Overcome. All the New England chroniclers, save one, pass over the establishment of the first confederation with a mere formal reference. From Winthrop we learn a little more, yet even his account is but a bare and scanty summary. Nothing can better illustrate the temper of the New Englander than the minuteness with which every trivial detail of ecclesiastical history is recorded, and the contemptuous indifference with which the first great change in the constitutional life of the colonies is treated. In the next year the substitution of Kieft for the slothful and incompetent Van Twiller1 served to alarm the settlers of Connecticut and to make them more anxious for the scheme of confederation. Nevertheless the matter slept for three years. This was in all likelihood due to some difficulty with Plymouth, since Winthrop, in telling of the revival of the scheme in 1642, says that Plymouth was now willing' to come in." The attitude of the settlements north of the Piscataqua and of those in the Narragansett Bay towards the proposed union is not described. Winthrop indeed tells us that the settlers in Maine' were not received nor called into the confederation because they ran a different course from us both in their ministry and civil administration.' He further adds in proof of their unfitness that the settlers at Agamenticus had lately made a tailor their mayor, and one Hullan excommunicated person and very contentious' their minister.3 Exclusion of Maine. It does not seem that the settlers in Narragansett Bay at present sought to be admitted to the confedeExclusion racy. An incident three years earlier might of the Nar- have shown them how any such overtures settlements. would be met. In October 1640 the magistrates of Connecticut, Newhaven, and Aquednek had addressed 1 Brodhead, vol. i. p. 274. Winthrop, vol. ii. p. 85. 3 Ib. p. 100. ragansett 2 1640-8 RHODE ISLAND EXCLUDED. 309 a joint letter to the Court of Massachusetts, proposing in very general terms some measures for gaining the Indians by justice and kindness, and declaring dislike of such as would have them rooted out as being of the accursed race of Ham.' The Court approved of the letter. But its answer was by special order directed only to the magistrates of Connecticut and Newhaven. The representatives of Aquednek were excluded as men not to be capitulated withal either for themselves or the people of the isle where they inhabit.' It is consolatory to those who reverence the memory of the great New England statesman that Dudley, and not Winthrop, was the Governor when this outburst of fanatical malignity was recorded. In spite of this rebuff, in 1644 the Narragansett settlers asked leave to join the Confederation,2 and renewed the petition in 1648.3 Each time they were told in answer that they should be admitted if they would voluntarily annex themselves either to Plymouth or Massachusetts. Apart from all question of religion, sufficient grounds might have been found for excluding the Rhode islanders in the unsettled polity of their settlements, and the readiness to disintegration which the few years of their history had already made manifest. trouble with the During 1642 events took place which must have reminded the settlers in the various colonies of the Threatened need for some system of united action. As we have seen, it was the object of Uncas, the chief Narragan of the Mohicans, to build up the fallen fortunes Indians. of his tribe, and if possible to win for them the reversion of that supremacy which had belonged to the Pequods. They now had rivals in the Narragansetts. Uncas, it is clear, understood that the English were, sett 1 Winthrop, vol. ii. p. 21; Massachusetts Records, vol. i. p. 305. 2 Acts of Federal Commissioners, vol. i. p. 23. s lb. at least for the present, masters of the land, and that the ascendency must fall to the tribe which could secure their friendship. No man among the settlers was so well fitted to form an opinion as to the character of the rival chiefs, Uncas and Miantonomo, as Roger Williams. Five years before he had written of the Narragansett: 'If I mistake not, I observe in him some sparks of true friendship, could it be deeply imprinted into him that the English never intended to despoil him of the country." It is clear, too, that Williams saw in Uncas an ambitious intriguer who was determined to use the English as his tools for the destruction of his rival.2 In the summer of 1642 vague rumours began to float about the colonies of a meditated attack. It was said that in Connecticut an Indian who had been accidentally run over by the cart of a settler had taken it as a warning from the God of the English, and had confessed the evil designs of his countrymen, and that this was confirmed by the independent testimony of two other savages. The government of Connecticut seems to have been panic-stricken, and at once summoned Massachusetts to raise a hundred men, promising to join them with a like number. Happily at Boston more sober counsels prevailed. The General Court met, and the application from Connecticut was laid before it. The members recollected for years past there had been like rumours of attack, and that those rumours had always been traced to the invention of rival factions among the savages. Winthrop sets forth the 1 Letter from Williams to Winthrop, July 15, 1637, in Mass. Hist. Coll. (4th series, vol. vi. p. 204), and in Narr. Club Publications (vol. vi. p. 47). 2 I think we may safely infer this from the general tone of Williams' letters, especially those written from 1646 to 1650. 4 Ib. The Connecticut Records contain an entry of the fact that this letter was written, and also of the appointment of a committee to make preparations against the Indians (vol. i. pp. 73, 74). 1642 DEALINGS WITH MIANTONOMO. 6 311 reasons which swayed the Court towards peace, in seeming unconsciousness of their strange incongruity.1 The settlers, he says, were in ill case for war, and could not afford to forsake their farms and lose the Indian trade. Besides, if any lives should be lost on either side on a false report, we might provoke God's displeasure and blemish our wisdom and integrity before the heathen.' He then lays down those principles of Indian warfare which had been so neglected six years earlier in Endicott's abortive campaign. We might destroy some part of their corn and wigwams, and force them to fly into the woods, but the men would be still remaining to do us mischief, for they will never fight us in the open.' Finally, they remembered that those who would be sent were for the most part godly,' and could not be expected to fight well unless they could be confident in the justice of their cause. No fault assuredly could be found with any of these grounds for inaction. Yet if there were doubts whether the war would be just, it was hardly needful to consider whether the season was convenient or the result likely to be successful. The decision of the Court was that Miantonomo should be summoned to Boston to clear himself, if he could, of the charges against him. He came, and after a conference of two days, in which he asked to be confronted with his accuser, Uncas, he satisfied the English of his innocence in the past and of his good intentions for the future. The only point of difficulty in the negotiations will hardly be thought to the discredit of the Indian. He refused at first to promise neutrality if the English attacked the Nyantics, since, as he said, repeated intermarriages between the tribes had made them his own flesh and blood. Meanwhile letters came from Connecticut clamouring 1 Winthrop, vol. ii. p. 80. for war, and announcing that if Massachusetts did not join, the sister colony would strike a blow singlehanded. The Court of Massachusetts sent back a remonstrance, urging the insufficiency of the grounds given and the injustice and impolicy of war. Connecticut accepted the decision, but unwillingly and with dissatisfaction.1 federation formed. 6 In May 1643 the Commissioners from each of the three colonies, Connecticut, Newhaven, and Plymouth, The Con- met at Boston. Fenwick, too, the governor of the fort at Saybrook, appeared on behalf of the Proprietors. Massachusetts was represented by the Governor, two Magistrates, and four Deputies. One would gladly know more of their deliberations than the meagre record left to us by Winthrop. He tells us that the representatives coming to consultation encountered some difficulties, but being all desirous of union and studious of peace, they readily yielded each to other in such things as tended to common utility.' After two or three meetings the Articles of Confederation were agreed upon, and signed by all the Commissioners save those from Plymouth. Their commission obliged them to refer the matter back to the Court of the colony, by whom the agreement was at once ratified. The The Articles of Confederation were eleven in number. A preamble sets forth the common objects for which the colonies of New England were founded, Articles of namely, to advance the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ and to enjoy the liberties of the gospel in purity with peace,' and the dangers by which Confedera tion.3 1 These proceedings are fully told by Winthrop (vol. ii. pp. 80-83); cf. Massachusetts Records, vol. ii. pp. 23-27. 2 The whole of these proceedings are told by Winthrop (vol. ii. pp. 99, 100). 3 The Articles are given by Winthrop (vol. ii. pp. 101-6), by Bradford (pp. 257-60), and in the Acts of Commissioners (vol. i. pp. 3–13). |