1 Haynes and Hooker" came into the Bay, and stayed near a month," to confer upon it;1 and the Connecticut Court sent a committee from Hartford to Saybrook to engage the good offices of Mr. Fenwick.2 Aug. 8. 1642. Hitherto, and for a considerable time later, Massachusetts seems to have been indifferent to the measure; perhaps from unwillingness to be invested with a share in the joint administration equal only to that claimed by sister communities less populous and powerful. At length, her course in respect to it was changed. A concurrence of circumstances at that point of time deserves notice. "The propositions sent from Connecticut about a combination, &c. were read, and Sept. 27. referred to a committee to consider of after the Court." The Court, "with advice of the elders," had just “ordered a general fast," of which the specified occasions were,— "second, the danger of the Indians; third, the unseasonable weather”; but first and chiefly, "the ill news we had out of England concerning the breach between the king and Parliament."3 The war that had begun in England in the previous month had been impending through all the summer. Puritanism and civil liberty were to try their issue at the sword's point against despotism and prelacy. If the right were doomed to be stricken down on the other side of the water, it would only the more need a refuge upon this; and, as long as the balance was trembling, the encouragement of friendship, though neither powerful nor near, might add a weight to determine which way it should incline. At all events, when tyrannical king and patriotic Parliament were in arms against each other, it was prudent for distant Englishmen to be likewise in panoply to meet all occasions; 1 Winthrop, I. 299. 2 Conn. Col. Rec., 30, 31. 4 Mass. Col. Rec., II. 61; comp. Winthrop, II. 160.-Virginia "was like 3 Winthrop, II. 85; comp. Mass. to rise in parties, some for the king, and Col. Rec., II. 16, 31. others for the Parliament." (Ibid.) when their numbers were lessened by the drawing off of reinforcements to a remote field, it was wise in those who were left to fortify themselves with the strength of union; and he reads the avowed reasons for the NewEngland confederacy with superficial observation, who does not single out from the rest "those sad distractions in England" as having had a special efficacy in bringing about the measure. 1643. 1 At the next General Court, commissioners presented themselves at Boston from each of the three colMay 10. onies, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven.1 Mr. Fenwick of Saybrook was a party to the consultations. The Governor, with two magistrates and three 1 Plymouth was represented by Winslow and Collier (Plym. Col. Rec., II. 53, 56); Connecticut by Haynes and Hopkins (Conn. Col. Rec., 82, 91); and New Haven by Eaton and Gregson (N. H. Col. Rec., 87, 96). one year of emigration, and, with it, all real in- between him and Connecticut, and he was perhaps already negotiating the sale of the fort, &c., which he concluded the next year. 2 Winthrop says (II. 99): "At this There was now a good understanding Court came the Commissioners from Connecticut, Mr. Haynes and Mr. Hopkins, with whom Mr. Fenwick of Saybrook joined." I was perplexed by the relation of Mr. Fenwick to this business, and applied to Mr. Trumbull, of Hartford, for an explanation. That with which he was so good as to furnish me is so lucid, that I should do it injustice if I gave it in any other than his own words. Mr. Trumbull writes as follows: "But, to preserve this understanding, it was necessary to waive any present examination of titles. The Court could hardly admit the validity of the Saybrook patent, without abandoning its own claim to jurisdiction, — as against Massachusetts for instance, or the Dutch; and there were strong reasons for not openly calling in question the authority of the patent, which they were about purchasing, and looked to as the safeguard of their own authority. So Mr. Fenwick took just so much part in the proceedings as to enable him to interpose a salvo jure for the patentees. In proof of this, though Haynes and Hopkins were sent by the Court 'to conclude a union' (March 27, 1643, Conn. Col. Rec., I. 82), the Deputies, was authorized to treat on the part of Massachusetts.1 "These, coming to consultation, encountered some difficulties; but, being all desirous of union and studious of peace, they readily yielded to each other in such things as tended to common utility, &c., so as in some two or three meetings they lovingly accorded." " Their deliberations issued in an agreement upon twelve articles, and created what, for important purposes, was for many years a Federal Government of the New Eng- 1643. land Colonies. Receiving at once the signatures of May 19. all the commissioners except those of Plymouth, who had not brought authority to sign, they were soon ratified by the government of that Colony also. Aug. 29. The settlements of Gorges, and the plantations about Narragansett Bay, were denied admission to the Confederacy; the former, says Winthrop, "because they ran a different course from us, both in their ministry and civil administration." 3 Neither had yet been able to institute a government, such as could be relied on for the fulfilment of the stipulations mutually made by the four Colonies. The Narragansett settlers were at such variance among themselves, that three years passed after they had obtained an advantageous charter from the Parliamentary Commissioners, before they could come to a sufficiently good understanding to put it in operation; and even that system in their hands speedily came to the articles were signed, in May, by Hopkins and Fenwick, and the records of the Commissioners (Hazard, II. 7) refer to an order of the Connecticut Court of July 5th, appointing them Commissioners for Connecticut. But by referring to the Court records (I. 90) it appears that Mr. Hopkins is desired to perform the service to be one of the committee for this river,' &c., nothing being said of the other. Mr. Fenwick went as Mr. Hopkins's colleague, with the assent, but not by the appointment, of the Court." 1 Winthrop, II. 99. Mass. Col. Rec., II. 35. The persons delegated to this trust, on the part of Massachusetts, were "the Governor, and Mr. Dudley and Mr. Bradstreet, being of the magistrates; and of the Deputies, Captain Gibbons, Mr. Tyng (the Treasurer), and Mr. Hathorn." 2 Winthrop, II. 99. 3 Ibid., 101. ground, and had to be renewed. The people of Providence were united by an association the most lax that can possibly assert a title to the name; those of an outlying settlement, which had become detached from it, were in the most disorderly condition; and even those of Rhode Island were in such bad credit, not only in Massachusetts, but with the quiet people of Plymouth, who had no quarrel with them, as to cause the kind and candid Brewster to write, "Concerning the Islanders, we have no May 17. conversing with them, nor desire to have, further than necessity or humanity may require."1 The oath taken by the freemen of Rhode Island contained an engagement of fealty to the king; and Gorges, the proprietary of Maine, was in arms for him. It was by no influence proceeding from such sources, that the objects of the confederacy were to be carried out. 1642. The confederation was no less than an act of absolute sovereignty on the part of the contracting states. The first two articles bound together the four Colonies and their dependencies, under the name of "The United Colonies of New England," in "a firm and perpetual league of friendship and amity for offence and defence, mutual advice and succor, upon all just occasions, both for preserving and propagating the truth and liberties of the Gospel, and for their own mutual safety and welfare." The third provided, that, for purposes of internal administration, each Colony should retain its independence, and that no new member should be received. 1 Bradford, 388.-The feeling against them in Massachusetts was such, that the General Court, in October, 1640, having considered a letter from the authorities of New Haven, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, ordered "that the answer should be directed to Mr. Eaton, Mr. Hopkins, and Mr. Haynes, only excluding Mr. Coddington and Mr. Brenton, as men not to be capitulated withal by us, either for themselves or the people of the island where they inhabit, as their case standeth." (Mass. Col. Rec., I. 305.) 2 It is true that also in Plymouth oaths of allegiance to the king were in use. (See above, p. 546.) But no unfriendliness to the Puritan establishments of New England could be apprehended from the people there. into the league, nor any two present members be consolidated into one jurisdiction, without "consent of the rest." By the fourth, levies of men, money, and supplies for war, were to be assessed on the respective Colonies, in proportion to the male population of each between the ages of sixteen and sixty, as ascertained by a census to be made from time to time for each Colony by its Commissioners; and the spoils of war were to be distributed to the several Colonies on the same principle. According to the fifth, upon notice, by three magistrates, of an existing invasion of any Colony, the rest were forthwith to send it relief; — Massachusetts to the number of a hundred men, if so many were needed, and each of the others to the number of forty-five, "sufficiently armed and provided for such a service and journey." The nearest confederate alone was to be summoned, if the occasion required no more; and then the men were "to be victualled, and supplied with powder and shot for their journey, (if there were need,) by that jurisdiction which employed or sent for them." If more than the whole stipulated amount of aid was demanded, then the whole body of Commissioners was to be convened, to order a further enlistment, should they see cause; or, if in their judgment the invaded Colony was in fault, then to condemn it to give satisfaction to the invader, and to defray the charges incurred. In the case of "danger of any invasion approaching," three magistrates (or if in the threatened jurisdiction there were no more than three, then two) might summon a meeting of the Commissioners. By the sixth, a board was constituted for the management of the business of the Confederacy, to consist of two Commissioners from each Colony, all of them churchmembers, with power to "determine all affairs of war or peace, leagues, aids, charges, and numbers of men for |