DONGAN
130
DONGAN
only resumed his work among the blacks, but extended
it to the Indians of Saramaca. In 1855 he took up his
residence in Batavia where for nearly thirty-two years
he ministered to 600 lepers. He left them only to
visit the blacks and Indians. In 1865 the whole col-
ony was confided to the Redemptorist Fathers by the
Holy See and the Iving of Holland. Father Bonders
at once asked to be of their number and was received
in Paramaribo, in 1S67, by Monsignor Swinkels, the
first Redemptorist vicar Apostolic. After this he
went back to his charge. He studied music to cheer
his afflicted children, and though given an assistant he
laboured to the end. The process for his beatification
has been placed before the Congregation of Sacred
Rites.
LooYA.\RD. Life in MS.; Vn Apdtre des Lepreux in ha Sainte Famille (1894), 376 sqq. J. MaGNIER.
Dongan, Thomas, second Earl of Limerick, b. 1634, at Castletown Kildrought, now Celbridge, Coimty KU- dare, Ireland; d. at London, 1715. He was the youngest son of Sir John Dongan, Baronet, Member of the Irish Parliament; an uncle, Richard Talbot, was after- wards created Earl of Tyrconnel, Lieu- tenant - Governor of Ireland ; and another, Sir Rob- ert, married Grace, daughter of Lord Calvert, Baron of Balti- more. At the death of Charles I, the family, de- voted to the Stu- arts, removed to France. Thomas served in an Irish regiment, partici- pated in all Turenne's campaigns under the name of D 'Unguent and rose to the rank of colonel in 1674. After the Treaty of Nimeguen (1678) he returned to England in obedience to the order of the English tJovernment recalling all British sub- jects in French service. Through the Duke of York, a fellow-officer under Turenne, he was ap- pointed to high rank in the army designated for ser\-ice in Flanders, and was granted an annual pension of £500. The same year (1678) he was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Tangiers. In 1682 the Duke of York, the Lord Proprietor, selected Dongan to govern the Province of New York, then bankrupt and in a state of rebellion. In this office Dongan proved himself an able lawgiver, and left an indelible mark on political and constitutional hi.storj'. He convened the first representative assembly of New York Prov- ince on 14 Oct.. 16S3, at Fort James within the present boimdaries of the city of New York. This assembly, under the wise supervision of Dongan, passed an act entitled "A Charter of Liberties"; decreed that the supreme legislative power under the Duke of York shall reside in a governor, council, and the people con- vened in general assembly; conferred upon the mem- bers of the assembly rights and privileges making them a body coequal to and independent of the Brit^ ish Parliament; established town, county, and general courts of justice; solemnly proclaimed the right of religious liberty; and passed acts enunciating certain constitutional liberties, e. g. no taxation without rep- resentation; taxes could be levied only by the people met in general assembly; right of suffrage; no martial law or quartering of the .soldiers without the consent of the inhabitants; electionby majority of votes; and the English law of real property.
Thom
Thus to Dongan 's term as governor can be dated
the JIagna Charta of American constitutional liber-
ties, for his system of government became the pro-
gramme of continuous political agitation by the col-
onists of New York Province during the eighteenth
centun,^. 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 Inde-
pendence as the framework of her colonial policy, and
constitutes the present form of government in Canada,
Australia, and the Transvaal. Dongan signed the
Charter of Liberties 30 Oct., 1683, and on the following
day solemnly proclaimed it at the City Hall of New
York City. The Duke of York signed and sealed the
Charter 4 Oct., 16S4; 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 Parlia-
ment to tax the colonies. Dongan established the
boundary lines of the province by settling disputes
with Connecticut on the East, with the French Gov-
ernor of Canada on the North, with Pennsylvania on
the South, thus marking out the present limits of New
York State. By treatj^ with the Indians made at
Albany, New York, 1684, in presence of Lord Howard,
Governor of Virginia, Dongan obtained the written
submission of the Iroquois to the Great Sachem
Charles, on two white deer-skins, and outlined the
masterly Indian policy which kept the Five Nations
friends of England and a barrier between the English
and French possessions in North America, a policy
afterwards maintained with success by Sir William
Johnson. 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 colo- nists 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. In 1686 he granted char- ters to the cities of New York and Albany; the former remained unchanged for 135 years and forms the basis of the existing city government ; the latter was superseded only in 1870, notwithstanding the extra- ordinary development in civil and political institu- tions. Dongan established a college imder the direc- tion of the Jesuit Fathers Harvey (his own private chaplain), Harrison, and Gage in New York City, and advised that the King's Farm, a tract l)eyond the walls of the then e.xisting city, be set aside for its mainte- nance. The king vetoed the grant, and in 1705 this land became the property of Trinity Church. He planned that a mission of English Jesuits be perma- nently established at Saratoga, New York, on land purchased by him for the purpose ; that a settlement of Iri.sh Catholics be founded in the centre of the Province ; and that an expedition be made to explore the Mississippi River and take possession of the great valley then made known by the explorations of La Salle. These plans were set aside by the king.
In 1687, the Assembly of New York was dissolved by the king, and in 1688 Andros was appointed Gov- ernor of the consolidated Provinces of New York and New England. Dongan refused command of a regi- ment with the rank of major-general, retired to his estate on Staten Island, New York, but was obliged to flee for safety in the religious persecution aroused by Lesler in 1689. In 1691 he returned to England. By the death of his brother William (1698), late Governor of the Province of Munster, Ireland, whose only son.
