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THE DEFENCE OF THE CHARTER.
WINTHROP’S death was an event very memorable in New England, and it seems, as has been said, to make a natural
division between the period of settlement and the period of growth and progress under the charter When he came
with his ships and his people to Boston harbour he looked upon wooded hills, unbroken save by the little plantations
of Maverick and Blackstone. When he died, the house in which he closed his eyes stood in a thriving town, which
had risen up in the wilderness in twenty years by the energy and determination of those Puritan Englishmen who
had followed him and upheld his hands. Edward Johnson in his “Wonder-working Providence” gives a description of
Boston at the time of Winthrop’s death which brings home to us more vividly than anything else the work which had
been done : — “The chiefe Edifice of this City-like Towne is crowded on the Sea-bankes, and wharfed out with great
industry and cost, the buildings beautifull and large, some fairely set forth with Brick Tile, Stone, and Slate,
and orderly placed with comly streets, whose continuall iiilargement presages some sumptuous City. . . But now
behold the admirable Acts of Christ: at this his peoples landing, the hideous Thickets in this place were such.
that Wolfe’s and Beares nurst up their young from the eyes of all beholders, in those very places where the streets
are full of Girles and Boys sporting up and downe, with a continued concourse of people. Good store of Shipping
is here yearly built, and some very faire ones : both Tar and Mastes the Countrey affords from its own soile; also
store of Victuall both for their owne and Forreiners ships, who resort hither for that end; this Town is the very
Mart of the Land; French, Portugalls, and Dutch come hither for Traffique.”
The fouiiclations of the future city had been well laid, and so had those of the Church and State, during the period
when Winthrop had guided and formulated the policy of Massachusetts. The work which was then begun under his wise
leadership moved forward in things spiritual and political as well as in material affairs without break or change.
That which most concerns us during the ten years after Winthrop's death, when John Endieott held the reins of government,
is the culinina— tion of the struggle between the stern theocracy which had been established with so much care
and the spirit of toleration and liberal thought which was rising up from the free schools and the democratic commonwealth.
Reference has already been made to the persecution of the Baptists, which was carried on for some years after Winthrop’s
death, and which resulted in failure. These Baptists, however, were much less difficult to deal with and much better
able to win toleration than the people called Quakers, who succeeded them, and before whom the Puritan system of
repression in reality broke down, although the fact of its defeat was not realized until the appearance of outside
political forces made it painfully evident to all men.
This is not the place to enter into a detailed history of the Quaker persecution. It has been the fashion in these
days to represent the case as if all the wrong were on one side, and all human sympathy should be with the Quakers.
It seldom happens in any quarrel that all the wrong is on one side. Life would be much simpler if such were the
case. In this instance wrong was largely on one side, but not entirely so. The Quakers, whom the world has known
for the past two centuries as quiet, law-abiding, and benevolent citizens, were very different from those who came
and set themselves up against the authorities of Massachusetts. These early agitators, apart from their religious
doctrines, and considered solely from the secular standpoint, were offensive and disorderly persons, as unlike
the seraphic beings of modern poetry and history as can well be imagined. Their cause was righteous, no doubt,
but they were not by any means. Men and women who raised disturbances in the streets, went about without clothes,
smearing their bodies with black, who denounced the civil magistrates and. the law, who broke into the midst of
peaceful congregations, and indulged in every sort of indecent performance, would in these days of enlightened
liberality be placed in jail for disorderly and indecent conduct; and the present generation would feel that they
had been treated with absolute justice as law-breakers and disturbers of the peace.
If the Puritans had treated the Quakers solely from the secular standpoint, made them keep order, and inflicted
upon them nothing more than the usual punishments for infraction of the law, it would be very difficult to say
that they had acted otherwise than as sensible men. Unfortunately, they could never keep matters of conscience
and opinion separate from overt acts; and that which offended the Puritan most was the fact that the “Ranters,”
as they called them, were not only disorderly persons but people who held religious views at variance with those
of the State. Feeling in this way, the Puritan authorities undertook to suppress the Quakers as religious fanatics
instead of simply punishing them as disturbers of the peace. Even Roger Williams, the conventional champion of
soul-liberty and of freedom of conscience, declared himself in favour of due and moderate restraint and punishment
of the Quakers; and if the Puritans had kept themselves to this, all would have been well. Unluckily they went
much further. They undertook to extirpate them; and they adopted in so doing the repression to which they were
accustomed, and used methods which were neither better nor worse in Massachusett•s than the methods of punishment
then in vogue everywhere. They imprisoned the Quakers, whipped them at the cart-tail from town to town, and banished
them from the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth under pain of death, a system which on the whole had thus far proved
fairly effective. This time, however, they were dealing with men and women so crazed by religious feeling that
they were ready to meet even the last penalty in order to establish their faith. The Quakers came back from exile
to find that the Puritans, whatever their faults, were men of their word. Between 1659 and 1661 three men and one
woman were executed on Boston Oommon, where it is believed they still lie buried. It was with great difficulty
that a majority of the magistrates could be obtained to carry out the threat that had been made ; and it may be
doubted whether the policy would have prevailed if it had not been for the unbending will of stern old Governor
Endicott, who in his earlier days had cut the cross from the English flag as a symbol of idolatry. The victory
in appearance rested with the magistrates, but in reality the Puritan system of a single church had broken down.
Public opinion was so strongly excited by the execution of the Quakers that the policy it embodied could never
again have been carried out thoroughly. It was the last victory of the theocratic system of the founders, and is
of profound interest because it shows that system carried out to its logical conclusion, and failing in the end
in the presence of the modern forces which were being generated by free schools and a free government.
Even if the natural growth of public opinion, however, had not brought to an end the attempt to stifle religious
differences by force, events in England would have done the work. New England had rejoiced at the rule of the great
Protector, and had thriven under it undisturbed; but Massachusetts had allowed even him to understand that she
felt herself to be independent, and she made no acknowledgment of his son and successor. Yet at the very time,
when the colony seemed most secure in its independence and most prosperous in its material welfare, when the Puritan
theocracy, as it believed, was crushing heresy by the infliction of the last punishment which man can impose, changes
were occurring in England which were to turn the people of the Bay Colony from the work of putting down those whom
they esteemed heretics to a long and hopeless struggle to preserve the liberties which they had gained under their
dearly-cherished charter. In 1660, Charles II. came back to his father’s throne; and the ship that brought the
news of the Restoration to Boston brought also the two regicides, Goffe and Whalley, fleeing from the wrath to
come. Within a year the “Colonels,” as they were called, who had been on their arrival the honoured guests of the
State, were hiding in remote places with a price upon their heads, and Massachusetts heard that her former governor,
Sir Henry Vane, and her great preacher, Hugh Peter, had died upon the scaffold. It was evident that this was a
government which, unlike that of Richard Cromwell, could not be passed over without some acknowledgment; and they
therefore sent what they called a “congratulatory and lowly script,” acknowledging Charles, and asking for his
protection.
Charles returned a gracious although vague reply to the address of the colony; but despite the fair words, signs
were not wanting to anxious observers in Massachusetts that the home Government was planning to take a much more
effective control of their affairs than they either liked or expected. The Navigation Act of Cromwell, which had
never been enforced against them under the Protectorate, was recommended by the Convention Parliament to be made
more stringent and was put into active operation. Twelve privy councillors were also appointed to be a commission
touching the settlement of New England. Thi.s was in May, 1661; and while the Government in England. was thus gradually
turning its attention to the Puritan colonies, the General Court of Massachusetts at the same time was appointing
a committee of twelve to take into consideration the present condition of affairs. This corninittee made a report
in June, which set forth the rights of the colony under the charter, and secondly the duties of allegiance which
the colonists owed the king. The clauses in this report "concerning our liberties" were very definite
and very broad, while those concerning allegiance were vague, and did not extend very far, a distinction not likely
to escape observant and hostile eyes. Having thus set forth their own ideas of their rights and duties much as
if they were entering a caveat, the Massachusetts Government, in August, 1661, proclaimed the king in Boston, fifteen
months after his accession, - a delay which certainly did not indicate an over-hasty loyalty. The news which came
to them, however, convinced them that more active steps should be taken to defend their rights in England than
the reports of committees or tardy proclamations of the existence of the reigning king; and after much deliberation
Mr. Bradstreet and Mr. Norton left the colony in February, 1662, as agents of the colony, to represent its interests
in London. Yet at this very time, when agents were being sent with no little anxiety, the colony continued to exercise
one of the highest attributes of independent sovereignty, by continuing the coinage of money. Their deeds were
by no means so submissive as their words. Nevertheless, the agents were well received in England, and returned
with a letter from the king, dated June 28, 1662. This letter was more gracious and liberal than the colonists
ought to have expected; for Charles told the Massachusetts Government that their address had been very acceptable;
that he received the colony into his gracious protection, confirmed their charter, and was ready to renew it; and
that he pardoned all subjects for offences against him, except persons attainted for high treason, - the exception
referring to fugitive regicides.
After such concessions and such apparent liberality, the king on his side demanded certain things which seemed
very grievous to the Puritans of Massachusetts, who had been carrying on for so long an independent government.
Charles directed that the oath of allegiance should be observed, and that the administration of justice should
be in his name; and as a feature of the charter was freedom of conscience, he charged that they should extend that
freedom to all members of the Episcopal Church. He also directed that all freeholders of good character and orthodox
in religion, though of different persuasions concerning church and government, should be allowed to vote. This
last command struck of course at the very root of the Puritan system; and when the General Court met in October,
1662, the only thing they did was to direct that all writs should run in the king's name, while at the next session,
in May, 1663, they appointed a committee to consider the rest of the letter. The colonists were quite ready to
go through all the forms of obedience; but when it came to substantial concessions they grew straightway stubborn,
and began to play the waiting game, which had always served them so well.
Meanwhile the Committee of the Privy Council had begun to move; and in April, 1663, it was declared that his Majesty
had determined to send new commissioners to the colonies to preserve the charter of the Plantation, and to remove
existing differences. The news that these men were coming as passengers on men-of-war, and accompanied by troops,
reached Massachusetts in the spring of 1664. When the General Court met in May, it appointed Captains Oliver and
Davis to go on board these ships as soon as they appeared, and to acquaint the commissioners that the officers
and soldiers should be permitted to land only in small numbers, and unarmed. The Court also appointed a day of
humiliation and prayer, gave the patent and its duplicate to certain persons to be hidden in a safe and secret
place, ordered the trainbands to be put in readiness, and placed Captain Davenport in command of the castle in
the harbour. Thus prepared, both spiritually and temporally, they awaited the coming of the ships. Two of the men-of-war
reached Boston on the 23d of July, 1664, and the others followed. The fleet brought some four hundred troops for
the reduction of the Dutch settlements and four commissioners, - Colonel Nichols, Sir Robert Carr, Colonel Cartwright,
and Mr. Maverick. These gentlemen bore the royal commission, which ordered them to reduce the Dutch of New York,
to hear all trials of complaints against existing governments, and to settle the peace and security of the country.
They also brought a letter from the king which gave a more detailed expression of the powers set out in the commission.
The commissioners laid before the governor's council their commission and the king's letter, and asked for men
to assist them in the reduction of New York, whither they went at once, after stating in broad terms that they
would return later amid hoped for a more satisfactory answer than the king's missives had yet received. When the
General Court assembled in August they resolved that they would keep true faith and allegiance to his Majesty,
and also would adhere to the patent. They gave two hundred men for service against the Dutch and then proceeded
to consider the king's letter of 1662, which they had had before them for two years. By way of compliance with
its requests they repealed the law which confined the franchise to church membership and replaced it by another,
which gave a vote to those who, with certain other unimportant qualifications, could present a certificate from
the minister of the place where they lived that they were orthodox in religion. This was a change without a difference;
and the practical effect of this new law was the same as the old, for it left the control of the franchise in the
hands of the ministers. The only other thing that the Court did was to appoint a committee to draw up a petition
to the king for the continuance of their chartered privileges. Thus the points of difference came out clearly through
the mist of words in letters, reports, commissions, and proclamations. The two parties were fairly arrayed against
each other, and the attitude of the General Court was sufficiently unpromising to those who understood the temper
of the people.
The commissioners came back to Massachusetts in February, and proceeded thence to Plymouth, Rhode Island, and Connecticut,
where they met with a reception or a submission which was satisfactory to them and to the king. By the following
May they were once more in Boston, prepared for the last contest. John Endicott, sternest and most unyielding of
all the Puritan magistrates, had died, and had been succeeded by Richard Bellingham; but the policy of the colony
was unchanged. When the opponents were at last fairly face to face there ensued a plentiful exchange of letters
and much discussion, none of which tended to any results. After a good deal of irritation on both sides the commissioners
decided to bring the conflict to a direct issue. They accordingly announced that they would hold a court, at which
the colony was cited to appear as defendant, at the house of Captain Bridger, on Hanover Street, in Boston, at
nine o'clock in the morning of May 24, 1665. The General Court of the colony was prepared for this move. At eight
o'clock in the morning on the appointed day a messenger of the Court appeared in front of Captain Bridger's house,
blew an alarm on his trumpet, and proclaimed in his Majesty's name and by authority of the royal charter that it
regarded this action of the commissioners as a gross usurpation, which could not be countenanced or allowed. Then
the messenger and trumpeter went to other parts of the little town and with similar cereniony made the same proclamation.
Thus it befell that when the commissioners assembled at nine o'clock on the same morning they found nobody either
to hear them or to confer with, except Colonel Cartwright, who was ill with the gout in Captain Bridger's house,
and who had had the pleasure of listening at an early hour to the trumpeter and the proclamation. So far as the
commissioners were concerned the matter was at an end, for they had no force sufficient to cope with that of the
colony. Accordingly they stated that they would not lose more of their labours in so unpromising a field, and thereupon
departed.
In this first struggle with the Crown, Massachusetts triumphed; and having triumphed, the colonists proceeded to
show their loyalty in their own way, by sending provisions to time royal fleet in the West Indies and masts for
the navy to England. Meantime chance favoured them. Other matters intervened, and another decisive struggle was
not destined to come for some years. In time following year a letter came from the king through Maverick, directing
the Government to send four or five persons to attend upon his Majesty, which the General Court, with great humility,
declined to do, and then proceeded to send out the gifts of provisions and masts, which were much needed and well
received. The first attempt of the government of the Restoration to take control of Massachusetts had been scattered
by time blast of the trumpeter of the General Court.
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