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321]
Under
Lovelace, his successor, the same system was
more fully developed.
Even on the southern shore of the
Delaware, the Swedes and Finns, the most enduring of all emigrants, were roused to resistance ‘The method for keeping the people in order is severity, and laying such taxes as may give them liberty for no thought but how to discharge them.’
Such was
the remedy proposed in the instructions from
Lovelace to his southern subordinate, and carried into effect by an arbitrary tariff.
In New York, when the established powers of the towns favored the demand for freedom, eight villages
soon united in remonstrating against the arbitrary government; they demanded the promised legislation by annual assemblies.
But absolute government was the settled policy of the royal proprietary; and taxation for purposes of defence, by the decree of the governor, was
the next experiment.
The towns of
Southold,
Southampton, and
Easthampton, expressed themselves willing to contribute, if they might enjoy the privileges of the
New England colonies.
The people of
Huntington refused altogether; for, said they, ‘we are deprived of the liberties of Englishmen.’
The people of
Jamaica declared the decree of the governor a disfranchisement, contrary to the laws of the
English nation.
Flushing and
Hempstead were equally resolute.
The votes of the several towns were presented to the governor and council; they were censured as ‘scandalous, illegal,
and seditious, alienating the peaceable from their duty and obedience,’ and, according to the established precedents of tyranny, were ordered to be publicly burnt before the town-house of New York.
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