CHAPTER VII.

NEW ENGLAND FROM 1643 TO 1700.

63. References.

Bibliographies and Special Histories.

Harvard Historical Monographs, No. 2, § 35.

Same as $47,

Historical Maps. — Doyle's English in America, vol. ii. frontispiece, p. 153; vol. iii. frontispiece; MacCoun's Historical Geography; Ollier's United States, vol. i. p. 216, § 330.

General Accounts. Bancroft (final ed.), i. 289-407, 574-613; Bryant and Gay, ii. 48-114, 165-199; Hildreth, i. 268-334, 368-412, 450-508; Palfrey's Compendious History of New England, i. 269-408, ii. 1-386; Lodge's Colonies: Massachusetts, pp. 351-362; Connecticut, pp. 375-380; Rhode Island, pp. 387-392; New Hampshire, pp. 398400; Doyle's English Colonies, ii. 220-319; iii. 1–272; Fiske's Beginnings of New England, pp. 140-278; Frothingham's Rise of the Republic, pp. 33-100; Winsor's Narrative and Critical History, same as § 47. Contemporary Accounts. Sewall's Diary (publications of Mass. Hist. Soc.); Cotton Mather's Magnalia; Morton's New England Canaan; consult the several Colonial Records.

Local politics excluded.

64. New England Confederation formed (1637-1643). IN the preceding chapter has been sketched the origin and planting of the New England colonies. Most of those colonies maintained a separate existence and had a history of their own during the rest of the seventeenth century. But the limits of this work do not permit a sketch of the local and internal history of each colony. In this chapter will therefore be considered only those events of common interest and having a significance in the development of all the colonies.

1637-1642.] Confederation Formed.

155

First in time and first in its consequences is the federation of the New England colonies, for which in August, 1637, the men of Connecticut made Connecticut makes over- overtures to the Massachusetts General Court. tures for a colonial fede- Connecticut, as an outpost of English civilizaration (1637) tion in the heart of the Indian country and “over against the Dutch," had especial need of support from the older colonies to the east. The tribesmen were uneasy and the menaces of the Dutch at New Amsterdam were especially alarming. Twice had the doughty Hollanders endeavored to drive English settlers from the Connecticut valley and recover their lost fur-trade there; both attempts had been failures, but it seemed likely that in time the Dutch might summon sufficient strength to make it more difficult to withstand them. Again, the French, who had settled at Quebec in 1608, were beginning to push the confines of New France southward; and there had been trouble with them at various times for several years, the outgrowth of boundary disputes and race hatred. The Connecticut and Hudson rivers were highways quite familiar to the French Canadians and their Indian allies, and the Connecticut colonists were apprehensive of partisan raids overland from the north, which they could not hope to repel single-handed.

Massachu

favorable

The proposition for union was renewed in 1639, and again in September, 1642. At first Massachusetts was indifferent; but finally "the ill news we had out of setts at last England concerning the breach between the (1642). king and Parliament " appears to have caused her statesmen to look favorably on the project. Affairs were at such a pass in the mother-country that it behooved Englishmen in America to be prepared to act on the defensive in the event of the war-cloud drifting in their direction. Should the king win, there was reason to

believe that he would speedily turn his attention towards the correction of New England, which had long been to dissenting Englishmen in the mother-land an objectlesson in political independence and a ready refuge in time of danger.

Formation

In May, 1643, twelve articles were agreed upon at Boston between the representatives of Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven. of the New Winthrop tells us that the representatives England Confedera- "coming to consultation encountered some difficulties, but being all desirous of union and studious of peace, they readily yielded each to other in such things as tended to common utility." Compromises were the foundation of this as well as of later American constitutions.

tion.

tution.

The four colonies were bound together by a formal written constitution, under the name of "The United The Consti- Colonies of New England," in "a firm and perpetual league of friendship and amity for offence and defence, mutual advice and succor, upon all just occasions, both for preserving and propagating the truth and liberties of the Gospel, and for their own mutual safety and welfare." Each colony was allowed to manage its internal affairs; but a body of eight federal commissioners, two from each colony, and all of them church members, were empowered to "determine all affairs of war or peace, leagues, aids, charges, and numbers of men for war, division of spoils and whatsoever was gotten by conquest, receiving of more confederates for plantations into combination with any of the confederates, and all things of like nature which were the proper concomitants or consequents of such a confederation for amity, offence, and defence." Six commissioners formed a working majority of the board; but in case of disagreement, the question at issue was to be sent to the legisla

1643-1660.]

Massachusetts in Control.

157

tures of the several colonies for decision. War expenses were to be levied against each colony in proportion to its male population between the ages of sixteen and sixty. The board was to meet at least once a year, and oftener when necessary. The president of the commissioners, chosen from their own number, was to be "invested with no power or respect except that of a presiding officer.

65. Workings of the Confederation (1643-1660).

The league which it represented is "interesting as the first American experiment in federation;" but it had one fertile source of weakness. There were in the Inequality of represen- four colonies represented an aggregate popula tation. tion of about twenty-four thousand, of which Massachusetts contained fifteen thousand, the other three having not more than three thousand each. In case of war Massachusetts agreed to send one hundred men for every forty-five furnished by each of her colleagues. In two ways she bore the heaviest burden, in the number of men sent to war, and in the amount of taxes levied therefor. As each colony was to have an equal vote in the conduct of the league, Massachusetts was placed at a disadvantage. She frequently endeavored to exercise larger power than was allowed her under the articles; thus arousing the enmity of the smaller colonies, and endangering the existence of the union.

Massachusetts in

Nevertheless, during the twenty years in which the confederation was the strongest political power on the continent of North America, Massachusetts maintained control of its general policy. Maine control. and the settlements along Narragansett Bay in vain made application to join the confederation. objected that public order was not established in Rhode Island, and moreover the oath taken by the freemen

It was

there bespoke fealty to the English king. As for Maine, its proprietor, Gorges, was enlisted on the side of the monarch, and the political system in vogue in his province differed from that in the other colonies.

Commis

The board was little more than a committee of public safety; it acted upon the colonial legislatures, and not on Nature of the individual colonists, and had no power to the Board of enforce its decrees. One of its early interests was the building up of Harvard College; and at its request there was taken up, throughout the four colonies, a contribution of "corn for the poor scholars in Cambridge."

sioners.

In the articles of confederation there was no reference whatever to the home government. The New Eng

Local independence

greater than national patriotism.

landers had taken charge of their own affairs, apparently without a thought of the supremacy of either king or parliament. The spirit of local independence among these people was greater than national patriotism. With Laud in prison and the king an outcast, there could be no interference from that quarter, and Parliament was too busy just then to give much thought to the doings of the distant American colonists. In November (1643) Parliament instituted a commission for the government of the colonies, with the Earl of Warwick at its head; but it was of small avail so far as New England was concerned.

interference from England.

Massachusetts was ever in an attitude of jealousy towards even a suspicion of interference from England. Jealousy of In 1644 the General Court voted that any one attempting to raise soldiers for the king should be "accounted as an offender of an high nature against this commonwealth, and to be proceeded with, either capitally or otherwise, according to the quality and degree of his offence." The colony was, however, no more for the Commons than for the king.