Soon after the patent to the duke of York, and before the conquest of New Netherlands, that prince had granted to lord Berkeley, and sir George Carteret, all that tract of land adjacent to New England, to the westward of Long Island, bounded on the east, south, and west, by the river Hudson, the sea, and the Delaware; and, on the north, by forty-one degrees and forty minutes north latitude. This country was denominated New Jersey.[96]
The conquest of New Netherlands being achieved, the commissioners entered on the other duties assigned them. A great part of Connecticut had been included in the patent to the duke of York; and a controversy concerning limits arose between that colony and New York. In December, their boundaries were adjusted by the commissioners in a manner which appears to have been satisfactory to all parties.
In Plymouth, and in Rhode Island, the commissioners found no difficulty in the full exercise of the powers committed to them. In Massachusetts, they were considered as men clothed with an authority subversive of the liberties of the colony, which the sovereign could not rightly confer. The people of that province had been long in habits of self-government, and seem to have entertained opinions which justified their practice. They did not acknowledge that allegiance to the crown which is due from English subjects residing within the realm; but considered themselves as purchasers from independent sovereigns of the territory which they occupied, and as owing to England, only that voluntary subjection which was created and defined by their charter. They considered this instrument as a compact between the mother country and themselves, and as enumerating all the cases in which obedience was due from them. In this spirit, they agreed, soon after the arrival of the commissioners, on an address to the crown. This address, in which they express great apprehension of danger to their rights from the extraordinary powers granted to men not appointed in conformity with their charter, is drawn up in a style of much earnestness and sincerity, and concludes with these remarkable words, "let our government live, our patent live, our magistrates live, our religious enjoyments live; so shall we all yet have farther cause to say from our hearts, let the King live for ever." This address was accompanied with letters to many of the nobility supposed to possess influence at court, praying their intercession in behalf of the colony; but neither the address, nor the letters were favourably received.[97]
1665
Conduct of Massachusetts to the royal commissioners.
In April the commissioners arrived at Boston, and their communications with the general court commenced. The suspicions which these two bodies entertained of each other, opposed great obstacles to any cordial co-operation between them. The papers, on the part of the commissioners, display high ideas of their own authority, as the representatives of the crown, and a pre-conceived opinion that there was a disposition in the government to resist that authority. Those on the part of the general court manifest a wish to avoid a contest with the crown, and a desire to gratify his majesty, so far as professions of loyalty and submission could gratify him; but they manifest also a conviction of having done nothing improper, and a steadfast determination to make no concession incompatible with their rights. With these impressions, the correspondence soon became an altercation. The commissioners, finding their object was to be obtained neither by reasoning, nor by threats, attempted a practical assertion of their powers by summoning the parties before them, in order to hear and decide a complaint against the governor and company. The general court, with a decision which marked alike their vigour, and the high value they placed on their privileges, announced by sound of trumpet, their disapprobation of this proceeding, which they termed inconsistent with the laws and established authority; and declared that, in observance of their duty to God and to his majesty, and of the trust reposed in them by his majesty's good subjects in the colony, they could not consent to such proceedings, nor countenance those who would so act, or such as would abet them.
As a ground of compromise, the court stated their willingness to hear the case themselves in the presence of the commissioners, who would thereby be enabled to understand its merits; but this proposition was at once rejected, and every effort towards reconciliation proved unavailing.[98]
1666
From Massachusetts, the commissioners proceeded to New Hampshire and Maine. They decided in favour of the claims of Mason and Gorges, and erected a royal government in each province, appointed justices of the peace, and exercised other acts of sovereignty; after which they returned to Boston. The general court, declaring that their proceedings to the eastward tended to the disturbance of the public peace, asked a conference on the subject, which was refused with a bitterness of expression that put an end to all farther communication between the parties. Massachusetts, soon afterwards, re-established her authority both in New Hampshire and Maine.
They are recalled.