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by the people as at once a signal misfortune and a cutting re- CHAP. proach; and the universal mourning that overspread the pro- III. vince expressed a late but lasting remembrance of his virtue, 1662. and bewailed an ungrateful error, which only repentance was now permitted to repair.1

The colony of Rhode Island had received the tidings of the restoration with much real or apparent satisfaction. It was hoped by the inhabitants that the suspension of their charter by the Long Parliament would more than compensate the demerit of having accepted a charter from such authority; and that their exclusion from the confederacy, of which Massachusetts was the head, would operate as an additional recommendation to royal favour. The restored monarchical government was proclaimed with eager haste in this colony; and one Clarke was soon after despatched as deputy from the colonists to England, in order to carry their dutiful respects to the foot of the throne, and to solicit a new charter in their favour. Clarke conducted his negotiation with a baseness that rendered the success of it dearly bought. He not only vaunted, in courtly strains, the loyalty of the inhabitants of Rhode Island, of which the sole proof he could give was, that they had bestowed the name of King's Province on a territory acquired by them from the Indians; but meeting this year the deputies of Massachusetts at the court, he publicly challenged them to cite any one demonstration of duty or loyalty by their constituents to the present king or his father, from the period of their first establishment in New England. Yet the inhabitants of Rhode Island had solicited and accepted a patent from the Long Parliament in the commencement of its struggle with Charles the First; while Massachusetts had declined to make a similar recognition even when the parliament was at the utmost height of its power and success.2 Clarke succeeded in obtaining this year3 a charter, which assured to the inhabitants of Rhode Island and Providence the amplest en

1 Mather. Hutchinson. See Note IX. at the end of the volume.

2 The Rhode Islanders had also presented an address to the rulers of England in 1659, beseeching favour to themselves, as "a poor colony, an outcast people, formerly from our mother nation in the bishops' days, and since from the New English over-zealous colonies." Douglas' Summary.

3 Although the charter was framed in 1662, yet, in consequence of a dispute beween Connecticut and Rhode Island, it was not finally passed till July, 1663.

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BOOK joyment of religious liberty, and most unlimited concession of municipal jurisdiction. Certain of the leading colonists, together with all other persons who should in future be admitted Royal freemen of the society, were incorporated by the title of the incorpora- Governor and Company of the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence. The supreme or legislative power was Island and invested in an assembly consisting of the governor, assistants, and representatives elected from their own number by the freeThis assembly was empowered to enact ordinances and forms of government and magistracy, with as much conformity to the laws of England as the state of the country and condition of the people would admit; to erect courts of justice; to regulate the manner of appointment to places of trust; to inflict all lawful punishments; and to exercise the prerogative of pardon. A governor, deputy-governor, and ten assistants were appointed to be annually chosen by the assembly; and the first board of these officers, nominated by the charter, on the suggestion of the provincial agent, were authorised to commence the work of carrying its provisions into execution. The governor and company were empowered to transport all merchandise not prohibited by the statutes of the kingdom, on payment of the usual duties; to exercise martial law when necessary; and upon just causes, to invade and destroy the native Indians or other enemies. The territory granted to the governor and company, and their successors, was described as that part of the dominions of the British crown in New England, which embraced the islands in Narraganset Bay, and the countries and districts adjacent,-which were appointed to be holden of the manor of East Greenwich in common soccage. The inhabitants and their children were declared to be entitled to the same immunities which would have accrued to them if they had resided or been born within the realm. This is the first instance of the creation, by a British patent, of an authority of that peculiar description which was then established in Rhode Island. Corporations had been formerly constituted within the realm, for the government of colonial plantations : but now a body politic was created with specific powers for administering all the affairs of a colony within the colonial territory. The charter was received with great satisfaction by the colonists, who entered immediately into possession of the

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democratical constitution which it appointed for them, and CHAP. continued to pursue the same system of civil and ecclesiastical policy that they had heretofore observed.1

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Though the inhabitants of Connecticut neither felt nor and to affected the same joy that Rhode Island had expressed at the restoration of the king, they did not fail to send a deputy to NewhaEngland to express their recognition of the royal authority, and to solicit a new charter. They were fortunate in the choice of the man to whom they committed this important duty, John Winthrop, the son of the eminent person of the same name who had presided with so much honour and virtue over the province of Massachusetts. Winthrop, deriving a hereditary claim on the kindness of the king, from a friendship that had subsisted between his own grandfather and Charles the First, employed it so successfully as to obtain for his constituents a charter in almost every respect the same with that which had been granted to Rhode Island. The most considerable differences were, that by the Connecticut charter the governor was directed to administer the oaths of allegiance and supremacy to the inhabitants; a formality which was not required by the charter of Rhode Island, where many of the people scrupled to take an oath; and that, by the last-mentioned charter, liberty of conscience was expressly conceded in its fullest extent, while the other made no express mention of the concerns of religion, and no other allusion to them,

1 Chalmers. Hazard.

2 At Newhaven the republican spirit was so strong, that several of the principal inhabitants declined to act as magistrates under the king. Trumbull. It was here that Goffe and Whaley found the securest asylum, and ended their days. When a party of royal officers were coming in pursuit of them to Newhaven, Davenport, the minister of the place, preached publicly in favour of the regicides, from the text (Isaiah, xvi. 3, 4.) "Take counsel, execute judgment; make thy shadow as the night in the midst of the noonday; hide the outcasts; bewray not him that wandereth. Let mine outcasts dwell with thee, Moab: be thou a covert to them from the face of the spoiler." Holmes. It is remarkable that Salem and Newhaven, so highly distinguished among the towns of New England, by the puritan and republican zeal of their founders, have so long continued to be graced by the superior piety, morality, industry, and prosperity of their inhabitants. Dwight's description of Newhaven in the commencement of the nineteenth century, is one of the most agreeable pictures that was ever delineated of a social congregation of mankind.— Dwight's Travels.

3 Mather relates, that when Winthrop presented the king with a ring which Charles the First had given to his grandfather, "the king not only accepted his present, but also declared that he accounted it one of his richest jewels, which indeed was the opinion that New England had of the hand that carried it." See Note X. at the end of the volume.

BOOK than what might seem to be implied in the requisition of the II. oath of supremacy. By this charter, Newhaven was united 1662. with Connecticut; an arrangement which for some time did. not obtain the unanimous approbation of the people of Newhaven, although they afterwards heartily acquiesced in it; and the description of the provincial territory was indefinite and incorrect. But on the whole it gave so much satisfaction, that Winthrop, on his return, was received with the grateful approbation of his fellow citizens, and annually chosen governor of the united colony as long as he lived.1

There was thus established by royal charter, both in Connecticut and Rhode Island, a model of government the most perfectly democratic, together with the additional singularity of subordinate political corporations almost wholly disconnected by any efficient tie or relation with the organ of sovereign authority. All power, as well deliberative as active, was invested in the freemen of the corporation or their delegates; and the supreme executive magistrate of the empire was excluded from every constitutional means of interposition or control. A conformity to the laws of England, no doubt, was enjoined on the provincial legislatures; and this conformity was conditioned as the tenure by which their privileges were enjoyed; but no method of ascertaining or enforcing its observance was provided. At a later period, the crown lawyers of England were sensible of the oversight which their predecessors had committed; and proposed that an act of parliament should be obtained, requiring those colonies to transmit the records of their domestic ordinances to Britain for the inspection and consideration of the king. But this suggestion was never carried into effect.2

1 Mather. Chalmers. Hazard.

2 Chalmers.

CHAPTER IV.

Emigration of ejected Ministers to New England.—Royal Commissioners seut thither.-Petition of the Assembly of Massachusetts to the King-rejected.— Policy pursued by the Commissioners.-Their Disputes with the Government of Massachusetts and Return to England.-Policy of the Colonists to conciliate the King-Effects of it.-Cession of Acadie to the French.-Prosperous State of New England.-Conspiracy of the Indians.-Philip's War.-The King resumes his Designs against Massachusetts.-Controversy respecting the Right to Maine and New Hampshire.-Progress of the Dispute between the King and the Colony. -State of Parties in Massachusetts.-State of Religion and Morals in New England. Surrender of the Charter of Massachusetts demanded by the Kingrefused by the Colonists.-Writ of Quo Warranto issued against the Colony.Firmness of the People.-Their Charter adjudged to be forfeited.

ALTHOUGH New England now consisted of a variety of distinct and independent jurisdictions, a similar policy naturally established itself in communities founded by men acknowledging the same national origin, conducted to America by the same motives, and assimilated by religious tenets, manners, laws, and municipal institutions. The commercial system which the English parliament thought fit to pursue tended still farther to unite these colonies by identity of views, interests, and purposes. The navigation acts which it framed, and which we have considered at much length in the history of Virginia, created for a time more discontent than inconvenience, and served rather to disclose than to effectuate the restrictions designed to be imposed on the colonial trade. These restrictions were a copious and continual source of displeasure and controversy between the two countries. The colonies had been accustomed in their infancy to a free trade; and its surrender was required with the more injustice and yielded with the greater reluctance, because England was not then a mart in which all the produce of the colonies could be vended, or from which all the wants of their inhabitants could be supplied. Even in the southern colonies, where the governors were appointed either by the crown or by proprietaries connected with the parent state, the act of navigation was very imperfectly executed; and in New England,

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