Hardly any of the expansion of Connecticut, prior to the grant of the charter which gave a legal basis to its claims, was due to accident. In almost all of it we can see very clearly a provident determination on the part of the people to give their commonwealth respectable limits, and to turn to account every favoring circumstance in that direction. Hardly was the Pequot war under way when the general court resolved to send thirty men to occupy "the Pequoitt Countrey & River in place convenient to maynteine our right that God by Conquest hath given us." And from this moment Connecticut maintained her right by conquest to the whole of the present eastern part of the State with a vigor which was in itself strong promise of success. One secret of the commonwealth's success, in this as in the Saybrook and other cases, was the policy which it followed with adverse claimants, a policy which the politico-religious constitution of New Haven prevented it from imitating. Instead of engaging in a struggle with a rival, the Connecticut democracy always endeavored to adopt him, to make its interests his, and so to secure even a better title out of conflict. In the case of the Pequot country, it was John Winthrop, Jr., the former agent of the Saybrook proprietors, who developed an inchoate rivalry with the colony for possession of the coveted territory; and Connecticut's policy, carefully applied, not only strengthened her title to the Pequot

country, but gave her one of the best of her long line of excellent governors, and was in the end one of the chief means of obtaining her long desired charter. Winthrop's attention had been turned to the Pequot country. Fisher's Island, "against the mouth of the Pequot River," was granted to him by the Massachusetts general court, October 7, 1640, with a reservation of the possibly superior title of Connecticutor New Haven; and Connecticut, instead of taking any exceptions to the grant, promptly confirmed it. In 1644 Massachusetts gave Winthrop authority to "make a plantation in the Pequot country." He went to the place in the following spring, and in the autumn of 1646 had gathered a few families there, and was beginning to put up houses. The claims of Massachusetts were grounded on the fact that her troops had taken part in the conquest of the Pequots; and the case was decided agains her by the New England commissioners in July, 1647. Connecticut at once gave Winthrop a commission, September 9, 1647, to execute justice in his town "according to our laws and the rule of righteousness." May 17, 1649, the court established the boundaries of the new town and named its magistrates. One of these two dates, and most probably the former, is to be taken as the town's entrance to the list of Connecticut towns. On the latter date, the court suggested the name "Fair Haven," but the people preferred that of New London.

The last of the Connecticut towns before the charter was Norwich, an offshoot of Saybrook. Its settlement was approved, under the name of "Mohegan," by the general court in 1659; and it was summoned, October 3, 1661, under the name of "Norridge," to send representatives.

The divergence between the Connecticut colony and its sister and rival of New Haven had become marked long before Monk began his march for London. The attempt has been made in this chapter to state some of the elements of strength of Connecticut. It had become a strong, wellbalanced political unit, with a clear notion of a territorial goal to be striven for, and of the line of policy to be pursued in striving for it. Its democracy gave every man a personal interest in the maintenance of the colony's claims; and the results were another proof that "everybody knows more than anybody." Its towns were as free as towns could well be; the right of suffrage was as nearly as possible universal; it can hardly be said that there were any dissatisfied elements to be placated, or else to fester in the vitals of the commonwealth; and the steady bias of the commonwealth toward civil and religious freedom had enabled it to find elements of increased strength in what might have been elements of intestine weakness. For twenty years or more, the "loving brethren" of Connecticut and New Haven lived on in entire satisfaction with one another's corporate existence. The

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time had then come when the growing commonwealth found that the separate existence of New Haven was a complete obstacle to the natural course of development of Connecticut. The comparative weakness of New Haven will come out in the narrative of the events which led to the union but it is fair to say in advance that one of the most effective of these weakening elements in New Haven was the apparent agreement of a part of her people with Connecticut rather than with their own colony. Freedom was more attractive in the long run than restriction.

CHAPTER X.

THE TWO COLONIES UNTIL THE UNION.

THE organization in which the idea of the American Union first cropped out, to exist a while and then to die away almost unnoticed, was the New England union of 1643. As Massachusetts was the most distinguished and influential member of this confederation, the full account of its origin and history should in fairness be reserved to Massachusetts historians. It will not be improper to say here that such a union had been proposed by Connecticut in 1637, just after the settlement; but Massachusetts received the proposal with a demand that her right to Agawam (Springfield) and to free navigation of the Connecticut should be recognized. Connecticut's answer was so "harsh" that the further consideration of the matter lapsed for some years. It soon turned out that Massachusetts had right on her side, so far, at least, as the jurisdiction over Springfield was concerned; and the extreme confusion of English affairs, through the struggle between king and parliament, was an inducement to the New England colonies to suspend all minor differences,