WEBVTT NOTE 56. The Dominion of New England 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.720 Volume 1, Chapter 56, The Dominion of New England 2 00:00:05.720 --> 00:00:12.720 When Sir Edmund Andros arrived at Boston at the end of December 1686 to take up his post 3 00:00:12.720 --> 00:00:19.420 as Governor General of the Dominion of New England, the history of all the northern colonies 4 00:00:19.420 --> 00:00:22.820 entered a new and significant phase. 5 00:00:22.820 --> 00:00:29.820 James II could not have picked a better instrument for the fulfillment of his grand design to 6 00:00:29.820 --> 00:00:37.420 to smash all self-government, all local government in the northern colonies, and to inflict on 7 00:00:37.420 --> 00:00:44.260 them an absolute centralized despotism under the English crown. 8 00:00:44.260 --> 00:00:51.680 So congenial was this task to him that in America the name Andros was for generations 9 00:00:51.680 --> 00:00:55.660 afterward, synonymous with tyranny. 10 00:00:55.660 --> 00:01:01.060 Andros lost no time in forcefully impressing upon the people of Massachusetts that the 11 00:01:01.060 --> 00:01:06.260 old easy days of the Dudley feast of privilege were over. 12 00:01:06.260 --> 00:01:11.960 Arriving with two companies of English soldiers to intimidate the colony, one of Andros' first 13 00:01:11.960 --> 00:01:18.820 acts was to force South Church, one of the Puritan churches of Boston, to permit Anglicans 14 00:01:18.820 --> 00:01:20.940 to hold services there. 15 00:01:20.940 --> 00:01:31.940 Furthermore, Andros' frankly proclaimed goal was to force the Puritan community of the colony to pay for the establishment of an Anglican church. 16 00:01:31.940 --> 00:01:36.940 Andros speedily imposed despotic rule upon Dominion territory. 17 00:01:36.940 --> 00:01:46.940 He ran Rothschild over the council, consulting only a few of his favorites and accumulating full power in his own hands. 18 00:01:46.940 --> 00:01:55.740 Edward Randolph stayed on as faithful servitor and collector of customs, but he had no share in Andros's decisions. 19 00:01:55.740 --> 00:02:02.440 He was, in fact, persuaded to rent the office of secretary to a friend of Andros's, John West, 20 00:02:02.440 --> 00:02:08.740 who proceeded to mulk the public by greatly increasing his fees to the citizenry. 21 00:02:08.740 --> 00:02:19.740 Moreover, all documents, deeds, wills, mortgages, and so forth, now had to be registered centrally with West, and for heavy fees. 22 00:02:19.740 --> 00:02:25.740 All government officials, furthermore, were now to hold their appointments solely from the Crown. 23 00:02:25.740 --> 00:02:32.740 Andros's tyrannical reign placed the Massachusetts economy in a crippling vise. 24 00:02:32.740 --> 00:02:40.740 For one thing, Andros grievously crippled the economy by strictly enforcing the Navigation Acts. 25 00:02:40.740 --> 00:02:44.740 Two years after Andros' arrival, Randolph admitted, 26 00:02:44.740 --> 00:02:53.740 This country is poor. The exact execution of the Acts of Trade hath much impoverished them, the colonist. 27 00:02:53.740 --> 00:03:01.740 The economic depression was aggravated by heavy new duties imposed by James II on tobacco and sugar. 28 00:03:01.740 --> 00:03:07.740 These injured New England's trade with the West Indies and the Southern Colonies. 29 00:03:07.740 --> 00:03:14.740 Depression of trade under the Dominion was so severe that one of New England's leading merchants, Richard Wharton, 30 00:03:14.740 --> 00:03:24.740 left such a debt-burdened estate when he died in early 1689 that his daughters had to open a shop to make a living. 31 00:03:24.740 --> 00:03:29.740 But just when Andros's crackdown greatly crippled the Massachusetts economy, 32 00:03:29.740 --> 00:03:37.740 His steeply increased expenditures burdened it even further and aggravated the depression. 33 00:03:37.740 --> 00:03:48.740 In short, just at the time when the ability to pay taxes in Massachusetts was sharply lowered, more taxes were imposed upon it. 34 00:03:48.740 --> 00:03:58.740 Ironically, part of the increased burden of government was to pay for enforcement of the very laws that were crippling the economy. 35 00:03:58.740 --> 00:04:14.740 One of the biggest factors in the increased governmental burden was Andros's own salary of 1200 pounds, an item larger than the entire appropriation to the Dudley government during 1686. 36 00:04:14.740 --> 00:04:29.740 In addition, Andros built expensive and useless forts at the seaports. The largest single financial drain was the maintenance of a standard army of two companies of infantry. 37 00:04:29.740 --> 00:04:39.740 The funds of the Dudley government were limited by its unwillingness to impose further taxes without an assembly, but Andros had no such scruples. 38 00:04:39.740 --> 00:04:46.860 Andros decreed raises in taxes, including a doubled excise on liquor, increased import 39 00:04:46.860 --> 00:04:55.860 duties, and a direct tax on land. Total estimated revenue in the dominion rose over 50 percent, 40 00:04:55.860 --> 00:05:04.460 from 2,500 to 3,800 pounds per annum. Furthermore, Andros barred the towns from levying their 41 00:05:04.460 --> 00:05:19.100 To the citizens of Massachusetts, one of Andros' most frightening and threatening actions was 42 00:05:19.100 --> 00:05:26.860 ordering the reconfirmation of all private land titles for high fees for this coerced 43 00:05:26.860 --> 00:05:28.740 service. 44 00:05:28.740 --> 00:05:34.920 The reconfirmation meant going on the land rolls for payment of a high quit-rent of two 45 00:05:34.920 --> 00:05:40.260 shillings six pence per hundred acres on all the lands. 46 00:05:40.260 --> 00:05:47.000 Furthermore, most land titles had been obtained from town proprietors, and the New Englanders 47 00:05:47.000 --> 00:05:52.580 feared that Andros would not recognize town titles as legal since the general courts had 48 00:05:52.580 --> 00:05:57.300 not been authorized in their charters to incorporate towns. 49 00:05:57.300 --> 00:06:03.300 The poor at the Andros land policy united diverse groups in opposition to his regime. 50 00:06:04.300 --> 00:06:12.300 Only about 200 persons in the dominion actually applied for land titles during Andros' administration, 51 00:06:12.300 --> 00:06:16.300 and these were largely government favorites or crown officers. 52 00:06:17.300 --> 00:06:22.300 The general indignation at the quit rents was voiced by Reverend Increase Mather, 53 00:06:22.300 --> 00:06:41.300 Who charged that the Massachusetts settlements were houses which their own hands have built and the lands which it vast charges in subduing a wilderness they have for many years had as rightful possession of as ever any people in the world have or can have. 54 00:06:41.300 --> 00:06:53.300 Another Massachusetts citizen denounced the parcel of strangers who proposed to come in and seize with the people and their fathers before them had labored for. 55 00:06:53.300 --> 00:07:04.300 In the course of opposing the new aggressive theory of the crown, the Massachusetts Puritans developed a radically libertarian theory of land titles. 56 00:07:04.300 --> 00:07:11.620 In a public confrontation with Governor Andros, Reverend John Higginson of Salem declared 57 00:07:11.620 --> 00:07:18.160 that the right to soil came not from the crown, but from God. 58 00:07:18.160 --> 00:07:25.020 And God gave the land to the people who actually occupied it and brought it into use. 59 00:07:25.020 --> 00:07:30.780 That is, either the Indians from whom lands could be bought by voluntary purchase, or 60 00:07:30.780 --> 00:07:32.280 the settlers. 61 00:07:32.280 --> 00:07:39.280 The Crown, in truth, had no right to ownership of the new lands. The idea that Christians 62 00:07:39.280 --> 00:07:46.420 had an automatic right to the land of heathens, added Higginson, was a Popish principle and 63 00:07:46.420 --> 00:07:53.160 hence abhorrent. Governor Andros' reply was characteristic, either you are subjects or 64 00:07:53.160 --> 00:07:56.080 you are rebels. 65 00:07:56.080 --> 00:08:04.480 In mid-1688, Andros moved to force land applications by proceeding with a test case of eviction 66 00:08:04.480 --> 00:08:11.160 against the eminent old Puritan Samuel Sewell, who joined in Wharton's protest and sailed 67 00:08:11.160 --> 00:08:17.640 to England to complain to the Crown. He also proceeded against Samuel Shrimpton, an Anglican 68 00:08:17.640 --> 00:08:23.800 merchant who also decided to appeal to the King. Symbolic of the drawing together of 69 00:08:23.800 --> 00:08:30.200 of diverse groups against the Andros Tyranny was the uniting of Sewell, Shrimpton, and 70 00:08:30.200 --> 00:08:37.740 Reverend Cotton Mather to plan strategy against the regime. In addition, Andros engaged in 71 00:08:37.740 --> 00:08:44.520 enough land grabbing for his favorites to anger the people even more. He seized 150 72 00:08:44.520 --> 00:08:51.160 acres of common pasture land in Charlestown, owned jointly by James Russell and others, 73 00:08:51.160 --> 00:08:58.160 And gave the land to a favorite, Colonel Charles Liget, a merchant who supplied mast to the 74 00:08:58.160 --> 00:09:05.400 Royal Navy. Russell, vehemently protesting this legalized theft, was punished by writ 75 00:09:05.400 --> 00:09:12.360 of intrusion to eject him from his own farm. When the outraged citizens of Charlestown 76 00:09:12.360 --> 00:09:19.300 pulled up Liget's stakes on the pasture land, they were imprisoned and fined. Common pasture 77 00:09:19.300 --> 00:09:35.580 Edward Randolph, characteristically, attempted to join in the plunder and to grab several 78 00:09:35.580 --> 00:09:43.500 tracts of land. One such tract was 500 acres of common pasture at Lynn, Massachusetts. But 79 00:09:43.500 --> 00:09:49.380 But after vigorous protest by the citizens of Lynn, a happy solution was found. The common 80 00:09:49.380 --> 00:09:56.460 land was divided among several inhabitants of Lynn on a quit-rent basis. Randolph also 81 00:09:56.460 --> 00:10:03.460 tried to seize land tracks near Cambridge and Watertown and in Rhode Island. Other council 82 00:10:03.460 --> 00:10:09.980 members able to grab land for themselves were Jonathan Ting and John Usher, who obtained 83 00:10:09.980 --> 00:10:16.580 and Island in Casco Bay. In Maine, disputes over land claims and titles were referred 84 00:10:16.580 --> 00:10:22.740 to Edward Ting and Sylvanus Davis for settlement, both of whom were personally interested in 85 00:10:22.740 --> 00:10:29.300 land claims there. In New Hampshire, there rose bitter resistance against Andros's enforcement 86 00:10:29.300 --> 00:10:34.980 of court judgments to eject settlers from their lands in order to satisfy the property 87 00:10:34.980 --> 00:10:45.980 The citizens of New Hampshire petitioned Andros to stop these confiscations, for they were likely to be sore oppressed if not wholly ruined. 88 00:10:45.980 --> 00:10:55.980 Happily, however, the King ended the grievance by purchasing Mason's proprietary and quit-rent claims in exchange for an annual pension. 89 00:10:55.980 --> 00:11:02.980 Moreover, the King instructed Andros to reconfirm all existing land titles in New Hampshire. 90 00:11:02.980 --> 00:11:07.980 The Mason threat to the people of New Hampshire was again ended. 91 00:11:07.980 --> 00:11:16.980 Andros's regime speedily alienated not only the Puritans but also the merchants, including the former opportunist supporters of Dudley. 92 00:11:16.980 --> 00:11:26.980 On the one hand, Andros frightened the landowners by ordering reconfirmation of all land titles and the imposition of quit rents. 93 00:11:26.980 --> 00:11:33.820 On the other, the merchants were alienated by strict enforcement of the Navigation Acts. 94 00:11:33.820 --> 00:11:39.740 The pet schemes for privileges of Dudley and the other counselors were discarded, and even 95 00:11:39.740 --> 00:11:46.500 the bureaucratic plums went not to the Massachusetts opportunist, but to such old New York cronies 96 00:11:46.500 --> 00:11:50.740 of Andros as John West and John Palmer. 97 00:11:50.740 --> 00:11:55.900 Andros not only was making himself the most hated man in years, but was cutting himself 98 00:11:55.900 --> 00:12:12.900 from the basis of support in the colony. Of course, the naked force of the crown and its bayonets remained to him, as did the costly English troops, whom the Massachusetts citizens were forced to support for their own suppression. 99 00:12:12.900 --> 00:12:19.900 In addition, he angered the people by centralizing the town militia under his direct command. 100 00:12:19.900 --> 00:12:25.900 One of Andros's better acts served especially to alienate the opportunist clique. 101 00:12:25.900 --> 00:12:36.900 As governor of the dominion, Andros began as ruler of the main towns, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and King's Province, the Narragansett country. 102 00:12:36.900 --> 00:12:47.900 Surveying the situation, Andros decided that the powerful Atherton Company's claim to the Narragansett lands was arbitrary and unjust. 103 00:12:47.900 --> 00:12:54.580 He realized that the claim was gravely restricting settlement in these fertile lands and recommended 104 00:12:54.580 --> 00:13:01.780 to the lords of trade that all the claims of unimproved, unsettled land be vacated. 105 00:13:01.780 --> 00:13:07.860 This excellent recommendation frantically drove one of the proprietors, Richard Wharton, 106 00:13:07.860 --> 00:13:11.040 to London to press his claim. 107 00:13:11.040 --> 00:13:16.740 The sturdily independent citizens of Massachusetts did not let these hammer blows to liberty 108 00:13:16.740 --> 00:13:23.700 go by without vigorous protest. When Andros imposed his new taxes, he required all the 109 00:13:23.700 --> 00:13:30.860 towns to levy a compulsory assessment upon themselves for the required amount. Each town 110 00:13:30.860 --> 00:13:38.020 was ordered to choose a commissioner to assess and collect these taxes. Many towns steadfastly 111 00:13:38.020 --> 00:13:44.860 refused to make such appointments. Among the towns were those of Essex County, north of 112 00:13:44.860 --> 00:13:49.740 of Boston, except Salem, Newberry, and Marblehead. 113 00:13:49.740 --> 00:13:54.500 Essex County resistance centered in the town of Ipswich. 114 00:13:54.500 --> 00:13:58.860 When Ipswich in August 1687 received the government order 115 00:13:58.860 --> 00:14:01.820 to choose a commissioner to assess the taxes, 116 00:14:01.820 --> 00:14:06.020 the leaders of the town, headed by its young liberal Puritan 117 00:14:06.020 --> 00:14:11.620 minister, Reverend John Wise, and the town clerk, former deputy 118 00:14:11.620 --> 00:14:19.700 John Appleton met and decided that it was not the town's duty anyway to assist that 119 00:14:19.700 --> 00:14:24.620 ill way of raising money without a general assembly. 120 00:14:24.620 --> 00:14:29.760 The government order was condemned as abridging their liberty as Englishmen. 121 00:14:29.760 --> 00:14:33.920 The next day the Ipswich town meeting approved this view. 122 00:14:33.920 --> 00:14:40.120 It refused to elect a commissioner and forbade the selectmen from imposing any taxes. 123 00:14:40.120 --> 00:14:44.920 The bold example set by Ipswich was followed by other Essex towns. 124 00:14:44.920 --> 00:14:51.200 Rowley, Haverhill and Salisbury refused to elect commissioners, and the commissioners 125 00:14:51.200 --> 00:14:56.840 of Bradford and Andover refused to perform their functions. 126 00:14:56.840 --> 00:15:02.760 For this resistance, Wise, Appleton and four other leaders were imprisoned and tried before 127 00:15:02.760 --> 00:15:07.940 a judicial system thoroughly reconstituted by the Andros regime. 128 00:15:07.940 --> 00:15:13.940 The select men and commissioners of the other resisting towns were also arrested. 129 00:15:13.940 --> 00:15:21.020 In all, 28 leaders of Essex were indicted for refusing to pay their rates and making 130 00:15:21.020 --> 00:15:26.840 and publishing factious and seditious votes and writings against the same. 131 00:15:26.840 --> 00:15:32.460 The mass indictment cowed most of the prisoners into submission and most of them made humble 132 00:15:32.460 --> 00:16:02.460 The six Ipswich leaders, however, remained adamant. The Reverend Mr. Wise, asserting the privilege of Englishmen according to Magna Carta, and were subject to special trial. Instead of a trial before a jury, at the place of the crime, the prisoners were dragged to Boston, and the jurors deliberately selected from among foreigners and non-freeholders 133 00:16:02.460 --> 00:16:32.460 The four judges gloried in their power at the 134 00:16:32.460 --> 00:16:39.140 at the trial, Dudley lorded it over Reverend Mr. Wise, Mr. Wise, you have no more privileges 135 00:16:39.140 --> 00:16:46.640 left you than not to be sold for slaves. To Wise's pleas for English liberty, Dudley 136 00:16:46.640 --> 00:16:52.660 sharply replied that the laws of England could not follow them to the ends of the earth. 137 00:16:52.660 --> 00:16:58.140 A contemporary wag aptly remarked that if the privileges of English law did not follow 138 00:16:58.140 --> 00:17:28.140 The Convicted Prisoners were imprisoned for almost a month, and then heavily fined. Wise and Appleton were fined £50 and placed under the enormous bond of £1,000 for a year's good behavior. Under the lash of the staggering sentences, the remaining resistance to the new taxes in the colony collapsed. The following year, Andros Cripple was arrested. 139 00:17:28.140 --> 00:17:58.140 As the Andros Tyranny continued, we have noted that various protestors sailed to England to seek redress, including Samuel Sewell and Richard Wharton. But the most powerful protester and agent of the Massachusetts people was the leading Puritan Divine in the colony, the Reverend Inquis Mather. 140 00:17:58.140 --> 00:18:08.140 Mather had been earlier denounced by Thomas Danforth in general court as a traitor to Massachusetts for his willingness to compromise with the Crown. 141 00:18:08.140 --> 00:18:14.140 But Mather had now had enough and was ardently in favor of independence. 142 00:18:14.140 --> 00:18:24.140 In October 1687, Mather won the support of his church to go to England to plead New England's cause against Andros. 143 00:18:24.140 --> 00:18:54.140 Edward Randolph now moved quickly to prevent Mather from going to England, suing him on a trumped-up charge of defamation to keep him in the colony. Mather was acquitted at the trial, but Randolph soon fabricated another charge. Mather, however, hid from the subpoena server, was spirited out of Boston in disguise, and lay in a small boat to board a ship for London. Andros sent out two boats to stop Mather's escape, 144 00:18:54.140 --> 00:19:15.140 The meaning of the Dominion of New England must not be confined to the internal despotism imposed on Massachusetts Bay, for the main point of the Dominion was to impose the same central and absolute rule over all the northern colonies. 145 00:19:15.140 --> 00:19:27.140 Under Andros, law was to be administered to the colonies as one unit. The colonies were to be centralized under one yoke, that of the crown. 146 00:19:27.140 --> 00:19:42.140 The Maine towns were already a part of Massachusetts, and the Andros tax, fee and land policies were pursued with even more vigor in Maine, where resistance was so much weaker. 147 00:19:42.140 --> 00:19:54.140 New Hampshire had already been part of the Dominion during the Dudley regime, and after the Cranfield troubles, potential resistance to the Andros policy was exhausted. 148 00:19:54.140 --> 00:20:04.140 King's Province had also been part of the Dudley domain, but as noted, Andros ruled against the Atherton Company's claim to that territory. 149 00:20:04.140 --> 00:20:12.140 As soon as Andros arrived in Boston, he moved to seize Plymouth, Rhode Island, Cornwall, 150 00:20:12.140 --> 00:20:21.140 all of Maine East of the Kennebec, and Connecticut, and to place them alongside the other colonies under his dominion rule. 151 00:20:21.140 --> 00:20:29.140 Rhode Island succumbed quickly, and with surprising ease, and made no protest against the Andros rule. 152 00:20:29.140 --> 00:20:35.140 What had happened to Rhode Island individualism and its spirit of independence? 153 00:20:35.140 --> 00:20:41.140 Two major reasons can be pleaded for this change in Rhode Island's spirit. 154 00:20:41.140 --> 00:20:48.140 First, all the old greats of the colony, the founding fathers of the first generation, 155 00:20:48.140 --> 00:21:08.140 had recently died and inferior men had replaced them. Second, the colony was charmed by Andros' siding with them and against the Atherton Company over the issue of the Narragansett lands. 156 00:21:08.140 --> 00:21:15.140 Plymouth surrendered equally quickly, but with much greater opposition in the colony. 157 00:21:15.140 --> 00:21:31.140 The Judas who delivered Plymouth was Nathaniel Clarke, Secretary of the Colony. For his treachery, he received an appointment on the Council of the Dominion and, from Andros, a gift of the valuable Clarke's Island in Plymouth Harbor. 158 00:21:31.140 --> 00:21:41.140 Rich in salt, pasturage and timber, the island had been set aside by the Plymouth town government for support of its minister and the poor. 159 00:21:41.140 --> 00:21:56.140 The Reverend Ichabod Wiswall of Duxbury and Deacon John Founts, town clerk of Plymouth, were so incensed at this gift that they began to raise funds to carry the matter into the courts. 160 00:21:56.140 --> 00:22:02.140 Andros immediately had them arrested on the charge of levying taxes without his consent 161 00:22:02.140 --> 00:22:05.140 and forced them to stand trial in Boston. 162 00:22:05.140 --> 00:22:10.140 The sickly wiz will almost died during the ordeal. 163 00:22:10.140 --> 00:22:16.140 There was also considerable opposition in Plymouth to the arbitrary increase in taxes by Andros. 164 00:22:16.140 --> 00:22:21.140 The town of Taunton refused to elect a commissioner, declaring that it 165 00:22:21.140 --> 00:22:26.020 But it did not feel free to raise money for the inhabitants without their own assent by 166 00:22:26.020 --> 00:22:27.900 an assembly. 167 00:22:27.900 --> 00:22:34.820 For daring to transmit this defiant resolution, the Taunton town clerk Shadrack Wilbur was 168 00:22:34.820 --> 00:22:39.860 imprisoned for three months by Andros and punished with a heavy fine. 169 00:22:39.860 --> 00:22:46.140 The town constables of Taunton were also arrested for neglect of duty and one of the local justices 170 00:22:46.140 --> 00:22:52.380 Mises was suspended for not arguing against the protest at the town meeting. 171 00:22:52.380 --> 00:23:00.460 Also annexed to the new dominion in early 1687 was Eastern Maine, or Cornwall, transferred 172 00:23:00.460 --> 00:23:07.300 from New York. While under New York, Thomas Dongan had sent two commissioners, John West 173 00:23:07.300 --> 00:23:13.660 and John Palmer, to manage its affairs. West and Palmer there pioneered in the Andros technique 174 00:23:13.660 --> 00:23:38.900 Connecticut, however, proved a far more difficult nut to crack. For one thing, Connecticut had 175 00:23:38.900 --> 00:23:45.140 had bitter memories of Andros' attempted aggression against it during King Philip's War a dozen 176 00:23:45.140 --> 00:23:53.580 years before. It procrastinated for months. Its leaders, such as Secretary John Allen 177 00:23:53.580 --> 00:24:00.100 and Fitz-John Winthrop, were eager to sell out to Andros. Winthrop even praised the Dominion 178 00:24:00.100 --> 00:24:05.820 as containing all things that will really conduce to the growth and prosperity of the 179 00:24:05.820 --> 00:24:13.820 of the People. But the General Court stood firm, and refused to surrender to dominion rule. 180 00:24:13.820 --> 00:24:20.820 Finally, at the end of October 1687, after nearly a year had elapsed, Andros went to 181 00:24:20.820 --> 00:24:27.820 Hartford, and simply seized the government. Fitz-John Winthrop was well rewarded by being 182 00:24:27.820 --> 00:24:33.820 made Major General, the highest military office in New England, in charge of the militia of 183 00:24:33.820 --> 00:24:40.500 of Connecticut, Rhode Island, and King's Province. In return, Winthrop played the sycophant 184 00:24:40.500 --> 00:24:46.980 to the uttermost, expressing his admiration for Andrus's loving care over New England 185 00:24:46.980 --> 00:24:54.020 and for those designs your excellency lays to settle a lasting happiness to the prosperity 186 00:24:54.020 --> 00:25:00.740 of this country. Andrus also made certain to appoint new courts, militia, and customs 187 00:25:00.740 --> 00:25:03.820 Officers in Connecticut. 188 00:25:03.820 --> 00:25:09.140 It should not be thought that his expansion of the area of dominion brought the incidental 189 00:25:09.140 --> 00:25:14.320 but important advantages of a unified trade area for New England. 190 00:25:14.320 --> 00:25:21.180 On the contrary, Andros soon outlawed all traveling merchants and peddlers, thus narrowly 191 00:25:21.180 --> 00:25:26.140 confining trade to each local town and area. 192 00:25:26.140 --> 00:25:31.700 In the area of religion, however, the creation of the Dominion had willy-nilly a libertarian 193 00:25:31.700 --> 00:25:38.380 impact. The Crown could not move toward the establishment of Anglicanism without disestablishing 194 00:25:38.380 --> 00:25:44.780 the Puritan Church and providing religious liberty for non-Puritans. This problem was 195 00:25:44.780 --> 00:25:51.540 acute in Massachusetts, Plymouth and Connecticut. Despite the great decline in Puritan fervor 196 00:25:51.540 --> 00:26:15.980 The Council of the Dominion, making laws for all New England, now had to decide whether 197 00:26:15.980 --> 00:26:24.980 The Council's Committee on Codification urged the former course, but the Anglicans and Quakers on the Council fought this bitterly. 198 00:26:24.980 --> 00:26:35.980 Walter Clark, a Quaker and former Governor of Rhode Island, pointed out that since the Puritan ministers were just as much dissenters from the Church of New England, 199 00:26:35.980 --> 00:26:41.920 Clark, a Quaker and former governor of Rhode Island, pointed out that since the Puritan 200 00:26:41.920 --> 00:26:48.580 ministers were just as much dissenters from the Church of England as the Quakers or any 201 00:26:48.580 --> 00:26:54.940 other sect, they should therefore depend on voluntary contributions in the same way as 202 00:26:54.940 --> 00:27:00.900 all the others. Those citizens who would not voluntarily support a Puritan minister, said 203 00:27:00.900 --> 00:27:07.420 Clark should not be forced to pay against their will. The Council defeated the Puritan 204 00:27:07.420 --> 00:27:14.560 attempts at expansion. The Puritan establishment lapsed and religious liberty and separation 205 00:27:14.560 --> 00:27:21.380 of church and state won the day. This result was aided by news of King James' declaration 206 00:27:21.380 --> 00:27:29.540 Declaration of Indulgence of April 4, 1687, which granted liberty of conscience to all 207 00:27:29.540 --> 00:27:33.660 Englishmen, including dissenters. 208 00:27:33.660 --> 00:27:39.900 The Quakers of Situate in Plymouth promptly tested the law by refusing to pay taxes for 209 00:27:39.900 --> 00:27:45.340 the Puritan ministry, standing on the Declaration of Indulgence. 210 00:27:45.340 --> 00:27:50.900 Andros in the Council granted the Quakers' request for return of their property seized 211 00:27:50.900 --> 00:27:56.820 by the Constable for Non-Payment. Thus, the Declaration of Indulgence and the refusal 212 00:27:56.820 --> 00:28:03.880 of Council to continue coerced support for the Puritans jointly brought disestablishment 213 00:28:03.880 --> 00:28:10.860 to New England. Since the network of government schools in Massachusetts was Puritan, the 214 00:28:10.860 --> 00:28:17.860 Council's decision not to continue the Puritan establishment had the corollary libertarian 215 00:28:17.860 --> 00:28:26.020 in Effect of Dissolving the Government Schools. Thrown back on voluntary or market support, 216 00:28:26.020 --> 00:28:32.440 many of the schools that had been artificially extended by relying on compulsion now had 217 00:28:32.440 --> 00:28:39.160 to close. Randolph would have liked to replace them with Anglican public schools, but was 218 00:28:39.160 --> 00:28:46.420 thwarted by lack of funds. The crippling blow to the Puritan theocracy intensified the decline 219 00:28:46.420 --> 00:28:54.060 and of Puritan zeal among the populace, and such ungodly customs as maypole dancing, stage 220 00:28:54.060 --> 00:29:01.020 plays, Sabbath breaking, and the drinking of alcohol spread more widely. 221 00:29:01.020 --> 00:29:07.760 By the end of 1687, Sir Edmund Andros, as head of the Dominion of New England, was the 222 00:29:07.760 --> 00:29:16.760 Andros was the sole and absolute ruler of all of New England from the towns of Maine to Western Connecticut. 223 00:29:16.760 --> 00:29:22.760 But this was only the beginning of the expansion of the Dominion and of Andros's power. 224 00:29:22.760 --> 00:29:35.760 In the spring of 1688, Andros received instructions from King James II to incorporate the colonies of New York and the two New Jerseys into the Dominion. 225 00:29:35.760 --> 00:29:42.560 The King named Andros governor of the enlarged dominion with his headquarters still at Boston. 226 00:29:42.560 --> 00:29:49.960 He was in addition to appoint a deputy governor at New York to administer that colony and the jerseys. 227 00:29:49.960 --> 00:29:57.360 The dominion institutions, including the new taxes, quit rents, and press and book censorship, 228 00:29:57.360 --> 00:30:02.360 were now to be imposed on the expanded territory. 229 00:30:02.360 --> 00:30:07.240 During August, Andros traveled throughout New York and the Jerseys incorporating these 230 00:30:07.240 --> 00:30:11.640 colonies into the giant Dominion of New England. 231 00:30:11.640 --> 00:30:17.840 Captain Francis Nicholson of Andros' Foot Guard was named Deputy Governor for New York 232 00:30:17.840 --> 00:30:20.440 and the Jerseys. 233 00:30:20.440 --> 00:30:25.880 Governor Dongden of New York was, of course, unhappy at being replaced. 234 00:30:25.880 --> 00:30:31.360 For the citizens of that colony, the sudden loss of their home rule and their annexation 235 00:30:31.360 --> 00:30:38.360 by the Dominion of New England were additional important straws to add to their accumulating 236 00:30:38.360 --> 00:30:46.740 list of grievances. At first, some New Yorkers were mollified, as the Long Island towns were 237 00:30:46.740 --> 00:30:52.940 long last reunited with New England and the anti-Catholics were happy to see the departure 238 00:30:52.940 --> 00:31:00.000 of Dongan. But Andrus's tyrannical policy soon changed their attitudes, especially his 239 00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:08.000 is action in seizing the bulk of New York's public records and carrying them off to Boston. 240 00:31:08.000 --> 00:31:14.000 Francis Nicholson protested this seizure and later was to note how fatal it hath been to 241 00:31:14.000 --> 00:31:20.600 this city and the province of New York for to be annexed to that of Boston, which, if 242 00:31:20.600 --> 00:31:26.000 it had continued, would have occasioned the total ruin of the inhabitants. 243 00:31:26.000 --> 00:31:33.440 Furthermore, the Dutch in New York were unhappy at being joined to their old enemy, New England. 244 00:31:33.440 --> 00:31:40.560 Nicholson, too, aroused the suspicions of the frenetic and was believed by many New Yorkers 245 00:31:40.560 --> 00:31:43.680 to be a crypto-Catholic. 246 00:31:43.680 --> 00:31:49.280 East Jersey and West Jersey were incorporated into the Dominion without much difficulty, 247 00:31:49.280 --> 00:31:55.560 although there was considerable protest in West New Jersey at Andrus' practice of reappointing 248 00:31:55.560 --> 00:32:02.880 existing public officials if they paid him a substantial fee. Some officials refused to 249 00:32:02.880 --> 00:32:09.420 pay for reappointment and launched public protests. Governor Andros's foreign policy 250 00:32:09.420 --> 00:32:16.480 for the expanded dominion continued the Dangan course of aggressive pressure on New France. 251 00:32:16.480 --> 00:32:22.760 Andros repeated a Dangan ultimatum that the French withdrawal from a fort in Seneca country. 252 00:32:22.760 --> 00:32:29.360 and French quickly complied. English-oriented historians liked to speak of a French menace 253 00:32:29.360 --> 00:32:36.160 to the American colonies in justifying the aggressive actions of England and the English 254 00:32:36.160 --> 00:32:45.160 colonies against New France. And yet, New England alone had a population in 1688 of 255 00:32:45.160 --> 00:32:54.040 Over 100,000 as compared with 12,000 in all of New France. Furthermore, the English were 256 00:32:54.040 --> 00:32:58.900 firmly allied against the French with the most powerful, bloodthirsty and aggressive 257 00:32:58.900 --> 00:33:06.900 of the Indian tribes, the Iroquois. The real menace was to the thinly populated French. 258 00:33:06.900 --> 00:33:12.960 The record of Anglo-American aggression against New France in the colonial era is ample witness 259 00:33:12.960 --> 00:33:15.680 to that fact. 260 00:33:15.680 --> 00:33:20.600 As soon as he took over the government of New York and the Jerseys, Andros held a conference 261 00:33:20.600 --> 00:33:27.840 at Albany with the Iroquois, reminiscent of a similar conference a decade and a half earlier. 262 00:33:27.840 --> 00:33:33.040 There he cemented the long-standing Iroquois-English alliance. 263 00:33:33.040 --> 00:33:39.320 In eastern Maine, Andros issued an order forbidding anyone to trade or settle in the territory 264 00:33:39.320 --> 00:33:43.160 without a license from his government. 265 00:33:43.160 --> 00:33:49.080 Andros then proceeded to break into the Penobscot River Trading Post of a French resident, 266 00:33:49.080 --> 00:33:56.840 the Baron de Saint-Castine, and to confiscate his arms, furniture and other supplies. 267 00:33:56.840 --> 00:34:02.560 While Andros was away from Boston, some Indian depredations occurred at Sacco. 268 00:34:02.560 --> 00:34:09.360 Immediately, Captain Blackman seized twenty suspect Indians and shipped them to Boston. 269 00:34:09.360 --> 00:34:16.980 Their alarmed tribesmen seized a few whites at Casco Bay to hold for a prisoner exchange. 270 00:34:16.980 --> 00:34:23.140 The prisoner exchange was agreed upon, but typically the white captain refused to admit 271 00:34:23.140 --> 00:34:28.860 an Indian Peace Party and several whites were killed in the skirmish that followed. 272 00:34:28.860 --> 00:34:35.300 The embittered Indians now joined forces with the equally embittered Castine, who promised 273 00:34:35.300 --> 00:34:39.780 them aid for raids against the English. 274 00:34:39.780 --> 00:34:46.680 Andros quieted the situation down by sternly rebuking Colonel Ting of Casco Bay for exceeding 275 00:34:46.680 --> 00:34:50.400 his instructions by making war on the Indians. 276 00:34:50.400 --> 00:34:57.500 By your seizing and disturbing the Indians, you have alarmed all your parts and put them 277 00:34:57.500 --> 00:35:23.500 Andrews wisely ordered the release of all the Indians except the actual criminals. But the leaders on the spot, such as Ting, John Hinks and William Stoughton, whipped up hysteria in Boston against the Indians and asked for supplies and troops. A draft of manpower ensued and troops were sent north. 278 00:35:23.500 --> 00:35:29.500 The absurd hysteria over the Indians is seen in this account. 279 00:35:29.500 --> 00:35:36.500 Upon receipt of news that two or three Indians had been seen skulking about along the frontier, 280 00:35:36.500 --> 00:35:43.500 orders were dispatched to the outlying towns to send eight or ten armed horsemen every day 281 00:35:43.500 --> 00:35:49.500 to scout in search of Indians and kill any who refused to submit themselves. 282 00:35:49.500 --> 00:35:56.740 The military commander of Cornwall went to the length of implicitly accusing Andros of 283 00:35:56.740 --> 00:36:04.180 excessive leniency to the Indians. As if to disprove the charge of softness in the face 284 00:36:04.180 --> 00:36:12.140 of the non-existent threat, Andros sent two companies and several ships to the frontier 285 00:36:12.140 --> 00:36:19.140 and ordered the Indians to release all Englishmen and surrender all murderers of Englishmen. 286 00:36:20.220 --> 00:36:26.460 When the Indians retaliated by burning two towns, Andros mobilized a force of several 287 00:36:26.460 --> 00:36:33.460 hundred and garrisoned eleven forts along the frontier. Then, before any warfare occurred, 288 00:36:33.460 --> 00:36:46.460 When warfare occurred, Andros, in the venerable white tradition, launched a sneak attack on the Indians, destroying their homes, canoes and supplies. 289 00:36:46.460 --> 00:36:55.460 In the traditional rationale of preventive war, this was done before the least harm of mischief was done by the Indians. 290 00:36:55.460 --> 00:37:17.460 By the end of 1688, Sir Edmund Andros stood master of all he surveyed. Virtually the absolute ruler of all English America, from the Delaware River to the St. Croix River in eastern Maine, the governor of the expanded dominion of New England stood at the pinnacle of power. 291 00:37:17.460 --> 00:37:24.220 Indeed, with Quo Warento action brewing against the remaining proprietary colonies, new peaks 292 00:37:24.220 --> 00:37:31.700 of power and expansion were on the horizon. But, as often happens, pride went before the 293 00:37:31.700 --> 00:37:41.660 fall. Andros was only a few more months at the pinnacle before he was tumbled unceremoniously 294 00:37:41.660 --> 00:37:42.700 in to the trough.