missioners, in cases of exigency, when a larger number could not be convened. The eleventh, in case of any breach of the terms of the alliance by any Colony, invested the Commissioners of the other Colonies with authority to determine the offence and the remedy. And the twelfth was a ratification of the eleven preceding, which were to go into effect either with or without the expected concurrence of Plymouth,' whose representatives had brought "no commission to conclude." Of this confederation, which "offers the first example of coalition in colonial story, and showed to party leaders in after times the advantages of concert,' "2 it was not without apparent reason that an unfriendly historian remarked, that its "principles were altogether those of independency, and it cannot easily be supported by any other." 3 It had scarcely been formed, when the English Parliament, turning its at- Parliamentention to the American colonies, and assuming tary comthe same authority over them that had been pretended by the king, instituted a commission for their government, consisting of six lords 1 Hazard, II. 1. 2 Chalmers, Revolt of the American Colonies, 87. "From the era of that famous league, Masssachusetts acted merely in pursuance of her principles, when she conducted herself wholly as an independent state." Ibid., 88. mission for colonial government. 1643. Nov. 2. was concluded, but referred to next Court, and, in the mean time, that letters should be written to the other Colonies to advise with them about it." (Winthrop, II. 160.) "The general covenant for matters of religion and civil liberties was [March 7, 1644] taken into consideration, and ordered that letters should be written to the other United Colonies to advise with them about it." (Mass. Col. Rec., II. 61.) 4 The government of the English colonies was first lodged in the Privy 3 Chalmers, Annals, 178.-There would seem to have been a vague scheme, about the same time, for a still further consolidation. "A proposition ⚫ was made this Court [1644, March] for all the English within the United Colonies to enter into a civil agreement for the maintenance of religion and our Council. The machinery next devised civil liberties, and for yielding some more of the freeman's privileges to such as were no church-members that should join in this government. But nothing for the purpose was that of the commission of which Laud was the head. (See above, p. 391.) The next was the authority now instituted by Parliament. and twelve commoners, with the Earl of Warwick, the Lord Admiral, at its head. The commissioners were authorized to provide for, order, and dispose all things which they should from time to time find most fit and advantageous to the well governing, securing, strengthening, and preserving of the said plantations," and especially to appoint and remove "subordinate governors, counsellors, commanders, officers, and agents." The Ordinance of Parliament was too late for New England, if indeed it was intended for anything more than to provide for the suppression of the king's party in the other dependencies of the empire. The New-England Colonies had taken their affairs into their own hands. By the counsels of brave men, and by the progress of events, a self-governing association of self-governing English commonwealths had been founded in America; and the manifestation which they had just now made of confidence in themselves and in one another may well have had its place, along with the sympathies which allied them to those who had come into power in the parent country, in preventing interference from abroad with the local administration. 1 The Commission is in Hazard (I. 533). Lord Say and Sele, Sir Arthur Hazelrigg, Henry Vane the younger, Sir Benjamin Rudyerd, Pym, Cromwell, and Samuel Vassall were members of the Board. The ordinance establishing it refers to petitions from some of the plantations, that "they might have some such governor and governments as should be approved of, and confirmed by, the authority of both Houses of Parliament." I know not whence those petitions could have been sent. I think, not from New England, unless it were from some of the Maine or Narragansett settlers. Perhaps they went from Clayborne's discomfited party in Maryland, or from those Virginians who were disaffected to the government of Sir William Berkeley. (Winthrop, II. 159, 160.) A law of Virginia, banishing Non-conformist ministers from that colony, had been passed in March of the same year. APPENDIX. MAGISTRATES OF THE NEW-ENGLAND COLONIES. The fifth New-England Colony, that of the "Providence Plantations," was not organized till after the time with which this volume closes, though its constituent parts had an earlier date, like several settlements in New Hampshire and Maine. Accordingly, no names of its rulers are here inserted. So the lists of Magistrates in the jurisdictions of Massachusetts and of New Haven begin with the permanent organization. The figures in the following table indicate the times of the election of Magistrates. PLYMOUTH. In this Colony there was no Deputy-Governor. At first there was only one Assistant, the office being filled (for precisely how many years is not known) by Isaac Allerton. In 1624, the number of Assistants was increased to five, and in 1633 to seven ; and at this latter time the record of the names of Assistants begins. In this Colony, till 1637, the elections took place in January, and afterwards in March. William Bradford, 1633, 1634, 1636, 1638. John Alden, 1633 - 1639. John Doane, 1633. Stephen Hopkins, 1633-1636. William Gilson, 1633. Isaac Allerton, 1634. Edward Winslow, 1634, 1635, 1637, 1638, Edmund Freeman, 1640–1643. |