however, afford but an insufficient explanation of the extraordinary result of his endeavors. We are still left to inquire how it could be that a wary and arbitrary minister, who, in the new zeal of office, was gathering into his master's hands all power that could be seized, was brought to make a formal grant of what almost amounted to colonial independence. It must have been obvious to Lord Clarendon, that, in the prosecution of his schemes of encroachment upon New England, the Confederacy was the power by which he was to be embarrassed. It followed, that to disturb the arrangements of that league, and sow dissension among its members, was a method altogether to his purpose. Massachusetts was by far the most powerful of the confederated Colonies, and was likely to be found the most refractory. A ready way to disable her was to raise up a rival power, and provide occasions of jealousy between them; and, to effect this, the natural course was to enlarge Connecticut, between which Colony and Massachusetts there had hitherto been differences, and to create that enlargement by methods which Massachusetts would have to disapprove. Thus favored on the one hand, and obstructed on the other, Connecticut would be likely to be secured to the royal interest. The incor letter; and John Winthrop (not to In Thurloe's State Papers (I. 763; comp. Mass. Hist. Coll., XXI. 185) is a letter of John Maidston, which awakens the reader's curiosity. It was written in London, in March, 1660, to Winthrop, then in Connecticut. It covers in print five large folio pages, and gives an account of the movements of the popular party in England, from the time of the first session of the Long Parliament to the beginning of the year of the Restoration. It is in reply to a letter from Winthrop; and its tenor is such as to suggest the possibility that Winthrop had had some misgivings about the correctness of the past course of the patriot party, or, at least, had felt himself not to be sufficiently possessed of their case to be a confident champion of it, and had applied to his friend (whose letter shows him to have been a man of superior sense and knowledge) for the benefit of his information and judgment. poration of New Haven into that Colony, by which the requisite enlargement would be obtained, would be attended with other results satisfactory to the watchful minister. By the union, New Haven, which, like Massachusetts, attached the civil franchise to church-membership, would be deprived of that defence against the encroachments of prelacy. New Haven had given grievous displeasure at court by sheltering the regicides. The disappointment, the humiliation, the disadvantages and losses, whatever they might be, - of being struck out of existence as a separate community, might well seem to such eyes a fitting punishment. Whether it was that Winthrop easily consented, or that Lord Clarendon absolutely insisted, the charter offered no choice to New Haven respecting the termination of its political life. Winthrop represented Connecticut, and was zealous for its interests. Having begun his public career as the agent of its patentees, he may still have regarded the New-Haven people as a sort of trespassers upon their land.1 And, at a time when Connecticut and New Haven were at issue respecting the exclusive policy which connected the franchise with church-membership, 1 Connecticut now claimed to be, by parts of the country where you are virtue of the arrangement with Fen- seated, both by conquest, purchase, wick, the proprietor of the lands which and possession; and that, though hithhad been conveyed by patent to Lord erto we have been silent, and altoBrooke, Lord Say and Sele, and their gether forborne to make any absolute associates; and it was a portion of challenge to our own, as before, yet those lands that the New-Haven peo- now we see a necessity at least to reple had occupied. The year before vive the memorial of our right and inWinthrop went to England, a measure terest," &c. The General Court of adopted by the town of New Haven New Haven raised a committee (May to extend its border to the east, gave 29, 1661) "for the treating with, and occasion to Connecticut to revive her issuing of, any seeming difference beclaim with some formality. The Sec- twixt Connecticut Colony and this;" retary of the latter Colony wrote to and here, so far as I know, the busithe New-Haven Magistrates, express- ness slept, till it presented itself in a ing the dissatisfaction of his govern- new form after the arrival of the charment, and proceeding so far as to say: ter. See N. H. Rec., II. 409, 410. See above, p. 491. he may naturally have desired to diminish, in the Confederacy, that influence of which New Haven, even more than Massachusetts, was the devoted champion. But he was now Chief Magistrate of one of the Colonies united in a Confederacy, which in its very existence implied the independence of New Haven, and in its articles of agreement recognized and guarantied that independence. He had no authority to act for New Haven in anything, least of all to stipulate for its extinction as a body politic. When he was about to embark, in reply to the expression, by "a friend" (Mr. Davenport), of fears of "so unrighteous an act, as so far to extend the line that the Colony of New Haven should be involved within it," he gave and reiterated the assurance, "that no such thing was intended, but rather the contrary;" and that, in case the old patent, of which the royal confirmation was to be sought, should be found to include New Haven, yet that "Colony should be at liberty to join or not." He renewed these assurances when the charter had passed the seals, and appealed to the General Court to respect his pledge.2 But he must have known, throughout the transaction, that, the charter once executed, his personal control over it would cease, and that in all probability, much esteemed as he was, his remonstrances would be to extremely little purpose. The signed and sealed parchment was not his. It went at once into the hands of men, who, however they would have respected their own scruples, did not feel bound to respect the scruples of another person, and did feel bound to advance the greatness of Connecticut. It may have been some misgiving, on the agent's part, as to the position in which he was about to be placed, 1 "New Haven's Case Stated," Art. 10 (N. H. Rec., II. 521; comp. 467, note). Yet, in the answer to this paper (Ibid., 533, 536), it is said that Leete desired a union when Winthrop went to England, and acquainted him with that wish. * Ibid., 523. Arrival of in New Eng that occasioned delay in the transmission of this important paper. After nearly four months, during which time, in both Colonies, the elections had been made, and the government had proceeded as usual, the arrival of the charter was first publicly made the charter known at the annual meeting of the Federal land. Commissioners, which this year was held at Bos- Sept. 4. ton. The Commissioners for New Haven, who appeared in their place, and acted throughout the session, may have been taken by surprise. They left this certificate on the margin of the Journal: "We cannot as yet say that the procurement of this patent will be acceptable to us or our Colony." 2 The and Proceedings in Connecti cut on the the charter. reception of Oct. 9. In Connecticut, at a General Court held the next month, it was received with great joy, and was committed to the custody of three leading citizens, who were bound by an oath to keep it safely. Court passed votes to "declare all the laws orders of the Colony to stand in full force and virtue," and to "establish all officers, both civil and military, in their respective places and power as formerly." Then they proceeded at once to exercise the extraordinary powers with which they were newly invested. Not waiting for action on the part of New Haven, they received the submission, not only of Southhold, a town of that Colony, which acted in the case in its corporate capacity, but also of a minority of the inhabitants of Guilford, Greenwich, and Stamford. They sent a notice to West Chester, within the Dutch territory, of their claim to that plantation. They ordered "that the inhab 1 It had probably just then arrived. A letter from the Connecticut General Court to the Commissioners, in the week before their meeting, says nothing of the charter, but intimates that important intelligence from England was expected. (Conn. Rec., I. 384.) Records, &c., in Hazard, II. 467. Conn. Rec., I. 384-388.— Southhold and Stamford had long borne uneasily the yoke of New-Haven Colony. See N. H. Rec., II. 17, 23, 51, 59-65, 92-96, 143, 177, &c. itants at Mystic and Paucatuck [Southertown] should forbear to exercise authority by virtue of commissions from any other Colony," thus undertaking to oust Massachusetts. And they appointed a committee of two Magistrates and two ministers "to go down to New Haven to treat with the gentlemen and others of their loving friends there."1 New Haven The impetuosity of these proceedings of Connecticut was unfortunate. In the sister Colony a sense of gratui tous affront deepened the sense of unprovoked wrong. Resistance of The freemen of the town of New Haven held a meeting, on the second day after an "extraordinary seeking of God by fasting and prayer for his guidance of the Colony in this weighty business." The Connecticut committee had sent a letter, expressing their desire for "a happy and comfortable union, to the charter. Oct. 17. according to the tenor of the charter;" and the Magistrates of New Haven Colony, replying that they would consult their constituents, had added a request that the issuing of matters might be respited until they might receive fuller information from the honored Mr. Winthrop, or satisfaction otherwise, and that in the mean time the Colony might remain distinct and uninterrupted, as heretofore." Town-meet Haven. Oct. 81. At the New-Haven town-meeting, Mr. Davening at New port, in emphatic terms, deprecated the proposed union of the Colonies, and condemned the proceedings instituted by Connecticut to that end. He argued that the language of the new charter did not by necessary construction require a surrender of the independence of New Haven, and that, as a voluntary measure, it was not to be chosen. "The DeputyGovernor [Gilbert] declared that the things spoken by Mr. Davenport were of great weight." Mr. Street, 1 Conn. Rec., I. 388-390. |