XIV. lished for the boundaries of Connecticut the Narragan- CHAPTER set River, the south line of Massachusetts, the shore of the Sound, and the Pacific Ocean. It thus not only 1662. embraced a large part of the continental portion of Rhode Island, but the whole of New Haven also an absorption about which the inhabitants of that colony had not been consulted, and with which, at first, they were not very well satisfied. Clarke, the Rhode Island agent, found a friend in Clarendon, the prime minister; but, in the course of his solicitations, he was obliged to expend a considerable sum of money, for which he mortgaged his own house in Newport, and which the colony was a long time in paying back. He encountered, also, obstruction in the fact that the greater part of Providence Plantation had just been included in the charter of Connecticut. An agreement, presently entered into between Clarke and Winthrop, fixed for the limit between the two colonies the Pawcatuck, declared to be the Narraganset River mentioned in the Connecticut charter; and this agreement was specially set forth in the charter of RHODE ISLAND 1663. AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS. July 8. The charters thus granted vested in the proprietary freemen of Connecticut and Rhode Island the right of admitting new associates, and of choosing annually from among themselves a governor, magistrates, and representatives, with powers of legislation and judicial authority. No appellate jurisdiction and no negative on the laws were reserved to the crown any more than in the charters of Massachusetts, Maryland, and Carolina; but all enactments, as in the other plantations, were to conform, as near as might be, to the laws of England. Except this authority of English law, allegiance to the crown, and the superintending power of Parliament, whatever CHAPTER that might be, Connecticut and Rhode Island wore selfXIV. governed; so much so, that these same royal charters 1663. remained the basis of their polity long after they became independent states. Historians have expressed surprise that, under the reign of Charles II., charters so democratic should have been granted. But, in a legal point of view, in the grant by the crown of independent jurisdiction, they did not differ from the other charters hitherto granted for plantations in America. The only difference was in vesting that jurisdiction in a corporation of resident freemen, instead of an English corporation or a single proprietor, with or without a local assembly. The dispute with Massachusetts was still in embryo. The inconveniences of such independent governments had not yet attracted attention. Twenty years after, when Penn obtained the grant of Pennsylvania, intervening experience, as we shall presently see, caused the insertion into his charter of several additional safeguards for metropolitan authority. The inhabitants of Rhode Island still adhered to the great principle of which Roger Williams had been so conspicuous an advocate, not of toleration merely, but of religious freedom and equality. "It is much in our hearts to hold forth a lively experiment, that a most flourishing civil state may stand, and best be maintained, with a full liberty of religious concernments;" so they stated in their petition for a charter; and the charter itself provided "that no person within the said colony shall be molested, punished, disquieted, or called in question for any differences of opinion in matters of religion who does not actually disturb the civil peace; but that all and every person and persons may at all times freely and fully have and enjoy his and their own judgments and consciences in matters of religious concernments, they behaving XIV. themselves peaceably and quietly, and not using this CHAPTER liberty to licentiousness and profaneness, nor to the civil injury and outward disturbance of others." It does not appear that the people of Rhode Island either desired to insert, or were anxious to enforce the dangerous and inconsistent proviso about licentiousness and profaneness-quite sufficient, indeed, to defeat the whole prior grant, since it is only under one or the other of these pretenses that opinions have any where been persecuted. Yet how difficult it is to act up to a principle in the face of prevailing prejudice and opposing example! The Rhode Island laws as first printed, many years posterior to the charter, contain an express exclusion from the privileges of freemen of Roman Catholics, and all persons not professing Christianity. These laws had undergone repeated revisals, and it is now impossible to tell when these restrictions were first introduced, though probably not till after the English revolution of 1688. Statutes were also enacted in Rhode Island, as in the other colonies, prohibiting labor or amusements on Sundays. However open to cavil, yet these laws do not materially diminish the credit of Rhode Island as pioneer in the cause of religious freedom; for in which of our statute-books, even at this very day, are not similar inconsistencies to be found? The privileges of freemen were restricted in Rhode Island, by act of the colonial assembly, to freeholders and their eldest sons. For the long period that Rhode Island remained chiefly an agricultural community, this limitation was hardly felt as a grievance. Very lately, in our day, amid a manufacturing population, it excited serious discontents, occasioning almost a civil war, only appeased by the adoption of a more liberal provision. The qualifications required of freemen in Connecticut 1663. CHAPTER were not materially different. The right to become XIV. such was secured to all inhabitants of "civil, peaceable, 1663. and honest conversation," possessing £20 estate, about $66, "besides their persons," which, by a subsequent act, was explained to mean besides personal property. This preference of a property qualification instead of the spiritual one of church membership, and the known inclination of Connecticut toward the half-way covenant, were reasons, among others, of the unwillingness of New Haven to coalesce under the new charter. The New Sevt. Haven people appealed to the Commissioners for the United Colonies of New England against this invasion of their independence on the part of Connecticut. But the advice of that body; the alarm occasioned, the next year, by the grant of New York, which extended as far east as Connecticut River, and threatened thus to absorb New Haven under a far less congenial jurisdiction; more than all, Winthrop's prudent and conciliatory meas1664. ures, at length consolidated the new colony, of which for the next twelve years he was annually chosen governor. The office of deputy governor, at first bestowed on Mason, for several years before deputy governor of Connecticut and acting governor in Winthrop's absence, was after1667. ward given to William Leet, of New Haven, one of the original planters of that colony, its last governor, and, after Winthrop's death, his successor as governor of the united colony. Connecticut, thus consolidated, contained nineteen towns, distributed into four counties: New Haven, Hartford, Middlesex, and New London. A superior court of law and county courts were established. The peculiar usages of New Haven being abandoned, the laws of Connecticut were extended to the whole prov ince. The theocratic system of New Haven thus lost its legal establishment, but the administration of the entire XIV. colony was long greatly influenced by theocratic ideas. CHAPTER The ministers and churches, upheld by taxes levied on the whole population, retained for many years a pre- 1663 dominating and almost unlimited authority. No other assemblies for public worship were tolerated. The town meetings, as in the rest of New England, were held in the meeting-houses, which were, indeed, the only public buildings. The ministers, who were always present, opened these meetings with prayer, and their influence, in all doubtful cases, was almost always decisive of the result. New Haven thus absorbed into Connecticut, the new province sent henceforward but two representatives to the meeting of Commissioners for the United Colonies of New England. The political consequence of that board was, however, terminated. The superintendence of the Indian missions, and the disbursement of the funds remitted from England for that purpose, became henceforth its chief business. The meetings became triennial, and soon entirely ceased. An attempt had been made at the Restoration to strip of its property the English corporation for the conversion of the Indians, on the ground that its creation had been irregular and illegal. It was rescued, however, by the efforts of Ashurst and Baxter, but particularly of Robert Boyle, distinguished among the founders of natural science in England. The king granted a new charter, thus confirming a decree which Clarendon, in his character of chancellor, had made in favor of the old corporation. While Connecticut and Rhode Island were rejoicing in their charters, Massachusetts remained uneasy and suspicious. An evasive answer had been returned to the royal letter. The only concession actually made was the administration of justice in the king's name. Mean |