Chapter 16
[Footnote 130: From the representations made respecting the state of affairs in the New England colonies, the appointment of this Commission was decided upon after the restoration of the King, and the agents of those colonies were informed of it. Col. Nichols, the head of the Commission, stated in his introductory address to the Ma.s.sachusetts Bay Court, May 2, 1665, that "The King himself and the Lord Chancellor (Clarendon) told Mr. Norton and Mr. Bradstreet of this colony, and Mr.
Winthrop of Connecticut, Mr. Clarke of Rhode Island, and several others now in these countries, that he intended shortly to send over Commissioners." (_Ib._, p. 56.)]
[Footnote 131: It was in refutation of such reports that Col. Nichols made the statements quoted on a previous page; in the course of which, referring to the slanders circulated by persons high in office under the Court, he said: "Some of them are these: That the King hath sent us over here to raise _5,000 a year out of the colony_ for his Majesty's use, and 12d. for every acre of improved land besides, and to take from this colony many of their civil liberties and ecclesiastical privileges, of which particulars we have been asked the truth in several places, all of which reports we did, and here do, disclaim as false; and protest that they are diametrically contrary to the truth, as ere long we shall make it appear more plainly."
"These personal slanders with which we are calumniated, as private men we slight; as Christians we forgive and will not mention; but as persons employed by his Sacred Majesty, we cannot suffer his honour to be eclipsed by a cloud of black reproaches, and some seditious speeches, without demanding justice from you against those who have raised, reported, or made them." (_Ib._, p. 56.)
These reports were spread by some of the chief officers of the Council, and the most seditious of the speeches complained of was by the commander of their forces; but they were too agreeable to the Court for them even to contradict, much less investigate, although Col. Nichols offered to give their names.
Hubbard, the earliest and most learned of the New England historians, says:
"The Commissioners were but four in number, the two princ.i.p.al of whom were Colonel Nichols and Colonel Cartwright, who were both of them eminently qualified, with abilities fit to manage such a concern, nor yet wanting in resolution to carry on any honourable design for the promotion of his Majesty's interest in any of those Plantations whither they were sent." (Ma.s.sachusetts History Collection, Vol. V., Second Series, p. 577.)]
[Footnote 132: The following is a copy of the Royal Commission, in which the reasons and objects of it are explicitly stated:
"Copy of a Commission from King Charles the Second to Col. Nichols and others, in 1664.
"Charles the 2nd, by the Grace of G.o.d, King of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, etc.
"To all to whom these presents shall come, Greeting: Whereas we have received several addresses from our subjects of several colonies in New England, all full of duty and affection, and expressions of loyalty and allegiance to us, with their humble desires that we would renew their several Charters, and receive them into our favourable opinion and protection; and several of our colonies there, and other our loving subjects, have likewise complained of differences and disputes arisen upon the limits and bounds of their several Charters and jurisdictions, whereby unneighbourly and unbrotherly contentions have and may arise, to the damage and discredit of the English interest; and that all our good subjects residing there, and being Planters within the several colonies, do not enjoy the liberties and privileges granted to them by our several Charters, upon confidence and a.s.surance of which they transported themselves and their estates into those parts; and we having received some addresses from the great men and natives of those countries in which they complain of breach of faith, and acts of violence, and injustice which they have been forced to undergoe from our subjects, whereby not only our Government is traduced, but the reputation and credit of the Christian religion brought into prejudice and reproach with the Gentiles and inhabitants of those countries who know not G.o.d, the reduction of whom to the true knowledge and feare of G.o.d is the most worthy and glorious end of all those Plantations: Upon all which motives, and as an evidence and manifestation of our fatherly affection towards all our subjects in those several colonies of New England (that is to say, of the Ma.s.sachusetts, Connecticut, New Plimouth, Rhode Island, and Providence Plantations, and all other Plantations within that tract of land known under the appelation of New England), and to the end we may be truly informed of the state and condition of our good subjects there, that so we may the better know how to contribute to the further improvement of their happiness and prosperity: Know ye therefore, that we, reposing special trust and confidence in the fidelity, wisdome and circ.u.mspection of our trusty and well-beloved Colonel Richard Nichols, Sir Robert Carre, Knt., George Cartwright, Esq., and Samuel Maverick, Esq., of our special grace, certain knowledge, and mere motion, have made, ordained, const.i.tuted and appointed, and by these presents do make, ordain, const.i.tute and appoint the said Colonel Richard Nichols, Sir Robert Carre, George Cartwright, and Samuel Maverick, our Commissioners, and do hereby give and grant unto them, or any three or two of them, or of the survivors of them, of whom we will the said Colonel Richard Nichols, during his life, shall be alwaies one, and upon equal divisions of opinions, to have the casting and decisive voice, in our name to visit all and every the several colonies aforesaid, and also full power and authority to heare and receive and to examine and determine all complaints and appeals in all causes and matters, as well military as criminal and civil, and proceed in all things for the providing for and settling the peace and security of the said country, according to their good and sound discretion, and to such instructions as they or the survivors of them have, or shall from time to time receive from us in that behalfe, and from time to time, as they shall find expedient, to certify us or our Privy Council of their actings or proceedings touching the premises; and for the doing thereof, or any other matter or thing relating thereunto, these presents, or the enrolment thereof, shall be unto them a sufficient warrant and discharge in that behalf. In witness whereof we have caused these our letters to be made patent. Witness ourselfe at Westminster, the 25th day of April, in the sixteenth yeare of our reigne." (Hutchinson's History of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay, Vol. I., Appendix xv., pp. 535, 536.)]
[Footnote 133: The following are extracts from the report of the Commissioners who were appointed to visit the several colonies of New England in 1666:
"_The Colony of Connecticut_ returned their thanks to his Majesty for his gracious letters, and for sending Commissioners to them, with promises of their loyalty and obedience; and they did submit to have appeals made to his Majesty's Commissioners, who did hear and determine some differences among them. All forms of justice pa.s.s only in his Majesty's name; they admit all that desire to be of their corporation; they will not hinder any from enjoying the sacraments and using the Common Prayer Book, provided that they hinder not the maintenance of the public minister. They will amend anything that hath been done derogatory to his Majesty's honour, if there be any such thing, so soon as they shall come to the knowledge of it."
"_The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence_ Plantations returned their humble thanks to his Majesty for sending Commissioners, and made great demonstration of their loyalty and obedience. They approved as most reasonable, that appeals should be made to his Majesty's Commissioners, who, having heard and determined some cases among them, referred other some in civility to their General Court, and some to the Governor and others; some of which cases they again remitted to the Commissioners to determine. All proceedings are in his Majesty's name; they admit all to be freemen who desire it; they allow liberty of conscience and wors.h.i.+p to all who live civilly; and if any can inform of anything in their laws or practices derogatory to his Majesty's honour, they will amend it."
"_The Colony of New Plymouth_ did submit to have appeals made to the Commissioners, who have heard but one plaint made to them, which was that the Governor would not let a man enjoy a farm four miles square, which he had bought of an Indian. The complainant soon submitted to the Governor when he understood the unreasonableness of it."
"_The Colony of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay_ was the hardest to be persuaded to use his Majesty's name in the forms of justice. In this colony, at the first coming of the Commissioners, were many untruths raised and sent into the colonies, as that the King had to raise 15,000 yearly for his Majesty's use, whereupon Major Hawthorne made a seditious speech at the head of his company, and the late Governor (Bellingham) another
"To elude his Majesty's desire for admitting men of civil and competent estates to be freemen, they have an Act whereby he that is 24 years old, a housekeeper, and brings a certificate of his civil life, another of his being orthodox in matters of faith, and a third of his paying ten s.h.i.+llings besides head-money, at a single rate, _may then have the liberty to make his desires known to the Court_, and then it shall be put to vote. The Commissioners examined many towns.h.i.+ps, and found that scarce three in a hundred pay ten s.h.i.+llings at a single rate; yet if this rate were general it would be just; but he that is _a church member, though_ he be a servant, and pay not _twopence, may be a freeman_. They do not admit any who is not a Church member to communion, nor their children to baptism, yet they will marry their children to those whom they will not admit to baptism, if they be rich. They did imprison and barbarously use Mr. Jourdan for baptising children, as himself complained in his pet.i.tion to the Commissioners. Those whom they will not admit to the communion, they compel to come to their sermons by forcing from them five s.h.i.+llings for every neglect; yet these men thought their paying one s.h.i.+lling for not coming to prayers in England was an unsupportable tyranny."... "They have made many things in their laws derogatory to his Majesty's honour, of which the Commissioners have made and desired that they might be altered, but they have done nothing of it[134]. Among others, whoever keeps Christmas Day is to pay a fine of five pounds."
"They caused at length a map of the territories to be made; but it was made in a Chamber by direction and guess; in it they claim Fort Albany, and beyond it all the land to the South Sea. By their South Sea line they entrench upon the colonies of New Plymouth, Rhode Island and Connecticut; and on the east they usurped Capt. Mason's and Sir Ferdinardo Gorges' patents, and said that the Commissioners had nothing to do betwixt them and Mr. Gorges, because his Majesty neither commanded them to deliver possession to Mr. Gorges or to give his Majesty reason why they did not."...
"They of this colony say that King Charles the First granted to them a Charter as a warrant against himself and his successors, and that so long as they pay the fifth part of the gold and silver ore which they get, they shall be free to use the privileges granted them, and that they are not obliged to the King except by civility; they hope by writing to tire the King, Lord Chancellor, and Secretaries too; seven years they can easily spin out by writing, and before that time a change may come; nay, some have dared to say, who knows what the event of this Dutch war will be?"
"This colony furnished Cromwell with many instruments out of their corporation and college; and those that have retreated thither since his Majesty's happy return, are much respected, and many advanced to be magistrates. They did solicit Cromwell by one Mr. Winslow to be declared a free State, and many times in their laws declaring themselves to be so."
(Hutchinson's Collection of Original Papers relative to the History of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay, pp. 412-420.)]
[Footnote 134: The Commissioners specify upwards of twenty anomalies in the book ent.i.tled the "Book of the General Laws and Liberties concerning the Inhabitants of Ma.s.sachusetts," which should be altered to correspond with the Charter, and the relations of the colony to England. A few specimens may be given: That the writs and forms of justice be issued and performed in his Majesty's name; that his Majesty's arms be set up in the courts of justice within the colony, and that the masters of vessels and captains of foot companies do carry the colours of England, by which they may be known to be British subjects; that in the 12th capital law, if any conspire against our Commonwealth, _Commonwealth_ may be expunged, and "against the peace of his Majesty's colony" be inserted instead of the other; that at p. 33, "none be admitted freemen but members of some of the Churches within the limits of their jurisdiction," be made to comprehend "other than members of the Congregational Churches;" that on the same page, the penalty for keeping Christmas so directly against the law of England, be repealed; that page 40, the law for settling the Indians' t.i.tle to land, be explained, for it seems as if they were dispossessed of their land by Scripture, which is both against the honour of G.o.d and the justice of the King. In 115th Psalm, 16, "Children of men" comprehend Indians as well as English; and no doubt the country is theirs till they give it up or sell it, though it be not improved.]
[Footnote 135: They were not so poor as when, just 30 years before, they, by the advice of their ministers, prepared to make armed resistance against the rumoured appointment over them of a Governor General of New England.]
[Footnote 136: They were not more "remote" than when they wrote to their friends in England as often as they pleased, or than when they addressed the Long Parliament four years before, and twice addressed Cromwell, stating their services to him in men and prayers against Charles the First, and asking his favours.]
[Footnote 137: The words "full and absolute power of governing" are not contained in the Royal Charter.]
[Footnote 138: Emigrants generally transport themselves from one country to another, whether across the ocean or not, at their own charges.]
[Footnote 139: It is shown in this volume that they never had the "undoubted right" by the Charter, or the "undoubted right in the sight of G.o.d and man," to abolish one form of wors.h.i.+p and set up another; to imprison, fine, banish, or put to death all who did not adopt their newly set up form of wors.h.i.+p; to deny the rights of citizens.h.i.+p to four-fifths of their citizens on religious grounds, and tax them without representation. How far they invaded the "undoubted right" of others, "in the sight of G.o.d and man," and exceeded their own lawful powers, is shown on the highest legal authority in the 6th and 7th chapters of this volume.]
[Footnote 140: These references are acknowledgments on the part of the Ma.s.sachusetts Bay Court, that they had been kindly and liberally treated by both Charles the First and Charles the Second.]
[Footnote 141: They here limit their compliance with the six conditions on which the King proposed to continue the Charter which they had violated, to their "conscience" and "the just liberties and privileges of their patent." But according to their interpretation of these, they could not in "conscience" grant the "toleration" required by the King, or give up the sectarian basis of franchise and eligibility to office, or admit of appeals from their tribunals to the higher courts or the King himself in England. They seize upon and claim the promise of the King to continue the Charter, but evade and deny the fulfilment of the conditions on which he made that promise.]
[Footnote 142: But they rejected the King's commission of inquiry, refused the information required; and they modestly pray the King to accept as proof of their innocence and right doings their own professions and statements against the complaints made of their proscriptions and oppressions.]
[Footnote 143: The threat at the beginning of this, and also in the following paragraph, is characteristic; it was tried, but without effect, on other occasions. The insinuations and special pleading throughout these paragraphs are amply answered in the letters of Lord Clarendon and the Hon. R. Boyle, which follow this extraordinary address, which abounds alternately and successively in affected helplessness and lofty a.s.sumptions, in calumnious statements and professed charity, in abject flattery and offensive insinuations and threats, in pretended poverty amidst known growing wealth, in appeals to heaven and professed humility and loyalty, to avoid the scrutiny of their acts and to reclaim the usurpation of absolute power.]
[Footnote 144: Collections of the Ma.s.sachusetts Historical Society, Vol.
VIII., Second Series, pp. 49-51.]
[Footnote 145: Collections of Ma.s.sachusetts Historical Society, Vol.
VIII., Second Series, pp. 103-105.]
[Footnote 146: The pet.i.tion entire is inserted above, pp. 153-159. Mr.
Hutchinson gives this pet.i.tion in the Appendix to the first volume of his History of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay, No. 16, pp. 537-539; but he does not give the King's reply.]
[Footnote 147: Mr. Endicot died before the next election. He was the primary cause of the disputes between the Ma.s.sachusetts Bay Colony and the Parent Government, and the unrelenting persecutor of all who differed from him in religious wors.h.i.+p. He was hostile to monarchy and all English authority from the beginning; he got and kept the elective franchise, and eligibility to office, in the hands of the Congregationalists alone, and became of course their idol.
The King's suggesting the election of a Governor other than Endicot was a refutation of their statements that he intended to deprive them of their local self-government. The following is Neal's notice of the death of Mr. Endicot: "On the 23rd of March, 1665, died Mr. John Endicot, Governor of the Jurisdiction of Ma.s.sachusetts. He arrived at Salem in the year 1628, and had the chief command of those that first settled there, and shared with them in all their hards.h.i.+ps. He continued at Salem till the magistrates desired him to remove to Boston for the more convenient administration of justice, as Governor of the Jurisdiction, to which he was frequently elected for many years together. He was a great enemy of the Sectaries, and was too severe in executing the penal laws against the Quakers and _Anabaptists_ during the time of his administration. He lived to a good old age, and was interred at Boston with great honour and solemnity."--Neal's History of New England Vol.
II., p. 346.]
[Footnote 148: The same year, 1662, in which Charles the Second sent so gracious a letter to the Governor and Council of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay, he granted Charters to the colonies of Connecticut and Rhode Island, in both of which perfect liberty of conscience and religious liberty was encouraged and provided for, evincing the settled policy of the Government of the Restoration in regard to the New England colonies. The annalist Holmes says:
"1662.--The Charter of Connecticut was granted by Charles II. with most ample privileges, under the great seal of England. It was ordained by the Charter that all the King's subjects in the colony should enjoy all the privileges of free and natural born subjects within the realm of England." (Holmes' Annals, etc., Vol. I., pp. 320, 321.)
So liberal were the provisions of this Charter, that as Judge Story says: "It continued to be the fundamental law of the State of Connecticut until the year 1818, when a new const.i.tution of government was framed and adopted by the people." (Commentaries on the Const.i.tution of the United States, Vol. I., Sec. 88.)
_Rhode Island._--Rhode Island had two English Charters, the circ.u.mstances connected with both of which were very peculiar. Its founder, Roger Williams, had been banished from the jurisdiction of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay.
"Rhode Island," says Judge Story, "was originally settled by emigrants from Ma.s.sachusetts, fleeing hither to escape from religious persecution, and it still boasts of Roger Williams as its founder and as the early defender of religious freedom and the rights of conscience. One body of them purchased the island which gave name to the State, and another the territory of the Providence Plantations from the Indians, and began their settlements at the same period, in 1636 and 1638. They entered into separate a.s.sociations of government. But finding their a.s.sociations not sufficient to protect them _against the encroachments of Ma.s.sachusetts_, and having no t.i.tle under any royal patents, they sent Roger Williams to England in 1643 to procure a surer foundation both of t.i.tle and government. He succeeded in obtaining from the Earl of Warwick (in 1643) a Charter of incorporation of Providence Plantations; and also in 1644 a Charter from the two Houses of Parliament (Charles the First being driven from his capital) for the incorporation of the towns of Providence, Newport, and Portsmouth, for the absolute government of themselves, but according to the laws of England."
But such was the hostility of the rulers of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay that they refused to admit Rhode Island into the confederacy of the New England colonies formed in 1643 to defend themselves against the Indians, the Spanish, the Dutch, and the French; yet they had influence enough with Cromwell to get the Charter of Rhode Island suspended in 1652. "But,"
says Dr. Holmes, "that colony, taking advantage of the distractions which soon after ensued in England, resumed its government and enjoyed it without further interruption until the Restoration." (Holmes' Annals, etc., Vol. I., p. 297.)
"The restoration of Charles the Second," says Judge Story, "seems to have given great satisfaction to these Plantations. They immediately proclaimed the King and sent an agent to England; and in July, 1663, after some opposition, they succeeded in obtaining a Charter from the Crown."
"The most remarkable circ.u.mstance in the Charter, and that which exhibits the strong feeling and spirit of the colony, is the provision for _religious freedom_. The Charter, after reciting the pet.i.tion of the inhabitants, 'that it is much in their hearts (if they may be permitted) to hold forth a lively experiment, that a most flouris.h.i.+ng civil state may stand, and be _best maintained, and that among English subjects with full liberty_ in religious concernments, and that true piety, rightly grounded upon Gospel principles, will give the least and greatest security to sovereignty,' proceeds to declare:
"'We being willing to encourage the hopeful undertaking of our said loyal and loving subjects, and to secure them in the free exercise of all their civil and religious rights appertaining to them as our loving subjects, and to preserve to them that liberty in the true Christian faith and wors.h.i.+p of G.o.d which they have sought with so much travail and with peaceful minds and loyal subjection to our progenitors and ourselves to enjoy; and because some of the people and inhabitants of the same colony cannot, in their private opinion, conform to the public exercise of religion according to the liturgy, form, and ceremonies of the Church of England, or take or subscribe to the oaths and articles made and established in that behalf; and for that the same, by reason of the remote distances of these places, will, as we hope, be no breach of the unity and uniformity established in this nation, have therefore thought fit, and do hereby publicly grant and ordain and declare, that our royal will and pleasure is, that _no person within the said colony_, at any time hereafter, shall be any wise molested, punished, disquieted, or called in question for any differences in opinion on matters of religion, but that all and every person and persons may, from time to time, and at all times hereafter, freely and fully have and enjoy his and their own judgment and conveniences in matters of religious concernment throughout the tract of land hereafter mentioned, they behaving themselves peaceably and quietly, and not using this liberty to licentiousness and profaneness, nor to the civil injury or outward disturbance of others.'" (Hazard's Collection, p. 613.)
Judge Story, after quoting this declaration of the Royal Charter, justly remarks, "This is a n.o.ble declaration, worthy of any Prince who rules over a free people. It is lamentable to reflect how little it comports with the domestic persecutions authorized by the same monarch during his profligate reign. It is still more lamentable to reflect how little a similar spirit of toleration was encouraged, either by precept or example, in other of the New England Colonies." (Commentaries, etc., Vol. I., Chap, viii., Section 97.)]
[Footnote 149: Collections of the Ma.s.sachusetts Historical Society, Vol.
VIII., Second Series, p. 74.]