of the house. This was not, as in the contests with governor Shute, an angry altercation, into which the representatives were precipitated by a restless and encroaching temper, but a solemn and deliberate stand, made in defence of a right believed to be unquestionable, and of a principle deemed essential to the welfare of the colony. The ground taken was considered well, and maintained with firmness. Votes and messages of the same tenor with those which had been often repeated, continued to pass between the representatives and the governor, until the subject was entirely exhausted. Each party being determined to adhere to its principles, the house met and adjourned daily, without entering on business.
In the mean time, the governor received no salary. To the members of Boston, who had not been accustomed to the expense of attending the legislature at a distant place, a compensation, above their ordinary wages, was made by that town.
The house, firmly persuaded of the propriety of its conduct, prepared a memorial to the King praying a change in the royal instructions to the governor. Agents were appointed to represent the general court in England, and a vote was passed for defraying the expenses attendant on the business. The council refused to concur in this vote, because the agents had been appointed by the house of representatives singly; and the measure must have been abandoned for want of money, had not the inhabitants of Boston raised the sum required, by subscription.
1729
Letters were soon received from these agents, inclosing a report from the board of trade, before whom they had been heard by council, entirely disapproving the conduct of the house. The letters also indicated that, should the house persist in its refusal to comply with the King's instructions, the affair might be carried before parliament. But, should even this happen, the agents thought it more advisable that the salary should be fixed by the supreme legislature, than by that of the province. "It was better," they said, "that the liberties of the people should be taken from them, than given up by themselves."
The governor, at length, refused to sign a warrant on the treasury for the wages of the members. "One branch of the legislature," he said, "might as well go without their pay as the other." The act, and the reason for it, were alike unsatisfactory to the house.
Death of Governor Burnet.
After a recess from the 20th of December to the 2d of April, the general court met again at Salem. Repeated meetings at that place having produced no accommodation, the governor adjourned the legislature to Cambridge. A few days after the commencement of the session, he was seized with a fever, of which he died.
Mr. Burnet is said to have possessed many valuable qualities; and, had he not been engaged, by a sense of duty, in this long contest, he would, in all probability, have been a favourite of the province.[129]
1730
Arrival of Governor Belcher.
Mr. Belcher, who succeeded Burnet, arrived at Boston early in August where he was cordially received. At the first meeting of the general court, he pressed the establishment of a permanent salary, and laid before them his instructions, in which it was declared that, in the event of the continued refusal of the assembly, "his majesty will find himself under the necessity of laying the undutiful behaviour of the province before the legislature of Great Britain, not only in this single instance, but in many others of the same nature and tendency, whereby it manifestly appears that this assembly, for some years last past, have attempted, by unwarrantable practices, to weaken, if not cast off, the obedience they owe to the crown, and the dependence which all colonies ought to have on the mother country."
At the close of these instructions, his majesty added his expectation, "that they do forthwith comply with this proposal, as the last signification of our royal pleasure to them on this subject, and if the said assembly shall not think fit to comply therewith, it is our will and pleasure, and you are required, immediately, to come over to this kingdom of Great Britain, in order to give us an exact account of all that shall have passed on this subject, that we may lay the same before our parliament."
The house proceeded, as in the case of governor Burnet, to make a grant to Mr. Belcher of one thousand pounds currency for defraying the expense of his voyage, and as a gratuity for his services while the agent of the colony in England; and, some time after, voted a sum equal to one thousand pounds sterling to enable him to manage the public affairs, &c.; but fixed no time for which the allowance was made. The council concurred in this vote, adding an amendment "and that the same sum be annually allowed for the governor's support." The house not agreeing to this amendment, the council carried it so as to read "that the same sum should be annually paid during his excellency's continuance in the government, and residence here." This also was disagreed to and the resolution fell.
The small-pox being in the town of Cambridge, the assembly was adjourned to Roxbury.
Two or three sessions passed with little more, on the part of the governor, than a repetition of his demand for a fixed salary, and an intimation that he should be obliged to return to England, and state the conduct of the house of representatives to the King. Some unsuccessful attempts were made by his friends to pass a bill fixing the salary during his administration, with a protest against the principle, and against that bill's being drawn into precedent. Failing in this expedient, and finding the house inflexible, he despaired of succeeding with that body, and turned his attention to the relaxation of his instructions. 1731He advised an address from the house to his majesty, praying that he might be permitted to receive the sum which the legislature had offered to grant him. This was allowed by the crown; with the understanding that he was still to insist on a compliance with his instructions. Leave to accept particular grants was obtained for two or three years successively; and, at length, a general permission was conceded to accept such sums as might be given by the assembly.[130]
Contest concerning the salary terminated.
Thus was terminated, the stubborn contest concerning a permanent salary for the governor. Its circumstances have been given more in detail than consists with the general plan of this work, because it is considered as exhibiting, in genuine colours, the character of the people engaged in it. It is regarded as an early and an honourable display of the same persevering temper in defence of principle, of the same unconquerable spirit of liberty, which at a later day, and on a more important question, tore the British colonies from a country to which they had been strongly attached.
1733
The immense quantity of depreciated paper which was in circulation throughout New England, had no tendency to diminish the complaints of the scarcity of money. Massachusetts and New Hampshire were restrained from farther emissions by the instructions to their governors, who received their appointments from the crown. Connecticut, engaged chiefly in agricultural pursuits, suffered less from this depreciated medium than her neighbours, and was less disposed to increase its evils. Rhode Island, equally commercial with Massachusetts, and equally fond of paper, chose her own governor, and might therefore indulge, without restraint, her passion for a system alike unfavourable to morals and to industry. That colony now issued one hundred thousand pounds on loan, to its inhabitants, for twenty years. The merchants of Boston, apprehensive that this capital would transfer the stock of Massachusetts to Rhode Island, associated against receiving the new emission; and many of them formed a company which issued one hundred and ten thousand pounds, redeemable with specie, in ten years, a tenth part annually, at the then current value of paper. The association against receiving the new emission of Rhode Island was not long observed; and the bills of New Hampshire and Connecticut were also current. Silver immediately rose to twenty-seven shillings the ounce, and the notes issued by the merchants soon disappeared, leaving in circulation only the government paper.
1739
Great uneasiness prevailed through Massachusetts on this subject. The last instalment of the bills would become due in 1741, and no power existed to redeem them by new emissions. Serious consequences were apprehended from calling in the circulating medium without substituting another in its place, and the alarm was increased by the circumstance that the taxes had been so lightly apportioned on the first years, as to require the imposition