WEBVTT NOTE 57. The Glorious Revolution in the Northern Colonies, 1689-1690 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:10.880 Volume 1, Chapter 57, The Glorious Revolution in the Northern Colonies, 1689 through 1690. 2 00:00:10.880 --> 00:00:17.800 The fall of Sir Edmund Andros, crucial as it was, was a reflection of the fall of his 3 00:00:17.800 --> 00:00:25.000 far mightier sovereign, James II, who was deposed in the virtually bloodless, glorious 4 00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:39.180 William and Mary, the Protestant daughter of the Catholic James, were crowned the Sovereigns 5 00:00:39.180 --> 00:00:48.080 of England in February 1689. This moderate shift from James II's despotism, as well 6 00:00:48.080 --> 00:00:54.600 as from his attempt to grant religious liberties to his fellow Catholics, brought an end to 7 00:00:54.600 --> 00:01:01.400 The 17th Century Era of Conflict and Rebellion in England. Indeed, there has been nothing 8 00:01:01.400 --> 00:01:08.840 like a revolutionary upheaval in England since. The news of the Glorious Revolution brought 9 00:01:08.840 --> 00:01:14.560 the thrill and joy of expected liberation to the northern colonies, all of which, save 10 00:01:14.560 --> 00:01:22.060 Pennsylvania, were groaning under the tyranny of Andros and the dominion of New England. 11 00:01:22.060 --> 00:01:27.700 The example of the Glorious Revolution was all that was needed to fire the spark of revolt 12 00:01:27.700 --> 00:01:34.060 in the northern colonies. If the English tyrant could be overthrown, why not his American 13 00:01:34.060 --> 00:01:41.220 henchmen? Indeed, all that was needed to spark a revolution was the news that the Glorious 14 00:01:41.220 --> 00:01:47.500 Revolution had begun. The news of Williams's November landing in England first reached 15 00:01:47.500 --> 00:01:53.700 Boston on April 5th, and the successful outcome was not yet known in America. 16 00:01:53.700 --> 00:01:59.380 Andros, who had privately heard the truth in eastern Maine many weeks before, tried 17 00:01:59.380 --> 00:02:05.820 to keep the news from the people by arresting the hapless young man who brought the news. 18 00:02:05.820 --> 00:02:11.820 When he refused to remain silent, Andros sent him to prison without bail for bringing traitorous 19 00:02:11.820 --> 00:02:17.500 Andros and Treasonable Libels in Papers of News. But news of this sort could not now be 20 00:02:17.500 --> 00:02:24.460 kept secret, and preparation for a coup against Andros got quietly underway. Wild rumors spread 21 00:02:24.460 --> 00:02:30.080 about the colony that Andros was a secret papist, that he was conspiring with the French 22 00:02:30.080 --> 00:02:36.040 and the Indians to take over the colony, and so forth. It became evident to the leaders 23 00:02:36.040 --> 00:02:55.040 The leaders of the colony that a popular revolution against Andros was inevitable, so the leaders determined to take charge of the revolution, to keep it in channels that would be safe for themselves, and to prevent what ill effects an unformed tumult might bring. 24 00:02:55.040 --> 00:03:09.040 Not only did John Usher shift to insurrection, but even that old rogue William Stoughton managed to preserve his record of being on the winning side by joining the leaders of the impending rebellion. 25 00:03:09.040 --> 00:03:15.580 The revolution was precipitated by Andrus' panicky attempt to suppress the growing opposition 26 00:03:15.580 --> 00:03:21.940 to his rule, specifically an attempt at a special meeting of the Council to try Reverend 27 00:03:21.940 --> 00:03:28.340 Cotton Mather, eminent son of Reverend Increase Mather, for preaching sedition. 28 00:03:28.340 --> 00:03:33.180 The revolution broke out on the morning set for the trial, April 28. 29 00:03:33.180 --> 00:03:38.840 The speedy and virtually bloodless revolt was launched that morning when bands of boys 30 00:03:38.840 --> 00:03:47.840 The soldiers and youths ran through Boston, shouting falsely that the popular revolution had already begun in the other parts of town. 31 00:03:47.840 --> 00:03:52.840 Captain George of the naval frigate Rose was seized. 32 00:03:52.840 --> 00:03:58.840 Two hundred armed rebels of the militia gathered under the command of Captain John Nelson. 33 00:03:58.840 --> 00:04:04.840 The English soldiers at the fort showed reluctance to fire on the people of Boston. 34 00:04:04.840 --> 00:04:21.840 Edmund Andros surrendered and was kept in prison for a year by the revolutionaries, as were the other hated leaders of the Andros regime, including Edward Randolph, Joseph Dudley, John West, John Palmer and Charles Liget. 35 00:04:21.840 --> 00:04:31.840 Of the twenty-four men imprisoned with Andros, twenty were English bureaucrats, military and civilian, and only four were from New England. 36 00:04:31.840 --> 00:04:39.080 To justify this revolution, the leaders issued, on April 18, a declaration of the gentlemen 37 00:04:39.080 --> 00:04:45.440 merchants and inhabitants and the county adjacent, drawn up by Cotton Mather. 38 00:04:45.440 --> 00:04:52.320 The declaration set forth the rebel case, including the numerous oppressions the citizenry 39 00:04:52.320 --> 00:04:57.400 had suffered, and praised the glorious revolution in England. 40 00:04:57.400 --> 00:05:04.360 The revolutionaries were now faced with the inevitable problem of what to do next. 41 00:05:04.360 --> 00:05:10.480 The radicals urged the frank reproclamation of the old Massachusetts Bay Charter that 42 00:05:10.480 --> 00:05:16.680 had been vacated five years before, but the leadership was not prepared to take so drastic 43 00:05:16.680 --> 00:05:17.680 a step. 44 00:05:17.680 --> 00:05:25.120 Instead, the leaders quickly established on April 20 a 37-man revolutionary council for 45 00:05:25.120 --> 00:05:29.080 for the Safety of the People and Conservation of the Peace. 46 00:05:29.080 --> 00:05:35.560 This council was heavily weighted with Boston merchants and included old magistrates, councilors 47 00:05:35.560 --> 00:05:39.600 of the Dominion and former private citizens. 48 00:05:39.600 --> 00:05:47.160 This self-constituted council now named the cautious and venerable ex-Governor Simon Bradstreet 49 00:05:47.160 --> 00:05:52.720 as President and Waite Winthrop as Commander of the Militia. 50 00:05:52.720 --> 00:05:58.900 The Council for Safety then summoned a popular convention to meet on May 9. 51 00:05:58.900 --> 00:06:04.800 To unite the people of Massachusetts, the Council took the highly significant step of 52 00:06:04.800 --> 00:06:11.560 suggesting that the towns extend the right to vote from Puritan Church members to all 53 00:06:11.560 --> 00:06:13.560 freeholders. 54 00:06:13.560 --> 00:06:17.180 Most of the Massachusetts towns quickly complied. 55 00:06:17.180 --> 00:06:22.400 Delegates were selected at meetings of the freemen and inhabitants of the towns, an inhabitant 56 00:06:22.400 --> 00:06:29.580 being someone over the age of 24 with an estate of 80 pounds or more. At the convention that 57 00:06:29.580 --> 00:06:37.920 met on May 9 were 66 delegates from 44 towns of the colony. The relatively radical convention 58 00:06:37.920 --> 00:06:44.520 wanted the old charter reproclaimed and it appealed to the old pre-Dudley Council of 59 00:06:44.520 --> 00:06:51.080 Magistrates, the last under the old charter, to resume its functions and to reconstitute 60 00:06:51.080 --> 00:07:08.080 General Court with the Convention delegates as the House of Deputies. The more conservative magistrates, however, refused, and the Council for Safety continued to exercise rule until the next enlarged Convention met on May 22. 61 00:07:08.080 --> 00:07:38.080 The second convention represented fifty-four towns, of which forty-two had instructed their delegates to insist on resumption of the old charter. Once again, the majority of the more timid and conservative magistrates opposed the plan. Finally, however, the popular will prevailed, with forty-four towns voting for restoration of the charter government and nine for continuing temporary rule by the Council for Safety. 62 00:07:38.080 --> 00:07:49.120 The last charter governor, Simon Bradstreet, as well as the charter magistrates, now jointly 63 00:07:49.120 --> 00:07:55.720 agreed to reconstitute the old general court and to resume the charter government. 64 00:07:55.720 --> 00:08:00.920 The convention further overruled the governor and magistrates by insisting that the Council 65 00:08:00.920 --> 00:08:06.360 for Safety not continue as ruling magistrate body of the colony. 66 00:08:06.360 --> 00:08:11.880 With good reason, the delegates distrusted the revolutionary fervour of such council 67 00:08:11.880 --> 00:08:18.240 members as Waite Winthrop and the notorious William Staughton. This action of the Convention 68 00:08:18.240 --> 00:08:25.640 removed them from their post of power. However, within a week, the Convention decided to compromise 69 00:08:25.640 --> 00:08:32.860 slightly by naming Winthrop, Samuel Shrimpton, and three other opportunists to vacancies 70 00:08:32.860 --> 00:08:38.980 in the Old Council of Magistrates. By the end of May, this arrangement had been completed, 71 00:08:38.980 --> 00:08:45.700 and the general joy was at this moment redoubled by news of the coronation of William and Mary. 72 00:08:45.700 --> 00:08:51.820 A great celebration ensued in Boston, with pump and banquets and wine literally flowing 73 00:08:51.820 --> 00:08:58.700 in the streets. But celebration was not enough to secure the fruits of victory. Caution was 74 00:08:58.700 --> 00:09:06.020 The Watchword of the New Monarch and one of his first actions in January was to order 75 00:09:06.020 --> 00:09:14.180 all previous arrangements continued in force until further notice. Specifically, Sir Edmund 76 00:09:14.180 --> 00:09:22.180 Andros was to continue his rule over New England. Fortunately, however, Reverend Increase Mathur, 77 00:09:22.180 --> 00:09:28.680 who had fled to England to plead Massachusetts case against Andros, was able to block transmission 78 00:09:28.680 --> 00:09:36.000 of the King's Order to New England. Indeed, Mather went further, and with his old friend 79 00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:43.280 and parishioner, Sir William Phipps, a native of eastern Maine, petitioned the King to restore 80 00:09:43.280 --> 00:09:50.800 all the New England charters. The cautious Crown would not go that far, but it did agree 81 00:09:50.800 --> 00:09:58.320 to remove Andros immediately, and to call him unto an account for his maladministration. 82 00:09:58.320 --> 00:10:05.320 The King also agreed to draft for Massachusetts a new charter that was to grant at least some 83 00:10:05.640 --> 00:10:12.480 of the colony's demands. Mather even succeeded in introducing into Parliament a bill to restore 84 00:10:12.480 --> 00:10:18.520 the Massachusetts Charter. The bill passed the House of Commons, but was blocked by the 85 00:10:18.520 --> 00:10:25.360 House of Lords. The old guard of the Royal Bureaucracy politicked for this roadblock. 86 00:10:25.360 --> 00:10:30.720 Professor Robert Southwell of the Plantation Office warned a colleague that the bill would 87 00:10:30.720 --> 00:10:37.120 so confound the present settlement in those parts and their dependence on England that 88 00:10:37.120 --> 00:10:42.460 it is hard to say where the mischief will stop or how far the act of navigation will 89 00:10:42.460 --> 00:10:44.640 be overthrown thereby. 90 00:10:44.640 --> 00:10:50.880 While Mathers' valiant efforts failed to win resumption of the old charter, he did succeed 91 00:10:50.880 --> 00:10:56.600 in Winning Temporary Royal Recognition of the Revolutionary Government. 92 00:10:56.600 --> 00:11:03.080 This news, too, was received with great joy, as if the old charter was as good as renewed, 93 00:11:03.080 --> 00:11:09.760 for on June 5, the old political institutions of Massachusetts had been reconstituted, including 94 00:11:09.760 --> 00:11:14.440 a general court and a newly elected House of Deputies. 95 00:11:14.440 --> 00:11:19.800 Along with the temporary recognition of the Massachusetts regime, the King ordered Andros 96 00:11:19.800 --> 00:11:25.340 Andros and the other prisoners sent back to England. Many radicals wanted to ignore the 97 00:11:25.340 --> 00:11:31.360 order and keep the hated oppressors in jail, but after many weeks of delay the prisoners 98 00:11:31.360 --> 00:11:39.360 were shipped back to England in February 1690. The citizens of Massachusetts realized that 99 00:11:39.360 --> 00:11:45.660 the first order of the day was to convince the Crown of the justice of the grievances 100 00:11:45.660 --> 00:11:53.560 against Andros, and the need to restore the old charter. Right after the two-day revolution, 101 00:11:53.560 --> 00:11:59.860 local committees busily gathered evidence of grievance against the Andros regime. By 102 00:11:59.860 --> 00:12:08.080 the end of 1689, a central committee was organized in Boston to collect the testimony. Numerous 103 00:12:08.080 --> 00:12:13.980 pamphlets on the Andros regime were published in Massachusetts to try to win the minds of 104 00:12:13.980 --> 00:12:21.460 of the Crown, and on May 20, 1689, as soon as Massachusetts heard the news of the proclamation 105 00:12:21.460 --> 00:12:27.260 of William and Mary, the colony explained to the sovereign that the people had risen 106 00:12:27.260 --> 00:12:34.460 as one man in emulation of the late, glorious enterprise and were able to accomplish the 107 00:12:34.460 --> 00:12:38.540 victory without the least bloodshed or plunder. 108 00:12:38.540 --> 00:12:45.540 In England during 1690, Massachusetts and the Andros Randolph Party argued their respective 109 00:12:45.540 --> 00:12:53.380 cases, their charges and counter-charges, before the Committee for Trade and Plantations. 110 00:12:53.380 --> 00:12:59.980 Massachusetts sent over two agents, Thomas Oates and Elisha Cook, to aid Mather. 111 00:12:59.980 --> 00:13:06.380 The Committee, headed by the former Earl of Danby, now the Marquis of Carmarthen, showed 112 00:13:06.380 --> 00:13:10.380 There was no obvious partiality to the Andros side in the hearings. 113 00:13:10.380 --> 00:13:15.380 Quickly the committee cleared Andros and Randolph of charges against them. 114 00:13:15.380 --> 00:13:20.380 Carmarthen did not even give Massachusetts the chance to present its case. 115 00:13:20.380 --> 00:13:26.380 Also powerful on the pro-Andros side were the two prominent royal bureaucrats, 116 00:13:26.380 --> 00:13:30.380 Robert Southwell and William Blathwaite. 117 00:13:30.380 --> 00:13:44.380 Edward Randolph helped turn the hearings into an attack on Massachusetts by open testimony and by publishing anonymous tracts against the colony, concentrating on its failure to enforce the navigation laws. 118 00:13:45.380 --> 00:13:54.380 In the meanwhile, Parliament tried to pass a bill prohibiting the voiding of any corporate charters. This would have restored the old Massachusetts Charter. 119 00:13:54.380 --> 00:14:05.380 But the bill took too much power away from the Crown for William III's comfort, and King William defeated the bill by dissolving Parliament in February 1690. 120 00:14:05.380 --> 00:14:13.380 It was becoming clear that Massachusetts would have to settle for a new charter, granting far less independence than the old. 121 00:14:13.380 --> 00:14:22.380 At home, the Massachusetts regime made halting last-minute attempts to gain support among non-Puritan Church members. 122 00:14:22.380 --> 00:14:30.260 By the end of May 1689, the towns had pledged enlargement of the freemen, but nothing had 123 00:14:30.260 --> 00:14:32.560 been done for a year. 124 00:14:32.560 --> 00:14:37.900 After a petition for enlargement was sent to the general court in 1690, the court finally 125 00:14:37.900 --> 00:14:44.180 repealed the restrictive clauses and voted to admit to freemanship anyone able to pay 126 00:14:44.180 --> 00:14:51.760 four shillings and to the poll tax, or whose income from land was six pounds. 127 00:14:51.760 --> 00:14:58.440 In the spring of 1690, 700 new freemen were admitted, of whom nearly two-thirds were non-church 128 00:14:58.440 --> 00:15:04.440 members. But Puritans were still favored in the new regulations, for church members were 129 00:15:04.440 --> 00:15:11.920 specially exempt from the property qualifications. As might be expected, the electrifying news 130 00:15:11.920 --> 00:15:18.560 of the overthrow and arrest of Andros in Boston galvanized the other colonies under Andros's 131 00:15:18.560 --> 00:15:30.560 In Plymouth, the people seized Andros' main henchman, the counselor Nathaniel Clark, and reestablished the old Plymouth government under former Governor Thomas Hinckley. 132 00:15:30.560 --> 00:15:37.560 Clark was sent to England along with Andros and the others, hopefully to answer for his high crimes and misdemeanors. 133 00:15:37.560 --> 00:15:44.920 Plymouth, always charterless and anxious to obtain a proper charter, naively thanked Increase 134 00:15:44.920 --> 00:15:50.080 Mather for supposedly presenting Plymouth's case at court. 135 00:15:50.080 --> 00:15:56.520 But on arriving in England, Plymouth's agent, Reverend Ichabod Wisval, soon discovered that 136 00:15:56.520 --> 00:16:03.400 Massachusetts was trying to absorb Plymouth in its own charter, in short, to play the 137 00:16:03.400 --> 00:16:08.480 and the same game by which Connecticut had seized New Haven three decades before. 138 00:16:08.480 --> 00:16:14.280 Mather, indeed, had already managed to incorporate Plymouth when Wiswall arrived and was able 139 00:16:14.280 --> 00:16:20.720 to strike out the clause, an act for which Mather dubbed Wiswall the Weasel. 140 00:16:20.720 --> 00:16:25.640 But Mather had an enormous advantage for winning his way—money. 141 00:16:25.640 --> 00:16:30.440 Mather was supplied with the very large sum of seventeen hundred pounds, which he was 142 00:16:30.440 --> 00:16:36.440 was able to use, for the purpose intended, to spread about in the right places. 143 00:16:36.440 --> 00:16:41.760 Plymouth, on the other hand, was a poor colony, and had little money to supply. 144 00:16:41.760 --> 00:16:45.960 Wiswell had virtually nothing to bestow for favors. 145 00:16:45.960 --> 00:16:51.840 When in February 1691 the Plymouth General Court, in desperation, asked the towns to 146 00:16:51.840 --> 00:16:58.400 subscribe 500 pounds to keep their independence, the sum could not be raised. 147 00:16:58.400 --> 00:17:04.400 Plymouth's future was fading fast. When New Hampshire heard the glorious news of 148 00:17:04.400 --> 00:17:10.960 Andrus' arrest, it did not, like the other New England colonies, have a recent self-governing 149 00:17:10.960 --> 00:17:18.060 past to look back upon. Instead, it had been strictly a royally controlled colony, and 150 00:17:18.060 --> 00:17:25.200 before that, for decades, part of Massachusetts. The four New Hampshire towns first attempted 151 00:17:25.200 --> 00:17:30.040 to Draw Up a Self-Governing Constitution to Frame a Government. 152 00:17:30.040 --> 00:17:37.040 The Constitutional Convention met at Portsmouth on January 24, 1690, and included 22 of the 153 00:17:37.040 --> 00:17:43.440 leading men of the colony. It included also the rehabilitated revolutionary hero Edward 154 00:17:43.440 --> 00:17:50.020 Gove of Hampton, as well as Major William Vaughan and Major Richard Waldron from Portsmouth. 155 00:17:50.020 --> 00:17:55.700 The convention agreed to a brief constitution providing for election of a president, to 156 00:17:55.700 --> 00:18:01.480 be head of the province's militia, and a council of ten representing the people of the four 157 00:18:01.480 --> 00:18:07.960 towns. The president and council were also to call an assembly of representatives from 158 00:18:07.960 --> 00:18:15.260 each town. This was the first constitution in American history to be drawn up by popular 159 00:18:15.260 --> 00:18:20.260 and then submitted to the people for ratification. 160 00:18:20.260 --> 00:18:26.260 But the town of Hampton, worried about too much power accruing to Portsmouth under this arrangement, 161 00:18:26.260 --> 00:18:32.260 refused to elect representatives and so the Constitution fell through. 162 00:18:32.260 --> 00:18:37.260 The immediate reaction was a petition signed by hundreds of the leading men of New Hampshire 163 00:18:37.260 --> 00:18:43.260 urging Massachusetts to resume, at least temporarily, government of the colony. 164 00:18:43.260 --> 00:18:48.740 The revolutionary Massachusetts government promptly granted the request at the end of 165 00:18:48.740 --> 00:18:55.540 February and in England, Mather did his best to absorb New Hampshire as well as Plymouth 166 00:18:55.540 --> 00:18:58.420 in his forthcoming new charter. 167 00:18:58.420 --> 00:19:03.620 But Massachusetts' plans were foiled from two sides. 168 00:19:03.620 --> 00:19:11.440 In the first place, the independent and unbridled town of Hampton, led by Nathaniel Weir, balked 169 00:19:11.440 --> 00:19:17.340 at a Permanent Surrender to Massachusetts, and Weir was known in England as the man who 170 00:19:17.340 --> 00:19:25.180 had gone there from New Hampshire to lay low the hated Governor Cranfield five years before. 171 00:19:25.180 --> 00:19:31.820 Perhaps more important was the partial reactivation of the old Mason menace to the liberty and 172 00:19:31.820 --> 00:19:37.000 property of the residents of New Hampshire. Mason, who had been on the council for New 173 00:19:37.000 --> 00:19:44.000 New England had sold his proprietary claim to New Hampshire to Samuel Allen, and Allen 174 00:19:44.000 --> 00:19:49.940 was able to persuade the King to nominate himself to be governor of the new royal colony 175 00:19:49.940 --> 00:19:56.640 of New Hampshire. Allen named his son-in-law, the former Dominion Treasurer John Usher, 176 00:19:56.640 --> 00:20:03.040 to be lieutenant governor and operating head of the colony. Usher assumed his post in August 177 00:20:03.040 --> 00:20:10.600 1692. New Hampshire had lost its struggle for self-government. Usher was not only a 178 00:20:10.600 --> 00:20:16.360 son-in-law of the new proprietary pretender, but had himself bought a great amount of New 179 00:20:16.360 --> 00:20:24.240 Hampshire land from Mason, and therefore depended on the latter's rather dubious title. Usher's 180 00:20:24.240 --> 00:20:30.980 return brought the Mason, now Allen, claims once again into the forefront of New Hampshire 181 00:20:30.980 --> 00:20:41.980 The leading enemies of the Mason claims, Vaughan, Waldron, Weir, now banded together to oppose the Usher regime. 182 00:20:41.980 --> 00:20:46.980 Connecticut, too, received the news of the Boston Revolution with jubilation. 183 00:20:46.980 --> 00:20:51.980 Facing the question of what to do next, the colony confronted three alternatives. 184 00:20:51.980 --> 00:20:59.980 To resume the old charter government, which, unlike Massachusetts, had not been formally voided. 185 00:20:59.980 --> 00:21:11.980 To continue the dominion government, which had virtually dissolved, or to follow Massachusetts path and establish a provincial committee for safety. 186 00:21:11.980 --> 00:21:24.980 Leading the fight for the first alternative was James Fitch, who also wanted to exclude such top Andrews supporters as Fitch John Winthrop and John Allen from public office. 187 00:21:24.980 --> 00:21:31.520 Counter-pressure for continuing the defunct dominion came from Reverend Gershom Buckley 188 00:21:31.520 --> 00:21:39.480 of Wethersfield and Edward Palmes, both of whom had been made judges by Andros. Connecticut 189 00:21:39.480 --> 00:21:46.920 had an election on May 9, 1689, and the delegates decided to reestablish the former Governor 190 00:21:46.920 --> 00:21:53.540 Robert Treat and the general court. One of the court's first acts was to resume the 191 00:21:53.540 --> 00:21:59.780 the old laws and institutions of the colony. But while the bulk of the freemen agreed with 192 00:21:59.780 --> 00:22:06.460 Fitch that the old Andrews henchmen must be excluded, the more conservative delegates 193 00:22:06.460 --> 00:22:13.560 decided to reappoint the old council of magistrates. As a further blow to the revolutionary forces, 194 00:22:13.560 --> 00:22:19.980 they appointed such old Andrews supporters as Fitch John Winthrop and Samuel Willis, members 195 00:22:19.980 --> 00:22:30.980 The old opportunist clique, anxious to head off Fitch's likely drive for democratic reform of the Charter, had managed to outmaneuver the popular party. 196 00:22:30.980 --> 00:22:43.980 The decisions of the convention were submitted to the body of freemen for approval, but the freemen could only vote for or against the entire panel of officials selected by the delegates. 197 00:22:43.980 --> 00:22:52.060 They did not have the option of voting down such individual nominees as Allen or Winthrop. 198 00:22:52.060 --> 00:22:58.900 Still battling the new dispensation, however, were such ultra-reactionaries as Gershom Buckley 199 00:22:58.900 --> 00:23:05.380 and Edward Palmes, who pleaded with England to restore the Old Dominion rule. 200 00:23:05.380 --> 00:23:12.420 In a sense, Buckley was more prophetic than his more moderate colleagues, for James Fitch, 201 00:23:12.420 --> 00:23:17.780 Liesler and the great leader of the Connecticut Revolution soon came to dominate the council 202 00:23:17.780 --> 00:23:20.060 and the Connecticut government. 203 00:23:20.060 --> 00:23:23.460 The newly elected councilors were followers of Fitch. 204 00:23:23.460 --> 00:23:29.500 Fitch, an open admirer of Jacob Liesler's revolutionary government in New York, was 205 00:23:29.500 --> 00:23:34.500 able by 1692 to widen the Connecticut franchise. 206 00:23:34.500 --> 00:23:40.580 The only requirement for free-manship was now possession of a 40 shilling freehold. 207 00:23:40.580 --> 00:23:48.060 Moreover, a highly democratic election system was installed. Each freeman could write out 208 00:23:48.060 --> 00:23:56.060 a list of twenty nominees for the fourteen post of governor, deputy governor and magistrates. 209 00:23:56.060 --> 00:24:00.900 The officials were to be elected from the top twenty names submitted by the freemen 210 00:24:00.900 --> 00:24:07.460 in a second series of town meetings. Connecticut had decided for self-government and for resuming 211 00:24:37.460 --> 00:25:07.460 for one thing, it shared Andros' deep antipathy to Massachusetts. For another, it was grateful for Andros' support in the old Narragansett controversy with Connecticut. Indeed, Andros had been preparing to flee to Rhode Island before his capture. Rhode Island now determined to return to its old self-governing charter. The timorous former governor, Walter Clark, however, refused to realize 212 00:25:07.460 --> 00:25:15.460 It was temporarily occupied at the end of February by John Cogshill, the previous deputy governor. 213 00:25:15.460 --> 00:25:25.460 At the end of April, Newport issued a summons to the other towns of Rhode Island to meet there on May 1 to plot the colony's future course. 214 00:25:25.460 --> 00:25:33.460 There the delegates decided to resume operations under the old and never officially vacated charter. 215 00:25:33.460 --> 00:25:40.460 But, once more, the timid Walter Clark refused to reassume his post, and the permanent post 216 00:25:40.460 --> 00:25:44.260 of governor was granted to the Quaker Henry Bull. 217 00:25:44.260 --> 00:25:50.780 Thus, on the advent of the glorious revolution in England, the New England colonies took 218 00:25:50.780 --> 00:25:55.740 the welcome opportunity to overthrow the dominion regime. 219 00:25:55.740 --> 00:26:02.620 Upon the imprisonment of Andros and his henchmen, Massachusetts returned, at least temporarily, 220 00:26:02.620 --> 00:26:09.420 to self-government according to its old charter and institutions and was followed by Plymouth, 221 00:26:09.420 --> 00:26:15.340 Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Hampshire, the last temporarily placing itself under 222 00:26:15.340 --> 00:26:18.480 Massachusetts sovereignty. 223 00:26:18.480 --> 00:26:24.380 We remember, however, that the dominion of New England had expanded to New York and to 224 00:26:24.380 --> 00:26:26.780 the banks of the Delaware. 225 00:26:26.780 --> 00:26:32.380 These lower colonies had been left in charge of Lieutenant Governor Francis Nicholson. 226 00:26:32.380 --> 00:26:38.420 Nicholson also learned of the Glorious Revolution in early February, but kept it from the public. 227 00:26:38.420 --> 00:26:45.980 Finally, news of the overthrow of Andros reached New York at approximately the end of April. 228 00:26:45.980 --> 00:26:51.620 Already the Dominion was in a far stronger position in New York than in New England, 229 00:26:51.620 --> 00:26:57.220 for when Andros and his colleagues were arrested, there were no other Dominion officials in 230 00:26:57.220 --> 00:27:00.940 New England to continue the old regime in power. 231 00:27:00.940 --> 00:27:07.300 Furthermore, there were previous charters to which the colonies could conveniently return, 232 00:27:07.300 --> 00:27:12.840 but New York and the lower dominion areas were still controlled by Nicholson and his 233 00:27:12.840 --> 00:27:18.940 subordinate officials, and there were no charters to fall back upon. 234 00:27:18.940 --> 00:27:23.140 Governor Nicholson, the representative of the King's authority in New York and the 235 00:27:23.140 --> 00:27:29.180 Jersey's, was now faced with the problem of what to do at this point. 236 00:27:29.180 --> 00:27:34.680 His first step was to call the New York members of the Council of the Dominion together, but 237 00:27:34.680 --> 00:27:41.500 prudently they failed to appear. Nicholson was left with the appointed civil and military 238 00:27:41.500 --> 00:27:48.300 officials who constituted the de facto government under him. At the end of April, twenty-six 239 00:27:48.300 --> 00:27:55.520 such officials began to meet as a ruling convention or council. The first rebellion against the 240 00:27:55.520 --> 00:28:02.120 The Dominion in New York broke out, as might be expected, in the always turbulent Suffolk 241 00:28:02.120 --> 00:28:09.920 County on eastern Long Island. Led by Southhold, the Freeholders of Suffolk met at Southampton 242 00:28:09.920 --> 00:28:16.840 on May 3, ousted all the local appointed civil and military officials, and elected their 243 00:28:16.840 --> 00:28:24.080 own. They also demanded the return of the tax monies that had been extorted from them. 244 00:28:24.080 --> 00:28:29.480 The Suffolk towns were soon followed by the towns of Westchester and Queens, each of which 245 00:28:29.480 --> 00:28:36.240 established home rule. The grievances of Queens on western Long Island were aggravated by 246 00:28:36.240 --> 00:28:42.680 the fact that drafted militiamen from that county had not been paid for their part in 247 00:28:42.680 --> 00:28:49.680 a military expedition Dongan had sent against French Canada. Now Nicholson decided to pay 248 00:28:49.680 --> 00:28:59.680 The Federal Reserve decided to pay these ex-soldiers, but determined to raise the funds by ordering the collection of Queens County's arrears for back taxes. 249 00:28:59.680 --> 00:29:11.680 The money was never collected from the rebellious people of Queens, and this protest of militiamen's pay was promptly joined by Kings and Suffolk counties. 250 00:29:11.680 --> 00:29:20.440 On May 9, the protesting ex-soldiers gathered armed at Jamaica to demand their promised pay. 251 00:29:20.440 --> 00:29:23.200 Nicholson and his council agreed. 252 00:29:23.200 --> 00:29:28.840 This was followed on the same day by demonstrations for back pay by the New York City militia 253 00:29:28.840 --> 00:29:31.280 with similar results. 254 00:29:31.280 --> 00:29:36.240 We have seen that the Catholicism of several high officials in New York had intensified 255 00:29:36.240 --> 00:29:43.400 The Anti-Catholic hysteria in New York attended on troubles with the French. New York was 256 00:29:43.400 --> 00:29:49.080 the colony closest to French Canada and the Iroquois, and conflicts with the Catholic 257 00:29:49.080 --> 00:29:56.960 French had grown in recent years. By May 6, discontent had spread to New York City itself. 258 00:29:56.960 --> 00:30:03.060 After a vote to apply customs revenue to strengthen the fortification of New York, the charge 259 00:30:03.060 --> 00:30:09.500 Research was made that the collector of customs, Matthew Plowman, was a Catholic. 260 00:30:09.500 --> 00:30:15.580 So hypersensitive were New Yorkers becoming on this issue that a government official at 261 00:30:15.580 --> 00:30:21.580 Setocket, Brookhaven, Long Island, refused to serve as a messenger to Andros, fearing 262 00:30:21.580 --> 00:30:27.620 that the people taking him to be a papist would raise and plunder his house if not offer 263 00:30:27.620 --> 00:30:30.280 violence to his family. 264 00:30:30.280 --> 00:30:34.560 Asserting the accusation against Plowman as a convenient excuse, the merchants of New 265 00:30:34.560 --> 00:30:41.000 York City now refused to pay the custom duties, asserting that they were illegal decrees of 266 00:30:41.000 --> 00:30:42.480 the executive. 267 00:30:42.480 --> 00:30:47.760 In short, the atmosphere in New York by the end of the first week in May was becoming 268 00:30:47.760 --> 00:30:50.720 increasingly revolutionary. 269 00:30:50.720 --> 00:30:56.920 Anti-Catholic prejudice quickly spurred a tax rebellion and an implicit call for a representative 270 00:30:56.920 --> 00:31:03.080 of Assembly, with sole power to levy taxes. And meanwhile, Dominion government was caught 271 00:31:03.080 --> 00:31:10.080 in an increasingly aggravated inner contradiction. The clamor for promised back pay by the armed 272 00:31:10.080 --> 00:31:17.080 militia grew at the same time that refusal to pay taxes increased in scope and breadth. 273 00:31:17.080 --> 00:31:24.120 How then could the Nicholson regime impose more taxes to pay the promised back salaries? 274 00:31:24.120 --> 00:31:30.060 Man's promises were not enough to satisfy the increasingly revolutionary militia. On 275 00:31:30.060 --> 00:31:36.940 May 10, the militia captains of the Long Island towns of Southampton, Eastampton, and Huntington 276 00:31:36.940 --> 00:31:43.760 demanded that the Manhattan fort be delivered into the hands of such persons as the country 277 00:31:43.760 --> 00:31:51.900 shall choose, that is, clearly out of existing hands. The ruling convention of New York City 278 00:31:51.900 --> 00:31:58.460 Many officials denounced the militia action as mutinous, but the Long Island towns, joined 279 00:31:58.460 --> 00:32:05.180 by Hempstead, refused to send delegates to any expanded convention called by Nicholson. 280 00:32:05.180 --> 00:32:10.980 On May 22, the Nicholson Convention ordered the signers of the various petitions to appear 281 00:32:10.980 --> 00:32:18.340 before it. They flatly refused. The developing revolutionary temper of the militia was further 282 00:32:18.340 --> 00:32:24.340 by Nicholas's Failure to Proclaim William and Mary as His Sovereign 283 00:32:24.340 --> 00:32:31.340 This prompted further suspicions of his allegiance to the Catholic and absolutist James II. 284 00:32:31.340 --> 00:32:35.340 Matters finally came to a head on May 30. 285 00:32:35.340 --> 00:32:44.340 Lieutenant Hendrick Kyler of the Militia directed a corporal to place a militiaman at a certain sensitive post at the fort. 286 00:32:44.340 --> 00:32:50.120 When the regular English soldier refused to give way to a New Yorker at the post, Kyler 287 00:32:50.120 --> 00:32:55.680 took the dispute to Nicholson. Not only did the governor side with the soldier and order 288 00:32:55.680 --> 00:33:01.480 the militia corporal from his room at gunpoint, but he told Lieutenant Kyler that he feared 289 00:33:01.480 --> 00:33:08.260 for his life and would set the town in fire rather than see the situation continue. Word 290 00:33:08.260 --> 00:33:14.300 of Nicholson's threats spread through New York City like wildfire and caused an immediate 291 00:33:14.300 --> 00:33:20.340 Revolt by the Militia. The New York Militia decided to ignore all commands from either 292 00:33:20.340 --> 00:33:27.180 Nicholson or his appointed militia commander, Colonel Nicholas Bayard. Further, the Militia 293 00:33:27.180 --> 00:33:33.740 proceeded to take over and hold the fort. The day after this revolt, the Militia issued 294 00:33:33.740 --> 00:33:41.580 a declaration of the inhabitant soldiers. The declaration, signed by some 400 men, avowed 295 00:33:41.580 --> 00:34:05.020 The Revolutionary Militiamen held the fort themselves, but had not yet openly repudiated 296 00:34:05.020 --> 00:34:07.060 Nicholson as governor. 297 00:34:07.060 --> 00:34:13.860 The governor now foolishly precipitated his own ouster by ordering Colonel Bayard to take 298 00:34:13.860 --> 00:34:20.060 command of the militia. When Bayard ordered the militia companies to leave the neighborhood 299 00:34:20.060 --> 00:34:26.260 of the fort, most of them refused. They joined the company that happened to be taking its 300 00:34:26.260 --> 00:34:32.500 turn occupying the fort that day, a company headed by a leading Dutch Calvinist merchant 301 00:34:32.500 --> 00:34:36.980 of German Origin, Captain Jacob Leisler. 302 00:34:36.980 --> 00:34:43.820 The militiamen had now openly repudiated the orders and the rule of the governor. 303 00:34:43.820 --> 00:34:51.020 There were now two parallel governments in New York, the militia and Governor Nicholson 304 00:34:51.020 --> 00:34:53.580 and his convention officials. 305 00:34:53.580 --> 00:35:01.300 On June 3 and 4, four of the five captains of the militia, the leading officers subordinate 306 00:35:01.300 --> 00:35:08.700 to the repudiated Bayard signed a humble address of the militia and people of the city. This 307 00:35:08.700 --> 00:35:16.600 document recognized and hailed King William as liberator from tyranny, potpourri and slavery, 308 00:35:16.600 --> 00:35:22.880 and as the protector of the true Protestant religion, liberty and property. The militia 309 00:35:22.880 --> 00:35:29.540 also proceeded to call for a new revolutionary governmental form, a committee of safety. 310 00:35:29.540 --> 00:35:35.740 The committee consisted of two delegates from each county and was to meet on June 26. 311 00:35:35.740 --> 00:35:41.120 The Nicholson government had precipitated this revolutionary step by ordering all the 312 00:35:41.120 --> 00:35:49.420 New York funds, now kept at the fort, transferred to the home of counselor Frederick Phillips, 313 00:35:49.420 --> 00:35:54.720 and by commanding the militia captains to appear before the convention. 314 00:35:54.720 --> 00:36:01.640 Both demands were refused by four of the five militia captains, with Leisler the most outspoken. 315 00:36:01.640 --> 00:36:08.240 With the Council denouncing the rebels, Nicholson sailed on June 24 to England for help. Before 316 00:36:08.240 --> 00:36:14.360 going he angered New Yorkers still further by ordering the Catholic customs collector, 317 00:36:14.360 --> 00:36:20.320 Matthew Plowman, to enforce the payment of duties. The Nicholson Council now decided 318 00:36:20.320 --> 00:36:27.640 to remove Plowman and to fill his post with four collectors, including the hated Nicholas 319 00:36:27.640 --> 00:36:29.120 Bayard. 320 00:36:29.120 --> 00:36:35.840 The militiamen, however, were by now in far too rebellious a mood to accept this arrangement. 321 00:36:35.840 --> 00:36:41.520 They evicted the four men from the Custom House and substituted their own appointee, 322 00:36:41.520 --> 00:36:46.400 Peter Delanois, a former treasurer and collector of New York City. 323 00:36:46.400 --> 00:36:52.080 Some of the militiamen tried to assault Bayard, but were stopped by Captain Leisler. 324 00:36:52.080 --> 00:36:57.400 On June 26, the Revolutionary Committee of Safety met in Queens. 325 00:36:57.400 --> 00:37:02.000 Most of the counties of New York accepted the invitation to send delegates and prominent 326 00:37:02.000 --> 00:37:08.640 citizens attended from New York City, Kings, Queens, Westchester, and Richmond, Staten 327 00:37:08.640 --> 00:37:15.520 Island counties, as well as one each from the towns of Tappan, Hackensack, and Elizabethtown 328 00:37:15.520 --> 00:37:31.520 The county delegates were in turn elected at county meetings of delegates elected by the towns. Refusing to send delegates was Suffolk County, where the towns, especially Southhold and Setocket, once again hoped to join Connecticut. 329 00:37:31.520 --> 00:37:38.160 Albany, Kingston and most of New Jersey also failed to send representatives. 330 00:37:38.160 --> 00:37:43.300 It seems clear that the town elections were highly democratic, with almost all of the 331 00:37:43.300 --> 00:37:49.480 adult males of the participating towns voting in the elections for delegates. 332 00:37:49.480 --> 00:37:55.780 The Suffolk towns were not, incidentally, the only ones that wanted to merge with Connecticut. 333 00:37:55.780 --> 00:38:01.680 Jacob Leisler was particularly active in working for such a merger, and Connecticut did agree 334 00:38:01.680 --> 00:38:07.760 to send two delegates to the meeting of the Committee of Safety, along with ten friendly 335 00:38:07.760 --> 00:38:09.640 soldiers. 336 00:38:09.640 --> 00:38:15.440 The delegates to the committee, to repeat, were not unknown members of a mob, but prominent 337 00:38:15.440 --> 00:38:17.660 citizens of the community. 338 00:38:17.660 --> 00:38:23.680 The Revolutionary Committee, for example, included in its ranks Dr. Gerardus Beekman 339 00:38:23.680 --> 00:38:30.440 of Kings, a future acting governor of the colony, William Lawrence of Hackensack, a 340 00:38:30.440 --> 00:38:38.880 future counselor, and Samuel Edsel, father-in-law of both Lawrence and Delanois and a prominent 341 00:38:38.880 --> 00:38:42.820 trader who had held political office in New Jersey. 342 00:38:42.820 --> 00:38:48.240 The Committee of Safety officially dissolved the authority of the royal council and its 343 00:38:48.240 --> 00:38:54.620 Liesler's Customs Commissioners appointed Peter Delanois as moderator of the committee 344 00:38:54.620 --> 00:39:01.580 and confirmed his appointment as collector. It also named Jacob Liesler as permanent captain 345 00:39:01.580 --> 00:39:08.500 of the fort. The old municipal court now ceased to meet. Liesler refused to guarantee the 346 00:39:08.500 --> 00:39:16.940 safety of its members. The reactionary pro-Andros mayor of New York City, Stephanus Van Cortland, 347 00:39:16.940 --> 00:39:20.660 and his fellow counselors made themselves scarce. 348 00:39:20.660 --> 00:39:26.480 The revolutionary government was now the sole government in New York City and vicinity. 349 00:39:26.480 --> 00:39:32.100 Now that the revolution had been accomplished and the old order completely overthrown, 350 00:39:32.100 --> 00:39:39.000 we may pause to ask about the meaning of this revolution, for it is important, when weighing 351 00:39:39.000 --> 00:39:45.680 the reasons for the outbreak of a revolution, to separate this stage from the later history 352 00:39:45.680 --> 00:39:50.560 of the Revolutionary Government after it has taken power. 353 00:39:50.560 --> 00:39:56.520 Many writers have judged the rebellion to be a class struggle, a pure outbreak of religious 354 00:39:56.520 --> 00:40:02.080 hatred or an ethnic war of Dutch against English rule. 355 00:40:02.080 --> 00:40:07.360 Yet it should be clear that all these explanations are either fallacious or, in the case of the 356 00:40:07.360 --> 00:40:11.400 religious explanation, partial and misleading. 357 00:40:11.400 --> 00:40:17.700 The Revolution was not a class struggle of the poor against the rich or of the laborer 358 00:40:17.700 --> 00:40:25.200 against other occupations. It was the culmination of many years of political and economic grievances 359 00:40:25.200 --> 00:40:31.920 suffered by every great economic class in the colony, by every section, by English and 360 00:40:31.920 --> 00:40:38.200 Dutch alike. The aggressively English towns of Suffolk were and had always been even more 361 00:40:38.200 --> 00:40:43.080 are more revolutionary than the Dutch of New York, and the Dutch members of the ruling 362 00:40:43.080 --> 00:40:48.840 oligarchy, the Bayards, the Van Cortlands, and the leading Dutch ministers, were just 363 00:40:48.840 --> 00:40:52.960 as fiercely opposed to the revolution as were the English members. 364 00:40:52.960 --> 00:40:58.720 Economically, the leaders of the revolutionary movement ranged from the prominent merchants 365 00:40:58.720 --> 00:41:05.520 and other citizens named above, to such men as Joost Stol, a carter, and an ensign in 366 00:41:05.520 --> 00:41:11.160 and Lisler's Militia Company. Stoll was probably the single person most responsible for the 367 00:41:11.160 --> 00:41:17.480 fateful decision of the militia to seize the fort on May 30. In short, this was truly a 368 00:41:17.480 --> 00:41:24.280 liberal people's revolution, a revolution of all classes and ethnic strains in New York 369 00:41:24.280 --> 00:41:30.980 against the common oppressors, the oligarchal ruling clique and its favorites, receivers 370 00:42:00.980 --> 00:42:06.300 Rebellion of the Rebellion has written, a fair characterization of all the opponents 371 00:42:06.300 --> 00:42:14.620 of the revolution would be that they were officials and landed, or would be landed aristocrats. 372 00:42:14.620 --> 00:42:20.060 There are, however, no grounds for terming the rebellion a class struggle in the Marxist 373 00:42:20.060 --> 00:42:21.860 sense. 374 00:42:21.860 --> 00:42:24.720 Capitalists were found in both camps. 375 00:42:24.720 --> 00:42:30.020 The reason for the last statement might be added, capitalists are never a homogenous 376 00:42:30.020 --> 00:42:37.640 entity, as is true of all Marxian classes that are not, as we have noted above, estates 377 00:42:37.640 --> 00:42:43.600 or castes. The capitalists who gained their money from government privilege were against 378 00:42:43.600 --> 00:42:49.940 the revolution. The capitalists who earned their money in free market activity joined 379 00:42:49.940 --> 00:42:53.560 and all the other producers in the colony to favor it. 380 00:42:53.560 --> 00:42:58.380 As in the other colonies under dominion rule, though with greater difficulty because of the 381 00:42:58.380 --> 00:43:05.060 Nicholsonian bureaucracy, the people took heart from the overthrow of Andros in Boston 382 00:43:05.060 --> 00:43:09.340 to end the hated rule of the dominion in New York as well. 383 00:43:09.340 --> 00:43:15.840 Even the anti-Catholicism is largely explainable by the Catholicism of James II and many of 384 00:43:15.840 --> 00:43:18.900 his ruling henchmen in New York. 385 00:43:18.900 --> 00:43:24.780 And finally, the revolution in New York cannot correctly be termed Leisler's Rebellion. 386 00:43:24.780 --> 00:43:30.140 The fact that Jacob Leisler acquired control of the revolutionary government after it had 387 00:43:30.140 --> 00:43:36.580 assumed power should not be allowed to obscure the fact that Leisler was only one of the 388 00:43:36.580 --> 00:43:42.980 many leaders of the actual revolution and that this was a spontaneous uprising of the 389 00:43:42.980 --> 00:43:44.760 mass of the people. 390 00:43:44.760 --> 00:43:52.600 Any libertarian revolution that takes power immediately confronts a grave inner contradiction. 391 00:43:52.600 --> 00:43:58.120 In the last analysis, liberty and power are incompatible. 392 00:43:58.120 --> 00:44:06.120 Thus, Peter Delanois was now supposed to collect the colony's taxes, but a tax paid to a Delanois 393 00:44:06.120 --> 00:44:13.020 was no less oppressive or tyrannical than the same tax paid to a Nicholson, and so the 394 00:44:13.020 --> 00:44:18.380 The merchants still refused to pay the duties, again using the argument that they had not 395 00:44:18.380 --> 00:44:24.460 been levied by a representative assembly. Six weeks later, the revolution took a decisive 396 00:44:24.460 --> 00:44:31.460 step from liberty to power. On August 16, the Committee of Safety in its second meeting 397 00:44:31.840 --> 00:44:38.840 created an executive of almost unlimited authority by naming Jacob Leisler Commander-in-Chief 398 00:44:38.840 --> 00:44:42.840 The first step was to arrest whoever dared to criticize the new regime. 399 00:44:42.840 --> 00:44:46.840 Arrest included merchants and laborers, Dutchmen such as the Schulers and Philipses, and Anglicans 400 00:44:46.840 --> 00:44:50.840 such as Thomas Clark. 401 00:44:50.840 --> 00:44:54.840 Many were arrested on suspicion of disloyalty. 402 00:44:54.840 --> 00:44:58.840 It is true, however, that the prisoners were treated with relative respect. 403 00:44:58.840 --> 00:45:02.840 The first step was to arrest whoever dared to criticize the new regime. 404 00:45:02.840 --> 00:45:06.840 The first step was to arrest whoever dared to criticize the new regime. 405 00:45:06.840 --> 00:45:33.840 The Revolutionary Committee of Safety decided to press ahead with the annual September elections that had been held in pre-dominion years. 406 00:45:33.840 --> 00:45:41.400 Also, to expand democracy and check oligarchy by subjecting justices of the peace and militia 407 00:45:41.400 --> 00:45:45.480 captains to the decisions of the voters. 408 00:45:45.480 --> 00:45:51.960 In an action reflecting the bitter anti-Catholicism of the people, all Protestant freeholders 409 00:45:51.960 --> 00:45:54.680 were made eligible to vote. 410 00:45:54.680 --> 00:45:59.760 In New York City, the people elected aldermen and common councillors according to the old 411 00:45:59.760 --> 00:46:00.760 charter. 412 00:46:00.760 --> 00:46:06.240 In addition, Leisler made elective the three top posts in the city, Mayor, Sheriff and 413 00:46:06.240 --> 00:46:12.640 Town Clerk, which had always been appointed. The free elections removed the counter-revolutionaries 414 00:46:12.640 --> 00:46:20.160 from office, and Stephanus Van Cortland was replaced as Mayor by Peter Delanois, who was 415 00:46:20.160 --> 00:46:26.400 to be the last popularly elected Mayor of New York until the 19th century. Although 416 00:46:26.400 --> 00:46:30.920 Although Leisler and the Committee controlled the bulk of New York, they did not command 417 00:46:30.920 --> 00:46:37.440 the allegiance of Albany. Albany, tightly run by the privileged monopolist of the Iroquois 418 00:46:37.440 --> 00:46:45.200 fur trade, was devoted to the Dominion. Its top officials were leaders of the Andros oligarchy, 419 00:46:45.200 --> 00:46:51.720 for example Mayor Peter Schuler and his assistant and brother-in-law, Robert Livingston. In 420 00:46:51.720 --> 00:46:55.880 In the fall elections, Albany simply re-elected its old officials. 421 00:46:55.880 --> 00:47:00.880 The shift from liberty to power was now proceeding apace. 422 00:47:00.880 --> 00:47:05.480 Leisler and the committee became filled with imperialist zeal to impose their unwanted 423 00:47:05.480 --> 00:47:08.120 rule on Albany. 424 00:47:08.120 --> 00:47:13.720 An expedition of three ships was sent by Leisler under his future son-in-law, the merchant 425 00:47:13.720 --> 00:47:17.320 Jacob Milburn, to seize Albany. 426 00:47:17.320 --> 00:47:23.360 Albany, to cover itself, forced every townsman to take an oath of allegiance to William & Mary. 427 00:47:23.360 --> 00:47:29.040 The Albany Convention then refused to permit Milburn to enter the fort. Milburn now tried 428 00:47:29.040 --> 00:47:34.280 to appeal to the people of Albany over the heads of their rulers. He urged them to overthrow 429 00:47:34.280 --> 00:47:41.640 all government derived from James II and promised free elections and other liberties. Milburn's 430 00:47:41.640 --> 00:47:48.840 The stirring words had some effect and a hundred citizens of Albany elected Joachim Statz as 431 00:47:48.840 --> 00:47:55.200 captain of Milburn's troops in Albany. But the support of Statz and the Albany opposition 432 00:47:55.200 --> 00:48:02.280 for Milburn was not enough. The Convention oligarchy and the fort determined to resist 433 00:48:02.280 --> 00:48:08.080 and they threw into the breach the powerful support of the Iroquois, fur trading allies 434 00:48:08.080 --> 00:48:15.280 of the Albany Oligarchs. The Iroquois threatened to attack Milborne should he persist, and 435 00:48:15.280 --> 00:48:22.400 Milborne finally left ignominiously for home. Moreover, to complete the fiasco, Captain 436 00:48:22.400 --> 00:48:28.960 Statz and his Milborne militia were now obliged to take orders from the Convention. Albany 437 00:48:28.960 --> 00:48:34.740 was the more strengthened by Connecticut's recognition of its Convention government. 438 00:48:34.740 --> 00:48:40.700 At this point, Leisler's fortunes took a swift turn upward. A letter arrived in mid-December 439 00:48:40.700 --> 00:48:47.820 from King William, legitimizing the rule of either Nicholson or such as for the time being 440 00:48:47.820 --> 00:48:54.540 take care for preserving the peace and administering the laws, and naming said person lieutenant 441 00:48:54.540 --> 00:49:03.540 governor. Thus, by the end of 1689, the revolutionary government in New York, as in Massachusetts, 442 00:49:03.540 --> 00:49:09.680 had been at least temporarily legitimized by the Crown, while the other New England colonies 443 00:49:09.680 --> 00:49:15.940 resumed their old ways of self-government. As with the other colonies, the key to their 444 00:49:15.940 --> 00:49:23.060 fate rested on the decisions of the new monarch. The August session of the Committee of Safety 445 00:49:23.060 --> 00:49:29.540 had decided to send an agent to England to plead its case. Chosen was the revolutionary 446 00:49:29.540 --> 00:49:36.220 Murray Cartman, Joost Stoll, whose lower-class ways were not, alas, calculated to endear 447 00:49:36.220 --> 00:49:43.220 him to the aristocratic officials of the Crown. Stoll presented seven bold demands to the 448 00:49:43.220 --> 00:49:49.220 Privy Council, including royal and parliamentary approval of the actions of the Revolution, 449 00:49:49.220 --> 00:49:55.620 a new self-governing charter for New York, and encouragement for a united colonial effort 450 00:49:55.620 --> 00:50:02.620 to Conquer French Canada. But unlike the cause of Massachusetts at court, Leisler's regime 451 00:50:02.620 --> 00:50:09.300 was doomed from the start. For even as Leisler was being temporarily confirmed in his post, 452 00:50:09.300 --> 00:50:16.260 the King prepared to end his rule and all self-government in New York. Heavily influenced 453 00:50:16.260 --> 00:50:23.260 by the reports of the old oligarchs Bayard and Van Cortland, the Lords of Trade recommended 454 00:50:23.260 --> 00:50:29.020 that a royal governor with two companies of troops be sent to rule New York. 455 00:50:29.020 --> 00:50:32.880 Colonel Henry Slaughter was promptly chosen as governor. 456 00:50:32.880 --> 00:50:38.620 Only a war in France held up Slaughter's actual arrival in New York and permitted Leisler 457 00:50:38.620 --> 00:50:41.380 to continue his interim rule. 458 00:50:41.380 --> 00:50:47.100 In contrast to conditions in other colonies under dominion rule, everything was quiet 459 00:50:47.100 --> 00:50:53.340 during the Glorious Revolution in the colonies of East Jersey and West Jersey. 460 00:50:53.340 --> 00:50:58.300 While the New England colonies aimed to resume self-government, and while New York tried 461 00:50:58.300 --> 00:51:05.060 to move from royal colony to self-government, the Jerseys had been proprietary colonies 462 00:51:05.060 --> 00:51:07.160 before the Dominion. 463 00:51:07.160 --> 00:51:13.020 With Nicholson and his royal officials gone, the proprietors who had been facing co-warrento 464 00:51:13.020 --> 00:51:19.580 Action against their territories trod warily in deed and did nothing during the years of 465 00:51:19.580 --> 00:51:23.020 turmoil after 1689. 466 00:51:23.020 --> 00:51:28.300 Central government in the Jersey's disappeared with the end of the Dominion and the colonies 467 00:51:28.300 --> 00:51:32.280 were left with existing local governments only. 468 00:51:32.280 --> 00:51:38.400 In this state of purely minimal government, the people of the Jersey's were happy. 469 00:51:38.400 --> 00:51:44.440 The Royal Officials were gone, their ancient proprietary enemies were cautious and inactive. 470 00:51:44.440 --> 00:51:49.240 Indeed, there was virtually nothing against which to revolt.