USA > New York > History of the state of New York. Vol. II, Pt. 2 > Part 22
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* Kennett, ill., 4:2-492, 496; Ropin, il., 172; Sylvius, xxvi., 154; Clarke's James II., if., 155; Ellis Correspondence, il., 219, 223-291; Virginia Entries, iv., 229; New England P'a- pers, v., 34; N. Y. I. S. Coll. (1568), 20, 33, 34; Ma-s. 11. S. Coll., xxxviii., 713; Force's Tracts, iv., No. 9, p. 10; Valentine's Manual, 1850, 452; Historical Magazine, x., 114, sup. The king's letter of 16 October, 1855, was sent to Andros by a vessel which reached Bo-ton in the beginning of January, lost, while the governor was in Maine. By the sama > convey- ance Mather and the other New England agents warned their friends to prepare " for an in- teresting change:" Chalmer's Anaale, i., 160 ; ii., 20, 33, 34; Palfrey, ili , FRI, note
535
SIR EDMUND ANDROS, GOVERNOR GENERAL.
George of Denmark joined his, brother-in-law; and the CHAr. X. Princess Anne, escaping from Whitehall, abandoned her father, to follow her husband and William. 16SS.
James's cause was now desperate. Ile tried to negotiate with William, and meanwhile he secretly sent the queen 10 Decem. and the Prince of Wales to France. As soon as he was sent to The queen
assured of their safety, he arranged his own escape. The France.
time had now come which Charles had predicted, and James prepared to go a second time "on his travels." His last orders were to disband the royal army. A little after mid- night on the eleventh of December, he left his palace in dis- 11 Decem. guise, threw his great seal into the Thames, and went down sealthrown The great in the the river to follow his queen to France. Thus James ab . Thame .. dicated his crown. Arrested in his flight, he returned to tion. London and once more attempted to play monarch, while the Prince of Orange's Dutch soldiers were mounting guard at Whitehall. Again James left the splendid apartments he was never more to see, and fled unquestioned to France. 23 Decem. A mimic British court was established at the airy and beau- to France. James goes tiful heights of Saint Germains, which Louis munificently assigned to his fugitive royal guest. But the reign of James the Second over England and her dependencies was ended .*
* Kennett, ill., 431-505; Clarke's James II., ii., 215-983; Burnet. i., 031, TO5, 792-501; Repin, ii., 772-783; Echard, 161-193; Ellis Correspondence, il., 283-376 ; Dalrymple, ii., 172; Col. Doc., .iv., S51; Narcissus Luttrell, i., 435, 461; Sylvius, xxvi., 154-100; Macaulay, ii., 423-588, 597-599 ; Knight, iv., 431 ; Martin's Louis XIV., ii., SS-ST ; ante, 140, 420, 485, 449.
azunicast sia
530
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAPTER XI.
16SS-1689.
CHAP. XI.
1688.
AT the English Christmas of sixteen hundred and eighty- eight there was no king nor regent in England. James the Second had fled from Whitehall to France, pitched his great seal into the river, disbanded his army, and left no force in his realm to oppose the advancing battalions of the Dutch Prince Stadtholder.
11 Decem.
Sensible Englishmen considered such poltroonery of their anointed sovereign an abdication of his crown. And so it was. With James and his " essential" great seal had van- ished the machinery by which Englishmen allowed them- selves to be governed. Prompt action was necessary to prevent anarchy in the deserted kingdom. In this crisis, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, with other Brit- ish peers, met at the London Guildhall, assumed provisional direction of English affairs, and declared for the Prince of Orange. William soon afterward came from Windsor to Saint James's, where a great multitude of Protestant En- glishmen, wearing Orange ribands-" the emblem of civil and religious freedom"-assembled to welcome their Dutch "Deliverer."*
William i London. 18 Decem.
Some of William's advisers now urged him to seize the English crown, as Henry the Seventh had done, by right of conquest. But this William refused to do. He had come to England as her deliverer from evil : if Englishmen wished him to become their king, they must themselves in- vest him with the royal office, and place its diadem on his brow. The peers of the realm, the members of the House of Commons during the reign of Charles the Second, and 23 Decem. the Corporation of the city of London were therefore sum- moned to meet the Dutch Stadtholder at Saint James's. 26 Decem. They assembled accordingly, and requested William to tako
* Ellis Correspondence, ii , 346-269 ; Kennett, ill., 500-501; Macaulay, 530, 540-581.
£
537
SIR EDMUND ANDROS, GOVERNOR GENERAL.
on himself the provisional government of England, and in- CHAP. XI. vite the Protestant peers, and the several constituencies of the kingdom, by their representatives, to assemble in a Con- 1688. vention at Westminster. In obedience to this request, the third William of Orange assumed the direction of English William at affairs. Having received the communion according to the Englund. the head of Episcopal ritual of England, as his " first act" of adminis- 30 Decem. tration the Dutch prince published a declaration author- 31 Decem. izing all civil officers in the kingdom, " not being Papists," to act in their several places until further orders."
The prince's attention was soon called to the English 1689. North American colonies, " for the happy state of which he professed a particular care." Mather was promptly intro- duced to him by the Cromwellian Philip Lord Wharton, OFJanuary. and he was fully informed of the warning letter which first cole- William's King James had dispatched to his American governors the nial acts. previous October. William thought it proper to commu- nicate to them at once his own directions. Accordingly, he wrote an adroit circular letter to the various colonial 12 Jan. governors, directing that all persons, " not being Papists," who lawfully held any offices in the several English plan- tations, should continue to execute their duties as formerly, and that "all orders and directions lately made or given by any legal authority shall be obeyed and performed by all persons," until further commands from England. This letter, countersigned by the prince's secretary, William Jeph- son, a cousin of Wharton, was dispatched to Virginia, and it was directed to be sent to New England and the other colonies. But the Massachusetts agents in London saw that if it should be received by Andros it would be "fatal to The their schemes," by reducing their constituents to the dilem- circular prince's ma of submission to his authority under the direction of the letter prince, or of rebellion. Accordingly, Mather, with Phipps, who had just returned from New England, made such ef- fectual "application" to Jephson that William's letter to Andros " was stopped, and ordered not to be sent." From not sent this Massachusetts "trick" with the prince's secretary sprang to Boston much future embarrassment.t
* Ellis Correspondence, ii., 370-376; Kennett, Il., 505, 506, 507; Rapin, Il., 752, 753, 754; Macaulay, ii., 591-503.
+ Macaulay, il., 552 ; Virgini Entries (S. P. O.), iv., 233; New England Entrica, ill., 43; Chalmers's Annals, il., 12, 21, 22, 55, 80, 00 ; Hutch. Mass., i., 377, note, 350; Mass. II. S.
538
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAR. XI. The Convention called by William declared that 0.c throne was vacant by the abdication of James. It v .
1689. $2 Jan. Conven- tion. 20 Jan.
then considered how the vacancy should be filled. T ... Commons resolved that the "religion, laws, and libert .. . " of England should be first secured. Somers accordingly T Feb. submitted a report, reciting the causes of the revoluties. and contemplating, among other things, that the forfeited Somers and or surrendered charters of the Plantations should be re- charterz. stored. But the clause respecting the restoration of cold- 12 Feb. nial charters was omitted from the Instrument adopted by the Convention. That famous state paper-chiefly the work of Somers-set forth the errors and crimes of James; reviewed his administration; asserted the rights of sub- jects and of Parliament; defined the authority of the sov- ereign, and then settled the English crown on William, Prince, and Mary, Princess of Orange, during their lives, and the life of the survivor of them, with the executive power in the prince; after them, on the posterity of Mary: then on the Princess Anne and her posterity; and then on the posterity of William. New oaths of allegiance and ab- juration were ordained in place of the abrogated oaths of The Dec- laration of Right. allegiance and supremacy. This instrument --- the most important in English annals next to MAGNA CHARTA --- 15 known as the " DECLARATION OF RIGHT."*
More than a hundred years before, in 1581, the States General of the United Provinces had declared their inde- pendence of Spain in a manifesto which, the more it has been studied, the more it has been admired for its bold as- sertion of the rights of the people, and its clear exposition
Copied from the Dutch.
Coll., ix., 245; xxxviii., 258, 364, 705; Parentator, 118, 119 ; Mather's Magnalia, i., 176, 135: Palfrey, iii., 501, 593; ante, p. 534. It was about this time that Increase Mather drew vp and published in London the " Narrative of the Miseries of New England," etc., which mak. + the tenth number in the "Sixth Collection of Papers," 1689. The first paragraph of thy narrative informa the British public and William " that he that is Sovereign of New En- gland may, by means thereof (when he pleaseth), be Emperor of America ;" and the last par- agraph expressed the " hope that England will send them spec ty relief; especially con .... ering that through the ill conduct of their present rulers, the French Indians are (as the last vessels from thence inform) beginning their cruel butcheries amongst the English in thye parts ; and many have fears that there is a design to deliver that country into the han 's of the French king, except his Highness the Prince of Orange, whom a divine band has rai . . 1 up to deliver the oppressed, shall happily and speedily prevent it." This "Narrative." which doubtless influenced events affecting New England in the spring of 1680, is reprinted by the Prince Society in 1900 : Andros Tracts, ji., xvii., xviii., 274.
* Commons' Journal, x., 17, 22, 23, 2> ; Parl. Hist., v., 23-118; Kennett, iii., 507-514; In- pin, il., 784-194: Barnet, i., 707-826; Sylvius, xxviii., 19, 20; Chalmers's Rev. Col., 1., 2% !: Macaulay, i., 616-652 ; Campbell's Chancellors, iv., 94-97; Martin's Louis XIV., ii., S., $/; Clarke's James II., il., 2:5-307.
539
SIR EDMUND ANDROS, GOVERNOR GENERAL.
of the principles of political liberty. This venerable Ba- CHAP. XI. tavian declaration must have been carefully studied by Somers-for an English translation of it is in the printed 1689. collection of his papers-and internal evidence demon- strates that it was the model of the later English manifesto. The first William of Orange, under their marvelous deelar- ation of national rights, and by the spontaneous act of his countrymen, became the chief of the Dutch Republic. . century afterward, his great-grandson-called out of Hol- land by the voice of Protestant Englishmen-cordially af- firmed the instrument of which his own fatherland had furnished the pattern ; and WILLIAM AND MARY of Orange, 13 Feb. accepting the offered diadem, were proclaimed KING AND and Mary William QUEEN of England and of " all the dominions and territo- queen. king and ries thereunto belonging."*
Thus was the English " Revolution" accomplished. The first act of the new sovereigns was a proclamation confirm- 14 Feb. ing all local officers, "being Protestants," in the places estants All i'rot- which they respectively held within the kingdom of En- in offices in confirme! gland, on the 1st of December, 16S8. This did not affect England. the English colonies. The same day William chose a new Privy Council, which was wholly composed of English "Whigs." Two days afterward, the king named a Com- 16 Feb. mittee of the Council "for Trade and Foreign Planta- Plantation William's tions." This committee was: the Earl of Danby, Lord tee. Commuit- President ; the Marquis of Halifax, Lord Privy Seal; the Earl of Devonshire, Lord Steward; the Earls of Shrews- bury and of Nottingham, Secretaries of State; the Earl of Bath, Viscounts Fauconberg and Mordant, Bishop Henry Compton, of London, Sir Henry Capel, Mr. Henry Powle, and Mr. Edward Russell, " or any three of them." The committee was directed to meet on the next Monday, the 18th of February, and "prepare the drafts of Proclama- tions for Proclaiming their Majesties in the several Planta- tions, and also for continuing all persons in their employ- ments and offices 'till further order." Proclamations were accordingly prepared, and letters forwarding them to the several colonial governors were signed by enough privy 19 Feb.
' Lord Somers's Tracta, xiv .. 417-424 (Sir Walter Scott, ed. [., 323) ; Kennett, ill., 314; Rapin, il., 795; Tindal, iff., 80, 31, 99; Clarke's Juines II., 507, 303, 300 ; Sylvias, xxvii, 27; Macaulay, iL, 654, 653; ante, vol. 1., 446, 761.
10251700 200
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
Art r yal the En- plich colo-
twar Xt. counselors. These letters signified to those governors their majesties pleasure "that all men being in offices of Government shall so continue until their Majesties further pleasure be known," and that the new oaths of allegiance and abjuration should be taken by each of them. The dif- ference between the original proclamation of William and Mary continuing in their places the local officers in En- gland and that sent to the Plantations, is significantly clear. In England only "Protestants" were to be kept in office. But in the Plantations, " all inen being in offices of Goy- ernment" were to remain undisturbed .*
How the English revolution affected the colo- nice.
The revolution in England was thus held by her states- men as in no way affecting her colonies otherwise than in transferring, without their consent, their allegiance from one English sovereign to another, by the act of an irregular English Convention. It was certain that the Protestant re- ligion could not be jeoparded in the English colonies as it had been in the mother country. The Test Act of 1673 had never been in force in those colonies, where Brock- holls, and Dongan, and other avowed Roman Catholics had acted under undeniably legal commissions. The Prince of Orange's Convention of January, 1689, therefore, did not extend that Test Act to the English colonies. It merely required " all persons" in office to take its own ordained oaths of allegiance to William and Mary, and of abjuration of the Pope's "authority, ecclesiastical or spiritual, within this Real" of England.t
23 Feb.
5 March.
16 March. English Corpora- tion Bill
This convention, however, was transformed into an En- glish Parliament, which went on to make laws as if it had unimpeachable authority. The House of Commons tried to repair the significant omission in the Declaration of Right by resolving that the forfeiting of the charters of the Plantations was " illegal and a grievance." A bill was accordingly brought in to restore all corporations, at home and in New England, to the condition they were at the Res- toration of King Charles the Second in 1660. This crude measure passed the House of Commons through the active
* Kennett, ill., 514, 515; Tindal, ill., 39-41 ; Sylvius, xxvii., 20, 31 : Smollett, 1., 4; Parl. Ifist., v., 113; Macaulay, iii , 1-27 ; N. Y. Col. Doc., ilf., 572, 596. 641; Board Journals, vi., 195; Virginia Entries, Jv .. 236; Chaliners's Annals, i., 379, 491, 460 ; ii., 12, 22, 37, 38; Rev. Col, i., 201; Penn. Col. Rec., i., 511 ; Appendix, Note G., p. 602, post.
t Kennett, ill., 514; Chalmers's Annals, ii., in N. Y. HI. S. Coll. (1965), 13, 37; ante, 202, 204, 447, 452.
541
SIR EDMUND ANDROS, GOVERNOR GENERAL.
exertions of Mather, Phipps, and Sir Henry Ashurst. But CHAP. XI. William detected the embarrassment it would cause to his prerogative; and his courtiers delayed it in the Lords until 1689. the Convention Parliament was dissolved. Thus " the Sis- yphæan labour of a whole year came to nothing.""
The key-note thus sounded in the English House of Com- mons was meant to influence the colonial policy of their Dutch sovereign and his wife. A few days before Mary 22 Jan. 1 Feb. left the Hague for London, she was "dexterously gained" Mary gain-,
ed to favor to favor New England by the "eminent" Abraham Kick, New En- of Amsterdam, who had long been a correspondent of Ma- gland. ther, and at whose house Shaftesbury had died. Thus en- couraged, Phipps and Mather petitioned William that An- 19 Feb. Phipps and
dros should be removed from his government of New En- Mather's gland ; that Massachusetts, Plymouth, Rhode Island, and William. petition to Connecticut might be "restored to their ancient privileges," and that their former governors might be reinstated. The king referred this petition to his Plantation Committee, and ordered the letter of the Privy Council to Andros, of 19th 20 Feb. February, to be "postponed 'till the business of taking away the charters should be considered." The committee, hav- ing heard Phipps's and Mather's counsel, as well as Sir 22 Feb. Robert Sawyer, the late attorney general -- who reported the reasons for canceling the Massachusetts patent -- agreed to report " that his Majesty be pleased to send forthwith a Governor to New England in the place of Sir Edmund An- dros, with a Provisional Commission, and with Instructions to proclaim his Majesty in those colonies, and to take the Qacer re- present administration of the Government in those parts William's port of until further order ; in which Commission and Instructions Commit- it may be expressed that no money shall be raised by the tee. Governor and Council only. And their Lordships will like- wise propose that His Majesty do thereupon give further order for preparing, as soon as may be, such a further os- tablishment as may be lasting, and preserve the rights and
* Commons Jour., x., 17, 41, 42, 51 ; Parl. Hist., v., 150, 50-516, 537; Kennett, iii., 516; Tindal, ili., 110 ; Macaulay, ill., 393, 408, 517, 522, 552, 534 : Chalmers's Aun., i., 415; ii., 61, 62,90; Rev. Col., i., 231; Douglas, i., 465; Hutch. Mass., i., 350, 390; Barry, i., 500; Mass. 11. S. Coll., ix., 246, 247 ; xxxviii., 68); Mather's Magnalia, i., 197, 198; Parentator, 122, 123; Andros Tracts, il., xx., 276. If the bill passed by the House of Commons had become a law, important questions must have come up about the condition of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and other American colonies, to which Charles and James had granted patents after May, 1000.
Plantation
00
312
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
16:9.
26 Feb. William dubious.
William wi-kes to preserve the domin- England whole.
Mather again sees the king.
privileges of the people of New England, and yet reserve such a dependence on the Crown of England as shall be thought requisite." But the sending another royal govern- or to New England in place of Andros was not what Phipps and Mather asked ; and William was prevailed upon to dis- regard " the salutary advice of his ministers." According- ly, when the report of his Plantation Committee was con- sidered by the king in Council, he ordered "that it be re- ferred back to the Committee to consider of and prepare the draught of a New Charter to be granted to the inhab- itants of New England, and [which ?] may preserve the rights and properties of those colonies, and reserve such a dependence on the Crown according to the Report; and that, instead of a Governor to be sent in the room of Sir Edmund Andros, there be appointed two Commissioners to take upon them the administration of the Government there, with directions immediately to proclaim the King and Queen."*
This order of William, while it settled the fate of An- dros, showed that the king meant to give a new charter "to the inhabitants of New England" which would allow them a Colonial Assembly, and yet preserve their " dependence on the Crown" of England, first, through two royal English commissioners, and afterward by a royal governor. Wil- liam at once adopted James's policy of consolidation, so as to keep the " Dominion of New England" an entirety, under a royal governor; but he wished to modify that policy so as to allow " the inhabitants" to choose their own Assembly. This scheme may have suited Phipps, whose enmity to Andros was personal ; but it was fatal to the views of Mather, who desired the restoration of Puritan oligarchy in Massachu- setts, of which he was a chief preacher. Mather therefore i4 March, got Lord Wharton to present him again to the king, whom he implored " to favour New England." This William readily promised, but he cautiously remarked, " there have been irregularities in their government." Being farther pressed, he added, " I will forthwith give order that Sir Ed-
* Plantation Journals, vi., 197, 199, 200-204; New England Entries, ill., 200. 201; Privy Council Min., Will. and Mary, i., 21 ; Chalmers's Anu., ii., 22, 23, 95, 39; Mase. IT. S. Coll., xxxii., 298; xxxviii .. 101, 105, 107, 529, 508, 705; Force's Tracts, iv., No. 11, 11-14; Andros Tracts, ii., xvi., xviii .. 14-170; Palfrey, ilf., 502, 503. Kick, who wrote to Mary at the Hague, was made English consul at Rotterdam in 1020: Wagenaar, xv., 505.
543
SIR EDMUND ANDROS, GOVERNOR GENERAL.
mund Andros shall be removed from the government of Char. XI. New England, and be called unto an account for his mal- administration. And I will direct that the present King William's 1689. and Queen shall be proclaimed by their former Magis- orders. trates." What William really meant by "their former magistrates" is not clear. But he certainly did not intend to sever or disunite his royal dominion of New England into its former several colonies. In this Whitehall uneer- tainty, Phipps, thinking that "the best stage of action for him would now be New England itself," hastened thith- er. But, " before he left London, a messenger from the abdicated King tendered him the government of New En- James of- gland, if he would accept it." James, who had now come govern- from France to Dublin, seems to have thought that by re- New En- ment of moving Andros and appointing Phipps, he might retain Phipps. his authority over New England. Phipps of course de- clined this Irish offer by " the abdicated King" of a colo- nial " government without an Assembly;" and he soon aft- erward embarked for Boston, carrying the Council's delay- April. ed letters to Andros, " with certain instructions from none of the least considerable persons at Whitehall," that if the people of New England gave them "the trouble to hang Sir Edmund, they deserved noe friends."*
-
After Phipps left, the Privy Council directed Secretary is April. Shrewsbury, " upon inquiry from those who have the most considerable interest in New England, New York, and the Jerseys, to present to the King the names of such as may be thought fit at this time to be Governor and Lieutenant Governor of those parts." A few days afterward, the Plan- tation Committee, seeing that a war with France was at hand, suggested to the king " the speedy settling of such a 26 April. government in New England, New York, and the Jerseys, Commit- as, upon recalling Sir Edmund Andros, may enable your gestion. Majesty's subjects, who are very numerous in those parts, not only to oppose by their united forces the French of Canada and Nova Scotia, but to carry on such further de- signs as your majesty may find requisite for your service ;
Plantation
tee's sug-
* Mass. II. S. Coll., ix., 245, 246; xxxii., 208 ; xxxviii., 105; Andros Tracts, il., xix ; Ma- ther's Magnalia, L., 179, 197, 199; Parentator, 120, 121 ; Hutch. Mass., 1, 377. 6$2, 350, 897 ; Oldmixon, 1, 138; Chalmers, Rev. Col., i., 201, 203, 208, 231 ; Pol. Ann., 1., 373, 431, 430 ; ii., 23,25; N. Y. Col. Doc., ilf., 378, 533. 587. 558; Bancroft, ili., TS, 70; Barry, i., 503, 509; Pal- frey, iii., 502, 523; Clarke's James II., if., 327-320.
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
tas u without which union and government the French may easi- ly possess themselves of that Dominion, and trade of those 1053. parts which are so considerable to the crown." The com- mittee also proposed " that, as Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Carolina are Proprieties of great extent in America, which do not hold themselves subjects to your Majesty's immedi- ate government, nor render any account to your Majesty of their proceedings, your Majesty would please, in this con- juncture, to give such directions as may better secure your Majesty's interests in those parts, and put them in a condi- tion of defence against the enemy." This advice pleased William, who ordered the Plantation Committee to consult the Admiralty about sending ships to America, and also to propose " the names of fit persons to be sent as Governors to the Plantations, and what may be fit to be done for his Majesty's service in the present conjuncture, as well for set- · tling the government of New England, New York, and the Jerseys, as for securing His Majesty's interest in the several proprieties in America." The committee shortly afterward represented that " the present circumstances and relations they stand in to the government of England is a matter worthy of the consideration of Parliament for the bringing of those Proprieties and Dominions under a nearer depend- once on the Crown, as his Majesty's revenue in the Plan- tations is very much Concerned herein." Thus the Dutch king who had succeeded James the Second was advised by his Whig English counselors, in the third month of his reign, to carry into vigorous effect some of the most decided co- lonial measures of his predecessor, because they were now selfishly considered to benefit England .*
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