58

SETTLEMENT OF CHARLESTOWN AND BOSTON.

patentees were styled The Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay in New England.'

The executive power was vested in a governor, deputy governor, and eighteen assistants, to be nominated by the crown, and afterwards elected by the company. The governor and assistants were to meet monthly for business. The legislative power was vested in the body of the proprietors, who were to assemble four times a year, under the denomination of the General Court, for electing officers, and making laws for the common weal. The colonists

were exempted from taxes and duties, and declared entitled to all the rights and privileges of Englishmen, as had already been done in the charter of Virginia.

Under this charter three vessels sailed in May, 1628, with about two hundred persons, who reached Salem in June, where they found a colony of one hundred planters under the government of John Endicott.

Not satisfied with the situation at Salem, one hundred of the company, under the direction of Thomas Graves, removed to Mishawum, were they laid the foundation of a town, to which they gave the name of Charlestown. Both settlements were united under the same government; and one of their first acts was to form a church and ordain their minister and ruling elder, in which solemnity they were joined by a representation from the Plymouth colony.

The inconveniences, which would have resulted from that provision of the charter which required the government of the colony of Massachusetts to be resident in London, had already been foreseen, and in consequence of representations to that effect, the charter was transferred to those of the freemen who should themselves reside in the colony. This gave a new impulse to emigration, and many persons of various ranks prepared for their de parture to the New World.

The next year (1630) brought a fleet with eight hundred and forty emigrants, among whom were governor Winthrop, deputy governor Dudley, and many other persons of wealth and respectability. In September, of the same year, a settlement was formed at a place on the south side of Charles river, called by the Indians Shaw

What form of government was established by their charter ?-What exemptions and privileges did it grant?-How many emigrants came Over in 1628-Who founded Charlestown ?-What was one of their first acts? What gave a new impulse to emigration ?-Who came over in 16307-What town was then settled?

mut, and by the English, Trimountain, to which the name of Boston was now given.

The succeeding autumn and winter were marked by severe distress. Sickness visited the colony, and before December, two hundred of their number had died. Among these was the lady Arabella Johnson, the daughter of a noble house in England, who had left the quiet and luxury of her home, but to leave a memorial of her virtues and misfortunes in the new country. The colonists were by no means disheartened by their sufferings, but bore all with fortitude, in the hope of transmitting free institutions to their posterity.

In May, 1631, at the first court of election in Massachusetts, that the body of the commons might be preserved of good and honest men,' it was ordered that, from that time, no persons be admitted to the freedom of the body politic, but such as were members of some of the churches within its limits. This provision has been much censured by historians and statesmen, and the right of the government to make it has been questioned. It was subsequently productive of much dissension. It was however, by no means inconsistent with the spirit of the age, and was unquestionably adopted from the most upright and conscientious motives.

The settlements gradually extended in the neighbourhood of Boston and Charlestown to such remote points, that the purely democratic form of government, which admitted every freeman to a share in the deliberations respecting the public welfare, was found to be very inconvenient; and accordingly, in 1634, a representative form of government was adopted. The whole body of the freemen assembled but once a year for the election of magistrates, and the freemen of each town chose deputies to the general court, who were vested with the full power of all the freemen, and were required to assemble in general court four times a year. This form of government was retained, with but slight alterations, during the continuance of the charter. We have here the second instance of a house of representatives in America, the first having been convened in Virginia, June 19, 1619.

Roger Williams, a minister of Salem, having put forth certain tenets, which were considered heretical

1634

What ensued in the autumn ?-Who died?-When was the first court of election held in Massachusetts ?What law was made ?-What is said of it ?-What form of government was adopted in 1634 ?-What is said of Roger Williams?

60

BANISHMENT OF ROGER WILLIAMS.

and seditious, 'tending equally to sap the foundations of the establishment in church and state,' and refusing to recant and conform to the opinions of the ruling powers, was banished the colony.

The heresy which he promulgated was, 'that the civil magistrate should restrain crime, but never controul opinion; should punish guilt, but never violate the freedom of the soul.'* His firmness on this occasion made him the founder of a state, and classed him among the most celebrated assertors of intellectual freedom.

In

His exile was not a mere transfer from one agreeable residence to another as agreeable. He was obliged to go into the wilderness of woods in the depth of winter; and when cast out from the society of civilised men, for asserting the noblest right of humanity, he found a shelter among the untutored savages. Pokanoket, Massasoit, and Canonicus, welcomed him to their rude wigwams, and thus confirmed a constant friend and benefactor. the spring he began to build and plant at Seekonk, but finding that this place was within the patent of Plymouth, he passed over the water with five companions, and settled on a spot which, in token of his humble reliance on the Divine favour, he called PROVIDENCE. Under these circumstances was commenced the settlement of Rhode Island—a state, whose history is marked throughout with the strongest evidences of the attachment of its people to the principles of civil and religious liberty.

In 1635, three thousand emigrants were added to the puritan colony of Massachusetts. Among them were two persons who were afterwards remarkably distinguished by their characters and fortunes; these were Hugh Peter, and Henry Vane the younger. Peter, who had formerly been pastor of a church of English exiles at Rotterdam, was a man of high spirit, great energy, eloquence and ability. Vane, who suffered much censure during his active career, is now pronounced by impartial historians to have been a man of spotless integrity and pure mind, and a genuine martyr for liberty.

The freemen of Massachusetts, captivated by the talents and fascinating manners of Vane, and flattered by his abandonment of ease and high rank in England, for a residence on their own soil, elected him for their governor.

What town and state did he found ?-Who came over in 1635?-To what office was Vane elected?

* Bancroft.

He was too young and too little acquainted with the country to fulfil with success the duties of so arduous an office.

The arrival of Vane was followed by certain negotiations with other men of noble rank in England, who were desirous to emigrate to Massachusetts, provided they could continue there in the enjoyment of those hereditary powers and offices, which were guaranteed to them and their families by the British constitution. Their proposals were received and considered by the leaders and freemen of the colony; but, fortunately for their posterity, these sagacious republicans foresaw the evils which would result from such an arrangement, and the proposal was accordingly declined.

The colony was not so fortunate in respect to another source of disorder, religious dissensions. A controversy arose concerning faith and works, in which a Mrs. Anne Hutchinson and two clergymen, Mr. Wheelwright and Mr. Cotton, espoused one side of the question, and received the support of governor Vane, while the lieutenant governor Winthrop, and a majority of the ministers and churches, contended as earnestly for the opposite opinions.

Mrs. Hutchinson held weekly conferences for persons of her own sex, and commented with great asperity on the sermons delivered by preachers of the opposite party, whom she pronounced to be under a covenant of works.'

What proposal was made by certain English noblemen?-How was it treated? What cause of disorder now began to operate 1-What is said of Mrs. Hutchinson ?

62

CONNECTICUT SETTLED.

The number and quality of her adherents soon gave the affair a degree of political importance, which it could never have acquired in a community where the church and state were not intimately connected.

The general court took up the matter, and censured Wheelwright for sedition. This measure embroiled the parties still further; and the party question' of the day was made the test of elections, and interfered with the discussion and decision of every public measure. The controversy lasted till 1637, when Anne Hutchinson, Wheelwright, and Aspinwall were banished the colony, and their adherents were required to deliver up their arms.

Many of the Antinomians, as the minority were called, emigrated to the neighbouring colonies. A considerable number found shelter with Roger Williams; and, by his influence and that of Vane, obtained from Miantonomoh, the chief of the Narragansetts, a gift of the beautiful island of Rhode Island. Wheelwright and some of his friends removed to the Piscataqua, and founded the town of Exeter.

Vane, not being elected governor a second time, and having witnessed the persecution and exile of the party to which he had been conscientiously attached, soon after returned to England, became conspicuous in the civil wars, and suffered death for his attachment to the republican cause. Peter became chaplain to Oliver Cromwell, and, after the Restoration, suffered the same fate.

The valley of the Connecticut had already attracted attention, by its fertility and its convenient location for an extensive internal trade in furs. The first proprietary under the Plymouth council, the Earl of Warwick, had assigned his grant to Lords Say and Seal, Lord Brook, and others, in 1631. The people of the old colony at Ply mouth had built a trading house at Windsor (1631) for the purchase of furs; and the Dutch had settled Hartford, under the name of Good Hope, in 1633.

The proprietaries sent out John Winthrop, in 1635, who erected a fort at the mouth of the Connecticut, and founded Saybrook. Before his arrival, parties of emigrants from Massachusetts had already formed settlements at Hartford, Windsor, and Wethersfield. The settlers marched through the forest to their new abode, accom

How did the controversy end?-Where did the exiles settle ?-What became of Vane?-Of Peter ?-What settlements had been made in Connecticut?-By whom?-When was Saybrook settled ?-By whom? -What other places had been settled ?