Book: The Beginnings of New England

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But in February, 1685, just as Charles seemed to be getting everything
arranged to his mind, a stroke of apoplexy carried him off the scene,
and his brother ascended the throne. Monmouth's rebellion, and the
horrible cruelties that followed, kept Colonel Kirke busy in England
through the summer, and left the new king scant leisure to think about
America. Late in the autumn, having made up his mind that he could not
spare such an exemplary knave as Kirke, James II. sent over Sir Edmund
Andros. In the mean time the government of Massachusetts had been
administered by Dudley, who showed himself willing to profit by the
misfortunes of his country. Andros had long been one of James's
favourites. He was the dull and dogged English officer such as one often
meets, honest enough and faithful to his master, neither cruel nor
rapacious, but coarse in fibre and wanting in tact. Some years
before, when governor of New York, he had a territorial dispute with
Connecticut, and now cherished a grudge against the people of New
England, so that, from James's point of view, he was well fitted to be
their governor. James wished to abolish all the local governments
in America, and unite them, as far as possible, under a single
administration. With Plymouth there could be no trouble; she had never
had a charter, but had existed on sufferance from the outset. In 1687
the charters of Rhode Island and Connecticut were rescinded, but the
decrees were not executed in due form. In October of that year Andros
went to Hartford, to seize the Connecticut charter but it was not
surrendered. While Sir Edmund was bandying threats with stout Robert
Treat, the queller of Indians and now governor of Connecticut, in the
course of their evening conference the candles were suddenly blown out,
and when after some scraping of tinder they were lighted again the
document was nowhere to be found, for Captain Wadsworth had carried
it away and hidden it in the hollow trunk of a mighty oak tree.
Nevertheless for the moment the colony was obliged to submit to the
tyrant. Next day the secretary John Allyn wrote "Finis" on the colonial
records and shut up the book. Within another twelvemonth New York and
New Jersey were added to the viceroyalty of Andros; so that all the
northern colonies from the forests of Maine to the Delaware river were
thus brought under the arbitrary rule of one man, who was responsible to
no one but the king for whatever he might take it into his head to do.
[Sidenote: Sir Edmund Andros] [Sidenote: The Charter Oak]

The vexatious character of the new government was most strongly felt at
Boston where Andros had his headquarters. Measures were at once taken
for the erection of an Episcopal church, and meantime the royal order
was that one of the principal meeting-houses should be seized for the
use of the Church of England. This was an ominous beginning. In the
eyes of the people it was much more than a mere question of disturbing
Puritan prejudices. They had before them the experience of Scotland
during the past ten years, the savage times of "Old Mortality," the
times which had seen the tyrannical prelate, on the lonely moor, begging
in vain for his life, the times of Drumclog and Bothwell Brigg, of
Claverhouse and his flinty-hearted troopers, of helpless women tied to
stakes on the Solway shore and drowned by inches in the rising tide.
What had happened in one part of the world might happen in another, for
the Stuart policy was the same. It aimed not at securing toleration but
at asserting unchecked supremacy. Its demand for an inch was the prelude
to its seizing an ell, and so our forefathers understood it. Sir
Edmund's formal demand for the Old South Meeting-House was flatly
refused, but on Good Friday, 1687, the sexton was frightened into
opening it, and thenceforward Episcopal services were held there
alternately with the regular services until the overthrow of Andros. The
pastor, Samuel Willard, was son of the gallant veteran who had rescued
the beleaguered people of Brookfield in King Philip's war. Amusing
passages occurred between him and Sir Edmund, who relished the
pleasantry of keeping minister and congregation waiting an hour or
two in the street on Sundays before yielding to them the use of their
meeting-house. More kindly memories of the unpopular governor are
associated with the building of the first King's Chapel on the spot
where its venerable successor now stands. The church was not finished
until after Sir Edmund had taken his departure, but Lady Andros, who
died in February, 1688, lies in the burying-ground hard by. Her gentle
manners had won all hearts. For the moment, we are told, one touch of
nature made enemies kin, and as Sir Edmund walked to the townhouse
"many a head was bared to the bereaved husband that before had remained
stubbornly covered to the exalted governor." [38] [Sidenote: Episcopal
services in Boston] [Sidenote: Founding of the King's Chapel, 1689]

The despotic rule of Andros was felt in more serious ways than in the
seizing upon a meetinghouse. Arbitrary taxes were imposed, encroachments
were made upon common lands as in older manorial times, and the writ of
_habeas corpus_ was suspended. Dudley was appointed censor of the press,
and nothing was allowed to be printed without his permission. All the
public records of the late New England governments were ordered to be
brought to Boston, whither it thus became necessary to make a tedious
journey in order to consult them. All deeds and wills were required
to be registered in Boston, and excessive fees were charged for the
registry. It was proclaimed that all private titles to land were to be
ransacked, and that whoever wished to have his title confirmed must pay
a heavy quit-rent, which under the circumstances amounted to blackmail.
The General Court was abolished. The power of taxation was taken from
the town-meetings and lodged with the governor. Against this crowning
iniquity the town of Ipswich, led by its sturdy pastor, John Wise, made
protest. In response Mr. Wise was thrown into prison, fined L50, and
suspended from the ministry. A notable and powerful character was this
John Wise. One of the broadest thinkers and most lucid writers of his
time, he seems like a forerunner of the liberal Unitarian divines of
the nineteenth century. His "Vindication of the Government of the New
England Churches," published in 1717, was a masterly exposition of the
principles of civil government, and became "a text book of liberty for
our Revolutionary fathers, containing some of the notable expressions
that are used in the Declaration of Independence." [Sidenote: Tyranny]
[Sidenote: John Wise of Ipswich]

It was on the trial of Mr. Wise in October, 1687, that Dudley openly
declared that the people of New England had now no further privileges
left them than not to be sold for slaves. Such a state of things in the
valley of the Euphrates would not have attracted comment; the peasantry
of central Europe would have endured it until better instructed; but in
an English community it could not last long. If James II. had remained
upon the throne, New England would surely have soon risen in rebellion
against Andros. But the mother country had by this time come to repent
the fresh lease of life which she had granted to the Stuart dynasty
after Cromwell's death. Tired of the disgraceful subservience of her
Court to the schemes of Louis XIV., tired of fictitious plots and
judicial murders, tired of bloody assizes and declarations of indulgence
and all the strange devices of Stuart tyranny, England endured the
arrogance of James but three years, and then drove him across the
Channel, to get such consolation as he might from his French paymaster
and patron. On the 4th of April, 1689, the youthful John Winslow brought
to Boston the news of the landing of the Prince of Orange in England.
For the space of two weeks there was quiet and earnest deliberation
among the citizens, as the success of the Prince's enterprise was not
yet regarded as assured. But all at once, on the morning of the 18th,
the drums beat to arms, the signal-fire was lighted on Beacon Hill, a
meeting was held at the Town-House, militia began to pour in from the
country, and Andros, summoned to surrender, was fain to beseech Mr.
Willard and the other ministers to intercede for him. But the ministers
refused. Next day the Castle was surrendered, the Rose frigate riding in
the harbour was seized and dismantled, and Andros was arrested as he was
trying to effect his escape disguised in woman's clothes. Dudley and the
other agents of tyranny were also imprisoned, and thus the revolution
was accomplished. It marks the importance which the New England colonies
were beginning to attain, that, before the Prince of Orange had fully
secured the throne, he issued a letter instructing the people of Boston
to preserve decorum and acquiesce yet a little longer in the government
of Andros, until more satisfactory arrangements could be made. But
Increase Mather, who was then in London on a mission in behalf of New
England, judiciously prevented this letter of instructions from being
sent. The zeal of the people outstripped the cautious policy of the
new sovereign, and provisional governments, in accordance with the old
charters, were at once set up in the colonies lately ruled by Andros.
Bradstreet now in his eighty-seventh year was reinstated as governor of
Massachusetts. Five weeks after this revolution in Boston the order to
proclaim King William and Queen Mary was received, amid such rejoicings
as had never before been seen in that quiet town, for it was believed
that self-government would now be guaranteed to New England. [Sidenote:
Fall of James II.] [Sidenote: Insurrection in Boston, and overthrow of
Andros, April 18, 1689]

This hope was at least so far realized that from the most formidable
dangers which had threatened it, New England was henceforth secured.
The struggle with the Stuarts was ended, and by this second revolution
within half a century the crown had received a check from which it never
recovered. There were troubles yet in store for England, but no more
such outrages as the judicial murders of Russell and Sidney. New England
had still a stern ordeal to go through, but never again was she to be
so trodden down and insulted as in the days of Andros. The efforts of
George III. to rule Englishmen despotically were weak as compared with
those of the Stuarts. In his time England had waxed strong enough to
curb the tyrant, America had waxed strong enough to defy and disown him.
After 1689 the Puritan no longer felt that his religion was in danger,
and there was a reasonable prospect that charters solemnly granted him
would be held sacred. William III. was a sovereign of modern type, from
whom freedom of thought and worship had nothing to fear. In his theology
he agreed, as a Dutch Calvinist, more nearly with the Puritans than with
the Church of England. At the same time he had no great liking for so
much independence of thought and action as New England had exhibited. In
the negotiations which now definitely settled the affairs of this part
of the world, the intractable behaviour of Massachusetts was borne in
mind and contrasted with the somewhat less irritating attitude of
the smaller colonies. It happened that the decree which annulled the
charters of Rhode Island and Connecticut had not yet been formally
enrolled. It was accordingly treated as void, and the old charters were
allowed to remain in force. They were so liberal that no change in
them was needed at the time of the Revolution, so that Connecticut was
governed under its old charter until 1818, and Rhode Island until 1842.
[Sidenote: Effects of the Revolution of 1689]

There was at this time a disposition on the part of the British
government to unite all the northern colonies under a single
administration. The French in Canada were fast becoming rivals to be
feared; and the wonderful explorations of La Salle, bringing the St.
Lawrence into political connection with the Mississippi, had at length
foreshadowed a New France in the rear of all the English colonies,
aiming at the control of the centre of the continent and eager to
confine the English to the sea-board. Already the relations of position
which led to the great Seven Years' War were beginning to shape
themselves; and the conflict between France and England actually broke
out in 1689, as soon as Louis XIV.'s hired servant, James II., was
superseded by William III. as king of England and head of a Protestant
league. [Sidenote: Need for union among all the northern colonies]

In view of this new state of affairs, it was thought desirable to unite
the northern English colonies under one head, so far as possible, in
order to secure unity of military action. But natural prejudices had to
be considered. The policy of James II. had aroused such bitter feeling
in America that William must needs move with caution. Accordingly he did
not seek to unite New York with New England, and he did not think it
worth while to carry out the attack which James had only begun upon
Connecticut and Rhode Island. As for New Hampshire, he seems to have
been restrained by what in the language of modern politics would be
called "pressure," brought to bear by certain local interests. [39]
But in the case of the little colony founded by the Pilgrims of the
Mayflower there was no obstacle. She was now annexed to Massachusetts,
which also received not only Maine but even Acadia, just won from the
French; so that, save for the short break at Portsmouth, the coast of
Massachusetts now reached all the way from Martha's Vineyard to the Gulf
of St. Lawrence. [Sidenote: Plymouth, Maine, and Acadia, annexed to
Massachusetts]

But along with this great territorial extension there went some
curtailment of the political privileges of the colony. By the new
charter of 1692 the right of the people to be governed by a legislature
of their own choosing was expressly confirmed. The exclusive right of
this legislature to impose taxes was also confirmed. But henceforth no
qualification of church-membership, but only a property qualification,
was to be required of voters; the governor was to be appointed by the
crown instead of being elected by the people; and all laws passed by
the legislature were to be sent to England for royal approval. These
features of the new charter,--the extension, or if I may so call it, the
_secularization_ of the franchise, the appointment of the governor
by the crown, and the power of veto which the crown expressly
reserved,--were grave restrictions upon the independence which
Massachusetts had hitherto enjoyed. Henceforth her position was to be
like that of the other colonies with royal governors. But her history
did not thereby lose its interest or significance, though it became,
like the history of most of the colonies, a dismal record of
irrepressible bickerings between the governor appointed by the crown and
the legislature elected by the people. In the period that began in 1692
and ended in 1776, the movements of Massachusetts, while restricted
and hampered, were at the same time forced into a wider orbit. She was
brought into political sympathy with Virginia. While two generations
of men were passing across the scene, the political problems of
Massachusetts were assimilated to those of Virginia. In spite of all
the other differences, great as they were, there was a likeness in the
struggles between the popular legislature and the royal governor which
subordinated them all. It was this similarity of experience, during
the eighteenth century, that brought these two foremost colonies into
cordial alliance during the struggle against George III., and thus made
it possible to cement all the colonies together in the mighty nation
whose very name is fraught with so high and earnest a lesson to
mankind,--the UNITED STATES! [Sidenote: Massachusetts becomes a royal
province]

For such a far-reaching result, the temporary humiliation of
Massachusetts was a small price to pay. But it was not until long after
the accession of William III. that things could be seen in these grand
outlines. With his coronation began the struggle of seventy years
between France and England, far grander than the struggle between Rome
and Carthage, two thousand years earlier, for primacy in the world,
for the prerogative of determining the future career of mankind. That
warfare, so fraught with meaning, was waged as much upon American as
upon European ground; and while it continued, it was plainly for the
interest of the British government to pursue a conciliatory policy
toward its American colonies, for without their wholehearted assistance
it could have no hope of success. As soon as the struggle was ended, and
the French power in the colonial world finally overthrown, the perpetual
quarrels between the popular legislatures and the royal governors led
immediately to the Stamp Act and the other measures of the British
government that brought about the American revolution. People sometimes
argue about that revolution as if it had no past behind it and was
simply the result of a discussion over abstract principles. [Sidenote:
Seeds of the American Revolution already sown]

We can now see that while the dispute involved an abstract principle of
fundamental importance to mankind, it was at the same time for Americans
illustrated by memories sufficiently concrete and real. James Otis
in his prime was no further distant from the tyranny of Andros than
middle-aged men of to-day are distant from the Missouri Compromise. The
sons of men cast into jail along with John Wise may have stood silent in
the moonlight on Griffin's Wharf and looked on while the contents of the
tea-chests were hurled into Boston harbour. In the events we have here
passed in review, it may be seen, so plainly that he who runs may read,
how the spirit of 1776 was foreshadowed in 1689.




BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE.


An interesting account of the Barons' War and the meeting of the first
House of Commons is given in Prothero's _Simon de Montfort_, London,
1877. For Wyclif and the Lollards, see Milman's _Latin Christianity_,
vol. vii.

The ecclesiastical history of the Tudor period may best be studied in
the works of John Strype, to wit, _Historical Memorials_, 6 vols.;
_Annals of the Reformation_, 7 vols.; _Lives of Cranmer, Parker,
Whitgift, etc._, Oxford, 1812-28. See also _Burnet's History of the
Reformation of the Church of England_, 3 vols., London, 1679-1715;
Neal's _History of the Puritans_, London, 1793; Tulloch, _Leaders of the
Reformation_, Boston, 1859. A vast mass of interesting information is
to be found in _The Zurich Letters, comprising the Correspondence
of Several English Bishops, and Others, with some of the Helvetian
Reformers_, published by the Parker Society, 4 vols., Cambridge, Eng.,
1845-46. Hooker's _Ecclesiastical Polity_ was published in London, 1594;
a new edition, containing two additional books, the first complete
edition, was published in 1622.

For the general history of England in the seventeenth century, there are
two modern works which stand far above all others,--Gardiner's _History
of England_, 10 vols., London, 1883-84; and Masson's _Life of Milton,
narrated in connection with the Political, Ecclesiastical, and Literary
History of his Time_, 6 vols., Cambridge, Eng., 1859-80. These are
books of truly colossal erudition, and written in a spirit of judicial
fairness. Mr. Gardiner's ten volumes cover the forty years from the
accession of James I. to the beginning of the Civil War, 1603-1643. Mr.
Gardiner has lately published the first two volumes of his history of
the Civil War, and it is to be hoped that he will not stop until he
reaches the accession of William and Mary. Indeed, such books as his
ought never to stop. My friend and colleague, Prof. Hosmer, tells me
that Mr. Gardiner is a lineal descendant of Cromwell and Ireton. His
little book, _The Puritan Revolution_, in the "Epochs of History"
series, is extremely useful, and along with it one should read Airy's
_The English Restoration and Louis XIV_., in the same series, New York,
1889. The best biography of Cromwell is by Mr. Allanson Picton, London,
1882; see also Frederic Harrison's _Cromwell_, London, 1888, an
excellent little book. Hosmer's _Young Sir Henry Vane_, Boston, 1888,
should be read in the same connection; and one should not forget
Carlyle's _Cromwell_. See also Tulloch, _English Puritanism and its
Leaders_, 1861, and _Rational Theology and Christian Philosophy in
England in the Seventeenth Century_, 1872; Skeats, _History of the
Free Churches of England_, London, 1868; Mountfield, _The Church and
Puritans_, London, 1881. Dexter's _Congregationalism of the Last Three
Hundred Years_, New York, 1880, is a work of monumental importance.

On the history of New England the best general works are Palfrey,
_History of New England_, 4 vols., Boston, 1858-75; and Doyle, _The
English in America--The Puritan Colonies_, 2 vols., London, 1887. In
point of scholarship Dr. Palfrey's work is of the highest order, and
it is written in an interesting style. Its only shortcoming is that it
deals somewhat too leniently with the faults of the Puritan theocracy,
and looks at things too exclusively from a Massachusetts point of view.
It is one of the best histories yet written in America. Mr. Doyle's work
is admirably fair and impartial, and is based throughout upon a careful
study of original documents. The author is a Fellow of All Souls
College, Oxford, and has apparently made American history his specialty.
His work on the Puritan colonies is one of a series which when completed
will cover the whole story of English colonization in America. I have
looked in vain in his pages for any remark or allusion indicating that
he has ever visited America, and am therefore inclined to think that he
has not done so. He now and then makes a slight error such as would
not be likely to be made by a native of New England, but this is very
seldom. The accuracy and thoroughness of its research, its judicial
temper, and its philosophical spirit make Mr. Doyle's book in some
respects the best that has been written about New England.

Among original authorities we may begin by citing John Smith's
_Description of New England_, 1616, and _New England's Trial_, 1622,
contained in Arber's new edition of Smith's works, London, 1884.
Bradford's narrative of the founding of Plymouth was for a long time
supposed to be lost. Nathaniel Morton's _New England's Memorial_,
published in 1669, was little more than an abridgment of it. After two
centuries Bradford's manuscript was discovered, and an excellent edition
by Mr. Charles Deane was published in the _Massachusetts Historical
Collections_, 4th series, vol. iii., 1856. Edward Winslow's _Journal of
the Proceedings of the English Plantation settled at Plymouth_, 1622,
and _Good News from New England_, 1624, are contained, with other
valuable materials, in Young's _Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers_,
Boston, 1844. See also Shurtleff and Pulsifer, _Records of Plymouth_,
12 vols., ending with the annexation of the colony to Massachusetts in
1692; Prince's _Chronological History of New England_, ed. Drake, 1852;
and in this connection Hunter's _Founders of New Plymouth_, London,
1854; Steele's _Life of Brewster_, Philadelphia, 1857; Goodwin's
_Pilgrim Republic_, Boston, 1887; Bacon's _Genesis of the New England
Churches_, New York, 1874; Baylies's _Historical Memoir_, 1830;
Thacher's _History of the Town of Plymouth_, 1832.

Sir Ferdinando Gorges wrote a _Briefe Narration of the Originall
Undertakings of the advancement of plantations into the parts of
America, especially showing the beginning, progress, and continuance
of that of New England_, London, 1658, contained in his grandson's
collection entitled _America Painted to the Life_. Thomas Morton, of
Merrymount, gave his own view of the situation in his _New English
Canaan_, which has been edited for the Prince Society, with great
learning, by C.F. Adams. Samuel Maverick also had his say in a valuable
pamphlet entitled _A Description of New England_, which has only come
to light since 1875 and has been edited by Mr. Deane. Maverick is, of
course, hostile to the Puritans. See also Lechford's _Plain Dealing in
New England_, ed. J.H. Trumbull, 1867.

The earliest history of Massachusetts is by Winthrop himself, a work of
priceless value. In 1790, nearly a century and a half after the author's
death, it was published at Hartford. The best edition is that of 1853.
In 1869 a valuable life of Winthrop was published by his descendant
Robert Winthrop. Hubbard's _History of New England_ (_Mass. Hist.
Coll._, 2d series, vols. v., vi.) is drawn largely from Winthrop and
from Nathaniel Morton. There is much that is suggestive in William
Wood's _New England's Prospect_, 1634, and Edward Johnson's
_Wonder-working Providence of Zion's Saviour in New England_, 1654; the
latter has been ably edited by W.F. Poole, Andover, 1867. The records
of the Massachusetts government, from its founding in 1629 down to the
overthrow of the charter in 1684, were edited by Dr. Shurtleff in 6
vols. quarto, 1853-54; and among the documents in the British Record
Office, published since 1855, three volumes--_Calendar of State Papers_,
_Colonial America_, vol. i., 1574-1660; vol. v., 1661-1668; vol. vii.,
1669--are especially useful. Of the later authorities the best is
Hutchinson's _History of Massachusetts Bay_, the first volume of which,
coming down to 1689, was published in Boston in 1764. The second volume,
continuing the narrative to 1749, was published in 1767. The third
volume, coming down to 1774, was found among the illustrious author's
MSS. after his death, and was published in London in 1828. Hutchinson
had access to many valuable documents since lost, and his sound judgment
and critical acumen deserve the highest praise. In 1769 he published
a volume of _Original Papers_, illustrating the period covered by the
first volume of his history. Many priceless documents perished in the
shameful sacking of his house by the Boston rioters, Aug. 26, 1765. The
second volume of Hutchinson's _History_ was continued to 1764 by G.R.
Minot, 2 vols., 1798, and to 1820 by Alden Bradford, 3 vols., 1822-29.
Of recent works, the best is Barry's _History of Massachusetts_, 3
vols., 1855-57. Many original authorities are collected in Young's
_Chronicles of Massachusetts_, Boston, 1846. Cotton Mather's _Magnolia
Christi Americana_, London, 1702 (reprinted in 1820 and 1853), though
crude and uncritical, is full of interest.

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