80

COLONIAL CHARTERS ENDANGERED.

tice in another place. Charles II. now resolved to dispossess them, and accordingly granted the territory to his brother, the duke of York, who sent colonel Nichols with four ships and three hundred soldiers for the purpose of taking possession. In the same ships came four commissioners, 'empowered to hear and determine complaints and appeals in causes, as well military as civil, within New England, and to proceed for settling the peace and security of the country.' Their real object was to find pretexts for recalling the liberal charters of the colonies. (1664.)

The people and government of Massachusetts were awake to their danger, and exhibited an admirable mixture of firmness and address in a crisis so alarming. On the arrival of the commissioners in Boston, their credentials were laid before the council, with a letter from the king, requiring prompt assistance in the expedition against New Netherlands. The general court was convened, and after declaring their loyalty and their attachment to the charter, voted a subsidy of two hundred men. Meantime, colonel Nichols proceeded to Manhadoes, and reduced the colony before the Massachusetts troops could arrive, so that their services were never required. The commissioners now called the attention of the general court to the king's letter, received two years before, but not much regarded. Their recommendation was complied with so far, that a law was passed extending the elective franchise to persons who were not church members. The assembly next transmitted a letter to the king, expressive of their apprehension of danger to their rights, from the extraordinary powers of the commissioners, and concluding with these remarkable words: 'Let our government live; our patent live; our magistrates live; our religious enjoyments live; so shall we all yet have farther cause to say from our hearts, let the king live for ever.'

The commissioners, meantime, had proceeded to the other colonies. In Plymouth and in Rhode Island they met with no opposition. In Connecticut they were rather civilly received, and found no reason for complaint. In New Hampshire and Maine they decided in favour of the claims of Gorges and Mason, and erected a royal government in those provinces. They then returned to Boston, and renewed their disputes with the general court, which were continued with great animosity until the commissioners were recalled, and Massachusetts was ordered to send agents to England to an

swer complaints against their proceedings. This order was evaded.

Massachusetts, soon afterwards, resumed her authority over New Hampshire and Maine.

After the departure of the commissioners, New England enjoyed a season of prosperous tranquillity. The king was too much engrossed by the calamities and discontents of his subjects at home to disturb the colonies.

This state of repose was interrupted by the famous war of King Philip. This prince was the second son of Massasoit, but he was far from inheriting the pacific and friendly disposition of his father. He was engaged for five years in maturing an extensive conspiracy, which had for its object the utter extermination of the English colonies. In 1675, he commenced hostilities, and by means of alliance with other tribes, he was able to bring three thousand warriors into the field. Massachusetts, Plymouth, and Connecticut, united in opposing him. The war raged with great fury, and with various success, until August, 1676, when Philip, after a series of disasters, in which his family and chief counsellors were all destroyed, himself fell a victim to the treachery of one of his own tribe. The tribes bordering on Maine and New Hampshire, who had risen at the same time, abandoned the war on receiving the news of Philip's death.

While this war was raging, the King of England was endeavouring to wrest from Massachusetts the control of New Hampshire and Maine. He had been for some time treating for the purchase of these provinces from the heirs of Mason and Gorges, intending to bestow them on his son, the Duke of Monmouth; but while he delayed to complete the negotiation, Massachusetts purchased Maine for 1,200 pounds, and refused to give it up. New Hampshire having become a distinct colony, the legislature expressed a lively regret at being obliged, by the will of the sovereign, to relinquish their connection with Massachusetts.

The laws restricting commerce were made the subject of dispute between the colony of Massachusetts and the crown. Randolph, an active enemy of the colonial government, was sent over to act as collector at Boston. He was almost always unsuccessful in his suits for the recovery of duties, and finally returned to England. The controversy lasted until Massachusetts was compelled to relinquish her charter. (1684.) Charles II. died before completing his system for the subjugation of New England.

82

ADMINISTRATION OF ANDROS.

His successor, James II., appointed a president and council as a temporary government for Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, and the Narragansetts. These commissioners proceeded with great moderation, and were superseded by the appointment of Sir Edward Andros, as captain-general and vice-admiral of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, New Plymouth, Pemaquid, and Narragansett, with the consent of a council to be appointed by the crown, to make laws and lay

taxes.

Andros arrived in Boston in 1685, and revoked the charter of Rhode Island, notwithstanding the submission of that colony. Connecticut would have shared the same fate, but the charter was concealed in a tree until the danger was past. The charter oak was, for ages after, held in remembrance.

The administration of Andros was rendered odious to the people by a variety of exactions and oppressive regulations. Their land titles were declared void, and new patents were offered at enormous prices. The object of the royal governor appears to have been to amass a fortune for himself, to break the charters, and unite the several colonies in one, for the purpose of effectually resisting the encroachments of the French from Canada.

Mather, an ancient divine and politician, was sent to England to obtain redress; but the king was inflexible in his purpose of uniting the colonies, and annexed New York and the Jerseys to the government of Andros.

The relief which he denied was brought by the revolution of 1688, which was no sooner known in Boston than the inhabitants joyfully proclaimed the new sovereigns, William and Mary. They had already, on the first rumour of the arrival of the sovereigns in England, imprisoned Andros and fifty of his adherents, and restored the government to the ancient magistrates. This example was speedily followed by Connecticut and Rhode Island.

New Hampshire was re-annexed to Massachusetts by its own act; but subsequently separated by the desire of King William.

The revolution of 1688 afforded the people of Massachusetts grounds for expecting the restitution of their charter. Agents were sent to England for this purpose, but their efforts were not attended with success. The king was determined to retain at his own disposal the appointment of governor. He was, however, at length induced to grant a new charter,

CONTROVERSY WITH THE CROWN.

85

defence rendered them a young nation of soldiers; and paved the way for the successful assertion of their independence.

After the return of peace, the New England colonies found themselves embarrassed with a heavy public debt, the consequence of the unavoidable emission of bills of credit for the payment of the soldiers. Various expedients were proposed for relief; but the evil proved a lasting one; and all the exertions of the different legislatures could not prevent a constant depreciation of the paper, and consequent

loss to the holders.

In Massachusetts a controversy arose (1619,) which is worthy of particular attention, as it evinces in the people that jealous guardianship of their rights, and that determined adherence to a principle of freedom, once adopted, which runs through the whole of their history; and which rendered that state on all occasions of collision with the mother country, the acknowledged champion of the New England confederacy.

When, by their new charter, the people of this colony were constrained to receive a governor appointed by the king, they established a system of donations, and free gifts to this functionary, undoubtedly with a view to attach him to their own cause, and identify his interests with those of the colony. Determined to break up this system, Queen Anne gave peremptory orders that the governors should receive no more gifts; and required that the legislature should fix their salaries permanently at a sum named by herself.

The wary republicans regarded this as an inordinate stretch of arbitrary power; and offered the most determined resistance. This led to constant misunderstanding between the governor and his council, and the legislature. One of the disputes related to the right of the governor to negative the appointment of the speaker, and the right of the house to adjourn. An appeal was carried to England, and the consequence was an explanatory charter favouring the governor's views, which after some difficulty the legislature accepted.

In 1728, Mr. Burnet, who had been appointed governor of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, arrived in Boston, and was received with great pomp. When the legislature met, he communicated the king's instructions to insist on an

84

INDIAN INCURSIONS.

in 1707, by Governor Dudley, of Massachusetts, with an army of 1000 men raised in the colonies east of Connecticut ; and in 1708, Haverhill in Massachusetts was burnt by the Indians, and about one hundred persons killed, and many more carried into captivity. Similar incursions were made along the whole northern border, from the river St. Croix to the great lakes; and the history of those times abounds with stories of scalping and plundering parties of Indians, attacking the defenceless villages, burning the houses, killing numbers of the helpless inhabitants, without distinction of age or sex, and then hurrying back to Canada with a handful of captives, before a force could be raised sufficient to resist or punish the aggression.

The brave colonists were by no means passive under these injuries. We are surprised in reading the annals of this early period of their settlement, at the energy of character and extent of resources displayed by them. Believing that the French were the instigators of all the Indian hostilities, they were constantly raising large fleets and armies, for the purpose of depriving them of their American possessions. Expeditions were repeatedly fitted out for Canada and Nova Scotia, at the sole expense of the New England colonies. The British government was too much occupied in humbling the pride of Louis XIV. to render more than occasional and insufficient aid to the colonists in their arduous struggle. Some regiments were furnished for the expedition, which took Port Royal in 1710, and this grace was acknowledged by giving the captured place the name of Annapolis, in honour of Queen Anne.

A few regiments of Marlborough's veterans were sent over to assist in the grand expedition against Quebec and Montreal, which took place in 1711; and failed, notwithstanding the unsparing efforts of the colonies in raising men, and the lavish expenditure of bills of credit. When the treaty of Utrecht at length afforded them a breathing time, the colonists found themselves weakened in numbers, exhausted of funds, and incumbered with a heavy public debt. They, no doubt, considered it a hard case that they should be compelled to depend so much upon their own resources. But this was the most fortunate circumstance of their condition. Had they been perfectly protected, they would scarcely have taken the trouble to learn the art of war. The exertions they were compelled to make in their own