USA > New York > History of the state of New York. Vol. II, Pt. 2 > Part 21
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garchy de- bined interests should have earnestly worked together to Massachu- some in obtain the restoration of an oligarchy under which they setts. had enjoyed such valuable privileges .*
The charter which Charles the First had granted to Mas- sachusetts in 1629 had made a corporation " which knew no representative body." Almost its first act was to form a religious aristocracy. By its laws of 1631 and 1664, no person could be a "freeman" of the Massachusetts corpora- tion unless he was a Puritan Church member, or was cer- tified to be "orthodox in religion" by a Puritan minister. Most of the inhabitants of Massachusetts in 1684, when its charter was canceled, were not Puritanical communicants ; yet this popular majority was utterly disfranchised. Thus the Bay corporation was perverted into a mere sectarian oligarchy. The majority of her inhabitants were not rep- resented in her General Court ; they could not act as mag- istrates ; they were taxed without their consent and against their will; they were forced to pay rates to support Puri- tan ministers whose preaching they did not desire; they could not worship their Creator in any other way than that which the " freemen" of the corporation dictated; and they were thus the victims of a hideous spiritual despotism. Class-government can not be democracy. Before the Mas- Class-gov. sachusetts charter was canceled the majority of inhabitants not democ. ernment had no real political equality; and not until the abrogation racy. of that charter did exclusive privilege give way to equal
' Col. Doc., ill., 552, 553, 511, 531. 552 ; ix., 120; Hutch, Mass .. i., 177, 178 : Coll., 573, 574; Val. Man., 1357, 401, 462; Chalmers's Annals, i., 421; Palmer's Impartial Account, 20; Mather's Magnalla, if., 99; Barry, i., 344; Palfrey, il., 403, 404; Andros Tracts, L, 41.
320
HISTORY OF THE'STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHP A. righits, nor was any genuine democracy known,in the boas :- ful colony .*
ICSS.
When the English crown resumed the power which had ruled Massachusetts indirectly by the perversion of a rova! charter, it was natural that her Puritan preachers should have keenly felt their altered condition, and have bitterly vented their griefs. They could no longer control their flocks in choosing officers of the corporation, who would make laws to suit them. Their political supremacy was gone. There was now popular equality near Boston, where sectarian privilege had flourished of old. The ery soon The Massa- went forth that "wild beasts of the field" had entered chusetts " hedge" broken by Episcopal "wild beasts." through the broken "hedge," and were ravaging that sheep- fold of which Puritanism had so long enjoyed the exclu- sive pasture.
There was truth in this metaphor of Cotton Mather. Most composers of American history have denounced Andros, as Governor of New England, in terms of coarse invective. They generally describe him as a mere bigot, and minion, and tyrant, with hardly a redeeming trait. New En- gland mis- represen- tatious of Andros. The chief authority for such representations are carly New England writers, whose partisan statements have been reit- erated without question, to the exclusion of almost every thing recorded by others. Whether James the Second's commission and instructions to his governor were more or less "arbitrary" or "illegal" than the canceled charter which Charles " the martyr" had granted to Massachusetts, was certainly not a question for Andros to answer. IIe was not to blame because James had directed New England to be governed without an Assembly, by himself and his counselors. Andros's duty was to execute his sovereign's' commands ; and this he did with characteristic energy- faithfully, fearlessly, and sometimes harshly. In doing this Andros's adminis- tration not liked in duty, he greatly offended the "perverse people" with whom he had to deal, and who had so long been accustomed to Massachu- order every thing in their own way. So they thought it a Ectts. great wrong that deponents should be required to touch
* IIntch. Mass., 1., 25, 26, 231, 423 ; ii., 1-5; Coll., 1-23. 418, 454; Mas. Rec., i., ST: iv.(ii.), 117, 11S; Chalmers's Annals, i.,. 136-154; Rev. Col., i., 41, 42; Col. Doc., iii., S7, 111. 5 2; Mather's Magnalia, i., 200; Story's Misc. Writ., 64, 06; Bancroft, i., 842-345, 300 ; il., 15-3; ilf., 74: Darry, i., 159-162, 322: Hist. Mag., Jan , 1867, p. 6: Boston Transcript, 21 Frb . 1SGT; Palfrey, i., 200, 201, 313-348, 353, 872-378, 368, 439-124; D., OST, 610; 11, 250-300; ante, vol. L, 199, 208.
£
527
SIR EDMUND ANDROS, GOVERNOR GENERAL.
the Bible instead of holding up their hands; a grievance CHAr. X. that Quakers should be allowed "freedom to worship God" in their own fashion, and be excused from paying forced 168S. rates to support Puritan clergymen; an offense that the Episcopal Church service should be celebrated in Boston by Rector Samuel Myles. They liked their own censorship of the press, but they did not like that press to be muzzled by an agent of their royal governor. It was especially galling that West, and Farewell, and Graham, and Palmer, The New the chief subordinates and "confidents" of Andros, had fidents of come from New York. Many of the acts of these experi- ernor. the gov- enced officials were selfish and oppressive. Land titles were questioned, perhaps that fees might be exacted for new pat- ents. Other official charges were avariciously increased. The judges administered the law strictly ; and they were stupidly blamed for not allowing writs of habeas corpus under the English statute of 1679, which did not extend to the British colonies. For every thing done by each of his subordinates, the governor was held responsible. Most of his own acts were able and statesmanlike, while some of them were arbitrary and provoking. The real fault of An- dros was that he administered his government too loyally to his sovereign, and too much like a brave soldier. What is called loyalty often depends on fashion or accident. In- stead of conciliating, Andros wounded; and James, seeing the injury his viceroy was doing him in New England, was obliged to rebuke his excessive zeal .*
The king's declaration for liberty of conscience of April, 1687, which had been proclaimed at Boston and in New York the following November, was at first received with joy by the most sanguine of his New England subjects. Puritans thought it a deliverance from English prelacy ; Liberty of Quakers and Anabaptists felt that they could at last share in Massa- conscience in the liberty which Congregationalists had monopolized ; chusetts. and the small band of Episcopalians gathered in Boston re-
* Force's Tracts, iv., No. 9, No. 10; Mather's Magnalia, i., 175-178; Historical Magazine, Fi., 10, 11, 13; i. (ii.), 7 ; Holmes's Annal-, i., 403, 420, 421 ; Chalmers's Annals, i., 74, 142, 421-429, 404-468; Rev. Col., i., 150-155; Palmer's Impartial Account, 13, 21, 25; Col. Doc., iii., 357, 582, 722: Hatch. Mas :. , i., 353-563; Coll., 555, 557; Bancroft, ii., 425-433 ; Gra- hame, i., 357-387; Barry, i., 486-408; Arnold, i., 4-5, 492, 501, 514-517; Palfrey, iii., 518- 555; R. I. P.ec., ill., 199, 223 ; Anderson's Col. Church, ii., 456; Mass. II. S. Coll., xxv., 14 ?; ante, 038, 511. The first Episcopal service in Boston was in the South Meeting-house, cn Good Frilay, 1657. An Epi-copal Church was soon afterward built, of which Samuel Myles became the rector : Palmer, 33; Andros Tracts, i., 53 ; Mass. H. S. Coll , xxvii., 192-105.
York con-
£
528
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
,
Puritan hotred of Episcopa- cy.
Cuar. x. joiced that they might now freely hear the beautiful litur- 1688. gy of their denomination read by a surpliced clergyman. What in modern times has been called " Broad Church" seemed now to be established by James throughout British North America. But the Puritan clergymen of Massachu- setts quickly caught an alarm. They were vexed because "a licentious people take the advantage of a liberty to with hold maintenance from them," and because Andros would! not allow distresses to be levied for the compulsory taxes by which they had been comforted of old. Puritanism waxed wroth around Boston when it discovered that its own hatred of Protestant Episcopacy was surpassed by that of the Roman Catholic head of the Church of England ; and the most discerning politicians of Massachusetts began to dread a royal toleration more than the enforcement of the suspended penal laws about religion -" the only wall against Popery." Addresses of thanks to Jamies were ney- ertheless adopted by several congregations; but, at the same time, petitions were signed for relief from the imperious administration of Andros. These were intrusted to In- crease Mather, the most eminent Puritan minister of Bos- ton, who, escaping the vigilance of Randolph, by whom he had been sued for a libel, sailed for London, apparently hoping to obtain from the king a restoration of the can- celed Massachusetts charter."
7 April. Mather goes to London.
But the determination of James to maintain the govern- ment he had established in New England could not be shak- en. Personal favorites, successful in other points, were foil- ed in this. William Phipps, a native of Pemaquid, where he had spent his youth in honest toil, had won the king's special regard, in 1687, by his success in recovering a large treasure from a Spanish wreck near Ilispaniola. The hum- ble ship-carpenter of Maine was made an English knight ; and his sovereign, who claimed half the riches taken from the sea, offered him an opportunity to ask what he pleased. Sir William prayed " that New England might have its lost privileges restored." But James replied, " Any thing but
Sir Wil- liam Phipps.
* Rapin, il .. 758; Hutch. Mass., 1, 75, 76, 357, 358, 366 ; Coll., 555, 564, 565 ; Chalmers'4 Annals, i., 170, 423, 424, 426, 464-465; Mather's Magnalia, i., 197; Col. Doc., iii., 538; CAL Rec. Conn., ii., 3:2. 313; Force's Tracts, iv., No. 10, p. 10; Mass. II. S. Coll., xxxV., 15-19; Palmer's Account, 32; Andros Tracts, il., x., xi. ; Bancroft, if., 426-132; Barry, i., 496, 423; Palfrey, ill., 400, 548-555; ante, 400, 491.
529
SIR EDMUND ANDROS, GOVERNOR GENERAL.
that." Phipps then, at a large expense for fees, obtained a CHAP. X. royal patent making him high sheriff of New England, hop- ing that he might thereby be able to supply it with " con- 16SS. sciencious juries." Thus appointed, Sir William came to Boston, by way of the West Indies, in the summer of 1688, some months after Mather had gone to England. But An- dros, who was then " in the western parts" of the dominion, August. or in New York, having already commissioned James Sher- lock to be sheriff of Massachusetts, " found a way wholly to put by the execution" of Phipps's costly patent from the king, and "a few weeks" afterward Sir William returned September. in his ship to London, with some merchandise obtained from the imprisoned pirates in the Boston jail, and "with some further designs then in his mind."*
In the mean time, Mather had been kindly received by 30 May. James, to whom he presented the addresses of thanks he ceived
Mather re- had brought from New England, and afterward submitted James. kindly by complaints of the "enslaved and perishing estate" of the 1 June. inhabitants, by reason of the misgovernment of Andros. In concert with Nowell and Hutchinson, former magistrates of Massachusetts, Mather also presented memorials for lib- erty of conscience, and for favor to the college at Cam- bridge. But these spoke of the Episcopal Church in such "very indecent language" that they disgusted the king's . ministers, and the agents having been summoned before the Plantation Committee, "they withdrew their petition 10 June. and did not appear." ' Having gained the favor of Father Edward Petre, the king's Jesuit confessor and counselor, the agents then petitioned for a confirmation of estates in New England, " and that no laws might be made, or mon- ies raised, without an Assembly; with sundry other par- . ticulars." James referred this petition to his Plantation 10 August. Committee, who directed Sir Thomas Powis, the attorney general, to make them a report. But in the copy of the petition sent to Powis, " the essential proposal of an Assem- bly was wholly left out" by Lord President Sunderland, sunder- who told " Mr. Brent, of the Temple," the solicitor of the land.
.
* Mather's Magnalia, i , 167-176, 178; Douglas, 1 , 475; Kennett, ili., 470 ; Hatch. Mass., i., 206, 397 ; Coll., 558, 573, 571 ; Force's Tracta, iv., No. 2. p. 23; Col. Doc., iii., 491, 552, 592, 720 ; Oldmixon, i., 120-132, 134, 138 ; Evelyn, il., 278; Ellis Corr., i., 295-297. 225; il., 30; Palfrey, iii., 390, 500, 501; ante, 524. Mr. Palfrey errs in supposing that Mather found Phipps in London when he reached there. In the summer of 1055 Phipps was in Boston, after a second visit to the Spanish wreck in the West Indies.
II .- LL
330
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
I HAR, X. petitioners, " that it was by his advice that the King ha ! given a commission to Sir Edmund Andros to raise m.
Powie.
1688. eys without an Assembly, and that he knew the king woul 1 never consent to an alteration, nor would he propose it to his Majesty." Powis, however, was " dexterously gained." and by the assistance of Brent, a report was obtained from him that the charter of Massachusetts had been "illegally vacated." A copy of Powis's opinion was dispatched to Boston, where it was used to excite hopes of a new char- ter "with larger power." Hinckley, of New Plymouth, had also asked relief for that colony through Richard Wharton, one of the royal counselors then in London. During the summer, in spite of the declared opinion of the king, the Massachusetts agents still hoped to be allowed an Assembly clected by the inhabitants, without which their condition was "little inferior to absolute slavery," and the mere change of the governor would not " case any thing." Sec- ing at length that they could not obtain their desire, they asked the Plantation Committee to report "that until his Majesty shall be graciously pleased to grant an Assembly, the Council should consist of such persons as shall be con- siderable proprietors of lands within his Majesty's domin- ions; and that, the counties being continued as at present, each county may have one at least, of such of the inhabit- ants of the same, to be members thereof; and that, no acts may pass for law but such as have or shall be voted by the manifest consent of the major part of the Council." The agents of Massachusetts at last perceived that they could expect neither a restoration of its old charter nor a separate colonial government. Looking upon the "Domin- ,jon of New England" as permanently established, they now The Massa- asked that each county should have a counselor who must chusetts agents ask King James to
October.
establish a landed ar. istocracy in their colony.
be a large landowner, and that no laws should be passed without the consent of a majority of these counselors. This detestable proposition, if accepted by the king, would have placed English colonial government in the hands of a local aristocracy of landowners. Yet such was the deliberate supplication of Massachusetts to James the Second .*
* Narcissus Luttrell, L. 443 ; Narrative of the Miseries, etc., 32, 33; Andros Tracts, il., xi. -xv., 3-14. 200; Mather's Magnalia, i., 197; Parentator, 109, 110; Mass. H. S. Collectives, xxxv., 169-189 ; Hutchinson's Massachusetts, 1., 362, 366-869 ; Coll., 565, 571 ; Chalmers's Ann., i., 424-421, 400-463 ; Rev. Col., i., 179, 185; Colonial Documents, iii., 573; Historical
£
531
SIR EDMUND ANDROS, GOVERNOR GENERAL.
Whether James would have adopted the policy thus so- CHAP. x. licited is a problem. Extraordinary events were culmina- ting in England which postponed definite action in colonial 1688. affairs. Yet William Penn retained the favor of his sov- ereign, who made him "Supervisor of Excise and hearth- 17 Septem. money," and promised to enlarge Pennsylvania by "a grant vored by Penn fa- under the Great Seal for the three counties on the Dela- ware." If this promise had been executed, there would have been one less North American State, and New York would now have had a rival sister, no less powerful in com- merce than in agriculture. Yet, while James especially favored Penn, he promised Mather a "speedy redress" of .many grievances in New England; and that, in the mean time, Andros " should be written unto, to forbear the meas- 26 Septem. ures that he was upon." No "such thing," however, was done. Without consulting his ministers, the king never- theless declared in writing that he would grant his subjects 16 October. there "a full and free liberty of conscience and exercise promises. James's of religion, and their several properties and possessions of houses and lands, according to their ancient records; and also their college of Cambridge, to be governed by a Presi- dent and Fellows, as formerly. All to be confirmed to them under the great seal of England."*
But none of these promises were performed by James. While he was making them, as he afterward informed Pope Innocent the Eleventh, "it was his full purpose to have" set up [the] Roman Catholic Religion in the English Plan- James's tations of America." This idea seems to have been medi- tated as early as 1671, when it was suggested to Charles the Second that Irish Roman Catholics " may transport then- selves into America, possibly near New England, to checl: the growing Independents of that country."t
A revolution in England prevented any attempt to exe- cute such a design. The rash bigotry of James precipi- tated the event which observing men had foreseen. It alarmed the penetrating judgment of the Vatican. "We
Magazine, vi., 13; Force's Tracts, iv., No. 2, p. 10; London Gazette, 1S June, 16SS; Palfrey, iii , 564-506.
" Narcissus Luttrell, i., 401 ; Ellis Corr., ii., 211; Chalmers's Ann., i., 427, 463; Parenta- tor, 114, 115 ; Rev. Col., i., 200 ; Dixon, 325; Historical Mag., vi., 13; i. (ii.), 8, 9 ; Force's Tract-, iv., No. 9, p. 10; Palmier, 32: Andros Tracts, i .. 52 ; il., xv .. xvi .. 274: ante, 366.
+ King's "state of the Protestants of Ireland," 209 ; Mather's Magnalia, i., 179; Paren- tator, 116; antr, 184, 185.
realdesign.
532
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
(or x. must," said the thoughtful cardinals of Innocent, "excom- municate this king, who will destroy the little of Catholi.
1088. cism which remains in England." But before Rome could apply her " brake," the English king had accomplished his fate. A few days after James commissioned Andros to be the governor general of his enlarged " Dominion of New 27 April. James's England," he issued a second declaration for liberty of con- recond dec. science, in which he renewed his abrogation of all test- Inration for liberty of conscience.
oaths and laws against dissenters, and announced that none should serve him but such as would aid him in his own de- signs. To give this unconstitutional declaration greater 4 May. effect, James ordered it to be read in every church in his kingdom. But Archbishop Sancroft, of Canterbury, and 13 May. six other bishops, in a petition, refused to obey the king's S June. command. This petition James pronounced to be " a sedi- 29 June. tious libel," and the seven prelates were committed to the Trial of the Tower, and arraigned before the Court of King's Bench. 90 June. bishops. Their ac- quittal. Eminent counsel, among whom was John Somers, defended the prisoners, whom, after full trial, the jury acquitted. The verdict was joyfully received by most Englishmen as a fatal blow to the arrogated prerogative of their sovereign. The only consolation which James had now left him was the hope that the son whom his, Italian queen had mean- while produced would succeed him as a Roman Catholic king of England, to the exclusion of both his Protestant daughters by Anne Hyde.
1º Jane. Birth of the Prince of Wales.
30 June. The Prince ef Orange invited to Ragland.
But no Prince of Wales was to succeed James the Sec- ond on the English throne. God's field in Britain had now been harrowed enough. The crisis had come. English Protestants-Episcopal and dissenting-were aroused. Ox- ford Tories now adopted the Whig doctrine of resistance. Even the insular antipathies of Englishmen were subdued. Feeling that their sovereign should be a Protestant, many who had never before looked for good from Holland saw that their only "Deliverer" could be the husband of their Princess Mary, the Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic, the Calvinistic William of Orange. The very day that the bishops were acquitted, a secret invitation was sent to the Dutch prince, imploring him to come over to England, where he was assured multitudes would hasten to his staud- ard.
TOTATHE
533
SIR EDMUND ANDROS, GOVERNOR GENERAL.
If no Prince of Wales had been born, the Princess Mary CHAP. X. of England and of Orange would, of course, as heiress, have succeeded to the British throne on the death or the 16SS. abdication of her father. But the event which gave so much joy to James compelled William to become a party to measures which involved a fundamental change in the British Constitution. By that Constitution Mary of Orange could not take the crown of England as its presumptive heiress as long as her new-born half-brother lived. While a rebellion might drive her father from his throne, nothing but a revolution could prevent the succession of his son. But such a revolution could only be the work of English- men. The Dutch Stadtholder's position was embarrassing. William's Yet his capacity and prudence surmounted complicated policy. difficulties. Quietly, but skillfully, he organized in Hol- land a military and naval expedition. For a time, both Louis and James were ignorant of its object. A declara- tion explaining William's purposes in going over to En- 1; Oct. gland was at length printed at the Hague, and published in London. The prince then took leave of the States Gen- eral, and embarked at Helvoetsluys. Cornelis Evertsen, Evertsen. of Zealand, who had led an avenging Dutch fleet up to Manhattan in 1673, now assisted in conveying the Prince of Orange to England. William's expedition landed at Torbay on the day after his own birthday, and on the 5 Nov. eighty-third anniversary of the "Gunpowder Plot" of Guy finds at Williain Fawkes in 1605. "JE MAINTIENDRAI"-I will maintain Torbay. -- was the ancient legend of the house of Nassau. As William stepped on shore in Devonshire, his banner dis- 5 Nov. played his own Batavian arms, quartered with those of his English wife, and his unambiguous motto now read, " I WILL, His motto. MAINTAIN THE PROTESTANT RELIGION AND THE LIBERTIES OF ENGLAND."*
The reception which William met at first in England was cooler than had been promised him. Indeed, if James had acted with judgment, he might even now have saved his crown and prevented the coming revolution. When,
* Lavallée, ili., 272-276; Kennett, iii., 470-495; Barnet, i., 736-7SS; Clarke's James II., ii .. 151-214; Parl. Hist., v , 1-15; Echard's Revolution, 158; Dalrymple, ii., 189; Rapin. ii., 762-716; Mackintosh. 939-359; Macaulay, il., 340-472 ; Sylvine, Axvi., 44, 45, 144-117, 163, 166; Wagenaar, xv , 334-479 ; Davies, iii., 190-212; Campbell's Chancellors, i., 337; fii., 500-500 ; Hargrave's State Trials, iv., 503-325; ante, 205, 203, 4 0, 516.
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
(urss. X. at length, the daft king was convinced of his danger, ho is
sued his proclamation " that a great and sudden invasion
Jamel's proclama-
2 October.
17 Oct.
1638. from Holland with an armed force of foreigners and strangers" would speedily be made upon his kingdom, and warned his subjects to be prepared to defend their coun- try. To conciliate them, he took off the suspension of Bishop Compton, restored the charter of the city of Lon- don, and gave back the franchises of all English corpora- tions which had been forfeited. As a farther precaution, he wrote to Andros and his other colonial governors, warn- ing them " to take care that upon the approach of any fleet or foreign force, the militia of that our Plantation be in such readiness as to hinder any landing or invasion that may be intended to be made within the same.""
16 Oct. The king's
letters to the Amer- iran colo- nies.
English- men flock
Coote, Javelnce, Wharton, Cornbury, Kirke,
Denmark.
A few days after the dispatch of this last colonial in- struction of James, he removed Sunderland, the wily min- ister who countersigned it, for treasonable correspondence . with the enemy. But these time-serving measures of James were accompanied by so many acts which proved his big- otry that his subjects would trust him no longer. And so the last male Stuart British sovereign became his own de- stroyer. Englishmen of rank and influence now hastened to the Prince of Orange, who was attended from Holland by the historians Gilbert Barnet and Rapin de Thoyras, and by John Balfour of Burley, and "other Oliverians." Richard, Lord Coote, afterward Earl of Bellomont, was already one of William's household. John, Lord Lovelace of Hurley, the nephew of the former Governor of New York -- in the George of vaults under whose old mansion of Lady Place many mach- inations of the revolution had been arranged-rose in arms for the Dutch prince. Edward, Lord Cornbury, the king's own blood nephew, with Philip, Lord Wharton, and his tur- bulent son Thomas, who wrote "Lillibullero," the venal Churchill, and the cruel Protestant Kirke, and others, went 95 Novem. to the invader at Exeter. A few days afterward, Prince
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