Beginnings of Self-Government

Dominion of New England.

In 1676 Edward Randolph was sent as a special agent to Massachusetts, to require it to send agents to England. He returned to England the sworn enemy of that Colony and continued to be its tireless prosecutor. A series of negotiations ensued which lasted for almost a decade, and ended in the revocation of the Massachusetts charter by a decree in chancery, 1684. New Hampshire had already been organized as a royal province. Government under the charters of Rhode Island and Connecticut was soon after suspended. All New England was then organized as a dominion or viceroyalty under Sir Edmund Andros. Assemblies were everywhere abolished and government was left wholly in the hands of the executive. New York—also without an assembly—and New Jersey were soon after incor porated with the Dominion of New England, its boundary being extended to the Delaware river. After Bacon's rebellion in 1676 the lines of executive control were strengthened in Virginia, but the assembly continued active. These rapid changes involved the downfall of the former system of chartered colonies and the sub stitution of royal provinces in their place. The effect of this was to introduce into the Colonies a large number of officials of royal appointment. The entire executive and judiciary in a royal province was appointed directly or indirectly by the king. Its members held under commissions subject to the king's pleasure and were controlled by his instructions.

Colonial Reorganization.

By the abolition of assemblies and the union of Colonies on a large scale James II. did violence to the strongest feelings and traditions of the colonists. The New Englanders not only viewed the levy of taxes by prerogative with the utmost aversion, but they feared a general unsettlement of land titles, the destruction of much that was valuable in their system of town government, and the introduction of Anglican worship. They shared also in the fear, which was widespread among the colonists, that the Crown intended by an alliance with the French and Indians to force Roman Catholicism upon them. Therefore the fall of the Stuart Government in England was the signal for an uprising at Boston (April 1689) followed by a less successful one at New York. The Dominion of New England at once col lapsed and the old Colony Governments were generally restored. A revolt against the Catholic proprietor in Maryland resulted in the suspension of his powers of government and the organization of Maryland as a royal province. William III. granted a new charter to Massachusetts (1691) in which full provision was made for an assembly, but also for a governor and secretary of royal appointment. Rhode Island and Connecticut were allowed to re main under their corporate charters. New York and New Hamp shire were organized as royal provinces with assemblies. Proprie tary government struggled back into existence in New Jersey. In Pennsylvania the governmental powers of the proprietor were suspended from 1692-94, because of his neglect of provision for defence; then they were restored and Pennsylvania continued under proprietary government until the War of Independence.

The transition from the system of chartered colonies to that of royal provinces was thus well advanced towards completion. But it was a gradual process, and the later stages of it were not reached until the second decade of the i8th century. South Carolina be came provisionally a royal province in 1719, and a parallel change was completed in North Carolina a decade later. Georgia re ceived a royal government in 1752. But in 1715 Maryland was permitted to resume proprietary form. After the Revolution of 1689 the change to royal governments did not involve in any case the abolition of colonial assemblies. Henceforward the Crown had a fully equipped executive in every royal province. The gov ernors exercised the royal rights of calling, proroguing and dis solving the assemblies ; they assisted in initiating legislation and exercised the right of veto. All bills passed by the assemblies were required to be submitted to the King in council for accept ance or disallowance. The upper houses of the legislature were the councils of the provinces. These were small bodies and con sisted, in every case except Massachusetts, of royal appointees. Their support was in most cases given to the governors, and by that means they were greatly assisted in resisting the encroach ments of the lower houses of assembly which were elected by the freeholders. But, as a rule, the Crown made no provision for the salaries of its governors and other officials, and left them largely dependent for support on appropriations by the assem blies. Under this system of balanced forces, analogous in general to that which was reached after the Revolution in England, the Colonies entered upon the long period of the French wars.

Struggle with the French, French dis coveries and colonization in North America were confined chiefly to the valley and gulf of the St. Lawrence. These led in the early seventeenth century to the establishment of the province of Canada. By 1610 the French had possessed themselves of the valley of the lower St. Lawrence, and the relations with the Indian tribes were being determined. During the next so years Canada grew slowly into an autocratically governed province, in which the Roman Catholic church was so strong as to con test supremacy at times with the civil power. The fur trade be came from the first a most important industry. The Jesuits and other priestly orders undertook missionary work on a large scale among the natives. The fur trader and the missionary soon extended French influence through the region of the Great Lakes. Between the Iroquois and the French, wars were almost con tinuous, but with the other Indian tribes the French were in general on friendly terms. The Iroquois maintained friendly rela tions with the Dutch and afterwards with the English. This deeply affected relations between the English and the French, as well as the entire development of the province of New York.