AH Challenge: Dominion of New England Survives to Present

[Glen]

Your AH challenge, should you decide to accept it, is to find a way for the Dominion of New England, founded on June 3rd, 1686, to survive to the present day.

Good luck, alternauts!

[Sovereign12]

I could only see it if Charles II doesn't take Joseph Dudley's advice to annul the Massachusetts Charter, or Dudley does what he was sent to England to do in the first place and keep the charter from being annulled.

Would definitely need someone better than Edmund Andros as governor. Someone who would rile the people of New England too much.

[Glen]

Originally Posted by Glen

Your AH challenge, should you decide to accept it, is to find a way for the Dominion of New England, founded on June 3rd, 1686, to survive to the present day.

Good luck, alternauts!

Originally Posted by Sovereign12

I could only see it if Charles II doesn't take Joseph Dudley's advice to annul the Massachusetts Charter, or Dudley does what he was sent to England to do in the first place and keep the charter from being annulled.

Would definitely need someone better than Edmund Andros as governor. Someone who would rile the people of New England too much.

I think the key would be to get James II to send someone other than the OTL governors of the Dominion who would get along reasonably well with the Colonists and would flip during the Glorious Revolution, bringing the Dominion over to the winning side instead of having it founder in a rebellion once the news of James' overthrow reached the Dominion.

[Glen]

What? No takers yet? Too difficult a challenge perhaps?

BTW, I do find it interesting to see the term Dominion being used even at this early phase of American history. I know a lot of people have thought Canada should have been referred to as a Kingdom rather than Dominion but this might be a counter.

[Glen]

Anyone have any good suggestions as to an alternative to Andros as leader of the Dominion, someone who'd be able to secure the job from James II, but be on better terms with the colonials and flip during the Glorious Revolution?

[Glen]

Originally Posted by Glen

Weird, I thought I started this thread....I am beginning to be unable to tell the difference between Thande and myself.

Anyway, I think there may be a chance if the first Governor of the Dominion of New England is Thomas Dongan. More later....

I think I will hijack this thread for a bit longer just to get some of the rough ideas out before spawning a completely new thread on the subject.

Some information about OTL's Thomas Dongan.

Originally Posted by wikipedia

James, Duke of York, who had served as a fellow officer of Dongan's in French army, arranged to have him granted a pension and high-ranking commission in the army and designated for service in Flanders. That same year, he was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Tangiers. In 1682, James, who had become the Lord Proprietor of the Province of New York after it was acquired from the Dutch, appointed Dongan as provincial governor (1684-1688) and granted him an estate on Staten Island. The stone farmhouse was called Christopher House. The estate eventually became the town of Castleton; later, another section of the island was named Dongan Hills in honor of Dongan. He was replaced as Governor by Francis Nicholson.

At the time of his appointment, the province was bankrupt and in a state of rebellion caused by the mismanagement of the previous governor. Dongan was able to restore order and stability through tactful means. On October 14, 1683, he convened the first-ever representative assembly in New York history, which convened at Fort James.

It should be noted at the end of his tenure James II (the former Duke of York) offered to make him a major general, but instead Dongan chose to retire to his estate on Staten Island. Dongan had served in France under Turenne and apparently distinguished himself at Flanders.

New Advent article from Catholic Encyclopedia.

The Duke of York signed and sealed the Charter 4 Oct., 1684; but never returned it, probably for reasons of prudence, for at the time Charles II had, by a quo warranto proceeding, abolished the Charters of New England, and the Charter of Pennsylvania granted in 1684 distinctly admits the right of Parliament to tax the colonies.

At the death of Charles II, 1685, James Duke of York was proclaimed king, and New York became a royal province.

The Board of Trade and Plantations, under whose supervision the province passed, vetoed the Charter of Liberties and James approved the veto. The colonists were disappointed, but such was the moral strength of Governor Dongan that we find no trace of popular resentment.

In 1685 Dongan established a post office in New York for the better correspondence of the colonies in America.

And from this site by Andrew Cusack

It was in 1682 that James, Duke of York, as Lord Proprietor of New York, appointed Thomas Dongan to govern the bankrupt colony. “In this office,” the Catholic Encyclopedia says, “Dongan proved himself an able lawgiver, and left an indelible mark on political and constitutional history.” He convened the first representative assembly of the Province in 1683, which enacted the Charter of Liberties enunciating the form of government in New York. The Duke of York’s supreme legislative power as Lord Proprietor would reside in a governor, council, and general assembly. Members of the assembly were conferred rights and privileges making their august legislature coequal to and independent of Parliament. Courts of justice were established, liberty of conscience regarding religion was declared, and the principle of no taxation without representation was affirmed. Dongan signed the Charter of Liberties on 30 October 1683, and solemnly proclaimed it the next day at the Stadt Huys, New York’s city hall.

“Thus to Dongan’s term as governor,” quoth the Encyclopedia, “can be dated the Magna Charta of American constitutional liberties, for his system of government became the programme of continuous political agitation by the colonists of New York Province during the eighteenth century. It developed naturally into the present state government, and many of its principles passed into the framework of the Federal Government. Moreover, a rare tribute to his genius, the government imposed by him on New York Province, 1683, was adopted by England after the American War of Independence as the framework of her colonial policy, and constitutes the present [1909] form of government in Canada, Australia, and the Transvaal.”

The peace and harmony of the Province was furthered in 1684 when Dongan, in the presence of Lord Howard, the Governor of Virginia, received the voluntary submission of the Iroquois confederacy to “the Great Sachem Charles”. The following year saw the death of Charles II and the ascent of the Lord Proprietor, James, Duke of York, to the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland. In that year of 1685, Dongan established a Post Office to strengthen communications within his colony and between all the English colonies in America. In the next year, 1686, the Governor granted civic charters to New York and Albany. Dongan’s charter for the City of New York lasted 135 years, while that of Albany was only replaced in 1870. Avid historians would have been bemused/irritated by Archdiocese’s celebration just a few years ago of the two-hundredth anniversary of Catholic education in New York. This would be because New York’s first Catholic school was not in the 1800’s during the republic’s early years but in the 1680’s when Governor Dongan established a college (in the secondary sense) under the guidance of three Jesuit priests, one of whom was his own private chaplain.

The tribute of history to his personal charm, his integrity, and character, is outspoken and universal. His public papers give evidence of a keen mind and a sense of humour. He was a man of courage, tact, and capacity, an able diplomat, and a statesman of prudence and remarkable foresight. In spite of the brief term of five years as Governor of New York Province, by virtue of the magnitude, of the enduring and far-reaching character of his achievements, he stands forth as one of the greatest constructive statesmen ever sent out by England for the government of any of her American colonial possessions.

[Glen]

Originally Posted by Glen

Okay, so here is the POD, changes from OTL in Blue:

The Duke of York signed and sealed the Charter 4 Oct., 1684; but waits to return it until the death of Charles II in 1685, when James Duke of York was proclaimed king, and New York became a royal province.

The Board of Trade and Plantations, under whose supervision the province passed, vetoed the Charter of Liberties, but James did not approve the veto and was offended that the Board would challenge his (albeit reluctant) previous assent to the charter. Not only did he not approve the veto, but in 1686, when he approved the creation of a new Dominion of New England, he added New York to the colonies involved and appointed his Governor in New York, Thomas Dongan, as the first Governor-General of the Dominion. Thomas Dongan took a diplomatic course in governance of the new Dominion, and early on established a Charter for the joint governance of the provinces that comprised the Dominion that respected their previous individual charters locally while regulating interstate affairs and coordinating responses to threats faced by the joint Dominion, such as hostile Indians and New France. In 1688, East and West Jersey were added to the Dominion.

Rumor of the latter termed 'Glorious Revolution' reached the Dominion in mid 1689. Such was the moral strength of Governor Dongan that we find no trace of popular unrest, though tensions were heightened. In only a matter of weeks, however, attacks began from New France. Governor-General Dongan personally took command of a joint province Dominion force and marched north. The French in the New World had badly miscalculated. While only a mere five years before they might have been able to use the disunity of the English provinces against themselves and nullify their advantage in population, Under the competent command of Governor-General Dongan (now general in fact as well as title), and with the greater number of men able to be sent to battle, New France was defeated in a series of battles. A distracted Europe continued to fight between Williamite England and France, hardly noting the result in the New World.

Okay, that's about where I am. The question is, when England finally gets undistracted, do they replace Dongan (who is Catholic), and if so,with whom and when? I'd like any replacement to be about the best we can get, if this nascent Dominion is to have a chance of surviving.

[Glen]

I was wondering where this had gotten to....need to bring in my stuff from Thande's thread over here.

[Glen]

Originally Posted by Glen

I was wondering where this had gotten to....need to bring in my stuff from Thande's thread over here.

Finally done with that!

Now then, the most immediate question I have is how long can a Catholic stay in charge of a sizable portion of the British America after the Glorious Revolution?

Dongan is a Stewart loyalist, but because he was caught up in his duty to the colonies under attack by the French, he has stayed in power. Once the victory is won and William and Mary have a chance to straighten things out in the Great Britain, what happens?

I can imagine Dongan offering to resign, and I can imagine the new regime accepting. On the other hand, what if Dongan didn't? How long before the Crown would try to replace him?