74- 73'~~~~~~~~~2 1 o n8itde'%sf frorn-1 reern wich71 / 0 _______ 7 1%0-nfaI__ __eLac l Ja C 1,c ~~~~0,~ ~ ~ 052 2&ie _ -~~~~~ _ ~ ~ ~ ~,j77~~~~~~~ iiI~~J:X 17Y 22agliii J 317~~~~~ 7 QaNj, 43~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~4 lliaiaa -~ 7~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~,Gle c~~~~lia.c rlor - 42~~~~~~~~~~~~, yA ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~~~~2tl'2 JiaaJ)t 434 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~~~~~~>3 i~ta Saalli.7>727D, 27' - /m jl Ra~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~2 a 11 c l Ioil MdJ acL iiaaiL~~~~~~~~~I 41u — o 2 0 ~ ~~5~~~~~a-1~~~~~~~~~.~~ fi9 Ii Q,~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~0 73727 ~~c/72~~2c2-j44-~' 2222-c~~~~~i~w~acc/.4 B-1 I S T O R Y OF NEW ENGLAND. BY JOHN GORHAM PALFREY. VOLUME III. BOSTON: LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. 1865. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, by JOHN GORHAM PALFREY, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. UNIVERSITY PRESS: WELCH, BIGELOW, AND COMPANY, CAMBRIDGE. HISTORY OF NEW E N GLAND DURING THE STUART DYNASTY. BY JOHN GORHAM PALFREY. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. III. BOSTON: LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. 1865. Entered according to Act of Congress. in the year 1864, by JOHN GORHAM PALFREY, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. UNIVERSITY PRESS: WELCH, BIGELOW, AND COMPANY, CAMBRIDGE. PREFACE TO THE THIRD VOLUME. Tms portion of my History has been composed in circumstances less favorable than attended the preceding volumes. While it has been on my hands, most of my time has been due to occupations of a quite different nature; the state of my country has been such as to engage the thoughts of every patriotic citizen, to the disturbance of calmer meditations; and I have not been without a full share in the domestic and personal anxieties of these afflicted years. I have done the best that I could under the conditions of the case. While my advancing life forbade me to delay anything that I proposed to do, I have felt the obligation of not hurrying to the press. I hope that at least I have been sufficiently cautious to set down nothing that may mislead the reader. For the rest, I must trust to the indulgence which hitherto has encouraged my endeavors. I am sensible to the generous kindness with which my work has been received in this country. Nor has foreign criticism dealt with it less liberally. It could not reasonably have been expected to have much attraction for English readers. It relates what was done in a few years, in a remote and narrow sphere of action, by a few worthy offshoots from their own generous stock; and in single instances, as in the account of the motives for emigration in the First Volume, and of the controversy between the Presbyterians and the Independents in the Second, I may perhaps be thought to have made some contribution to English history. But it is impossible for my book to be judged vi PREFACE. by a standard applicable to works which relate the course of wars on a large scale, the intrigues of courts, and the vicissitudes of great empires. The nature of the subject determined that my main purpose should be to trace the growth of these States in their primitive colonial condition; and the materials for this narrative, which I could take only as I found them, are such as, in hands far more capable than mine, would, I suppose, hardly prove susceptible of picturesque exposition. On the other hand, an-interest of a peculiar kind undoubtedly attaches to the elementary condition of a people which within so short a period has become so numerous and so important in the world. A few weeks only before the time at which I am writing these words, there passed away, in the scarcely abated strength of his fine powers, an illustrious man, whose life had covered considerably more than a third part of the life of Christian New England. When Josiah Quincy, of Boston, was twelve or thirteen years old, Nathaniel Appleton was still minister of Cambridge, and a preacher in the Boston pulpits; Appleton, born in Ipswich in 1693, had often sat, it is likely, on the knees of Governor Bradstreet, who was his father's neighbor; and Bradstreet came from England, in John Winthrop's company, in 1630. Eyes that had seen men who had seen the founders of a Cisatlantic England have cooked also on New England as she presents herself to-day. Everywhere in our times there are local antiquaries thor-'ilghly acquainted, each in his place, with the parts of this history which I have essayed to combine into a whole. Either I have not hitherto fallen into material errors; or they have been unnoticed; or they have been passed over with lenity. While I have sedulously aimed at accuracy, I am not so ignorant as to presume that, in presenting so many matters of detail, I have escaped mistakes. I shall very gratefully receive suggestions enabling me to correct them. In the preparation of this volume, I have continued to experience the kindness of friends who laid me under obligations for assistance in the earlier parts of the work. Among them I ought again particularly to mention Mr. Deane, Mr. Trumbull, PREFACE. Vil Mr. Haven, and Mr. Folsom. Questions which arose have often been submitted by me to one or another of these gentlemen, and never without obtaining such satisfaction as the case allowed. If, after all, I have sometimes differed from them, it has never been without diffidence, or without a careful revisal of the grounds of my own opinion. For the beautiful embellishment of this volume which forms the frontispiece, I am indebted to my friends, M. Sandoz, who drew the Map, and Professor Guyot, whose personal observations of the topography of New England it records. Mr. Boynton's skilful graver has done justice to the delineation. In illustration of statements made in this volume, I have very frequently resorted to the collection of Colonial Papers in the British State-Paper Office, which I carefully examined eight years ago. The memoranda which I made were accompanied by references to volume and page. But these references I could not now use, as the volumes have since been broken up, in order to arrange their contents in a more strict chronological order,a step which it is earnestly to be hoped that the Government of Massachusetts may be induced to take with regard to its precious collection of State Papers, now lying in the chaotic disorder into which they were dispersed under the authority of joint resolves of,the General Courts of 1839 and 1840. In 1860, too late for my advantage, Mr. W. Noel Sainsbury, of the British State-Paper Office, published, under the enlightened patronage of his government, the first volume of his masterly analysis of Colonial Papers. It comes down only to the year 1660, so that I have been without benefit from it. To Mr. Sainsbury's forthcoming volumes, with which a comparison will easily be made by the dates, I must appeal for the correctness of my citations from the manuscripts. The papers to which I have referred by the title of " O'Callaghan, Documents, &c.," are well known by students of our annals to have been derived from a collection made in England, Holland, and elsewhere, by Mr. J. Romeyn Brodhead, the accomplished historian of New York. My references bear the name of the editor, in conformity to the title-page of the printed volumes. Viii PREFACE. In the history of New England there are chronological parallelisms not unworthy of remark. Some critical events in it were just a century apart. In 1665, the courtiers tried her temper with Lord Clarendon's Commission; in 1765, they tried it with Mr. George Grenville's Stamp-Act. In 1675 began the attack on her freedom, which I have recorded in this volume; in 1775 began the invasion which led to her independence of Great Britain. But the cycle of New England is eighty-six years. In the spring of 1603, the family of Stuart ascended the throne of England. At the end of eighty-six years, Massachusetts having been betrayed to her enemies by her most eminent and trusted citizen, Joseph Dudley, the people, on the 19th day of April, 1689, committed their prisoner, the deputy of the Stuart King, to the fort in Boston which he had built to overawe them. Another eighty-six years passed, and Massachusetts had been betrayed to her enemies by her most eminent and trusted citizen, Thomas Iutchinson, when, at Lexington and Concord, on the L9th of April, 1775, her farmers struck the first blow in the War of American Independence. Another eighty-six years ensued, and a domination of slaveholders, more odious than that of Stuarts or of Guelphs, had been fastened upon her, when, on the 19th of April, 1861, the streets of Baltimore were stained by the blood of her soldiers on their way to uphold liberty and law by the rescue of the National Capital. In the work now finished, which is accordingly a whole in itself, I have traversed the first of these three equal periods, relating the history of New England down to the time of her First Revolution. If my years were fewer, I should hope to follow this treatise with another on the History of New England under the Whig dynasties of Great Britain. But I am not so sanguine as I was when, six years ago, I proposed " to relate, in several volumes, the history of the people of New England." Nor can I even promise myself that I shall have the resolution to attempt anything further of this kind. Some successor will execute the inviting task more worthily, but not with more devotion than I have brought to this essay, nor, I venture to think, with greater PREFACE. ix painstaking. As I part from my work, many interesting and grateful memories are awakened. I dismiss it with little apprehension, and with some substantial satisfaction of mind. For mere literary reputation, if it were accessible to me, would not now be strongly attractive; my ambition has rather been to contribute something to the welfare of my country by reviving the image of the ancient virtue of New England; and I am likely to persist in the hope that in that honest undertaking I shall not appear to have altogether failed. J. G. P. BOSTON, Massachusetts; 1864, November 4. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Map of New England'in 1689... Before the Title-page HIubbard's Map of New England in 1677... Page 155 Seller's Map of New England in 1685 o. a 489 CONTENTS OF THE THIRD VOLUME. BOOK III, FINAL RELATIONS WITH THE STUART KINGS. CHAPTER I. ENGLAND UNDER KING CHARLES THE SECOND. PAGI France under Louis the Fourteenth.. o 4 French Invasion of Flanders..... 4 Sir William Temple at the Hague... e.. 5 The Triple Alliance.......... 6 Scheme for a Religious Comprehension in England.. o 7 Increased Severities against Non-Conformists.... 8 Eighth Session of Parliament. e o 8 New Conventicle Act..... 8 French Partialities of the King.. o. 9 The Cabal Ministry.. e.. 10 Treaty between Charles and Louis.. *. 12 Ninth Session of Parliament...... 13 English Repudiation of Public Debt.... 13 Declaration of Indulgence. ee o 14 War with Holland.... 15 Tenth Session of Parliament. * e o 16 Withdrawal of the Declaration of Indulgence... 18 Disaffection of Lord Shaftesbury. e. o 18 The Test Act...... 19 Eleventh and Twelfth Sessions of Parliament. e e a 20 Dissolution of the Cabal Ministry. e. 21 Peace with Holland.. o o 22 Ministry of Lord Danby... 22 Thirteenth and Fourteenth Sessions of Parliament e o. 22 Defeat of the High Tory Party...... o 23 Pacific Disposition of the King of France. o. e e 24 Fifteenth Session of Parliament. e e. 25 Successes of the French Arms... o e.25 Marriage of the Prince of Orange to the Princess Mary. 26 Abortive Military Preparations.. 27 VOL. III. b ~Xi^~i CONTENTS. Treaty of Nimeguen..... 28 Non-Conformists in Scotland.. o 29 Re-establishment of Episcopacy in Scotland.. 29 Insurrections in Scotland...... 30 The King's Ecclesiastical Supremacy in Scotland.. 0 31 Council for Foreign Plantations... o 32 Custom Duties in the Colonies.... 33 Re-conquest of New York by the Dutch.. 34 Retrocession of New York to England.. 34 Edmund Andros, Governor of New York o e. 34 CHAPTER II. CONDITION OF NEW ENGLAND AFTER FORTY YEARS. Population of New England in 1665... 35 Towns of the several Colonies. 0 0 0. 86 Description of New England by the Royal Commissioners.. 37 Revision of the Laws of the several Colonies in 1672. 40 Government and Laws of Massachusetts e *. 40 General Court. o e 41 Inferior Courts...a e. o42 Judicial Processes.. e. 43 Inheritances........ 44 Offences and Penalties *. O e 45 Militia....... e o. 48 Religious Observances. * *. 49 Revenue System..... 50 Regulations for Shipping and Navigation e a. 50 Inspection Laws... e e 52 Prohibitions and Regulations of Trade... 52 Municipal and Police Regulations.. 55 Government and Laws of Connecticut. e 57 General Court... *. 57 Inferior Courts.. o. o.. 58 General Character of Legal Enactments. * 59 Marriage and Inheritances.. a. 61 Towns... 0 0... 61 Ecclesiastical System. * o. e 61 Government and Laws of Plymouth. o. 61 General Court...., e 0.. 62 Inferior Courts...... 63 Offences........ 63 Revenue System.........64 Spirit of the Legislation of New England.. 65 Exposures of an Emigrant People * * o 67 Precautions against them in New England... 68 SCHEME OF A SECOND CONFEDERACY. Attempts to revive the Confederacy of the Colonies.. 71 CONTENTS. xii Meeting of Federal Commissioners. <.. 72 Objections of Plymouth to a new Confederation. 72 Proposal of an Amended Scheme.... 74 Agreement upon a new Frame of Articles... 75 Confederation of Three Colonies.... o 78 CHAPTER III. MASSACHUSETTS. Death of John Wilson of the First Church. 81 Removal of John Davenport from New Haven to Boston.. 81 Establishment of a Third Church in Boston... 83 Agitations respecting the Half- Way Covenant.... 85 Death of Davenport,... e o 88 Renewed Controversy with the Baptists. e 88 Death of Sir John Temple'....... 89 Death of Governor Bellingham. * o. 92 Subsidence of Prejudice against the Baptists e e 92 Liberality towards the College. 93 Troubles in the College.. 93 Presidency of Leonard Hoar o * 94 His Resignation'and Death.... 96 Extension of Massachusetts eastward. o o 96 County of Devonshire.....o 97 PLYMOUTH. Death of Governor Prince....... 97 Administration of Governor Josiah Winslow. * 98 Restoration of James Cudworth to the Magistracy.. 98 Endowment of a Public School *.. 99 Good Understanding between Plymouth and the Royal Commissioners. 99 RHODE ISLAND. Charter Government of Rhode Island,. * 99 Its Feeble Administration.... 101 Factions and Disorders.... 101 Growth of the Sect of Quakers in Numbers and Consequence. 105 Visit from George Fox.. 106 Challenge of Roger Williams to Fox... 107 Williams's Debate with Quakers.... 108 Designs of Rhode Island against the Dutch Colonists.. 108 Question of Boundary with Connecticut.. 109 CONNECTICUT. Administration of John Winthrop, the Younger.. 114 Project of an Invasion of New France... 114 Continued Controversy about the Subjects of Baptism. 116 A Second Church in Hartford... 119 Settlement of a Boundary Line with Massachusetts.. 119 Quarrel with the Dutch..119 Meeting of Federal Commissioners.... 121 XLV CONTENTS. Attitude of Massachusetts towards the Dutch. 121 Operations of the Dutch in Long Island Sound. 124 Intelligence of the Peace of Westminster.. o. 126 Restoration of New Amsterdam to England o 127 Arrival of Edmund Andros as Governor e o o 127 His Claim to Territory of Connecticut. o 128 Preparations of Connecticut for Resistance. o o 129 Threatening Visit of Andros to Saybrook O e 130 His peaceable Return to New York.e e 131 CHAPTER IV. PHILIP'S WAR. Condition of New England at the Beginning of the War. o o 132 Relations of the Colonists to the Natives o o. 137 Praying Indians.... o o 141 Pokanoket, or Wampanoag, Tribe. 142 Death of the Sachem Massasoit... 0 142 His Son, Alexander, Chief of the Pokanokets o O o 143 Death of Alexander,... o 143 His Brother, Philip, Chief of the Pokanokets. e.,143 Renewal of the Treaty of 1621.... 145 Charges against Philip of treacherous Designs... 145 Friendly Relations restored. o. o 146 Renewed Symptoms of Disaffection on Philip's Part.. 148 Submission of Philip....... 150 Charges of Sausaman against him...... 150 Murder of Sausaman.,. e o 152 Hostile Preparations of Philip... o o o 153 Assault of Indians on the Town of Swansey o e e 155 Movement of Colonial Troops.... 155 Retreat of Philip from Mount Hope.... 156 Arrangement with the Narragansetts'.. o... 158 Second Stage of the War. - Rising of the Nipmucks... 158 Defeat of Captain Hutchinson by the Nipmucks... 159 Escape of Philip to the Nipmucks.. e o 159 Operations of the Indians at Brookfield.. e 160 Relief of Brookfield by Major Willard... 161 Operations on Connecticut River.. o. * 162 Assaults upon Deerfield and Hadley... o. 163 Re-appearance of the Regicide Colonel Goffe. o o 164 Defeat of Captain Beers at Northfield.. 165 Meeting of the Federal Commissioners at Boston. 166 Critical Condition of the Colonists.. 167 Disastrous Fight at Bloody Brook, in Deerfield o e 169 Attack on Springfield...... 171 Attack on Hatfield.. o e. 171 Laws and Ordinances of War... 172 Alarm respecting the Narragansetts..... o 172 ----—`~T~~-^b ~`~ I —C~li CONTENTS. XV Extended Military Preparations of the English. o 173 March against the Narragansetts in December. 175 Storming of the Narragansett Fort..... 177 CHAPTER V. Withdrawal of the Troops from the Field... e 181 Sack of Lancaster by the Indians... 182 Captivity of Mrs. Rowlandson. e. 185 Beastly Life of the Indians... e 187 Progress of the War in the Winter and Spring. e 188 Exploits of Denison's Connecticut Volunteers.. o 191 Defeat of Captain Wadsworth by the Indians. 192 Transactions on Connecticut River.. 193 Battle at Turner's Falls. o 194 Exhaustion and Declining Prospects of the Indians. 196 Position of the Praying Indians.... 199 Return of Philip from the West.... 203 Pursuit of him by Captain Church o e o 204 Death of Philip.......... 205 End of the War with the Pokanokets and Nipmucks. O. 206 Continuance of the War in Maine o.. 206 Stratagem of Major Waldron. e 209 Treaty with the Etetchemins.... 211 Renewed Hostilities...... 212 Peace with the Eastern Tribes, and Termination of the War. o 213 Devastations of the War.. e215 Resentment of the Conquerors. e o 216 Treatment of the Conquered... o 220 Sentimental Views of Philip's Character and Policy.. 222 Impoverishment of Massachusetts and Plymouth.. 230 Value of a Rate in Taxation..... 230 Death of John Clarke, of Rhode Island. 232 Death of John Winthrop, of Connecticut.. e 233 Dispiriting Prospects of New England.. e e e *239 CHAPTER VI. ENGLAND UNDER KING CHARLES THE SECOND. Disturbed Politics of England... 241 Popish Plot...... 0 241 Fictitious Disclosures of Titus Oates.. o 241 Death of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey e 245 Meeting of Parliament.... 2a6 Popular Frenzy. *..... 247 Appearance of other Perjurers.. 247 Fright and Artifices of the Protestant Statesmen...247 Exclusion of Catholics from Public Employments. 249 Proceedings against Lord Danby.... 250 t Xvi CONTENTS. Prorogation and Dissolution of Parliament.. 250 Meeting of Charles the Seoond's Third Parliament o.251 Sir William Temple's Scheme of a Ministry. o 252 Proceedings against the Duke of York o.. 253 Exclusion Bill....... 254 Prorogation and Dissolution of Parliament. o. e 255 The Duke of Monmouth... o 255 Lord Shaftesbury's Information against the Duke of York 255 New Names of Parties, Whig and Tory.. o 256 Meeting of Charles the Second's Fourth Parliament..o 256 Defeat of the Exclusion Bill... 256 Conviction and Execution of Lord Stafford. o 257 Prorogation and Dissolution of Parliament. o o 257 Treaty for a French Subsidy... 257 Meeting of Charles the Second's Last Parliament. 257 Dissolution of Parliament... o258 Close of Lord Shaftesbury's public Career. o. 259 Vacating of the Charter of the City of London. o 259 Surrender of other Municipal Charters. 260 Conferences of Whig Leaders.... 261 The Rye-House Plot..... 261 Arrest of Whig Leaders. o o o 262 Trial and Conviction of William Lord Russell. O 263 His Execution.. o264 Trial, Conviction, and Execution of Algernon Sidney o a 264 Depression of the Patriot Party... o 266 Restoration of the Duke of York.e. 0 0. 267 Marriage of the Princess Anne.. < e 267 A Despotism reinstated in England... o 267 Renewed Disturbances in Scotland ~... o 267 Assassination of the Archbishop of St. Andrews o 268 Battles of Loudon Hill and Bothwell Bridge 268 The Duke of York recalled from Flanders.. 269 The Duke made Royal Commissioner in Scotland... 269 Rigorous Administration of Scotland.. 269 Death of King Charles the Second....... 270 His Reconciliation to the Church of Rome. e 271 CHAPTER VII. RENEWED DISPUTE OF MASSACHUSETTS WITH ENGLAND. Consultations of the Council of Foreign Plantations. o 273 Constitution of a Colonial Committee of the Privy Council o 275 Claims of Ferdinando Gorges and Robert Mason.. o o. 275 Complaints of English Tradesmen.. 276 Colonial Doctrines of Sir Josiah Child. *.. o 277 His Estimation of New England and.of Virginia' o ~ 278 Revival of the Revenue Law of the Cabal Ministry. 279 CONTENTS. xvii Projects of the Lords of the Committee..... 280 Mission of Edward Randolph to New England.. 284 His Reception in Massachusetts...... 285 His Visit to New Hampshire... 288 His Visit to Plymouth... 288 His Return to England...... 289 State of the pending Question in England. 289 Proceedings in Massachusetts after Randolph's Departure.291 Stoughton and Bulkeley sent to England with an Address 293 Randolph's Report of his Observations in New England.295 Other Descriptions of New England, near the same time. e 303 Arrival of the Agents of Massachusetts in England. 304 Proceedings in England against Massachusetts.... 305 Conciliatory Proceedings o)f Massachusetts.. 311 Purchase of New Hampshire from Gorges by Massachusetts.. 312 Hostility of Randolph, Andros, and the Quakers to Massachusetts. 313 Report of the Crown Lawyers on the Legal Condition of Massachusetts 316 Randolph made Collector of the Customs in New England. 317 Reply of the Agents to Randolph's Report.. 318 Vain Entreaty of the Agents to be dismissed. 319 Further Concessions in Massachusetts... o o320 Further Instructions to the Agents...o. 321 Further Demands from England.... 324 Dismissal and Return of the Agents.. 325 tandolph's immediate Departure on a second Visit to New England. 327 CHAPTER VIII. CONTINUED DISPUTE WITH ENGLAND. Death of Governor Leverett.. 329 Accession of Governor Bradstreet.... 329 Reforming Synod.... e 330 Visit of Randolph to New Hampshire... 333 Arrival of Randolph at Boston....... 333 Letter from the King, brought by the Agents e e 333 Grudging Compliances with its Demands. e 334 Great Fire in Boston......... 338 Proceedings and Position of Randolph at Boston.. 338 His Departure for New Hampshire..... 341 Rebuke by the King of the Delay in sending Agents.. 341 Deliberations of the General Court... 342 Election of Agents to go to England... 342 Return of Randolph to England....... 343 His Reports and Counsels to the Home Government 345 Revisal in Massachusetts of the Laws.. 348 Delay of the Departure of the Agents... 349 Return of Randolph from England..... 349 Peremptory Letter from the King....... 350 Xviii CONTENTS. Proceedings of the General Court thereupon.. * 351 Despatch of the Agents, Dudley and Richards. 352 Hostile Representations of Randolph against the Patriot Party.. 354 CHAPTER IX. IUMILIATION OF MASSACHUSETTS. Parties in Massachusetts... 359 Elements of a Local Aristocracy...... 359 The Clergy..... 360 The Popular Party. Thomas Danforth. O. 361 The Moderate Party......... 362 Simon Bradstreet and Israel Stoughton a. 362 Joseph Dudley...... 362 Letters of Randolph to England... O 364 Proceedings of the Agents in England.. 369 Address and Petition of Massachusetts to the King.. 371 Proposal to make a Surrender of Maine.... 373 Return of Randolph to England.....3* 75 Issue of a Writ of quo warranto against the Charter of Massachusetts. 376 Return of Randolph to Massachusetts with the Writ e. 379 Submission of the Magistrates.... 380 Opposition of the Deputies.... e 381 Return of Randolph to England.... 385 His Report to the Secretary of State.... 387 Continued Oppugnation of Massachusetts. 388 Decree in Chancery, vacating the Charter...... 390 Political Condition of Massachusetts without the Charter.. 394 Appointment of Colonel Kirk to be Governor.. 395 Helplessness of Massachusetts.... e 397 CHAPTER X. MAINE. Institution of a Provincial Government.. 401 Presidency of Thomas Danforth. o.. 401 NI w HAMPSHIRE. Organization of New Hampshire as a Royal Province 403 Gratitude of New Hampshire to Massachusetts... 405 Randolph and Mason in New Hampshire. 406 Edward Cranfield, Governor of New Hampshire... 408 His Oppressive Administration.... 409 Defeated Insurrection in New Hampshire 0. 412 Renewed Misgovernment.. e. 413 Renewed Disturbances.. 419 Departure of Cranfield.... 420 PLYMOUTH. Report concerning Plymouth to the Lords of the Committee. 421 CONTENTS. Xix Exhaustion by the Indian War. O * * 422 Solicitations for a Charter...423 Death of Governor Winslow... 423 Thomas Hinckley chosen Governor....424 Legislation against the Buccaneers..... 425 CONNECTICUT. Report concerning Connecticut to the Lords of the Committee. 426 Renewed Dispute with Rhode Island about a Boundary. 428 The Controversy transferred to England.. 431 Randall Holden and John Green in England. 431 Consultation of the Federal Commissioners.. e 432 Military Preparations of Connecticut.. 434 Representations of Connecticut to Lord Sunderland. 435 Publication of Mason's History of the Pequot War 436 Appointment of a Special Commission of Inquiry. 437 Award of the Commission.... 438 Claim of the Duke of Hamilton..... 439 Final Settlement of the Boundary between Connecticut and New York 440 Loyal Temper of Connecticut.*** 441 Death of Governor Leete * *. * * 442 RHODE ISLAND. Death of Roger Williams. 443 Death of William Coddington... 445 DISSOLUTION OF THE CONFEDERACY OF THE THREE COLONIES. Last Meeting of Federal Commissioners... 445 CHAPTER XI. ENGLAND UNDER KING JAMES THE SECOND, King James's Announcement of his Policy..... 446 His First Ministry......... 447 Early Development of his Designs. *. 447 Meeting of Parliament..-.. 448 Insurrection of the Duke of Monmouth....449 His Defeat and Capture......450 His Execution... 450 Insurrection in Scotland........ 450 Defeat, Capture, and Execution of the Earl of Argyll. 450 Cruelties of the Judges Jeffreys and Scroggs.. 451 Second Meeting of Parliament.....452 Final Prorogation of Parliament...... 452 Revocation of the French Edict of Nantes..453 Claim of King James to a Dispensing Power... 453 Its Allowance by the Judges........ 455 Reinstitution of the Court of High Commission. 455 Dismissal of Protestant Tories fiom Office...... 456 Popish Fanaticism of the King... I. 457 His Proclamation of Indulgence..... 460 XX CONTENTS. His Attack on the University of Cambridge... 460 His Quarrel with Magdalen College, Oxford a e e 461 His Second Declaration of Indulgence.. 462 Estrangement of the Clergy from him.. o. 462 Magnanimous Course of the Protestant Sects. 463 Memorial of Seven Bishops... e. 463 Defeat of the Declaration.... 464 Imprisonment of the Bishops..e..... 464 Trial and Acquittal of the Bishops. o e 465 Birth of a Prince of Wales.. 467 Suspicions of Fraud.... 468 The King's Despotism in Scotland. e 469 The King's Despotism in Ireland... e 470 Distress of Englishmen in Ireland...... 472 Politics of the Prince of Orange a 472 His Diplomatic and Military Preparations e o o 473 His Landing in England........ 474 His Arrival in London. e. o. e 476 Flight of King James from England. o. 476 Debates about the Succession... 477 Election of the Prince of Orange, to be King of England... 478 Proclamation of King William and Queen Mary *. 479 CHAPTER XII. PRESIDENCY OF JOSEPH DUDLEY. King James the Second proclaimed in Boston e 481 Despondency in Massachusetts *. * 481 Operations of Randolph in England. *. 482 His Plan for a Government in Massachusetts e o o 483 Election in Massachusetts.... e o 484 Provisional Government constituted. o * 484 Protest of the General Court.. o o 486 End of the Charter Government. o o 487 Dunton's Observations in Massachusetts. * 487 Position and Character of President Dudley. e o 488 Proceedings of the New Government o e l 492 Dissatisfaction of Randolph.. 496 His Zeal for the Church.. 499 Affairs of New Hampshire and Maine. 502 Proceedings at Plymouth.... 503 Randolph's Proceedings against the Charter of Rhode Island.. 505 The New Government in the Narragansett Country. 506 Proclamation of King James in Connecticut..... 507 Randolph's Proceedings against the Charter of Connecticut.. 507 Arrival of Governor Andros..... 511 CONTENTS. xxi CHAPTER XIII. GOVERNMENT OF SIR EDMUND ANDROS. Theory of Andros's Government.. * e 513 Constitution of Andros's Government. * * 515 Seal and Flag of New England.. o 516 Andros's Assumption of the Government. e 517 Proceedings of the New Government. o 519 Introduction of Episcopacy... e 521 Inauguration of an Oppressive Policy. e e 522 Arbitrary Imposition of Taxes.... 524 Resistance at Ipswich and elsewhere *. 525 Suppression of the Resistance.... o 526 Demand for Quitrents..... 529 Seizure of Common Lands 0 e. 530 Extortion of Excessive Fees a e e 531 Degradation of the Council.... 531 Proceedings in the Eastern Territory of the Duke of York. o 532 Proceedings in Plymouth e. 534 Annexation of Rhode Island to the Government of Andros., 535 Pretensions of Andros in respect to Connecticut e. 537'Reluctance of Connecticut... 538 Intrigues in Connecticut., * *. e539 Visit of Andros to Connecticut.. 542 Concealment of the Colonial Charter. The Charter Oak. 542 Annexation of Connecticut to the Government of Andros, o 543 New England consolidated under One Despotism e. 545 CHAPTER XIV. The Governor's Return to Massachusetts. e e 546 Huguenot Congregation in Boston.. o o 546 Seditious Sermon of Charles Morton... e547 Reception of the Royal Declaration of Indulgence o. 548 Legal Consolidation of New England... o 548 Activity in Oppressive Legislation.. 549 Prohibition of Town Meetings.. o. 550 Issue of Writs of Intrusion.... 551 Mission of Increase Mather to England.. 555 Expedition of the Governor to the Eastern Country 558 Capture of Castine's Post.... 559 Treaty with the Eastern Indians.... 559 Regulation of Affairs in Cornwall... e 560 Extension of New England to Delaware Bay. e561 Visit of the Governor to the Southern Provinces * 562 Visit of the Governor to the Iroquois Indians o * 563 Uneasiness among the Indians of Maine.....564 Reception of Mather in England..... 564 Xxii CONTEN'S. Proceedings of Mather and his Associates at Court. 565 Commerce of Boston in 1688... 567 Overture of Andros to the Eastern Indians.. 567 Military Expedition of Andros into Maine. 568 Current Suspicions as to his Designs..569 His Plan to hold New England for King James.. 569 CHAPTER XV. The Governor's Return to Boston from the Eastern Country 570 Charges of Treachery against him.... 572 Intelligence at Boston of the Landing of the Prince of Orange. 574 Outbreak in Boston... e 577 Seizure of Friends of the Governor... 577 Manifesto of the Popular Leaders.. 578 Summons to the Governor.... 580 Imprisonment of the Governor o o. o. 581 Occupation of the Castle.. 581 Stripping of the Rose Frigate.e e o 582 Imprisonment of the Governor's Adherents. o o. 582 Resentment against Dudley..... 584 Provisional Government of Massachusetts. o o.587 Convention of Delegates from the Towns o 588 A Second Convention.... o.. 589 Provisional Re-establishment of the Ancient Government. 589 Proclamation of King William and Queen Mary.. 590 Arrival of Sir William Phipps at Boston. 590 Application of Phipps and Mather to King William... 592 Meeting of the General Court of Massachusetts... 593 Impeachment of Randolph and his Retainers O. o. 593 Imprisonment of Dudley.... o 594 Revolution in Plymouth and Rhode Island.. 596 Revolution in Connecticut..... o e. 597 Recovery of Freedom in New England o o o 598 APPENDIX. COMMISSIONERS OF THE CONFEDERACY. o O 599 MAGISTRATES OF THE SEVERAL COLONIES,, a. 601 MAGISTRATES OF THE ROYAL PROVINCE OF NEW ENGLAND, 604 INDEX......... 605 BOOK III. FINAL RELATIONS WITH THE STUART KINGS. VOL. III. 1 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. BOOK III. FINAL RELATIONS WITH THE STUART KINGS. CHAPTER I. A BRIEF recital of events which took place in the parent country in the years that immediately followed the fall of Lord Clarendon from power, and the discomfiture of his agents in Massachusetts, will throw some light on the history of New England during that time. It will show how it was that the court had no leisure to renew its attempt against the Colonies. It will exhibit some subjects of anxiety which must have divided with matters of merely local interest the attention of patriots in New England. And in particular, in what it discloses of the King's adoption of the ambitious designs of his father, of the character of religious parties and policy in England, of the critical contest which was going on there between the national Church and the Church of Rome, and of the relations to both in which Protestant dissenters were involved, it will explain what strong reason the Colonists had to congratulate themselves on a breathing-time from English interference. Information of many of the events now to be related was brought over as they successively took place, and the sensations which it produced made an important feature of the life of the Colonists. 4 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BooK III. The earliest course of transactions abroad after Lord Clarendon's retirement was such as might be observed by them with satisfaction. Deprived of the steady counsels of that faithful minister, the King found himself at the same time more at liberty than he had been to consult his personal inclinations, and more subject to influence from the popular will.l To this influence is to be traced a measure which at the time took Europe by surprise. When peace had been made with the United Provinces,2 the resentments and apprehensions of Englishmen received a new direction. The recent war had discovered the ambition France under and the resources of the king of France. Louis Louis XI. the Fourteenth, now in the thirtieth year of his age, was the most powerful sovereign of Europe. A brilliant circle of statesmen and commanders stood by his throne. The great administrative ability of counsellors like Colbert and Louvois conducted the interior affairs of his wide, populous, and affluent realm, while captains like Luxembourg, Conde, and Turenne led to his wars a stronger military force than Europe had seen controlled by one man's will since the fall of the Roman empire. Louis, in the right of his wife, who was a daughter of 1605. Philip the Fourth, king of Spain, claimed after ept. 17. her father's death certain provinces in the Spanish Netherlands.3 No longer embarrassed by the war with inonEngland, he now poured forty thousand men of Fanders. into Flanders, and one Spanish stronghold after 1667. another fell into his hands, till he approached July - August. close to the border of the United Provinces. All Europe was alarmed by this display of his pre1 Lister, Life and Administration of 3 Basnage, Annales des Provinces Edward, First Earl of Clarendon, II. Unies, I. 734 et seq. Voltaire, CEuvres 491. Completes, XX. 325 et seq. 2 See Vol. II. p. 441. CHAP. I.] ENGLAND UNDER CHARLES THE SECOND. 5 tensions and his power. The ancient jealousy of Englishmen towards France, suspended for a century while danger seemed more to threaten on the side of Spain, revived in full strength. The Dutch Republic entertained reasonable apprehensions of the consequences likely to follow from the near neighborhood of its recent ally. That accomplished statesman, Sir William Temple, was now residing at Brussels, as minister to the Spanish Regent. He sought an interview at the Hague with the Pensionary, De Witt, then at the head of the Dutch administration. As well-wishers to their respective countries, though without authority to treat, they discussed public affairs in a free conversation, and Temple communicated what had passed between them Sir William in a letter to his brother, a rising lawyer, who Templeatthe had access to the court.1 Whatever might be gue.0 the personal inclinations of the king of England, he was not now in a condition to neglect the urgent wishes of his subjects. That public displeasure against the court which had brought Lord Clarendon to ruin was not yet exhausted. The King, in want of money, was open to the argument that he would do wisely to propitiate the favor of the Commons by a 1 Letter to Sir John Temple, in King, he was contradicted again, and Works of Sir William Temple, I. 305. particularly to the loss of all that we The letter is extremely interesting; lost in Guinny. He told me that he had not least so for De Witt's account, re- so good spies that he hath had the keys ported in it, of the behavior of our taken out of De Witt's pocket when compatriot, George Downing, in bring- he was a-bed, and his closet opened, ing on the late war. -Pepys (Diary, and papers brought to him and left IV. 224, 225) writes: " 1668; Dec. 27. in his hands for an hour, and carried Met with Sir G. Downing, and walked back, and laid in the place again, and with him one hour, talking of business, keys put into De Witt's pocket again. and how the late war was managed, He says he hath always had their most there being nobody to take care of it; private debates, that have been but and he telling, when he was in Holland, between two or three of the chief of what he offered the King to do if he them, brought to him in an hour after, might have power; and then, upon the and an hour after that hath sent word least word, perhaps of a woman, to the thereof to the King." 1* 6 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BOOK III. quarrel with France. Temple received orders to repeat his visit to De Witt and sound him further, and then to come to London for consultation. From London he was sent back again to the Hague, where he proceeded in his business with such energy and despatch, that in five days from his arrival he had concluded a treaty of alliance. The contracting parties agreed together to put a stop, on the one hand, to the conquests of France, The Triple Alualce. by insisting on her adherence to the terms of 1668. a compromise which (not in good faith, as was Jan. 13. believed) she had lately proposed to Spain; and, on the other hand, to compel Spain to accept the offer which had been made. Sweden was admitted as another party to the agreement, which accordingly received the name of the Triple Alliance. The measure was esteemed so important as to have restored England to her natural high place in the system of European politics. It made the English negotiator widely famous, and won back to his master not a little of the enthusiasm which the misconduct of past years had dispelled.l Another undertaking of the time, could it have been carried out, would have conciliated to the King a large and justly irritated portion of his subjects. On the dismissal of Lord Clarendon, Sir Orlando Bridgman, a 1667. dull and learned lawyer, without political amAug.31. bition,2 was placed at the head of the Chancery Court, as Lord Keeper. His moderate way of thinking in religious matters, as well as his views of what policy required in existing circumstances, inclined 1 " The league..... the only good Charges when he sat on the Commispublic thing that hath been done, since sion for trying the Regicides knows full the King come into England." (Pepys, well. (Howell, State Trials, V, 986 Memoirs, &c., IV. 40; comp. 18.) -1301.) His opening speech (9882 Sir Orlando was, however, an am- 994) is a specimen. bitious rhetorician, as the reader of his CHAP. I.] ENGLAND UNDER CHARLES THE SECOND. 7 him to measures of reconciliation with the Presbyterians, and of toleration to the Independents.' In his Scheme for scheme for this end he was sustained by the a Roel~igiou Duke of Buckingham, now desirous of extend- Comprehening his popular connections; by Sir Matthew Hale, Chief Justice of the King's Bench, whose upright and generous mind welcomed every liberal project; by Wilkins, Bishop of Chester, whose genial temper and various studies, no less than his lax theology, rendered him incapable of bigotry; and by Stillingfleet and Tillotson, two young divines now rising to the height which they afterwards adorned in the most respectable days of the episcopate of England.2 These eminent persons set on foot a negotiation with Baxter, Bates, Manton, and other Presbyterian leaders, for carrying into effect by special legislation the purposes which had been announced by the King in his Declaration at Breda.3 The King was not averse to the plan; the less so, because indulgence shown to any class of dissenters from the Church of England would afford a precedent for extending it to Catholics. But the Parliament that had banished Lord Clarendon was not behind that minister himself in stubborn devotion to the Church; and so far was it from favoring the proposed ecclesias- 1668. tical reform, that the House of Commons by April8 a very large majority refused to advise the King "to send for such persons as he should think fit, to make proposals to him in order to the uniting of his Prot1 Kennett, Complete History ofEng- the King or the Parliament what to land, III. 272. yield them, though most of the sober 2 Parliamentary History, IV. 515. party be for some kind of allowance to 3 " There is great presumption that be given them." (Pepys, Memoirs, there will be a toleration granted, &c., IV. 18; comp. Reliquiae Baxteso that the Presbyterians do hold up rianm, III. 36-49; Burnet, History. their heads; but they will hardly trust of His Own Time, I. 259.) 8 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BooK III. estant subjects."' Other proceedings of the Commons showed that discontent was only partially allayed by the welcome treaty with Holland. Inquiries were instituted into the management of different departments of the administration; an address was presented, prayIncreased ing the King to order a strict execution of the sererities against No- laws against dissenters; and only the meagre Conformists. supply was granted him of three hundred and ten thousand pounds. It was plain that further liberality for the present was not to be looked for, and Parliament was prorogued. At the end of a year and a half another short sesEighth Ses- sion was held. But again the Commons were if"Par obstinate, and the King could make no way. 1669. Whatever it was that revived his hopes, he Oct. 19 -Dec. 1. soon repeated the experiment. Probably he expected to obtain favor by yielding to the current of animosity against dissenters. A new CoZNew Conventice Act. venticle Act was passed, which imposed fines of 1670. five shillings for the first offence, and ten for April 11. the second, on all persons present at a meeting for dissenting worship, and of twenty pounds for the first offence, and forty for the second, on preachers, and on householders harboring the meeting. The Act further provided, that " all clauses therein contained should be construed most largely and beneficially for the suppressing of Conventicles, and for the justification and encouragement of all persons to be employed in the execution thereof." 2 When the King had given his assent, he found himself ill requited for the complaisance by a penurious grant of the proceeds of the duties on 1 Burnet, History of His Own Time, 2 Statutes at Large, III. 822-325; I. 363; Pepys, Memoirs, IV. 34, 35; comp. Amos on the English ConstituVaughan, Memorials of the Stuart Dy- tion, &c., 116 - 122. Under the Connasty, II. 359; Neal, IV. 457-462; venticle Act, Richard Baxter was im. Parliamentary History, IV. 404-427; prisoned five different times. Journal of the Commons, IX. 77. CrHA. I.] ENGLAND UNDER CHARLES THE SECOND. 9 some imports, and of authority to sell some of the ancient demesnes of the crown. With the help of fanatical informers, the Conventicle Act was sharply enforced, and dissenters were harassed with new zeal.' Naturally the King was disappointed and vexed. He had come into the measure of the Triple Alliance with no good-will, and now it had proved barren of the expected fruit. Without being ambitious of power for itself, free from all relish for the task of governing, he was impatient of being observed and criticised. The idea of despotic authority was attractive to his mind, because a despot may be self-indulgent without limit as to his means, and without the restraint of any comment that he cares for. No money was to be had from Holland for his private use, and the relations into which he was brought by the alliance with that state assigned a leading part in public affairs to honest Englishmen who would keep a watchful eye upon the public treasury. In a different quarter there was French para brighter prospect.2 In a bargain between the tialitiesof king of England and the king of France, each theKing. had a valuable consideration to offer. Louis could afford to pay for withdrawing England from her new engagements, that he might pursue more easily his operations in the Netherlands. Charles had the honor of his crown and the interests of his subjects to sell for money, which would enable him to gratify his minions, and to dispense with the attendance of meddlesome Parliaments. If disturbances should follow, the king of England would need an armed force to put them down; and an armed force the king of France was prepared to furnish, and would find his account in furnishing, for the foreign sovereign who should suppress a popular 1 Comp. Neal, IV. 468-474. year after the Triple Alliance was 2 De Witt had intelligence of what made. (Works of Sir William Ternwas going on, in little more than a pie, II. 40.) 10 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BooK II. insurrection on English soil would have made himself master of both King and people. There was yet another point of sympathy between the two monarchs, though, beyond the nearest circle about the British throne, its' existence was scarcely as yet suspected. Louis, even amidst the irregularities of his early life, was bigoted to the Church, and Charles had become desirous of declaring himself a Romanist, as soon as it should seem that the avowal might be safely made.l The confidential advisers of the crown were now the The abal five ministers known collectively by the name Ministry of the Cabal, the letters which compose that word being the initial letters of their names. Not one of them was now less devoted than the King himself to his scheme of grasping at arbitrary power. Sir Thomas Clifford, soon ennobled as Lord Clifford, and made Lord Treasurer, was a man of honor after his own standard, though passionate and overbearing. The distinguished good-breeding of the Earl of Arlington (the Secretary Bennett) pleased the King, to whom a quiet but steady and watchful selfishness fitted him to be perpetually subservient and useful. The Duke of Buckingham, a jaded libertine, had sat down to the game of politics as a fresh resource for the excitement which his restless genius craved.2 The profound and 1 According to James's account Vaughan, Memorials of the Stuart Dy(Clarke, Life of James the Second, nasty, II. 368, 370.) I. 440) it was "in the beginning of 2 It was said that, in the time of Cromthe year 1669" that he determined well's greatness, Buckingham made at all hazards to profess himself a Ro- suit to him for the hand of his daughmanist; and on the 25th of January ter, the Lady Mary. Being refused, of that year, his brother held a con- he married a daughter of Lord Fairfax. sultation with him, Lord Arundel of While a member of the Cabal, an inWardour, Lord Arlington, and Sir trigue with the Countess of ShrewsThomas Clifford, " about the ways and bury brought him into a duel with her methods fit to be taken for advancing husband. The lady, in the dress of a the Catholic religion in his dominions, page, held the Duke's horse, while he being nsolved not to live any longer in fought with her husband, whom he the constraint he was under." (Comp. killed. Buckingham brought her to CHAP. I.] ENGLAND UNDER CHARLES THE SECOND. 11 far-sighted Lord Ashley (better known in history by his later title of Earl of Shaftesbury) was now devoting to the service of a dissolute sovereign the admirable abilities which had yielded their first-fruits in the sober counsels of the Commonwealth. The activity, experience, and brutal energy of Maitland, Earl (afterwards Duke) of Lauderdale, made him a fit instrument for some of the worst business of the court. In private he professed himself a Presbyterian, but his convictions did not prevent him from attempting to expel Presbytery from, his native Scotland by massacre and torture.1 Sir John Trevor, a creature of Buckingham, was 1668. made Lord Arlington's colleague as Secretary Dec. 9 of State, in the place of Monk's friend, Morrice.2 With such support Charles the Second revived his father's scheme for the establishment of a despotic monarchy. His sister, Henrietta, married to King Louis's brother, the Duke of Orleans, was a Catholic devotee, and had talents for political business. She came to 1670. Dover, where her brother met her, and the May 17 his house, and when the Duchess corn- (Memoirs, I. 400), Clifford owed his plained of the insult, and said that it first advancement, which took the was not fit for her to live under the whole court by surprise, to the persame roof with his mistress, "I have sonal favor of Arlington. But King been thinking the same thing, Madam," James says that, when he pressed upon he replied, " and so have ordered your his brother the appointment of Clifford Grace's carriage to the door to take as Lord Treasurer, Arlington was disyou to your father." pleased and permanently estranged, 1 Burnet has drawn the characters of having aspired to it himself. (Clarke, the Cabal ministers. (History of His Life of James the Second, I. 481,482.) Own Time, I. 225, 308, 99,100, 96, 265, Evelyn confirms this statement also 101; comp. Clarendon, Life, &c., 181, (I. 464, 465). Arlington married his 370.) Dryden's brilliant sketches, in daughter, when she was only five "Absalom and Achitophel," of Bucking- years old, to the Duke of Grafton, the ham (Zimri) and Shaftesbury (Achito- King's son by the Duchess of Clevephel), poetry though they be, are fairly land. (Ibid., I. 456.) adopted into history. The poet's non- 2 Trevor continued in office three committalism in respect to Arlington years and a half. He died May 28th, (Eliab) is perhaps to be ascribed to the 1672, and was succeeded the followknown dislike of the Duke of York to ing 3d of July by Henry Coventry. that nobleman. According to Evelyn (Kennett, III. 316.) 12 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Boork II. terms of a treaty were arranged.' Charles agreed to declare war against the United Provinces, and, in case of the death of the young king of Spain, to assist Louis in maintaining the claim of his wife to the succession to the Spanish throne. Louis stipulated on his part to pay to the king of England an annuity of two hundred thousand pounds, and to assist him with six thousand troops, if he should require so many, to secure the quiet of his dominions. These contracts, kept secret from the public, were concerted with the privity of all the members of the Cabal; and the treaty, so far, bore their signatures. But there was yet another article which was concealed from them all except Clifford and Arlington. In it Charles engaged himself to his new ally to make a speedy announcement of his reconciliation to the Church of Rome. The treaty was signed at Dover on the tenth Treaty between Charles anniversary of the King's landing at that place and Louis. to resume his government. His new allies unMay22. derstood how to secure him. With the princess came, as one of her maids of honor, an attractive Frenchwoman, named Louise de Querouaille. The King brought her to court, and gave her a rank, as Duchess of Portsmouth, above all but a few of the noble matrons of the realm; and the control which to the end of his life she held over his mind was exerted in behalf of the interests and the religion of her country. i671. A year after the signature of this treaty, the May 31. Duchess of York, Lord Clarendon's daughter, 1 A series of letters written by most to effect, that for a sum of money Charles to the Duchess on this occasion, we shall enter into a league with the some of them in cipher, were printed king of France, and that this sum of by Dalrymple (Memoirs of Great Brit- money will so help the King, that he will ain and Ireland, II. 21 - 34), and are not need the Parliament; my Lady of great interest. As early as April Castlemaine is instrumental in this 28, 1669, Pepys wrote (Memoirs, Diary, matter. But this is a thing will make ad loc.): "I find that it is brought al- the Parliament and kingdom mad." CHAP. I.] ENGLAND UNDER CHARLES THE SECOND. 13 died in the communion of the Church of Romne; and presently her husband, the heir presumptive to the throne, threw off the thin disguise which hitherto he had worn, and announced his own submission to the successor of St. Peter. England seemed to be again drifting back to Popery. Intelligence or suspicion of the late transactions with the king of France might get abroad, and then it might well be feared that Parliament would prove imNinth Sespracticable. The King, always out of money, sionofParconvoked the Houses? and with facile dishonesty liament laid before them the necessity of expensive preparations to carry out the objects of the Triple Alliance. They now made him a liberal grant, and were immeApril 22. diately prorogued, leaving him to flatter himself that for a while his plans might be prosecuted without embarrassment. But the recent supply, though as large as could be expected from the Commons, was not sufficient to afford the ease that he wanted. The goldsmiths of London had been in the habit of lending money to the government on the security of taxes that had been voted, receiving their payments with interest as the collections were made. These obligations of the government were negotiable, and constituted a basis for commercial operations. A million and a quarter of pounds sterling had now been borrowed in this way. Notice wasRepudiation given that the debt would not be discharged ofpubliodebt. at the end of the time for which it was con- Jan.2. 1 But according to Mrs. Godolphin, and died (poor creature) in doubt of who at the time of the death of the her religion, without the sacrament, or wayward Duchess was one of her divine by her, like a poor wretch." maids of honor, her new religion failed (Evelyn, Life of Mrs. Godolphin, p. 13.) her at the last. " The Duchess dead; Her husband, however, tells a different a princess honored in power; had story. (Clarke, Life of James the Secmuch wit, much money, much esteem; ond, I. 452.) she was full of unspeakable torture, VOL. III. 2 14 IISTORY OF NEWN ENGLAND. [BooK III., tracted, and that the holders of bonds would receive only the interest upon their loans. Bankruptcies followed, and the shock and distress in the financial circles were great.1 Clifford is said to have advised this grossly fraudulent proceeding. Bridgman, the Lord Keeper, could not make up his mind to lend himself to Nov. 17. it. He resigned his great office,2 and, to the surprise of all Englishmen, Lord Ashley, who had no reputation as a lawyer, was made Lord Chancellor.3 A measure of a different character from that which had distressed the merchants created much more general Declaration of dismay. By a proclamation called the Declandulgence. ration of zduzlgence the King suspended the exeMarch 15. cution of "all manner of penal laws in matters 1 Wilson, Memoirs of the Life and and here, by men of all sorts, are looked Times of Daniel Defoe, I. 52.- Peter upon as strange, horrid, and ominous." Tilton, of Hadley, attending the Gen- "This day," he continues, " the General Court of Massachusetts, caught eral Court hath appointed the fourth the feeling that prevailed around him. day of the week ensuing (for themHe wrote to his wife from Boston selves) a day of solemn fasting and (May 18, 1672): "O what a price humiliation to fall down upon their doth divine patience yet betrust us knees before Almighty God, for and with, when he is drawing out the in the behalf of his cause, name, people, sword and arraying himself with the and interest, that in this day are so garments of vengeance as to other deeply designed against by the serpent kingdoms, and when it is more than and his seed, and that by this black probable many garments are tumbling cloud of tumult and commotion now in blood. As to the news from Eng- amongst the nations the Lord would land, all men, both wise and others of bring forth the accomplishment of those more ordinary capacities, look on the promises of his, that his people are so effect or produce thereof will be as earnestly looking after and waiting black a day in the world as the world for." (Hutchinson, Coll., 441.) hath known. The late actions in Eng- 2 Burnet says (History of His Own land in commissionating their fleet to Time, I. 307), that Bridgeman was seize and fall on the Hollander, of dismissed because of refusing to put which I wrote you in my last, breaking the great seal to the Declaration of Intheir league, joining with the French, dutlgence. Humne judged that he was assisting them with soldiers out of Eng- " for that reason, though under other land, and with their principal harbors pretences, removed from his office." to receive a numerous army, and shut- 3 Except being free from gross ccr. ting up the exchequer, whereby many ruption, the worst judge that had ever are outed of their estates contrary to sat in that court." (Campbell, Lives all law, are things that both in England of the Chancellors, IV. 176.) CiAP. I.] ENGLAND UNDER CHARLES THE SECOND. 15 ecclesiastical, against whatever sort of non-conformists or recusants."'' The proclamation gave liberty to dissenters to meet for worship in buildings licensed for the purpose, while Catholics were obliged to "confine their religious assemblies to private houses." But it was universally understood that this distinction was only a blind, and was expected to reconcile the Protestant dissenters to a toleration of the partisans of Rome. With few exceptions, the former body rejected a privilege for themselves which was to be coupled with a concession of what to them was mere idolatrous impiety.2 In pursuance of the treaty with France, a war was now to be undertaken against Holland. The real War with motive for the measure could not be avowed. Holland. March 17. No valid cause for it existed, and the govern- Mch ment was fain to have recourse to the most frivolous pretences.3 Nor was war declared till after, in perfidious 1 Parliamentary History, IV. 516. in with the coast of Holland, had not 2." When the Declaration for Tolera- lowered his topsails to a yacht of the tion was published, great endeavors king of England. The little craft, in were used by the Court to persuade obedience to her orders, kept up a fire the Non-Conformists to make addresses on the Dutch leviathans as she passed and compliments upon it. But few them, and it was not returned; but the were so blind as not to see what was Admiral went on board of her, and aimed at by it." (Burnet, History, explained that he should at once have &c., I. 308; comp. Reliquis Baxte- paid the compliment to an English manrianae, HI. 99.) Nothing occurred of of-war, but could not venture to do it a nature to justify Lingard's assertion in a case like the present without or(XII. 245) that " the dissenters grate- ders from his government. The thing fully accepted the indulgence." Some seemed too ridiculous to be persevered were disposed to do so, but better in, but the Englishman kept on firing, counsels prevailed. In James Pierce's though not with such an aim as to pro"Vindication of the Dissenters," &c. voke the dumb monsters too far; and (1718) one may read how these trans- he sailed home unharmed with a story actions were regarded by the Non- that served the purpose of his masters. Conformists in the next generation. (Burnet, History, I. 426.) " Surely For their position in respect to the this was a quarrel slenderly grounded, Declaration of Indulgence, see that and not becoming Christian neighbors." book, pp. 241 et seq. (Comp. Neal, IV. (Evelyn, Memoirs, I. 448.) Sir Wil485-489.) liam Temple's wife was on board of 3 One of these was that a Dutch Ad- the yacht. (Temple, Works, II. 177.) miral, in command of a large fleet close 16 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Boo: III. disregard of the existing relations with that power, the King had already ordered his Channel fleet to March 3. make an attack on a rich convoy of Dutch vessels returning from the Levant. In consequence of a want of concert among the English officers, the attempt was only partially successful; but the outrage could not be passed over. In the contest that followed, the Dutch were for a while reduced to great distress. On their proper element, indeed, in circumstances however unpropitious, they lost nothing of their ancient renown. But on land the force combined to ruin them was out of all proportion to their capacity of resistance. A hundred thousand men crossed their borders, led by the king of France, with Conde and Turenne for his lieutenants. Of the seven provinces of the Republic three were overrun, and the invaders encamped within a few miles of Amsterdam. The consternation occasioned by these disasters opened, through rough passages, the way of relief. The republican party was deprived of power, its illustrious Aug. 20. champion, De Witt, falling a sacrifice to popular fury in the struggle; and the Prince of Orange, now twenty-two years of age, was placed at the head of his country's affairs. The Prince was not a successful commander; but his unconquerable resolution and his political capacity supplied what the crisis called for. While he managed to bring to the view of his allied enemies some differences of interest between them, and cultivated the friendship of the states of Germany, he succeeded in persuading his countrymen to make an heroic effort for deliverance. They opened their dikes. The sea rushed in and covered their country, except where the towns showed like so many islands; and the invaders had to retreat for their lives. Tenth Session Parliament was called together again in the of arliament spring which followed this change in the pros CHAP. I.1 ENGLAND UNDER CHARLES THE SECOND. 17 pects of the Continental war. In the interval, which had lasted two years, several members of the House of Commons had died, and, in anticipation of the probable temper of that House, it was seen to be important to fill the vacancies by the election of persons friendly to the court. The recent practice had been for the Speaker to issue the writ for an election to fill a vacancy, after the vacancy had been ascertained by the House. But Lord Shaftesbury, reviving the ancient practice of issuing writs under the Great Seal, and accordingly having the choice of time and of channels of intelligence, proved to have secured such an advantage that nearly all the new members returned were friends of the Cabal. Of the hard task which devolved upon him at the meeting of Parliament he acquitted himself with 1673. his accustomed boldness and ability. He told Feb. 5 the Houses that the war was theirs; that the Dutch confederacy was the implacable foe of monarchical governments, and was a Carthage to be destroyed; and that it was now for the representatives of England, by furnishing a generous supply for the conduct of the war, to show how rash were all calculations founded on the supposition that they were dissatisfied with the policy of the King. The Commons, however, resumed the practice of the early years of the century, and engaged first in the consideration of grievances. The holding of elections under the Chancellor's writ was condemned as an abuse; the members who had been chosen under that process withdrew; and the Speaker's writ was issued for new elections. The House resolved to make a grant of two hundred and sixty thousand pounds; but by their silence respecting its use they refrained from expressing approbation of the war, and they delayed giving their grant the form of law, lest a prorogation should immediately disarm them. Next they took up the recent 2* 18 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BooK III. Declaration of Indulgence, which they reasonably repm resented as a measure of such a character, that to recognize its principle would be to admit a power, residing in the sovereign, virtually to repeal all the laws of the realm. The King desired to persist; to retreat would be for him not only a disappointment, but a humiliation. But it was plain that the Commons had again come together in an unmanageable mood. The: scenes of thirty years before uttered stern warning. If there were trouble in England, he doubted whether the six thousand troops promised from France would be able to compose it, even if the king of France The Declara- I tion of Idul- should now be able to spare them from his gence with- Continental war. Charles was, as usual, in debt, drawn. and the present temper of the nation did not invite him to raise money in the ways that had for a while sufficed his father. His prudence or his indolence prevailed. To break the fall, he went through the form of asking the opinion of the Peers. They advised him to give way, and retract the DecMiarch 8. laration; which he accordingly did, breaking the seal with his own hand. Lord Shaftesbury took alarm and offence. This was not the sort of king of whom he desired to Disaffection of LordShaftes- be chief adviser. The fate of Strafford rose bury. to his memory, and he considered with himself what degree of reliance might be prudently placed on the protection of a cowardly monarch against an angry Parliament. With him to resolve was to act; nor was he accustomed to lose time in devices for maintaining the reputation of consistency. He turned popular leader, and for the moment gave irresistible strength to the party which he espoused. The religious zeal of Parliament was probably stimu. lated by a conviction that it had to meet the responsibility of protecting the Church, so incompetent and CHAP. I.] ENGLAND UNDER CHARLES THE SECOND. 19 inefficient were most of the principal clergy. It would not be extravagant to conjecture that the King had designed to weaken the ecclesiastical system of the realm by placing men of inferior capacity or heterodox opinion in its highest offices. Jeremy Taylor (married to Charles's half-sister) administered an obscure bishopric in Ireland. Isaac Barrow was never promoted beyond the Mastership of a College; while men of ordinary qualifications, such as Sancroft, Juxon, Sheldon, and Compton, sat on the episcopal benches. Wilkins was far the ablest of the bishops, and he was currently said to be a Socinian.1 The withdrawal of the Declaration of Indulgence was not enough to quiet the alarm which had been created in Parliament by what had been evinced of the King's lenity to Romanism. A law called the Test Act Passage of was passed. It required that all persons, to be the Test Act. capable of holding public office, should solemnly Feb. 28. declare their disbelief in the doctrine of transubstantiation, in addition to taking the oaths of supremacy and allegiance, and receiving the sacrament from a clergyman of the Church of England.2 The Commons March 29. then gave to their grant of money the form of law, and Parliament was speedily prorogued. When they next came together, great excitement was produced by intelligence of the recent marriage of the Duke of York. He had been wedded, by proxy, to a Catholic princess, daughter of the Duke of Modena, an 1 Buckle, History of Civilization, II. promise of some legislation for their 281 - 283. relief; but relief never came in the form 2 Hard as the Test Act bore on of legislation till after a century and the Dissenters, they sustained it from a half. In the interval Dissenters holdthe same elevated policy which had ing office were only protected by the prompted them to condemn the Decla- series of Annual Indemnity Acts, which ration of Indulgence. (See Amos on began with the reign of George the the English Constitution, 149-155.) Second. They were also conciliated by the 20 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Booi III ally of the king of France. The session began with an address of the Commons to the King, reEleventh es- monstrating against this alliance. Tie King sion of Parlia- 6 6 this enc20. replied, that the objection came too late. The Commons were now wrought up to a temper that had never been witnessed before since the restoration of the monarchy. They resolved to present a second memorial, of like tenor with the former; to refuse supplies, except in some case of extreme emergency, till further precautions were taken against Popery, and till other grievances should be redressed; to make provision for the exclusion of Papists, not only from executive and ministerial offices, but from Parliament; to reduce the regular military force; and to pray the King to appoint a day of general fasting, to implore the Almighty to avert the evils that threatened the nation. These proceedings looked too much like those which had introduced the Civil War. The courtiers took alarm, Nov. 4.and again Parliament was in haste prorogued. The Test Act displaced the Duke of York from the office of Admiral,l and Lord Clifford from the office of Treasurer. The King took the Great Seal from Lord Shaftesbury, and the Cabal ministry was fatally crippled. Twelft Se- Money was still indispensable, and Parliament sionlof Parlia-was brought together again in two months. i674. The House of Commons began the session by Jan. addresses praying the King to proclaim a Fastday for imploring security against "the undermining practices of Popish recusants ";2 to forbid the approach of Popish non-householders within ten miles of the Houses of Parliament during a session; to order an enrolment of Popish householders, dwelling within five miles of London; and to have the militia prepared for an immediate 1 " Designed to hew the imperial cedar down, 2 Parliamentary History, IV. 618. Defraud succession, and disheir the crown." Dryden, Hind and Panther. CHAP. I.] ENGLAND UNDER CHARLES THE SECOND. 21 movement to disperse assemblages of Papists and other malecontents. They voted that the peace of the nation required that all persons " Popishly affected, or otherwise obnoxious or dangerous," should be removed from the royal councils.1 They presented a memorial to the King, praying him to " remove the Duke of Lau- Dissolution derdale from all his employments, and from the oftheCabal royal presence and councils forever." 2 A simi- miistry. lar sentence, somewhat qualified, was passed against Buckingham, who, to the great displeasure of the peerage, appeared before the Commons and made a defence.3 The proceedings against Arlington, obstructed and embarrassed by persons secretly his friends, came to no definite issue. He was superseded as Secretary of State by Sir Joseph Williamson, hither- y. to his Under-Secretary,5 and was provided for by a high office in the royal household. Here he disappeared from the public theatre of politics, though he continued to exercise no little influence over the ministry which followed. Buckingham, like the more cunning Shaftesbury, turned tribune of the people. The action of the English Parliament was of force only in England, and Lauderdale was continued in all his offices in the Northern kingdom, and to all intents at the head of its administration. From questions of domestic policy the Parliament hastened to a consideration of foreign affairs. The Commons frankly avowed their purpose to make no further grants for carrying on the war with the United Provinces, unless fair terms of pacification should be rejected by that power. It had beconme plain to the King that he could not at present avail himself of the benefits 1 Parliamentary History, IV. 624, 4 Ibid., 650-657. Journals of the 625. House of Commons, IX. 286 - 314. 2 Ibid., 625-630. 5 Evelyn (Memoirs, I. 469) gives no 3 Ibid., 630- 649. good character of Williamson. 22 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BooK III. expected from his treaty with France. He had called Peace with Sir William Temple from his retirement, and Holland. sent him to the Hague; and that able ambassador now easily negotiated a separate peace. During four years after the downfall of the Cabal ministry, the royal councils were guided by the statesman best known in history under the name of the Earl of Danby. Sir Thomas Osborne, a Yorkshire baronet, who, in the House of Commons, had taken a prominent part on the side of the court, was raised to the great post of Lord Treasurer a few months after the Ministry of ord Danby. resignation of Clifford.1 He was at the same 1673. time created Baron Osborne and Viscount LatiAug. 15. mer, and a year later was advanced another step in the peerage as Earl of Danby. He must be reckoned for an honest statesman, when judged by the standard of those times. He bribed others freely, and he was not above receiving bribes. He desired to restore to English royalty the prerogatives of which it had been shorn in the recent reigns, and to make his master a sovereign after the manner of the Tudors. But he aimed to carry on this counter-revolution by the agency of Englishmen alone. So far from being capable of entertaining the scheme of the Cabal ministry, to make. the king of England a despotic vassal of France, he hated France with all the vivid instinct of his energetic nature. Pleased with the peace with Holland, all English Protestants were again disposed to gratify the King. The hith time seemed favorable for taking a final pledge Thirteenth pldg Session of of the loyalty of the Cavaliers, and installing the Parliament. 1675. sovereign and the Church in secure authority. April13. Parliament was again called together.2 A bill 1 Evelyn, Memoirs, I. 462, 464, 465. erett: "The King, by the prevalen2 John Collins wrote at this time cy of the bishops over him, hath within (March 19th, 1675) to Governor Lev- this month or six weeks taken off the CHAP. I.] ENGLAND UNDEtR CHARLES THE SECOND. 23 was brought into the House of Lords, which excluded from both Houses, and from every public office, all persons but such as should take an oath that they considered resistance to the King to be criminal in all circumstances whatsoever, and that they would not, " at any time, endeavor the alteration of the government, either in church or state." 1 The measure was pending for several weeks. In a vehement opposition which was made to it, Buckingham and Shaftesbury took the lead. Though unable to obtain its formal rejection, their dexterous tactics embarrassed its promoters at every step; and it never became a law, though repetitions of the attempt to carry it through did not cease to be probable. A quarrel between the two Houses on a question of privilege was one occasion of de- eighTory lays. It has been even supposed that the ques- Parjy. tion was raised for that purpose. By leading to two prorogations of Parliament, after sessions consisting each of only two weeks, it favored the present designs of the popular party. A fierce opposition had protection of his licenses given us in faithful to himself, he will deliver us March'72, and, together with a hot from sin, the greatest evil, and we shall prosecution of the Papists, left us also hope the wrath of man shall praise him, a very troublesome persecution, wherein and the remainder he will restrain. many are spoiled of their goods, several Things in the parts beyond sea look imprisoned, which last cost the life of still as proceeding to further war and a worthy minister, Mr. Thompson of confusion; Holland's condition yet Bristol, pastor of the church there; distracted; the Protestants everywhere several returned upon twenty shillings sufferers; and yet the Popish swords a month into the exchequer, to their drawn one against another. Methinks utter undoing. This city [London] yet the coming of our Lord should be near, scapes best; you cannot imagine how in the faith of which we desire to wait. averse the spirit of the magistrates is to The Parliament will one way or other meddle with us. What importunity give a great change to things, and and opportunity may at last produce, make me have more news to send, we are fearful. The Parliament meets which I shall communicate as opporApril 13; how they will back these tunity serves, though I expect none things or check them, we desire to good." (Hutch. Coll., 474, 475.) wait with prayer and faith. All things 1 Parliamentary History, IV. 715here threaten a storm as coming upon 721; comp. Burnet, I. 539 - 543. us. All we desire, if God keep us 24 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BooK III been organized against Lord Danby's management of affairs, and articles of impeachment were exhibited against him, which were only rejected after a long and acrimonious debate.' The prosperity of the French arms seemed for a time to wane. Louis, who took the field in person, found Pacific di it imprudent to risk a general action, without position of which he could not penetrate into the Low Counthe king of France. tries. His great general, Turenne, was killed by a random shot while reconnoitring the imperial army on the Upper Rhine. At Treves, the French experienced, under Marshal Crequi, the only defeat which befell them by land during the sixty years that preceded the battle of Blenheim. In these circumstances the king of France became less indisposed to a pacification; and, under the mediation of the English government, arrangements were made for a meeting of ambassadors of the belligerent powers at Nimeguen in Guelderland, to discuss the terms of an agreement. The Dutch on the one hand, and Louis on the other, were well inclined to an immediate negotiation; but the German and Spanish allies of Holland, too much elated by their recent successes, interposed delays. The fortune of war, however, soon changed again to some extent; the young Stadtholder of Holland threatened to make a separate 167,. treaty, if his allies persisted in holding back; December. and their ambassadors at last appeared. But still the negotiation went on sluggishly, each party hoping to improve its position in the further progress of the war. In England, patriotic men contemplated this state 1 Parliamentary History, IV. 688 lished the story of it in "A Letter - 695. -" For tactics there is no par- from a Person of Quality to a Friend liamentary campaign more brilliant in the Country," in the composition of than this of Shaftesbury." (Campbell, which his protege, John Locke, is said Lives of the Chancellors, IV. 190.) to have had a hand. After the session, Shaftesbury pub CHAP. I.1 ENGLAND UNDER CHARLES THE SECOND. 25 of things with extreme solicitude. The King was grievw ously embarrassed between his secret engagements to France and fear of his jealous people. The need of money was an ever-present consideration with him to control his judgment when other reasons were balanced, and again he convened the Parliament, after a recess of fifteen months. When it assembled, Buckingham and Shaftesbury were found to be provided with a new element of dis- Fifteenth cord. On the ground of an unrepealed stat- Sessionof ute of Edward the Third, which required that 1677. there should be a meeting of Parliament once Feb.15' in every year, they insisted that the present meeting was not a legal Parliament.1 They were, however, coimmitted to the Tower, where they were kept for several months, and the public business proceeded. Danby introduced a bill for investing the bishops with the ecclesiastical patronage of the crown, in case of the accession of a Popish sovereign;2 the Commons rejected it, being unwilling alike to entertain the question of such a suCcession, and to repose such a confidence in the bishops. A second bill offered by the prime minister met a similar fate, being thought by the Commons to favor Popery under a show of severity against it.3 A grant of five hundred and eighty-five thousand pounds was made for the increase of the naval force; but the money was placed in the hands of commissioners, who were to account to the House of Commons for its expenditure.4 While Parliament was thus employed, a new direction was suddenly given to its counsels, by the arrival of intelligence of signal successes of the king of France. Taking the field before the opening of spring, Frenchsu, he had beaten the Prince of Orange in a pitched cesse 1 Parliamentary History, IV. 813- 3 Ibid., 861 -863. 833. 4 Journals of the House of Commons, 2 Ibid., 853 - 857. IX. 419 - 422. VOL. III. 3 26 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BooK III. battle, and reduced three of the principal cities of Flanders. The House of Commons immediately made an Address to the King, praying him to take measures to obstruct the ambitious designs of France.l He replied in unsatisfactory terms, and the application was renewed with earnestness. The King then proposed to accede to the wish of the House, and prosecute a vigorous war, if Parliament would place in his hands a sum not less than six hundred thousand pounds. But they would not trust him with it, before there should be a declaration of war. They feared that, if the money should be first provided, it would not be spent for its legitimate purpose, and might be used against themselves. The parties could not satisfy each other, and ParMay 13. liament was prorogued. In the recess, availing himself of a suspension of military operations, the Prince of Orange came to terige of England. One of his objects was to present Orange totthe himself as suitor for the hand of his cousin, Princess Mary. Mary, oldest daughter of the Duke of York. ptmbThe marriage took place, and Danby and Temple persuaded the King to agree to present to France certain terms of pacification with the Dutch, and to add a threat of immediately taking part against her in case they should be refused. Temple was instructed to repair to Paris, and there require a categorical answer, to be given within two days. Before his arrangements for departure could be made, he was superseded by a messenger of far inferior capacity, whom Louis managed to satisfy and send back without the answer which it was his business to bring. Unpropitious to the designs of Louis as was the alliance now formed by his great rival with the royal family of England, that crafty prince professed not to take it in ill part. Though he knew that the private 1 Parliamentary History, IV. 845. 2 Ibid., 961 - 964, 972- 977. CHAP. I.] ENGLAND UNDER CHARLES THE SECOND. 27 agreement between Charles and his nephew had been followed by a formal compact between their governments to enforce the terms of pacification which had been proposed, he was too well acquainted with the character and position of Charles to suppose that he would certainly prove inflexible. A quarter's allowance due from France to her pensioner under the secret treaty was withholden; but at the same time excuses were made which did not refer to the real cause, and hopes were held out of a large increase of the bounty, if satisfactory conditions should be arranged. In England, Parliament, once more assembled after a recess, attempted to stimulate the King by liberal proposals of support. It resolved to collect an army of thirty thousand men, and a fleet of a hundred Abortive vessels, and to appropriate at once for the pur- military preparations. pose the sum of a million of pounds sterling.l p16s. But the prevailing distrust of the King's sin- ebruary' cerity obstructed all definitive arrangements. When the practical question was presented, they who most deplored his friendship for France, and were perpetually exciting him to active hostility against that power, could not prevail upon themselves to furnish him with means for such hostility, lest the means they provided should be used, not against France, but against England. Louis weil knew the causes and the relations of this distrust, and took care to stimulate it by the communications of his ambassadors with the King of England on the one hand, and the patriots on the other. Meanwhile, though beset with embarrassments and apprehensions which made him on the whole desirous of peace, he did not fail to pursue his present advantages in the field, with a view to better terms. Intelligence 1 Parliamentary History, IV. 940 - 943; Journals of the House of Commons, IX. 441. 28 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BooK III, that he had besieged and taken the towns of Ghent and Ypres set England again in a flame, and Sir William Temple, despatched in haste to the Hague,' made a treaty with the States, by which England agreed to embark with all her forces in the war against France, unless within sixteen days that power should evacuate six Netherland towns which were specified. But before there was time for the King of England to ratify the treaty, the jealousy of him entertained by Parliament again influenced them to deny the necessary supplies, and this arrangement too was frustrated. It was plain that the Netherlands and their allies could not prudently place any reliance on aid from England; France, on the other hand, had made great efforts, and desired temporary repose; and though she was not in a condition to extort humiliating terms, and though her position would have been one of peril if England had taken part against her, (of which there was always some danger,) yet on the whole her valor and diplomacy were rewarded by the attainment of most of the objects for which she had engaged in the war. By the Treaty of Nimeguen. articles of peace signed at Nimeguen, her terriJuly 31. tory was materially extended towards the Rhine by the acquisition of several important Flemish towns. Whoever, in the course of these transactions, had reposed trust in England, had been disappointed; but she remained unharmed, except in honor. The instructive spectacle of the rivalry between encroaching Popery in the palace and intolerant Episcopacy in Parliament must have made the rulers of Massachusetts felicitate themselves afresh on the successful resistance they had offered to the emissaries of Lord Clarendon; since, had that resistance been overborne, the interest of New England in what was passing in the parent country would have been that of terror, 1 Temple, Works, II. 441. CHAP. I.] ENGLAND UNDER CHARLES THE SECOND. 29 while, as things stood, it was little more than the interest of curiosity as to the event, and of sympathy with those whom Romanist and Churchman alike intended to oppress. If they also knew what was passing at the time in Scotland, they saw still Collion more cause for religious dissenters to dread the fotlatsin interference of the regal power. Circumstances were widely different now from what they were when Charles the First resolved, at what proved to be the cost of his throne and his life, that his Scottish sub-l jects should pray from a prescribed liturgy. There was then in England a vigorous Presbyterian party, and a discontented people. In England Non-conformity was now disorganized and feeble, and though there were not wanting patriotic jealousies and alarms, they were effectually discouraged from again breaking out in action, by the remembrance of the disorders which were still so recent. Scotland herself was slowly recovering from the impoverishment and imbecility to which she had been struck down by the stern government of Cromwell. Her resources were exhausted, even had her spirit been less depressed, and had her natural leaders not been won away from her interests, or rendered incapable of concerted action together, by the shifting exigencies of revolutionary politics developed through twoscore years. By a royal decree, registered by an affrighted Scottish Parliament, Episcopacy was re-established Re-establish. in King Charles's northern realm in the second mentof episcopacy in year after his restoration; and Sharpe, an apos- Scotland. tate Presbyterian, was made Archbishop of St. 1662. Andrews and primate. Meetings of presbyteries were prohibited. It was required that all incumbents of parishes should be instituted anew by bishops. Three hundred and fifty ministers, more than a third of the whole number in the kingdom, refused to submit to 3* 30 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BOOK III. this exaction, and were at once deprived; and the places of many of them were supplied by men ignorant, or dissolute, or both.1 For the most part, the people still maintained a sullen quiet as long as they were permitted to enjoy their worship in such places, with or without shelter, as they could themselves provide. But the English Conventicle Act was presently followed by a similar law for Scotland. At the solicitation of the Archbishop, a special ecclesiastical commission, at the head of which he was placed, was established by the King, with power to enforce laws relating to the Church. Sir James Turner, a man of cruel disposition aggravated by habitual intemperance, commanded the King's troops in Scotland, and made himself the busy instrument of the primate. He was sent with a force to the Western Lowlands, where the people were most observed to absent themselves from the churches. The new clergymen brought him lists of such as transgressed in this way, and he punished tie offenders by fines, and by quartering his men in their houses.2 The cause of discontent was a permanent one, and disorders continued and increased. A feeble attempt at Insurrections insurrection gave the government the advantage in Scotland. f an excuse for extreme severity. Two hun1666. Nov. 1. dred insurgents attacked Turner at Dumfries, which he held with a few soldiers, and made him prisoner; but on an inspection of his orders, it appeared that the cruelties he had practised had fallen short of what his superiors had required, and he was dismissed without harm. Dalziel, an officer who had fought for King Charles the First, and had afterwards cultivated the natural ferocity of his temper by service in Russia, was despatched by Sharpe against the rebels, 1 Burnet, History, &c., I. 196, 199, 2 Ibid., 285, 288, 294, 296. 213, 215. CHAP. I.] ENGLAND UNDER CHARLES THE SECOND. 31 who at one time had increased in number to more than two thousand, but had now fallen off to eight or nine hundred. At Lanerick, in Clydesdale, they had held a fast day, renewed the Covenant, and issued a manifesto, setting forth the oppressions, civil and ecclesiastical, under which they suffered, and declaring their desire and purpose, as soon as these should be redressed, to show themselves the King's dutiful subjects. They had advanced to within two miles of Edinburgh, when, finding that their ranks were growing thinner every day, they resolved to retrace their steps. Dalziel followed them, and in a successful action, Nov. 28. in which only five men were killed on his side and forty on the other, he took a hundred and thirty prisoners. These he conducted to Edinburgh, where ten were executed on one gibbet. Thirty-five others were sent home, and hanged before their own doors. The offer to spare their lives if they would renounce the Covenant had been rejected by them all.' Such measures have their effect, except when circumstances admit of extensive concert in resistance to them. For a while Scotland showed the tranquillity of despair. But long passiveness emboldens to new aggressions. By a new Act of the Scottish Parliament, the King's TheKing supremacy in ecclesiastical matters was so de- eccIeiastical suprein. fined as to invest him with almost unlimited acy incotland. control. Through a provision that his edicts, 1669. transmitted to the Privy Council, should have the Oct. 19. force of laws, it placed his Scottish subjects at his mercy and the mercy of that unscrupulous tribunal. Nor could ulterior uses of which it was susceptible escape notice. It enabled the Duke of York, should lhe succeed to the throne, to proclaim Romanism the religion of his north1 Burnet, History, &c., I. 327-334. the torture of the boot. (Knight, Pop. Some of these prisoners were put to ular History of England, IV. 294.) 32 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BooK III ern kingdom.1 Under this renewed stimulus new disturbances followed; and to repress these, new severities. It was declared treasonable to hold meetings for wor1670. ship in the fields, and to officiate at such meetJuly 28. ings was made a capital offence. Proprietors on whose lands they were held were to be punished with heavy fines, and every person present was obliged to inform against his companions, under the penalties of fine, imprisonment, or banishment to the Colonies.2 Such were the oppressions which afflicted Presbyterian Scotland, and by which there was no reason to doubt that Congregational New England would be equally annoyed, should that community come equally within reach of the power of the sovereign and of his bigoted or self-seeking courtiers. The Dissenters of New England, should they remain true to their convictions, must prove not less contumacious than the Dissenters of his northern kingdom. And had a creature of the Cabal ministry or of Lord Danby been made their Governor, with a sufficient military force at his back, there was no reason for them to expect exemption from the sword, the gibbet, and the thumb-screw, of which the Duke of Lauderdale had made so free use in Scotland. The New England Colonies, however, remained undisturbed by the home government during the greater part of this period of more than ten years, though the reconstruction, from time to time, of the tribunal which had been established for conducting the colonial business of the empire showed that this department of the public interests was not wholly overlooked. After the fall ouncil for of Lord Clarendon, the Council for Foreign PlanForeignPlan- tations, which had hitherto been a numerous tations. July30. body,3 was reduced so as to consist of but ten members, among whom were the Earl of Sandwich, 1 Burnet, History, &c., I. 398. 2 Ibid., 409. 3 See above, Vol. II. p. 444. CHAP. I.] ENGLAND UNDER CHARLES THE SECOND. 3 Lord Gorges, and Edmund Waller. After a few months, an addition was made of six very eminent per- 1671. sons, namely, the Duke of York, Prince Rupert, April 4. the Duke of Buckingham, the Duke of Ormond, Lord Lauderdale, and Lord Culpepper, with whom was also associated the honest and accomplished, but not very sagacious, John Evelyn. In the next year, a 1672. different arrangement was made. The Council Sept.16. for Trade and the Council for Plantations were consolidated into a single board, with the Earl of Shaftesbury at its head. The second Dutch war now followed, and again attention was withdrawn from the Colonies. After the dissolution of the Cabal, this Colonial 1674. Council too was dissolved; and by a return to Dec 21. the ancient practice, the business of Foreign Plantations was intrusted to a committee of the Privy Coun- 167. cil.2 That indecision of the court, which was March 2. both indicated and necessitated by these fluctuations, continued to the people of New England a welcome respite. One step was, however, taken, under the auspices of the Cabal ministry, which was destined to affect materially the position of the Colonies. An Act was passed, imposing customs to be levied in the foreign Levyofcusdependencies of Great Britain, and to be col- tolten lected by colonial revenue officers. For various 1673. enumerated commodities carried from the plantations, unless a sufficient bond were given to land them in 11" It made one," says Burke, "among article of convulsed or overlaid chilthose showy and specious impositions dren, who have hardly stepped over which one of the experiment-making the threshold of life. It was buried administrations of Charles the Second with little ceremony." (Speech on held out to delude the people, and to be Economical Reform, Works, III. 325.) substituted in the place of the real ser- 2 October 24, 1672, John Locke was vice which they might expect from a sworn in as Secretary of the Council for Parliament annually sitting." " It con- Trade and Plantations, under the Presitinued in a tottering and rickety child- dency of his patron. (Evelyn,Memoirs, hood for about three or four years, &c., I. 459). In the year after the dis-..... a babe of as little hopes as ever solution of the Council, Locke went to swelled the bills of mortality in the France for three or four years. 34 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BooK III. England, duties were to be paid, at the place of exportation, to local collectors appointed in England by the Commissioners of the Customs under the authority of the Lords of the Treasury.1 We shall have occasion to see how fruitful of mischief to New England this legislation proved. In King Charles's second war with the United Provinces, New York fell again, for a short time, into the hands of its ancient masters. Cornelius Evertsen and Jacob Binkes, in command of a fleet of twelve armed vessels, appeared before that town after making a descent upon Virginia, and landed eight hundred men. The Governor, Lovelace, was absent at New Haven at the time. The garrison was in no condition of NewYo.k to make effectual resistance, and, after a short, bythe Dutch. and almost bloodless conflict, the place was July 30. entered by the enemy. The conquest of Fort Albany, and of most of the territory formerly comprehended within New Netherland, immediately followed.2 The Council for Trade and Foreign Plantations proposed a plan for the recovery of the captured Nov. 15. Province,3 the execution of which, however, was not attempted. Under a clause in Sir William Temple's treaty of peace, stipulating mutual restitution of conEdmundAn- quered places, the Province was restored to drosGov- England. It was accordingly taken possession 1674. of by Major Edmund Andros, as lieutenant of November. its proprietor, the Duke of York. 1 Statutes at large, 25 Charles II. into commerce with them, whereby it is cap. 7; comp. Chalmers, Annals, 317. to be feared they will at present divert 2 O'Callaghan, Documents, &c., III. a great part of the trade of England 198 - 215. into those countries, and lay a founda3 It is interesting to learn, from this tion for such a union hereafter between paper, a suspicion entertained by Lord them and Holland as will be very preShaftesbury and his colleagues of the judicial to all your Majesty's plantastate of mind of the New-England tions, if not terrible to England itself." people: "If the Dutch shall continue (Ibid., 211.) to be their neighbors, they may enter CHAPTER II. WHILE the stirring events which have been sketched in the last chapter allowed the home government small opportunity for attention to the affairs of New England, the Colonists used the pause to shape for permanency a social system of their own. They had now found profitable applications for their industry, and convenient channels for their commerce both abroad and among themselves. A general good understanding prevailed among them, and the churches, the schools, and the College were bringing forward intelligent and virtuous citizens to possess the inheritance of the founders. The early hardships of the settlements had become historical, and the children of the emigrants were living, not in luxury, but in tranquillity and comfort. When the Confederacy of the Four Colonies, having lasted twenty-two years, was brought to an end by the incorporation of New Haven Colony into ConPopulation of necticut, there were probably in New England New Englad. from forty thousand to forty-five thousand Eng- 1665 lish people. Of this number twenty-five thousand may have belonged to Massachusetts; ten thousand to Connecticut, as newly constituted; five thousand to Plymouth; and three thousand to Rhode Island.l 1 See above, Vol. II. pp. 5, 570, note sachusetts and Connecticut. As to 1. Calculating from various elements, Rhode Island, on the other hand, the I come to the above conclusion as prob- well-informed Callender, publishing in able. But I am not confident that I 1739, says: "Eighty years ago, the have not rated the whole population whole number of the inhabitants was too low by as many as three or four very small; perhaps there were fewer thousand. My doubt relates to Mas- than two hundred families in the whole 36 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BOOK III. They inhabited ninety towns, of which four were in Rhode Island, twelve in Plymouth, twenty-two in Connecticut, and the rest in Massachusetts. For subsistence and security they depended much upon the sea, and upon the communication which it afforded with the world that had been left; and accordingly most of Colony." (Historical Discourse, &c., in Hampshire, Maine, and Sagadahock, in R. I. Hist. Coll., IV. 149.) 1676, 150,000." And for this he erIn 1671 (June 21) the Commissioner, roneously refers to "1 I-Hutch. Hist., p. Cartwright, informed the Council for 484." I suppose he had in his mind Foreign Plantations that, when he the extravagant statement of Randolph was in America, there were of "men in Hutch. Coll., 485. So I suppose able to bear arms," in "Boston and had Sir William Petty, when, before the Massachusetts Colony," 30,000; in A. D. 1680, he wrote (Political ArithConnecticut, 14,000; in Providence metic, 75): " There are in New Engand Rhode Island, 1,000; in Plym- land 16,000 mustered in arms; about outh, 1,000; in the "Province of 24,000 able to bear arms; and conMaine," 1,000; in "Kennebec," 100. sequently about 150,000 in all." (Ms. Memorandum in the State-Paper The cautious Trumbull errs on the Office.) Whether this was intentional other side. Reasoning from the facts misrepresentation or only careless- that, in 1675, Connecticut had 2,250 ness, it was absurdly wrong in all par- soldiers, and that for the Indian war ticulars. begun in that year she furnished 315 Dr. Holmes, generally so judicious, men out of 1,000, he concludes that says (Annals, I. 364): "New England the militia of the United Colonies were is supposed to have contained at this about 7,150 in number, and that the time [1673] about 120,000 souls, of population, reckoned at the usual rate whom about 16,000 were able to bear of five persons for every man of miliarms. The town of Boston contained tary age, was about 35,750. (History 1,500 families." And for authority he of Connecticut, I. 351.) But there refers to an anonymous statement pub- is an important error in his calculalished by Chalmers. (Annals, 434, 435; tion. Massachusetts did not send to see below, p. 303.) Butaslate as 1670, the field a number of troops proporBoston had only two meeting-houses, tioned to her military population. On small buildings, and insufficient to ac- the contrary, she had refused to ascommodate a population of one third sume this obligation, and the new Artipart of 1,500 families, when every- cles of Confederation had determined body was expected to attend public her contribution of troops to be only worship. The Second Old South in the proportion of one hundred to a Church, built in 1730, and thought to contingent of sixty for Connecticut be very spacious and magnificent and thirty for Plymouth. (See below, (Wisner, History of the Old South p. 56.) How much less than her Church, 27), would not seat more than numerical proportion this was, we do 1,200 persons. not know; but of course it was conWilliamson (History of Maine, I. siderably less, or she would not have 447) still more preposterously says: so insisted on the arrangement. (Haz6T There were in Massachusetts, New ard, U. 524, 535.) CHAP. II.] CONDITION AFTER FORTY YEARS. 37 their settlements were on the coast. Dedham and Concord were respectively twelve miles and fifteen miles distant from it. From Providence and Warwick, thirty miles from the ocean, there was a convenient outlet by Narragansett Bay. Hadley and Northampton were the remotest frontier towns, and their communication with the external world was mostly by the channel of the Connecticut. For them, however, as well as for Springfield, there was a more direct route to Massachusetts Bay through the woods. On that way lay Brookfield, thirty miles east from the river, and Lancaster and Marlborough, about the same distance further on. The sites that were selected for these inland settlements, and for others that followed in the primitive times, were broad and fertile alluvial plains. The account of the condition of New England which was sent home by the Royal Commissioners de1666. serves attention, though, by reason of their imperfect means of knowledge, it cannot challenge implicit confidence even in respect to facts which they had no motive for misrepresenting. Connecticut, according to their report, had "many scattering towns, not worthy of their names, and a scholar to their minister in every town or village."1 In Rhode Island, they said, were "the best English grass and most sheep, the ground very fruitful, ewes bringing ordinarily two lambs, corn yielding eighty for one, and in some places they had had corn twenty-six years together without manuring. In this province only they had not any places set apart 1 Hutch. Coll., 413. Immediately number of freemen in all the towns after the annexation of New Haven of the Colony, except three (Middleto Connecticut (in October, 1667), the town, Lyme, and Rye), was seven property of the people of the Colony hundred and eighty-five. (Ibid., 518 was valued at ~ 144,398 6s. 9d., of -526.) Perhaps in the three towns which amount ~ 17,000 belonged to omitted there might have been fifty Hartford, and ~ 16,580 to New Haven. freemen more, making the freemen two (Conn. Rec., II. 71.) In 1669, the fifths of the male adults. vOL.. III. 4 38 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BooK III. for the worship of God; there being so many subdivided sects, they could not agree to meet together in one place, but, according to their several judgments, they sometimes associated in one house, sometimes in another."l In Plymouth, it was the practice to "persuade men, sometimes to compel them, to be freemen; so far were they from hindering any..... Tley had about twelve small towns, one saw-mill for boards, one bloomary for iron, neither good river nor good harbor, nor any place of strength; they were so poor, they were not able to maintain scholars to their ministers, but were necessitated to make use of a gifted brother in some places."2 The commodities of Massachusetts were "fish, which was sent into France, Spain, and the Straits, pipe-staves, masts, fir boards, some pitch and tar, pork, beef, horses, and corn, which they sent to Virginia, Barbadoes, &c., and took tobacco and sugar for payment, which they often sent for England. There was good store of iron made in this province."3 In thle Piscataqua towns were " excellent masts gotten,.... and upon the river above twenty saw-mills, and there were great store of pipe-staves made, and great store of good timber spoiled."4 In Maine "there were but few towns, and those much scattered...... They were rather farms than towns." In the Duke of York's province beyond the Kennebec, there were " three small plantations, the biggest of which had not above thirty houses in it, and those very mean ones too, and spread over eight miles at least. Those people, for the most part, were fishermen, and never had any government 1 Hutch. Coll., 416. magistrates and principal merchants 2 Ibid., 417. grew very rich, and a spirit of industry 3 Ibid., 422. -" The Colony about and economy prevailed throughout the this time [1669] made a greater figure Colony." (Hutch. Hist., I. 246, 247.) than it ever did at any other time. " Some of their merchants are damnable..... Their trade was as extensive rich." (Josselyn, Two Voyages, 180.) as they could wish...... Some of the 4 Hutch. Coll., 423. CHAP. II] CONDITION AFTER FORTY YEARS. 39 among them; most of them were such as had fled hither from other places to avoid justice."1 In Boston, the principal town of the country, the houses were cgenerally wooden, the streets crooked, with little decency and no uniformity; and there neither months, days, seasons of the year, churches, nor inns were known by their English names. At Cambridge, they had a wooden college, and in the yard a brick pile of two bayes for the Indians, where the Commissioners saw but one [Indian]. They said they had three more at school. It might be feared this College might afford as many schismatics to the Church, and the corporation as many rebels to the King, as formerly they had done, if not timely prevented."2 1 Ibid., 424. -" Some here are of northwest and northeast two constant opinion that as many men may share fairs are kept for daily traffic therein a woman as they do in a boat, and unto. On the south there is a small some have done so." (Ibid.) Com- but pleasant common, where the galpare a letter from Cartwright to Mav- lants, a little before sunset, walk with erick, in O'Callaghan, Documents, &c., their MIarmalet-Madams, as we do in III. 101. Morefields, &c., till the nine o'clock 2 Hutch. Coll., 421. - Josselynmade bell rings them home to their respechis second visit to Boston three years tive habitations, when presently the before the Commissioners came. De- constables walk their rounds to see scribing that town, he says: "The good order kept, and to take up loose houses are for the most part raised on people. Two miles from the town, at the sea-banks and wharfed out with a place called Muddy-River, the ingreat industry and cost, many of them habitants have farms to which belong standing upon piles, close together on rich arable grounds and meadows, each side the streets as in London, and where they keep their cattle in the furnished with many fair shops. Their summer, and bring them to Boston in materials are brick, stone, lime, hand- the winter; the harbor before the town somely contrived,, with three meeting- is filled with ships and other vessels for houses or churches, and a town-house most part of the year." (Account of built upon pillars where the merchants Two Voyages, &c., 162, 163.)-In may confer; in the chambers above 1664, a person sent out by Gorges to they keep their monthly courts. Their look after his interest in Maine understreets are many and large, paved with took to give him information respecting pebble-stone, and the south side adorned the military force of " the government with gardens and orchards. The town of Boston [Massachusetts]." "'I can is rich and very populous, much fre- give," he says, "no such methodical quented by strangers; here is the account of their strength [that is, as dwelling of their Governor. On the of that of Maine, which he rates at 40 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BooK III. The laws recorded as having been in force at any time in a community are a permanent source of information concerning its condition and character at that time. Laws imposed upon a community by superior power have an effect to mould its character and determine its condition. Laws self-imposed also indicate the condition and character from which they have sprung. In the sixth year after the dispute between the Royal Commissioners and Massachusetts, the General Lasof as- Court of that Colony caused to be published sachusetts. a revised collection of their " General Laws 6172. and Liberties."' In the same year, the Colonies of Plymouth and Connecticut (the latter then including New Haven) made similar publications of their statutes then in force. It is natural to apply to these volumes for information respecting the state of the seven hundred men]; only I have been was a great want of law-books for the informed by several that they are able use of several courts and inhabitants, to raise fifteen thousand men, of which..... and very few of them that were number there may be about six thou- extant or complete, containing all laws sand members of their church; the now in force"; and Major Lusher (an rest, those which they term the dis- Assistant) and five Deputies were inaffected party, which, first of all, have structed "to peruse all the laws now no vote for any officers, either military in force, to collect and draw up any or civil; secondly, their children are literal errors, or misplacing of words or not suffered to receive the sacrament sentences therein, or any liberties inof baptism; thirdly, they make a gen- fringed, and to make a convenient eral complaint as if the laws were more table for the ready finding of all things favorably interpreted for a member therein." (Mass. Rec., IV. (ii.) 453.) of the church than for those that are In October of the same year they prenotso." (MIs. Letter, inthe State-Paper sented their report. (Ibid., 467.) In Office.) Such statements indicate not May, 1671, three Assistants and two only the ignorance of the writer, but, Deputies were ordered to oversee the what is more important to be observed, printing of an edition. (Ibid., 488. the ignorance which in England could See above, Vol. I. 442, II. 260, 261, receive them as having any proba- 393, note 2.) bility. 2 See above, Vol. I. 340, 535, 546, 1 This was no new code, but a mere II. 235, 369, 376; Conn. Rec., II. 190, collection of the laws previously enacted 214, 567; Brigham, Compact, &c., ix. from time to time, and remaining un- Plymouth had never printed its laws repealed. At the Court of Elections till now. in 1670, it was observed that "'there CHAP L.1 CONDITION AFTER FORTY YEARS. 41 Colonies at the time succeeding the dissolution of the Confederacy.1 In Massachusetts, the form of the central government had remained essentially the same from the time of the separation of the legislative power into two General branches.2 Freemen3 now voted in the elections court. of Magistrates, either at the capital in person or by proxy, or personally in their respective towns. A list of those from among whom Assistants were to be chosen was prepared, two months before the election, by a nomination made by the freemen voting at their several places of abode; and the law ordained that, lf'or the yearly choosing of Assistants, the freemen should use Indian corn and beans, the Indian corn to manifest election, the beans contrary." 4 A Magistrate or Deputy, absenting himself from a General Court during the first four days of its session, incurred a fine of a hundred pounds.5 "No person who was an usual and common attorney in any inferior court" could "be admitted to sit as a Deputy in the General Court"; and "no man, although a freeman," was to " be accepted as a Deputy that was unsound in judgment concerning the main points of Christian religion as they have been 1 I hoped to find frequent hints in the these occasions was restrained by the Election Sermons from which to draw consideration that their sermons would inferences on this important subject. go to England, and be there taken as But in that expectation I have been expressing the sentiments of the people, greatly disappointed. That so little which might prove inconvenient. is to be gathered from them in respect 2 See above, Vol. I. p. (17. to passing political events is what I was 3 Counting the lists of persons adstill less prepared to learn. Whoever mitted to the franchise in Massachuwould pursue the inquiry in that quar- setts, and making what I judge to be a ter will be aided by the list of preach- reasonable allowance for persons deers of the Election Sermons, appended ceased, I come to the conclusion that to Dr. Pierce's Election Sermon in the number of freemen in Massachu1849 (p. 56), and by the list of preach- setts in 1670 may have been between ers before the Ancient and Honorable 1,000 and 1,200, or one freeman for Artillery Company in Whitman's His- every four or five adult males. tory of the Company (p. 141). I think 4 General Laws, &c., 47. the ministers' fieedom of speech on 5 Ibid., 35. 4* 42 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BooK III. held forth and acknowledged by the generality of the Protestant orthodox writers, or that was scandalous in his conversation, or that was unfaithful to this government." The form of the enacting clause,'It is ordered by this Court and the authority thereof," indicated a pretension to sovereignty.2 courts of The original plan of the courts of justice justice. had undergone little alteration. County (or "Inferior") Courts might now "administer the oath of freedom to any person admitted by the General Court."3 They were visitors of charitable trusts.4 In respect to highways, they had powers similar to those now vested in County Commissioners,5 and they licensed victuallers and inn-keepers.6 By reason of the concourse of people and increase of trade in the town of Boston," a new court had been there constituted, consisting of seven resident freemen nominated by the town and approved by the Court of Assistants. Any five of these seven, or any three of them with one Magistrate, might decide questions to which an inhabitant of Boston was a party, and which did not involve a sum exceeding 1 General Laws, &c., 41. Magistrates should differ from the 2'l The code of Massachusetts, pub- Deputies on a question of legal adjulished in 1672, when the cloud of fanati- dication, the final decision should be cism had passed away, contains not the made by a majority of the whole court most distant allusion to the laws of sitting together, and not, as in matters England." So wrote George Chalmers of legislation, by concurrent action. in 1780, in a long unpublished treatise (Mass. Coll. Rec., III. 266.) This law in the form of a letter to Lord Mans- the Magistrates now proposed to repeal. field, of which my friend Mr. Sparks But the Deputies positively refused, has a copy. Chalmers, prejudiced and and the other party had at last to unjust as he was, had been a very yield. The dispute was kept up with careful student of the history of the no little warmth for a year and a American Colonies. half. See Mass. Archives, XLVIII. The publication of the code gave 111-116, 120-123, 134. rise to a pertinacious dispute between 3 General Laws, &c., 56. the two branches of the General Court 4 Ibid., 9. as to the mode of its judicial action. 5 Ibid., 64, 65. In the year 1652, a law had been 6 Ibid.,7 9. passed, to the effect that when the CHAP. II.] CONDITION AFTER FORTY YEARS. 43 ten pounds. In criminal cases this court had the power of a single Magistrate, and might impose fines to the amount of forty shillings.' The charges of persons concerned in the administration of justice, as well as of government, were defrayed by the public.2 Before the meeting of a court, its clerk sent "warrants to the constables of the several towns within its jurisdiction for jurymen proportionable to the inhabitants of each town," and the inhabitants held an election to provide the required number. Petit-jurors served for a single term, and were paid at the rate of four shillings a day. Grand-jurors served a year, and received three shillings daily while on duty. It was allowable for juries to advise with any person in open court, and to render special verdicts.3 In order to conviction of a capital crime, "the testimony of two or three witnesses, or that which Judicial was equivalent thereunto," was requisite, and "oce' the witnesses must appear in court. In other cases, their depositions might be taken, but not if they lived within ten miles of the place of trial. The General Court alone had " power to pardon a condemned malefactor."4 Torture was forbidden, except in one case. A person convicted of a capital offence, in which he must have had accomplices, might be tortured to obtain a disclosure of them, "yet not with such tortures as were barbarous and inhuman."5 It' is not known that this law was ever executed. Indictments "for the breach of any penal law, or any other misdemeanor," were not valid unless framed within a year from the time of the offence; but this provision did not extend to the higher crimes.6 If a person indicted for a capital crime, but still at large, did not surrender himself within 1 Ibid., 21, 22. 4 Ibid., 35. 2 Ibid., 22. 5 Ibid., 129. 3 Ibid., 86, 87. 6 Ibid., 79. 44 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BooK III. a month after the last of three proclamations made a month apart, his property was then sequestered till he should appear.1 "No man's person could be arrested for any debt or fine, if the law could find any competent means of satisfaction otherwise from his estate"; and "no man's person might be kept in prison for debt, but when there was an appearance of some estate which he would not produce."2 Claims for "book debts" were not valid after three years.3 Attachments of property were to be served at least six days before the meeting of the court which was to try the issue. Foreigners taking out attachments were required to bind themselves, with sufficient securities, to prosecute and to pay costs.4 If a plaintiff asked advice of any magistrate who was to try his case, he lost his right of action, and paid costs to the defendant; the defendant, for the same offence, forfeited ten shillings to the other party.5 Executors of wills were required to have the wills recorded within thirty days after the death of the testator, under penalty of assuming his debts and Inheritances. paying five pounds for every month of delay. When there was no will, estates were administered by persons appointed by the county courts, which also nominated substitutes for executors who declined to serve. To the widow of an intestate, in addition to her use for life of one third of his real property,6 the county court assigned " such a part of his estate as they judged 1 General Laws, &c., 16.-In 1652, 2 Ibid., 6. In default of property the crime of arson of any " dwelling- to satisfy a claim, a debtor was bound house, meeting-house, or store-house," to " satisfy by service, if the creditor or of any out-house or stack, contiguous required it, but not to be sold to any to such buildings, and causing them but of the English nation." to be burned (Ibid., 52) was added 3 Ibid., 39. to the list of capital offences; and 4 Ibid., 7. in 1669, that of carnal knowledge of 5 Ibid., 34. a female child under ten years old 6 Ibid., 42. (Ibid., 15). CHAP II.] CONDITION AFTER FORTY YEARS. 45 just and equal.' Of the residue, i"the eldest son had a double portion, and, where there were no sons, the daughters inherited as copartners, unless the court, upon just cause alleged, should otherwise determine."1 Burglars and highway robbers were punished for the first offence by being branded on the forehead ffences and with the letter B; for a second offence, they were penalties. branded again, and' severely whipped." If the crime was committed on the Sabbath, the loss of an ear was added to each of these penalties. A third transgression of the same kind was a capital crime.2 The killing of a person attempting to commit murder, burglary, or highway robbery, unless circumstances admitted of his apprehension for trial, was justifiable homicide. Robbing orchards and gardens, and stealing household articles from enclosures, or "wood or other goods from the water-side, from men's doors or yards," led to a forfeiture of "treble damage to the owners thereof"; and where the offender had nothing to satisfy, the magistrate might punish by the stocks or by whipping. Other thefts were punished by scourging, fines, or "legal admonitions, at the discretion of the court."4 Whoever, "being of the age of sixteen years and upwards," should "wittingly and willingly set on fire any barn, stable, mill, out-house, stack of wood, corn, or hay, or any other thing of like nature, upon due conviction by testimony or confession," was sentenced to " pay double damages to the party damnified, and be severely whipped"; and if the fire was set to " any dwelling-house, meetinghouse, or store-house," or to anything which caused the burning of such buildings, the capital punishment of the offender was followed by an indemnity out of his estate to the party injured.5 The forger's doom 1 Ibid., 157, 158. 4 Ibid., 13. 2 Ibid., 12,13. 5 Ibid., 52. 3 Ibid., 92. 46 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BOOK III. was to "stand in the pillory three several lecture-days, and render double damages to the party wronged, and also be disabled to give any evidence or verdict to any court or magistrate." The burial-place of the suicide was in the common highway, with " a cart-load of stones laid upon the grave, as a brand of infamy."2 The profane swearer, in whose offence was included not only irreverence towards God, but'"wicked cursing of any person or creature," forfeited ten shillings for a single oath; if he swore "more oaths than one at a time, before he removed out of the room or company where he so sware," it was at the cost of twenty shillings;3 and if the fine were not paid, he was set in the stocks. Idlers, among whom were especially reckoned " common coasters, unprofitable fowlers, and tobacco-takers,"4 exposed themselves to committal to the house of correction. It was punishable by a fine of five shillings to dance, or "use the game of shuffle-board, or bowling, or any other play or game, in or about" a house of public entertainment; or to "play or game for any money or money-worth"; or to play at all " either at cards or at dice"; or to "observe any such day as Christmas or the like "; and the bringing or keeping of cards or dice within the jurisdiction subjected the offender to a fine of five pounds.5 The punishment of assaults was left to the discretion of judges.6 To gallop a horse in a street of Boston was to incur a penalty of three shillings and four pence.7 The fabrication or publication of "any lie, pernicious to the public weal, or tending to the damage or injury 1 General Laws, &c., 54. 7 Ibid., 57. The selectmen of Bos2 Ibid., 137. ton having exerted their power in vain 3 Ibid., 144, 145. to abate this nuisance, the Colony in4 Ibid., 66. terposed with a special law, and expe5 Ibid., 57, 58. rience has justified the continuance of 6 Ibid., 11. the provision down to the present day. CHAP. II.] CONDITION AFTER FORTY YEARS. 47 of any particular person, or with intent to deceive the people with false news and reports," subjected the culprit to fines, confinement in the stocks, and scourging, increased in severity according to the aggravation and repetitions of the offence. And this proceeding did not bar a further action for slander.l "Chirurgeons, midwives, and physicians" were forbidden, "upon such severe punishment as the nature of the fact might deserve," to " exercise or put forth any act contrary to the known approved rules of art, in each mystery and occupation. 2 The legislation aimed against intemperance was copious. Venders of "wine, ale, beer, or strong waters by retail," or of wine "by a less quantity than a quarter-cask," were required to have a license from the county court, founded on a recommendation of the selectmen of their town. The quality and price of malt liquor were prescribed. Inn-keepers were forbidden to' suffer any to be drunk, or to drink excessively; viz. above half a pint of wine for one person at a time, or to continue tippling above the space of half an hour, or at unseasonable times, or after nine of the clock at night." A person "found drunken, so as to be thereby bereaved or disabled in the use of his understanding, appearing in his speech or gesture," had to pay ten shillings, or be imprisoned till payment was made, or "be set in the stocks one hour or more, in some open place, as the weather would permit, not exceeding three hours."3 Tobacco might not, except under a penalty of half a crown, be taken "in any inn or common victual house, except in a private room there, so as neither the master of the said house, nor any guest there, should take offence thereat."4 1 Ibid., 91, 92. l Ibid., 146. -In the year after the 2 Ibid., 28. publication of the code, " the evil prac3 Ibid., 78-85. tice of sundry persons by exorbitancy 48 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BooK III. An attempt " to draw away the affection of any maid, under pretence of marriage, before obtaining liberty and allowance from her parents or governors, or, in absence of such, of the nearest magistrate," was punished by a forfeiture of five pounds. For a repetition of the attempt, the culprit was fined ten pounds, and compelled to enter into a recognizance for better behavior. If still unreclaimed, he was, on conviction by the county court, committed to prison, to remain there "until the Court of Assistants should see cause to release him." No person whose wife or husband continued to live abroad was allowed to have a home in Massachusetts. "No man might strike his wife, nor any woman her husband, on penalty of such fine, not exceeding ten pounds for one offence, or such corporal punishment, as the county court should determine." Marriage was still contracted, not before ministers, but before persons appointed to that office by the General Court. A widower could not marry the sister of his deceased wife.1 In pursuance of the policy of keeping the military power of the Colony under the complete control of the central government, the appointing of commissioned officers of every rank was now vested in the General Court, and the commissioned officers of companies named their subordinates.2 The mounted troops had a sort of aristocratic character. No trooper was enlisted "but such who themselves, or parents under whose government they were, paid in a single country rate for one hundred pounds' estate."3 Pikemen, who of the tongue in railing and scolding " as the court or magistrate should judge attracted the attention of the Court, meet." (Mass. Rec., IV. (ii.) 513, and a law was passed condemning the 514.) offender in that kind to " be gagged or 1 General Laws, &c., 101, 102. set in a ducking-stool and dipped over 2 Ibid., 116. head and ears three times in some 3 Ibid., 114. convenient place of fresh or salt water, CaAP. II.] CONDITION AFTER FORTY YEARS. 49 still composed a third part of every foot company,1 wore defensive armor consisting of " a sufficient corselet, buff coat, or quilted coat, such as was allowed by the chief officer under whose command they served from time to time." 2 The reader of the statute-book would have cause for surprise, if he did not find himself constantly reminded that the law-makers and their constituents belonged to the close body of communicants in churches. To legislators so circumstanced, the good order of the churches, the relations of the churches to the Religious commonwealth, the encouragement of the clergy, obsevans. and the suppression of irreligious practices among the people, would present themselves as eminently fit subjects of legislation. The spirit, and for the most part the letter of the laws upon these subjects, continued to be the same as they had been at the last revision of the code.3 So strict was the care taken to secure universal attendance upon public worship, that, even on the occurrence of "week-day lectures," innkeepers and victuallers, "within one mile of the meeting-house to which they belonged," had to "' clear their houses of all persons able to go to meeting, during the time of the exercise, except for some extraordinary cause." Violations of the Sabbath were made penal under various specifications. It was declared to be profaned by children playing in the streets;..... by youths, maids, and other persons, both strangers and others, uncivilly walking in the streets and fields, travelling from town to town, going on shipboard, frequenting common houses and other places to drink, sport, or otherwise to misspend their precious time." Travelling out of one's own, town "upon the Lord's day, either on horseback or on foot, or by boats, to any unlawful assembly or meet1 Ibid., 108. 8 See Vol. II. 394, 395, note. 2 Ibid., 115. 4 General Laws, &c., 83. VOL. III. 5 50 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BooK III. ing," was legally held to be "I servile work," and accordingly a desecration of holy time.1 The public charges continued to be met by a reveRevenue nue chiefly derived from direct taxes upon propsystem. erty. Real estate, and stock in trade, were assessed according to an estimate of the value made by town magistrates. Cattle, sheep, goats, and swine were taxed according to a permanent legal valuation of each description of such property. Artisans and mechanics contributed to the public expenses in proportion to the estimated gains of their business. There was a capitation-tax of one shilling and eight pence for each male person "from sixteen years old and upwards." Assessments were made in the autumn of each year; but selectmen might in any month collect taxes from transient "merchant strangers" on property brought by them into the country. Ministers of religion were "freed from all rates for the country, county, and church," so far as concerned "such estate as was their own proper estates, and under their own custody and improvement."2 Taverners paid a duty for the wine which they sold, at the rate of "fifty shillings by the butt or pipe, and proportionably for all other vessels"; and for the retail of " strong waters," at the rate of " two pence upon every quart."3 Imported goods of all descriptions, "excepting fish, sheep's wool, cotton wool, salt," and a few others, had to pay an ad valorem duty of five per cenltz on a valuation determined by adding five per ceCnht to the cost of the article at the place of exportation.4 The extent of the commercial prosperity which had grown up is indicated by the extent and minuteness euaton f the system of maritime law. This carefully Regulations for shipping defined the duties of seafaring men, whether and mariners. officers, seamen, or pilots; the rights of passen1 General Laws, &c., 132-134. 3 Ibid., 82, 83. 2 Ibid., 22-26. 4 Ibid., 69-73 CHAP. II.] CONDITION AFTER FORTY YEARS. 51 gers by sea; the relations existing among joint owners of shipping; the rules for adjusting damages and losses from mismanagement and from marine disasters.l The rates of wharfage for different commodities were exactly prescribed.2 There were surveyors of shipping, whose duty it was to watch the construction of every vessel measuring more than thirty tons; to "see that the work was performed and carried on according to the rules of the art"; and to "cause any bad timbers, or other insufficient work or materials, to be taken out and amended at the charge of them through whose default it grew."3 Some arrangements were still in force which had been made on the return of the messengers, Norton and Bradstreet, from England,4 avowedly to carry into effect the provisions of the Navigation Act. Three persons had been appointed-one for the ports of Boston and Charlestown, one for Salem, Marblehead, and Gloucester, and the third for "the river of Piscataqua and Isle of Shoals, and parts adjacent"to receive such bonds as were required by the Act, and make seizures for breaches of its provisions;5 but it is certain that this duty was not willingly or strictly performed. Ships paid a tonnage duty for the support of forts. The harbor police was not neglected. "No masters of ships, or seamen, having their vessels riding within any of the harbors in the jurisdiction, might presume to drink healths, or suffer any healths to be drunk, within their vessels, by day or night, or to shoot off any gun after the daylight was past, or on the Sabbath-day."6 Sailors might not injure harbors by taking in ballast " from any town shore," or "by discharging it in the channel or other place inconvenient."7 To keep up in foreign markets the reputation of arti1 Ibid., 93-100. 5 General Laws, &c., 139; comp. 2 Ibid., 156. Vol. II. 261. 3 Ibid., 138, 139. 6 General Laws, &c., 140. 4 See Vol. II. 526, 530. 7 Ibid., 9. 52 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BooK III. cles of export, a public inspection was maintained. The nspection law defined what qualities of dried fish should laws. be considered as merchantable, and "viewers" were appointed "at every fishing-place within the jurisdiction," whose judgment was binding upon the buyers and sellers of that commodity.l Coopers were required to put their "brand-mark" on their casks, and were punished by forfeiture and fine if they " put to sale any new cask, being defective either in workmanship, timber, or assizes." The measurements and quality of different kinds of staves were precisely specified, and in every town where casks were made a " gauger or packer" was appointed to see to the quality of the casks, and of the "liquor, beef, pork, fish," and other articles packed in them, and certify by his seal that they were fit for the market.2 Besides the inspection laws there were various regulations both of foreign commerce and of domestic industry. Prohibitions There was a strict prohibition of the exportaandregula- tion, by sea or land, of money coined in Massations of trade. chusetts, beyond the amount of twenty shillings for necessary expenses. Violations of this law were punished by "confiscation, not only of such money so coined, but also of all the visible estate of him that should any way be found sending or exporting any of the coin," and searchers were appointed at the several ports with extraordinary powers of inquisition for the offence.3 Powder also might not be exported.4 Imported salt had to pass under the eye of a qualified measurer.5 The law required such "hides or skins as either by casualty or slaughter came to hand" to be carefully dried, and sent to a tanner. The attempt to ship any raw hide or unwrought leather was punished by a for1 General Laws, &c., 52, 53. 4 Ibid., 126. 2 Ibid., 16, 17. 6 Ibid., 134, 135.! Ibid., 118, 119. CHAP. II.] CONDITION AFTER FORTY YEARS. 53 feiture of the property, and a fine equal to its value was imposed on any shipmaster who received it.1 A butcher, currier, or shoemaker might not at the same time be a tanner, nor might a tanner exercise any one of their trades; and there'were other strict provisions for securing a good quality of leather.2 The manner of washing and shearing sheep was prescribed,3 and the season for digging "tile earth to make sale-ware."4 The bringing in of wheat, barley, biscuit, beef, meal, and flour, which were the principal commodities of the country, from foreign parts," being' found by experience to be exceedingly prejudicial to the subsistence of the place and people," all importation of those articles was forbidden, "under the penalty of confiscation of the same."5 There were regulations for fishermen relating to the seasons when they might take "' mackerel, codfish, hake, haddock, or pollock," and to other details of their business.6 For bakers the weight of the penny white loaf was determined by a sliding scale arranged with reference to the price of wheat. Bakers had to stamp their bread, and it was subject to the inspection of clerks of the market, who exercised their office "in every market town, and all other towns needful." 7 " No person whatsoever might undertake the calling or work of brewing beer for sale, but only such as were known to have sufficient skill in the art or mystery of a brewer." Maltsters were answerable for the quality of their manufacture,8 and a purchaser of beer might recover damages if it proved 1" unfit, unwholesome, and useless, either through the insufficiency of the malt,'or brewing, or unwholesome cask."9 Wood was sold according to a prescribed measurement.l0' No miller might take above 1 Ibid., 63, 64. 6 Ibid., 52-54. 2 Ibid., 88 - 90. 7 Ibid., 8, 9. 3 Ibid., 138. 8 Ibid., 106. 4 Ibid., 146. 9 Ibid., 10, 11; comp. 80. 5 Ibid., 106. 10 Ibid., 160. 5* 54 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BOOK III. one sixteenth part of the corn he ground."l In time of harvest, "artificers and handicraftsmen," for reasonable wages, might be compelled by the constables "to work by the day for their neighbors in mowing, reaping of corn, and inning thereof." 2 The towns of Boston and Charlestown had power to appoint porters, and fix their wages.3 There was as yet no post-office arrangement, except that a person had been appointed to receive and transmit letters " which were brought from beyond the seas, or were to be sent thither."4 A true English instinct showed itself in some arrangements for securing a good breed of horses.5 Ferrymen had a monopoly of their business, and were subjected to exact rules as to duties and fees.6 1 General Laws, &c., 106. The ratable value of full-grown horses 2 Ibid., 161. for taxation was at the same time re3 Ibid., 124. duced from ten pounds to five pounds. 4 Mass. Rec., I. 281. (Ibid.) It was still further reduced 6 General Laws, &c., 65, 66. —A nine years later. (Ibid, V. 138.) curious law on this subject was passed Connecticut was not inattentive to the in 1668 (Mass. Rec., IV. (ii.) 367): importance of keeping up a good breed "Whereas the breed of horses in this of horses. (Conn. Rec., II. 244.) country is utterly spoiled, whereby that In 1667, John Iull, the Mint-master, useful creature will become a burden, with Mr. Brenton and Benedict Arnold vhich otherwise might bebeneficial, and of Rhode Island, and others, owned the occasion thereof is conceived to be land in the neighborhood of Point through the smallness and badness of Judith; and IHull proposed to his partstone horses and colts that run in con- ners to enclose Point Judith Neck for nons and woods,..... be it ordered the purpose of raising horses, so that and enacted..... that no stone horse no mongrel breed could get among above two years old shall be suffered to them. They hoped thus to obtain good go in commons and woods at liberty, animals, " some for coach horses, some unless he be of comely proportion and for the saddle, some for the draught," sufficient stature, not less than fourteen and in a few years to have a stock for hands high, reckoning four inches to a transportation. handful, and such a horse to be viewed This proposal seems to have been and allowed by the major part of the acted upon; and Mr. Jennison, in his selectmen of the town where the owner memoir of Hull (Archmologia Amerilives." The owner who should violate cana, III. p. 128), suggests that it is this law was to be punished by a fine probable that the arrangement proof twenty shillings, and the selectmen duced the " Narragansett pacers," so were subjected to the same penalty for celebrated in Dean Berkeley's time. a neglect of their duty in the premises. 6 General Laws, &c., 50. CHAP. II.] CONDITION AFTER FORTY YEARS. 55 The towns held in common a considerable part, even of their cultivated land, and this circumstance called for precise regulations for the raising, the security, and the division of the crops. Each town had a Municipal " distinct brand-mark" for its cattle, to iden- and police regulations. tify them in claims for damages. Private proprietors were bound to keep their fences in a condition satisfactory to the town fence-viewers. Stray cattle and goods lost were to be cared for and restored to their owner, at his cost, including remuneration for the trouble that had been taken.1 Every town had' a sufficient pound,"2 where cattle, sheep, goats, and swine, trespassing on enclosures, were shut up till claimed by their owner, who then became liable for damages.3 Boston, Salem, Watertown, and Dorchester held each two fairs annually, one in the spring, the other in the autumn; and the days for the weekly markets at Boston, Charlestown, Lynn, and Salem were designated, so as to prevent their interference with one another.4 A premium was paid out of the public treasury for the killing of wolves.5 The constables in each town were captains of the night-watch, which was kept from the beginning of May till the end of September, and they were charged "to see all noises in the streets stilled, and lights put out," and to " examine all night-walkers after ten of the clock at night (unless they were known peaceable inhabitants), to inquire whither they were going, and what their business was." 6 Highways and bridges belonged to towns or to the Colony. In the former case towns, in the latter, counties (under the direction of the county courts), were bound to keep them in repair, and were liable to pay heavy fines or double damages for any 1 Ibid., 142. 4 Ibid., 49. 2 Ibid., 124. 5 Ibid., 159, 160. 3 Ibid., 17-20, 145, 146. 6 Ibid., 154, 155. 56 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BooK III. accident occasioned by their insufficiency.1 Towns ordered and disposed all single persons and inmates within their territory to service or otherwise, subject to an appeal to the county court.2 They elected constables, jurors, selectmen, and surveyors of the highways, who were compelled to serve under a penalty of twenty shillings for each refusal.3 They maintained schools, and the fine for a neglect of this duty was now doubled.4 With the approval of two Magistrates or of the county court, they withdrew "rude, stubborn, and unruly" children and servants from incompetent parents and masters, and apprenticed them, for their minority, to suitable guardians.5 They prohibited the resort to inns and alehouses of persons whom they judged unfit.6 Under the penalty of fines for neglect, they enforced the attention of their inhabitants to certain branches of industry, as the spinning of woollen, cotton, and linen thread,' and the "propagating and increasing of salt1 General Laws, &c., 12. other motives which could not well 2 Ibid., 141, 148. By a law passed as be stated in the preamble of a law. early as 1637 (Mass. Rec., I. 196; comp. The preservation of religious and social General Laws, 143, 144), towns and harmony was an object of great impersons were made liable to a heavy portance in the new settlements. The fine for entertaining strangers, or al- town records contain frequent indicalowing them to remain, more than three tions of the importance attached to weeks without a license; and even the these provisions. For instance, an apentertainment of friends from other plication for leave to employ a journeyparts of the country was restricted to man is denied; and permission is rea limited time. This law, though passed fused to receive a visit fiom a relative, to meet a supposed danger of the time the applications being recorded, and (see above, Vol. I. p. 482), was con- disposed of by the adjudication "'Distinued in effect to a late period; and allowed." Grown-up children were not it was made the duty of the constable permitted to remain at home in idleness, of each town to inform the Court of without some security for their good Assistants of " new-comers." behavior. There were reasons assigned for 3 Ibid., 55. these regulations, such as the influx 4 Ibid., 136, 137; comp. Vol. II. of unruly and dangerous foreigners p. 263. into the seaports, and the liability of 5 Ibid., 26. shiftless persons to become chargeable 6 Ibid., 85. to the towns; but evidently there were 7 Ibid., 141. CHAP. II.] CONDITION AFTER FORTY YEARS. 57 petre."l They had the custody of standard weights and measures, and appointed measurers of corn, wood, and boards, without whose certificate a contract for those articles was void.2 Questions between towns respecting their liability for the support of paupers were determined by the county court.3 The system of laws in Connecticut indicates a social order substantially the same as that which ex- LawsofConisted at the same time in Massachusetts. The necticut. main difference between the codes of the two Colonies is, that the provisions in the code of Massachusetts are the more elaborate and minute, agreeably to the greater amount of population and business, and the consequent greater complexity of social relations in that jurisdiction. To a considerable extent, even the language is the same in both.4 In Connecticut, to be capable of the franchise, it was necessary that a person should be twenty-one years of age, own real estate to the amount of twenty pounds, and be recommended to the General Court by the selectmen of his town as of "honest, peaceable, and civil conversation." His nomination then lay over to be acted upon at the next General Court. A freeman might for sufficient cause be disfranchised by the Court of Assistants.5 The election of Magistrates was conducted in the same manner as in Massachusetts, except that the General Court, annually held in the General autumn, nominated the persons to whom in the Court. next spring the choice of the freemen was to be restricted.6 No qualification was required in a Deputy 1 Ibid., 135. and the page being of the same size in 2 Ibid., 155, 156. the two volumes. 3 Ibid., 35. 5 Book of the General Laws of the 4 Both Codes were printed in Cam- People within the Jurisdiction of Conbridge, by Samuel Green. The Code necticut, &c., (1673,) 26. of Massachusetts covers 170 pages in 6 Ibid., 22, 23. folio, that of Connecticut, 71; the type 58 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Booic III. except that he should be "orderly chosen by the freemen of that plantation for whom he served," and that he should swear to conduct himself " faithfully and truly according to the duty of his place." A Deputy forfeited his pay by absenting himself "without leave from the General Court, before the Court was issued."' General Courts were always held at Hartford. To constitute them, the presence of the Governor or DeputyGovernor, and at least six Assistants, was requisite. They assembled regularly in May and October of each year, and as much oftener as, "upon any special and emergent occasion, the Governor or Deputy-Governor, with the advice of one or more of the Assistants," should convoke them. The rule for meetings of Courts of Assistants was Inferior the same. County Courts, constituted of " three Courts. Assistants, and, where there were not so many Assistants, one Assistant and two Commissioners at least," also sat semiannually in each county. The counties were now four in number, named Hlartford, Neau HaveCn, Newu Londoz, and Fairfield, after their respective capitals.2 In the courts of Assistants and the county courts, cases were "heard and determined by a jury of twelve men, or otherwise according to law." To the jurisdiction of Courts of Assistants belonged "all trials for life, limb, banishment, and divorce," and the trial of appeals from the county courts. Before the last-named tribunals came "all causes, civil and criminal, not extending to life, limb, or banishment."3 1 General Laws of Connecticut, 20. ford County was called upon for one 2 Ibid., 18; comp. 16. The coun- hundred and sixty men; New Haven ties were constituted in May, 1666, im- County and Fairfield County each for mediately after the annexation of New a hundred and twenty; and New LonHaven. (Conn. Rec., II. 34, 35.) don for a hundred. (Conn. Rec., II Their comparative population in 1673 205.) may be inferred from the fact that, in 3 General Laws of Connecticut, 17, a levy of soldiers in that year, Hart- 18. CHAP. II.] CONDITION AFTER FORTY YEARS. 59 For the trial of crimes punishable with death or banishment, special juries were impanelled, and a Judicial unanimous agreement was requisite to a ver- processes. diet of guilt. Cases in the county courts involving sums less than forty shillings were tried by the bench alone. If more than that sum was at stake, a jury found "the matter of fact, with the damages and costs, according to law and their evidence." If the court was dissatisfied with a verdict, the jury might be sent out again; and if still they persisted, the court might dismiss them, and order another trial.' Except "in crimes capital, and contempt in open court, or in such cases where some express law allowed it," no person could be imprisoned till he had opportunity to offer bail.2 Witnesses had to appear in court, if they lived in the county where the case was tried; and in order to make a deposition valid, it was necessary that the deponent should be not under sixteen years of age.3 As in Massachusetts, the General Court alone could grant pardons, but the Governor, or Deputy-Governor, with the consent of three Assistants, might reprieve.4 The criminal code of Connecticut, in respect to capital offences, was almost verbally the same as that of Massachusetts.5 So were the laws relating to criminal the offences of burglary, robbery of orchards law and 60~~~~~~~ v' v general and other enclosures,6 forgery,7 lying,8 gambling9 polcy. 1 Ibid., 37. answered," was "left to the court to 2 Ibid., 32. be disposed of according to rules of 3 Ibid., 69. righteousness and equity." (Ibid., 2.) 4 Ibid., 27. As in Massachusetts, " torture" (by 5 The differences were, that in Con- which appears to have been meant necticut the law against blasphemy em- whipping) might be used, but not to braced fewer specifications, and that in- force a man to "confess any crime cest, not placed among capital offences against himself." (Ibid., 65.) in Massachusetts, was added to the list. 6 Ibid., 7, 8. Also, in Massachusetts, a condemned 7 Ibid., 25. felon might make a will. But in Con- 8 Ibid., 40. necticut, his estate, " after the charges 9 Ibid., 26. of prosecution and imprisonment were 60 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BOOK III. idleness,' drunkenness,2 profane swearing, and profanation of the Sabbath.3 So was the general system of Military service,4 of inspection laws,5 of police laws,6 and of regulations of houses of entertainment,7 of weights and measures,8 and, in general, of industry and trade? The twenty-seven sections of the long chapter respecting "maritime affairs,"10 and the section respecting " Rates,"11 or the colonial revenue, are copied with little alteration from the Massachusetts code. The system of imposts and excise duties on specified articles was also the same in the two Colonies; though the rates differed largely, the amount thus raised in Connecticut being materially lower.l2 There also the capitation tax varied, like other taxes, with the total amounts levied from time to time, each person being estimated for that purpose as representing eighteen pounds.13 The Massachusetts system of common schools had been immediately adopted in Connecticut, with the slight modification of requiring the schools where young men were prepared for college to be maintained in every county town, instead of every town with a hundred householders.l4 Connecticut had now no laws prohibiting extravagance in dress, or the exportation of powder or of money. The legal rate of interest was six per cenl7tum while in Massachusetts it was eight.l6 1 General Laws of Connecticut, 31. dered, or to give so much as another 2 Ibid., 21, 35. chapman would." (Ibid., 30.) 3 Ibid., 58. 7 Ibid., 34. 4 Ibid., 49- 51. 8 Ibid., 48. 5 Ibid., 10, 56. 9 Ibid., 5, 10, 14, 24, 25, 28, 29, 38, 6 Ibid., 10, 24, 38, 56, 64, 65. A 51, 57, 64, 65, 68, 69. proprietor could not "make sale of his 10 Ibid., 5, 20, 29, 30, 38, 42-46, accommodations of house or lands to 48, 51, 65, 68. any but the inhabitants of the town 11 Ibid., 59-61. wherein the said house and land was 12 Ibid., 31, 59. situate, without the consent of the town, 13 Ibid., 31, 39, 59. or unless he had first propounded the 14 Ibid., 62, 63. sale thereof to the town where it was 15 Ibid., 68. situate, and they refused the sale ten- 16 General Laws of Mass., 153. CHAP. II.] CONDITION AFTER FORTY YEARS. 61 The laws relating to marriage were borrowed from Massachusetts.1 In the division of the property of deceased persons, marriage settlements were re- Marriage and garded. If none had been made, a widow was inheritances. entitled to the use, during her life, of one third of her husband's real estate, "the remainder of the estate to be disposed of according to the will of the deceased, or, in defect thereof, according to the distribution the court should make thereof."2 Towns might make by-laws "not repugnant to the laws and orders of the Colony," and enforce Towns. them by "penalties not exceeding twenty shillings for one offence." The selectmen of a town might not be more than seven in number. They had "full power to order and dispose of all single persons and inmates within their towns, who lived an idle or riotous life, to service or otherwise." Any inhabitant of a town, refusing or neglecting to accept a town office, was punished by a fine of forty shillings.3 The law defining the liability of towns and counties in respect to highways and bridges was but a transcript from the law of Massachusetts.4 The ecclesiastical system, so far as the law Ecclesiastical controlled it, was also the same, though in Con- system. necticut there was a more express declaration that dissenters from the Congregational order, provided they were " orthodox and sound in the fundamentals of Christian religion," might " have allowance in their persuasion and profession in church ways or assemblies without disturbance." 5 An examination of the laws of Plymouth brings further to light the substantial uniformity of the social L,~of system of the confederate Colonies of New Eng- Pymouth. 1 General Laws of Connecticut, 47. 4 Ibid., 7. 2 Ibid., 21. 5 Ibid., 21, 52. 3 Ibid., 65, 66. vOL. II, 6 62 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BooK III. land.' Even the language of those laws, as of the laws of Connecticut, is in great part borrowed from the code of Massachusetts, and for the same reasons that caused the code of Connecticut to be more compendious than that of Massachusetts, the laws of Plymouth run less into detail than those of either of the other Colonies. In Plymouth, the Magistrates and Deputies still continued to sit and deliberate as one body. At the annual General General Court of Election, " the Deputies, selectCourt. men, grand-jurymen, constables, and supervisors of the highways," nominated by the towns, were "presented to be established in their respective places";2 -a kind of supervision by the whole community over its constituent parts which we do not find to have been practised in either of the other Colonies. As in Massachusetts and Connecticut, freemen in Plymouth might vote for Magistrates by proxy. A freeman who neglected to vote was liable to a fine of ten shillings.3 None could be candidates for citizenship but "such as were one and twenty years of age at the least, and had the testimony of their neighbors that they were of sober and peaceable conversation, orthodox in the fundamentals of religion, and such as had also twenty pounds' ratable estate at least in the government." And a nomination for the franchise had to precede admission by a full year, "unless it were some person 1 The Plymouth code has an ad- tals," or a Bill of Rights; the second vantage over the two others in point of contains the " Capital Laws"; the arrangement. In these the several third relates to Criminal Law; the articles are disposed in alphabetical fourth to Actions; and so on. The order, without regard to the connection Plymouth code is less than half as of subjects. Thus " Barratry" comes long as that of Connecticut. nextto "Ballast," and "Burglary" next 2 Book of the General Laws of the to " Bridges." In the Plymouth law- Inhabitants of the Jurisdiction of New book, they are digested in fifteen chap- Plymouth, &c., in Brigham, Compact, ters, in a certain logical combination with the Charter and Laws, &c., 257. and sequence. Thus the first Chapter 3 Ibid., 257, 258. is taken up with " General Fundamen CHAP. II.] CONDITION AFTER FORTY YEARS. 63 that was generally known and approved, or of whom the Court might make present improvement."' Courts of Assistants sat in the town of Plymouth at least three times a year, "to hear, examine, Inferior and determine all capital, criminal, and civil courts. causes according to law, and to receive and try all appeals." 2 There was as yet no division into counties, and of course no county court; nor was there any intermediate authority between the court of Assistants and the court of selectmen, which latter tribunal adjudged in each town "all causes wherein either party was an inhabitant of their town, and the debt, trespass, or damage did not exceed forty shillings."3 The rules as to competent evidence,4 as to indictments,5 as to attachments and all forms of judicial proceeding,6 were similar to those in force in the other jurisdictions. "All trials, whether capital, criminal, or between man and man," were "tried by jury of twelve good and lawful men, according to the commendable custom of England, except the party or parties concerned referred it to the bench, or some express law referred it to their judgment and trial, or the trial of some other court where jury was not; in which case the party aggrieved might appeal, and have a trial by jury.". It was the right of a litigating party "to improve one or two attorneys, provided they were persons of good repute, and such as the court should approve"; but such attorneys were "required, as to be faithful to their client, so also to avoid fraudulent pleas that might have a tendency to mislead the court, or darken the case." 8 In Plymouth, the burning of a dwelling-house or of a " vessel of considerable value" was a capital ofOffences. fence, or to be "otherwise grievously punished, 1Brigham, Compact, &c., 258. 5 Ibid., 262. 2 Ibid., 259. 6 Ibid., 253-255. 3 Ibid., 260. 7 Ibid., 242. 4 Ibid., 242. 8 Ibid., 255. 64 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Boow III. as the case and circumstances of it might require."' Traitors under sentence of death might dispose of their lands by will, but forfeited "to the King or Colony their personal estate."2 Adulterers, whose crime was capital in Massachusetts, were scourged in Plymouth, as in Connecticut, besides having to "wear two capital letters, A D, cut out in cloth, and sewed on their uppermost garments, on their arm or back." Burglars were for a first offence branded on one hand; for a second, were "branded on the other hand, and severely whipped"; and for a third, were "put to death, or otherwise grievously punished." When the crime was aggravated by a commission of it on the Lord's day, the brand was "to be set on the forehead."3 The forger of any evidence of property, or of "any writing to prevent equity or justice," had to "pay the party grieved double damages, and be fined himself so much to the country's use; and if he could not pay, to be publicly whipped, and burned in the face with a Roman F."4 Intemperance, licentiousness, gambling, idleness, theft, neglect of public worship, profane swearing, Sabbath-breaking, heresy, blasphemy, removing of landmarks, and other offences, were, with circumstantial variations, treated in Plymouth as in the larger Colonies; but with somewhat less restriction on the judgment of the magistrate as to the kind and measure of punishment to be inflicted.5 A fine of two shillings was imposed on "any person or persons found smoking of tobacco on the Lord's day, going to or coming from the meetings, within two miles of the meeting-house."6 The public charges were defrayed from the avails of direct taxes, levied " according to each man's Imevenue. personal abilities, faculties, and estates, both per1 Brigham, Compact, &c., 245. 4 Ibid., 249. 2 Ibid., 242. 5 Ibid., 243-252, 271, 287. 3 Ibid., 245, 246. 6 Ibid., 252. CHAP. II.] CONDITION AFTER FORTY YEARS. 65 sonal and real";L a system of excise and other duties, which had formerly been in operation, being now discontinued.2 A premium was however exacted for the privilege of taking bass and herrings with nets on the coast of Cape Cod; and an order was passed, that the profit arising to the Colony" from this source should " be employed and improved for the erecting and maintaining of a free school,' 3 the only provision as yet made for general education in the Colony. The business of fishing was controlled by minute regulations.4 When a town did not afford a proper maintenance to its minister, the Magistrates might tax it for that purpose.5 In the choice of town officers, those only were qualified to vote who were freemen of the Corporation, or freeholders of twenty pounds' ratable estate, orthodox in the fundamentals of religion, of good conversation, and having taken the oath of fidelity."6 In respect to roads, fences, cattle, strays, inspections, licenses, inheritances, the care of the poor, the inspection of articles of export, the toll of millers and ferrymen, and other matters of detail, there is nothing material to distinguish the customs of Plymouth.7 Undoubtedly such systems of law as those of which specimens have been given justify inferences Spirit of the favorable both to the character and to the con- laws dition of the community which framed them, and in which they were in force. They show a stable form of society, and a uniform development of policies conceived with enlightened forethought, and pursued with confident and steady determination. They signify that the commu. nity regulated by them was honest, industrious, frugal, orderly, and thriving; that occupations were varioas; 1 Brigham, Compact, &c., 268. 4 Ibid., 282- 284. 2 Ibid., 85, 91, 132, 133, 135, 136, 5 Ibid., 269. 143, 161. 6 Ibid., 258. 3 Ibid., 284. This order dates no 7 Ibid., 273-276, 291. further back than the year 1673. 6* 66 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BooK III. that the remuneration of labor and the security of property were sedulously, and, on the whole, intelligently cared for; and that knowledge, morals, and religion were recognized as objects of the most intimate public concern. The laws are such as presuppose on the part of the people a habit of respect for law, and a capacity for joint and for individual self-government. In their general character they suggest that agreeably to the practice of English legislation in all times, they were dictated by necessities and occasions, and not by theories. Compared with other systems of the same period, they are on the whole humane; but on the other hand, as to methods and penalties, they have an exhaustive minuteness which expresses an absolute purpose not to be defied or evaded. The men who framed these laws had comprehensive notions of the rights and the obligations of a government. The opinion that the world is governed too much was by no means theirs. Their ideal was rather an authority residing indeed in the citizens collectively, but responsible for and vigorously controlling the individual citizen. Charged with the protection of the people, the law-maker meant to hold them back with a tenacious and a strong hand from harming themselves, and to compel them to keep their ranks for mutual defence. He had no scruples about demanding personal service or pecuniary sacrifice to any extent that the public well-being required. He intended to be just and beneficent, but at the same time, and for that purpose, he claimed universal, precise, and prompt obedience. And if such a government was absolute, still it was free; for it was the people's government over themselves, and no pains were spared to give to each citizen his due weight in the common administration. The men of Charlestown had no privileges beyond those of the other towns of Massachusetts, when they pronounced them CHAP. II.] CONDITION AFTER FORTY YEARS. 67 selves the most happy people that they knew of in the world." In contemplating the state of things in New England at the time to which these remarks relate, the influences of its recent settlement should not be overlooked. It must be admitted that the transfer Dangers of Dangers of of a community by colonization is a hazardous an emigrant step, in respect not only to superficial advan- ope. tages, but even to sentiments and habits which afford security for social order.2 The emigrant to a new country, while he dooms his immediate posterity to formidable hardships, exposes them to degenerate from himself in culture of mind, manners, and temper. His first business must be to make a home, and provide the means of subsistence; to take precautions against a strange climate and unfamiliar neighbors; to arrange with his companions the terms on which they are to live together, keeping the peace among themselves and lending mutual protection. By the time his attention has been relieved from such immediately pressing cares, his children have grown up to manhood, and new actors are stepping upon the stage. In respect to the stronger qualities of character, the men born upon the soil, who are to succeed to the conduct of affairs as the first settlers die or grow old, will not be found the worse for their early familiarity with trouble and danger; but in the refinements of life it cannot be expected that they will excel, and it will be to their credit if they are orderly and peaceable; still more so, if they prove to have ac1 Petition of the freemen of Charles- rism, more or less protracted, more or town (1668), in Mass. Arch., LXVII. less complete. Commonly, nothing but 57. extraordinary efforts in behalf of edu2'Emigration, or a new settlement cation and religion will suffice to preof the social state, involves a tendency vent a fatal lapse of social order."to social decline. There must, in every Bushnell, Barbarism the First Danger, such case, be a relapse towards barba- 4, 5. 68 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BOOK III. quired sufficient knowledge for practical occasions. For during their forming years schools and colleges, if ever so promptly undertaken, can at best have been only in the process of organization; every hand has been liable to be in demand for its share of hard daily work; nor are the discomforts of a straitened and harassed life favorable to the amenities of social intercourse, or even without effect to generate that selfishness which is its bane. The presence of historical objects, and that habitual contact with transmitted thoughts and feelings which local associations keep alive, provide a stimulating education for the mind, which it cannot forego without some disadvantage. The consummate flowers and fruits of a high civilization seem to require to be nurtured by roots that for a long time have been penetrating into a native soil. Accordingly it would not have been matter of surprise if the New-Englander of the first indigenous generation had proved to be a rude, coarse, unlettered, unmannered, sensual, turbulent person. It might have been supposed, not unreasonably, that a retrograde step had been taken in the direction of barbarism, and that the next ascent would have to be made from a lower level. Such an inference would, however, derive little These dangers understood justification from what we know of the men adter- who managed the affairs of New England during England. the reign of King Charles the Second. A large majority of those men, and of the freemen who supported them, and of the non-freemen who lived quietly and thankfully under their government, were of American birth. But their English predecessors had meditated maturely on the conditions of respectable and happy living, and of the decline and decay of states. In the busy and imperilled infancy of their commonwealth, they had never lost sight of the importance of preventing civility and learning from being buried in the graves CHAP. II.] CONDITION AFTER FORTY YEARS. 69 of the fathers; a meeting-house for worship went up as often as a parcel of wild land was cleared; a College and schools were among the necessities for which they earliest made provision; and they took care to instruct their children at their homes in virtue, letters, and manners, while school-houses were getting ready to receive them.1 Their wise forecast proved adequate to the occasion in an admirable degree. It would be unsafe to argue from any documents of the time, or from any other evidence that touches the question, that the half-century which followed the immigration of Winthrop's company witnessed a sensible degeneracy under the unpropitious influence of the new circumstances of life. At no earlier time was government in New England more quietly or prosperously administered, than in the first twenty years that followed the restoration of the British monarchy. And as the laws of that period are the monument of a capacity for prudent legislation, so even in the luxury 1 Massachusetts had had a printing- illiterate people. Samuel Phillips, anpress almost from the first. (See above, other of the Boston booksellers, with Vol. II. p. 45.) In 1674, another was whom Dunton in 1685 dealt for " some set up in Boston by John Foster, a hundred pounds," was "very thrivgraduate of Harvard College in 1667. ing." (Ibid.) When Dunton came to (Thomas, History of Printing., I. 275.) Boston, it was to collect no less a Within the period treated in this vol- sum than five hundred pounds due to ume, there were in Boston as many him there for books. He made at as thirteen persons, though probably the same time a shipment to that port not all at the same time, who dealt in of books valued at five hundred pounds, the publication and the sale of books, and the vessel in which he was pasas either the whole or part of their senger brought another venture in the business. (Ibid., II. 409-415.) Heze- same commodity, also to a large amount, kiah Usher was one of them. His more which he does not specify. He sold distinguished son, John, was another. a portion of them at Boston in seven The eccentric John Dunton says of or eight months, and found a market John Usher: "This trader makes the for the rest at Salem. (Ibid., 101, best figure in Boston; he is very rich; 113, 172, 182.) Dunton was a writer adventures much to sea; but has got as well as vender of books, and got his estate by bookselling." (Life and the reward of his labors in the former Errors of John Dunton, 127.) Book- line by being transfixed on the end of a sellers do not make fortunes out of an verse in the Dunciad (Book II. line 144). 70 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BooR III. of learning there was no token of decay. The works of Mitchell, Oakes, and many other early pupils of Harvard College, are in our hands, and we find them not unworthy to be compared, for rich and scholarly rhetoric, with the writings of Chauncy, who came from a Professor's chair at Cambridge, or of Cotton, the light of the first Protestant foundation at that University.' The Puritan Dean of Christ Church, the universally learned Owen, felt such assurance of finding congenial society in New England, that he would have emigrated but for the consideration of duties which seemed to require him at home.2 Nor should it be forgotten that the circumstances of an emigrant community favored in a peculiar manner the diffusion of knowledge and civility from the highest through the inferior social ranks. The common necessities and mutual dependence which presented themselves in a new settlement brought the different orders of society into an acquaintance with each other, of which the better influence could scarcely be impaired I A hundred and fifty young men Reward, and Hope. Surnames used as were educated at Harvard College be- baptismal names (each once) were Cotfore the Confederacy of the Four Colo- ton, Grindall, Percival, Gurdon, Warnies was dissolved. - I will venture to ham, and Addington. Brocklebank Sammention here an indication of one cus- uel Coffin (so late as 1718) was the tom of the times. In the Catalogue of earliest graduate who placed a double the graduates of Harvard College, there baptismal name upon the Catalogue, occur no such odd baptismal names as (Ammi-Ruhamah (1670) being, as I were in fashion in England in the view it, only one name); and the next time of the Commonwealth. Scriptural instance, Robert Eliot Gerrish, occurs names, however, were largely in use. twelve years later. At Yale College in Of 337 graduates in the first fifty Connecticut, Stephen John Chester took years, all but 55 bore names of that his bachelor's degree in 1721, and description. Of these 55 names, Wil- Ichabod Wolcott Chauncy in 1723. liam occurred 11 times; Edmund, 6; 2 See below, p. 81; comp. IHutch. George, 5; Henry, Richard, and Ed- Hist., I. 207; Mass. Rec., IV. (ii.) 98. ward, each 4; Robert, 3; Urian, twice Neal says (History of the Puritans, (father and son); Ronald, Leonard, IV. 524) that, when "determined to Francis, Clharles, and Christopher, each settle in New England," Owen "was once. Fancy names (occurring once stopped by express order from the each) were Comfort, Seaborn, Increase, Council." CnAP. II.] SCHEME OF A SECOND CONFEDERACY. 71 by the influence proceeding from the less profitable quarter. Fruitful elements of improvement were imparted to the mass of the people when husbandmen, artisans, and laborers became, under the new conditions of their life, the associates of courtiers and scholars. If the habits of conduct inculcated by the approved systems of law and religion were ascetic, the character so formed was at all events strong and manly. If the disesteem of frivolous pursuits was carried to extravagance, and the spirit of society was not genial, enervating vices were rebuked, and a strict standard of public morality was maintained.1 Among the causes that had maintained and extended the similarity of the Colonies to one another in institutions and manners, not the least considerable was the league which connected them in a political union. After the Confederacy was dissolved by the absorp- ttemptto tion of New Haven into Connecticut, an attempt revive the Confederacy. to renew it between the three existing governments had little spirit and little effect; yet the movement was one of too much interest to be passed over. Independently of other considerations, the course of Connecticut in relation to New Haven had given serious offence to the two older Colonies, as being, in their view, a violation of her engagements as a party to the league. That desire to unite in preparation for resistance to encroachment from England, which had been a large element in the original confederation, had been cooled by recent occurrences. All the Colonies had now formally acknowledged the King; and the different tempers in which this had been done in Connecticut and in Massachusetts forbade the hope that for 1 According to the preamble of a by to prevent their extravagant and law of 1647, "sundry gentlemen of riotous courses," &c. (Mass. Rec., II. quality and others ofttimes sent their 217.) Such, in England, was the good children into this country, unto some repute of Massachusetts. friends here, hoping, at the least, there 72 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BooK III. the present they could act together with zeal in respect to questions of politics. Connecticut had received great favors from the King, for which she seemed not ungrateful, while the attitude of Massachusetts towards the parent country was never more than now one of jealousy and apprehension, if it should not rather be said that she regarded the existing English government with a stern hostility, which only considerations of prudence enabled her to suppress.' When the artifice of Lord Clarendon, promoted by the amiable facility of the Governor of Connecticut, and by the misdirected energy of her Secretary, had emasculated New England as a political power, still there existed a strong mutual good-will among the Colonies, and a disposition to restore the old Union so far as altered circumstances would allow. It has been related,2 that when, agreeably to the arrangement which had Meeting of been made at the last meeting of the Federal the Commis- Comissioners,3 they came together again at 1667. Hartford after the expiration of three years, Sept. 5. the representatives of Plymouth and Massachusetts brought authority only to "act about the Indian affairs of the Corporation, and to agitate and treat of any propositions that should be made for the renewing or entering into a new confederation." The result of their consultations on this matter they were to report to their respective governments.4 In the letter which, two years before this time, the Objections of Governor of Plymouth, in behalf of his Colony, Plymouthto had addressed to the General Court of Massaa new confederation. chusetts concerning the proposal for a continued 1665. June21. union, he said,' We find not our reason seated 1 See O'Callaghan, Documents, &c., 4 Records, &c., in Hazard, II. 501, TII. 40, 89, 99, 102, 136. 502. By "the Corporation" is meant 2 See Vol. II. p. 631. the Society for Propagating the Gos3 Ibid., p. 594. peL CHAP. II.] SCHEME OF A SECOND CONFEDERACY. 73 in sufficient light to continue confederation with three Colonies, as we did with four." And he specified three objections to the measure. 1. It was an article of the former confederation that " no two of the Colonies should become one, except with consent of the rest"; but the union of New Haven with Connecticut had been compulsory as to herself, was not consented to by Plymouth, and was not known to be approved by Massachusetts. 2. " Matters of peace and war, and other concerns of the Colonies, had been looked upon as matters of such concernment as required at least six of the ablest, discreetest, and most experienced gentlemen of the four Colonies to determine"; the public business had not decreased in importance; nor was there so much more intelligence now than formerly, that four Commissioners - the number now proposed to constitute a decisive majority could supply the place of six. 3. It was scarcely to be expected that a decision of a question by four votes would prove to be controlling, when experience had shown that the expressed will of a larger number was liable to be disregarded. C"The truth is," concluded the Governor of Plymouth, "we are the meanest and weakest, least able to stand of ourselves, and little able to contribute any helpfulness to others; and we know it, though none should tell us of it; yet, through God's goodness, we have not hitherto given you much trouble, and hope it shall be our study and endeavors, as we are able, to be serviceable to our countrymen, brethren, and fellow-subjects; and doubt not to find the like from yourselves, if need be." It did not appear that Connecticut had had any action upon the subject, nor was any statement produced, on the part of that Colony, of the conditions of the incorporation of New Haven into it. The complaint of I Records, &c., in Hazard, II. 502, 503; comp. 504. VOL. III. 7 '74 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Booi III. Plymouth respecting slights which had been put upon the authority of the Federal Congress probably referred to the refusal of Massachusetts to be bound by that decree which called on her to engage in a war with the Dutch and Indians.1 But the Commissioners of Plymouth and Massachusetts now proceeded to point out instances in which Connecticut also had been contumacious. They probably hoped to assuage the irritation of that Colony, and conciliate her to the proposed union, by showing that of the insubordination which had offended her there had not been wanting instances on her own part. They disavowed any purpose "of disrespect or imposition on their brethren of Connecticut, whose happiness, peace, and welfare they could not but seek as their own." " We have no other end," they said, "but that, by an emendation of those things that have so great an appearance of an uncomfortable breach between us, the former tranquillity, which hitherto, through the favor of God, hath been held and enjoyed by and between these Colonies, may be continued and increased, to the honor of God, the establishment of his kingdom among us, and the good of our posterity from generation to generation." Accordingly, they again invited the attention of Connrpsof ecticut to the proposals made for a new con[proposal of an amended federation three years before; and it was agreed Scheme. to sullrest four amendments for the consideration of the several General Courts. One provided that out of five meetings of Commissioners two should be held at Boston, two at Hartford, and one at Plymouth. Another stipulated for the return of C vagabond or wandering persons" to the Colony and town of their legal habitaincy. A third related to the calling of Synods "indifferently out of all the United Colonies by an 1 See above, Vol. II. p. 325. CHAP. II.] SCHEME OF A SECOND CONFEDERACY. 75 orderly agreement of the several General Courts," as often as questions should arise " of common concernment, whether in the matters of faith or order"; and it added a recommendation " to the several jurisdictions, that some special provision be made for the more comfortable and settled maintenance of an able ministry in every plantation." The fourth amendment was intended to dispose of that controversy of earlier times, which had occasioned so much trouble. It was, "that the power of determining of an offensive war, properly so called, so as to engage the Colonies therein, shall be in the several General Courts, and not in the Commissioners, without special instructions given them by their respective General Courts." Before the Commissioners separated, they transacted some business of the Society for Propagating the Gospel. Leete and Wyllys, on the part of Connecticut, presented a defence of the alleged unjust proceedings of that Colony, and signified their own readiness to promote measures "for the best security of the religious rights and civil enjoyments" of " brethren in so remote a corner of the wilderness." As the end of another term of three years approached, the question respecting a reformed Confederacy was revived. Commissioners appointed for the pur-Agreement pose by the three Colonies met at Boston, and inrelation agreed upon a frame of Articles for a new 670. compact.2 There was little departure, even June 2 in phraseology, from the old scheme of confederation, except such as was necessary to accommodate it to the diminished number of the contracting parties, and except in what related to the authority to declare war. In the preamble, the ancient reference to " those 1 Records, &c., in Hazard, II. 503 - were, for Massachusetts, Governor Bel511. lingham, Thomas Danforth, and John 2 Ibid., 511-516; Mass. Rec., IV. Leverett; for Plymouth, Josiah Wins(ii.) 471; Conn. Rec., II. 122, 143; low; and for Connecticut, Samuel WylPlym. Rec., V. 17. The Commissioners lys and John Talcott. 76 IISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BooK IIn. sad distractions in England" was now omitted, and a consideration of the distance of that country was substituted in its place. In the second Article, that warmaking power of the Commissioners which had proved such a root of bitterness was restricted by a provision, that the "ldetermination of an offensive war, properly so called, so as to engage the Colonies therein, should be in the several General Courts."l The question whether five Commissioners, or only four, out of the whole number of six, should be competent to settle a question, was left for the present undetermined. Meetings were to be held only once in three years, one meeting out of five to be at Plymouth, the other four to be equally divided between Boston and Hartford. In the new draft, there was a transposition which brought the fourth and fifth Articles of the original compact into a later place in the series,2 but without affecting their import. Three Articles were added. One of them related to the arrangement, recently proposed by the Commissioners,'for the settling of vagabonds and wandering persons." Another provided "that, if any of the confederates should hereafter break any of these present Articles, or be any other way injurious to any of the confederate jurisdictions, such breach of agreement or injury should be duly considered and ordered by the Commissioners for the other jurisdictions, that both peace and the present confederation might be preserved without violation. The last Article, to save the honor of the old Confederacy, declared that the junction of New Haven with Connecticut "should be always interpreted as by their own concession, and not otherwise."3 When this amended plan was presented to the Gen1 Records, &c., in Hazard, II. 522; Articles, see Hazard, II. 511; for the Mass. Rec., IV. (ii.) 427. same as amended by Massachusetts, see 2 They were now made to stand re- ibid., 516; and for the same as finally spectively as the ninth and twelfth. adopted, see ibid., 521. 3 For the original draft of the new CHAP. II.1 SCHEME OF A SECOND CONFEDERACY. 77 eral Courts of the three Colonies, Connecticut adopted it without exception,1 nor does any qualification of it appear to have been desired by Plymouth. Massachusetts was not satisfied. When her General Court took the business into consideration, Oct. 11. they proposed two material emendations. By the seventh Article, the Commissioners were authorized to " endeavor to frame and establish agreements and orders in general cases of a civil nature"; the Court preferred to reduce this power to that of " consulting of and proposing to the several General Courts, to be by them allowed and established, such orders in general cases." In settling the proportion of supplies of men and money for war, the ninth Article retained the old rule of a levy on the several Colonies according to the number of their men of military age; the Court desired that the rule for such a distribution of the public burdens might be a subject for future consultation, and that in the mean time a rule should prevail which had been adopted for sudden emergencies, and which would be much less onerous to Massachusetts. The Court declared its opinion that the consent of five Commissioners should be requisite for a decisive vote. The proposal of Massachusetts in respect to the apportionment of military burdens was rejected by Connecticut, and cannot be supposed to have been any more acceptable to Plymouth. The subject of a confederation had lost much of the interest that formerly invested it, and the negotiation does not seem to have been renewed till more than a year had passed. Then, at a meeting, held at Plymouth, of Commissioners from the three Colonies, the only point in dispute was ad1 Conn. Rec., II. 143. 1671, in answer to a letter of June 6th 2 Mass. Rec., IV. (ii.) 476. Comp. from the Magistrates of Massachusetts, Secretary Allyn's letter of Oct. 12th, in Mass. Archives, II. 187. 7 * 78 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BooK III. justed by an agreement that thenceforward, for fifteen years, troops and money should be contributed, for any war, in the proportion of a hundred for Massachusetts, Confedera sixty for Connecticut, and thirty for Plymouth; tionof the and, this material question being disposed of, the ontieGs. old Confederacy was faintly reproduced.' The 1672. Commissioners proceeded to hold one of their Sept. 5 prescribed triennial meetings. But it had none of the importance of the meetings of earlier times. Little was done besides the auditing of an account of money disbursed for the Society for Propagating the Gospel, the receiving of reports from the Society's missionaries, and the despatching of a letter to the Mohegan Uncas, "to encourage him to attend on the ministry." 2 1673. A year later a special meeting of CommissionAug. 21.ers was held at Hartford, having been summoned by the Magistrates of Connecticut in their alarm on account of the recent capture of New York by the Dutch.3 The Connecticut Magistrates had written to the Dutch commanders, asking information respecting their further designs, and had received an unsatisfactory reply. The Commissioners declared that they should " at all times account the damage or spoil that Aug. 27. should be done to any one member of the confederate jurisdiction as done to the whole," and resolved to recommend to their several governments, "that sufficient orders be given, and all due and effectual care be forthwith taken, for provision of all manner of ammunition, men, and means of defence." They I Mass. Rec., IV. (ii.) 477-483; present this Article to the three GenRecords, &c., in Hazard, II. 521 - 526; eral Courts for their adoption. (WinsPlym. Rec., V. 99. -May 31st, 1672, low MSS. in the library of the Mass. Bradstreet and Danforth met John Hist. Soc. The original instrument of Allyn and Wait Winthrop, who had ratification is in the same volume.) come to Boston to represent Connect- 2 Records, &c., in Hazard, II. 528. icut, and it was agreed among them to 3 See above, p. 34. CHAP. II.] SCHEME OF A SECOND CONFEDERACY. 79 transacted no other business, except to advise Connecticut to reclaim an Indian culprit from Ninigret, who harbored him, and to propose to the confederate governments a trifling amendment of the Article relating to' vagabonds and wandering persons."l The perished Confederacy of the Four Colonies had a substitute, but not a successor. "Extracts [published by Mr. J. Office at Hartford," pp. 18- 21.-Mr. Hammond Trumbull] from the Rec- Trumbull has also published this very ords of the United Colonies, comprising valuable supplement to the Records such Portions of the Records as are of the Commissioners in an Appendix not published in the Second Volume to the third volume of the Colonial of Hazard's State Papers. From the Records of Connecticut Original Manuscripts in the Secretary's CHAPTER III. THE contents of the last chapter reveal something of the condition of the virtuous and orderly people of New England in the years that immediately succeeded the abortive attempt of Lord Clarendon to reduce them to a strict subjection to the King. The course of contemporaneous affairs in Great Britain during the same period, must have often arrested the anxious attention of New England patriots. They saw the parent country governed by a succession of politicians, bigoted, or profligate, or both. They watched the struggles between a monarch inclined to Popery and a Parliament of fanatical Protestant churchmen, well knowing that to them the rival parties were equally hostile; and they witnessed persecutions of non-conformists in England and Scotland, which they could not doubt would be equally extended to themselves at the earliest moment when power and opportunity should concur. Yet their thoughts were not engrossed by dangers threatening from abroad. It is striking to observe, through all periods of their history, how much it has been the habit of the people of New England to divide their attention between great practical matters of state, and disputes upon questions which at a later pe. riod may appear essentially barren of excitement. The reader may remember that, at the time when the quarrel with Lord Clarendon's commission was going on, the Colonies of Massachusetts and Connecticut were agitated by a controversy respecting the proper sub CHAP. III.] MASSACHUSETTS. 81 jects of baptism.1 It had by no means come to an end at the time when the political independence of New Haven was overthrown. New Haven had taken no part in the measures resorted to for an adjustment of the question. Under her rigid constitutions, the plan of admitting to baptism any others than communicants and their children had no considerable advocates. John Davenport, pastor of the first church in New Haven, was the chief framer of the ecclesiastical system which was there maintained. He had also, from Remoal of the beginning, been second to none among the Davenport citizens of the Colony in his attachment to its Havento integrity and independence. Both as a patriot Boston. and as a sectary, he was distressed by the union which had taken place, as by the disappointment of hopes and plans cherished above all others through thirty years of thoughtful and busy life. New Haven, almost his creation,-the object so long of his solicitude, his devotion, his pride,-ceased to be attractive to him. It was rather the monument of a great defeat and sorrow.2 In the dispute about baptism, the First Church in Boston, under the lead of Wilson and Norton, its pastor and teacher, had taken part with the reformers. But Norton died before the catastrophe of New 1667. Haven, and his aged colleague survived him Aug.7. only four years.3 The question as to a successor to the vacant place was one of unsurpassed interest to 1 See Vol. II. pp. 486 -492. man. He was a good man indeed, and 2 " My zeal for preserving Christ's full of the Holy Ghost. He lived to a interest in your parts (though in New good old age, and was full of days and Haven Colony it is miserably lost)," full of honor, being in the seventy-ninth &c. Letter of Davenport to Leverett, year of his age, when the Lord took in Hutch. Coll. 395. him to himself." Yet his influence had 3 Very few," writes Morton in his for many years been by no means what Memorial (Davis's edit., 327), " ever it once was. Nor did it ever equal went out of the world so generally that of his successive distinguished colbeloved and reverenced is this good leagues. 82 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BOOK III. all the churches. Owen, now dismissed from his office of Dean of Christ Church at Oxford and Vice-Chancellor of the University, was invited to emigrate, and seriously entertained the proposal. But in consideration of the probability that he might be useful in the crisis which was then passing in his own country, he determined to remain there. The man who, on the whole, stood pre-eminent in New England for clerical graces was the dissatisfied pastor of New Haven. The influence of his reputation proved sufficient to surmount the objection of his being the champion of opinions opposite to those entertained by the widowed church; and with an affectionate enthusiasm he was invited to remove to Boston, and assume the highest clerical position in the Colonies. His own mind was made up, but his ancient congregation was averse to parting with him. A correspondence ensued, and the majority of the Boston church were charged by the dissentients with the disingenuousness of withholding some declarations, on the part of the New Haven people, of their unwillingness to lose their pastor. This unwillingness, expressed in terms of generous affection to him and free 1668. from all acrimony towards their rivals, was so Dec. 9. far overcome, that an amicable separation was effected, and Davenport, now seventy years old, was installed in Boston, and entered on a new career.' A numerous minority of the Boston church, however, 1 "2d, 3d [May, 1668]. At three Allen was associated with Davenport or four in the afternoon, came Mr. as Teacher. (Emerson, History of the John Davenport to town, with his wife, First Church, 110.) son, and son's family, and were met by Davenport had been invited to many of the town. A great shower of preach the Election Sermon before extraordinary drops of rain fell as they the General Court of Connecticut in entered the town; but Mr. Daven- May, 1666. I have a letter of his port and his wife were sheltered in to Governor Winthrop (April 10th), a coach of Mr. Searl's, who went to declining that service. It is altogether meet them." (Diary of John Hull, in courteous, but indicates his wounded Archseol. Amer., III. 226.) -Mr. John feelings. CHAP. III.] MASSACHUSETTS. 83 could not be won by their respect for his character to acquiescence in the views entertained by him Establishrespecting a question, which, though religious Thid urch in its first aspect, was not without an important in Boston political relation. Twenty-nine men, several of whom were persons of consequence,' resolved to secede and form another congregation. The project had to encounter opposition, in which the Governor (Bellingham), who fully sympathized with Davenport, was active. The discontented party applied to the First Church for a dismission, which was refused. They then convoked an ecclesiastical council, which advised them to proceed, recognized them as a distinct church, and censured the First Church for opposing their design. The controversy which had occupied the Synod was revived with new warmth, exciting afresh the whole Col- 669. ony.2 The Governor convoked the Magistrates, July6. 1 For their names and respective po- of 1669, and carried authority to ensitions, see Wisner, History of the Old gage a minister to be colleague with South Church in Boston, &c., 76. Mr. Thacher in the new church, toEighteen of the twenty-nine are re- gether with a letter to " the ministers corded with the honorary prefix of Mr. and brethren" of English churches, The name of Mr. John Hull, the mint- soliciting their assistance for him in master (see Vol. II. p. 463), stands third this important business. on the list. We learn from him (Diary, 2 ", The whole people of God through&c., in Archseol. Amer., III. 229) that, out the Colony were too much dis" 12th, 3d [May 12th, 1669], the Third tinguished into such as favored the Church in Boston gathered or co- Old Church, and such as favored the alesced in Charltown [where Mr. New Church, wherefore the former Thacher, whom they intended to make were against the Synod, and the latter their pastor, lived]. Six Magistrates were for it." (Mather, Magnalia, &c., opposed it,-R. B. [Richard Belling- V. 83.) John Eliot found himself able ham], S. S. [Samuel Symonds], W. H. to spare time from his parochial and [William Hathorne], J. L. [John Lev- missionary labors to take a part in erett], E. L. [Eleazer Lusher], E. T. the controversy. In 1665 he printed [Edward Tyng]. Eight Magistrates for private circulation a few copies encouraged it; and no ministers op- of a treatise entitled " Communion of posed, but encouraged, except J. A., Churches, or the Divine Management J. D., [James Allen and John Daven- of Gospel Churches by the Ordinance port, ministers df the First Church,] of Councils constituted in Order, acand S. M. [uncertain.]" cording to the Scriptures, which may Hull went to England in the autumn be a means of uniting those two Holy 84 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Booi IIIl and informed them that he "feared a sudden tumult, some persons attempting to set up an edifice for public worship, which was apprehended by authority to be detrimental to the public peace."' The Magistrates, however, of whom a majority did not agree with him on the main question, saw no occasion to interfere, 1670 and the seceders went on to install a minister Feb.16 of the Third Church of Boston.2 Till within and Eminent Parties, the Presbyteri- tism and Church Discipline,.....the an and the Congregational." (Mather, Congregational party, which was the Magnalia, &c., III. 189, 190.) A copy greatest, violently opposing the Presreached Richard Baxter, who inquired byterian." (Journal of the Reverend about it of the Reverend John Wood- Simon Bradstreet, in the New England bridge of Killingworth in Connecticut. Historical and Genealogical Register, "You desired in your letter to me," IX. 44.) "mlr. Haynes [of Hartford] Woodbridge replied, "some informa- and those with him being looked upon tion how Mr. Eliot's book about Coun- as Presbyterians." (Ibid., 45.) cils takes. Truly, sir, I thinl it better 1 Mass. Arch. X. 226; comp. 9. took with himself than with any of 2 It was also early called the South his brethren. Not because of his pride. Church, and since the erection, in 1717, I suppose you know him better, -- but of the New South Church in Summer the peculiar cut of his genius. While Street, has been commonly known as some were smiling at it, others whisper- the Old South. The widow of John ing about it, the book, as I understand, Norton gave the land on which the was called in again, and now none building was erected, with the house, of them seem walking abroad." But belonging to her, which had been built Baxter was of a different mind from and occupied by Governor Winthrop. his correspondent. In an answer to The house, with its end to what is now Woodbridge, he expressed his appro- Washington Street, stood opposite to bation of synods as a means of ecclesi- the foot of School Street, and the lot astical union, and added: "Wherefore extended to Milk Street. I am sorry that Mr. Eliot's propositions At the time of the breach in the First took no better with you...... I am Church, Davenport preached the Elecmuch of his opinion of making coun- tion Sermon at the Court for Elections cils to be for counsel and concord of next after his removal to Boston. It the churches, and not for direct and led to the following singular proceedproper regiment over the particular ing: — pastors." (Baxter MSS. in Dr. Wil- "The Magistrates, understanding a liams's library, Red Cross Street, purpose of our brethren the Deputies London.) to present their thankfulness in a solThe party that prevailed in the Sy- emn manner to Mr. Davenport for his nodsof 1657 and 1661 commanded Bax- sermon at the Election, conceive the terls sympathy, for it was understood to same to be altogether unseasonable, lean to Presbytery. "This year [1667] many passages in the said sermon being there was a Synod called at Hartford ill resented by the reverend Elders of to discuss some points concerning Bap- other churches, and many serious per CHAP. III.] MASSACHUSETTS. 85 a'week of this time, no other town of New England had more than a single church.1 The General Court, which presently after came together, considered these movements as entitled Agittionsre to its notice. The House of Deputies, which spectingthe Half- Way proved to have a majority of Anti-Synodists, raised Covelnant. a committee to inquire respecting the prevail- May. ing sins which had provoked the Divine displeasure. The committee's report ascribed it to "declension from the primitive foundation-work; innovation in doctrine and worship, opinion and practice; and an invasion of the rights, liberties, and privileges of churches"; and especially they referred in terms of censure to the proceedings of the new congregation in Boston. But it seems that the Deputies, or their committee, did not in this matter represent the sense of the Colony. At the next annual Court for Elections, fifteen 16:1. ministers, in an elaborate memorial, complained May 31 of the recent action of the Deputies. They protested against "tthe unjust charge of innovation," going so far as to say that it "savored of a spirit under an extraordinary transportation, from a present, personal, and passionate concern in the interest of a party." And they prayed the Court to grant them "redress, either by calling them to vindicate themselves publicly,.... or by moving and encouraging the churches to a general convention by their elders and messengers for the sons, and therefore desire they would " Present that did it: forbear further proceeding therein. "Capt. Gook[in], Voted to be sent down to the Depu- "Major Denis[on], ties. "Mr. Willard, "EDW. RAWSON, Secretary. "Mr. Russell, " 25 May, 1669. "Mr. D[anforth], " This vote was put to the vote by "Mr. Ting." Mr. Bradstreet, who was, on the Gov- (Mass. Archives, X. 7.) ernor's refusing to put it to the vote, 1 See below, p. 119; comp. Vol. II called by the Magistrates so to do. As p. 397, note. attests, EDW. RAWSON, Secretary. VOL. III. 8 86 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLANB. [BooK III. debate and decision of such questions, and an accommodation of such differences which had begotten these misunderstandings." The petitioners addressed themselves to a tribunal materially different from that which had rebuked them. The composition of the House of Deputies had been changed by a new election. Of fifty Deputies only twenty were now the same as in the last year. There can be no doubt that what occasioned this revolution was the judgment of the majority of the towns on the pending controversy. The decision of the government was favorable to the memorialists. The Court declared that they knew no just cause of those scandalizing reflections against Magistrates, Elders, and churches, either in reference to the new church of Boston or otherwise, and therefore, till they be further informed, must judge them innocent, and unduly calumniated and misrepresented; and that they professed, with the reverend Elders in their Address, that they did adhere to the primitive ends of their coming hither, retaining the sober principles of the Congregational way, and the practice of the churches in their present and most athletic constitutions." 1 1 Mass. Rec., IV. (ii.) 489-494.- The hatred of your adversaries is not The excitement of this controversy had derived upon you as you are thus and not passed away when Oakes, minister thus distinguished and diversified among of Cambridge, and before long Presi- yourselves; but upon one common acdent of the College, preached his Elec- count. The enmity of the seed of the tion Sermon in May, 1673. The fol- serpent is against one and all of the lowing is a specimen of his treatment seed of the woman, of what complexof it: — ion soever they are; and their hatred is " For a professing people to be con- rrpos tr yevor, against the whole race tending and quarrelling, biting and and generation of religious and reformdevouring one another, is most unsea- ing professors among us. These disonable, most unreasonable. Your dif- visions will open a wide door to your ferences will make way for those that adversaries. Those that let out these will make no difference between Sy- waters of strife, and fill their streams nodists and Antisynodists, Old or New- with bitterness; that kindle these flames Churchmen; and increase them, or hinder the'Tros Tyriusve illis nullo discrimine agetur.' quenching of them, do thereby gratify CHAP. III.] MASSACHUSETTS. 87 The aged Davenport was spared the distress which this decision would have cost him. His career in them exceedingly that wish ill to our state. Nothing (as experience shows) Zion. is more advantageous to the designs of Hoc Ithacus velit, et mago mercentur Atrid.' innovators than the right knack of kindling and fomenting jealousies and And indeed it would be very strange if fears in the minds of men concerning the industrious and indefatigable Jes- magistrates and ministers. Such men nits (that compass sea and land to do are wont to make and improve false mischief), and other sly and subtle and alarms of danger, that people may bemalignant enemies, should not improve lieve that religion and liberties are at and graft upon the stock of our divis- the stake, and in danger to be lost! ions." (Oakes, New England Pleaded Designers are wont to impose upon the with, &c., 37.) credulity and easiness of well-meaning Again: - people in this way. And that men are " Who knows not (that is no stranger generally disposed to receive such imin our Israel) that the ministers of pressions, and suspect evil of their Christ among you indefinitely have been superiors and leaders, is but too manideliberately and solemnly'charged fest. Moreover, these calumnies are with a declension from primitive foun- immoralities and scandalous evils, and dation-work, innovation in doctrine it is the duty of God's servants to lift and worship, opinion and practice, in- up their voice as a trumpet, to cry aloud vasion of the rights, liberties, and privi- and not spare them that are guilty, leges of churches, usurpation of a whatever the issue be; yea, to cry to lordly, prelatical power over God's God and man for redress. And I would heritage, and with the like things, humbly commend it to our honorable which are the leaven, the corrupting rulers, upon whom the lot of this day's gangrene, the infecting, spreading election shall fall, that they would take plague, the provoking images of jeal- it into serious consideration, and fix ousy set up before the Lord, the upon some expedient to put these lying accursed thing which hath provoked lips to silence, and to find out the prinDivine wrath and further threatens de- cipal authors and fomenters of these struction?' I need give you no other mischievous calumnies." (Ibid., 42, 43.) instance of this evil spirit of jealousy "Matchless." Mitchell, at an earlier and calumny than this. Here is good period of the dispute, had engaged in measure pressed down, shaken together, it with less severity:and running over." (Ibid., 40.) "To leave the children of nonAnd in another place: - scandalous orthodox Christians unbap" Though it may be thought by some tized will (I doubt not) be one day that these wretched practices are but found a thing displeasing unto Jesus the small devices of some petty poli- Christ. But on the other hand, to bapticians and little creeping statesmen tize in such a lax and licentious way among us, that have no very consid- as serves to dress men in the livery, erable influence into our public affairs; without bearing the yoke, of Christ, to yet I must needs say, that I look upon have his name upon them, with rejecthis course of calumniating your best tion of his government, this will not men as the very Gunpowder Plot that suit either the principles of reformers threatens tle destruction of church and or the rules of Scripture. So though 88 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BooK III. Boston lasted little more than a year.1 The controDeath of versy which had so interested him was not at v67t0. an end; but the tendencies of the time were adMarch5. verse to the re-institution of the ancient strictness of church order. The novelty which the Synod had introduced found its chief opponents among the more conservative class of laymen. Its advocates among the clergy were from the first a majority, which was constantly increasing from generation to generation; and the Half-Way Covenant, as it was at first opprobriously called, was recognized by the general practice of the Congregational churches of New England. This protracted discussion of a set of questions concerning the rite which in another aspect engaged the special attention of the Baptists, had naturally Renewed controversy with kept alive the zeal of that sect, and probably theBaptists. had added to their numbers. It was at the height of the alarm caused by the visit of the Royal Commissioners, - when it might seem that local disaffection was fraught with peculiar danger, and that a display of vigor in administration would be especially oprigid severity in admissions to the preached at Boston in N. E., May 15, Lord's table is to be avoided, yet to 1667.) be lax and slight therein, to admit all Two elaborate treatises by Increase sorts to full communion, or upon very Mather, published in 1675, with the slight qualifications, is against the prin- titles, " The First Principles of New ciples and against the interest of ref- England," &c., and " A Discourse conormation. Again, to put election of cerning the Subject of Baptism," &c., church-officers into the hands of all mark the subsidence of the controversy. (though matters ought to be so unblam- More urgent interests supervened. ably carried as none may have any 1 His remains lie in King's Chapel just objection against the person cho- burial-place, in the same tomb with sen, without matter of satisfaction given those of Cotton, close to the tomb of them) is such a piece of ruining con- the Winthrops. Independently of what fusion as none of the ways or models he left in New Haven, Davenport's of church-government that have been property in Boston was appraised at of any repute in the world would ~ 1240.18s. 10.d. The plate was valever admit of. That is an Anabap- ued at ~ 50; pewter and tin ware at tistical tenet." (Mitchell, Nehemiah ~ 20; cheny echina] and earthen waro on the Wall in Troublesome Times, at ~ 5; and books at ~ 233. 17s. See.... as it was delivered in a Sermon Bacon, Discourses, &c., 388. CHAP. III.I MASSACHUSETTS. 89 portune, -that five persons of that profession had been disfranchised, and a law had been passed, in 1665. pursuance of which three persons were after- Oct.1l. wards put in prison.l Soon after this, the congregation found a place for its meetings on Noddle's Island, in Boston harbor.2 They had not here escaped the notice 1 See Vol. II. pp. 485, 486. -For and asking satisfaction for his disbursethe time to organize themselves the ments, and for the surrender of his Baptist church chose the very week of principality of Acadie to the French. the hottest dispute between the Magis- (See Vol. II. p. 441.) May 9, 1673, the trates and the Royal Commissioners. Governor and Assistants of Massachu(Ibid., 616, 617.) They subscribed setts wrote to the King, testifying that their Covenant, May 28, 1665. (Win- Temple, who had meanwhile come chell, Two Discourses, &c., 8.) back to America, and was again about 2 This appears from a devise in the to return, had always been " very faithwill of Henry Shrimpton, dated July ful and industrious in attending the 17th, 1666: " I give ten pounds to the King's service." (Mass. Arch. II. 513.) Society of Christians that doth meet at They did their best, though ineffectuNoddle's Island, of whom is Gold, and ally, to save his province for him, Osborn, and the rest, as a token of my when it was yielded to France by the love." At that time, or later, Gold had treaty of Breda. (Letter of the Magishis dwelling on the island. "Brother trates to Lord Arlington, May 21, 1669, Gold is not yet taken, because he lives in Mass. Arch. CVI. 199.) He died in Noddle's Island, and they wish to' March 27, 1674. There was a bit of take him at town." (Letter of Ed- scandal current, which, as was thought, ward Drinker to John Clarke, in Back- "did sit deep upon his spirit and us, History, &c., I. 398.) hastened his end..... I saw," wrote In the year 1650, Noddle's Island John Collins to Governor Leverett, was sold by Maverick to Captain "neither disease nor pain that would George Briggs, of Barbadoes. After hasten his end, but his spirit broken. shanging hands two or three times,..... I hope he had the root of the it was bought, in 1667, by Sir Thomas matter in him, and is gone home to Temple, who, in 1670, sold it to Samuel rest." (Letter in Hutch. Coll., 445; Shrimpton for ~ 6,000. (Sumner, His- comp. 464.) tory of East Boston, 178, 184, 186.) Temple's course, as is not uncomShrimpton's father, who began life as mon with courtiers, had often been an a brazier, left a fortune at his death, in embarrassed one. In the English State1666, appraised at ~ 11,979. (Ibid., Paper Office is a curious letter from 191.) him to Thomas Povey, written in the Temple, who was always too adven- winter of 1660-61, just after the turous, had already fallen into em- King's accession. His object is to get barrassments before he sold Noddle's a confirmation of his property in Nova Island. In November, 1668, he, then Scotia, and he says that the reason of in London, wrote to the Lords of the his having been banished to a wilderCouncil, representing that, in old age ness was his attachment to the late and infirmity, he was reduced to want, King, "one of whose last commands 8* 90 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Boox III. of the Magistrates, who, "being willing by all Christian candor to endeavor the reducing of the said persons from the error of their way, and their return to the Lord and the communion of his people whence they 1668. were fallen," voted to offer to the backsliders March7. an opportunity of a full and free debate," and appointed six ministers to conduct it on their part. It was held in the meeting-house of the First Church in Boston, the Baptists being assisted by three brethren despatched to them from Newport. It lasted two days, and came to nothing. The dissentients were not reclaimed, and the General Court, which soon met, proceeded to consult upon their case. Thomas Gold, and two of his associates, William Turner and John Farnum, were sentenced to banishment May 2 from the Colony, and declared liable to imprisonment in case they should return.' Besides a strong remonstrance from eminent men in the Colony,2 thirteen 1669. English ministers, among whom were Goodwin, March 25. Owen, and Nye, wrote to the Governor, urging him, partly on account of the effect on their own position at home, to desist from this intolerant course of proceeding.3 The Court resented the interference of the citizens by imposing a fine upon two persons who had been active in circulating the petition.4 But either was that he whispered to Kirk on the General History of the Baptist.Denomscaffold to charge this King to have ination, &c., 1. 391; Mass. Rec., IV. a care of honest Tom Temple." He. (ii.) 374; Backus, History, &c., I. 375.) owns his having accepted a commis- 2 This remonstrance is in the Massasion from the rebel authorities; but chusetts Archives. (X. 221.) Among insists that it was purely from the the signers were no less considerable sad necessity of the time. persons than Sir Thomas Temple, Ed1 "April 14th, 15th [1668] was a ward Hutchinson, Elisha Hutchinson, public dispute between six of our min- and the rich John Usher and Samuel isters and a company of Baptists, in Shrimpton. Several papers relating to Boston meeting-house, who had, against the transaction are preserved. (Mass. the laws of the country, gathered them- Arch. X. 221 - 231.) selves into a church. Three of them 3 For their letter, see Mather, "Mag were excommunicate persons." (Hull, nalia," &c., VII. 28. ubi supra, 226, 227; comp. Benedict, 4 Mass. Rec., IV. (ii.) 413. CHAP. III.] MASSACHUSETTS. 91 there was little disposition to follow up the business further than was thought necessary for asserting the authority of the government, or else the rulers observed the existence and growth of a public sentiment of toleration which it would not be wise to oppose. For the sentence of banishment remained unexecuted, and the Baptists continued to maintain their worship on Noddle's Island.1 Five years had scarcely passed after that decree, when one of them was able to write: " The 1674. church of the baptized do peaceably enjoy their Jan. 9 1 November 30, 1670, (two years and church in Boston, and their elders, both six months after the sentence of banish- Mr. Oxenbridge and Mr. Allen, have ment against Gold, Turner, and Far- labored abundantly, I think, as if it num,) Edward Drinker, one of the had been for their best friends in the Boston Baptists, wrote to John Clarke's world. Many more gentlemen and church at Newport a letter, from which solid Christians are for our brother's the following are extracts:- deliverance; but it cannot be had; a " Friends, I suppose you have heard very great trouble to the town; and that both he [Turner] and Brother they had gotten six Magistrates' hands Gold were to be taken up; but only for his deliverance, but could not get Brother Turner is yet taken, and has the Governor's hand to it: some say been about a month in prison. War- one end is, that they may prevent rants are in two marshals' hands for others coming out of England; thereBrother Gold also, but he is not yet fore they would discourage them by taken, because he lives on Noddle's dealing with us...... We keep our Island, and they wait to take him at meeting at Noddle's Island every first town. The cause why they are put in day, and the Lord is adding some souls prison is the old sentence of the Gen- to us still, and is enlightening some eral Court in'68, because they would others. The priests are much enraged. not remove themselves. There were The Lord has given us another elder, six Magistrates' hands to the warrant one John Russell, senior, a gracious, to take them up, viz. Mr. Bradstreet, wise, and holy man, that lives at Major Denison, Thomas Danforth, Cap- Woburn, where we have five brethren tain Gookin, Major Willard, and Mr. near that can meet with him; and Pinchon. But all the Deputies of the they meet together a first days when Court voted their liberty, except one they cannot come to us, and I hear or two at most, but the Magistrates there are some more there looking carry against all; and because some that way with them." (Backus, Hisothers of the Magistrates were absent, tory, &c., I. 399, 400. Comp. letter of and some that were there were Gallio- Mary Gold to John Winthrop, Jr., in like, as one Mr. R. B. G. [Richard Mass. Hist. Coll., XXX. 72.) Bellingham, Governor]...... The The new Woburn church, it seems, town and country is very much troubled had its share of threats and vexations, at our troubles; and especially the old but still not of the most aggravated 92 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. rBooK III. liberty";l and they used their liberty in transferring their weekly worship to a house which they hired for DeathofGov the purpose in the town.2 The death of the ernor Belling-severe Bellingham, which took place while, in ham. 1672. his eighty-second year, he was occupying the Dec.12. chief magistracy for the ninth time in succession, afforded them a prospect of more repose in future.3 1673. Leverett, who succeeded him, was a man of May 7. more gentle nature, and his mind had been liberalized by larger commerce with the world.4 kind: "The persecuting spirit begins nuisance to the public interest." They to stir again. Elder Russell and his understood the sect to be not only son, and Brother Foster, are presented wedded to false and hurtful doctrine, to the Court that is to be this month." but to be inveterately hostile to certain (Letter of Benjamin Sweetzer of De- great public interests which at all cember 1, 1671, in Backus, History, events they meant to protect, - the in&c., I. 404.)' Through grace he terests of good order, good morals, and [Russell] is yet in the land of the living, good learning. The name Anabaptist and out of prison bonds." (Letter of had for them a significance not the William Hamlit of June 14, 1672, less terrible for being vague, as standIbid., I. 405.) John Russell was a ing for every sort of turbulence and shoemaker. ("Ne Sutor ultra Crepi- recklessness, and threatening every dam," 26.) He was afterwards minis- sort of social mischief. It was a word ter of the Boston church of Baptists, of horror such as some can remember and published a "Narrative" of the the' word Abolitionist to have been, transactions of this period, which Sam- more recently. Every age has its pet uel Willard answered in the " Ne Su- prejudices of this kind, foolish and distor," &c. creditable, even when they are not 1 William Hamlit to Samuel Hub- cruel. Time calms passion, and the bard, in Backus, History, &c., I. 414. Baptists were not very long in living 2 " This summer [1674] the Anabap- down their ill-repute. tists that were wont to meet at Nod- 3 Bellingham had survived all the die's Island met at Boston on the Lord's other persons named in the Charter day. One Mr. Symon Lind letteth one of Massachusetts Bay. of them a house." (Hull, Diary, in 4 Francis Willoughby, first chosen Archaeol. Amer., III. 238.) Deputy-Governor in 1665, continued It is pleasant to get so r, ar, as at to hold that office till his death in April, this period we are, to the end of the 1671, when he was succeeded by Levcontroversy with the Baptists. No erett. When Leverett was promoted doubt the New-England fathers thought, to be Governor, Samuel Symonds, of with the tolerant Jeremy Taylor (Lib- Ipswich, already for nearly thirty erty of Prophesying, ~ 19), that Ana- years an Assistant, was made Deputybaptism was "as much to be rooted out Governor, and continued in that office as anything that is the greatest pest and for five years, till his death. CHAP. III.] MASSACHUSETTS. 93 The General Court had another subject of anxiety close at hand. There was trouble in the Col- Troublesin lege. It had constantly gained in the public theCollege estimation during the seventeen years of the Presidency of Chauncy, and in the last of these years, the original building being insufficient in size and falling into decay, a liberal private contribution had been made for the erection of another.1 But when the President 1T72. died, the choice of his successor led to dissen- Feb 19. sions. Leonard Hoar, an Englishman by birth, had been educated at Harvard College under the presidency of Dunster, and had then returned to his native country. There he married a daughter of John Lisle, a member of Cromwell's "other house," and for nearly twenty years exercised, at once or successively, the professions of minister and physician, a combination of pursuits which was not uncommon among the Puritans of those days. Hoar, at College, had been a member of the class next after that of Mr. John Collins, who, having been a chaplain in Monk's army, was now a minister in London, and the person principally intrusted there i The sum of ~ 2,697 was contributed tell's Polyglot Lexicon, with the first by forty-three Massachusetts towns. of Mr. Poole's four volumes of the Boston gave ~ 700, besides ~ 100 fur- Critics [Synopsis Criticorum]. I had nished by Sir Thomas Temple. Ports- sent with them the Polyglot Bible, but mouth, in New Hampshire, engaged to that I understood that my friend Mr. give ~ 60 annually for seven years. Boyle had sent it before. I shall, if "While we have articled with you," God will that Mr. Poole live to finish wrote that town to the General Court, them, send the other three volumes of "for exemption from taxes, yet we the Critics, or take care that they be have never articled with God and our sent, if I live so long. For Mr. Davy, own consciences for exemption from a merchant, hath promised them to me gratitude." (Quincy, History of Har- for your library." (MS. Letter of Baxvard University, I. 30, 508.) Nor was ter in Dr. Williams's library.) An apthe interest in Harvard College con- peal of the Corporation of the College fined to this side of the water. Rich- to their English friends (Aug. 21, ard Baxter was now one of its mindful 1671) is preserved (Mass. Arch., LVII. English friends. "I have directed to 72); also, the appeal of the General Mr. Bradstreet, at Boston, as my gift Court to the towns. (Ibid., 74- 78.) to your University Library, Dr. Cas 94 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BOOK III. with the affairs of the Colony, which in these years maintained no regular agent. Without delay, after hearing of Chauncy's death, Hoar embarked for Boston, fortified by a letter from Collins to the GovMay 10. ernor. "The bearer hereof," said the writer, "is yet more yours than ours, through his ardent desire to serve God in what work He will allot to him in your parts where he hath had his education; which, in the judgment of wiser men than myself, is thought to be in your College employment, to which he is very well qualified in many things."1 Three months earlier, in anticipation of Chauncy's death, John Owen and twelve other eminent English ministers had addressed a joint letter to the Magistrates and ministers of Massachusetts, in which they expressed their judgment "that God had so far furnished Dr. Hoar with the gifts of learning and the grace of His spirit, as that..... he might in some measure supply that want, and help to make up this breach."2 Tile General Court shared, or caught, the enthusiasm of the London ministers. They voted to raise the President's annual allowance from a hundred Presidency of Dr. Hoar. to a hundred and fifty pounds, "provided Dr. ct. 8. Hoar were the man for a supply of that place now vacant, and that he accepted thereof"; and they offered to the College a new charter (which, however, did not take effect) embracing some extension of its privileges.3 The office was conferred and accepted, and all who expressed their minds joined in liberal applause. But the fairest prospects are sometimes the quickest to fade. What was the matter with President Hoar, the present age does not know.4 The age immediately 1 Hutch. Coll., 435. scholar or as a Christian, he was truly 2 Ibid., 431. a worthy man; and he was generally 3 Mass. Rec., IV. (ii.) 535- 537. reputed such, until, happening, 1 can 4 "Were he considered either as a scarce tell how, to fall under the dis CHAP. III.] MASSACHUSETTS. 95 succeeding his own was at a loss to describe it. But his administration proved a failure. The pupils of the College were unruly. Some of its governors were disaffected. A year had scarcely passed, when from " some of the honored Overseers" the General Court 16i3. "received a narrative of uncomfortable debates Oct. 15 and motions," so serious as to cause the Court to threaten an expression of "their due resentment as to the obstructors." At the end of another year "the Court by good information understood that, notwith- 117. standing all former endeavors, the College yet oct. 7 remained in a languishing and decaying condition"; and to the end of taking "further effectual course, if possible, for the revival of that great work and its future flourishing and establishment," they appointed a day to hear the representations of a numerous body of persons then and formerly connected with the College. The hearing was had. "The President, upon his own voluntary motion, in consideration of the paucity of scholars, did freely lay down fifty pounds of his pleasure of some that made a figure in Collins had misgivings about his own the neighborhood, the young men in agency in promoting him. "If our letthe College took advantage therefrom ter be viewed, you will not find that we to ruin his reputation as far as they were did recommend him to be your Presiable...... The young plants turned dent. We judged that too much for cud-weeds, and with great violations of us to undertake, nor did we excite him the fifth commandment set themselves to come or urge him upon such hopes. to travesty whatever he did and said, It was his own eager desire after it, and aggravate everything in his be- and his thinking that he might be serhavior disagreeable to them, with a de- viceable there. All we said was, that, sign to make him odious; and in a day since he was prepared to come, we of temptation, which was now upon thought him one that might be helpful them, several good men did unhappily in your College work, and left it to countenance the ungoverned youth in you to judge how." (John Collins to their ungovernableness." (Mather, Governor Leverett, April 10, 1674, Magnalia, IV. 129. Mather entered in Hutch. Coll., 445.) Leverett was College in the year of Hoar's resig- friendly to Hoar. " The Doctor's opnation, and may be presumed to have posers lose ground, and I hope the heard all the tattle of the place.) work will yet be carried, in an end." I Mass. Rec., IV. (ii.) 567. When (Leverett to Collins, Aug. 24, 1674, in matters were going so badly with Hoar, Hutch. Coll., 464; comp. 471.) 96 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BooK III. salary"; and the Court resolved, that if, at its next meeting, "the College were found in the same languish. ing condition, the President was concluded to be dismissed without further hearing of the case." 1 Of course, if there had remained a possibility of restoring suborHisresigna- dination, this vote put an end to it. Before tion. the Court met again, the President resigned his 1675. March 15. office. The mortification was too much for him. Iis death. He fell into a consumption, and died at Boston Nov.28. before the end of the year. When the Dutch captured New York,3 it may have been supposed by the government of Massachusetts that the Duke would be inclined to abandon the rest of his American property. Immediately after that ocExtensionof currence they proceeded to extend their eastMassach- ern border so as to enclose territory belonging setts to the eastward. to his Province of Cormn all, eastward of the river Kennebec.4 A new survey had shown that a line running east and west three miles north of every 1 Mass. Rec., V. 20, 21. The effect vitation to return. After a year, the reof this vote is recorded by Increase quest was renewed to them (December Mather, in a fragment of his Journal, 11th, 1674), and at the same time Infound among the papers of Dr. Bel- crease Mather was elected a Fellow; knap, which have lately come into the but no one of these distinguished perpossession of the Massachusetts His- sons for the present vouchsafed a retorical Society. "Nov. 15. The schol- ply. At length, at the meeting at which ars, all except three, whose friends live the President's letter of resignation in Cambridge, left the College." was read, they appeared and took their 2 " The hard and ill usage which he places. (Quincy, History, &c., I. 471.) met withal, made so deep an impres- Mather, however, was Hoar's friend. sion upon his mind, that his grief threw (Mather's Journal, Nov. 28th, 1675, in him into a consumption." (Mather, the Belknap collection of MSS.) Magnalia, IV. 129.) -Very early in 3 See above, p. 34. the course of his administration, HIoar 4 See above, Vol. II. pp. 580, 622.began to suffer from the hostility of The Duke's Governors had given little some of his six associates in the Cor- attention to this part of his domain. But poration. September 15th, 1673, Rich- Lovelace had opened a correspondards, the Treasurer, and Oakes and ence with it (Feb. 16, 1673) just beBrown, two of the Fellows, resigned fore his expulsion from New York by their places. Shepard did the same a the Dutch. (Hough, Papers relating little earlier or later, and Oakes and to Pemaquid, 6.) Shepard (October 2d) rejected an in CHAP. III.] PLYMOUTH. 97 part of the river Merrimac, agreeably to the terms of the charter, would include the southern part of the country beyond the Piscataqua, as far east as to the outlet of Penobscot Bay.' The General Court, accordingly, in the spring after the capture of New 1674. York, proceeded to incorporate this country into May27. Massachusetts, and appointed Commissioners to organize it, as the County of Devonshire, "according to Countyof God, and the wholesome laws of this jurisdic- Devonshire tion, that so the way of godliness might be en- 00 couraged, and vice corrected."2 In the other Colonies of New England, as in Massachusetts, the tranquil course of events during the next ten years after the visit of the Royal Commissioners presents little matter for the historian's notice. In Plymouth, Thomas Prince was continued at the head of the government, till, having reached the seventy- DeathofGov-,1r ~ ~~~~. ~ ~~1 p1~~.i~ ~ a.~~~ iernor Prince. third year of his age, he died, and was suc- 1673. ceeded by Josiah Winslow, son of the third April 8 Governor. Eight years before his death, Prince 1665. had removed from his plantation at Eastham October. to the town of Plymouth, where, for the more convenient administration of justice," the Colony now provided a house for the Governor's residence, at the same time fixing his annual salary at the sum of twenty pounds.3 1 Mass. Rec., IV. (ii.) 487, 519. of their diet when on official duty, 2 Ibid., V. 5, 16 - 20; comp. Wil- which latter allowance alone was made liamson, History of Maine, I. 441- to Magistrates newly elected. (Brig444. For this and other proceedings ham, Compact, &c., 146.) of theirs which had occasioned corn- In 1667, the Court, at the suggesplaint in England, the Magistrates jus- tion of the Royal Commissioners, made tified themselves in a long letter to a grant of two hundred acres of land Boyle, May 10, 1673. (Works of Rob- in the town of Bridgewater to Pereert Boyle, 4to, 1. cxvi. et seq.) grine White, of Plymouth, "' in respect: 3 Plym. Rec., IV. 108. - At the that he was the first of the English: same time it was ordered that the born in these parts." White lived to, old Magistrates" should be allowed be eighty-three years old. He died ten pounds annually, besides the charge at Marshfield, July 20, 1704. VOL. III. 9 98 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BooK III. Winslow was a man of less rigid temper than his dmnt- predecessor. By his influence, in the first year tion of Josiah after his accession, James Cudworth, whose tenWinslo. derness for the Quakers had cost him his high May. standing in the public regard, was restored to a place among the Magistrates.' Winslow and his associates maintained a state hitherto unknown in the simple community of Plymouth. The Court ordered that four 1675. halberdiers should attend the Governor and June. Magistrates at the annual elections, and two during the session of a Court.2 Prince, though himself unlearned, had an enlightened sense of the worth of knowledge, and by his liberal zeal an important measure was advanced, which, however, was not quite brought to a conclusion before his death. Immediately after that 1 Plym. Rec., V. 143; comp. 124. my occasions abroad, for the tending -In December, 1673, Cudworth was and looking after all my creatures, the appointed by the General Court to the fetching home my hay, that is yet at command of an expedition against the place where it grew, getting of the Dutch. (Plyrm. Rec.,V. 136.) But wood, going to mill, and for the perhe excused himself, partly because of forming all other family occasions, I distrust of his capacity for so impor- have none but a small Indian boy about tant an enterprise, and partly for do- thirteen years of age to help me...... mestic considerations. " My wife," he "Sir, I can truly say that I do not in wrote to Governor Winslow, " as is well the least waive the business out of any known to the whole town, is not only discontent in my spirit, arising from a weak woman, and has so been all any former difference; for the thought along; but now, by reason of age, of all which is and shall be forever being sixty-seven years and upwards, buried, so as not to come in rememand nature decaying, so her illness brance, though happily such a thing grows more strongly upon her; never may be too much fomented; neither a day passes but she is forced to rise out of an effeminate or dastardly spirit; at break of day, or before; she can- but am as fieely willing to serve my not lay for want of breath; and when king and my country as any man whatshe is up she cannot light a pipe of soever, in what I am capable and tobacco, but it must be lighted for her; fitted for; but do not understand that and until she has taken two or three a man is so called to serve his country pipes, for want of breath she is not with the inevitable ruin and destrucable to stir; and she has never a maid. tion of his own family." (Letter of That, day your letter came to my Cudworth, January 16, 1674, in Mass. hands, my maid's year being out, she Iist. Coll., VI. 81, 82.) went away, and I cannot get nor hear 2 Plym. Rec., XI. 240. of another. And then in regard of CHAP. III.] RHODE ISLAND. 99 event the Court voted that a public school - the earliest in the Colony —should be set up in the town rEndowment of Plymouth, and that the revenue from the by Plymouth "Cape Fishery" should be appropriated to its haoP.ubio support,' until such time as the minds of the 1673. freemen be known"; and at their next meeting the freemen expressed their approbation of 6U7 this endowment.l The relations between Governor Prince and the Royal Commissioners had been friendly.2 On the one Friendly re hand, his Colony desired, as far as might be, lationseto stand well at the English court, in order to outh andthe Royal Cornthe accomplishment of its hope of obtaining a missioners. charter; on the other hand, it reasonably distrusted its capacity to maintain itself against the consequences of royal displeasure, especially when, as seemed probable, the Confederacy should go to pieces. It suited the Commissioners to encourage this pliant temper, because it was a rebuke to the contumacy of Massachusetts. They cultivated a good understanding by their action in respect to the boundary on the side of Rhode Island. They determined that Plymouth Colony extended westward to the shore of Narragansett Bay. The government which in Rhode Island had been set up under the royal charter3 might have been expected to prove a great advance on the organizations which had before existed in that quarter. AtCharter ov its inauguration a sweeping Act was passed, re- ernmentof Rhode Island. pealing all laws "inconsistent with the present 1664. government," and especially the law by which March 1 each town had a negative on the action of the rest. A new judiciary system was established. General Courts 1 Plyrm. ec., XI. 233, 237. Winslow collection of MSS., in the 2 Several of the original papers possession of the Mass. Hist. Soc., pp. relating to the business of the Cor- 14-31. missioners with Plymouth are in the 3 See above, Vol. II. p. 570. 100 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BooK III. of Trials," consisting of the Governor or Deputy-Governor and at least six Assistants, were appointed to be held twice every year at Newport, in May and in October. Two other courts, consisting each of at least three Assistants, were to sit every year, one at Warwick in March, the other at Providence in September; but they could not take cognizance of cases involving a sum above ten pounds. Special courts, consisting of at least three Assistants, might, "as urgent occasion should present," be convened by the Governor, or, in his absence, by the Deputy-Governor; but the cost was to be defrayed by the parties at whose desire they were held. The courts were attended by grand-juries and petit-juries.' At an.666. early time, an important change was projected March 27. in the legislative department. An order was passed for the Magistrates and Deputies, as in Massachusetts and Connecticut, to vote in separate chambers, each branch having a negative upon the other.2 But the details of this plan were not settled,3 and it did not take effect till it was revived many years later. Independently of the dearth in Rhode Island of capacity for conducting a government,4 the business of governing was not attractive in a community composed Its feeble ad- of citizens of minds so excursive and so variously ministration. inclined. After the novelty was over, Deputies, and even Magistrates, did not care to come to the General Courts. New persons were chosen, but they also absented themselves.5 The effect of rewards and 1 R. I. Rec., I. 26, 27, 31 ern"; for, he continues, "there is beside 2 Ibid., 144, 145. the Governor and Deputy-Governor 3 Ibid., 151, 181. [Arnold and Brenton], betwixt whom, 4 Cartwright can scarcely he sup- to my knowledge, there is a great feud, posed to have been spiteful against not one fit to make a Governor of." the Rhode Island people, for they had (Letter to the Earl of Lauderdale, nothing but compliances and caresses December 5, 1665, in Proceedings of for him and his fellow-Commissioners, Mass. Hist. Soc., II. 274.) but he reported the Colony to be " full 5 In the next year after the charter of faction, and void of men fit to gov- went into effect, only three Assistants CHAP. 1I.] RHODE ISLAND. 101 penalties was tried. A Magistrate or Deputy was to receive three shillings a day while on duty, Sept. 4. and was to pay double that amount for every day of absence. But a revival of this system after several years' experiment shows that it had not 672. proved effective, and that the causes of official April2. negligence had not ceased to operate.' Nor in a community so constituted could occasions of discord ever be wanting. One such occasion 0 Factions and arose out of the agency of John Clarke in Eng- disorders in 0 Rhode Island. land. On a liquidation of his accounts, it appeared that, including the hundred pounds which had been voted to him as a gratuity, the Colony owed him three hundred and forty-three pounds. To satisfy this debt, and meet other public expenses, a 16G4. tax was laid of six hundred pounds.2 Ports- October. mouth, Providence, and Warwick were dissatisfied with the assessments made upon them, and Warwick made an angry remonstrance.3 Williams interposed with a letter to that town, exhorting it to more liberal behavior. It was read at the head of the War- 1666. wick train-band, and was answered by a vote March26. out of ten were re-elected (R. I. Rec., (Ibid., 77-81.) A tax-bill of 1670 II. 96), and an equal change was made ordered that payments should be made in the year after. (Ibid., 147.) "in good pork, at three pence the 1 Ibid., 167, 168; comp. 171, 443. pound; pease, at three shillings and 2 Of this sum Newport was assessed six pence the bushel; wheat, at five two hundred and forty-nine pounds; shillings the bushel; Indian corn, at Providence and Portsmouth, each a three shillings the bushel; oats, at three hundred pounds; Warwick, eighty; shillings two pence the bushel; wool, Conanicut, thirty-six; Pettyquamscott, at twelve pence the pound; and buttwenty; and Block Island, fifteen. ter, at six pence the pound." (Ibid., Hence we learn approximately the 359.) It is interesting to get access proportionate size of the settlements in to facts of this kind. Comp. the " Two 1664. Wheat and pease were to be Years' Journal in New York" of received in payment at the rates re- Charles Wooley, who came over with spectively of four shillings and six- Andros in 1678. His Price Current of pence, and three shillings and sixpence, several necessaries (p. 21) is about the a bushel, and pork at the rate of three same as that of the Rhode Island law. pounds and ten shillings a barrel. 3 R. I. Rec., II. 78-81. 9* 102 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BOOK III. "that the said letter is a pernicious letter, tending to stir up strife in the town, and that the town clerk record this vote, and send a copy of it to Mr. Wil1669. liams."1 On a reception from the Assistants March25. of Newport of a further demand for the payment of the rate, the townsmen of Warwick passed a vote that the paper was " full of incivil language, as if it had been indicted in hell; therefore the town unanimously did condemn the same, and thought it not fit to be put among the records of the town; but did order that the clerk put it on file where impertinent papers should be kept for the future, to the end that those persons who had not learned in the school of good manners how to speak to men in the language of sobriety, if they were sought for, might be there found." 2 The agency of William Harris, who was one of a committee of three persons charged with the duty of making inspection into the levy of six hundred pounds,"3 was not likely to advance the business towards an amicable adjustment. Harris had been one of Williams's original companions, when he came from Salem.4 Afterwards they had a fierce quarrel.5 At an election held -.667. in Providence, two sets of Deputies were chosen, 1 Arnold, Hist. of R. I., I. 325. liams thought from that time very 2 Ibid., 337. - The impertinent file unfavorably of Harris. "Formerly no of Warwick presently got a still more man amongst us had spoken more emphatic name. The town, having scornfully of the Quakers than W. had occasion to write to William Har- Harris; now he extremely, privately ris, voted unanimously " that the town and publicly, fawns upon them, seeing clerk do put the paper of William them my enemies, who had ever been Harris, that occasioned the letter, upon his friend, and never his enemy but in the dam-file, among those papers of his outrageous practices against town that nature." (Ibid., 340.) and colony and country. He was a 3 R. I. Rec., II. 254. pretender in Old England, but in New 4 See above, Vol. I. p. 422.-" Out my experience hath told me, that he of pity I gave leave to William Harris, can be one with the Quakers, yea then poor and destitute, to come along Jesuits or Mahometans, for his own in my company." (Arnold, I. 97,note.) worldly ends and advantage. He is 5 See above, Vol. II. p. 365.- Wil- long known to have put scorns and CHAP. III.] RHODE ISLAND. 103 at meetings convened under warrants which were issued respectively by Harris and Arthur Fenner, then colleague Magistrates in that town. The Deputies chosen under the warrant of Fenner were admitted by the General Court. Harris brought a charge against him "for acting in a rout." The Court acquitted Fenner,1 and, "for the peace of the Colony," dis- charged Harris " from the office of an Assistant for the future, there being many grievous complaints against him,.. he being very apt to take advantages against the members of the Corporation, and to act in a deceitful manner."2 The next year, however, Harris was again chosen jeers upon the eminent inhabitants gaping about land from them, if they of town and country. He hath been prevail over us. To this end he in pubnotorious for quarrelling, and challen- lie speech and writing applauds Conging, and fighting, even when he pre- necticut Charter, and damns ours, and tended with the Quakers against carnal his royal Majesty's favor also for grantweapons; so that there stands upon ing us favor (as to our consciences), record in the town-book of Providence which he largely endeavors by writing an act of disfranchisement upon him, to prove the King's Majesty by laws for fighting and shedding blood in the could not do. Myself (being in place) street, and for maintaining and allow- by speech and writing opposed him, ing it (for aught I know) to this day. and Mr. B. Arnold, then Governor, Then he turns Generalist, and writes and Mr. Jo. Clark, Deputy-Governor, against all Magistrates, laws, courts, Captain Cranston, and all the Magischarters, prisons, rates, and so forth, trates; he was committed for speaking pretending himself and his saints to be and writing against his Majesty's honor, the higher powers (as now the Quakers prerogative, and authority. He lay do); and in public writings he stirred some time in prison until the General up the people (most seditiously and Assembly, where the Quakers (by his desperately threatening to begin with wicked, ungodly, and disloyal plots) the Massachusetts) and to cry out,' No prevailing, he by their means gets lords, no masters,' as is yet to be seen loose." (George Fox digged out of in his writing; this cost myself and his Burrowes, &c., 206, 207.) "W. H. the Colony much trouble. Then (as loved the Quakers, whom now he the wind favored his ends) no man fawned upon, no more than he did the more cries up magistrates: then not Baptists, whom he till now fawned on, finding that pretence, nor the people but would love any, as a dog for his called Baptists (in whom he confided) bone, for land." (Ibid., 205.) serving his ends, he flies to Connect- 1 R. I. Rec., II. 200- 204. icut Colony (then and still in great 2 Ibid., 209. contest with us) in hopes to attain his 104 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BooK III. by the freemen of the Colony to be Assistant for Provi1668. dence, and Fenner was remanded to private May 6. life.' The Governor refused to qualify Harris, but the Deputy-Governor (Easton, now a Quaker) administered the " engagement." The Court admitted Oct. 29. him to his seat, and released him from the payment of a fine which had been imposed to meet the expenses of his controversy with Fenner.2 So high was now his place in their confidence, that they in1669. vested him and any three others of the Comoct.27. nittee appointed to gather the tax of six hundred pounds, with extraordinary powers for assessing it on individuals and collecting it by distraint3 Williams and he were still at deadly feud. By information i672. from Williams, he was brought under a charge Feb. 24. of traitorous correspondence with Connecticut, and a warrant was issued for his arrest and imprisonment.4 Meantime the business in which he had been too active for his popularity continued to be beset with difficulties. The liberty so fondly cherished in Rhode island was not consistent with a regular payment of taxes. There was little money; the settlements were isolated; the central government was little recognized; the collectors were local officers, and sympathized with the people, who did not want to pay. In a spasm of energy the General Court passed an Act against persons " of a covetous or factious and malicious spirit..... who opposed all or any rates, and thereby prevailed by their deluded adherents in overpowering the more prudent and loyal parties." All persons who 1 R. I. Rec., II. 223; comp. Staples, after this, Harris's rival, Fenner, was Annals of Providence, in R. I. Hist. chosen Assistantfor Providence. (Ibid., Coll., V. 147-151. 451.) But at the end of another year, 2 R. I. Rec., II. 237. Harris's star was again in the ascend3 Ibid., 288. ant. (Ibid., 482.) 4 Ibid., 429. At the next election CHAP. III.] RHODE ISLAND. 105 should, "especially in any town-meeting or other public assembly of people, appear, by word or act, in opposition to such rates and impositions," or should " appear in opposition against any of the Acts and Orders of the Assembly made according to the Charter, by speaking against such Acts or Orders openly in any concourse of people together, or that should move to the rejecting such Acts or Orders when published in such meeting in any town or place, or that should endeavor by word or deed to send back or otherwise to slight such Acts and Orders," were to be punished with " corporal punishment by whipping, not exceeding thirty stripes, or imprisonment in the House of Correction, not exceeding twelve months, or else a fine or mulct not exceeding twenty pounds."l But threats of this kind only express the perturbation of impotence. It is preposterous to assume such an attitude of menace in a community in which the mildest restraints of law are impatiently borne. Quakers had become numerous in Rhode Island. Persons so considerable as Coddington and Easton Quakersin had enrolled themselves with the sect as early hodeIsland. as the time of the visit of the Royal Commissioners, and, in behalf of their fellow-believers, had ad- 665. dressed to Carr and his associates some corn- March munication the tenor of which is not recorded.2 Their weight in the Colony may be partly inferred from the elections. In the ten years next after this time Easton was six times Deputy-Governor, and Governor twice, while towards the end of the same period Coddington held the first office for two terms, and the second for one,3 1 Ibid., 438, 439. Newport (Ibid., 146), and then an 2 Ibid., 118. Assistant (Ibid., 150). Before he was 3 Since the " obstruction" called by made Governor in 1674, he served once his name was removed, Coddingtonhad -as Deputy-Governor under Easton. been in retirement till now, except But he was only chosen to that office that in 1666 he was first a Deputy from when three other persons had refused 106 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BooK IIL and was succeeded as Governor by Walter Clarke, an1672. other Quaker.1 In the year of Easton's first elecMay. tion to be Governor, nearly the whole administration was changed, and several persons who were elected refused to serve; 2 proceedings which are significant of the power of the Quakers, on the one hand, and of a passionate repugnance to it on the other. The General Court now chosen repealed one by one all the Acts of the Court of the preceding year; among the rest, the laws for punishing seditious language, and for levying a tax.3 About this time George Fox, being convalescent from an illness of some months, found that "it was upon him from the Lord to go beyond sea, to visit r^do" the plantations in America."4 He accordingly in Rhode Island. sailed for Barbadoes, whence he proceeded first March. to Jamaica, then to Maryland, and finally, by New Jersey and Long Island, to Newport, where he became the guest of Governor Easton. He derived a0 much satisfaction from his visit to the RhodeIslanders. "Very good service," he writes,'we had amongst them, and truth had good reception. For having no priests in the island, and no restriction to any particular way of worship, and the Governor and Deputy-Governor, with several justices of the peace, it. (Ibid., 484, 485.) I incline to in believing it to have proceeded from think that his mind was now enfeebled; such a mind as, with all its want of perhaps he did not on that account balance, Coddington's may be allowed answer less well the purposes of the to have been in earlier years. Quakers who promoted him. His let- 1 R. I. Rec., II. 541. ter, appended to the "New-England 2 Ibid., 449-451. Only four AsFire-Brand Quenched" of Fox and sistants out of ten were re-elected; and Burnyeat, was, I presume, written as of twenty Deputies, not one. John late as 1676, the year of the publica- Cranston, who for three years had been tion of Roger Williams's work to which an Assistant, was made Deputy-Govthat treatise was a reply. (New-Eng- ernor. Both he and the Governor were land Fire-Brand, &c., Part II. 245.) Newport men. But his "Demonstration of True Love," 3 Ibid., 456: &c., was published in 1672. The reader 4 George Fox, Journal, &c., 426. of either of these works finds difficulty ChAP. III.] RHODE ISLAND. 107 daily frequenting meetings, it so encouraged the people that they flocked in from all parts of the island."l Fox did not enter any other New England Colony, but made a short visit to the Narragansett country, and attended a meeting of Friends at Providence. As to this meeting, he "had a great travail upon his spirit, that it might be preserved quiet, and that truth might be brought over the people, and might gain entrance and have place in them; for they were generally above the priests in high notions, and some came on purpose to dispute." He "was exceeding hot, and in a great sweat. But all was well." "The disputers were silent, and the meeting quiet."2 This last fact was the more observable, as Roger Williams was in Providence at the time. The two champions had then no interview or correspondence. But no sooner had Fox returned to Newport,3 on his way back to the Southern Colonies, than Williams sent him a challenge to a public discussion of certain propositions relating to the Quaker system, fourteen in num- Challenge of her, one half of them to be debated in each of the ims' to two chief towns of the Colony. The challenge GeorgeFox was accepted, not by Fox, but by three of his adherents. Williams steadily insisted afterwards that Fox received the letter, or at least was informed of its being on the way, and had "'slyly departed" from Newport, so as to evade the unpleasantness of answering a proposal which he feared alike to accept or to refuse.4 Fox 1 Ibid., 442. ters to our Deputy-Governor, Captain 2 Ibid., 444. Cranston, in which my proposals to 3 " G. Fox was at Providence some G. F. were, should not be delivered to few days before," writes Williams in the Deputy until G. F. was some hours connection with his sending of the chal- under sail, that he might say he never lenge. (George Fox digged out of his saw my paper." (George Fox digged Burrowes, 2. The title of this book out of his Burrowes, Prefatory Adcontains a double pun. Edward Bur- dress.) " This old Fox thought it best rowes was one of Fox's eminent dis- to run for it, and leave the work to his ciples.) journeymen and chaplains." (Ibid., 4 " He [Fox] ordered that my let- 5.) 108 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BooK III. and his fiiends with equal confidence maintained that the proposal was delayed till Williams knew that it would not reach him. Williams rowed himself down Wiiams's the bay to Newport to keep his appointment1 debaterth with the three Quaker champions who entered Aug. 8. the lists. There, in a disorderly meeting, he conducted a discussion with them, which lasted three days, and which in the following week was renewed for one day at Providence. Both parties claimed the victory. Williams wrote an account of the transaction in a volume of more than three hundred pages. It was published four years afterwards in Boston, and drew out a reply at still greater length, published in London, by Fox and his disciple, John Burnyeat. The rare talent for invective possessed by the Quakers in general, by their representatives on this occasion in particular, and by their present antagonist in a degree not surpassed by any of them, shines conspicuously in these works. When the alarm of impending war with Holland Ju reached New England, the government of Rhode June 17. r-o esigns of Island proposed to each of the Confederate ColRhode Island againstthe onies to arrange with them for some joint acDutch. tion against the common enemy.2 Winthrop recommended to them to apply to the Federal Commissioners, who were about to hold a meeting;3 and the advice appears to have been followed, but without any result.4 As yet there was no special cause for apprehension of an attack by the Dutch upon the province of New York, which, after the departure of Colonel Nicolls, was administered by Francis Lovelace for its proprietor. Lovelace interpreted his master's 1 " God graciously assisted me in 2 R. I. Rec., II. 461 -464. rowing all day with my old bones, so 3 Letters of John Sanford and John that I got to Newport toward the mid- Winthrop, in Mass. Hist. Coll., XXX. night before the morning appointed." 82, 83. (George Fox digged out, &c., 24.) 4 Records, &c., in Hazard, II. 527. CHAP. III.] RHODE ISLAND. 109 grant so comprehensively as to make it include Prudence Island in Narragansett Bay, hitherto understood to belong to the town of Portsmouth. Rhode Island arrested Lovelace's officer sent to take possession; and, New York itself falling again the next year into the hands of the Dutch, this trivial controversy died away, and was not afterwards revived.1 If the King's Province, as it had been established by the Commissioners, was to include the whole of the Narragansett country,2 little or nothing would B y s Boundary remain to Rhode Island, except the towns of question between Rhode Newport, Portsmouth, Providence, and Warwick. Islanc and Con necticut. But this was a point which Rhode Island was not disposed to yield; and a struggle for the extension of her territory on the side of Connecticut makes so large a part of the material of the history of the two Colonies for several years, that it cannot be overlooked, though the quarrel has little variety of incident, and has but a faint interest for readers at the present day. It will be remembered that, according as the royal charters given respectively to Connecticut and to Rhode Island should be interpreted, the country between Narragansett Bay and Pawcatuck River belonged to the one or the other of these Colonies, and that conflicts had early arisen out of this disputed right of jurisdiction.3 The Royal Commissioners had scarcely departed when this quarrel revived. For active measures the 1 Arnold, Hist., I. 361 - 363. ing. (R. I. Rec., II. 65.) But I do 2 See above, Vol. II. p. 603. not find that anything came of this 3 Ibid., 561-564, 571 -574; comp. movement. Massachusetts had now no R. I. Rec., II. 65-76. The overture attention to spare from her business of Rhode Island, mentioned in its place with the Royal Commissioners. Her in this work (Vol. II. p. 574), was met interest in the Pequot lands was no (May 18, 1664) on the part of Massa- longer considerable, and she was probchusetts by the appointment of General ably quite content that Connecticut, Ienison and Mr. Danforth as her nego- more directly concerned, should take tiators (Mass. Rec., IV. 108.) And care of the dispute about them with [ suppose that the agents had a meet- Rhode Island. VOL. III. 10 110 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BooK III. Rhode-Islanders had an advantage over their competitors in being nearer to the territory in dispute. The town of Stonington, as it had been occupied under Connecticut and Massachusetts, included lands which extended to a distance of four miles eastward of Pawcatuck 1666. River.1 Some Rhode-Islanders took possession May. of weirs which had been laid by the other party, prohibited them from fishing in the river, and marked what they called the line of their Colony on the western bank. Pequot Indians, dwelling there on lands assigned to them under the. protection of Connecticut, were mo1667. lested by interlopers from Rhode Island.2 One May. Crandall, of that Colony, surveyed a tract a Octbr. mile square, west of the river, and established his son upon it. A crowd of intruders followed, 166s. whose habits rendered their presence doubly May. odious to the well-conducted earlier settlers.3 Connecticut sent an embassy to Rhode Island, Aug. 20. which came back without redress. She then October. proposed to examine and settle the question 0669. of boundary by negotiators, which the RhodeMay 14. Islanders, after a vexatious delay, consented to 1 See above, Vol. II. pp. 383, 546, that is given to the Indians.'T is to 552. the grief of parents and others is ob2 The Pequots petitioned the Gen- served how these firebrands too much eral Court of Connecticut for protec- inflame youth...... May not parents' tion against this Rhode Island rabble, hearts bleed, when about to leave the "men," they say, " that wear hats and world, to think how they leave their clothes like Englishmen, but have dealt dear children in the mouth of the lion with us like wolves and bears." (Conn. and paw of the bear, and worse, as Rec., II. 529.) being daily tempted by examples to 3 Conn. Rec., II. 529 - 531. -" Nei- follow after and embrace lies, to live as ther can any true-hearted and fellow- riotous, wanton, luxurious, and even no feeling Christians choose but mourn to better than to be said unto,' Serve see and hear of our neighboring disor- other gods, or no god'? " (Petition of ders, and acknowledge our condition is Stonington to the General Court of truly deplorable, to have persons of Connecticut, Ibid., 530, 531; comp. such corrupt principles and practices 80.) Rhode-Islanders were in exto live so near us.....'T is not of tremely poor credit with their neighsmall concernment, the bad example bors, whether Christian or savage. CHAP. III.] RHODE ISLAND. 1l do, adding, in respect to an expression of the other party, which they construed as a threat, that they "took no more notice of that than of a thing to which this Colony had been often used by their neighbors." Rhode Island, though she consented, did not act till after a reiteration of the proposal, accompanied by a warning that, 170. if the present opportunity for an amicable ad- May 12. justment should be neglected, it might be the last: "We shall conclude it in vain further to move towards you in such a way, and shall address ourselves to put in practice what duty requires of us, in order to the relief of our oppressed neighbors." Then three persons were commissioned to meet others who should be appointed by Connecticut, and with them to make a full and final accord of all matters relating to bounds." 2 The action of Connecticut was embarrassed by the scruples of her Governor, who declared himself precluded by his arrangement in England with Clarke from countenancing her pretension to ju-. risdiction on the east side of the Pawcatuck.3 The commissioners of the two jurisdictions met at New London, and began their session by agreeing that communications between them should be made in writing. The business was opened on the part of Connecticut (which Colony was represented by Secretary Allyn, and the Assistants James Richards and Fitz-John Winthrop the Governor's son4) with a peremptory claim Ibid., 531-533; comp. 91, 92; 3 Ibid., 533, 534; see above, Vol. RI. Rec., II. 226-231. II. pp. 562-564. 2 Conn. Rec., II. 534. Connecticut 4 Fitz-John Winthrop, oldest son of at this time received petitions from the Governor of Connecticut, was born Harvard College, and from a company (probably at Ipswich) March 14, 1638. of Massachusetts men, represented by At the time of the Restoration he was Daniel Goolin, to be protected from in England, a captain in the army Rhode Island in their possession of of General Monk. In 1670, he was lands east of the Pawcatuck, which one of a committee raised by Connecthad been granted to them respectively icut to negotiate with Rhode Island by Massachusetts. (Ibid., 135, 227, respecting the boundary. (Conn. Rec., 545-547. II. 134; comp. 138.) The next year 112 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BooI III. " quietly and peaceably to govern and improve" all the country between Pawcatuck River and Narragansett Bay; understanding by that name the bay on which stands the town of Newport. From this pretension the Connecticut commissioners refused to depart; on such a basis there could be no treaty; and on the second day the conference broke up, with a declaration on each side that its alleged rights would be practically maintained. The commissioners from Rhode Island arrested five or six persons "for presuming to exercise authority in that jurisdiction," and sent one of them to gaol at Newport. But the Connecticut agents seem to have been backed by a stronger force. They proceeded eastward; and at the June i1. plantation now called Westerly,' on the east side of the Pawcatuck, at its mouth, having appointed a Marshal, they caused him to publish a Declaration requiring the submission of the inhabitants, and to arrest the persons who had made prisoners of their friends. They repeated their Declaration at Wickford and at Pettyquamscott, and then returned home, having communicated to the government of Rhode Island their own view of the business they had been engaged in. "We have been settling government within our own limits, and in our own plantations, which we trust we shall make good..... As for your resolution still to persist in the exercise of government within our bounds, we desire it may be forborne, for doubtless the consequence thereof will prove very inconvenient." 2 he was one of the two Deputies to the lieve it did not receive this name till General Court, for New London (Ibid., some years after 1670. 159); and the next year he was placed 2 Conn. Rec., II. 137, 138, 551- 554. in command of the militia of New Lon- -It was at this time (June 22d) that don County. (Ibid., 183.) Roger Williams wrote his "Letter to 1 This plantation was at one time Major Mason," published in Mass. Hist. called Fevershamn. (Mass. Archives, Coll., I. 275 et seq., maintaining the CXXVI. 393; comp. 360.) But I be- justice of the claim of Rhode Island. CHAP. ITI.] RHODE ISLAND. 113 Altercations continued on the disputed ground, between private persons, and between subordinate officers of the two jurisdictions. The Governor of Rhode Island gave notice that his people meant to make an appeal to the King;' but subsequently, in con- sideration of the costliness of that proceeding, Oct. 15. they proposed a repetition of the experiment of negotiating.2 The assent of Connecticut to this project was rendered null by the positive claim with which the proposal was accompanied.3 Further mutual provocations and disturbances followed. A Rhode Island court, sitting at Misquamicut 1671. (the part of Stonington east of Pawcatuck May. River), was broken up by a mounted party of Connecticut volunteers. Again Rhode Island proposed to have the pending question determined by a treaty, June 14. stipulating, however, that it should be held at Rehoboth or New York, "as places of more indifferency to meet and treat" than a Connecticut town, and desiring the presence, at the consultations, of Winthrop and Clarke, by whom the agreement had been made for that interpretation of the charters which favored Rhode Island. Connecticut consented to confer at Rehoboth or Boston with such commissioners Oct 12. from Rhode Island as should "be fully empowered to treat and conclude." But the Rhode-Islanders further explained themselves by writing: "To be plain and clear, in few words we must tell you that we have no power to alter, change, or give away any part of the bound prescribed and settled by his Majesty in his gracious letters-patent to exercise jurisdiction in." This statement, in the sense in which it was understood on both sides to be made, left no 1 R. I. Rec., II. 338, 340. 3 Conn. Rec., II. 535-537; R. I. 2 Ibid., 352. Rec., II. 355- 357. 10* 114 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BooK III. space for a compromise. The government of Connect1672. icut replied with sharpness: "We must needs Jan. 29. say, if in your former letter you had dealt as plainly, we should never have given ourselves the labor and trouble we have had on that account; and now indeed we cannot but see you never intended any composure or compliance in the thing in controversy." One more attempt, however, was made presently after May 1 - 14. to bring about a friendly settlement. No account of its progress is preserved, but it led to no issue., In Connecticut, by universal consent, Winthrop was Administra- continued from year to year at the head of tionofCon- the government. Mason was elected Deputynecticut. Governor for ten successive years, at the end of which time, by reason of advancing age, he withdrew from this office to the less responsible station 1669. of an Assistant, and was succeeded by Leete, formerly Governor of New Haven, who was also continued in the place by repeated elections. In Connecticut, as in Massachusetts, the electors were remarkably constant in the confidence reposed in the incumbents of the higher offices; but in the former Colony the change, from year to year, of Deputies from the towns was rather the rule than the exception. At the time when the British court projected an inProjectan vasion of New France by a colonial army2 ColoProject of an invasion of nel Nicolls, in New York, had information from New France. 1666. friendly Indians that a French force of seven July 6. hundred men was on its march from the west towards Albany, and he wrote to Connecticut as well 1 Conn.Rec.,II. 537-539; R.I. Rec., or the sixth, if Westerly be reckoned. II. 376-380,401 -406,418-425, 432, (Ibid. 466-471.) Kingston, the next 458- 461. In this year (November Rhode Island town in the order of time, 6) Block Island was incorporated as was incorporated in October, 1674. a town under the name of New Shore- 2 See above, Vol. II. p. 630; comp. 7ham, being the fifth town in the Colony, Conn. Rec., II. 514. CHAP. III.] CONNECTICUT. 115 as to Massachusetts for troops to enable him to attack them while on the way. Mr. Wyllys replied for July 11. Connecticut, that that Colony needed all its men for the agricultural work of the season; that the natives within its borders were enemies to the Mohawks, who were enemies to the French, so that the French could not be attacked by Connecticut in that quarter without danger of exciting a domestic insurrection; and that it would be "very difficult to pass to Fort Albany with a troop, the way was so bad, though, if they had occasion, they must pass it as they might."' The General Court, however, being presently convened, despatched a party of horse "to Fort Albany, or further as might be judged meet, to attain certain understanding concerning the motion of the French"; raised a committee with authority to call out the militia on any alarm; and desired the Governor to consult with Sir Thomas Temple and the authorities of Massachusetts respecting ulterior measures.2 The Magistrates had already written on the subject to the Governor of Massachusetts.3 He convened his Council, who, after considering it, Jul 0. answered coldly, that they had instructed their MajorGeneral "to take order for the provision and safety" of their own towns on the upper waters. of the Connecticut, and that "in reference to what concerned the Colonies mutually, the Articles of Confederation directing and concluding them therein, they knew not how to propound any better expedient than a regular observance thereof."4 Winthrop went October. to Boston for a conference with Temple and 1 O'Callaghan, Documents, &c., III. 4 Mass. Archives, II. 184. If I do 120. not misunderstand the tone of this brief 2 Conn. Rec., II. 43 - 45. paper, it bears traces of the ill-humor 3 The letter is in the collection of of Massachusetts at the recent dealings "Winthrop Papers," in Mass. Hist. of Connecticut with New Haven and Coll., XXX. 63. with the Royal Commissioners. g16 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BooK III. with the government of Massachusetts.' The want of a colonial navy was considered; "the difficulty of passing so long a march over land," through "a mountainous wilderness," uninhabited, or inhabited by "barbarous heathen, treacherous, and many of them unknown to the English and acquainted with the French"; and finally the lateness of the season, leaving scant time for preparations before another obstacle would be presented by tie cold and snow. Accordingly, the result was a "unanimous apprehension that at present there could be nothing done by the Colonies in reducing those places at or about Canada";2 and before the plan could be resumed, a treaty for peace between the European powers was already far advanced. The dispute about baptism, which had begun in Ecclesiasti- Hartford, continued to rage with special fervor cal ~ontroversyti Con. in its primitive seat. Mr. Stone was succeeded necticut. in the church of that place by two ministers, Samuel Whiting and John Haynes. Whiting loved the old and strict way of the Congregational churches; Haynes and a majority of the church sympathized with the late pastor in his preference for the recent 1666. latitudinarian innovation. It was told at New June. Haven, "that, before the last lecture-day [at Hartford], when it was young Mr. Haynes's turn to preach, he sent three of his party to tell Mr. Whiting that, the next lecture-day, he would preach about his way of baptizing, and begin the practising of it on that day. Accordingly he preached, and water was prepared for baptism, which [Davenport supposed] was never administered in a week-day in that church before. But Mr. Whiting, as his place and duty required, testified against it, and refused to consent to it." At a church meeting which now followed, Mr. Warham, of Windsor, 1 Danforth Papers, in Mass. Hist. 2 Letter of the General Court to Coll., XVIII. 101,102, 108; see above, Secretary Morrice, in Mass. Arch., Vol. II. p. 630. CVI. 166. CHAP. III.] CONNECTICUT. 117 the only survivor of the original ministers of the Colony, was present, and began to speak on Mr. Whiting's side; but the church considered that, not belonging to their number, he could not take a part in their debate. Mr. Haynes then proposed to discuss the questions publicly with his colleague on the next lecture-day.1 Mr. Street, Davenport's colleague, suggested the calling of another Synod. The project, so specious and so profitless, was entertained by the General Court. It resolved to convoke such an assembly, to be Oct. 11. composed of all the ministers of the Colony, and of four ministers from Massachusetts, namely, Mr. Mitchell, Mr. Browne, Mr. Sherman, and Mr. Glover; and by it certain questions, seventeen in number, were to be "publicly disputed to an issue." The tenor of the questions exhibits a still advancing liberality of sentiment. Even a claim of towns to have a concurrent voice with their respective churches in the election of a minister was admitted to discussion before this new tribunal.2 The Court convoked this assembly under the name of a Synod. As the appointed time approached for the meeting, it seems that some displeasure against this designation was manifested; for " upon con- 1667. sideration the Court saw cause to vary that May 9. title, and to style them an Assembly."3 The difficulty - which probably arose out of objections to committing a business of general concern to the ministers of a single Colony —was not removed yet, nor yet did the Synod meet.4 The attention of the Federal Commissioners was turned to the subject, and 1 Letter of Davenport to Winthrop, 4 Trumbull (Hist., I. 457) says that June 14, 1666, in Mass. Hist. Coll., the members had a private meeting, XXX. 61. Davenport was extremely and adjourned; but he adds, that they disturbed by these transactions. did not come together again at the 2 Conn. Rec., II. 53 - 55. time appointed. 3 Ibid., 67. 118 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BooK III. they expressed their judgment that, whenever there was occasion for the convocation of an ecclesiastical synod, it ought to consist of " messengers of the churches, called indifferently out of all the United Colonies by an orderly agreement of the several General Courts, and the place of meeting to be at or near Boston."1 This amendment of the scheme on foot was recommended in a memorial from Warham, Whiting, and their friend, Samuel Hooker, of Farmington, who Oct. 10. well understood that the theory to which they were pledged would have much more effective support from Massachusetts than from Connecticut. The Court acceded to their request,2 and made a proposal Oct. 16. accordingly to the government of Massachusetts, which replied, that it was not prepared to act upon the measure, for want of being informed of the special matters to be referred to the Synod now proposed.3 Connecticut judiciously concluded to proceed alone in 1668. her ecclesiastical arrangements. She appointed ay 14' a committee "to consider of some expedient for peace, by searching out the rule, and thereby clearing up how far the churches and people might walk together within themselves, and one with another, in the fellowship and order of the Gospel, notwithstanding some various apprehensions among them in matters of discipline respecting membership and baptism, &c." 4 On the report of this committee the Court showed 1669. good sense and good temper by publishing its May 13. purpose that the dissenting parties alike should "have allowance of their persuasion and profession in church ways or assemblies without disturbance." 5 The 1 Records, &c., in Hazard, II. 106. tion of Connecticut for her recent iso2 Conn. Rec., II. 70. lation of herself from her old partners. 3 Ibid., 516, 517. Again the letter 4 Ibid., 84. of Massachusetts betrays disapproba- 5 Ibid., 109; comp. 107. CHAP. III.] CONNECTICUT. 119 church of Hartford was directed to "take some effectual course" that Mr. Whiting and his friends Oct. 14. "might practise the Congregational way without disturbance either from preaching or practice diversely to their just offence, or else to grant their loving consent to these brethren to walk distinct, according to such their Congregational principles." This measure was not unanimously approved. Four Magistrates and fourteen Deputies voted against it.' Mr. Whiting and his friends-took advantage of it to set up a sec- 1670. ond church in Hartford.2 Hitherto no other New reb- 12. England town except Boston had had more than one. While the question of a new confederation was pending, the ancient controversy respecting the line Settlementof between Connecticut and Massachusetts was re- the bondalry bevived. The General Court of the former Col- tweenMassachusetts ony having remonstrated with the latter against and Connect"their laying out of the lands so near Wind- icut671. sor" on Connecticut River,3 an arrangement May 1. was made by which Massachusetts so far waived her alleged rights as to consent to an addition of some miles of territory lying within her border to the adjoining Connecticut town.4 The capture of New York by the Dutch fleet alarmed the neighboring English settlements.5 Those Quarrel betowns on Long Island which were nearest sub- tweenConnecticut and mitted to the invaders; but the plantations at theDutch. the eastern end of that island, which before the prov1 Conn. Rec., II. 120. sor." (Journal of Simon Bradstreet, 2 Trumbull, Hist. Conn., I. 462, 463. Jr., in New England Hist. and Geneal. On the other hand, at Windsor a party Reg., IX. 45; comp. Conn. Rec., II. of dissentients from the strict views of 85.) "Quorsum hmc?" Bradstreet their pastor, Mr. Warham, took advan- asks. - Woodbridge of Hartford is not tage of the Court's order of toleration, to be confounded with his brother of and, in the month after the gathering Killingworth. They were on opposite of the Second Church of Hartford, sides. See above, p. 84. "Mr. Benjamin Woodbridge was or- 3 Conn. Rec., II. 156. dained minister of the Presbyterian 4 Ibid., 554-556. party (as they are called) of Wind- 5 See above, p. 34. 120 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BooK III. ince of the Duke of York was created had belonged to Connecticut, now refused to surrender themselves, and desired to be again annexed to that Colony. After the departure of the fleet, some small Dutch cruisers infested the Sound, and captured vessels belonging to the English.' Thereupon Governor Winthrop 1673. convoked his General Court, who raised a comAug.7. mittee, consisting of the Magistrates and six Deputies, with plenary powers "to manage, order, and dispose of the militia of the Colony." They directed a levy of five hundred dragoons, and appointed officers for the force which might be drafted for foreign service.2 By their order, John Allyn, as Colonial Secretary, wrote to the Dutch commander at New York, Aug. 7. remonstrating against his proceedings, and acquainting him that l"the United Colonies of New England were by their royal sovereign Charles the Second made keepers of his subjects' liberties in these parts, and did hope to acquit themselves in that trust, through the assistance of Almighty God, for the preservation of his Majesty's Colonies in New England." The Dutchmen answered coolly, that they were " sent forth by the High and Mighty Lords, the States General of the United Netherlands, and his Serene Highness, the Lord Prince of Orange, to do all manner of damage unto the enemies of the said High and Mighty Lords, both by water and by land." They courteously added, that they " did well believe that those that were 1 Hitherto the Dutch had been very by sound of trumpet." (Mass. Rec., forbearing to the New-Englanders, es- IV. (ii.) 517.) I imagine the reason of pecially considering that Massachu- this forbearance on the part of the setts, immediately after the King's Dutch to have been, that their High declaration of war, deviating from her Mightinesses had not relinquished the ancient practice of silence on such oc- hope that, in the progress of events, casions, had ordered it (May, 1672) New England might ally itself with to "be published by the marshal-gen- them. eral in the three usual places in Boston, 2 Conn. Rec., II. 204 - 206. CHAP. III.] CONNECTICUT. 121 set for keepers of his Majesty of England's subjects would quit themselves as they ought to do, for the preservation of the Colonies in New England; however, they should not for that depart from their firm resolutions." In so uncomfortable a posture of affairs, the government of Connecticut considered it to be prudent to convoke a special meeting of the Federal Coinz ~Meeting of missioners, who accordingly came together at theFedera Commission~ Hartford. They expressed their approbation of ems. the course which had been taken, and the Aug. 27 readiness of their respective governments to furnish such military aid as might be needed; and they recommended to each General Court "that sufficient orders should be given, and all due and effectual care be forthwith taken, for provision of all manner of ammunition, men, and means of defence, that there might be no disappointment of aid to any one of the Colonies which might be first invaded." 2 The Magistrates and Deputies of Massachusetts were summoned to meet in General Court. They were not well satisfied that there was sufficient occasion Proceedings for calling them away from their homes at so ofMassachuzn,~ i I /Y* * ~~~~setts respectbusy a season of the year; and, "Lthe affairsing theDutch. upon which the Court was convened having Sept.19. been represented to them and seriously weighed, with the letters received from the other two Colonies touching the matter," they " did declare that at present they did not judge it expedient at this season to engage in the concerns thereof, further than the making provision for their own safety";3 for which purpose 1 O'Callaghan, Documents, &c., II. MS. in "'Extracts from the Records," 572, 583-586, 601. &c., appended to his edition of the 2 Hazard's edition of the Records of Colonial Records. (III. 486 - 489.) the Commissioners contains no account 3 Mass. Rec., IV. (ii.) 561; comp of this meeting. The defect is supplied Mass. Arch., LXVII. 60. Connectby Mr. Trumbull from the Connecticut icut, naturally displeased with this inVOL. III. 11 122 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Boox III. they directed an importation of sixty pieces of artillery and five hundred firelocks.1 Further news from Connecticut, however, brought them to a more prudent or a more generous way of thinking; and at another Dec. 0. special meeting, they "judged and declared that God did call them to do something in a hostile way for their own defence." They accordingly gave orders for the repair of the fortifications at Boston, Charlestown, Salem, and Portsmouth; placed a force of five hundred and fifty foot soldiers and a hundred and ten horse under the command of Major-General Denison; and commissioned two armed vessels, one carrying twelve guns, the other carrying eight, "for the vindication of the honor and reputation of themselves and 1674. nation, to secure their peaceable trade in the March 11. Sound," and "to repress the insolence of the Dutch."2 Yet there was no alacrity to take an active part in so unjust and impolitic a war. "Our friends," was the language of the order, "by such an appearance will be comforted, and we hope the enemies discouraged, and yet ourselves and confederates not any more engaged than we are at present."3 It may be action, expressed as much in a letter ployed by the American colonists." of October 17th. The reply of Massa- (Cooper, History of the Navy, &c., 18.) chusetts, October 24th, was in a tone of 3 Before they despatched their cruisrecrimination, unusually testy. (Conn. ers, the Magistrates had been delibRec., II. 563, 564.) erating nine months on this question 1 The great guns were to be obtained of arming against the Dutch (Mass. at Bilbao; the muskets, in England. Arch. LXI. 6 - 9); and it was not dis(Mass. Arch., LXVII. 84, 85.) missed for some months later. (Ibid., I am sensible that here I am on LXVII. 172-197.) Plymouth resouncertain ground; but I cannot avoid lutely refused to take part in the movethe surmise, that they who moved Mas- ment, possibly influenced in some desachusetts to buy sixty pieces of can- gree by memories of the hospitality non were thinking less of the war with of Leyden. (Letter of Governor Winsthe Dutch, than of a possible need of low to Governor Winthrop, April 27, defence against England. 1674, in Mass. Arch., LXI. 50.)2 Mass. Rec., IV. (ii.) 572, 573, 576, "' During the continuance of the war 577. "The first regular cruisers em- with the Dutch nation, our country CHAP. III.] CONNECTICUT. 123 believed that an abatement from the power of the Popish brother of the King was no subject of regret to the General Court of Massachusetts. A second letter had been addressed by Allyn, in the name of his government, to the commander at New York, composed in a warmer strain than that which had opened their correspondence. "You may 1673. be assured,' he wrote, "if you proceed in provo- ot.21. cations to constrain the rising of the English Colonies, they will not make it their work to tamper with your peasants about swearing [that is, taking the oath of allegiance], but deal with your head-quarters."1 The messenger who bore this letter, after being "detained under restraint" a fortnight at New Amsterdam, brought back a reply from Anthony Colve, the Governor there, addressed to Winthrop. Colve wrote that he Nov. 5. had received " a certain unsealed paper, signed by one John Allyn, qualifying himself Secretary, and written by order of the Governor and General Court of Connecticut." He said he "could not believe that such an impertinent and absurd writing emanated from persons bearing the name of Governor and General Court, therefore had he deemed it unworthy any answer." 2 The messenger reported that Colve was " a hath lost very many vessels and a very 1 Conn. Rec., II. 565. considerable estate; being taken by the 2 O'Callaghan, Documents, &c., II. Dutch in all parts where we trade or 648 - 652, 660; comp. the " Southampare going to the ports of our traffic. ton Declaration," in Mass. Hist. Coll., They make no difference between New XXX. 86 - 88. - October 28, four England and Old...... The Dutch small vessels of New England, taken of New York went beyond us in state- by a Dutch cruiser, were carried in to craft. They had taken several of our New York. The Dutch Governor revessels; and here were some of theirs leased their captains, and sent them stayed, though not feared. But they, to Governor Leverett with a request by a flourishing promise to set ours free that he would discharge the crew of a in case theirs were released; which Dutch armed vessel, which had been we attended, but they kept all ours." captured and taken to Boston. This (Hull, Diary, in Archseol. Amer., IV. was done. (O'Callaghan, Documents, 237.) &c., 662-664, 667, 668.) 124 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BOOK III. man of resolute spirit and passionate," and that he had boasted that he "knew not but he might have Hartford erelong." The Dutch were now making an attempt to execute their threats in respect to the English towns on Long Operations of Island. In the Sound, Evertsen's ship, conveythe Dutch ing three commissioners charged with this busithe Sound. Nov.. 6 less, fell in with a vessel from New London, in which were Fitz-John Winthrop, son of the Governor, and Mr. Wyllys, a Magistrate of Connecticut. These gentlemen produced a copy of a commission from the Magistrates of their Colony, directing Oct. 22. them to repair to Long Island, "and treat with such forces as there they should meet, and do their endeavor to divert them from using any hostility against the said people, and from imposing upon them; letting them know, if they did proceed notwithstanding, it would provoke them [the government of Connecticut] to a due consideration what they were nextly obliged to do." The two parties of commissioners landed separately at Southhold. The people of that village were Nov. 7. found under arms, and, being questioned as to their intentions, unanimously rejected the demand of the Dutch commissioners. Some inhabitants of Southampton were also present, one of whom, pointing to the flag of the Prince of Orange, said to the commissioners, "Rest satisfied that I warn you, and take care that you come not with that thing within range of shot of our village." Winthrop asked the Dutchmen whither they intended to go next, assuring them that he and his associate would make the same journey at the same time. Hereupon they "resolved not to visit the other two villages. We clearly perceived," so they wrote in their Journal, "that we should be unable to effect anything, and rather do more harm than good"; CHAP. III.] CONNECTICUT. 125 and the next day they set sail on their return to New York.1 The Magistrates of Connecticut again Nov. 21. wrote to Massachusetts, communicating various particulars of disagreeable intelligence, among which one was that a Dutch ship of eight guns had been seen steering towards New York, with four other vessels, her prizes;2 and they followed up their Nov. 26. representation by despatching a special messenger "to treat with the gentlemen in the Massachusetts about the framing an expedition against the Dutch."3 This was doubtless the immediate occasion of the arming in Massachusetts, which has been mentioned.4 Governor Winthrop wrote to the Magistrates, advising that a force should be sent to defend the island towns against a repetition of the attempt which had been defeated, and a party under the command of Fitz-John Winthrop was accordingly sent over to Southhold.5 He had scarcely arrived, when intelligence came 1674. that four Dutch vessels, bound for that place, February. were lying at New York, waiting for a wind. He made his dispositions accordingly, and called reinforcements from the two neighboring English settlements. The vessels appeared, and their commander sent in a summons, threatening extermination " with fire and sword" if a surrender was refused. A refusal was returned; a few shots were exchanged between the vessels and 11" Journal kept on board the Frigate throp to be Sergeant-Mlajor over the named the Zee-hond," &c., in O'Calla- military forces of his Majesty's subjects ghan, Documents, &c., II. 654 - 658. on Long Island, and do hereby com2 Conn. Rec., II. 566. missionate him accordingly.' Extract3 Ibid., 216. ed out of the records. Per me, John 4 See above, p. 122. Allyn, Secretary." Mr. Trumbull in5' The Committee of the General forms me that these lines, on a loose Court being met in Hartford, this 13th scrap of paper in the Library of the of November, 1673, have considered Connecticut Historical Society, constithe petition of the people of Long Island, tute the only record he has found of and granted their desires, and appoint- Fitz-John Winthrop's commission. ed and empowered Captain John Win11 * 126 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BooK III. the town, without injury on either side; and the squadron "presently weighed and set sail" on its homeward course.1 A further repetition of the attempt continued to be feared, but none took place.2 Probably the result of another attack was regarded as uncertain; the Dutch commander could not afford to risk many men; the object was not of considerable importance; and it was said that there was, for some reason, "a great damp, at present, upon most of the spirits of the enemy at New York."3 The further prosecution of these obscure hostilities was soon obstructed by the arrival of the news intelligence ofthe peace of the treaty of peace between the parent counof ~Westmin- trie 4 ster. tries.4 That article which stipulated a mutual May17 restitution of conquered places occasioned at New York a paroxysm of " distracted rage and passion." The "town's inhabitants..... cried,'We'll fire the town, pluck down the fortifications, and tear out the Governor's throat.'" They "belched forth their curses 1 Captain Winthrop's report of the place before the General Court deterexpedition, in Mass. Hist. Coll., XXX. mined to help Connecticut, and sug91- 95. gests the terms on which mutual con2 Letter of Matthias Nicolls, dated fidence might be renewed: "After at Stratford, March 16th, 1674. (Ibid., many agitations and considerations of 100.) Nicolls was afterwards Secre- our present state,..... and confidence tary of the English government at and assurance of your compliance with New York. (Ibid., 110.) us according to our articles, and your 3 The letters of Governor Leverett last invitations and encouragements," and Secretary Rawson at this time to &c. (Ibid., 97.) the government of Connecticut are For the benefit of one class of read-.instructive. (Ibid., 96-98, 100-102.) ers, I mention that the first Election Leverett was uncomfortably situated. Sermon in Connecticut given to the Individually he was anxious to satisfy press was that preached this year by the "just expectation and desire" of the Reverend James Fitch. (Conn. the Connecticut people, but his Colony Rec., II. 222.) still felt resentful for the recent con- 4 "Yesterday arrived a vessel from duct of Connecticut in relation to New Scotland; had a month's passage; brings Haven, to the loyal Commissioners, news of the confirmation of peace." and to the forming of a new Confed- (Letter of Leverett to Winthrop, of eracy. Leverett intimates the topics May 8th, 1674. Mass. Hist. Coll., of the deliberations which had taken XXX. 104.) CHAP. III.] CONNECTICUT. 127 and execrations against the Prince of Orange and States of Holland, the Dutch admirals, and their taskmaster, the Governor, saying they will not on demand, and by the authority of the States or Prince, surrender, but keep up by fighting so long as they can stand on one leg, and fight with one hand." The Governor imprisoned the bearer of the news in "the dungeon in the fort, with warning to fit and prepare himself for death, for in two days he should die,"1 and, in a more comprehensive indulgence of his displeasure, he proceeded to confiscate all the goods and effects of English colonists found within his jurisdiction, "together with the outstanding debts remaining" due to them.2 Three New-England vessels, brought in to New York by Dutch cruisers, were con- demned as lawful prize.3 The choleric Governor had scarcely had time to recover himself sufficiently to retract his sentence June28 of confiscation,4 when orders reached him from Restoration their High Mightinesses, his masters, "for the sterdamto evacuation of the forts, and the restitution of Eland' July 7. that country to the order of the King of Great Britain."5 Four months afterwards an English squadron entered the harbor of New York, convey- ing Major Edmund Andros, who proceeded to Andros. take possession of the province anew, as Lieu- Nov.1 ~~~~~~~- -,-L~~~~~~~ /Nov. 10. tenant of the Duke of York."6 1 Letter of John Sharpe to Governor O'Callaghan, Documents, &c., III. 215 Winthrop, of May 12, 1674. (Mass. -224. Hist. Coll., XXX. 108- 110.) Edmund Andros was now thirty2 O'Callaghan, Documents, &c., II. seven years old, having been born 710. December 6th, 1637, the descendant 3 Ibid., 715. of a family which possessed some prop4 Ibid., 726. erty in the island of Guernsey. He 5 Ibid., 730. was brought up as a page in the royal 6 Andros's commission and instruc- family; served, during its exile, in the tions, and certain commissions and in- army of Prince Henry of Nassau; and structions to his subordinates, are in was attached to the household of the 128 HISSTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BOOK IIL. By messages and correspondence some civilities passed between the new Governor and Winthrop.1 The Duke, on the recovery of his province from the Dutch, June 29. had taken out a new patent, which established the boundaries as they were originally defined,2 and accordingly Andros's commission gave him juJ risdiction over the country extending " from the west side of Connecticut River to the east side of Delaware Bay."3 After being settled in his governHiclaim to ment, he did not long delay to assert this claim. territory of He sent copies of his master's patent and of Connecticut. 1675. his commission to the General Court of ConMay. necticut, and formally demanded the surrender of all that portion of the property alleged to belong to the Duke which was now held by the Colony4 The General Court replied, that the question thus raised had been authoritatively settled by the Royal Commissioners ten years before; that they had "no power to dispose of any of his Majesty's plantations or subjects in any other way than was appointed by his sacred Majesty in his gracious charter"; and that, " according to their obliged duty, they were firmly resolved, as hitherto, by the gracious assistance of Almighty God, to continue in obedience to his Majesty in the management of what they were betrusted with." Princess Palatine, grandmother of each,- four castles in Spain. (O'CalGeorge the First. After the restora- laghan, Documents, &c., II. 740, 741.) tion he gained some distinction in the 1 Mass. Hist. Coll., XXX. 112, 114, first war against the Dutch, and in 115, 116. 1672, having meanwhile married an 2 See above, Vol. II. p. 580. I do heiress, was made major of a regi- not know that the Duke's second pament of dragoons. This was the high- tent is in print. There is a MS. copy est promotion he had reached before of it, certified by Andros, in the Conhe came to New York as the Duke's necticut Archives, " Colonial Boundalieutenant, except that the proprietors ries," II. 23. of Carolina had comprehended him 3 O'Callaghan, Documents, &c., 215. in their magnificent scheme by making 4 Conn. Rec., II. 569. him a Landgrave with an endowment 5 See above, Vol. II. p. 595; Conn. of four baronies of 12,000 acres of land Rec., II. 252, 570. CHAP. III.1 CONNECTICUT. 129 Three or four other letters followed, two of which are preserved. They raised no new issues, and were probably intended rather as mazifeslos, to take June. effect in other quarters, than as arguments for the conviction of those to whom they were addressed.1 Intelligence having reached Connecticut of disorders of some Indians beyond the eastern border of that Colony, a messenger was sent to communicate it to July 1. Andros. The incident was turned by him to an unexpected use. He replied, that he was' "very much troubled at the Christians' misfortunes and hard disasters in those parts, being so overpowered by such heathen," and that accordingly, accompanied by a force which should enable him "to take such resolutions as might be fit for him upon this extraordinary occasion," he "intended, God willing, to set out this evening, and to make the best of his way to Connecticut River, his Royal Highness's bounds there." 2 It behooved the government of Connecticut to attend to the reception of their unwelcome visitor. In all haste the Magistrates sent Captain Bull, of Hartford, with a hundred men, to occupy the fort at Saybrook.3 The General Court, coming together, approved Preparations this proceeding, and unanimously adopted a re- iutnn"". solve, protesting against "Major Andros's chal- July9. lenge and attempts to surprise the main fort of the Colony," "as also against all his aiders and abettors, as disturbers of the public peace of his Majesty's good subjects," and engaging themselves to "use their utmost power and endeavor (expecting therein the as-. Conn. Rec., II. 571-574. chaplain and surgeon, but probably 2 Ibid., II. 579. also as advisers of the commander in a The Reverend Joseph Haynes, of what the Court well understood to Hartford, and Mr. Gershom Bulkely be a critical emergency. (Ibid., IL were sent with this force, perhaps as 582.) 130 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Book III. sistance of Almighty God) to defend the good people of the Colony from the said Major Andros's attempts." Andros was as good as his word. Four days after writing his letter, he arrived at the mouth of the river, Governor An- with two small vessels.2 Thence he wrote to brokty- the Magistrates at Hartford, informing them uly 8. that, finding no occasion for his intervention in respect to the Indians, he desired their "direct and effectual answer" to his former demand, and that he should wait for it "in discharge of his duty accordingly." 3 Bull had reached Saybrook a few hours before him, and was in the fort. He had been instructed to inform Major Andros that the force from New York might act advantageously against the Indians at the head of Narragansett Bay. He was to allow Andros's people to land for refeshment, but they were to come unarmed, and to make their visit short. He was "to keep the King's colors standing, under his Majesty's Lieutenant, the Governor of Connecticut," and to permit the raising of no others. He was "to avoid striking the first blow; but, if they began, he was to defend himself, and do his best to secure his Majesty's interest and the peace of the whole Colony."4 In reply to Andros's letter, the General Court of Connecticut sent another exposition of their Jnly 10. rights and their purpose.5 At an early hour of the day after this reached him, he landed with a party, and at his request was met on the river's bank by the officers of the garrison. "'In his Majesty's name," he "commanded his Majesty's charter [the Duke's patent] to be read, and after that his Highness's commission, which, notwithstanding that they were required in his Majesty's name to forbear, I Conn. Rec., II. 262. 4 Ibid., 334. 2 Ibid., 580. 5 Ibid., 580; comp. 26. 8 Ibid., 579. CHAP. III. CONNECTICUT. 131 was done." The Connecticut officers, during this ceremony, "withdrew a little, declaring they had nothing to do to attend it." Andros then said that he should proceed no further, and should set sail immediately, unless he was desired to stay. The officers told him that they "had no order to desire him to stay, but must now read something else; and forthwith the protest was read in Major Andros's and his gentlemen's presence. He was pleased to speak of it as a slander, and so an ill-requital for his kindness, and by and by desired a copy, which the officers declined to give; but yet parted peaceably. His Honor was guarded i peac with the town soldiers to the water-side, went able return to New York. on board, and presently fell down below the fort, with salutes on both -sides."' The Magistrates approved, on the whole, the course that had been taken, though they would have been better pleased, had it been less forbearing. They expressed a wish that "he [Andros] had been interrupted in doing the least thing under pretence of his having anything to do to use his Majesty's name in commanding there so usurpingly, which might have been done by shouts, or sound of drum, &c., without violence." 2 1 Ibid., 583, 584.- Probably, in so, if possible, to preserve the utmost making up his picturesque account of limits for me that my patent gives me this transaction, Dr. Trumbull (Hist. title to." (The Duke of York to AnConn., I. 330) was helped by the local dros, April 6, 1675, in O'Callaghan, traditions. Following the contempora- Documents, &c., III. 230, 231; comp. neous report of the officers (composed 235.) " Iis Royal Highness is willing by Bulkely) and the comment of the things should rest as they are at presMagistrates upon it, I am obliged to ent; but he is not sorry you have reomit some striking circumstances in the vived this claim, because possibly some sketch by that usually cautious histo- good use may be hereafter made of it." rian. (Sir John Werden, the Duke's SecreThe Duke had small faith in the tary, to Andros, January 28, 1676, goodness of the claim which his Lieu- Ibid., 236.) tenant had set up, but was inclined to 2 Conn. Rec., II. 584. - The Magisgive it a chance. " My opinion is," he trates caused a narrative of these transwrote, "'t is best only to make ac- actions to be drawn up, to be sent to commodations of this kind temporary, England. (Ibid., 339 - 343.) CHIAPTER IV. TILE alarm in Connecticut which had furnished to Governor Andros a pretext for his undesired visit to Saybrook was not causeless. A war was breaking out, which proved most costly and afflicting to the Colonists. The reader may present to himself, with considerable distinctness, the aspect of New England at the time when this great calamity befell. Along a line of rugged coast, from the Penobscot to the Hudson, are scattered settlements of Englishmen, at unequal distances Condition of New England from each other, - closely grouped together at thebeak- about midway of that line, further apart at tile iog out of t Philip's War. extremities. Almost all of them are reached by tide water; a very few have been planted in detached spots in the interior, the most distant of these being about a hundred miles from the sea, whether measured from the east or from the south. The surrounding and intervening country is not occupied, but roamed over, by savages, whose aggregate number is not very different from that of the settlers. Some of them seem to have made some progress towards civilization, and a portion have professed to be converts to Christianity. For more than a generation there has been no war with them, though there have been occasional difficulties and quarrels. The youngest person of European parentage who has seen war on this continent is already almost too old for military service. On the whole the system of life is much.the same in the different communities of Colonists, though dis CHAP. IV.] PHILIP'S WAR. 133 similarities also appear. In Maine is a rude and shiftless population, often requiring to be kept in order by external control. Rhode Island has gathered a motley people,-schemers, seekers, anarchists of every name, — habitually unsettled by disputes with their neighbors and fierce altercations among themselves. The three Confederate communities, not without some small recent intermixture of strangers invited by the prospect of gain, are almost wholly composed of religious people of the Puritan type.' These Colonies also have their respective peculiarities. Plymouth, with little fertile land, and no commodious harbor, makes slow progress, and continues to be poor, though the people are industrious and the government is well conducted. Unable to provide liberally for the support of religion and learning, her clergy are not eminent, nor her people, comparatively, versed in book knowledge. For the protection of her property, she covets a charter from the restored King, and by this influence the republican tone of her politics is lowered. Connecticut, grateful for the recent royal bounty, is not ill affected towards the court. Her internal administration is excellent; her leaders in church and state are accomplished; the modest thrift of her citizens affords her a sufficiency of means; and except for her chronic quarrel with Rhode Island about the boundary line, her condition is tranquil and satisfactory. Massachusetts is still more busy and thriving. In respect to her relations with the mother country she has hitherto been able on the whole to pursue with success the traditional policy; as yet she has been forced into no material concessions; her attitude towards the British court continues to be one of substantial independence; ten years have passed since she maintained 1 I have been struck by the fact that Magistrates of Massachusetts in a letthe word Puritan scarcely occurs in ter to Robert Boyle, in 1679. (Boyle our old writings. It is used by the Works, I. ccxvii.) VOL. III. 12 134 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BooK III. herself in a sharp struggle, which has not been renewed. In the three associated Colonies, there is great similarity in the ordinary occupations and pursuits. Most adults of both sexes work hard, and nearly all the children go to school. The greater part of the men get a living by farm-labor; they provide bread and meat, milk, butter, and cheese, for their own tables, and raise stock to sell in the West Indies for money with which to buy foreign commodities. But they are not all farmers. A portion are lumberers, plying the axe through the winter in the thick pine forests, and at the return of spring floating down their rafts to a sure and profitable market. Another portion are fishermen, familiar with the haunts of the cod, the mackerel, and the whale, and with all perils of the sea. In the principal towns various classes of artisans pursue a lucrative trade. The country furnishes some staples for an advantageous foreign commerce, and, especially in Boston, not a few merchants have grown rich. The style of social intercourse is simple and quiet, not to say austere; yet by no means, among the better sort, without its elegances and luxuries.' The refining 1 As has been mentioned before cellent, it will take up so much of your (Vol. II. p. 67), few traces appear of a time and mind, that you will be worth cultivationof music. I meet with one in little else. And, when all that excela letter addressed in 1661, by Dr. Hoar, lence is attained, your acquest will afterwards President of Harvard Col- prove little or nothing of real profit lege, to a young nephew of his, then to you, unless you intend to take up a student in that institution. After the trade of fiddling. Howbeit, hearrecommending to him to conduct all ing your mother's desires were for it, his conversation with his mates "in the for your sisters, for whom it is more Latin tongue, and that in the purest proper, and they also have more leisphrase of Terence and Erasmus," he ure to look after it, for them, I say, I proceeds: " Music I had almost forgot- had prepared the instruments desired, ten. I suspect you seek it both too but I cannot now attend the sending soon and too much. This be assured them." (Letter of Leonard Hoar to of, that, if you be not excellent at it, Josiah Flint, in Mass. Hist. Coll., VI. it is nothing at all; and, if you be ex- 106.) CHAP. IV.] PHILIP'S WAR. 135 example of the clergyman's family is present in every village. The clergyman and his wife belong, often by birth, and necessarily by position, to the gentry of the land, and their influence is effectual from the smallness of the sphere to which it immediately extends. In every settlement, the minister is the chief man, unless the settlement boasts also a Magistrate or Assistant, and then the minister is the Magistrate's peer. In every settlement there is a secondary aristocracy, no wise connected with birth, or money, or education. The possessors of the franchise of the Colony govern the Colony; and all other persons within it-men as much as'women and children - are their wards. The freemen in each Colony are a minority of the male adults; in Massachusetts they are probably not more than one fifth part of the grown men. In Massachusetts, though of late a more lax regulation has gone partially into effect, the freemen continue almost all to be churchmembers. Thus the dignities at once of political and of religious superiority belong to them, investing them with a double title to observance. The small class of Magistrates commands a yet deeper reverence; and though a democratic spirit among the Deputies sometimes confronts them upon public measures, a profound personal respect never fails to be a.. muniment of their authority. Once a year (twice a year in Connecticut) the inhabitants of the several towns in each Colony, especially the freemen and their families, have opportunity to cultivate acquaintances with one another. At the time of the General Court- for Elections there is a press of travel towards the colonial capital. The Magistrates and Deputies of course come thither, many bringing their wives and children. The ministers make the journey; for sometimes the government desires to consult them, the affairs of the Church require their periodical 136 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BooK III. conferences, and, at all events, the day is also their own holiday. The freemen congregate in large numbers; for, though they may cast their votes in their towns, they generally desire to show themselves and exercise the right in person, and perhaps to confer with their Deputy, whom, as it is not requisite for him to be an inhabitant of their town, this may be their most convenient way of meeting. But, with the exception of these periodical occasions, people stay at home for the most part; for imperfect roads, tracts of forest, and the anxieties incident to absence when intelligence moves slowly and vagabond Indians may do mischief, are permanent discouragements from travel. The consequence is, that, on the one hand, the tie of friendship between neighbors becomes strong, and that, on the other, disagreements may grow out of a meddling supervision of each other's conduct and affairs by persons all whose social relations are with one another. Throughout the country, habits of temperance and of general self-control, with their train of good-temper and cheerfulness, diffuse their joy in modest homes where a careful domestic economy prevents affluence from being coveted or missed. While the head of the household - farmer, fisherman, or mechanic - is helped in his labors by those of his sons who are old enough, the women spin, weave, and mend, and do the household work, during six days of the week. On Sunday all labor ceases for twenty-four hours, and all the families of the settlement join twice in long services of public worship, and pass the remainder of the day in domestic and solitary devotion and reading. At other times they have not much leisure for books, though, as has been seen, the prosperity of the trade in books shows an active demand. The state of things at this period furnishes no especially exciting topics for conversation. There is no present menace of disturbance from Eng CHAP. IV.] PHILIP'S WAR. 137 land. The agitation about the Synodical question is abated. Quakers cause little apprehension, and Baptists are getting to be kindly regarded. Now and then a villager who has been at the Thursday lecture in Boston brings back news respecting the King's attitude towards Holland, or the measures of Parliament against the Duke of York, or the conjectured policy of Lord Danby, or the annoyances of English or Scottish Nonconformists. The politics of town and parish are from time to time presenting some new aspect; courtships and marriages, births and deaths, claim notice; militia training days make a recreation and a sort of festival; and all the year round, the doctrine delivered in the last Sunday's sermons is matter for thought and discourse during the week. In the marts of business, interests are more various, and social intercourse has more activity and show. But everywhere alike there is a general appearance of security, prosperity, sobriety, good order, and content. The quiet of this time was undisturbed by any general apprehension of danger from the natives. The course of conduct pursued towards them had been praiseworthy in a singular degree.1 The Indians were a people extremely difficult to deal with, by reason alike of their mental and of their moral defects; but they were treated equitably and generously. The reader has learned how erroneous it would be to represent the lands of Plymouth and Massachusetts as being already occupied when the English arrived. The eolosts population dwelling at that time within those to thenaterritories can with little probability be supposed to have been greater than one twentieth part of the population of the city of Boston at the present day. The strangers came and found a vacant domain, 1 See above, VYl. I. pp. 293, 362; comp. Areheol. Amer., III. 30 f, 30 g. 12* 138 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BooK III. on which, without wrong or offence to any predecessors, they built and planted. Not an Indian wigwam was to be seen within miles of the spots where they set up their first cabins. They obtained no land by force, except that remote region which fell to them as the prize of conquest in the war provoked by the Pequots. When they wanted an enlargement of their borders, they acquired it, if at all, by amicable agreement with any who had earlier possession.1 If often the prices which were paid seem small to us, they were all that the thing parted with was worth to the seller.' He generally retained his rights of hunting, trapping, and fishing, and in these consisted the whole value which most of his land had to him before he received pay for it. And while all that he yielded was yielded by his free consent for an equivalent which satisfied him, he was honestly and effectively protected in the possession of whatever he was disposed to keep. No doubt, he was subject to injury from lawless people. He might be occasionally cheated and otherwise ill used, as incapable and unlucky persons are, more or less, in all times, and in every part of the world. But the shield of law was held over him with assiduous solicitude. Whoever could be proved to have wronged him was made to feel that he had a watchful guardian, severe in measures of redress. The hurtful engagements into 1 "I think I can clearly say that, Court...... And if at any time they before these present troubles broke out, have brought complaints before us, the English did not possess one foot of they have had justice impartial and land in this Colony but what was fairly speedy, so that our own people have obtained by honest purchase of the frequently complained that we erred Indian proprietors. Nay, because some on the other hand in showing them of our people are of a covetous dis- overmuch favor." (Governor Winsposition, and the Indians are in their low to the Commissioners, May 1, straits easily prevailed with to part 1676, in Hubbard, Narrative of the with their lands, we first made a law Troubles with the Indians, &c., 13; that none should purchase or receive comp. Winslow's letter to the Magisof gift any land of the Indcians without trates of Massachusetts, June 21, 1675, the knowledge and allowance of our in Mass. Arch., LXVII. 202.) CIAP. IV.] PHILIP'S WAR. 139 which he was most liable to be entrapped the law declared to be null from the beginning. By regulations aimed as well against negligences as against offences by which he might be made to suffer, it enforced a considerate respect for his position and his rights.1 And special opportunities for humane and tender treatment of him were generously used.2 It may reasonably be believed that time would have disclosed inconsistent interests between the natives and the strangers, if, in successive generations, they had multiplied largely in each other's neighborhood. But as yet the new state of things was highly advantageous to the children of the soil. Hitherto most of what they possessed or could acquire, except what they could forthwith consume, remained worthless on their hands. Now they were large sellers in a profitable market; for all the corn they could spare, they had ready customers at hand; the skin of every fur-bearing animal they could take commanded a liberal price. Hitherto their lives had been often miserable from want, and every winter renewed a fierce struggle with famine. Nowv they had neighbors of methodical and frugal habits, who in the fruitful months looked forward to the season of need, and laid up stores to be then parted with in commerce or in charity. The plants, and especially the animals, introduced by the English, vastly improved the condition of the native race. Unskilful as their 1 See the systems of law on this sub- with them, that when their own people ject in General Laws and Liberties forsook them, yet the English came of Massachusetts, pp. 74-78; General daily and ministered to them...... Laws of Connecticut, pp. 32-34; Mr. Maverick of Winnisimmet,..... Brigham, Compact, &c., pp. 288 - 290. his wife, and servants, went daily to The legislation had reference at once them, ministered to their necessities, to security from the natives and to and buried their dead, and took home justice and kindness towards them. many of their children. So did other Comp. Plym. Rec., III. 74, 89, 167; of the neighbors." (Winthrop, I. 120.) IV. 66, 109. " Some families spent almost their 2 When the small-pox spread among whole time with them." (Trumbull, I. the natives in 1633, " it wrought much 37.) 140 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BooK III. agriculture was, there was no more difficulty in raising several of the vegetables of the English garden, than in the raising of maize and beans, to which the Indian had been used. A variety of manufactured articles - blankets, leather, cutlery, and others-were brought within his reach. The introduction of horses, oxen, sheep, goats, swine, poultry, dogs, afforded him luxuries and conveniences before unknown. He was not ready, it is true, to be transformed from a hunter into a herdsman; but of this new description of property which he had now opportunity to acquire, some kinds might be cared for without any great change in his habits, while, in proportion as they commanded more of his attention, the decencies and enjoyments of his life were immensely increased. The English, for their own security, did not desire that he should get their fire-arms, and learn to use them. But he did get them, and became very skilful in their use; and the toil of his old-fashioned hunting with clumsy weapons was thus exceedingly abridged. So erroneous is it to suppose that the native tribes of New England were harmed when civilized foreigners sat down by their side. On the contrary, they were benefited on a vast scale, in respect to the accommodations of their daily life, even supposing them still to adhere to their ancient manners and character, remaining in ignorance of the arts of civilization and of the revelations of Christianity. If they continued to be brutal savages, still they lost nothing, but, on the contrary, gained much, by the neighborhood of industrious and orderly persons of a different race, who had commodities to sell which it was for their advantage to buy; who were glad to buy what they had in plenty, without knowing how to use; who practised, and were inclined freely to impart, an infinity of methods unknown to them of obtaining security, comfort, and enjoyment. CIAP. IV.] PIILIP'S WAR. 141 Besides such benefits derived in the necessary course of things by the native from the English settlers, they esteemed it to be their duty to endeavor to share with him what to themselves were the priceless blessings of civilization and Christianity. The reader of these volumes is aware of the diligence and earnestness with which such endeavors were made.l' Their apparent success, whether really greater or less within the line to which they extended, did not affect the mass of the native population. The great southern tribes-the Pokanokets (or Wampanoags), the Niantics, the Narragansetts, the'Mohegans (though Uncas, their chief, was always an ally of the English) -resolutely refused to listen to the missionaries. A few converts were made among the poor remnant of the conquered race of Pequots. But the scenes of prosperous attempts at proselytism were chiefly three;-Martha's Vineyard, Cape Cod, and the country around Boston, within forty miles of that town. The number of'praying Indians" in New England, when at the largest, was reckoned to be about Praying IT. four thousand; of whom eleven hundred belonged=. dians. to Eliot's congregations in Massachusetts, six or 1 seven hundred to Plymouth, fifteen hundred to Martha's Vineyard and the neighboring island of Chappequiddick, and three hundred to Nantucket. In Massachusetts there were two churches of Indians, one at Natick, the other at Hassananmisitt (Grafton); the former numbering no fewer than fifty communicants. At Martha's Vineyard there were two churches, and one at Chappequiddick. The congregations had native teachers, who, besides being schoolmasters for the children during the week, led the public devotions of the Lord's day when no English minister was present. Of the Plymouth Indians, their minister reported that one hundred and 1 See above, Vol. II. pp. 187-199, 336-341. 142 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BooK III. forty-two could read their own language, seventy-two could write it, and nine could read English.1 While it seemed that such operations tended withlin their sphere to make closer the friendly relations between the natives and the English, more than half a century had passed since the settlement of Plymouth, and nearly forty years since the end of the only war that had taken place between the strangers and ally native tribe. There had been alarms, threats, negotiations, and military demonstrations; and a watchful eye had all along been kept upon the Indians of the region between Connecticut River and Narragansett Bay. But the quarrels that arose from time to time had at some rate been pacified, and the peace had been preserved. It is not probable that the number of the natives had increased since the arrival of the English. Massasoit, Sachem of the numerous tribe of Pokanokor ets, always maintained faithfully the treaty Pokanoket or Wampanoai which he made with the Colonists of Plymouth Indians. a few months after their arrival;2 and, on the other hand, he trusted to their alliance for defence against the Narragansetts, his neighbors on the other side of his country. Nearly forty years after that treaty, Massasoit, dying Death of s- at an advanced age,3 was succeeded by his sasoit. sons, Warnsutta and Metacom, otherwise called 1660. Metacomet. Wamsutta came to the Court at Ju 13. Plymouth with some requests, which were readily granted. One was for leave to purchase "a small parcel of powder for the use of him and his brother; and the Court gave him, as a small gratuity, a dozen pound." Another related to a trespass on his 1 Gookin, in Mass. Hist. Coll., I. 2 See above, Vol. I. p. 178. 180-207. Gookin's treatise was fin- 3 In June, 1660, Massasoit was ished in 1674, the year before Philip's "lately deceased." (Plym. Rec., 11I. War broke out. (See above, Vol. IL. 192.) p. 338.) CHAP. IV.1 PHILIP'S WAR. 143 fields by some swine belonging to the inhabitants of Rehoboth. Another concerned a dispute with a Narragansett sachem about the ownership of a parcel of land. Lastly, Wamsutta was ambitious of an English name. In this matter it cost the Court nothing to gratify him, and they may be supposed to have increased his content by acquainting him with the magnificent import of their choice. They " ordered Alexander that for tile future he should be called by the SahpmofO name of Alexander Pokcanoket; and, desiring the kets. same in the behalf of his brother, they named him P1isp."1 Alexander's reign was short. Reports came to Plymouth that he was plotting with the Narragansetts, and a message was sent to him to come to the town 10662. and explain himself. He did not come, and an armed party, under Major Winslow and Major Bradford, was despatched to find him and repeat the summons. He said he had intended to obey it, but desired first to have a conference with Mr. Willett, who at the time was absent in New York. He "freely and readily, without the least hesitancy," consented to go to Plymouth, where explanations were made to the satisfaction of both parties, and the savage chief set out on his return. On the journey, however, he changed his mind, and in two or three days, turning back towards Boston, came to Major Winslow's house at Marshfield. Here he fell sick of a fever; and, being impatient to His death. go home, he was conveyed thither carefully by water. He died a few days after his arrival, chioiptS-e and his brother Philip became chief Sachem of Pokanokets. the tribe.2 1 Plym. Rec., III. 192; Mather, Re- which it rests. It is so related by the lation of the TrIubles, &c., 70. second John Cotton, minister of Plym2 I think there can be little doubt outh, in a letter to his brother-in-law, that this account of the matter is cor- Increase Mather, of Boston, and is thus rect, considering the testimony on introduced: " Major Bradford confi 144 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Boom III. At the beginning of Philip's administration, if we are so to call it, some apprehensions were entertained as to the temper he was in, and he was required to repair to "'the Court held at Plymouth, to make answer unto such interrogatories as should be proposed unto him..... and to deliberate and congratulate with him about such matters as might tend to a further settlement of peace and renewal of former covenants, as he seemed to desire...... After courtesy expressed on both sides, and a large and deliberate debate of particulars, he absolutely denied that he had any hand in any plot or conspiracy against the English, nor that he knew of any such contrivance against dently assures me that, in the nar- recovered, and to send his son as hostrative de Alexandro [Hubbard's nar- age till he could do so, on that conrative, I presume, is intended, in sideration he was fairly dismissed, but "Narrative of the Indian Wars," &c., died before he got half-way home." 9, 10] there are many mistakes; and (Hubbard, Narrative, 9, 10.) fearing lest you should, through mis- This account has got into the modinformation, print some mistakes on ern histories, where it is sometimes this subject, from his mouth I this mentioned as one of the provocations write." (Morton, Memorial, Davis's to the war twelve years later. But edit., 426, 427.) the weight of contemporaneous eviHubbard's account is, that Winslow, dence is against it. No testimony having come upon the Sachem's party could be better than that of Major by surprise, and secured their arms, Bradford, an upright man, who per"demanded Alexander to go along sonally knew the circumstances, and with him before the Governor, at which who carefully detailed them for the message he was much appalled. But express purpose of correcting the errors being told by the undaunted mes- of an earlier writer. It does not apsenger, that if he stirred or refused to pear that Philip complained of ill-treatgo he was a dead man, lie was by one ment offered to his brother, either at of his chief counsellors, in whose ad- his own visit to Plymouth soon after, vice he most confided, persuaded to go or at any other time. President Mather along to the Governor's house. But would have been likely to mention such such was the pride and height of his a story, if it had reached him in the spirit, that the very surprisal of him twelve years between the transaction raised his choler and indignation, that it alleged and the writing of his " Brief put him into a fever, which, notwith- History," &c. But he alludes to nothstanding all possible means that could ing of the kind. Nor does the account be used, seemed mortal. Whereupon of the proceeding in his "Relation" entreating those that held him prisoner (70- 72) bear out the representation that he might have liberty to return of Hubbard. home, promising to return again if he CITAP. IV.] PHILIP'S WAR. 145 them, and proffered. his brother, upon the Court's denand, as an hostage to be secured until the Court could have more certainty of the truth of his defence." His offer of a hostage was declined; "it was concluded by the Court and him mutually, that the an- Renewal of cient covenant betwixt his predecessors and thetreaty anciently them should be continued"; and he, with five madewith Massasoit. subordinate sachems, signed an instrument by which he acknowledged himself to be a subject of the King of England, and promised faithfully to observe the engagements contracted by his father and brother; to abstain from "needlessly or unjustly provoking or raising war with any of the natives";and to "endeavor in all things to carry peaceably and inoffensively towards the English." At the same time, the Court agreed on their part to afford to Philip and his people "such friendly assistance, by advice and otherwise, as they justly might"; and to "require the English at all times to carry friendly towards them."' Five years passed away quietly.2 At the end of that time, an -Indian of Philip's tribe came to the Court at Plymouth with a charge against charged with him of having "expressed himself, in the pres- get.e ence of several of his men, importing his readi- 1667. ness to comply with French or Dutch against the English, and so not only to recover their lands sold to the English, but enrich themselves with their goods." When questioned, Philip said that this was a calumny of Ninigret,3 the Niantic Sachem. Both chiefs 1 Plym. Rec., IV. 25, 26. History of Boston (p. 215). The face 2 In 1665, Philip having come to is not unpleasing. I believe there is Plymouth to buy a horse, the Court no other authentic portrait of an hisgave him one. (Ibid., 93.) torical Indian. That of Philip in the 3 A portrait of this chief was painted second edition of Church's 6' Entertainfor Governor Winthrop of Connecticut. ing Passages " is a hideous fancy-piece, A copy was in the possession of the engraved by a journeyman of Paul late Mr. Grenville Winthrop, and an Revere, the iron-master, not a century engraving from it is inserted in Drake's ago. VOL. III. 13 146 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BooI III. were then cited to appear before two commissioners, who were escorted by a party of horse to Rehoboth, the place appointed for the scrutiny. The Pokanoket tale-bearer, when confronted with his chief, "freely and boldly" persisted in the charge, with specifications of "time, place, and several persons, which, with divers other circumstances from other Indians and English, made the matter appear very probably true, at least as to some agitation." Philip still protested that he was guiltless, and that the story was a fabrication of his Niantic rival. At the same time he justified the Court in demanding security from him in such circumstances, and offered to surrender his arms. The offer was accepted, and further investigation was postponed to the next Court.' To the next Court he renewed his protestations of "innocency and faithfulness to the English" Friendly reations re- with great fulness and fervor, "pleading how t rey2 irrational a thing it was that he should desert his long experienced friends, the English;..... expressing his great confidence that he had in that ancient league with the English, which he hoped they would still continue; professing that their withdrawing their wonted favor was little less than a death to him, gladding his enemies, grieving and weakening his friends; and so left himself and case to the Court; who, taking it into serious consideration, not willing to desert him and let him sink, though there was great probability that his tongue had been running out, yet not having such due,proof as was meet, judged it better to keep a watchful eye, and still to continue terms of love and amity with him, unless something further did manifestly appear, and he to bear part of the charge." In the sequel it was agreed, that, if nothing appeared against him, he should, as formerly, 1 Plym. Rec., IV. 151, 164-166. CHAP. IV.] PHILIP'S WAR. 147 be considered and treated as a friend; "that he should bear forty pound of the charge of the expedition"; that he should come to the Court whenever summoned on future occasions; and that, whenever he should be able to prove the conspiracy which he alleged to have been made against him, the Court would "give him the best advice they could, that he might have some due reparation." The arms which had been surrendered by him and his men were then restored. Nearly four years more had passed,1 when a new alarm spread among the settlements of Plymouth, and somehow Massachusetts interposed her good offices. Philip came to Taunton, and there, in the presence of Aprilo. three Boston men,2 who had perhaps been mutu- 161. ally chosen as umpires, he, with four of his sachems, signed an instrument declaring that he had, "through his indiscretion and the naughtiness of his heart, violated and broken his covenant with his friends by taking up arms with evil intent against them, and that groundlessly"; that he desired "solemnly to renew his covenant with his ancient friends,..... whom he had now and at all times found kind to him"; and that he "freely engaged to resign up unto the government of New Plymouth all his English arms, to be kept by them for their security, so long as they should see reason." 3 1 In this interval, Philip was sus- 2 In this month, a sharp correspondpected by Connecticut and Plymouth ence took place between Governor of having some treacherous dealings Prince and Daniel Gookin, the superwith Ninigret, Sachem of the Nian- intendentofthe Praying Indians. (See tics. (R. I. Rec., II. 275; comp. 193, above, Vol. II. p. 338.) Gookin thought 198, 267, 269; Conn. Rec., II. 548.) that Prince had been pressing hard But Ninigret cleared both himself and on the Indians. Prince feared that Philip from the charge. Ninigret's Gookin had countenanced them in former transactions with the English being troublesome. (Mass. Hist. Coll., appear to have satisfied him of the VI. 198-201.) expediency of a peaceable behavior. 3 Hubbard, Narrative, &c., 11, 12; At all events, in the war now coming Mather, Relation, &c., 73. " The seton he took no part against them. tlement and issue of that controversy 148 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BooKt III. The Court of Elections met at Plymouth two months Renewed after the treaty at Taunton, and found condisaffection. tinued cause for solicitude. Philip had " failed June 5. greatly in performance thereof; by secret conveying away and carrying home several guns that might and should have been then delivered"; by neglecting to give the stipulated orders to his people; and by endeavoring to make Plymouth "1 odious to the neighbor Colony by false reports, complaints, and suggestions." On the discovery of his bad faith and other misdemeanors, the Court declared his arms to be forfeited, and proceeded to distribute them among the towns. The Court at the same time took engagements of friendship and fidelity from several chiefs and others dwelling on and near Cape Cod; and they nominated eight persons to be associated with the Magistrates as a "Council of War."' Philip continued contumacious. The missing arms were not brought in, nor was any excuse made for the neglect. He gave offence by "insolent carriages and expressions," and by " entertaining of many strange Indians, which might portend danger." The Council of War determined it to be necessary to require Aug. 23. him " to make his personal appearance to make his purgation," and, " in case of his refusal,..... to endeavor his reducement by force." But first, as the business "concerned all the English plantations, it was determined to state the case to the neighbor Colonies of the Massachusetts and Rhode Island; and if by their weighty advice to the contrary they were not diverted from their present determinations, to signify unto thenl, that, if they looked upon themselves concerned to enobtained and made principally by the tlement" referred to in this quotation mediation and interposed advice and is that of September, and not of April, council of the other two Confederate 1671. Colonies." (Records, &c., in Hazard, 1 Plym. Rec., V. 63, 66, 67, 70- "3. II. 532.) Perhaps, however, the "' set CHAP. IV.] PHILIP'S WAR. 149 gage in the case against a common enemy, it should be well accepted as a neighborly kindness, which they would hold themselves obliged to repay when Providence might so dispose that they had opportunity." At the time appointed by the Council, "Philip, the Sachem, appeared not, but instead thereof repaired to the Massachusetts, and made complaint to divers of the gentlemen in place there." The effect of his representations was such, that the persons whose car he had obtained wrote to Plymouth in his behalf. "They resented not his offence so deeply"; and " they doubted whether the covenants and engagements that Philip and his predecessors had plighted would plainly import that he had subjected himself and people and country any further than as in a friendly and neighborly correspondency." At the same time they offered their assistance to Plymouth in bringing about a friendly settlement of the quarrel.2 The proposal was accepted; and General Leverett, Mr. Danfortlh, and Captain Davis of Massachusetts, came to Plymouth, where, with Winthrop of Connecticut, who had joined them, they " had a fair and deliberate hearing of the controversy." The result was that "the gentlemen forenamed, taking notice of the premises, having fully heard what the said Philip could say for himself, having free liberty so to do without interruption, adjudged that he had done a great deal of wrong and injury respecting the premises, and also abused them by carrying lies and false stories unto them; and they persuaded him to make acknowledgment of his fault, and to seek for reconciliation...... Such had been the wrong and damage that he had 1 Ibid., 76. The reader will remember that at this time there was no Confederacy. 2 Ibid., 77. 13* 150 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Boox III done and procured unto the Colony as ought not to be borne without competent reparation and satisfaction...... They persuaded him therefore to humble himself unto the Magistrates, and to amend his ways, if he expected peace; and that, if he went on in his refractory way, he must expect to smart for it...... In fine, several propositions were drawn up and read, unto which he was left, to accept of or to reject, as he should see cause, in reference unto his entering into a new covenant, and also in reference to a way of reparation of some part of the wrong done." At length, by a formal instrument, executed "in the presence of the Court [of Plymouth] and divers of the Magistrates and bmission other gentlemen of Massachusetts and Connectof Philip. iCut," he avowed "himself, his council, and his pt.. subjects" to be "subject to his Majesty the King of England, and the government of New Plymouth and their laws"; and, in sign of fealty, engaged to pay yearly a tribute of five wolves' heads, besides a hundred pounds in three years to defray the charges which he had now occasioned. He promised to make no war, and part with no lands, except with the approbation of the Governor of Plymouth, and to apply to the Governor for justice in case any difference should arise between the English and himself or his people.' Five of his sachems signed this paper with him. When for more than three years the quiet thus obtained had been unbroken, of a sudden "the Governor Charges of of Plymouth was informed by Sausaman, a faithSausamanip ful Indian, that the said Philip was undoubtagainst Philip. 1674. edly endeavoring to raise new troubles, and was endeavoring to engage all the sachems round about in a war; some of the English, also, that lived near the said sachem, communicated their fears and jealousies 1 Plym. Rec., V. 76 - 80; Mather, Relation, &c., 73. CHAP. IV.] PHILIP'S WAR. 151 concurrent with what the Indian had informed." Sausaman was a " praying Indian," who could write as well as speak English, and had been employed as a schoolmaster at Natick.2 Getting into some trouble there, he betook himself to the Pokanoket country, and was employed by Philip' to write for him, when he had occasion for that kind of service. After a while Sausaman returned to Natick, where he received baptism, and officiated as a preacher. On a visit to his old friends of Philip's tribe, he observed the suspicious proceedings which he made known to the Governor of Plymouth. "Many concurrent testimonies from others" corroborated his story. What he had seen he related under an assurance that the source of the information should be concealed, "adding also, that, if it were known that he revealed it, he knew they would presently kill him."3 1 Records, &c., in Hazard, II. 532. same author, who was "a merchant 2 Sausaman was " brought up in the of Boston." They contain many unCollege at Cambridge." (" The Present questionable errors, and President State of New England with respect Mather (History of the War, &c., to the Indian War," 3. This tract is Preface), referring to the first of them, the earliest of four, which were written speaks of " the abounding mistakes in America during Philip's war, and therein," which he says led him to compublished in London, and which are to pose his own treatise. But sometimes be found in a thin folio volume in the they preserve public acts, and they Library of Harvard College. "The are especially worthy of attention for Present State of New England," &c., their record of the wandering rumors carries the story down to November 10, of the day. Mather also refers to " an1675; the second tract in the series, other narrative of this war, written by "A Continuation of the State of New a Quaker in Rhode Island, who preEngland," &c., continues it to February tended to know the truth of things," 8, 1676; the third, "A New and Fur- but whose composition was "fraught ther Narrative of the State of New with worse things than mere mistakes." England," &c., relates the transactions (Ibid.) This Quaker piece, said on its "from March till August, 1676"; the title-page to have come from Rhode fourth purports to be "A True Ac- Island to London, may have been " The count of the most Considerable Oc- War in New England visibly ended," currences," &c., "from the fifth of &c., in two pages, folio, which, with May, 1676, to the fourth of August" the four other tracts that have been of the same year. The first three mentioned, was reprinted in 1836 by (New and Further Narrative, &c., 1), S. G. Drake, in a little volume entitled and perhaps the fourth (True Ac- " The Old Indian Chronicle.") count, &c., 1), were productions of the'3 Hubbard, Narrative, &c., 14, 15. 152 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [Boox III. Philip, hearing that the Governor of Plymouth had received intelligence to his disadvantage, and would probably send for him to appear at the next Court, resolved to anticipate that step; and, coming of his 1675. own accord to Plymouth before the meeting March. f the Court, he had a conference with the Assistants. His protestations of innocence did not satisfy them; but, " not having full proof, and hoping that the discovery so far would cause him to desist, they dismissed him friendly," with a warning " that, if they heard further concerning that matter, they might see reason to demand his arms to be delivered up for their security."1 Philip went home, and, riot many days after, Sausaman disappeared. His friends, searching for him, found his hat and gun on the frozen surface of a pond in what is now the town of Middleborough. Thus attracted to the spot, they discovered his body under the ice. They dragged it out and buried it, supposing that he had been accidentally drowned. But the Governor caused it to be disinterred and examined, when marks of violence appeared, such as left no doubt that r the man had been murdered. The crime was Murder of Sausaman. traced to three Indians, who were presently arJune 1 rested and tried.2 The Court directed "that, together with the English jury, some of the most indifferentest, gravest, and sage Indians should be admitted to be with the jury, and to help to consult and advise with, of, and concerning the premises."' An Indian testified "that by accident, standing unseen upon a hill, he had seen them [the prisoners] murdering 1 Records, &c., in Hazard, II. 533. Indian, by laying violent hands on him 2 The indictment charged that they and striking him, or twisting his neck, "did with joint consent [January 29], until he was dead; and, to hide and at a place called Assowamsett Pond, conceal this their said murder, at the wilfully and of set purpose, and of time and place aforesaid, did cast his malice aforethought, and by force of dead body through a hole of the ico arms, murder John Sausaman, another into the said pond." CEP. IV.] PHILIP'S WAR. 153 the said Sausaman, but durst never reveal it for fear of losing his own life likewise, until he was called to the Court at Plymouth, or before the Governor, when he plainly confessed what he had seen." On this evidence, confirmed by "other remarkable circumstances," the murderers were convicted, and sentenced to die, the Indian assessors, six in number, fully concurring with the jury in their verdict. Two of the convicts were hanged, and one, having " on some considerations" been reprieved for two or three weeks, was shot. One of them confessed that he had stood by, while the other two committed the crime. "A little before the Court" met at which the trial took place, "Philip began to keep his men in Hostile prep. arms about him, and to gather strangers unto arationsof Philip. him, and to march about in arms towards the 1 Plym. Rec., V. 167, 168; Increase no impressions made upon their minds Mather, Brief History of the War, &c., of the character of Mr. Hubbard," 2.- Some circumstances, as the na- though they had heard from their ture of the testimony and the con- fathers a great deal about his prefession, I receive from Hubbard (Nar- decessors in that church. Hubbard rative, &c., 15), who probably had good took no generous part in the great information. But it is too certain that political struggles of his time; and the his unsupported statements are not al- tone, in that part of his "History of ways to be taken without allowance. New England" in which anything can Sometimes a person enjoys with his be called his own, is feeble, courtly, contemporaries a high reputation, which and timid, as is also the tone of his posterity is unable to account for. One Election Sermon in 1676. Still his of these pet reputations was Hub- "Narrative of the Troubles with the bard's. When the Presidency of Har- Indians" must be regarded as a good vard College was vacant, in 1684, the authority in respect to the events of Corporation paid him the compliment Philip's war. It is attested as such, of inviting him to preside at the Com- in a sort of imprimatur, by Bradstreet, mencement, though Increase Mather Denison, and Dudley, who were dewas at hand. The General Court made puted by the Magistrates to examine it. him a grant for writing a History of Ipswich, of which town Hubbard was New England, which down to the year minister, was during the war one of 1648, at which time Winthrop's nar- the centres of intelligence, and several rative closes, is little else than a copy of the officers (Appleton, Lothrop, and from that work, and for the later years others), and many of the troops who is good for nothing. Eliot (Biographi- did good service, were members of his cal Dictionary, Art. Hubbard) found church. that the old people of Ipswich "had 154 HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. [BooE III. upper end of the neck on which he lived, and near to the English houses." The neck on which Philip lived was that beautiful peninsular range of hills, twelve miles long, called 3fougz t Hopei and now belonging to the town of Bristol, which the traveller from Boston to New York by Fall River sees on his right hand as he passes down Taunton River into Narragansett Bay. Philip's movements were observed; but it was thought prudent to take "as yet no further notice than only to order a military watch in all the adjacent towns, hoping that, Philip finding himself not likely to be arraigned by order of the said Court, the present cloud might blow over, as some others of like nature had done before."2 But no sooner was the Court dissolved, than intelligence came to Plymouth from Swanzey to the effect "that Philip and his men continued constantly in arms, many strange Indians from several places flocked in to him, and that they sent away their wives to Narragansett"; that they "were giving frequent alarums by drums and guns in the night, and invaded the passage towards Plymouth; and that their young Indians were earnest for a war." The Magistrates "wrote June 14. an amicable, friendly letter to Philip,..... advising him to dismiss his strange Indians, and command his own men to fall quietly to their business,..... and not to suffer himself to be abused by reports concerning them, who intended him no wrong nor hurt." But the messenger obtained no answer.3 1 It is not certain whether this name land, or bold promontory. This fact should be written thus, as English, favors the Indian derivation. But, on or.Montaup, as Indian. A learned the other hand, the records of all the friend, to whom I am often indebted four Colonies, as well as most, if not for knowledge not elsewhere to be had, all, of the other old writings, use the and who has read Eliot's Indian Bible, name MIount Hlope. which it is commonly said no man 2 Iubbard, Narrative, &c., 16. living has the skill to do, informs me 3 Records, &c., in Hazard, II. 533. that Ontup [or Ontaup] means a head ...... 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