By his bold and independent course, so much at variance with the views of his royal master, Governor Dongan incurred the displeasure of James II., who suspended him from his functions, and about April, 1688, the governor resigned his office. The functions of the office of governor then devolved upon the deputy-governor, Nicholson. Smith, the historian, says of Dongan's removal from the office which he had graced so well, and in which he had done so much for the good of his king and his fellow-citizens, that "he fell into the king's displeasure through his zeal for the true interest of the province."

The voluminous correspondence between Governor Dongan and Mons. Denonville, governor of Canada, on the relations of the two rival English and French colonies, published in the Colonial and Documentary histories of New York, is replete with interest, as containing valuable information concerning the affairs of the day, and as fairly illustrating the character of our governor. Though frequently running into bitter personalities and irreconcilable conflict, the letters of these two officials were not devoid of personal courtesies and amenities. Thus, we see the French governor acting as a mediator with his sovereign in behalf of Governor Dongan, in order that he might recover his claim for services rendered in the French army; and we find Governor Dongan, at one time, regretting that distance prevented him from meeting and interchanging social civilities with his rival; and, at another, sending to the Canadian governor a present of oranges, which, he had heard, were a great rarity in Canada, and regretting that the messenger's want of "carriage" prevented him from sending more.

There was one point, however, upon which Governor Dongan was ever uncompromising; this was his determination to claim the great lakes as his boundary, and to submit to nothing short of this. He carried his point even in his own day; for the royal arms of England were emblazoned on the Indian castles along that border, English forts defended it, and the Five Nations recognized the king of England as their father. Though wars intervened, this boundary was afterward recognized, by solemn treaty, as the line dividing the English and French dominions in our day, the visitor to the great lakes, and the tourist at the falls of Niagara, sees the American flag floating where Governor Dongan planted its predecessor, the standard of our English ancestors. Then,

"Proudly hath it floated
Through the battles of the sea,
When the red-cross flag o'er smoke-wreaths played
Like the lightning in its glee."
Hemans.

Now,

"When Freedom from her mountain height
Unfurled her standard to the air,
She tore the azure robe of night,
And set her stars of glory there."
Drake.

After his retirement from office, Governor Dongan spent his time in New York and on Staten Island, in both of which places he had acquired some property, but resided mostly on his estate on Staten Island. He was offered the commission of a major-general in the British army, and the command of a regiment in the service of James II., all of which he declined to accept.

From the time that James II. ascended the English throne, discontents began to arise among his Protestant subjects, on both sides of the ocean, at the transfer of power from the Protestants to the Catholics. The appointment of Governor Dongan, "a professed papist," was offensive at first to the people of the province of New York; but his upright administration, his devotion to the best interests of the colony, and his personal popularity, quelled all actual disturbance during his term of office. We have seen that, soon after his arrival, civil and religious liberty were guaranteed, and that he selected the council from members of the Dutch Reformed Church, in order to disarm all prejudices. He certainly was not disposed, however, to debar himself and his fellow-Catholic subjects from the enjoyment of that religious liberty which he had done so much to secure for others. He had been accompanied to New York, in 1683, by Father Thomas Harvey, S.J., who performed the divine services in the governor's chapel, in the fort, and attended to the spiritual wants of the governor, and of such Catholics as were in New York during his administration. Fathers Harrison and Gage were sent for, and arrived in New York afterward, with the view of superseding the French missionaries among the Indians. It does not appear that large numbers of Catholics emigrated to New York, during his administration, for his plan for encouraging emigration from Ireland was not carried into effect; yet it is reasonable to suppose that the number of Catholics increased somewhat under the favorable auspices of a Catholic governor. And, although Matthias Plowman, the successor to Mr. Santer, the late collector, was a Catholic, we do not find that Governor Dongan filled many of the public offices in his gift with Catholics. Mr. Nicholson, the deputy-governor, into whose hands Governor Dongan resigned his office, was not appointed by him, but was the deputy of Governor Andros, who had been appointed by the home government governor of New England and New York, and whose headquarters were at Boston; this Mr. Nicholson was said to have been "an adherent of the Catholic faith." Religious controversies ran high, however, during this period, and historians generally inform us that plots were formed by the Protestants, not only in England, under James, but also in the province of New York, under Governor Dongan. This seems probable from the readiness with which the people on both sides of the Atlantic rose on their Catholic rulers as soon as the opportunity presented itself. This opportunity was afforded not long after Governor Dongan's retirement from office, in 1689, on the invasion of England by William Prince of Orange, and the abdication and flight of James II. from England.

The tone of public sentiment in New York in 1689 is thus described by Bishop Bayley, in his treatise on the History of the Catholic Church on the Island of New York: