religion and system of government. Thus the success of the
combined British and American forces in the French war developed the
revolutionary spirit, created new issues, and led to the early
dismemberment of the British Empire.

But omitting the settlement of the country and the causes which led to
it, there are incident all along our history which weakened the power
of the home government. The most important, perhaps, were the decree
in chancery of 1684, which annulled the colonial charter, and the grant
of a new charter in 1692 by William and Mary. The first was an act of
unmitigated despotism, the second of short-sighted selfishness. The
decree in chancery was accepted, because the colonists had no hope of
anything better. Thus the character of the government was changed
fundamentally without the consent of the governed. The arrow aimed at
colonial independence rankled in the public breast until the
independence of America was achieved. The effort to strengthen
British authority, in reality weakened it. Previous to 1684 religious
profession was the basis of political rights, and the clergy gave
direction to the policy of the state. John Cotton well states the
result of the colony charter, to wit: "Such a form of government, as
best serveth to establish their religion, should, by the consent of
all, be established in the civil state. . . . The effect of this
constitution was, first, that none but members of the church were
freemen of the state; secondly, as none could be church members whom
the minister did not approve, it followed that the ecclesiastical ruler
had an efficient negative on the admission of every freeman; and
thereby, as excommunication from the church created a civil, as well as
ecclesiastical disability, it also followed that both the attainment
and continuance of political rights were, to all practical purposes, in
the hands of ecclesiastical rulers." By the provincial charter all
this was abolished. The new government had exclusively for its end
"the things about which the civil power is usually conversant; goods,
lands, honors, the liberties and peace of the outward man." The
influence of the clergy, at all times very great in New England, was
thus separated from the English government, and they were at once
identified in sympathy, hopes, and prospects, with the people of the
colony. As I shall have occasion hereafter to say, this influence was
essential to the success of the Revolut