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144

DISPUTES OF MASSACHUSETTS, CONNECTICUT, ETC.

miles of Manhattan, though the Dutch still retained their post at Hartford. The consolidation of the towns by the Connecticut charter of 1662 settled the question as between Massachusetts and Plymouth by forming a new colony, the Dutch being soon afterward driven out of America.

A boundary dispute arose between Massachusetts and Plymouth, the region in dispute being a meadow lying between Scituate and Hingham. Commissioners settled the matter in 1640 by dividing the lands in question, though Massachusetts was clearly overbearing in her demands.

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Long before the charter was granted to Connecticut, Massachusetts recognized the separate existence of that colony and began to dispute with her about the boundary. In 1642 she sent two men to survey the line according to her charter. They found a point which they thought was "three English miles on the south part of the Charles River, then took ship for the Connecticut River where they proceeded to locate a point which they claimed was in the same latitude as the first. Needless to say it included Springfield, the chief town in dispute. Indeed, Massachusetts claimed all to a line just north of Windsor and for nearly a century this furnished matter for dispute.

*Osgood, vol. ii., p. 394; Doyle, English Colonies in America, vol. ii., p. 222.

The matter had been brought to issue by the attempt of Connecticut to collect duties on goods passing up the river to and from Springfield. Her excuse for doing so was to obtain means to keep up the fort at Saybrook and to fulfill her contract of purchase, namely, that the vendor, George Fenwick, should have the tolls on all vessels passing in and out of the river for ten years. Against this Massachusetts protested, but the tolls seem to have been enforced at irregular intervals. Finally (1647) Massachusetts levied duties on goods from Connecticut and Plymouth imported or exported through Boston, whereupon Connecticut confirmed her previous order for tolls.

This part of the controversy was settled in 1650 by mutual forbearance, but the boundary continued in dispute for many years. In 1714 a compromise was agreed upon close to the

present line.
present line. Connecticut received
107,000 acres of wild lands in Massa-
chusetts from which Yale College
realized about $2,500.

The settlements in Rhode Island
began in consequence of a dispute, and
continued to be a cause for dispute
for many years. Though the settlers
had been driven out of Massachusetts,
tion over that territory, her purpose
she was disposed to assert jurisdic-
being to make them conform
"harry them out of the land.”
this course she was led on by internal

or

In

* Johnston, Connecticut, pp. 207-209; Osgood, vol. i., pp. 416-419.

THE DISPUTE OVER MAINE.

discord in the colony itself. One Gorton, a friend of Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, proved a disturbing factor there. When certain of the Rhode Islanders appealed to Massachusetts for aid against him, she promptly responded and decreed his banishment. Gorton promptly repaired to England and secured an order for Massachusetts to allow him to reside at Warwick (1642-8).

But if the Rhode Islanders were ready to appeal to Massachusetts against Gorton, they were not willing to be absorbed. The eastern boundary was finally fixed in 1741 by commissioners, from whose decision the Rhode Islanders appealed in vain to the crown, but the northern boundary was not so easily settled. In fact it was in dispute for about 200 years and became a cause celebre.

In 1643 Massachusetts secured a grant from the Parliamentary Commissioners which seemed to threaten the very existence of Rhode Island; but Roger Williams offset this a few months later by securing a charter for his colony, in which he was granted the region about Narragansett Bay, Massachusetts finally (1658) abandoning her claim. The northern line, as fixed by the commissioners of Massachusetts in 1642, continued a matter of dispute until 171011, when commissioners from the two colonies agreed upon a line. This line was run in 1719, but subsequently it was found to have been run in a

145

very irregular manner and Rhode Island refused to abide by it.*

The grants and regrants, divisions and subdivisions of the region now comprised in Maine were so numerous that to attempt to follow the various changes in detail would be like trying to describe the kaleidoscope. The most famous grant of all was the socalled Laconia grant of 1622, by which the western part of Maine and all of New Hampshire went to John Mason and Sir Ferdinando Gorges. In 1677 a grandson of Gorges sold Maine to Massachusetts for £1,250, very much to the chagrin of the king, who was expecting to take it over.

New Hampshire was long in a condition of unstable equilibrium, both with respect to its status as a colony and its boundaries. After a long dispute, the eastern boundary of New Hampshire was finally settled in 1737, after an appeal to the king. by a commission whose report was confirmed in 1740.

The Mason grant of 1622 was supplemented by subsequent ones from the New England council, in such a way, however, as to overlap the territory of Massachusetts. By 1641 the colonists had fallen into such a bad condition that they besought the protection of Massachusetts. This was their condition until 1675 when Robert Mason, grandson of John Mason, secured a royal decree under which he established a colonial government

Gannett, p. 49.

146

NEW HAMPSHIRE AND VERMONT.

(1680). Ten years later the colony was again taken over by Massachusetts, but was finally separated in 1692. The question of the boundary running east and west between the two was not so easily settled. New Hampshire claimed that the line should start from a point three miles north of the mouth of the Merrimac, while Massachusetts held that the line should run three miles north of the northernmost part of the river. When the matter was referred to the king, he, by following the river in its southward bend, gave New Hampshire considerably more than she claimed. In case either assembly refused to accept the award, the other was to proceed ex parte, and this New Hampshire did when Massachusetts declined to have anything to do with locating such a line. Mistakes made by New Hampshire's own surveyors cost her a considerable strip of land, over which she disputed with Massachusetts until 1827.*

The grant of the region between the Delaware and Connecticut rivers to the Duke of York in 1664, gave rise to a four-cornered dispute between New York on the one side and Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire on the other. Peace was made with Connecticut (1683) by giving her 61,440 acres in return for her agreement to a boundary line running 20 miles east of the Hudson, but disputes about the exact location of this bound

Gannett, pp. 40-42; Osgood, vol. i., pp. 376

ary continued until 1881. Massachusetts, in return for one-half the proceeds from the sale of the public lands,* agreed to the same line on her west side.

The region now known as Vermont was the cause of a long and bitter struggle. New Hampshire contended that her jurisdiction extended as far west as did that of Massachusetts, that is, to within 20 miles of the Hudson, and gave numerous proofs of the validity of her claim. But New York continued to assert her claims up to the Connecticut, and a proclamation to that effect was issued, whereupon New Hampshire made a similar response. About the time of the close of hostilities with Great Britain, it looked for a while as if New York, New Hampshire and Vermont would come to blows. There was marching and countermarching of troops, but no blood was shed. The intervention of Congress, which was inclined to support New York, was of no avail. Finally (1783) a report favorable to Vermont was brought in, but never acted upon. By this time New York was beginning to realize the hopelessness of her fight and at last made terms with Vermont, allowing her to enter the new union free of her claims.t

The boundary between New York and New Jersey was plainly de

*Scaife, America: Its Geographical Conditions,

p. 110.

Robinson, Vermont, chaps. iv., v., X., xvi.,

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DISPUTES OVER WESTERN LANDS.

In

scribed in the Duke of York's grant to Carteret in 1664, but for many years New York officials tried to extend their jurisdiction over that colony and then to push the dividing line farther south. The line remained unsettled until 1769, when commissioners appointed by the king fixed the line substantially where it is to-day.* On the south the only thing to do was to find the beginning of 43° north latitude where the Delaware crossed it and then run a line westward. 1774 commissioners were appointed by New York and Pennsylvania for this purpose. The work was finished in 1787 and ratified in 1789. New York having surrendered all claims to lands west of her present western boundaries in 1781, Pennsylvania, in 1792, purchased of the United States the triangle bordering on Lake Erie in order to get an outlet to that lake.† In 1786 Massachusetts surrendered her claims to the region south of Lake Ontario and west of the present city of Oswego.

Two other territorial disputes in which Connecticut was involved deserve mention. One was on the east with Rhode Island, the other on the west with Pennsylvania. At one time At one time Connecticut threatened Rhode Island with practical extinction by claiming land up to Narragansett Bay under her charter of 1662, but Rhode Island fought bravely for her life and the present western boundary was finally

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147

agreed upon in 1703, and established in 1726-28.* The other dispute related to the so-called Wyoming valley. As Connecticut's charter extended her domain westward to the south sea, she did not give up all claims to western lands when her domain was cut in two by subsequent grants. Indeed, so late as 1753 she began a movement to colonize the territory taken from her by the Penn grant. No resistance was offered at first, but by 1769 Pennsylvanians began to trespass and then followed a war of writs. However, Connecticut held her own and admitted representatives from this district to the Legislature. In 1778 came the horrible Wyoming massacre. When the Articles of Confederation went into effect Congress took a hand in the dispute and decided against Connecticut.t

Owing to the fact that several of the colonial charters pretended to extend their bounds westward to the South Sea, the possession of the western lands became a subject of contro versy after the separation from Great Britain. Virginia claimed the region. northwest of the Ohio by the double right of conquest and charter grants, but Massachusetts and Connecticut proposed to cut this realm in two under their charters. On the other hand, the States which had no claims, especially the smaller ones, contended that this was national domain and

*Gannett, pp. 65-66; Johnston, Connecticut, pp. 209-215.

Johnston, Connecticut, pp. 275-279.

148

COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL CONTROVERSIES.

though the acts were disallowed.* After the Revolution, New York levied tariff duties on her neighbors and New Jersey retaliated.†

this contest delayed for a time the
formation of the union under the
Articles of Confederation. Finally
the claims were surrendered, by Vir-
ginia in 1784, Massachusetts in 1785,
Connecticut in 1786 and 1800. Though
belonging to a later period of
our narrative, it is proper to
state here that North Carolina sur-
rendered Tennessee in 1790 and
Georgia gave up the present States.
of Alabama and Mississippi in 1802.
There were also many disputes
among the colonies about matters not
relating directly to boundaries. In
the New England Confederation there
After the
considerable friction between
Massachusetts on the one hand and
Plymouth and Connecticut on the
other over a just division of the bur-
dens and spoils of war. In 1693 Gov-
ernor Fletcher, of New York, was au-
thorized to command the militia of
the neighboring colonies, but when he
attempted to exercise that authority

was

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Because of its remoter consequences, the dispute between Maryland and Virginia about the rights of navigation on the Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River was one of the most important of all the controversies. By the terms of her charter, Maryland owned land to the south bank of the Potomac, but Virginia controlled the lower Chesapeake, the only outlet from the Potomac and upper Chesapeake to the ocean. necessary preliminary negotiations, commissioners (of whom James Madison was one) met at Mount Vernon in 1785 and agreed that the waters of the ChesaPotomac peake and should be mutually free to the citizens of each State and also on certain rules

for the exercise of criminal jurisdiction. It was this meeting that led to the calling of the Annapolis convention, which led in turn to the convention of 1787 that drew up the Constitution.

Greene, Provincial America, p. 192; Weeden, Economic and Social History of New England, vol. ii., pp. 593, 783.

† McMaster, History of the People of the United States, vol. 1., pp. 404-406.

Boyd, in The South in the Building of the Nation, vol. iv., p. 136; Wharton vs. Wise, 153 U. S. 163.

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