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CHAPTER II.

NATIONAL COLONIAL POLITICS.

1607-1776.

POLITICAL RELATIONS OF THE COLONIES.

While the colonies were separate in their local organizations and managed their internal affairs without molesting one another, they were as one people in their relation to the British nation, whose authority, vested in the king and Parliament, was supreme. In this relation they had interests in common and contended for them with a united zeal.

POLITICAL CLAIMS OF THE COLONISTS.

There was a difference of opinion between the colonists and the crown as to how far Great Britain might legitimately exercise her authority in the colonies. This occasioned much discussion and formed the basis of the political differences between the colonies and the home government. So great was the divergence that it was difficult of reconciliation. The colonists claimed that they were loyal English subjects and willing to defend the person and territory of their sovereign against foreign enemies to the extent of their ability; that by removing to America they lost none of their rights as Englishmen, and that they were entitled to all the privileges secured to every citizen in the Magna Charta and the Bill of Rights, foremost among which were trial by jury and the writ of habeas corpus; that the charters which they obtained from the crown were civil compacts and could not be changed, save by mutual consent; that they possessed the right of making their own laws through their representatives freely chosen,

and that the only limitation to colonial legislation was that their enactments should not be antagonistic to the laws of England; that no tax should be imposed upon them but such as they freely voted in their local assemblies to levy and collect; that they possessed the right of ultimate judicial decision in all cases whatever, and that appeal to any English authority was not legal; that the authority of Parliament could not be recognized, since the colonists were not represented in that body; that they could not be bound by laws in the enactment of which they had no voice; that to Parliament was granted the reserved right of general legislation and of imposing duties to regulate commerce, but its right to supervise internal interests was denied.

These positions were not held by every colony at first, but as the aggressions of Parliament increased the sentiments were adopted, and finally advocated by all. On these national issues the colonists who supported popular rights, planted themselves, and, confident of right, maintained their position with an ability and success that have attracted the admiration of the world. Neither did they operate without antagonism at home. The court party combatted their political views and supported the policy and measures of England.

POLICY OF ENGLAND TOWARD THE COLONIES.

The planting of English colonies, though without exception the result of private enterprise, was generally favored by the sovereigns of England. James I., wishing to open a field of enterprise for adventurous men who thronged England after the long war with Spain, which closed in 1604, readily granted, for purposes of colonization and trade, the vast country between Halifax and Cape Fear. Over the colonies, planted in this territory, the king assumed jurisdiction and maintained that they were the property of the crown, and not subject to the legislation of Parliament. After the affairs of Vir

ginia grew into importance, a royal interference with the London company was kept up till the corporation dissolved.

Charles I. did not preserve a uniform course of action toward his subjects in America. He opposed the Virginians who were royalists, endeavored to monopolize the profits of their industry, attempted to deprive them of many rights, and declared that a "chartered incorporation was totally unfit to manage the affairs of a remote colony."

In opposition to this policy, he favored an association of Puritans called the Massachusetts Bay Company, granted them a charter guaranteeing political rights and religious freedom, and assured them that "he would maintain their privileges and supply whatever else might contribute to their comfort and prosperity." With greater liberality, he granted to Lord Baltimore, for the settlement of Maryland, a charter conferring the rights of freemen upon the settlers, exempting them perpetually from royal taxation, and empowering them to make laws with the approbation of a majority. A wish to rid his kingdom of political and religious agitators seemed to have been the object of the king in opening for the Puritans an asylum in the west. When they became permanently established in Massachusetts, and emigrants to their colony left England in great numbers, the king became jealous of their success and influence, and began royal interference to weaken their power and subvert their liberties. In 1633, he opposed emigration of the Puritans, and on two occasions afterward ships bound for New England were prevented from sailing by order of the council. An attempt to deprive Massachusetts of her charter was defeated by difficulties at home, which resulted in the execution of the king.

During the civil war in England, the colonies were not molested. When Parliament assumed the reins of government, it sent a squadron to reduce to obedience the colony of Virginia, which adhered to the cause of Charles II., a fugitive in

France. It demanded that Massachusetts give up her charter and receive a new one in the name of Parliament. This requisition was never enforced. To punish Holland for not forming a close confederacy with England, and to promote British commerce, Parliament framed, in 1651, the famous navigation act, which prohibited the importation into England of colonial products of America, Africa, and Asia, except in British ships, three-fourths of whose mariners were Englishmen. This law was the beginning of that commercial policy which, with other acts of oppression, ultimately drove the Americans to take up arms in the cause of independence. During the Protectorate, this act was not fully enforced against the colonists by Cromwell, whose administration was one of leniency toward them.

Charles II. revived the commercial policy which guided Parliament during the Commonwealth. The American colonies, no more considered the property of the crown, were regarded as portions of the British realm, subject to the legislation of Parliament. In 1660, the navigation laws were remodeled so as to make England the only market for important articles produced in America. At the same time England, Ireland, and Guernsey, were prohibited from cultivating tobacco, in order to grant to the provinces in America a seeming monopoly of the trade in that plant. The countries. thus interdicted, not being naturally adapted to the growth of tobacco, were but slightly injured by the law. In 1663, the navigation acts were amended so as to require the colonies to purchase from England all their European commodities. In 1672, a tax was imposed on articles imported from one colony to another. These exactions "based upon the principle that the colonies were established at the cost, and for the benefit. of the mother country," were enacted to keep the Americans dependent on England.

The laws were generally evaded by the colonists, and,

in or-,

der to enforce them in Virginia, vessels were sent to cruise along the coast, and forts were built on her principal rivers. In 1662, the King required of Massachusetts that she should grant the right of franchise to freeholders; that worship in the church of England should be tolerated; that every citizen *should take the oath of allegiance to the crown; and that the administration of justice should be conducted in the sovereign's name. The colony complied only with the last of these requisitions. A number of liberal charters was obtained from Charles II. That granted to Penn was the first one received from an English sovereign in which the authority of Parliament was recognized.

The policy of this monarch was pursued by James II. An attempt was made in 1685, to unite under one government the American colonies from Delaware to Maine. Edmond Andros, having been made governor-general of New England, and having subverted the liberties of the people, extended his authority over New York and New Jersey. In 1689, the tyrant was arrested in Massachusetts and sent to England. This ended, in America, the despotism of the Stuarts.

William III. did not encroach upon the rights of his subjects, nor did he surrender to them any prerogative which legally belonged to himself. During his reign, the colonies retained their political privileges, and the governments received greater permanency. The English Revolution marked the close of excessive royal interference with the American colonies and the beginning of a uniform policy; but the idea that the colonies were dependent was not abandoned.

In 1719, the House of Commons enacted "that erecting any manufactories in the colonies tends to lessen their dependence upon Great Britain."

In 1732, Parliament prohibited both the transportation of woolen goods from one colony to another, and a hatter from having more than two apprentices. The following year a duty

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