Now, however, the Duke of York had
become King of England with a new policy for the colonies, and
Andros was obeying the king's orders.
He was a soldier who had served with distinction in the army and
had held responsible positions. He was also a man used to courts
as well as to camps, for as a boy he had been a page in the
king's household and later was attached to the king's service. He
must have presented a contrast in appearance and manner to the
Connecticut magistrates who so anxiously awaited his coming.
When he entered the room he took the governor's seat and ordered
the king's commission to be read, which appointed him governor of
all New England. He then declared the old government to be
dissolved and asked that the charter under which it had been
carried on should be given up to him. The Assembly was obliged to
recognize his authority and to accept the new government; but a
story of that famous meeting has been handed down in Connecticut
from one generation to another telling how the people contrived
to keep their charter, the document they loved because it
guaranteed their freedom.
"The Assembly sat late that night," says the story, "and the
debate was long." When Sir Edmund Andros asked for the charter it
was brought in and laid on the table. Then Robert Treat, who had
been Governor of Connecticut, rose and began a speech. He told of
the great expense and hardship the people had endured in planting
the colony, of the blood and treasure they had expended in
defending it against "savages and foreigners," and said it was
"like giving up life now, to surrender the patent and privileges
so dearly bought and so long enjoyed.
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