The Life of George Washington, Vol. 1 (of 5)
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[Footnote 94: Chalmer. Hutchison.]
The commissioners arrived in July, and their commission was
immediately laid before the council, with a letter from the King
requiring prompt assistance for the expedition against New
Netherlands.
[Sidenote: Conquest of the Dutch colony.]
The general court, which was immediately convened, after having first
resolved "that they would bear faith and true allegiance to his
majesty, and adhere to their patent, so dearly obtained, and so long
enjoyed, by undoubted right in the sight of God and man," determined
to raise two hundred men for the expedition. In the mean time colonel
Nichols proceeded to Manhadoes. The auxiliary force raised by
Massachusetts was rendered unnecessary by the capitulation of New
Amsterdam, which was soon followed by the surrender of the whole
province.
The year after captain Argal had subdued Manhadoes, the garrison,
having obtained a reinforcement from Holland, returned to their
ancient allegiance. In 1621, the states general made a grant of the
country to the West India company, who erected a fort called Good Hope
on Connecticut (which they denominated Fresh) river, and another
called Nassau on the east side of Delaware bay. The fort on
Connecticut river, however, did not protect that frontier against the
people of New England, who continued to extend their settlements
towards the south. The Dutch remonstrated in vain against these
encroachments, and were under the necessity of receding as their more
powerful neighbours advanced, until the eastern part of Long Island,
and the country within a few miles of the Hudson were relinquished.
Farther south, the Dutch had built fort Casimir (now New Castle) on
the Delaware. This fort was taken from them by the Swedes, who claimed
the western shore of that river, but was retaken by the Dutch, who, at
the same time, conquered Christina, and received the submission of the
few Swedes who were scattered on the margin of the river. They also
made a settlement at cape Henlopen, which attracted the attention of
lord Baltimore, who sent a commission to New Castle ordering the Dutch
governor to remove beyond the 40th degree of north latitude, to which
his lordship's claim extended. This mandate however was not obeyed.
On the appearance of colonel Nichols before New Amsterdam, Stuyvesant,
the governor, was disposed to defend the place; but the inhabitants,
feeling no inclination for the contest, took part with their invaders;
and Stuyvesant was compelled to sign a capitulation, by which he
surrendered the town to the English, stipulating for the inhabitants
their property, and the rights of free denizens. New Amsterdam took
the name of New York, and the island of Manhattans that of York
Island.[95]
[Footnote 95: Chalmer. Smith.]
Hudson's, and the south, or Delaware river, were still to be reduced.
Carteret commanded the expedition against fort Orange, up Hudson's
river, which surrendered on the twenty-fourth of September, and
received the name of Albany. While at that place, he formed a league
with the five nations, which proved eminently useful to the views of
the English in America.
The command of the expedition against the settlement on the Delaware
was given to sir Robert Carr, who completed the conquest of that
country.
Thus did England acquire all that fine country lying between her
southern and northern colonies; an acquisition deriving not less
importance from its situation, than from its extent and fertility.
Nichols took possession of the conquered territory, but was compelled
to surrender a part of it to Carteret.
Soon after the patent to the duke of York, and before the conquest of
New Netherlands, that prince had granted to lord Berkeley, and sir
George Carteret, all that tract of land adjacent to New England, to
the westward of Long Island, bounded on the east, south, and west, by
the river Hudson, the sea, and the Delaware; and, on the north, by
forty-one degrees and forty minutes north latitude. This country was
denominated New Jersey.[96]
[Footnote 96: Chalmer. Smith.]
The conquest of New Netherlands being achieved, the commissioners
entered on the other duties assigned them. A great part of Connecticut
had been included in the patent to the duke of York; and a controversy
concerning limits arose between that colony and New York. In December,
their boundaries were adjusted by the commissioners in a manner which
appears to have been satisfactory to all parties.
In Plymouth, and in Rhode Island, the commissioners found no
difficulty in the full exercise of the powers committed to them. In
Massachusetts, they were considered as men clothed with an authority
subversive of the liberties of the colony, which the sovereign could
not rightly confer. The people of that province had been long in
habits of self-government, and seem to have entertained opinions which
justified their practice. They did not acknowledge that allegiance to
the crown which is due from English subjects residing within the
realm; but considered themselves as purchasers from independent
sovereigns of the territory which they occupied, and as owing to
England, only that voluntary subjection which was created and defined
by their charter. They considered this instrument as a compact between
the mother country and themselves, and as enumerating all the cases in
which obedience was due from them. In this spirit, they agreed, soon
after the arrival of the commissioners, on an address to the crown.
This address, in which they express great apprehension of danger to
their rights from the extraordinary powers granted to men not
appointed in conformity with their charter, is drawn up in a style of
much earnestness and sincerity, and concludes with these remarkable
words, "let our government live, our patent live, our magistrates
live, our religious enjoyments live; so shall we all yet have farther
cause to say from our hearts, let the King live for ever." This
address was accompanied with letters to many of the nobility supposed
to possess influence at court, praying their intercession in behalf of
the colony; but neither the address, nor the letters were favourably
received.[97]
[Footnote 97: Hutchison.]
{1665}
[Sidenote: Conduct of Massachusetts to the royal commissioners.]
In April the commissioners arrived at Boston, and their communications
with the general court commenced. The suspicions which these two
bodies entertained of each other, opposed great obstacles to any
cordial co-operation between them. The papers, on the part of the
commissioners, display high ideas of their own authority, as the
representatives of the crown, and a pre-conceived opinion that there
was a disposition in the government to resist that authority. Those on
the part of the general court manifest a wish to avoid a contest with
the crown, and a desire to gratify his majesty, so far as professions
of loyalty and submission could gratify him; but they manifest also a
conviction of having done nothing improper, and a steadfast
determination to make no concession incompatible with their rights.
With these impressions, the correspondence soon became an altercation.
The commissioners, finding their object was to be obtained neither by
reasoning, nor by threats, attempted a practical assertion of their
powers by summoning the parties before them, in order to hear and
decide a complaint against the governor and company. The general
court, with a decision which marked alike their vigour, and the high
value they placed on their privileges, announced by sound of trumpet,
their disapprobation of this proceeding, which they termed
inconsistent with the laws and established authority; and declared
that, in observance of their duty to God and to his majesty, and of
the trust reposed in them by his majesty's good subjects in the
colony, they could not consent to such proceedings, nor countenance
those who would so act, or such as would abet them.
As a ground of compromise, the court stated their willingness to hear
the case themselves in the presence of the commissioners, who would
thereby be enabled to understand its merits; but this proposition was
at once rejected, and every effort towards reconciliation proved
unavailing.[98]
[Footnote 98: Chalmer. Hutchison.]
{1666}
From Massachusetts, the commissioners proceeded to New Hampshire and
Maine. They decided in favour of the claims of Mason and Gorges, and
erected a royal government in each province, appointed justices of the
peace, and exercised other acts of sovereignty; after which they
returned to Boston. The general court, declaring that their
proceedings to the eastward tended to the disturbance of the public
peace, asked a conference on the subject, which was refused with a
bitterness of expression that put an end to all farther communication
between the parties. Massachusetts, soon afterwards, re-established
her authority both in New Hampshire and Maine.
[Sidenote: They are recalled.]
Charles, on being informed of these transactions, recalled his
commissioners, and ordered the general court to send agents to
England, to answer the complaints made against its proceedings. The
court, having more than once experienced the benefits of
procrastination, affected at first to disbelieve the authenticity of
the letter; and afterwards excused themselves from sending agents by
saying that the ablest among them could not support their cause better
than had already been done.
During these transactions in the north, new colonies were forming in
the south.
In the year 1663, that tract of country extending from the 36th degree
of north latitude to the river St. Matheo, was made a province by the
name of Carolina, and granted to lord Clarendon, the duke of
Albemarle, lord Craven, lord Berkeley, lord Ashley, sir George
Carteret, sir John Colleton, and sir William Berkeley, in absolute
property for ever. This charter bears a strong resemblance to that of
Maryland, and was probably copied from it.
[Sidenote: Settlement of Carolina.]
The proprietors took immediate measures for Settlement the settlement
of their colony. Its constitution consisted of a governor, to be
chosen by themselves from thirteen persons nominated by the colonists;
and an assembly to be composed of the governor, council, and
representatives of the people, who should have power to make laws not
contrary to those of England, which were to remain in force until the
dissent of the proprietors should be published. Perfect freedom in
religion was promised; and, as an inducement to emigration, one
hundred acres of land, at the price of a half penny for each acre,
were allowed for every freeman, and fifty for every servant, who
should, within the space of five years, be settled in the province.
A small settlement had been made on Albemarle sound by some emigrants
from Virginia, the superintendence of which had been conferred by the
proprietors, on sir William Berkeley, then governor of that colony;
with instructions to visit it, to appoint a governor and council of
six persons for the management of its affairs, and to grant lands to
the inhabitants on the same terms that those in Virginia might be
obtained.
The attention of the proprietors was next turned to the country south
of cape Fear, which, as far as the river St. Matheo, was erected into
a county by the name of Clarendon. Considerable numbers from Barbadoes
emigrated into it, one of whom, Mr. John Yeamans, was appointed
commander in chief; and, in 1665, a separate government was erected in
it, similar to that in Albemarle.
The proprietors having discovered some valuable lands not comprehended
in their original patent, obtained a new charter which bestowed on
them a more extensive territory. This charter grants that province
within the King's dominions in America, extending north eastward to
Carahtuke inlet, thence in a straight line to Wyonok, which lies under
36 degrees 30 minutes north latitude; south westward to the 29th
degree of north latitude; and from the Atlantic ocean to the South
sea. Powers of government and privileges analogous to those comprised
in other colonial charters, were also contained in this.
{1667}
The people of Albemarle, employed like those of Virginia, in the
cultivation of corn and tobacco, received their scanty supplies
principally from New England; and carried on their small commerce in
the vessels of those colonies. Their progress was slow, but they were
contented. A new constitution was given them, by which the executive
power was placed in a governor, to act by the advice of a council of
twelve, six of whom were to be chosen by himself, and the others by
the assembly, which was composed of the governor, the council, and
twelve delegates, to be elected annually by the freeholders. Perfect
freedom in religion was established, and all were entitled to equal
privileges, on taking the oaths of allegiance to the King, and of
fidelity to the proprietors.
The first acts of this legislature indicate the condition and opinions
of the people. It was declared that none should be sued, during five
years, for any cause of action arising out of the country; and that no
person should accept a power of attorney to receive debts contracted
abroad.
{1669}
[Sidenote: Constitution of Mr. Locke.]
The proprietors, dissatisfied with their own systems, applied to Mr.
Locke for the plan of a constitution. They supposed that this profound
and acute reasoner must be deeply skilled in the science of
government. In compliance with their request, he framed a body of
fundamental laws which were approved and adopted. A palatine for life
was to be chosen from among the proprietors, who was to act as
president of the palatine court, which was to be composed of all those
who were entrusted with the execution of the powers granted by the
charter. A body of hereditary nobility was created, to be denominated
Landgraves, and Caciques, the former to be invested with four
baronies, consisting each of four thousand acres, and the latter to
have two, containing each two thousand acres of land. These estates
were to descend with the dignities for ever.
The provincial legislature, denominated a Parliament was to consist of
the proprietors, in the absence of any one of whom, his place was to
be supplied by a deputy appointed by himself; of the nobility; and of
the representatives of the freeholders, who were elected by districts.
These discordant materials were to compose a single body which could
initiate nothing. The bills to be laid before it were to be prepared
in a grand council composed of the governor, the nobility, and the
deputies of the proprietors, who were invested also with the executive
power. At the end of every century, the laws were to become void
without the formality of a repeal. Various judicatories were erected,
and numerous minute perplexing regulations were made. This
constitution, which was declared to be perpetual, soon furnished
additional evidence, to the many afforded by history, of the great but
neglected truth, that experience is the only safe school in which the
science of government is to be acquired; and that the theories of the
closet must have the stamp of practice, before they can be received
with implicit confidence.
{1670}
The duke of Albemarle was chosen the first palatine, but did not long
survive his election; and lord Berkeley was appointed his successor.
The other proprietors were also named to high offices; and Mr. Locke
was created a landgrave.
After this change of constitution, the attention of the proprietors
was first directed to the south. A settlement was made at Port Royal,
under the conduct of William Sayle, who had been appointed governor of
that part of the coast which lies south-west of cape Carteret. He was
accompanied by Joseph West, who was intrusted with the commercial
affairs of the proprietors, and who, with the governor, conducted the
whole mercantile business of the colony.
William Sayle, after leading the first colony to Port Royal, and
convening a parliament in which there were neither landgraves nor
caciques, became the victim of the climate; after which, the authority
of sir John Yeamans, who had hitherto governed the settlement at cape
Fear, was extended over the territory south-west of cape Carteret. In
the same year, the foundation of _old Charlestown_ was laid, which
continued, for some time, to be the capital of the southern
settlements.
While these exertions were making in the south, great dissatisfaction
was excited in Albemarle. In 1670, Stevens, the governor, had been
ordered to introduce into that settlement, the constitution prepared
by Mr. Locke. This innovation was strenuously opposed; and the
discontent it produced was increased by a rumour, which was not the
less mischievous for being untrue, that the proprietors designed to
dismember the province. There was also another cause which increased
the ill humour pervading that small society. The proprietors attempted
to stop the trade carried on in the vessels of New England, and the
attempt produced the constant effect of such measures--much ill temper
both on the part of those who carried on the traffic, and of those for
whom it was conducted.
At length, these discontents broke out into open insurrection. The
insurgents, led by Culpeper, who had been appointed surveyor-general
of Carolina, obtained possession of the country, seized the revenues,
and imprisoned the president, with seven deputies who had been named
by the proprietors. Having taken possession of the government, they
established courts of justice, appointed officers, called a
parliament, and, for several years, exercised the powers of an
independent state; yet they never, formally, disclaimed the power of
the proprietors.
All this time, the titheables of Albemarle, a term designating all the
men, with the negroes and Indian women, between sixteen and sixty
years of age, amounted only to fourteen hundred; and the exports
consisted of a few cattle, a small quantity of Indian corn, and about
eight hundred thousand weight of tobacco.
{1688}
About this time, an event occurred in the southern settlements,
showing as well the poverty of the people, as the manner in which the
affairs of the proprietors were conducted. Joseph West, their agent,
was appointed to succeed Yeamans in the government; and, the colony
being unable to pay his salary, the plantation, and mercantile stock
of the proprietors, were assigned to him in satisfaction of his
claims.
In England, the opinion had been long entertained that the southern
colonies were adapted to the production of those articles which
succeed in the warmer climates of Europe. In pursuance of this
opinion, Charles, in 1679, employed two vessels to transport foreign
protestants into the southern colony for the purpose of raising wine,
oil, silk, and other productions of the south; and, to encourage the
growth of these articles, exempted them, for a limited time, from
taxation. The effort, however, did not succeed.
Old Charlestown being found an inconvenient place for the seat of
government, the present Charleston became the metropolis of South
Carolina. This situation was deemed so unhealthy, that directions were
given to search out some other position for a town. The seat of
government, however, remained unaltered until the connexion with Great
Britain was dissolved.
Carolina continued to increase slowly in wealth and population without
any remarkable incident, except the invasion of its most southern
settlement by the Spaniards from St. Augustine. This was occasioned,
in part, by the jealousy with which the English colony inspired its
neighbours, but was principally, and immediately attributable to the
countenance given, in Charleston, to the buccaneers who then infested
those seas, and who were particularly hostile to the Spaniards. It was
with difficulty the colonists were prevented by the proprietors from
taking ample vengeance for this injury. Their resentments, though
restrained, were not extinguished; and, until the annexation of the
Floridas to the British crown, these colonies continued to view each
other with distrust and enmity.
[Sidenote: Constitution of Mr. Locke abandoned.]
The dissatisfaction of the colony with its constitution grew with its
population. After some time a settled purpose was disclosed, to thwart
and oppose the wishes of the proprietors in every thing. Wearied with
a continued struggle to support a system not adapted to the condition
of the people, the proprietors at length abandoned the constitution of
Mr. Locke, and restored the ancient form of government.[99]
[Footnote 99: Chalmer. History of South Carolina and
Georgia.]
[Sidenote: Discontents of Virginia.]
The discontents which arose in Virginia soon after the restoration,
continued to augment. To the regularly decreasing price of tobacco,
and the restraints imposed on commerce by the acts of navigation,
other causes of dissatisfaction were soon added. Large grants of land
were made to the favourites of the crown: and considerable burdens
were produced, and injuries inflicted by the hostility of the Indians.
Agents were deputed to remonstrate against these improvident grants,
as well as to promote the views of the colony with regard to other
objects of great moment; and a considerable tax was imposed to support
the expense of the deputation. They are said to have been on the point
of obtaining the objects of their mission, when all farther
proceedings were suspended in consequence of a rebellion, which, for a
time, wore a very serious aspect.
[Sidenote: Bacon's rebellion.]
{1663}
At the head of the insurgents was colonel Nathaniel Bacon, a gentleman
who had received his education, in England, at the inns of court; and
had been appointed a member of the council soon after his arrival in
Virginia. Young, bold, and ambitious; possessing an engaging person,
and commanding elocution; he was well calculated to rouse and direct
the passions of the people. Treading the path by which ambition
marches to power, he harangued the people on their grievances,
increased their irritation against the causes of their disgust, and
ascribed the evils with which they thought themselves oppressed to
those who governed them, while he professed no other object than their
good. He declaimed particularly against the languor with which the
Indian war had been prosecuted; and, striking the note to which their
feelings were most responsive, declared that, by proper exertions, it
might have been already terminated.
The people, viewing him as their only friend, and believing the zeal
he manifested to be produced solely by his devotion to their cause
gave him their whole confidence and elected him their general. In
return, he assured them that he would never lay down his arms until he
had avenged their sufferings on the savages, and redressed their other
grievances.
{1676}
He applied to the governor for a commission appointing him general to
prosecute the war against the Indians. A temporising policy being
pursued, he entered Jamestown at the head of six hundred armed men,
and obtained all he demanded, from an intimidated government. No
sooner had he withdrawn from the capital than the governor, at the
request of the assembly which was then in session, issued a
proclamation declaring him a rebel, and commanding his followers to
deliver him up, and to retire to their respective homes. Bacon and his
army, equally incensed at this piece of impotent indiscretion,
returned to Jamestown, and the governor fled to Accomack.
The general of the insurgents called a convention of his friends, who
inveighed against the governor, for having, without cause, endeavoured
to foment a civil war in the country, and after failing in this
attempt, for having abdicated the government, to the great
astonishment of the people. They stated farther that, the governor
having informed the King "that their commander and his followers were
rebellious, and having advised his majesty to send forces to reduce
them, it consisted with the welfare of the colony, and with their
allegiance to his sacred majesty, to oppose and suppress all forces
whatsoever until the King be fully informed of the state of the case
by such persons as shall be sent by Nathaniel Bacon in behalf of the
people." This extraordinary manifesto was concluded with the
recommendation of an oath, first taken by the members of the
convention, to join the general and his army against the common enemy
in all points whatever; and to endeavour to discover and apprehend
such evil disposed persons as design to create a civil war by raising
forces against him, and the army under his command.
[Sidenote: His death.]
In the mean time, the governor collected a considerable force which
crossed the bay under the command of major Robert Beverly, and several
sharp skirmishes were fought. A civil war was commenced; agriculture
declined; Jamestown was burnt by the insurgents; those parts of the
country which remained in peace were pillaged; and the wives of those
who supported the government were carried to camp, where they were
very harshly treated. Virginia was relieved from this threatening
state of things, and from the increasing calamities it portended, by
the sudden death of Bacon.