CHAPTER I
THE COLONIAL POLICY OF PARLIAMENT AND CROMWELL
ENOUGH has been perhaps said to show how hesitating virtual and uncertain were the first steps of English Colonial indepe “ d ' policy. So many Colonies—we may almost say—so many New different types. Virginia, New England, Maryland, all colonies present special features, are all examples of a distinct method of treatment. But for whoever had eyes to read the signs of the times, there could be no question which type would, in the long run, prevail. As surely as the house built upon the rock is firmer than the house built upon the sand, so surely would the New England character become the predominant one in the eastern states of the future. We know how large were the powers in fact possessed by Massachusetts. It elected its own governors ; it carried on its domestic affairs in complete independence of England. We even find it going to war with the French without consulting the Home Government. When Connecticut set up as a separate Colony, it did not ask the leave of England. New Hampshire, and at a later date Maine, 1 were absorbed by Massachusetts in the same independent fashion. When, in 1643, the four Colonies of Plymouth, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Newhaven formed a confederation, as the United Colonies of New England, no leave was asked of the Mother country. It is true that, in the preamble to the Articles,
“those sad distractions in England” are alluded to as to some extent necessitating the measure ; but the confederation in all probability would have been formed in any case.
In the same spirit, Massachusetts set up its own Mint in 1652.
Nor did the New England Colonies confine themselves to the field of practice. They also maintained in theory what they claimed to be their rights. In 1646 the court of elders and assistants drew up a formal statement of their views.
1 In 1641 and 1652.
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