USA > Massachusetts > History of Massachusetts, for two hundred years: from the year 1620 to 1820 > Part 46
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Sire, We lie not before your sacred majesty. The Lord God of Gods knoweth, and Israel shall know, if it were rebel- lion or schism that we wittingly left our dwellings in our own country for dwellings in this strange land, save us not this day.
Royal Sir, If according to this our humble petition, the God of the spirits of all flesh, the Father of mercy who comforteth the abject, shall make the permission of the bereavement of that all (for which we have and do suffer the loss of all precious, so precious in our sight) as that your royal heart shall be inclined to shew to us the kindness of the Lord in your Highness' pro- tection of us in those liberties for which we hither came, which hitherto we have here enjoyed, upon Hezekiah's speaking com- fortably to us, as sons, this orphan shall not continue fatherless, but grow up as a revived infant under a nursing father; these churches shall be comforted, a door of hope opened by so signal a pledge of the lengthening of their tranquillity; these poor naked Gentiles, not a few of whom, through grace, are come
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and coming in, shall still see their wonted teachers among them, (with encouragement of a more plentiful increase of the churches of Christ, ) and the blessing of the poor, afflicted peo- ple, (trusting in God, ) shall come on the head of the King, who was sometime an exile, even as we are; with the religious stipu- lation of our prayers, we prostrate at your royal feet, beg pardon for this emboldness, craving finally that our names may be en- rolled among your Majesty's most humble subjects and suppli- ants.
JOHN ENDECOT, Governor.
In the name and by the order of the General Court of Massa- chusetts.
NOTE. Supposed to be written by Rev. John Norton.
John Leverett, who was then agent for the colony in England, was instructed at the time the foregoing address was forwarded to king Charles, 1660, among other things, as follows, viz:
If the king or parliament should demand what those privileges are which we desire the continuance of, your answer may be, " All those which are granted us by our patent, and which we have heretofore enjoyed, both in church and commonwealth; without any other power exercised over us, or any other in- fringement of them, which would be destructive of the ends of our coming hither: as also that no appeal may be permitted from hence, in any case, civil or criminal; which would be such an intolerable and insupportable burthen, as the people of this poor place (and at such a distance) are not able to undergo; but would render authority and government vain and ineffectu- al, and bring us into contempt with all sorts of people. And if you find the king and parliament propitious to us, to use your utmost endeavors for renewing that ordinance which freed us from customs."
See page 74. The people of that part of Maine called York- shire, were in a state of great confusion, for want of a regular settled government; and some of the principal inhabitants made application to the general court of Massachusetts to extend its jurisdiction and authority over that territory, as it had formerly done. A declaration or order was accordingly issued, in 1663, requiring the people there to yield obedience to the laws of Massachusetts; and commissioners were also appointed to keep a court; viz. John Leverett, Edward Tyng, Richard Walchor, and Robert Pike.
The Court's Order and Declaration for the Settlement and Government in Yorkshire.
Whereas this colony of the Massachusetts, in observance of the trust to them committed by his majesty's royal charter, with
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the full and free consent and submission of the inhabitants of the county of York, for sundry years did exercise government over the people of that county; and whereas about three years now past, some interruption hath been made to the peace of that place and order there established, by the imposition of some, who, pretending to serve his majesty's interest, with un- just aspersions and reflections upon this government, here estab- lished by his royal charter, have unwarrantably drawn the in- habitants of that county to submission unto officers that have no royal warranty, thereby infringing the liberty of our charter, and depriving the people now settled of their just privileges; the effect whereof doth now appear to be not only a disservice to his majesty, but also the reducing of a people, that were found under an orderly establishment, to a confused anarchy : the premises being duly considered, this court doth judge meet, as in duty they stand bound to God and his majesty, to declare their resolution again to exert their power of jurisdiction over the inhabitants of the said county of York; and do hereby ac- cordingly, in his majesty's name, require all and every of the inhabitants there settled, to yield obedience to the laws of this colony, as they have been orderly published; and to all such officers as shall be there legally established, by authority of his majesty's royal charter, and the order of our commissioners, whom this court hath nominated and impowered to settle all officers, necessary for the government of the people there, and to keep a court this present summer, the first Tuesday in July, at Yorktown, as hath been formerly accustomed. The said warrants to be directed unto Nathaniel Masterton, who is by this court appointed the marshal of that court as formerly, and by him, the said warrants are to be delivered to the several constables, to be accordingly executed. A due observance whereof, with an orderly return to be made to the court, to be held as aforesaid, is hereby required of all persons, respectively concerned, as they will answer the contrary at their peril.
By the court. EDWARD RAWSON, Secretary."
" To Major Gen. John Leverett, and Mr. Edward Ting; Capt. Waldron, and Capt. Robert Pike.
" You are hereby authorized and required to repair to York, in the county of Yorkshire, and there, you, or any two of you, whereof Major Gen. Leverett shall be one, to keep a county court, according as the law directs; and in case you meet with any person or persons, under the pretence of any other author- ity, that shall swerve from the due obedience they owe to this jurisdiction, under his majesty's royal charter, to which they have submitted and engaged themselves, that you call before you all such persons, and bring them to a due trial, and to proceed to sentence, as the merit of their offences shall require.
" Furthermore, you are authorized and commissionated to
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establish and confirm all officers and commissioners, civil and military, as you shall judge meet, for the security and preserv- ing of order and peace in the said courts of York. And for the better enabling you to effect the same, you are hereby author- ized, from the date of these presents, to act and do all such things, preparatory to the keeping of courts and settling of peace in the said county, as in your discretions you shall judge meet. And all officers, civil and military, within this jurisdiction, and all other inhabitants, are hereby required to be assistant unto you, as the matter shall require; and you are to render an ac- count of what you shall do herein, to this court, at the next session in October."
1668, the commissioners reported, that they repaired to York, as directed, where they were met by several justices of the peace, who showed their commissions, and certain orders from Colonel Nichols; and said there were but very few in the town disposed to submit to Massachusetts. That they made known their commission, at a public meeting, attended by dele- gates from five towns; (one being prevented by the justices acting under authority from Gorges) that these justices attempt- ed to prevent the sitting of the court: and were thereupon ordered into the care of the marshal. That a court was then holden by them, and a grand jury duly empanneled: that they. appointed constables, and settled the militiary officers and train- bands, &c. The proceedings of the commissioners were ap- proved by the general court; and the jurisdiction of Massachu- setts was fully confirmed in that part of the country.
See page 86. Note t needs correction: none of the mem- bers of the council there mentioned were from New Hampshire. Usher and Whartson, as well as Joseph Dudley, Wait, Win- throp, Peter Bulkley, and Edward Tyng, were of Massachu- setts. Coggeshall, as well as Arnold, Clark, Smith and New- bury, was of Rhode Island: and Nathaniel Clark, of Plymouth, was also one of Andros' council in 1686-7.
See page 116. William Bollan was the agent in England from Massachusetts, for several years. Afterwards, in 1764, '65, &c., Mauduit, Jackson and De Berdit, were employed as agents of the general court: but Mr Bollan had the confidence of the patriots in Massachusetts, and was consulted as late as 1766. Dr Franklin was agent at a later period, 1774.
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See pages 175, 176. The replies of the house of representa- tives and of the council to the speech of Governor Bernard, are deemed so important as to justify giving them in full.
Answer of the House of Representatives, June 3, 1766.
" May it please your excellency-The house of representa- tives of this province, beg leave to return to your excellency our congratulations upon the repeal of the stamp act; a most interesting and happy event, which has diffused a general joy among all his Majesty's loyal and faithful subjects throughout this extensive continent.
" This is a repeated and striking instance of our most gracious sovereign's paternal regard for the happiness and welfare of all his subjects. We feel upon this occasion, the deepest sense of loyalty and gratitude. We are abundantly convinced that our legal and constitutional rights and liberties will always be safe under his propitious government. We esteem the relation we have ever stood in with Great Britain, the mother country, our happiness and security. We have reason to confide in the British parliament, from this happy instance, that all his ma- jesty's faithful subjects, however remote, are the objects of their patronage and justice.
" When we reflect on the difficulties under which this import- ant business labored, and the causes from whence they arose, we are truly astonished that they have been surmounted; and we gratefully receive the noble and generous efforts of those illustrious patriots who have distinguished themselves in our cause. Indeed, when we look back upon the many dangers from which our country hath, even from its first settlement, been delivered, and the policy and power of those, who have to this day sought its ruin, we are sensibly struck with an admira- tion of Divine goodness, and would religiously regard the arm which has so often shielded us.
" Upon so joyful an occasion, we were in hopes your excel- lency would have spread a veil over every disagreeable scene in the late times of public calamity; but to our surprise and astonishment, we find your excellency declaring in your speech, at the opening of the general court, that this cannot be done till a better temper and understanding shall prevail in general, than there seems to be at present. Though your excellency has seen reason to form so unfavorable an opinion of the present times, we beg leave, with all humility, to ask, whether so great a liberality as you have shown, in your strictures upon them, has a tendency to make them better?
"""' Private interests and resentments,' 'popular discontent,' 'unlimited abuse on the most respectable characters.' These and such like expressions, run through a considerable part of your speech. We should have been glad if your excellency had given some intimation, at least, that you did not mean to
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cast reflections on either of the two houses, to whom your speech was immediately addressed. We have reason to fear, that whatever were your intentions, this construction will be put upon it by those who would be glad to improve the authority of your excellency to our disadvantage. Upon this account, we find ourselves under a necessity, explicitly to declare to your excellency, that no private resentments of ours have inter- mixed with popular discontent. We have no interest detached from, or inconsistent with, the common good; we are far from having any 'ill purposes' to execute, much less under the ' borrowed mask of patriotic zeal,' or any other hypocritical disguise. It has ever been our pride to cultivate harmony and union, upon the principles of liberty and virtue, among the several branches of the legislature, and a due respect and rever- ence for his majesty's representative in the province. We have endeavored to solicit integrity and ability to the aid of the peo- ple, and are very sorry if gentlemen of character have, by any means, been deterred from serving their country, especially in time of danger, when the eyes of all might have been upon them for deliverance. At such a time, for true patriots to be silent is dangerous. Your excellency tells us of an unlimited abuse which has been cast upon the most respectacle characters, of which you have had a little experience yourself; but you assure us that it has not abated your concern for the welfare of the country, nor prevented your endeavors to promote it. We thank your excellency; and upon this assurance we have rea- son to hope you have employed your influence in behalf of this people, at a time when they so much stood in need of it, in representing their behavior, in general, in the most candid and favorable view. In this light, his majesty, his ministry and par- liament, have been desirous of viewing it, and when this good people shall find that your excellency has served them in so essential a point, they will, we are sure, be ready 'to recognise you in the united character of a true friend to the province, and a faithful servant of the crown.'
" But, may it please your excellency, we cannot forbear ob- serving, that when you are speaking, as we conceive, of the injustice done his honor the lieutenant governor, the last year, your manner of expression would lead a stranger to think that so horrid an act of villany was perpetrated by the body of this people. The infatuation, you tell us, ' has been carried to such a degree of injustice, that the principal object of the fury of the people, was a gentleman to whom they were most highly indebt- ed, for his services in the very cause for which they rose against him.' Your excellency, no doubt, means that the whole people, and not a part only, were most highly indebted to this gentle- man for his services, and that the particular cause in which he had been engaged, concerned them all; and yet, so infatuated have the body of the people been, that they even rose against
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this very gentleman, and made him the object of their fury! Is not this the natural meaning of your words? And will it not, sir, afford matter of triumph to the unrelenting enemies of this province, to hear the governor himself declaring that this was the ' prevailing temper of the people;' that such was their 'vio- lent and precipitate measures,' and that a veil cannot, even now, be drawn over so ' disgraceful a seene,' because the same tem- per among the people in general still prevails. There may, sir, be a general popular discontent upon good grounds. The pco- ple may sometimes have just reason to complain; your excel- lency must be sensible, that in such a circumstance, evil-minded persons may take the advantage, and rise in tumult. This has been too common in the best regulated and best disposed cities in Europe. Under cover of the night a few villians may do much mischief. And such, sir, was the case here; but the virtue of the people themselves finally suppressed the mob; and we have reason to believe, that the unaffected concern which they discover at so tragical a scene, their united detestation of it, their spirited measures to prevent further disorders, and other circumstances well known to the honorable gentleman himself, have fully satisfied him, that such an imputation was without reason. But for many months past there has been an undisturbed tranquillity in general, in this province, and for the greater part of the time, merely from a sense of good order in the people, while they have been in a great measure deprived of the public tribunals, and the administration of justice, and so far thrown into a state of nature .*
" We are at a loss to conceive your excellency's meaning, when you allude to some proceedings which, 'when known at home, you fear will afford matter of triumph to those who were for maintaining the stamp act, and sorrow and concern to those who procured its repeal; ' and when you tell us that 'the in- flammation of the country has been a grand object with some persons,' we cannot suppose your excellency would make a public declaration of a matter of such importance without good grounds. An attempt to inflame the country is a crime of very dark complexion. You tell us that a stop has not yet been put to that pursuit; we hope you have taken every prudent and legal step in your own department to prevent it. Permit us, however, to say, that it is possible you may have been misin- formed by persons not well affected to this people, and who would be glad to have it thought that we were turbulent and factious, and perpetually murmuring, even after every cause of complaint is removed. Such characters may still exist in the persons of some who have taken all occasions from the just re- sentment of the people, to represent them as inflammatory, dis- affected, and disloyal. Should there be any persons so aban-
* The court had been suspended for some months.
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doned, as to make it the object of their policy, to inflame the minds of the people against a wise, a good, a 'mild and mod- erate administration,' they may be assured of the severest cen- sures of this house as soon as they are known.
" But the manner in which you are pleased to explain the grounds of your testimony against the elections of the present year, seems to imply that it is your opinion that the two houses have been so far influenced by an inflammatory spirit in partic- ular persons, as even to make an attack upon the government in form. The two houses proceeded in these elections with perfect good humor and good understanding; and as no other business had been transacted when we were favored with your speech, it is astonishing to us, that you should think this a time to 'interupt the general harmony.' We are wholly at a loss to conceive, how a full, free and fair election can be called ‘an attack upon the government in form,' 'a professed intention to deprive it of its best and most able servants,' 'an ill-judged and ill-timed oppugnation of the king's authority.' These, may it please your excellency, are high and grievous charges against the two houses, and such as we humbly conceive, no crowned head since the revolution has thought fit to bring against the two houses of parliament. It seems to us to be little short, if any thing, of a direct impeachment of the houses of high trea- son. Oppugnation of the king's authority is but a learned mode of expression, which reduced to plain English, is fighting against the king's most excellent majesty. But what, sir, is the oppug- nation which we have been guilty of? We were summoned and convened here to give our free suffrages at the general election, directed to be annually made by the royal charter. We have given our suffrages according to the dictates of our consciences, and the best light of our understanding. It was certainly our right to choose, and as clearly a constitutional power in your excellency to disapprove, without assigning a reason either before or after your dissent. Your excellency has thought proper to disapprove of some. We are far even from suggesting that the country has by this means been de- prived of its best and able servants. We have released those of the judges of the superior court who had the honor of a seat at the board, from the cares and perplexities of politics, and given them opportunity to make still farther advances in the knowledge of the law, and to administer right and justice with- in this jurisdiction. We have also left other gentlemen more at leisure to discharge the duties and functions of their import- ant offices. This surely is not to deprive the government of its best and ablest servants, nor can it be called an oppugnation of any thing, but a dangerous union of legislative and executive power in the same persons; a grievance long com- plained of by our constituents, and the redress of which some of us had special instruction, to endeavor at this very election to obtain.
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" Your excellency is pleased to say, that only one of all the American petitions ' was well received and of real use in pro- ducing the repeal;' that petition was forwarded from this prov- ince in season to be presented to the parliament, before the stamp act was passed; by whose influence the presentation of it was so long delayed by Mr. Agent Jackson, and omitted through that whole session of parliament, it is needless for us at present to inquire. If it was so well received as your excel- lency tells us it was, and of real use in procuring the repeal, there is reason to think it might have had its designed effect to prevent the passing that act, and saved this continent from that distress and confusion in which it has been involved. But your excellency is under a mistake, in supposing that this petition, alone, was well received and of real use. Those from the late general congress,* we are informed by our agent, Mr. Deberdt, were early laid before the ministry, and were well received by them. He tells us, that Mr. Secretary Conway kindly under- took to present that which was prepared for his majesty; and as the royal ear is always open to the distresses of his people, we have not the least reason to doubt but that so united a suppli- cation of his American subjects was graciously considered by him ; and with regard to those to the two houses of parlia- ment, one of them at least we know was highly approved of by the chairman of the committee for American affairs, was read in the house of commons, and supported by Mr. Pitt; it was never rejected, and we cannot suppose it failed of due attention merely for want of form. In truth, sir, we look back with the utmost pleasure upon the wisdom of the last house of represent- atives, in proposing such a union of the colonies; and although some have taken great pains to lessen the weight and import- ance of the late congress in the minds of the people, we have the strongest reason to believe that their firm and prudent measures had a very great influence in procuring this happy repeal.
" You are pleased to make a declaration that 'whenever an opportunity shall offer to restore harmony and union to the pro- vincial councils, you will most cordially embrace it.' The time, sir, is already come; never was there so happy a juncture, in which to accomplish so desirable an end; and it will be the pride of this house to improve it; with this disposition we come together. If any expression or sentiment in your speech should have a contrary effect, as it will so far defeat our honest inten- tion, it will fill us with real concern. Permit us also to say, that it will disappoint the expectations of his majesty and the parliament in repealing the stamp act; for it is most reasonable in them to expect that the restoration of the colonies to domes-
* Held at New York, October, 1765.
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tic peace and tranquillity will be the happy effect of the estab- lishment of their just rights and liberties.
" When your excellency shall 'be assisted by special instruc- tion, and speak to us with greater authority than your own,' we shall be all attention; being assured, from past experience, that every thing coming from his majesty will be full of grace and truth."
[This answer was prepared by T. Cushing, (the speaker) J. Otis, S. Adams, Col. O. Partridge, Maj. Hawley, Mr. Saun- ders, and Mr. Dexter.]
Answer of the Council to the Governor's Speech, June 7, 1766.
"May it please your excellency,-The board having taken into consideration your two speeches, beg leave to return our warmest congratulations on the repeal of the stamp act; an event that has created the greatest and most universal joy which was ever felt on the continent of America; and which promises the most happy fruits to Great Britain, from the growing pros- pect and grateful affection of her colonies. Not insensible of the difficulties which have attended this important affair, and the dangers, which, not only this province, but all America have escaped, we assure your excellency, that nothing shall be wanting on our part, which may contribute towards a proper improvement of this happy event, and the promoting so desira- ble an object as domestic peace. From such a disposition, we cannot but take notice, with regret, of any thing, which threat- ens to draw the least cloud over the present general joy. It is with pain we express our apprehension, that your excellency's speech may tend to lead some, who are not acquainted with the state of the province, to entertain such an opinion of the govern- ment, or the people, or both, as they do not deserve. When your excellency is pleased to mention 'inflammations, distrac- tions, infatuations, and the fury of the people,' you seem to refer to some enormities committed by unknown and abandoned persons, in a time of universal uneasiness and distress. But your excellency cannot mean to impute these enormities, justly abhorred by all ranks among us, to the body of this people, or any branch of the government. Detestable as they are, they can never lessen the reputation of this province; nor doth it need a veil on this occasion. Villains are to be found in the best communities on earth; and whatever excesses may have happened in America, under our late distressing apprehensions, the relief kindly granted us, demonstrates that our most gracious sovereign, and the British parliament, knew how to distinguish the complaints and dutiful remonstrances of loyal subjects, who thought themselves aggrieved, from the violences of a profligate rabble. Notwithstanding the intimations dropped from your excellency, we are sure no ill temper generally prevails among us; nothing can lead the parliament to repent its indulgence to
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