The Menace of New France
Now the work that Andros had come over to perform, and that which was most
important in his eyes, was the defense of New England against the French.
The contest between the two nations for control of the New World had
already begun. The territory between Hudson Bay and the St. Lawrence and
that between the Penobscot and the St. Croix were already in dispute, and
New Englanders had taken their part in the conflict. When Governor of New
York, Andros had become aware of the French danger, and his successor
Dongan had proved himself capable of holding the Iroquois Indians to their
allegiance to the English and of extending the beaver trade in the Mohawk
Valley. But at this juncture reports kept coming in of renewed incursions
of the French, led by the Canadian nobility, into the regions south of
Lakes Erie and Ontario, and of new forts on territory that the English
claimed as their own. There was increasing danger that the French would
embroil the Indians of the Five Nations and, by drawing them into a French
alliance, threaten not only the fur trade but the colonies themselves. The
French Governor, Denonville, declared that the design of the King his
master was the conversion of the infidels and the uniting of "all these
barbarous people in the bosom of the Church"; but Dongan, though himself a
Roman Catholic, saw no truth in this explanation and demanded that the
French demolish their forts and retire to Canada, whence they had come.
Just as this quarrel with the French threatened to arouse the Indians in
northwestern New York, so it threatened to arouse, as eventually it did
arouse, the Indians along the northern frontier of New England. To the
authorities in England and to Andros in America, this menace of French
aggression was one of the dangers which the Dominion of New England was
intended to meet, and the substitution of a single civil and military head
for the slow-moving and ineffective popular assemblies was designed to
make possible an energetic military campaign.
Andros had no sooner organized his council and got his government
into running order than he began to prosecute measures for improving the
defenses of the colony. He sent soldiers to Pemaquid to occupy and
strengthen the fort there, and himself began the reconstruction of the
fortifications of Boston. He turned his attention to Fort Hill at the
lower end of the town, erected a palisaded embankment with four bastions,
a house for the garrison, and a place for a battery; later he leveled the
hill on Castle Island in the harbor, and built there a similar palisade
and earthwork and barracks for the soldiers. He took a survey of military
stores, made application to England for guns and ammunition, endeavored to
put the train-bands of the colony in as good shape as possible, and in
1688 went to Pemaquid to inspect the northern defenses as far as the
Penobscot. He kept in close touch with Governor Dongan, and promised to
send him, as rapidly as he could, men and money in case of a French
invasion.
To make his work more effective he took steps to bring Connecticut
immediately under his control. Rhode Island had already submitted and had
sent its members to sit with the council at Boston. But Connecticut had
avoided giving a direct answer, although a third writ of quo warranto had
been served upon her, on December 28, 1686. Consequently Andros wrote to
the recalcitrant colony, saying that he had been instructed to receive the
surrender of the charter. To this letter, the Governor and magistrates of
Connecticut replied that they preferred to remain as they were, but that,
if annexation was to be their lot, they would be willing to join with
Massachusetts, their old neighbor and friend, rather than with New York.
Dongan, perplexed by the heavy expenses involved in the military defense
of his colony and wishing to have the use of additional revenues, had
hoped that he might persuade the Connecticut Government to come under the
control of New York, but Connecticut preferred Massachusetts and had
stated this preference in her letter. Andros and the Lords of Trade deemed
the reply favorable, although in fact it was ingeniously noncommittal, and
they took steps to complete the annexation.
On receiving a special letter of instructions from the King, Andros
set out in person for Hartford, accompanied by a number of gentlemen, two
trumpeters, and a guard of fifteen or twenty redcoats, "with small guns
and short lances in the tops of them." He journeyed probably by way of
Norwich, crossing the Connecticut River at Wethersfield, where he was met
by a troop of sixty cavalry and escorted to Hartford. There, on October
31, 1687, the Governor, magistrates, and militia awaited his coming.
Seated in the Governor's chair in the tavern chamber where the assembly
was accustomed to meet, he caused his commission to be read, declared the
old Government dissolved, selected two of those present as members of his
council, and the next day appointed the necessary officials for the
colony. Thence he went to Fairfield, New Haven, and New London,
commissioning justices of the peace for those counties and organizing the
customs service. No resistance was made to his proceedings, though it was
generally understood in the colony that the charter itself had been
spirited away and hidden in the hollow of an oak tree, henceforth famous
as the Charter Oak.
Connecticut and the other colonies became for the time being
administrative districts of the larger dominion. Their assemblies
everywhere ceased to meet, that of Rhode Island for five years. Courts,
provided by the act of December, 1687, were, however, generally held. The
superior court for Connecticut sat four times in 1688 and the county
courts, quarter sessions and common pleas, where appeared the newly
appointed justices of the peace, sat for Hartford County, the one ten
times and the other thirteen times during 1688 and 1689. But the surviving
records of their meetings are few and references to their work very rare.
The ordinary business of everyday life was carried on by the towns alone,
which continued their usual activities undisturbed. In Connecticut, before
Andros arrived, the assembly had taken the precaution to issue formal
patents of land to the towns and to grant the public lands of the colony
to Hartford and Windsor to prevent their falling into the hands of the new
Government. This act may at the time have seemed a wise one, but it made a
great deal of trouble afterwards.
The Dominion of New England, which now extended from the Penobscot
to the borders of New York, was organized as a centralized government,
with the old colonies serving as counties for administration and the
exercise of justice. But as plans for an expedition against the French
began to mature, it became evident that, if the French were to be
successfully met, a further extension of territory was necessary; so in
April, 1688, a second commission was issued to Andros, constituting him
Governor of all the territory from the St. Croix River to the fortieth
parallel, and thus adding to his domain New York and the Jerseys. Delaware
and Pennsylvania were excepted by special royal intervention. Dongan was
recalled, and Francis Nicholson was appointed lieutenant-governor under
Andros, with his residence in New York.
Thus on paper Andros was Governor-General of a single territory
running from the Delaware River and the northern boundary of Pennsylvania
northward to the St. Lawrence, eastward to the St. Croix, and westward to
the Pacific. There was an attempt here to reproduce, in size and
organization, the French Dominion of Canada, but the likeness was only in
appearance. To organize and defend his territory, Andros had two companies
of British regulars, half a dozen trained officers, the local train-bands,
which were not to be depended on for distant service, and a meager supply
of guns and ammunition. Instead of having under him a body of colonials,
such as were the belligerent gentlemen of Canada, who were eager to take
part in raids against the English and who led their savage followers with
the craft of the redskin and the intelligence of the white man, he had
many separate groups of people. Averse to war and accustomed to govern
themselves, most of these distrusted him and wanted to be rid of him, and
desired only the restoration of their old governments without regard to
those dangers which they were fully convinced they could meet quite as
well themselves.
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