New England Confederation

a colonial union of Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven. It was formed in 1643 and lasted over forty years. The confederation is in many ways suggestive of our present federal union of states. The precautions, compromises, and outcroppings of human nature show that the root of the matter was in these old colonists. The official name was "The United Colonies of New England." Articles of confederation were drawn with pious care. The little colonies insisted on the same representation as the large one. The little congress was composed of eight members, two from each colony; for Plymouth did not propose that Massachusetts Bay should spread wide skirts over her at the council chamber. Any six of the eight commissioners could bind the colonies. Once, in 1653, Massachusetts, having a greater population than the other three combined, refused flatly to be bound by an obnoxious act of the commission. Here we have nullification and threatened secession, rebellion and treason, all in the same teapot; but the commissioners, "being all in church fellowship with us," got together somehow. The dignity of Massachusetts was appeased, the union was preserved, and peace and concord were restored.

Among other provisions of the articles of confederation was a clause providing for the return of fugitive servants. This appears to be the germ of later fugitive slave laws and the basis of American extradition. The commissioners stood stoutly against the aggression of the Dutch from the direction of the Hudson Valley, and negotiated a boundary which neither might overstep. Correspondence was carried on with the French governor of Acadia and, more than once, a united front was presented to the Narragansett Indians.