T this time, when a monstrous rebellionresting for its chief support on that most dangerous of all heresies which have afflicted our Government, namely, STATE SUPREMACYhas deeply engaged the American mind with thoughts and inquiries concerning the true nature of our political system, it may be profitable to indulge in retrospection, and to glance at the most prominent of those events which have ilJustrated the tendency of the early English colonists in America to political aggregation, a democratic form of government, and an enlight-paradise for martyrs, carrying to it more than ened nationality. For this purpose it is proposed to give outline sketches of such events, in a series of three short papers, respectively entitled, The New England Confederacy, in 1643; The Albany and Stamp Act Congresses, in 1754 and 1765; and The League of States, in 1781, which immediately preceded our present consolidated National Government.

Amen! for thoughts of Liberty and Independ-protract." So they raised six hundred pounds ence filled their minds. "The colonists," wrote sterling (or three thousand dollars) toward payBurdette to Laud, in 1637, "aim not at newing for the erection of fortifications, wherewith discipline, but sovereignty. It is accounted to defy the temporal and spiritual power of Entreason in their General Court to speak of appeals to the King."

gland, and defend the inalienable rights of

man.

Royalty and Prelacy-linked by the strong The appointment of this absolute commission bond of mutual and vital interest-were alarm- was followed by a quo warranto against the comed. A crisis in the affairs of both was approach-pany of the Massachusetts Bay, with the intening. The civil war-which soon laid sceptre tion of depriving them of their charter. Then and crozier, throne and cathedra in the dust; followed a proclamation to prevent the emigrawhich made Charles a pitiful convict in the tion of Puritans to America, and these worried hands of his subjects, and allowed the old woman inhabitants of England were left to choose beof Edinburgh to boldly greet Laud and his Lit-tween the increasing fires of persecution at home urgy with cries of "What! ye villain! will ye and the rare chance of eluding the watchful vigisay mass in my lug? stane him! stane him!"-lance and implacable vengeance of the royalists was kindling; and King and Primate evoked and churchmen, and finding an asylum in the every element of power to sustain themselves New World.

and their cause. Fearful of the reactive conse- Already a demand had been made upon Govquences of a large State in America left to un-ernor Winthrop for a return of the charter to the bridled liberty, the King and Council determ- King. This demand was accompanied by a ined to suppress emigration to New England. threat that, in the event of a refusal, his Majesty Perceiving such "numbers of faithful and free- would assume the entire management of the born Englishmen and good Christians" depart-New England plantations, of which Massachuing for Massachusetts Bay, they ordered that no person above the rank of a serving-man might remove to the colony without the special consent of proper authority; and emigrant ships in the Thames were detained by royal decree. An arbitrary commission was appointed, with the Archbishop of Canterbury at its head, invested by Church and State with full power over the "American Plantations," civil and ecclesiastical.

setts Bay was the chief and perfect representation. The New England authorities calmly sent back an argument instead of the charter. They contended, with firm but kind and loyal words, that such a step on the part of the King would be a breach of royal faith pregnant with immediate and prospective evils; that it would demoralize the colonists and strengthen the French at the eastward and the Dutch at the westward of They were armed with authority to estab- the English plantations in New England. "If lish government and dictate the laws, to regu- the patent be taken from us," they said, signifilate the church, to inflict even the heaviest pun-cantly, "the common people will conceive that ishments, and to revoke any charter which had been surreptitiously obtained-as they expressed it-or which conceded liberties prejudicial to the royal prerogative.

undisturbed.

his Majesty hath cast them off, and that hereby they are freed from their allegiance and subjection, and therefore will be ready to confederate themselves under a new government, for their necesUpon the wings of the next vessel that made sary safety and subsistence, which will be of danits way to Boston, the New England capital, in- gerous example unto other plantations, and periltelligence of this measure was conveyed to the ous to ourselves, of incurring his Majesty's discolonists, with the assurance that a governor-pleasure." All that they asked was to be left general was doubtless on his way. The rumbling of an earthquake beneath a city; the blaze The broad Atlantic rolled between the monof a comet before the eyes of the superstitious; arch and his sturdy trans-oceanic subjects. No the visible waving of the black wing of the An- steamships then traversed the three thousand gel of Pestilence over a populous land, could miles of aqueous space in ten days. Small, illnot have produced a more profound and uni- built argosies made tedious and perilous voyages versally felt emotion than that which stirred the by way of the Antilles or the Bahamas, and settlers of New England when this intelligence weeks were consumed in the passage. Precious broke upon them. The baleful ministers of per- time was therefore spent in this correspondence secution from which they had fled, and braved-precious indeed to the blinded King; and the storms of the Atlantic and the perils of a wilderness, were coming with chains to bind and sceptres to rule a free, self-exiled, and unoffending people! It must not be. A fearful ordeal was before them. It must be met, and it was met in a spirit of true heroism. The oppressed were poor in purse but rich in faith and courage. The ministers, and magistrates, and people, forgetting all local animosities and difficulties, met in friendly consultation. "We ought," they said, "to defend our lawful possessions, if we are able; if not, to avoid and

equally precious was the delay to the colonists. The Star Chamber Court, meanwhile, was performing unconsciously, unintentionally, and vigorously the work of England's emancipation from kingly and priestly rule with the weapons of despotism; and before the arguments of Winthrop and his associates could be pondered by the crown and mitre both were trembling before the angry denunciations of an outraged people.

We now stand upon the threshold of the memorable year in New England history, 1643. Let us glance at the political condition and

character of that New England then. Twen- of society, they seemed disposed to provide places ty-two years before (December, 1620) the pas- for them in the government. The democracysengers of the Mayflower landed among the snows the great mass of the people-were offended by of Plymouth, and heard the voice of Samoset this violation of their chartered rights, and this crying, "Welcome, Englishmen! Welcome, feeling stimulated the deputies to oppose veEnglishmen!" They chose a governor under hemently the assumptions of the Assistants. the written democratic constitution which we For ten years there was a controversy between have just noticed; established a government; them, the Assistants maintaining their authorbuilt houses, and founded a colony. That first ity by well-managed delays and an occasional government was exceedingly simple. It con-wise sermon," the ministers being all active sisted of a governor and one assistant. Each politicians. The dispute was finally left to the man had, by his own signature, pledged himself to implicit obedience. In 1624 other emigrants were there, when the governor was furnished with five assistants elected by the people. Six years later, when the colony numbered about five hundred souls, there were seven assistants. For nineteen years pure democracy prevailed at Plymouth in church and state, when a representative government was instituted (1639), and a pastor was chosen as spiritual guide.

of the Pequod name. A nation had disappear- the coast and a few in the interior were planted. ed in a day." These were all feeble, and in 1641 they formed Soon after this war was closed the Reverend a coalition with the powerful colony of MassaJohn Davenport, an earnest non-conformist min-chusetts. New Hampshire remained a dependister of London, and two or three opulent mer-ency of that province until 1680. chants, who were representatives of a wealthy Such was the political condition of New Encompany, explored the shores of Long Island gland at the period we are considering. The Sound in search of a good place for a settlement. Massachusetts colony had increased wonderfulThey selected one on the site of the present New ly. During the year 1635 full three thousand Haven, and there, in the spring of 1638, under new settlers were added to it, some of them men the branches of a huge oak-tree, Davenport of much wealth and influence, the most disfinpreached the first sermon. Taking the Bible as guished of whom was Hugh Peters, an eloquent a guide, they formed a "plantation covenant" preacher, and Henry Vane, an enthusiastic as a constitution of government. The colony young member of the English Aristocracy (son prospered, and they named the place NEw of a Privy Councilor), who, in 1636, was elected HAVEN. The following year the settlers on the governor of the colony. It was by far the most Connecticut met in Convention at Hartford and populous and influential of all the settlements adopted a written constitution, in which it was eastward of the Dutch on Manhattan, and led ordered that a governor and deputies of the peo- them all. Its policy was their policy; and when ple, and elected by them, should form the gov- indignant English authority aimed a blow at ernment, and that an oath of allegiance to the New England, even down to the Revolution, it colony, and not to the King, should be required. always fell most directly on the head of MassaThe little commonwealth of separate and feeble chusetts. Virginia, its elder sister, paid court settlements was called the COLONY OF CON- to it; and so impressed were some of the people NECTICUT. This and the New Haven colony of that colony with a sense of the superior learnwere united in 1665 and formed the province of ing and piety of the New England ministers, Connecticut. that a deputation was sent by them to Governor Between these settlements and those of Ply- Winthrop to solicit a supply of pastors from the mouth and Massachusetts lay a commonwealth New England churches. Three clergymen were founded by Roger Williams, who, because of his sent. They preached with such power and acextreme tolerant and almost anarchical views, ceptance that the people flocked to hear them was banished from Salem at the close of 1635. from all parts of the colony, when the bigoted In the dead of winter he made his way through and imperious Sir William Berkeley, the governthe deep snows in the forests toward Narragan- or, who, some years later, thanked God officialset Bay, finding food and shelter, hospitality and ly that there were no free schools nor a printingtoleration in the wigwams of the savages. He press in Virginia, and hoped there would not be finally seated himself at the head of Narraganset in a hundred years, issued a proclamation by Bay, determined there to plant a colony where- which all persons within his dominions who in conscience should be entirely free, and named would not conform to the rituals of the Church the place Providence. Being out of the juris- of England, were commanded to leave the colony diction of both Plymouth and Massachusetts, forthwith. The ministers returned to Boston, he proclaimed his views boldly, and the perse- and the two colonies, made of the same nationcuted from these colonies gathered around him. ality but of a different class of men, were separaNewport, on the island of Rhode Island, was ted for many years by unfriendly feelings. founded in 1638; and in 1644 all the settlements in that region were united under the general title of RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS, with a free charter of incorporation from the Long Parliament, and with a seal that bore the motto, Amor vincit omnia-"Love conquers all things."

Eastward of all these was a territory extending from the Merrimac to the Kennebec, and from the ocean to the St. Lawrence, which was granted to two members of the Plymouth Company in 1622, and named by them LACONIA. In 1629 the Reverend Mr. Wheelwright, who had been engaged in exciting religious and political controversies in Boston, purchased from the Indians the wilderness between the Merrimac and the Piscataqua, and founded Exeter. In the same year Mason, one of the proprietors of LACONIA, purchased of his partner that region and named it NEW HAMPSHIRE. In 1631 he built a house on the site of Portsmouth, and gave that name to the place. Settlements along

The civil war in England, which ended in the abolition of royalty, so engaged public attention there that for almost twenty years the American colonies were subjected to very little interference from the mother country. Left free to act, democratic ideas speedily crystallized into practical form; and among the more thoughtful men of New England aspirations for and hopes of an independent nationality led to vigorous action. They perceived that the forced withdrawal of imperial supervision was their golden opportunity; and leading men in all the settlements pondered seriously the topic of a confederation.

Another powerful motive for a union of the New England colonies was the more material and more pressing necessity of self-preservation. The Dutch menaced them on the borders of their western settlements; but far more alarming were the evidences of the hostility of the savages in their midst, who were brooding like a dark cloud, pregnant with destruction, over

all their borders. The annihilation of the Pe- acter of the policy of Kieft, the Director-Genquods had created a general belief that the sav-eral of New Netherland (New York) was develage tribes upon and beyond the borders of the oped, the Connecticut settlers were alarmed, and settlements, who had from time to time exhib- again revived, in earnest expressions, the propoited hostile intentions, would be awed by this sition for a New England confederacy. Govterrible display of the white man's power into ernor Hayne and Minister Hooker went to Bosperfect docility and quietude. This belief was a ton and staid there a month-much of the time fallacy. The Indians saw, in the destruction in conference with the magistrates and ministers of one family of their race, and the occupancy of that colony on the subject of Union. The of its territory by Europeans, a sure prophecy Connecticut authorities also sent a delegation to of their own fate in time-and all felt a burning Saybrook, at the mouth of the Connecticut, to desire to drive the white intruder from their soil. confer with Fenwick, who represented the inWhile the minds of the Puritan settlers were terests of the parties to whom the Earl of Warfilled with sunny dreams of an independent em- wick had conveyed his grant, and who held himpire for themselves, and the beginning of a more self politically independent of the Connecticut exalted civilization for the world, on the western and New Haven colonies. shores of the North Atlantic, dark visions of fear, and dread, and revenge, and deeds of blood were brooding in the benighted minds of the savages of the wilderness. The Europeans were anxious to confederate for the establishment of a splendid empire upon the foundations of religion, morality, justice, and equality; the savages were anxious to confederate for the destruction of its builders, and to perpetuate pagan barbarism and forest shadows over a fertile soil. The New England settlers were made perfectly conscious of an incipient conspiracy among the savages for the destruction of the white people very soon after the close of the war against the Pequods, and all were ripe for union when it was proposed.

Massachusetts, in the mean time, appeared quite indifferent to the proposition of Connecticut, because she felt strong enough to rear a powerful republic herself. But circumstances wrought a change in her views. The civil war in England was raging. It was between Puritanism and Civil Liberty on one side, and kingly and priestly Despotism on the other. Should the former fail, America would be the chosen asylum for the vanquished. Wisdom and prudence therefore commanded the greatest possible enlargement of the area wherein a perfect union of religious and political sentiment, consonant with that of the English Puritans, prevailed. It was desirable to have a receptacle large enough for the exiles if they came, and a government over the whole perfect and homogeneous enough to present, with this accretion, a powerful state

The earliest movements toward a confederation were made by the settlers on the Connecticut River when the Pequod war was kindling in too powerful for the armies of despotism, tem1636-37. Menaced by the Dutch in the west, poral or spiritual, to overthrow. Accordingly, and by the Indians all around them, they sought in September, 1642, the General Court or Govan alliance with their more powerful brethren ernment of Massachusetts earnestly "consideron Massachusetts Bay. Some of the magistrates ed the propositions sent from Connecticut about and ministers of Connecticut went to Boston for a combination," et cetera, and referred them to the purpose at the close of the war; and on the a committee. At the next General Court, held 31st of August they met those of Massachusetts in May, 1643, Commissioners from Plymouth, in convention in the New England capital. The Connecticut, New Haven, and Mr. Fenwick, of authorities of Plymouth were invited to attend, Saybrook, presented themselves at Boston for but the notice was so short that they could not consultation on the subject of Union. The Govcome. The conference resulted in nothing def- ernor, with two magistrates and three deputies, inite. Another was held at the same place in was authorized to treat with them on the part June the following year when the Connecticut of Massachusetts. "These," says Winthrop, in delegates exhibited such extreme "State Right"| his journal, "coming to consultation, encounviews-such a jealousy of power-such unwill- tered some difficulties; but being all desirous ingness to delegate to a common government of union and studious of peace, they readily for all one iota of individual sovereignty, that yielded to each other in such things as tended the representatives of Massachusetts in the Con- to common utility." Taking the confederacy of vention declared that a further prosecution of the Netherlands as their model, these representthe scheme was undesirable. That common- atives of four New England colonies, after holdwealth, because of its population, wealth, and ing three meetings, agreed upon a constitution for intellectual greatness as compared with the a Confederacy, which they embodied in twelve others, must, of necessity, in a representative articles, prefaced by the following preamble: government, overshadow the rest. While Connecticut was shy about coming under her rule, Massachusetts was unwilling to hold a merely equal rank in the proposed confederacy. So the Convention adjourned without an agreement on any essential point, and an irritating correspond ence between the two colonies ensued.

"Whereas we all came into these parts of America with one and the same end and aim, namely, to advance the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to enjoy the liberties of the Gospel in purity with peace; and whereas in our settling (by a wise providence of God) we are further dispersed upon the sea-coasts and rivWhen, in 1639, the vigor and aggressive char-ers than was at first intended, so that we can