WEBVTT NOTE 49. Edward Randolph Versus Massachusetts, 1680-1684 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.600 Volume 1, Chapter 49, Edward Randolph v. Massachusetts, 1680-1684 2 00:00:08.600 --> 00:00:20.200 After Randolph established the royal government in New Hampshire, he repaired to Boston, where he took up his duties as Collector of Customs at the end of January 1680. 3 00:00:20.200 --> 00:00:26.900 At Boston, Randolph was treated by the bulk of the populace of Massachusetts as their determined enemy. 4 00:00:26.900 --> 00:00:33.700 complained Randolph, I am received at Boston more like a spy than one of His Majesty's servants, 5 00:00:33.700 --> 00:00:39.540 all persons taking liberty to abuse me in their discourses. His servant was beaten. 6 00:00:40.180 --> 00:00:45.940 Efforts were made to prevent the hated official from finding lodgings, but now Massachusetts' 7 00:00:45.940 --> 00:00:53.860 past persecutions came home to roost. Randolph found lodgings and allies among the Quakers. 8 00:00:53.860 --> 00:01:02.860 The key to Randolph's appointed task of enforcing the Navigation Acts was the process of seizure and trial. 9 00:01:02.860 --> 00:01:08.860 Any vessel under suspicion of violating the law could be seized by a royal officer, 10 00:01:08.860 --> 00:01:15.860 and the owner could not touch the ship or the cargo until the case came to trial. 11 00:01:15.860 --> 00:01:21.860 During this period, the owner was, in effect, treated as guilty before so proven. 12 00:01:21.860 --> 00:01:30.860 Court action was initiated by filing a formal charge by the informer, the man who detected the alleged violation. 13 00:01:30.860 --> 00:01:44.860 Any person could perform the job of informing. If the owner was found guilty, the vessel was ordered sold and the proceeds to be divided among the king, the colonial government and the informer. 14 00:01:44.860 --> 00:01:50.860 In practice, however, violators were allowed to settle for much smaller payments. 15 00:01:50.860 --> 00:01:58.860 In Massachusetts, Randolph himself was the sole officer and the only one empowered to search shipping. 16 00:01:58.860 --> 00:02:05.860 In May 1680, Randolph seized his first vessel, the Expectation. 17 00:02:05.860 --> 00:02:13.860 During the next three years, Randolph seized 36 ships charged with violating the navigation laws. 18 00:02:13.860 --> 00:02:16.860 All but two of the ship owners were acquitted. 19 00:02:16.860 --> 00:02:27.860 No case tried by a jury won a conviction. And as for the Massachusetts magistrates, they tried in every way to obstruct Randolph's path. 20 00:02:27.860 --> 00:02:34.860 They either refused to recognize Randolph's commission from the Crown or interpreted it very narrowly. 21 00:02:34.860 --> 00:02:41.860 They charged Randolph the cost of special sessions of the courts and payable in advance. 22 00:02:41.860 --> 00:02:48.220 In a brilliant counter-stroke, the Massachusetts magistrates encouraged the merchants to bring 23 00:02:48.220 --> 00:02:53.740 damaged suits against Randolph as soon as they won their almost inevitable acquittal 24 00:02:53.740 --> 00:03:00.220 in the courts. All the deputies and employees hired by Randolph were systematically harassed 25 00:03:00.220 --> 00:03:06.440 and often boldly imprisoned for trespassing private property. Randolph, moreover, was 26 00:03:06.440 --> 00:03:12.640 was none too scrupulous in his choice of vessels to seize. Much of Randolph's personal income 27 00:03:12.640 --> 00:03:18.300 was to come from the revenues collected, as well as from fees of 50 percent of the value 28 00:03:18.300 --> 00:03:24.520 of confiscated goods for being his own informer. So Randolph had a direct personal interest 29 00:03:24.520 --> 00:03:30.740 in maximizing the severity of enforcement of the Navigation Acts. 30 00:03:30.740 --> 00:03:35.720 There are always people eager to crook the need to power, and here and there Randolph 31 00:03:35.720 --> 00:03:43.240 Found His Allies. His main confederate was Governor Simon Bradstreet. Along with Bradstreet 32 00:03:43.240 --> 00:03:49.160 came several of the magistrates, including Bradstreet's brother-in-law, Joseph Dudley. 33 00:03:49.160 --> 00:03:55.400 But Bradstreet could not intimidate the popular juries. In one case, Bradstreet himself angrily 34 00:03:55.400 --> 00:04:02.160 sent the jury out three times in a vain attempt to reverse its verdict of acquittal. At the 35 00:04:02.160 --> 00:04:07.180 The head of the popular opposition, on the other hand, was the deputy governor, Thomas 36 00:04:07.180 --> 00:04:13.760 Danforth. It was Danforth who incurred the brunt of Randolph's frustrated ire, yet the 37 00:04:13.760 --> 00:04:19.700 opposition was unwilling to push its resistance to the point of directly opposing the incursions 38 00:04:19.700 --> 00:04:25.860 of royal power. Thus, in the case of Captain Peter Lawrence, who forcibly resisted royal 39 00:04:25.860 --> 00:04:35.500 The Court of Assistance arrested him summarily. In another case, the jury quickly acquitted 40 00:04:35.500 --> 00:04:41.300 the shipmaster for breaking the Navigation Acts, but did fine him for obstructing Randolph 41 00:04:41.300 --> 00:04:48.140 in the course of his duty. By the turn of 1681, the turmoil of the Popish plot and the 42 00:04:48.140 --> 00:04:54.900 temporary ascendancy of Shaftesbury and the Liberals were over. Tory reaction was again 43 00:04:54.900 --> 00:05:00.420 in Firm Control of the English Government. The Crown was once again ready to resume its 44 00:05:00.420 --> 00:05:06.900 campaign against Massachusetts, and of course it was continually excited to do so by Randolph 45 00:05:06.900 --> 00:05:13.700 Mason and others. And once again the King, in a message delivered by Robert Mason, ordered 46 00:05:13.700 --> 00:05:20.700 Massachusetts to send agents to England. Everyone now knew that drastic modification of the 47 00:05:20.700 --> 00:05:27.020 and Massachusetts Charter would shortly ensue. The smell of doom for Massachusetts was in 48 00:05:27.020 --> 00:05:29.020 the air. 49 00:05:29.020 --> 00:05:38.980 At the crossroads, Massachusetts now, in January 1681, began to crumble. Resistance ebbed. Perhaps 50 00:05:38.980 --> 00:05:44.540 the Puritans and magistrates had lost much of their spirit of sturdy independence as 51 00:05:44.540 --> 00:05:50.540 well as their zeal for persecution. Thomas Danforth argued at length the vital importance 52 00:05:50.540 --> 00:05:57.300 of Massachusetts taking its stand right here and refusing to send the agents. He warned 53 00:05:57.300 --> 00:06:05.060 of the end of the country's liberties, but the bulk of the leadership was caving in. 54 00:06:05.060 --> 00:06:10.320 The Puritan Church Elders, a committee of six leading Puritan ministers headed by the 55 00:06:10.320 --> 00:06:16.460 Reverend Increase Mather and such leading merchants as the magistrate Joseph Dudley 56 00:06:16.460 --> 00:06:24.640 and William Stroughton. All argued for submission and for sending the agents. But Danforth perceived 57 00:06:24.640 --> 00:06:29.740 that here would be the critical turn, that submission here would mean betrayal of the 58 00:06:29.740 --> 00:06:37.100 entire cause. Almost single-handed and alone, Danforth charged the ministers with treason 59 00:06:37.100 --> 00:06:43.100 and betrayal of their liberty. He was scoffed at for his supposed extremism. Stroughton 60 00:06:43.100 --> 00:06:49.100 Randolph snared at him as the bellows of the Court of Deputies. 61 00:06:49.100 --> 00:07:00.100 Massachusetts voted to send agents, and Randolph took the opportunity of traveling to England to wage his campaign against Massachusetts in person. 62 00:07:00.100 --> 00:07:09.100 After arriving in England in spring, Randolph asked the King for a co-warrant to invalidate the Massachusetts Charter. 63 00:07:09.100 --> 00:07:16.140 to Invalidate the Massachusetts Charter. He proposed that he be allowed to nominate a president 64 00:07:16.140 --> 00:07:22.220 and council of the colony to be a transitional substitute, and then he suggested that the king 65 00:07:22.220 --> 00:07:28.780 appoint a governor general for all New England. After considerable difficulties, Randolph did 66 00:07:28.780 --> 00:07:36.140 secure a new and rather more extensive commission, explicitly authorizing him to enforce all the 67 00:07:36.140 --> 00:07:41.480 all the navigation acts and to collect miscellaneous crown revenues. 68 00:07:41.480 --> 00:07:47.040 As a result, when Randolph returned to New England in late 1681, he was greeted with 69 00:07:47.040 --> 00:07:50.180 even more hatred than before. 70 00:07:50.180 --> 00:07:54.620 One local versifier put Boston's sentiments as follow. 71 00:07:54.620 --> 00:08:01.440 Welcome, sir, welcome from the eastern shore, with a commission stronger than before to 72 00:08:01.440 --> 00:08:10.280 to play the horse leech, rob us of our fleeces, to rend our land and tear it all to pieces, 73 00:08:10.280 --> 00:08:18.740 Boston make room, Randolph's returned, that Hector confirmed at home to be the sharp collector. 74 00:08:18.740 --> 00:08:25.740 So Royal Charles is now about to prove our loyalty, allegiance and our love in giving 75 00:08:25.740 --> 00:08:33.120 Giving License to a Publican to Pinch the Purse to Hurt the Man. 76 00:08:33.120 --> 00:08:38.500 Now Massachusetts, having already tried to gain some favor from the King by repealing 77 00:08:38.500 --> 00:08:44.660 the fanatical Puritan laws against keeping Christmas and punishing Quakers returning 78 00:08:44.660 --> 00:08:52.180 from banishment with death, attempted a shrewd maneuver. It would pass a naval office law 79 00:08:52.180 --> 00:09:02.380 and Acting the Navigation Acts of 1660 and 1663, thereby making them Massachusetts-owned. 80 00:09:02.380 --> 00:09:08.020 This would enable Massachusetts itself to appoint the naval officer to enforce the acts 81 00:09:08.020 --> 00:09:12.700 and to undercut and bypass Randolph completely. 82 00:09:12.700 --> 00:09:19.220 The Navigation Act of 1673 was ignored because it was the only statute that gave Randolph 83 00:09:19.220 --> 00:09:21.840 his legal foothold in America. 84 00:09:21.840 --> 00:09:26.400 The General Court itself would appoint the naval officer. The hardcore opposition did 85 00:09:26.400 --> 00:09:32.640 not want a point of power to rest in the hands of Randolph's ally, the opportunist Governor 86 00:09:32.640 --> 00:09:38.800 Bradstreet. Furthermore, the informer was at last made fully liable for any damages 87 00:09:38.800 --> 00:09:43.040 resulting from false seizure. 88 00:09:43.040 --> 00:09:49.560 This naval office law was pushed through the General Court in early 1682 at the insistence 89 00:09:49.560 --> 00:09:54.700 of the House of Deputies, which was under the firm control of the Popular Opposition 90 00:09:54.700 --> 00:10:00.740 and over the stubborn resistance of the more timorous and opportunistic upper house, the 91 00:10:00.740 --> 00:10:07.100 Council of Magistrates. The Magistrates were almost evenly split between the opportunist 92 00:10:07.100 --> 00:10:12.780 and the Popular Opposition. Roughly, the general line-up of the Council of Magistrates was 93 00:10:12.780 --> 00:10:20.540 as follows for the naval office law were Thomas Standforth, Daniel Gouken, Humphry Davy, John 94 00:10:20.540 --> 00:10:29.300 Richards, Samuel Nowell, James Russell, Bartholomew Gedney, Samuel Appleton, and Peter Tilton. 95 00:10:29.300 --> 00:10:34.620 Against the law, Governor Simon Bradstreet, who refused even to participate in swearing 96 00:10:34.620 --> 00:10:42.540 in the naval officer, Daniel Dennison, William Stroughton, Joseph Dudley, Peter Bulkley, John 97 00:10:42.540 --> 00:10:48.840 John Hull, John Pynchon, William Brown and Thomas Savage. There were two Salton stalls 98 00:10:48.840 --> 00:10:55.080 on the Council, Richard Jr. in the Popular Opposition Party and Nathaniel in the Opportunist 99 00:10:55.080 --> 00:11:02.080 Party. It did not take long for Edward Randolph to make a severe protest against the naval 100 00:11:02.420 --> 00:11:08.280 office law. He reiterated the full force of his royal commission as well as the invalidity 101 00:11:08.280 --> 00:11:10.680 of the Massachusetts Law. 102 00:11:10.680 --> 00:11:17.120 The opposition party now took measures to proceed against Randolph, who expected imprisonment, 103 00:11:17.120 --> 00:11:22.160 at the very least, knowing that as a rider to the naval office law there had been reenacted 104 00:11:22.160 --> 00:11:28.760 the death penalty against subversion, a clear warning to the likes of Randolph. 105 00:11:28.760 --> 00:11:35.760 But once again, tumourousness won out over bold action for independence and against royal 106 00:11:35.760 --> 00:11:41.240 and Social Tyranny. Growing stronger, the opportunists were able to squash the proceedings 107 00:11:41.240 --> 00:11:46.900 against Randolph and were also able to re-elect their leader Bradstreet over Thomas Danforth 108 00:11:46.900 --> 00:11:53.740 the following May. Bradstreet had never administered the naval office law and now, emboldened by 109 00:11:53.740 --> 00:11:59.920 his victory, he counter-attacked and maintained that the naval office law somehow did not 110 00:11:59.920 --> 00:12:02.880 that affect Randolph's powers. 111 00:12:02.880 --> 00:12:09.880 But now in June 1682, Randolph grew overconfident and tried to press his advantage by putting 112 00:12:09.880 --> 00:12:14.240 the General Court of Massachusetts to the test. 113 00:12:14.240 --> 00:12:21.240 He propounded a series of blunt questions that would force the court to state directly 114 00:12:21.240 --> 00:12:28.240 its views as to which laws, English or American, ruled the colony. 115 00:12:28.240 --> 00:12:40.240 But the House of Deputies simply refused to answer, and the Council thought Randolph had gone too far and reprimanded him for abusing the laws and government of Massachusetts. 116 00:12:40.240 --> 00:12:47.240 The battle of Randolph versus Massachusetts was still stalemated. 117 00:12:47.240 --> 00:13:02.240 In the meanwhile, Massachusetts two agents, the opportunist Joseph Dudley and the oppositionist Captain John Richards, had arrived in England and Danforth's gloomy prophecy was beginning to come true. 118 00:13:02.240 --> 00:13:14.240 In England, Tory reaction had set in with a vengeance. Charles II ruled without Parliament and the religious dissenters were vigorously persecuted. 119 00:13:14.240 --> 00:13:22.240 The Lords of Trade now wasted little time. At the end of 1682, the fatal question was put to Massachusetts. 120 00:13:22.240 --> 00:13:32.240 Would Massachusetts empower its agents to make revisions of the Charter, or failing that, would the Charter be dissolved altogether? 121 00:13:32.240 --> 00:13:37.240 Massachusetts now tried desperately to placate the Crown. 122 00:13:37.240 --> 00:13:44.680 It repealed the naval office law in early 1683 and conceded Randolph's explicit authority 123 00:13:44.680 --> 00:13:47.000 to search and seize vessels. 124 00:13:47.000 --> 00:13:53.520 Massachusetts nobly would not yield on the crucial issue, even if it had to die it would 125 00:13:53.520 --> 00:13:56.480 not commit suicide. 126 00:13:56.480 --> 00:14:01.120 It would not allow its agents to revise its precious charter. 127 00:14:01.120 --> 00:14:07.200 As the oppositionist magistrate Samuel Nowell explained to John Richards, if we do give 128 00:14:07.200 --> 00:14:13.320 you the power required and you do make use of the power to answer demands, we do then 129 00:14:13.320 --> 00:14:19.720 pull down the house ourselves, which is worse than to be passive only. 130 00:14:19.720 --> 00:14:25.060 Once again Randolph rushed back to England to administer the coup de grâce to the independents 131 00:14:25.060 --> 00:14:27.140 of Massachusetts. 132 00:14:27.140 --> 00:14:34.580 The Lords of Trade decided in June to recommend a Quo Warento against the Massachusetts Charter. 133 00:14:34.580 --> 00:14:38.580 The writ would be drawn up by Randolph and the Attorney General. 134 00:14:38.580 --> 00:14:42.940 The writ would mean that Massachusetts would be forced to appear in court to defend its 135 00:14:42.940 --> 00:14:50.080 behavior, and the verdict of such a trial would, almost certainly, go against the colony. 136 00:14:50.080 --> 00:14:56.620 On Randolph's suggestion, the King offered Massachusetts one last chance. 137 00:14:56.620 --> 00:15:02.940 If it would now submit to revision, the Quo Warento would not be executed, and the king 138 00:15:02.940 --> 00:15:09.140 would regulate the charter for everyone's benefit. Randolph hurried back to Massachusetts 139 00:15:09.140 --> 00:15:13.000 to present the royal offer. 140 00:15:13.000 --> 00:15:18.980 What should Massachusetts do? Once again a great debate broke out between the opportunist 141 00:15:18.980 --> 00:15:26.260 and the oppositionist. The opportunist took the age-old line of asperious realism to scoff 142 00:15:26.260 --> 00:15:28.260 Profit Devotion to Principle. 143 00:15:28.260 --> 00:15:36.260 Thus, Peter Bulkley expressed his puzzlement at such consistency in purist extremism. 144 00:15:36.260 --> 00:15:43.260 By such ape-like over-fondness we are hugging our privileges and franchises to death 145 00:15:43.260 --> 00:15:50.260 and prefer the dissolution of our body politic rather than to suffer amputation in any of its limbs? 146 00:15:50.260 --> 00:15:54.260 To Bulkley the opposition appeared ignorant and simplistic. 147 00:15:54.260 --> 00:16:10.260 Many of these men, being very ignorant in such affairs, do not well understand the matter, nor have a clear prospect of the effect, an issue, of not resigning ourselves to the king, and so are rather to be pitied than marked out. 148 00:16:10.260 --> 00:16:20.260 But as Professor Hall aptly points out, in truth these ignorant fellows, the free men and their deputies, understood well enough. 149 00:16:20.260 --> 00:16:29.260 They could hardly have failed to foresee the consequences of submission, especially since Cranfield was playing the royal leech in New Hampshire. 150 00:16:29.260 --> 00:16:47.260 And not only were Cranfield and Mason plundering and persecuting Puritan ministers in New Hampshire, but already Captain William Phipps, Master of the Rose, on which Randolph had returned to Boston, was giving orders to all the merchant ships in the harbor. 151 00:16:47.260 --> 00:16:51.260 The consequences of English rule were foreseeable enough. 152 00:16:51.260 --> 00:16:55.760 The opposition argued against voting for the colony's own suicide. 153 00:16:55.760 --> 00:17:03.760 True Englishmen, who are under a limited monarchy, should never consent to be in misery and slavery. 154 00:17:03.760 --> 00:17:08.260 By December, Massachusetts had made its fateful decision. 155 00:17:08.260 --> 00:17:12.260 The magistrates voted for submission by a small majority. 156 00:17:12.260 --> 00:17:17.760 But virtually the entire House of Deputies voted repeatedly against submission. 157 00:17:17.760 --> 00:17:22.760 and now in a turnabout they were backed by a substantial majority of Puritan clergymen. 158 00:17:22.760 --> 00:17:28.760 Even Increase Mathur, who had been denounced for preaching submission the year before, 159 00:17:28.760 --> 00:17:34.760 now joined the independence cause and became one of the prime leaders of the opposition party. 160 00:17:34.760 --> 00:17:42.760 Randolph again sailed for England with the news and now the Crown executed a piece of legal trickery 161 00:17:42.760 --> 00:17:48.840 To avoid giving Massachusetts even the right to appear in court in its own defense, by 162 00:17:48.840 --> 00:17:55.840 changing the writ, the Crown got a writ of scary faciet et alias, which it could use 163 00:17:56.660 --> 00:18:02.840 to speed a judgment in the Court of Chancery without giving Massachusetts any time to prepare 164 00:18:02.840 --> 00:18:09.840 a defense. By changing the writ, the Crown was able to declare the Massachusetts Charter 165 00:18:09.840 --> 00:18:24.840 The Massachusetts Charter annulled, and did so on October 23, 1684. The boom had finally been lowered on Massachusetts. The crown had at last dissolved the Bay Colony's charter. 166 00:18:24.840 --> 00:18:36.840 Edward Randolph's war against Massachusetts now entered an entirely new phase. His first objective, to smash the independent government of Massachusetts, had been achieved. 167 00:18:36.840 --> 00:18:50.840 But now there remained his next and final objective, to take control of Massachusetts, and indeed of all New England, and to rule the land for the profit of himself in the crown. 168 00:18:50.840 --> 00:18:57.840 Energetic as always, Randolph lost no time in putting the next phase of his grand design into effect. 169 00:18:57.840 --> 00:19:08.840 He found a perfect ally in the opportunist leader Joseph Dudley, who had gone to England to represent the interest of Massachusetts and had stayed to represent his own. 170 00:19:08.840 --> 00:19:16.840 In fact, Randolph and Dudley had worked out a plan for Massachusetts and New England as early as the summer of 1683. 171 00:19:16.840 --> 00:19:24.840 The plan proposed a governor general and a council for all New England and all were to be appointed by the king. 172 00:19:24.840 --> 00:19:31.840 The council was to be selected, however, from the elected magistrates of the various New England colonies. 173 00:19:31.840 --> 00:19:35.840 There was to be no New England assembly. 174 00:19:35.840 --> 00:19:40.840 The Massachusetts government would continue to be elected by the freemen, 175 00:19:40.840 --> 00:19:47.840 But the franchise was to be narrowed to those owning over 400 pounds in assets. 176 00:19:48.840 --> 00:19:52.840 The Governor General would have the power to veto the seating of any elected official. 177 00:19:53.840 --> 00:19:57.840 The Governor General would also have the ultimate appellate judicial power. 178 00:19:58.840 --> 00:20:00.840 The militia would be ruled by royal officers. 179 00:20:01.840 --> 00:20:05.840 All landowners would pay a yearly quid rent to the King. 180 00:20:05.840 --> 00:20:23.840 This Dudley-Randolph plan, in effect, provided for an absolute royal despotism, ruling along with hand-picked colonial satellites over all of New England, but with a thin and hollow façade of democracy and home rule. 181 00:20:23.840 --> 00:20:25.520 Rule. 182 00:20:25.520 --> 00:20:31.440 Such leading merchants as Richard Wharton and William Stroughton now lined up with Dudley, 183 00:20:31.440 --> 00:20:36.520 ready and eager to enjoy the privileges won by political favor. 184 00:20:36.520 --> 00:20:39.400 Richard Wharton was typical of this group. 185 00:20:39.400 --> 00:20:44.840 Formerly opposed to Randolph's enforcement of the navigation laws, Wharton now saw where 186 00:20:44.840 --> 00:20:49.960 the power lay and determined to gain himself some of its perquisites. 187 00:20:49.960 --> 00:20:56.680 Massachusetts, however, was increasingly balking at the promised new dispensation. 188 00:20:56.680 --> 00:21:03.440 Although Bradstreet was re-elected in the May 1684 elections, it was only by hair-breadth 189 00:21:03.440 --> 00:21:10.600 over Danforth, and Dudley, the main leader of the opportunist, lost his post as assistant. 190 00:21:10.600 --> 00:21:13.720 Stroughton resigned his place in sympathy. 191 00:21:13.720 --> 00:21:19.240 Nonetheless, Randolph and his cohorts spent the summer and early fall happily working 192 00:21:19.240 --> 00:21:22.240 to clean out their plans for the takeover of New England.