witches was the form which a fanatical devotion to law took in Essex County at the end of the seventeenth century. Witchcraft stood on the books as a capital offence ; and when the au thorized expounders of the law were seen to take part against the accused, the mighty conservative element in the community wns summoned to the oppressor's side. In the judgment of an impor tant class araong the people, to interpose for the sufferers was to speak evil of dignities, and as sociate one's self with those who sought to un settle the foundations of society. In such cir cumstances, the more enlightened lovers of Law and Order — of Order, which can never be per manently dissociated from huraanity — of Law, which justice always ought to underlie and in form — were forced into a false position. To manifest their loyalty many felt themselves bound, in conscience and duty, to do violence to their sentiments of justice, humanity, and honor. They were placed at a great disadvantage for any use ful interference, when they could only atterapt it at the cost of seeming fo take a factious part, which in truth they loathed. When they echoed the maxims of Stoughton and his set, they were in rauch the same state of mind as were the loyal citizens of the same community who, a hundred and sixty years later, presented their thanks to the champion of the Fugitive-Slave Bill for re freshing their sense of obligation in respect to tho demands of that enactment. EXTENT OF THE CEUELTY. 123 Happily for the present age, it understands the laws of the divine economy and of the human mind otherwise than as they were understood in the time of the Dutch King .of England. By reason of convictions now outgrown, twenty innocent persons — not hundreds and thousands of innocent persons, as elsewhere under the same charge — were put to death in Massachusetts in that age. The madness of which they were the victims raged for about half a year in a part of that province, mostly in a part of one county, instead of the long periods of time, and the large dis tricts of country, in which it has done its dread ful work elsewhere. Unoffending raen and wo men were put out of the pale of sympathy ; were put in gaol, were put in chains, were put to death. And this was sad enough, and bad enough. But they were not burned to death, nor were they tortured upon the rack, nor in the boots, nor by the thumb-screw, as for the sarae supposed offence others by superior barbarity have been tortured and killed elsewhere. There, is a difference — and this the deluded people of Mas sachusetts in the worst access of their frenzy knew — between doing what is thought needful for security, and making the agonies of the helpless feed the rage of the inhuman and strong. Nor among the many corara unities in which at differ ent tiraes this shocking infatuation has gained a foothold, is it possible to name one in which reason, courage, and humanity have so soon re- 124 THE WITCHCEAFT TEAGEDY. sumed their sway as in Massachusetts, and so well done their proper office. Nor is it possible to avoid considering of what stuff some men and women of that stock were made, when twenty of thera went to the gallows rather than soil their consciences by the lie of a confession. Nor can even the conduct of the blinded magistrates be set down as merely brutal fury, when they uniforraly pardoned such as acknowledged their offence and promised blameless lives for the future. CHAPTER V. ADMINISTRATIONS OF PHIPPS AND STOUGHTON. Under Sir William Phipps, the internal admin istration of Massachusetts proceeded in methods much the same as had been followed under the colonial governors. When the court came ^^^^ together, which was convened by his writ, June 8- William Bond, on his presentation as "^ ' Speaker of the Deputies, " prayed his Excellency, in their behalf, that there might be allowed unto thera the accustoraed privileges of an English as sembly, which he expected as their due " ; name ly, freedom of debate, free access to the governor, and security frora arrest for themselves and their servants, except for felony and treason, during sessions of the General Court and journeys to and frora the place of raeeting. A bill establish ing a Naval Office was passed, and another June 27. to incorporate the College ; but both were J«ne28. in due time disallowed by the Privy Coun- Aug. 22. cil. Overlooking the power vested in the governor by the new charter to nominate civil officers, Phipps allowed them to be chosen by the Coun cil, — an irregularity, however, which did not pass into precedent. Sorae necessary financial ar- 126 ADMINISTRATION OF PHIPPS. rangements were made, and the governor received authority, on the occurrence of a sufficient exi gency, to march the railitia of the pi'ovince into New York or any New England colony. And the Court adjourned after enacting that all such laws of Massachusetts and Plyraouth, existing at the abrogation of the old charter, as were not in consistent with the new charter or with English law, should be revived and be in force till the fol lowing auturan, when it was to meet again. The legislation which followed was prose cuted under embarrassing circumstances. While changes were unavoidable to meet the obliga tions of the new constitution, the Legislature was aiming to admit as few alterations as possible of the ancient systera. The consequence was an unsettled condition of the law. Statutes would be enacted, and sent to England for confirmation, going into effect meanwhile. At sorae time with in three years a notice of their being disapproved would come back. The General Court would try some other way of disposing of the sarae question, and repeated attempts on their part were liable to meet a similar discomfiture. The Legislature came together for its second 1692. session, with the task before it of conform- oct. 12. ji^g ii^g inherited institutions to the new order of things, and of doing this in a manner to retain as much as might be of what had been valued in the past. But in the pursuit of this last object it provedjhat an equal vigilance was to be LEGISLATION UNDER THE NEW CHAETER. 127 encountered on the other side. For in stance ; the first act of the General Court at its second session under the new charter pro vided that "no aid, tax, or imposition what soever" should be "levied on any of their Majes ties' subjects or estates, on any pretence whatso ever, but by the act and consent of the Governor, Council, and Representatives of the people as sembled in General Court." If this had been approved, the cause of dispute which brought about the independence of the United States would have been taken away. But such was not the will of the Privy Council of King William. Some features of the ancient crirainal code were modified not unreasonably, on the one hand by the voluntary action of the General Court, on the other by the exercise of the King's new power of revision. The recent insecurity of landed property under the governraent of Andros gave rise to a law which vested a title after an undis turbed possession of three years. But this was disallowed in England. Laws for the adminis tration of towns, for the support of ministers and schools, for the solemnizing of marriages by ministers or justices, for the observance of the Lord's day, and others corresponding to the local sentiments and habits, received the royal approval. A revisal of the systera for the adrainistration of justice had becorae necessary. An Act " for the establishing of judicatories and courts of 128 ADMINISTRATION OF PHIPPS. justice within the province," created a Superior Court, Courts of Common Pleas, Courts of Ses sions, and the office of Justice of the Peace, of which the duties had, under the old charter, been performed by the Assistants. The Superior Court, which was to consist of a Chief Justice and four associates, was vested with original ju risdiction in cases involving an amount not less than ten pounds ; it heard appeals from the in ferior courts ; and was authorized by a Dec 14. . . supplementary Act to issue writs of habeas corpus, though the right of Englishmen in the colo- 1695. nies to that writ was afterwards disallowed •'^"s- 22. jjy tjjg crown. William Stoughton was the first Chief Justice, and Thomas Danforth, Wait Winthrop, John Richards,- and Sarauel Sewall were his associates; no one of the five having been bred a lawyer. Richards died with in three years, and Elisha Cooke was appointed in his place. The Act provided for a Court of Coraraon 1692. Pleas for each of the eight counties, each Not. 25. gQ^j,). ^^ cousist of four judgcs. They were to have original jurisdiction in all civil actions, their judgments being subject to appeal, and they could entertain appeals from decisions of justices of the peace. The Courts of Sessions, of which also each county had one, were consti tuted of all the justices of the peace within the county. They heard appeals from justices' courts in crirainal matters ; superintended houses of cor- LEGISLATION UNDER THE NEW CHARTER. 129 rection ; licensed innholders and retailers of liq uors ; and performed various functions of the county coramissioners of the present day. Jus tices of the peace were to have jurisdiction "in all manner of debts, trespasses, and other matters not exceeding the value of forty shillings, wherein the title of land was not concerned"; and they were to suppress quarrels and riots, " raake out hue-and-cries," and punish "lying, libelling, and spreading false news," profanation of the Sab bath, gambling, drunkenness, profaneness, and other breaches of the public order. A Chancery Court was to consist of the governor, or such pre siding officer as he should appoint, with eight or raore counsellors. The probate of wills had, under the colonial charter, been a function of the courts of common law. The provincial charter transferred it to the governor and Council, who proceeded to entertain questions of testaments and inheritances as a court of appeal, but de volved the original jurisdiction in each county on a judge of probate of their appointraent. At the first election of counsellors for the new government, the old party division reap peared, and the governor made an un gracious use of his new authority in rejecting Elisha Cooke, who was elected into the Council by the General Court. A considerable change was raade in the constitution of that body as it had been arranged by the King. Several places were vacated in favor of persons raore favorable 9 130 ADMINISTRATION OF PHIPPS. to the old order of things. ,Stoughton, however, was retained. Obnoxious as he was to raany, the clergy were on the whole kindly disposed to him ; the forward part which he had taken in the Revolution was something to set off against his earfier and later ill-deserts ; and his long and various experience of affairs was some security against the effects of his superior's incorapetence. Danforth was one of those who were restored by the popular will to power. The oraission of the old governor, Bradstreet, was probably in accord ance with his own wish. A change of some importance was made in 1693. the second year of Phipps's government. Not. 28. j-gjating to the qualifications of members ¦of the Lower House. Hitherto a town might elect for its deputy an inhabitant of some other town, being thus at liberty to engage in its ser vice the best talent it might find in the colony. Against the protest of the Speaker and twenty- one other deputies, it was now enacted that a deputy must be an inhabitant of the town repre sented by him, — a restriction continued as long as the representation of towns existed, and still in force as to the electing districts. The unavoid able effect has been to reduce the standard of ability in the Legislature. But if an electing dis trict raay not now, as in the early tiraes, look in any part of Massachusetts for the raan raost fit to watch over its interests and do it credit in the Legislature of the Commonwealth, some com- INDIAN HOSTILITIES. 131 pensation for the sacrifice is afforded by a degree of experience in the management of public busi ness which, under the present system, is carried frora the central government into every part of the territory. As so often happens with irapor- tant changes, this was brought about by a raerely incidental and teraporary cause. Many represent atives of country towns — friends to the old char ter, or for other causes unfriendly to Governor Phipps — were inhabitants of Boston. To get rid of them, advantage was taken of local pride, and of the interests of raen in the rural districts who were irapatient of obscurity. The hostility of the Indians in the Eastern country was one of the raatters that clairaed the governor's instant attention. In the next 1692. month after his arrival, a party of thera, ¦T'""'1"- five hundred in nuraber, including several French- raen from Canada, attacked the post at Wells, held by some thirty Engfish, who drove them off after a desperate fight, in which women shared, and did good service. Sir Williara had been instructed in England to build a fort in Maine, both for a security against the Indians and as a deraonstration against the French ; and, probably under the advice of Andros, who had a strange confidence in that position, Pemaquid was the designated spot. He led four hundred and fifty men frora Boston, and on the site of Sir Edmund's old fort, proceeded to" construct a work said to be more formidable than 132 ADMINISTRATION OF PHIPPS. Castle WiUiam at Boston, or Cape Diaraond" at Quebec, or any other fortress in Araerica. Phipps was joined at Pemaquid by Major Church, the veteran partisan of Phihp's war, who had John Gorham of Barnstable for his second in cora mand. The governor consulted Church about the "work he was erecting, but the unscientific carapaigner retained his old prejudice against fortifications, and would take no interest in the raatter. Church went in search of the Indian enemy to the Penobscot and the Kennebec, but they eluded him, and he accomplished nothing. The next year there was for a time a better prospect. Major Converse, the officer who had so distinguished himself in the recent defence of Wells, scoured the country from the 1693 . Pisoataqua to the Kennebec with four or five hundred men, and returning built a stone fort on Saco River, a few miles frora the sea, in the heart of the Indian country. Thereupon the In dians expressed their willingness to raake - ' "^' ' peace ; and accordingly thirteen chiefs, who represented themselves as empowered by all the tribes as far. east as to the Passamaquoddy, concluded at Pemaquid a treaty in which they ac knowledged themselves to be subjects ofthe crown of England, and promised future good behavior. This agreeable issue of the campaign did not obtain unqualified approbation for the governor. Spending money at Pemaquid was already one of the most unpopular proceedings, and the ENTEEPEISE AGAINST CANADA. 133 House could not venture to deny a vote which was proposed, declaring the recent erection of a costly fort there to be unauthorized and " a grievance." The ifi-success of the recent expedition against Canada was so apparently due to raere accident, that it rather invited than discouraged a further attempt. The home governraent entered into the scheme with alacrity. There was an English fleet now in the West Indies, with two thousand seamen and about as many soldiers. It was ar ranged that this force should corae to Boston in the spring, and, being joined there by some other ships and troops, should proceed to the conquest of Quebec. But the whole project miscarried. Information and orders sent from England in reference to it were five months on the passage over sea, so that when the fleet arrived in Boston no preparations had been made. Nor, if they had been, could the enter prise have been prosecuted, for an epidemic sick ness had broken out in the ships, and carried off more than two thirds of the crews. The gov ernor and admiral could do no better than to con cert a plan for the next year, which they proposed to have carried out by two thousand men to be sent from England, and as many more to be furnished by the colonies. The scheme was that the two forces should rendezvous at the obscure point of Canso, on the island of Cape Breton, so as not to attract observaj;ion, and that then, sail- 134 ADMINISTEATION OF PHIPPS. ing up the St. Lawrence, one portion should pro ceed to Montreal, while the other reraained to attack Quebec. By the despatch of the whole force by sea, it was expected to avoid some of the difficulties which had defeated the former expedition. Phipps had entered on his administration with no great support of popular favor, and what there was of it fell off. There was not reason to com plain of hira for any such contemptuous conduct as that with which Dudley had inaugurated his unwelcorae governraent, far less for any inclination towards such oppressive raeasures as had made odious the narae of Andros. On the contrary, credit was not denied hira for being an honest friend to the colony, and for being unambitious to push to any extreme the prerogatives of his position. But as he was more known, his ca pacity was less highly estiraated. His expedition against the French had not only not prospered, but it had involved the colony in very burden some embarrassment; and every undefined feeling of discontent excited by the various troubles of the time tended to take the shape of dissatisfac tion with the chief ruler. Further, he wak weak ened by quahties which repel respect. Though not intending fo be unreasonable, and not consti tutionally pertinacious, he was naturally sensitive and hasty, and had been used to the discipline of the quarter-deck, so that, when opposed, he easily lost his teraper and forgot his dignity. He very THE GOVERNOR'S INDISCRETIONS. 135 soon involved himself in quarrels which, equally when he was right as when he was wrong in respect to the matter of dispute, exposed him to just reproach for conduct unbecoming his high station, and which speedfiy deprived him of the confidence of his superiors in England. An officer named Short coraraanded the frigate (the Nonsuch) which brought Sir Williara to Araerica. On the passage the governor took a dislike to hira, — reasonably enough, as raay be inferred frora Short's later proceedings. He had been in Boston only a few weeks, when he 1592. coraraitted the outrage of an assault upon June. two members of the General Court in their '"'^' bedchambers ; they appear to have incensed him by opposing his pretensions to impress men. The colonial governors had control of ships of war on their coasts. When Phipps went to the eastward, he left an order for Short to fol low him forthwith with his ship, and the order was not obeyed to his satisfaction, nor an other order to cruise in the Bay after some French vessels. Meeting the captain in the street, Phipps accosted him with reproaches, and a fight 1693, ensued, in which the governor knocked •'™*- down his antagonist and beat him with his cane. He then put hira in gaol, and frora gaol sent hira first to the fort, and then on board a vessel bound to England, to be conducted there to the Secre tary of State. . Jahleel Brenton, of Rhode Island, had under 136 ADMINISTRATION OF PHIPPS. Randolph's patronage been made collector of tho customs in Boston. This arrangement was of doubtful validity in point of law, and was dis agreeable to the merchants, who had been used to paying duties to the colonial naval officer. Phipps, who had lately appointed a naval officer, took their part. Brenton seized a vessel, which had arrived in Boston frora the West Indies. The governor caused it to be released, and, when Brenton remonstrated, offered him some personal violence, which was afterwards differently de scribed by the parties. The occasion was such as could not fail to bring Sir William into dis favor in one of the most influential quarters in England. Brenton complained to the Lords of Trade, at whose instance the Privy Coun cil instructed the Lords of the Treasury to appoint comraissioners to take evidence in New England respecting the facts alleged. But this 1694. raethod of proceeding was superseded by Feb. 8. an order to Phipps to come to England. He braved scarcely less displeasure by another quarrel, which he followed up with great deter mination. His generosity of heart disposed hira to feel for the cruel fate of Jacob Leisler, who — certainly not without rashness and iraprudence, nor in w^ays altogether proof against censure — had undertaken to follow in New York the course pursued by the wiser Massachusetts patriots in ridding theraselves of the despotisra of Sir Ed mund. Colonel Benjainin Fletcher, who asso- THE GOVEENOE'S INDISCEETIONS. 137 ciated himself with the ferocious party that had brought on the catastrophe, had now succeeded, as governor of New York for the King, to Colonel Sloughter, who held that place for a Mar 1691- year and a half after Leisler's deposition. ®°p'" ^^^^• Fletcher was as irascible as Phipps, and it did not take a long time to bring them into a violent altercation. By virtue of their respective cora- missions, both claimed the comraand of the militia of Connecticut. Fletcher pretended a right also to the jurisdiction of Martha's Vine yard, and informed Phipps that he was coraing thither to assert it, — a message which Phipps answered by a sort of challenge. A man named Gouverneur, who had been a partisan of Leisler, and an underling in his ephemeral government, had been found guilty of murder in New York, but had been discharged by Governor Fletcher agreeably to instructions from England. 1592. Gouverneur went to Boston, and thence o^'-i^- wrote a letter to his parents, giving an account of an interview of his with Phipps, in the course of which, among other unfavorable remarks re specting the state of things at New York, Phipps had said, " The governor is a poor beggar, and seeks nothing but money, and not the good of the country." Fletcher intercepted the letter, 1693. and sent a special messenger to Phipps to '"""^"^y- demand the surrender of the writer into his hands. This was refused with insulting language, and with threats of violence to the errand-bearer. 138 ADMINISTEATION OF PHIPPS. Complaints of the governor coraing from such various quarters demanded the attention of the government. Phipps sent an agent to ecem «''• gj^gj^j^ J |q vindicate hira against the rep resentations of Short and Brenton, but the Privy 1894. Council thought them so serious that they Feb. 8. despatched to him a peremptory order to come to England to clear hiraself, at the same time instructing the lieutenant-governor to take deposi tions to be used on his examination. According ly, after no little delay, which he excused on the ground of a call for his presence in the Eastern country, he sailed from Massachusetts, bringing to an end an unsatisfactory ad ministration there of two years and six months. 1695. In England he was not unkindly received, January. £qj. Jj^ jjjg guilclcss and genial temper there seems to have been a fascination which won for him more favor than he could fairly claim for any public services. He carried with him an Address with the signatures of a bare majority of the House of Representatives, praying that he might not be removed. But before anything was de cided he was seized with an illness which per haps was aggravated by prosecutions instituted against hira by Dudley and Brenton, and which brought his life to an end within a few weeks after his arrival. Meanwhile the war with the savages had been disastrously renewed, being stimulated by the Catholic missionaries from Canada, of whom the INDIAN HOSTILITIES 139 most noted, Sebastian Rasle, had lately es tablished himself at Norridgewock on the ^'^^^' Kennebec. In the haralet in Dover called Oyster River, there were twelve garrison-houses. At dawn of a raidsummer day, these were 1694. assailed at one moraent by a party of East- """'^ ^"• ern savages, judged to be not far from two hun dred and fifty in number, led by a French officer and a French priest. Four years having passed since their last invasion, and the treaty of Pema quid being in force, the occupants were off their guard and scantily supplied with amraunition, while most of the neighbors remained in their own dwellings ; but, on the other hand, the signal of the Indians was prematurely given, and the surprise was not complete. In one house were fourteen persons, who were all massacred, and all lie buried in one grave. Another garrison-house was surrendered on a promise, which was not kept, of security to life. Three were hastily aban doned, and most of the occupants escaped. The others were defended with success. In one of them a man sent off his family by water, and re maining alone, changed his dress as he kept firing first from one window, then from another, and shouting as if he had companions. As the morn ing advanced, the invaders, fearful of being at tacked from the neighboring settlements, retreated towards Lake Winnipiseogee, with several pris oners. They had burned five of the fortified houses and fifteen other dwellings, and the num- 140 ADMINISTEATION OF STOUGHTON. ber of persons killed and captured by them amounted to nearly a hundred. Once, at least, the savages came to Portsraouth, where, at an outlying farm, they killed the "^ ' widow of President Cutt, and three of a party of haymakers whose work she was direct ing. Exeter and Dover, especiafiy the latter settle ment, were repeatedly ravaged. At Groton forty persons were killed and made prisoners. Kittery and Haverhill were the scene of more limited massacres. The help of the more powerful natives in the Western country was always coveted by the Eng lish ; and a short time before the departure of Phipps, commissioners from New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Connecticut "^ ' met a delegation of the Five Nations at Albany. The Five Nations had by no raeans abandoned their hostile attitude towards the French. But they were not without their jeal ousies of the rival people. The conference with thera had no result beyond some general assur ances of good-willon their part; and without actual intervention in arms they were too remote to exert a useful influence over the tribes which threatened Massachusetts. The lieutenant-governor, on whose hands the war was left at Phipps's departure, did not want resolution to conduct it. New^ negotiations which were attempted proved delusive or fruitless. The scattered English posts at the East were ex- INDIAN HOSTILITIES. 141 posed and feeble, and a new succession i^^^. „ ... March. of massacres began in the spring. Near Juiye. Saco, near Pemaquid, and elsewhere, more Sept. 9. than fifty Englishraen from the smafi population which had still held its ground were killed or carried away captive. In an opposite quarter the Indians broke up the fourteen years old settle ment of French Protestants at Oxford. The few Huguenot famihes, hopeless of a "°"' ' quiet residence on the exposed frontier, removed in a body to Boston. In the following winter, a party of savages presented themselves before Pemaquid, and proposed an exchange of lega. prisoners. Yielding culpably to a not ^*is- unnatural resentraent. Captain Chubb, the cora raander of the garrison, allowed an attack upon thera in which four were put to death and some others were taken prisoners. The exasperation which followed increased the activity of the enemy. At Dover they shot, close by his own house, a harmless person who had once May 7. been their captive ; and presently after, as July 26. the townspeople were dispersing frora their place of Sunday worship, a party of Indians fired upon them, killed three, wounded three, and laid hands on as many more, whom they carried into cap tivity. But the marauding movements which had been keeping the detached hamlets in terror, or reducing them to ruin, were presently suc ceeded by a victory on a different scale. The new 142 ADMINISTEATION OF STOUGHTON. fort at Pemaquid, with its strength in structure, armament, and ammunition, and its garrison of a hundred men, had been thought secure. The French governor of Quebec resolved to attempt it. He despatched from that place two men-of. war, and two companies of soldiers, who on their way were reinforced at Port Royal and at the mouth of the Penobscot by some four hundred Indians. The French squadron met and engaged two English arraed vessels, which were on the watch, and increased its strength by the capture of one of them. When summoned to surrender, Chubb returned a boastful re- juiyis. ply; the French landed and invested. the place; and Castine, who had accompanied the expedition, sent in a message to the effect, that if there was further delay, the garrison would receive no quarter. Chubb capitulated, with the condition that his command should be protected from harm and insult, and be sent to Boston. The French could not enforce their agreement. The Indians fell upon the English and put many to death, while the rest were withdrawn under a French guard to an island out of their reach. The victors dismantled and blew up the "'^ ' fortification, and set sail for Penobscot River. Chubb was tried for cowardice, and acquitted. The calamitous news created consternation at Boston. Five hundred men were immediately enlisted for a campaign at the eastward, and the INDIAN HOSTILITIES. 143 lieutenant-governor gave the comraand to Benjamin Church, who, if his capacity "^' did not equal his zeal, retained the advantage of a traditional reputatipn. Four armed vessels were despatched from Boston to the Pe nobscot, but did not arrive there till the French squadron had sailed for St. John. Church led his force up the Penobscot, finding some plunder, but no enemy. Returning he met the squadron, with Colonel Hathorne, who "^ ' came to supersede hirn in the coramand. There seemed nothing to be done either by land or sea against an eneray by no means so hard to van quish as to find, and both troops and ships carae back to Boston. In an Address to the King the General Court represented " the exhausted state of the province through the languish- ' ' ing and wasting war with the French and In dians," and prayed for orders to the several co lonial governments to contribute their assistance for the settlement and fortification of Port Royal and St. John's ; for a supply of amraunition, and the protection of a naval force ; and for aid in the reduction of Canada, — " the unhappy foun tain," they said, " from which issue all our mis eries." The winter, keeping the savages inactive, gave to the borderers its usual repose, and the approach of warm weather brought its accustomed calam ities. Early in the spring the savages made 1697. a successful assault upon HaverhiU. One *'*'"''' '^- 144 ADMINISTEATION OF STOUGHTON. of the captives whora they took thence was Hannah Duiistan, who had borne a child only a week before. Her husband, with their other chil dren, had escaped. Her captors dashed out the infant's brains. They proceeded a hundred and fifty railes on their retreat towards. Canada, when they told her that on their reaching one of their own caraps, she would have to be stripped and run the gantlet. This inspired her with a desperate resolution. She was, with the woman who had been nursing her, in the custody of an Indian party, consisting of two men, three woraen, and seveii children, who had also in charge an English boy, taken prisoner a year or two before. She enlisted her corapanion "and the boy in her scheme. When they were halted in a retired spot they watched the opportunity of their keepers beihg sound asleep, and then, with rapid blows, despatched with their own hatchets all but two, — one of whom, a child who had been kind to thera, they ilitentionally spared; while the other, a woraan whom they supposed they had wounded mortaUy, revived and escaped. The heroine and her helpers found their way to her home before the end of spring, bringing the scalps of their ten victims. The General Court expressed their ad miration of the deed by a present of fifty pounds. Exeter owed to an accident its preservation frofti a well-laid plot for its destruction. A ' party of Indians were lying about it in INDIAN HOSTILITIES. 145 hiding-places one day, intending to fall upon it early the next morning, as was their habit. Sorae woraen, with their children, had gone a little way out of the town to gather strawberries. They had been told that it was iraprudent, and sorae per sons whose caution they had neglected fired alarra- guns to frighten thera. This caused a rauster of the men, and the Indians, supposing theraselves to be discovered, decaraped in haste. Major Frost of Kittery, a counsellor of the prov ince, and forraerly colonel of the mifitia of York County, was going home frora the Sun day worship with his wife and a servant, when the three were fired upon and killed by Indians, who lay in arabush for him behind a log. At York, at Wells, and at Saco, the old experience of stealthy murders was again and again re newed. But a greater anxiety of the tirae related to a different kind of operation. There was intelli gence that the King of France was designing to send a strong fleet into Massachusetts Bay, and at the same time to bring fifteen hundred French and Indians into New England across the north ern frontier. There was nothing improbable m the project, which was afterwards known to have been in fact entertained. The King of England was so circumstanced that he could not do much for his Massachusetts lieges, even if he cared more about them than in truth he did care. He was pressing for a peace, and, as things stood with 10 146 ADMINISTEATION OF STOUGHTON. him, not a guinea nor an ounce of powder could be spared from his affairs in Europe. If Massa chusetts was now to be taken care of, it must be by herself. The forts were repaired, manned, and provisioned. Companies of minute-men were enrolled. Five hundred men under Major March, an officer of the best reputation, were sent down to the Kennebec, which was thought likeliest of any place to be presently the seat of war. Land ing at Damariscptta, he was attacked by a body of savages, whora he repulsed after a bloody fight, in which he lost twelve of thirteen men. g^ J. 20 This was a few days only before the conclusion of the treaty of Ryswick, which made peace between France and England. In telligence of that event, which gave such ¦ relief to New England, came early in the winter. But though there were no more battles Septem- ^"^ ^^^^ '^^'^' thcrc was not yet a cessation *""¦ of murders, pillages, and burnings. At Lancaster a party of Indians massacred twenty 1698. or thirty people, with their minister. They •^*™'''^" burned. several houses at Andover, putting to death a number of the inhabitants, — among whora was Chubb, the recent coraraander at Pemaquid, — and carrying away others. One of the captives was the late governor's son. Colonel Bradstreet, who however escaped when the ma rauders were closely pursued. But the Indians had been learning that by PEACE OF EYSWICK. 147 reason of the peace lately made in Europe, they could no longer rely on open support from their friends in Canada, and without it they could not venture to persevere in their ravages. Pro posing to make a new submission, they sent delegates to Pejepscot on the Kennebec, be tween whom and comraissioners from Mas- 1699. sachusetts (Colonel Phillips and Major •''"'•'''• Converse) a treaty of peace was concluded, with stipulations such as they had been accustomed to raake, and, as soon as they dared, to violate. If this treaty should prove raore binding upon thera than earlier ones, it would be because perfidy ap peared less safe, or because French solicitation was less active. Beginning in the adrainistra tion of Andros, this grievous war, waged by the tribes east of the Merrimac, had lasted ten years. They had taken, and either held for a longer or shorter time, or destroyed, aU the settlements in Maine with three exceptions. More than seven . hundred Englishmen were killed, and two hundred and fifty carried into captivity, — raany of them' never to return. The territory which Massachu setts had bought of the heir of Ferdinando Gorges, and been endowed with by King William, had as yet proved hers only to defend at heavy cost and , with disastrous losses. Within that period to which belong the closing events of the first war between Massachusetts and the allied Canadians and Indians, the cora mercial relations of the colonies had attracted in- 148 ADMINISTRATION OF STOUGHTON. creased attention on the part of the home govern ment. It has been raentioned that colonial affairs, which, since the middle of the reign of Charles the Second, had been in the charge of a com mittee of the Privy Council, were now again in trusted to a special board, the title of which, 1696. " The Lords Commissioners for Trade and May 15. Plantations," painfully indicated the policy which was to regulate colonial governraent. This authority addressed itself in earnest to the task of enforcing the Navigation Laws, which in New England had never hitherto had considerable effect. Randolph was at hand, maliciously anxious to furnish the board with suggestions helpful to carry out their design. It was at this time that the colonial systera was reinforced by new Acts of Parliaraent, which, araong other strict provisions, required the colonial governors to swear that they would use their utmost diligence to make the Navigation Laws effective, and gave to revenue officers in Araerica the sarae powers with which they were clothed in England. A later law of singular severity forbade not only the exportation to foreign parts, but the convey ing into any other plantation, of any " wool or raanufacture iriade or mixed with wool, being the produce or manufacture of any of the English plantations in America." A Windsor good-wife, crossing the line for a visit to her gossip at Springfield, could not lawfully take a ball of yarn for her afternoon's knitting. AMBITION OF DUDLEY. 149 Randolph was placed at the head of the collection of the customs in " the northern parts of Amer ica," with the title of Surveyor- General. In the colonies of New England, as well as in the other colonies. Vice- Admiralty courts were established, which made their decisions without a jury. It is probable that considerations incident to the coramercial question both dictated the delay in filling the place vacated by Governor Phipps, and finally determined the choice of his successor. As long as the war with France was on his hands, the King would prefer to avoid the risk of displeasing his subjects in New England, who were disposed to take so active a part in it ; and the provisional administration was well enough cared for by the loyal and punctilious Stoughton. When peace again brought the time for thinking of the succession, Dudley did not lose sight of it for hiraself, nor feel discouraged on account of his former raisbehavior; for that Andros and his friends had not incurred the King's perraanent displeasure by the course which had raade them hated in Araerica, had been proved by their sub sequent promotion. Dudley had been made Chief Justice of New York, where he had pres ently the satisfaction of condemning Jacob Leisler to death, for proceedings which, though less dis creet, were, as to their general character, the same as those of the Massachusetts patriots who had put an end to the governraent of Andros. Even before Phipps's recall, Dudley had intrigued for 150 ADMINISTRATION OF STOUGHTON. the appointment to return to Boston as governor. He was not without love for his home, and that arrangement would further have promised him opportunity to gratify his revenge, while its prov ocations were still recent. But the English states- raen could not but be aware that in a movement in which conciliation as well as authority must have a part, Dudley was not yet, at least, the proper person for their service. Besides, he had been accustoraed to the old way of the Boston merchants in transacting business, and it could not be surely known how far he would be active in correcting it, notwithstanding his present posi tion of sycophancy. He went back to England to urge his suit, but, finding the prospect discour aging, — the more so from the resolute opposi tion of Constantine Phipps and Sir Henry Ash urst, now agents for Massachusetts, — had con tented hiraself for the present with the appoint raent of lieutenant-governor of the Isle of Wight, and with a seat in Parliament. The choice of a successor to Governor Phipps fell on Richard Coote, Earl of Bellomont, in the Irish Peerage. As a member of the committee of Parliament which had had under consideration a reversal of the attainder of Leisler, he had im bibed a strong dislike of Dudley, and at the same time engaged for himself the friendship of Phipps 1697. and Ashurst. In the auturan after the NoTember.pgjjjjg^ hc embarked for New York with a commission constituting him governor of that PEACE OF RYSWICK. 151 province, and of New Jersey and New Hamp shire, as well as of Massachusetts. Hitherto all the governors of Massachusetts since the settleraent had been either original col onists or natives of the country. Just as its high est office was to be occupied for the first tirae by a person unconnected with it, Siraon 5radstreet died, the last survivor of those founders who had been chosen to the magis tracy before they came from England. When he emigrated he was twenty-eight years old ; he hved to complete his ninety-fifth year. He had been Secretary of the colony ; an assistant forty- six years; a coraraission er of the Confederacy twenty-four tiraes ; agent to England ; deputy- governor, and governor; — a raan hardly equal to the raost difficult occasions ; but patriotic, faith ful, honest,- and laborious, and always esteemed and trusted. The General Court voted to contribute a hundred pounds towards the expenses of his burial, " in . consideration of his long and extraordinary service." CHAPTER Vi. ADMINISTRATION OF LOED BELLOMONT. The selection of Phipps to be governor of Mas sachusetts was expected to gratify the people of that province, and so to facilitate the introduction of their new constitution of government. Even had his administration been much more satisfac tory than it proved to be, the choice of his suc cessor would not have been dictated by the same considerations. While the new system had set tied itself and was in quiet operation, the horae supervision of the colonies had been changed by the transfer of it frora a coraraittee of the Privy Council to the Board of Trade, and of course the new functionaries desired to justify and to signalize their advancement by some nov elty in the energy and raethods of their proceed ing. Two needs of the colonies seeraed to de mand special attention. In the long war with France private arraed ships had been rauch era- ployed ; by their rude navigators the distinction between privateersraan and pirate failed of being always observed ; and it was said that there was sorae resort of freebooters to the American coast, where they had advantages for eluding detection REASONS FOR BELLOMONT'S APPOINTMENT. 153 and arrest Again ; the disappointments and dis asters of the war in America had proved at what a great disadvantage the English were, notwith standing their preponderance in nurabers, by reason of their want of combination under one head. The peace just made was understood to be of uncertain duration. Against the time when hostilities should be renewed, it was prudent to provide for a better handling of colonial resources. The scherae of a general governraent, like that of Andres's rule, or even raore comprehensive, was again and again entertained and pressed. But objections occurred, partly arising out of the charters, and it was thought that the nearest ap proach to a consolidation which could well be made for the present was by extending over New York and New Jersey the authority of the gov ernor of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and by placing him in command of the military force of all the northern colonies. It was indeed impossible, in the circumstances, that the peace of Ryswick should be more than a truce. It was a truce of undetermined length, and of imperfectly defined conditions. The parties did not mean to bury their quarrel'; they but wanted respectively a resting-time to look about them to reorganize and to recruit. The cessation frora arras probably lasted longer than any of thera anticipated. That between French and English the strife was only adjourned, was raanifest from the first An article of the treaty 154 ADMINISTRATION OF LOED BELLOMONT. provided for a mutual restitution of " all terri tories, islands, forts, and colonies, wherever situ ated," to the power which possessed them be fore the war. The limits of Acadia were not described. The French always held that that province, which now reverted to them, was bound ed on the west by the Kennebec ; the Enghsh maintained that their possession extended east ward to the St. Croix, and that accordingly all between the Kennebec and the St Croix was now part of Massachusetts. The same contra dictory interpretations included the right to the allegiance of the Indians within the disputed territory, and the right to take fish along its coast 1698. and among the neighboring islands. Ville- sept. 5. Ytoo, the French governor of Acadia, gave formal notice to the government of Massa chusetts that he was instructed to assert by force his master's claim in these particulars. It was especially with reference to this controversy that the horae government was at different tiraes so urgent with Massachusetts to keep up the fort at Pemaquid, so as to command the river Penobscot. It was seven or eight months after Lord April. Belloraont left England before he landed at New York, adverse weather having driven hira off to the West Indies. He had doubted to which of his governraents he should repair first He had learned in London that " the raerchants and others belonging to New England did little stomach the discourse that had been about the LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR STOUGHTON. 155 town of his going first to New York, as if the people of New England (who are the bigger body of people, and far more considerable than the others) were thereby slighted." " Therefore that they raight not take it ill of me," he 1697. writes in a memorial to the Board of"*^"^'^^' Trade, " I think it absolutely necessary to have the direction of your Board, or of the Lords Jus tices, to which of those provinces I am first to go. The reasons hinted to rae by the Lords Justices for my repairing first to New York are chiefly two ; naraely. New York's being a frontier, and my being to supersede the present governor there of." Under the lieutenant-governor of Massachu setts affairs proceeded in so satisfactory a train, that the superior magistrate did not consider his immediate presence there to be needed, and he remained at New York a full year, conducting meanwhile an active correspondence with 1699. Stoughton. As soon, however, as he ^'^y^- came to Boston, where he was received with a warm and generous welcorae, it was evident to what party his sympathies inclined. In England, while he was a meraber of the House of Cora- mons, he had, as has been said, taken an active part in proceedings against Dudley for his mali cious treatment of Leisler. Influenced more or less by this resentment, he was inclined to treat Stoughton with coldness as Dudley's partisan, and to confide in Elisha Cooke and his friends. 156 ADMINISTRATION OF LORD BELLOMONT. The business of immediate interest at the time of the arrival of Lord Behomont in Massachu setts related to the existing judicial system of the province. It has been related that in the first year of the organization under the new char ter an Act had been passed by the General Court, 1692. "for the establishing of judicatories and Not. 25. gom-ts of justlcc withiu the province." When the three years were about to expire to 1695. which the King's right to abrogate the Aug. 22. laws was hmited by the charter, his Privy Council went to work on the early provincial legislation, and araong the thirteen Acts which its wakeful jealousy disallowed out of the thirty- five passed at the second session of the first provincial General Court, was the Act " for the Establishing of Judicatories." The objection to it was that it restricted the right of appeals to the .Privy Council to personal actions involving a sura exceeding three hundred pounds. Being inforraed of this, the General Court pro- 1696. visionally re-enacted their law with the ex- oct. 3. ception of the obnoxious clause, and of the provision for establishing a Court of Equity. 1698. This Act in turn was disapproved by the Not. 24. Pj-jvy Couucil, for an alleged reason which seeras either not weighty or else not perspicu ously expressed. It is not unnatural to think that what in fact influenced the Council was the peculiarity of the language in which the General Court had withdrawn the exceptionable enact- PROVINCIAL LEGISLATION. 157 ment The new law did not invest the suitor with an unlimited privilege of appeal, which was what the English Ministry wanted. It "declared void, and of none effect, the section or paragraph of the said Act providing for liberty of appeal unto his Majesty in Council," thus withdrawing the question of appeal under whatsoever con ditions, and leaving the General Court unsus talned indeed by the crown in the qualification which it had sought to obtain, but, on the other hand, uncommitted by any action on its own part to an abatement of its claim to coraplete ex emption. The General Court tried again. They passed an " Act for Establishing of Courts," which 1697. went more into details, but was substan- J"°"'i9- tially the same as that of five years before. It renewed the provision restricting appeals to Eng land to cases of pecuniary iraportance. It was hoped, perhaps, that the Privy Council would rather on reflection have an express grant of ap peals, though a limited one, than have the whole question reraain open ; and the lieutenant-gov ernor and Council sent to the King a " Represen tation and Address relating to appeals, and 1598. praying to be continued in the enjoyment *^''" of all those privileges granted in the royal char ter." This Act too was, however, disal- NoT. 24. lowed in England, for the alleged reason that, inasmuch as it granted the right of trial by jury in all cases, it took away the option given 158 ADMINISTRATION OF LORD BELLOMONT. by English law to customrhouse officers, respect ing trial by an Admiralty Court which has no jury, and so interfered with a vigorous enforce ment of the Navigation Laws. The Superior 1699. Court, which was engaged n a trial when April 26. intelligence to this effect was received, im mediately dissolved itself. It is likely that this raoveraent hastened Lord Belloraont's journey to Massachusetts, and that an anticipation of it was the cause of the General Court's urgency when 1698. they sent to New York an Address pray- NoT. 22. jjjg ^jjg^^ ]^g -^ould " be pleased to favor the province with his presence so soon as the season of the year raight corafortably admit his undertaking so long and difficult a journey." He carae accordingly in the following spring, 1699. and in his first speech to the General Court June 2. advised a re-enactraent of the law for con stituting courts, with an oraission of the obnoxious provision ; and that step was iraraediately taken, so far as that all reference to appeals was avoided, and that question was relegated to future consideration. Certain chancery powers were at the same tirae given to that court and to the Court of Coraraon Pleas, and it was now de clared that the Superior Court was to have juris diction " as fully and araply, to all intents and purposes whatsoever, as the Courts of King's Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer, within his Majesty's kingdom of England, have or ought to have." Admiralty powers, which, under the HIS EETUEN TO NEW YOEK. 159 colonial charter, were exercised by the Assistants, had, under King William's charter, been reserved to the crown, which, through the Lords Commis sioners of the Admiralty, proceeded to con stitute a Court of Vice- Admiralty for New England and New York, with a King's Advocate, a Registrar, and a Marshal. The common-law courts claimed a right as recognized by the char ter, and confirmed by the law, to revise the decis ions of the Admiralty Court, which had the impor tant function of trying offences against the Laws of Trade ; and this conflict of jurisdiction finally led to important complications. Affairs in Massachusetts were in competent hands, and could proceed satisfactorily without the governor's personal attention. New York was torn by factions, and never free frora danger frora the excitable Indians on the western frontier. Lord Bellomont remained in Massachu- 1700. setts only fourteen months. He was es- '"™" teemed to be good-natured, and not ungenerously disposed towards the people whom he carae to rule. For his short service the General Court made him grants amounting to nearly two thou sand pounds sterling ; a greater liberality than was ever shown to a governor of Massachusetts, before or since his tirae. They overrated the extent of his friendship for thera. They might have been less liberal had they known of his writing home that in his government he wanted persons, employed in the King's service in all 160 ADMINISTRATION OF LORD BELLOMONT. ranks, from high to low, to be " not men of the 1701. country, but Enghshmen." He died in March 5. -^^.^ York before the end of the year after his return thither ; happy, perhaps, to escape- the unjust reception which was awaiting hirn in England, on account of his connection with Lord Soraers. He was honorable, frank, and sensitive, perhaps overconfident, perhaps not without arro gance. The sight of knavery in others enraged hira, and he could not endure to be himself sus pected of any indirection. While he was in Massachusetts, Lord Bello mont used laudable diligence in preparing hira self to make reports to his superiors on the con dition of his province ; but, as was to have been expected from his own want of acquaintance with the country and the little time he had for 1699. inquiries, the information which he cora- Aug. 28. municated was by no means exact. He informed the Lords of Trade that the Eastern tribes had not above " three hundred fighting men," yet that they had broken up a thousand families of English settlers. He represented that " the province of Maine, a noble country, had been destroyed in the late war," and that there were "no thoughts of repeopling it; the people were not public-spirited enough." He distin guished a portion of the Council as "the sour part" He reported thera as saying that "they were too much cramped in their liberties already," and he complained that a Bill relating to piracy. HIS REPORTS TO ENGLAND. 161 especially a clause punishing it with death, " would not go down with thera by any raeans." He had had a sharp dispute with the Council about their alleged right to a share in the appointment of certain officers. Sir William Phipps had been weak enough, he said, to yield that point tq them ; and Stoughton had done the same, though not without a protest. A pres ent of a thousand pounds of the provincial cur rency, raade to hira by the General Court, he said, was equivalent to no more than seven hun dred pounds sterling, whereas, before leaving Eng land, he had been led to expect a regular salary of twelve hundred pounds. " I never did," he writes, " nor ever will ask them any thing, and it troubles me that I ara on so pre carious a foot for a salary for this government." This complaint being communicated by the Lords of Trade to the agent of Massachusetts, Sir Henry " said he believed the Council and the . Assembly would not consent to settle a 1700. salary upon all governors for the future ; •'™" ^^¦ but that if his Majesty should be pleased to write to them, or if this Board should do it, he doubted not but that they migh't be persuaded to settle a suitable salary upon the Earl of Bellomont dur ing his government." The reader remembers that one consideration which had had weight in the selection of Lord Bellomont for the chief administration in America related to the piracies believed to have been com- II 162 ADMINISTRATION OF LORD BELLOMONT. raitted by vessels equipped in or resorting to the ports of that country. Already, before his lord ship's arrival, Stoughton had instituted inquiries respecting these criraes. A ship of three or four hundred tons, called the Adventure, came in sus picious circumstances into Narragansett Bay. Taking alarra at sorae circurastances of their reception, the crew landed and dispersed into the country. The captain, naraed Bradish, and ten others, were atrested in Massachusetts. Frora them it was learned that the ship, then mount- 1698. ing twenty-two guns, had a year before Maich 16. gj^jjg J from Gravesend for Borneo, on a trading voyage for some London merchants ; and that, after they had been six raonths at sea, part of the corapany, twenty-five or twenty-six in nuraber, conspired to seize the ship, left the mas ter with the rest of the crew and passengers on an island, and chose the boatswain's mate to be .their captain. After a division of the plunder, which yielded to each more than fifteen hundred dollars in money, besides a share in other valu able property, they sought a place where they might land and disperse without observation. 1699. At the end of a year from their going March 19. ^Q sca, the rovcrs had made a port at the east end of Long Island, where they had deposited some of their booty, while they shpuld make further observations. Proceeding thenCe to Block Island, they took the alarm "vyhich occa sioned their dispersion and flight. PROCEEDINGS AGAINST PIRATES. 163 In respect to another criminal, the vigilance of Lord Belloraont was stimulated by a per sonal interest Wihiara Kidd was the pirate whora he was especially desirous to get into his hands. Four or five years before, the gov ernor had becorae interested in an enterprise for clearing the Eastern seas of piratical cruisers which were preying there on European cora raerce. In London he becarae acquainted with Colonel Robert Livingston, of New York, and took " occasion to mention to this gentleman the scandal which lay upon New York in respect to the "encourageraent and retreat which pirates found there." At a subsequent interview, Liv ingston "said he had spoke with one Captain Williara Kidd, lately corae from New York in a sloop of his own upon the account of trade, who told him that he knew most of the principal men who had been abroad roving, and divers who had lately gone out, and hkewise had some knowledge of the places where they usual ly made their rendezvous, and that he would undertake to seize raost of thera, in case he might be employed in one of the King's ships, a good sailer of about thirty guns, and might have a hundred and fifty men Living ston affirraed that Kidd was a bold and honest man The King was made acquainted with the proposal by the Earl of Bellomont, which he was pleased to think very necessary to be immediately considered, because about that 164 ADMINISTRATION OF LOED BELLOMONT. tirae divers informations upon oath had been sent to the Secretary of State of several vessels gone and a-going from Bermuda, New York, Rhode Island, etc., upon piratical designs His Majesty was pleased to consult the Ad miralty on this occasion, but the war employ ing all the King's ships which were in a condi tion for service, and the great want of seamen, notwithstanding the press and all other means used, together with the remoteness of the voyage, and the uncertainty of meeting with the pirates, or taking thera though they raight be found out, occasioned after sorae deliberation the laying aside of this project as impracticable at that time." Lord Bellomont then proposed the fit ting out of a privateer, "which he insisted would prove a profitable speculation. This enterprise he succeeded in carrying into effect Several of the first men of the kingdom, the Earl of Oxford (first Lord of the Admiralty), Somers (Lord Chancellor), the Duke of Shrewsbury, the Earl of Roraney, took shares, and the King was to have a tenth part of the profits of the cruise. Kidd obtained a coraraission under the Great 1696. Seal for his ship, and went to sea frora April. Plymouth with a sraall crew. He crossed Sfptem- to New York, whence, having there, with Governor Fletcher's help, increased his 1697. company to the nuraber of a hundred and February. £f(.y jugj), hc Sailed for the Eastern seas. But either Kidd had been a rogue from the PEOCEEDINGS AGAINST PIEATES. 165 beginning, or the new temptations which he en countered were too much for his little virtue. The times of Drake and Hawkins were not dis tant, and the morals of the seas were still un settled at the best. Madagascar and Borneo were a great way from the country where Eng hsh evil-doers might be called to account, and there were richer prizes along their coasts than the paltry vessels of their native thieves. Kidd was not long in seeing that his good ship would be less gainfully employed in hunting pirates than in piracy. At first he was tiraid, if he had ceased to be scrupulous, and he contented him self with taking the ships of Asiatics, whose sovereigns would not be likely to bring their complaints to the ear of his. But " use lessens marvel." Presently he became the terror of the Indian commerce of the Portuguese. As he grew reckless, he grew savage. He landed with his brutes for expeditions of burning and mas sacre. He scourged his prisoners to make them declare where their rupees were hidden. When the news of his doings came slowly to i698. London, the merchants were concerned for •*"^^'- what had been done, and distressed by fear lest their turn should corae next. The members of the East India Company were aghast in view of 'the retaliation to which such freedoms on an Englishman's part raight expose their feeble fac tories. The Lords of Trade sent orders to those in authority in the foreign possessions of Eng- 166 ADMINISTEATION OF LORD BELLOMONT. land to keep a lookout for the ravager. Lord Bellomont's past agency in Kidd's behalf ira posed on hira a peculiar responsibilit)\ The raatter had assuraed a high political importance. The jealous mood of England, at the tirae when Parliaraent had refused the King's request to retain his Dutch guards, and was meditating an impeachment of Lord Somers, fastened upon Kidd's crimes as a means of bringing odium on the Whig leaders. In the House of Commons " a resolve was proposed, and defeated by a ma jority of less than fifty votes, that the affixing by Somers of the Great Seal to Kidd's letters-patent was " dishonorable to the King, inconsistent with the law of nations, contrary to the statutes of the realm, and destructive of property and trade." Even the King's august name was brought rudely into the question, as if he had been a stockholder in a pirate ship. With marvellous rashness, since he must have erroneously assured himself that there had been no talebearer, Kidd came back with some of his 1699. spoils to an English colony. He appeared '"''^' in Delaware Bay with about forty cora- rades, and having taken some supplies proceeded to Rhode Island, whence he sent a messenger to Lord Bellomont, who had then just arrived in Boston, to say that " he was come thither to make his terms in a sloop, which had on board goods to the value of ten thousand pounds, and was able to make his innocence appear by many PROCEEDINGS AGAINST PIEATES. 167 "witnesses." The governor feared that the culprit might yet escape. With the advice of his Coun cil, he sent a message to Kidd that " if he would make his innocence appear, he might safely corae to Boston." Thither, accordingly, Kidd carae in his sloop. After an unsatisfactory exaraination before the governor and Council he was Junei. " coraraitted close prisoner with divers of June 6. his crew." The governor transraitted his rainutes of the exaraination to the Lords of Trade, and asked that a ship of war raight be sent to convey the rover to England for trial, there being no provincial law for punishing pi racy with death. He was tried at the Old 1701. Bailey for murder and for piracy, found ^'^y^- guilty under both indictments, and executed. The murder "was that of one of his sailors, whom, provoked by rude language, he had struck with a mortal blow. The piracies specified on the trial were the capture and robbery of a ship named the " Quedah Merchant," owned by Ar menians, coraraanded by an Englishman, and navigated by a Moorish crew; of three Moorish vessels, one of them having also an English and another a Dutch captain ; and of a ship of Por tugal. It appeared on the trial that, after the capture of the " Quedah Merchant," Kidd had transferred himself to her with part of his crew. On his return voyage, he had left her with some twenty of his men in the West Indies, and there had bought the sloop in which he came to New Enqclanrl. 168 ADMINISTEATION OF LORD BELLOMONT. in the latter part of the time of Lord BeUo- raont's stay in Massachusetts, the Indians divided his attention with the pirates. The recent peace with the Eastern tribes had inspired confidence, and the English who had fled from Maine were returning to reinstate their ravaged dwefiings, when a report was spread that those tribes had made another conspiracy so extensive as to in clude even the Iroquois, and the remnants of the nations in the more compact English settlements. 1700. The governor of Connecticut wrote to Jan. 29. Lord Belloraont that he had information to this effect on such authority as to justify vigi lance. At the sarae tirae, a ruraor got into circu lation among the Indians that the whites had resolved upon their extirpation, and were all but ready to strike the blow ; and this apprehension of theirs lent probabihty to the story that they were preparing for new disorders. The gov ernor, believing the danger to be real, issued his proclamation, enjoining upon the people to abstain on the one hand from all offensive or questionable conduct, and on the other to observe their savage neighbors, and take precautions for defending themselves, in case of any outbreak. He even proceeded to convene the General Court, which took vigorous measures of pre caution. Laws ,were passed for raising and- equipping troops, for punishing mutiny and de sertion among them, and for marching them out of the province at the governor's discretion ; and KING'S CHAPEL. 169 small garrisons were posted at three or four places in the western part of Maine. But either there had in fact been no danger, or these pro ceedings averted it. The natives remained quiet, and the alarm passed away, having continued through nearly all the year. Boston is believed to have contained at this time more than a thousand houses, and raore than seven thousand inhabitants. At the capital especially, what reraained of the primitive re ligious strictness could not fail to be relaxed by the extension of comraercial activity, as well as by the influence of that provision of King Wil- liara's charter which detached the political fran chise from church membership. The only place of worship in New England of the English es tablishment had had a hard struggle for life against the passionate dislike of the people ; its supporters had been dispersed, and its minister had gone horae discouraged, at the time of the recent revolution ; and it recovered with difficulty frora the disrepute contracted by its connection with the usurpation of Andros. Lord Bellomont, the first governor, except Andros, attached to its comraunion, attempted to revive it in Boston. He brought from England a present from the Bishop of London of a collection of books for the Boston church, and an assistant for the rector, Mr. Myles, who had succeeded to the place of Randolph's friend, Ratcliffe. The assistant, dying in the West Indies on the voyage, was followed 170 ADMINISTRATION OF LORD BELLOMONT. by another, Mr. Bridge, who held the place some eight or nine years. The governor, while in Boston, worshipped at King's Chapel on Sun days, but he did something by way of amends by a regular attendance at the weekly Thursday 1699. lecture of the First Church. He wrote Oct. 24. tothe Lords of Trade that some persons* in New England desired " a Church-of-England minister," and expressed his hope that they would "patronize so good a design." In the temper of England, at that moraent especially, the patronage of the Board for that good design 1700. did not need to be solicited, and they in- Feb.2. terested themselves with the Bishop of London to obtain for the colonists the advantage of ecclesiastical supervision. A transaction much more iraportant than these in the religious history of the tirae related to an abateraent of the ancient rigor of Congregational administration. A fourth Congregational church in Boston was established upon principles ex tremely distasteful to the friends ofthe old order of the churches. Most, if not all, of the under takers, as the associates in this enterprise were called, ^were persons of substance and of social consideration, though none were high in office. In th'eir forra of worship they proposed no deviation frora the existing practice, except in respect to the reading of the Scriptures without coraraent, which — probably on account of its being prescribed in the English rubric — had hitherto not been prac- FOURTH CHURCH OF BOSTON. 171 tised in the churches of New England. But the great changes, which, to the extreme displeasure of the leaders of religious opinion, they intro duced into their own use, were such as struck at the foundation of the dignity of church-member ship. Hitherto, in the churches of New England, the practice was for a candidate for admission to the privileges of comraunion to give an account in public of his personal religious experiences ; the terras of adraission to baptism, though they had been raodified, were still strict; and the church (the body of coraraunicants) invited and contracted with a minister, whom the body of wor shippers was then compelled to support according to the terms which the church had made. The projectors of the " Church in Brattle Square," in a " manifesto or declaration " which the 1599. claraor around induced them to publish, not. 17. professed that they " dared not refuse baptism to any child offered by any professed Christian, upon his engagement to see it educated, if God gave life and ability, in the Christian rehgion. But this being a ministerial act," they thought it " the pastor's province to receive such professions and engagements We judge it fitting and expedient," they continue, " that whoever would be adraitted to partake with us in the Holy Sac rament be accountable to the pastor, to whom it belongs to inquire into their knowledge and spiritual state, and to require the renewal of their baptismal covenant. But we assume not to our- 172 ADMINISTRATION OF LORD BELLOMONT. selves to impose upon any a public relation of their experiences Finally, we cannot con fine the right of choosing a minister to the com municants alone ; but we think that every bap tized adult person, who contributes to the main tenance, should have a vote in electing." At the same time they declare .that they " approve and subscribe the Confession of Faith put forth by the Assembly of Divines at West minster " ; that they " design only the true and pure worship of God, according to the rules plainly appearing to them in his Word " ; and that it is their "sincere desire and intention to hold communion with the churches here, as true churches." This raoveraent — or rather, it may be said, the state and tendency of public opinion which it indicated — increased the alarm already felt by the friends of the ancient order of things for the safety of the College, and urged them to meas ures for keeping it under their control. On the return of Increase Mather from England with the provincial charter, he had resumed his former position as President. The old charter of the institution was understood to have expired with that of the colony by which it had been con- 1692. ferred. It was at President Mather's in- June27. gtancc, that the Provincial General Court at its first session passed ah Act incorporating the College anew, with an organization materially changed. Under the ancient system, the Col- HAEVAED COLLEGE. 173 lege corporation consisted of a President, Treas urer, and five Fellows, who governed the in stitution under the supervision of a Board of Overseers, composed of the Governor, Deputy- Governor, and Assistants of the colony, with the Congregational ministers of Boston and of the six adjoining towns. The present Act created a corporation consisting of ten persons, who were to govern the institution without responsibility, no provision being made for any body of visitors. The new corporation organized itself, and dis charged its functions for three years, at the end of which tirae carae a notification that the King had disapproved the Act, on account of 1695. the absence from it of a provision for a *"s-22- Board of Visitors. The institution was now dead in law. Governor Stoughton took the responsibility of making a provisional ar- rangeraent by reinstating the adrainistra tion which had existed under the old charter. The General Court raade a new atterapt. Under the influence perhaps of such as desired to make the most of the time when a zealous friend of the old ecclesiastical order was at the head of the adrainistration of the province, and when he might be superseded at any moment by a gov ernor differently disposed, they passed an Apt creating a corporation of sixteen (afterwards changed to seventeen) persons, including 1597. a Vice-President, — a new office, which the "^"^ *• Reverend Mr. Morton was designated to fifi. 174 ADMINISTEATION OF LOED BELLOMONT. The official term of a Fellow was to expire at the end of ten years, and the governor and his Council were to be Visitors. President Mather and his son (also a meraber of the new corpora tion) were not altogether pleased with this last arrangement, representing, as they did, the con servative school of clergy, whose power they did not think sufficiently secured. This Act remained without the royal assent 1699. when the Earl of Bellomont carae to Bos- june2. ^.Qjj_ He introduced the subject in his first message to the General Court, recomraending an application to the King for a charter. The King's scruple had been the provision for the exercise of the visitatorial function, which, unshared with the Council, he chose to exercise hiraself through his governor. The General Court yielded this "^ ' point. By a new Act they gave the power of visitation " to his Majesty and his governor and coraraander-in-chief for the tirae being of this province " ; but they provided that five Fel lows of the Corporation should always be per sons elected frora the Council. The influence of the President and his friends had also prevailed to introduce the novel provision "that no person shall be chosen and continued President, Vice- President, or Fellow of said Corporation, but such as shall declare and continue their adher ence unto the principles of reforraation which were espoused and intended by those who first settled this country and founded the College, and DEATH OF LOED BELLOMONT. 175 have hitherto been the profession and practice of the generality of the churches of Christ in New England." The governor objected to this ex clusion of members of the English establish ment from the academical government. He ar rested the Act, and " advised to address his Majesty for a royal charter of incorporation." The suggestion having led to nothing, — for the General Court were reluctant to allow the neces sity of comraitting everything to the royal pleas ure, — the governor renewed it the next 1700. year. The Council passed a vote to carry J™«ii- it into effect, but the Representatives still July 12. preferred to frame a charter for the King's con sideration. The two branches agreed upon a "Draught of a Charter of Incorporation for Harvard College to be humbly solicited for to his Majesty." The care of it was in trusted to Lord Bellomont, with a request for hira to use his interest in England for its adoption, which one of his letters shows that he was entirely disposed to do. But he did not live to bring the matter to the notice of the King. Perhaps he died of sheer disappointment and mortification, for he knew how he was raaligned in England, and the King's rainisters, who should have been his vindicators, had given hira recently no sort of attention. He wrote frora Bos ton a week before his departure thence "in the anguish of his soul." " I put the best face I 176 ADMINISTRATION OF STOUGHTON. can on it," he said, " but I never in all my life was so vexed and ashamed as now." After he went to New York, and still more completely after his 1701. death there in the next year, the local ad- Marchs. ministration again devolved on Stoughton, as lieutenant-governor. Stoughton survived his superior by not many months. A token of popu lar approbation, of a kind to which he had not been used, came to cheer his last sohtary days. The House — perhaps in a sudden access of good will for an old servant often visited with the popular rebuke, perhaps from a really grateful sense of his recent commendable services, perhaps from no kinder motive than was supplied by an apprehension of having Dudley for their ruler — resolved to send a petition to the King, for ^" ' the appointment of Stoughton to that office. But the Council refused to concur in the measure. Stoughton's health was failing. He presided at the opening of the next General Court; but, while its business was yet unfinished, was forced ' to prorogue it for a month, " being incapa ble, by reason of sickness, of further affording his presence in the Assembly, or of admitting of their July?, going to him." Before the month was out, he died in Dorchester, where he had passed 1632. . . . . ' ^ May. his joyless life, having been born there in the second year after the great immigration. He had filled many offices, and perforraed their duties with a surly assiduity, which commanded a certain sort of esteem. He perhaps loved no- DEATH OF STOUGHION. 177 body, though the winning as well as coniinaiidin"' powers of Dudley may have blended somelliing of affection with the deference into which he was subdued by the genius of that highly endowed man. On the other hand, if he was not loved, Stoughton was not a man to be made uncomfort able by isolation, while it was a pleasure to him to feel that he had some command of that con fidence which men repose in such as they see to be indifferent .to their good-will, and independent of it, as coveting nothing which it has to bestow. When his constituents were angry at the result of his raission to England, he did not distress hiraself for their displeasure, but waited patiently for it to subside ; and when they solicited hira to go a second time on the same errand, he told them, with no warmth and no reflection on the past, that they could not have his services. While, like every landholder in Massachusetts, he was frightened at the excesses of Andros, he had httle enthusiasm for the rising by which Andros was expelled. The prosecution of the witches was a proceeding quite to his mind ; the " stern joy " of inflicting great misery under the coercion of an unflinching sense of duty was strangely congenial with his proud and narrow nature ; he had a special relish for that class of duties which, bring ing wretchedness on others, raay be supposed to ' cost the doer a struggle against the remonstrances of pity. When, sympathizing with the almost universal sorrow and reraorse that succeeded the 12 178 COUNCIL OF MASSACHUSETTS. witchcraft madness, his gentle associate Sewall publicly bemoaned his sin, and in agony iraplored the Divine forgiveness, Stoughton professed that, whatever raistakes might have been made, he saw " no reason to repent of what he had done with the fear -of God before his eyes." While, on the one hand, his habitual unconcern about popular favor generally gave him the coramand of as much of it as he cared for, he was helped, on the other, by the friendship of the clergy, which he took as much pains to secure as he ever thought it worth while to bestow for any amiable purpose. If the people did not want hira, he could be content; at all events, he would nPt complain or solicit^ if they did want him, he would serve them without fraud and without ambition, but it must be after his own dreary fashion, — a fashion to be dictated, as the occasions arose, not only by his judgment and sense of duty, but by his prejudices and his temper. He meant to be excellently firm ; he ex celled in being churlish, wilful, and obstinate, in a style of the most unexceptionable dignity. The Board of Trade had not been satisfied with the recent conduct of Massachusetts. They had not been able to prevail upon that province to undertake the expense of rebuilding the fort at Pemaquid, notwithstanding their having pressed it with urgent repetition. The General Court, re senting the renewed activity in enforcing the Acts of Navigation, which they regarded as unjust and hestvily oppressive, had refused to pass laws de- UNFRIENDLY PROCEEDINGS IN ENGLAND. 179 sired in England for the more rigorous execution of those Acts ; they were, they saidj " as much Englishmen as those in England, and had a right, therefore, to all the privileges which the people of England enjoyed." The Board were in- 1701. formed by an official person, writing from ''«'''""*'"'"¦• Boston, " that he feared the government of Boston had complained of him for publicly exposing one of their clergy, who maintained that they were not bound in conscience to obey the laws of England, having no representatives there of their choosing." The Board wrote to Lord Bellomont : " The denial of appeals is a humor which ^" ' prevails so much in proprietary and charter plan tations, and the independency they thirst after is now so notorious, that it has been thought fit those considerations and other objections should be laid before the Parhament." In fact this had been done, and the three New England charters were in serious danger. The Lords of Trade had represented to the King that the chartered colonies " had not only assumed the power of making by-laws repug nant to the laws of England and destructive to trade, but they refused to transrait their acts, or to allow appeals, and continued to be the retreat of pirates and illegal traders, and the receptacle ' of contraband raerchandise" ; that " these irregu larities, arising from the ill use they made of their charters, and the independency they pretended to, evinced how necessary it became, more and raore 180 COUNCIL OF MASSACHUSETTS. every day, to introduce such a regulation of trade, and such an administration of government, as • should make them duly subservient to England" ; and that " since the royal commands had not met with due obedience, it might be expedient to re sume their charters, and to reduce thera to the same dependency as other colonies, which would be best effected by the legislative power of the kingdom." A BiU was accordingly submitted to the House of Lords, pretending to annul the charters, and to invest the King with the same power in the chartered governments as in New Hampshire and the others which possessed no such security. A similar measure was urged upon the Comraons. What would have followed, had it corae now to a vote, can be only conjectured ; but the exciting question of the irapeachment of the King's friends was pending in Parliament, and the 1702. movement could not obtain attention. The March 18. King's death and the new interests thereby presented, postponed the revival of it ; but it was only two months before that event that the anuaiy. jg^^^^j j^^-^ bcforc him their opinion that " the national interest required that such inde pendent administrations should be placed, by the legislative power of the kingdom, in the same state of dependency as the royal governments." After the death of the governor and the lieu tenant-governor, the Council, by a provision of the charter, becarae the chief executive authority of Massachusetts. There now appeared a* pros- APPOINTMENT OF DUDLEY. 181 pect that Joseph Dudley's arabition to govern there might be gratified. He had been indus trious in endeavoring to remove those discour aging obstacles to his promotion which have been mentioned. New York was no sphere for hira, and the satisfaction which he had had in bringing Leisler to the gallows, for proceedings bearing sorae reserablance to those of the Massachusetts patriots against hiraself and his friends, was more than balanced by the apprehensions which fol lowed it when the party of Leisler revived. After a few months passed in New York as Chief Jus tice, he returned to England, and there employed all his powers of address to recommend himself to men in power, and to conciliate the dissenting ministers who might make peace for him in Massachusetts. Disappointed by the persistent opposition of Constantine Phipps and Ashurst, the agents, in his hope, first of displacing Sir William Phipps, and then of succeeding hira at his death, he became lieutenant-governor of the Isle of Wight, under Lord Cutts, whose friend ship he had secured ; and in Parliament, where he had obtained a seat, his superior capacity, inde fatigable diligence, and engaging manners obtained for him no small consideration. If his pride was enormous, still, unless when his violent passions were roused, he had a will strong enough to bridle his pride, if it threatened to obstruct his ambition. Lord Bellomont's death revived his hopes. The Mathers had shared and stimulated the hot 182 COUNCIL OF MASSACHUSETTS. resentment which had driven him from power in Massachusetts. But the father was at the head of the clergy of the province, and th« son was the most active of men, whether as partisan or as foe. Their weaknesses were familiarly known to Dudley, and he managed with patient assiduity to bring them over to his side. The two agents in England understood him, and continued to loathe him in their hearts. But he showed to them at least no anger for their triumph over hira in the appointraent of Lord Bellomont, and by the time when the vacancy again occurred, Ash urst had withdrawn from the agency, and Phipps had been brought to think that, among the un tried candidates for the succession, the colonists might do worse than by favoring their able com patriot, upon whom, it might be hoped, so much hard experience would not prove to have been thrown away. If no trust could be placed in his virtue, his selfishness might be confidently counted on, and in future it might prompt to better services. An active member of Parha ment was not without opportunities to obfige, or at least to compliment and to encourage, the dis senting ministers, whose cause, throughout Wil liam's reign, was in a condition at once critical and hopeful. The judgment of the dissenting ministers of England was of the greatest weight " with their brethren in Massachusetts, and Dudley at length got it in favor of his coveted advance ment. He voted for Onslow, put forward by the APPOINTMENT OF DUDLEY. 183 court for the place of Speaker of the Commons, though he was under what are called obligations of gratitude to Harley, the opposing candidate. The King, knowing how he vi^as hated in Massa chusetts, was unwilling to appoint him. But Dudley produced a petition in his favor, purport ing to be from Massachusetts men then in Lon don, and from raerchants trading with that prov ince. Finahy he placed in the King's hands a letter frora Cotton Mather, authorizing him to affirm that " there was not one minister nor one of the Assembly but were impatient for his cora ing," — a strong stateraent, which might be won dered at if it came from some other source. The House of Representatives had resolved on sending a special agent to England. The osten sible object was to obtain a charter for the College, and to represent the uneasiness felt in Massachu setts on account of the French claim to the East ern country and the fisheries on the Eastern coast. But there is no doubt that the iraraediately urgent raotive was to obstruct the elevation of Dudley. Elisha Cooke, the opponent of Presi dent Mather in respect to the new charter, was now the most powerful man in the General Court The President, who in England had been flattered with much attention in high circles, was extremely desirous to be employed in this agency. Cooke's old grudge or permanent dis trust determined that the President should not be gratified. While Mather was urging and 184 COUNCIL OF MASSACHUSETTS. Cooke was counteracting, Dudley had convenient time for his operations in England. Wait Win throp was at length appointed to be agent, but, just as this was done, news came of Dudley's appointment to be governor. The vote which had been passed for instructions to Winthrop was then reconsidered, and the project of sending hira was disraissed. The needs of the College and the apprehensions from the French were no longer thought so serious as to require iraraediate attention. The King's sudden death before Dudley was prepared to leave England raade it necessary for him to receive a new coraraission. But there was now no rivalry for the post, and the commission 1702. "was issued on the second day of the new March 10. j^^Qjjj^j.(,jj)g j-gigu. Dudley was fifty-seven years old when, convoyed by two armed vessels, he came back to the place associated in ' his memory with events of such various interest. CHAPTER VII. NEW HAMPSHIRE, CONNECTICUT, AND RHODE ISLAND. The relation which of late years had subsisted between Massachusetts and New Hampshire was inconvenient and vexatious to both parties. The four feeble settleraents which collectively were known by the latter narae lay close to and be tween sorae of the towns of Massachusetts, but, forming another jurisdiction, were beyond her protection or control when they were in danger or in disorder. When a band of Indian ma rauders was passing between the towns of Mas sachusetts on the Merrimac and her towns in Maine, she had to chase thera through the terri tory of a different governraent. Her vessels going into the river Pisoataqua were subject to be visited by the custora-house officers of another jurisdiction. To New Harapshire this separation was still more disadvantageous. The connection with Massachusetts had been uniformly and un- exceptionably beneficial to her. The sister colony had afforded an effective defence, and its govern ment had been honest and generous. There had been parties and cabals among the New Hamp shire people, but, as often as there had been oc- 186 NEW HAMPSHIRE. casion for their deliberate sense to be expressed, it had always proved to be in favor of in corporation into the chief colony of New Eng land. Two influences had all along more or less obstructed this arrangement, and both were in action at the time when King William gave to Massachusetts her second charter. From the earliest period of the importance of that colony, the English statesmen — not excepting those of the Commonwealth — had been jealous of her growth. Occasionally it was unavoidable for them to allow weight to considerations which had another bearing. When they wanted the border towards New France to be watched, when they wanted garrisons in Nova Scotia and a for tress at Pemaquid, they had to choose between charging this expense upon the royal treasury, or devolving it upon Massachusetts by including within her territory the country which required to be secured ; and proceedings sometimes dictated by this calculation appeared to indicate senti ments raore favorable to her than in truth were entertained. In general, whoever was in power in England, — whether it was Clarendon or Vane, Danby or Soraers, — there was a disposition to disable and hurable Massachusetts, as the repre sentative and main-spring of a power which might grow in its pretensions as long as it should be suffered to mature in strength. The claim of John Mason and of his heirs and A EOYAL PEOVINCE. 187 assigns to lands on the Piscataqua, founded on alleged grants of the Council for New England, though always disputed by Massachusetts, had been regarded with some favor by the English courtiers and lawyers. Mason had been declared to have a valid claim to more or less territory on that river, but it was not admitted that he, like Gorges, had received authority to govern the country which had been granted. Mason's rights, whatever they were, had been inherited by his grandson, Robert Tufton, who took the name of Mason, and who died while one of the coun sellors of Andros. The expulsion of Andros deprived New Hamp shire of a government Sorae of the principal men summoned a convention of delegates from the towns, to consult respecting the measures required by the necessity of the time. At i69o. a second meeting the convention resolved J™'^'^- to apply to Massachusetts to be received Feb. 20. again into her jurisdiction. The request was coraplied with, and raerabers for the New Harap shire towns sat in the General Court of Massa chusetts, and civil and military officers, displaced under the recent order of things, were recalled to service. Meanwhile the claim of Robert Mason had passed, by his death, into other hands. I688. Two sons, .who inherited his property, °\l^_'''' sold their interest in New Harapshire for Aprii27. seven hundred and fifty pounds, to Sarauel 188 NEW HAMPSHIEE. Allen, a London merchant. A daughter of Allen was the wife of John Usher, who may be supposed to have advised the purchase. It was he who, some years before, had bought Maine of Gorges for Massachusetts. From his father, Hezekiah Usher, a man of moderate conse quence in the colonial' times, he had inherited some fortune, which he had increased by suc cessful Ijusiness, first as a bookseller and after wards in foreign trade. He had been a coun sellor under the presidency of Dudley, and coun sellor and treasurer under Andros. Allen bought Mason's rights, whatever they might prove to be, in New Hampshire, while Mather and his col leagues were soliciting the charter of Massachu setts, and were urging the expediency of includ ing New Hampshire within that province. When their prayer was denied, and it was determined to set up New Harapshire again as a royal prov- 1692. ince, Allen naturally aspired to be the March 1. governor. He was accordingly appointed to that office, with Usher for his lieutenant, to adrainister the governraent in his absence, ' a trust which Usher presently assuraed on the spot. The chief magistrate was to be as sisted by fifteen counsellors, of which number nine persons, residents of the towns, were nora- inated in the original coraraission ; the governor was to propose the others after obtaining further information. Usher understood that the people continued to be indisposed to acquiesce in the GOVEENOR ALLEN. 189 settleraent which had been made, and were " pre senting their petition to their Majesties that they may be joined to the Massachusetts governraent." But rather than this should be done, he ^^ 29 advised the Lords of Trade that it would " be for their Majesties' interest and security of the people " to place the whole of New England under one general governor. " Otherwise," he addefl, " I hope their Majesties will disraiss me from this little government, who by their poverty are not able honorably to support itself." Their poverty was undeniable, but it Avas far from being their only distress. The reader won ders at the courage and hopefulness which, in those times of savage war, nerved the borderers of New Hampshire to bear their miserable life, while he perceives a reason of their earnest deshe for that union with Massachusetts which would have placed them in a better position to look to her for relief. Their insecurity made their poverty all the raore grievous. Their hving was to be got frora the fields, the rivers, and the forests. But they could not go out to cut tiraber, or to plough, or raow, or fish, with any confidence that they were not to be fired upon from the nearest thicket, or that their families would not be butchered before they came back. Usher reported to Lord Nottinghara, " Our mus ter roll amounts to but seven hundred and fifty- four souls." There was almost np money, and every sort of coramodity for food, clothing, or 190 NEW HAMPSHIEE. enjoyment was scarce and dear. Provisions were sometimes wanting even for soldiers in the field. The case seemed stiff harder when the unhappy people had to reflect that the homes they were defending at such cost and peril were not secure ly theirs. Throughout their short history their ancestors had been vexed, by the claims and suits of a succession of English absentees, and now the last of the Masons had turned them over to another stranger, who, with fresh energy, was about to renew the annoying usurpation. Usher had a twofold office to discharge in the interest of his master and father-in-law ; he had to defend the doraain on the one hand against the arms of savage invaders, and on the other hand against the claims of Englishmen who es teemed themselves proprietors, but whora he, if the word had been then invented, would have called squatters. In his discharge of the-latter function, he had of course nothing but resentment and re sistance to expect from the people whom he had been sent to rule. As to the forraer, the interests of the two parties were the sarae, so that as often as there was apprehension of an Indian inroad, they had a good understanding together, and were able to act in harmony. Usher, though impetuous and domineering, and soured by the recent issue of his connection with Andros, was not wanting in capacity or vigor, and the scanty resources which he possessed were used with ac tivity, if not always with good judgment, for the defence of his province. LIEUTENANT-GOVEENOR USHER. 191 A wiser man, in his circurastances, would have cultivated a good understanding with the persons in power in Massachusetts. But while vigorous military movements should have been in progress, the adrainistration of Usher was embarrassed by a quarrel which he nursed with Phipps, who on his part was not indisposed to make the most of it ; his hatred of Andros, which was so strong as to vent itself in violent threats when he returned to Boston just after the Revolution, having a natural tendency to extend itself to Andres's adherents. Beginning with a collision as to their respective powers, the open feud between the governor and Usher was aggravated by accidental causes. The merchant-ship in which Phipps had provided a passage for Captain Short to England put into Portsmouth, in New Hampshire, into which har bor, whether by an arrangeraent of his or other wise. Short's frigate, the Nonsuch, soon followed her. The officer now in coraraand of the Nonsuch applied to Hinckes — President of the Council, and, in Usher's absence, the head of the govern ment — for Short's release; which was refused. Phipps, either having come to feel some misgivings about the propriety of his own conduct, or intending to get some information respecting Short's 1693. designs, carae by land to Portsraouth, and March 30. summoned Hinckes to meet him on board the merchant-ship, which the latter declined to do. Phipps went to the vessel, where he caused Short's chest to be broken open, and seized his papers. 192 NEW HAMPSHIRE. Reclaiming and tearing in pieces the warrant which he had issued for Short's conveyance to England, and substituting another, for him to be conveyed in the frigate, he got up a new quarrel with the ship-master, who, being no longer with in his jurisdiction, raade vehement complaints. Phipps's coraraission made him General and Admiral of the King's land and sea forces in the northeastern provinces. In this capacity he under took to inspect the fort at Portsmouth, but Usher refused hira adraission to it, and when, notwith standing this, he atterapted an entrance, he was raet by a corporal's guard which turned him back. Some men had deserted from the Nonsuch, and were believed to be lurking somewhere among the towns of New Hampshire. Phipps demanded assistance to search for thera. But Usher would not ahow hira to have it, and denied his author ity. Finally, in resentraent of the disrespect which had been shown hira, Phipps ordered back into Massachusetts a force which he had detached for the defence of the former province. In the last 1694. sumraer of his adrainistration, after the July 30. attack on Oyster River by the Indians, there was a sharp correspondence between hira and Usher, introduced by a call from the latter for military assistance. Except for the military operations, and for his strifes with the governor of Massachusetts, Usher's administration was uneventful. He passed much of his time in Boston, attending to his private LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR USHEE. 193 affairs, though he liked to magnify his office by coming to New Harapshire and suraraoning meet ings of the Council, with slight pretences of busi ness to be done. When he asked the Assembly for raoney, he was told too truly that the people were poor; and when he applied for troops, he was answered that the province was overtasked, and could not hold its ground without the help of Massachusetts ; which was not only very near the truth, but what they wished to have represented at court, that it raight weigh in favor of that an nexation which they never ceased to desire. The government was parsimoniously supported by a duty on imported goods, and an excise on wine and spirits, levied from year to year by the Assem bly. The lieutenant-governor moved them urgent ly to do something better. They replied 1595. that their means seeraed exhausted in pj-o- '^°™"'""^' viding for their defence, but that, if possible, they "would oblige hira, " provided he and the Council would join With thera in petitioning the King to annex the province to Massachusetts." They raade hira no allowance. Allen had guarantied to hira a salary of two hundred and fifty pounds a year, which, on Usher's application at the end of three years, he refused to pay. Usher then asked "to be relieved, either by the governor in person, or by the appointraent of sorae successor in his own place. Without his knowledge, he hdd been anticipated in this request. An application had been raade for the appointraent of Williara 13 194 NEW HAMPSHIEE. Partridge, treasurer of the province, to be lieu tenant-governor. Partridge, a ship-builder, who 1697. had large connections in England with the January, dealers in masts and tiraber, went out to further the movement, and to Usher's surprise returned with a coraraission to succeed hira, ob tained six months before by Sir Henry Ashurst 1696. from the Lords Justices, — the King being June 6. at that tirae on the continent. By this tirae Usher had changed his mind as to the attractiveness of his office. At all events, an involuntary retirement was distasteful to him. In consequence of having corae out without his in structions, or frora failure in sorae other prelimi nary. Partridge was not ready to take his official 1697. oath. The Council and Assembly, how- june 8. gygj.^ jjeid a meeting, and proceeded to some acts which Usher, writing of them from Bpston to England, described as the " Piscataqua Rebellion." The Lords of Trade instructed him to retain his place, till Partridge should take the oaths, or Lord Bellomont should arrive in America. Accordingly he went to Ports- Dec. 13. ° •' mouth, where he proclaimed the peace of Ryswick. But his resuraed sway was short-lived. The next day his successor took the official Dec. 14. / oath, and Usher went back, a private man, 1698. to his Boston counting-room. The Assera- ;an. 3.. i^iy presently sent to the Lords of Trade their thanks to the King for the new appoint ment, and their assurance, as to Usher, that BELLOMONT IN NEW HAMPSHIEE. 195 " there had been no disturbances but what he himself had made." While Lord Bellomont remained in New York, Allen carae over, and assuraed the chief raagistracy of New Hampshire. Usher also appeared there, and claimed to be rein stated as lieutenant-governor. This led to a dispute which was terminated for the present by the governor's dissolving the Assembly. 1699. Everything remained in suspense till Lord ¦'"¦ ®" Belloraont, having inaugurated his governraent. in Massachusetts, came to Portsmouth, where he confirmed Partridge in the place of lieu- ^ "tenant-governor, and made other arrangements which recoraraended hira to the people. He ad vised the province to provide raaterials for a fort in Portsraouth Harbor, at a cost estimated at more than six thousand pounds, by an engineer whom he employed. The Assembly told hira that they had never, when the exigency was greatest, been able to raise raore than a thousand pounds in a year, and that they were now especially disabled by reason of their debt incurred in defending thera selves against the Indians, and of the insecurity of their property, occasioned by the claim of Allen ; and they went on to complain that after spending more money in the defence of the border than their estates were now worth, they should be called upon, as they had been, to send men to protect the frontier of New York, — a colony in which, they said, their savage enemies found a 196 NEW HAMPSHIEE. refuge, and a market for their spoils. They pro fessed, however, their disposition to do anything which he should esteem it reasonable to demand, when he should have acquainted himself with their poverty. He refused to enter into the con troversy with Allen respecting the proprietorship of the soil, referring it to the judicial courts which were instituted in conformity with his advice. The Assembly found the raeans for a grant to hira of five hundred pounds. After two or three weeks he returned to Boston, leaving Partridge at the head of the administration. What he had seen .of Allen had affected him with profound disgust. Allen had atterapted to bribe hira to " favor Aug. 1. . . ^ his cause." First he offered hira, in general terras, " a handsome recompense." Then he pro posed to " divide the province " with him, and to match his daughter with a younger son of the Earl, endowing her with "ten thousand pounds in money But I told hira," wrote Belloraont, "that I would not sell justice, if I might have the world." Allen accompanied ' the Earl part of the way on his departure from New Hampshire to repeat the offer,_and carae 1700. to Boston to press it yet again with more February, eamestncss than ever, representing that the lands claimed by hira were " worth twenty-two thousand pounds t per annum at threepence per acre quitrent." Bellomont wrote to the Lords of juneiL Trade that " Usher, indulging his choleric June 22. temper," had refused to take his place in the LIEUTENANT-GOVEENOE ALLEN. 197 Council, and that Blathwait, formerly Sec- 1699. retary to the Board, was corruptly concerned ^''p'" ^" with Allen. Nor was he rauch better satisfied with Partridge. " I take it," he wrote to the 1700. Lords of Trade, "to be the chiefest part ^»"'^- of the trust and business of a lieutenant-governor of this province to preserve the woods for the King's use, and that it was no raore fit to commit that duty to a millwright than to set a wolf to keep sheep " ; and he refused to permit Partridge to load a ship with timber for Lisbon, and rebuked him for making the request. When Allen brought his business into the newly constituted courts, he expected to find a record of judgraents obtained by Mason in Governor Cranfield's tirae. But it was sought for in vain, while several leaves relating to the period appeared to have been ab stracted frora the books. Allen's case was thus at a disadvantage. He could get no verdict in his favor, and was raulcted in costs. He tried an appeal to England, but the court "*' . 1701. refused to allow it. The Asserably then April. passed laws, with Partridge's concurrence, Sept. 13. confirming the titles which Allen had impeached, and directing surveys to determine the boundaries of the lands which had been in litigation. Allen •petitioned the King in Council, who authorized an appeal, to be prosecuted within eight months. The previous refusal of it by the New Harap shire courts occasioned great displeasure on the 198 CONNECTICUT. part of the Lords of Trade, who expressed their feeling with emphasis in letters to Lord Bello-' mont He died before they carae to his hand. Allen sent Usher, and the province sent William Vaughan, a counsellor and a popular fa vorite, to represent them respectively in England, where they arrived but a few months before King William's death. Accordant as were the sentiments of the people of Massachusetts with those which brought about the Revolution in England, the proceeding of that colony in the deposition of Andros was so irreg ular and bold that it could not have failed to raise serious questions in the rainds of the pre rogative-loving King Wilham and his cautious ministers. And however wrongfully her charter had been abrogated, it had been condemned with all legal formalities. In both these respects, as the reader knows, the position of Connecticut and Rhode Island was different. When their governor and his counsellors had been imprisoned in Boston, it was indispensable, if they would not have anarchy, that some other authority should be set up, and the raost natural and most unex ceptionable course was that which they adopted when they reinstated their charter governments. They could raaintain that they had but subraitted tb duress when Andros threatened thera ; and if Connecticut had done this with reluctance and reserve, and Rhode Island with alacrity, the legal condition of the two provinces was nevertheless POSITION AS TO THE CHAETEE. 199 the same. Accordingly when the sentiraents of one and the interests of both prorapted them to seek a good understanding with the new sov ereign, and obtain his sanction for the restoration of their ancient governraents, both found a favor able hearing. The Address in which Connecticut con- ^^^^ gratulated the King and Queen on their June 13. accession solicited a confirraation of her 1693. charter, and four years later Fitz-John 0'='- ^¦ Winthrop was sent to England to renew the suit. The confirraation was never forraally given, but the colony had in England a serviceable friend in Increase Mather, and they felt safe in proceeding when he had obtained authoritative judgraents in favor of their pretension. The law officers of the crown gave their opinion " that the charter not being surrendered under the coramon seal, and that surrender duly enrolled of record, nor any judgment of record entered against it, the same remained good and valid in law." Oc casionally the home governraent would be seized with a fit of jealousy in respect to the charter, and take some step which created a temporary uneasiness. Once, eight years after the leg-. Revolution, the Privy Council deliberated ^*^" ^^• on a plan for uniting Connecticut and New York under the same government, but their consulta tion ended in an instruction to the Attorney- General to "inspect the charters of Connecticut and Rhode Island in relation to the government 200 CONNECTICUT. and powers of constituting governors of those colonies, and report how he finds the same." A 1701. step equaUy without result was taken Jan. 14." .^jjgji the same officer was consulted by the Board of Trade respecting " the means by which the proprietors of the plantations might be obliged to present the names of their gov ernors to his Majesty for his approbation." New Harapshire was a royal province, having the first branch of its Legislature appointed by the King as well as its executive officers, and subject to have its government remodelled by him at any time. In Massachusetts the chief executive officers were appointed by the crown, but tbe Council was elective, subject to the gov ernor's refusal. Rhode Island and Connecticut had no such close dependence upon the govern ment at home, and those colonies accordingly conducted their affairs with less apprehension of interference. In the woful decade in King Wil liam's time, the people of those communities, enclosed within other English settlements where they did not border on the sea, were spared most of the calamities experienced by their neighbors of the two other provinces. Connecticut, how ever, was active and generous in supporting the coraraon cause. When, indeed, in the summer after the Revolution, she received an application frora Governor Bradstreet to take part in the war 1689. with the Indians at the East, she did not September.j^g^jjjfgg^ Sufficient promptness to satisfy SHAEE IN THE WAE. 201 his wishes, contenting herself, for the present, with sending to Boston some of her considerable men, comraissioned to obtain explanations of the causes of the hostilities which were going on. Adapting probably their tone, in some degree, to the raisgivings of their constituents, the commis sioners reported that, though they had not been without doubts as to the origin of the war, they had concluded that the existing occasion was urgent, and that it concerned the honor and in terest of Connecticut to furnish a reinforcement to Massachusetts, which was accordingly done. This hesitation was not blamable. It was right that, before imposing heavy burdens on her peo ple, and sending the flower of her youth to the hardships and perils of a distant campaign, Con necticut should know that the war waged by her sister colony was righteous, and concerned the com mon safety and well-being, or at least that it was a war to which the forces of Massachusetts alone were unequal, and that she was in circurastances of considerable danger. On the other hand was the natural syrapathy felt by Connecticut for her strugghng friends, and the apprehension (perfect ly well founded) that her reluctance to take the field would be represented to her disadvantage at the British court When the fight-headed Jacob Leisler attempted to imitate in New York the revolution conducted by the Massachusetts patriots, Connecticut, leoo. wishing well to his cause, sent him a cora- ^^'^'^ ^^' 202 CONNECTICUT. pany to help guard the western frontier of his province against the French and their savage 1689. afiies, and another to hold his fort in the Oct. 10. town of New York, and keep the uneasy people there in order. From the forraer force under the command of Captain Bufi, a party was 1690. posted at Schenectady, at the time of the ^^^' ^' calamitous assault on that place, and lost five men kfiled and five captured. A rein- forceraent of two hundred Connecticut soldiers was then raarched to Albany; and on ap- 1693. plications frora Massachusetts, other forces March, .^gj-g despatched twice at least to secure the upper towns on Connecticut River, and twice 1697. to the seat of war in the Eastern country. ^'^^' Contributions were made in the churches of Connecticut to relieve the sufferers frora the Indian ravages in New Harapshire and Maine. On an alarm of a landing of-the French in Narragansett Bay, troops were moved 1691. eastward, and works were erected at Say- gg' brook and New London. These opera- May, tions were costly, and the share of Con necticut in the expense of the war, to which she was not prorainently a party, is believed to have exceeded the sura of twelve thousand pounds. The raost iraportant of her military moveraents during this period belonged to the expedition against Canada in the year after that of the Revolution. It has been raentioned that the plan of the carapaign was for a force to be operating EXPEDITION AGAINST MONTREAL. 203 against Montreal at the tirae when the ships under Phipps's coraraand should appear before Quebec, and that the miscarriage of the former part of this scheme caused the discomfiture of the latter. The plan of the expedition had been digested at a meeting held at New York, leso. by coraraissioners from that colony and the ^'^^' colonies of New England. The land force was to consist of eight hundred and fifty Englishraen, with five or six hundred Indians of the Five Nations. Fitz-John Winthrop of, Connecticut was to have the chief comraand, and the colony of New" York was to take care for the supply of provisions. The place of rendezvous for the English and Indians was an inlet called Wood Creek at the southern end of Lake Cham plain. When the Enghsh arrived, they found only some seventy Indian alhes ; and a messenger sent to look for the missing warriors returned without satisfactory inforraation. What was rnuch "worse, the boats which the Indians had been relied upon to furnish for the passage of the lake had not been collected, and the pro visions which it had been the business of Mil- born, the New York coraraissary, to supply, were found to be insufficient to subsist the array while on its way towards the French plantations. In these circurastances, whatever might have been done by officers of more enterprise and more resource, nothing seemed possible to Winthrop and his council of war but a precipitate retreat 204 CONNECTICUT. Their resolution to this effect enraged Milborn and Leisler, on whora it threw an odious responsibihty. It is related that the latter, in virtue of his assuraed authority as governor of New York, went so far as to arrest Winthrop, and to keep him some days under guard, with the purpose of bringing him before a court-martial; and that when his trial was about to corae on he was rescued by sorae Mohawks, " to the universal joy of the army." It is certain that the raagistrates of Connecticut had what they esteemed credible inforraation of Win throp's being confined by Leisler at Albany, and that they sent to that official a peremptory de mand for his release. On an exaraination of the case, the colonial Asserably entirely vindicated Winthrop's course, and commissioned tw^o of the magistrates "to thank the general for his good services to their Majesties and to this colony, and to assure him that, on all seasonable occasions, they would be ready to raanifest their good sentiraents of his fidelity, valor, and pru dence." The horae governraent was too busy elsewhere to bestow much attention on the affairs of Con necticut, unless some special occurrence called for its notice. An occasion arose for it to declare its judgment on the right to entertain appeals frora the colonial courts. On a representation from the Board of Trade that the courts of Connecticut 1699. had refused to allow an appeal to England, March 9. .(.j^g Pj-iyy Council had made an order " that DISPUTE WITH GOVERNOR FLETCHER. 205 it is the inherent right of his Majesty to receive and deterraine appeals frora all his Majesty's colonies in America." A suitor in the Court of Assistants of Connecticut clairaed this privilege, and was denied. He petitioned the Privy 1700. Council, who referred his case to the Board ^'^' ^" of Trade. The Privy Council finally di- Feb. 12. rected that the appeal should be heard, and it raay be presumed that the authorities of Connecticut did not persist in their opposition. A raore important question arose respecting the chartered right of Connecticut to dispose of her mihtary force. Successive instructions given to Phipps, governor of Massachusetts, and to Fletcher, governor of New York, authorized them to command the Connecticut militia. 1593. Phipps was not disposed to assert the ^*-23. authority, and it was before long withdrawn ; Fletcher was less forbearing. The magistrates sent one of their number to New York, to engage hira to suspend his claira till they should have had a hearing in England; but he refused to delay, and, coraing to Hartford while the Asserably was in session, deraanded an acquiescence in ,.,.,,, ,.^ . . Oct. 26. his pretension, at the sarae time promising to place the troops under the immediate comraand of the governor as his lieutenant. There is a more than doubtful tradition that, the train-bands of Hartford being paraded, by his comraand or request, before the place where the Asserably was in session, he ordered his coraraission and instruc- 206 CONNECTICUT. tions to be read ; that upon this, Captain Wads worth, of Charter Oak memory, ordered the drums to be beat along the line; that when the drura- mers ceased, Fletcher's secretary began again, and again his voice was drowned by the noisy rausic ; that Fletcher would have stopped it, but Wads worth threatened to make the sun shine through him, if he interfered again ; whereupon, the temper of the crowd of townspeople who stood around being manifest, the baffled governor thought it prudent to withdraw. However erroneously or imperfectly the detafis of the transaction have been reported, certain it is that Fletcher came to Hartford with the deraand in question, and that he raet with such resistance as induced hira to desist from urging it for the present. He went away in an angry state of mind. Two days after his repulse he wrote to the Secretary of State : " 1 have gone so far to assert their Majesties' coraraission to me for the lieutenancy of this colony as I could without force I never saw magistracy so prostituted as here The laws of England have no force in this colo ny They set up for a free State." On the first news of Fletcher's offensive claira, the governraent of Connecticut resolved to send Fitz-John Winthrop to England with a reraonstrance, having first, as in their judgraent befitted the soleranity of the occasion, taken the sense of the freeraen on that proceeding, who ap proved it by an iraraense raajority of their votes. DISPUTE WITH GOVEENOR FLETCHER. 207 The Address represented with abundant specification the insecurity which would follow, both in respect to external eneraies and to domestic tumult, if the colony should lose the power to use proraptly its military arm according to its own discretion, setting forth, at the sarae time, its willingness to continue and enlarge the voluntary exertions which' it had liberafiy made for the military protection of the King's other dominions in Araerica. The question was readily and not unreasonably disposed of by the Privy Council. At the present raoraent it was not en tirely, if indeed it could be said to be raainly, a question of power. What the governraent wanted was to avail itself effectively of the raili- tary strength of all the colonies in hostilities against the French and their allies. Therefore, to carry on the war at the North and East, they pro^ posed to place the militia of Rhode Island under the governor of Massachusetts, and to place the militia of Connecticut under that command which it was supposed would make them raost useful at the West. Within a few weeks after Winthrop presented his Address, the Council, in pur- 1694. suance of the advice of the Board of •'*°" ^^• Trade, liraited Fletcher's right over Con- April 19. necticut troops to that of including in his com mand a force of a hundred and twenty men, to be furnished to him by that colony "at all times during the war." Winthrop further ob tained from the Board of Trade an instruc- *^ 208 CONNECTICUT. tion to Fletcher " in relation to the quota to be fur'nished by Connecticut, that he shall not de mand a greater number than in proportion to the adjacent colonies respectively." Lord Bellomont's coraraission, hke those of Phipps and of Fletcher, included a grant of the coraraand of the militia of Connecticut, but he made no attempt to put it in force. The internal adrainistration of the colony pro ceeded in the sarae quiet course as heretofore. Treat and Bishop continued frora year to year 1691. to be made governor and deputy-governor, June. ^•|^ Bishop's dcath (when he was succeeded by William Jones, formerly deputy-governor' of New Haven), and till Treat grew so old that, tak- 1698. ing the second place, he was glad to yield '^^''yi^. the first to Fitz-John Winthrop, when Winthrop returned from serving the colony four years in England. In the first year of Winthrop's adrainistration the iraportant change was made in the constitution of the Legisla ture, of dividing it into two branches, each with a negative on the other's action, thus assimilating it to the Legislatures of the parent country and of 1701. Massaichusetts. Three years after, a rule ^'^^^: was made for the auturanal meetings of the General Court to be holden at New Haven, instead of, like the spring meetings, at Hartford, as had been the practice since the union of the two colonies. The governraent sought to secure Lord Bellomont's good-will by sending a formal INTERNAL CONDITION. 209 coraraission to New York to welcome his i698. arrival at that city. ''^'^^' Enjoying, unlike New Hampshire and Massa chusetts, both a governraent strictly her own, and iraraunity frora the ravages of French and savage war, — unlike Rhode Island, the tranquil order of a religious population, — Connecticut was the happiest of the colonies of New England. Her thirty towns had each its church and educated rainister. Her free schools raised all her children above the hardships and the temptations of poverty, and prepared thera for the discharge of the duties of virtuous citizens. The agricultural industry which mostly employed her people was favorable to health, frugality, content, and love of freedora. Her caution, and the less urgent de mands upon her for costly military operations, had saved her frora incurring heavy debt, and she had little share in the financial erabarrassraent which weighed so heavily on the raore powerful colony. Her relations with the mother-country brought little occasion for conflict or anxiety. Encouraged by the prospect of perraanent self- governraent as the danger of interference frora England appeared to dirainish, Connecticut ad dressed herself with a wise sohcitude to raeas ures for the iraprovement of her institutions and the well-being of her people. In the year of the Revolution, the franchise was extended to " all and every person and persons of peaceable, 1689. orderly, and good conversation, being in o<^"'*<"^- 14 210 CONNECTICUT. possession of freehold estate to the value of forty shilling in country pay per annum, and being twenty-one years of age." Two years later the 1691. taxable property of the colony amounted October. |^q ^j^g hundred and eighty -four thousand pounds, divided araong three thousand and one 1701. hundred persons. In ten years the number October, ^f tax-payers had risen to three thou sand eight hundred and fifty, and the aggregate amount of their property to two hundred and ten thousand pounds. Towards the close of every year, grants v^^ere regularly made to the principal officers of government, ranging between eighty and a hundred and forty pounds to the governor, and between ten and seventy pounds to the deputy-governor. Assistants had each a salary of ten pounds, besides fees for suits brought be fore them on appeal. Deputies were paid three shillings for each day of official service, besides the expenses of their travel. The roll of their House was called every raorning, and an absentee lost his pay for the day, besides being liable to a fine of ten shillings. Any person who, at the 1698. annual General Court for Elections, should October, a take it upon hira to speak without liberty first prayed' and granted to hira by the honored governor, or in his absence by the deputy-govern- 1694. or," was fined "a shifiing in silver." Fer- '"*^" ries were made free to persons employed by the King's Postmaster- General in the conveyance of letters and parcels. Ah purchases of lands from INTERNAL CONDITION. 211 the Indians were declared illegal and void, except such as were made by towns under grants 1702. from" the General Court The office of °=''''"=''- Justice of the Peace was instituted ; " three or four at least of the most able and judicious free men " to be annually appointed to it for i698. each county by the General Court, with •'™" '^¦ judicial powers sirailar to what had been hitherto exercised by Assistants. In each county two jus tices, with the judge of their county court, had the charge of the probate of wills, and of the business of wards and guardians. After long and painstaking deliberation, a 1702. revised edition of the laws was published O"'"*""^- by authority. Eight ports of entry were estab lished, to be superintended by a Naval Officer. Prorainent among the cares of the government was that of securing for all its people the instruc tions of a learned ministry. No church could be founded without perraission from the General Court, and every citizen was obliged to pay in proportion to his raeans towards the support of the rainister of the geographical parish of his residence. Ministers were free frora taxation of every kind. " For the satisfaction of such as were conscientiously desirous to be mar- 1694. ried by the ministers of their plantations," O"'*'*''- that function, hitherto vested in lay magistrates only, was extended to the pastors. Physicians might not practise their art without license from the General Court, generally obtained on the 212 CONNECTICUT. recommendation of the minister of a place where medical help was wanted. Of professional law yers there is perhaps no trace to be found in the public record of those times, except in a statute which, along with rioters, scolds, keepers and frequenters of houses of ill-fame, night-walkers, 1698. drunkards, and such like evil-doers, pro- january. yides that " commou barrators, which fre quently raove, stir up, and raaintain suits of law in court or quarrels and parts in the country," shall give security for their good behavior or by any Assistant be sent to the common gaol. 1700. Towns consisting of fewer than seventy October, families were obhged to keep up schools through half the year for the tuition of fheir chil dren, "with able and sufficient schoolmastersi" ; towns of seventy farailies and upwards had to continue their school through the year ; in the capital town of each of the four counties, a free "grararaar school" with a public endowment of land was established, where young men raight be prepared for college ; and an Act was passed, 1701. which was to bear rich fruit, "for the found- october. jjjg g^ijjj suitably endowing and ordering a collegiate school, wherein youth may be in structed in the arts and sciences, who, through the blessing of Alraighty God, may be fitted for public employraents both in church and civil state." The inland boundaries of Connecticut on all sides reinained undeterrained. Massachusetts in- QUESTIONS OF BOUNDARY. 213 sisted on the correctness of her survey raade by Woodward and Saffery in the early times, to ascertain the line of latitude, three miles south of the southernmost part of Charles River, which, according to her charter, made her southern boundary. Connecticut judged the sur veyors to have erroneously marked that hne of latitude by a line diverging from the true direc tion towards the south, when it carae to i693. , reach her territory. Repeated proposals 1694. from her to unite in another survey were 1695. declined by the other party. It was urged 1700. by Connecticut that the new towns of En field and Suffield lay south of the legal border of Massachusetts and within her own. On the other part, the correctness of the ancient suiwey was insisted on, and it was further urged that, even if it should prove to be incorrect as to the disputed line of latitude, stiff it was understood to be correct at the time when King Charles gave Connecticut her charter, and must be considered as the line which was had in view when, in the charter, the northern boundary line of that colony was described as being coincident with the south ern boundary line of Massachusetts. For the present, it was found impossible to effect an agreement on the subject. Nor for the present was there any better success in establishing the western boundary. The line on the New i683. York side had, many years before, been ^°''-^^- settled on paper, and King William's confirma- 214 EHODE ISLAND. 1700. tion of it, which it had been thought pru- Marchi4.jgj-,t to solicit, was obtained. But the running of it and erecting monuments was still delayed. The question of the eastern boundary of Con necticut, again revived, still seemed impossible to be disposed of, if it was to be discussed as a question of interpretation. Nothing could well ,be plainer than that two successive royal charters gave the country between Narragansett Bay and Pawtucket River, the first to one colony, the sec ond to another. The decision of the comrais sioners who, towards the end of the reign of King Charles the Second, had reported adversely to the pretensions of Rhode Island, by reason of the priority of the adverse title, had, it seeras, not been acted upon by the Privy Council, and was not regarded as binding by that colony; The strife accordingly was renewed, and was prose cuted as forraerly, sometimes by mutual violence, sometiraes by ineffectual negotiation. The Board 1697. of Trade recoraraended a further atterapt Aug. 26. ^^ g^^ araicable settleraent, and directed Lord Belloraont to use his endeavors to proraote 1699. it. He did so, but without avail, and Sept. 26. nothing reraained for hira but to advise the parties to send their agents to England to present their case to the Board. , Though, when the despotisra of Andros was subverted by the movement in Massachusetts, it became necessary for Rhode Island to organize MOVEMENTS AFTER THE REVOLUTION. 215 some coraraon government over her nine unquiet towns, the Revolution was by no means so joyful an event to her people as to those of the other colonies of New England. Rhode Island had never been a place so little disorderly, aud so little disagreeable to live in, as under Andros's ab solute sway; nor was he subject, within her bounds, to the same motives to act with rigor as those which dictated his course in Massachusetts. Rhode Island had with little reluctance yielded her charter, and with it her hberty, to King Jaraes ; and to raany of her most considerable citizens even that little reluctance was offensive. Of course Andros's hatred of Massachusetts did not harm his popularity in the sister colony. When the deposed governor broke gaol and ran away, it was to Rhode Island that he directed his steps. He was stopped and delivered to officers sent after him from Massachusetts, and his captors made a merit of his arrest; but one may be par doned for doubting whether this would have been, had circumstances been such as to adrait of his being suffered to pass without their being called to account. Letters "written to London by influ ential citizens of the httle colony bewailed his removal as bringing them into a condition hard to be endured ; and, on the other hand, he stood by them in England in that iraportant contro versy which they were ra-aintaining against Con necticut The lapse of eight raonths had i69o. given them opportunity to forra sorae cal- '""-^o- 216 RHODE ISLAND. culation respecting the probability that the new order of things would prove stable, before they were prepared to report to the King what they had been doing. When " under a sense of their deplorable and unsettled condition," after the fall of Andros, they determined to have a governor of their own as of old, it was only on a third election that they found a candidate who would consent to atterapt to rule thera. The Quaker, Waited- Clarke, the last governor under the charter, having refused' to resume his place, John Coggeshall, the last deputy-governor, remained at the head of the administration for several months, at the Feb. 27. ' end of which, Clarke still persisting in his preference for retirement, and Christopher Almy also declining the unattractive honor of the chief raagistracy, it was conferred on the Quaker, Henry Bull, who, however, after a single year's service, declined it, as did also 'John Coggeshall, who had fiOed the second place. The next governor was .John Easton, from the tirae of whose election the records contain no inforraa tion on the subject for five years. That Easton's adrainistration was not satisfactory or prosperous 1691. may be partly inferred from his reporting ^°^- 1^- to the King that he could not furnish his colony's contingent of troops, because he could not raise the necessary money. In the last year of this interval Caleb Carr was governor, and he was succeeded by Walter Clarke, during whose INTERNAL CONDITION. 217 administration the Legislature of Rhode i696. Island was assirailated to those of the ^'^^^' other colonies of New England by a division into two branches, each with a negative on the other. When, in the next year, the office fell to Sarauel Cranston, who afterwards was constantly re-elected to it for nearly thirty years till his death, the proper Quaker dynasty in Rhode Island raay be said to have come to an end, though the Board of Trade was inforraed that " Mr. Cranston was one of the derai-Quakers only put in to serve the Quakers." The governor had an annual salary of from ten to thirty pounds, the deputy-governor of six pounds, and each as sistant of four. Deputies in the General Assembly received three shillings for each day of service. Difficulty and disturbances occurred in the collection of taxes. It was represented to the Board of Trade that the laws were " so meanly kept, and in such blotted and defaced books (having never yet any of them been leos. printed), that few of his Majesty's subjects ^''"=^^- were able to know what they were." Randolph, who had no personal bias against the Rhode- Islanders, reported that "neither judges, juries, nor witnesses were under any obligation " ; his explanation of this unpleasant fact being that " the manageraent of the governraent (such as it is) was in the hands of Quakers and Anabaptists," who would take no oath. There was no public provision for schools. Like Connecticut, Rhode 218 EHODE ISLAND. Island encouraged the post-office by a free car riage of raails across the ferries, — a privUege which she also granted to raagistrates, representa tives, and jurymen. The governor and deputy- governor, by virtue of their assumed adrairalty powers, issued cora missions to armed vessels. Peleg Sandford, comraissioned by the Enghsh Admiralty to be Admiralty Judge in Rhode Island, coraplained to the Board of Trade that Governor Clarke had not only refused to adrainister to hira the oath of office, but had taken away his coraraission and declined to restore it. Rhode Island, at this period, had not bettered the terras on which she had generally lived with the governors of Massachusetts, nor were her relations with New York altogether amicable. The ministers of King Williara, unable, as long as the charters of Rhode Island and Connecticut were respected, to appoint governors over them, aimed to accomplish something in the way of military subordination by vesting the coraraand of their railitary force in the King's governors of neighboring colonies, for which arrangeraent they had a fair pretence in the necessity of a vigorous corabination of forces in the colonial wars. One 1692. of Phipps's first acts, after his arrival in May. Boston, was to write to the governor and June 2. Council of Rhode Isluid that he was "commissionated from their Majesties with the power of lieutenant and commander-in-chief of DISAGEEEMENTS WITH THE HOME GOVEENMENT. 219 the militia, and of all the forces by sea and land, within their Majesties' several colonies of Con necticut, Rhode Island, and Providence Planta tion, the Narragansett country or King's Province, and the province of New Harapshire." And he acquainted thera "that he desired and expected that some fit persons should be instructed and speedily sent to attend him at Boston with an account of the militia, and what further might appear necessary for their Majesties' service." The governor sent two coramissioners to confer with Phipps. They " attended about five days before they could have any treaty," and then they could get no satisfaction, nor so much as a sight of Phipps's coraraission, while, on the other hand, he sent into Rhode Island a nuraber of new cora- raissions, " endeavoring thereby," as the local authorities phrased it, "to put the railitia into the hands of raost of thera that disclaim their Majes ties' authority here." The governor con voked the Assembly, who enjoined it upon "^' their own officers to retain their comraands, and prepared an Address to the King, setting forth their claim under the charter, and making an application " for redress." They professed their behef that the movement of the governor of Massachusetts to disable the military arra of Rhode Island had been "occasioned by private interest, sorae of the principal persons of his Excellency, Sir William Phipps his counsellors, claiming interest to all the Narragansett country." 220 , RHODE ISLAND. 1693. Christopher Almy carried this Address to Aug. 24. England, where it was referred by the Sept. 15. Privy Council to the Lords of Trade, and by them to the Attorney- General and Solicitor- General ; and those officers reported " that the power given by the charter to the government of the colony to train and exercise the inhabitants of the colony in martial affairs, as also the rest of the charter, was still in force"; but "that their 1694. Ma:jesties might constitute a chief com- Aprn2. mander, who might have authority at all times to comraand or order such proportion of the forces of each colorly or plantation as their Majesties might see fit" This opinion was the basis of subsequent arrangements, the sarae. as those made for Connecticut The Queen (the King being then in the Netherlands) com municated it as such in a letter; instructing the colony to place a force of forty-eight raen for the present under the coraraand of the governor 1693. of New York, to whora, in the previous juneio. year, the power of comraanding the railitia of Rhode Island had been transferred frora Gov ernor Phipps, and with it the pending dispute re specting that authority. Alray further raoved the 1694. question respecting the eastern boundary May 15. ^f his colouy, clairalug that, rightly drawn, it would include a strip of territory, three railes wide, extending from north to south along the east- juiy 11. ern shore of Narragansett Bay. The Privy August 4. Council, by the advice of the Attorney- DISAGREEMENTS WITH THE HOME GOVERNMENT. 221 General, referred this question to "a coraraission of indifferent and unconcerned persons inhabiting near the places to inquire and certify the truth." But it was with Lord Belloraont raore than with any other royal governor that Rhode Island was on uneasy terms. Narragansett Bay was a place of particularly convenient resort for the buccaneering vessels which so infested at that tirae the ports of North Araerica, and which he had express charge to hunt down. Rhode Island was especially implicated in the criminal transac tions complained of, by reason of the use which had been raade of comraissions issued by her governors to private armed vessels during the seven years' war with France. Lord Bel- 1699. lomont received detailed instructions to^^'^'^^^- investigate these "disorders and irregularities," and others related to thera. This was soon fol lowed by a severe repriraand to the colony from the Board of Trade. The Board re- "^' buked thera for " shuffling " in their correspond ence. " Your answers are so contrary to truth and to your duty, that we wonder how you could write them You know better. But if it were reafiy so [that the deputy-governor had erred through ignorance], you ought to have taken better care that such an ignorant person had not been put in such an office." Lord Bellomont wrote to the Secretary of the Board that this reproof of the Rhode Island people had " been a mortification to them." An agent was sent to 222 RHODE ISLAND. England to accomraodate affairs. He was ¦ disliked by Lord BeUomont, who describes him by saying that he "is one of their Council, yet keeps a little bhnd rura-house where the In dians are his best customers." Lord Bellomont passed ten days in "^ ' 'Rhode Island, employed in the investiga tion with which he was charged, and as its result reported to the Lords of Trade the existence of a desperately bad state of things in that colony. Under more than twenty heads he specified de partures by its government and people from the provisions of their charter. Their rulers, he said, were incompetent and ill-conditioned persons. " A brutish raan, of very corrupt or no principles in religion, and generally known to be so by the people, is in the place of deputy-gov-. ernor," and as such had given commissions to " private men-of-war," which sailed on piratical ex peditions " to Madagaska, and the seas of India " ; and " the place has been greatly enriched " by the spoils of these adventures. " The Assistants, or Counsehors, who are also Justices of the Peace, and Judges of their Courts, are generally Quak ers and sectaries, illiterate, and of httle or no capacity, several of them not able to write their naraes Their General- Attorney is a poor illiterate mechanic, very ignorant." No re liance was to be placed on the correctness of the copy of their laws, which, agreeably to a demand of the Board of Trade, had been transmitted to DISAGEEEMENTS WITH LORD BELLOMONT. 223 England. " Governraent have taken all this tirae to prune and polish thera, yet I believe the world never saw such a parcel of fustian They have never erected nor encouraged any schools of learning, or had the means of instruction by a learned orthodox ministry The generality of the people are sharaefully ignorant, and all manner of licentiousness and profaneness does greatly abound, and is indulged." Sanford in forraed hira that persons arrested under a charge of piracy found no difficulty in getting their bail- bonds filled to the amount of two or three thou sand pounds. In letters of profuse and awkward compliment to Lord Belloraont, after his return to Boston, the governor and Clarke endeavored to appease the "displeasure" and "disgust" which he had conceived against what they meekly caiied " an ignorant and contemptible " people. In their strait they desired to make interest in England, and to this end chose successive ly six different persons to be their agents there. But all refused to accept the place. Not. 21. for want of confidence, probably,-that they would obtain compensation. Jahleel Brenton, who had already been employed by them in Lon- 1700. don, though previously he had represented ^^^^' them unfavorably to the governraent, was con firraed for the present in the agency. An osten sible corapliance was raade with the Navigation Laws by an " Act for supporting the gov- 1701. ernor in the perforraance of his engagement """^ ^' to the Acts of Navigation." CHAPTER VIIL ADMINISTRATION OF DUDLEY. Queen Anne was a devotee to High Church principles, or, to speak more accurately, she was governed by High Church prejudices and pas sions ; and the religious tone of her reign was as bigoted and oppressive as the state of par ties and other circumstances would permit 1711. But the Occasional Conformity Act, the restriction to churchmen of the right to 1713 teach youth, and other severities and in sults to dissenters which dishonored her govern ment, were not measures of a character to be extended to the colonies. It was in the renewal of a calamitous war, and in the endeavors of her ministers to fasten a stronger hold upon the foreign dependencies of the crown, that in her reign of twelve years the people of New England experienced most of the consequences of their political subordination. Neither the administration of Phipps, nor even that of Belloraont, had been satisfactory to their English raasters. Dudley proraised much better for their purposes. Besides his great abilities and industry, — his determination on the one part. DUDLEY'S ARRIVAL AT BOSTON. 225 and address on the other, — he thoroughly knew the people he was to rule, and the men who led in their counsels; and that he would not lean to their side raight be reckoned on as certain, from the indignities which they had put upon him, and the temper with which their treatraent had been raet. It was a proud day for Joseph Dudley, when, after eleven years of uneasy absence from his home in Roxbury, he landed from the Bellomont man-of-war, under a salute which shook the town, and went up King Street to the State House of Massachusetts to assume the government for Queen Anne. The last tirae that he left Boston with any observance, he went frora a prison where he had lain five months. Since his last rarable through the once farailiar streets, he had been a high functionary in New York, and a member of Parliament and successful courtier in England. The native country which he revisited was changed since he had known it so well. With the loss of that charter to which he had been treacherous, the dreara of self-government was for the present dispelled from the minds of the people of Massachusetts. If there was dis content among them, there was not concert in any endeavor for redress. They had been learn ing to regard themselves as, in another sense than in earlier times, the subjects of the British crown. And so far he might promise himself that in his communications with them he had the less ira- practicableness to apprehend at their hands. 15 226 ADMINISTRATION OF DUDLEY. Dudley met the Council on the day of his ar rival, and adjourned it for a week, after publishing 1702. his commission and that of the lieutenant- •'""^ "• governor, John Povey. The latter, who took his place at the adjourned meeting, was a stranger in America, beheved to have been a brother of the new Secretary to the Board of Trade. The Council for the year had been chosen a fortnight before, on the day prescribed by the charter. Of its members several had been active opponents of the governor in his earlier career, and sorae had taken a part both in the severities used towards him when the govern ment of Andros was overthrown, and in the influence exerted in England to obstruct his advancement to the place which now rewarded his intrigues. It is not to be presumed that Dudley felt no good-will to Massachusetts. His own interest be ing first, cared for, he was ready to promote hers, and earnestly when the two might be advanced together. He would have her prosper, when no object personal to himself interfered. But he de sired her prosperity in the spirit of an arrogant and jealous patron. It must be such as England, and as he, her ruler for England, should al low. He admitted no idea of having her judge for herself of her rights or of her wants. What she enjoyed, she was to receive and be thankful for as a boon. The opposite theory in her poli tics was held by the persons against whom he HIS POLICY. 227 was also enraged by a sense of personal wrong ; and the displeasure with which for both reasons he regarded them he disguised only till opportuni ties should come for its more effectual expression. As to them and to ah opponents, he too well knew the conditions of successful arabition to allow hiraself to be ruled by his resentments. It was no part of his plan or practice to persist in any gratification of his pride which might incom mode a serviceable friend, or confirm or give ad vantage to an inconvenient enemy. He schooled himself to humiliations which won the favor of Randolph, and at an easier cost of professions and compliraents he subdued the hostility of Cotton Mather. But his malignant resentments waited to do their work till the tirae should arrive when his interests needed no longer to repress thera. The forraal language of his raanifesto (so to call it) when, following the example set by Lord Belloraont, he addressed the Legislature, at its meeting, in a set speech, disclosed evidently enough the rancor which former events had in spired. Sorae of his hearers must have found it hard to listen with coraposure to the language of cool superiority in which he an nounced the proposed systera of his governraent, and his views of the relations arfd duty of the province to the parent country. " Not being," he told the Council, " so profitable to the crown in customs as sorae other colonies, Massachusetts ought to raake up the deficiency by falling into 228 ADMINISTRATION OF DUDLEY. such other articles of trade to supply the kingdom of England with naval stores, and other cora modities then wanting, of which the province was capable, that might remove this objection, and cause it to be less chargeable to the crown, at the sarae time keeping within the strictest bounds of all Acts of Parliaraent." Lofty insolence to be used to raen who had sat by his side in council with Endicott and Danforth, and to whora he had been a suppliant in the forraer years of his merited defeat and helplessness ! Galling inso lence especially frora the lips of the son of the Puritan exile, Thomas Dudley! The governor announced that he was expressly instructed to urge the rebuilding by the province of the fort at Pemaquid, the provision of a house for his residence, and the establishment of regular and sufficient salaries for the governor, lieutenant-gov ernor, and judges. He said it was remarked in England that Massachusetts was the only prov ince in which such provision was not made. Four days afterwards arrived intelligence from the Queen's Secretary of State of her declaration of war against France. Think ing his presence immediately necessary in the Eastern country, where trouble was now to be apprehended from the Indians, he pro- ' rogued the General Court with some ex pressions of disappointment at their neglect of the matters of business he had laid before them. They had taken no action upon either of his FORTIFICATION OF PEMAQUID. 229 proposals ; but in place of the consent to one of them, which he had proraised himself, they pursued the usual course with more than custoraary liberality, raaking him a grant of five hundred pounds. The governor, accorapanied by a party of friends for whora he did not see fit to procure any authority frora the General Court, proceeded into the Eastern country, going as far as to Peraa- quid. There he raet sorae representatives of the native tribes, whora he persuaded to renew their assurances of pacific intentions. Congratu lating the Court, when it carae together again in the auturan, on this happy result of his journey, he renewed, but with no better success, his application for fixed salaries for himself and the judges, and for the restoring of the fort at Pemaquid. He told thera that, on a visit to that work, he had found that the foundation was still good, that a quantity of the raaterials of the old structure was on the spot in a condition to be used again, and that there was abundance of lirae close at hand. The Representatives could not be brought to view the proposal with favor. At this tirae, as well as earlier and later, they insisted that Pemaquid, remote from the vicin ity of the settlements, was no fit place for a fort intended to give thera security ; that its position on the coast was such as to render it incapable of being made secure against an enemy, except by a heavy outlay ; and that in 230 ADMINISTRATION OF DUDLEY. no view would a fortification there be useful to the province in a degree proportioned to the necessary cost. They judged that the pertinacity with which the raatter was urged by the English governraent was due, not, as "was pretended, to considerations of their interest, but to an ex aggerated opinion of the iraportance of a work at Pemaquid in maintaining an English possession of that territory between the Kennebec and the Penobscot, which belonged by treaty to the Eng lish or to the French according to the interpreta tion which should be given to the disputed name Acadie. The House had no mind to discuss the ques tion with the governor. It preferred to hold its ground by silence and inaction. The Council, which, if not favoring his plan, desired at all events to have him conciliated by respect, pro posed a conference, which the House took the strong and unusual step of refusing. The Council, by a unaniraous vdte, declared this to be a breach of its privileges. The House yielded so far as to retract its refusal to go into a conference, but, after it had been held, per- NOT. 11. . ... sisted in its denial of the appropriation required. It made an allowance to the governor of six hundred pounds, " for the present year," including the five hundred pounds granted to him just after his arrival. This sum the Council voted to be insutficient The House added a hundred pounds. The Council repeated its vote, THE COUNCIL AND THE REPRESENTATIVES. 231 but finding that here the deputies intended to make a stand, they at length advised the governor to accept the grant. In considering the differences which throughout the provincial history occasionally arose between the two branches of the Legislature, the diversity in the constitution of the two bodies should not be lost sight of. The House of Representatives, coming directly from the people, most naturally reflected the popular feeling of the day. The counsellors, who were commonly men of property and advanced in life, might be supposed to be averse to novel and disturbing measures. Nom inated from year to year by the General Court, and on each nomination subject to be set aside by the governor, the honor attached to, the place made it an object of "ambition, and so far dis inclined the candidate to incur the displeasure of either of the parties who had it in their gift. In view of the hostilities which were to be apprehended, the House voted to send aid to the neighboring colonies, with the express exception of New York, whose alleged cowardly alliance with the Indians and raischievous traffic with the French had awakened warra displeasure. But on a reconsideration of the subject, the exception was withdrawn. The governor con ceiving that it was tirae for a Court to sit, 1703. convened under writs bearing the narae of '^'^'^'^'^ "• Queen Anne, dissolved the existing Court, as he had power to do by the charter, though its legal 232 ADMINISTRATION OF DUDLEY. year had not expired ; and the parties separated with little mutual satisfaction. The governor vented his spleen in a letter to the Lords of Trade. Secure, as he supposed, against the ex posure of his cora rauni cations, he wrote: "The 1702. figure this government makes is by no Dec.-io. ineans so good as an ordinary head- borough in the kingdora of England, while they are a very iraportant province, and have the best harbors and outlets to the sea in all North Amer ica. The major part of the people by far would rejoice to be annexed, and brought under her Majesty's immediate commission, if her Majesty please so to comraand The Council being of the people's election, many of the most loyal people and of the best estates are not em ployed, and those that are so, raany of thera are Coraraonwealth's raen, and all do so absolutely depend for their station upon the people that they dare not offend thera, and so her Majesty has no manner of service from thera." Colonel Robert Quarry was at that time Judge of Admiralty in New York and Pennsylvania. He " .thought 1703. himself o.bliged to raake sorae reraarks Junei6. ypgjj .(-he governraent of New England" to the Lords of Trade. " Colonel Dudley," he wrote, " hath been forced already to dissolve two Assemblies, nor will the third any ways answer his expectation They say that he hath given several instances of his reraerabering the old quarrel, and they resolve on their parts never to REJECTION OF COUNSELLORS. 233 forget it, so that it is generally believed he will never gain any point from them." He advised that towards a correction of a dangerous restless ness, nothing would " so effectually answer as reducing all the provinces on the main of Amer ica to one standard rule and constitution of gov ernment." Having had his former knowledge revived of the intractableness of Massachusetts Legislatures, the governor prepared a less supercilious recep tion for the new Court. He congratulated them in courteous Jerms on their freedom hitherto from those inroads of French and Indians which there had been so rauch reason to dread, and he re newed his application for the construction of the fort at Pemaquid as a prudent measure of pre caution. But on that point the deputies were iraraovable. The tirae had eome for the confident governor to assert himself by more than language. Giving effect to the provision jn the charter that the nom ination of counsellors by the two Houses should be subject to the governor's approval. Sir Wil liam Phipps had set aside the election of Cooke, who had opposed hira in England when the new charter was in progress. In no other instance as yet had this invidious power of the King's repre sentative been exerted. When the first list of counsellors chosen after his coraing to the government was presented, Dudley " sent for Mr. Speaker and the House forthwith to attend 234 ADMINISTRATION OF DUDLEY. him in the Council Charaber," and told thera " he took notice that there were several gentleraen left out that were of the Council last year, who were of good ability, for estate and otherwise, to serve her Majesty, and well disposed thereto, and that sorae others who were new elected were not so well qualified, some of them being of little or mean estate." Accordingly he struck off five names from the hst, those of Elisha Cooke and Thoraas Oakes, Peter Sargent (husband of Gov ernor Phipps's widow), John Saffin, a leading citizen of Bristol, and John Bradford, grandson of the governor of Plymouth. The reasons which he alleged had little application to these men. No one of them appears to have been " of little or mean estate," any more than, in a just estimate, " not well qualified." Cooke, at least, was a richer raan than the governor. Besides John Pynchon, who had died since the last election, the Court had left out frora the last year's Board, John Appleton, Barnabas Lothrop, Nathaniel Thomas, Nathaniel Byfield, and Sam uel Partridge, and had substituted for thera, Ed ward Bromfield, Samuel Hayraan, John Walley, John Saffin, John Bradford, and Thoraas Oakes; the last three, rejected by the governor, being one half of the newly chosen counsellors. This measure of his was taken .with deliberation, the occasion for it having come seasonably to his knowledge. Before the Court met, he May 10. ^ ' wrote to the Lords of Trade : " There WAE WITH FEENCH AND INDIANS. 235 has been apparent raethods taken in the choice of Asserably-raen-, that no such should be chosen as had shown their obedience to her Majesty's coramand for the rebuilding of Peraaquid, or for the setthng of a salary for the support of the governraent" His action naturafiy increased the coldness between hira and the General Court, and his proposal for the appointraent of a Sur veyor-General of lands granted by the province was bluntly rejected. Lord Cornbury, the Queen's cousin, who had now succeeded Lord Belloraont as governor of New York, inforraed Dudley of his having intel ligence from Albany of a meditated attack upon the settlement at Deerfield by a force of French and Indians. For the present this proved a false alarra ; but there was only too much reason to expect trouble along the whole northern fron tier. Dudley invited the Eastern chiefs to a con ference, which, accompanied by several consider able men of Massachusetts and New Harapshire, he held with thera at Casco, then the raost reraote English settleraent that was recov ering itself from the devastations of King Wil liam's war. The savages raade the most friendly professions. " As high as the sun is above the earth," protested their chief spokesraan, " so far distant should their designs be of raaking the least breach between each other." Another said that some French priests had been endeavoring to engage them in hostilities against the English, 236 ADMINISTRATION OF DUDLEY. but that they were " as firm as the mountains, and should continue so as long as the sun and moon endured." Some suspicious circumstances were observed, but the parties separated in apparent friendship, and Dudley returned to congrat ulate the Court on the happy result of the July 27. expedition. The House made a grant to him of three hundred pounds "towards his support in the raanagement of the govern ment." The Council returned the vote, with a request to have it reconsidered. The House sent it back unaltered. The Council returned it a second time, with the inquiry " whether it was a gratuity, or payment for service, and for what tirae." The House refused to depart from the ground which it had taken. On the advice of the Council the governor accepted the' grant, "^ ' and the Court was prorogued. Before it met again in the autumn, disturb ances took place, which turned out to be the beginning of another terrible ten years' war. No act of the English provoked it. A party of law less Enghshmen on the Penobscot plundered a house belonging to a half-breed son of the Baron de Castine, who was now in France ; but the son's complaint to the government of Massachu setts was received in a raanner with which he expressed himself entirely satisfied, and it was not pretended that this incident had any con nection with more serious disorders which broke out in the Eastern country about the same tirae. WAE WITH FEENCH AND INDIANS. 237 The causes of the calamities which were im pending lay rauch deeper. Neither at the French court, nor by its railitary or ecclesiastical servants in Canada, had it been supposed that the war between New England and New France had been anything raore than suspended by the treaty of , Ryswick. In the five years that had since elapsed, preparations for the renewal of hostilities had at no tirae been reraitted by the soldiers and priests at Quebec and Montreal. " In the present junc ture," thought the Count de Frontenac, i698. when he had had six: raonths to reflect on ^^s^*" the news of peace, " there was nothing better to be done than to inspire the Iroquois with distrust of the New-Englanders." Villebon, gov ernor of Nova Scotia, wrote horae to the French Ministry that he had not force enough to obstruct the restoration by the English of the fort at Peraaquid, and of the settleraents along the Kennebec, but that he hoped to accoraplish that object by raeans of the neighboring sav ages. Frontenac died, and the inconstant Iroquois, relieved frora the terror of his name, showed a disposition to withdraw frora engage ments which they had made with him. De Cal lieres, his successor, pursued with scarcely less skill his method of alternate intimidation and caresses. He piqued the savages with the assur ance that the English clairaed thera as subjects, while the French respected them as volun- tary allies. He invited some of their chiefs Sept. 8. 238 ADMINISTEATION OF DUDLEY. to Montreal, and obtained their consent to a sort of treaty which he persuaded them need not disturb their friendly relations with the Enghsh. He lost no opportunity for establishing priests and missionary stations among them, "not so much because they appeared disposed for re ligious instruction," but because of the utility of having persons among them " who should inforra the governor-general of their movements, and disconcert the intrigues of the English, who were little to be feared in that part of the country, unless they had the Five Nations for allies." De 1703. Callieres died, and again the advantage of May 26. .j-hg personal influence of an able states man was lost. The most that could be done by his successor, De Vaudreuil, lately governor of Montreal, was to obtain an engagement from the Iroquois of neutrality in the existing war. With the Abenaquis on the north of New England the solicitations of the French had been more successful, and a more cordial friendship had been estabhshed. Some farailies of these savages, converts to Romanisra, were collected in two villages, called BegancouT and St. Fran§ois, on the south side of the river St. Lawrence, near to the town of Three Rivers. At Norridgewock, on the Kennebec, close to the old English settle raents, only thirty railes frora the present capital of Maine, was another station, an iraportant centre of communication and influence, superin tended by the Jesuit, Sebastian Rasle. WAE WITH FEENCH AND INDIANS. 239 Relieved for the present from anxiety about the Iroquois, the new French governor turned his attention towards the northern frontier of New England. Two months had not passed since the treaty of Casco, when on one day six or seven bands of savages, some of them "^' with French officers, fell upon the scattered settle ments. " They comraitted," says the calra French historian, Charlevoix, " sorae ravages of little con sequence. They killed about three hundred men. But the essential point was to engage the Abena quis in such a manner that it would not be possible for thera to retract." At Wells thirty-nine per sons, at Winter Harbor thirty-five, and at Spur- wink twenty-two, were either killed or carried away prisoners. Cape Porpoise (now Kennebunk Port) was wholly desolated. The little fort at Scarborough raaintained itself, but with the loss of several raen. At Saco the marauders killed eleven persons, and carried off twenty-four cap tives. At the settlement of Perpooduck, con sisting of nine families, twenty-five persons were murdered, and eight led aw^ay. Major Marsh, at Casco, on the extreme border, was threatened by a force of five hundred French and Indians, and after a skirraish was only saved by the arrival of a reinforcement from Boston, having been by a flag of truce enticed out of his fort into an ambush, whence he was -with difficulty extricated by a sally of some of his men. The party came as far west as Hampton, "where they slew four. 240 ADMINISTEATION OF DUDLEY. besides the Widow Mussey, who was a remarkable speaking Quaker, and rauch laraented by that sect" The massacres were attended with every aggravation of cruelty. " As the milk-white brows of the grave and ancient had no respect shown, so neither had the mournful cries of ten der infants the least pity ; for they triumphed at their misery, and applauded such as the skilfullest artists who were most dexterous in contriving the greatest tortures." At the close of summer there was a short pause, perhaps to get a supply of am munition, after which the outrages w"ere renewed. At Blackpoint, twenty persons, at work in the fields, were set upon by two hundred In dians, and all but one were killed or made prisoners. A similar fate befell some twelve or fifteen persons at York and Berwick. At the latter place, in revenge for their repulse from a garrison- house, the savages burned to death one of their 1704. captives. In the winter they took a garri- Feb. 8. son-house at Haverhill by surprise, and raade several prisoners. Dudley sent two strong parties of five hundred raen each into the Eastern country. But the distance at which the Indians kept themselves was such that before they could be reached, though extraordinary forced marches were made, the provisions which, over a country irapassable by horses, the English carried in their knapsacks, were exhausted, and they were obliged to turn back for fear of faraine. The alarra for an assault upon Deerfield had SACK OF DEEEFLELD. 241 been only premature. This village, slowly re covering from the ravages of the last war, was still so poor that the General Court had lately made a grant for the support of its minister. In the service of the governor-general of Canada, the partisan soldier, Hertel de Rouville, " worthily filled," writes Charlevoix, " the place of his father, whose age and infirmities no longer allowed hira to go on distant expeditions." With four brothers, he led a party of two hundred and fifty French and Indians frora Montreal to the northwestern frontier of Massachusetts. The drifts which they traversed on snow-shoes lay deep around the little haralet, and buried the palisades which had been set for its protection. Approaching stealthily, the eneray lay around it on a cold winter's night. " Two hours before day," observing that the sentries had left their posts, they clirabed over the snow-banks, and fell upon the sleeping inhabitants. They put to death sixty, and took a hundred prisoners ; twenty-four hours they "spent in plundering, burning, and destroying," and then, to escape pursuit, " withdrew into the woods, carrying with thera their plunder and captives." They were followed to sorae distance by as many armed raen as could be suddenly cofiected frora the lower towns ; but, for want of Bnow-shoes, the pursuit was ineffectual, and the marauders, with their booty and their captives; reached Quebec and St Frangois by a march of twenty-five days. 16 242 ADMINISTRATION OF DUDLEY. Mr. John Wifiiams, rainister of Deerfield, pub lished an account of this tragedy, three years afterwards, when he had been ransomed and had come back to Boston. He says he was roused from sleep by the sound of axes and hatchets phed against his doors and windows. Leaping from his bed, he found that 1 he house was already entered, and by the time he could seize his arms, twenty of the enemy, as he judged, " brake into the room, with painted faces and hideous ac clamations." A pistol, which he "put to the breast of the first Indian who came up," missed fire, and he was seized and bound. After nearly an hour, during which time they often threatened his life, " holding hatchets over his head," he and his faraily were allowed to put on some clothes, and "about sun an hour high, they were all carried out of the house for a march, and saw many of the houses of the neighbors in flaraes." The snow was as high as their knees. His wife was feeble, having within a few weeks becorae a mother. He begged " to walk with her, to help her in her journey." She " told him that her strength of her body began to fail, and that he must expect to part "W"ith her," but " never spake any discontented word as to what had befallen, but with suitable expressions glorified God." The second day she was taken from him, and before the end of that day, having fallen from weariness in crossing a. brook, "the cruel and bloodthirsty salvage who took her slew her with his hatchet." "WILLIAMS'S CAPTIVITY. 243 It was a great comfort to him afterwards to learn that " God had put it into the hearts of his neighbors to come out as far as she lay, to take up her corpse, recarry it into the town, and decently to bury it" During the march Williams's captors often threatened his life. Nineteen of his fellow-pris oners were " murdered by the way, and two starved to death." His " feet were so tender, swollen, bruised, and full of pain, that he could scarce stand upon thera " ; yet he was forced to travel in snow-shoes twenty-five railes a day. One day he "judged that they went forty or forty-five miles. God wonderfully supported him, and so far renewed his strength, that in the afternoon he was stronger to travel than in the forenoon." He was distressed by vermin, which infested the rags given him in place of his own clothes. It was eight weeks after the catastrophe • at Deerfield when he reached Montreal, where the governor-general took him from the Indians, and treated hira with kindness. After two years and a half more, his friends in Massachusetts having succeeded in obtaining an exchange of 1706. prisoners, he sailed frora Quebec on his °"'-25. return, accorapanied by fifty-seven partners in captivity, two of whom were his children. An- ' other child was earlier ransoraed. A son, who was absent from home at the time of the inroad, he .found pursuing his studies at college at the expense of sorae friends. A young daughter, who 244 ADMINISTEATION OF DUDLEY. was still detained, eventually became a Roman Catholic, and gave herself to an Indian husband. She came to Deerfield several years after, but she ' had becorae wedded to the wild life of the woods, and could not be wooed back to the scenes and friends of her early years. Such was one of the distressful passages which the Jesuit Charlevoix despatches in the sentence : " De Rouville, in his turn, surprised the Enghsh, killed many of them, and took a hundred and fifty prisoners." Under French officers and French priests, the war continued to be conducted with cruelty as aimless as it was brutal. Expeditions like those from Massachusetts against Quebec had a substantial purpose. If successful, they would establish the empire of New England, and ter minate the chronic strife on this continent. For the French in America, so rauch less numerous than their rivals, conquest was out of the ques tion, unless with the aid of large forces from the parent country. The war they waged was simply a succession of isolated barbarities, ac complishing nothing whatever towards a solution of the que.stion of power. A band of sanguinary savages was led hundreds of miles over the snow to an assault upon some hamlet, where a few poor people had made an opening in the forest, and were beginning to get a hard living. Watch ing for a tirae when it reposed in unsuspecting helplessness, they fell upon it by night, burned the dwellings, tortured and massacred some of the WAE WITH FEENCH AND INDIANS. 245 inhabitants, and then fled, carrying with them the rest. Of the spoils, they consumed the food and drink, as long as their fear of pursuit allowed. But they found little or no money to carry away, and for raore cumbrous booty they had no means of conveyance. They gained nothing except the gratification of their monstrous appetite for mis chief, and what they might be paid by their French employers for the prisoners whora they brought in. Nor does this latter kind of profit seem to have entered much into their account, if one may judge by the lavish butchering of their captives on the way. At -sea, there were instances of good fortune for the English. A French privateer, fitted 1704. out to intercept the spring supplies shipped •'^i^i'^- to New England frora the West Indies, was wrecked in Massachusetts Bay. A frigate, con veying two thousand rauskets to Quebec, was captured by an English squadron. As warra weather approached, the Indians showed themselves at Wells and at Dover, in quest, at the latter place, of Colonel Waldron, who was fortunately absent from home, ^ and so escaped paying another penalty of the vengeance against his race. Sirailar invasions of the sarae place were repeated during the year. Even Portsraouth, though less ex posed, had to be fortified. In the West, a Aug. 11. garrison-house on the edge of Northarapton May 13. was attacked by such a surprise and with such 246 ADMINISTEATION OF DUDLEY. numbers that a prompt surrender was the only resource. Of thirty-three persons who were led away, only three reached Canada ; nineteen were put to death on the journey, eight were rescued by a pursuing party, and three contrived to effect their escape. There is no variety in these trans actions, to constitute the material of a narrative. The whole exposed northern border of Massa chusetts, from Casco Bay to Connecticut River, was watched from hiding-places close by, afford ing every facility for sudden invasion and safe retreat. " Under all these sufferings frora a cruel eneray, little or no irapression could ever be raade npon them, by reason of their retiring into inac cessible swamps and mountains." Terrible dis tress was the lot of nurabers, and, for all the dwellers along the wide border, life was insecure and raiserable. A succession of disconnected inroads on the frontier towns took place during the summer, — as at Amesbury, Haverhill, Exeter, Dover, and York. An abortive assault on Lancaster was made disastrous by the fate of Mr. Gardiner, minister of that place, who in the dark was accidentally shot by a sentinel. A raessenger 1705. sent to Canada to negotiate for an ex- May, 4. change and ransom of prisoners, learned that there were a hundred and eighty-seven in the hands of the French and their allies. The French governor was with difficulty prevaUed upon to consent to the liberation of one third of this WAR WITH FRENCH AND INDIANS. 247 number, to whora, in the foho"\ving year, were added as raany more. At Oyster River, a garrisoi) -house was attacked, which hap- 1706. pened at the moraent to be occupied by^'"^^^" none but women. " They put on hats, with their hair hanging down, and fired so briskly that they struck a terror in the enemy, and they withdrew." Two days after, near Kittery, two men, a father and son, fell in their way. They killed the father, and took the son along with them. " In their raarch they were so inhuraanly cruel that they bit off the tops of his fingers, and to stanch the blood, seared them with hot tobacco-pipes." In the excitement that. existed, the governraent offered a reward to regular soldiers of ten pounds for every Indian scalp they should bring in, of twenty pounds to volunteers in the service, and of fifty pounds to volunteers not under pay. Yet so difficult was the pursuit of these cunning eneraies, that, according to the computation of the time, " every Indian we had killed or taken cost the country at least a thousand pounds. While they continued in great bodies, they did not commit the hke spoil and rapine, in proportion as they did in smaller." By the tirae when the fourth year of this desul tory and harassing conflict was drawing to a close, the people of Massachusetts had corae to understand at what a disadvantage they were conducting it. Their superiority to the French in nurabers and strength gave very partial pro- 248 ADMINISTRATION OF DUDLEY. tection, while, standing on the defensive, they presented to their enemy an extended frontier," which he could choose his own time and place for assailing. The actual distress in Massachu setts and New Hampshire was grievous. By 1704. special comraissioners Dudley apphed to November, j^hode Island and Connecticut for rein forceraents of troops. It was still hoped that the Confederacy of the Five Nations might be persuaded to undertake hostilities against the native adherents of the French, and a joint com mission from Massachusetts and Connecticut was' sent to endeavor to engage them in such a raove raent " They proraised to take up the hatchet whenever the governor of New York should de sire it." Lord Cornbury could not be brought to interest hiraself in behalf of the suffering New- Englanders, being apprehensive, as was thought, of a disturbance of " the vast trade between the Dutch and Indians." Yet under all these dis- courageraents, when Vaudreuil, apprehensive, per haps, that the fickle Iroquois raight be brought into closer relations with the English, proposed a truce, 1705. the General Court advised the governor Nov. 30. against the raeasure. When the English undertook to conduct the war on a systera better according with their own position, it was still generally with raore courage than good manageraent, and rarely with good success. It was rightly thought that to attack the Indians, and yet more rightly that to attack WAE WITH FEENCH AND INDIANS. 249 the French, in their strong-holds, was the true way to obtain tranquillity. But sorae fatality seeraed to attend the conduct of expeditions of this sort The spirited veteran. Major Church, not thought to be yet too old for effective service, was placed in comraand of an expedition ex pected to operate vigorously in the Eastern country. Three ships of war convoyed 1704. thirty-six whale-boats, besides fourteen '"^^" transports, which conveyed five hundred and fifty men. John Gorham, son of the officer of the same name who led one of the two Plyraouth corapanies in Philip's war, was second in com raand, and had charge of the whale-boats. Church, with abilities not equal to his self-con fidence, accoraplished but little towards the main object of the war. He landed on the banks of the Penobscot and of Passamaquoddy Bay ; but the natives kept out of his way, and he only took sorae prisoners, and brought away a quantity of " goods and stores," burning what he had not the raeans to carry off. Next he crossed the Bay of Fundy, and destroyed a little town called Menis near Port Royal in Nova Scotia. He had wished to attack Port Royal, but the governor, to whom before leaving Boston he had proposed that step, had forbidden it, on the ground that it was under consideration in Eng land, and had not as yet been authorized. Church, however, subraitted it to the consideration of a council of war, who 250 ADMINISTEATION OF DUDLEY. deterrained that the country had been so widely alarmed that it could not be attempted with a prospect of success. The expensive expedition had no important consequence. The people of Massachusetts were disappointed and angry. Dudley was suspected of having played false. Church's reception at horae was cold, though, both to save appearances to the public, and avoid mortifying a well-intentioned and on the whole well-deserving man, the General Court judged it expedient to gratify him by a formal vote of thanks and approbation. Not so soon as might have been expected, offensive operations were resumed. The govern ment of Massachusetts resolved to make a de scent on Nova Scotia, and solicited help frora the other colonies for that purpose. New Hampshire and Rhode Island engaged in the enterprise, in the measure of their sraall ability. Connecticut, little annoyed by the continuance of the existing state of things, did not see reason to take a part. Under the convoy of a frigate of the royal navy, and an armed vessel belonging to the province, a thou- 1707. sand men coraraanded by Colonel March May 13. sailed frora Boston and landed before May 26. Port Royal. After a skirraish the French shut theraselves up in their fort, which was well provided. They kept up a constant fire upon the besiegers, who were at the sarae tirae at- May29. ° ' tacked on the other side by a force of Indians from the interior. The English made WAE WITH FEENCH AND INDIANS. 251 regular investments and approaches, and feebly attempted an assault. But, except personal courage and some experience in a sraall way, March appears to have had no quahfication for command. He became bewildered, and his troops becarae discouraged and disorderly. A council of war resolved "that the eneray's well- disciplined garrison in a strong fort was raore than a raatch for our raw, undisciplined array," and, in less than two weeks frora the time of landing, the troops were re-embarked on ' board the transports. The fleet came to Casco Bay, "whence a message was sent to Boston for further orders. Boston was thrown into a rage, in which the characters of the coraraanders re ceived ungentle treatraent. Dudley, reluctant to acquiesce in so discreditable a termination of his undertaking, sent a message to March to await further orders where he was. To supersede hira by a superior officer would have been iraprudent, for he was a favorite with the soldiers, and, if he had not acquitted hiraself well in this instance, there was no reason to sup pose that he had failed to do his best Three merabers of the Council were despatched, with a reinforcement of a hundred men, and with authority to represent the governor. After acquainting themselves with the state of things in the camp, they wrote back that they only persisted because such were the governor's positive comraands. They reported that the 252 ADMINISTEATION OF DUDLEY. force in officers and soldiers did not amount to so many as seven hundred and fifty, " sick and weh," and that these were " so extremely dis pirited " as not to be " equal to three hundred effective men." Before the expedition returned to Port Royal, there was a mutiny which had to be quelled. March was no longer hiraself, and at his instance the coraraand was transferred to Wainwright, who was next to hira in rank. Wainwright, though " rauch disordered in health by a great cold," tried " to keep up a good heart,"- but there was nothing to inspirit hirn. His troops were ailing and deraoralized. What with dys entery and "raighty swellings in their throats," they were, he wrote from before Port '^' ' Royal, " filled with terror at the considera tion of a fatal event of the expedition, concluding that, in a short time, there would not be enough to carry off the sick." The enemy were receiving " additional strength every day." They had with diligence and skill been strengthening their forti fications, and were becoming more aggressive, so that it was now " unsafe to proceed on any ser vice without a company of at least one hundred men." Wainwright was uneasy about his In dian auxiliaries, who were intractable and inso lent. The captain of the Enghsh man-of-war at tached to the expedition had been relied upon for the help of a hundred raen, but he had raade up his mind that it would be exposing them for no use, and had withdrawn them. " In fine," WAR WITH FEENCH AND INDIANS. 253 Wainwright writes, "most of the forces are in a distressed state, some in body and sorae in mind ; and the longer they are kept here on the cold ground, the longer it will grow upon them, and, I fear, the further we proceed the worse the event God help us." Within a week the camp was broken up. The "^' troops were attacked while getting on board the transports, and were only too happy to effect the erabarkation without much loss. The miscar riage, and all its circurastances, were deeply mor tifying. A court-martial was ordered, but was never held, perhaps because too great numbers would have corae under its sentence, and for getfulness, as speedy as could be had, was better than punishment or amnesty, and better than any attempt at discrimination. Dudley's chagrin must have been bitter. But he was not a man to increase his humiliation by avowing it. He raet his enraged General Court with no expression of a discomposed mind. " Though," he said, " we have not obtained all that we desired against the enemy, yet we are to acknowledge the favor of God in preserving our forces in the expedition, and prospering them so far as the destruction of the French settlements and estates in and about Port Royal, to a great value, which must needs distress the enemy to a very great degree." While the expedition which thus disastrously failed was in progress, the savages were more 254 ADMINISTRATION OF DUDLEY. than ever at liberty to prosecute their devastations May- along the northern frontier, and the ex- october. posed settlements at Dover, Groton, Kit tery, Exeter, Kingston, Casco, York, WeUs, Marlborough, Winter Harbor (Biddeford), and Berwick again suffered from their ravages. 1708. The winter was quiet. In the next sum- Aug. 29. j^gj. ^he French were again on the alert. Two parties, attached to one of which was Hertel de Rouville, "who had led the expedition to Deer field four years before, started from Quebec for the settlenients, — one by the way of the river St. Francis, the other by Lake Champlain, — in tending to meet near the Enghsh border. From cowardice or from whim, most of the Indian auxiliaries fell off, but a party not less than a hundred and fifty in nuraber surprised the score or two of dw^ellings which made the town of Haverhill, on the Merrimac. Coming upon it just before daylight, they fired several houses, plundered others, and killed sorae thirty or forty of the inhabitants, araong whom were the minis ter, Mr. Rolf, and Captain Wainwright, lately the coraraander at Port Royal. The townspeople ralhed, and after an hour's fighting drove thera away. Araesbury, Brookfield, and" Kittery were 1709. again beset, but without rauch daraage. May 6. Exeter, near one end of the border line, and Deerfield, near the other, -were invaded anew. One of four raen whora the Indians carried ' off from Exeter, they roasted to death. WAR WITH FRENCH AND INDIANS. 255 From Deerfield, though they atterapted it with a force of nearly two hundred raen, they were this time repulsed with little loss to the conquerors. Dudley inforraed the General Court of the arrival of Lord Lovelace as governor of New York, and advised that he should be desired " to let loose the Maquas and dependencies " ; and raessengers (Wait Winthrop and John Lev erett) were accordingly sent by the Court to New York to confer with hira. The plan of attacking the French at the central point of their power, and so cutting off the source of the continually recurring raiseries, was so obviously the correct one that it could not fail to be revived as often as frora adverse accidents it raiscarried, though, raore or less, it was erabar- rassed all along by the sense which pre vailed in Massachusetts, and was expressed by her at this tirae to Lord Dartmouth, Secretary of State, of " the criminal neutrality maintained by New York with the French Indians." The General Court sent an address to the Queen, pray ing for aid to an expedition, towards which they professed a desire themselves to do their utmost, for the conquest of Nova Scotia arid Canada. The proposal was favorably received at Court, and operations on a larger scale were resolved upon. Colonel Vetch brought information that it was deterrained to send from England ^ what was thought a sufficient naval force, and five regiments of the regular army. Twelve hundred 256 ADMINISTRATION OF DUDLEY. men were to be enlisted and equipped by Massa chusetts and Rhode Island. These united forces were to atterapt Quebec, whUe fifteen hundred raen frora the colonies further south were to make a movement by land against Montreal. The Massachusetts troops were mustered '^^ ' at Boston before the end of spring. The southern contingent proceeded towards Lake Champlain, and lay encamped at Wood Creek, awaiting intelligence of the arrival at Boston of the English fleet Month passed after month, of anxiety and expense, and the English fleet did not appear. At length. General Stanhope having lost the battle of Almanza, intelligence came that the troops expected in Boston were wanted in Portugal, and had been sent thither ; and the ministers directed a consideration of the question, whether the preparations which had been raade in Massachusetts raight not be serviceable against Port Royal. The plan was approved at a consultation between the New England governors. But the officers in coraraand of the few King's ships which had corae to Bos ton declared that their orders would not justify them in affording assistance, and they took the responsibility of sailing away at once. There was now no convoy for the troops, and, on a request from the General Court, the governor disbanded them, to put an end to the oppressive expense. The army at Wood Creek, under the command of Nicholson, ; lieutenant-governor of EXPEDITION AGAINST NOVA SCOTIA. 257 New York, was distressed by an epidemic sickness, occasioned, as was afterwards believed, by the perfidy of their native allies, who threw putrid skins into a stream which supplied the English carap. That force also, threatened by a raove raent of the French, precipitately withdrew, and the whole costly expedition carae to nothing. The project was renewed in the next year as to the less iraportant of its objects, — the conquest of Nova Scotia. Nicholson, who had 1710. gone to England for the purpose of urging '"'y^^. it, returned to Boston with a fleet of sraall ves sels, which was increased during the sumraer, by ships of the four New England colonies and of the royal navy, to the nuraber of thirty-six. These conveyed to Port Royal a force, under his command, consisting of four regiments from New England, and a regiment of royal marines. The garrison, under the command of the officer, Su- bercase, who had foiled Captain Wainwright three years before, consisted of only two hundred and fifty raen, and was too feeble "^ ' to oppose the landing. At the end of a week, sorae mortar batteries having been erected, a sumraons was sent into the fort, and it capitulated the following day on honorable terras. The garrison was to raarch out with the honors of war, and be conveyed to a French post Persons dwelling within three railes of the fort (who turned out to be four hundred and eighty- one in number) had liberty to remain for two 17 258 ADMINISTRATION OF DUDLEY. years at their homes, with their farm-stock, pro visions, and furniture, on taking the oaths of allegiance and fidehty to the Queen. The fort was out of repair, and the siege cost the English the lives of only fourteen or fifteen men. But the French were dissatisfied with their officer's conduct. Agreeably to a promise from Lord Sunderland, Vetch was " left in coraraand there." It was also intended that he should be governor of Canada, when further projected operations should have succeeded. The suramer had brought its accustomed sor rows along the line of the outlying settleraents. At liketer three men were killed, among them Colonel Hilton, who had served weU with Church. At Biddeford, Berwick, Chelrasford, and Brook field sorae murders were comraitted. The sav ages went as far as Connecticut, where they entered the towns of Simsbury and Waterbury. In England the Tory statesmen Harley and St John were now in full power, frora whom the people of Massachusetts did not presume to ex pect proofs of friendship for themselves, or of hostility to France. The surprise was great when Nicholson, who, before the change in the English 1711. Ministry, had gone to England to solicit June 8. ^;^j ^^ another expedition, returned with two frigates and two transports, bringing orders to proceed in the plan on a large scale. His rep resentations had been seconded by those of the very able Jeremiah Dummer, who, EXPEDITION AGAINST CANADA. 259 the autumn before, had been charged by 1710. the General Court of the province with the ^°''" "¦ agency in England, Sir Henry Ashurst being now dead, and his brother. Sir WiUiam, having de clined to succeed him. A fleet was proraised, and the engageraent was presently raade 1711. good by its appearance in Boston Harbor, J"™ 24. after a seven weeks' voyage, to the number of fifteen men-of-war of different sizes, and forty transports. As one of the methods to conceal its destination, it was not provisioned in England, but supplies for it for ten weeks were to be pro cured in Boston. The extreme difficulty, which might prove to be an irapossibility, of raaking this provision, led to a suspicion that the home government was not sincere, but intended to impute to the colony the failure which would ensue. The jealousy was not unnatural, considering what had occurred in the last year ; but in this instance it was without foundation. Letters of the Secretary, St. John (soon to be Lord Bolingbroke), adrait no doubt of his having been in irapatient earnest as to this business. , Apparently the Tory ministers, who were now arresting Marlborough's great series of victories in Europe, and withdrawing his troops, wished to compensate this proceeding, and protect their popularity, by so striking an exploit of their own as would have been the con quest of New France ; and it would have been a special satisfaction to the Queen's new favorite, 260 ADMINISTEATION OF DUDLEY. Mrs. Mashara, if at the sarae time that she dis tressed her discarded rival by the recall of the great Duke from his triumphs on the continent, she could have raised her own brother to conse quence as the winner of a new empire for Eng land in Araerica. St. John's raind seems Feb.-Aug. to have been filled with this scherae dur ing half of the first year of his official life, till it failed. No one was inforraed of it — so he writes to Hunter, governor of New York, ' ' in a letter of which he sent a copy to Dud ley — except the Queen, himself, and his col league. Lord Dartmouth. " It is my favorite project," he says, " which I have been driving on ever since I came last into business, what will be an iraraense and lasting advantage to our country, if it succeeds, and what, if it fails, will perhaps be particularly prejudicial to me." Those who were to be employed in the expedition were made to understand that it was destined for a landing in the South of France. Sealed instructions were prepared for the naval commander, not to be examined by him till he should reach the fortieth degree of latitude. When, after some delay, at which St John constantly and passion ately expresses his vexation, Nicholson sailed with the instructions to Dudley and Hunter to hasten their preparations, the Secre tary's nerves were somewhat quieted, but his irri- tabUity returned as the preparations for so great an expedition proved to require no little tirae. EXPEDITION AGAINST CANADA. 261 He " must be forgiven," he writes to the general, " if more uneasy than ordinary "^ upon this account. But the Queen is so herself." They " earnestly contemplate the several vanes." The British statesman's impetuosity was re sponded to with genuine animation on the other side of the water. To raise money, the General Court of Massachusetts, which was in session when the fleet arrived, resolved on borrowing, for two years, on biUs of credit to the amount of forty thousand pounds. A price was es tablished for provisions, and when this caused them to be concealed, a law was passed, comraanding the seizure of them and au thorizing forcible entry for the purpose. An embargo was laid to suppress inteUigence of the design, and secure a supply of seamen. An order was issued " to impress all bakers, brewers, coopers, etc., who cannot or will not supply the public in their way at the stated prices." A proc- laraation of the governor required the selectmen of towns to send every day meat and vegetables to be bought by the com missaries for six thousand men encamped on Noddle's Island. Three Iroquois sachems came to Boston to consult respecting the- plan of the campaign. There was a voluntary agreeraent araong the citizens to eat no fresh raeat till the fleet should be supphed. A day for fasting and prayer was appointed. The ^^^ ^^ enactraent of a severe law against harbor- 262 ADMINISTRATION OF DUDLEY. ing deserters did not prevent the admiral from complaining, with an arrogance which has some tiraes been observed in the Enghsh naval service, and demanding that there should be a press of seamen to make up his loss, — a demand, how ever, with which it was not thought prudent to atterapt to coraply. The adrairal could not him self impress searaen in New England, by reason 1696. of a standing prohibition of the Privy ^^''¦^' CouncU to this effect 1711. The provisioning was done with extraor- juiyso. (Jijiary expedition, and the fleet left Bos ton Harbor, conveying seven thousand well-ap pointed troops, regular and provincial. Lord HUl, brother of the lady of the bedcharaber to the weak Queen, was the incorapetent coraraander. In three weeks the fleet was at the mouth "^' ' of the St. Lawrence. Proceeding up that river, it lost its way in a fog, and then a high wind began to set the ships towards the northern bank. The pUots, New England ship-raasters, had undertaken their task unwillingly, not pre tending to rauch knowledge of the eddies and soundings of the stream. When they were some thirty railes up the river, the adrairal gave orders for the- ships to lie to, heading towards the south. The pUots afterwards insisted that this was con trary to their judgraent. The fate of the superb expedition was settled without much delay. By midnight of the second day ten or eleven "^' ' ships had drifted upon ledges of rock. EXPEDITION AGAINST CANADA. 263 where they went to pieces, and raore than a thou sand persons were drowned, araong whora were thirty-one comraissioned officers of various rank, and thirty-five woraen. With the vessels which escaped, including all that belonged to the royal navy, the disheartened adrairal sailed down to the mouth of the river. He and his captains still hoped to cover their disgrace by an attempt upon Placentia in Newfoundland; but on a reconsideration they determined , . ., / r ¦ Sept. 8. unanimously in a council ot war of nine navy officers and nine colonels, with the general and adrairal, that this scherae also raust be given up, for lack of a sufficiency of provisions. What remained of the provincial force sailed iot Boston, to excite loud coraplaints of the admiral's raisraanageraent, while he and the gen eral went to England to excuse theraselves by representing that the Massachusetts people had been tardy and penurious in fitting out the fleet. Nicholson, who, in accordance with the method before pursued on the like occasion, had led a force towards Lake Champlain to operate against Montreal, received intelligence of the disaster lower down the river, in season to withdraw out of reach of the attack which Vaudreuil was pre- • paring to raake upon hira with his undivided force, as soon as the danger at Quebec should be over. The shipmasters who acted as pilots had been impressed by Dudley in Boston and other ports. This coercion was necessary, because they 264 ADMINISTRATION OF DUDLEY. felt themselves to be incompetent, by reason of their little acquaintance with the river. Three of them were sent to England, where, however, no questions were put to them ; perhaps because the Ministry thought they might teU what it was as well for those in power that the people of England should not know, and especially it might not be agreeable to the sovereign that in the cir curastances they should draw attention to the commander of the land forces. In Massachusetts the consternation, as well as the disappointment, was extreme. The expedi tion having so miserably failed, the cost of it appeared all but ruinous. The General Court, however, never giving way to de spair, sent an Address to the Queen, praying for a further renewal of the repeatedly frustrated enterprise. As to their own capacity for contri butions to it, they prayed for some forbearance, " because of their enfeebled and impoverished state." As one proof that it was not zeal in which they were wanting, they represented that one raan out of every five in their jurisdiction, capable of bearing arras, had been doing military service in the past year. While their agent in England was " to vindicate and justify the governraent," they magnanimously or. prudently instructed him not to " fault or ira- peach others for want of doing their duty, or for their conduct in that affair." Sorae little consola tion was derived from the knowledge that a plan TEEATY WITH INDIANS. entertained by the French for the retake Royal had been disconcerted by the ne^ concentrating their forces for the strength^ Quebec. In the following year sorae of the cus tomary inroads of Indians, varied by no novel circumstances, took place along the north eastern border. On the whole, in the discourage ment which prevailed, the intelligence of the peace of Utrecht was received with wel- 1713. come in Massachusetts. The Indians pro- ^''^"^ ^^' posed to the officer coramanding at Casco to make a treaty on their own account. Dudley kept up his dignity by answering that they must come to him at Portsmouth; and there accordingly they made another of their "^ untrustworthy pacifications, professing themselves loyal subjects of the British Queen, and iraplor- ing forgiveness for their past misdeeds and per fidies. It was estimated that the eastern tribes had lost one third part of the whole number of their warriors during the past ten years, and that the proportion of lives sacrificed had been little, if at all, less among the English population • of Maine. 264 CHAPTER. IX. ADMINISTRATION OF DUDLEY, CONTINUED. The renewal of the Indian war at the begin ning of Dudley's administration, while it invited harraonious action between him and the General Court, did not suspend their jealousy of one another. He called the Court together to con- 1703. suit on the state of affairs, informing them Sept. 1. .j-hat he had already marched four hun dred troops into Maine, a sufficient force, as he still hoped, to restore tranquillity. It was not un natural that he should regard a raoraent when he felt his iraportance to the people to be great, as being a favorable one for the introduction of- measures which he knew to be disrelished by them ; and he read a letter from the Queen urging anew the matter of stated salaries for the high officials. The House replied that, in the absence of raany of its raerabers, kept at home by the existing alarm, they could not pru dently proceed to consider a subject of such mo ment The iraportance of a stated and perma nent salary for the governors had been seen clearly both by them and by their raasters frora the insti tution ofthe provincial governraent, — bythe Min- DISAFFECTION QF THE GENERAL COURT. 267 istry, because it so materially affected the power of their representatives to serve them ; by the gov ernors, both for that reason and for their private corafort and ease. Sir WUliam Phipps was not long in seeing the expediency of praying 1693. the King to " nominate to said Asserably a No™mber. salary sufficient for his support." Lord Belloraont, before he left England, applied to have " such a salary fixed on hira as might be suitable to the government " ; an application of which the 1595. unsatisfactory result has been seen in the -""ly*- reply of the agent of Massachusetts to' the mes sage of the Privy Council. At the next meeting of the Court, the gov ernor's urgency for action in respect to established salaries and the restoration of the eastern 1703. fort was such as to bring the House to O"'-^^- a forraal defence of that policy, which it had adopted at the beginning of the provincial his tory, and in which it persisted to the end. There was now excitement on both sides, the Council siding with the governor on questions of form and of his prerogative. The Representatives had sent an Address to the Queen, without consulta tion with the CouncU. The Council desired to see it. The Representatives replied that their Journal, in which it was recorded, was open to the Council's inspection, but they refused to send their clerk up with the Journal, or to furnish a copy of the paper. Dudley summoned the House to come to the Council Chamber with their Journal. 268 ADMINISTRATION OF DUDLEY. They carae, but did not bring it At length they were prevaUed upon to furnish a copy of the Address, and the altercation carae to nothing ex cept as raanifesting the teraper which prevaUed. The House raade a grant to Constantine Phipps, as agent for the colony. Dudley held that, with his becoming governor, Phipps's agency, being unauthorized by him, had ¦ ceased. The House voted that the appro priation by the governor to other uses of moneys granted by them for the fortification of Boston Harbor was a " grievance." They pre sented a list of other coraplaints relating to his military administration, and were about to extend it still further when he prorogued them, after a rebuke accorapanied with lofty assertions of his prerogative as " her Majesty's coraraander- in-chief in Massachusetts." They parted in mu tual ill-humor, and Dudley wrote to Lord Not tingham that he had coraraunicated the Dec. 19. Queen's requisitions to the Asserably, but though he had " for a month's time used aU pos sible raethods with thera," he found it "irapos sible to raove that sort of raen, who love not the crowm and governraent of England, to any man ner of obedience." They meant, he said, to " put 'a slight upon her Majesty's government, of whose just rights I will not abate the least point to save my life, it being so very necessary to watch to support it amongst a people that would destroy it, if possible." DISAFFECTION OF THE GENERAL COURT. 269 The governor's first speech to the Gen- 1704. eral Court after the sack of Deerfield was ^'^""^ ^¦ occupied with that subject to the exclusion of the commonplaces of the salaries and of the eastern fort. The Queen had repeated her instruc tions on both those points, and had added, " If they do hot forthwith comply with our just expectation herein, they will appear to us unde serving of our royal favor and bounty towards them on the like occasion." But either that com munication had not yet reached him, or he com sidered that prudence required it to be withheld till he had obtained the money which was urgent ly needed for the war. The Court called for six hundred volunteers, offered a premiura of a hun dred pounds for scalps, and sent to solicit railitary aid frora Rhode Island and Connecticut. A large supply of money -was wanted. Bills of credit were issued to the amount of ten thousand pounds, and a tax was laid . for their redemp tion. The Representatives never overlooked the im portance of the pending question of provision for the governor's support. They made him a grant of two hundred pounds. The Council sent down a message, recomraending an increase of the allowance and a grant besides to the lieutenant-governor. The House replied that they had " resolved not to raise any furthei money this session," and were presently prorogued. They carae together again for 270 ADMINISTRATION OF DUDLEY. a few days in the following month, but attended to nothing beyond sorae arrangements for the prosecution of the war. At the annual '^^ ' meeting for the election of counsellors, the .governor again refrained from pressing the meas ures which were most upon his mind. But, on the other hand, he again resorted to an offensive exercise of his prerogative by setting aside the choice of the popular favorites, Elisha Cooke and Peter Sargent, to be counsellors. The Speaker " addressed his Excellency in the narae of the House for his favor to accept the two gentlemen to be of the Council, whom he had disallowed of." The House had comproraised its dignity in vain. " His Excellency returned answer to that motion, and dismissed the House to their busi ness." After a fortnight's delay, and not without being prompted by a message from the Council, the House consented to go into an election to supply the vacancies, and Simeon Stoddard and Sarauel Hayraan, who were now chosen counsellors, were admitted by the ' governor. " The election of counsellors," wrote Dudley to the Lords of Trade, " is scan dalously used to affront every loyal and good man that loves the Church of England and dependence on her Majesty's government." The disagreement with hira on the essential points of policy went on for the present with out check, notwithstanding the general good understanding which united the two parties in DISAFFECTION OF THE GENERAL COURT. 271 the conduct of the war. The House granted forty pounds to each Judge of the Superior Court for his service for the year, and the sarae sura to the lieutenant of the castle. To Povey, lieutenant-governor, as captain of the castle, to which place Dudley had advanced hira over Hutchinson, they voted a hundred and twenty pounds as a year's pay; but it was on onerous conditions, one of which was that, ex cept for special reasons, he should be at the castle three days in every week. The Council gave hira fifty pounds raore for the first half of the year, at which the House took high offence, and voted that the proceed ing was " arbitrary and illegal, and a violation of our English and charter privileges and rights." The Council sent down a raes- sage asking for " a grant for the support of the governor and the secretary, and to know what consideration they had had of the raeraorial pre sented by the judges," complaining of their in sufficient provision. A list of grants was laid before the Council, in which they in vain in formed the House that they found none for the governor. " I humbly ask," he wrote to the Secretary of State, "your Honor's favor and patronage for rae in my difficult part with an angry people that can hardly bear the government nor Church of England amongst thera, and, while ray care is to keep thera steady to Acts of Parliament, will make me as uneasy as they can." 272 ADMINISTRATION OF DUDLEY. Nor did anything raore satisfactory fol- ^^''¦^^- low, when at the beginning of another session the CouncU forraally solicited "a just and honorable supply to the governor for his support to the reraaining part of the year." He had been too pereraptory for prudence in his opening speech. In that harangue he had declared that the Commissioners of Trade had in structed him to express their regret " for the re fractory teraper of the Asserably referring to her Majesty's coraraands for the rebuilding of Peraa quid," and to say that it was " very unfit Assera- blies should raake representations to her Majesty without the consent and knowledge of her Maj esty's governor," and that it was unreasonable for the people of- Massachusetts to " expect that they should be furnished with stores of war at her Majesty's expense, while they, of all the colonies of America, did alone refuse to settle a salary on her Majesty's governor and other officers .there." And he added a lofty assertion of his acquaintance with the interests of the province, his desire to promote thera, and his persuasion that " their affairs would proceed better when they should think so of their governor, and accept his service well." . On the other hand, in his message at the 1705. close of this session, he said he should Feb. 21. report to the Queen that he " had asked nothing referring to the war of the Assembly, but that it had been very easUy complied with." The financial difficulties of the war~ pressed DISAFFECTION OF THE GENERAL COURT. 273 heavily. Within two thirds of a year, succes sive issues of bills of credit amounted .to ^^^^ no less a sura than twenty thousand June 30- pounds. With a supply so inflated, a ^™^' ^ i r J J j,^^ 27. provision that they should be received in payraents into the treasury at an advance of five per cent did not save thera frora continued de preciation. Nor was this the only trouble which attended on thera. They were freely counter feited ; and the scrupulous rulers, while they la bored to stop the forgeries by penal laws, thought -it their duty to make good the loss occasioned by thera to innocent private holders. The governor put forward a new pretension. As early as the second year of the provincial charter, the question of " the power of the 169,3. governor to dismiss the Speaker" had n°^- ui come before the Board of Trade ; but for the tirae it passed by without serious discussion. In the organization of the third General Court consti tuted since Dudley's arrival, the House chose Thoraas Oakes for its Speaker, the agent who in England had opposed the .charter. The 1705. governor withheld his approval, and di- ^^^y^"- rected them to proceed to a new election. The House voted that it was " not in the governor's power to refuse the election of a Speaker." The governor hesitated to take the responsibility of arresting the public business. He needed a grant of twenty-two thousand pounds, which the House was ready to make, when he should cease to in- 18 274 ADMINISTRATION OF DUDLEY. terfere with its organization. He proposed to the House to " put another person in the chair, with a salvo jure, tiU counsellors should have been chosen," an election which, by a provision of the charter, could not be delayed. Without paying regard to the suggestion, they proceeded to the election of cOunseUors ; and the governor, yield ing to the inconvenience of further pressing the question, consented to the whole list. He "^ ' wrote to the Lords of Trade, that Oakes, to whora he had objected as Speaker, was " a known Commonwealth's man, never quiet, nor satisfied with the government, but particularly very poor." It was at this General Court that Lieuten- "^ ' ant- Govern or Povey appeared for the last Oct. 17. tirae. He was succeeded, after a short in terval, by William Tailer. The governor had accepted a grant of ' two hundred pounds made to him by the General Court now expired. Taking care to keep his claim alive, with however little prospect of present success, he sent a message " to move the new House for a suitable and honor able allowance for the support of the governor." For answer they gave hira another three ' hundred, pounds, and were prorogued for two raonths.- Before the expiration of that tirae he expected to be prepared for a raore vigorous movement Accordingly, when they came together again, he told them he had re ceived a letter from the Queen, expressing in DISAFFECTION OF THE GENERAL COURT. 275 positive terras her Majesty's expectation that they would rebuild the fort at Peraaquid, con tribute to the repair of the work at the raouth of the Piscataqua, and establish regular salaries for the governor' and lieutenant-governor ; and he added that he was instructed to represent that " the neglect of these coraraands would show the General Assembly undeserving of her Majesty's royal favor and bounty towards them." The Representatives replied that, since the date of the Queen's letter, which was several months old, they had, in an Address, ex plained themselves to her Majesty on the subject of fortifying Peraaquid ; and they desired that the two other matters might be deferred to the next session, and then "debated and answered by a full House," which now, on account of " the affairs of husbandry," could not be obtained, " the raerabers of three counties being absent." The governor still insisted, and the House, hav ing probably first ascertained that they raight proraise theraselves support in the other branch, sent up a resolute message pre- "' ' senting their whole case. They said, 1. That, while the fortifying of Pemaquid would occasion a great expense, which they were in no condition to meet, — for the war had already cost them " not less than eighty thousand pounds, the greatest part whereof was still unpaid," — it would be siraply useless when done, for the fort on Casco Bay, fifty raUes west of Pemaquid, was 276 ADMINISTRATION OF DUDLEY. " seated near the extent of the former settlements and plantations of the English within the prov ince, and considerably beyond any of the present English dweUings"; 2. That the cost to New Hampshire of the fort on the Piscataqua would not equal the sum expended in the war by many single towns in Massachusetts ; that Mas sachusetts vessels passing in and out of the river paid toU at that fort; and that forts built by Massachusetts without aid from New Hampshire were as useful for the defence of New Hamp shire as of the sister colony ; and, 3. That as to the establishment of perraanent salaries, their cir curastances and ability were different at different times, and it was " the native privilege and right of Enghsh subjects to raise and dispose of money according to the present exigency of affairs." The great principle of the question, still evaded, was not presented till some years later. The gov ernor was ill-advised enough to bring the "^ ¦ ' subject before the Council, on which it may be presumed that he still relied for support But the Council, being brought to a vote as to the three proposals which the House had put aside, determined that they could not give their advice in favor of any one. An Address to the Queen, framed by a joint coraraittee of the "^ ' ' two branches, was debated in the CouncU, "the governor and lieutenant-governor withdraw ing." It was adopted with sorae araendraents ; the secretary was directed to sign and forward it; and the Court was prorogued the sarae day. ¦ CHARGES OF DISLOYALTY. 277 The discontent with Dudley, so rife in Massa chusetts, was seeking a hearing in England. Nel son, who had taken a prominent part with the patriots in the deposition of Andros, but who had since changed his side, wrote tp the Sec retary of the Board of Trade, urging the contin uance of the governor in his place. He 1706. was "informed of the endeavors of a fac- ^''^¦^^¦ tion who are busy to reinstate themselves into the government." There was no reasonable "com plaint against him [Dudley] ; but that which dis pleases is his care and attendance on 'the Church of England," his urging action relating to the building of an eastern fort and the estabUshment of salaries, and his care of the Acts of Trade." It may have been frora the same unpopularity that the lieutenant-governor too found his position un- corafortable. He had lately gone horae, and a memorial from merabers of the Church of England in Boston prayed that he might be sent back, " with a good establishment, both for the governor and himself, to put thera " beyond the power of a difficult and ungrateful people." At the next, election of counsehors, the governor rejected two, Elisha Cooke, his old antagonist, and Joseph Haramond. Events had been providing an occasion for the deep- seated animosity against him to break out with violence. A vessel, under the command of one William Rouse, had been sent twice to Nova 278 ADMINISTEATION OF DUDLEY. Scotia to bring back some of the prisoners of the war. He had little success in his proper errand, and was charged with using his opportunity to trade with the enemy and provide thera with military stores. The House entertained ' the accusation, extending it to Samuel June 24. Vctch as an accoraplice, and presently to John Borland and Roger Lawson, merchants of Boston. As the offence alleged Ijad been com mitted, if at all, in Nova Scotia, a doubt arose whether it could be investigated by the judicial tribunals of Massachusetts ; and the House, in clining to the process of impeachraent, sent up a message to the Council, asking " that such ' proceedings, examinations, trials, and judg ments might be had and used, upon and relating to the said persons, as were agreeable to law and justice." Already it was whispered that the governor had been a sharer in the crime and its profits, and the House thought theraselves ^ ' called upon to send up their denial of a report that they had begun their examination of the suspected men with the question whether the governor was concerned with them ; and they went so far as to add that his alacrity in pur suing the scrutiny " had removed all color for such vile suspicion." The session being about to close, the House sent a message to desire that the prisoners, to whom John Phil lips of Charlestown, and Ebenezer Coffin, were now added, might be kept in close confinement. CHAEGES OF DISLOYALTY. 279 " in order to their being brought to their trial be fore the Great and General Court" The Council deterrained that they should be proceeded against at the next session by a bill of attainder, and the Court was then prorogued. In his speech at the opening of the next session, the governor enlarged upon the "^' gravity of the crirae which was alleged, but urged upon the Court its duty to pursue the pros ecution with caution and good temper. In a conference between the two Houses the form of a bill of attainder was determined. The Aug. lo. judges and the attorney-general (the gov ernor's son Paul), being directed by the Council to consult on the conduct of the trial, advised that a copy of the charges should be delivered to the prisoners, and that they should be successively arraigned before the whole Court, beginning on the following day. Counsel having been assigned thera. Vetch was tried on Aug. 15. one day, Borland and Lawson on another, Aug.i6,i7. Rouse and Phillips on a third, and then Aug.19,20. Coffin. A vote of the whole Court con- Aug. 21. victed thera all, and a joint coraraittee Aug 24. reported on the punishraents to be assigned to each. The Council objected to the sentences as being on the whole too severe, and the House was persuaded to a partial relaxation. The con clusion was that the penalty of iraprisonment, which, as well as that of fines, had been proposed for all the convicts except Coffin, was remitted in 280 ADMINISTEATION OF DUDLEY. every case ; that Rouse was excused from " sitring an hour upon the gahows with a rope about his neck"; and that he was fined twelve hundred pounds, besides being declared incapable of sus taining any public trust The fine of Borland was fixed at eleven hundred pounds, that of Lawson at three hundred, of Vetch at two hun dred, of PhiUips at one hundred, and of Coffin at sixty. And a separate Act was passed, dis posing of each case. The Hous^ voted a "^ ' ' grant of fifty pounds to the governor " for his extraordinary trouble," and other aUow- ances to the merabers of the Court, to be paid from the fines. But he refused his consent to these gratuities, and imraediately pro- '^ ' ' rogued the Court. He wrote to the Lords ° ' of Trade that he thought the fines imposed — especiaUy that laid on Rouse — to be excessive, and hoped that the Queen might be advised to remit them. The merabers of the Asserably, he said, had proceeded unadvisedly and harshly, because they were " of less education and knowl edge in the law," and " in a very great displeasure against traders with the eneray." Whatever was the" governor's opinion of the illegality of these proceedings, and whatever might be his personal interest in them, it was hard for hira to place any impediment in their way, so jealously was he watched, and so unfa vorable would have been the inferences drawn from any action of his on the side of lenity. PETITION FOE HIS EEMOVAL. 281 The Acts were subraitted to the consideration of the Queen in Council, by which authority they were annulled. The Queen was advised 1707. that "the criraes in the said several acts S'=p'-24- mentioned" were "in no wise cognizable be fore the General Assembly [of Massachusetts], in regard they have no power to proceed against criminals, such proceedings being left to the courts of the law there." And it was accor dingly ordered that the fines should be repaid. The convicts were to give bonds to stand a trial at law, which bonds were to be void, unless prosecution took place within a year. Their case could not fail, in existing circum stances, to involve the character of the governor, and to inflame whatever there was of long- hoarded hostility against him. Before that action of the Privy Council which has just been related, sorae twenty men of New Eng land, most of them then resident in Lon don, had addressed to the Queen a formal petition for the reraoval of Dudley from his government Professing to pass over "divers unheard-of cor ruptions and oppressions, and unjust and partial practices of the said Dudley, on which they might ground raany complaints," and of which they were "certainly informed," they alleged that he had " countenanced a private trade and correspond ence with the French of Canada and the In dians in their interest, and furnished thera with araraunitions and provisions " ; that he embar- 282 ADMINISTEATION OF DUDLEY. rassed the prosecution of the persons concerned with hira in this crime, till they brought on the colony a loss of not less than thirty thousand pounds; that having thinned the House of Rep resentatives by artful delays of their business, "he prevailed with those that remained, who were scarce a number to make a House, that the accusation against his agents should be changed frora treason to raisderaeanor, and, they being convicted, he labored to mitigate their fines." The name which stands first among the sig natures to this raeraorial is that of Nathaniel Higginson, a highly respected raerchant of Salera ; the second, that of Williara Partridge, lieutenant- governor of New Harapshire ; the third, that of Stephen Mason, a counsellor naraed in the charter. A copy of the memorial came to Dudley. He laid it before his Council, and deraanded Nov. 1. that they should vindicate hira without delay. They did so, by what was represented as a unaniraous vote, which they sent down to the House. The House paused, perhaps erabarrassed between a disposition to be civil, and misgivings about the truth. The Council sent to in- quire whether any action was in progress. Nov. 7. Two days later they repeated the question in a message conveyed by the secretary and eight counsellors. StiU obtaining no satisfaction, they proposed a conference ; and here they Nov. 20. , -1 3 r \.i TT somehow prevailed; for the House, now echoing the Council's words, voted that "DEPLOEABLE STATE OF NEW ENGLAND." 283 the charge against the governor was " a scanda lous and wicked accusation." Thomas Newton, one of the subscribers to the memorial, being " convented before the CouncU," said that he had signed it " under provocation," that he knew nothing of the truth of the charge, that he was sorry for what he had done, and that he had asked the governor's pardon. As to action in the General Court, the business was finished by an order of the Council for printing the exculpatory votes which had been passed by the two Houses in the " Boston News Letter," — the weekly news paper just then established, the first in British America. But the dispute was by no means thus brought to an end. Presently there appeared in London a paraphlet of sorae forty pages, arraigning Dud ley with unbounded severity. It was entitled " The Deplorable State of New England, by Reason of a Covetous and Treacherous Gov- ^ ernor and PusiUanimous Counsellors." " Colonel Dudley," says the writer, "in King Charles the Second's reign, was intrusted with the precious depositum — their greatest treasure, their religious privileges and civil liberties, which were con veyed to thera by charter, but were both betrayed by hira." " This is the third time that he has been trusted "wdth power from the crown in •Araerica, and he has constantly abused it, to the dishonor of the government, and almost ruin of the people he was sent to govern." The treatise 284 ADMINISTRATION OF DUDLEY. reviews, in five sections, the career of Dudley in Massachusetts, frora the time of his presidency of the CouncU after the dissolution of the colonial charter, to that of the censure passed upon his accusers by the votes of the Council and of the Representatives. The following is a brief ab stract of its contents : — Colonel Dudley, having been trusted by the colony as its. agent in England, "joined with the instruments that overthrew the charter," then " accepted an Ulegal and arbitrary corarais sion frora King James," and next became " a chief tool of all the ensuing barbarous and in famous administration " of Andros. The abuses of that outrageous adrainistration are described in detail. "Judge Dudley was a principal actor in all this wickedness All things were go ing to wreck, but yet Colonel Dudley was hke to enrich hirnself and his faraily in the general ship wreck ; there lies the raystery ! The world has heard how narrowly Colonel Dudley escaped a De Witting for these his follies, frora the enraged people in the Revolution." Sent over to England as a prisoner, he next appeared as Chief Justice in New York, where he did that " bloody business " of the conderanation and execution of Leijiler and Milbourne, which was presently denounced in Parliaraent as "a barbarous raurder." Not withstanding, "by many fair promises," he pre vailed to be made successor to Lord Bellomont in Massachusetts. "¦ He had not been long in that "DEPLOEABLE STATE OF NEW ENGLAND." 285 government" before a raeraorial was sent to Lon don asking for his reraoval, on the grounds that he had refused to approve acts of the General Court, till he had been bought over by bribes; that " merely to gratify his own arbitrary will and pleasure," he had left vacancies in the judicial offices, "by which means the courts dropped, and the course of justice was obstructed"; that he had sold indulgences to a company of pirates who were in prison ; that, by cheating the troops employed in the expedition to Acadia out of nearly one half of the booty that had been promised them, he had discouraged for the future the engagement of volunteers ; and that he was as hostile to the existing provincial, as he had been to the colonial, charter of Massachusetts, and as he was known to be to the charter of Connecticut. In confirmation of this last charge, a letter was produced, which had been addressed to a friend in London, by the Attorney- Gen eral of Massachusetts, the governor's son. " If there should be any occasion," wrote Paul Dud- 1704. ley, a year and a half after the governor's ^'^'^¦'^^¦ return to Massachusetts, "you raust be sure to stir yourself and friends, and show your affection and respect to ray father, who loves you well, and bid me tell you so This country will never be worth living in, for lawyers and gentle raen, till the charter is taken away. My father and I soraetiraes talk of the Queen's establishing * a Court of Chancery in this country. I have wrote about it to Mr. Blethwayt" 286 ADMINISTRATION OF DUDLEY. The writer proceeds to treat at length of the 1707. "blanching business" of Dudley's vindi- ootober cation by the. General Court He says November, that it was in the hurried moment of the breaking up of a meeting of the governor's Coun cil on a Saturday, that he produced to them the memorial of Higginson arid others to the Queen, and required them "immediately to clear him from these imputations Three or four of the Council prayed that, since the thing was both new and weighty, it might be put off till Monday." The governor, with a boisterous friiy, required them to do it immediately, and they did it imraediately. One of the counsellors. Judge SewaU, brother-in-law of the governor, reflecting that he had acted with precipitation, withdrew his vote, and caused his reasons for so ' doing to be entered on the Council's rec ord. They were, that his motion for the post ponement of a matter of such great concern had been unreasonably disregarded ; that a vote so affecting " the governor's personal interest ought to have been debated and framed by the members of the Council, apart by themselves, in his absence " ; that, on mature consideration, he did " not firmly believe that the governor did no Way allow Mr. Borland and Captain Vetch their trading voyage to her Majesty's eneraies, the French." Finally he said, " I have been ac quainted with Mr. Nathaniel Higginson these forty years, and I cannot judge the offering of this Ad- "DEPLORABLE STATE OF NEW ENGLAND." 287 dress to her Majesty to be in him a scandalous and wicked accusation, unless I know his induce ments. And I fear this censure may be of ill consequence to the province in time to corae, by discouraging persons of worth and interest to venture in appearing for thera, though the neces sity should be never so great." While Sewall had thus cleared hiraself, the pliancy of others of the Council was iraputed to their dependence on the governor for their places. " We advise you that you would not be so raonstrously afraid of the governor's putting his negative upon you, the last Wednesday of May. Should you be nega tived out of the Council for your fidelity to your country, it would be a much greater honor to you than to be there, and no great honor to them that are left behind." The writer next deals with that vindication of the governor, which was at last, though slowly, obtained from the Representatives. He professes to account for it on the authority of two letters . to Sir Henry Ashurst, one of them signed by some twenty raembers of the House. When the first direct action was had on the governor's case, " about forty-five raerabers, more than two to one of the House, voted that they could not clear him." In a second trial, he fared no better. " The governor's friends were now at their wits' ends, and in humble wise besought the House that they would confine their vote unto the particular trade of Vetch, Borland, and Lawson [thus avoid- 288 ADMINISTRATION OF DUDLEY. ing the question of his connection with Rouse, which was thought to be more certainly made out] ; and it was urged that Borland and Lawson had cleared the governor Hereupon the flexible honest men, perfectly w"orried and wearied out of their lives by three weeks' altercations, did so many go over, as to raake a sort of a vote of it" Apphances in which Dudley was skilful were said to have assisted the operation. " Be sides the caresses of the table, which are enough to dazzle an honest countryraan, who thinks every man means what he speaks, the influence which preferments and comraissions have upon little men is inexpressible. It must needs be a mortal sin to disoblige a governor that has en abled a man to comraand a whole country town, and to strut araong his neighbors with the illus trious titles of our Major, the Captain, or his Worship. Such raagnificent grandeurs make many to stagger egregiously ! " Finally, the misconduct of the expedition against Port Royal is alleged aS special matter of reproach. It is said that that post might have been easily carried at the beginning of the war, but that Dudley could not be persuaded to authorize a movement against it ; and that after wards, when Church was despatched to the east ern country, he " not only had the taking of the fort left out of his orders, but was positively for bidden to meddle with it." The disappointments and disgrace which followed are elaborately laid DEFENCE OF HIS ADMINISTRATION. 289 to the governor's charge; and the conclusion is, " Under his admirable conduct an impoverished country has, as we are credibly informed, been put to above two-and-twenty thousand pounds' charge, only to be laughed at by their enemies and pitied by their friends." The Queen was approached from the other side in a "Most Humble Defence and Apol- 1710. ogy against the most Unjust and False N°y-i°- Representation in an Address offered to her Maj esty at Windsor." The Defence did not hesitate to affirm that Dudley had " administered the gov- ernraenl; to universal satisfaction Colonel Dudley and his countryraen are so good Chris tians that they have long since forgiven any sup posed injury." Sorae of the petitioners against hira, the Defence declares, were " gotten over a bowl of punch at Sir Charles Hobby's cost. [Sir Charles Hobby, reputed a free liver, was said to be an aspirant for Dudley's place.] Since he [the governor] Jias had the honor to serve her Majesty in New England, he has done it with all truth and plainness and just raodera tion, being an instance of virtue, sobriety, and everything becoming religion, to the satisfaction of the Church of England in their government, as well as to all the other ministers, who every day visit hira and bless hira for his just adrainis tration." No presuraption in Dudley's favor in this con troversy arises from his general character. He 19 290 ADMINISTRATION OF DUDLEY. was certainly not a man "whom conscientious scruples would restrain from shameful conduct Self-seeking and malignant, his malice found its natural object in the Commonwealth, which would not forget his faithlessness, and which resolutely rejected the demands of his cupidity. But in respect to a crime, needing, if really com raitted, to be covered up with all sorts of dis guises, it is not unlikely that the justly strong feeling of dislike to Dudley dictated suspicions of more than was true. From some of the crimes alleged, his prudence would have been hkely to deter hirn. It is plausibly argued by Governor Hutchinson that, if his connection with the shipraent of goods to be sold to the French by Rouse and others had amounted to anything more than connivance, the accoraplices would scarcely have failed to denounce hira when he approved those Acts of the General Court which condemned them to imprisonment and fines. Yet his inclination to protect Rouse is suspicious ; and so strong was the persuasion of his criminality and of his cunning, that there were those who believed it to have been by his manageraent that the business had been submitted to the General Court, to keep it from the cognizance of the common-law courts, where the investigation would have been conducted with more method and vigor, and the verdict would have been more decisive. CHAPTER X. ADMINISTRATION OF DUDLEY, CONTINUED. In the course of these transactions there had grown up between the governor and the Mathers a fierce enmity, which proved of excellent service to the CoUege in bringing about^ its re-establish ment on the basis of the ancient charter. It has been told above that, hostile as the Mathers had been to Dudley at the time of the Revolution, his arts and assiduities had brought thera over, and he was not without obUgation to their good offices at court for his appointraent to be governor. On his arrival to assurae that office, he paid an early visit to Cotton Mather, who availed 1702. hiraself of the interview to offer sorae ad- '"""is- vice, which the governor raay have thought offi cious, against his coraing under the influence of Mr. Byfield and Mr. Leverett. It was understood on all hands that, since the abrogation of the colonial charter, the College had been defunct in law. Dudley, during the short terra of his rule as President of the Colonial Council, raade provisional arrange ments for carrying on the institution, which An dros, on his accession, did not disturb, further 292 ADMINISTEATION OF DUDLEY. than to offer the affront of placing an Episcopal clergyraan in the pulpit with the presiding academical dignitary on the day of the annual Coraraenceraent Increase Mather, when in England on the business of the colony, ad dressed hiraself successively to 'King Jaraes and to King William for favor to the College, but without result. The proceedings had with refer ence to the institution during the administrations of Phipps, Stoughton, and Belloraont have been related in a former chapter. When Dudley came to his government, Sarauel Willard, as Vice-Presi dent, was in the second year of his official service to the CoUege, and Cotton Mather was aspir ing to succeed hira, when the time for his re tirement should come. The wives of Dudley and Willard were sisters, and this affinity raay have done something to quicken the new gov ernor's interest in the College. He took an early 1703. opportunity to say to the General Court March 11. that he should "very freely" lay before the Queen anything that might appear to concern its welfare. " I am sorry," he said, " for the mistake of this government, at any time, in that affair " ; and when the House asked an expla nation of that stricture, he replied that " the mistakes he referred to were a first, second, and third draft of a charter of incorporation for the College, sent to England, and there refused." The influence of the Mathers in the affairs of the College continually waned. Cotton Mather, , ' HARVARD COLLEGE. 293 who had not attended a meeting of the Corpora tion since the accession of Vice-President Wil lard, was regarded as having " abdicated," and his place at that Board was given to one of the Brattles, a favorer of the recent religious move ment which had led to the establishment of the Fourth Congregational Church of Boston. Two years passed before the question of a charter for the College was resuraed. Then "his Excel lency intimated to the Council that, by letters frora England, there was encouragement 1705. to hope that a charter of incorporation J™-^- might be obtained, ..... if proper application was made; and the draft proposed in his late Majesty's reign was ordered to be laid on the table to be read." Again the question slept. Probably no satisfactory corapromise could be arranged between the religious party which repre sented the primitive ideas of New England, and that which had recently risen into importance by the maintenance of raore liberal views ; besides which, it raust have been believed by both these parties that the Queen would not consent to such provisions as both desired for the exclusion of the Church of England frora interference in the concerns of the institution. The death of Vice-President WiUard re- 1707. vived attention to the question. To the ^°^'" ^^• infinite disgust of Cotton Mather, the Corpora tion elected John Leverett to be President. The Representatives, after considerable delay and 294 ADMINISTRATION OF DUDLEY. opposition, granted him a salary,, and the two branches concurred in a vote which, ^^'^' referring to the ancient charter now suspended for more than twenty years, directed "the President and FeUows of the said College frora tirae to tirae to regulate theraselves accord ing to the rules of the constitution by the Act prescribed, and to exercise the powers and au thorities thereby granted for the governraent of the House and support thereof." The governor, whether expecting to escape the observation of the governraent at home, or to satisfy it of the expediency of such action, approved the bill. The Enghsh ministry never took steps to disturb the arrangement ; and the College charter, con firraed by an article in the Constitution of the Comraonwealth at the time of the separation frora Great Britain, has remained in undisputed force to this day. The governor's approbation — if we are not rather to say, his active promotion — of the choice of President Leverett, together with the establishment of the President's friends in the College corporation, put an end to anything that remained of siraulated courtesy in the intercourse between hira and the Mathers, father and son. Henceforward there was no course for the latter party but war to the knife. The circurastances of the raoraent favored thera; for it was the moment of intense exasperation against Dudley on account of his alleged malpractices in Nova DUDLEY AND THE MATHERS. 295 Scotia. Increase Mather wrote him a furious letter, charging hira with "bribery and 1708. unrighteousness " in arresting a process ¦'™' ^' in the Adrairalty, till satisfied with a sura of raoney ; with plotting against the liberties of the province, a crirae proved by the letter of his son Paul ; with " hypocrisy and falseness in the affairs of the College," shown by his consent to the revival of that charter, which for a long tirae he had declared to be dead ; with " the guilt of innocent blood " in the cases of Leisler and Milburn; and with "ordinarily forsaking the worship of God," and spending his Sunday after noons " with sorae persons reputed very ungod ly." Two considerations, said the Ex-President, prorapted hira to " discharge his conscience with these rebukes. One is, in that you have some times said, that if ever you had a spiritual father, I was the raan ; and there was a time when I encouraged the church, with whom I have been laboring in the work of the Lord these forty-six years and more, to call you to be my assistant in the rainistry. The other is, that a letter thought to have been written by me induced the late King William to give you a coraraission for the governraent here." The Ex-President's son wrote to the governor on the sarae day, in a yet more animated tone. Having hitherto " in divers letters sought out acceptable words," he says, "your Excellency now compels rne to see that the schemes of 296 ADMINISTRATION OF DUDLEY. speaking and modes of addressing used amopg persons of the most polite education will not answer the expectation I have had of thera." Adopting accordingly a different method of ad dress, he teUs the governor that his letter, errone ously ascribed to his father, favoring Dudley's appointraent, had been written when he " weakly beheved that the wicked and horrid things done before the righteous Revolution had been heartily repented of, and that the rueful business at New York, which raany illustrious persons of both Houses of Parliaraent often called a barbarous murder, had been considered with such a repentance as raight save hira and his family from any further storms of heaven for the reven ging of it Your snare," he writes, " has been that thing, the hatred whereof is most expressedly required of the ruler, naraely covetousness " ; and he largely repeats and expatiates on the charges of the governor's evil conduct in the voyages to Nova Scotia; in his obstruction of the capture of Port Royal ; in his appointments to office ; in his management of meetings of the CouncU ; in his arresting the course of justice ; and in " the horrible trade carried on at the castle," where the governor was said to have misapplied certain funds specially appropriated by the Representa tives. The astute and well-poised governor was more than . a match for men enfeebled by passion. After a fortnight's interval, which perhaps he HIS RELATIONS TO TIIE REPRESENTATIVES. 297 found useful to get the better of his own choler, he replied in what is on the whole a tone of calmness and dignity, though "the reader may think he also observes signs of a timidity indicative of a conscience ill at ease, and the con sciousness of an insecure position. Dudley gives back Scripture in abundance, and turns the tables upon his correspondents in the way of edifying recommendations of self-scrutiny. He knew, he says, what was the root qf their bitterness. " Every one can see through the pretence, and is able to account for the spring of these letters, and how they would have been prevented, without easing any grievances you complain of. I desire you will keep your station, and let fifty or sixty good rainisters, your equals in the prov ince, have a share in the government of the Col lege, and advise thereabouts as well as yourselves, and I hope all will be well. I am an honest man, and have lived religiously these forty years to the satisfaction of the ministers in New England, and your wrath against me is cruel, and will not be justified The College, must be dis posed against the opinion of all the ministers in New England except yourselves, or the governor torn in pieces. This is the view I have of your inclination." The elections of the new General Court, and its proceedings as soon as it carae together, showed the strength ' of the popular feeling against Dudley. Along with the Queen's May 30. 298 ADMINISTRATION OF DUDLEY. disallowance of the penalties which had been iraposed^ upon Vetch and the persons charged with having been concerned with him, the gov ernor laid before the Court a coraraunication " declaring the royal style upon the union of the two kingdoras of England and Scotland." The occasion rendered proper an Address to her Majesty, and the Representatives drew up rain utes for such a paper, and desired the concurrence of the Council. The rainutes proposed did not please that body, and, after a delay which they raay have hoped would tend to allay the existing irritation, as well as afford tirae for reasoning and raanagement, they pro- ' posed on their part to intrust to a joint coraraittee the preparation of the heads of an Address. The Representatives at first "insisted upon the heads offered by that House" (which probably erabraced the question as to the prose cution of Vetch and his partners), but gave ' their consent to a raeraorial congratulating the Queen on the consuramation of the union of the kingdoms. The House sent up a "^ ¦ list of "grievances," most of which re lated to unauthorized uses by the governor of moneys granted by them for specific objects, though there was also a complaint that Leverett, now President of the College, still retained the office of Judge of Probate. The House granted to the governor the sum of two hundred pounds, instead of the three hundred HIS RELATIONS TO THE REPRESENTATIVES. 299 usually voted at the spring session. There was also a deviation from past usage in the language of the vote. The Council sent messengers " to observe the same to the House," but it "was afterwards sent up again without alteration." The Council proposed to the House an enlarge ment of the grant to the governor ; but, " finding that they could prevail nothing therein," they con- • sented to it as it stood, and the governor relieved hiraself frora further opposition "^ for the present by a prorogation of the Court. He coraplained to the Board of Trade that there had been "considerable altera- "^ tions, more than usual, in the House, and they showed their temper, and left out three principal gentleraen of the Council, of approved loyalty and of the best estates in the country." He now gave up in discouragement the contest for his favorite object He desisted thencefor ward from pressing the desperate claim for a i fixed salary ; and the House, on its part, raade hira grants frora year to year, of five hundred pounds for each reraaining year of his adrainis tration, giving hira three fifths of that sura at the spring session, and the rest in the auturan. The next session began with a dispute about the " grievances." The Council was dis posed to justify the governor. The House maintained its position. The Council again re quested a reconsideration ; a conference took place ; and, partly by explanations of the past and 300 ADMINISTRATION OF DUDLEY. partly by promises for the future, a truce of *''"'¦ ^' that dispute was effected, and by a grant of three hjindred pounds instead of two hun dred, which latter sum was the usual autumnal aUowance to the governor, the recent reduction from his accustomed pay was made up. He asked for a small grant to defray the charge of a journey which he proposed to make into the eastern country, to acquaint himself with the progress of the war there. The House " prayed him not to expose his person in a journey eastward at this season, but to command. the officers of the forces there to attend him at . Boston to receive his commands." But he urged the advantages of his own plan, and they gave hira twenty pounds to enable him to carry it out, " in consideration of the extraordinary occasion." Vetch, at the time fixed for his trial, was still in England, detained there by solicitations for the enterprise against Quebec. When the next General Court came together, he had re turned-, bearing the Queen's coraraission as Colonel, and invested with a high coraraand in the expedition which was on foot. His present iraportance overbalanced his former de linquency ; the legal acquittal of one of his part ners, who had been tried during his absence, relieved the Court from the erabarrassraent ™* " of retracing its steps against hira ; and a vote was passed for remitting the fine and costs HIS RELATIONS TO THE REPRESENTATIVES. 301 to which he had been conderaned in the forraer proceedings. In the last six years of Dudley's administra tion, the collisions between him and the elected governraent of Massachusetts were to a great degree suspended by the cares ihcident, first to the war, and then to its calaraitous consequences. He had been hopelessly defeated as to the objects which in entering on his office he had obstinately insisted on. The General Court would not build a fort at Peraaquid ; they would not contribute to the cost of the fort at Portsmouth ; and above all, they would not fix salaries for the governor and judges. The grant which in the latter years of Dudley's service they made him annually, five hundred pounds, was a much smaller allow ance than they had given to his predecessor. Lord Bellomont ; and he had made up his mind to approve the vote, and take the money without remonstrance. He no longer indulged himself in obstructing the Representatives' choice of a Speaker, and they no longer coraplained when he gratified his grudges by rejecting counsehors of their choice. Resentments do not last forever in their full fierceness, when the mutually angry parties corae to have interests in coraraon ; and, though the elder conteraporaries of Dudley could not be expected to forget the character of his iraportant career sufficiently to extend to him respect or confidence, yet it was not a time for them to seek or use occasions for quarrel, when, 302 ADMINISTRATION OF DUDLEY. distressed by a French and Indian war, they found him conducting their military affairs with activity, and, on the whole, not without good judgraent, even if with indifferent success. They were assured by some of their English friends that if they got rid of him they would be likely to fare worse, and that they would do well to reconcile theraselves to his rule on the principle enforced in the ancient fable, that half-gorged bloodsuckers are raore tolerable than a fresh and hungry swarm. And if at present it was for his interest to practise those arts of insinuation of which he was a master, on the other hand nothing is more depressing to the pride and spirit of a coraraunity than the financial difficulties which were now weighing more heavily every day ; and to Dudley's boldness and resource men willingly looked for such means of extrication as might be possible. In the quarter-century which had passed since the abrogation of the old charter, a generation had come upon the stage of active life, not trained in the raaxims of independence so dear to Mas sachusetts in other days. In their rainds, the for eign sovereign was recognized with a reality with which he had not been conceived in the rainds of the fathers since English Massachusetts had a being. When the Charleses had clairaed and threatened, she had denied, J' avoided,", and kept quiet, waiting her tirae. When Cromwell had attempted to cajole, she had excused herself with CONDITION OF MASSACHUSETTS. 303 a decision which he had sense and sympathy to understand. But now Enghsh Puritanism had been, after a feeble fashion, indulged a'nd conciliated; and Massachusetts Puritanism — as to its antagonistic attitude, at least — had lost its powerful backing in the parent country. It was not the tirae for Puritan Massachusetts to be contumacious and impracticable when the Protes tant sovereigns, William and Anne, had corne to hold the British throne by election against the legitiraate Popish monarchs of the Stuart line. In the new circumstances loyalty had become a virtue and a genuine sentiment ; and if the object of such loyalty turned it to his advantage by putting hard tasks upon it and summoning it to inconvenient submission, that was no new ex perience in the history of sovereigns and of sentimental subjects. King William and Queen Anne, and the rainisters of both, had as little posi tive liking for Massachusetts as the line of tyrants which they superseded; and practically Massa chusetts had the less power of self-defence against thera because of their being in theory less un favorably disposed to her and to her well-wishers in England. Governor Hutchinson entertained the opinion that at the tirae of the Treaty of Utrecht 1713. " there was not double the number of in habitants in the Massachusetts province, which the colonies of which it was formed contained fifty years before," while the people of the other 304 ADMINISTRATION OF DUDLEY. colonies had quadrupled their numbers in thc same time ; and he ascribes this slow growth to the wars which, with only two short intermissions, had been going on through the forty years since the outbreak under Philip of Pokanoket With in that tirae he calculates that " five or six thou sand of the youth of the country had perished by the eneray, or by distempers contracted in the service." He supposes that the expenses of Mas sachusetts . in this, called Queen Anne's War, " were beyond those of any other ten years frora the first settlement," and that the military opera tions " added to the support of civil government, without any relief or corapensation from the crown, certainly must have occasioned such an annual burden as was not felt by any other sub jects of Great Britain." In the seventh year of his administration Dud ley reported to the Lords of Trade : " I judge 1709. this province to contain, when I arrived, March i.gfty thousand souls. These are aU free men and their children, besides the blacks This number is increased by a thousand every year, . ... the wars and troubles with the In dians riotwithstanding The people here clothe theraselves with their own wool. New Enghsh goods are here sold at less than a hun dred and fifty pounds per cent advance; most goods more They are proud enough to wear the best cloth of England, if chopping, sawing, and building of ships would pay for their POST-OFFICE AND TAXATION. 305 clothes, and this method would double the sale of Enghsh woollen manufactory presently There is" no trade to the coast of Guinea." Three years later he wrote : " The revenue of both the provinces [Massachusetts and 1712. New Harapshire] consists of an irapost ^p''"^- for goods and raerchandise brought in, an excise upon taverns and retailers of wines and liquors, and a land and poll tax laid once a year." In Governor Dudley's tirae, an Act of Parlia ment was passed, of which the iraportant political bearing does not seera to have been weighed either by the governraent at horae or by the colonists. It provided " for erecting a General Post-Office in all her Majesty's domin ions, and for settling a weekly sum out of it for the service of the war and other occasions." Sorae rude arrangeraents had been early made in New England for the transmission of corre spondence. When a few years had passed after the first settleraent in Massachusetts, the 1039. General Court appointed Richard Fair- ^ov. 5. banks of Boston to take care of letters " brought from beyond the seas or to be sent thither," and to receive a penny for each, " provided that no man be compelled to bring his letters thither except he please." After thirty years, as coraraunications improved, arrangements were made for a mail to leave New York 1577. for Boston the first Monday of every '^"y^- raonth. A little later, on a petition frorn raer- 20 306 ADMINISTRATION OF DUDLEY. chants and others, who complained that their letters were " many times imposted and thrown upon the Exchange, so that who wih may take them up, whereby merchants especially, with their friends and eraployers in foreign parts, were greatly daranified," the General Court raade choice of a postraaster " to take in and convey letters according to their direction." At the Revo- 1689. lution, Randolph's function having ceased, juneii. .(-he General Court appointed Mr. Richard Wilkins " for postmaster, to receive aU letters and deliver them out ; to receive one penny for each single letter." When William and 1691. Mary had been two years on the throne, Feb. 17. ^hey gave by patent under the Great Seal, " unto Thomas Neale, Esq., his executors, adminis trators, and assigns, full power and authority to erect, settle, and establish within the chief ports of their Majesties' colonies and plantations in Araerica an office or offices for the receiving and despatching letters and packets," to be paid, how ever, for his services by " such rates and suras of raoney as the planters should agree to give." Neale appointed Andrew Hamilton his deputy, and Hamilton applied to each of the colonial legislatures to " ascertain and establish such rates and suras " payable for the conveyance of posted raatter, as, affording hira sufficient corapensation, should tend to "the quicker raaintenance of mutual correspondence araongst all the neighbor ing colonies and plantations, and that trade and POST-OFFICE AND TAXATION. 307 commerce might be the better preserved." The governraents of New England received the pro posal favorably, and gave the mail-carriers free pas sage over their ferries. Massachusetts estabhshed a " General Letter Office " in Boston, and fixed the rates of postage. The smaUest charge 1693. was two pence " for every single letter ¦'""'^ ^" from Europe, the West Indies, or other parts beyond the seas " ; the largest, for a single letter carried between Boston and Maryland or Vir ginia, was two shillings. The conveyance of a letter from Boston to Salem cost three pence ; to Ipswich, four pence ; to Portsmouth, six pence. The carrying of letters or packets for hire by any but the servants of the postmaster-general was prohibited under a penalty of forty pounds. The postmaster-general and his servants were made liable to fines for negligence in their duty. Under the authority given by the General Court, Hamil ton appointed Duncan Campbell, a Scotsraan, to be his deputy in Boston. On a representation frora Campbell that his receipts did not equal his expenditures, the Court granted hira for 1594. several years an annual allowance of about "^""^ ^"^ twenty-five pounds, soraetiraes exceeding and sometiraes coming short of that sum. Neale's patent was for twenty-one years. Two vears before it was to expire, the House of Commons, deliberating on the " ways and 1710. means for raising the supply granted to ^*-i*- her Majesty," resolved that " towards the raising 308 ADMINISTRATION OF DUDLEY. the supply, her Majesty's revenues, both inland and foreign, to arise in the General Letter Office or Post-Office, or the office of postmaster-general, be increased " ; and the series of Resolves went on to specify higher rates of postage, which were to be demanded in every part of the Queen's dorain- ions for inland or foreign correspondence. The postage of a single letter between New York and London, for exaraple, or between New York and Boston, was fixed at a shilling; between New York and Salera, at a shiUing and three pence; between Boston and any place not raore than sixty railes distant from it, at four pence. The Act which was passed in pursuance of the plan of these Resolves was entitled " An Act for erecting a General Post-Office in aU her Majesty's domin ions, and for settling a weekly sum out of it for the service of the war and other occasions " ; and one section of it required a weekly payment of seven hundred pounds to be made " into the Queen's Exchequer, in order to a supply of money for carrying on the war, and other her ' Majesty's most necessary occasions." In fact, from the first institution of a regular post-office in England, which was in the tirae of King Charles the First, the income frora that source, soraetiraes obtained by a lease to a private party, had always been treated as a part of the royal revenue. It may excite surprise that while, by its English promoters, the character of this Act, as a measure for raising revenue, was POST-OFFICE AND TAXATION. 309 not only not concealed, but was expressly avowed, it does not appear to have raised in New England any resistance or aniraadversion on that account. The truth is, there was nothing in the Act, except the language of its title, to awaken jealousy as to its being a scherae for taxation by the Parliaraent of the raother country. Men in New England had been all along accustomed to look upon what they paid for the conveyance of their letters just as they looked upon payments for any other ser vice rendered. It was no novelty for the persons who had rendered this service for them to be ap pointed under authority frora the crown, and the service, as far as it included coraraunications with England, could hardly have been well rendered otherwise. The people had been assured by their Boston postraaster, and had reason to believe, that the English post-office conducted their business for thera at a cost greater than it was reirabursed for by the postage which it received ; and the new arrangeraent proraised a still better transaction of the business than that which had been ex perienced heretofore. In these circumstances, it would have been hard for them to make out a grievance frora an Act which required useful work to be done for them at little cost, solely on the ground that the new Act, relating to all parts of the Queen's empire, called itself an Act for raising revenue. The post-office department coraplained that it failed to get its dues because payments were 310 ADMINISTRATION OF DUDLEY. made to it in the depreciated colonial currencies. During the first half of the eighteenth century, the prosperity of Massachusetts was kept down by her use of a vicious substitute for money. Even before the disastrous result of the late expedition against Canada, the prov? ince was in arrears to her creditors to the amount of a hundred and twenty thousand pounds, and this though a tax of t"w^enty-two thousand pounds had just been levied, and more than four thou sand pounds were annually received from imposts and excise. Measures of retrenchraent had been repeatedly resorted to or advised; but the diffi culties of the tirae obstructed thera, and in fact extreraely little relief was obtained in that way. This was not the worst of the difficulty. There was no sound currency for the transactions of coraraerce. Nearly down to the close of Dud ley's administration, though in twenty years the amount of paper money had been largely in creased, driving almost all the coin abroad, the precautions taken against a depreciation of it had had a considerable degree of success ; but it broke down under the failure of the second costly expedition to Quebec. The erabarrass- raents and discontents usual in such circura stances followed, and the devices, a thousand tiraes conceived and as often defeated, for pay ing debts with something different frora money. The briUiant prospects of the South Sea Com pany in England gave encouragement to schera- FINANCIAL EXPEDIENTS. 311 ers. Some merchants of Boston presented a me morial praying "to have bills of credit 1712. made current to answer debt by laws," O'^'-^s- which was received with favor by the House. The wiser Council rephed by asking a conference, in which, as we hear no raore of the project, it raay be presuraed that they succeeded in exposing, to the satisfaction of their fellow-legislators, its in justice and futility. The governor proposed a plan of extrication from this dismal financial erabarrassraent, which after a sharp debate obtained legal sane- 1714. tion. A public bank, as it was called, was ^*" ^^' instituted, with a capital provided for it by the General Court, consisting of fifty thou sand pounds in bills of credit. Its manageraent was coraraitted to five trustees, who were au thorized to lend the bills for periods not to exceed 'five years, for an interest of five j>er centum an nually, and a payraent each year of one fifth part of the principal sum, the payments to be secured by mortgages of real property. The principal opposition to this plan proceeded from friends of the project of what was called a private bank. They proposed to form a company which should issue and lend its own notes, or bills of credit, the payment to be secured by mortgages on their estates. Their scheme was frustrated when the General Court, preferring the plan of the pubhc bank, refused them an act of incorporation. But they did not despair, and the controversy which 312 ADMINISTRATION OF DUDLEY. they kept alive made for some years the promi nent question in the pohtics of the province. A few judicious persons were in favor of making strenuously the exertions and sacrifices necessary for a speedy return to a solid currency. But in the difficulties of the time they could obtain httle hearing, and, as a choice between evils, they gen erally favored the public bank. Sir Henry Ashurst, head of the dissenting interest in Parliament, and Constantine Phipps, ancestor of the Marquesses of Normanby of the present tirae, had for many years been agents of Massachusetts in England. Phipps, attaching himself to the Tory Ministry which held power in the last years of Queen Anne, became thereby unacceptable to the people and General Court of Massachusetts; and about the same time Ashurst died. Sir William, his brother, equally respected for his worth, and re garded as a person of more ability and influence, was elected to be agent, against Dudley's strenu ous opposition. But it was no object of am- 1711. bition to hira, the rather that he thought May 10. .j-he agents had not been liberally treated, and he declined, pleading ill health, and recora- mending Jeremiah Dummer for the place. Dura raer, grandson of a forraer assistant of Massa chusetts, and a.graduate of Harvard College, was chosen to be agent, also against Dudley's recom mendation of another person. After leaving Cambridge, Duraraer had studied at the Univer- AGENCY IN ENGLAND. 313 sity of Utrecht for sorae years. Then, after a short visit to his horae, he went to England, where he obtained the notice and engaged in the service of Lord Bolingbroke ; and a prospect of advanceraent opened before hira, which was closed by the Queen's death. This appointraent, especially after his opposi tion to it, raade Dudley anxious. He feared that the failure at Quebec would be used to his prejudice. He wrote to Lord Dartraouth, pro testing that everything possible had been- 1712. done by hira to promote the ill-fated ex- o^'-^S- pedition. " If after all my sincere endeavors in that affair," he said, " I should lose ray reputa tion with the people here, and her Majesty's favor, I should be the raost unfortunate man living. I have served her Majesty here faith- * fully these ten years I have left nothing undone, and have had but a mean support, and yet am not willing to lose my station." As to his mean support, Usher, on the other hand, whom Dudley constantly befriended (moved perhaps by the raemory of their ancient participation in Andros's councils), affirmed that Dudley, though always coraplaining, had been saving raoney out of his pay. There is sorae reason to think that, at . this time. Vetch was intriguing in England to supplant the governor. But he not long after fell into discredit and insignificance. Nicholson wrote of him from Boston to Lord Bolingbroke : " He hath, I think. 314 ADMINISTRATION OF DUDLEY. 1714. acted very arbitrarily and illegaUy, and April 23. hath defrauded her Majesty very consider ably, and hath gone away." The governor, as usual, set himself to conciliate those whom he found himself unable to break down. Sir William Ashurst was induced "^' ' to write out to Massachusetts, that, if Dud ley should be displaced, the province might prove to be the loser. Phipps, who at first had pur sued him with acrimony, had for a long time been won over. The agent and the governor, both devoted clients of the new Tory Ministry, were naturally brought together by this sym pathy. Dudley never stood so strong in England as he did just before Queen Anne died and Lord Bolingbroke fled. But though his desisting from the offensive demands with which he had begun his admin istration had removed the principal iraraediate cause of contention between him and the people of Massachusetts, and though the advantage to them of his activity and capacity in the conduct of the war did not fail to be appreciated, yet it would be an error to suppose that he ever reinstated hiraself in their confidence or good will, after the treacheries of his early public life. When he had raade a speech to the Gen- ¦^^ ' ' eral Court, announcing the Queen's death, °'''"-^- the Council followed it up by a vote for a joint coraraittee of the two Houses to prepare an Address to the King, praying a renewal of the APPOINTMENT OF GOVERNOR BURGESS. 315 comraissions of the governor and lieutenant- governor. The Representatives refused to concur in it ; they refused, when solicited by the Council, to reconsider their vote of non-concurrence ; and the Court was prorogued without further discussion of the raatter. The governor continued to execute his office for the present by virtue of an Act of Parliaraent, which was under stood to extend such authority for a period of six months from the Sovereign's death. At the end of that time he withdrew, and the Council 1715. assumed the chief executive authority con- ^*"*- forraably to a provision of the charter. In a few Weeks, however, carae a royal proclaraa- tion, reinstating hira in his place in time to preside at the next General Court. One of the counsellors chosen by the new Court was Nathaniel Byfield, whom again the governor gratified his ill-humor by re jecting, whether on account of an unkindness of long standing, or because of Byfield's position as to the proposed bank. On the other hand, at this last moment of his power, he relented towards Elisha Cooke, and consented to his introduction into the Council. Soon came inteUigence that one Colonel Burgess, who had served in Spain under General Stanhope, had by his favor received the royal appointraent to be governor, and the Council voted to raise a joint committee to attend to "the reception of the governor speedily to be expected." But the 316 ADMINISTRATION OF DUDLEY. House would not consent On the day to which, for the last tirae, Dudley prorogued the Court,. Lieutenant-Governor Wihiara Tailer met Nov. 23. , . . • J i • il 1 them as chief magistrate in the absence of Colonel Burgess, who still loitered in England, and whose appointraent he announced. He said nothing of the late governor's withdrawal. Tailer, a connection of Stoughton by marriage, and one of his heirs, had brought over his own corarais sion as successor to Povey four years be fore, having probably owed his advance ment to approved railitary service at the capture 1710. of Port Royal. Nicholson in person, and Nov. 20. .(-he governor by letter, had introduced him favorably in England. Dudley was now sixty-eight years old. He lived five years longer, but took no further part 1720. in public business. When he died, the April 2. only newspaper in North America was owned by the postraaster of Boston, the greedy Scotsman, .Iohn Campbell. It commeraorated the departed as " a singular honor to his country, and in many respects the glory of it; early its darling, always its ornament, and in his age its crown." It is happy for bad raen of ability that injured coraraunities are forgiving, that power and shining qualities confuse the raoral judg ment, and that apologists are so easily enlisted from among the interested and the ignorant, the good-natured, the reckless, and the insincere. CHAPTER XL NEW HAMPSHIRE, RHODE ISLAND, AND CONNECTICUT. In New Hampshire Dudley was not unwillingly received as governor, when he came thither 1702. soon after returning to America. In that '"^y^^- province the causes for resentment that made him unwelcome in Massachusetts had been httle operative at the time of their occurrence, and had been lost sight of in the lapse of years. In a letter to the Ministry he comraended in 1703. warra terras the liberality of the province, ^^"^ ^^' " which bore the proportion truly but of the eleventh part to Massachusetts," yet had voted " five hundred pounds to begin the reform of their fortification " at the mouth of the Piscataqua, and had granted him an annual salary, for the whole period of his coramission, of a hundred and sixty pounds, which he said was as much as they could afford, and as much for them as ten times the amount would be for Massachusetts. In other ' respects they satisfied him less, as he inforraed the Lords of Trade with rauch explicit- ness. The courts disappointed hira by not con- deraning goods seized for alleged violation of the 318 NEW HAMPSHIRE. 1704. Navigation Laws. " So it is, my Lords, Feb. 11. ^-hat the judges are ignorant and the juries stubborn, that it is a very hard thing to obtain their just service to the crown, all which will be prevented if your Lordships please to let me have a judge of Admiralty settled here." Next to^the exposure to inroads from the French and Indian enemy, already described above, the raain subject of concern to the people of New Harapshire was the pending controversy for their lands with Allen, the assign of John Mason. It was now about to be brought to an issue. Dudley was not unfavorable to the claim of the settlers ; and the liberality of the Assembly, at the same time that it reciprocated his good will, bespoke his future favor. Allen's son-in-law. Usher, succeeded in obtain ing a reappointment to be lieutenant-governor of New Hampshire, notwithstanding the oppo sition of the agent of that province ; and Par tridge withdrew from public affairs to attend to the increase of his fortune at Newbury, where he 1702. died. Partridge had written to thank the Apnl 17. Lords for appointing Dudley to be gov ernor of New Hampshire, and Dudley had ex- 1703. pressed himself to the sarae authority in Aug. 5. terras of coramendation of his subordinate 1704. in office ; but, on the other hand, he declared Feb. 29. himself pleased with the reappointment of Usher, and rendered to hira a service which, as 1705. Dudley then stood, was more material, by GOVERNOR ALLEN'S CLALM TO LANDS. 319 pronouncing a claim which he was urging on Massachusetts for a sum due in the settleraent of his accounts, as forraer treasurer of that province, to be " very plain and just." Usher did his duty well in respect to the conduct of the war ; but his antagonistic position in the controversy about the lands was fatal to his good standing with the Asserably, and they would do no raore for him than to pay the rent of two rooms for his official residence, when he carae to New Harapshire, and provide penuriously for the cost of his journeys to and frora Boston, where for the raost part he con tinued to reside. Before the Privy CouncU, to which he had appealed, Allen failed to raake out his case, for want of being prepared to show that Mason, whose rights he represented as assign, had ever been in legal possession of the lands in dispute. The Council referred hira back to the courts of New Harapshire, where accordingly, as a test question, he presented his claira by a writ of ejectraent against Richard W^aldron, for lands held by the latter in the town of Exeter. The people raised no question with Allen as to the property of lands lying beyond the bounds of their townships. But this concession would not satisfy him; he must have the towns which they had labored and suffered in cultivating and de fending for tvyo thirds of a century. Dudley had orders to demand frora the jury a special verdict on some points, to the end of facilitating an ap- 320 ' NEW HAMPSHIRE. peal to the Privy Council, if the verdict should be against the claimant But when he was ex pected at the trial, he was detained, not unwillingly, it was thought, first by an alarm of an Indian inroad, and then by illness. The jury decided against AUen, and gave no special verdict To avoid another troublesorae appeal, the Asserably 1705. proposed a coraproraise. They offered to May 3. j^^gn that they would .forraally disclaim all pretension to any lands except such as were included in their four towns, and in Newcastle and Kingston, which were in progress of settleraent ; and that they would set off to hira five thousand acres within those six districts in consideration of a quitclaim to be given by him of the rest, and pay him two thousand pounds "current' money of New England" in two yearly instalments. He died before this agreement, so ad- ^ vantageous for him, could be concluded, and the controversy was inherited b^ his son, who received permission from the Queen in CouncU to have a new trial, with the sarae instruction to the jury as to a special verdict, as had been disregarded the year before. At the trial the counsel for AUen rested his case on the alleged grants of the Council for New England to John Mason, whose rights, such as they were, they had no difficulty in proving to have descended to their client; and they produced depositions given twenty years before by several persons, then aged, to the effect that Mason had taken actual GOVERNOR ALLEN'S CLAIM TO LANDS. 321 possession. The material points of the argument on Waldron's part were, that the Council for New England never made a legally valid grant to John Mason of the lands in question, aild that, on the other hand, Waldron's family had been settled seventy years on those lands with a title derived from four Indian chiefs, whose forraal deed of conveyance to the rainister Wheel wright and others was produced in court The jury returned a general verdict in Waldron's favor. They refused a special verdict, declaring that the occasion for it arose only when there was doubt as to law or fact, and that they had no doubt in respect to either. Before Allen's ap peal to the Queen in CouncU was brought to any issue, his son and heir also died. The son's heirs "were minors, and the claim was not renewed in their behalf; and so carae to an end a quarrel which had subsisted since the foundation of the province. The question of the genuineness of the alleged Indian deed to Wheelwright has been largely discussed by modern antiquaries. That it was a forgery, must be how pronounced to be past dispute. At the time of the trial Usher denounced it as such, charging the act upon Richard Waldron. He argued, as has been done recen-tly, that the Enghshmen whose signatures were appended to the instrument were not in America so early. The friendship between Usher and the governor was not lasting. Usher, who came to the govern- 21 322 NEW HAMPSHIRE. 1703 ment the year after his superior, professed °'='^" to find that Dudley had not been devoted enough to the sovereign. " It is high time," he wrote to the Lords, "to have a governor ^ who will assert her Majesty's prerogative, and curb the antimonarchial principles." And he added that of the subordinate officers com missioned by Bellomont, and still employed by Dudley, " many were disaffected to crown govern ment." The truth was that Dudley befriended the local party with which in the late administra tion Usher had been at feud, and that he did not mean to be incommoded by interference on the part of his lieutenant. Usher undertook to re store Jefferys, who had been reraoved frora December. ., , j- , i. i • j the post of secretary by his predecessor. He coraplained that Waldron and Pari;ridge had " misapphed the public raoney," and that Dudley wrongfully continued Hincks as commander of the fort, one reason for this favoritism being that " Hincks is a Churchman " (a member of the Con gregational Church). " I must say Partridge and Waldron governs; nothing to be. done but what they are for." The lieutenant-governor's dissatisfaction cast off all reserve as tirae passed on. " The country," 1704. he wrote to the Lords of Trade, " is uni- jan. 19. versally against hira [Dudley], and he does not find one that gives hira a good word; if we have not a change by having a new governor, we shall in a short time be ruined We want a LIEUTENANT-GOVEENOR USHEE. 323 good soldier to manage the war 1708. Nothing like a viceroy over all." It is not ^^^^ hkely that Dudley was acquainted with these letters, but the breach went on widening. Usher wrote to the Lords, " His Excellency is 1709. pleased to tell rae, when I go into the •*^"^"^' ^¦ province I put all in a flarae." Dudley, on his part, inforraed thera, " Mr. Usher has been very unfortunate in putting hiraself into Mr. Allen's affair, the d.eiay of which has raade him poor and angry, and particularly with Mr. Waldron." In a letter to Dudley, Waldron calls Usher "an envious, raalicious liar." Dudley en closes it to the Secretary of State, and acquaints hirn that though Waldron's language is "too harsh," the stateraent which it clothes "is true." Dudley ordered by letter that Waldron should be received into the Council, over which, in the governor's absence. Usher "was presiding. Usher asked the secretary whether he had 1710. received the warrant with the royal sign- **°^- bi manual appointing Waldron, and, being informed that it had not come, he refused to allow Waldron to be sworn, who, on his part, " said he should not take notice, but wait the governor's instruc tions," and then "parted sourly with his hat on." " When at any tirae," so Usher wrote, " I corae into the Council, if Waldron is there before me, with disdain has his back some time to rae, and at a distance says, ' Your servant,' with insulting de- portraent, affronts many and great, with disrespect 324 NEW HAMPSHIEE. to the Queen's coraraission." Such were the offi cial araenities of that place and tirae. " An account of the circumstances and state of New Hampshire," drawn up by George Vaughan, agent of the province in England, represents it as 1708. containing "six towns; viz., Portsraouth, July 6. Dover, Exeter, Hampton, Newcastle, and Kingstown, — the two last very sraall and extraor dinary poor ; drove to great straits by reason of the war, there not being, a thousand raen in the 1709. whole governraent" Dudley wrote to the March 1. Lords, "I account New Harapshire is in value of men, towns^ and acres of improveraeiit just a tenth part of the Massachusetts, and I beheve I do not raisreckon to a hundredth part, their trade excepted, which will not raake rauch - more than the thirtieth part of Boston and de pendencies." After the death of Queen Anne, New Hamp shire addressed the new raonarch, to no purpose, with a petition for the reappointment of Dudley. 1715. WiUiam Vaughan and five other counsel- March 18. jQj.g wrotc to Gcorge Vaughan, still agent in London, " We pray Lieutenant-Governor Usher may have his quietus, which he said he had often written to England for. He complains his office is a burden to hira, and the people think it is a burden to thera, and so 't is a pity but both were eased." Usher was displaced, and George 1726. Vaughan was raade lieutenant-governor. Sept. 25. "Usher withdrew to his stately horae at DUDLEY IN EHODE ISLAND. 325 Medford, in Massachusetts, where he died when nearly eighty years old. The coraraission of Dudley authorized hira to coramand the mihtia of Rhode Island ; but that chaotic community did not afford a hopeful sphere for the application of his arbitrary principles. Soon after his return from his early visit to 1702 the eastern country, he went to Newport, ^'^'^ ^• attended from Boston by several members of his Council and others, and in form presented his claim to the governor and Council of Rhode Island. They referred him to the grant of the con trol over its militia made to the colony in "^ ' the charter of King Charles the Second, and said they could take no step in compliance with his deraand, except under authority frora the General Asserably, which would not be in session till the next month. Dudley ordered the major of "the Island regiraent " to parade his coramand on the following day. The major excused him self, saying he was sworn to serve the "^ ' colonial governraent. In the Narragansett country, to which Dudley passed on, he succeeded better. The militia officer there in com- '^ ' '' mand made no trouble. " The whole body of the soldiers in arms " took the oath which he proposed ; and, having " treated the soldiers as the time and place would allow," he went home. The governor and Council of Rhode Island came to the Narragansett country, and there " used all methods to bring back the people to cpnfusion." 326 EHODE ISLAND. Another matter of scarcely less interest was Dudley's claira, justified by an express order in his coraraission, to exercise adrairalty jurisdiction. The governor of Rhode Island had issued cora- missions to armed vessels. Dudley held that Cranston had no authority for so doing, and that such comraissions were void. Nathaniel Byfield, appointed Judge of Admiralty by Dudley, refused on this ground to condemn a French prize brought in by a Rhode Island privateer, and thereby gave such offence that, when he adjourned his court in Newport, he "was hooted down the street, with out any notice being taken by any in the gov ernment" Reporting these transactions to the Board of Trade, Dudley wrote that, when he published his instructions in Rhode Island, " the Quakers raged indecently, saying that they were ensnared °^ ' ' and injured." He " could obtain nothing of them but stubborn refusal, saying they would lose all at once, and not by pieces." " I do my duty," he said, " to acquaint your Lordships that the government of Rhode Island, in the present hands, is a scandal to her Maj-> esty's governraent. It is a very good settle raent, with about two thousand armed men in it, and no raan in the government of any es tate or education, though in the province there be men of very good estates, ability, and loy alty ; but the Quakers wUl by no means adrait them to any trust, nor would they now" accept DIFFERENCES WITH GOVERNOR DUDLEY. 327 it, in hopes of a dissolution of that misrule, and that they may be brought under her Maj esty's immediate government in all things, which the major part by much of the whole people would pray for, but dare not, for fear of the oppression and affront of the Quakers' part mak ing a noise of their charter." In his pas- 1703. sionate disgust against the colony, he ^'^y^'^- called it " a perfect receptacle of rogues and • pirates." He coraplained that not only would the Rhode-Islanders, with Massa chusetts between thera and harm, contribute neither men nor money to the war, but that they harbored and hid desSerters from the caraps. " While I ara here [in Massachusetts] at twenty- two hundred pounds per raonth charge, the col ony of Rhode Island hath not had a tax of one penny in the pound this seven years, .which makes her Majesty's subjects of this province very uneasy under their charge and service in the field, whUe other of her Majesty's subjects sleep in security, and smUe at our losses and charge, which are an equal service to thera selves." The Board of Trade, under instructions frora the Privy Council, drew up charges, partly founded upon these complaints, and sent them to Dudley, who caused them to be served upon the authorities of Rhode Island, and proceeded to furnish to the Board a large mass of 1705. proof in support of the several specifica- '*°^"^" 328 RHODE ISLAND. tions. The Board repeated and adopted his representations in a Memorial to the Queen. 1706. At the sarae time they raade similar com- jan. 10. plaints against the colony of Connecticut, and also reported the contumacy of Massachu setts in refusing to rebuild the fort at Pemaquid, to contribute towards the erection of a fort at Piscataqua, and to settle salaries on the governor, lieutenant-governor, and judges. And the Attor ney-General and Solicitor-General advised the Queen that in such a state of things as then appeared to exist in Connecticut and Rhode Island, or, as they phrased it, " upon an ex traordinary exigency, happening through the default or neglect of a proprietor," or of those appointed by hira, or their inability to protect or defend the province under their governraent, and for the protection and preservation thereof," it was lawful for the Queen to " constitute a gov ernor of such province or colony." But raatters of raore iraportance clairaed the attention of the home government, and nothing of the kind pro posed was undertaken. The question so long and angrily contested between Rhode Island and Connecticut about their boundary was brought at last, as was thought, to a settlement — as if of little irapor- 1703. tance to the stronger party — by an agree- Mayi2. meut bctwcen coramissioners appointed by those colonies respectively. The construc tion of the charters always maintained by Rhode INTERNAL CONDITION. 329 Island was now assented to, so as that the hne should run northerly from the Sound along " the middle channel of Pawcatuck River, alias Nar ragansett River," leaving the town of Westerly, and all east of it, on the Rhode Island side. The northern boundary also now came under debate. Dudley gave notice that questions of title 1707. to lands had arisen between citizens re- ^''^¦'^¦ spectively of Mendon in Massachusetts, and Providence in Rhode Island, raaking it desirable "to renew the ancient line of their province, settled sixty-four years since." As Connecti cut was equally concerned with Rhode Island in the southern hne of Massachusetts, comrais sioners appointed by Rhode Island were in structed to coraraunicate with the government of the other colony, " that they likewise may corae, if they please, and see the departure, so that they raay have no wrong, as well as us." " Several coramittees " were subsequently appointed to make this settlement, but for the present their negotiations " proved to no effect." In answer to a requisition from the Board of Trade, the General Asserably of Ehode Island passed- a law for taking a census of the inhabi tants. It was found that the total nuraber 1708. was seven thousand one hundred and '*^i'"'" eighty-one, of whora one thousand and ""' fifteen were freeraen, and one thousand three hundred and sixty -two were enrolled in the raihtia. There were four hundred and eighty- 380 RHODE ISLAND. two servants, of whom four hundred and twenty- six were blacks, twenty or thirty being brought every year from Barbadoes, but none directly from the coast of Africa. There were nine towns, in which it is observable that Newport with twenty-two hundred and three inhabitants had but a hundred and ninety freemen. Providence two hundred and forty-one freeraen, with fourteen hundred and forty-six inhabitants, and Kingston tvi^o hundred freeraen, with just six tiraes as raany people. Of shipping there were two brigantines, and twenty-seven sloops, navigated by a hundred and forty seamen. They carried on a comraerce with the other Anglo- Araerican colonies, with Madeira and Fayal, the West India Islands, and the Spanish Main. They were freighted with horses, luraber, and provisions, and sorae candles and iron, and brought back sugar, molasses, rum, cotton, ginger, indigo, rice, Enghsh manufactured goods of wool and linen, peltry, wheat, tar, pitch, resin, turpentine, wines, and some " pieces of eight" or Spanish dollars. The Board of Trade were dissatisfied with the condition of this commerce. They sent a circular letter to Rhode Island and other colonies, com plaining that prohibited articles, " such as rice and molasses, are produced and raade in the said plantations, and carried to divers foreign raarkets in Europe, without being first brought into this kingdom, dorainion of Wales, and town of Ber wick-upon-Tweed, contrary to the true intent SHARE IN THE WAR. 331 and meaning of the foresaid laws [the Naviga tion Laws] to the great prejudice of the trade of this kingdom, and the lessening the correspond ence and relation between this kingdom and the aforesaid plantations." The colony was divided into two counties, cedled respectively by the names of Provi- 1703. dence Plantations and Rhode Island. For •''""'• every day of the session of a General Court that an assistant was absent from his place, he was fined six shillings. The governor and his Coun cil had not proper accoraraodations, and it was "enacted, that there shall be a roora built on the side of the Colony House, of about sixteen feet square, and about eight to nine feet stud, for 1712. his Honor and Council to sit in." There '^"^^ ^'¦ was not yet, nor for raany years after, a colonial provision for the instruction of youth, though a school was soraehow kept up at Newport. Sara uel Niles, who took his first degree at . 1699. Carabridge sixty years after the founding of his colony, appears to have been the first young Rhode-Islander educated at a coUege. The backwardness of the colonies not imraedi ately in danger from the French and Indians to take their fair part in the war was a constant subject of complaint in Massachusetts and in England, and as constantly strengthened the wish to transfer the comraand of their mihtia to the royal governors of Massachusetts and New York. Rhode Island made some contributions frora 332 RHODE ISLAND. time to time to the coraraon cause, but not with out rauch haggling, and strong representations of her own exposure to attacks by sea, requiring all her attention and raeans for defence. After the attack on Deerfield, some volunteers from Rhode Island took the field under Colonel Church, 1704. and the colony made provision for paying ^"^y^- them. When the war had raged a year 1705. and a half, the Assembly, at Dudley's Feb. 14. ui-gent request for assistance, raised a company of forty-eight men, which they author ized the governor to raarch into the " neighboring governraents, as necessity raight require." 1707. Two years later, under a similar requisi- Feb.25. ^-joji from Massachusetts with reference to the proposed expedition against Nova Scotia, Rhode Island called out eighty volunteers, and 1709. bought a vessel to convey them. She June 27. placed under the coraraand of Colonel Nicholson an auxiliary force of two hundred raen for the frustrated expedition against Canada. 1711. "When the project was renewed, the colony June 23. Contributed frora its eight towns a hundred and sixty-seven men, of which number forty-seven were taken from Newport, and from Providence 1710. and Kingston thirty-five each. The heavy July 30. expense was met, as in Massachusetts, by Oct 25. issues of bills of credit, which it proved Nov. 27. necessary to protect by severe laws against counterfeiting. Rhode Island was much longer than her sister colonies in extricating herself from PROCEEDINGS IN THE WAR. 333 the erabarrassraent entailed by this raiserable S3istera of unfounded credit. Two years before Dudley's retireraent from office, he was " of opinion that Rhode Island had twenty-five hundred fighting raen, and 1712. Connecticut seven thousand." The raili- ^p"'^- tary organization of the forraer colony appears to have been faUing at that tirae into an unsatis factory state, partly perhaps by reason of the Quaker eleraent in the governraent. " The As serably, having been credibly inforraed of 1713. the irregular proceedings of the soldiers *^^ ®" in their election of railitary officers," passed a law continuing in their coraraands for the present the officers then holding comraissions ; and di rectly after, the choice of military officers, given by an old law to the towns, was taken from them, and made a function of the governor. Council, and Asserably. Connecticut, at a safe distance frora the seat of the eastern war, perhaps somewhat affected by the apathy of the ^governor of New York, and at the same time offended by his claim to comraand her railitia, took no part in the early confficts of Massachusetts with the French and Indians in Queen Anne's reign. The col- 1707. ony declined a proposal frora Governor ^p"'^. Dudley to assist the expedition against Acadia. Fitz-John Winthrop was governor for ten Nov. 27. successive years, till his death. After the election to the chief raagistracy of a 334 CONNECTICUT. clergyman, Gurdon Saltonstall of New London, which was renewed through seventeen successive years, the colony assuraed a raore spirited atti- 1709. tude. Connecticut raised with alacrity her May. proportion of troops for that expedition against Canada, which never got so far as the border, and, like her sister colonies of New England, supplied or rather simulated the means by biUs of credit. When the military 1710. operations were renewed in the next year, October, ^he zeal of Connecticut again appeared, and she sent three hundred men in five transports to the capture of Port Royal. In the following 1711. sumraer, the governors raet at New Lon- june. ^Qjj ^Q consult upou the larger enterprise which was now conteraplated. Connecticut raised three hundred and sixty men for it, to be era- ployed in the diversion by Lake Champlain, while the fleet and army, under the coraraand of Walker and HiU, should go up the St ¦ "^"' ' Lawrence to Quebec ; and Governor Sal tonstall himself led them as far as Albany. The great disaster which followed has already been described. Connecticut, happier than the two northern colonies, had never been invaded during this war, though once the danger of an inroad appeared such that the General Court ordered the fortifica tion of four border towns. In four years 1709-1713. . the colony issued bills of credit to the amount of thirty-three thousand five hundred ADJUSTMENT OF BOUNDARIES. 335 pounds, but so judicious were the arrangements for their redemption, that they appear to have been scarcely at all depreciated, before the final extinction of the debt The Act of Par hament which made arrangements " for erecting a General Post-Office in aU her Maj esty's dominions, and for settling a weekly sum out of it for the service of the war and other occasions," caused no more uneasiness in Con necticut than in Massachusetts. The establish ment of posts under an authority common to all the colonies was a great practical convenience, and the political significance of the measure attracted little notice. But it was a faint prelude to Mr. George Grenville's Stamp Act. The agreeraent respecting the eastern boundary hne of Connecticut, adopting the construction maintained from the first by Rhode Island, has already been mentioned. Connecticut was tired out by her pertinacious neighbor, and the terri tory in question was not worth the trouble of a prolonged and, after all, uncertain contest. Connecticut renewed the question upon the cor rectness of her northern line, coincident -^,^Qg with the southern line of Massachusetts, *^^- which had been laid down agreeably to a survey made by the ship-masters. Woodward and •' ^ ' 1642. Saffery, sixty-six years before. The matter in dispute "respected the line of latitude which bounded Massachusetts on the south, three railes south of the raost southerly part of Charles 336 CONNECTICUT. River. Massachusetts insisted that it had been correctly drawn ; that if it had not been, it had been recognized and ratified in the royal charter to Connecticut; and that, at all events, posses sion for two thirds of a century ought to be held to give a title. Massachusetts, however, at length consented to have a new survey, under the super intendence of comraissioners of the two colonies, it being first stipulated that, in the event of any readjustment of the boundary, towns should con tinue under the jurisdiction of the colony to which they had hitherto belonged, and that cora pensation should be raade by equivalent grants of other land. The result was an agree raent that, by the divergehce of the errone ous line of latitude, Massachusetts had encroached upon Connecticut to the extent of nearly a hun dred and eight thousand acres. Massachusetts accordingly raade a transfer of other land to that amount, which was presently sold by Connecticut for six hundred and eighty-three pounds in cur rency, a price amounting to about six farthings an acre ; such was the value of land in that day. The proceeds were given to the infant College. The doraain of Connecticut was defined on all sides, when in the sarae year coraraission- 1713 ers frora that colony and from New York erected monuraents to raark the line agreed upon thirteen years before. The colony was involved in another contro versy with the reranant of the Mohegan Indians. LAND OF MOHEGAN INDIANS. 337 Major John Mason* conqueror of the Pequods, had, in behalf of the colony, bought of the Sachem Uncas certain lands, which the colony, in its turn, had conveyed to English proprietors. His grandson, of the same narae, associating with himself some other disaffected persons, pretended that both the Mohegans and Major Mason's heirs had been overreached and wronged by the colonial authorities, who, as they alleged, had occupied more land of the for mer than they had bought, and had taken to themselves the benefit of a purchase made by Major Mason on his private account For the sake of peace and the credit of magnaniraity, the government offered to the chief Owaneco, who represented the Indians, to pay them again for the land. But Mason and his friends interfered, resolved to obstruct any accoraraodation. One of them went to England, with a 1704. complaint against the colony for extortion •'"'y^^- frora the natives, and the Queen appointed a coramission of twelve persons, two of whom were the governor and lieutenant-governor of Massachusetts, to investigate the affair. Mes sengers from the governor of Connecticut 1705. appeared before this court, and ques- ^^^' ^• tioned its jurisdiction. They were ready, they said, to show the injustice of the complaints against their colony, if the object of the commis sioners was only to obtain a knowledge of the facts, with a view to a report to the Queen ; but 22 338 CONNECTICUT. if the commissioners claimed power to decide the question judicially, they had no duty except to protest against that pretension. The commis sioners assuraed the right to decide as to the property of the territory in dispute, and adjudged it to the Mohegans and their friends, at the same time mulcting the colony in costs to the amount of nearly six hundred pounds. Dudley repre sented to the Lords of Trade that he and Nov. 1. his associates were treated on this occasion with rudeness and insult. Sir Henry Ashurst, by a petition to the Queen in Council, succeeded in arresting further proceedings; but it was not till forty years later that the question was put to rest, when it was decided in favor of the colony. The representations made by Dudley upon this subject refreshed and strengthened the unfavor able irapression made upon the royal Privy Council by his hostile statements relating to a variety of other matters. Never without some disturbing ambition, he was now haunted by the dreara of a promotion to the extensive govern ment which had been enjoyed by Andros. The colonial charters stood in his way. If they could be cancelled, the sovereign might appoint a gov ernor or governors at pleasure. Though not overlooked in his plan of revolution, the charter of Massachusetts, as the most recent, offered the least encouragement to an assault Those of Rhode Island aud Connecticut belonged to a DANGER OF THE CHARTERS. 339 former reign, which was now in no good credit; and no living English statesman could be sup posed to have an interest in thera, or any objec tion to their being overthrown in law. Lord Cornbury, besides his despotic irapulses, had plans of his own, which disposed hira to be Dudley's ally ; and his private influence, which was great, especially from his near relationship to the Queen, was given to the governor of Massa chusetts. Like Rhode Island, Connecticut was charged with a maladministration in various particulars justly punishable by a loss of the charter; with violations of the Acts of Trade and Navigation ; with encouraging mari- 1705. time disorders, liable to be qualified as ^°y-^^- piracy; with refusing or neglecting, when law fully summoned, to furnish military levies; with executing capital punishment without authority from the charter; with denying justice in its courts to the Queen's subjects, not inhabitants ; with disallowing appeals to the Queen in Council; with refusing to cornrait its mUitia to governors of neighboring colonies, holding the Queen's com mission for that command ; and with obstruct ing members of the Church of England as to their freedom of worship: to all which charges was now added that of contumacy in the recent denial of the authority of the royal cora- 1706, raissioners to pass upon the complaint of •'*'^" ^"^ the Mohegan Indians. This last proceeding occurred at a time which 340 CONNECTICUT. made it especially serviceable for the purposes of the plotters against the colonial governments. Their unfriendly representations had already so far prevailed that a bill was brought into Par liament, declaring the charters of various colonies in Araerica, and among them all the charters for New England, to " be utterly void and of none effect," and vesting all their powers 1705. and privileges in the crown. At a hearing Feb. 12. before- the Privy Council, Sir Henry Ash urst, appearing with legal counsel for Connecticut, argued in respect to some of the proceedings complained of, that they had not in fact taken place ; in respect to others, that they were justified by the charter. And he obtained leave for copies of the charges to be sent to the governor of Con necticut, and for time to be allowed him for further reply. At this critical moraent the trans actions with the coraraissioners on the claim of the Mohegan Indians intervened: The Privy December. CouncU directed the J3oard of Trade " to Jan. li). lay before the Queen the misfeasances of the proprieties, and the advantages that raay arise by reducing them," which was accordingly done. There is extent a draft, belonging to this period, of an Act of Parliaraent declaring that " the sole power and authority of governing the said [the Araerican] plantations and colonies, and every of thern," and " of appointing governors and all other officers," is "forever united to the imperial crown of Great Britain." A bill passed THE SAYBROOK PLATFORM. 341 through the House of Coraraons " for the better regulation of the charter govern- " """^' ments, and for the encouragement of the trade of the plantations." But it failed of obtaining the concurrence of the Lords. There were legal embarrassraents, opinions differed as to the rela tive expediency of different methods of restraining the colonies, and the war raging upon the con tinent of Europe deraanded the attention of English statesmen ; so that again, for the present, the question went by. An important change was made in the ecclesi astical constitutions of Connecticut. Throughout the settlements and the history of New England there had been a succession of departures from the original theory of the mutual independence of the churches. In Connecticut the opinion now pre vailed that a more energetic systera of church gov ernraent had become necessary than at present existed, or was consistent with the theoretical independence of the several congregations. The Legislature convoked a synod of ministers 1708. and lay delegates to deliberate upon the ^^y^^- subject. Twelve ministers and four delegates, deputed by ministers and messengers of the churches in the several counties, came '^ ' together at the town of Saybrook, from which the result of their deliberations derived the narae of the Saybrook Platform. Having adopted for their constitution the Confession of Faith of the Reforming Synod held at Boston twenty-eight 342 CONNECTICUT. years before, and the " Heads of Agreement as sented to by the United Ministers [in England], forraerly caUed Presbyterian and Congrega- tional," they proceeded to arrange a systera which made some partial approximation of Con gregational to Presbyterian usages. It provided that " the particular pastors and churches, within the respective counties in this governraent," should "be one consociation, or more, if they should judge meet, for mutual affording to each other such assistance as may be requisite, upon all occasions ecclesiastical " ; and the authority hitherto exercised by councils formed by volun tary selection by individuals or churches was vested in councils appointed by these bodies. Disobedience to the decree of a council so consti tuted was to be punished by excommunication of the contumacious pastor or church. A council might invite a council frora a neighboring con sociation to aid in its deliberations, and a church might designate permanent representatives to appear for it in councils convened from time to tirae. And it was recommended that a General Association of representatives of all the churches . in the colony should be held every year at the time of the civil election. The plan became law by the action of the General Court, who attached to it, however, a prudent provision, " that nothing here in shall be intended or construed to hinder or prevent any society or church that is or shall be YALE COLLEGE. 343 allowed by the laws of this governraent, who soberly differ or dissent from the united churches hereby established, from exercising worship and discipline, in their own way, according to their consciences." One consociation was organized in each of the four counties, except in the county of Hartford, which had two ; and the sarae organiza tion has been continued to the present day. The General Court ordered the printing of an 1709. edition of "the Confession of Faith, the "^"^i^- Articles of Agreement between the United Breth ren in England, forraerly called Presbyterian and Congregational, together with the Discipline agreed upon by the General Council of the rev erend elders and churches asserabled at'Saybrook." It was thought that the ratification of the Articles of Agreeraent, which allowed greater latitude in faith and adrainistration, helped to disarm op position to the new Discipline. Another important movement of this period was the establishment of the venerable institution now so widely and honorably known by the name of Yale College. For sixty years the only school for higher education in New England had been Harvard College, at Carabridge. The people, and especially the clergy, of Connecticut natu rally desired the benefit of a similar establishment nearer home. The three rainisters of New Haven, Milford, and Branford first raoved in the enter prise. Ten rainisters, nine of thera being graduates of Harvard College, met at 344 CONNECTICUT. Branford, and made a contribution from their libraries of about forty volumes in folio " for the founding of a college." Other donations pres ently came in. An Act of incorporation was 1701. granted by the General Court It created Oct. 9. ^ body of trustees, not to be raore than eleven in nuraber nor fewer than seven, all to be clergyraen and at least forty years of age. The Court endowed the College with an annual grant, subject to be discontinued at pleasure, of one hundred and twenty pounds in " country pay," — equivalent to sixty pounds sterling. The College might hold property " not exceeding the value of five hundred pounds per annum " ; its students were exempted from the payment of taxes and 1703. from mihtary service; and the governor Oct. 14. ^^^ Council gave a formal approval of its Oct 21. application to the citizens for pecuniary aid. Judge Sewall, of Massachusetts, and Ad dington, secretary of that province, concerned for what to their sensitive vigUance seemed the declining orthodoxy of Harvard College, which 1701. they would gladly compensate elsewhere, Oct. 6. furnished to the clergyraen interested in the project the draft of a charter for their institu tion. But whether it was that the arrangements were already matured, or that a different judg ment prevailed, their proposals do Dot appear to have influenced the projectors or the law-makers. The first president was Abraham Pierson, minister of Killingworth, where he continued to CONDITION OF THE COLONY. 345 reside, though the designated seat of the College was at Saybrook. Eight student^ were admitted, and arranged in classes. At each of the 1702. first two annual coraraencements one i703. person, at the third three persons, received 1704. the degree of Bachelor of Arts. President Pier son was succeeded, at his death, by Mr. 1707. Andrew, minister at MUford, to which ''^'"'* ^¦ place the elder pupUs w"ere accordingly transferred, while the rest went to Saybrook, where two tutors had been provided to assist their studies. In the last year of Queen Anne's life the people of Connecticut were about seventeen thousand in number. Four thousand men were enrolled in the mihtia. The colony had twenty or thirty vessels, mostly sloops, and not more than a hun dred and twenty sailors. Grain and other pro visions were sent frora it to Boston and New York ; masts and naval stores to England ; and horses, provisions, and cattle to the West Indies, whence returns came in rura, sugar, and raolasses. " For the preservation of timber" the exportation of it was restricted. In a temporary scarcity of grain in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, the exportation of it was forbidden except to those colonies. Of the bills of credit which had been issued to the amount of thirty-three thousand and five hundred pounds, all but twenty thousand had now been redeemed. The valuation of estates in Connecticut amounted to three hundred and one thousand pounds. There were 346 CONNECTICUT. thirty-eight towns, and forty-three ministers, or one minister to ^about eighty families. Ministers were exempt from taxes of every kind. The right to vote in their election was not liraited to coraraunicants, but belonged equaUy to every person qualified "to vote in all other town affairs." Only travellers might " drink any strong drink in any tavern or house of public entertainment" " Liberty of worshipping God " was guaranteed on the same terms as those specified by an Act of Parliaraent of the first year of King Wihiara and Queen Mary. The observance of the Lord's Day was guarded with rigor; a vessel in Connecticut River within two railes of a raeeting-house might not change her moorings on Sunday, except to approach it. During recesses of the General Court a per raanent Council, consisting of the governor, two assistants, and "three or five judicious freemen" invited by the governor, had charge of the public affairs. The salary of the governor, to which from tirae to time were added gratuities, was raised in a series of years from a hundred and twenty pounds a year to two hundred 1703-1716. 1 V. I-.- rxi T • x , pounds, hiditious ot the Laws were printed and circulated in the towns. The reception of illegal votes was held to cancel elections. The government was as firm as lenient, and easily repressed any petulance even of its highest men, 1716. as was shown in an instance when Cap- ^^y^- tain Wadsworth gave offence. The public attended with thoughtful humanity to the misfor- CONDITION OF THE COLONY. 347 tunes of the insane, of idiots, of soldiers returned frora captivity. With a parental care it pro vided, from time to time, for the wants of the poor and sick, and the protection of injured per sons in circurastances not conteraplated by the general laws. Even the unwary receiver of counterfeits of its bills was " saved harmless." It was unwearied in providing for the comfort of the Indians, and for their protection against the rapacity of their neighbors. On the other hand, it guarded against their being practised upon to their own harm and that of the colony, by a strict order against the admission of Indians raade prisoners in the war then waging in South Carolina. A condition of society so happy as that en joyed by Connecticut at this period, especiaUy during the long adrainistration of Governor Sal tonstall, has been rare in the experience of raan kind. If from tirae to tirae the charter of her liberties was threatened, the danger of a repeti tion of such raisgovernraent as that of Andros was too reraote to excite serious solicitude. A prevailing rautual respect and confidence softened the intercourse araong citizens, and between citi zens and rulers. The friendly sentiraents inspired by rehgious faith were proraoted by a general harraony of religious opinion. An education sufficient for the advantageous transaction of business, for the enjoyraent of leisure, and for a measure of refinement of raind, was offered at the public cost to the youth of every faraily 348 CONNECTICUT. near its own door. Frugality and industry, friends to rectitude and content, secured a com fortable living, and a comfortable living was not to be had without them. A steady but unop- pressive force of public opinion rendered a life of blameless morals easy and attractive, and assured to a public-spirited and religious life a career of dignity and honor. A remarkable approach to an equal distribution of property prevented the assumptions and resentments of caste, and the jealousy of disproportioned privileges. The peo ple of Connecticut enjoyed to a singular degree a fulfilment of their prayer " that peace and unity might be continued araong thera, and that they raight have the blessings of the God of peace upon them." 1714. Intelligence of the death of the Queen, Aug. 1. ^j.j(j Qf Ihe accession of the Elector of Hanover to the throne of Great Britain, having been received in a letter from Jeremiah Duraraer, orders were given for noticing both events with due soleranity ; and an Address of congratulation was despatched to the new sovereign. A vessel in which a raore forraal coramunication had been sent out by Lord ^^- ' Bolingbroke was wrecked, but the docu ment was picked up and brought to its destina tion ; and, out of scrupulous regard for forra, or of exuberant joy at the renewed security of the Protestant succession, a second proclaraation of the new reign was made with more pompous ceremony. BOOK V. PROGRESS IN THE EEIGN OF KING GEOEGE THE FIEST. CHAPTER I. ADMINISTRATION OF SHUTE. The difference made by the course of events through two or three generations, in the relations between the colonies of New England and the parent country, was ihore and more defined. The Great RebeUion, though defeated by its own excesses, had made a permanent change in the system of English politics. The principles that excited that raoveraent had reappeared in suf ficient force to drive into banishraent the odi ous dynasty which had provoked it. The spell of hereditary succession had been effectually broken, for two elected raonarchs had occupied the throne with reigns of no short duration, and now a third had taken a peaceable possession of it, the security of which was only iUus trated by the issue of a feeble rebellion. The last serious danger of usurpation on the part of the Church of Rorae might well be considered to have passed away, when the plots of Queen Anne and her last Ministry in her brother's favor 350 ADMINISTRATION OF TAILER. had been foiled, and the people of England had bravely preferred "the unwelcome expedient of taking for their King the head of a moderate German principality, a man advanced in years, ignorant of their institutions and even of their language, of unattractive presence and coarse manners, of private habits no better than those of the last Stuart monarch, and even avow^edly taking little interest in the affairs of the kingdom to which he had so strangely been prora.oted. If the Protestant Church establishraent of Eng land continued to be arrogant, still under such prelates as Tillotson and Tenison, Patrick, Bur net, and Hoadly, there was little reason to appre hend that it would reassurae a distinctly perse cuting attitude. The tolerance of Williara the Third, whether proceeding frora raagnaniraity or policy or indifference, had exerted to some extent a wholesome influence on the national habits of thought, and in the recent political coraplications the dissenting body had had a place which en abled thein to coraraand a degree of respect, and to act with sorae efficiency for their own protec tion. The Toleration Act of Wihiara the Third had given to non-conforraity a recognized legal position, and the restraints which ostensibly the law continued to irapose were in a great measure forgotten or disused. In the Tory ascendency of the last four years of Queen Anne's reign, there was a reaction of church bigotry under the lead of the infidel Lord Bolingbroke ; and the SECURITY OF FREEDOM. 351 Act against Occasional Conformity, and what was called the Schism Act, insulted and embar rassed dissenters anew. -But, in the divided and fluctuating condition of public sentiment, it was reasonably hoped that these would prove to be only spasmodic moveraents ; and the event speed ily justified that expectation, for the repeal of the obnoxious laws was an early proceeding of the • next reign. The plot of Queen Anne's latest favorite tb set aside the Protestant succession at her death was not known at the tirae, as it has since been exhibited by the disclosure of con- teraporary docuraents. But the raoraent when, if the legal settleraent was to prevail, the crown of the Stuarts was to pass frora a native-born prin cess, however slight her claim of regular inher itance, to a Gerraan stranger, was reasonably regarded as extremely critical ; and when the Elector of Hanover had been quietly proclaimed and received as King of England, a heavy weight was lifted from the minds of English friends of freedom. The people of Massachusetts had their full share in this relief, and in the grateful sense of it. Had the sovereign who was just dead been succeeded by her Catholic brother, the fear of what had been suffered and threatened during the earlier rule of their infatuated family would reasonably have revived. Had her hfe been pro longed, no little trouble seeraed in store from the arbitrary policy of the counsellors to whose direc- 352 ADMINISTRATION OF TAILER. tion she had yielded her feeble raind. In either case Joseph Dudley would be likely to be con tinued in his governraent, and his ancient offen- siveness would be not unlikely to be renewed under superiors of sirailar character aud views. As things turned out, the conspiracy in the midst of which she died, failed as it was, was of vast service to English liberties. George the First knew nothing about English liberties, and may be presumed to have cared as little, besides being too old to begin to learn. In his own. insignificant realm he had been a despot, though in a.benevolent way. But it was easy for hira to be inforraed who it was that had scheraed against his succession to the throne of England, and accordingly the doors of his council charaber were shut close against the Tory statesraen. The Duke of Marlborough (Whig and Tory by turns) was slighted. Bolingbroke and the Duke of Orraond fled to France, to which country Atter bury too was banished. Oxford was sent to the Tower, to await his trial for high treason. The administration was comraitted to Lord Town- send, General Stanhope, and other men disposed, on the whole, by their sentiments and connec tions, to a liberal pohcy in religious affairs. The Whig party of England was not what it had been; it had lost no little of the courage and disinterestedness which had assured to it the love and confidence of the people of New England. But the selection which was presently made of a POLICY OF MASSACHUSETTS. 353 new governor for Massachusetts might seem to authorize the expectation that her rehgious posi tion would not be unkindly regarded in the new reign. During the greater part of the quarter-century since the provincial charter of Massachusetts went into effect, the necessities of war had chiefly at tracted the public attention ; but in the provincial adrainistration there had not been wanting mani festations of a policy of self-defence against the horae governraent, in the steady refusal to subrait to instructions which respected railitary service, and especiaUy to those which related to stated and perraanent provision for officers of the crown. While the provincial charter had divested the colonists of very iraportant ancient privileges and powers, it had left the King's governor dependent on the provincial Legislature for his support, for which the governraent at horae made no provision. In this prerogative of a legislative body, chosen by the people directly in one branch, and nomi nated by them indirectly in the other, and in its other prerogative of originating laws, consisted the protection of the people against arbitrary designs of the governor, and of the monarch or court whom he represented. The future was to show what occasions would present theraselves for the use of these powers, and how effectual they would prove. The powers theraselves were created by the charter, a withdrawal of which instrument, if that were possible, would annihilate 354 ADMINISTEATION OF TAILER. them ; and they were further liable, in cases which might arise, to receive a more or less favorable interpretation in the English courts. Such were facts which demanded cautious consideration^^and a policy at once firra and inoffensive, on the part of a people who had not strength to maintain themselves in arras against the hostility of Eng land, and who had no longer, as they had had. in their early history, the alliance of an array of powerful sympathizers in Parliament and about the throne. Though no great question was now at issue between the British governraent and its dependency of Massachusetts, like that which had bred disagreeraents during the period of the first charter, and though the charter of WiUiara and Mary had airaed to fix with precision the liraita- tions of power on both sides, there still reraained, in its construction and application, large roora for dispute. The British Ministry could restrain Mas sachusetts by raeans of the high powers vested by the charter in the governor whora they appointed, and by the authority which the charter gave them to rescind even such colonial laws as had received the governor's assent. Massachusetts could re sist the Ministry by distressing the governor as to his raeans of living, and by refusing to ac- coraraodate to their wishes the character of her Legislature and her legislation. 1715. Almost the first act of Lieutenant-Gov- Nov.26. ernor TaUer was to approve an allowance which had been made by the General Court to LEGISLATION OF MASSACHUSETTS. 355 the heirs of Dudley's enemy, Elisha Cooke, of three hundred pounds, for services rendered by him in his agency in England. The Court voted an Address to the King, praying, first, a continuance of the privileges granted by the charter ; secondly, encouragement to the produc tion of naval stores ; and thirdly, precautions against the enlarging settlements of the French in Cape Breton, to which island they had betaken theraselves in considerable nurabers, after their loss of Nova Scotia. John Usher thought that now was his chance, if ever it was to be, to get a favorable hearing for his often-repeated claim as former treasurer of the colony. He repre sented that the province owed him raore than a thousand pounds, besides sixteen hundred pounds for interest for the twenty-six years since the Revolution. The Court resolved that they owed hira nothing, and thenceforward he ceased to urge the suit. Colonel Church, the partisan of the Indian wars, was regarded by thera with dif ferent feelings. They provided for the cora- me. fort of his old age with a gratuity of sixty -•'""^ ^^• pounds. They sent to the King an Ad- June 2. dress of congratulation on the success of his arras against the Popish pretender, and voted to set apart a day for Thanksgiving for the suppression of " the late horrid and unnatural rebellion." In the hot dispute which arose out of the financial question of the day in Massachusetts, Colonel Burgess was for sorae reason supposed 356 ADMINISTRATION OF SHUTE. to be inclined to what was called the private bamk party, and his appointraent was accordingly un welcome to many of the most important persons in the province. Their views, urged in England by one of • the most active of thera, Andrew Belcher of Cambridge, were also maintained by Jeremiah Duraraer, the new agent, and by Sir Williara Ashurst, who, though he had refused the agency, never ceased to interest hiraself in the affairs of the province. To Burgess the govern ment of Massachusetts was nothing but a job, and for the consideration of a thousand pounds, furnished by Duraraer and Belcher, he agreed to decline the promotion. The choice next fell upon Samuel Shute, also a colonel in the army, a brother of John Shute, afterward Lord Barring ton in the peerage of Ireland. John Shute, though at a later time exp'elled from Parliaraent for alleged dishonesty in sorae lottery transactions, was now a person of political iraportance, espe cially in the non-conforraist circles. The maternal grandfather of the brothers was the famous Pres byterian rainister, Joseph Caryl. The governor had been a pupil of Charles Morton, the bold rainister of Charlestown in the time of Andros. Under the same influences, Lieutenant-Gov ernor Tailer was superseded, and his place was given to William Dummer, son-in-law of Gover nor Dudley, a native of New England, but for some years resident in the parent country. Dudley was much gratified by this arrangement, CONDITION OF MASSACHUSETTS. 357 which he professed to regard "as a mark of the King's favor for his thirteen years' successful service to the crown," though, had the benefit been withholden, his "loyalty and good behavior to the governraent should have been equally apparent to everybody. The King," he added, " has forever endeared the hearts ofhis loyal subjects in these provinces by appointing so prudent and good a raan as Colonel Shute to rule over thera. I am now grown old, and having lived to see his Majesty triumph over his ene mies, and the administration of the kingdom settled in a wise and faithful ministry, I think I have lived long enough." More than two years had passed since the death of Queen Anne when the new governor of Massachusetts came to Bos ton, though his appointment had been known there for four raonths. In Massachusetts, accord ing to the information in possession of the Board of Trade, there were then ninety-four thousand white people, besides two thousand negroes, and twelve hundred Christian Indians. Their com merce was active ; they dealt with some profit in tiraber and cured fish; their ship-building amounted to six thousand tons annually; and their manufactures supplied a large part of their demand for the coarser kinds of cotton and woollen cloth. The aggregate white population of the rest of New En^and was understood to amount to sixty-four thousand souls. 358 ADMINISTEATION OF SHUTE. It was irapossible that the task which lay before the new governor should prove to be an easy one. The generation on the stage of active life had been living under strong exciteraents, and ques tions of agitating interest between thera and their foreign rulers were still pending. With a few" short interruptions the war with the Indians which had just been closed had harassed the people of New England, and furnished the raain object of their attention, for forty years. Of this period twenty-five years had passed under that new constitution of governraent, which took away sorae material powers and privileges enjoyed under the colonial charter. The passion for self- government, thus restrained, had been delayed by the troubles of the times in marking out a definite course of opposition. But the traditions of free dom were still venerated and cherished. In the time of the able and resolute Governor Dudley, the people had made experiments on their strength, the result of which, if not conspicuous, had not been discouraging. Not only was his successor an an tagonist less formidable in proportion to his greatly inferior abilities, but the state of affairs raore easily admitted of a contest with him without prejudice to other interests. It was a dangerous as well as a thankless operation to embarrass Dudley while he was prosecuting an Indian war. When the public enemy was quieted, internal dissension became safe. There was always least danger of collision between the two parties in tiraes of HIS DISCOURAGEMENTS. 359 foreign war. As often as her borders were in vaded by the allied French and Indians, the pohcy of Massachusetts leaned towards conciliation and deference to the government whose assistance was so desirable, while the Ministry, on the other hand, was interested to keep Massachusetts fa vorably disposed. When peace was restored, the domestic quarrel was ready to break out afresh. Thus the pacification of Utrecht, binding the French to refrain from hostility, having just deprived the Indians of that alliance which was their main stimulus and strength, the people were less liable than in the past years to be incommod ed by a quarrel with their governor and his mas ters. Shute carae into his office with one ad vantage in respect of favorable prepossessions on the part of those whora he was to govern. He was, to be sure, a dissenter frora the Church of England, which Lord Belloraont never was, and^ which the facile courtier Dudley had ceased to be. But religious syrapathy was no longer the bond of union that it had been between the non-conforraists of England and of the col onies. There was no longer a coraraon ambition, or a sense of coraraon danger. Nothing could be more different than were the persecuted non-con forraist rainisters of the tiraes of the Charleses, and the easy non-conforraist rainisters of the tirae of Anne, husbands of the daughters, of whom Shute's mother was one, of London citi zens magnificent on the exchange. The legisla- 360 ADMINISTRATION OF SHUTE. tion in England during the reign of King Wilham, while it had given to dissenters in England all the advantages which at present they could hope for, had given to dissenters in Massachusetts all which they desired. The national church, it is true, had set up its worship among them ; but that was an annoyance from which they could no longer have any expectation of escaping, and to which, in the course of thirty years, they had become accustomed, if not reconciled. Of the new governor, in other respects, they could have scarcely heard anything, except that he was a person who possessed some interest with the new managers of England, and who had coveted some office that would enrich or support him. There was no reason why they should welcome hira with ardor; he carae not to gratify or benefit them, but to get a living and to execute his orders; and he found them in no humor to bfe well pleased with anything. Year after year they had been fighting the French, with all but ruinous ill-success, with no useful help from England, and through a succession of quarrels with the incom petent and overbearing English officers who had misused their money, wasted their force, and pro tected theraselves by mafigning their character. They were very poor, and, in two parties about equal in strength, they were angrUy discussing the cause and the remedy of their poverty. Such was the state of things in Massachusetts to which Shute was to accommodate his govern- HIS DISCOURAGEMENTS. 361 ment His abilities, without being contemptible, were not such as to fit hira to confront a resolute and able opposition. He was good-natured and fair ; but at the same time was capable of taking hasty offence, and of being impelled by it to im prudent action. Without jealousy of prerogative, or personal pride, he was alive to the soldier's point of honor in obedience to orders; and, while to many of the subjects of his government the raere thwarting -of the Ministry had becorae a sufficient motive for persisting in a measure, the governor found sufficient justification of a meas ure or a pretension in the fact that it suited the Ministry's will. It was impossible that in the circumstances the provincial government consti tuted by King Williara's charter should work sraoothly. The governor considered it to be his business to proraote the wishes of the British courtiers, and the interest of the British traders. The Representatives considered it to be theirs to look after the well-being of their constituents, whieh they assuraed that they better understood than it could possibly be understood by a Spanish campaigner, — a stipendiary and creature of Gen eral Stanhope. He took the right side as to the most troublesorae question of the tirae. But, even in so doing, he exposed himself to the dis pleasure of some of the best men about hira, and threw thera into an acrimonious opposition to his government, while the party with which he allied hiraself, having already substantially won the day. 362 ADMINISTRATION OF SHUTE. had not much need of service from him, and did not much care for his patronage. Shute's commission was in the same terras as that of his predecessor, not excepting even the authority to coraraand tbe militia of Rhode Island. His instructions were digested in seven ty-eight articles. Among other things, he was directed to transmit to England a copy of the laws of his province within three months, or by ihe first opportunity, "upon pain of the King's highest displeasure, and of the forfeiture of the first year's salary." He was " to propose to the General Assembly, and accordingly to use his best endeavors with them, that an Act be passed for the settling and establishing fixed salaries" upon the governor, lieutenant-governor, and judges for the time being, and " for the building of a fit and convenient house " for the governor. He was to persuade the province to rebuild " that important fort at Pemaquid, which they too easily suffered to be taken and demolished by the French during the former war." He was " to provide by all necessary orders,- that no per son have any press for printing, nor that any book, paraphlet, or other matters whatsoever be printed without his special leave and license first obtained." His first act in Massachusetts was to prorogue the Legislature, which was to have corae together in a few days, to a tirae which would afford opportunity for sorae inquiry and consultation. DISAGREEMENTS WITH THE COURT. 363 It was unavoidable that he should be at once beset with glooray representations respecting the condition of the currency, and consequently of trade, and with discordant representations as to a reraedy. In his first speech he urgently called the attention of the General Court to that ungrateful but inevitable subject. He inforraed thera that he was instructed to revive the subject of a stated salary for hiraself, and to say that " Massachusetts was the only prov ince in America under the crown of Great Britain which did not settle a salary on its governor and lieutenant-governor " ; to complain of the unlawful " cutting down of trees proper for the royal navy " ; and to repeat the applica tions heretofore made in vain for the building of a fort at or near Peraaquid. The Court disposed of the first matter by resolving on a further issue of paper money, to twice the araount of the first. The forra of the measure had been to the effect of lend ing fifty thousand pounds in bills for five years, at an interest of five per cent, with an engage ment for a repayment annually of twenty per cent of the principal. One hundred thousand pounds raore were now issued, to be repaid in ten years. On the other points proposed, the Representatives were raore sensitive than the governor had probably been prepared to find them. After awaiting their action for what he thought a sufficient time, he sent a message 364 ADMINISTRATION OF SHUTE. to inquire " whether the governor might "™'*' expect a further answer to his speech." They replied the same day that " they had al ready answered all that was proper or neces sary." He sent again to ask " whether the House had done all that was proper or necessary in answer to his speech." They rephed that they had, " having passed an Act to prevent cut ting and carrying off timber." Not being in clined at present to pursue the discussion, he contented himself with proroguing the Court Such a beginning did not promise mutual con fidence or harraony for the future. It may be guessed that Shute was no master of the science of finance. But the emotion with which he speaks of the depreciation of the province's hundred and fifty thousand pounds of irredeemable paper raoney indicates that it 1717. occasioned him both surprise and dismay. April 10. "V^hen he next met the General Court, it v/as to implore thera to make sorae provision against the " intolerable discount " upon their bills, as well as to renew the requests for a fort at Pemaquid, for an establishment of stated salaries, and the security of the Queen's rights in timber proper for her navy. This last had become a conspicuous matter of attention. As long ago as fifty years be fore this time, Massachusetts had brought the wealth of her woods to the notice of En"-- land by a present to King Charles of ship-timber. SUPPLY OF NAVAL STORES. 365 which was thought to have contributed not a little to the success of his operations against France; and about the same time the colony recognized the importance of this interest to herself by a law which "reserved for the public all pine-trees fit for masts which are" 1668. twenty-four inches diameter and upwards ^'^y^'- within three foot of the ground, that grow above three miles frora the raeeting-house." The ca^ pacity of producing other naval stores was not overlooked. The General Court granted 1671. "a privilege to Mr. Richard Wharton, "'^"^'^i" etc., to raake pitch, rosin, turpentine, etc." In the free tiraes after the charter of Massachusetts was vacated, Randolph obtained a "commission to be surveyor of all the woods and tim- 1685. ber growing within ten or twelve miles ^'^^°^^''- of any navigable river, creek, or harbor within the province of Maine." When AUen solicited the governraent of New Harapshire, he informed the Privy Council that he had " contracted with the Navy Board to supply their Majesties' leoi. navy with masts, yards, bowsprits, and^^'^^^- other tiraber, during the terra of seven years." The ship-builder. Sir WiUiam Phipps, well understood the value of ship-timber, and, in the provincial charter which he helped to negotiate, the last article, appended in the last stage of the transaction, reserved for the King's use trees which measured two feet in diameter at the height of a foot above the ground. The 366 ADMINISTRATION OF SHUTE. 1695. General Court of Massachusetts reported June25. |.Q ^^^ Privy Council that their province could furnish for the royal navy an annual supply of a hundred and fifty tons of rosin, a hundred and fifty tons of pitch and tar, two thousand tons of timber, and a hundred thousand feet of oak planks. On a recommendation frora the Ad- 1698. miralty the Privy Council commissioned Sept. 3. Benjamin Furzer and John Bridger to go to New England, " to inspect and survey and give advice of the naval productions thosei places did produce, and what improveraents might be there made for the future." In no less than three points of view the object contemplated by the English Ministry was important. They looked to this country for abundant and secure supplies, not only of timber, but of naval stores, pitch, tar, and turpentine for their mihtary and commercial marine. They desired to encourage the industry of New England in this department, to the end that its profits might support large demands for English manufactured goo9s. And they wished, by confining the attention of the people to these pursuits, to keep thein frora creating a supply 1704. of woollen fabrics for themselves. " I am Oct. 10. glad," wrote Dudley to the Board of Trade, " to be advised your Lordships have been pleased to encourage the trade of tar, rosin, and other naval stores and commodities of this province, 'without which it is impossible to prevent this province to run into the woollen manufacture to SUPPLY OF NAVAL STORES. 367 that degree that in a few years they will demand very little supply of that sort from the kingdora of England, which if I should not inforra of and labor to prevent, I should be wanting in ray duty. The inhabitants of this province are proud enough to wear the best cloth of England; but, without they be employed upon tar, hemp, iron. Spars, raasts, and building of ships, they have no returns to make, and of those things there might be enough if proper methods were settled and taken, and persons sent to take care and encourage so to do." The war of Sweden against the other Baltic powers, and especially the signs which the erratic King of Sweden had given of an inclination to befriend the Pretender, at once increased the iraportance to England of an araple supply of naval stores, and the uncertainty of obtaining it frora the hitherto custoraary sources. Furzer, the surveyor, having died on his way to Araerica, the omnivorous Randolph as pired to be his successor, but was defeated by the opposition of Ashurst. Bridger arrived at his destination, with Lord Bellomont. He easily embroiled hiraself with the inhabitants of the forest tracts, and his conflicts with the rough people whose interests he had to invade took for years a considerable place in the public action of the tirae. New Hampshire, especially, without contesting the sovereign's right, showed no zeal in protecting it against the trespassers to whom 368 ADMINISTRATION OF SHUTE. the plunder of tiraber on the banks of distant and solitary navigable waters was at once so safe and so lucrative. Lord Belloraont iii- Aprii23. f^j.^gj ^ijg Lords of Trade that there had been "a prodigious havoc of the woods in New Hampshire within four years," so that he feared that " in two or three years all trees that are near water carriage will be cut up." He complained of the " trade of sending ship-timber to Portugal, stiU carried on," and desired " an Act of Parliament to hinder transporting of ship-timber." Bridger wrote to him that he had been " for two years preparing trees in the woods near Piscataway to the number of 'several thousands, for the making of tar for his Majesty's service, but found them in May last nearly all burnt, to the loss of nearly a thousand barrels of tar." Bridger had been but a short time in New England, when the Lords of Admiralty ' advised his recall on account of the ex- pensiveness of his service. But either he or his business had steady and powerful friends, and early in Dudley's administration he was ap- 1705. pointed "to be Surveyor-General of woods Deo. 15. j,.j New England, and to instruct the in habitants in making tar, curing hemp, etc." He 1706. wrote to Secretary Godolphin that he Oct. 18. .yyould " engage in two years' tirae the stores that is raised here shall be equally as good as any imported into England I SUPPLY OF NAVAL STORES. 369 hope," he said, "to divert and turn their thoughts frora working up their own wool, which they have raade a very great progress in, to the rais ing of naval stores." If this hope should faU, " the effect would be the loss of the exportation of a hundred and fifty thousand pounds per annura of the raanufactures of England to this place only, — I raean Boston." The prospect was, however, uncertain ; for soon he had to report a large decrease in the exportation of naval nos. stores, of which, he said, one reason was Marchi3. that " the country people and planters had entered so far into raaking their own woollens, that not one in forty but wears his own carding, spinning, etc." When he appealed to the courts, 1709. he " could not get a judgraent against ¦'"'^" the people for cutting trees." An Act of Parliament was passed "for preserving white-pine trees," which punished all persons who should destroy them, except the owner, with a fine of a hundred pounds. Bridger wrote that prosecutions under it were useless, and 1711. that "her Majesty could never hope of*'''^^^" any justice here, where judge and juries are offenders, for they plead their charter They adore it, equal, if not preferable, to their schismatical doctrine." And his inference was : " Were this charter gone, her Majesty's preroga tive would shine bright and influence the whole, so that they would be raore obedient to her Maj esty's commands, and civil to her interest and 24 370 ADMINISTRATION OF SHUTE. officers; and, were they more dependent, they would be rauch raore serviceable." In the last year of Dudley's administration 1714. Bridger went to England, having appointed December, dgpy^jgg to supply his placc during his 1715. absence. He had probably learned that Jan. 12. his presence there was necessary to coun teract a movement which was on foot for his removal. Dudley wrote home in his favor ; but Colonel Burgess, while expecting to go out as Dudley's successor, had objected to Bridger's continuance in office, having been con vinced, on the evidence of Vaughan and others of New Hampshire, that he had been guilty of official corruption. Bridger succeeded in clear ing hiraself to the satisfaction of General An "^' ' Stanhope, and carae back with a new cora- mis.sion. He was to meet with more powerful opposition than ever. Elisha Cooke, son of the lately deceased counsehor, and his successor in the popular regard, charged Bridger with exceed ing his authority in forbidding proprietors to cut timber on their own land, and with receiving bribes for permitting the spoliation of tiraber on the public domain. Bridger justified himself, and the governor took his part, showing his displeas ure against Cooke by excluding him from this time from the Council, of which he had for years been a member, and to which he continued to be elected by the Court from year to year, while he found a better sphere for agitating, in his place in SUPPLY OF NAVAL STORES. 371 the House of Representatives, of which he was a meraber for Boston. In the ardor of his antag- onisra Cooke went so far as to urge that Maine having been granted by the crown to Gorges, and by his heirs sold to Massachusetts, "no reserve was to be raade of any woods or trees thereon to ' the use of the crown." It does not appear that that view had any other open defenders, though it is very likely to have prevailed so far as to pre vent vigorous legislation for the security of the Queen's rights. Bridger wrote to the Secretary of State, that, at Exeter, of seventy trees which had been raarked with the Queen's broad arrow, 1717. only one remained standing. The out- ^^"^ bo rage was coraraitted, he says, while Vaughan was lieutenant-governor, "who put out those persons I had deputed for deputies, and put in creatures of his own, which suffered anything to be done as would please the people; for as ' long as there are New England persons gov ernors [here was a kick at the dead lion, Dud ley], the King raust not expect any justice as to the woods ; for all the people on the frontiers depend on the woods for their livelihood, and say the King has no woods here, and they will cut what and where they please, as long as the char ter 's good." Dummer, agent for Massa- 1716. chusetts in England, interested himself *'"''¦ ^''• successfully against the forester. " I have 1713. read," wrote Bridger to the Lords of Trade, °'='-^- 372 ADMINISTRATION OF SHUTE. " the surprising and unwelcome news that I ara superseded My letters informs me that I was removed by the insinuations and malicious contrivances of Mr. Duraraer, whom I know to be a false and cunning person I have been here but one year and a raonth since I renewed my coraraission After twenty- two years' faithful service to this country, I am turned out and obliged to beg my bread." The General Court which Shute found in office, now drawing near to the term of its legal existence, may have thought proper to adopt a course of action to be a precedent for its suc cessors. The Representatives, with unmistakable distinctness, informed the governor that they de clined to restore the fort at Peraaquid, to establish salaries for the King's officers, and to do anything further about the ship-timber. " In consideration of his assurances of friendly behavior," they raade him a grant of three hundred pounds, and he disraissed them to their spring husbandry, after thanking them for their present, which, he said, " will help the defraying the charge of my trans portation." Their six months' acquaintance had not tended to ripen into friendship. Alluding to the defeat of the Pretender's enter- 1717. prise, the governor told the next General May 30. Qourt, that their meeting must be "so much the pleasanter by the reraoval of some fears they had lately had of being deprived of so valuable a privilege. God Almighty long con- DISAGREEMENTS WITH THE GENERAL COURT. 373 tinue," he said, " your religious and civil rights and liberties, with wisdora so to iraprove thera that they may never be forfeited " ! And instead of pro voking for the present a rene-wal of the dispute respecting naval supplies, he informed the Court that Parliament was "deliberating on measures for the encouragement of the trade " in those com- raodities, and " the rather, at this present juncture, by reason of the unjust and surprising intended invasion from Sweden." He forgot his dignity so far as to volunteer to the General Court a denial of having sold offices, a misconduct with which it seeras common rumor had charged him. The Court made him a grant of five hun dred pounds for his services in the first half of the civil year. In acknowledging it he desired " to be told if he had not rendered faithful service." The sura given, he says, referring to the state of the currency, " is in reality but two ¦ hundred and fifty pounds." He wished but to be supported with dignity. " I think I raay say, without rauch vanity, I have deserved it." In the next year he received the norainal sura of ms. six hundred pounds. But the depreciation ^'^' *" of the notes in which payraents were made was an oppressive and a continually growing evil. The governor had lately called attention to it again, but all in vain. The subject had become one of mutual irritation between '^^ him and the Representatives. That body, as one of its financial expedients, iraposed a duty of one 374 ADMINISTRATION OF SHUTE. per cent on the value of goods imported from England. The governor, appealing to his instruc tions, refused his consent to the bill, on the ground of its being in violation of the chartei* provision, which forbade the Court to make laws contrary to the laws of England. In a vote 1719. which followed, the House was so bold as junei9. .J.Q express a doubt whether " his Majesty's instruction to his Excellency the governor was entirely agreeable to the liberties and privUeges granted in the royal charter." This alarraed the CouncU, who requested that the clause might be stricken out The Representatives refused, and presently after expressed their indignation by a ' vote in which they called the CouncU " the Upper House," — a name which did not belong to it, and against the use of which the Council protested. At a special meeting of the Court the November. . , i , ., governor communicated to them an ex tract from a letter of the Lords Justices of Eng land, — the King being now upon the Continent, — threatening thera with the loss of their charter for presuming to lay a tax on English goods and merchandise. And he told them that the Board of Trade desired thera to take measures for a strict inspection of pitch and tar, for the protec tion of the King's masts, for respectful treatraent of the surveyor-general of the woods, and for preventing the unlawful exportation of ship- tiraber to Spain, with which country England was now at war. The House refused to strike IMPOST ON ENGLISH GOODS. 375 out the provision for a duty on Enghsh raerchan dise from their bill "for making and eraitting one hundred thousand pounds in bills of credit on the province," and so prevented that assent of the governor which was necessary to its becoraing a law. The governor repeatedly requested, and the House repeatedly refused, the withholding from the press of an " additional answer to his speech," relating to a charge made against the provincial government by the Lords Coraraission ers of having " hindered the surveyor-general of the lands in the execution of his office." He declared that, having " the power of the press," he would prevent the publication which they designed. But the attorney-general advised hira that there was no law investing hira with that authority. He could not maintain the pretension ; and the liberty of printing was thenceforward established in Massachusetts. CHAPTER II. ADMINISTRATION OF SHUTE, CONTINUED. Three years of more and more angry fencing had brought the governor and the people of Mas sachusetts into an attitude of obstinate antago nism to one another; and whether or not it should prove that a perraanent system had been marked out for opposition between the colony and the crown, at all events it seeraed probable that between the colony and the present governor there could no more be genuine good-will. The Ministry had now no iraportant special object in view; but they wanted to exercise and extend their power. The people had no important special object in view; but they wanted to ob struct and defeat the governor and his masters, and to keep and accumulate as much power as possible in their own hands. Since self-govern ment, as it had been enjoyed under the covenants of the old charter, was no longer to be had, it was now their aira to secure as much self-govern ment as could any way be asserted under the provisions of the new charter, without encounter ing the risk of its being annulled, as the old had been, on the charge of a usurpation of powers not DISAGEEEMENTS WITH THE LEGISLATUEE. 377 granted by it. Whether a power obtained would be for the present beneficial or fruitless was not, practically, a final question. If not effective at present, occasion raight corae for it to be reduced to sorae useful application. And a corresponding apprehension was as naturally entertained on the other side. Nothing iraraediately depended on the question whether the Houses of Legislature or the governor should appoint a Fast, or on the higher sounding question whether the Repre sentatives' choice of their • Speaker should be subject to the governor's approval. But such pre tensions on the part of the Representatives were regarded by the governor as " continual encroach ments on the few prerogatives left to the crown." And the Board of Trade, to whom he told his story, thought " it was apparent frora recent trans actions, that the inhabitants were endeavoring to wrest the sraall remains of power out of the hands of the crow^n, and to becorae independent of the mother-country." After the death of Elisha Cooke, the antago nist of Mather and of Dudley, his pohcy was prosecuted by his son, who succeeded to his great popularity. The gentleman who had 'been Speaker of the House in the last years, John Burrill of Lynn, had been much esteemed in that capacity. But, as the temper in which the Representatives now were required a j^go. bolder leadership, he was promoted to the ^'^^' Council, and Cooke was elected to fill his place. 378 ADMINISTEATION OF SHUTE. The transactions which followed illustrate the unfriendly relation between the parties. A coraraittee of the Representatives went to the governor's house and inforraed hira of their choice. According to their report, he said, "Very well," and they took their leave. The sarae afternoon he carae to the Council Charaber, and inforraed the Representatives by a message that he was now ready to hear from them respecting the choice of a Speaker. They replied that he had already been acquainted with it, and that his answer had been recorded in their journal ; and they proceeded to desire the Council, as usual, to go into convention with thera for the choice of counsellors for the coraing year. The governor said that no such convention could be held before he was inforraed how" the House was organized. The Representatives sent up a coraraittee to ^coraraunicate that inforraation anew. The gov ernor refused to approve Mr. Cooke, and desired thera to proceed to another choice. This they declined to do, and renewed the proposal to the Council to go into an election of counsellors. A doubt whether, by the charter provision, this election could be legally raade on any subsequent day, induced the governor to desist from opposi-' tion to the choice of a Speaker, after acquainting the House by a message that the power he claimed was conferred by the English Constitu tion and by the charter, and, as he was told, had been exercised by Governor Dudley. An elec- DISAGEEEMENTS WITH THE LEGISLATUEE. 379 tion was accordingly made of counsellors, of whom he rejected two. This done, he sent a message to the House, urging his competency to prevent the elevation of Cooke, who had invaded the royal rights in the woods of Maine, and from whora, personally, he had received ill treatraent. He advised thera to choose another Speaker, with a reservation of their asserted right till the author ities in England should be consulted. Without a dissenting voice they refused to do so, and he iraraediately dissolved the Court, and issued writs for another to meet in six weeks. It was com posed of nearly the sarae raembers as the last. But, as another dissolution would have much em barrassed the public business, the House did not persist in a re-election of Cooke, "^ but contented itself for the present with remon strance and protest as having acted under duress. Their surly session lasted only ten days. They denied the governor's request for a sraall sum of money to gratify the Penobscot Indians. They set up a new claira to choose notaries-public, without the concurrence of the Council. They refused the money to pay for the customary cele bration of pubhc holidays, 'such as the anniversary of the King's birthday. After an unusual delay, they made a grant to the governor of five hun dred pounds, in the depreciated currency, for a half-year's corapensation, instead of the six hun dred pounds which had been their usual allow ance. To the lieutenant-governor, instead of the 380 ADMINISTEATION OF SHUTE. accustomed fifty pounds or more, they voted thirty- five pounds, which he refused to receive, at the sarae tirae inforraing them that his office had cost hira more than fifty pounds a year. Their whole legislation seemed but an expression of their dissatisfaction and ill-will. The most favorable interpretation to be put on it is, that they de signed to show that they had power to make terras for themselves by obstructing and retali ating. The matter of the reservation of pine-trees for masts and spars for the royal navy was a standing subject of contention. The House maintained that, though, by the charter, trees fit for this use, while standing upon land which had not become private property at the date of that instrument, belonged to the King, yet, after they had been felled, the property in the timber reverted to the occupant of the land. And Cooke persisted in his argument that the whole claira was wrongful, Massachusetts having bought Maine of Gorges, free from any such encumbrance. The House raised a coraraittee to seize for the use of the province such tiraber as had been cut under the coramissioner's hcense, aUeging that it had not been devoted to the King's use, but had been converted by that officer to his own profit. Bridger had at the same time lost the confidence of his English masters. One Burniston, appointed to succeed him, sent John Arrastrong to New England as his deputy; a THE PROVINCE OF NOVA SCOTIA. 381 man, writes the angry ex-official, who was 1719. " bred a kind of clerk to a country attorney •'™»i3. in Curaberland, or that way. He knows not an oak frora a pine, nor one pine from another." Bridger thought it hard treatment to be displaced, when, as he wrote to the Lords of Trade, he had been nearly twenty-five years in office, and 1721. when he had "made the first tar, and *"^'"^i°- sowed and cured the first herap, that ever was made or raised in New England fit for the service of the navy." At this time Nova Scotia received a perraanent organization as a British province. It had been ceded to France by the Treaty of Breda, and subsequently was occupied to some extent by a French population. Having, a year 1090. after the Revolution, been successfully in- ^'^y^- vaded by a Massachusetts force under Sir 1692 William Phipps, it was presently included in that province by the charter of William and Mary. The petition of Massachusetts to the crown, praying it to garrison Port Royal, must be interpi-eted as expressive of a desire to be rid of a possession which was merely a burden and a charge. In the sarae year, by the Treaty of Ryswick, Nova Scotia was again handed back to France. The surrender to Governor Nicholson gave it once more to Great Britain, of "which it has since remained a per manent possession, being confirmed as 1713. such by an article ofthe Treaty of Utrecht *»"'"• 382 ADMINISTRATION OF SHUTE. 1714. Nicholson, placed in the charge of it after Vetch, administered it as simply a mihtary gov ernment Colonel PhiUips, who succeeded 1719 him at the end of five years, was instructed to surround hiraself with a Council, to be selected from among the principal English inhabitants. 1718, An officer, sent by Governor Shute to November, .^j^jjj the Frcuch from fishing in the Nova Scotia waters, captured two French vessels, "took what fish he found on shore, and pulled down their huts." The Board of Trade reported to King George the First : " Although Nova Scotia is expressly included in this charter [the provincial charter of Massachusetts], yet the sarae being, at the time the charter was granted, in possession of the French by virtue of the Treaty of Breda, this part of the grant has always been esteemed of no effect, and the people of New England do not pretend any right there unto." The charter of Massachusetts vested in the governor the power of adjourning, as well as of summoning and dissolving, the General Court The Representatives, wishing to be at their homes to keep a Fast day, desired the governor to ad journ them for that purpose. He refused, irapor tant business being under consideration ; and they adjourned theraselves for six days. When they carae back, he insisted upon an avowal of their, fault before they should resurae the session, which they accordingly made. DISAGEEEMENTS WITH THE EEPEESENTATIVES. 383 so far as to allow that they should have inforraed hira of their intention ; but at the sarae tirae they atterapted a distinction between his power by the charter to adjourn the General Court and their assumed right to adjourn their own House. This did not satisfy the governor, as indeed there was no reason why it should, and after rebuking them he dissolved the Court "^' When it raet again, the sraall-pox was raging in Boston. The House voted to transfer the session to Carabridge. The governor replied, that, while he had no objection to that arrangeraent, it was within his official discretion, and to request him to make it was the proper method of proceeding. The House rejoined, that by law Boston was the place for meetings of the General Court, and that the law could be suspended only by a joint act of governor. Council, and Representatives. Both parties persisted. Notwithstanding the danger in Boston, the House refused to ask the governor's permission to go to Carabridge. They again expressed their resentraent by voting him for half a year's service the sum of five hundred pounds in paper, which was now worth little more than one half of the nominal sum. The House iraagined that frauds had been practised in the rauster-rolls which were presented when the pay of soldiers was to be voted; and they proposed to inspect the garrisons by a cora raittee of their own, before whora the coraraand ers should be obliged to parade their men. The 384 ADMINISTEATION OF SHUTE. governor refused to consent to this interference with his railitary authority. In reply to a renewal of his application for a fixed sal ary, the House said that " they hurably conceived what was granted hira was an honorable allow ance, and the affair of settling salaries being a matter of great weight and wholly new to the House, and many of the members absent, they did not think it proper to enter into the consider ation of it, but desired the Court might rise." To another of his recommendations, that they should adopt sorae expedient to keep up the credit of their bUls, they replied that " they had passed a bill for issuing one hundred thousand pounds more in bills of credit"; the surest way possible io increase the depreciation which he lamented, notwithstanding -the always illusory measure, which at the same time they had taken, of pro hibiting " the buying, selling, and bartering silver at any higher rates than set by Act of Parliament." Shute wrote home that the Assembly went "^ so far as to disavow all responsibility to the Board of Trade. The innocent College shared in the trouble resulting from this long series of altercations. The stricter Calvinists of the period, counte nanced by the aged ex-President Mather, and stimulated by his disappointed and angry son, had all along viewed with displeasure the adrain istration of the College by President Leverett. The struggle as to which influence should prevail HARVARD COLLEGE. 385 had for the present been determined, about the tirae of Shute's arrival, by the election into the CoUege Corporation of Benjamin Col man, minister of the church in Brattle Square, Boston, and his friend Nathaniel Appleton, min ister of Cambridge, both of whom sympathized with President Leverett, and with the less rigor ous sectarian methods of the tirae, while the prevailing sentiment in the House of Representa tives was very decidedly the other way. The better qualities of Shute's character led hira to take a friendly interest in the College ; and to Colman, who, after the President, was the leading spirit of its governraent, he was naturally attracted by the exceUent qualities of that distinguished divine, whora, in cultivation and raanners, he found to be a fair representative of the class of dissenters to whose society he had been used in England, and of sorae of whora Colman was a personal friend and correspondent. Two tutors of the College had set up a claim to be raerabers of the Corporation, on the ground that it was the sense and intention of the charter that resident instructors, being not more than five in number, should be merabers of that body. The House of Representatives passed a vote sus taining this construction. The Council 1722. concurred in the vote, but the governor '"'"'• would give only a conditional approval. " I con sent," he said, " provided the Reverend Mr. Benja- rain Wadsworth and the Reverend Mr. Benjamin 25 386 ADMINISTRATION OF SHUTE. Colraan and the Reverend Mr. Appleton are not reraoved by said orders, but still reraain Fellows of the Corporation." The House sent up their vote again, with a raessage " to desire his Excel lency to pass absolutely thereupon, according to the constant usage and practice ever since the present happy constitution." The governor said that his decision was not to be changed ; and another appeal from the House failed to raove hira. It was happy for the CoUege that, before the hottest of the disputed between hira and the Representatives began, he had ob tained frora them the money to erect at Cam bridge an expensive building, which, under the narae of Massachusetts HaU, coraraeraorates their liberality to this day. Shute's reputation for military spirit and ex perience constituted his best means of influence with the people of his governraent. The conflict with the Indians of Maine, which had had few interraissions since the tirae of Philip's War, had been no raore than suspended by the pacification at Utrecht. The French of Canada could no longer openly counsel or assist the barbarities of their Indian friends, but in secret they were scarcely less busy than before. On a bend of the river Kennebec, a few railes above the present town of Augusta, the Jesuit priest, Sebastian Rasle, had collected a corapany of Indian converts, and erected a chapel and some cabins. The place still bears its ancient THE JESUIT RASLE. 387 name of Norridgewock. Rasle was a capable and accoraplished man, and resolute and self- sacrificing in his bigotry. At the age of thirty-two he had established a mission for the Abenaquis in the neighborhood of Quebec. Thence, after two or three years, he followed the steps of Marquette and other explorers to the upper lakes and the river Illinois. From this experience, which lasted about as much longer, he was recalled by his superiors to be stationed at Norridgewock, on the extreme western border of the country claimed by the French under their interpretation of the narae Acadie. There, before and during the war in Queen Anne's reign, he confirraed and extended his authority over the Indians, under instructions from the governors and ecclesiastics at Quebec. The nature of his labors was not misunderstood in- Boston ; and, in his absence. Colonel Hilton, sent by Dudley on a winter's expedition against the hostile tribes, burned his chapel and other buildings to the ground. In no wise discouraged, he hastened," after the Treaty of Utrecht, to restore the chapel, and returned with new vigor to his troublesorae operations. Shute, in the next sumraer after his arrival at Boston, invited the eastern tribes to a conference at Arrowsick Island on the Kennebec. Rasle was understood to have accorapanied the chiefs, but he kept himself out of sight. Shute, 1717, giving the sachems an Enghsh flag, and a ^"s- ^- 388 ADMINISTRATION OF SHUTE. Bible in the Enghsh with another in the native language, reminded them that they were subjects of the King of England, and offered them the services of one of his corapanions, the Reverend Mr. Baxter, to teach thera the English religion, and the services of a schoolmaster to instruct their chUdren. He assured thera of just treat ment from the English, and of favorable atten tion to any complaints they might frora tirae to tirae have to raake. They desired to defer their answer to the next day, and then repUed, that they had no objection to being King George's subjects if they were not molested in the occupa tion of their lands, but that they were " not capa ble to make any judgment about religion," and were attached to their present teachers. As to their lands, they said that they claimed none on the west side of the Kennebec, but " were sure they had sold none on the east side " ; and they produced a letter frora Rasle, in which he affirmed Ihat he had it frora Vaudreuil that the King of France had assured hira that he had not ceded any country east of the Kennebec to the English, but, on the contrary, would maintain the "^' ' Indian right to it. At this Governor Shute took offence, and was about to break up the con ference, when the Indians, alarraed, begged for another interview. The result was that the 1713. treaty made four years before with Dudley •'"'''• at Portsmouth was renewed, with its stipu lations that the natives should demean themselves NEW THREATS OF INDIAN HOSTILITY. 389 as faithful subjects of the crown of Great Britain, and that the English might without raolestation reoccupy their forraer settleraents. A year and a half had passed, when 1719. some threatening demonstrations on the M"™'' im part of the eastern savages caused the gov ernor to convene the General Court The ^° Court immediately ordered the raisingof a cora pany for service against the tribes, and the gov ernor was able to report that the movement was queUed without bloodshed. The next "'^ year there was another alarm. The Indians 1720. surprised some English at Canso, in Nova •*"^" '¦ Scotia, killing three or four and robbing the rest. Further disorders followed in the same quarter, oc casioning a destruction of property to the amount, as was said, of not less than twenty thousand pounds ; and the French governor at Louisburg, to whom application was made, declined to in terfere. Shute, hoping that a general war might be avoided, instructed the commander of the troops in Maine to propose a conference. The Indians agreed. But the Representatives in the General Court preferred a different way of pro ceeding. They passed a resolve for send ing a force of a hundred and fifty men to Norridgewock, to deraand of the Indians there and thereabouts " full satisfaction for the damage they had done the English," and if they should refuse to give up Father Rasle to be brought to Boston, then to bring thither a sufficient number 390 ADMINISTRATION OF SHUTE. of them to be pledges for his surrender. The governor disapproved this raeasure, both because he was averse to a new war, especially in the existing state of the finances, and because he considered the railitary adrainistration as belong ing to his own prerogative.. The dissension thus originated bet;ween hira and the Representatives proved to be the raost irreconcilable of all. The old chief of the Norridgewock Indians died, and a person less unfriendly to the Enghsh becarae hjs successor. Under his auspices, hostages for the quiet behavior of the tribe were sent to Boston. Rasle, and his friends at Quebec, were disturbed and displeased at this proceeding. 1721. The governor, Vaudreuil, wrote to Rasle juneis. jjj terras of extrerae dissatisfaction. He said that he had prevaUed upon the natives in the vicinity of Quebec to send raessengers to inforra the English that if they continued their encroach- raents they would not have to deal with the Nor- ridgewocks alone, and that another Jesuit father was despatched to encourage that tribe to behave with firraness, and to engage the Penobscot Indians in an alhance with thera. And ' the Intendant-General of Canada (Bygon) wrote that the authorities there were waiting orders frora the King as to whether they should give open assistance to the savages, or only con tinue to supply thetn. with aramunition, as already they were freely doing. Your Indians, ^^ ¦ ' wrote Vaudreuil to Rasle, " if they have EXPEDITION TO NORRIDGEWOCK. 391 taken a sincere resolution not to suffer the Eng hsh on their land, ought not to defer chasing thera out as soon as possible. Your people ought not to fear the want of aramunition, since I send them a sufficiency." But the English had not the inforraation con tained in these letters, which fell into their hands at a later tirae. Whether other trustworthy in telligence carae to Massachusetts of the French intrigues and the Indian ill-teraper, or whether only an indefinite suspicion was entertained, the General Court considered energetic raeas ures to be necessary. They renewed a vote that a force, now to consist of " three hun dred raen, should be sent to the head-quarters of the Indians," to require the surrender of "the Jesuits and the other heads and promoters of their rebellion," and " satisfaction for the damage they had done " ; in default of which sorae of their principal raen, "together with Rasle or any other Jesuit," were to be seized and sent to Boston. The governor, though he gave his consent to this measure, which was taken just before the Court adjourned, delayed to carry it into effect. This was new cause of offence. At the next session the House again pressed the sub ject, and the governor despatched a party to Norridgewock under the comraand of Colonel Westbrooke. The advance of these troops was watched by two of Rasle's Indians, who gave notice in season for hira to escape. Among his 392 ADMINISTRATION OF SHUTE. papers, of which the English possessed theraselves, were the letters which have just been quoted. Another person, of consequence in these hostili ties, fell into the hands of the English. The young Baron de St. Castine was on the Kennebec when they carae thither, — it was naturally supposed for no good purpose. He was brought to Boston, where he was examined by a coraraittee of the Court Whether he was honest, or they were credulous, or distrustful of the good judgraent of pushing matters to extremity, he succeeded in satisfying them that his design in coraing araong the Ken nebec Indians was to persuade them to peace, and he was accordingly discharged. Shute wrote to Vaudreuil : " I suppose Mr. Rasle, w"ho has been the great incendiary in all this affair, has acquainted you with his narrow escape. He will do well to take warning by it, and return to his own country." And again : " Nor- "^^ ' ridgewock is within the territory of his Majesty King George, and it is contrary to an Act of Parliament of Great Britain, and a law of this province, for a Jesuit or Roraish priest to preach or even reside in any part of the British dorainions." There was to be further proof of the necessity of vigorous raeasures of protection against these 1722. unreasoning and inconstant saVages and June. i;heir crafty and indefatigable prompters. Sixty warriors came into Merrimeeting Bay on the Kennebec, and carried away prisoners to be ALTERCATIONS WITH THE EEPEESENTATIVES. 393 security for their own hostages still detained at Boston. Three fishing-sloops were attacked in as many eastern harbors, several prisoners "w^ere carried off, and one vessel was burned. Next camef intelligence of the burning of the town of Brunswick by the savages, and a letter was received from the governor of New France, in which, as Shute informed the Lords of Trade, " he openly declared that he had and would assist the Indians, and that he had orders from the court of France so to do." There was no pos sibility of further forbearance. War was pro claimed, at a juncture' raost unfortunate by reason of the mutual jealousies between the governor and the House. The governor, when he convoked the Court to raake the necessary preparations, said : " One thing I would particu larly reraark to you, which is, that if my hands and the Council's be not left at a much greater liberty than of late they have been, I fear our affairs will be carried on with little or no spirit." A committee of the Court reported a liberal plan for enlistments, pay, and supphes, but they proceeded to lay out a detailed project for the disposition of the troops and the conduct of the campaign. The governor replied, to the effect that he, by the charter and the King's coraraission, was commander-in-chief, and that he was bound to be governed by his own judgment as to railitary moveraents. The House passed a vote request ing him to discharge Major Moody, who was in 394 ADMINISTEATION OF SHUTE. command on the eastern frontier. The governor replied that an officer was not to be displaced without reason shown. He asked for the enact ment of a law to ptinish mutiny and desertion. The House proposed first to inquire whether the frequency of these offences was not occasioned by reasonable dissatisfaction with the comraand ing officers ; and it raised committees to visit the forces, and make investigation on the spot When sorae delegates frora the Iroquois, whose good offices it was hoped to engage against the eastern Indians, came to Boston by invitation, the House voted to have the governor's speech to them pre pared by a committee of the Court ; and he finally yielded to their demand that he should adopt the novel method of addressing the Indians in the name of the Court, and not in his own, as official head of the province. These are but specimens of the perpetual jarring at this tirae between the executive and legislative powers. Consenting to the wishes of the House, the governor had directed an advance of troops to wards the Penobscot, and they were already on their march when an alarra on the Kennebec caused thera to be recalled by the officer who commanded in that quarter. The occasion jus tified that measure. Four or five hundred savages attacked Arrowsick Island, near the mouth of the Kennebec, in what is now Georgetown, where was a fort The assault was unsuccessful, and, after slaughtering the cattle without the fort, and CONTINUED ALTEECATIONS. 395 sacking and burning twenty-six houses, they with drew to refresh theraselves at Norridgewock. The House judged that a disingenuous use had been raade of the alarra thus occasioned, and that the alleged necessity for counterraanding the east ward raoveraent of the troops was a subterfuge to evade the execution of their wishes; and they desired the governor to send an express mes senger to the coraraander. Colonel Walton, with orders to hira "to appear forthwith before the House to render his reasons why the orders re lating to the expedition had not been executed." The governor said to the committee who brought hira this vote, that it was expressed in such Nov 19 terras as forbade hira to take notice of it. The House replied by another message, inquiring whether he intended to send for Walton, as they had desired. He told the House's cora raittee that he should take his own tirae to answer this question. The House came to a vote, that this conduct of his "extreraely discouraged them in projecting any further schemes for carrying on the war " ; and, " with the greatest sincerity and concern for their country's good," they repeated their request for the recall of Colonel Walton. When a copy of this vote was offered to the governor, he refused to receive it, and, as the Jour nal of the House records, " went his way " ; and when another committee, consisting of the Speaker and some other dignified persons, was sent to him, he refused to admit thera to his presence. 396 ADMINISTEATION OF SHUTE. The House, as intent as ever on their main purpose, but finding that they were not prosper ing in this peremptory invasion of the governor's military prerogative, approached him next with a vote " that his Excellency the governor be desired to express Colonel Walton that he forthwith repair to Boston, and when he hath attended upon his ExceUency that he would please to direct him to wait on this House, that they may exaraine him concerning his late conduct in pros ecuting the war." The governor, who was wUling to be conciliated, the rather as he might suspect hiraself of sorae appear£(.nce of passion in the last transactions,, sent for Walton, and inforraed the House that he had done so. They followed up their advantage by a vote to rais.e a committee, to consist of four counsellors and seven representatives, to have, in eff(2ct, the man agement of the war during the recess of the Court. This proposal was so extravagant, that it was rejected by a unanimous vote of the Council. The coraraittee which the House had sent to the eastern carap returned. Agreeably to the request of the House, the governor had sent to the coraraander an order for their respectful re ception ; but, in his recognition of their mission, he expressed his expectation " that they would lay first before hira their report as Captain- General, and afterwards, upon the desire of the House of Representatives, it shall be laid before thera." The coraraittee, however, on their CONTINUED ALTERCATIONS. 397 return, reported directly to the House. Being informed of this, the governor sent to the House to ask for the original of his order, which was in the coraraittee's hands. The House, disinclined to part with what might be used as evidence against themselves, would take no step to reclaim it The governor then demanded it of the chair man of the committee ; but the chairman said he was instructed by the House not to let it go out of his hands. On Walton's arrival in Boston, the House de sired the governor to order him to appear iraraediately before thera. The governor replied, that, if his subordinate was to undergo any legislative exaraination, it must be before the whole Court, and not before one branch of it The House then sent its messenger to Walton, to comraand his presence. He came, accordingly, but declared that he had nothing to say without the governor's commands. The governor ordered him to present himself before the whole Court, and sent a message to the Representatives, that, on his appearance in that position, they should have opportunity to interrogate hira. The next day he informed them by another raessage that Walton was then before the Council, with his journal, and subject to any exaraination which the House might wish to institute. But the Representatives declined the invitation, and insisted on their priv ilege of taking cognizance, in their sole capacity, of the conduct of all persons in the public service and pay. 398 ADMINISTRATION OF SHUTE. The governor had, some time before, privately 1720. obtained permission to go to England, os- "'"'y*- tensibly "to settle some private affairs." By this time all hope of amicable relations be tween him and the local authorities seeraed to be at an end, at least until the questions which had arisen between them should be settled by an au thority superior to both; and nothing could be more disa.greeable to a person of his disposition than the social relations into which circumstances 1722. had brought him. Unknown to any one. Dee. 27. except two or three servants, he went on board of a man-of-war, which lay at Nantasket bound to the West Indies, intending to take another passage thence for England. But while he was detained a few days by bad weather, a 1723. merchant-vessel came down from the town, .Ian. 1. jjj .^hich he sailed direct for London. In the year before" Shute's departure from his government, the Board of Trade made an elabo rate report to the King, describing the condition of his several dependencies in America. As to the province of Massachusetts, they represented that it had a militia force consisting of sixteen thousand men ; that within its limits were about twelve hundred converted Indians ; that of " pro ducts proper for the consumption of Great Britain," it had " tiraber, turpentine, tar and pitch, raasts, pipes, and hogshead staves, whale fins and oil, and some furs"; that it had a trade to "the foreign plantations in Araerica, consisting chiefly in the CONDITION OF MASSACHUSETTS. 399 exportation of horses to Surinam and to Martinico and the other French islands," whence carae in return sugar, molasses, and rum, which was " a • very great discouragement to the sugar-planters in the British islands " ; that the people had " all sorts of coraraon raanufactures," spinning and weaving " their own wool into coarse cloths, drug gets and serges," besides raaking " horaespun linen, which was generally half cotton " ; but that " the branch of trade which was of the greatest iraportance to thera, and which they were best enabled to carry on, was the buUding of ships, sloops, etc." ; that about a hundred and fifty vessels were built in a year, raeasuring six thou sand tons ; that raost of these were built for sale abroad, but thaf, there belonged to the province " about a hundred and ninety sail, which raight contain six thousand tons, and were navigated with about eleven hundred raen, besides a hun dred and fifty boats, with six hundred men, era- ployed in the fisheries on their own coast." " The certain annual charge of the government was • about eleven thousand pounds " over and above " what was applied for discharging their former debts." The Board of Trade found that the province " on all occasions affected too great an independence , , on the mother kingdom." They represented that "the charter governments would be more effec tively restrained if they were all of thera under his Majesty's iraraediate governraent, and were 400 ADMINISTRATION OF SHUTE. by proper laws compeUed to follow the commands sent thera by his Majesty " ; and they recora raended proceedings " to put the whole under the government of one Lord-Lieutenant, or Captain- General, from whom other governors of particu lar provinces should receive their orders in all cases for the King's service. By this raeans," they added, " a general contribution of raen or money may be raised upon the several colonies in pro portion to their respective abilities." To projec tors capable of conceiving such a sqheme the counsellors of King George were disinclined to commit the administration of the colonies of Eng land; and the historian Chalmers thought them blameworthy for this want of confidence. CHAPTER III. ADMINISTRATION OF LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR DUMMER. The heutenant-governor, William Duraraer, was a man of integrity, moderation, and good sense. In an unirapassioned way he had generally given his support to the governor ; and, when the House on that account forbore for two or three years to raake hira the allowance heretofore never withheld frora the person holding his position, he had not betrayed any irapatient displeasure, though on one occasion he declined a grant of theirs which was so small that it might seem intended for an affront. In their long strife with the governor, the House had taken grounds which consistency obliged thera to raaintain, and their position of antago- nisra to the chief magistrate was not relinquished at Shute's departure. They appointed a com mittee, to be joined by a coraraittee of the Coun cil, to concert measures for the conduct of the war. The Council refused to concur in the raeas ure, continuing to regard it as an encroachment on the authority ofthe coraraander-in-chief. The House resolved that the war ought not to be pro- 26 402 LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR DUMMER. ceeded in, till Colonel Walton and Major Moody, the coraraanders, should be removed. Yielding to the storm, those officers proposed to the heuten ant-governor to resign, on receiving the arrears of their pay. The House was indisposed to grant them even this justice, and insisted on their un conditional disraission. The Council not acqui escing in so harsh a raeasure, the House carae to a resolve, — of whieh they sent a copy, not to the lieutenant-governor, but to the CouncU, — that, unless they were gratified, they should have to withdraw part of the troops in the field. The heutenant-governor sent thera word that the dis posal of the troops was a function of his office only, rebuking, at the sarae tirae, the disrespectful manner of their coraraunication. Upon this they withdrew their resolve, but adhered to their purpose, not only of withholding the pay of the obnoxious officers, but of refusing to vote further supplies till they should be superseded. The heutenant-governor subraitted to the mortifica tion, which seemed unavoidable unless he could take the responsibility of leaving the province undefended. When he had appointed Thomas Westbrooke to be coraraander in Walton's place, the House proceeded with alacrity in raaking arrangeraents for the prosecution of the war. What had helped to disarra the governor was a practice which had grown up of making payments from the treasury on the authority of a vote of the House after CONTINUED RECUSANCY OF THE HOUSE. 403 services had been perforraed, even if the services had been directed by a previous vote ; whereas by the charter the warrant of the governor, drawn with the advice and cbnsent of the Council, was a sufficient voucher to the treasurer. The prac tice which the House had succeeded in establish ing afforded thera the opportunity of passing judgraent on the manner in which their directions had been executed ; a judgment which was at the same time liable to be biassed by prejudice and passion, and to be expressed in offensive criticism of the conduct of the executive. Walton accord ingly remained unpaid, because he had obeyed the governor's orders in disregard of those of the Representatives. The next House did not coraraunicate 1723. to the lieutenant-governor its choice' of a *'''^" Speaker. It clairaed to be consulted respecting the raanagement of the war and respecting any negotiation for peace. It proposed, but, as before, without gaining the assent of the Council, to raise a joint coraraittee of "war to act during the recess of the Court. The lieutenant-governor had hoped to engage the assistance of the Six Nations, the accession of the Tuscarora fugitives frora Carolina having lately increased the con federated Iroquois nations to that number; and raore than sixty representatives of those tribes carae to Boston for a conference. But nothing could be obtained frora thera beyond a permission to such of their warriors as might so 404 LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR DUMMER. incline to enter the English service. They said, truly enough, that the war in the eastern country was no affair of theirs. The occasion furnished the House with another topic of complaint. They found fault with the heutenant-governor for affixing his private seal to a present made to the Indian delegation, and ordered that an impression of the province seal should be substituted for it ; and, when desired by the Council to withdraw the offensive vote, they not only did not consent to do so, but went on to resolve that the lieutenant- governor's proceeding had been an affront to thera, and that they expected to be inforraed who it was that had ventured to advise it The lieu tenant-governor contented hiraself with silence. But the necessity of uniting all resources and energies for the common defence suspended do mestic faction. It would be unprofitable to relate in detail the miseries which foUowed. Indian warfare was always the sarae. The long frontier could not fail to lie exposed to brutal savages, who issued frora their woods at their own choice of season, weather, and hour, and with a good knowledge of the dooraed English homes where they had received hospitality, and of the refuges to which they might make their cowardly retreat as soon as their work of butchery and ruin was done. There could be no quiet sleep in a border settlement, unless it was at the same time a garrison. The wretchedness of constant apprehension was universal, when no one could RENEWAL OF INDIAN HOSTILITIES. 405 guess better than another where the next sudden blow would be struck. And to whatsoever place the remorseless enemy did corae in sufficient strength, that place was sure to be ravaged and burned, and its inhabitants to, share araong thera the woes of captivity, widowhood, orphanage, and death in all its forms of agony. Father Rasle sat in his chapelry at Norridgewock, and, himself directed by his ecclesiastical and lay superiors at Quebec, kept the tribes in motion against the viUages of Massachusetts. The St FraiiQois Indians came down from the banks of the St Lawrence. The Penobscot Indians raoved westward towards the English settlements. The Indfans farther east undertook to deal with the Massachusetts fishermen resort ing to Nova Scotia. One of Dumraer's first acts had been to despatch Westbrooke to the Penobscot with two hundred and thirty ^ "^^^' men. He went up the river to an Indian fort, believed to have been at what is now Old- town, above Bangor. Within the fort, which was now deserted, was a "chapel, in compass sixty feet by thirty, handsomely and well finished, both within and on the outside. A httle further south was the dwelling-house of the priest, which was very coraraodious." The troops burned the buildings and withdrew. Another expe dition, directed against Norridgewock, had less success. The winter had been warra, and copious rains had so saturated the land that the 406 LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR DUMMEE. march was difficult. Inhere was an epidemic sickness in the camp ; and under these discourage ments the undertaking had to be abandoned. With the advancing season, the war raoved westward. Murders were perpetrated successively April- at Falmouth, Berwick, Wells, York, Scar- August, borough, Saco, and Dover, and at the dis- Aug. 13. tant western viUage of Northfield, which Oct. 11. in the summer and autumn was twice attacked, with a loss, however, in the two inva sions, of only six or seven raen. Sixty Deo. 25. X J- 1 <• , Indians made an unsuccessful attempt upon a little English fortification at Mascougas, on the St. George. Captain Moulton was sent in search of Rasle to Norridgewock. He reached the place, but found it deserted. He brought away some books and papers, but, willing perhaps at the unfavorable season to invite good treatment by showing it, he left the buildings unharmed. In "the early part of the foUowing year there was little to diversify the familiar record of depredations on exposed outposts. In the settleraents of Maine, during the spring, raore than thirty persons were killed, badly wounded, or carried into captivity ; and at this tirae, as well as during the foUowing suraraer, sorae raurders were coraraitted at the settleraents on the Merri mack and the Connecticut. Fort Duraraer, in what is now Brattleborough, Verraont, was built this suramer, at a point more northerly than had hitherto been occupied on Connecticut River. EXPEDITION TO NORRIDGEWOCK. 407 Captain Josiah Winslow, a young man only three years out of college, grandson of Josiah, and great- grandson of Edward, governors of Plyraouth, was in command of the fort on the St George. He was attacked while outside of the walls with thirteen of his company, and every °'^ one of them was killed. The Indians seized and manned several fishing-vessels, with which they cruised with sorae success, killing, it is said, raore than twenty men employed in the coasters, and making prisoners of a larger nuraber. They Mayia. committed depredations at Kingston and June 2. Chester. At Dover they killed the children of a Quaker faraily, and carried away the older persons, while the head of the household "^' was attending a raeeting for worship. At Oxford sorae of them attempted to enter a house where a woman was alone; but she was ^"s. 3. provided with two rauskets and two pistols ; she shot one of the assailants, and the rest hastily raade off. The nuisance was intolerable. It had to be abated at its source. From Fort Richmond, on the lower waters of the Kennebec, two hundred men, under Captain Moulton and Captain Har man, were despatched to Norridgewock. Ijcaving their boats on the river, at the distance of one or two days' march below that place, they came near to it without being observed. "^' As it was the middle of the day, and it was thought that some of the Indians might be in 408 LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR DUM5IER. their cornfields, the troops were distributed into two parties, one to proceed directly into the vil lage, the other to intercept such as should attempt to return. Moulton, who led the forraer party, saw no one stirring as he entered the hamlet, at about three hours after noon. The men, who marched in silence, were already araong the wig wams, when an Indian came out of one of them and gave the alarra. The old raen, woraen, and children fled. The warriors, sixty in number, tried to make a stand. The Enghsh, according to their orders, held, their fire till the Indians had discharged their guns in a hurried and harm less volley. The EngUsh then fired with fatal effect. After a second discharge of their pieces, the Indians fled to the river, which was there about sixty feet wide, and at the time some six feet deep. After shooting some fugitives, as they paddled or swam across, the English re turned to the town. Orders had been given to spare Rasle, but a lieutenant burst in the door of his wigwam, and shot hira dead. He said, for his justification, that Rasle came on loading and firing, and refused to accept quarter. Harman declared, under oath, that during the action the priest stabbed and shot an Enghsh boy, who had been brought to hira as a prisoner An Indian village afforded but little plunder. The plate of the chapel was brought away, and those properties which were not worth con veyance were destroyed. Harman's detachment EXPEDITION TO NORRIDGEWOCK. 409 came in, having found little service to do, and the party reraained together that night The next morning twenty-seven dead bodies of the eneray were counted, including that of Rasle. Boraa- zeen and Mogg, chiefs who had been of impor tance in the recent moveraents, were araong thera. When the return raarch had been begun, a friendly Indian was sent back to set fire to the church and the village. After an absence of only four days, the party, having suffered no loss, carae back to Fort Richraond. The pernicious Popish mission was not renewed, and we read scarcely anything more of the Norridgewocks in the his tory of the tribes. The story of this transaction has been told as it is recorded in the English journals of the time. The preposterous statement in the narrative of Father Charlevoix, that the invading force con sisted of eleven hundred raen, does not conciliate belief to the rest of his story. According to that account, the approach of the English was first made known by " a general discharge of their muskets, by which all the wigwams were pierced. There, were then only fifty warriors in the viUage. Father Rasle, informed by the shouts and turault of the danger of his converts, went boldly to present hirrfself to the assailants, in hopes to draw their attention upon hiraself, and so to pro tect his flock at the peril of his own life. His hope was not vain. No sooner was he seen than the English uttered a loud cry, followed by a 410 LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR DUMMER. volley of musketry. He fell dead near a cross which he had set up in the middle of the village. Seven Indians who were with him, and who wished to make a rampart for him with their bodies, were killed by his side The Eng hsh, seeing no more show of resistance, fell to plundering and burning thc cabins, not sparing the church, which they set on fire, after having desecrated the sacred vessel^ and the adorable body of Jesus Christ They then withdrew with a precipitancy hke flight, as if they had been smitten with a panic terror. The Indians imme diately returned to their village, where their first care, while the women were looking for herbs and plants for the cure of the wounded, was to weep over the body of their holy raissionary. They found it pierced with a thousand wounds, the scalp torn off, the skull broken by hatchets, and the raouth and eyes filled with mud, the legs broken, and all the members mutilated a hundred ways." As winter approached, which was the season of the most frequent devastations. Colonel West brooke, with three hundred men, scoured the coun try between the Kennebec and the Penobscot, but found no hostUe raoveraent. An attempt was made to arrange affairs through the 'French governor at Quebec. The General Court sent to him a coraraission of three persons to threaten that if he did not discontinue his intrigues in Maine, his countrymen in Nova Scotia should lovewell's fight. 411 pay the forfeit. He pretended ignorance of what had been going on, till his letters to Rasle, taken at Norridgewock, were produced. Whatever prisoners were held by the Indians, he said, were in no way subject to his disposal, but he agreed to a ransora for sorae sixteen persons who were in the hands of the French. To engage volunteers, the governraent had been in the habit, through these wars, of paying a bounty for Indian eneraies killed or raade captive. At this time the bounty for the' scalp-, which was the evidence of an In dian slain, was as high as a hundred pounds. One of the enterprising partisans whom patri otism or a less elevated motive enlisted was John Lovewell of Dunstable. He came to Boston for his money with a prisoner and a scalp, brought as far as frora the region of the White 1725. Mountains. By a solitary pond in what is '^¦"•S- now Fryeburg, next to Conway, sixty miles above Dover, he came with his party upon ten Indians asleep round a fire ; his raen kiUed thera all, and their scalps were brought to the treasurer at Boston. Lovewell trusted too rauch to the facilities of his hunting-ground. The eneray, too, was good at arabuscades. On a third expedition, in which he was accorapanied by thirty or forty raen, he reached a pond in the same neighborhood as before, where a single Indian appeared, standing upon a conspicuous point of land. The English, who had thrown off their packs, went round after hira along the shore. He 412 lieutenant-governor DUMMEE. kept his place till they came up and shot him, having fired before he fell, wounding Lovewell and one of his men. About eighty Indians, meanwhile, had placed themselves in ambush on the way by which the English were to return for their baggage. The English, suddenly attacked, retreated to the pond, where they kept up the fight for five or six hours till night carae on. Lovewell, with his two next officers and five others, fell. Sixteen of the company got off without harm. Eight, too rauch wounded to proceed, had to be left to their fate. The chap lain, Frye of Andover, was much comraended for his brave conduct The little lake which was the scene of the action is now called Lovell's Pond, and the narae of the town in which it lies coraraeraorates the valiant chaplain. The irresolute redmen had again become tired of the war, and the death of Rasle had relieved thera from the raischievous French influence. The Penobscots, who had always been the raost tractable of the eastern tribes, professed friendly dispositions. They sent a delegation to St. George's River, where they were raet by other Indians and by comraissioners from Boston; an agreeraent was raade for a tirae with a view to further negotiations ; and some Penobscot ^ chiefs carae to Boston, where they ratified this compact with the lieutenant-governor. A Nov. 16. treaty of peace was consequently arranged Deo. 15. in Boston, which was put into shape under pacification with the INDIANS. 413 the title of a " Submission and Agreeraent of the Delegates of the Eastern Indians, naraely, the Penobscot, Norridgewock, St. John, Cape Sables, and other tribes inhabiting within his Majesty's Territories of New England and Nova Scotia." Probably some doubt was entertained as to the authority of the Indian delegates to bind all these tribes. In the foUowing suraraer the chief 1726, raagistrates of Massachusetts and of Ne.w •'"ly^s. Harapshire carae to Falraouth to obtain a ratifi cation with circurastances of due soleranity. The- chiefs who appeared proposed the transfer of the conference to Pemaquid. But to this the governors would not consent; and at "^' length a ratification was obtained, as sufficient as the circurastances adraitted. It does not appear that any representatives of the Norridgewock tribe, or indeed of any tribe except the Penobscot, were parties to it. The treaty now made accoraplished its object better than earlier pacifications, not so rauch by virtue of any raore binding character in its pledges, or of any new provisions, as because the French influence was for the present in great part suspended, and because the prudence of Lieutenant-Governor Duraraer provided for the judicious raanageraent of the trading-houses, which he had engaged to keep up among the natives, and which, when well conducted, gave them important accoraraodation for their pur chases and sales. Two hundred Enghshmen are believed to have 414 LIEUTENANT-GOVEENOE' DUMMEE. been kiUed or carried off by the Indians during the four years of this war ; and the cost of it has been estiraated at two hundred and fifty thousand pounds. This large expense increased the long- existing financial difficulties, and renewed one chief occasion of dispute between the chief raagis- trate and the Representatives. A bill for the issue of notes of credit to the amount of fifty thousand pounds obtained the reluctant concur rence of the Council. The heutenant-governor laid before the Council the King's instruction to approve no such biU. They agreed with him that his approval must be withheld, and the measure fell through accordingly. The House used its power and manifested its displeasure by forbear ing to make grants for salaries ; and the governor coraplained that he was left without support, because he declined to violate his instructions. The instruction, however, rnade an exception for such sums as were wanted " for defraying the necessary charges of governraent," and for this clause a singular interpretation was proposed. To defray the annual necessary charges of gov ernraent, the sum of tw^enty-four hundred pounds was necessary, — the interest, at four per cent, of sixty thousand pounds. It was urged, accordingly, upon the governor, that be would not violate his instructions if he consented to the issuing and lend ing of that sura in order to secure an income from the loan to pay for carrying on the government He proposed the question to the Council, who DISCOEDS IN THE LEGISLATUEE. 415 declined to give their advice, but expressed their judgment that, if thS heutenant-governor should find it consistent with his obUgations to give his assent, it would be " for the good and welfare of the province." He signed the bill, and immedi ately the usual allowances were voted by the House. The House was disposed to enlarge its power by encroachment on the prerogatives of the Council, as well as of the governor. While for purposes of legislation the two Houses, rauch unequal in nura bers, acted separately and concurrently, each equal in power to the other, it had been their practice, in the election of civil officers, to vote in a convention, in which a counsellor's suffrage counted for no more than that of a representative. The House was for enlarging this abnormal jurisdiction so as to embrace judicial action, and voted "that, when a hearing shall be had on any private cause before both BLouses together, the subject-matter shall be determined by both Houses conjunctly." The Council unanimously refused its concurrence. Meanwhile, Shute was in England,' in no good humor with Massachusetts. Soon after his 1723. arrival he submitted to the King a raerao- -^"Bust. rial, with a forraal coraplaint of the raisconduct of the House of Representatives in the following particulars : namely, in respect to the ship-timber belonging to the King ; to their claim to choose a Speaker, and to adjourn themselves independently of the governor's consent; to their appointraent 416 LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR DUMMER. of Fast days and Thanksgiving days ; to usurpa tions of the governor's rights, as commander-in- chief of the military force, in interfering with the care of the castle, the disposal of officers, and arrangements of the eastern war; to their per sistence in crippling hira as to his raaintenance, and delaying their grants to hira till he had raet their wishes as to giving, his signature to their bills ; and, in short, to their perpetual invasions of " the few prerogatives that had been reserved by the crown." " The House of Representatives," he wrote, " are in a manner the whole legislative, and in a good measure the executive power of the province The greatest part of them are of small fortunes and raean education, raen of the best sense and circurastances generally resid ing at or near Boston Were it not for this Act [the ^Act of thirty years before, requiring the Representatives of towns to be residents], the Asserably would certainly consist of men of much better sense, temper, and fortunes than they do at present," though even the people of Boston, he had to add, '' supposed to contain about eighteen thousand inhabitants," were " too much disposed to a levelling spirit, too apt to be mutinous and disorderly." On being informed by their agent of these coraplaints, the House passed a vote appropriating a hundred pounds for the employ ment of counsel to raake a defence. But the Council unanimously refused. An answer to the complaints and an Address to the King were then SHUTE IN ENGLAND. 417 prepared by the House ; and, though the Council thought both of thera ill considered and irapru dent, and .again refused to concur, the House ordered that they should be transmitted to the agent. The House proceeded to resolve that "in consequence of Governor Shute's raeraorial to his Majesty, it was their duty as well as interest to send some suitable person or persons frora hence to use the best raethod that raay be to defend the constitution and charter privileges." The Coun cil proposed to substitute a vote intrusting the business to Jeremiah Dummer, who had just published his " Defence of the Charters." An agreement was finally made for Mr. Cooke to be joined with Mr. Duraraer in the agency in 1724. England, and he sailed without delay. Jan. 18. His arrival there stiraulated the governor to new activity. In a second raeraorial, he coraplained of the House of Representatives for objecting to payments legally made by the governor and Council ; for refusing necessary sup plies to the treasury; and for extending to the custody of the castle their usurping pretensions to the disposal of the militia. He represented various raisdeeds of the House since his departure, — that they had affronted the heutenant-governor by interfering with his right to coraraand the troops, and to use what seal he pleased in trans actions with the Indians; that Mr. Cooke, whom they had chosen to be their agent, was disaffected to the crown, and had been at the head of the 27 418 LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR DUMMER. factious movements; that the House had made no grant for his own pay since he left the prov ince; that they had "been all along endeavoring to intimidate the Council, and to weaken the credit of the Council with the people " ; and that ' in short, they steadily pursued their policy of aggrandizement and usurpation. The House of Representatives, he said, had " in a manner got the whole legislative and executive power intb their own hands," obtained the control of the military force, and " overborne the CouncU, to the giving up the only remaining security of the few and undoubted prerogatives of the crown." He refused so much as to see Mr. Cooke, and Dummer's persistence in the endeavor to bring them together had even the effect of alienating his associate from himself. Cooke pre- ^"^ sented a memorial to the Duke of New castle, praying for a postponement of action on Shute's coraplaint till he should have time to obtain further instructions from home. It raay well be doubted whether any advan tageous effect would have followed on such a zealous joint action of the agents of Massachu setts as was at all events prevented by their private jealousies. On a report of the law- "^' ' officers of the crown, to whom, at Cooke's request, a reply to Shute which had reached the agent frora Massachusetts, and a raeraorial of his own, founded upon it, had been referred, the House was condemned by the Privy CouncU as explanatory CHARTER. 419 to all the points in issue. The Council repre sented to the King that Shute had " acted with great zeal and fidelity," and had " made good his charge of invading and encroaching upon your Majesty's prerogative The conduct of the said House of Representatives tends greatly to weaken the subordination and dependence of this colony upon the crown of Great Britain, and may be of evil example in other plantations." Therefore " all proper legal measures should be taken to assert your Majesty's royal authority and prosecute all such as have contemned the same, unless a due obedience be paid to your * Majesty for the future." The agents were ac cordingly enjoined to stop the irregularities of their constituents in respect to encroachraents on the forests and on the eraployraent of the troops ; but no further formal measure of repression was adopted, except the granting of what was called an Explanatory Charter, in whieh the necessity of the governor's consent in the choice of a Speaker for the House, and in its adjourning . itself for more than two days, was expressly affirmed. •¦ That the advantage was not pursued in an atterapt to vacate the charter in the courts raay occasion surprise. Perhaps the Ministry thought that the pear was surely maturing, but was not yet quite ripe. Should the Explanatory Charter be rejected, should the plunder of the masts and the interference with the control of the troops be 420 LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR DUMMEE. continued after this warning, each of which re sults raight seem extremely probable from the past contumacy of the provincial authorities, a clearer case would be made against them, and a legal process, or a proceeding in Parliament, which was threatened, would be facilitated. On the other hand, should the province yield without further struggle the other points now contested, this would be an augury of more quiet and submission on its part for the future. The House seems to have become convinced that for the present it had gone as far in opposition as prudence would 1726. allow, and in concurrence with the Council Jan. 15. it voted to accept the Explanatory Charter, Jan. 18. though uot till after a warm debate. Dum mer informed the Duke of Newcastle how " duti fully " the House had in this instance behaved. It may be believed that for sorae friends the raeasure was indebted to its provisions implying a waiver and condonation of some causes of complaint, and expressly confirming the existing charter, for which no little anxiety might well be felt. While these transactions were in progress, the British governraent was displeased by intelligence of what they were especially sensitive upon, — a religious raoveraent in Massachusetts. No synod had ever been held there since four years before 1725. the abrogation of the old colonial charter. May 27. fhe rainlstcrs, under the lead of Cotton Mather, now proposed to have one, " considering," they said in their raeraorial to the General Court, PROJECT OF A SYNOD. 121 "the great and visible decay of piety in the coun try, and the growth of many miscarriages, which we fear may have provoked the glorious Lord in a series of various judgments wonderfully to distress us." The Council gave its ap probation to the scheme. The Episcopal clergyraen of Boston, Cutler and Miles, reraon- strated. Both branches of the Court rebuked the remonstrance, but the House referred the further consideration of the subject to the next session. Meantime the Bishop of London, Dr. Gibson, apprised by his clergyraen in Boston, laid infor raation of what was going on before the Lords Justices administering the government whUe the King was in Hanover, and ex- "^' pressed his " fear lest it should give a fresh handle of complaint araong the clergy here, who are apt to claraor for a sitting convocation." He "thought it might be a doubt, upon the "^ Act of Union between England and Scotland, whether the Independents in New England are anything more than a tolerated rainistry and people. The clergy established here," he added, " may think it hard to be debarred of a liberty which is indulged in the tolerated rainisters there, and the tolerated ministers here may think it equitable that their privileges should not be less than those of their brethren in New Eng land." Yorke and Wearg, Attorney- General and Solicitor-General, gave to the ^ ' "Lords Justices their opinion : 1. That synods 422 LIEUTENANT-GOVEENOE DUMMEE. cannot lawfuUy be held without the royal license ; 2. That an application to the provincial legislature was a contempt of the sovereign, which Dummer should have rebuked ; and, 3. That if notice of this should find them (the synod) in session, the heu tenant-governor should "signify to them ..... that they do forbear to meet any more " ; and, if they persevere, " that the principal actors therein be prosecuted'by information for a raisderaean or." This prohibition was too serious to be matched by any attachraent to the raeasure, and it was not per.sisted, in. " Their excellencies," Jeremiah Duraraer wrote home, " are very muoh displeased. It is thought here that the clergy should not raeet in so public and authoritative a raanner without the King's consent as head of the church ; and that it would be a bad precedent for Dissenters here to ask the sarae privilege, which, if granted, would be a sort of vying with the Established Church. It has also been insinu ated that the. clergy would have corae to some resolutions to the prejudice of the Church of England, if they had been permitted to convene." 1726. The lieutenant-governor excused himself March, .j.^ ^he Board of Trade for his degree of com plicity in the offence. A sirailar proceeding, he said, had passed without censure ten years before. On the present occasion the scherae had been no further approved than to be referred for consider ation to the next session of the Court, and he had not thought himself under obligation to offer DEATH OF THE KING. 423 opposition, as his expectation had been that it would pass by without coming up again ; an expectation which the fact had justified. Shute presented a memorial for an allowance of the arrears of his pay. The Privy 1727. Council advised the King to "signify his ^^'"'^^¦ royal pleasure to the said Mr. Shute by his sign- manual, comraanding him to acquaint the General Asserably of those provinces [Massachusetts and New Hampshire] that, if they hope to recomraend theraselves to the continuance of your Majesty's royal grace and favor, it raust be by an irarae diate compliance with what has been so often recoraraended to thera" as to " a fixed and honor able salary." If they do not comply, it is added, " the coraraittee do hurably apprehend that it may be worthy the consideration of the Legisla ture." Governor Shute may have hoped that the coercion of this threat would secure to him a more satisfactory administration of his province. He had all but embarked on his return thither, when the sudden death of the King vacated his commission. CHAPTER IV. NEW HAMPSHIRE, EHODE ISLAND, AND CONNECTICUT. At the tirae of the arrival of Governor 1716 Shute in New England, the population of New Harapshire was coraputed at nine thousand persons, of which nuraber there were fifteen hun dred men, very few white servants, and a hundred and fifty blacks. The principal productions of the province were ships, " lumber, fish, raasts for the royal navy, and turpentine," the annual value of the whole "seldom exceeding fifty thousand pounds per annura of New England money." The luraber and some of the fish were exported to the West Indies and to the Western Islands in exchange for sugar, molasses, rura, and wine. Luraber, tar, and turpentine, sent to England and Ireland, brought back linen and woollen manufac tured goods. The proceeds of fish shipped to Portugal and Italy were returned in salt, or re mitted to England for purchases there. Twenty vessels made foreign voyages, and about a hun dred were engaged in fishing. The province had some four hundred seamen. There were no manufactures of any kind. While the litigation with Allen was going' on LIEUTENANT-GOVEENOE VAUGHAN. 425 in England, George Vaughan, son of the former counseUor, William Vaughan, was employed there in maintaining the claira of the occupants of the soil. His own activity and his father's position recoraraended hira to the favor of raen in power, and, when Burgess was raade governor of Massa chusetts and New Harapshire, Vaughan was ap pointed his lieutenant for the latter province. He came over iraraediately, and clairaed the 1715. place. Usher contested his right to act O'^'-^"- before the arrival of his principal. But the As sembly allowed Vaughan's title, and Usher did not persist in his opposition. The Board of Trade, who thought they were too little consulted by the rainistry, were dis pleased with Vaughan's appointraent. They con sidered it liable to the sarae obje.ction as had formerly been made against Partridge's, and that " there would be as rauch propriety in appointing a "ft^olf to preserve the flocks of England, as to norainate a raan concerned in saw-mills to guard frora waste the raasts reserved for the navy of Britain." And their dissatisfaction was not les sened when the difficulties he experienced frora the contumacy of the provincials were such as to. cause him to represent that their divisions were " so great as hardly to be expressed." Dudley was now holding the office of governor by what he knew to be a feeble tenure, and he came no more into New Harapshire. . • 11- » Nov. 3. Vaughan lost no tirae in calling an Assem- 426 NEW HAMPSHIRE. bly, which, not coraing up to his wishes in respect to a grant of raoney, was as speedily dissolved. 1716. He urged his deraand on the next Assern- Aug. 21. blyj which not only refused to accede to it, but resolved to defer all further consideration of the matter till the governor should arrive. When Shute came in that character, his first pressing business in the province related to the scarcity of money, occasioned by the same causes as in Massachusetts. He began with giving offence to the House by ordering thera to hold a 1717. conference with the Council on a question Jan. 24. •^hich he refused to announce beforehand; and when it turned out to be the question whether the issue of bills of credit should be to the amount which they had consented to, or to a larger araount proposed by the CouncU, they proved to be im practicable, and the Assertlbly was dissolved. A new House came together in a better mood, and satisfied the governor by agreeing to issue bills of credit to the amount of fifteen thousand pounds, to be lent for fifteen years, at ten per cent in terest. A quarrel followed between the governor and his second in authority. According to Shute's interpre tation of his coraraission, he was always governor of New Harapshire, whether present or not within its borders. Vaughan held that in the governor's absence the chief executive authority resided in hiraself. Shute wrote to hira to proclaira a day of fasting in New Harapshire, and it was hot DISPUTE BETWEEN SHUTE AND VAUGHAN. 427 done. He instructed Vaughan to prorogue the Assembly, and Vaughan dissolved it. Vaughan suspended a counseUor who reproved his insubordination. Shute carae to Ports- "^ ' mouth, restored the counsellor, and suspended Vaughan. The Assembly declared i1;s disappro bation of Vaughan's course. The representatives of one town, Hampton, expressed the opposite view in language so warm that the governor called it libellous, and, with the CouncU's concurrence, he put them under heavy bonds for their good behavior. In England, Shute's interest prevaUed, with the aid of Sir Williara Ashurst, who, though not now official agent for any of the colonies, was rauch consulted on their affairs, and who had been displeased by a proposal of Vaughan, while in England, to raise a tax in New Harapshire to be paid to officers of the crown. Vaughan was accordingly displaced by Joseph Addison, then Secretary of State. John Wentworth, of New Harapshire lineage and birth, formerly a sea-cap tain, now an opulent merchant, and for the last five years a counsellor of the province, was ap pointed to the office. He retained it for seven teen years, administering it with conscientious ness and good judgraent, and giving no cause of offence. New Hampshire had begun to extend its nar row limits, which hitherto embraced only a space of some fifteen miles about the raouth of the Piscataqua. The town of Strathara, within that 428 NEW HAMPSHIRE. 1716. boundary, had been set off frora Exeter March 20. .^j^jh a Separate incorporation, just before Shute's arrival. The settlement of Londonderry was of more iraportance. A hundred farailies from the town of that narae in Ireland, faraous for its heroic defence against the troops of King Jaraes the Second, resolved, with their four rainis ters, to estabhsh theraselves in Arnerica. Sixteen of these families, to whom others were soon added, received permission from the General Court of Massachusetts to occupy a tract of land on the left bank of the Merrimack, which, from 1719. the character of the growth upon it, was April 11 j-hen known by the name of Nuffield. A few miles below the point where that river now turns the vast wheels of the mills of Manchester, they established a manufactory of linen, spinning and weaving their flax by hand labor. Frora their arrival, too, is to be dated in this country the cul ture of the potato. A question arose about the acquisition of a good title to their lands. In the old controversy with Allen (Mason's assign) it had been allowed on the other side that all of New Hampshire I belonged to hira except the already settled lands. But his heirs were rainors ; Usher, with thera, had his indefinite clairas ; and all parties, prob ably, were tired enough of the question to be wiUing to abstain frora pressing it Lieutenant- Governor Wentworth undertook to cut the knot. The jurisdiction, at all events, belonged to the RESTRAINTS IN CUTTING TIMBER. 429 King, whoever might prove to have the property of the soil. Wentworth gave to the Irish Presbyterians a^guarded permission to es tablish themselves on the tract on the Merriraack, which with a natural feeling they called Londonderry. He proceeded to raake grants for the towns of Rochester, Barrington, Notting ham, and Chester, enclosing the old towns within an arc of a circle of thirty railes' radius, extending frora the Piscataqua to Londonderry. Massachu setts, still holding to her original claira in respect to her chartered liraits, incorporated the 1726 town of Ruraford, now Concord, still higher up on the Merriraack. The grants which have just been mentioned of the four towns were made on the condition, " as far as in us lies," with reference to possible claims of Mason's assigns. The transaction was completed on ,the eve of Shute's departure for England, which left Went worth at the head of the governraent of New Harapshire. The Assembly of that province set tled no salary upon Shute, but generally granted hira a hundred pounds a year in two payraents. The same causes that had excited the people of New Hampshire against the deposed Surveyor of the Woods prepared an unfriendly reception for John Arrastrong, the deputy of Burnister, who had been appointed to that office. Arrastrong had first come to Araerica iiorainally as 1708 Secretary to Lord Bellomont, but having for his more important eraployraent an agency 430 RHODE ISLAND. from Blathwayt, Secretary to the Board of Trade, Sir Matthew Dudley, and others, who had formed a corapany for the exploration of mines in New England, and for a traffic in naval stores. Shute professed himself " satisfied with Armstrong's good services " as deputy-surveyor of the woods, but a 1722. memorial from New Hampshire represented Nov. 13. him to the Privy Council as guilty of " ex tortion, taking bribes, negligence, perjury, and disaffection to the King." He was consequently 1725. recalled, but succeeded in exculpating him- ^°^" ^ self, and came back to resume his invidi ous duties. In the first year of the reign of King George the First, the population of Rhode Island was estimated at nine thousand persons, of whora five hundred were negroes. Colonel Samuel Cranston, who died in office, was 1727 - ¦ , governor through the whole of that reign, as he had been through the reign of Queen Anne and the four last years of King William. Nine towns, namely, Newport, Providence, Portsmouth, Warwick, Westerly, Kingston, New Shorehara, Jamestown, and Greenwich, sent delegates to the General Asserably. The Board of Trade represented to the King that "since neither Connecticut nor Rhode Island were obliged to subrait their laws to royal revision, an Act of Parliament was necessary to compel them to do that, without which it was impossible to enforce their submis- THE CHAETER IN DANGER. 431 sion." A bill was accordingly brought into the House- of Commons for amending the 1715 charters of those colonies. It was on that occasion that Jeremiah Duraraer wrote his able Defence of the American Charters. But the measure was dropped in Parliament, and it was not till seven years later that a new alarra occasioned the publication of the treatise. The Board of Trade had charged the people of Rhode Island with " numerous misfeasances," of which one was their way of eluding a law of the reign of King Williara requiring that " all pro priety governors shall be allowed and approved of by the King, before they enter upon the gov ernment. But by choosing the governor annu ally, though it is generally the sarae person, his turn is expired before any such approbation can be had, if they did apply for it pursuant to the above Act, which hitherto they never have done." At the sarae tirae a committee of the Council, instructed to advise that body concerning . the long-disputed boundary between Rhode Island and Connecticut, reported that "it were to be wished that they would both voluntarily submit themselves to his Majesty's iraraediate govern ment, as some other colonies have done, and that they raight be annexed to New Hampshire." It was not to be expected that either Connecticut or Rhode Island would willingly corae into such an arrangeraent, even had there been no other ob jection than that New Hampshire, being merely a 432 EHODE ISLAND. royal unchartered province, was subject to what ever regulations the King raight frora ti-me to tirae be disposed to make for its administration, — a liability which would have equally attached to the other governments, had the annexation which was proposed taken place. The true method of promoting the welfare of all the parties concerned, had the British Court had no other object, and had circumstances admitted of its being taken, would have been to replace New Hampshire under the authority and protection of Massachusetts, and to give to the turbulent towns of Rhode Island the benefit of the orderly adrainistration of Con necticut, by an obliteration of the disputed eastern boundary of the latter colony, sirailar to what had taken place when New Haven, sixty years before, had been annexed to it on the west. At the beginning of the Indian war, the Asserably of Rhode Island, on a request from Governor Shute for assistance in raen and money, raised a coraraittee to inquire into the merits of the case. Having entertained the ques- 1724, tion somewhat over two years, the Assera- Deo 29. blydecided that " although the said Indian rebels deserved nothing but a total extirpation frora the face of the earth for their continual and repeated rebellions, hostilities, and perfidiousness, yet that it would be by no raeans justifiable in the colony of Rhode Island to join with the province of Massachusetts in the prosecution of said war, as things were at present circurastanced. NEUTRALITY IN THE INDIAN WAR. 433 for the reasons, — that Rhode Island did its part towards the coraraon defence by maintaining the maritirae frontier ; that the King's pleasure ought first to be ascertained, " who in his great wisdora raight find out and prescribe ways to make those wild and inaccessible subjects of his come in and tamely submit to his government" ; that " Rhode Island was never advised with by the province of Massachusetts " in raaking war or peace with the Indians ; that in treaties she had secured to herself the advantages of Indian trade ; and that it was not for Rhode Island to " buy for the Massachu setts this privilege with the blood of their young and strong." But they took the spirited raeasure of ordering a letter to be addressed to the gov ernor of Canada, threatening hira that, if he did not desist frora his intrigues with the savages, Rhode Island would take part in the war. The raenace failed to deter the obstinate Vaudreuil. Rhode Island was suffering frora the great. financial error of the tirae. Following with less excuse, but not till after sorae years, the unfor tunate example of Massachusetts, she had 1710. undertaken to pay her war expenses by ¦^'^^• promises to pay, to which, so far as law could do - it, she gave the character of money. There was some intelligent distrust, and a short suspension of the process ; but it was presently re vived, and paper raoney continued to be made in Rhode Island down to the year of the fraraing of the Constitution of the United States. 28 434 RHODE ISLAND. It raust be owned that this easy command of funds did not terapt the colony to extravagant expense. On the contrary, its creditors, whether individuals or neighboring provinces, had frequent reason to complain of an unfavorable reception of their claims. The laws of the colony, such as they were, were observed to " lie in a very disordered con- di1;ion, and only in the hands of sorae few per sons " ; and two Deputies were empowered to collect and transcribe thera for the press. A dif ficulty occurred, relating to that engageraent under oath which is thought to contribute to the safe adrainistration of justice. " Several persons, who were of this body politic, scrupled to take an en gageraent where the words ' as in the presence of God ' is in, whereby the corporation was much hurt for want of their service in the same " ; and, to relieve their sensitive conscience, the siraple ^solemnity was dispensed with. Some of the citizens were less fastidious in their notions of pohtical duty, and had to be restrained by law^, under a penalty of fine, whipping, or imprison ment, from their practice of " putting or deliver ing into the hat two, three, or more votes for one officer, at the general elections, and other town elections." In one thing the expenditure of the colony was liberal. From the rriagnitude of the bounties offered for their destruction it raust be inferred that wolves still abounded in Rhode Island. The extirpation of rats was also a subject of legislation. COLONIAL LAWS. 435 The same people needed to be withheld frora raaking agreeraents, susceptible of being enforced by law, for the raaintenance of religious worship. With the wisdora of those who see the evil afar off and hide theraselves, the Assembly of me. Rhode Island " enacted that what main- '""5' 2. tenance or salary raay be thought needful or necessary by any of the churches, congregations, cjj- societies of people, now inhabiting, or that may hereafter inhabit, within any part of this govern ment, for the support of their or either of their minister or ministers, may be raised by a free contribution, and no other ways." Perhaps the precaution was suggested by movements for setting up Episcopal churches in Rhode Island ; for the worship of that denomination was instituted in Providence soon after, and an Episcopal congregation had been organized in Newport not long before. This church was eminently loyal. In a memorial of its 1724. ministry, church-wardens, and vestry, they •'"°«i- assured the King : " The religious and loyal prin ciples of passive obedience and non-resistance are upon all suitable occasions strongly asserted and inculcated upon your Majesty's good subjects of this church." Even the people of Rhode Island sometimes found that there was inconvenience in unlimited freedom, and that there was wisdom in the rule for every one so to use his own as not- to harm his neighbor. The pet freak of some inhabitants of the town of Westerly, who 436 RHODE ISLAND. called themselves Sabbatarians, was to set apart the seventh day of the week as holy tirae. " Re- 1725. peated inforraations " having been brought *'*^" in against thera, that they " made a con tinual practice of doing servile labor on the first 'day of the week, and that they very publicly and otherwise profaned said day, which the law of the realm as well as of the colony appoint to be kept as a sabbath, which is a great offence to the re»t of the inhabitants of said colony, and brings an odium upon the whole government as well as themselves, the General Assembly of the colony therefore advised and cautioned said inhabitants of Westerly in particular, and of the whole colony in general, that for the future they reform their aforesaid vicious practices, and conforra to the law ; considering that, though the ordinances of raen may not square with their private principles, yet they must be subject to them, for the Lord's sake ; and that, lest they incur the further dis pleasure of this Assembly, and put thera upon a more rigorous method of suppressing the afore said enormities." A law excluding Roman Catholics frora the franchise, and from competency to hold office, appears in a collection of the statutes extant in a 1705, manuscript of the third year of Queen 1719. Anne. It is also in the collection printed in consequence of the vote just mentioned. In the imperfection of the records, the date of the enactment of that law, embodying so wide a COLONIAL LAWS. 437 departure from the primitive principle of Rhode Island, remains uncertain. In the Act of Re peal passed after the eraancipation frora i783. England, it is referred to the same year as 1663. the grant of the charter. The recent historian of the colony supposes that it never. went through the forms of legislation, but was without author ity interpolated by a committee whic'h was . . 1699. charged to make a compilation of the laws in the time of the Earl of Bellomont, — a sup position which could not be entertained in respect to a coraraunity possessing the usual guaranties for the public order and safety, but which is not in itself incredible in respect to Rhode Island. The motive suggested in explanation of it, naraely, that it was " in order that their privileges, then threatened by the powerful influence of Bello raont, raight not be taken frora thera," is also the less improbable, as it accords with the usual un worthy policy of Rhode Island in its relations to the parent country. Observing the anomalous state of society which existed in Rhode Island, it was not unnatural for the Episcopal Church to identify the institution of its own worship with the introduction of Christianity into that colony. " The people were negligent of ah religion," says its historian, " till about the year 1722 ; the very best were such as called theraselves Baptists or Quakers." The extrerae disinclination to control, which signalized this pecuhar people, asserted itself 438 EHODE ISLAND. in military affairs, where it is attended with es pecial danger. The General Assembly had been prevailed upon to pass a law for the election of militia officers by their raen. It was objected 1713. to by the governor as being in violation June 16. pf the charter, and was repealed. The repeal occasioned such dissatisfaction that "the railitia visibly declined, not only to the scandal 1726. and reproach of the governraent, but also June 14. to the imminent danger thereof," and the old system with some modification was restored, but only for four years, at the end of which tirae the experience of its " ill consequence '' occasioned it to be agaiin abolished. On the other hand, the franchise of the colony, originally so freely con- 1724. ferred, was subjected to rigorous liraitation. Feb. 18. j^ j^^ .^g^g raade establishing the posses sion of a freehold of the value of a hundred pounds, or an annual income frora real estate of not less than two pounds, as a qualification of a voter. But the oldest son of a freeraan shared in his father's privilege. This arrangeraent, so pecu liar in a coraraunity otherwise so deraocratic, continued in force till nearly the middle of the present century. After the return of Jahleel Brenton, who had been agent in England, William Penn had had the charge abroad of the affairs of Rhode Island. 1715. On the alarm for the charter at the begin- junei3. ning of the reign of King George the First, Richard Partridge, described as " of London," was CONNECTICUT. 439 appointed to be agent His principal business proved to be, at first, to pacify the Lords of Trade and Plantations in respect to the charges raade against the colony for illicit coraraerce. But pres ently the old question of the liraits of the colony on the side of Connecticut assuraed raore irapor tance, and Lieutenant-Governor Joseph Jenckes was sent over to be associated with hira in the agency. The further progress and termination of this long-standing controversy will be related further on. At the beginning of the reign of King George the First, the colony of Connecti cut was believed to contain forty-seven thousand five hundred people, of whom fifteen hundred were negroes. There were fifty towns, and about the sarae nuraber of churches and of min isters, -.— the nuraber of towns having nearly doubled since the Revolution. The occupations of the people were raostly agricultural, though Hartford and Wethersfield on the river, and New London, Stonington, New Haven, and other towns along the Sound, had vessels engaged in fishing, and carried on a considerable business with the West India Islands ; and 'ships were built in all the inlets on the southern shore. There was for a tirae a delusive hope of profit frora certain mines, — one in the towm of Simsbury, the other in "what afterwards becarae Wallingford, — which it was thought would yield copper, at least, in abundance, if not more valuable ores. The Gen- 440 CONNECTICUT. 171S. eral Asserably encouraged the exploration October. q£ thcra by granting certain privileges to the proprietors and their w^orkraen ; and not a little raoney was spent in the enterprise by capitalists of Massachusetts and New York. But it did not prove reraunerative, and was abandoned after a few years. The excavated raine at Simsbury was afterwards turned to account as a State prison. The system of consociation of churches, which had been organized by the synod convened at Saybrook, gave no little additional power to the clergy ; and from an early period of the eighteenth century a severer religious rule began to prevail in Connecticut than in Massachusetts. 1721. Laws "for preventing and punishing, the ^'^y' profanation of the Sabbath, or the Lord's October. Day," visited with pecuniary penalties ab sence frora public worship, "rude behavior" on Sundays, and travelling on that day, except to and frora the raeeting-house. Sorae annoyance was occasioned by a sect known by the narae of Roger- enes, disciples of John Rogers of New London, who had adopted and improved upon the scherae of his Rhode Island neighbors, the Seventh-Day Baptists of Westerly. Differing frora the Quakers in their esteera for the ordinances of baptisra and the Lord's Supper, in other of their practices the Rogcrenes iraitated that extraordinary people. They carae into the churches during Sunday worship in objectionably scanty dress, and with violent vociferations, "charging the ministers with EELIGIOUS CONDITION. 441 lies and false doctrine." When they were brought into court, the judges and officers fared no better at their hands. The contest between them and the law was brought to an earlier terraination, by reason, it is said, of the discovery of sorae gross iramoralities of the leader, which tended to dis credit hira with his friends, and to cool their enthusiasra for his raethods. Their irregularities probably occasioned the law by which per- 1723. sons absenting themselves frora their " law- ^"y- ful congregation," and assembling for worship in private houses, were made punishable by a fine of twenty shillings for each transgression, and " whatsoever person, not being a lawfully allowed minister of the gospel, should presurae to profane the holy sacraraents by administering or making a show of adrainistering them, was to incur the penalty of ten pounds, and suffer corporal pun ishment by whipping, not exceeding thirty stripes for each offence." In Andros's time the Church of England had gained a foothold in Connecti cut, especiaUy in the western part of the province. Its followers obtained from the governraent a fair recognition of their wishes. They were allowed to reclaim for their separate use as much 1727. as was levied on them in the town rates ^'^^' for the support of the ministry, and to tax them selves for as rauch raore as was requisite for the maintaining of their worship. The araended " Law concerning Schools " re quired that, " where there were seventy farailies ' 442 CONNECTICUT. in any parish, the school should be there kept at least eleven raonths in a year, and where there was a less nuraber of families, not less than half the year." For nearly twenty years the College of Connecticut had continued to be an unsatis factory experiraent. While the rector taught some pupils at Milford, and two tutors had other pupils at Saybrook, and the few scores of books which had been obtained for a library were divided between the two places, there was small prospect of the results for which institutions of learning are created. While there was a general agree ment that whatever facilities for the higher edu cation could be commanded should be brought together and combined, the choice of the place was erabarrassed by various considerations, some having reference to the public good alone, others more or less to the interest of property holders, who calculated on being benefited by the proximity of a literary colony. Saybrook, Wethersfield, Hart ford, and New Haven competed with each other for the preference, offering such contributions as they were able towards the erection of a col lege building. The offer frora New Haven, larger than that of any other town, was seven hundred pounds sterling. The plan of fixing the College there, proraoted by the great influence of Governor 1716. SaltonstaU, was adopted by the trustees ; Oct. 17. g^j^jj with money obtained by private gifts, and two hundred and fifty pounds, the avails of a sale of land given by the General Assembly, a YALE COLLEGE. 443 building was begun, which finally cost a thousand pounds sterling. But the question of the permanent site of the College was not yet settled. A reraonstrance was presented to the trustees, setting forth that there had been illegality in the proceedings ; and it was not till after rauch debate in the lower House of Asserably that this claraor was disposed 1717. of by a vote which " advised the trustees o°"'i'™- to proceed." Frora that tirae, though opinions were not yet fully reconciled, affairs went on raore prosperously. The Asserably gave a hundred pounds. Jeremiah Duraraer sent from England a substantial present of books. Governor Salton stall contributed fifty pounds sterling, and the same sura was presented by Jahleel Brenton, of Newport, in Rhode Island. . But the chief patron age came frora Elihu Yale, — a native of New Haven, but long resident in the East Indies, where he had been governor of Fort St George. He was now a citizen of London, and governor of the East India Corapany. His contribu tions, continued through seven years, amounted to some four hundred pounds sterling, and he was understood to have raade arrange raents for a further bounty of five hundred 1719. pounds, which, however, through unfortu- *^''^" nate accidents, never carae to its, destination. The province raade a grant of forty pounds annually for seven years. Mr Andrew being unwilling to reraove to New Haven, Mr. Tiraothy Cutler, min- 444 CONNECTICUT. ister of Stratford, was made rector. But here occurred a mortifying disappointment. After a successful adrainistration of the College of less than four years' duration. Cutler announced that he had conformed to the Church of England, a step' which had also been taken at the same tirae by one of the tutors, and by the ministers of 1722. West Haven and North Haven. He was Oct. 17. accordingly dismissed, and it was not till 1726. after four years that his place was supplied september.^^y the induction of Mr. Elisha Williams, one of the^ ministers of Wethersfield. At this time the College had fifty-seven students. The condition of the Mohegan Indians, of whom a considerable remnant, always persisting in their rejection of the faith of their Christian neighbors, still kept together on the ancient site of their tribe, occasionally called on the province for measures both of protection and of restraint. 1714. " CaBsar, sachem of Mohegan, Ben Uncas, March 4. ^^^ scvei'al othcr Indians," Coraplained to Governor Saltonstall that two English neigh bors had " set up the frarae of a house within the land of the Mohegan country." The Enghshmen were men of consequence, but such considerations were not apt to weigh with the straightforward governor. Without a day's delay he arrested the trespassers, and placed thera under bonds for their good behavior. It was, on the other hand, in respect to the Mohegans that the suspicions were first entertained which at this late tirae SHAEE IN THE INDIAN WAR. 445 spread through Connecticut a serious apprehen sion of a conspiracy araong what remained .^.^^o of the tribes. The governor questioned Jiinei8- the Mohegan, Pequod, and Niantic chiefs, who resolutely protested that they knew" nothing of any hostile plot ; and the result of a search ing investigation rendered it probable that they had been maligned by persons who coveted their lands, but that disorderly behavior on the part of the Indians had given sorae real cause for sus picion; and they were accordingly admonished "to reraove all the occasions of it, and particularly to abstain from drink, which puts men upon saying and doing things that are provoking." Intelli gence of a savage inroad, which was marked by the destruction of Rutland, led to raeas- 1723. ures for securing the frontier towns of ^'^s-'^i- Simsbury and Litchfield, and to a, direction to all the Indians in the colony to limit their hunting- excursions within certain bounds. The govern raent complimented the Mohegans by sending representatives, " who understood well the lan guage and manner of the Indians," to be present at their " convention to install as their sachem Major Ben Uncas, the only surviving son of Uncas, forraerly their sachera." " John Mason, of Stonington, in consideration of the respect justly due to the name of his ances tors, and the great trust the Mohegan Indians have had in them, as they now have in hira, who has a great acquaintance with their language and 446 CONNECTICUT. manners, and may in that respect, as well as others, be of great use and service in endeavoring both to civilize and Christianize them," was au thorized by the General Court to occupy any land araong thera which they raight assign, and " to protect thera frora wrongs, to set up a school among them, and acquaint thera in the Christian 1726. religion." Three years later, in accordance October. ^ petition of « Ben Uncas . . . : . with others " of the tribe, Jaraes Wadsworth and John Hall, both of thera prorainent citizens, were ap pointed to be their supervisors, and Ben Uncas was " established " as their sachem. It has been seen that Governor Shute consid ered the General Court of Massachusetts to be precipitate in its hostile measures against the eastern savages. The governraent of Connecti cut were of the, sarae opinion. When applied to by Massachusetts for a contribution of men and 1722. munitions, the Legislature of the sister Oct. 11. colony declined to afford such aid, though it placed some small garrisons in its own western settleraents, and sent a detachraent of- troops to aid in the defence of the Massachusetts towns on 1723. Connecticut River. As tirae passed, and October, the savage invasions grew more annoying, Connecticut desired the governor to obtain precise information frora the authorities of Massachusetts respecting the occasion, the objects, and plans of the war, and raade arrangements for maintaining a sraall force as high up the river as the raost SHARE IN THE INDIAN WAR. 447 northerly English settlements. The Indians 1724. committed now and then a raurder in that ''''^¦ quarter, but they did not corae in force, and they eluded pursuit. The application from Massachusetts was more urgently repeated, "^^ ' but with no better success. Connecticut professed to be dissatisfied as to the justice of the war, and as to her not having been con sulted before it was entered upon. Her historian thinks that this expression on her part expedited the peace which soon followed. This is not probable. It was enough that, without reckoning the wounds, the abductions, and the losses of property by fire and theft, Massachusetts had had one or two hundred men killed, and that there was no longer anything to fight for, for the Indians appeared to be tired out for the time, and to be wUling to be peaceable, if they could have some trading facilities, which it was not difficult to afford. No Connecticut men lost their lives in this war, though it caused the colony an expendi ture of some thousands of pounds. But Connecticut raanaged its money affairs with a prudence which shamed its neighbors. In consequence of the disastrous atterapt upon Canada, under Nicholson, the colony found 1709. itself corapeUed to issue bUls of credit; but '"'y^^- the amount was only eight thousand pounds. Four years later, just after the pacification 1713. of Utrecht, there was an order for a fur- O"'"'"""' ther issue of twenty thousand pounds ; but only a 448 CONNECTICUT. part of that sum was to be put in circulation from year to year, and the provisions for rederap- tion were so judicious and so well enforced, that many years passed before the paper obligations of Connecticut ceased to have the whole value represented by them ; and the depreciation never became considerable. The war in the time of Queen Anne was re garded by many good people of Connecticut as having unfavorably affected the character of the soldiers, and through them of the community at 1714. large. The Assembly "took into their serious ^^'^y- consideration the raany evident tokens that the glory is departed, that the providences of God are plainly teUiug us that our ways do not please hira " ; and they recoraraended " to the reverend elders to inquire and report respecting the state of religion in each parish," and particularly " how and whether catechizing were duly attended, and whether there were a suitable nuraber of Bibles in the various faraihes in the respective parishes, and also if there were found in any parishes anythat neglected attendance on the public worship on the Lord's Day ; and likewise, which and what are the sins and evils that provoke the just Majesty of Heaven to walk contrary unto us in the ways 1715. of his providence." The Asserably laid a October, formal injunction upon all judicial officers, constables, and grand jurors, to give their strictest attention to the laws for thc education of children, and against profaneness. Sabbath-breaking, lying, swearing, and intemperance. MOB AT HARTFORD. 449 Even the norraal sobriety of Connecticut did not absolutely avert the danger of popular tumults. One which took place in the time of Governor Saltonstall was of such violence as to call for an' exercise of all his unfailing promptness and energy for its suppression. The right to a tract of land in and about what is now the town of Coventry was in dispute. A judicial decision dis- 1722. missed the claira of Jeremiah Fitch, a '^'''^''''• deputy in the General Court, and otherwise a raan of consequence. For resisting the execu tion. Fitch was coraraitted to gaol in Hartford. His case was that of a nuraber of his neighbors, who thought that injustice had been done, and that their own turn would be coraing next. Their resentraent got the better of their discretion. Sorae fifty of thera went -in procession to the gaol, and deraanded the discharge of Fitch, which being refused by the keeper, they battered down the door with a heavy piece of tiraber and released hini and his fellow-prisoners. The sheriff, with such help as he could suddenly collect, pursued the party, but was defied and worsted by thera. The sheriff raade his report of these doings to the General Asserably, which at the tirae was in session at New Haven. The As sembly proceeded to its deliberation with closed doors, and with an injunction of secrecy upon it.s merabers. An Act was passed, declaring a riot to consist in the asserabling of three 29 450 . CONNECTICUT. or raore persons for an unlawful purpose, and raaking it punishable by a fine of ten pounds, or iraprisonraent for not longer than six raonths, or whipping, or any two or all of these inflictions, at the discretion of the court. A special session of the Superior Court was ordered to be held forthwith for the trial of the recent offenders, who were indicted for burglary, the gaol being under the same roof with the keeper's dwelling. 1723. Fifteen persons were arraigned and con- ^'^^^ victed. Fitch escaped unpleasant conse quences, it being held to be. no evidence of com plicity in the crime of beating down the door that he walked out of it when he found the way clear. The sheriffs were invested with new power to call out the posse comitatus and the raUitia, and it was especially enjoined " that the sheriffs no raore return that they cannot do ex ecution." 1683. The agreement made in the time of Nov. 28. j^i^g Charles the Second respecting the boundary line of Connecticut on the side of New York still remained unexecuted as to its north- 1718 wardly extension. Connecticut appointed ^'^^^' commissioners to join with others from the sister colony in raarking the line and erecting raonuraents, " for the quieting the coraplaints and disorders of the borderers." " Difficulties," which are not described, having " prevented the execution of the order of the Assembly," its next step was to ascertain the line by a surveyor EASTERN BOUNDARY. 451 of its own. The consent of a joint commission, however, being still considered as " of great con sequence to the peace of his Majesty's 1719. subjects bordering on said line," Connecti- ^^^' cut made the experiment again, but again 1720. was disappointed. Wellnigh disheartened J*""^""?- in her endeavors after joint action, Connecticut resolved, if one raore proposal of it should 1723. prove fruitless, to solicit from the King an '*''^^" " order for the running and fixing said line, that the improvement of the lands bordering thereon may no longer remain under such discourage- raent" The chance of a settleraent, except by royal intervention, seeraed desperate when a com mittee of the New York Legislature accused the government of Connecticut of having defaced forraer monuments, and the latter retorted the charge, pronouncing it, as against themselves, to be " very unreasonable and even monstrous." Nothing can be more tedious than the recital of the long strife about the boundary between Con necticut and Rhode Island. The reader will be relieved to know that it is approaching its end. The circumstances of an agreement which 1703. had been made respecting this line have ^^^yi^. been related. But it had never been run, though under instructions from the Asserably the June 22. governor of Rhode Island had twice ap- 1714 pointed commissioners to raeet comrais- •'™*i^- sioners frora Connecticut for that purpose. The question was reopened by an order 1719. 452 CONNECTICUT. from England to send over a map of the con tested territory ; and comraissioners were ap pointed by both colonies. Again they failed to agree, and again Rhode Island appealed to the King, sending over her deputy-governor, Jenckes, to urge her claira, and charging treacherous con duct upon John Winthrop in obtaining the charter 1721. for his colony. The King in Council re- Junei9. fg^red the raatter to the Board of Trade. The Board reported that the case of Rhode Island 1723. "was not good in law, though they thought March 22. Jt probable " that King Charies the Second was surprised in his grant to Connecticut"; and they concluded that, as a convenient end to the dispute, " it were to be wished that they would both voluntarily subrait theraselves to his Maj esty's iraraediate government, as sorae " other colonies have done, and that they raight be an nexed to New Harapshire." The Privy Council coraraunicated this "^ ' judgraent to Partridge, agent for Rhode Island, and to Duraraer, agent for Connecticut, who both, after a time sufficient to communicate with America, reported the disinclination of their respective principals to the proposal. Again com- 1724. missioners were appointed by the two October, colouics to establish the boundary by rau tual agreement, but no account of proceedings of theirs has been preserved. Connecticut, perhaps alarraed by the scherae of union with New Harap shire, had ~ resolved to agree to any settleraent. EASTERN BOUNDARY. 453 rather "than have the dispute prolonged. That colony wrote to the Board of Trade, "notwith standing the priority of our charter to that of Rhode Island, his Majesty's determination will, on our part, put a perpetual end to the contro- A'ersy, and confirm that peace between us and them which your Lordships have been pleased to express such a regard for.'' An order 1726 . , iu Council accordingly determined the ^'''¦^• boundary to be " a line drawn from the mouth of Ashaway River, where it falls into the Pawcatuck River, and thence extending north to the south line of the Massachusetts Bay." The boundary thus estabhshed has been continued to this day. King's Province, thus included within 1729. Rhode Island, took the name of King's •'"°^" County (changed after fifty years to Washington County), the other counties being called respec tively, Newport, and Providence. The settlement of the eastern boundary of Con necticut by the Privy Council raight seera to be a confirraation of the charter of that colony from the highest authority, and a relinquishment ofthe long-cherished scheme to make Connecticut a royal estate. But the perraanent jealousy in Eng land of Connecticut as well as of Massachusetts, as aspiring to be independent, and as faUing to enforce the English laws for the regulation of commerce, was constantly stimulated by the self ishness of English raerchants. It has been related that, even before the death of King Wihiara, Joseph 454 CONNECTICUT. Dudley, tnen in Parliament, had been concerned in the preparation of a bill for vacating the three New England charters, as well as those of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and sorae of the West India governraents. The bill was defeated, when offered early in the next reign, — a result which was in no sraall part due to the exertions , ^ of Sir Henry Ashurst. Dudley and Lord Cornbury next presented coraplaints to the Privy Council, which after a hearing were dis missed. A similar attempt by the sarae parties, sorae years later, raet with no better success. After Dudley's retireraent it was renewed in England by the raercantile interest, and again a bill was brought into Parlia ment for the abolition of the charter gov ernraents. It was on this occasion that Jeremiah Duraraer, then agent in England for Connecticut, wrote his famous treatise entitled " Defence of the Araerican Charters." Again the project miscar ried, and again it was revived. The quarrel 1721 ' ct in Massachusetts between Shute and the Representatives renewed the dissatisfaction in England against colonial privileges, and a res olute raoveraent against thera was reasonably feared. The daraage was averted for the tirae by the publication of Dumraer's book, which he dedicated to Lord Carteret (afterwards Earl of Granville), then newly made Secretary of State for the colonies. His argument was disposed under four heads : THE CHAETEE IN DANGER. 455 1. " That the charter governraents have a good and undoubted right to their respective charters," which he urged by showing not orily that they were grants frora the sovereign, who had a right to make an irrevocable grant, but, further, " that the Araerican charters were of a higher nature, and stood on a better foot, than the corporations in England," because " the former were given as premiuras for services to be perforraed, and there fore were to be considered as grants upon a valuable consideration." 2. " That these govern ments have by no misbehavior forfeited their charters," under which head he showed that they had at rauch cost and with great valor defended their people and assailed the coraraon eneray ; that they had treated the natives equitably and huina'nely ; that their adrainistration of justice had been efficient and blameless ; that they had observed and executed the laws of trade; that their legislation had not been " repugnant to the laws of Great Britain"; and that there was no danger of their becoming formidable to the mother- country. 3. " That it was not for the interest of the crown to resurae the charters, if forfeited"; for such a resuraption would impair colonial prosperity, and "whatever injures the trade of the plantations must in proportion affect Great Britain, the source and centre of their coraraerce, frora whence they have their raanufactures, whither they make their returns, and where all their super- lucration is lodged." 4. " That it seemed in- 456 CONNECTICUT. consistent with justice to disfranchise the charter colonies by an Act of Parliament instead of by a prosecution in the lower courts." It was in the second year after Shute's return 1724. to England that a fit of apoplexy put an Sept 20. pj^j ^Q ^jjg jifg Qf Governor SaltonstaU, when he had adrainistered the governraent of Connecticut for sixteen successive years. A clergyraan in the chief raagistracy was a new thing in New England ; but the experiment was in this instance grandly justified by its success. Winthrop, whom Saltonstall succeeded, was not equal to the demands of a time when the rigor of ancient opinions and manners was unavoid ably abating. There was some danger that the pendulum would swing back too far; that the receding tide would pass -into the region of ex travagance and turbulence. The perpetual exam ple of contiguous Rhode Island was unfavorable to good order; and that this influence was not unfelt may be inferred from the factious conduct of Mason and his friends, neighbors of ¦ that colony, in their dispute with the people of New London about the Mohegan lands, and of Fitch and his Coventry friends in the gaol-breaking riot. Saltonstall becarae governor in the year of the synod which arranged the Consociation of the churches. He forwarded that raeasure with all his great influence, and it was charged that in return the clergy had no little agency in proraoting his elevation to civil office. His hand upon the helra GOVEENOR SALTONSTALL. 457 of state proved to be rauscular and firm. To sorae it seeraed to be even rough and heavy. But his abilities, energy, and various accomplishraents were universaUy allowed, even when his enlight ened public spirit soraetiraes failed to secure its due estiraation. The reader reraembers Sir Richard SaltonstaU, the early Assistant ofthe Massachusetts Company, and head of the party of eraigra;hts which estab lished itself at Watertown. His oldest son, 1633. Richard, afterwards dso an Assistant, raar- O"*"''*''- ried Mariel Gurdon, of Assington, in the 1637. English county of Suffolk ; and their oldest son, Nathaniel, born at Ipswich, in Massachu- 1639. setts, and graduated at Harvard College, 1659. was, like his forefathers, an Assistant of the I679-I686. colony. Nathaniel's oldest son, born in iggg HaverhUl, received the narae of Gurdon. March27. He graduated at Harvard CoUege, and, 1684. devoting himself to the clerical profession, 1591. became the minister of New London, and ''°^" ^¦ accordingly the pastor of the Winthrops. A local occasion engaged hira in business, which led, by unexpected consequences, to his large subsequent participation in the raanageraent of the affairs of the colony. One John 1689. Liveen, of New London, had devised O"*-!^- property to " the rainistry " of that town. John Winthrop and Edward Palmes, husband of Win throp's sister, were executors of the will. Winthrop would have proceeded in the honest discharge of 458 CONNECTICUT. the trust But Palmes, an ancient friend of Andros, refused to convey the property, holding that the devise was void, as being in violation of the Eng lish statute of mortmain, and that, if not void, the "rainistry" conteraplated by it raust be con strued to be the ministry recognized by the law"s of England, that is, the ministry of the Episcopal Church. The colonial courts decided against him ; but on the death of Liveen's widow, John and Nicholas Hallam, her sons by a forraer raarriage, revived the question, and took the alarra- ing measure of an appeal respecting it to the King's Privy Council. It was a question of radical importance, for it involved the goodness of the title to large araounts of property held by the towns for the raaintenance of their pastors. And other questions, started at the sarae tirae by Major Palmes in connection with his inheritance from his father-in-law, touched the validity of the laws of Connecticut in respect to the distribution of intestate estatesj and would have unsettled titles deemed secure since the beginning of her history. John Winthrop becarae governor at this tirae. In his best estate he was- scarcely equal to such a confiict. In the last years of his life he was much disabled by gout, and an embarrassment to his action arose from his being hiraself a party to one division of the controversy which was pending. ' It was natural that he should have recourse to a neighbor and friend, whose raasterly GOVERNOR SALTONSTALL. 459 talents he knevv how to estimate, and who was already prorapted by partly personal reasons to vigUance and activity. , Saltonstall was, or in these circumstances becarae, by far the raost learned and able lawyer in the colony. In the last years of Winthrop's administration it was scarcely in anything but name that Saltonstall was not governor. The correspondence of the colony with its agents and other friends in Eng land was conducted by his pen. The parties in his colony felt in every movement his comraand ing influence. As his habit of acting in the public business was strengthened, the objects of his attention in that sphere were raultiplied. In addition to the dispute which first brought hira ' into the pohtical field, the claims of the Mohegan Indians, as they have -been described, and the location of Yale College, furnished the raost ex citing questions of the period, and in all of thera he had a hand, which was felt more and more to be weighty, if not controlling. Meanwhile he had been pursuing his professional duties at New London, entirely unexpectant, as far as appears or may be guessed, of a transfer to any civil post Winthrop died, and the 1707. Assembly, in joint ballot, passing over the ^"'' ^''' heutenant-governor, Jones, chose Saltonstall to be governor till the tirae of the next popular elec tion. The people elected hira the next spring, and continued to do so every year to the close of his hfe. That he received these repeated tokens of 460 CONNECTICUT. their confidence was not because he was popular, as that word is coraraonly accepted. As far as scorn was possible to his grave and placid mind, he loathed the arts which are resorted to by base natures for the winning of popular adulation. Not only did his lofty sense of right forbid and disdain all deference to the prejudices and pas sions ahke of "the little vulgar and the great"; his personal dignity dictated abstinence from professions of his always generous devotion to the public welfare. The element, in the western counties, of preten tious loyalty, and taste for the Church of England, the disputes about Indian lands in the eastern counties, and the division of opinion xespecting the location of Yale College, afforded a basis for parties which, united in a common disaffection, were capable of creating frequent embarrassraents for the adrainistration ; and, especially during the early part of Saltonstall's official terra, he found the House of Deputies factious and intractable. So rauch had he been hampered and harassed that, after the experience of ten years in office, he resolved to rid hiraself of the galling burden. At no other tirae did he descend so rauch 1717. to self-vindication, as when, declining to ^"y^"- accept the election which had just taken place, he said to the Assembly, " I have, I thank God, this satisfaction in my own mind, that I was removed frora a station of public service, to which I was (though unworthy) called in the Church, into this GOVERNOR SALTONSTALL. 461 that I now ara, without any the least secret pro jecting of it in ray own breast. It was a real surprise to rae I can with all assurance say that I endeavored in this affair not to go before, but to follow (and I hope I did sincerely follow) the conduct of Divine Providence, to which I would still be entirely resigned I ara of opinion that it behooves any one who is intrusted as I ara, to carry it in all raanagement so as to deserve subraission, and consequently to expect it. This I. have endeavored to do, with all the condescension I could towards the peaceable and orderly. And when any persons behave theraselves in an unruly and disorderly raanner, I believe, too, they should be raade sensible of their error. This also I have been solicitous to rriake ray care, and this I ara so firmly persuaded to be fit and necessary for upholding not only the honor but the usefulness and even being of governraent, that it 's irapossible for rae to do otherwise. Now if this be like to beget and increase an uneasiness among the people, if the maintaining sorae sraall degree of that respect due to governraent be not agreeable with our Constitution, it will be much better I should resign ray charge, and never trouble others or rayself any further with what in ray opinion is so necessary and in theirs so grievous." The House returned for the time to its better raind, and united with the other branch of the Asserably in entreating the governor "with his 462 CONNECTICUT. wonted diligence and steadiness to proceed in the public business " ; and he consented to retract his resignation. But as yet the favor of the deputies was fickle. Two years raore brought the crisis of the governor's position. An atterapt was made, by the nominaton of Lieu tenant-Governor Gold, to supersede him in the chief rnagistracy ; and, apparently for the first time in her history, Connecticut witnessed a disputed election. The attenipt not only failed disgrace fully, but brought a powerful reaction to the gov ernor's side. Hartford, angry with him for his influence in deterraining the place of the College, set aside her two deputies to the General Court, and sent her two rainisters in their place. One of thera was not only not adraitted to his seat, but was put on trial for " defaming his Majesty's governraent in this colony," by charging the governor " with the breach of the sixth and eighth coraraandraents" ; whUe Major Fitch, the leader of the discontented party, was brought to retract pubhcly his calumnious words, and ask the governor's forgiveness for thera. And thenceforward the course of Saltonstall's admin istration was tranquil to its close. Its wisdora and vigor moulded the sentiments of a transition period, and no man meraorable on the bright roll of Connecticut worthies did raore to establish for her that . character which was indicated by the narae, appropriated to her, generation after gener ation, of " the land of steady habits." NEW ENGLAND POLITICS. 463 The reader of this volume has had constant occasion to observe that, since the Revolution which overthrew the administration of Governor Andros and the government of King James the Second, the great early questions of New England politics had become obsolete. It might be, indeed, that the Protestant settlement of the English monarchy would after all be overthrown, and the despotic rule of thc Stuart dynasty be re-estab hshed. But, at all events, for the present there was no danger of the ascendency of a Popish policy in the British Cabinet, and the legal tolera tion for dissenters which carae in with the Prince of Orange, and was not withdrawn under his successors, was enough, iraperfect systera as it was, to set the colonists at rest as to the safety of their religious freedora. And, as they had re covered and preserved the right of legislating for theraselves under certain restrictions, the complete bearing and force of which were not at first ascer tained, it seeraed that they raight promise theni selves security against the repetition of such abuses as had driven their ancestors frora Eng- lalnd, and raight apply theraselves with contented diligence to the ordinary pursuits of life, as com munities do that are undisturbed by pohtical injuries or apprehensions. Under the new organization, whatever of politi cal force survived "was concentrated in the colonies of Massachusetts and Connecticut. The few and feeble towns of New Hampshire constituted a 464 NEW ENGLAND POLITICS. royal province, unprotected by -a charter, and lying at the King's raercy, except so far as Eng lishraen might be held entitled to the protection of English law in any and all circurastances. Plymouth no longer existed but as a part of Massachusetts. The small and ill-compacted population of Rhode Island had no policy of self-protection, except that of sycophancy to the English court, and of those disputes with its neighbors in which it might proraise itself the favor of the horae governraent, whose obvious policy it was to strengthen the feeble colony at the expense of those which were capable of offer ing raore opposition to encroachraents on the part of the crown. Connecticut, with her charter safe, and entitled by it, hke Rhode Island, to choose all her owm rulers, and within certain liraits to con duct her own legislation, had little to keep her relation to the mother-country in mind Theoret ically she could not raake laws "repugnant to the law^s of England " ; but there was no effective provision for bringing her enactments under the revisal of the King's government, and, unless she allowed herself in such imprudence in respect to the English laws of trade as would alarm the cupidity of English merchants, and stimulate them to go before the Ministry with complaints, there was nothing to trouble her coraplete repose, or to prevent her people frora passing lives of in dustrious tranquillity, unmolested by any. public cares beyond that of providing for a fair and com- NEW ENGLAND POLITICS. 465 fortable doraestic adrainistration. Even French and Indians did not touch the sheltered viUages of Connecticut. Often she did her part hot illib erally in aid of Massachusetts and even of New Harapshire, but no Indian war-path reached so far as to the dwellings of her people. On Massachusetts, therefore, devolved substan tially the protection of the interests and the prin ciples of New England in the decades that elapsed between the Revolution of the seventeenth century and the Revolution of the eighteenth. Frora the sarae causes, Massachusetts had the sarae relief as her sister colonies frora the raost fretting anxieties of earlier tiraes. She was not subject, hke New Harapshire, to the arbitrary discretion of the King's rainisters. Like Rhode Island and Connecticut, she had a charter ; though, unlike theirs, the privileges which it bestowed were hara- pered with onerous conditions. She had not, like thera, the right to choose her own chief executive officers, but must receive them from unsympathiz- ing raen, ignorant of her affairs and wants, thou sands of railes away. She had the reputation of being rich enough to be able to make the govern ment over her a profitable job, on which account it was sought by one needy adventurer after another. Her recording-officer, appointed by the King, might be expected to fulfil strictly his duty, pre scribed by the charter, of reporting her enactraents to the Privy Council, by which body it was not to be supposed that they would be regarded with a 30 466 NEW ENGLAND POLITICS. favorable eye. Her governor, a placeraan of the King, had a raaterial function in constituting one branch of her Legislature. Through hira, their representative and agent, the British Ministry had the noraination df all officers employed in the adrainistration and execution of the ¦ law, and the power of arresting all obnoxious legis lation. Contemplating the dangers which lay, not hid den but patent, in such provisions, the observer of these times is less surprised at what at first view seems the captious jealousy entertained by Massachusetts of her royal governors. Phipps was one of her own people, — a shaUow raan, with friendly intentions, and incapable of occa sioning alarm, even if the pubhc attention had not been engrossed with military raoveraents. During the little tirae passed by liord Belloraont in Massachusetts, he cultivated the good-will of its people ; but even then they were on their guard, and, though they raade him grants of un precedented- liberality, they refused the request he was instructed to make for a fixed annual allowance. WhUe Stoughton was at the head of affairs, the critical questions between the province and the government at home were in abeyance. The peremptory demands of Dudley were met with a positive and immovable resistance. The province would not, at the dictation of the horae government, build a fort to protect an outlying waste, or establish salaries for the governor, lieu- NEW ENGLAND POLITICS. 467 tenant-governor, and judges. His persistence and that of his raasters had no effect, and he desisted from it, persuaded of its inutUity. The patriots of Massachusetts raust have seen with satisfaction the abilities and resolution of Dudley exchanged for the raoderate capacity of Shute, and it was natural that they should esteem the tirae a favorable one for settling precedents for future use. In Shute's administration the norraal . relation created by the provincial, charter between the province and the mother-country first assumed its true outline and proportions. Every threat of cancelling that instrument was an evidence of ill-wUl on one side, and tended to aggravate the existing jealousy on the other. But it was im possible, from the first, that the working of the new constitution should be satisfactory to both parties. As often as it favored one it offered sorae annoyance to the other. No raaxirn of political science is raore indisputa ble than that for free governraents t-he executive and legislative authorities must be kept distinct Yet such is the difficulty or irapossibility of pre venting by special provisions all encroachment of one upon the other, that it is doubtful whether anything can effect it when there exists raistrust between the two departraents. If one apprehends an attempt at usurpation on the other's part, its natural defence is in the raost extended exercise of its own powers that is any way defensible or plausible. The raethod is retaliated, and the con- 468 NEW ENGLAND POLITICS. test becoraes one of extreme pretensions on both sides. So it was in England in the tirae of King Charles the First. So it was in Massachusetts when the Legislature undertook to withdraw the mihtary comraand frora Governor Shute. So it was in the first years that succeeded the over throw of the Slave-Power Rebellion in the United States. Extreme as raay appear some of the raeasures of the patriot legislators of Massachusetts in their opposition to the early royal governors, it is strik ing to observe how they were justified by later events. To the end that executive and judicial officers may do their duty without fear or favor, it seeras that they should not be dependent for their living on grants raade by a legislature frora tirae to tirae. And undoubtedly this is the truth, wherever circurastances are such that to exerapt them from this form of dependence is in reality to secure to them the disinterested guidance of their own conscience and judgraent. But, raost unfortunately, the constitution of governraent under the provincial charter of Massachusetts was such, that the people could not raake their governor and judges independent of theraselves without throwing thera into the adverse interest, and making them the partial and powerful de pendents of the crown. When, forty years after Governor Shute's tirae, the colonies were plun ging into the armed contest for political indepen dence, the champions of Araerican rights Ulustrated NEW ENGLAND POLITICS. 469 in elaborate argument the occasions which had existed all along for keeping the governors and judges dependent on the people, as affording the only security against their becoming at once obsequious and powerful tools of the King, and accordingly as constituting an absolute necessity of freedom. We have approached the period of the New England actors in the achievement of Araerican Independence. When the first century of Massa chusetts 'was coraing to its end, siraultaneously with the end of the reign of the first British monarch of the house of Hanover, James Otis, Sarauel Adams, and Roger Sherman were chil dren learning the alphabet ; Israel Putnam was a f school-boy ; Jonathan Trumbull was a senior sophister of Harvard College ; and the printer, Benjamin FrankUn, had just entered on man's estate. THE END. Cambridge : Printed by Welch, Bigelow, and Company. W^'!,^'-