of Paris, for the independence of our coun- [ily granted to them.”* In 1686, a 'grant try, was framing, the grandson of a Hugue-of 11,000 acres was made to another comnot, acquainted from childhood with the pany of French Protestants who had setwrongs of his ancestors, would not allow tled at Oxford, in the same colony.† In his jealousies of France to be lulled, and that year, too, a French Protestant Church exerted a powerful influence in stretching was erected at Boston, which, ten years the boundary of the States to the Missis- after, had the Rev. Mr. Daillé for its passippi. In our northeastern frontier state, tor. A century later, when the French the name of the oldest college bears wit- Protestants had ceased to use the French ness to the wise liberality of a descendant | language, and had become merged in other of the Huguenots. The children of the churches, their place of worship fell into Calvinists of France have reason to respect the hands of some Roman Catholic refuthe memory of their ancestors."* gees from France. The emigration of the Huguenots to In 1666, an act for the naturalization America is an exceedingly interesting of French Protestants was passed by the event in the history of that country. It Legislature of Maryland: acts to the like commenced earlier, and was more exten-effect were passed in Virginia in 1671; in sive than is generally supposed. Even the Carolinas in 1696, and in New-York in previously to the massacre of St. Bartholo-1703.‡ mew's day, some of the Protestant leaders, historian of that colony, says, that next to the Dutch, they were the most numerous and wealthiest class of the population. From an early period they had in that city a church, which exists at the present day. It has long been attached to the Protestant Episcopal Church, and has a Frenchman for its rector. New-York became an asylum for the as we have seen, whether from feeling their Huguenots at a very early date, for even position to be even then intolerable, or from before it was surrendered to England, their anticipations of a still darker futurity, namely, about 1656, they were so numerproposed to establish a colony and a mis-ous there that the public documents of the sion in Brazil-the mission being the first colony had to be published in French as ever projected by Protestants. The Ad-well as in Dutch ;§ and in 1708, Smith, the miral of France, the brave Coligny, who was afterward a victim in the above massacre, entered warmly into the undertaking, and Calvin urged it on with all his might, and selected three excellent ministers, who had been trained under his own eye at Geneva, to accompany the emigrants. The expedition set out in 1556, but proved peculiarly disastrous. The commander re- New-Rochelle, about twenty miles above lapsed to the Roman Catholic faith, and the city of New-York, on the East River, having put the three ministers to death, or Sound, as it is more commonly called, returned to France, leaving the remains of was settled solely by Huguenots from Rothe colony to be massacred by the Portu- chelle, in France, and the French tongue, guese! Nor did better success attend two both in public worship and common parattempts made by the good admiral to plant lance, was in use even until after the Amercolonies in North America, the one inican Revolution. There are many of the South Carolina, the other in Florida. It seemed as if the time had not yet come for the planting of good colonies, and that neither religion nor persecution had as yet sufficiently ripened the Protestants for the enterprise. descendants of French Huguenots in Ulster and Dutchess counties in the State of New-York. The Rev. Dr. Miller, professor of Church History in the Theological Seminary at Princeton, New-Jersey, had the following From the time of the siege of Rochelle interesting facts, respecting the early into that of the revocation of the Edict of habitants of New-Rochelle, communicated Nantes, there had been a continual emi- to him: "When the Huguenots first setgration of French Protestants to the Eng-tled in that neighbourhood, their only place lish colonies in America, which, after the of worship was in the city of New-York. latter of these two events, was greatly aug-They had taken lands on terms that requimented, as is abundantly proved by the public acts of those colonies. The first notice of the kind to be found is an act of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, in 1662, to this effect, "that John Touton, a French doctor and inhabitant of Rochelle, made application to the General Court of Massachusetts, in behalf of himself and other Protestants, expelled from their habitations on account of their religion, that they might have liberty to live there, which was read * Bancroft's "History of the United States," vol. ii., p. 180-183. red the utmost exertions of men, women, Carolinas and New-York before they were natural- them. nots, who had first taken refuge in Holland, and afterward emigrated to America. Nor must we forget the descendants of Huguenots who found their first asylum in England and Scotland. Among these was the late excellent Divie Bethune, whose ancestors came originally from the town of Bethune, not far from Calais. In 1679, Charles II. sent, at his own expense, in two ships, a company of Huguenots to South Carolina, in order that they On looking over the roll of the Presbymight there cultivate the vine, the olive, terian churches of Charleston, South Car&c., and from that time there was an ex-olina, there may be found the Huguenot tensive emigration of French Protestants to the colonies. Collections were made for them in England in the reign of James II., and the English Parliament at one time aided them with a grant of £15,000.† In 1690, William III. sent a large colony of them to Virginia; in addition to which, that colony received 300 families in 1699, followed successively by 200 and afterward by 100 families more. In 1752, no fewer than 1600 foreign Protestants, chiefly French, settled in South Carolina, and above 200 more in 1764. In 1733, 370 Swiss Protestant families settled in South Carolina, under the conduct of Jean Pierre Pury, of Neuchâtel; the British government granting them 40,000 acres of land, and £400 sterling for every hundred adult emigrants landed in the colony.‡ names of Dupré, Du Bosse, Quillin, Lanneau, Legaré, Rosamond, Dana, Cousac, Lequeux, Bores, Hamet, Rechon, Bize, Benoist, Berbant, Marchant, Mallard, Belville, Molyneux, Chevalier, Bayard, Sayre, De Saint Croix, Boudinot, Le Roy, Ogier, Janvier, Gillet, Purviance, Guiteau, Boyer, Simon, &c., &c.* It As the entire population of the American colonies amounted only to about 200,000 souls in 1701,† more than forty years after the commencement of the Huguenot emigrations, a large proportion of that number must have been French Protestants, and Huguenot blood accordingly must be extensively diffused among the citizens of the United States at the present day. is very obvious that so large an accession of people, whose very presence in America proved the consistency of their reliIn some of the colonies where an Es-gious character, and who were generally tablished Church was supported by a tax, special acts were passed for relieving French Protestants of that burden, and for granting them liberty of worship. Thus, in 1700, the colony of Virginia enacted as follows: "Whereas, a considerable number of French Protestant refugees have been lately imported into his majesty's colony and dominion, and several of which refugees have seated themselves above the fall of James's River, at or near the place commonly called and known by the name of the Monacan towns, &c., the said settlement be erected into a parish, not liable to other parochial assessments." This exemption was to last for seven years, and was afterward renewed for seven more. distinguished by simple and sincere piety, must have been a great blessing to the land of their adoption, especially to the Southern States, where it was most required. Their coming to America, on the other hand, has been blest, under God, to them and their descendants. Many of the first families in New-York, Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas, as well as other states, are to be found among them, as may be seen in many cases from their names, although these have often been lost through intermarriages, or can with difficulty be recognised, owing to their being spelt as they are pronounced by Anglo-Americans. Some of the most eminent persons that have ever adorned the United States were of Huguenot descent. Such were no fewer than three out of the seven presidents of Congress, and, in a sense, of the whole nation, during the war of the Revolution, namely, John Jay, Henry Laurens, and Elias Boudinot-all excellent men. These Huguenots, wherever sufficiently numerous, at first used their own language in public worship, and had churches of their own, until, with one or two exceptions, and those only for a time, they fell into either the Presbyterian or Episcopal denomination. This must be taken as a general I conclude this chapter in the words of statement, for their descendants may now a distinguished clergyman of the Episcobe found in almost all communions, as pal Church in America.§ "And never, well as in all parts of the United States. probably, did any people better repay the Many members, too, of the Dutch Reform-hospitable kindness of the land which afed churches are descended from Hugue- forded them a refuge. Many of their de scendants are still left in New-York, Vir-, "German Flats," and in some other parts ginia, the Carolinas, and other parts of our of the latter province. country; and among the brightest ornaments of the state, in the halls of legislation and of justice, as well as in the sacred office, may be found the names of some of the French refugees. No man in America need ever blush to own himself one of their descendants; for the observation has more than once been made, and it is believed to be true, that among their descendants the instances have been rare indeed of individuals who have been arraigned for crime before the courts of the country." CHAPTER XIII. In Pennsylvania this immigration is said to have commenced in 1682 or 1683, when Germantown, near Philadelphia, was founded; and in subsequent years, such was the influx of those emigrants, that they and their descendants were estimated, in 1772, at a third of the whole population of that province, then amounting to between 200,000 and 300,000. In a letter dated October 14th, 1730, Mr. Andrews says: " There is besides in this province a vast number of Palatines, and they come in still every year. Those that have come of late are mostly Presbyterians, or, as they call themselves, Reformed; the Palatinate being about three fifths of that sort of people." There were, however, many RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF THE EARLY COLO- Lutherans mixed with them, as Mr. A. NISTS. EMIGRANTS FROM GERMANY. GERMANS began to emigrate to America in the latter part of the seventeenth century, and the first comers were probably sufferers in the devastations committed by the French under Turenne in the Upper Palatinate, a country lying on both sides of the Rhine, having Manheim for its capital, and including a portion of the territory which has since been transferred from the German Empire to France. In 1674 the whole of it was rendered almost utterly desolate by the troops of Louis XIV., who had no better motive for perpetrating such atrocities than that the invaded province was part of the empire with which he was then at war, and, next, that its inhabitants were almost all Protestants. So effectually did these troops do their master's bidding, that the Elector Palatine could at one time see, from his palace at Manheim, two cities and twenty-five villages in flames! In this work of horror Turenne, no doubt, proved to his royal master's satisfaction the sincerity of his conversion from Protestantism to Romanism, but he forever tarnished by it his own great name. As persecution continued what war and rapine had begun, on the Palatinate falling under the government of a bigot, many German Protestants emigrated to the English colonies in America; and it may be remarked, that previously to the American Revolution, the German emigration, though not always confined to the Palatinate, and though many of the emigrants came from the northwest of Germany, continued to be almost purely Protestant. About 2700 "Palatines," as they were called, who had sought refuge in England, were sent out by the British government under Colonel Hunter in 1710, when that officer was transferred from the governorship of Virginia to that of New-York; and German settlements were formed about that time, and some years following, on the afterward remarks, while he adds: "In other parts of the country they are chiefly Reformed, so that, I suppose, the Presbyterian party are as numerous as the Quakers, or near it." In the year 1749, 12,000 Germans arrived in that colony, and for several years thereafter nearly the same number came.‡ From Pennsylvania they spread into Maryland and Virginia. "The year 1713 was rendered memorable by an act of kindness shown to certain emigrants, similar to that which had been manifested towards the French refugees. It seems that a small body of Germans had settled above the falls of the Rappahannock, on the southern branch of the river, in the county of Essex. This was at that period the frontier of civilization; and, therefore, it was alike the suggestion of interest and humanity to afford protection and encouragement to these foreigners. According ly, they were exempted, as the French had been, from all ordinary taxes for the term of seven years, and were formed into the "Parish of St. George," with power to employ their own minister and upon their own terms."§ Many Germans emigrated to the Carolinas also. In 1709 above 600 arrived, and from the name of their settlement, Newbern, they are supposed to have been Swiss-Germans from the canton of Berne. From 1730 to 1750, South Carolina received large accessions from Switzerland, Holland, and Germany, and a great many "Palatines" arrived every year. In 1764, 500 * Proud's "History of Pennsylvania," vol. ii., p. 273. + Dr. Hodge's "Constitutional History of the Presbyterian Church,” vol. i., p. 50. Proud's "History of Pennsylvania," vol. ii., p. Dr. Hawks's "History of the Episcopal Church Virginia," p. 81. Williamson's "History of North Carolina," vol. i., p. 184. Ramsay's "History of South Carolina,” vol. i., or 600 were sent over from London, and had a township set apart for them.* Some years later a considerable number of German families, after having settled in Maine, left that province to join their countrymen at Londonderry in South Carolina, but most of these repented having taken that step, and returned to Maine, where their descend-sylvania, and Salem in North Carolina. ants are to be found at this dayt. Georgia had Germans among its very first colonists. A band of these were led thither by Colonel Oglethorpe, and re-enforcements from time to time arrived from Europe. ren, who preserve their own organization and peculiar institutions to this day. Besides a few churches in such large cities as Philadelphia and New-York, and some scattered throughout the interior, they are chiefly to be found in the three settlements of Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Lititz in PennBut I shall speak of their history and present number in another part of this work. Previous to the Revolution, the German emigration was not only extensive, but also, to a considerable degree at least, pure. The emigrants had left Europe on The Germans who emigrated to Ameri- account of their religion, and brought with ca during the colonial era, being almost them into America the simple and tranquil all Protestants, organized upon their arri- habits, and the frugal industry that charval two Communions or Churches, upon acterize the nation from which they came. the great doctrinal principles which had Not only was their general standard of divided them into two denominations in morality high, but there was not wanting Germany-the Reformed, or the Calvin- among them a goodly number of sincere ists, and the Church of the Augsburg Christians, distinguished for the cultivaConfession, or Lutherans. The history tion of all the Christian virtues. But ever of these churches down to the present since the Revolution, and especially during day will fall under our notice elsewhere. the last thirty years, a very numerous emBut although difference of language com-igration from Germany to the United States pelled them in the first instance to have churches of their own, many of their descendants, partly from having adopted the English tongue, partly from their wide dispersion over the country, are now members of the Presbyterian, Episcopal, Methodist, and Baptist Churches. Among the Germans who settled in America were two small, but interesting portions of the ancient Sclavonic churches of Bohemia, as if to show that even the great Eastern branch of the Christian Church was to have its representatives also in the New World, and to contribute to lay the foundations of a Christian empire there. These were the United Brethren, or Moravians, as they are more commonly called, and some members of the churches of Bohemia. The Moravians came directly from Herrnhut, the mother city of the whole fraternity that adopt the renovating system, received by some of the remains of the ancient race from Count Zinzendorf, in the early part of the last century. The Bohemians came in a dispersed state by way of Holland, but not having organized themselves as a distinct communion, these children of John Huss and Jerome of Prague were soon merged in the Protestant churches of the land of their adoption. Not so with the United Breth * Holmes's "American Annals," vol. ii., p. 268. †There is an interesting account of this colony in the American Quarterly Register for Nov., 1840. It was commenced, it would seem, in 1739, and received several accessions from Germany, but never became very strong. It suffered much in its early days from the Indians, and also from lawsuits about the titles to the lands occupied by the emigrants. The chief place in the colony is called Waldoborough, where there is a church and a pastor, but the German language is now disused. F has taken place, consisting both of Protestants and Roman Catholics, influenced in expatriating themselves chiefly by worldly considerations, and much inferior in point of religious character to those godly emigrants of the same race who had been driven to our shores by persecution and oppression at home. The descendants of German settlers are very numerous in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and the other Southern States, as well as in New-York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, and the Territories of Wisconsin and Iowa. Indeed, they are by far the most numerous of all the emigrants to America that are not of the British stock. But their influence on the religious character of the nation has not been equal to that of the Puritans, the Scotch, or the Huguenots. The first Bible printed in America was Luther's version. CHAPTER XIV. RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF THE EARLY COLO- EVEN Poland was called upon to furnish her contingent towards the colonization of America, and sent over some excellent people, whose descendants are now dispersed over the country. I know not whether the fact I am about to mention stands recorded in any history, but it may, without hesitation, be received as true in all material points. I received it myself from some excellent ministers of the Dutch Reformed Church, who are personally acquainted with a considerable number of the descendants of the colonists to whom it relates. They state that in the early part of the 18th century, a Count Sobieski, a lineal descendant of the famous John Sobieski III., who routed the Turks at the battle of Choczin in 1673, and chased them from the walls of Vienna in 1683, led a colony of about 200 Protestants from Poland to the shores of America, there to enjoy a religious freedom which was not to be found in their native country. In this tradition there is nothing strange. The doctrines of the Reformation made a considerable progress for a time in Poland, and one or two of the kings of that country were well disposed towards it. Stipulations somewhat like the Edict of Nantes were even made, for securing liberty of conscience and of worship to the Protestants. But these were afterward disregarded, the Protestants persecuted, and their doctrines so effectually suppressed, that a Protestant Pole is hardly to be found now in the whole kingdom; for those Protestants whom one meets with there are of the German, not of the Polish race. Thus there is nothing incredible in Poland, too, being represented in a country where the persecuted of every land have found a home. ting that among those there should be some, at least, to represent that martyr-people, veritable living relics of those churches in the north of Italy and southwest of France, which had remained faithful to the Truth during long ages of apostacy, and whose preservation was so appropriately symbolized by "the bush unconsumed in the midst of the flames." These had heard, in the recesses of their valleys, of the wonderful movement of the Reformation in Germany and France. They sent a deputation to Basel to learn from Ecolampadius what were the sentiments of the Reformers, and what those doctrines which were turning the world upside down. They heard with joy that the faith of the Reformers was the same as their own, and hastened, accordingly, to unite themselves to the general body of faithful men, who, through much tribulation, were casting off the yoke of that spiritual Babylon, drunk with the blood of saints, which had been endeavouring for so many ages to crush their forefathers. But before long the persecution, which was to fall upon the whole Protestant body, reached them also, and with fresh violence. Neither the seclusion of their This Polish colony settled in the valleys valleys, nor the insignificance of their numof the Passaic and Raritan Rivers in New-bers, could save them from this stroke.. Jersey, where there are some of their descendants at the present day, while others are dispersed over various parts of the country. The name of Sobieski, corrupted into that of Zabriskie, is retained by a highly respectable family, some members of which are to be found in one district of New Jersey, and others in the city of NewYork. How wonderful are the ways of God! Poland chose to cleave to Romanism and rejected the Protestant Reformation, and how has Romanism served her in her recent dreadful struggle for national independence? This question is best answered by the pope's bull,* addressed to the bishops of the kingdom in relation to that war. CHAPTER XV. RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF THE EARLY COLO- Then it was that the voice of Cromwell spoke for them with a power which even the Emperor of Germany dared not disregard. And then the pen of England's greatest poet was no less ready to teach a persecuting prince the duty that he owed to suffering humanity, than it was " to assert eternal providence, and justify the ways of God to man." Those valleys contain enduring monuments of British benevolence; the fund contributed at that time by the Christians of England has aided the preaching of the Gospel to their poor inhabitants ever since. But those who had fled from persecution before the voice of Britain was thus lifted up, had to be provided with an asylum, and for this they were indebted to the city of Amsterdam, which offered them a free passage to America. There the few hundreds that embraced the offer found a welcome re-ception awaiting them.* CHAPTER XVI. SUMMARY. SUCH, as respects the religious charac WHILE even Bohemia, Moravia, and Poland thus sent forth their little bands of faithful men to America, it is not surprising that we should find some witnesses to the Truth proceeding from the valleys of Piedmont, to place themselvester of the colonists, was the early colonizain the ranks of those whom God was thus calling from so many nations to take part in peopling the New World with professors of the pure Gospel. It was most fitThis bull is given at length in the work of the Abbé de la Mennais entitled "Rome." tion of the United States; and well may it excite our wonder as altogether without a * 66 Albany Records," vol. iv., p. 223. Lambrechtsten, p. 65, without quoting his authority, says 600 came over. Mr. Bancroft, vol. ii., p. 322, thinks thisan over-statement. A second emigration was proposed in 1663, but the project failed. |