[114] The captain of a ship brought the news from England in July, that the King had been proclaimed, but a false rumour was circulated that the Government in England was in a very unsettled state, the body of the people dissatisfied; that the Scotch had demanded work; that Lord Fairfax was at the head of a great army, etc. Such a rumour was so congenial to the feelings of the men who had been lauding Cromwell, that when it was proposed in the General Court of Massachusetts Bay, in the October following, to address the King, the majority refused to do so. They awaited to see which party would prevail in England, so as to pay court to it. On the 30th of November a ship arrived from Bristol, bringing news of the utter falsity of the rumours about the unsettled state of things and popular dissatisfaction in England, and of the proceedings of Parliament; and letters were received from their agent, Mr. Leverett, that petitions and complaints were preferred against the colony to the King in Council. Then the Governor and assistants called a meeting of the General Court, December 9th, when a very loyal address to the King was presently agreed upon, and another to the two Houses of Parliament. Letters were sent to Sir Thomas Temple, to Lord Manchester, Lord Say and Seal, and to other persons of note, praying them to intercede in behalf of the colony. A most gracious answer was given to the address by the King's letter, dated February 15, 1660 (1661, new style), which was the first public act or order concerning them after the restoration. (Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts Bay, Vol. I., pp. 210, 211.)

[115] Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts Bay, Vol. I., pp. 211, 212.

[116] Holmes' Annals of America, Vol. I., p. 318. Hutchinson, Vol. I., p. 216. Hazard, Vol. II., pp. 593-595. The address is a curiosity in its way, and a strange medley which I must leave the reader to characterize in view of the facts involved. The following are the principal passages of it:

Extracts from the Massachusetts General Court—Address to the King, dated 19th December, 1660:

"To the High and Mighty Prince, Charles the Second, by the grace of God,
King of Great Britain, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith.

"Most gracious and dread Sovereign:

"May it please your Majesty—In the day wherein you happily say you know you are King over your British Israel, to cast a favourable eye upon your poore Mephiboseth now, and by reason of lameness in respect of distance, not until now appearing in your presence, we mean upon New England, kneeling with the rest of your subjects before your Majesty as her restored King. We forget not our ineptness as to those approaches; we at present owne such impotence as renders us unable to excuse our impotency of speaking unto our Lord the King; yet contemplating such a King, who hath also seen adversity, that he knoweth the hearts of exiles, who himself hath been an exile, the aspect of Majesty extraordinarily influenced animateth exanimated outcasts, yet outcasts as we hope for the truth, to make this address unto our Prince, hoping to find grace in your sight. We present this script, the transcript of our loyall hearts, wherein we crave leave to supplicate your Majesty for your gracious protection of us in the continuance both of our civill and religious liberties (according to the grantees known, and of suing for the patent) conferred on this Plantation by your royal father. This, viz., our libertie to walk in the faith of the gospell, was the cause of our transporting ourselves, with our wives, little ones, and our substances, from that over the Atlantick ocean, into the vast wilderness, choosing rather the pure Scripture worship with a good conscience in this remote wilderness among the heathen, than the pleasures of England with submission to the impositions of the then so disposed and so far prevailing hierarchy, which we could not do without an evil conscience." "Our witness is in heaven that we left not our native country upon any dissatisfaction as to the constitution of the civil state. Our lot after the good old nonconformists hath been only to act a passive part throughout these late vicissitudes and successive turnings of States. Our separation from our brethren in this desert hath been and is a sufficient bringing to mind the afflictions of Joseph. But providentiall exemption of us hereby from the late warres and temptations of either party we account as a favour from God; the former cloathes us with sackcloth, the latter with innocency.

(Signed) "John Endicot, Governor.

"In the name and by order of the General Court of Massachusetts."

[117] It is known that the "old nonconformists" did not fight against the king, denounced his execution, suffered for their "nonconformity" to Cromwell's despotism, and were among the most active restorers of Charles the Second.

[118] See above, in a previous page.

[119] Letter from Charles II. to Governor Endicot:

"Charles R.

"Trusty and well beloved—Wee greet you well. It having pleased Almighty God, after long trialls both of us and our people, to touch their hearts at last with a just sense of our right, and by their assistance to restore us, peaceably and without blood, to the exercise of our legall authority for the good and welfare of the nations committed to our charge, we have made it our care to settle our lately distracted kingdom at home, and to extend our thoughts to increase the trade and advantages of our colonies and plantations abroad, amongst which as wee consider New England to be one of the chiefest, having enjoyed and grown up in a long and orderly establishment, so wee shall not be behind any of our royal predecessors in a just encouragement and protection of all our loving subjects there, whose application unto us, since our late happy restoration, hath been very acceptable, and shall not want its due remembrance upon all seasonable occasions; neither shall wee forget to make you and all our good people in those parts equal partakers of those promises of liberty and moderation to tender consciences expressed in our gracious declarations; which, though some persons in this kingdom, of desperate, disloyal, and unchristian principles, have lately abused to the public disturbance and their own destruction, yet wee are confident our good subjects in New England will make a right use of it, to the glory of God, their own spiritual comfort and edification. And so wee bid you farewell. Given at our Court of Whitehall, the 15th day of February, 1660 (1661, new style), in the thirteenth year of our reigne.

(Signed) "Will. Morrice."

[120] The following are extracts from the reply of the General Court of Massachusetts Bay to the foregoing letter of Charles the Second:

"Illustrious Sir,—

"That majestie and benignitie both sate upon the throne whereunto your outcasts made their former addresse; witness this second eucharistical approach unto the best of kings, who to other titles of royaltie common to him with other gods amongst men, delighteth herein more particularily to conforme himselfe to the God of gods, in that he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, neither hath he hid his face from him, but when he heard he cried.

"Our petition was the representation of exiles' necessities; this script, congratulatory and lowly, is the reflection of the gracious rayes of Christian majestie. There we besought your favour by presenting to a compassionate eye that bottle full of tears shed by us in this Teshimon: here we acknowledge the efficacie of regal influence to qualify these salt waters. The mission of ours was accompanied with these Churches sitting in sackcloth; the reception of yours was as the holding forth the scepter of life. The truth is, such were the impressions upon our spirits when we received an answer of peace from our gracious Sovereigne as transcends the facultie of an eremitical scribe. Such, as though our expressions of them neede pardon, yet the suppression of them seemeth unpardonable."

The conclusion of their address was as follows:

"Royal Sir,—

"Your just Title to the Crown enthronizeth you in our consciences, your graciousness in our affections: That inspireth us unto Duty, this naturalizeth unto Loyalty: Thence we call you Lord; hence a Savior. Mephibosheth, how prejudicially soever misrepresented, yet rejoiceth that the King is come in Peace to his own house. Now the Lord hath dealt well with our Lord the King. May New England, under your Royal Protection, be permitted still to sing the Lord's song in this strange Land. It shall be no grief of Heart for the Blessing of a people ready to perish, daily to come upon your Majesty, the blessings of your poor people, who (not here to alledge the innocency of our cause, touching which let us live no longer than we subject ourselves to an orderly trial thereof), though in the particulars of subscriptions and conformity, supposed to be under the hallucinations of weak Brethren, yet crave leave with all humility to say whether the voluntary quitting of our native and dear country be not sufficient to expiate so innocent a mistake (if a mistake) let God Almightie, your Majesty, and all good men judge.

"Now, he in whose hands the times and trials of the children of men are, who hath made your Majesty remarkably parallel to the most eminent of kings, both for space and kind of your troubles, so that vere day cannot be excepted, wherein they drove him from abiding in the inheritance of the Lord, saying, 'Go, serve other gods; make you also (which is the crown of all), more and more like unto him, in being a man after God's own heart, to do whatsoever he will.' Yea, as the Lord was with David, so let him be with your most excellent Majesty, and make the Throne of King Charles the Second both greater and better than the Throne of King David, or than the Throne of any of your Royal Progenitors. So shall always pray,

"Great Sir,

"Your Majesty's most humble and loyal subjects.

"John Endicot, Governor."

(Hutchinson's Collection of Original Papers, etc., pp. 341, 342. Massachusetts Records, August 7, 1661.)

[121] The Government of New England received a letter from the King, signifying his pleasure that there should be no further prosecution of the Quakers who were condemned to suffer death or other corporal punishment, or who were imprisoned or obnoxious to such condemnation; but that they be forthwith sent over to England for trial. The Massachusetts General Court, after due consideration of the King's letter, proceeded to declare that the necessity of preserving religion, order, and peace had induced the enactment of laws against the Quakers, etc., and concluded by saying, "All this, notwithstanding their restless spirits, have moved some of them to return, and others to fill the royal ear of our Sovereign Lord the King with complaints against us, and have, by their unwearied solicitations, in our absence, so far prevailed as to obtain a letter from his Majesty to forbear their corporal punishment or death; although we hope and doubt not but that if his Majesty were rightly informed, he would be far from giving them such favour, or weakening his authority here, so long and orderly settled: Yet that we may not in the least offend his Majesty, this Court doth hereby order and declare that the execution of the laws in force against Quakers as such, so far as they respect corporal punishment or death, be suspended until this Court take further order." Upon this order of the Court twenty-eight Quakers were released from prison and conducted out of the jurisdiction of Massachusetts. (Holmes' Annals, Vol. I., pp. 318, 319.)

[122] "Upon the Restoration, not only Episcopalians, but Baptists, Quakers, etc., preferred complaints against the colony; and although, by the interest of the Earl of Manchester and Lord Say, their old friends, and Secretary Morrice, all Puritans, King Charles continued their Charter, yet he required a toleration in religion, and an alteration in some civil matters, neither of which were fully complied with." (Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts Bay, Vol. II., p. 3.)

[123] "In the Earl of Manchester and Lord Say; in Annesley, created Earl of Anglesea; in Denzil Hollis, now Lord Hollis; and in Ashley Cooper, now Lord Ashley, the expectant cavaliers saw their old enemies raised to the place of honour. Manchester had not taken any part in public affairs since the passing of the self-denying ordinances. He was still a Presbyterian, but had favoured the return of the King. Lord Say, also, had long since withdrawn from public life, and though of a less pliant temper than Manchester, his new friends had no reason to doubt his steady adherence to the new order of things. Annesley was an expert lawyer. Hollis had been the leader of the Presbyterians in the Long Parliament, until the crisis which turned the scale in favour of the Independents.

"Lord Ashley, better known as the Earl of Shaftesbury, had been devoted successively to the King, the Parliament, and the Protector. Nichols and Morrice were the two Secretaries of State."—Dr. R. Vaughan's Revolutions in English History, Vol. III., B. 14, Chap. i., pp. 430, 431.

"Totally devoid of resentment, as well from natural lenity as carelessness of his temper, Charles the Second ensured pardon to the most guilty of his enemies, and left hopes of favour to his most violent opponents. From the whole tenor of his actions and discourse, he seemed desirous of losing the memory of past animosities, and of making every party in affection to their prince and their native country.

"Into his Council he admitted the most eminent men of the nation, without regard to former distinctions; the Presbyterians equally with the Royalists shared this honour. Annesley was created Earl of Anglesea; Ashley Cooper, Lord Ashley; Denzil Hollis, Lord Hollis; the Earl of Manchester was appointed Lord Chamberlain; and Lord Say, Privy Seal. Calamy and Baxter, Presbyterian clergymen, were even made chaplains to the King; Admiral Montague, created Earl of Sandwich, was entitled from his recent services to great favour, and he obtained it. Monk, created Duke of Albemarle, had performed such signal services that according to a vulgar and inelegant observation, he ought rather to have expected hatred and ingratitude, yet was he ever treated by the King with great marks of distinction. Charles' disposition was free from jealousy; and the prudent conduct of the General, who never overrated his merits, prevented all State disgusts which naturally arise in so delicate a situation. Morrice, his friend, was created Secretary of State, and was supported more by his patron's credit than by his own abilities and experience."—Hume's History of England, Vol. VII., Chap, xliii., pp. 338, 339.

[124] Letter of King Charles the Second to the General Court at Massachusetts (June 28, 1662):

"Charles Rex.

"Trusty and well beloved, We greete you well:

"Whereas we have have lately received an humble address and petition from the General Court of our colony of Massachusetts, in New England, presented to us by Simon Bradstreet and John Norton: We have thought it agreeable to our princely grace and justice to let you know that the same have been very acceptable unto us, and that we are satisfied with your expressions of loyalty, duty and good affection made to us in the said address, which we doubt not proceeds from the hearts of good and honest subjects, and We are therefore willing that all our good subjects of that Plantation do know that We do receive them into our gracious protection, and will cherish them with our best encouragement, and that We will preserve and do hereby continue the patent and charter heretofore granted to them by our royall father of blessed memory, and that they shall freely enjoy all the priviledges and libertys granted to them in and by the same, and that We will be ready to renew the same charter to them under our great seale of England, whenever they shall desire it. And because the licence of these late ill times has likewise had an influence upon our colony, in which they have swerved from the rules prescribed, and even from the government instituted by the charter, which we do graciously impute rather to the iniquity of the time than to the evil intents of the hearts of those who exercised the government there. And we do therefore publish and declare our free and gracious pardon to all our subjects of that our plantation, for all crimes and offences committed against us during the late troubles, except any persons who stand attainted by our parliament here of high treason, if any such persons have transported themselves into these parts; the apprehending of whom and delivering them into the hands of justice, we expect from the dutiful and affectionate obedience of those of our good subjects in that colony, if they be found within the jurisdiction thereof. Provided always, and be it our declared expectation, that upon a review of all such laws and ordinances that are now or have been during these late troubles in practice there, and which are contrary or derogatory to our authority and government, the same may be annulled and repealed, and the rules and prescriptions of the said charter for administering and taking the oath of allegiance be henceforth duly observed, and that the administrations of justice be in our name. And since the principle and foundation of that charter was and is the freedom of liberty of conscience, We do hereby charge and require you that freedom and liberty be duly admitted and allowed, so that they that desire to use the book of common prayer and performe their devotion in that manner that is established here be not denied the exercise thereof, or undergoe any prejudice or disadvantage thereby, they using their liberty peaceably without any disturbances to others; and that all persons of good and honest lives and conversations be admitted to the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, according to the said Book of Common Prayer, and their children to baptism."

[125] Indeed, so conscious were they that they had justly forfeited all consideration from the King, that the first address extracted from them when they found the monarchy firmly established, expressed deep humiliation and confession, and implored the forgiveness and favour of their Sovereign; and being sensible of the many and well-founded complaints made against them by the victims of their persecuting intolerance, they appointed two of their ablest and most trusted members—Simon Bradstreet, an old magistrate, and John Norton, a minister of Boston—to proceed to England to present their address, to intercede for them, and secure the interest of those of their old friends who might have influence with the King and his councillors. But as Bradstreet and Norton had both been persecutors of their Episcopalian, Presbyterian, and Baptist brethren, and were conspicuous in promoting the bloody persecutions of the Quakers (now getting a favourable hearing for their sufferings at the English Court), they were unwilling to undertake so difficult and hazardous a mission without formal provision being made by the Massachusetts Court for indemnity for all the damage they might incur.

"At length," says their historian, "the Committee appointed to do everything for their dispatch in the recess of the Court, 'engaged to make good all damages they might sustain by the detention of their persons in England, or otherwise.' They departed the 10th of February (1662.)

"Their reception in England was much more favourable than was expected; their stay short, returning the next autumn with the King's most gracious letter, some parts of which cheered the hearts of the country; and they then looked upon and afterwards recurred to them as a confirmation of their charter privileges, and an amnesty of all past errors. The letter was ordered to be published (as the King had directed), and in an order for public thanksgiving, particular notice is taken of 'the return of the messengers, and the continuance of the mercies of peace, liberties, and the Gospel.'"

The early New England historian, Hubbard, says: "They returned like Noah's dove, with an olive branch of peace in their mouths."

"There were some things, however, in the King's letter hard to comply with; and though it was ordered to be published, yet it was with this caution, that 'inasmuch as the letter hath influence upon the Churches as well as the civil state, all manner of acting in relation thereto shall be suspended until the next General Court, that all persons may have opportunity to consider what was necessary to be done, in order to know his Majesty's pleasure therein.'" (Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts Bay, Vol. I., pp. 221, 222.)

[126] So dissatisfied were these Congregational "freemen" with the conditions which were intended to put an end to their persecutions of their brethren and their disloyal practices, that they denounced their old friends and representatives to England, Messrs. Bradstreet and Norton, for those conditions which they could not prevent, and upon which they might well be thankful to preserve the Charter and obtain pardon for their past offences. Their historian says: "The agents met with the fate of most agents ever since. The favours they obtained were supposed to be no more than might well have been expected, and their merits were soon forgot; the evils which they had it not in their power to prevent, were attributed to their neglect or unnecessary concessions. Mr. Bradstreet was a man of more phlegm and not so sensibly touched, but Mr. Norton was so affected that he grew melancholy; and died suddenly soon after his return (April 5, 1633)." (Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts Bay, Vol. I., p. 223.)

In a note the historian quotes the remark of Mr. Norton to the Massachusetts Court, that "if they complied not with the King's letter, the blood that should be spilt would lie at their door."

"Dr. Mather says upon this occasion: 'Such has been the jealous disposition of our New Englanders about their dearly bought privileges, and such also has been the various interpretations of the people about the extent of their privileges, that of all the agents sent over to the Court of England for now forty years together, I know of not one who did not, at his return, meet with some forward entertainment among his countrymen.'" (Ib., p. 222.)

[127] Mr. Hildreth gives the following account of this mission and its results upon the state of society in Massachusetts Bay Colony and its agents to England:

"The Massachusetts' agents presently returned, bearers of a royal letter, in which the King recognized the Charter and promised oblivion of past offences. But he demanded the repeal of all laws inconsistent with his due authority; an oath of allegiance to the royal person, as formerly in use, but dropped since the commencement of the late civil war; the administration of justice in his name; complete toleration for the Church of England; the repeal of the law which restricted the privilege of voting, and tenure of office to Church members, and the substitution of property qualification instead; finally, the admission of all persons of honest lives to the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper.

"The claimants for toleration, formerly suppressed with such prompt severity, were now encouraged, by the King's demands in their favour, again to raise their heads. For the next thirty years the people of Massachusetts (Bay) were divided into three parties, a very decided, though gradually diminishing majority (of the Congregationalists, the only "freemen") sustaining with ardour the theocratic system, and, as essential to it, entire independence of external control. At the opposite extreme, a party, small in numbers and feeble in influence (among the "freemen"), advocated religious toleration—at least to a limited extent—and equal civil rights for all inhabitants. They advocated, also, the supremacy of the Crown, sole means in that day of curbing the theocracy, and compelling it to yield its monopoly of power. To this party belonged the Episcopalians, or those inclined to become so; the Baptists, Presbyterians, the Quakers, and other sectaries who feared less the authority of a distant monarch than the present rule of their watchful and bitter spiritual rivals. In the intermediate was a third party, weak at first but daily growing stronger, and drawing to its ranks, one after another, some former zealous advocates of the exclusive system, convinced that a theocracy, in its stricter form, was no longer tenable, and some of them, perhaps, beginning to be satisfied that it was not desirable. Among the earliest of these were Norton and Bradstreet, the agents who came back from England impressed with the necessity of yielding. But the avowal of such sentiments was fatal to their popularity (among the Congregational "freemen"), and Norton, accustomed to nothing but reverence and applause, finding himself now looked at with distrust, soon died of melancholy and mortification." (Hildreth's History of the United States, Vol. I., Chap. xiv., pp. 455, 456.)

[128] Collection of Massachusetts, etc., Civil Society, Vol. VIII., Second Series, p. 53.

[129] Collections of Massachusetts, etc., Civil Society, Vol. VIII., Second Series, pp. 59, 60.

[130] From the representations made respecting the state of affairs in the New England colonies, the appointment of this Commission was decided upon after the restoration of the King, and the agents of those colonies were informed of it. Col. Nichols, the head of the Commission, stated in his introductory address to the Massachusetts Bay Court, May 2, 1665, that "The King himself and the Lord Chancellor (Clarendon) told Mr. Norton and Mr. Bradstreet of this colony, and Mr. Winthrop of Connecticut, Mr. Clarke of Rhode Island, and several others now in these countries, that he intended shortly to send over Commissioners." (Ib., p. 56.)

[131] It was in refutation of such reports that Col. Nichols made the statements quoted on a previous page; in the course of which, referring to the slanders circulated by persons high in office under the Court, he said: "Some of them are these: That the King hath sent us over here to raise £5,000 a year out of the colony for his Majesty's use, and 12d. for every acre of improved land besides, and to take from this colony many of their civil liberties and ecclesiastical privileges, of which particulars we have been asked the truth in several places, all of which reports we did, and here do, disclaim as false; and protest that they are diametrically contrary to the truth, as ere long we shall make it appear more plainly."

"These personal slanders with which we are calumniated, as private men we slight; as Christians we forgive and will not mention; but as persons employed by his Sacred Majesty, we cannot suffer his honour to be eclipsed by a cloud of black reproaches, and some seditious speeches, without demanding justice from you against those who have raised, reported, or made them." (Ib., p. 56.)

These reports were spread by some of the chief officers of the Council, and the most seditious of the speeches complained of was by the commander of their forces; but they were too agreeable to the Court for them even to contradict, much less investigate, although Col. Nichols offered to give their names.

Hubbard, the earliest and most learned of the New England historians, says:

"The Commissioners were but four in number, the two principal of whom were Colonel Nichols and Colonel Cartwright, who were both of them eminently qualified, with abilities fit to manage such a concern, nor yet wanting in resolution to carry on any honourable design for the promotion of his Majesty's interest in any of those Plantations whither they were sent." (Massachusetts History Collection, Vol. V., Second Series, p. 577.)

[132] The following is a copy of the Royal Commission, in which the reasons and objects of it are explicitly stated:

"Copy of a Commission from King Charles the Second to Col. Nichols and others, in 1664.

"Charles the 2nd, by the Grace of God, King of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, etc.

"To all to whom these presents shall come, Greeting: Whereas we have received several addresses from our subjects of several colonies in New England, all full of duty and affection, and expressions of loyalty and allegiance to us, with their humble desires that we would renew their several Charters, and receive them into our favourable opinion and protection; and several of our colonies there, and other our loving subjects, have likewise complained of differences and disputes arisen upon the limits and bounds of their several Charters and jurisdictions, whereby unneighbourly and unbrotherly contentions have and may arise, to the damage and discredit of the English interest; and that all our good subjects residing there, and being Planters within the several colonies, do not enjoy the liberties and privileges granted to them by our several Charters, upon confidence and assurance of which they transported themselves and their estates into those parts; and we having received some addresses from the great men and natives of those countries in which they complain of breach of faith, and acts of violence, and injustice which they have been forced to undergoe from our subjects, whereby not only our Government is traduced, but the reputation and credit of the Christian religion brought into prejudice and reproach with the Gentiles and inhabitants of those countries who know not God, the reduction of whom to the true knowledge and feare of God is the most worthy and glorious end of all those Plantations: Upon all which motives, and as an evidence and manifestation of our fatherly affection towards all our subjects in those several colonies of New England (that is to say, of the Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Plimouth, Rhode Island, and Providence Plantations, and all other Plantations within that tract of land known under the appelation of New England), and to the end we may be truly informed of the state and condition of our good subjects there, that so we may the better know how to contribute to the further improvement of their happiness and prosperity: Know ye therefore, that we, reposing special trust and confidence in the fidelity, wisdome and circumspection of our trusty and well-beloved Colonel Richard Nichols, Sir Robert Carre, Knt., George Cartwright, Esq., and Samuel Maverick, Esq., of our special grace, certain knowledge, and mere motion, have made, ordained, constituted and appointed, and by these presents do make, ordain, constitute and appoint the said Colonel Richard Nichols, Sir Robert Carre, George Cartwright, and Samuel Maverick, our Commissioners, and do hereby give and grant unto them, or any three or two of them, or of the survivors of them, of whom we will the said Colonel Richard Nichols, during his life, shall be alwaies one, and upon equal divisions of opinions, to have the casting and decisive voice, in our name to visit all and every the several colonies aforesaid, and also full power and authority to heare and receive and to examine and determine all complaints and appeals in all causes and matters, as well military as criminal and civil, and proceed in all things for the providing for and settling the peace and security of the said country, according to their good and sound discretion, and to such instructions as they or the survivors of them have, or shall from time to time receive from us in that behalfe, and from time to time, as they shall find expedient, to certify us or our Privy Council of their actings or proceedings touching the premises; and for the doing thereof, or any other matter or thing relating thereunto, these presents, or the enrolment thereof, shall be unto them a sufficient warrant and discharge in that behalf. In witness whereof we have caused these our letters to be made patent. Witness ourselfe at Westminster, the 25th day of April, in the sixteenth yeare of our reigne." (Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts Bay, Vol. I., Appendix xv., pp. 535, 536.)

[133] The following are extracts from the report of the Commissioners who were appointed to visit the several colonies of New England in 1666:

"The Colony of Connecticut returned their thanks to his Majesty for his gracious letters, and for sending Commissioners to them, with promises of their loyalty and obedience; and they did submit to have appeals made to his Majesty's Commissioners, who did hear and determine some differences among them. All forms of justice pass only in his Majesty's name; they admit all that desire to be of their corporation; they will not hinder any from enjoying the sacraments and using the Common Prayer Book, provided that they hinder not the maintenance of the public minister. They will amend anything that hath been done derogatory to his Majesty's honour, if there be any such thing, so soon as they shall come to the knowledge of it."

"The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations returned their humble thanks to his Majesty for sending Commissioners, and made great demonstration of their loyalty and obedience. They approved as most reasonable, that appeals should be made to his Majesty's Commissioners, who, having heard and determined some cases among them, referred other some in civility to their General Court, and some to the Governor and others; some of which cases they again remitted to the Commissioners to determine. All proceedings are in his Majesty's name; they admit all to be freemen who desire it; they allow liberty of conscience and worship to all who live civilly; and if any can inform of anything in their laws or practices derogatory to his Majesty's honour, they will amend it."

"The Colony of New Plymouth did submit to have appeals made to the Commissioners, who have heard but one plaint made to them, which was that the Governor would not let a man enjoy a farm four miles square, which he had bought of an Indian. The complainant soon submitted to the Governor when he understood the unreasonableness of it."

"The Colony of Massachusetts Bay was the hardest to be persuaded to use his Majesty's name in the forms of justice. In this colony, at the first coming of the Commissioners, were many untruths raised and sent into the colonies, as that the King had to raise £15,000 yearly for his Majesty's use, whereupon Major Hawthorne made a seditious speech at the head of his company, and the late Governor (Bellingham) another at their meeting-house at Boston, but neither of them were so much as questioned for it by any of the magistrates." ... "But neither examples nor reasons could prevail with them to let the Commissioners hear and determine so much as those particular cases (Mr. Deane's and the Indian Sachems), which the King had commanded them to take care of and do justice in; and though the Commissioners, who never desired that they should appear as delinquents, but as defendants, either by themselves or by their attorneys, assured them that if they had been unjustly complained of to his Majesty, their false accusers should be severely punished, and their just dealing made known to his Majesty and all the world; yet they proclaimed by sound of trumpet that the General Court was the supremest judiciary in all the province; that the Commissioners pretending to hear appeals was a breach of the privileges granted by the King's royal father, and confirmed to them by his Majesty's own letter, and that they would not permit it; by which they have for the present silenced above thirty petitioners which desired justice from them and were lost at sea.

"To elude his Majesty's desire for admitting men of civil and competent estates to be freemen, they have an Act whereby he that is 24 years old, a housekeeper, and brings a certificate of his civil life, another of his being orthodox in matters of faith, and a third of his paying ten shillings besides head-money, at a single rate, may then have the liberty to make his desires known to the Court, and then it shall be put to vote. The Commissioners examined many townships, and found that scarce three in a hundred pay ten shillings at a single rate; yet if this rate were general it would be just; but he that is a church member, though he be a servant, and pay not twopence, may be a freeman. They do not admit any who is not a Church member to communion, nor their children to baptism, yet they will marry their children to those whom they will not admit to baptism, if they be rich. They did imprison and barbarously use Mr. Jourdan for baptising children, as himself complained in his petition to the Commissioners. Those whom they will not admit to the communion, they compel to come to their sermons by forcing from them five shillings for every neglect; yet these men thought their paying one shilling for not coming to prayers in England was an unsupportable tyranny." ... "They have made many things in their laws derogatory to his Majesty's honour, of which the Commissioners have made and desired that they might be altered, but they have done nothing of it[134]. Among others, whoever keeps Christmas Day is to pay a fine of five pounds."

"They caused at length a map of the territories to be made; but it was made in a Chamber by direction and guess; in it they claim Fort Albany, and beyond it all the land to the South Sea. By their South Sea line they entrench upon the colonies of New Plymouth, Rhode Island and Connecticut; and on the east they usurped Capt. Mason's and Sir Ferdinardo Gorges' patents, and said that the Commissioners had nothing to do betwixt them and Mr. Gorges, because his Majesty neither commanded them to deliver possession to Mr. Gorges or to give his Majesty reason why they did not." ...

"They of this colony say that King Charles the First granted to them a Charter as a warrant against himself and his successors, and that so long as they pay the fifth part of the gold and silver ore which they get, they shall be free to use the privileges granted them, and that they are not obliged to the King except by civility; they hope by writing to tire the King, Lord Chancellor, and Secretaries too; seven years they can easily spin out by writing, and before that time a change may come; nay, some have dared to say, who knows what the event of this Dutch war will be?"

"This colony furnished Cromwell with many instruments out of their corporation and college; and those that have retreated thither since his Majesty's happy return, are much respected, and many advanced to be magistrates. They did solicit Cromwell by one Mr. Winslow to be declared a free State, and many times in their laws declaring themselves to be so."

(Hutchinson's Collection of Original Papers relative to the History of Massachusetts Bay, pp. 412-420.)

[134] The Commissioners specify upwards of twenty anomalies in the book entitled the "Book of the General Laws and Liberties concerning the Inhabitants of Massachusetts," which should be altered to correspond with the Charter, and the relations of the colony to England. A few specimens may be given: That the writs and forms of justice be issued and performed in his Majesty's name; that his Majesty's arms be set up in the courts of justice within the colony, and that the masters of vessels and captains of foot companies do carry the colours of England, by which they may be known to be British subjects; that in the 12th capital law, if any conspire against our Commonwealth, Commonwealth may be expunged, and "against the peace of his Majesty's colony" be inserted instead of the other; that at p. 33, "none be admitted freemen but members of some of the Churches within the limits of their jurisdiction," be made to comprehend "other than members of the Congregational Churches;" that on the same page, the penalty for keeping Christmas so directly against the law of England, be repealed; that page 40, the law for settling the Indians' title to land, be explained, for it seems as if they were dispossessed of their land by Scripture, which is both against the honour of God and the justice of the King. In 115th Psalm, 16, "Children of men" comprehend Indians as well as English; and no doubt the country is theirs till they give it up or sell it, though it be not improved.

[135] They were not so poor as when, just 30 years before, they, by the advice of their ministers, prepared to make armed resistance against the rumoured appointment over them of a Governor General of New England.

[136] They were not more "remote" than when they wrote to their friends in England as often as they pleased, or than when they addressed the Long Parliament four years before, and twice addressed Cromwell, stating their services to him in men and prayers against Charles the First, and asking his favours.

[137] The words "full and absolute power of governing" are not contained in the Royal Charter.

[138] Emigrants generally transport themselves from one country to another, whether across the ocean or not, at their own charges.

[139] It is shown in this volume that they never had the "undoubted right" by the Charter, or the "undoubted right in the sight of God and man," to abolish one form of worship and set up another; to imprison, fine, banish, or put to death all who did not adopt their newly set up form of worship; to deny the rights of citizenship to four-fifths of their citizens on religious grounds, and tax them without representation. How far they invaded the "undoubted right" of others, "in the sight of God and man," and exceeded their own lawful powers, is shown on the highest legal authority in the 6th and 7th chapters of this volume.

[140] These references are acknowledgments on the part of the Massachusetts Bay Court, that they had been kindly and liberally treated by both Charles the First and Charles the Second.

[141] They here limit their compliance with the six conditions on which the King proposed to continue the Charter which they had violated, to their "conscience" and "the just liberties and privileges of their patent." But according to their interpretation of these, they could not in "conscience" grant the "toleration" required by the King, or give up the sectarian basis of franchise and eligibility to office, or admit of appeals from their tribunals to the higher courts or the King himself in England. They seize upon and claim the promise of the King to continue the Charter, but evade and deny the fulfilment of the conditions on which he made that promise.

[142] But they rejected the King's commission of inquiry, refused the information required; and they modestly pray the King to accept as proof of their innocence and right doings their own professions and statements against the complaints made of their proscriptions and oppressions.

[143] The threat at the beginning of this, and also in the following paragraph, is characteristic; it was tried, but without effect, on other occasions. The insinuations and special pleading throughout these paragraphs are amply answered in the letters of Lord Clarendon and the Hon. R. Boyle, which follow this extraordinary address, which abounds alternately and successively in affected helplessness and lofty assumptions, in calumnious statements and professed charity, in abject flattery and offensive insinuations and threats, in pretended poverty amidst known growing wealth, in appeals to heaven and professed humility and loyalty, to avoid the scrutiny of their acts and to reclaim the usurpation of absolute power.

[144] Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Vol. VIII., Second Series, pp. 49-51.

[145] Collections of Massachusetts Historical Society, Vol. VIII., Second Series, pp. 103-105.

[146] The petition entire is inserted above, pp. 153-159. Mr. Hutchinson gives this petition in the Appendix to the first volume of his History of Massachusetts Bay, No. 16, pp. 537-539; but he does not give the King's reply.

[147] Mr. Endicot died before the next election. He was the primary cause of the disputes between the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the Parent Government, and the unrelenting persecutor of all who differed from him in religious worship. He was hostile to monarchy and all English authority from the beginning; he got and kept the elective franchise, and eligibility to office, in the hands of the Congregationalists alone, and became of course their idol.

The King's suggesting the election of a Governor other than Endicot was a refutation of their statements that he intended to deprive them of their local self-government. The following is Neal's notice of the death of Mr. Endicot: "On the 23rd of March, 1665, died Mr. John Endicot, Governor of the Jurisdiction of Massachusetts. He arrived at Salem in the year 1628, and had the chief command of those that first settled there, and shared with them in all their hardships. He continued at Salem till the magistrates desired him to remove to Boston for the more convenient administration of justice, as Governor of the Jurisdiction, to which he was frequently elected for many years together. He was a great enemy of the Sectaries, and was too severe in executing the penal laws against the Quakers and Anabaptists during the time of his administration. He lived to a good old age, and was interred at Boston with great honour and solemnity."—Neal's History of New England Vol. II., p. 346.

[148] The same year, 1662, in which Charles the Second sent so gracious a letter to the Governor and Council of Massachusetts Bay, he granted Charters to the colonies of Connecticut and Rhode Island, in both of which perfect liberty of conscience and religious liberty was encouraged and provided for, evincing the settled policy of the Government of the Restoration in regard to the New England colonies. The annalist Holmes says:

"1662.—The Charter of Connecticut was granted by Charles II. with most ample privileges, under the great seal of England. It was ordained by the Charter that all the King's subjects in the colony should enjoy all the privileges of free and natural born subjects within the realm of England." (Holmes' Annals, etc., Vol. I., pp. 320, 321.)

So liberal were the provisions of this Charter, that as Judge Story says: "It continued to be the fundamental law of the State of Connecticut until the year 1818, when a new constitution of government was framed and adopted by the people." (Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, Vol. I., Sec. 88.)

Rhode Island.—Rhode Island had two English Charters, the circumstances connected with both of which were very peculiar. Its founder, Roger Williams, had been banished from the jurisdiction of Massachusetts Bay.

"Rhode Island," says Judge Story, "was originally settled by emigrants from Massachusetts, fleeing hither to escape from religious persecution, and it still boasts of Roger Williams as its founder and as the early defender of religious freedom and the rights of conscience. One body of them purchased the island which gave name to the State, and another the territory of the Providence Plantations from the Indians, and began their settlements at the same period, in 1636 and 1638. They entered into separate associations of government. But finding their associations not sufficient to protect them against the encroachments of Massachusetts, and having no title under any royal patents, they sent Roger Williams to England in 1643 to procure a surer foundation both of title and government. He succeeded in obtaining from the Earl of Warwick (in 1643) a Charter of incorporation of Providence Plantations; and also in 1644 a Charter from the two Houses of Parliament (Charles the First being driven from his capital) for the incorporation of the towns of Providence, Newport, and Portsmouth, for the absolute government of themselves, but according to the laws of England."

But such was the hostility of the rulers of Massachusetts Bay that they refused to admit Rhode Island into the confederacy of the New England colonies formed in 1643 to defend themselves against the Indians, the Spanish, the Dutch, and the French; yet they had influence enough with Cromwell to get the Charter of Rhode Island suspended in 1652. "But," says Dr. Holmes, "that colony, taking advantage of the distractions which soon after ensued in England, resumed its government and enjoyed it without further interruption until the Restoration." (Holmes' Annals, etc., Vol. I., p. 297.)

"The restoration of Charles the Second," says Judge Story, "seems to have given great satisfaction to these Plantations. They immediately proclaimed the King and sent an agent to England; and in July, 1663, after some opposition, they succeeded in obtaining a Charter from the Crown."

"The most remarkable circumstance in the Charter, and that which exhibits the strong feeling and spirit of the colony, is the provision for religious freedom. The Charter, after reciting the petition of the inhabitants, 'that it is much in their hearts (if they may be permitted) to hold forth a lively experiment, that a most flourishing civil state may stand, and be best maintained, and that among English subjects with full liberty in religious concernments, and that true piety, rightly grounded upon Gospel principles, will give the least and greatest security to sovereignty,' proceeds to declare:

"'We being willing to encourage the hopeful undertaking of our said loyal and loving subjects, and to secure them in the free exercise of all their civil and religious rights appertaining to them as our loving subjects, and to preserve to them that liberty in the true Christian faith and worship of God which they have sought with so much travail and with peaceful minds and loyal subjection to our progenitors and ourselves to enjoy; and because some of the people and inhabitants of the same colony cannot, in their private opinion, conform to the public exercise of religion according to the liturgy, form, and ceremonies of the Church of England, or take or subscribe to the oaths and articles made and established in that behalf; and for that the same, by reason of the remote distances of these places, will, as we hope, be no breach of the unity and uniformity established in this nation, have therefore thought fit, and do hereby publicly grant and ordain and declare, that our royal will and pleasure is, that no person within the said colony, at any time hereafter, shall be any wise molested, punished, disquieted, or called in question for any differences in opinion on matters of religion, but that all and every person and persons may, from time to time, and at all times hereafter, freely and fully have and enjoy his and their own judgment and conveniences in matters of religious concernment throughout the tract of land hereafter mentioned, they behaving themselves peaceably and quietly, and not using this liberty to licentiousness and profaneness, nor to the civil injury or outward disturbance of others.'" (Hazard's Collection, p. 613.)

Judge Story, after quoting this declaration of the Royal Charter, justly remarks, "This is a noble declaration, worthy of any Prince who rules over a free people. It is lamentable to reflect how little it comports with the domestic persecutions authorized by the same monarch during his profligate reign. It is still more lamentable to reflect how little a similar spirit of toleration was encouraged, either by precept or example, in other of the New England Colonies." (Commentaries, etc., Vol. I., Chap, viii., Section 97.)

[149] Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Vol. VIII., Second Series, p. 74.

[150] Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Vol. VIII., Second Series, pp. 76-78.

[151] Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Vol. VIII., Second Series, pp. 76, 78, 79.

[152] Danforth Papers, Collections of Massachusetts Historical Society, Vol. VIII., pp. 98, 108, 109, Second Series.

The following particulars are given of the proceedings of the Court at a subsequent meeting on the same subject:

"October 10th, 1666. The General Court met again, according to adjournment in May last. At this Court many express themselves very sensible of our condition. Several earnest for sending, and some against sending. Those for sending none spake out fully that they would have the Governor (Mr. Bellingham) and Major Hawthorne go; but some will have men go to plead our cause with his Majesty; to answer what may be alleged against us, alleging reason, religion and our own necessity as forcing us thereto. Others are against it, as being the loss of all, by endangering a quo warranto to be brought against our patent, and so to be condemned; a middle sort would have some go to present the Court's present to his Majesty, of two large masts and a ship's load of masts: and in case any demand were made why the Governor, Major Hawthorne, and others did not appear, to crave his Majesty's favour therein, and to plead with his Majesty, showing how inconsistent it is with our being, for any to be forced to appear to answer in a judicial way in England—to answer either appeals or complaints against the country.

"The last proposal is obstructed by sundry, as being ruinous to the whole; and so nothing can be done, the Governor and some others chiefly opposing it, so as that no orderly debate can be had to know the mind of the Court.

"The Court agreed to send two large masts aboard Capt. Pierce, 34 yards long, and the one 36 and the other 37 inches in diameter, and agreed to levy £1,000 for the payment of what is needful at present; but is obstructed—none will lend money unless men be sent, others because anything is to be sent; a return whereof made to the Court, they say they know not what to do more—in case they that have money will not part with it, they are at a stand. Some speak of raising by rate immediately. Others think there is so much dissatisfaction that men are not sent, that it will provoke and raise a tumult; and in case that it be raised by loan, it will be hardly paid—if consent be not given in their sending men with it, and there be no good effect, which is contingent, and thus we are every way at a stand; some fearing these things will precipitate our ruin, and others apprehending that to act further will necessitate our ruin."—Ib., pp. 110, 111.

From these notes, which Mr. Danforth made at the time when the proceedings referred to took place, it is plain there were a large number of loyalists even among the Congregationalists, as they alone were eligible to be members of, or to elect to the Court, and that the asserters of independence were greatly perplexed and agitated.

[153] Danforth Papers, Collections of Massachusetts Historical Society, Vol. VIII., pp. 99, 100, 108, 109.

[154] "There had been a press for printing at Cambridge for near twenty years. The Court appointed two persons (Captain Daniel Guekins and Mr. Jonathan Mitchell, the minister of Cambridge), in October, 1662, licensers of the press, and prohibited the publishing of any books or papers which should not be supervised by them;" and in 1668, the supervisors having allowed the printing "Thomas à Kempis, de Imitatione Christi," the Court interposed (it being wrote by a popish minister, and containing some things less safe to be infused among the people), and therefore they commended to the licensers a more full revisal, and ordered the press to stop in the meantime. (Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts Bay, Vol. I., pp. 257, 258.)

[155] Even during the Commonwealth in England, the Congregational Government of Massachusetts Bay was one of unmitigated persecution. Mr. Hutchinson, under date of 1655, remarks:

"The persecution of Episcopalians by the prevailing powers in England was evidently from revenge for the persecution they had suffered themselves, and from political considerations and the prevalence of party, seeing all other opinions and professions, however absurd, were tolerated; but in New England it must be confessed that bigotry and cruel zeal prevailed, and to that degree that no opinion but their own could be tolerated. They were sincere but mistaken in their principles; and absurd as it is, it is too evident, they believed it to be to the glory of God to take away the lives of his creatures for maintaining tenets contrary to what they professed themselves. This occasioned complaints against the colony to the Parliament and Cromwell, but without success." (History of Massachusetts Bay, Vol. I., p. 189.)

[156] "Proceedings and sentence of the County Court held at Cambridge, on adjournment, April 17, 1666, against Thomas Goold, Thomas Osburne, and John George [157] (being Baptists):

"Thomas Goold, Thomas Osburne, and John George, being presented by the Grand Jury of this county (Cambridge), for absenting themselves from the public worship of God on the Lord's dayes for one whole year now past, alleged respectively as followeth, viz.:

"Thomas Osburne answered that the reason of his non-attendance was that the Lord hath discovered unto him from His Word and Spirit of Truth, that the society where he is now in communion is more agreeable to the will of God; asserted that they were a Church, and attended the worship of God together, and do judge themselves bound to do so, the ground whereof he said he gave in the General Court.

"Thomas Goold answered that as for coming to public worship, they did meet in public worship according to the rule of Christ; the grounds thereof they had given to the General Court of Assistants; asserted that they were a public meeting, according to the order of Christ Jesus, gathered together.

"John George answered that he did attend the public meetings on the Lord's dayes where he was a member; asserted that they were a Church according to the order of Christ in the Gospell, and with them he walked and held communion in the public worship of God on the Lord's dayes."

Sentence of the Court.

"Whereas at the General Court in October last, and at the Court of Assistants in September last, endeavours were used for their conviction. The order of the General Court declaring the said Goold and Company to be no orderly Church assembly, and that they stand convicted of high presumption against the Lord and his holy appoyntments was openly read to them, and is on file with the records of this Court.

"The Court sentenced the same Thomas Goold, Thomas Osburne, and John George, for their absenting themselves from the public worship of God on the Lord's dayes, to pay four pounds fine, each of them, to the County order. And whereas, by their own confessions, they stand convicted of persisting in their schismatical assembling themselves together, to the great dishonour of God and our profession of his holy name, contrary to the Act of the General Order of the Court of October last, prohibiting them therein on the penalty of imprisonment, this Court doth order their giving bond respectively in £20, each of them, for their appearance to answer their contempt at the next Court of Assistants.

"The above named Thomas Goold, John George, and Thomas Osburne made their appeal to the next Court of Assistants, and refusing to put in security according to law, were committed to prison.

"Vera Copia."

"Tho. Danforth, Recorder."

(Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts Bay, Vol. I., pp. 397-401.)

[157] Note by Mr. Hutchinson.—"These three persons scrupled at Infant Baptism, separated from the Churches of the country, and with others of the same persuasion with themselves, set up a church in Boston. Whilst Congregationalists in England were complaining of the intolerant spirit of Episcopalians, these Antipædo Baptists in New England had equal reason to complain of the same spirit in the Congregationalists there."

[158] Neal's History of New England, Vol. II., Chap. viii., pp. 353, 354, 356.

[159] "They endeavoured not only by humble addresses and professions of loyalty to appease his Majesty, but they purchased a ship-load of masts (the freight whereof cost them sixteen hundred pounds sterling), and presented them to the King, which he graciously accepted; and the fleet in the West Indies being in want of provisions, a subscription and contribution was recommended through the colony for bringing in provisions to be sent to the fleet for his Majesty's service,[160] but I find no word of the whole amount. Upon the news of the great fire in London, a collection was made through the colony for the relief of the sufferers. The amount cannot be ascertained." (Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts Bay, Vol. I., pp. 256, 257.)

[160] Note by Mr. Hutchinson.—"This was so well received that a letter was sent to the General Court, under the King's sign warrant, dated 21st April, 1669, signifying how well it was taken by his Majesty. So the letter expresses it."

[161] The following is a copy of the King's very courteous and reasonable letter:

"Copy of a letter from King Charles II. to the Governor, etc., of the Massachusetts, dated July 24th, 1679.

"Charles R.

"Trusty and well beloved—We greet you well. These our letters are to accompany our trusty and well beloved William Stoughton and Peter Bulkly, Esqres., your agents, who having manifested to us great necessity in their domestic concerns to return back into New England, we have graciously consented thereunto, and the rather because for many months past our Council hath been taken up in the discovery and prosecution of a popish plot, and yet there appears little prospect of any speedy leisure for entering upon such regulation in your affairs as is certainly necessary, not only in respect of our dignity, but of your own perfect settlement. In the meantime, we doubt not but the bearers thereof, who have demeaned themselves, during their attendance, with good care and discretion, will, from their own observations, acquaint you with many important things which may be of such use and advertisement to you, that we might well hope to be prevented, by your applications, in what is expected or desired by us. So much it is your interest to propose and intercede for the same; for we are graciously inclined to have all past errors and mistakes forgotten, and that your condition might be so amended as that neither your settlement, or the minds of our good subjects there, should be liable to be shaken and disquieted upon every complaint. We have heard with satisfaction of the great readiness wherewith our good subjects there have lately offered themselves to the taking of the oath of allegiance, which is a clear manifestation to us that the unanswerable defect in that particular was but the fault of a very few in power, who for so long a time obstructed what the Charter and our express commands obliged them unto, as will appear in our gracious letter of the 28th of June (1662), in the fourteenth year of our reign; and we shall henceforth expect that there will be a suitable obedience in other particulars of the said letter, as, namely, in respect of freedom and liberty of conscience, so as those that desire to serve God in the way of the Church of England be not thereby made obnoxious or discountenanced from their sharing in the government, much less that they or any other of our good subjects (not being Papists) who do not agree in the Congregational way, be by law subjected to fines or forfeitures, or other incapacities for the same, which is a severity to be the more wondered at, whereas liberty of conscience was made one principal motive for your first transportation into those parts; nor do we think it fit that any other distinction be observed in the making of freemen than that they be men of competent estates, rateable at ten shillings,[162] according to the rules of the place, and that such in their turns be also capable of the magistracy, and all laws made void that obstruct the same. And because we have not observed any fruits or advantage by the dispensation granted by us in our said letter of June, in the fourteenth year of our reign, whereby the number of assistants, settled by our Charter to be eighteen, might be reduced unto the number of ten, our will and pleasure is that the ancient number of eighteen be henceforth observed, according to the letter of the Charter. And our further will and pleasure is, that all persons coming to any privilege, trust, or office in that colony be first enjoined to take the oath of allegiance, and that all the military commissions as well as the proceedings of justice may run in our royal name. We are informed that you have lately made some good provision for observing the acts of trade and navigation, which is well pleasing unto us[163]; and as we doubt not and do expect that you will abolish all laws that are repugnant to and inconsistent with the laws of trade with us, we have appointed our trusty and well beloved subject, Edward Randolph, Esq., to be our collector, surveyor and searcher not only for the colony, but for all our other colonies in New England, constituting him, by the broad seal of this our kingdom, to the said employments, and therefore recommending him to your help and assistance in all things that may be requisite in the discharge of his trust. Given at our palace of Hampton Court, the 24th day of July, 1679, and in the one and thirtieth year of our reign.

"By his Majesty's Command,

"A. Coventry."

[162] Note by the historian, Mr. Hutchinson.—They seem to have held out till the last in refusing to admit any to be freemen who were not either Church members, or who did not at least obtain a certificate from the minister of the town that they were orthodox.

[163] Note by the historian, Mr. Hutchinson.—This is very extraordinary, for this provision was an act of the colony, declaring that the acts of trade should be in force there. (Massachusetts History, Vol. I., p. 322.)

[164] History of Massachusetts Bay, Vol. I., pp. 325, 326.

[165] "The people of Massachusetts had always the good-will of Cromwell. In relation to them he allowed the Navigation Law, which pressed hard on the Southern colonies, to become a dead letter, and they received the commodities of all nations free of duty, and sent their ships at will to the ports of continental Europe." (Palfrey's History of New England, Vol. II., Book ii., Chap. x., p. 393.)

[166] "1660.—The Parliament passed an Act for the general encouragement and increase of shipping and navigation, by which the provisions made in the celebrated Navigation Act of 1651 were continued, with additional improvements. It enacted that no sugar, tobacco, ginger, indigo, cotton, fustin, dyeing woods of the growth of English territories in America, Asia, or Africa, shall be transported to any other country than those belonging to the Crown of England, under the penalty of forfeiture; and all vessels sailing to the Plantations were to give bonds to bring said commodities to England." (Holmes' American Annals, Vol. I., pp. 314, 315.)

"The oppressive system," says Palfrey, "was further extended by an Act which confined the import trade of the colonists to a direct commerce with England, forbidding them to bring from any other or in any other than English ships, the products not only of England but of any European state." (History of New England, Vol. II., B. ii., Chap. xi., p. 445.)

Palfrey adds in a note: "Salt for New England fishermen, wines from Madeira and the Azores, and provisions from Scotland and Ireland, were, however, exempted."—Ib.

[167] Hutchinson's Collection, etc., pp. 522-525. Palfrey's History of New England, Vol. III., B. iii., Chap. viii., p. 341.

[168] To this there were two or three exceptions. They repealed the penal laws "against keeping Christmas;" also for punishing with death Quakers returned from banishment; and to amend the laws relating to heresy and to rebellion against the country.

[169] Palfrey's History of New England, Vol. III., B. iii., Chap. viii., p. 352.

They usurped authority over New Hampshire and Maine, at the same time that they prevented the execution of the Acts of Trade and Navigation (the 12th and 15th of Charles the Second). Mr. Hutchinson says: "The Massachusetts Government (1670) governed without opposition the Province of New Hampshire and the Province of Maine, and were beginning settlements even further eastward. The French were removed from their neighbourhood on the one side, and the Dutch and Swedes on the other. Their trade was as extensive as they could wish. No custom-house was established. The Acts of Parliament of the 12th-15th of King Charles the Second, for regulating the Plantation trade, were in force; but the Governor, whose business it was to carry them into execution, was annually to be elected by the people, whose interest was that they should not be observed! Some of the magistrates and principal merchants grew very rich." (History of Massachusetts Bay, Vol I., p. 269.)

[170] On the very day, October, 1677, that they proposed, in obedience to his Majesty's command, to pass an order that "the Governor and all inferior magistrates should see to the strict observation of the Acts of Navigation and Trade," they made an order "that the law requiring all persons, as well inhabitants as strangers, that have not taken it, to take the oath of fidelity to the country, be revived and put in practice throughout the jurisdiction" (Palfrey, Vol. III., pp. 311-315)—an order intended to counteract the execution of the Acts of Navigation and Trade by the King's Collector, and of which he complained to England.

"The agents of the colony endeavoured to explain this law to the Board (of Colonial Plantations in England), and to soften their indignation against it, but without effect." (Ib., p. 315.) "All persons who refused to take the oath of fidelity to the country were not to have the privilege of recovering their debts in Courts of law, nor to have the protection of the Government." (Truth and Innocency Defended, etc.)

[171] (Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Second Series, Vol. VIII., pp. 73-78.) The liberty of worship, which they declared had been the object of their emigration to Massachusetts, had never been denied them; had been assured to them by both Charles the First and Charles the Second. The King did not propose to impose the use of the prayer book upon any inhabitant of the colony, but insisted upon freedom of worship for each inhabitant; whereas the Massachusetts Bay Court, under the pretext of liberty of worship for Congregationalists, denied freedom of worship to all others not Congregationalists.

[172] "This extraordinary law continued in force until the dissolution of the Government; it being repealed in appearance only,[173] after the restoration of King Charles the Second. Had they been deprived of their civil privileges in England by Act of Parliament, unless they would join in communion with the Churches there, it might very well have been the first on the roll of grievances. But such were the requisites for Church membership here, that the grievance is abundantly greater." (Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts Bay, Vol. I., pp. 25, 26.)

[173] Note by the historian.—"The minister was to certify that the candidates for freedom were of orthodox principles and of good lives and conversation."

[174] Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts Bay, Vol. I., p. 431. "The test (that 'no man could have a share in the administration of civil government, or give his voice in any election, unless he was a member of one of the Churches') went a great way towards producing general uniformity. He that did not conform was deprived of more civil privileges than a nonconformist is deprived of by the Test Act in England. Both the one and the other must have occasioned much formality and hypocrisy. The mysteries of our holy religion have been prostituted to mere secular views and advantages."—Ib., p. 432.

[175] (Palfrey, Vol. III., p. 353, in a note.) Mr. Hildreth states the case as follows: "Encouraged by the King's demand for toleration, construed as superseding the 'by-laws' of the colony, the Baptists ventured to hold a service in their new meeting-house. For this they were summoned before the magistrates, and when they refused to desist the doors were nailed up and the following order posted upon them: 'All persons are to take notice that, by order of the Court, the doors of this house are shut up, and that they are inhibited to hold any meeting therein, or to open the doors thereof without licence from authority, till the General Court take further order, as they will answer the contrary at their peril.' When the General Court met the Baptists pleaded that their house was built before any law was made to prevent it. This plea was so far allowed that their past offences were forgiven; but they were not allowed to open the house." (History of the United States, Vol. I., Chap, xiv., p. 501.)

[176] (Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts Bay, Vol. I., p. 320.) After quoting this law, the historian remarks: "I know of nothing which can be urged in anywise tending to increase the severity of this law, unless it be human infirmity, and the many instances in history of persons of every religion being fully persuaded that the indulgence of any other was a toleration of impiety and brought down the judgments of Heaven, and therefore justified persecution. This law lost the colony many friends."—Ib.

The law punishing attendance at Quaker meetings was accompanied by another containing the following clauses:

"Pride, in men wearing long hair like women's hair; others wearing borders of hair, and cutting, curling, and immodest laying out their hair, principally in the younger sort. Grand Jurors to present and the Court to punish all offenders by admonition, fine, or correction, at discretion."

"Excess in apparel, strange new fashions, naked breasts and arms, and pinioned superfluous ribbands on hair and apparel. The Court to fine offenders at discretion."

"A loose and sinful custom of riding from town to town, men and women together, under pretence of going to lectures, but really to drink and revel in taverns, tending to debauchery and unchastity. All single persons, being offenders, to be bound in their good behaviour, with sureties in twenty pounds fine, or suffer fine and imprisonment."—Ib., pp. 320, 321, in a note.

The foregoing pages show the notions and appreciation of the religious rights and liberties by the Massachusetts Bay rulers and legislators in regard to Episcopalians, Baptists, and Quakers. The above quoted clauses of their law passed in 1667, nearly fifty years after the establishment of their government, illustrate their ideas of individual liberty.

[177] Palfrey, Vol. III., p. 353. Much has been written about these Acts of Trade and Navigation, as if they were acts of royal despotism and designed to oppress the colonies for the benefit of England; whereas they originated with the Commonwealth, and were designed to benefit the colonies as well as the mother country. "After the decapitation of Charles I.," says Minot, "the confused situation of England prevented any particular attention to the colony until Cromwell's Government. The very qualities which existed in the character of the inhabitants to render them displeasing to the late King, operated as much with the Protector in their favour; and he diverted all complaints of their enemies against them. Yet he procured the Navigation Act to be passed by the Parliament, which was a source of future difficulty to the colony, though it was evaded in New England at first (by Cromwell's connivance with the rulers of Massachusetts Colony), as they still traded in all parts and enjoyed a privilege, peculiar to themselves, of importing their goods into England free of all customs." (Minot's Continuation of the History of Massachusetts Bay, published according to Act of Congress, Vol. I., p. 40.)

Mr. Hildreth, referring to the early part of Charles the Second's restoration, says: "As yet the Acts of Trade were hardly a subject of controversy. The Parliament, which had welcomed back the King, had indeed re-enacted with additional clauses the ordinance of 1651—an Act which, by restricting exportations from America to English, Irish, and Colonial vessels, substantially excluded foreign ships from all Anglo-American harbours. To this, which might be regarded as a benefit to New England ship-owners, a provision was added still further to isolate the colonies (from foreign countries), the more valuable colonial staples, mentioned by the name, and hence known as 'enumerated articles,' being required to be shipped exclusively to England or some English colony. The exportation to the colonies was also prohibited of any product of Europe, unless in English vessels and from England, except horses, servants and provisions from Ireland and Scotland. But of the 'enumerated articles' none were produced in New England; while salt for fisheries, and wine from Madeira and the Azores, branches of foreign trade in which New England was deeply interested, were specially exempted from the operation of an Act which had chiefly in view the more southern colonies." (Hildreth's History of the United States, Vol I., Chap xiv.' p. 473.)

[178] History of the United States, Vol. II., Chap. xviii., pp. 461, 462.

[179] The following is a specimen of the manner in which they interpreted their Charter to extend their territory. Having interpreted their Charter to exempt themselves from all responsibility to the Crown for their legislation or acts, they devised a new interpretation of their Charter in order to extend their territory to the north and north-east. The Charter limited their territories to three miles of the north bank of the Merrimac. At the end of twenty years they decided that the Charter meant three miles north of the most northern land or elbow of the Merrimac, and then not follow within three miles of the north bank of the river to its mouth, but a straight line east and west, which would give to their Plantation, Maine and a large part of New Hampshire, to the exclusion of the original patentees. When the Royal Commissioners, as directed by the King, came to investigate the complaints on this disputed boundary of territory, they decided against the pretensions of the Massachusetts Bay rulers, and appointed magistrates, etc., to give effect to their decision; but the authorities of Massachusetts Bay, acknowledging no superior under heaven, resumed control of the territory in dispute as soon as the Commissioners had left the country. Mr. Hildreth says:

"Shortly after the departure of the Royal Commissioners, Leverett, now Major-General of the Colony, was sent to Maine, with three other magistrates and a body of horse, to re-establish the authority of Massachusetts. In spite of the remonstrances of Col. Nichols at New York (the head of the Royal Commission), the new Government lately set up was obliged to yield. Several persons were punished for speaking irreverently of the re-established authority of Massachusetts." (Hildreth's History of the United States, Vol. I., Chap. xiv., pp. 473, 474.) For eleven years the Massachusetts Bay Government maintained this ascendency against all complaints and appeals to England, when in 1677, as Mr. Hildreth says, "After hearing the parties, the Privy Council decided, in accordance with the opinion of the two Chief Justices, that the Massachusetts patent did not give any territory more than three miles distant from the left or north bank of the Merrimac. This construction, which set aside the pretensions of Massachusetts to the province of Maine, as well as to that part of New Hampshire east of the Merrimac, appeared so plain to English lawyers that the agents (of Massachusetts) hardly attempted a word in defence." (History of the United States, Vol. II., Chap. xviii., pp. 496, 497.)

It has been shown that as early as the second year of the civil war in England, the Massachusetts Bay Court passed an Act, in 1643, declaring it a capital crime for any one in their jurisdiction to advocate or support the cause of the King; some years afterwards they passed an Act forbidding all trade with the other American colonies who would not renounce their allegiance to the King; in their addresses to the Parliament and Cromwell, in 1651 and 1654, as shown above, they claimed, as a ground of merit for peculiar favour, that they had done their utmost, by devotional and material aid of men and means, in support of the Parliamentary, and afterwards regicide party, from the beginning to the end of the war—so that loyalists as well as churchmen were treated by them as outcasts and aliens—and now, after having begged, in language of sycophantic subserviency, the Royal pardon for the past, and obtained it on certain conditions, they claim the boon but refuse to fulfil the conditions, making all sorts of excuses, promises, and evasions for twenty years—professing and promising one thing in London, doing the opposite in Massachusetts, protracting where they dare not resist, but practically doing to the vacating of the Charter what Mr. Bancroft states in the pregnant sentences above quoted in the text.