PERSECUTION ON THE PURITANS. 93 were not able, however, to take possession of the territory thus claimed, without the aid of government. At their instance a quo warranto was issued against the company of Massachusetts' Bay, and judgment was pronounced against its members. The other patentees of the Plymouth company were outlawed. But the death of Mason, their most active enemy, and the civil disturbances in England, prevented any further proceedings for the time. The persecution of Puritans raged with great fury in England. The punishments of scourging, mutilation, imprisonment, and the pillory were inflicted on great numbers of them; and when they attempted to fly from their persecutors to the safe asylum of the New World, the ships in which they proposed to embark were detained. In 1638, a squadron of eight ships, preparing to sail for New England, was detained in the Thames, by order of the privy council. This detention lasted, however, but a few days. It has been affirmed by historians, that Hampden and Cromwell were about to embark in this fleet; but Mr. Bancroft, in his history, has conclusively shown that this assertion is without foundation. During the civil wars of England, the colonies were left in a state of peace and prosperity. The population increased rapidly. Twenty-one thousand two hundred emigrants had arrived before the assembling of the Long Parliament, and a million of dollars had been expended on the plantations. Agriculture, ship building, the fisheries, and an extensive commerce in furs, lumber, grain, and fish were the chiefs pursuits of the inhabitants. Their institutions of religion and civil government were highly favourable to habits of industry and economy; labour rendered their soil productive, and the natural result was a rapid increase of wealth and population. 1641 The members of the Long Parliament, being Puritans themselves, were disposed to extend every encouragement to the Puritan colonies. They freed the colonists from all taxation on exports and imports, and declared their approbation of the enterprise in which they were engaged. The colonists accepted the courtesy, but were careful to avoid too close a connection with these unsought friends. What prevented further proceedings? | The pursuits and institutions of the What is said of the Puritans? Of Hampden and Cromwell? people? Of the Long Parliament ? 94 NEW ENGLAND COLONIES UNITED. In 1641, New Hampshire was annexed to Massachusetts, by request of the people, and on equal terms; the inhabitants of the former province not being required to qualify its freemen or deputies, for a participation in the business of legislation, by church membership. As early as 1637, a union of the colonies of New England had been proposed at a meeting of the leading magistrates and elders of Connecticut, held in Boston; but it was not until 1643, that a confederation was effected, embracing the separate governments of Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven, under the title of the United Colonies of New England. Their declared object was the protection of the lives, property, and liberties of the whole, against foreign or internal dangers. The local jurisdiction of the several states was carefully guarded. Two commissioners from each colony were to assemble annually to deliberate on the affairs of the confederacy. The measures which they determined were merely recommended to the several colonies, to be carried into effect by their local authorities. Rhode Island was excluded from the union, because it declined to come under the jurisdiction of Plymouth; and the people of Providence Plantations and Maine were not admitted on account of the want of harmony between their religious views and those of the members of the confederacy. One of the chief offices of the commissioners of the United Colonies was the regulation of Indian affairs; and their intervention was required soon after they had become organised. Miantonomoh, the sachem of the Narragansetts, prompted by an ancient grudge against Uncas, chief of the Mohegans, suddenly gathered his warriors, to the number of 1000, and fell upon the hated tribe with great fury. He was defeated and taken prisoner; and Uncas applied to the commissioners for advice respecting the manner in which he should be disposed of. They inquired into the circumstances of the affair, and finding that Miantonomoh had killed a servant of Uncas, in time of peace, they pronounced him guilty of murder. How far an independent chieftain was amenable to their tribunal may be doubted. The Indian customs warranted his execution, and accordingly he was put to death by Uncas himself, on a spot beyond the jurisdiction of the colony. Of New Hampshire? What was done in 1637 ? In 1643 ? What was the object of this union? What colonies were excluded? Relate the affair of Miantonomon ROGER WILLIAMS IN ENGLAND. 95 His tribe were greatly exasperated, but durst not attempt to avenge his death. In 1646, the people of Connecticut purchased the territory at the mouth of the river, from the assigns of the Earl of Warwick. Rhode Island, having been excluded from the union of the colonies, sought the immediate protection of the mother country. For this purpose the government despatched Roger Williams himself, the founder of the colony, to England. He was warmly received by the republicans, who had then the controul of affairs, and found no difficulty in obtaining from parliament, a free and absolute charter of civil government. On his return, he took letters of safe conduct from parliament, and landed at Boston, whence, it will be recollected, he had been banished with an ignominy as signal as his return was now triumphant. His return to his own state was marked with every demonstration of joy and welcome. his arrival at Seekonk, he was met by a fleet of canoes, manned by the people of Providence, and conducted joyously to the opposite shore. On The affairs of Rhode Island were not yet finally settled. The executive council in England had granted to Coddington a separate jurisdiction of the islands. Justly apprehending that this would lead to the speedy dissolution of their little state, and the annexation of its ports to the neighbouring governments, the people sent Williams again to England, accompanied by John Clark; and the danger was removed by the rescinding of Coddington's commission, and the confirmation of the charter. (1652.) The province of Maine had made but little progress under the auspices of Sir Ferdinand Gorges, as lord proprietary. He had granted a city charter to the town of York, which contained some 300 inhabitants, and sent out his cousin Thomas, to support the dignity of a deputy governor. He had expended much time and money on his favourite scheme of colonisation, but died at an advanced age, without realising any benefit from it. After his death a dispute arose between the colonists who were settled under his charter, and those who had settled under Rigby's patent, for Lygonia. The magistrates of the What took place in 1646 ? What is related of Roger Williams? How was he received on his return? What was the occasion of his second What was the result? What dispute arose after his death? 96 MAINE UNITED WITH MASSACHUSETTS. neighbouring colony of Massachusetts were appealed to by both parties; and after a hearing, the litigants were informed that neither had a clear right, and were recommended to live in peace. The heirs of Gorges seemed to have forgotten the care of his colony, and his agents withdrew. Under these circumstances, the inhabitants of Piscataqua, York, and Wells accepted the offer of Massachusetts to place themselves under her protection. The province was formally annexed to the Bay colony, and the towns, situated farther east, readily sent in their adhesion. 1652 In 1655, Oliver Cromwell offered the people of New England a settlement in the Island of Jamaica, provided they would emigrate thither, and possess its fertile lands, and orange groves. But the people were too much attached to the country of their adoption to listen to such a proposal. They would have considered it a species of sacrilege, to abandon to the savages the consecrated asylum of their religion. The protector's offer was respectfully declined. The religious sentiments of the Puritan colonists gave a peculiar character to all their institutions. Religion was with them an affair of state; and to preserve its purity was considered a paramount duty of the civil magistrate. We have seen the effects of this principle in the history of the Antinomian controversy, led to the expulsion of Anne Hutchinson, and her disciples. It was now applied to the Anabaptists and Quakers. Clarke, a baptist of Rhode Island, of exemplary character, was fined for preaching at Lynn, and Holmes, for refusing to pay a fine, inflicted for his religious opinions, was publicly whipped. The union of church and state had become so intimate that offences against religion, as it was understood by the governing powers, were treated as civil crimes. Absence from public worship was punished by a fine. The utterance of certain opinions was denounced as blasphemy, and visited with fine, imprisonment, exile, or death. Ministers not ordained in the regular manner, were silenced by the public authorities; and the very men, who had fled from England to gain an asylum for religious freedom, were refusing the slightest toleration to any religious opinions but their own. It is not surprising that, in this state of the colony, certain How was it settled? To what colony was Maine annexed? What sects were now persecuted? What measures were taken by the PERSECUTION OF QUAKERS. 97 members of the society of Friends, who came, into Massachu setts, and made known their sentiments, were dealt with in a summary manner. Mary Fisher and Ann Austin, members of the society, who arrived in Boston in July, 1656, were put in close custody for five weeks, and then banished. A special law was passed, prohibiting their admission into the colony; and a fine was imposed on such as should entertain them. The Quakers not being deterred from visiting the forbidden ground by these regulations, a law was finally passed which banished them on pain of death. Several persons were actually hanged under this enactment. Such proceedings evince at once the peculiar delusion of the times, and the dangerous tendency of a union of church and state. It is fortunate that this delusion was temporary; and that the unnatural combination which led to it, was soon dissolved. The people of New England were early impressed with the importance of a provision for general instruction. In 1647, a law was passed for the establishment of public schools, requiring one in every township containing fifty householders; and a grammar school where boys could be fitted for college in every town containing one hundred families. A sum equal to a year's rate of the whole colony of Massachusetts had been voted for the erection of a college, in 1636; and in 1638, John Harvard, who died soon after his arrival in this country, bequeathed half his estate and all his library to the college. The institution has ever since borne his name. It was supported with great zeal not only by the inhabitants of the Bay colony, but by all the other members of the New England confederacy; and the example of Massachusetts was followed by the others in the establish ment of public schools. The benefits of this early and con stant attention to education have been felt in every period of their history; and the character which it has impressed on the people of New England has given them a degree of influence and importance in the Union, which could havo been acquired by no other means. What Quakers were persecuted? What law was passed in 1647 ? Who was the founder of Harvard What other colonies founded schools 9 |