fixed to this volume. An unusual opportunity to use unpublished records has been improved, so that the foot-notes to this volume are very full and explicit; and in the bibliographical essay the most significant of the secondary and primary materials on each colony are selected. The importance of the volume in the American Nation series is that it includes colonies of the three types which persisted down to the Revolution-the crown colonies of Virginia and New York and New Hampshire; the proprietary colonies in the Jerseys, Pennsylvania and Delaware, Maryland, and the Carolinas; and the three New England charter colonies, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. On one side the volume emphasizes the variety of conditions and experiments in government. On the other side it brings out that characteristic which gives the volume its name, the steady determination of the colonists in all three types of colony to enjoy self-government in internal affairs. This persistent and unquenchable determination made the English colonies of that time different from all other colonies in the world. In vain did the English government set up a system of commercial restriction; the colonies evaded or ignored it. In vain did the English government, through Andros and through the courts, seek to annul the charters of New England; by passive resistance and by active protest the colonists reasserted their privilege of discussion and of legislation, AUTHOR'S PREFACE THE period of colonial history dealt with in this volume presents certain well-defined characteristics. By 1650 each community had settled its government along democratic lines- that is, had put into practice the principles of manhood suffrage, proportional representation, and the co-operation of the people in legislation. The direction that government was to take in America was already definitely determined. Yet during the period of this volume, 1652-1689, conditions in England underwent a great change. Constitutional monarchy was definitely established; national life quickened; new interests, fostered by men who had gained experience in trade and commerce under Cromwell, supplanted the old; and an era essentially modern began. Enthusiasm spread for whatever would strengthen commerce and extend the revenue; the plantations assumed a place undreamed of before. Such interest in the colonies took the form of the navigation acts; the founding of new colonies; the establishment of Privy Council committees, and of separate but subordinate boards and councils for trade and plantations; the regulation of the plantation revenue and the appointment of new revenue officials both in England and in America; the despatch of special commissioners to New England in 1664, and of Randolph in 1676; the ordering of troops to Virginia and New York; and, finally, the attempt to unite the northern colonies more closely to the crown, which centred in the mission and government of Andros. In consequence of this attempt to formulate and put in force a system of colonial management, trouble inevitably arose between the people and the royal and proprietary governors in New York and the southern colonies; and between New England and the crown. With a government in England endeavoring to shape a definite programme of control, and a king on the throne who had no patience with the colonial demand for English liberties, it is little wonder that the era culminated in a series of exciting and dramatic episodes. A part of the labor of investigation for this volume has been borne by two of my students, Miss G. Albert, who has aided me both in England and America, and Miss H. H. Hodge, who has helped me with the history of the Massachusetts Bay colony. I have also had the advantage of seeing Miss Kellogg's essay on The American Colonial Charter. CHARLES M. ANDREWS. |