The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1915-07-02

who had told Fairfax he would hold
Worcester till he should receive his
majesty's command to yield it up,
even though his majesty were already
a prisoner; men like the Randolphs,
the Pendletons, the Madisons, the
Ludwells, the Parkes, the Marshalls,
the Cabells, the Carys, who had time
out of mind felt the compulsion of
honor bred in them by the duties
they had performed, the positions
they won, the responsibilities they
had proved themselves able to carry.
Men bred like the Cavalier families
of Virginia in every social matter.
drawn from sound county stock and
ancient lines time out of mind gentle
and elevated to the ranks of honor,
had gone into New England also at
the first: Winthrops, Dudleys, Wins
lows, Saltonstalls, Chaunceys-men
bred, like Cromwell himself, to in
tiuence and position. But they were
men whom new way of thought had
withdrawn from the traditions of
their class and set apart to be singu-
lar and unlike the rest of English
men. To the Cavalier gentlemen of
Virginia the home government now
seemed healed and sound again, and
affairs settled to that old familiar
order which best, suited Virginia's
taste and habit. To the Puritan gem
tlemen of New England, on the con-
trary, all hopeful reform seemed at
an end, and the government they had
made and cherished put in critical
jeopardy. Thier chief concern, now
as always, was to be let alone; to
be allowed to conduct their affairs for
themselves, after the Puritan model,
unchecked and unmolested. Their
passion was for independence. Their
care was to cut off all appeal from
their authority to that 70 the gov
eminent at home. They meant to
maintain a commonwealth of their
own; and there was good reason to
fear that the king, whom the Puri-
tans in England had kept from his
throne, and Cromwell's death had
brought back, would look with little
favor upon their pretensions.
AS a matter of fact, it was the
Puritan Parliament itself which had
taken the first step towards bringing
all the colonies alike into subsection
to the government in England-at
any rate in every thing that affected
| commerce.
The very first Parliament that met
after the Restoration (1660) forbade
any man not subject of the realm
to establish himself as a merchant or
factor in the colonies and it explicitly
repeated the prohibitions of the act
; of 1861 with regard to merchandise
brought out of America or Asia or
Africa. Certain articles, moreover,
produced in the colonies, it reserved
to be handled exclusively by English
merchants in England. Chief among
these were the sugar of the Barba-
does and the tobacco of Virginia.
/ An act of 1868 made a very
weighty addition to the series of re-
strictions. 1t forbade the importa-
ton into the colonies of "any COM
modify of the growth, production, or
manufacture of Europe" except out
of England and in English ships. Nc
ships, though an English ship and
manned by English seamen, might
thereafter lawfully carry any mer-
chandise directly out of Europe to the
colonies.
! To obey these acts meant to ex-
: clude all foreign ships from English
ports in America, the ships of the
neighborly Dutch at New Amsterdam
with the rest, and to cut the colonies
off from all direct transactions with
foreign markets, making them Deepen.
dent upon England whether they
bought or sold.
/ The acts might be disobeyed with
. some impunity at the safe distance
of America. New England did, il
, fact, openly ignore them. For more
than fifteen years after the passage
/, of the act of 1860 she traded as she
pleased, in entire disregard of the au
: thority of Parliament. These acts Of
z navigation (for so they were called,
: had not been passed with their con
sent, the Massachusetts, general cour
declared, and were not binding upoI
them.
Massachusetts, was keenly awar'
how open she was to attack, if i
came to a question of obedience. He,
magistrates, were not surprised
therefore, when, in 1864, the king ap
pointed commissioners to look int
their dealings with the crown, witt
their neighbors, and with their owl
subjects, and prepared themselves TO
as shrewd a defense and fight TO
their independent powers as the cir
. cumstances might permit.
Massachusetts, moreover, had been