mouth of the Connecticut River, and in July, 1675, he proceeded to Saybrook with a small naval force, to assert his authority. He was permitted to land; but when he ordered the garrison in the fort to surrender, and began to read his commission to the people, Captain Bull, the commander, ordered him to be silent. Perceiving the strength and determination of his adversary, Andros wisely withdrew, and greatly irritated, returned to New York.

During the next dozen years, very little occurred to disturb the quiet and prosperity of Connecticut. Then a most exciting scene took place at Hartford, in which the liberties of the colony were periled. Edmund Andros again appeared as a usurper of authority. He had been appointed governor of New England in 1686,' and on his arrival he demanded a surrender of the charters of all the provinces. They all complied, except Connecticut. She steadily refused to give up the guaranty of her political rights; and finally Andros proceeded to Hartford with sixty armed men, to enforce obedience. The Assembly were in session when he arrived [Nov. 10, 1687], and received him courteously. He demanded the surrender of the charter, and declared the colonial government dissolved. Already a plan had been arranged for securing the safety of that precious instrument, and at the same time to preserve an appearance of loyalty. The debates were purposely protracted until the candles were lighted,

The

at evening, when the charter was brought in and laid upon the table. Just as Andros stepped forward to take it, the candles were suddenly extinguished. charter was seized by Captain Wadsworth, of the militia, and under cover of the night it was effectually concealed in the hollow trunk of a huge oak, standing not far from the Assembly chamber." When the candles were relighted, the members were in perfect order, but the charter could not be found. Andros was highly incensed at being thus foiled, but he wisely restrained his passion, assumed the government, and with his own hand wrote the word FINIS after the last record of the Charter Assembly. The government was administered in his own name until he was driven from Boston in 1689, when the charter was taken from the oak [May 19, 1689], a popular Assembly was convened, Robert Treat was chosen governor, and Connecticut again assumed her position as an independent colony.

THE CHARTER OAK.

3

Petty tyrants continued to molest. A little more than four years later, the Connecticut people were again compelled to assert their chartered liberties. Colonel Fletcher, then governor of New York, held a commission which gave him command of the militia of Connecticut.5 As that power was reserved to

1 Page 129.

4

"That tree remained vigorous until ten minutes before one o'clock in the morning, August 21, 1856, when it was prostrated during a heavy storm, and nothing but a stump remains. It stood on the south side of Charter-street, a few rods from Main-street, in the city of Hartford. The cavity in which the charter was concealed, had become partially closed. ♦ Page 147. The declared object of this commission was to enable Fletcher to call forth the Connecticut militia when proper, to repel an expected invasion of Northern New York, by the French and Indians.

8 Page 130.

the colony by the charter, the Legislature refused to acknowledge Fletcher's authority. In November, 1693, he repaired to Hartford, and, notwithstanding the Legislature was in session, and again promptly denied his jurisdiction, he ordered the militia to assemble. The Hartford companies, under Captain Wadsworth,' were drawn up in line; but the moment Fletcher attempted to read his commission, the drums were beaten. His angry order of "Silence!" was obeyed for a moment; but when he repeated it, Wadsworth boldly stepped in front of him, and said, "Sir, if they are again interrupted, I'll make the sun shine through you in a moment." Fletcher perceived the futility of a parley, or further assumption of authority; and, pocketing his commission, he and his attendants returned to New York, greatly chagrined and irritated. The matter was compromised when referred to the king, who gave the governor of Connecticut militia jurisdiction in time of peace, but in the event of war, Colonel Fletcher should have the command of a certain portion of the troops of that colony.

2

And now, in the year 1700, Connecticut had a population of about thirty thousand, which rapidly increased during the remainder of her colonial career. During Queen Anne's War, and the stirring events in America from that time until the commencement of the French and Indian War,' when her people numbered one hundred thousand, Connecticut went hand in hand with her sister colonies for mutual welfare; and her history is too closely interwoven with theirs to require further separate notice.

CHAPTER VI.

RHODE ISLAND. [1644.]

WHEN the Providence and Rhode Island plantations were united under the same government in 1644, the colony of Rhode Island commenced its independent career. That charter was confirmed by the Long Parliaments in October, 1652, and this put an end to the persevering efforts of Massachusetts to absorb "Williams's Narraganset Plantation." That colony had always coveted the beautiful Aquiday, and feared the reaction of Williams's tolerant principles upon the people from whose bosom he had been cruelly expelled.' A dispute concerning the eastern boundary of Rhode Island was productive of much ill feeling during the progress of a century, when, in 1741, commissioners decided the present line to be the proper division, and wrangling ceased.

6

2 Page 135.

3

1 Page 156. Page 179. Page 91. A general assembly of deputies from the several towns, met at Portsmouth on the 29th of May, 1647, and organized the new government by the election of a president and other officers. At that time a code of laws was adopted, which declared the government to be a democracy, and that "all men might walk as their conscience persuaded them." Page 151.

5 Note 1, page 150.

Note 5, page 91.

' Page 91.

Nor was Rhode Island free from those internal commotions, growing out of religious disputes and personal ambition, which disturbed the repose of other colonies. These were quieted toward the close of 1653, when Roger Williams was chosen president. Cromwell confirmed the royal charter on the 22d of May, 1655, and during his administration the colony prospered. On the accession of Charles the Second,' Rhode Island applied for and obtained a new charter [July 8, 1663], highly democratic in its general features, and similar, in every respect, to the one granted to Connecticut. The first governor elected under this instrument, was Benedict Arnold;3 and by a colonial law, enacted during his first administration, the privileges of freemen were granted only to freeholders and their eldest sons.

2

Bowing to the mandates of royal authority, Rhode Island yielded to Andros, in January, 1687; but the moment intelligence reached the people of the accession of William and Mary' [May 11, 1689], and the imprisonment of the petty tyrant at Boston,' they assembled at Newport, resumed their old charter, and re-adopted their seal-an anchor, with Hope for a motto. Under this charter, Rhode Island continued to be governed for one hundred and fifty-seven years, when the people, in representative convention, in 1842, adopted a constitution." Newport soon became a thriving commercial town; and when, in 1732, John Franklin established there the first newspaper in the colony, it contained five thousand inhabitants, and the whole province about eighteen thousand. Near Newport the celebrated Dean Berkeley purchased lands in 1729; and with him came John Smibert, an artist, who introduced portrait painting into America. Notwithstanding Rhode Island was excluded from the New England confederacy, it always bore its share in defensive efforts; and its history is identified with that of New England in general, from the commencement of King William's War.10

1 Page 109.

2 Page 154. This charter guarantied free toleration in religious matters, and the legislature of the colony re-asserted the principle, so as to give it the popular force of law. The assertion, made by some, that Roman Catholics were excluded from voting, and that Quakers were outlawed, is

erroneous.

He was governor several times, serving in that office, altogether, about cleven years. He was chief magistrate of the colony when he died, in 1678. Page 130. Page 477.

⚫ Page 130.

6

Of these, about one thousand were Indians, and more than sixteen hundred were negroes. 8 Berkeley preached occasionally in a small Episcopal church at Newport, and presented the congregation with an organ, the first ever heard in America. Smibert was a Scotchman, and married and settled at Boston. His picture of Berkeley and his family is still preserved at Yale College [page 178], in New Haven. Berkeley (afterward made bishop of a diocese in Ireland) made great efforts toward the establishment of the Arts and Learning, in America. Failing in his project of founding a new University, he became one of the most liberal benefactors of Yale College. In view of the future progress of the colonies, he wrote that prophetic poem, the last verse of which contains the oft-quoted line

"Westward the course of Empire takes its way."

9

Page 121.

10

Page 130.

THE settlements in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, we have considered together in the same chapter,' as constituting a series of events having intimate relations with each other. The history of the colonial organization of the first two, is separate and distinct. Delaware was never an independent colony or State, until after the Declaration of Independence, in 1776. The founding of the New Jersey colony occurred when, in 1664, the Duke of York sold the territory to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret,' and the new proprietors began the work of erecting a State. They published a form of agreement which they called "Concessions," in which liberal offers were made to emigrants who might settle within the territory. Among other provisions, the people were to be exempt from the payment of quit-rents and other burdens, for the space of five years. Allured by the liberality of the "Concessions," as well as by the salubrity of the climate and the fertility of the soil, many families came from Long Island in 1664, and settled at Elizabethtown; and in August, the following year, Philip Carteret (brother of one of the proprietors) was appointed governor, and arrived at Elizabethtown with a number of settlers. At first all was peaceable. Nothing disturbed the repose of the colony during the five years' exemption from rents; but when, in 1670, the specified halfpenny, for the use of each acre of land, was required, murmurs of discontent were loud and universal. Those who had purchased land from the Indians, denied the right of the proprietors to demand rent from them; and some of the towns had even denied the authority of the Assembly, at its first sitting, in 1668. The whole people combined in resisting the payment of quit-rents; and after disputing with the proprietors almost two years, they revolted, called a new Assembly, appointed a dissolute, illegitimate son of Sir George Carteret, governor, in May, 1672, and in July following, compelled Philip Carteret to leave the province. Preparations were in progress to coerce the people into submission, when New Jersey, and all other portions of the territory claimed by the Duke of York, fell into the hands of the Dutch,' in August, 1673. On the restoration of the territory to the English," in November, 1674, the Duke of York procured a new charter,' and then, regardless of the rights of Berkeley and Carteret, he appointed Edmund Andros, "the tyrant of New England,"

1 Page 92.

Page 94. The province was called New Jersey, in honor of Carteret, who was governor of the island of Jersey, in the British Channel, during the civil war. He was a staunch royalist, and was the last commander to lower the royal flag, when the Parliament had triumphed.

This was a sort of constitution, which provided for a government to be composed of a governor and council appointed by the proprietors, and an Assembly chosen by the freeholders of the province. The legislative power resided in the Assembly; the executive in the governor. The Council and the Assembly were each restricted to twelve members.

governor of the whole domajn. Carteret demurred, and the duke partially restored his rights; not, however, without leaving Andros a sufficient pretense for asserting his authority, and producing annoyances. Berkeley had become disgusted, and sold his interest in the province [March 28, 1674] to Edward Byllinge, an English Quaker. Pecuniary embarrassment caused Byllinge to assign his interest to William Penn, and two others,' in 1675. These purchasers, unwilling to maintain a political union with other parties, successfully negotiated with Carteret for a division of the province, which took place on the 11th of July, 1676. Carteret received the eastern portion as his share, and the Quakers the western part. From that time the divisions were known as EAST and WEST JERSEY.

The WEST JERSEY proprietors gave the people a remarkably liberal constitution of government [March 13, 1677]; and in 1677, more than four hundred Quakers came from England and settled below the Raritan. Andros required them to acknowledge the authority of the Duke of York. They refused; and the matter was referred to the eminent Sir William Jones (the oriental scholar) for adjudication, who decided against the claims of the duke. The latter submitted to the decision, released both provinces from allegiance to him, and the JERSEYS became independent of foreign control. The first popular assembly in West Jersey met at Salem, in November, 1681, and adopted a code of laws for the government of the people.'

Soon after the death of Carteret, in December, 1679, the trustees of his estate offered East Jersey for sale. It was purchased by William Penn and eleven of his brethren, on the 11th of February, 1682, who obtained a new charter, and on the 27th of July, 1683, appointed Robert Barclay," a very eminent Quaker preacher, from Aberdeen, governor for life. A large number of his sect came from Scotland and England; and others from New England and Long Island settled in East Jersey to enjoy prosperity and repose. But repose, as well as the administration of Barclay, was of short duration; for when James succeeded Charles,' he appeared to consider his contracts made while duke, not binding upon his honor as king. He sought to annul the American charters, and succeeded, as we have seen, in subverting the governments of several,' through the instrumentality of Andros. The JERSEYS were sufferers in this respect, and were obliged to bow to the tyrant. When he was driven from the country in 1689," the provinces were left without regular governments, and for more than twelve years anarchy prevailed there. The claims of the proprietors to jurisdiction, were repudiated by the people; and in 1702, they gladly relinquished the government by surrendering it, on the 25th of

1 These purchasers immediately sold one half of their interest to the Earl of Perth, from whom the present town of Perth Amboy derives a part of its name. Amboy, or Ambo, is an Indian 2 A remarkable law was enacted at that session. It provided that in all criminal cases, except treason, murder, and theft, the aggrieved party should have power to pardon the offender.

name.

It

He was the author of "An Apology for Quakers," a work highly esteemed by his sect. was written in Latin, and translated into several continental languages. Barclay and Penn were intimate personal friends, and travelled much together. He died in Ury, in 1690, aged 42 years. 4 Page 113. Pages 129, 156, and 158.

Page 130.