82

XII.

FIRMNESS OF PUBLIC OPINION.

CHAP. hoped to weary the English government by a tedious correspondence; which might be continued till a new 1664. revolution. "For who knows," it was said, "but there may be a new revolution in England?" It is sometimes difficult to distinguish the instinct of fanaticism from the soundest judgment; fanaticism is sometimes of the keenest sagacity. There were many in New England who confidently expected a revival of liberty after the restoration, and what was called "the slaying of the witnesses." "Who knows," it was asked, "what the event of this Dutch war will be?" The establishment of arbitrary power would bring arbitrary taxation in its train, for the advantage of greedy courtiers. A report was spread, that Massachusetts was to yield a revenue of five thousand pounds yearly, for the king. Public meetings of the people were held; the brave and liberal Hawthorne, at the head of a company of train-bands, made a speech which royalists deemed "seditious;" and the inflexible. Endicott, just as the last sands of life were running out, addressed the people at their meeting-house in Boston. Charles II. had written to the colony against Endicott, as a person not well affected, and desired that some other person might be chosen governor in his stead; but Endicott, who did not survive till the 1665. day of election, retained his office till the King of Mar. Kings summoned him from the world. The aged Davenport was equally unbending. "The commission," said he from New Haven, "is but a tryal of our courage; the Lord will be with his people while they are with him. If you consent to this court of appeals, you pluck down with your own hands the house which wisdom has built for you and your posterity."

15.

The elections in the spring of 1665 proceeded with

ment.

XII.

great quiet; the people firmly sustained the govern- CHAP Meantime letters of entreaty had been sent to Robert Boyle and the earl of Manchester; for, from 1664 the days of Southampton and Sandys, of Warwick and Say, to those of Burke and Chatham, America was not entirely destitute of friends in England. But none of them would perceive the reasonableness of complaining against an abstract principle. "We are all amazed," wrote Clarendon, who, says Robert Boyle, was no 1665 enemy to Massachusetts; "you demand a revocation of the commission, without charging the commissioners with the least matter of crymes or exorbitances." Boyle echoed the astonishment: "The commissioners are not accused of one harmful thing, even in your private letters." The statesmen of that day in Massachusetts were more wise, and understood the doctrine. of liberty better than the chancellor of England. A century later, and there were none in England who did not esteem the commission an unconstitutional usurpation.1

To Connecticut, the controversy of Massachusetts 1664 with the commissioners was fraught with beneficial results. It facilitated the entire union of the two colonies of Hartford and New Haven; and, as the commissioners were desirous to make friends in the other colonies, they avoided all angry collisions, gave no countenance to a claim advanced by the duke of Hamilton to a large tract of territory in the colony; and, in arranging the limits of New York, though the charter of Clarendon's son-in-law extended to the River Connecticut, they established the boundary, on the main, in conformity with the claims of Connecticut itself. Long Island went to the duke of York.

1 Boyle, in Mass. Hist. Coll. xviii. Chalmers.

Sat

84

XII.

COMMISSIONERS IN PLYMOUTH.

CHAP. isfied with the harmony which they had secured by attempting nothing but for the interests of the colony, 1664. the commissioners saw fit to praise to the monarch "the dutifulness and obedience of Connecticut," which was "set off with the more lustre by the contrary deportment of Massachusetts."

We shall soon have occasion to narrate the events in which Nichols was engaged at New York, where he remained. Carr, Cartwright, and Maverick, the other Feb. commissioners, returning to Massachusetts, desired that, 15. at the next general election day, the whole male popu

1665.

lation might be assembled in Boston, to hear the message from the king. The absurd proposal was rejected. "He that will not attend to the request," said Cartwright, "is a traitor."

The nature of the government of Rhode Island, its habitual policy of relying on England for protection, secured to the royal agents in that province a less unfavorable reception. Plymouth,' the weakest colony of all, stood firm for its independence; although the commissioners, flattering the long-cherished hopes of the inhabitants, had promised them a charter if they would but set an example of compliance, and allow the king to select their governor from among three candidates, whom they themselves should nominate. The general assembly, after due consideration, "with many thanks to the commissioners, and great protestations of loyalty to the king," "chose to be as they were." The people of Plymouth at that time were so poor, "they could not maintain scholars to their ministers; " but in some places made use of "a guifted brother; but the brethren were as "guifted" in the nature of liberty as in religion.

1 Morton and Davis, 310, &c., and 417, &c.

"It

XII.

If Plymouth could not be blinded by the dazzling CHAP. prospect of a charter, there was no room to expect success in Massachusetts. The conference between 1665. May. the two parties degenerated into an altercation. is insufferable," said the government, " that the colony should be brought to the bar of a tribunal unknown to its charter." At length it was directly asked, "Do you acknowledge his majesty's commission?" The colony declined giving a direct answer, and chose rather to plead his majesty's charter.

May

19.

23.

Tired of discussion, the commissioners resolved to May act; and declared their intention of holding a court to decide a cause in which the colony was cited to appear as defendant. The general court forbade the procedure. The commissioners refused to recede; the morning for the trial dawned; the parties had been summoned; the commissioners were preparing to proceed with the cause, when, by order of the court, a herald stepped forth, and, having sounded the trumpet with due solemnity, made a public proclamation, in the name of the king, and by authority of the charter, declaring to all the people of the colony, that, in observance of their duty to God, to the king, and to their constituents, the general court could not suffer any to abet his majesty's honorable commissioners in their proceedings.

Some extraordinary form of publicity was thought necessary, to give validity to the remonstrance. The herald sounded the trumpet in three several places, and repeated publicly his proclamation. We may smile at this solitary imitation of a feudal ceremony. Yet when had the voice of a herald proclaimed the approach of so momentous a contest? It was not merely a

86

COMMISSIONERS IN NEW HAMPSHIRE AND MAINE.

CHAP. Struggle of the general court and the commissioners; XII. nor yet of Charles II. and Massachusetts; it was a still 1665. more momentous combat-the dawning strife of the new system against the old system, of American politics against European politics.

May 24.

The commissioners could only wonder that the arguments of the king, his chancellor, and his secretary, could not convince the government of Massachusetts. "Since you will misconstrue our endeavors," said they, "we shall not lose more of our labors upon you;" and so they retreated to the north. There they endeavored to inquire into the bounds of New Hampshire and Maine, and to prepare for the restoration of proprietary claims. Massachusetts was again equally active and fearless; its governor and council forbade the towns on the Piscataqua to meet, or in any thing to obey the commission, at their utmost peril.1

In Maine, the temper of the people was more favorable to royalty; they preferred the immediate protection of the king to an incorporation with Massachusetts, or a subjection to the heir of Gorges; and the commissioners, setting aside the officers appointed by Massachusetts, and neglecting the pretensions of Gorges, issued commissions to persons of their selection to govern the district. There were not wanting those who, in spite of threats, openly expressed fears of "the sad contentions" that would follow, and acknowledged that their connection with Massachusetts had been favorable to their prosperity. Secure in the support of a resolute minority, the Puritan commonwealth, soon 1668. after the departure of the commissioners, entered the province, and again established its authority by force of arms. Great tumults ensued; many persons, opposed

1 Hutch. Coll. 419.