Two or three sessions passed with little more, on the part of the governor, than a repetition of his demand for a fixed salary, and an intimation that he should be obliged to return to England, and state the conduct of the house of representatives to the King. Some unsuccessful attempts were made by his friends to pass a bill fixing the salary during his administration, with a protest against the principle, and against that bill's being drawn into precedent. Failing in this expedient, and finding the house inflexible, he despaired of succeeding with that body, and turned his attention to the relaxation of his instructions. 1731He advised an address from the house to his majesty, praying that he might be permitted to receive the sum which the legislature had offered to grant him. This was allowed by the crown; with the understanding that he was still to insist on a compliance with his instructions. Leave to accept particular grants was obtained for two or three years successively; and, at length, a general permission was conceded to accept such sums as might be given by the assembly.[130]
Contest concerning the salary terminated.
Thus was terminated, the stubborn contest concerning a permanent salary for the governor. Its circumstances have been given more in detail than consists with the general plan of this work, because it is considered as exhibiting, in genuine colours, the character of the people engaged in it. It is regarded as an early and an honourable display of the same persevering temper in defence of principle, of the same unconquerable spirit of liberty, which at a later day, and on a more important question, tore the British colonies from a country to which they had been strongly attached.
1733
The immense quantity of depreciated paper which was in circulation throughout New England, had no tendency to diminish the complaints of the scarcity of money. Massachusetts and New Hampshire were restrained from farther emissions by the instructions to their governors, who received their appointments from the crown. Connecticut, engaged chiefly in agricultural pursuits, suffered less from this depreciated medium than her neighbours, and was less disposed to increase its evils. Rhode Island, equally commercial with Massachusetts, and equally fond of paper, chose her own governor, and might therefore indulge, without restraint, her passion for a system alike unfavourable to morals and to industry. That colony now issued one hundred thousand pounds on loan, to its inhabitants, for twenty years. The merchants of Boston, apprehensive that this capital would transfer the stock of Massachusetts to Rhode Island, associated against receiving the new emission; and many of them formed a company which issued one hundred and ten thousand pounds, redeemable with specie, in ten years, a tenth part annually, at the then current value of paper. The association against receiving the new emission of Rhode Island was not long observed; and the bills of New Hampshire and Connecticut were also current. Silver immediately rose to twenty-seven shillings the ounce, and the notes issued by the merchants soon disappeared, leaving in circulation only the government paper.
1739
Great uneasiness prevailed through Massachusetts on this subject. The last instalment of the bills would become due in 1741, and no power existed to redeem them by new emissions. Serious consequences were apprehended from calling in the circulating medium without substituting another in its place, and the alarm was increased by the circumstance that the taxes had been so lightly apportioned on the first years, as to require the imposition of heavy burdens for the redemption of what remained in circulation. The discontents excited by these causes were manifested in the elections, and were directed against the governor, who was openly hostile to the paper system.
Land bank.
The projector of the bank again came forward; and, placing himself at the head of seven or eight hundred persons, some of whom possessed property, proposed to form a company which should issue one hundred and fifty thousand pounds in bills. By this scheme, every borrower of a sum larger than one hundred pounds, was to mortgage real estate to secure its re-payment. The borrowers of smaller sums might secure their re-payment either by mortgage, or by bond with two securities. Each subscriber, or partner was to pay, annually, three per centum interest on the sum he should take, and five per centum of the principal, either in the bills themselves, or in the produce and manufactures of the country, at such rates as the directors should, from time to time, establish.
Although the favourers of this project were so successful at the elections as to obtain a great majority in the general court, men of fortune, and the principal merchants, refused to receive these bills. Many small traders, however, and other persons interested in the circulation of a depreciated currency, gave them credit. The directors themselves, it was said, became traders; and issued bills without limitation, and without giving security for their redemption. The governor, anticipating the pernicious effects of the institution, exerted all his influence against it. He displaced such executive officers as were members of it, and negatived the speaker, and thirteen members elected to the council, who were also of the company. 1740Company dissolved.General confusion being apprehended, application was made to parliament for an act to suppress the company. This being readily obtained, the company was dissolved, and the holders of the bills were allowed their action against its members, individually.[131]