Of private intrigue and secret treachery Trumbull furnishes no evidence; and, without strong evidence, he has no warrant to make the charge, and sink the character of an impartial historian into that of a one-sided partisan. The transactions in the year 1654 do not sustain, but rather contradict, his views, whatever may be rightfully said of the construction which Massachusetts placed upon the articles the preceding year. The charge of perfidious conduct on the part of the commander is equally without warrant,— is equally absurd. He and the council of war acted as one; and the accusation, if sustained, would bear with equal weight upon the officers of the other Colonies. If the commander was perfidious, the gentlemen composing the council of war were perfidious. The officers from Connecticut and New Haven, in sympathy with their respective governments, and earnest, as we may suppose, to press matters to extremities, would have immediately taken the alarm; and the whole territory, from Piscataqua to Long-Island Sound, would have rung with the charge. Perfidy would have been exposed, the commander would have been overruled, the rest of the troops would have been sent for at the earliest moment, and every effort have been used to carry out the instructions of the commissioners to the very letter. Not a word of remonstrance was heard from any member of the council of war; nor was any representation, official or otherwise, so far as I know, made by any one or more of their number to the Commissioners of the United Colonies. All was silence, "expressive" silence; and it is not to be questioned, with all the lights that history gives us, that entire unanimity marked all the results of this council.

It was well understood at the time, and history now shows the fact, that Massachusetts held the opinion, in perfect sincerity, that war was neither expedient nor necessary, and therefore was not to be justified. Such was her deliberate judgment. Although her two commissioners joined with those of the other Colonies in the declaration of war, it was not her purpose to go one step beyond the strict letter of the

obligations which she had assumed. It would seem that she supposed these would be satisfied by making a military demonstration against Ninigret, and that all honorable means should be taken to avoid a state of open hostilities at an advanced season of the year. The six commissioners must have known this; the false issues tendered by Massachusetts in the construction of the articles in 1653 proved it; while the general sentiment of the people must have been well understood. Of course, after having waived her interpretation of the articles, she was obliged to join in the expedition. Equally, of course, the General Court of Massachusetts, representing the views of the people, and the commander, as a member of the highest branch of the legislature, conversant with the whole of the discussion in 1654, and of the more protracted discussions in 1653, when he was a member of the other branch,- knew what those views were, and sympathized with them. We may also reasonably affirm, that the same views were entertained by Davis, Oliver, Stedman, and others, officers from Massachusetts.

This Colony had, she could have had, no private ends to answer. Actual danger to the other Colonies touched her own safety and well-being; and whatever promoted their security was of benefit to her. They might, perhaps, be excusable for making the most of their apprehensions, because in any real emergency, as I have already remarked, they could fall back upon the strong support of the leading Colony; and, if they were not over-scrupulous in their exactions when the articles of confederation gave them the power to bind Massachusetts, they might be pardoned for the same reason. It was under these circumstances, on the one side and the other, that the expedition set forth, with the general understanding, derived from well-known public sentiment, and not influenced by private intrigue, secret treachery, or perfidy, that there should be an exercise of caution, deliberation, and sound discretion. All honest endeavor was to be used, in view of the instructions of the

commissioners, to avoid the calamity of a general war. Massachusetts publicly stated to General Gibbons, that she was "satisfied that the peace of the country, through the blessing of God upon the late expedition, is comfortably secured."

In concluding this extended narrative of the difficulties with the Sachem of the Nianticks, which issued in the expedition of 1654, it may be remarked, that the commander sustained no diminution of popularity, reputation, and respect, in the Colony of Massachusetts; but, retaining the entire public confidence, he continued in the enjoyment of his high civil office, and chief command of the Middlesex troops, without intermission, until his death.*

It is true that complaints were afterwards made of the "proud and insolent carriage" of Ninigret, chiefly because he would pursue his foes, the Long-Island Indians. Massachusetts never had considered this to be a sufficient ground for war; while, on the other hand, Connecticut and New Haven were entirely competent to prevent, and did prevent, the incursions of Ninigret, simply by employing a vessel to cruise between Neanticut and the island to watch his motions, and to intercept him should he appear with his canoes in the Sound. They made no suggestion of the necessity of raising a military force on this ground, as they doubtless would have done had there been a real occasion. At a subsequent period, when the Narragansets, Mohegans, and Montaucketts were at feud amongst themselves, the Commissioners of Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven, were again urgent for war, unless hostile proceedings were

"It is to be observed that Major Willard was a Massachusetts man; and, although that Colony had so far complied with the rest as to join in sending out the forces, yet they were still desirous of avoiding an open war. This was the second time of their preventing a general war, contrary to the minds of the six commissioners of the other Colonies.". Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts, vol. i. p. 172. Hubbard takes a sensible view of the whole subject in his chapter entitled "A Quarrel between the Inhabitants of New Haven and the Dutch at Manhatoes." -Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, vol. xvi. pp. 545–50.

suppressed. But the Massachusetts commissioners - Bradstreet and Denison-wisely dissented; considering that it would be, to use their own words, "a dangerous and unnecessary war upon Indian quarrels, the grounds whereof we can hardly ever satisfactorily understand."*

These two instances can scarcely be called exceptions to the truth of the general remark, that peace was preserved with the Narragansets from the year 1654 until Philip's war in 1675. And it is worthy of remark, that this Sachem Ninigret,this arch-fiend,-who disturbed, in imagination, the repose of the three other Colonies for a long series of years, "did not engage with the other Narraganset chiefs" in that dreadful war.

It would have been wiser by far for the Massachusetts commissioners, and vastly more humane, had they asserted this sound doctrine in 1643, in the hostilities between the Narragansets and the Mohegans; and had they taken no part, in conjunction with the other commissioners, with their pet sachem- the crafty Uncas against Miantonomo.

229

CHAPTER VIII.

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SIMON WILLARD.

(Continued.)

As we have already seen, Major Willard continued to be one of the assistants from 1654 until his death. This embraced a very critical period in the history of the Colony, -the earnest and exciting controversy with the commissioners of Charles II.

Through the whole of the English Commonwealth, Massachusetts enjoyed great peace." So far as her external relations were concerned, this arose, mainly, from the common religious sympathy existing between the Protector and the colonists; and, in some degree, from the influence of Leverett, the Colonial agent at London, who, at one time during the war, commanded a troop of horse under Cromwell. Besides being united in the same great cause, Cromwell and Leverett were united by warm personal regard. But, after the restoration, a change soon began to be shadowed out. Charles was now firmly seated upon his ancestral throne. His subjects, weary of the civil war; weary, also, of the restraints that had been laid upon them by the severity of manners which prevailed during the Commonwealth, and eager for the enjoyment of the amusements so long proscribed, with appetite sharpened to the utmost

This can hardly be said to have been disturbed by the somewhat urgent efforts of Cromwell- which I have before mentioned to induce the Massachu

setts to colonize the newly conquered Island of Jamaica. The fears of our ancestors upon this subject-very strongly entertained for a timeallayed.

- were soon