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Under lative assemblies, that they not only embarrassed her Charles II., trade and crippled the enterprise of her people, but

1660-85.

also insisted that the burdens they imposed were unlawful, being prescribed by a legislative body in whose enactments her people had no participation, inasmuch as they were not represented in parliament.

Represent- That the right of imposing taxes or burdens of any ation and kind upon a people cannot be exercised in any legislative

taxation.

body, or by any government, without their consent, given in person or by their representatives, is an axiom of freedom which may have been found in old record books, or blind parchments, at an earlier date than this; but its practical development and the full elucidation of its justice and equity are pre-eminently American. In some of its aspects we have seen it illustrated in the controversy between the governor and council and the house of burgesses in Virginia; and now in another of its phases we find it the subject of a spirited controversy between the people of New England and the ruling powers at home. It was but the germ, however, whose growth was to be the pre

cursor of a more vigorous conflict thereafter, although The char- its development now resulted only in the declaration clared that the charter of Massachusetts Bay was again forforfeited. feited.

ter de

Accession of

1685.

Charles II. died in the year 1685, and was succeeded James II., by James II., who manifested a like hostility to the spirit of freedom and independence which was developing itself in various ways in the colonial governments in America, and especially in New England. He estabHis colo- lished over them a court of commissioners consisting nial policy. of a governor and council, at the head of which was Sir Edmund Andros, a man second only to the king himself in his personal ambition and in the arbitrary exercise of power. He arrived in Boston in December, 1686, and at once assumed the reins of government over the whole of New England, under the title of governor general of the colonies. He proclaimed

Sir Edmond Andros appointed governor.

THE COLONY OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY.

PART II.

sur- Under

their governments all dissolved, demanded the render of their charters, and proceeded to exercise James II.,

over them the prerogatives of kingly power.

1685-88.

their char

colonies.

But the time had gone by when the mere edict of The value the crown, or the ex parte judgment of a court in attached to England, or the presence of royalty in the person of ters by the Sir Edmond Andros even, decreeing the nullity of a colonial charter, could operate with any permanent or essential force in America. Though the charters of the colonies generally were the ostensible basis of their respective governments and forms of administration, yet their existence was not by any means necessary to support the superstructure which had been raised over them. All that was essential to the freedom which they had acquired, whether political or religious, was their own ordinances and enactments made without any special reference to, and in many instances entirely in conflict with, the provisions of their charters. Indeed, their own independent action was in reality the foundation of all their free laws and institutions, although it may have purported in some instances to have been grounded on the dead letter of their patents from the crown.

The issue of this struggle for their rights was so Character colored by the condition of things in the parent state, and reign that we must glance for a moment at the reign of II. James II., in order to trace the causes which gave to the controversy its beneficent results. That reign was not of long duration. James became at once on his accession to the throne involved in a fearful conflict with his subjects at home, by the arbitrary and oppressive use of his prerogatives, and his attempt to re-estab-See PART I. lish the power of Romanism in his kingdom. He sent He atan ambassador to Rome, and in turn the pope sent a tempts to nuncio to the court of Saint James. The nuncio was power of received publicly by the king, and welcomed and entertained at his court, with the most imposing and pompous displays of royal favor. James united in the celebra

restore the

Romanism.

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Papal pro-tion of high mass, he disregarded the authority of clivities of parliament, and to crown all, he erected an ecclesias

James II.

tical court of commissioners, and invested it with supreme power over the established church. This course of conduct awakened the most lively apprehensions of the nation, and arrayed against his administration, so to speak, all classes of protestants. It involved the kingdom of Great Britain in the most terrible civil commotion that had yet threatened the stability of the

throne. The result was what has been aptly termed The Revo-the Revolution in England. In the civil war which he brooded, the king was abandoned both by the army

lution of 1688.

and the people, and in his extremity he fled to France. Flight and Parliament declared his flight to be an abdication of of the king. his crown, and that the throne was thereby vacated.

abdication

The succession

William and Mary, prince and princess of Orange, were accordingly invested with the sovereignty, were

declared king and queen of Great Britain, and the established succession was established in their line by act of parby law.

liament, by LAW.

Nature and This revolution was in fact a conflict between the conflict. supremacy of protestantism, law, and liberty, on the

issue of the

one side; and the divine right of the king and the supremacy of the pope on the other. The result was a more full and triumphant development of those political elements in protestantism which conserve freedom than had yet been known in the progress of the reformation in England. It had been reserved, as we have seen, for the colonies planted in America first practically to promulgate the political axiom that in a free government the people are the true and only source of power. In the triumph of this same princi

ple in the mother country, who shall say how much The will of was due to the reactive influence of their example, and the people the forcible illustrations which they had given of its as an ele- beneficent operation? Henceforth the will of the

recognized

ment in

sovereign- people became a component element in the crown's ty. title to sovereignty, and the kingdom of Great Britain

THE COLONY OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY.

rejoiced under a free constitution and a popular sovereignty. The establishment of it healed her own political maladies, while it also allayed many of the sources of jealousy and hostility which had hitherto agitated her colonies in America, and tended to establish on a more enduring basis the extensive commercial relations which had grown up between the two countries, and which thenceforth rapidly promoted the prosperity of both.

PART II.

The intelligence of the English revolution was re-The Revolution, how ceived by the people in the colony of Massachusetts regarded in Bay with open demonstrations of joy, and revived the Mass. Bay. hope that their ancient charter might be again restored to them. Catching the inspiration of that spirit which had thus revolutionized the parent state, and obliterated the authority of James II., the people of the colony took up their arms, deposed Sir Edmond Andros and his council, sent them back to England, and re-established their own governor and council in the exercise of the authority and powers which they had formerly claimed under their charter. The crown assented to the exercise of these forms of government until such time as it should provide a new charter. This was issued in the year 1691. Under it the col- The colony incorporaony was incorporated as a royal province, and con-ted under a tinued to be known as such until after the American new charter, 1691. Revolution.

The principal features wherein the government under this charter differed from that under the former, will be more particularly noticed in the third part of this work. The colony now included within its terri-Precincts torial limits "all the old colony of Massachusetts Bay, 'ony under the colony of New Plymouth, the province of Maine, the new the territory called Acadia or Nova Scotia, and all the islands lying between Nova Scotia and Maine, under the name of THE PROVINCE OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY IN *Marshall's Colonies.

of the col

charter.

NEW ENGLAND."*

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er.

Colonies.

CONNECTICUT AND NEW HAVEN.

These colonies are next in order in the progress of Quohnetta- our history. This territory, now comprehended within cut, or Long Riv- the limits of the State of Connecticut, was originally conveyed by the Grand Council of Plymouth to the *Marshall's then Earl of Warwick, in the year 1630.* This grant from the company was confirmed to the grantee by a patent from Charles I., and was subsequently conveyed by the Earl to Lord Sey and Seale, Lord Brooke and others, in 1631. In 1632 these patentees sent out an expedition to explore the coast and the interior of the country, which penetrated the Connecticut river as far up as the present town of Windsor, but it does not appear that they made any efficient arrangements for a settlement of the country.

The trad

What were called forts, or trading stations, were established by adventurers from New Plymouth, at Windsor; and by the Dutch from New Amsterdam, now New York, at the confluence of the "little river" with the Connecticut, now called "Dutch point," at Hartford, early in the year 1633.

In 1635 one of these trading stations was planted ing fort of Gov. Win- on the west bank of the Connecticut river, near its throp on mouth, under a commission to John Winthrop, a son ticut, 1635. of the governor of Massachusetts Bay, as follows:

the Connec

*1 Haz

.

* ARTICLES made between the right honorable the ard's State Lord Viscount Say and Seale, Sir Arthur Hasselrig, Papers, 395-6. baronet; Sir Richard Saltonstall, knight; Henry Lawrence; Henry Darley; and George Fenwick, Esqs., on the one part; and John Winthrop, Esq., the younger, of the other, the seventh of July, 1635.

Compact between

FIRST. That we in our names, and the rest of the Jno. Win- company, do by these presents appoint John Winthrop throp, Jr., the younger, governour of the river connetticote in New

and others.

England, and of the harbour and places adjoining, for the space of one year from his arrival there-And the said John Winthrop doth undertake and covenant for

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