65. Workings of the Confederation (1643-1660).
Inequality of representation.
The league which it represented is "interesting as the first American experiment in federation;" but it had one fertile source of weakness. There were in the four colonies represented an aggregate population of about twenty-four thousand, of which Massachusetts contained fifteen thousand, the other three having not more than three thousand each. In case of war Massachusetts agreed to send one hundred men for every forty-five furnished by each of her colleagues. In two ways she bore the heaviest burden,—in the number of men sent to war, and in the amount of taxes levied therefor. As each colony was to have an equal vote in the conduct of the league, Massachusetts was placed at a disadvantage. She frequently endeavored to exercise larger power than was allowed her under the articles, thus arousing the enmity of the smaller colonies, and endangering the existence of the union.
Massachusetts in control.
Nevertheless, during the twenty years in which the confederation was the strongest political power on the continent of North America, Massachusetts maintained control of its general policy. Maine and the settlements along Narragansett Bay in vain made application to join the confederation. It was objected that public order was not established in Rhode Island, and moreover the oath taken by the freemen there bespoke fealty to the English king. As for Maine, its proprietor, Gorges, was enlisted on the side of the monarch, and the political system in vogue in his province differed from that in the other colonies.
Nature of the Board of Commissioners.
The board was little more than a committee of public safety; it acted upon the colonial legislatures, and not on the individual colonists, and had no power to enforce its decrees. One of its early interests was the building up of Harvard College; and at its request there was taken up, throughout the four colonies, a contribution of "corn for the poor scholars in Cambridge."
Local independence greater than national patriotism.
In the articles of confederation there was no reference whatever to the home government. The New Englanders had taken charge of their own affairs, apparently without a thought of the supremacy of either king or parliament. The spirit of local independence among these people was greater than national patriotism. With Laud in prison and the king an outcast, there could be no interference from that quarter, and Parliament was too busy just then to give much thought to the doings of the distant American colonists. In November (1643) Parliament instituted a commission for the government of the colonies, with the Earl of Warwick at its head; but it was of small avail so far as New England was concerned.
Jealousy of interference from England.