Nathaniel Hawthorne

Twice Told Tales Nathaniel Hawthorne

There was once a time when New England groaned under the actual pressure ofheavier wrongs than those threatened ones which brought on the Revolution. James II., the bigoted successor of Charles the Voluptuous, had annulled the charters of all thecolonies and sent a harsh and unprincipled soldier to take away our liberties andendanger our religion. The administration of Sir Edmund Andros lacked scarcely asingle characteristic of tyranny-a governor and council holding office from the king andwholly independent of the country; laws made and taxes levied without concurrence ofthe people, immediate or by their representatives; the rights of private citizens violatedand the titles of all landed property declared void; the voice of complaint stifled byrestrictions on the press; and finally, disaffection overawed by the first band ofmercenary troops that ever marched on our free soil. For two years our ancestors werekept in sullen submission by that filial love which had invariably secured their allegianceto the mother-country, whether its head chanced to be a Parliament, Protector or popishmonarch. Till these evil times, however, such allegiance had been merely nominal, andthe colonists had ruled themselves, enjoying far more freedom than is even yet theprivilege of the native subjects of Great Britain