Page:The Journal of American History Volume 9.djvu/460

 of American Independence,"—a proud boast, but one which is literally true.

Governor Andros soon took steps to crush this rebellion and caused the arrest of Mr. Wise and a dozen of the town's leaders, who were imprisoned in the Boston jail ; and six of them were fined as follows:

The other persons who were arrested were dismissed. These heroes were kept in jail at Boston about thirty days when they were released after the payment of all fines and costs, which were afterward repaid by the town of Ipswich.

During their trial Justice Dudley refused these patriots the privilege of Habeas Corpus. Mr. Wise plead in their behalf the statute of Magna Charta, the laws of England, and the laws of the Colony, to show the utter illegality of the action of Governor Andros and his assistants, but one of the Judges of the Court replied to Mr. Wise that he must not think the laws of England followed him to the ends of the earth, and that he and his associates had no more privileges left than not to be sold as slaves.

Governor Andros, in addition to calling for this illegal tax, had taken the high ground that none of the inhabitants of Massachusetts Bay had valid titles to their lands, notwithstanding that the famous Charter had granted the land to settlers fifty years before. He argued that as the different towns had assumed title to these lands to which they were not in fact authorized by the English Government, that new titles and new deeds must be furnished by his own officers, after the payment of such patent fees as he and they should order.

No words can express the exasperation of the Colonists, who had in many cases occupied for over forty years the lands of which they were in possession, and all of these impositions and inflictions taken together caused a reign of terror such as has existed in few communities anywhere else in America.

Our Ipswich men must have felt that by their boldness of speech and action they had seriously imperiled the fortunes of the friends and neighbors. They were now in the custody of the officers of King James, charged with treason and rebellion, and we can imagine their position should they still contend in a hopeless cause. Now that nearly