The Loyalists of America and Their Times Volume I Part 10
[Footnote 79: In 1646 the Parliament pa.s.sed another ordinance, exempting the colonies for three years from all tollages, "except the excise,"
provided their productions should not be "exported but only in English vessels." While this Act also a.s.serted the parliamentary right of taxation over the Colonial plantations, it formed a part of what was extended and executed by the famous Act of Navigation, first pa.s.sed by the Puritan Parliament five years afterwards, in 1651, as will be seen hereafter.]
[Footnote 80: Mr. Bancroft must have been aware of the existence of this ordinance, for he makes two allusions to the Commission appointed by it.
In connection with one allusion to it, he states the following interesting facts, ill.u.s.trative of Ma.s.sachusetts exclusiveness on the one record, and on the other the instruments and progress of religious liberty in New England. "The people of Rhode Island," says Mr. Bancroft, "_excluded from the colonial union_, would never have maintained their existence as a separate state, had they not sought the interference and protection of the Mother Country; and the founder of the colony (Roger Williams) was chosen to conduct the important mission. Embarking at Manhattan [for he was not allowed to go to Boston], he arrived in England not long after the death of Hampden. _The Parliament had placed the affairs of the American Colonies under the Earl of Warwick, as Governor-in-Chief, a.s.sisted by a Council of five peers and twelve commoners_. Among these commoners was Henry Vane, a man who was ever true in his affections as he was undeviating in his principles, and who now welcomed the American envoy as an ancient friend. The favour of Parliament was won by his [Roger Williams'] incomparable 'printed Indian labours, the like whereof was not extant from any part of America;' and his merits as a missionary induced both houses of Parliament to grant unto him and friends with him a free and absolute charter[84] of civil government for those parts of his abode.' Thus were the places of refuge for 'soul-liberty' on the Narragansett Bay incorporated 'with full power and authority to rule themselves.' To the Long Parliament, and especially to Sir Harry Vane, Rhode Island owes its existence as a political State."--History of the United States, Vol. I., pp. 460, 461.
The other allusion of Mr. Bancroft to the Parliamentary Act and Commission of 1643 is in the following words: "_The Commissioners appointed by Parliament, with unlimited authority over the Plantations_, found no favour in Virginia. They promised indeed freedom from English taxation, but this immunity was already enjoyed. They gave the colony liberty to choose its own Governor, but it had no dislike to Berkeley; and though there was a party for the Parliament, yet the King's authority was maintained. The sovereignty of Charles had ever been mildly exercised."--_Ib._, p. 222.]
[Footnote 84: Hazard, Vol. 1., p. 538; Ma.s.sachusetts Records. The working of this Act, and the punishments inflicted under it for more than twenty years, will be seen hereafter.]
[Footnote 81: This is not quite accurate. The word 'absolute' does not occur in the patent. The words of the Charter are: "A _free_ Charter of civil incorporation and government; that they may order and govern their Plantations in such a manner as to maintain justice and peace, both among themselves, and towards all men with whom they shall have to do"--"Provided nevertheless that the said laws, const.i.tutions, and punishments, for the civil government of said plantations, be conformable to the laws of England, so far as the nature and const.i.tution of the place will admit. And always reserving to the said Earl and Commissioners, and their successors, power and authority for to dispose the general government of that, as it stands in relation to the rest of the Plantations in America, as they shall conceive from time to time most conducing to the general good of the said Plantations, the honour of his Majesty, and the service of the State."--(Hazard, Vol. I., pp. 529-531, where the Charter is printed at length.)]
[Footnote 82: But Mr. Holmes makes explicit mention of the parliamentary ordinance of 1643 in the following terms:--"The English Parliament pa.s.sed an ordinance appointing the Earl of Warwick Governor-in-Chief and Lord High Admiral of the American Colonies, with a Council of five Peers and twelve Commoners. It empowered him, in conjunction with his a.s.sociates, to examine the state of affairs; to send for papers and persons, to remove Governors and officers, and appoints other in their places; and to a.s.sign over to these such part of the powers that were now granted, as he should think proper." (Annals of America, Vol. I., p.
273.)]
[Footnote 83: History of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay, Vol. I., p. 117; Ma.s.sachusetts Laws, pp. 140-145.]
[Footnote 85: "Mr. Winthrop, who was then Deputy-Governor, was active in the prosecution of the pet.i.tioners, but the party in favour of them had so much interest as to obtain a vote to require him to answer in public to the complaint against him. Dr. Mather says: 'He was most irregularly called forth to an ignominious hearing before a vast a.s.sembly, to which, "with a sagacious humility," he consented, although he showed he might have refused it. The result of the hearing was that he was honourably acquitted,' etc."]
[Footnote 86: This refers to a sermon preached by Mr. Cotton on a fast day, an extract of which is published in the Magnalia, B. III., p. 29, wherein he denounces the judgments of G.o.d upon such of his hearers as were then going to England with evil intentions against the country.]
[Footnote 87: Hutchinson's History of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay, Vol. I., pp.
145-149.
Mr. Palfrey, under the head of "Presbyterian Cabal," states the following facts as to the treatment of Dr. Child, Mr. Dand, and others who proposed to make their appeal to the English Parliament:
"Child and Dand, two of the remonstrants, were preparing to go to England with a pet.i.tion to the Parliament from a number of the non-freemen. Informed of their intention, the magistrates ordered a seizure of their papers. The searching officers found in their possession certain memorials to the Commissioners for Plantations, asking for 'settled Churches according to the (Presbyterian) Reformation in England;' for the establishment in the colony of the laws of the realm; for the appointment of 'a General Governor, or some honourable Commissioner,' to reform the existing state of things. For this further offence, such of the prominent conspirators as remained in the country were punished by additional fines. Child and Dand were mulcted in the sum of two hundred pounds; Mauerick, in that of a hundred and fifty pounds; and two others of a hundred pounds each."--Palfrey's History of New England [Abridged edition], Vol. I., pp. 327, 328.]
[Footnote 88: Mr. Bancroft, referring to the pet.i.tion of Dr. Child and others, quoted on page 94, says: "The doc.u.ment was written in the spirit of wanton insult;" then refers to the case of Gorton, who had appealed to the Earl of Warwick and the other Parliamentary Commissioners against a judicial decision of the Ma.s.sachusetts Bay Court in regard to land claimed by him. From Mr. Bancroft's statement, it appears that the claim of Gorton, friendless as he was, was so just as to commend itself to the favourable judgment of an impartial and competent tribunal of the Parliamentary Commissioners, whose authority his oppressors expressly denied, and then, in their address to Parliament in reference to its order, denied any authority of Parliament over their proceedings. Mr.
Bancroft's words are as follows:
"Gorton had carried his complaints to the Mother Country; and, though unaided by personal influence or by powerful friends, had succeeded in all his wishes. At this very juncture an order respecting his claims arrived in Boston; and was couched in terms _which involved an a.s.sertion of the right of Parliament to reverse the decisions and control the Government of Ma.s.sachusetts_. The danger was imminent; it struck at the very life and foundation of the rising Commonwealth. _Had the Long Parliament succeeded in revoking the patent of Ma.s.sachusetts_, the Stuarts, on their restoration, would have found not one chartered government in the colonies; and the tenor of American history would have been changed. The people[89] rallied with great unanimity in support of their magistrates.
"At length the General Court a.s.sembled for the discussion of _the usurpations of Parliament_ and the _dangers from domestic treachery_.
The elders [ministers] did not fail to attend in the gloomy season. One faithless deputy was desired to withdraw; and then, _with closed doors_, that the consultation might remain in the breast of the Court, the _nature of the relation with England_ was made the subject of debate.
After much deliberation it was agreed that Ma.s.sachusetts owed the same allegiance to England as the free Hanse Towns had rendered to the Empire; as Normandy, when its dukes were kings in England, had paid to the monarchs of France. It was also resolved not to accept a new Charter from Parliament, for that would imply a surrender of the old. Besides, Parliament granted none but by way of ordinance, and always made for itself an express preservation of a supreme power in all things. The _elders_ (ministers), after a day's consultation, _confirmed the decisions_.
"The colony proceeded to exercise the _independence_ which it claimed.
The General Court replied to the pet.i.tion in a State paper, written with great moderation; and the disturbers of the public security were summoned into its presence. Robert Child and his companions appealed to the Commissioners in England. _The appeal was not admitted._" "To the Parliament of England the Legislature remonstrated with the n.o.blest frankness _against any a.s.sertion of permanent authority of that body_."--Hist. U.S., Vol. I., pp. 475-477.]
[Footnote 89: By the "people" here Mr. Bancroft must mean the members of the Congregational Churches (one-sixth of the whole population), for they alone were _freemen_, and had all the united powers of the franchise--the _sword_, the _legislation_--in a word, the whole civil, judicial, ecclesiastical, and military government.]
[Footnote 90: But Mr. Bancroft seems to forget that in less than forty years after this the Charter was revoked, and that very system of government was established which the General Court of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay now deprecated, but under which Ma.s.sachusetts itself was most prosperous and peaceful for more than half a century, until the old spirit was revived, which rendered friendly government with England impossible.]
[Footnote 91: Mr. Hutchinson says: "The Earl of Warwick had a patent for Ma.s.sachusetts Bay about 1623, but the bounds are not known." (History of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay, Vol. I., p. 7.)]
[Footnote 92: Mr. Palfrey says: "While in England the literary war against Presbytery was in great part conducted by American combatants, their attention was presently required at home. William Va.s.sal, a man of fortune, was one of the original a.s.sistants named in the Charter of the Ma.s.sachusetts Company. He came to Ma.s.sachusetts with Winthrop's fleet in the great emigration; but for some cause--_possibly from dissatisfaction with the tendencies to Separatism which he witnessed_--he almost immediately returned. He crossed the sea again five years after, but then it was to the colony of Plymouth. Establishing his home at Seituate, he there conducted himself so as to come under the reproach of being 'a man of a busy, factious spirit, and always opposite to the civil government of the country and the way of the Churches.'"
(Winthrop, II., p. 261.) His disaffection occasioned the more uneasiness, because his brother Samuel, also formerly an a.s.sistant of the Ma.s.sachusetts Company, was now one of the Parliament's Commissioners for the government of Foreign Plantations.
In the year when the early struggle between the Presbyterians and Independents in England had disclosed the importance of the issues depending upon it, and the obstinate determination with which it was to be carried on, Va.s.sal "practised with" a few persons in Ma.s.sachusetts "to take some course, first by pet.i.tioning the Courts of Ma.s.sachusetts and of Plymouth, _and if that succeeded not_, then to the Parliament of England, that the distinctions which were maintained here, both in civil and church state, might be done away, and that we might be wholly governed by the laws of England." In [93] a "Remonstrance and Humble Pet.i.tion," addressed by them to the General Court [of Ma.s.sachusetts], they represented--1. That they could not discern in that colony "a settled form of government according to the laws of England;" 2. That "many thousands in the plantation of the English nation were debarred from civil employments," and not permitted "so much as to have any vote in choosing magistrates, captains, or other civil and military officers;" and, 3. "That numerous members of the Church of England,...
not dissenting from the latest reformation in England, Scotland, etc., were detained from the seals of the covenant of free grace, as it was supposed they will not take these Churches' covenants." They prayed for relief from each of these grievances; and they gave notice that, if it were denied, they should "be necessitated to apply their humble desires to the honourable Houses of Parliament, who, they hoped, would take their sad condition into their serious consideration."
After describing the social position of the representative pet.i.tioners, Mr. Palfrey proceeds: "But however little importance the movement derived from the character or position of the agitators, it was essentially of a nature to create alarm. It proposed nothing less than an abandonment of inst.i.tutions, civil and ecclesiastical, which the settlers and owners of Ma.s.sachusetts had set up, for reasons impressing their own minds as of the greatest significance and cogency. The demand was enforced by considerations which were not without plausibility, and were presented in a seductive form. _It was itself an appeal to the discontent of the numerical majority, not invested with a share in the government._ And it frankly threatened an appeal to the English Parliament--an authority always to be dreaded, for encroachment on colonial rights, and especially to be dreaded at a moment when the more numerous party among its members were bent on setting up a Presbytery as the established religion of England and its dependencies, determined on a severe suppression of dissent from it, and keenly exasperated against that Independency which New England had raised up to torment them in their own sphere, and which, for herself, New England cherished as her life."
"It being understood that two of the remonstrants, Fowle and Smith, were about to embark for England, to prosecute their business, the Court stopped them with a summons to appear and 'answer _to the matter of the pet.i.tion_.' They replied 'to the Gentlemen Commissioners for Plantations;' and the Court committed them to the custody of the Marshal till they gave security to be responsible to the judgment of the Court.
The whole seven were next arraigned as authors of divers false and scandalous statements in a certain paper ... against the Churches of Christ and the civil government here established, derogating from the honour and authority of the same, and tending to sedition. Refusing to answer, and 'appealing from this government, they disclaimed the jurisdiction thereof.' This was more than Presbyterian malcontents could be indulged in at the present critical time in Ma.s.sachusetts. The Court found them all deeply blamable, and punished them by fines, which were to be remitted on their making 'an ingenuous and public acknowledgment of their misdemeanours;' a condition of indemnity which they all refused, probably in expectation of obtaining both relief and applause in England."--"Four deputies opposed the sentence; three magistrates--Bellingham, Saltonstall, and Bradstreet--also dissented."--Palfrey's History of New England, Vol. I., pp. 166-170.]
[Footnote 93: Winthrop, II., 261. "The movement in Plymouth was made at a General Court in October, 1645, as appears from a letter of Winslow to Winthrop (Hutchinson's Collection, 154); though the public record contains nothing respecting it. I infer from Winslow's letter, that half the a.s.sistants (namely, Standish, Hatherly, Brown, and Freeman) were in favour of larger indulgence to the malcontents." (Note by Mr. Palfrey.)
(The majority of the General Court were clearly in favour of the movement; and knowing this, the Governor, Prince (the only persecuting Governor of the Plymouth Colony), refused to put the question to vote.)]
[Footnote 94: Hutchinson's History of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay, Vol. I., Chap.
v., p. 75.]
[Footnote 95: History of New England, Vol. II. p. 169. In another case mentioned by Mr. Palfrey, it is clear the public feeling was not with the local Government, which pretended to absolute independence of Parliament, and called the entrance of a parliamentary war vessel into its harbour, and action there, a "_foreign_ encroachment." A Captain Stagg arrived at Boston from London, in a vessel carrying twenty-four guns, and found there a merchant vessel from Bristol (which city was then held for the King), which he seized. Governor Winthrop wrote to Captain Stagg "to know _by what authority_ he had done it in _our_ harbour." Stagg produced his commission from the Earl of Warwick to capture vessels from ports in the occupation of the King's party, as well in harbours and creeks as on the high seas. Winthrop ordered him to carry the paper to Salem, the place of the Governor's residence, there to be considered at a meeting of the magistrates. _Of course the public feeling was with the Parliament and its officers_; but it was not so heedless as to forget its jealousy of _foreign encroachment_ from whatever quarter. "Some of the elders, the last Lord's Day, had in their sermons reproved this proceeding, and exhorted magistrates to maintain the people's liberties, which were, they said, _violated by this act_, and that a commission could not supersede a patent. And at this meeting some of the magistrates and some of the elders were of the same opinion, and that the captain should be forced to restore the ship." The decision, however, was different; and the reasons for _declining to defy the Parliament_, and allowing its officer to retain possession of his prize, are recorded. The following are pa.s.sages of this significant manifesto: "This could be no precedent to bar us from opposing any commission or other foreign power that might indeed tend to our hurt or violate our liberty; for the Parliament had taught us that _salus populi_ is _suprema lex_."[96] "If Parliament should hereafter be of a malignant spirit, then, _if we have strength sufficient_, we may make use of _salus populi_ to withstand any authority from thence to our hurt." "If we who have so openly declared our affection to the cause of Parliament by our prayers, fastings, etc., should now oppose their authority, or do anything that would make such an appearance, it would be laid hold on by those in Virginia and the West Indies to confirm them in their rebellious course, and it would grieve all our G.o.dly friends in England, or any other of the Parliament's friends."--Palfrey's History of New England, Vol. II., pp. 161-163.
Note.--It is plain from these words, as well as from other words quoted elsewhere, how entirely and avowedly the Ma.s.sachusetts Court identified themselves with the Parliament and Cromwell against the King, though they denied having done so in their addresses to Charles the Second.]
[Footnote 96: This maxim, that _the safety of the people is the supreme law_, might, by a similar perversion, be claimed by any mob or party const.i.tuting the majority of a city, town, or neighbourhood, as well as by the Colony of Ma.s.sachusetts, against the Parliament or supreme authority of the nation. They had no doubt of their own infallibility; they had no fear that they "should hereafter be of a malignant spirit;"
but they thought it very possible that the Parliament might be so, and then it would be for them to fight if they should have "strength sufficient." But after the restoration they thought it not well to face the armies and fleets of Charles the Second, and made as humble, as loyal, and as laudatory professions to him--calling him "the best of kings"--as they had made to Cromwell.]
[Footnote 97: They say: "Receiving information by Mr. Winslow, our agent, that it is the Parliament's pleasure that we should take a new patent from them, and keep our Courts and issue our warrants in their names, which we have not used in the late King's time or since, not being able to discern the need of such an injunction,--these things make us doubt and fear what is intended towards us. Let it therefore please you, most honourable, we humbly entreat, to take notice hereby what were our orders, upon what conditions and with what authority we came hither, and what we have done since our coming. We were the first movers and undertakers of so great an attempt, being men able enough to live in England with our neighbours, and being helpful to others, and not needing the help of any for outward things. About three or four and twenty years since, seeing just cause to fear the persecution of the then Bishops and High Commissioners for not conforming to the ceremonies then pressed upon the consciences of those under their power, we thought it our safest course to get to this outside of the world, out of their view and beyond their reach. Yet before we resolved upon so great an undertaking, wherein should be hazarded not only all our estates, but also the lives of ourselves and our posterity, both in the voyage at sea (wherewith we were unacquainted), and in coming into a wilderness uninhabited (unless in some few places by heathen, barbarous Indians), we thought it necessary to procure a patent from the late King, who then ruled all, to warrant our removal and prevent future inconveniences, and so did. By which patent liberty and power was granted to us to live under the government of a Governor, magistrates of our own choosing, and under laws of our own making (not being repugnant to the laws of England), according to which patent we have governed ourselves above this twenty years, we coming hither at our proper charges, without the help of the State, an acknowledgment of the freedom of our goods from custom," etc. "And for our carriage and demeanour to the honourable Parliament, for these ten years, since the first beginning of your differences with the late King, and the war that after ensued, we have constantly adhered to you, not withdrawing ourselves in your weakest condition and doubtfullest times, but by our fasting and prayers for your good success, and our thanksgiving after the same was attained, in days of solemnity set apart for that purpose, as also by our sending over useful men (others also going voluntarily from us to help you), who have been of good use and done acceptable services to the army, declaring to the world hereby that such was the duty and love we bear unto the Parliament, that we were ready to rise and fall with them; for which we have suffered the hatred and threats of other English colonies now in rebellion against you, as also the loss of divers of our ships and goods, taken by the King's party that is dead, by others commissioned by the King of Scots [Charles II.], and by the Portugalls."
"We hope that this most honourable Parliament will not cast such as have adhered to you and depended upon you, as we have done, into so deep despair, from the fear of which we humbly desire to be speedily freed by a just and gracious answer; which will freshly bind us to pray and use all lawful endeavours for the blessing of G.o.d upon you and the present Government." Appendix viii. to the first volume of Hutchinson's History of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay, pp. 516-518.
The "General Court" also sent a letter to Oliver Cromwell, enclosing a copy of the pet.i.tion to Parliament, to counteract representations which might be made against them by their enemies, and intreat his interest in their behalf. This letter concludes as follows:
"We humbly pet.i.tion your Excellence to be pleased to shew us what favour G.o.d shall be pleased to direct you unto on our behalf, to the most honourable Parliament, unto whom we have now presented a pet.i.tion. The copy of it, _verbatim_, we are bold to send herewith, that, if G.o.d so please, we be not hindered in our comfortable proceedings in the work of G.o.d here in this wilderness. Wherein, as for other favours, we shall be bound to pray, that the Captain of the Host of Israel may be with you and your whole army, in all your great enterprises, to the glory of G.o.d, the subduing of his and your enemies, and your everlasting peace and comfort in Jesus Christ." (_Ib._, Appendix ix., p. 522.)
In August (24th), 1654, the General Court addressed another letter to Oliver Cromwell, commencing as follows:
"It hath been no small comfort to us poor exiles, in these utmost ends of the earth (who sometimes felt and often feared the frowns of the mighty), to have had the experience of the good hand of G.o.d, in raising up such, whose endeavours have not been wanting to our welfare: amongst whom we have good cause to give your Highness the first place: who by a continued series of favours, have oblidged us, not only while you moved in a lower orb, but since the Lord hath called your Highness to supreme authority, whereat we rejoice and shall pray for the continuance of your happy government, that under your shadow not only ourselves, but all the Churches, may find rest and peace." (_Ib._, Appendix x., p. 523.)]
[Footnote 98: "1651.--The Parliament of England pa.s.sed the famous Act of Navigation. It had been observed with concern, that the English merchants for several years past had usually freighted the Hollanders'
shipping for bringing home their own merchandise, because their freight was at a lower rate than that of the English ships. For the same reason the Dutch ships were made use of even for importing American products from the English colonies into England. The English ships meanwhile lay rotting in the harbours, and the English mariners, for want of employment, went into the service of the Hollanders. The Commonwealth now turned its attention towards the most effectual mode of retaining the colonies in dependence on the parent State, and of securing to it the benefits of their increasing commerce. With these views the Parliament enacted, 'That no merchandise, either of Asia, Africa, or America, including the English Plantations there, should be imported into England in any but English-built ships, and belonging either to English or English Plantation subjects, navigated also by an English commander, and three-fourths of the sailors to be Englishmen; excepting such merchandise as should be imported directly from the original place of their growth, manufactured in Europe solely: and that no fish should thenceforward be imported into England or Ireland, nor exported thence to foreign parts, nor even from one of their own ports, but what should be caught by their own fishers only." (Holmes' Annals of America, Anderson, ii., 415, 416; Robertson, B. 9, p. 303; Janes' edit. Vol. I., p. 294.) Mr. Holmes adds in a note: "This Act was evaded at first by New England, which still traded to all parts, and enjoyed a privilege peculiar to themselves of importing their goods into England free of customs." (History Ma.s.sachusetts Bay, Vol. I., p. 40.)]
[Footnote 99: Palfrey's History of New England, Vol. II., p. 393.]
[Footnote 100: Palfrey's History of New England, Vol. II., p. 397, in a note.]
[Footnote 101: Hutchinson's History of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay, Vol. I., p.
152; Holmes' Annuls, Vol. I., p. 294. Note x.x.xi., p. 579.
This law was pa.s.sed in 1651, while Endicot was Governor. Two years before, shortly after Governor Winthrop's death, Governor Endicot, with several other magistrates, issued a declaration against men wearing long hair, prefaced with the words, "Forasmuch as the wearing of long hair, after the manner of the ruffians and barbarous Indians, has begun to invade New England," and declaring "their dislike and detestation against wearing of such long hair as a thing uncivil and unmanly, whereby men do deform themselves, and offend sober and modest men, and do corrupt good manners," etc.--_Ib._]
[Footnote 102: Such was the opinion of the late Mr. John Forster, in his beautiful Life of Sir Henry Vane, in his Lives of the Puritan Statesmen of the Commonwealth.]
[Footnote 103: Hutchinson's Collection of Original Papers, etc.; Publication of the Prince Society.
_Note_ by Mr. Hutchinson: "Mr. Winthrop had obliged Mr. Vane to leave Ma.s.sachusetts and return to England. The letter was written when Mr.
Vane's interest in Parliament was very great. It shows a good spirit, and the reproof is decent as well as seasonable."]