400 XVI. INDIAN ALARM. CHAP. Vening the provisions of their charter. The executive power was also imperfectly administered; for the whole council was too numerous a body for its regular exer1687. cise. A commission of five was substituted; and Feb. 1. 1688. finally, when it was resolved to appoint a deputy-governor, the choice of the proprietary was not wisely made. In a word, folly and passion, not less than justice and wisdom, had become enfranchised on the Delaware, and were desperately bent on the exercise of their privileges. Free scope was opened to every whim that enthusiasts might propose as oracles from the skies, to every selfish desire that could lurk under the Quaker garb. But the smiling light of prosperity rose serenely over the little clouds of discontent, and the swelling passions of the young apprentices at legislation died away at the adjournments.1 To freedom and justice a fair field was given, and they were safe.3 Peace also was uninterrupted. Once, indeed, it was rumored, that on the Brandywine five hundred Indians were assembled to concert a massacre. Immediately Caleb Pusey, with five Friends, hastened unarmed to the scene of anticipated danger. The sachem repelled the calumnious report with indignation; and the little griefs of the tribe were canvassed and assuaged. "The great God, who made all mankind, extends his love to Indians and English. The rain and the dews fall alike on the ground of both; the sun shines on us equally; and we ought to love one another." Such 1 Votes and Proceedings, 32, cil," March 19, 1688, passed unan&c. 2 Doc. in Proud, i. 305. 4 Votes and Proceedings, 35, 36, imously. 5 Tyson's censure on Chalmers and others, in Mem. P. H. S. ii. Part ii. p. 140, 141, is to my mind strictly just. It is the language of accurate investigation. The whole "Examination" is a manly paper. XVI. was the diplomacy of the Quaker envoy. The king CHAP. of the Delawares answered, "What you say is true. Go home, and harvest the corn God has given you. 1688. We intend you no harm." The white man agreed with the red man to love one another. Would he love the negro also, and refuse homage from the African? They who have written that William Penn was the owner of slaves, committed the error of attributing to him a purchase made several years after his death by his son.' His first public act relating to them declared, that "the Society of Traders, if they receive blacks as servants, shall make them free at fourteen years' end." At a later day, he endeavored to secure to the African mental and moral culture, the rights and happiness of domestic life. His efforts were not successful, for his philanthropic spirit could not fully infuse itself into the legislature of his province. On the subject of negro slavery, the German mind was least inthralled by prejudice, because Germany had never yet participated in the slave-trade. The Swedish and German colony of Gustavus Adolphus was designed to rest on free labor. If the general meeting of the Quakers for a season forbore a positive judgment, already, in 1688, "the 1688. poor hearts" from Kirchheim, "the little handful" of German Friends from the highlands above the Rhine, came to the resolution that it was not lawful for Christians to buy or to keep negro slaves. Penn's Works, 439. in Mem Penn Hist. 365. Haz. 395. This decision of the German emigrants on negro Reg. i. slavery was taken during the lifetime of George Fox, who recognized no distinction of race. "Let your 1690. light shine among the Indians, the blacks and the 1 Correct Matlack in Mass. Hist. Coll. xviii. 185, and Watson, 534, by the careful and conclusive state VOL. II. 51 ment of facts by Job R. Tyson, on Dec. 11. 402 XVI. DEATH OF GEORGE FOX. CHAP. Whites," was his message to Quakers on the Delaware. His heart was with the settlements of which he had been the pioneer; and, a few weeks before his death, he exhorted Friends in America to be the light of the world, the salt to preserve earth from corruption. Covetousness, he adds, is idolatry; and he bids them beware of that "idol for which so many lose morality and humanity." 1691. Jan. 13. On his death-bed, the venerable apostle of equality was lifted above the fear of dying, and, esteeming the change hardly deserving of mention, his thoughts turned to the New World. Pennsylvania, and Delaware, and West New Jersey, and now Rhode Island, and in some measure North Carolina, were Quaker states; as his spirit, awakening from its converse with shadows, escaped from the exile of fallen humanity, nearly his last words were-"Mind poor Friends in America.” His works praise him. Neither time nor place can dissolve fellowship with his spirit. To his name William Penn left this short epitaph-"Many sons have done virtuously in this day; but, dear GEORGE, thou excellest them all." Were his principles thus excellent? An opposite system was developed in the dominions of the duke of York 403 CHAPTER XVII. JAMES II. CONSOLIDATES THE NORTHERN COLONIES. XVII June THE Country which, after the reconquest of the New CHAP Netherlands, was again conveyed to the duke of York, included the New England frontier from the Kenne- 1674 bec to the Saint Croix, extended continuously to 29. Connecticut River, and was bounded on the south by Maryland. We have now to trace an attempt to consolidate the whole coast north of the Delaware. The charter from the king sanctioned whatever ordinances the duke of York or his assigns might establish; and in regard to justice, revenue, and legislation, Edmund Andros, the governor, was left responsible only to his own conscience and his employer. He was instructed to display all the humanity and gentleness that could consist with arbitrary power; and to use punishments not from wilful cruelty, but as an instrument of terror. On the last day of October, he received the surrender of the colony from the representatives of the Dutch, and renewed the absolute authority of the proprietary. The inhabitants of the eastern part of Long Island resolved, in town-meetings, to adhere to Connecticut. The charter certainly did not countenance their decision; and, unwilling to be declared rebels, they submitted to New York. In the following summer, Andros, with armed sloops, 1675. proceeded to Connecticut to vindicate his jurisdiction July 9 404 ANDROS INVADES THE LIBERTIES OF CONNECTICUT. CHAP. as far as the river. On the first alarm, William Leet, XVII. the aged deputy-governor, one of the first seven pillars 1675. of the church of Guilford, educated in England as a lawyer, a rigid republican, hospitable even to regicides, July convened the assembly. A proclamation was unani10. mously voted, and forwarded by express to Bull, the captain of the company on whose firmness the independence of the little colony rested. It arrived just as 11. Andros, hoisting the king's flag, demanded the surrender of Saybrook Fort. Immediately the English colors were raised within the fortress. Despairing of victory, Andros attempted persuasion. Having been allowed to land with his personal retinue, he assumed authority, and in the king's name ordered the duke's patent, with his own commission, to be read. In the king's name, he was commanded to desist; and Andros was overawed by the fishermen and farmers who formed the colonial troops. Their proclamation he called a slender affair, and an ill requital for his intended kindness. The Saybrook militia, escorting him to his boat, saw him sail for Long Island; and Connecticut, resenting the aggression, made a declaration of its wrongs, sealed it with its seal, and transmitted it to the neighboring plantations. 1676. In New York itself Andros was hardly more welcome than at Saybrook; for the obedient servant of the duke of York discouraged every mention of assemblies, and levied customs without the consent of the people. But, since the Puritans of Long Island claimed a representative government as an inalienable English birthright, and the whole population opposed the ruling system as a tyranny, the governor, who was personally free from vicious dispositions, advised his master to concede legislative franchises. |