Massachusetts was not destined to remain long at any one time undisturbed by religious dissensions. Clark and Holmes, two leaders of the Anabaptist sectaries, were very active in their efforts to propagate their favorite tenets; and Clark, on one occasion, when in a church, having put on his hat to insult the minister as well as the people, was subjected to a severe flagellation. Quite a number of his followers were expelled from the colony. At this time, too, one Samuel Gorton, a religionist of rather an unusual stamp, afforded the authorities additional work in their endeavors to repress heterodoxy. Gorton entertained, it appears, certain mystical views of the doctrines of Scripture peculiar to himself; to him there was "no heaven but in the heart of a good man, no hell but in the conscience of the wicked;" he looked upon the doctrinal formulas and church ordinances of the orthodox Puritans as human inventions, alike unauthorized and mischievous, and regarded their assumed authority as an intolerable yoke of bondage, which he was daring enough to defy or ridicule. The "soul-tyranny" of the Massachusetts' theocracy seems indeed, as a natural result, invariably to have stimulated to opposition and defiance. Gorton, expelled from Plymouth, retired to the neighborhood of Providence, where he became involved in further dispute with some of the inhabitants, who invited the interference of Massachusetts. He was cited to appear before the magistrates of Boston, 1637. but he preferred to retire still farther from their reach, and having purchased some land at Shawomet, of Miantonimoh, the Narragansett chief, and the ally of the colonists in the Pequod war, commenced an independent settlement. The rightfulness of this grant of Miantonimoh's was denied by two inferior sachems; their appeal was confirmed by the Boston magistrates, to whom they now made over the disputed territory. Gorton was summoned to appear before the court at Boston; he replied with a denial of the jurisdiction of the "men of Massachusetts"-in which he was clearly in the right-and offered to submit the case to the arbitration of the other colonists. A strong party was sent out to seize him and his adherents, and being taken and conveyed to Boston, he was shortly after brought before the court on the charge of being a blasphemous subverter of 'true religion and civil government." He vainly endeavored to explain away the obnoxious imputations, but was convicted, and together with many of his adherents, sentenced to death. This sentence was commuted, in 1644, and Gorton and his followers, subjected to imprisonment and hard labor during the winter, and mercilessly deprived of their cattle and stores, were finally released and expelled. Gorton returned to England, but though he tried hard for many years, he was never able to obtain redress. Miantonimoh, the Narragansett chief, was deadly hostile to Uncas, the sachem of the Mohegans. Hav 66 1644. 1643. the History of the Revolt of the American Colonies," ing fallen into the hands of Uncas, he was, by advice of the Colonial Commis vol. i., pp. 86, 87. CH. XI.] . ROGER WILLIAMS AND RHODE ISLAND. sioners, put to death with circumstances of savage barbarity. The war, protracted for some time between the Indians, was finally brought to a close by the vigorous interposition of the colonists. 97 Cause of Conscience;" to which Cotton replied in a tract, the "Bloody Tenet washed and made white in the Blood of the Lamb." Williams was entirely successful in the object for which he had visited England. Vane favored his wishes and added his influence. The charter obtained included the shores and islands of Narragansett Bay, west of Plymouth and south of Massachusetts, as far as the Pequod river and country. The name of PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS was adopted, and the inhabitants were empowered to rule themselves as they might choose.* "The first legislator who fully recognized the Although the Massachusetts people fully sympathized with the "Godly Parliament," yet they were very wary not to commit themselves too far in any measures from which it might not be easy to draw back. The Board of Control, appointed by Parliament, was possessed of very extensive powers; there was, however, no attempt for awhile at interference with Massachusetts and her privileges; and her exports and imports were exempted from taxation. Some two years later, when Parliament endeavored to assert its jurisdiction over the colonies, Mas-terestedness, and of unbounded benevolence. sachusetts made a spirited protest and remonstrance, which, being warmly supported by Sir Henry Vane and others, prevented matters proceeding further in the way of interfering with the privileges of the colonists. It was in March of this year (1643), that the venerated Roger Williams, alarmed at the evident purpose of Massachusetts to interfere with his lawful rights, resolved to proceed to England and solicit a charter. As he was not 1644. VOL. I.-15 rights of conscience, was ROGER WILLIAMS, a name less illustrious than it deserves to be; for, although his eccentricities of conduct and opinion may some times provoke a smile, he was a man of genius and of virtue, of admirable firmness, courage, and disinAfter some wanderings, he pitched his tent at a place, to which he gave the name of Providence, and there became the founder and legislator of the colony of Rhode Island. There he continued to rule, sometimes as the governor, and always as the guide and father of the settlement, for forty-eight years, employ ing himself in acts of kindness to his former enemies, affording relief to the distressed, and offering an asylum to the persecuted. The government of his matters of faith and worship, every citizen should walk according to the light of his own conscience, without restraint or interference from the civil magistrate. During a visit which Williams made to colony was formed on his favorite principle, that in England, in 1643, for the purpose of procuring a co lonial charter, he published a formal and labored vindication of this doctrine, under the title of The Bloody Tenet, or a Dialogue between Truth and Peace. In this work, which was written with his usual boldness and decision, he anticipated most of the arguments, which, fifty years after, attracted so Locke. His own conduct in power was in perfect accordance with his speculative opinions; and when, in his old age, the order of his little community was disturbed by an irruption of Quaker preachers, he combated them only in pamphlets and public disputations, and contented himself with overwhelming much attention, when they were brought forward by After many difficulties, arising out of claims on the part of Massachusetts and Plymouth to portions of territory within the limits of Williams's charter, the government of the new State was firmly and peacefully established in 1647. Constant efforts were made by the opponents of the rigid theocracy of Massachusetts to obtain a relaxation of its severity. The authorities consequently had to choose between yielding, or proceeding to even greater lengths in support of their claims to virtual infallibility. Toleration was not once to be thought of; antinomian and anabaptist notions were to be crushed unrelentingly; and latitudinarianism was to meet with instant punishment. Some verses which that stern old governor, Dudley, who died in 1650, left behind him, express very fairly his own and the usual Puritan principles: "Let men of God, in courts and churches watch As will be seen, it was not long before an occasion offered to test how far the authorities were willing to proceed in maintaining their supremacy. It deserves to be put on record, that, in 1648, Massachusetts set the first example of an execution for their doctrines with a torrent of learning, invective, syllogisms, and puns. It should also be remembered, to the honor of Roger Williams, that no one of the 1648. early colonists, without excepting William Penn himself, equalled him in justice and benevolence towards the Indians.”—Mr. G. C. Verplanck's "Anniversary Discourse before the New York Historical Society, 1818," p. 23. witchcraft. The unhappy victim was a woman, named Margaret Jones, who was charged with having "a malignant touch." 1649. In March, 1649, in his tenth term of office, Winthrop died, widely and justly lamented. His best efforts were ever put forth in behalf of the colony, which he served with a faithfulness and zeal rarely equalled. He died poor, and the General Court, as a testimony to worth, unanimously voted £200 to his surviving family. The journal which he left behind is an invaluable document for our early history. The increasing trade with the West Indies brought into New England a considerable quantity of bullion; in order to put a stop to its exportation to England in payment for goods, Massachusetts undertook to erect a mint for the coinage of money, an act which has been denounced by some writers as an express assumption of sovereignty. The mint was set up at Boston, and in it were "coined shillings, sixpences, and threepences, with a pine tree on one side, and 'NEW ENGLAND' on the other. These pieces were alloyed one-fourth below the British standard—an experiment often tried elsewhere, under the fallacious idea that, thus debased, they would not be exported. Thus it happened that the pound currency of New England came to be one-fourth less valuable than the pound sterling of the mother country-a standard afterwards adopted by the English Parliament for all the North American colonies. Hildreth's "History of the United States," vol. i., p. 385. CH. XI.] 1651. RISE AND TENETS OF THE QUAKERS. War having been declared between Holland and England in 1651, fresh attempts were made upon New Netherland, as noted in a previous chapter. Peace was proclaimed in 1654, and the troops were disbanded. The fleet, however, having no chance to invade the Dutch, turned their attention to Acadie, of which they took forcible possession, although France and England were at peace. Another execution for witchcraft took place in 1655: the sufferer was a widow named Anne Hibbins, sister of Bellingham; soured by losses and disappointments, she became offensive and troublesome to the neighbors. Notwithstanding her influential connections, she was easily disposed of as guilty of witchcraft. The remonstrances of men like Sir Richard Salstonstall in England, and the complaints of many in the colony, as was said above, had no effect upon the views and principles of the magistrates. They were now called upon to carry them out to an extent which probably they had not contemplated. The Quakers were a sect which took its rise in England about 1644, under the preaching of George Fox. Their tenets and practices were peculiar and novel to an extreme. As their fundaAs their fundamental principle was that of an inward revelation of God to man, an indwelling of the Divine Spirit in the human soul, and as by this unerring voice, and not by the creeds and formularies of man, the Holy Scriptures were to be interpreted to every individual believer, so 99 وو Christian and intolerable. While Cromwell had declared that "he that prays best, and preaches best, will fight best," a doctrine religiously carried out in Massachusetts, the Quakers denied the lawfulness of even defensive warfare, and refused to bear arms when commanded by the civil magistrate. Their "yea was yea, and their nay was nay,' and believing that "whatsoever was more than this cometh of evil,” they insisted upon observing the letter of Scripture, which commands the believer to "swear not at all," and refused to take oaths when required by authority. They abhorred titles; declined to use the ordinary civilities and courtesies of life; believed every man and woman at liberty to preach if he or she thought herself moved thereto; and regarded a settled ministry as hirelings and wolves amid the flock. Beside all this they denounced the most simple and innocent pleasures, and especially the tyranny of rulers in high places, whether temporal or spiritual. Filled to the full and running over with zeal, they sought the propagation of their peculiar tenets every where, and seemed to delight in nothing more than courting persecution and outrage. A contest with the New England theocracy was a thing rather to be coveted by zealots. of this sort. 1657. fines were imposed upon any who should introduce Quakers into Massachusetts or spread abroad Quaker tracts and books. No one was to harbor a Quaker under any pretence, and if one were found, whipping was the mildest punishment inflicted; and this, too, upon females equally with males. On the first conviction they were to lose one ear, on the second the other one, and, although the law proscribed torture, on the third were to have their tongues bored through with a hot iron. | But the zeal of this sect amounted almost to insanity; they insulted and defied the magistrates-disturbed the public worship with contemptuous clamor nay, instances afterwards occurred in which women, to testify after prophetic fashion against the spiritual nakedness of the land, and regarding the violence thus done to their natural modesty as "a cross" which it behooved them to bear, displayed themselves, without a particle of clothing, in the public streets. Many of them had repaired to Rhode Island, where the free toleration af forded to all sects indiscriminately, allowed them to propagate their tenets undisturbed. But they were not content with this; they preferred persecution to every thing else; so Boston became the centre of attraction. It was war to the knife between ecclesiastical bigotry and insane fanaticism. The Puritans, as we may well believe, did not desire to take the lives of the Quakers, but they were determined to put them down. Hitherto all had been in vain; fines, whippings, croppings, and imprisonments; and now, by a decree 1658. of the council, as a last resource, though not without the strenuous resistance of a portion of the deputies, banishment was enforced on pain of death. But the indomitable Quakers gloried in the opportunity of suffering martyrdom. Robinson, Stephenson, and Mary Dyer, persisting in braving the penalty denounced against them, were tried and condemned. The younger Winthrop earnestly sought to prevent their execution, and Colonel Temple offered to carry them away, and, if they returned, fetch them off a second time. There was a struggle among the council, many regarding them as mere lunatics, against whom it would be as foolish as cruel to proceed to extremities; but the majority prevailed, and Stephenson and Robinson were brought to the scaffold. "I die for Christ," said Robinson. "We suffer not as evildoers, but for conscience' sake," said Stephenson. Mary Dyer, with the rope round her neck, after witnessing the execution of her two companions, exclaimed, "Let me suffer as my brethren, unless you will annul your wicked law." At the intercession of her son, she was almost forced from the scaffold, on condition of leaving the colony in eight and forty hours, but the spirit of the wretched woman was excited almost to insanity by inward enthusiasm and the horrible scenes she had witnessed, and after the trial she addressed from her prison an energetic remonstrance against the cruelty of the council. "Woe is me for you! ye are disobedient and deceived," she urged to the magistrates who had condemned her. "You will not repent that you 1659. |