USA > New York > History of the state of New York. Vol. II, Pt. 2 > Part 9
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Yet the head of the Episcopalian English Church saw that he must give some pledge to his subjects for the secu- rity of their Protestantism. Charles therefore insisted that. his brother's only remaining legitimate child, the Princess Anne -- who, like her elder sister Mary, had been nurtured a Protestant -- should be married, like her, to a Protestant husband. As the Prince of Orange was a Calvinist, it was thought desirable that the next son-in-law should be a Lu- theran. The Crown Prince of Hanover -- who afterward became King George the First of England-was discussed The Priu- as a fitting match. But, on farther consideration, Prince ces Anne married to Prince George of Denmark. George of Denmark-whose recommendations were his dullness and his Lutheranism-was preferred. The Duke of York-not yet despairing of a Roman Catholic male heir-ungraciously agreed to his daughter's marriage : 28 July. which was solemnized to the satisfaction of most British subjects.
1684. The king rewarded his brother's submission by dispens- ing with the "Test Act" in his favor, and by restoring to
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THOMAS DONGAN, GOVERNOR.
him his old office of Lord High Admiral of England, which Cn. VIII. that law had forced him to resign in 1673. Soon after- ward, Charles called the duke back again to his Privy Council. These bold steps awoke jealousy; and even
1684. 2 May. 2S May. The Test startled Tories balked at Oxford as they questioned the Act dis- right of their anointed sovereign to violate a statute of the with. and pensed James re- realm. But the season for Revolution had not come, stored to GOD's field was not yet harrowed enough. In the fallow his offices. meantime, the sycophants of absolutism rejoiced. "And now," wrote James, in his own private memoirs, " the King had brought his affairs to a more happy situation than ever they had been since the Restoration :- He saw his enemies at his feet, and the Duke, his brother, at his side, whose in- defatigableness in business took a great share of that bur- then off his shoulders, which his indolent temper made un- easy to him.""
While these events shook England, the proceedings of the first Assembly in New York were brought over by Talbot to Werden. The duke's commissioners proposed New York several amendments to the revenue part of the charter; laws. and Werden suggested to Dongan that they had better be 10 March. passed at the next meeting of the Assembly. This, as has been seen, was donc.t
Several months afterward, James wrote to Dongan, " My 26 August. commissioners are making what dispatch they can with letter to James's Dongan. those Bills that you have sent hither, and particularly with that which contains the Franchises and Priviledges to the Colony of New Yorke, wherein if any alterations are made (either in the forme or matter of it) they will be such as shall be equally or more advantageous to the people there, and better adjusted to the laws of England." At length, all the amendments thought necessary were completed, and 4 October. the duke " signed and sealed the Charter of Franchises and signs the James New York Priviledges to New Yorke in America." The instrument Charter.
* Clarke's James IT., 'i., 738-746; ii., $1; Dalrymple, i., 23-62 ; Burnet, i., 537-583 ; Reresby, 163-183; Rapin, ii., 725-734; Tindal, iv., 534 ; Kennett, iii., 408-423; Evelyn, ii., 186-206; Narcissus Luttrell, i., 272, 207 ; Hume, vii., 153-172 ; Lingard, xiii., 275-311; xiv., 80; Macanlay, i., 263-271; Knight, iv., 367-376; Campbell's Chancellors, ili., 500, 527; Martin's Louis XIV., ii., 27; Hargraves's State Trial-, ili. , 545-630, 706-824; ante, 201, 241, 373.
t Col. Doc., ili., 340, 341, 355; Chalmers, i., 5-5; Council Journ., i., Int., xiii. ; ante, 357. 40°. It was rumored, about this time, at Boston and Philadelphia, that the duke had sold New York to "one Colonel Thompson," probably Major Robert Thompson, of London, the friend of Massachusetts and Connecticut : see Col. Dec., il , 255; Mass. Rec., v., 4 5. 400, 420, 407 ; Col. Rec. Conn., il., 344, 528; Hutch. Coll., 4.3: ante, 257, 280.
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
1681. 1 Novem.
CIL. VIII. was ordered to be registered and taken to New York. In the mean time, " His Royal Highnesses' Charter" was con- sidered to be in full operation. Indeed, under Dongan's instructions, every colonial law assented to by him, as this had been, was " good and binding" until the duke's nega- tive should be signified. But before the amended charter was made " complete and irrevocable" by being sent to New York, great changes happened."
Dudley and Richards, the agents sent by Massachusetts to England, had meanwhile found that their colony must either submit to her king, or be deprived of his father's royal charter, as the City of London had been of hers. In vain did they try to obtain a pardon for "all passed offences" from their licentious sovereign by a bribe of two thousand guineas, which the authorities at Boston had fru- gally authorized them to contribute "for his Majesty's pri- The Massa- Vate service." But the Boston agents found that they had agents foil. not guineas enough to satisfy the Duchess of Portsmouth ; chusetts ed in Lon- don. and the "delicate transaction" was managed so awkward- ly, by offering a Massachusetts price to " the wrong per- son," that the Puritanical tempters were laughed out of Whitehall. It did not please the Almighty " that devo- tional prayers, associated with such unholy exertions, should prevail."+
Charles de- termines to quell Mas sachusetts.
The king now determined to make void his father's pat- ent to the Corporation of Massachusetts Bay by a writ of Quo Warranto, as advised by Jones and Winnington, his at- torney and solicitor, in 1678. That colony was in a dilem- ma. She was either an independent sovereignty, or else the creature of her king. Yet, while Massachusetts affect- ed independence, she insisted that, as an English corpora- tion, she had properly used the delegated authority of her sovereign. On the other hand, Charles thought that these subjects who controlled his colony had abused their corpo-
* Col. Doc., ill., 232, 348, 351; Chalr:ers's Ann., i., 688; S. P. O., Board of Trade, N. Y. Entries, No. 49, p. 50 ; ante, 3-3. The official record is as follows: " MD: That this dr. the 4th October 1084 His Royal Highness signed and sealed the Charter of Franchises ant Priviledges to New York in America ; which was countersigned by Sir John Worden ist's usual forme, and sent the same evening to the Auditor (Mr. Aldworth) to be Registered by him, and then to be delivered to Capt. Talbott to carry to New Yorke." This inter !. 3. document was published for the first time in the Historical Magazine for August, 1:04, Vwl vi., page 233.
+ Hutch. Mass., i., 337 ; Chalmers's Aun., i., 413, 470-469; Clarke's James II . I .. .. ". TSS: Kennett, Il .. $25, 405; Macaulay, 1., 261, 209 ; Bancroft, ii., 123; Barry, 1, 174; G &. hame, i., 357; Palfrey, ili., 650, SCS-570, 410, 411 ; ante, 300.
ark
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THOMAS DONGAN, GOVERNOR.
rate privileges. If they had done so by excluding from Cu. VIII. the freedom of their corporation those who did not "agree in the Congregational way," or by other methods, it was his 1683. duty to resume the authority of the crown. The king's idea of a proper charter for an English colony in America may be inferred from the patent which he had just before granted to William Penn. The time had come when the government of Massachusetts should be made at least as liberal as that of Pennsylvania. Randolph, who had been ordered home from Boston, accordingly charged the Cor- 13 June. poration of Massachusetts with assuming unwarranted pow- ers; evading the Navigation Laws; opposing the Episco- pal Church of England ; and with various other offenses against British sovereignty. Sir Robert Sawyer, the attor- ney general, thereupon prosecuted a writ of "Quo War- 27 June. ranto" in the King's Bench, to inquire into the alleged Warranto abuses. After various delays the proceedings in the Com- ordered. mon-law court were dropped, and a more searching writ 1684. of "Scire Facias" in Chancery was issued. This was fol- 16 April. lowed by a second, or "alius" writ; upon the return of 12 May. which, the defendant not appearing, Lord Keeper Guilford, after hearing counsel, decreed, " nisi," in Trinity Term, that 21 June. The Massa-
the Massachusetts patent " be vacated, cancelled and an- chusetts nihilated, and into the said court restored, there to be can- celed. patent can- celled." In the following Michaelmas Term final judg- ment was entered in Chancery, and the Corporation of 23 October. Massachusetts was dead .*
Thus, by the decree of the Keeper of the English Great Seal, a corporation, to which his official predecessor had given technical life, was annihilated. The separate name of Massachusetts no longer existed legally ; and that part of New England which had been governed under the pat- ent of Charles the First was left to the discretion of Charles the Second. The only English power that could review the judgment in Chancery was the House of Lords; and that house was not likely to reverse the decree. It now
* MASB. IT. S. Coll., xxi., 96; xxxii., 216-278, 2.3, 204, 205; Mass. Rec., v., 382-468; Hutch. Mass., i., 337-340 ; Chalmers's Ann., i., 405, 414, 415, 410, 462 ; Rev. Col., i., 133, 134, 173 ; Palmer's Impartial Account, 10-12 ; Force's Tracts, iv., No. 9, p. 4, No. 71. p. 5, 6; N. Luttrell, i., 274; Barry, i., 474-475; Bancroft, ii., 124-1:5; Palfrey, iii., 371-294; Col. Doc., ili., 250, 573, 519 ; ante, 316, 337, 349. In the sand: Trinity Term, 1634, judgment was given against the Bermuda's corporation, chiefly because the inhabitants of those i-lands were op- posed to the Church of England : Hutch. Masa., 1., 536; Anderson's Col. Ch., ii., 87, 334, 335. II .-- DD
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
1684. Novem. Debate in the Privy Council.
CH. VIII. became necessary for the king to determine how his sub. jects in Massachusetts should be ruled. The point, which was "carefully investigated" by his Privy Council, was, whether the English system of representation in Parlia- ment should prevail in America, or whether the colonists should be governed directly by the Crown. Sir William Jones, the deceased attorney general, had maintained that Charles could no more levy taxes on his colonial subjects " without their consent by an Assembly, than they could discharge themselves from their allegiance to the English crown." At the same time, Jones maintained that the British Parliament "might rightfully impose taxes on cv- ery dominion of the crown."
Argument of Halifax.
These principles had been adopted by the king in his re- cent charter to Pennsylvania in 1681. Under the Roval Instructions to Cranfield in 1682, New Hampshire enjoyed a popular Assembly. In August, 1683, Charles had recog- nized such an Assembly in Virginia, by his Instructions to Lord Howard of Effingham. And now, in council at. Whitehall, the Marquis of Halifax argued that the laws of England ought to prevail in "a country composed of En- glishmen." He urged that an absolute government was neither as happy nor as stable as one in which the authori- ty of the prince was limited ; and he plainly declared that he could not live under a king who had the power to take at pleasure the money he might have in his pocket. But the Lord Privy Seal stood alone. James and all the other counselors " strongly withstood" Halifax's arguments, and maintained that the king should govern such distant countries " in the way which might appear to him the most convenient to maintain the mother country in the state in which she is, and to augment still more her power and wealth." So it was determined that the governor and council in New England " should not be obliged to call Assemblies of the whole country to lay taxes, and regulate other important matters, but that they should do what they might judge proper, without rendering an account of it, except to the king."*
Decision about New England.
* Barillon's dispatch to Louis XIV., 7 Dec., 1654. in Fox's James II. 50, 60, App. vii .. vill. ; Chalmers's Ann., i., 945, 346, 416, 464. 495, 493, 427, 650, 690; Rev. Col., i., 173. 174. 202: Force's Tracts, iv , No. 9, p. 45, 46; Mather's Magnalia, i., 178; Grahame, i., 255: Burner, i., 336, 532; Lingard, xiii., 316; Macaulay, i., 272; Palfrey, fil., 395, 514; ante, 340, 319.
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THOMAS DONGAN, GOVERNOR.
This decision of the English Council was momentous. CH. VIII. The period of royal American corporations had passed away. It was now settled that, in all colonies where it 1684. was convenient, the king's sovereignty was to be resumed, and his direct government established. As no Parliament had met in England for three years, its power to interfere with English Plantations was disregarded. To carry out Charles's arbitrary but simple policy, it was necessary for him carefully to choose his colonial officers. Andros was thought of as the first royal governor of Massachusetts. But, as Sir Edmund was occupied with his private affairs in the Channel Islands, Colonel Piercy Kirke was chosen. S Novem. Kirke had just returned from the government of Tangier, sen to be Kirke clio- where he had proved himself to be a licentious despot. of New En- governor But, being " a gentleman of very good resolution," it was gland. considered that he would not fail " in any part of his duty to his Majesty." A commission and Instructions were ac- cordingly ordered for Kirke, as "his Majesty's Lieutenant 1; Novem. and Governor General" of "New England," including Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, and New Plym- outh; while for the present Rhode Island and Connecticut were excepted from his authority. It was, however, in- tended to form a royal government over all the New En- gland colonies, of which the king appointed Randolph to be his secretary and register. Charles himself directed 22 Novem. that in Kirke's Commission and Instructions " no mention bly in New No Assem- be made of an Assembly, but that the Governor and Coun- England. cil have power to make laws and to perform all other acts of Government, 'till his Majesty's pleasure be further known."#
The annihilation of the Massachusetts charter relieved Boundary New York from her anticipated boundary dispute with that New York between colony, and confirmed to the Duke of York all the territo- chusetts rial rights, west of the Connecticut River, which he claim- settled. ed under his patent.t
But how could James now complete the Instrument he had executed a few weeks before ; which, nevertheless, had
' Chaliners's Ann., i., 416; Hutch. Maes., L, 311, 343, 344 ; Coll., 542, 543; Narcissus Lut- trell, i., 52, 160; Anderson's Col. Church, if., 2-2: Douglas, i., 413; Whitmore's Andros, 22; Rapin, ii., 032, 733; Kennett, ill., 423; Macaulay, i., 627, 628; Palfrey, iit., 304, 505, 806, 492, 4:3, 513; ante, 557.
t Col. Doc., ill., :56; vi., 505; vii., 564, 599; vil, 440; Smith, i., 297 ; ante, 413.
and Maysa-
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CH. VIII. not been perfected by delivery ? True, the Assembly of New York had voted a Revenue Bill, in consideration of his
James sus- pends the New York charter.
4 Decem.
1684. anticipated "bountiful confirming" of their charter. Yet. James hesitated. He had thought of obtaining a grant of Rhode Island and Connecticut. The transmission of his sealed charter was therefore suspended. In writing to Dongan, Werden enjoined prudence in dealing with the In- dians in New York and Pemaquid ; "always avoiding, as much as possible, any proceedings on our part that may run us into disputes with the French, who, in our present circumstances, are not to be made enemies."*
Halifax, Louis, Charles, and James.
Yet Halifax remained in Charles's council despite James's 2. Decem, entreaties for his dismissal. Louis wrote to Barillon, at London, that "the reasonings of Lord Halifax on the man- ner of governing New England little deserve the confi- dence which the King of England has in him; and I am not surprised to learn that the Duke of York has called the attention of the King, his brother, to their conse- quences." Halifax, on the other hand, urged the king to call a Parliament, and to dismiss James from his councils. It was thought by many that the royal brothers would soon be estranged. The Princess of Orange would probably be announced as the heiress presumptive of the crown. The illegitimate Duke of Monmouth might even be declared Prince of Wales. All forfeited charters would be restored. But Charles was weary of his brother's excessive zeal : per- haps he foresaw the result of his violent designs. Just aft- er the dissolution of his last Parliament at Oxford, the king told the Prince of Orange that, should James come to the crown, he " could not hold it four years to an end." To the duke himself he said, " Brother, I am resolved ner- er to go on my travels again :- you may, if you will."t The words of Charles were prophetic.
The king and the duke.
* Col. Doc., ill., 341, 348, 551, 353, 677, GTS; HIntch. Coll., 543; Chalmers, i., 278, 416, 543; R. I. Rec., ifi., 147; ante, 354, 401, 405, 403.
t Fox's James II., App. vill., ix. ; Dalrymple, i., 63, 64; Macpherson, i, 419 ; Stemt Hist. of Whitehall, Lett. Ixxii. ; Burnet, i., 575, 604, 005; Echard, 53; Rapin, ii., 725, 5. 1; Kennett, iii., 423; Hume, vii., 175; Lingard, xiii., 316; Macaulay, i., 277, 278; Martin, ii , ...
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THOMAS DONGAN, GOVERNOR.
CHAPTER IX.
1685-1688.
CHARLES the Second had now reigned for nearly a quar- CHAP. IX. ter of a century since his restoration. He was about fifty- five years old ; and his strong constitution, helped by bodi- 1685. ly exercise in the open air, promised him a length of days. But, carly in the February of 1685, Charles was strick- en by a disease which baffled the skill of his physicians. After suffering a short and sharp illness, the head of En- glish Episcopalianism mumbled his reconciliation with the Decease of Church of Rome; wished the Duke of York a long and the Second. Charles prosperous reign ; and, after spending the life of an Epicu- rean Protestant, went to his judgment a pusillanimous, 6 Febr'y. eleventh-hour Roman Catholic.
The successor of Charles was a very different man : colder, more honest, more decided-a bigot in place of a shuffler. A quarter of an hour after the decease of his brother, James the Second of England and the Seventh of Scotland, came out of the closet whither he had retired to give "full scope to his tears." The Privy Counselors of the late king were already assembled, and their new mas- G Febr'y. ter hastily told them that, although he had " been reported of James to be a man for arbitrary power," he would endeavor "to preserve the government, both in Church and State, as it is now by law established." Immediately afterward James was proclaimed king in the usual form. No opposition was made to the accession of a sovereign whom the Commons of England had so often attempted to exclude from its throne. The new ministry was arranged. Sunderland and Ministers Middleton were retained as secretaries of state. Rochester, of James. the brother-in-law and old commissioner of James, was made the head of his treasury ; Clarendon, also his brother- in-law, privy seal ; and Halifax, although disliked, became lord president of his council. The king, who loved busi-
Accession
the Second.
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. IX. ness, took again the Admiralty into his own hands, and was assisted by the long experience of Samuel Pues .*
1685. Since the year 1675, Charles the Second had intrusted all matters relating to the Trade and Plantations of It- gland to a committee of his Privy Council. Approving of this policy, James appointed a similar committee, which included the great officers of state. As the Duke of York had now become king, his rights as a subject proprietor were merged in his sovereignty ; and New York, with her dependencies, having devolved to the crown of England, became a royal government, under the supervision of the Plantation Committee. A few days after the accession of James, the records belonging to the province were ordered to be sent to the Plantation Office; and Sir John Werden delivered all that were thought "material" to Secretary Blathwayt. Among these were thirteen of the acts passed at the first session of the New York Assembly, which had been transmitted for confirmation, and were readily ap- proved. Another, and the most important, was " The Charter of Franchises and Privileges to New York," which, although it had been signed and sealed by the duke, and ordered to be delivered, had been kept back, and was " not yet perfected."t
Thus the political condition of New York was again changed. For twenty years-with a short interruption- the province had been the conquered dukedom of a royal English subject. At length her subordinate proprietor had become king; and New York - following his for-
* Clarke's Jame; II., i., 746-750; ii., 1-S; Burnet, i., 606-021 ; Kennett, ili., 4/2-425; Rapin, ii., 734-742; Parl. Hi-t., iv., 1342; Lingard, xiii., 317-321; xiv., 1-S; Macaulay. i., 426-437, 40-416; Proud, i., 200, 291 ; Martin, ii., 28; Fox's James II., 13-81, App. xi .- 1. Dalrymple, i., 152-166 ; ii., 1-11; ante, 201.
t Col. Doe., iii., 229, 230, 354, 355, 557, 350, 303, 370; viii., 443 ; Chalmers's Ann., 1., 544, 535; ante, 297, 416, 420. It is to be regretted that Werden, the Duke of York's secretary. did not transfer all the papers relating to New York during its proprietary period, whether thought "material" or not, to the Plantation Committee; in the archives of which th x would have been carefully preserved. To this omission we probably owe much of the dark. ness which still obscures that period. Many of the documents relating to the goverment, :. of Nicolle, Lovelace, Andros, and Dongan -- from 1664 to 1685-are now missing from the Records in the State Paper Office in London. The Duke of York, after he became James the Second, appears to have kept as souvenirs, in his own possession, much of the con:x - spondence which his deputies had addressed to him as Proprietor ; and it may be that theer letters shared the fate of his other private papers, which were sent to Paris in le's-, 53! were afterward destroyed in the French Revolution : Fox's James IL, Introd., xvi .- vx : Clarke's James II., Preface, xiv .- xviii. In 1670 and 1671, Evelyn appears to have been fut. nished with come now well-known official documents, which he gave back to the IxFi Tres. urer Clifford, who took them with him to Devonshire: Evelyn, il., 51, 53, 56. 5 ; HL. 421. 223, 999-231, 223-242, 260-263; Pepys, iv., 221, 222; ante, 15, 1ST.
17 Feb'y. New York Records sent to the Plantation Office.
The New York char- ter kept back.
£
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THOMAS DONGAN, GOVERNOR.
tunes - became an American province of the English CHAP. IX. crown. Out of a proprietorship came forth a royal gov- 1685. ernment. Her "Charter of Privileges," which her late New York proprietor had sealed, required to be confirmed by her a royal En. glish prov- present king before that instrument could be "complete ince. and irrevocable." But James, King of England, was a very different person from James, Duke of York. He presided in person at a meeting of his Plantation Commit- 3 March. tee, when the New York charter was considered. A series of " observations" upon several of its clauses was read, to which it was objected that they gave more privileges than 3 March. had been " granted to any of his Majesty's Plantations, where the Act of Habeas Corpus, and all such other Bills do not take place;" that the words, "The People, met in a General Assembly," were " not used in any other Consti- tution in America ;" in short: that some of its enact- ments were inconvenient, and tended too much to restrain the governor and " abridge the King's power." Moreover, the New York charter expressly recognized a "Lord Pro- prietor," who had now become sovereign. This was a fatal objection to that Instrument, as it had been sealed. The king therefore declared that he did "not think fit to con- The New firm" the charter. " And, as to the Government of New ter not con- York char- York, his Majesty is pleased to direct that it be assimilated James the firmed by to the Constitution that shall be agreed on for New En- Second. gland, to which it is adjoining: And, in the mean time, his Majesty orders a letter to be prepared for his Royal sig- s March. nature, directing Colonel Dongan, Governor of New York, to pursue such powers and instructions as he shall receive under his Majesty's signet and sign manual, or by order in Council, until further order."*
By this action James the Second did not repeal the char- ter of New York. He merely declined to confirm it, and thus left it in force until his disapproval should be notified to Dongan. As the "Constitution" for New England had not yet been settled, the government of New York, under its late proprietor's Instructions, was not disturbed. So 5 March. James wrote to Dongan : "Whereas, by the decease of the Second's or- James the late King, our most dearly beloved brother, and our acces- Dungan. ders to
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