USA > Maine > The history of Maine > Part 12
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The energy of the Massachusetts government soon began to develop itself. The inhabitants of the three last-named towns were required within a year to construct a road wide enough for the passage of carts from house to house, within the town limits ; and also to connect their several towns with paths suf- ficient for woodmen or horses.
The ecclesiastical condition of the Province of Maine was at that time very discouraging. There was no ordained ministry. Though there were probably many individual Christians, who, in their humble, unostatentious lives, were developing the spirit of that gospel whose fundamental tenet is, " to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God," yet the clamor of noisy disputants and turbulent fanatics filled the land. Any brazen- faced man, however ignorant, however immoral, however atro- cious the sentiments he promulgated, could assume the position of a religious teacher. Ecclesiastical anarchy reigned. There was freedom of speech which no law restrained.
1 "Que town after another, yielding in part to menaces and armed force, gave in its adhesion. Great care was observed to guard the rights of property; every man was confirmed in his possessions; the religious liberty of the Episcopalians was left unharmed; the privileges of citizenship were extended to all inhabitants; and the whole eastern country gradually, yet reluctantly, submitted to the neces- sity of the change." - Bancroft, vol. i. p. 431.
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It would seem that the good sense of the majority of the people condemned these revolting proceedings of a bold and vagabond minority. The General Court of Massachusetts passed a law prohibiting any one from publicly preaching, without the approbation of the four neighboring churches. Each town was also required to support a pious ministry. It is supposed that the population of the towns which thus came under the juris- diction of Massachusetts amounted to about two thousand one hundred. There were many bitterly opposed to this " subjuga- tion," as they called it; but the minority was not strong enough to present any serious obstacle to the measure.1
The year 1651 opened, on the whole, favorably for the inhab- itants of New England. By fishing, agriculture, and hunting, the settlers obtained a competent support. The laws and human rights began to be more respected. Still there was a very radical difference in the ecclesiastical and political princi- ples of the early settlers of Maine and Massachusetts. Gorges and Mason were the avowed enemies of both the civil and religious views of the Massachusetts Puritans. They detested republicanism, and were strong advocates of the Church of England. With candor and truthfulness Mr. Sullivan says, -
" Gorges and Mason had been considered before the year 1640 as enemies in principle, to the New England Colonies. They were both anti-republi- cans, and were strong Episcopalians. They settled no orthodox clergyman, according to what the neighboring colonies called orthodoxy; nor did they, indeed, before that year, establish or support any kind of government, or even attempt to establish any form of worship; nor did they pay any atten- tion to public schools. It was very evident that they held all the Puritan regulations in contempt. Their government over their servants, vassals, and tenants, from a want of those regulations, became weak and inefficient. We therefore find constant complaints of their being plundered by their servants, cheated by their agents, and of being deserted by their vassals.
" Gorges wishing to have the other colonies annihilated, and to have a. general government over the whole country, urged the point of the king's re-assuming the lands granted by his ancestor, and making new grants of the whole; and according to this idea, he and Mason having surrendered their title, he took the charter in the year 1639, for the Province of Maine." 2
1 Williamson's History of Maine, vol. i. p. 356.
' History of the District of Maine, by James Sullivan, p. 141
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It was this underlying hostility between the Puritan and the Cavalier, which led the government of the Massachusetts Colony to take advantage of the civil war raging in England, to extend their charter so far to the east as to embrace the whole territory included in the Gorges and Mason patents. The political storms raging in Europe raised billows whose surges dashed against the rock-bound coast of the New World.
There was a little group of Dutchmen at the mouth of the Hudson River. There were a few English hamlets scattered along the coast of Massachusetts and Maine. Beyond the Pen- obscot were the straggling settlements, few and feeble, of the French. Vast realms, boundless and unexplored, spread out towards the west, whose grandeur the imagination was ex- hausted in the attempt to explore. One would have thought that these few impoverished people, struggling alike against the hardships of the wilderness, might have lived in peace as broth- ers, helping and cheering one another. They thus might have had happy lives, notwithstanding all the ills that flesh is heir to. Instead of this, a large portion of their energies were expended in shooting one another, burning the houses, devas- tating the plantations, and filling the land with the wailings of widows and orphans. Thus clouds and darkness ere long be- gan to overshadow the sky, and storms to arise, which put an end to all hopes of happiness. The English, the French, and the Dutch claimed the same territory, and were disposed to fight for its possession.
In the year 1657 the alarming report was circulated that the Dutch upon the Hudson were arming the savages of New Eng- land, and inciting them to a combined attack of extermination against the English settlements along the coasts of Maine and Massachusetts. The Indians of Maine were at this time quite numerous. They had obtained, both from the French and Eng- lish, guns and ammunition. Many of them had become skilful marksmen. Being as well armed as the white men, and con- scious of a great superiority in numbers, they became bold, very exacting, and often insolent. Not unfrequently a gang of half a dozen savages on the hunt would approach the log hut of some lonely settler. With swaggering air they would take pos-
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session of the premises, feast themselves to satiety, occupy the cabin for the night, and in the morning go on their way, without . saying so much as " I thank you."
The menacing attitude of the savages became alarming, and their depredations intolerable, and the more intolerable, since it was fully believed that they were stimulated to these outrages by the Dutch authorities at the mouth of the Hudson. The public agitation became so great, in view of these facts and these rumors, that a convention was held of the commissioners of the United Colonies, on the 19th of April, 1653, to take the subject into consideration. It was apprehended that the French on the east, and the Dutch on the west, were conspiring to crush the English between them. The reports were carefully inves- tigated. Indians were summoned before the court to give their testimony ; and then a very earnest letter was written to the Dutch governor requiring an explanation. Indignantly the governor replied, -
" There is not one word of truth in the scandalous report raised about my conduct. I marvel much at the novel course pursued in placing any confidence in the testimony of an Indian. I am ready at any time to make explanations, and to any extent within my power."
This denial of the governor did not satisfy the commissioners. Though they separated without declaring war against the Dutch, all friendly intercourse between them was interrupted. Indeed, the New Haven Colonists were under such apprehensions that the Dutch were about to bring down the powerful nation of the Mohawks against them, that they sent a petition to Crom- well, then Lord Protector of England, that he would aid them with a fleet and well-armed troops.1
1 Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts, vol. i. p. 166.
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CHAPTER VIII.
THE PROVINCE OF MAINE ANNEXED TO MASSACHUSETTS.
Troubles on the Piscataqua -Career of La Tour- Menaces of War - Measures of Cromwell -Conquest of Nova Scotia - Character of La Tour - Trading Post on the Kennebec-The Oath Administered -Sale of the Right of Traffic- Boundaries of Kennebec Patent-Political Connection between Maine and Massachusetts-Code of Laws -Northern Limits of Massachu- setts - The Articles of Union - Rev. John Wheelwright - Correspondence "- Restoration of Charles II. - Petition of Gorges - Charter to the Duke of York.
I
[T will be remembered that the Piscataqua River was the
south-west boundary of the Province of Maine. This region was one of the favorite resorts of the Indians. Early in the spring of 1653, just as the settlers were about to put their seed in the ground, the alarming rumor ran along the coast, that more than a thousand Indian warriors were upon the upper waters of the Piscataqua, resolved to lay all the defenceless settle- ments in ashes. It was still supposed, though probably very unjustly, that the Dutch governor on the Hudson was instigat- ing this movement. The government of the New Haven Col- ony despatched agents to England, to implore the protection of Oliver Cromwell, who was then in power. The Massachusetts Colony promptly ordered Major-Gen. Dennison, with twenty- four well-armed men, to reconnoitre the strength and position of the foe.1
La Tour, whose life had been as varied and eventful as the imagination of a romancer could fancy, was now residing at St. John, with Madame D'Aulney as his bride. Upon receiving his Catholic wife, he had renounced his Protestantism, and thus he gathered around him the powerful influences of the French
1 Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts, p. 156.
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court and the Papal Church. He was a wild, bold, reckless adventurer, but slightly influenced by any consciousness of right . or wrong. The Catholic missionaries had attained a wonderful ascendency over the minds of the Indians. It was strongly suspected that La Tour was combining the Indians of Canada, Nova Scotia, and Maine, to sweep away the English settle- ments, and thus vastly to extend his realms. Under these cir- cumstances, the General Court of Massachusetts prohibited all commercial intercourse with the French on the east, and the Dutch on the west, under penalty of the forfeiture of both ves- sel and cargo.
This plunged La Tour and his colonies into great distress. They had done but little towards raising food by cultivating the land. The savages lived a half-starved life, upon the little corn they harvested, esculent roots, fish, and clams. They had no provisions to sell. The French, with their trinkets, pur- chased the furs of the Indians, which were then in great demand. With these they had obtained ample supplies of food from the more highly cultivated regions of Southern Maine, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. This virtual blockade of their ports doomed them to starvation. La Tour, assuming that he was unjustly accused of conspiring against the English, bitterly remonstrated against this unfriendly act, when there was peace between the two nations.
It did seem to be a very harsh measure, for the Court acted upon suspicion alone without any convincing proof. For a time the General Court seemed disposed to change its policy. It occurred to some, that by treating the French kindly, and win- ning their friendship through intimate commercial intercourse, the Catholic priests among them might restrain and disarm the ferocity of the savage. They therefore loaded a vessel with flour and other provisions, and sent it to the St. John River.
In the mean time the energetic Oliver Cromwell had sent three or four war-vessels to Boston, with orders to raise there a volunteer force of about five hundred men, for the reduction of the Dutch colony on the Hudson. Secret orders were also issued, for this military expedition, which was very powerful for the time and region, immediately upon the conquest of
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Manhattan, to turn its arms against the French on the north- east, and make an entire conquest of the Province of Nova Scotia. Measures were in vigorous operation in Massachusetts, for organizing the naval and land force to strike these two col- onies by surprise, when the news reached Boston, on the 23d of June, 1654, that articles of peace had been signed between the English and the Dutch courts, and that hostilities against the Dutch colony were immediately to cease.
The energies of the expedition were turned towards Nova Scotia. By the treaty of St. Germain, executed twenty-two years before, this country had been surrendered to the French. It was one of the arbitrary acts of Charles I .; but still, accord- ing to the laws of nations, it was a legitimate transaction. As England and France were at peace, it would be difficult to jus- tify the conduct of Cromwell in sending, without any declara- tion of war; a military expedition to regain the territory. But the Lord Protector assumed that the king had no right to cede this territory, in violation of patents which he had granted his subjects ; and he affirmed that the purchase-money, of five thousand pounds sterling, promised by the French government, had never been paid.1
The expedition, having set sail, touched at the Penobscot, and then proceeded to the St. John, where La Tour had his prin- cipal fortress. The force was so strong that at neither place was any resistance offered. Indeed, La Tour seemed quite indifferent in view of the prospect of the change of European masters, so long as his territorial possessions and his personal property were respected. The English speedily took possession of the whole Province, and placed over it Capt. Leverett, one of the leaders of the expedition, as temporary governor. The French court complained of this operation, and for some time it was the subject of a diplomatic controversy. The English held the region for thirteen years, when, by the treaty of Breda, it was re-surrendered to the French.2
1 Williamson's History of Maine, vol. i. p. 261. Williamson presents several authorities to substantiate these statements.
" Holmes's American Annals, vol. i. p. 301; Hubbard's History of Now Eng land, p. 550.
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Soon after this La Tour died. His character was as strange as his singular and tumultuous career. He was a man of con- siderable ability, of good personal appearance, and of very plausible address. Sometimes rich, sometimes poor, sometimes a denounced outlaw, and again in favor with the court, he seemed quite devoid of any sense of honor, as almost of any distinction between right and wrong. Religion was with him like a glove, which was to be put on and taken off at his pleas- ure. His first wife was apparently a noble woman; in faith a Protestant, and in heart and life a sincere Christian.
D'Aulney battered down the fortress of La Tour, took his wife a prisoner, and kept her in captivity until her death. Upon the death of D'Aulney, La Tour rebuilt his fortress, married the Catholic widow of his deadly antagonist, surrounded him- self with Catholic priests, regained the patronage of the court, and lived in comparative power and splendor until he died. He left one child, Stephen de la Tour, to whom he bequeathed a very large landed estate, leaving many debts unpaid. Crom- well confirmed Stephen de la Tour in the possessions he inher- ited from his father. He, however, claimed no territory south of Passamaquoddy Bay.1
The Province of Nova Scotia was considered as of great value. The French finally ceded the country to England, and Cromwell appointed Sir Thomas Temple its governor. He entered upon his office in 1657, and discharged its duties with much ability, and with the courtesies of an accomplished gen- tleman, for ten years. When the Massachusetts government was condemning Quakers, he sent them word that any of the Quakers they wished to get rid of, he would cheerfully welcome to his Province, and would defray all the expenses of their removal.
It will be remembered that the Colony of New Plymouth had established an important trading-post on the Kennebec River. For a time the traffic was very lucrative. The Indians brought in large quantities of valuable furs, which they sold for mere trifles. But gradually the number of traders increased.
1 Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts, vol. i. p. 190; Williamson's History of Maine, vol. i. p. 162.
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Competition arose. The Indians became better acquainted with the value of their furs. Unprincipled adventurers crowded in, defrauding the Indians ; and the colony at Plymouth was too remote energetically to extend its laws over the distant region. A question also arose as to the title of New Plymouth to any territory on the Sagadahoc, between Merrymeeting Bay and the sea. Indian chiefs were also going through the farce of selling lands to individuals, to which the purchasers knew that those chiefs had no title.
It was indeed a chaotic state of society, and the seeds of innumerable lawsuits were being sown. Pressed by such em- barrassments, the Plymouth Colony decided to sell the right of traffic with the Indians on the Kennebec possessions. Five prominent gentlemen of the colony purchased this right for the term of three years, for the annual sum of about one hundred and fifty dollars.1 These gentlemen were Gov. Bradford and Messrs. Winslow, Prince, Millet, and Paddy. But there was no end to the complaints with which they were assailed, and to the annoyances which they encountered. Still the purchasers struggled on, breasting these difficulties, and at the expiration of their lease obtained its extension for three years more. By the terms of this renewal it was required that some one of the lessees should continually reside within the patent. It was deemed necessary to summon the inhabitants of that region, and require them to take the oath of allegiance to the new govern- ment established in England, and to the laws enacted by the New Plymouth Colony.
A warrant was issued to the inhabitants on the Kennebec, to assemble on the 23d of May, 1654, at the house of Thomas Ashley, near the banks of Merrymeeting Bay. Mr. Prince, as commissioner, met sixteen men there, and administered to them the following oath : -
"You shall be true and faithful to the state of England as it is now established; and, whereas you choose to reside within the government of New Plymouth, you shall not do, nor cause to be done, any act or acts di- rectly or indirectly, by land or water, that shall or may tend to the destruc- tion or overthrow of the whole or part of this government, orderly erected
1 Morton's New-England Memorial, p. 135.
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or established; but shall contrariwise hinder and oppose such intents t purposes as tend thereunto, and discover them to those who are in plac L the time being, that the government may be informed thereof with all ct 1- venient speed. You shall also submit to and observe all such good a id wholesome laws, ordinances, and officers, as are or shall be established with in the several limits thereof. So help you God, who is the God of truth, and punisher of falsehood." 1
A brief code of laws was also established by the convention. All capital crimes, such as treason and murder, were to be tried by the General Court at New Plymouth. Minor offences, such as theft, drunkenness, profaning the sabbath, and selling intox- icating drink to the Indians, came within the jurisdiction of the local commissioner's court. Fishing and fowling were declared to be free. All civil suits, not involving an amount exceeding one hundred dollars, were to be tried before a jury of twelve men.2
The value of the exclusive right of the fur and peltry trade with the Indians was continually decreasing. With the increase of population, game was becoming scarce. The Indians grew more shrewd in trade, and demanded higher prices. For three years, after 1656, the trade was let for an annual rent amount- ing to about one hundred and fifty dollars; and even this small sum the lessees declared, on the fourth year, that they were unable to pay. At length the monopoly was offered at a premium of fifty dollars a year.
The original patent, granted by the Council of Plymouth in England, to the Colony of New Plymouth, consisted of " all that tract of land or part of New England in America, which lies between Cobbossecontee, now Gardiner, which adjoineth the river Kennebec, towards the western ocean, and a place called the Falls of Neguamkike, and a space of fifteen miles on each side of the Kennebec."
It will be perceived that these boundaries were exceedingly indefinite. The location of Neguamkike Falls is uncertain. It is supposed that they were about sixteen miles above Cobbos- secontee River, near North Sidney.3 Mr. Williamson writes of this patent : -
? Records of Plymouth Colony. 2 Hazard's Historical Collections, vol. i. p. 5SG
8 Hist. of New England by Coolidge and Mansfield, p. 168, note.
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"Its limits, as ultimately settled, were in the north line of Woolwich, below Swan Island, on the eastern side of the Kennebec, through the south bend of the river Cobbossecontee, on the western side, and fifteen miles in width on either side of the main river, to an easterly and westerly line which crosses Wessarvnsett River, in Cornville, a league above its mouth; contain- ing about one million five hundred thousand acres." 1
This grant conferred the exclusive right of trade with the natives, and at all times an open passage down the river to the sea. For some time the proprietors claimed the whole territory to the ocean. This led to litigation, an account of which would only weary the reader. In the year 1661 the whole patent was sold to a company, for a sum amounting to about two thousand dollars. Soon after this the company erected a fort at Maquoit.2
Years passed slowly away, while the affairs of this remote and dreary trading-post continued to languish. No attempt was made to establish a plantation there for agricultural pur- poses. The government was chaotic, and but little respect was paid to laws or rulers. Emigration, for a time, was flowing back from the New World to the Old; and New Plymouth had no surplus population to send to the banks of the Kennebec.
But the political connection now formed between Maine and Massachusetts continued, with some slight interruptions, for a period of one hundred and sixty-seven years. The salutary laws of Massachusetts were gradually accepted by the people. The Massachusetts government was administered by a gov- ernor, a deputy governor, a council of eighteen, and a house of deputies. It was truly a republican government, the rulers being chosen by the people. The towns elected the represen- tatives. Ten freemen entitled the town to one deputy ; twenty, to two. None could have more than two. No one could be a deputy " who was unsound in the main points of the Chris- tian religion, as held forth and acknowledged by the generality of Protestant orthodox writers."3 Under the colonial charter, Maine was never represented by more than five deputies at one time. The reader who is interested in the details of the politi-
1 Williamson, vol. i. p. 237.
2 Greenleaf's Reports, vol. iii. p. 111; Sullivan, p. 118.
8 Records of Massachusetts Government, vol. ii. p. 238.
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cal, ecclesiastical, and military administration, will find them quite fully presented in Williamson's excellent History of Maine.
The people who were religiously disposed were encouraged by law to congregate and embody themselves into a church estate, to elect and ordain their officers, to admit and to disci- pline or to excommunicate their members. And yet it was declared that no church censure was ever to affect any man's property, civil dignity, office, or authority. It must be admitted that the practice was not always in accordance with these avowed principles. The connection between Church and State was so intimate in England, that the colonists in their new home could not entirely dissever them.
By a law enacted in 1644, it was declared, that to affirm that man is justified by his own works, and not by Christ's righteous- ness; or to deny the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body, the sacredness of the sabbath, or the authority of the magistracy, - tended to subvert the Christian faith, and to destroy the souls of men. It was also enacted, in 1646, that it was highly penal for men to withhold their children from bap- tism. It is a sad comment upon the times, that many were severely punished by fines, whipping, and banishment, and some few were even executed, for neglecting the baptism of their children.1
Every ecclesiastic of the order of Jesuits, as " devoted to the religion and court of Rome," was ordered into banishment, unless he came as a public messenger; even then he was to be banished if he behaved offensively.
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