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With this long proprietary experience, James became the sovereign of England and her dependencies. Yet, while as king he could no longer correspond directly with his co- lonial subordinates, he retained some tranquil pleasure in Cobnial guiding the action of his Plantation Committee. The dil- igent business habits of the Duke of York infused order Second. and economy into every department of the government of James the Second. As far as mere administration was con- cerned, his short reign seems to have been more effective than that of any other English sovereign.
But with orderly and frugal administration, Englishmen got a more despotie system of goverment. The personal II .- II
adminis- ration of
James the
A
498
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
Cuar. x. character of their industrious king was stamped on all his measures. James was too active to drift ; he always want- ed to row and to steer. Ilis ministers were less his ad- visers than his instruments. Governing at last without a Parliament, James of England became almost like Louis of France, himself " THE STATE."
Yet James was more a bigot than a tyrant. Ilis chief object was to establish in England the Roman Catholic re- ligion in place of the Protestant .. To this end he claimed sovereign power to dispense with statutes, forfeited char- ters of corporations, and delayed summoning a Parliament until he felt sure that it would meekly obey him. The king did not attempt, and probably did not desire, to abolish what popular representation there was in England, but he James ot than & tyrant. wished to make the English Lords and Commons as sub- more a big- servient as were his temporary ministers. He would have rejoiced to see Parliament in London resemble the docile "Bed of Justice" which affirmed the decrees of his kingly brother in Paris. If his English subjects would but think as he did, James would have liked their representatives to gather about him at Westminster and sanction the laws he desired. So they would maintain his supremacy by be- coming a breakwater to defend the crown's hoary preroga- tive against the advancing surges of democracy.
Popular representa- lowed in the English colonies.
Thus shunning popular representation in England, James denied it to the English colonies in America. These he in- sisted on governing by his royal prerogative as " depend- encies" of the British crown, and not as constituencies of the British empire. So had his predecessors determined ; so had English courts awarded; so were inost Englishmen willing that those colonies should be treated. As its pro- prietor, James had conceded to New York a popular As- sembly, which, as its sovereign, he had abolished. Dongan, with his Council in New York, and Andros, with his Coun- cil in New England, were now the only English makers, and the only English enforcers of laws throughout the ter- ritory between the Hudson and the Saint Croix. In New York, Dongan represented that imperial crown which first had delegated, and then had recalled British authority. So Andros, in New England, represented the same sovereign whose delegations of colonial power had been abused by
16SS. G wern- ment of James.
£
499
THOMAS DONGAN, GOVERNOR.
his trans-Atlantic subjects near Cape Cod. . James had al- CHAP. X. ready resolved that the vigor of direct monarchy would be better for them than the discords of substituted oligarchies, 16S8. which damaged his American realm. At the worst, An- dros was but one English ruler instead of several. Gov- ernor or oligarchs-commissioned by the crown or char- tered-all were creatures of their British king. "The Peo- ple" in New England had not given, and could not give, any authority to their colonial rulers. In truth, the American government of James the Second was more tolerant and James the just than that which it superseded. Certainly it provided Second's olonial for the prosperity and happiness of all classes of inhabit- policy tol. nt and ants, who, while not allowed colonial assemblies, were guar- just. anteed equal rights in America, and as large religious lib- erty as Englishmen in England.
Bigot and tyrant, James had one characteristic which shone in vivid contrast. He was a more patriotic English- man than his faithless brother. Anxious for the support of Louis, James scorned to betray England to France. Yet he had stretched courtesy by his treaty of colonial neutral- ity in the autumn of 1686. Scarcely had he remedied that error by his next year's agreement and his orders to pre- 22 Jan. vent hostilities in North America, when James saw that faithful to James Louis had gained an advantage. The American British England. colonies were at stake. New France, with its undefined territory, was governed by a viceroy, who executed his French king's orders. The neighboring British posses- sions had discordant local administrations of English au- thority. To the savages, Louis seemed a greater monarch than James. As long as Canada had the energy of union, while New England, New York, New Jersey, and Pensylva- nia were distinct and inharmonious, so long France would be stronger in America than England.
Dongan's warnings now impressed Whitehall: James's recent arrangement with Louis about colonial hostilities offered British statesmanship a grand chance to establish the supremacy of England in the trans-Atlantic world. And so the king did the best thing he could, which was to unite, as far as convenient, all the North American British possessions under one vice-regal government. Seeing that Andros had brought the New England colonies into de-
£
500
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
Policy of Consoli- dating the English colonies in America.
March.
Ap:il.
Peculiar condition of New York.
CHAP. X. pendence on the crown, James resolved to carry out his 16SS. policy of union or fusion. By this means he hoped to se- cure all his American territories against their neighboring Canadian adversary, and, at the same time, strengthen his own arbitrary rule over them. For colonial reasons, Don- gan had urged that Connecticut and the Jerseys should be annexed to New York. The matter of the Jerseys had been already decided. Finding that the king had expe- dited writs of scire facias against them, Perth, with his co- proprietors, surrendered their powers of government to him. Connecticut, however, had just been quietly joined to the other New England colonies under the government of An- dros. So, instead of annexing Connecticut to New York, as Dongan had asked, James resolved to add New York and the Jerseys to his " Dominion of New England." Thus all the territory which his grandfather's patent of 1620 had named " New England in America" would be brought, for the first time, under one royal English governor. Hither- to, New York had never really been a part of the titular "New England" of James the First. Her central geo- graphical position, her vast territory, her extraordinary va- riety of interests, and her peculiar relations to Canada and the Iroquois, had demonstrated that a separate goverment was a necessity for her. These considerations did not de- ter James the Second from his purpose of consolidating all lis American colonies north of the fortieth degree of lati- tude. Yet he made one solitary exception :- it was Penn- sylvania. Her Quaker proprietor had long enjoyed the fa- vor of James, who at this moment found him too useful an instrument to be offended. Protected by her astute own- er's "interest" at court, Pennsylvania, alone in her immuni- ty, escaped the forfeiture of her charter. But all the rest of British North America, between Delaware Bay and Pas- samaquoddy, and stretching across the continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific, was now to be made a political whole, under one colonial governor chosen by the king, to rule his " Dominion of New England.""
.
* Col. Doc., ifi .. 303, 391, 202. 207, 415, 416, 425, 429, 492; Hatch. Coll., 550 ; Leaming at ! Spicer, 004, 605: S. Smith, 204, 206, 211, DOS; Gordon, 53; Grahame, il .. 299; Bancroft, fi .. 46, 47 ; Whitehead's E. J., 112, 113 ; Index to N. J. Col. Doc., 18; Chalmer-'s Ann., 1. 5 ". 622: Rev. Col., i., 153 : Proud, i., 322, 341 : Dalrymple, if., 89, 90; Narcissus Luttrell, 1., 401; Macaulay, il., 292, 295; ante, vol. i., 06; ii., 415, 400.
501
THOMAS DONGAN, GOVERNOR.
Whom that viceroy should be was already determined. Cam. X. Either Dongan or Andros must be displaced. Both had been twice commissioned by James, first when duke, and 1688. afterward as king. Andros had the largest experience in Andros. government, and, perhaps, the best executive talent. He had already governed New York, and was now vigorously ruling New England to the satisfaction of his arbitrary sov- creign. Although " fond of prelacy," Sir Edmund was not a Roman Catholic. But he had proved himself an uncon- .promising executer of all the royal commands. A thorough soldier, Andros made quick obedience his canon of duty. On the other hand, Dongan, also a soldier, yet more a pa- Dongan. trician, was an Irish Roman Catholic, a nephew of Tyrcon- nell, and the presumptive heir of the intensely loyal Earl of Limerick. But, with equal affection and fidelity to his king, Dongan had more independence of character than Andros. IIe had not hesitated to foil and embitter Penn, nor to anger Perth and Melfort in his own master's serv- ice. He had been sharply censured by the King of France for maintaining the American interests of the King of En- gland. In a word, Dongan had shown more official " zeal" than a cunning politician might think expedient in a subor- dinate. So the Roman Catholic governor of New York was 23 March. superseded, and offered the command of a regiment, with made vice- Andros the rank of major general of artillery in the British army, American roy in the . and a new commission was ordered, making the Protestant jon" of " Domin- Sir Edmund Andros governor general of James the Sec- June3. ond's whole "Territory and Dominion of New England in America."*
. By this step James appeared to have made a graceful concession to Louis. Seignelay hastened to notify Denon- s March. ville that Dongan had been recalled, and that his successor was to live in harmony with the Canadian authorities. "Ilis Majesty," it was triumphantly added, " could not believe Louis de- that the King of England would countenance the chimeri- ceived. cal pretension which that Colonel would fain claim for him over the Country of the Iroquois." But in this Louis erred. While James recalled Dongan, he adopted Dongan's Indian policy; and the "speculative wisdom" which directed colo-
* Col. Doc., ill., 348, 254, 422, 423, 457, 492 ; ix., 014, 322 ; Mass. II. S. Coll., xxxii., 209; N. Y. Council Journals, i, Int., xxiii. ; Chalmers's Ana., 1, 425, 028; ante, 410-400.
502
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
36 Mare!
Cisr. X. nial union in British North America anticipated that it would " be terrible to the French, and make them proceed 1655. with more caution than they have lately done." At the same time that Andros was instructed to " entertain a good correspondence" with the French Canadian authorities, he was enjoined to " protect" the. Five Nations of New York as British subjects. So far was James from giving up what Louis called the " chimerical pretension" of Dongan, or from surrendering an acre of his claimed American do- minion to France, that he affirmed his sovereignty over the whole region lying between the Saint Croix, the Saint Law- rence, and the great lakes on the north, and the fortieth de- gree of latitude on the south, and stretching across the con- · tinent from sea to sea .*
1
James affirms his sovereign- ty in America.
7 April. The king's new com- mission to Andros.
Extent of
James the Second's
"Territory and Do- minion of New En- gland in America,"
The new commission which James now sent to Andros was similar to that which he had given him in 1686, with an additional clause annexing to his government the neigh- boring colonies of Rhode Island and Connecticut, the prov- ince of New York, and East and West Jersey, " with the ter- ritories thereunto belonging." By this instrument Andros was made King James's captain general and governor-in- chief of " all that tract of land, circuit, continent, precincts, "and limits in America, lying and being in breadth from "forty degrees of northern latitude from the Equinoctial "line, to the River of St. Croix eastward, and from thence " directly northward to the River of Canada, and in length "and longitude, by all the breadth aforesaid, throughout " the main land, from the Atlantick or Western Sea or "Ocean on the East part, to the South Sea on the West "part; with all the Islands, seas, Rivers, waters, rights, mem- " bers and appurtenances thereunto belonging :- (our Prov- "ince of Pennsylvania and Country of Delaware only ex- " cepted,) To be called and known, as formerly, by the name " and title of our Territory and Dominion of New England "in America." Thus, after sixty-eight years full of mar- velous vicissitudes, nearly all the nominal " New England" of James the First was brought, by his grandson, under the rule of a sole vice-regal representative of the British crown.t
' Col. Doc., ill., 504, 543, 545, 549; Ix., 263, 872; Hutch. Mass. Coll., 1, 371, 530 ; Chal- mers's Ann., i .. 425, 500; Rev. Col., 1., 184; Charlevoix, ii., 316; ante, 405.
+ Col. Doc., ill., 537-542; Chalmers's Ann., i., 425, 420, 500 ; Mass. H. S. Coll., xxvii., 133
3
503
. THOMAS DONGAN, GOVERNOR.
James's instructions to Andros, like those he gave to him CHAP. X. and to Dongan two years before, were minute and specific. 1688. Forty-two" of the principal inhabitants of his several colo- 16 April. nies and provinces were named by the king to be members The king's tions to of the Council of his " Dominion of New England in Amer- Andros as ica," to whom his governor general was to communicate in New his viceroy Eugland. such of the royal instructions as he should " find conven- 'ient." These counselors were to have freedom of debate, and seven of them were necessary to act as a quorum, except on "extraordinary emergencies." By the advice and consent of a majority of these counselors laws could be made and taxes imposed. The governor was authorized to suspend any counselor " for good and sufficient cause ;" and he was required to nominate to the Plantation Committee "persons fit" to supply vacancies. In nominating counselors, as well as in choosing judges, sheriffs, and other legal officers, he was "always to take especial care that they be men of es- tate and abilities, and not necessitous people, or much in debt, and that they be persons well affected to the govern- ment." All laws within the "Dominion" were to remain in force until the governor and his Council should make others. The "new seal," which had been devised in 1686 for the king's " Colonies of New England," was now to be alone used throughout his present "Territory and Domin- ion in its largest extent." As a consequence, it was direct- ed that the seal of the province of New York, which had been ordered in August, 1687, should be " broken and de- The seal of faced.". Liberty of conscience in matters of religion was to be de- New York to be allowed "to all persons, so they be contented with a stroyed. quiet and peaceable enjoyment of it," pursuant to the king's declaration of the fourth of April, 1687, which was " to be -149; xxxii., 20S ; Force's Tracta, iv., No. S; Rhode Island Col. Rec., iii., 212-218; ante, vol. i., 96; vol. ii., 449, 450.
* The persons composing Andros's council were now Joseph Dudley, William Stoughton, John Pynchon, Peter Bulkley, Richard Wharton, John Usher, Bartholomew Gedney, Jona- than Tyng, Edward Tyng, Barnaby Lathrop, Samuel Shrimpton, Simon Lynde, and Wil- liam Brown, of Massachusetts and Maine ; Robert Mason and John Hincka, of New Hamp- · shire; Thomas Hinckley, William Bradford. Daniel Smith, John Walley, and Nathaniel Clark, of Plymouth ; Walter Clarke, John Sandford, John Coggeshall [Coxhill], Walter New- berry, John Greene, Richard Arnold, John Alborough, and Richard Smith, of Rhode Island ; Robert Treat, Fitz John Winthrop. Wait Winthrop, and John Allyu, of Connecticut; Au- thony Brockholl:, Frederick Phillipse, Jervis Baxter, Stephen van Cortlandt, John Spragg, John Younge, Nicholas Bayard. and John Palmer, of New York : Francis Nicholson and Ed- ward Randolph, at this time of Boston. Col. Doc., iii., 543; R. I. Rec., ill., 255; Hutch. Massa, i., 354; Mass. HI. S. Coll., xviii., 182 ; Williamson, i., 564; Arnold, i., 503; Palfrey, iii., 553, 592, 604; Col. Rec. Conn., ili., 441, 412, 447.
£
£
304
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
Cuir. x. duly observed and put in execution." But nothing was said about the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Bishop of
1OSS. London or the Archbishop of Canterbury in the English American possessions. This had been provided for in the The Church of England not regard- ed in An- dros's in- structions. king's Instructions of June, 1686 ; but James, her " Defend- er of the Faith," now thought chiefly of subverting the En- glish Church establishment. Neither did he require any schoolmaster to be licensed by the Bishop of London or the Archbishop of Canterbury, as formerly. The injunction, however, was renewed, that no press be used, nor book be printed, without the governor's license. The English Roy- al African Company was to be encouraged, and "ill mas- Negroes and In- converted. ters" were to be restrained from inhuman severity toward dians to be their slaves, while the conversion of negroes and Indians to Christianity was to be promoted. The recent Instruc- tions to Dongan respecting the Iroquois were reiterated, and Andros was directed to inform the Governor of Cana- The Iro- quois to be protected 83 English subjects. da that the King of England had resolved to own the Five Nations as his subjects, and " to protect them as such." At the same time, he was to observe the agreement for pre- venting hostilities in America, and "entertain a good cor- respondence" with the French officers there."
20 April. Francis Nicholson lieutenant governor.
Such were the prominent directions of James for the gor- ernment of his New England dominion. As its territory was now so vast, it was necessary that some one should be appointed to act as chief executive officer under Andros in case of his absence, and to take his place in case of his death. Captain Francis Nicholson, who commanded one of the companies of regular soldiers at Boston, was accord- ingly commissioned to be the king's " Lieutenant Governor of New England, with directions to observe such orders as he shall receive" from its chief governor. To Andros's present salary of twelve hundred pounds, two hundred were added out of the six hundred allowed to Dongan, of which the remaining four hundred were assigned to Nich- olson as lieutenant governor. No place was fixed by the king as the " Seat of Government" of his dominion. It was necessarily transitory. It might be at Boston, or New York, or elsewhere, at the discretion of Andros, who, with
The New England seat of gov- ernment trausitory.
* Col. Doc., ill .. 372, 375, 427, 503, 504, 513-549 ; Masz. If. S. Coll., xxvii., 149; ante, 450, 451, 453-150, 490-404.
£
505
THOMAS DONGAN, GOVERNOR.
a majority of his counselors, could make laws whenever CHAP. X. and wherever they pleased .*
16SS. These arrangements were notified to Dongan by James, 29 April. who signified his pleasure that, on the arrival of Andros at The king New York, the seal and the records of that province must Dengan. notifies be delivered to him, and that its colonial governor should return to England, and expect marks of royal " entire satis- faction" about his services in the most important British possession in America.t
Ignorant of these sweeping changes which his sovereign was directing at Whitehall, Dongan had pledged his per- Dongan sonal credit, and even mortgaged his farm on Staten Isl -!
pledges his and, to secure upward of two thousand pounds which he New York. had borrowed from Robert Livingston to meet the expenses of the Albany expedition. The provincial debt was so. heavy that the governor had been obliged to call on Penn- 30 March. sylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and New Jersey to assist New York with ready money.#
But little aid came from abroad. Andros was required by the king to assist New York with the men; but not the money, of New England. In answer to Dongan's appeal, . Pennsylvania withheld and Maryland refused any help. Little aid Virginia was not disposed to contribute ; but Lord Howard, York from to New of Effingham, her governor, who had witnessed Dongan's colonies. the other zeal in Indian affairs, sent him five hundred pounds. New Jersey, anxious to stand well with the king, voted a tax for 14 May. the benefit of New York, which, however, does not appear to have been paid.§
When the accounts of the Albany expedition were at last made up, it was found that the province was so much in 3 May. debt that a new levy of money was necessary. Dongan and his Council accordingly passed an act to raise two thousand 17 May. five hundred and fifty-six pounds and four shillings in the i viel by New tax · Dongan several counties, according to a fixed rate. This tax was and his directed to be paid to Matthew Plowman, the king's new council.
* Col. Doc., ill., 374, 537, 512; iv., 203; Hatch. Mass., i., 362, Coll., 550 ; Palfrey, iii., 501, 502; ante, 451.
t Col. Doc., ill., 550; Council Min., v., 237; N. Y. H. S. Coll, iii., 353 ; Hutch. Coll., 564; Chalmers, i., 500.
$ Col. Doc., ili., 511; iv., 133, 134, 187; Hist. Mag., v .. 184; Doc. ITist., i., 107, 168; Coun- cil Min., v., 222, 220; Secret Services Ch. IT. and James IL., 195; ante, 497, 496.
$ Col. Doc., ili., 566, 619, 620; Dec. Hist .. i., 167; ii., 95; Penn. Arch., i., 104, 105; Col. Rec .. i., 217: Proud, i., 338; Burk, il., 301, 302, Bu3; Leaming and Spicer, 306-300; White- head, 113, 120, 121; Chalmers's Ann., 1, 406, 020 ; ante, 300.
506
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
Cuar. X. collector, at the custom-house in New York before the next November .*
168S.
4 April.
The New York Re- formed Dutch Church asks to be incorpo- rated.
Interesting local events had meanwhile occurred. Tl.c minister, elders, and deacons of the metropolitan ancient Dutch Church prayed Dongan that, as they wished to build their new church outside the fort, as had been contem- plated in 1650, the governor would establish them as " a body corporate and ecclesiastic, and thereby qualified per- sons, capable in law to have, hold, and enjoy lands and ten- ements, &c., under the name and style of the Minister or Ministers, Elders and Deacons of the Dutch Reformed Church in New York." But years rolled on before a suc- cessor of Dongan granted the desired patent to this ven- erable church of Dutch Reformed Christians in North America.t
30) April. 6 May. 19 May. 30 May.
Word having come from Albany that the French were again troublesome, the Council resolved that the governor should hasten there again, and soldiers be sent up the river Dongan goes again to observe their enemy. Dongan accordingly commission- to Albany. ed his counselors, Van Cortlandt, Phillipse, and Bayard, to manage provincial affairs during his absence from the me- tropolis, and gave them full instructions how to act as his temporary representatives.#
11 June. Dongan's corre- spondence with De- nonville.
Intelligence of the negotiations at London reached Don- gan at Albany, who informed Denonville that the King of England's letter to him of 22d January ought to end their disputes. A pleasant correspondence followed. The Iro- quois were directed by the Governor of New York to with- draw from Canada, and Mademoiselle D'Allonne, who had been taken prisoner at Cataracouy, was sent, with several
37 July.
* Council Min., v., 220, 230, 231; Doc. Hist., i., 167, 163; Council Journals, i., Int., xxi., xxii .; ante, 402.
1 On the 12th of December, 1656, Domine Selyns and the elders and deacons of the Dutch Church of the city of New York represented to the mayor and aldermen that they were willing to build their new church as soon as a convenient place and necessary materials should be provided, and prayed that their worships would grint them "a certain vacant piece of ground, formerly designated for that purpose, lying within this city, or any other convenient place," and also intercede with the governor to give them " a parcel of clipstone from the old fortificationa." The Dutch Church was built in Garden Street in 1693, and its officers were made the first religious corporation in New York by Governor Fletcher in 1696. Ant?, 331, 464, 465; Col. Doc., ill., 315, 415, 717 ; Doc. Ifist., fil., 249, 265, 305 ; Records of N. Y. R. D. C., Liber A., 40, 161, 169, 199 ; Patents, vii., 27-36 ; Smith, i., 301, 302 ; Murphy's Anthology, 125, 126; Note F., Appendix, p. 661, 662, post.
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