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isfaction of his King that he earned the title of "The
Tyrant of New England."
When Governor Dongan reached the city and announced that the Duke had
instructed him to let the people have something to say as to how they
should be governed, he was joyfully received. It really seemed now that
everything was going to be satisfactory. But there came a sudden check.
Two years after Dongan became Governor, the Duke of York was made King
of England. He thereupon ordered Dongan to make all the laws himself,
without regard to what the people did or did not want. The power to make
the laws was a great power, but Governor Dongan was a fair and just man
and did not abuse it. The year after this he granted a charter to the
city, known ever since as the Dongan Charter, which was so just that it
is still the base on which the rights of citizens rest.
But while Dongan was popular with the King's subjects, he became
unpopular with the King. This was because he stood in the way of the
plans of his royal master whenever those plans interfered with the good
of the people. He must have known what the result would be. Whether he
knew it or not, it came in the year 1688. The King joined the colony of
New England and the colony of New York, and called this united territory
New England. Dongan then ceased to be Governor, having ruled the
province well.
CHAPTER IX
THE STIRRING TIMES of JACOB LEISLER
Sir Edmund Andros, who, you will remember, had been appointed Governor
of New England, had been knighted for obeying the King's commands. He
now became Governor of the united provinces. He made his home in Boston,
and left the care of New York to his deputy, Francis Nicholson. In this
year a son was born to the English King, and the people rejoiced. But
these were stormy times in England, for King James II. was a tyrant who
ordered a great many of his subjects killed when they refused to believe
in what he believed. And the people, grown weary and heartsick,
overthrew King James and put William III. on the throne. So the sights
and sounds of rejoicing over the birth of a prince were scarcely over,
when the news came that James was no longer King, and New York was soon
in a state of confusion.
In what had been New England before the provinces were united, the
people hated Andros. They arrested him. And as they had never been in
favor of uniting New England and New York, they restored their old
officers and disunited the two provinc
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