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CHAPTER XXIII. SECOND ANDROS PERIOD .*
Governor Dongan scarcely needed to know which way the political wind was blowing in England. If he might judge by the prevailing boisterousness in America it was not to the King's good. Storms of ever-increasing violence were con- stantly recurring in the American colonies, sometimes reach- ing such force as to threaten to uproot the royal oak alto- gether. The King heeded not the gathering storms; but shrewder minds among his retinue must have seen ominous portents in several colonial incidents. Worthy Englishmen (among them cultured men of the gentility) reached the col- onies as slaves, deeming themselves fortunate perhaps that their fate was no worse, after passing through the Bloody Jeffreys judicial mill. The Governor of Virginia was par- ticularly admonished by King James to see that these exiles continued as slaves for ten years at least. "Take good care," he wrote, "that they continue to serve for ten years at least." His request that the Assembly pass a law to ensure this only made the Assembly "more turbulent." The colonists could not be cowed as Jeffreys had cowed almost all who had come before him.1 But if Jeffreys had passed through any of the
*AUTHORITIES-Macaulay's "History of England"; Belfort's "History of the United States"; O'Callaghan's "Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York"; Bryant's "History of the United States"; Hawthorne's "History of the United States"; Green's "Short His- tory of the English People"; Chester's "Legal and Judicial History of New York"; Trumbull's "History of Connecticut"; the "Andros Tracts, Pub- lications of the Prince Society"; "Encyclopedia Britannica"; Brodhead's "History of New York"; White's "Nat. Cyclo. Am. Biog."
I. Some months after the Battle of Sedgemoor, which had such fatal consequences to the Duke of Monmouth, illegitimate son of King Charles II, who aspired to the throne of England then occupied by his uncle, James II, and which battle, by the way, was so easily won that Feversham had not even to rise from his bed to win it-at least so the wit of Buck- ingham gave forth-James II resolved to lay a heavy hand upon those who had in any way supported the Duke of Monmouth. He put this ter-
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American colonies after James had torn all their charters to shreds, and destroyed their independent governments, he might have found hundreds of heads more deserving of at- tainder and the noose than those unfortunate Protestants to whom he gave such short shrift during the Bloody Assizes.
New York, under Dongan, had been more fortunate than most of the other royalized colonies. James despised all prior charters, being determined to reduce all the colonies to direct dependence on the Crown. Even the Catholic Lord Balti- more found his charter dishonored. James entrusted his new colonial plans to Governors whom he felt were able to rule with a heavy hand. Dongan was of the earlier order-of the time when James, as Duke of York, had to deal more con- siderately with the colonists. But Andros, his first choice for the Massachusetts and New England of the new order, fitted admirably. In all colonies the plan, in general, was the same. A great source of revenue was expected to lie in the destruc- tion of land titles of individual colonists, by the destruction of
rorism in the hands of Justice Jeffreys, "a red-faced, swollen, bloated, hor- rible creature, with a bullying, roaring voice" which had served the pur- poses of the late King Charles, in bullying the municipalities so well that "they soon became the basest and most sycophantic bodies in the kingdom." In September, 1685, Jeffreys, accompanied by four other judges, set out upon the circuit "of which the memory will last as long as our race and language," wrote Macaulay. Just before he set out, Jeffreys was notified that "he might expect the Great Seal (Lord Chancellor) as a reward of faithful and vigorous service." So he had an additional reason for making that circuit memorable. He opened his commission at Winchester, which had not been in the theatre of war but whither some of the rebels had fled. Lady Alice Lisle, widow of Justice Lisle, had "shed bitter tears for King Charles the First," had befriended royalists in their extremity, but now "the same womanly kindness . . . would not suffer her to refuse a meal and a hiding place" to two wretched fugitives who came to her door. They were found in her house by soldiers next day. She thus innocently became implicated in the insurrection. And she was the first of those ill- fated prisoners who appeared before Jeffreys. The case is shown to in- stance what infamous judicial practices might have been introduced in New York had James II's reign not been cut short. What follows is in Macaulay's own words :
. . no English ruler . . . , the savage and implacable James alone excepted, had had the barbarity even to think of putting a lady to a cruel and shameful death for so venial and amiable a transgression.
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colonial charters, exorbitant fees for reconfirmation of title being the scheme. In most of the colonies there was to be no representative assembly, taxes were to be imposed at the will of the Crown, and a state church which could easily be made papal was to be organized.
Andros had had a somewhat uncomfortable twenty months of riding roughshod over New England, before he was called upon by James to add the New York and New Jersey govern- ments to his troubles. His work, in the matter of the Massa- chusetts charter was not difficult, for Charles had helped his brother James by declaring the Massachusetts charter for- feited eight months or so before he died. In the same year he had made Virginia a royal province. But Andros had an exciting time in Hartford, in 1687, when he demanded the Connecticut charter. Everywhere trouble was rising for James. The Virginians resorted to arms in 1688, and forced a more moderate government from the hitherto arbitrary Governor, Lord Howard of Effingham. Maryland was on
Odious as the law was, it was strained for the purpose of destroying Alice Lisle. She could not, according to the doctrine laid down by the highest authority, be convicted, till after the conviction of the rebels whom she had harbored. She was, however, sent to the bar before either Hickes or Nelthorpe had been tried. It was no easy matter in such a case to ob- tain a verdict for the Crown. The witnesses prevaricated. The jury, consisting of the principal gentlemen of Hampshire, shrank from the thought of sending a fellow-creature to the stake for conduct which seemed deserving rather of praise than of blame. Jeffreys was beside himself with fury. This was the first case of treason on the circuit; and there seemed to be a strong probability that his prey would escape him. He stormed, cursed and swore in language which no well-bred man would have used at a race or a cockfight. One witness named Dunne, partly from concern for Lady Alice, and partly from fright at the threats and maledictions of the Chief Justice, entirely lost his head, and at last stood silent. "O how hard the truth is," said Jeffreys, "to come out of a lying Presbyterian knave!" The witness, after a pause of some minutes, stammered a few unmeaning words. "Was there ever," exclaimed the judge, with an oath, "was there ever such a villain on the face of the earth? Dost thou believe that there is a God? Dost thou believe in hell fire? Of all the witnesses that I ever met with I never saw thy fellow." Still, the poor man, scared out of his senses, remained mute; and again Jeffreys burst forth. "I hope, gentlemen of the jury, that you take notice of the horrible carriage of this C.&L .- 28
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the point of rebellion in 1688; South Carolina had defied their Governor in 1687, refusing to pay quit-rents; and in 1688 North Carolina deposed and exiled their Governor. There probably was no darker day for any of the colonies than those of the few years of Crown government under James II. Had not William of Orange come to the rescue of England and ousted James in December, 1688, there seems little reason for doubting that the American colonies would have soon freed themselves. The population of the colonies was then about 200,000, by one account,2 and thus could muster a formidable militia force; and in those days most men possessed arms.
Certainly the affronts offered to the colonists by the royal Governors were sufficient to provoke a rebellion. In Massa- chusetts, for instance, Andros exercised absolute sway. There being no charter, he argued that there could rightly be no General Court; the extortionate taxes he imposed were there- fore by command; and to those who refused to pay, because such arbitrary measures infringed their inalienable rights and
fellow. How can one help abhorring both these men and their religion? A Turk is a saint to such a fellow as this. A pagan would be ashamed of such villainy. O blessed Jesus! What a generation of vipers do we live among !" "I cannot tell what to say, my lord," faltered Dunne. The judge again broke forth into a volley of oaths. "Was there ever," he cried, "such an impudent rascal? Hold the candle to him that we may see his brazen face You, gentlemen, that are of counsel for the crown see that an information for perjury be preferred against this fellow." After the witnesses had been thus handled the Lady Alice was called on for her defence. She began by saying, what may possibly have been true, that though she knew Hickes to be in trouble when she took him in, she did not know or suspect that he had been concerned in the rebellion. He was a divine. a man of peace. It had therefore never occurred to her that he could have borne arms against the government; and she had supposed that he wished to conceal himself because warrants were out against him for field preaching. The Chief Justice began to storm, "But I will tell you. There is not one of those lying, snivelling, canting Presbyterians but, one way or another, had a hand in the rebellion. Presbytery has all manner of villainy in it. Nothing but Presbytery could have made Dunne a rogue. Show me a Presbyterian ; and I'll show you a lying knave." He summed up in the same style, declaiming during an hour against Whigs and dis- senters, and reminded the jury that the prisoner's husband had borne a part in the death of Charles the First, a fact which was not proved by any testimony, and which, if it had been proved, would have been utterly
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privileges, he answered that they had, now, but one privilege : "not to be sold as slaves." Magna Charta, ancient liberties, the rights of freeborn Englishmen did not hold against the abolition of the right of habeas corpus. "Do you think the laws of England follow you to the ends of the earth ?" Andros tauntingly asked. He forbade any colonist, freeman or otherwise, to leave the colony without leave directly from himself. He made press censorship absolute, forbidding all printing except by the government printer. He flaunted Episcopacy before the Church of the Puritans; appropriated the old South Meeting House at Boston; declared that mar- riages were illegal unless solemnized by a Church of England clergyman. He dealt as drastically with the judicial system as with the religious. Perhaps, with the Jeffreys pattern in mind, Andros thought that, at the proper time, he might find a Chief Justice who would serve him as well as Jeffreys had served King James. Dudley seemed to promise well. "Juries were packed, and Dudley, to avoid all mistakes, told them
irrelevant to the issue. The jury retired, and remained long in consultation. The judge grew impatient. He could not conceive, he said, how, in so plain a case they should ever have left the box. He sent a messenger to tell them that, if they did not instantly return, he would adjourn the court, and lock them up all night. Thus put to the torture, they came, but came to say that they doubted whether the charge had been made out. Jeffreys ex- postulated with them vehemently, and after another consultation, they gave a reluctant verdict of Guilty.
On the following morning sentence was pronounced. Jeffreys gave directions that Alice Lisle should be burned alive that very afternoon. This excess of barbarity moved the pity and indignation even of that class which was most devoted to the Crown. The clergy of Winchester Ca- thedral remonstrated with the Chief Justice, who, brutal as he was, was not mad enough to risk a quarrel on such a subject with a body so much respected by the Tory party. He consented to put off the execution five days. During that time the friends of the prisoner besought James to show her mercy. Ladies of high rank interceded for her. Feversham . . spoke in her favor. Clarendon, the king's brother-in-law, pleaded her cause. But all was vain. The utmost that could be obtained was that her sentence should be commuted from burning to beheading. She was put to death on a scaffold in the market place of Winchester and underwent her fate with serene courage.
In Hampshire, Alice Lisle was the only victim; but on the day follow- ing her execution, Jeffreys reached Dorchester, the principal town of the county in which Monmouth had landed, and the judicial massacre began.
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what verdicts to render." Randolph, "that blasted wretch," as Mather calls him, was an able lieutenant. A justice of the peace who was of independent mind was not wanted: "The scabbard of an English Red Coat shall quickly signify as much as the commission of a justice of the peace," declared Andros, quite frankly. Education was paralized; the right of franchise was virtually taken away, by the order that oaths be taken with the hand on the Bible, a "popish" order no con- scientious Puritan would execute. Town meetings were for- bidden, save for the election of local officers ; and ballot voting was stopped. "There is no such thing as a town in the whole country," Andros declared. Massachusetts seemed to be prostrate-under the heel of a tyrant.3 Truly, the wrongs which spurred the colonists to revolution three-quarters of a century later were not so grievous as these. Yet Massachu- setts was not taking these injustices meekly. A strong, if quiet, resolution underlay their seeming acceptance of Crown government. In private meetings they were exhorted by their
The court was hung, by order of the Chief Justice, with scarlet; and this innovation seemed to the multitude to indicate a bloody purpose. It was also rumored that when the clergyman who preached the assize ser- mon enforced the duty of mercy, the ferocious mouth of the judge was distorted by an ominous grin. These things made men augur ill of what was to follow.
More than three hundred prisoners were to be tried. The work seemed heavy; but Jeffreys had a contrivance for making it light. He let it be understood that the only chance of obtaining pardon or respite was to plead guilty. Twenty-nine persons who put themselves on their country and were convicted, were ordered to be tied up without delay. The re- maining prisoners pleaded guilty by scores. Two hundred and ninety-two received sentence of death. The whole number hanged in Dorsetshire amounted to seventy-four.
From Dorchester, Jeffreys proceeded to Exeter. The civil war had scarcely grazed the frontier of Devonshire. Here, therefore, compara- tively few persons were capitally punished. Somersetshire, the chief seat of the rebellion, had been reserved for the last and most fearful vengeance. In this county two hundred and thirty-three prisoners were in a few days hanged, drawn, and quartered. At every spot where two roads met, on every market place, on the green of every large village which had furnished Monmouth with soldiers, ironed corpses clattering in the wind, or heads and quarters, stuck on poles, poisoned the air, made the traveller sick with horror. In many parishes the peasantry could not assemble in the house of
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ministers to keep their faith and hope alive for "God would yet be exalted among the heathen," they were told. Wil- lard's words were more significant ; he asked them to take note that they "had not yet resisted unto blood, warring against sin."
Andros had appeared in Rhode Island in 1687; had de- manded that the charter be delivered to him; and had become impatient when Governor Clarke had sought to temporize. Andros summarily dissolved the Rhode Island government and broke its seals. In the same year he dealt with Connecti- cut, the government of which had been warned by Dongan what to expect. Dongan had counselled them to submit to Andros; but there were some in Hartford who were far from that mind. On the last day of October, 1687, Andros entered the Assembly Hall at Hartford, while the Connecticut As- sembly was in session, with Governor Treat presiding. He came for the charter, but found that Governor Treat was
God without seeing the ghastly face of a neighbor grinning at them over the porch. The Chief Justice was all himself. His spirits rose higher and higher as the work went on. He laughed, shouted, joked, and swore in such a way that many thought him drunk from morning till night. But in him it was not easy to distinguish the madness produced by evil pas- sions from the madness produced by brandy. A prisoner affirmed that the witnesses who appeared against him were not entitled to credit. One of them, he said, was a Papist, and another a prostitute. "Thou impudent rebel," exclaimed the judge "to reflect on the king's evidence! I see thee, villain, I see thee already with the halter round thy neck." Another pro- duced testimony that he was a good Protestant. "Protestant !" said Jeff- reys ; "you mean Presbyterian. I'll hold you a wager of it. I can smell a Presbyterian forty miles." One wretched man moved the pity even of the Tories. "My lord," they said, "this poor creature is on the parish." "Do not trouble yourselves," said the judge, "I will ease the parish of the burden."
Jeffreys boasted that he had hanged more traitors than all his predeces- sors together since the Conquest .- Macaulay's "History of England," Vol. I, pp. 504, 505, 506.
2. The total population of the colonies at this date (1689) was about 200,000, as follows: Massachusetts (including Maine and Plymouth), 44,000; New Hampshire, 6,000; Rhode Island and Providence, 6,000; Connecticut, 19,000; New York, 20,000; New Jersey, 10,000; Pennsylvania and Delaware, 12,000; Maryland, 25,000; Virginia, 50,000; Carolina (as far as Florida), 8,000 .- Belfort's "History of the United States."
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somewhat contentious, entering "upon a defense of the fight of the colony to retain the ancient and honorable document, hallowed as it was by associations which endeared it to its possessors, aside from its political value." Andros, as usual, had the military arm behind him, and so continued strong in his purpose. Still, the dispute spread over so many of the hours of that day that candles had to be brought, lest they lose sight of the precious charter, which still lay upon the council table. By candle light the discussion proceeded. As it approached its climax, the Assemblymen left their seats and gathered around the table, "where stood on one side the royal Governor, in his scarlet coat laced with gold, his heavy but sharp-featured countenance flushed with irritation, one hand on the hilt of his sword, the other stretched out toward the coveted document-on the other the Governor chosen by the people, in plain black with a plain white collar turned down over his doublet, his eyes dark with emotion, his voice vi- brating hoarsely as he pleaded with the licensed highwayman
3. A great New England writer one hundred and seventy years later drew a graphic picture of what New England suffered under Andros, and the kind of government that was to be also established in New York.
"The roll of the drum," he says, "had been approaching through Cornhill, louder and deeper, till with reverberations from house to house, and the regular tramp of martial feet, it burst into the street. A double rank of soldiers made their appearance, occupying the whole breadth of the passage, with shouldered matchlocks and matches burning, so as to present a row of fires in the dusk. Their steady march was like the progress of a machine, that would roll irresistibly over everything in its way. Next, moving slowly, with a confused clatter of hoofs on the pave- ment, rode a party of mounted gentlemen, the central figure being Sir Edmund Andros, but erect and soldier-like. Those around him were his favorite councillors, and the bitterest foes of New England. At his right rode Edward Randolph, our arch enemy, that 'blasted wretch,' as Mather calls him, who achieved the downfall of our ancient government, and was followed with a sensible curse through life and to his grave. On the other side was Bullivant, scattering jests and mockery as he rode along. Dudley came behind, with a downcast look, dreading, as well he might, to meet the indignant gaze of the people, who beheld him, their only coun- tryman by birth, among the oppressors of his native land. The captain of the frigate in the harbor, and two or three civil officers under the Crown, were also there. But the figure that most attracted the public eye, and stirred up the deepest feeling, was the Episcopal clergyman of King's
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of England." Around the table were the determined Assem- blymen, men of strong visage and, in all probability, of horny hands, patriots of earnest purpose and courageous heart. The flickering candles seemed the proper setting for the drama, emphasizing the general agitation, and jerkily testify- ing to the impatience that might soon flare into something serious, or be snuffed out altogether ; the tension was too great to last much longer. Andros yearned to grasp the charter that was almost within his reach; his contenders longed for something else. It came-the preconcerted signal. Sud- denly, simultaneously, the hall was in darkness. But all was not still; indeed Andros felt himself jostled; knew that his sword arm was gripped as by a vise-like that he had striven to fasten upon the colonies. There was a shuffling of feet, a surging of unseen men about him, excited muffled conversa- tion. What it portended for him, he knew not; assassination, maybe, for those were days when human life was cheap. Perhaps he was afraid, although men of his time and station rather courted adventure, were not unused to such situations, and did not as a class shrink from the penalties of despotism, nor from the dangers of sport, in which the common people were sometimes the bait. The power of the sword was the only factor they recognized. Possessing it, Andros and his class could and would exact all it could bring them ; dispos- sessed, they took with what grace they could, often with non-
Chapel, riding haughtily among the magistrates in his priestly vestments, the fitting representative of prelacy and persecution, the union of church and state, and all those abominations which had driven the Puritans to the wilderness. Another guard of soldiers, in double rank, brought up the rear. The whole scene was a picture of the condition of New England, and its moral, the deformity of any government that does not grow out of the nature of things and the character of the people. On one side the religious multitude, with their sad visages and dark attire, and, on the other, the group of despotic rulers, with the high churchman in the midst, and here and there a crucifix at their bosoms, all magnificently clad, flushed with wine, proud of unjust authority, and scoffing at the universal groan. And the mercenary soldiers, waiting the word to deluge the street with blood, showed the only means by which obedience could be secured."- Hawthorne's "History of U. S."
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chalance even unto death, whatever penalties their victorious adversaries might impose. So, perhaps, Andros was unafraid. He was not lacking in courage in other tests. Yet it is re- corded that when the lights were again lit, the harsh stridency of expression so characteristic of Andros had changed to a husky murmur, not out of harmony with the temporary pallor of his face. "What devilish foolery is this?" he began. His voice was drowned in the volume that came from the strong lungs of a stalwart and seemingly astonished assemblyman, who thundered out: "The Charter! Where's the Charter?" as his massive palm came down upon the table with a clap that seemed to bring the answer echoing back from every corner, alcove, rafter: "Gone! Gone! Gone! Whither?" Andros was destined never to know during his term as Gov- ernor. He had to get along without it, and find what con- solation he could in the knowledge that the word Finis had been put to the records of the Connecticut Assembly.3ยช
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