In May, 1643, the general court of Massachusetts received an official copy of the order of the house of commons of the tenth of March of that year, in which it was acknowledged that "the plantations in New England had, by the blessing of the Almighty, had good and prosperous success, without any public charge to the parent state;" and their imports and exports were freed from all taxation "until the house of commons should take order to the contrary." The ordinance was thankfully acknowledged, and "entered among their public records to remain there to posterity." At the same time the governor was directed in his oath of office to omit to swear allegiance to King Charles, "seeing that he had violated the privileges of parliament and had made war upon them."

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE UNITED COLONIES OF NEW ENGLAND.

THE enlargement of the dominion of Massachusetts was, in part, a result of the virtual independence which the commotions in the mother country had secured to the colonies. The UNION of the Calvinist states of New England was a still more important measure. In August, 1637, immediately after the victories over the Pequods, and before New Haven was planted, at a time when the earliest synod of New England ministers had gathered in Boston, a day of meeting was appointed, at the request of the leading magistrates and elders of Connecticut, to agree upon articles of confederation, and notice was given to Plymouth that they might join in it. Many of the American statesmen, familiar with the character of the government of the Netherlands, possessed sufficient experience and knowledge to frame a plan of union; but the warning to Plymouth was so short that they could not come, and the subject was deferred.

In March, 1638, Davenport and Eaton, declining the solici tations of the government of Massachusetts to remain within its jurisdiction, pledged themselves in their chosen abode "to be instrumental for the common good of the plantations which the Divine Providence had combined together in a strong bond of brotherly affection, so that their several armies might mutually strengthen them both against their several enemies." The dangers against which they needed to concert joint action were those which threatened their institutions from the prelates and the king, and those which menaced their territory from the Dutch of New Netherlands and the French of Acadia and Canada. In the course of the year, a union

of the Calvinist colonies came again into discussion; and Massachusetts propounded as the order of confederation that, upon any matter of difference, the assembled commissioners of every one of the confederate colonies should have full power to determine it. Those of Connecticut, from their shyness of coming under the government of Massachusetts, insisted that the commissioners, if they could not agree, should only make reports to their several colonies till unanimity should be obtained. But Massachusetts, "holding it very unlikely that all the churches in all the plantations would ever unanimously agree upon the same propositions, refused the reservation to each state of a negative upon the proceedings of the whole confederacy;" for, in that case, "all would have come to nothing," and, after infinite trouble and expense, the issue would have been left to the sword.

The Dutch on Manhattan had received a new and more active governor, who complained much of the encroachments. of Connecticut, and sought by a friendly correspondence with Massachusetts to nurse divisions in New England. To guard against this danger, in May, 1639, Hooker and Haynes sailed into Massachusetts bay, where they remained a month in the hope to bring about a treaty for confederation. The general court moved first in the measure, and the more readily that the Dutch "might not notice any breach or alienation" between kindred colonies.

The confederation having failed in consequence of the reluctance of Connecticut to consent to be bound by any vote that should be less than unanimous, it devolved on that colony, if it would renew efforts for union, to prepare a form that should be accepted by Massachusetts. A concert was established with Fenwick, the representative of "the lords and gentlemen" interested at Saybrook; and, in 1641, he proposed to wait "one year longer," in expectation of the arrival of his company, or at least some part of them. But, under the change in the political condition of England, they had abandoned the thought of emigration, though not their friendly interest in New England. At length, in September, 1642, Connecticut sent to Massachusetts propositions "for a combination of the colonies."

These propositions reached Boston at a time when the colony was closely watching the rage of parties in the mother country, and when it was rumored that a party in Virginia was about to rise for the king. On the advice of the elders, the general court, then in session, had ordered a fast "chiefly on account of the news out of England concerning the breach between the king and parliament." On the twenty-seventh of September, the propositions from Connecticut were read in the general court and referred to a committee, to be considered of after its adjournment.

The result of the deliberations of the several colonies was that, in May, 1643, the general court, which was then in session, chose their governor, two magistrates, and three deputies, "to treat with their friends of New Haven, Connecticut, and Plymouth, who were come about a confederacy between them." At a time so fraught with danger from their wide dispersion on the sea-coasts and rivers, from living encompassed with people of other nations and strange languages, from a combination of the natives against the several English plantations, and from the sad distractions in England, whence they had no right to expect either advice or protection, "they conceived it their bounden duty without delay to enter into a present consociation among themselves for mutual help and strength, that, as in nation and religion, so in other respects they might be and continue one." The meeting was in fact a regular convention for framing a constitution, and its members were selected from the ablest men of New England. Among others there came from Connecticut, Haynes; from New Haven, Eaton; from Saybrook, Fenton, by the consent of New Haven; from Plymouth, Winslow; from Massachusetts, Winthrop.

The articles of confederation, which were completed before the end of the month, gave to the four Calvinist governments the name of THE UNITED COLONIES OF NEW ENGLAND. For themselves and their posterity, they entered into a firm and perpetual league of offence and defence, mutual advice and succor, both for preserving and propagating the truths and liberties of the gospel, and for their mutual safety and welfare. It was established that each of them should preserve entirely

to itself the "peculiar jurisdiction and government" within its own limits; and with these the confederation was never "to intermeddle." The charge of all just wars, whether offensive or defensive, was to be apportioned upon the several jurisdictions according to the number of their male inhabitants from sixteen years old to threescore, each jurisdiction being left to collect its quota according to its own custom of rating. In like equitable proportion, the advantage derived from war was to be shared. The method of repelling a sudden invasion of one of the colonies by an enemy, whether French, Dutch, or Indian, was minutely laid down. For the concluding of all affairs that concerned the whole confederation, the largest state, superior to all the rest in territory, wealth, and population, had no more delegates than the least; there were to be chosen, by and out of each of the four jurisdictions, two commissioners, of whom every one was required to be "in church fellowship." These were to meet annually on the first Thursday in September, the first and fifth of every five years at Boston, the intervening years at Hartford, New Haven, and Plymouth in rotation; and to vote not by states, but man by

man.

At each meeting, they might choose out of themselves a president, but could endow him with no other power than to direct the comely carrying on of all proceedings. The commissioners were by a vote of three fourths of their number to determine all affairs of war, peace, and alliances; Indian affairs; the admission of new members into the confederacy; the allowing of any one of the present confederates to enlarge its territory by annexing other plantations, or any two of these to join in one jurisdiction; and "all things of like nature, which are the proper concomitants or consequents of such a confederation for amity, offence, and defence." When six of the eight commissioners could agree, their vote was to be final; otherwise, the propositions, with their reasons, were to be referred to the four general courts of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Plymouth, and New Haven.

The commissioners were enjoined to provide for peace among the confederates themselves, and to secure free and speedy justice to all the confederates in each of the other juris