CHAPTER VI. Ar some time within the first nine years after the immigration of Winthrop's company, Andrew Belcher set up an inn in Cambridge. His son Andrew made a considerable fortune as a merchant, first of Hartford and then of Boston, and was a member of the Council of Massachusetts. several years under the Provincial Charter.1 He married a daughter of Deputy-Governor Danforth. His son Jonathan, after finishing the course of study at Harvard College, travelled abroad, both in England and on the Continent, and, according to a statement in one of his speeches, had an honorable reception at the court of the Elector of Hanover, and of his mother, the Princess Sophia, heiress presumptive to the British crown. ReturnJonathan ing home, he followed in his father's steps, becomBelcher. ing a merchant, a Representative in the General Court, and a member of the Council. 1699. Governor He had not a generous nature, but in traits which attract popular good-will he was not wanting. His person and presence were graceful and pleasing. He had a cheerful countenance, a hearty voice, a demonstrative gesticulation, and an habitually affable address. He was a man of society and of the world. Though foolishly irritable, and prone to small resentments which he pursued without 1 It was while he was a Counsellor that, the selectmen of Boston having objected to his sending corn to Curaçoa on account of a scarcity of that article, he was so public-spirited as to reply: "The hardest fend off; if you stop my vessels, I will hinder the coming in of three times as much." (Sewall's Diary, for May 20, 1713.) dignity, he was not troubled, like his differently constituted and differently trained predecessor, with pride and obstinacy about points of honor. He loved intrigue and tortuous methods. The ways of thinking of his earlier profession kept their hold on his experienced mind. He brought into politics some habits of trade; when satisfied that he could not get what he wanted unless at an inconvenient price, he would accept with complacent good-nature as much as was to be had. If greedy in acquisition, he was no miser. He spent his money with an elegant liberality. Especially was his purse freely opened when it might buy large returns of praise and consequence. A political manager, such as Massachusetts had not bred before, he anticipated, in forms less elaborate, some tactics of more recent times. For years he was known as a friend of high prerogative principles in the government. Great surprise was felt when, at the height of the quarrel with Burnet about a stated salary, it became known that Belcher had embraced the popular pretension. The House made him one of its agents to enforce that doctrine on the court, and in England he remained and persevered, though the provincial Council steadily refused its consent to his being paid. There the news of the death of Burnet found him, and another not less unexpected change in his position forthwith took place. Lord Townshend's quarrel with Walpole had more than begun, and each of the rivals wished to avoid strong measures which might offer an advantage to the other. Wilks, Belcher's colleague in the agency, persuaded Townshend that Belcher, if anybody, could manage the turbulent Representatives of Massachusetts. It was thought that the popular branch in the Legislature which had so lately chosen him to be agent could not fail to welcome him as Governor, and to be accessible to his persuasions; and, on the other hand, he volunteered satisfactory assurances to the Ministry of his 1729. Dec. 31. determination to desert the popular cause. He assured the Duke of Newcastle that there was no reason "to entertain a thought to his prejudice on the score of the station he lately sustained; no one," he said, "shall be more tender of the honor and dignity of the crown, nor more industrious to promote the interest of the mother kingdom." Governor Shute, whose appointment Belcher had aided by a contribution of money fifteen years before, now repaid the boon by his good offices. Lieutenant Tailer. 1 Dummer was not continued as Lieutenant-Governor. At the instance of the agent, Wilks, the place Governor was restored to William Tailer, who fifteen years before had been superseded by Dummer. Tailer had lately held the Naval Office, a position of more emolument. Wilks, wanting it for a friend, made the other arrangement for Tailer, as a partial compensation for his loss. Belcher helped his associate in the agency in making this transfer. Avowing his preference for Tailer, he solicited of the Duke the "favor always allowed to the King's Governors, to be made easy in their Lieutenant-Governors." 2 March 30. 1730. Tailer, who was on the spot, and who had received his commission, met the General Court at the time to June 30. which it was prorogued, before Belcher's arrival.3 He told them that he should propose nothing but business. 1 British Colonial Papers. - Nov. 13, 1733, Belcher wrote to Delafaye, Under Secretary of State: "As I am a native of this country, and have been for fifteen years past concerned in the government, I do not suppose his Majesty could have committed the royal commission to any gentleman besides, that could have managed so stiff a people as these are. But I am so well knowing of their humor and circumstances, that they have not been able to impose upon me, or to make those evasions they might have done with a stranger." (Ibid.) 2 Ibid. 3 The House of Representatives began to print its journal just before the beginning of Belcher's administration, the first publication being of the proceedings of May 27, 1730. Belcher met the Court at Cambridge, to which place it had been prorogued by Lieutenant-Governor Dummer for its meeting, by reason of the prevalence of small-pox in Boston (see above, 529), and the arrangement having been continued by the Lieutenant-Governor, by prorogations of June 30 and July 3 and 16. of routine, but he did at once a graceful act by approving a grant made by the House to Dummer, from which Dummer, under the royal instruction, had withheld his approval, and which would otherwise have lapsed.' The Court sat but three days, and it was not till after four successive prorogations that they came into the presence of their new compatriot ruler.2 1 Dummer lived to an old age, but was never again in public life, except for a short time (1738, 1739) as a member of the Council. (Hutch., II. 368.) 2 After Burnet's death there had been much deliberation of the Board of Trade and the Privy Council on the result of the controversy between him and Massachusetts. Even before intelligence of that event reached England, his business, taken up where it had been left four months before, was again forced by the Duke of Newcastle before the Privy Council. At the Duke's instance the Board of Trade (October 6) summoned Wilks and Belcher to substantiate the charges of the Colony against the Governor, and Thomas Burnet to appear in his brother's defence. "As to the particular complaint of Mr. Burnet's adjourning the Assembly from Boston to Salem, they [the agents] did not dispute the Governor's power of doing it, but hoped they might have the liberty of remonstrating against the inconveniences and hardships which the Assembly suffered by that proceeding; and they represented it as simply part of his plan for " harassing them " into a settlement of stated salaries, which the agents went on to argue that the Assembly was under no obligation to grant. They justified the claim set up by the Assembly to audit accounts before the issue of money from the Treasury, as having been acquiesced in by Governor Shute, and approved by the law offi July 3. as cers of the crown, and they finished by complaining of the Governor's extortion of fees for the clearance of vessels going to sea. (Journal of the Board of Trade.) It was a fortnight after this hearing that news came of Burnet's death, and the agents represented to the Privy Council (October 23) that they withdrew "such parts of their petition as were altogether personal against him," and that they "insisted only on laying before their Lordships, being of a public nature, and affecting the welfare of the Province," the charges that the Governor “had refused to consent to any form for supply of the Treasury but what was practised before the year 1721," and "that he had exacted extraordinary and illegal fees on the shipping.' The Council approved the Governor's course in respect to the first point, and the agents promised to advise their constituents accordingly. As to the second, the Council disapproved the Governor's proceeding, and ordered an instruction to that officer "not to exact any such fees for the future, or to demand any other fees than what are legal, or have been customarily taken by Governors of that Province." (Register of the Privy Council.) Under an order of the Privy Council, the Board of Trade (November 6) inquired of Belcher and Wilks "what steps had been taken by said Assembly [of Massachusetts] in compliance with his Majesty's instruction for providing a fixed salary for their Governor, Belcher's In his inaugural speech he exhorted them to be watchful for the interests of religion, and tolerantly reInaugural gardful of the rights of conscience; to attend to Speech. the condition of the Indians, of trade and currency, and of the fortifications, which were not to be neg Sept. 9. or was intended to be taken for that purpose." The agents replied "that they knew not of any intention the said Assembly had to vary from their last resolution. Whereupon their Lordships told them that, as they were desirous that this dispute between the crown and the said Assembly might, if possible, be determined in an easy manner, and that his Majesty might not be under the necessity of laying their behavior before the Legislature of Great Britain, their Lordships would make them a proposal, wherein they would not insist upon forms, provided the substance might be obtained, and that the Governor might be made by any means independent of the people, and not lie under the temptation of retailing the prerogative of the crown or the interest of Great Britain to the said Assembly for his daily bread; which proposal was that, . . . . . since the since the Assembly of the Massachusetts have already by several Acts provided stated salaries for their Council and Assembly men, that they should make like provision of one thousand pounds sterling per annum, in the same manner, for their Governor for the time being. To which the said agents at first answered, that without all doubt the Assembly would look upon this proposal as an act of great condescension and goodness in the government here, and would most certainly comply with it. But upon further discourse and explanation it appeared that what the said agents intended was, that as the Acts providing salaries for their Council and Assembly are near ex piring, that when the same should expire the Assembly would for the future provide for the Council, Assembly, and Governor in the same manner, that is, by an annual Resolve every session only, and not by Act of Assembly, nor for any fixed term whatsoever; for to their knowledge Mr. Burnet had endeavored to persuade the people to come into a three years' provision only, which they had absolutely refused, and the said agents declared it to be their fixed and positive opinion that the Assembly would never make their Governor independent of them." After a few days (November 11), the agents асquainted their Lordships that, having reflected upon what passed when they attended the Board the 6th instant, having reconsidered their letters, and apprehending that the death of Mr. Burnet might have abated the animosity of the dispute between him and the Assembly, and have made some alteration in the temper of that Province, they were ready to transmit any proposition to the Assembly that this Board should make to them, and would, as far as was compatible with their stations, enforce the success thereof, and were informed by the Board that they would apply to his Majesty for leave to make them a proposition in writing, and would humbly entreat his Majesty to suspend his just resentment against the Province until such time as the effect of the said proposition should be known.” (Journal of the Board of Trade.) The Board of Trade reported its action to the Privy Council, who approved it (November 12), and (December 2) |