Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/171

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UNITED STATES
151

by the people, and restricted by a council of five (afterward seven) assistants. The legislature at first comprised the whole body of the people, but as population advanced the representative system was adopted. The foundation of the Plymouth colony was followed by that of Massachusetts Bay, where Salem was settled by John Endicott in 1628. A reënforcement of 400 colonists landed in 1629. In 1630 a fleet arrived with about 700 additional emigrants, with John Winthrop as governor, and Thomas Dudley as deputy governor. In September of the same year they settled Boston, which they named in honor of the town in England from which came their minister, the Rev. John Cotton. In 1692 Plymouth colony was united to Massachusetts. While these settlements on Massachusetts bay were in progress, Sir Ferdinando Gorges and John Mason obtained a patent for a territory called Laconia, extending from the Atlantic to the St. Lawrence and from the Merrimack to the Kennebec, and settled Portsmouth and Dover in New Hampshire in 1623. In Maine a French colony had been planted in the island of Mount Desert as early as 1613, which was soon broken up by an expedition from Virginia; and the first permanent English settlements in Maine were made at Monhegan in 1622 and at Saco about the same time, or according to Bancroft, probably at the mouth of the Pemaquid in 1626. These settlements ultimately fell under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, and Maine continued to form a part of that commonwealth till 1820. Connecticut was colonized in 1635-'6 by emigrants from Massachusetts, who settled at Hartford, Windsor, and Wethersfield, though a trading post had been established at Windsor somewhat earlier, and the Dutch, who claimed the territory, had built a fort and trading house at Hartford in 1633. Rhode Island was first settled at Providence in 1636 by Roger Williams, who had been exiled from Massachusetts for maintaining religious and political opinions at variance with those of the rulers of that colony. In September, 1609, Henry Hudson, an Englishman in the service of the Dutch East India company, entered New York harbor and went up the river to which his name has been given, exploring it beyond the mouth of the Mohawk. The region thus discovered was claimed by Holland and named New Netherland; and in a few years trading posts were erected at Fort Orange (now Albany) and on Manhattan island. In 1623 permanent settlements were made at Fort Orange and at New Amsterdam on Manhattan island, on the present site of the city of New York. The Dutch settlements gradually spread up the river, and eastward to the Connecticut, and westward and southward to the Delaware. On the Delaware they came in collision with the Swedes, who had settled there in 1638 and occupied both banks nearly to the site of Philadelphia, and named their settlements New Sweden. They were finally expelled in 1655 by a Dutch army. The English claimed the whole country under the right given by Cabot's discovery, and, after much diplomatic controversy protracted through nearly half a century, at length ended the contest by seizing New Amsterdam in 1664, and with it the whole of New Netherland. The province in the same year had been granted by Charles II. to his brother the duke of York and Albany, in whose honor the name of New Amsterdam was changed to New York, which also became the name of the province, while Fort Orange became Albany. New Jersey at this time acquired its distinctive name from Sir George Carteret, who had been governor of the island of Jersey, and in conjunction with Lord Berkeley had purchased the territory from the duke of York and made it a separate colony. In 1681 the territory west of the Delaware was granted to William Penn, who colonized it chiefly with Friends or Quakers, and founded Philadelphia in 1682. Pennsylvania soon became one of the most flourishing of the colonies, and was honorably distinguished among them for the kindness and justice of its treatment of the Indians, and its consequent exemption for nearly a century from savage warfare. About 1730 a large immigration of Germans began, which peopled several counties and gave a peculiar character to the population of the province. The country between the southern line of Pennsylvania and the Potomac was early called Maryland, in honor of Henrietta Maria, queen of Charles I. The first settlement within its limits was made in 1631 by Capt. William Clayborne, with a party of men from Virginia, on Kent island in Chesapeake bay. In 1632 Charles I. granted the province by a charter to Cecilius Calvert, Lord Baltimore, who sent out in 1633 a colony of about 200 persons, nearly all of them Roman Catholic gentlemen and their servants, led by the brother of the lord proprietor, Leonard Calvert, who became the first governor of the province. They landed on St. Mary's river, March 27, 1634, and began a settlement. In 1649 the assembly passed the memorable act by which Christians of all sects were secured in the public profession of their faith, and allowed to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences. The first permanent settlement in North Carolina appears to have been made about 1663, on Albemarle sound, by emigrants from Virginia. The first permanent settlement in South Carolina was made in 1670 by colonists from England on the Ashley river, near the site of Charleston, which began to be settled about the same time. The territory S. of Virginia had been granted in 1663 by Charles II., under the name of Carolina, to Clarendon, Monk, and others as proprietaries. A constitution for the government of the country, framed by the philosopher Locke, was adopted by the proprietaries in 1670; but, being impracticable, it never completely went into operation, and was abrogated in 1693. In 1729 the king