The End of Colonial Isolations
The future of the New England colonies was to be decided in
England and not in America. If the orthodox leaders in the colony
thought that the new King had levelling sympathies or would thrust
aside the policy already adopted by the English authorities for the
defense of the colonies and the maintenance of the acts of trade,
they greatly misjudged the situation. King William, though a
Protestant, was no lover of revolution, and, though he had himself
engaged in one, he could assert the dignity of the prerogative with
as much vigor as any Stuart. He was not a politician, but a soldier,
and he was quite as likely to see the necessity of organizing New
England for defense against the enemy as he was to listen favorably
to appeals from Massachusetts for a restoration of her charter.
Increase Mather had gone to England in 1688 to petition James II for
relief from the burdens of the Andros rule. His impressive
personality, his power as a ready and forcible speaker, his
resourcefulness and energy, and his acquaintance with influential
men in England, both Anglicans and Dissenters, made him the most
effective agent who had ever gone to England in the interest of the
colony. He was able to bring the grievances of Massachusetts to the
personal attention of James II; and he had received hope of a
confirmation of land titles and permission to call a general
assembly, when the flight of the King brought his efforts to naught.
He then turned to the new Parliament, hoping to save the colony by
means of a rider to the bill for restoring corporations to their
ancient rights and privileges; but the dissolution of this body
ended hopeful efforts in that direction also. A year's "Sisyphean
labor" came to nothing. No remedy remained except an appeal to the
new King, and during 1690 and 1691, the reconstruction of
Massachusetts became one of the most important questions brought
before the Lords of Trade. William III and his advisers were agreed
on one point: that Massachusetts should never again be independent
as she formerly had been, but should be brought within the immediate
control of the Crown, through a governor of the King's appointment.
They took the ground that, with a French war already begun, it was
no time to discuss colonial rights and privileges, for the demands
of the empire took precedence over all questions of a merely local
character in America.
Andros was now recalled and instructions were sent to Massachusetts
to release all her prisoners. With their arrival in England in
February, 1690, the debate before the committee went on in a new and
livelier fashion. Randolph renewed his complaints in every form
known to his inventive mind; Andros presented his defense and was
relieved of all charges of mal-administration; Mather and others
contested every move of their opponents and sought to obtain as
favorable terms as possible for Massachusetts; while Oakes and
Cooke, sent over by the colony as its official agents and
representing the uncompromising Puritan wing, hindered rather than
helped the cause by insisting that no concessions should be made and
that Massachusetts should receive a confirmation of all her former
privileges. Mather's success was noteworthy. He could not prevent
the appointment of a royal governor or the separation of succeeding
century to a struggle for control that deeply affected the course of
the colony's later history.
THE REVEREND INCREASE MATHER
Painting by Job Vanderspruyt, 1688. In the collection of the
Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston.
198 THE FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND
In all the New England colonies, the fall of Andros and the close of
the century marked the end of an era in which the dominant impulse
was the religious purpose that actuated the original colonists in
coming to America. The desire for a political isolation that would
preserve the established religious system intact was exceedingly
strong in the seventeenth century, but it ceased to be as strong in
the century that followed. The fathers gave way to the children; the
settlements grew rapidly in size, increased their output of staple
products beyond what they needed for themselves, and became vastly
interested in trade and commerce with all parts of the Atlantic
world. Towns grew into larger towns and cities; and Portsmouth,
Newbury, Salem, Marblehead, Boston, Newport, New London, Hartford,
Wethersfield, Middletown, New Haven, Fairfield, and Stamford became,
in varying degrees, centers of an increasing population and of new
business interests that brought New England into closer contact with
the other colonies, with the West Indies, and with the Old World.
England became involved in the long struggle with France and not
only called on the colonies to aid her in military campaigns against
the French in America, but endeavored to bring them within the scope
of her colonial empire. All these influences tended to expand the
life of New England and to force its people more and more out of
their isolation. Yet, despite this fact, the Puritan colonies —
Connecticut and Rhode Island especially — continued to lie in large
part outside the pale of British control and example, and their
inhabitants continued to accept religion and the Puritan standards
of morals as the guide of their daily lives.
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