USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the settlement of Boston, September 17, 1880 > Part 5
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God help our sons to bear Onward the work and prayer Of those who sleep ; God help our daughters here In reverent love and fear The future race to rear, Ilis laws to keep.
So shall the land we prize Up to true glory rise, In goodness great ; So shall all nations come To make our land their home, No more o'er earth to roam. God save the State !
The band played another selection, after which the Mayor delivered the following oration : -
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ORATION BY HON. FREDERICK O. PRINCE, MAYOR.
We commemorate to-day the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the settlement of Boston. We have closed an important volume of our history. Before we open another, let us pause, and indulge for a few moments the natural sentiment which at such time prompts to retrospection.
We have, with great propriety, assembled in the "Old South." This "Sanctuary of Freedom" is full of memories that belong to the occasion. All its associations are in har- mony with it. On this spot John Winthrop, the first Governor of the New England Colony and the founder of Boston, lived and died. Here, after it had been consecrated to religious purposes for more than two hundred years, Thatcher, and Willard, and Sewall, and Prince, and Huntington, and Wisner, and Blagden, and all the other pious ministers of this ancient society, have preached the Word of God, illustrating by their saintly lives the sincerity of their preaching. Here was uttered the prayer - the efficacy of which piety and faith do not doubt - for the deliverance of New England from the formidable French armada that threatened its destruction in 1746. Here patriotism has uttered its most stirring eloquence and its most earnest appeals. Here the " grave, sad men " of the days which tried men's souls met to demand the removal of the royal troops. Here Otis - that " flame of fire " - pro- tested against the impressment of seamen, and other oppress- ive measures of the mother-country. Here Adams denounced in thunder tones the tyranny of England. Here Quincy - "that keen blade which so soon wore out its scabbard " - and Warren, and Hancock, and other illustrious patriots, asserted colonial rights and prepared the people for revolution and
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independence. Here in yonder gallery has stood the majestic form of Washington. Such associations make the place sacred.
The proprieties of the day would have been better ob- served if he who has inherited with the blood of our great governor so largely his talents and abilities, had been willing to perform the duties here assigned to me. His eloquence, learning, and scholarship would have become his theme, and been worthy this presence. All must regret that he has left the task to one who cannot hope to satisfy the demands of the occasion.
That learned and pions divine, the Rev. Thomas Prince, who for so many years officiated as the pastor of this church, in his centurial sermon preached in 1730, just after this edifice was built, or rather rebuilt, standing probably on the very spot where I now stand, well observed that it was "extremely proper that upon the close of the first century of our settle- ment in this chief part of the land to look back to the beginning of this remarkable transaction."
If it was thus proper on our first centennial anniversary, one hundred and fifty years ago, "to look back," with greater reason should we do so at this time.
If it be true that history is philosophy teaching by example, then it is most proper not only to look back, but to seriously reflect upon the past, so that we may discover the causes of our national prosperity and progress, and ascertain what has contributed to the spread of those ideas which have generated civil and religions liberty, and promoted the growth of those political and social institutions by which human happiness has been so greatly increased and civiliza- tion so greatly advanced, to the end that we may so shape the present as to secure the future.
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Two centuries and a half make a small space of time in the history of a nation, and yet what astounding changes have occurred in our civic annals since John Winthrop, on the 17th day of September, 1630, landed with the Puritan set- tlers on this peninsula ! The same ocean which bore the Pilgrims' bark to our shore still rolls in all its wild, mysteri- ous grandeur. The same sun warms and lights the earth. In the same heaven still flames the bright belt of Orion, and its deep concave still shows the same vacant place, where the lost Pleiad conceals herself in shame for having wedded with a mortal lover ; but all else how different ! Scarcely a feature of the landscape remains to tell us how nature looked before she was subdued by civilization. The sea has been converted into land ; the hills have been levelled, the valleys filled up ; the sites of the Indian wigwams are now those of the palaces of our merchant-princes, and, where "the wild fox dug his hole unscared," art has reared her beautiful temples for the worship of God, and the dissemination of learning. Winthrop found in the territory but a single occupant, -William Black- stone. To-day the population of our municipality, with that of its suburbs, - which practically makes a part of our city, - is nearly half a million. The domain of the Great Republic in the first year of our history was a wilderness, inhabited mostly by savage tribes and savage beasts. It is now the home of fifty millions of free, prosperous, happy, and intelli- gent people, living in peace under the best government ever devised by man. Before Winthrop's arrival there were, it is true, some small settlements on the Atlantic coast. In Virginia a feeble colony was struggling to maintain itself. At Plymouth, a settlement, commenced in 1620, was hardly in a more prosperous condition. At Salem there were only three hundred colonists, who had come over two years before, and
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whose numbers were fast being decimated by sickness, suffer- ing, and the hardships of the settler's life. At a few other places attempts at colonization had been made, but they were all on the eve of being abandoned.
On the monument erected at Beacon Hill by the patriots of seventy-six, "to commemorate that train of events which led to the American Revolution and finally secured liberty and independence to the United States," was this inscription, " Americans - while from this eminence scenes of luxuriant fertility, of flourishing commerce, and the abodes of social happiness, meet your view - forget not those who, by their exertions, have secured to you these blessings." Let us obey the injunction ; let us especially on this day recall the heroic ones who thus have a perpetual claim on our remembrance and gratitude.
The first century and a half of the history of Boston is the history of the colonization and settlement of the country; the history of the rise and growth of that invincible spirit of liberty which animated the people to assert their political rights, and ultimately led to the separation of the colonies from the mother-country and to their erection into an inde- pendent nation. If we shall "make om annals true," no history of the Revolution nor of the United States, from the adoption of the Federal Constitution to the close of the great civil war, could be written without narrating the last century of our history; for Boston has taken an active part in all the great political, social, and military events which make this important epoch memorable. During all her two hundred and fifty years of life, her thoughts, sentiments, policy, and political and moral principles, and the action of her represen- tative men, native and adopted, have largely influenced, guided, and controlled the country. Nor has she been act-
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uated by the vulgar ambition to lead and direct; she has ever been prompted by the purest patriotism and the highest publie spirit.
The English colonists, both men and women, who first settled here, and from whom we are descended, were a re- markable body. To understand rightly their character, the work they were called to perform, the difficulties they were forced to encounter, and the opposition they were compelled to meet; to appreciate their courage, fortitude, energy, pa- tience, perseverance, and indomitable will; to reach their motives and explain the reasons and causes of their ultimate success in establishing themselves on this continent, - we must, to quote again the language of the Rev. Thomas Prince, "look back." We must consider the political condition, and also the ecclesiastical condition, of the mother-country when the policy of colonizing America was first formed and the efforts for its accomplishment first made.
Upon the accession of Queen Elizabeth to the throne, in 1558, although Romanism was proscribed, and Protestant- ism established as the national religion, there was no such thing as religious liberty in England or in any other country. Such an idea had not then dawned upon the world. As has been well said, "It was scarcely an object of speculation in the abstract theories of philosophers, or dreamed of by men of ordinary minds." The statutes passed in the reign of Henry VIII. declared him the absolute master over the consciences of the people, it being therein enacted that " what- ever his majesty should enjoin in matters of religion should be obeyed by all his subjects; " and all authority touching - the Church, which had been for ages before the Reformation exercised by the Pope, was transferred to the temporal mon- arch by the Act of Supremacy. He determined all causes
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in the Church, and was alone authorized to make all laws, regulations, and ceremonies in respect to it, and none made, without his consent, were valid. All appeals which had formerly been made to Rome were henceforth to be made to the king's chancery. These acts had been repealed in the reign of Mary, but were restored by the new Act of Supremacy on the accession of Elizabeth, entitled "An Act for restoring to the Crown the ancient jurisdiction over the State, ecclesiastical and spiritual, and for abolishing foreign power."
The love of authority, for which Elizabeth was noted, did not dispose her to relinquish the power thus vested in her, and she began her reign by a proclamation "forbidding all changes in religions forms until they should be determined by law." The queen was a good friend to protestantism as opposed to popery, but the bitter opponent of all protestantism which did not square with her own and that of the State. As she was, by the Act of Supremacy, the head of the Church, and invested with the whole power of framing its policy, the Act of Uni- formity was soon passed, compelling all her subjects "to worship on the State pattern and in the parish churches," with no exceptional indulgence to tender consciences. In 1562 the Articles of Religion were adopted, and with these different enactments "the Church of England became completely established by law."
The Court of High Commission, created under the pro- visions of the Act of Supremacy, authorized the queen to appoint commissioners with full power "to inquire into, reform. and punish all errors, heresies, schisms, abuses, contempts, offences, and enormities whatever." Nothing shows so strong- - ly the ignorance of the age, in respect to the true nature of civil and ecclesiastical authority, and the just distinctions and limitations in respect thereto, and the utter negation of reason 10
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in the introduction of religious changes, as the grant of such vast and dangerous powers to the crown. As might be ex- pected, those powers were terribly prostituted, and led to the most disgraceful and cruel persecutions of some of the most eminent and best subjects of the realm, for no other reason than differences of opinion touching religious matters, - opinions which related more to forms than doctrines.
By the Act of 23 Elizabeth, passed in 1582, it was made treason to worship except in accordance with the form pre- scribed by law. This form was that of the English Church. As the sovereign had full jurisdiction over the Church, with power to say what should or should not be believed in respect to religion by the subject, and as nonconformity with legal ecclesiastical forms was treason, and as the terrible Court of High Commission was organized with all its cruel machinery to discover and punish the recusant, it was apparent that a high-spirited race like the English would not tamely submit to such ecclesiastical tyranny. Very soon many persons appeared who claimed that there were errors in the Church which the Reformation had not eradicated, and which they could not conscientiously recognize; that, in fact, the Church was still corrupted with the remains of popery. These dissenters were termed Puritans, because they wanted a purer system of wor- ship and discipline, and are known in history as " Early Puritans," to distinguish them from those of the period of the Commonwealth.
These Puritans comprised two seets, one of which was termed Separatists, or Independents, afterwards Brownists, because Robert Brown was one of their prominent advocates. They maintained that the Church was a " spiritual association, and should consequently be separate from the world and its rulers, and be governed by the laws of Christ as given in the
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New Testament ; " hence their distinctive appellation of Separatists. They maintained, in fact, the separation of Church and State, and advocated free, as opposed to enforced, religion. They regarded Christ as the head of the Church, and not man, although that man might be a king ; and that to Christ only was due that religious obedience which was claimed by State churches. The Separatists soon began to form themselves into societies ; but, as their religious belief and worship were by law treason, they were forced to meet in secret and obscure places.
Persecution of these bold schismaties soon followed. All the vast powers of the Court of High Commission were set in motion for their detection and punishment. Spies and inform- ers watched them day and night. Large numbers were arrested and imprisoned, and many of them and their teachers and preachers executed.
As has been truly said, you can follow the history of the dissenting church " by the track of her blood." It would thus seem that some of the subjects of Queen Elizabeth gained but little in the way of religious liberty by the exchange of Romanism for Protestantism.
Upon the accession of King James to the throne, on the death of Elizabeth, in 1603, it was thought that he would be more favorably disposed towards the Separatists than his predecessor, as he had been bred a Puritan, and they sought the royal permission to worship merely " privately," and not in "public places." But the king refused and was inexor- able. Shortly afterwards a proclamation was issued in which the dissenting ministers were admonished "to conform to the - Church and obey the same, or else dispose of themselves and their families some other way, as being men unfit for their obstinacy and contempt to occupy such places."
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Many of the more determined Separatists fled to Holland, where freedom of worship was accorded to them ; but large numbers were captured in trying to get away, and were thrown into prison and otherwise punished. It is worthy of note that the first unsuccessful attempt to escape was made at Boston, in Lincolnshire, our namesake, which seems to have been one of the principal places whence these dissenters embarked. In 1608, the church which had been established at Serooby, under William Brewster, emigrated from that port.
These refugees spent several years in Amsterdam and Leyden, in the enjoyment of that peaceful exercise of their religion which was denied them in the land of their fathers. Finding, however, that they were subjected to many incon- veniences, impediments, and obstacles, they formed the resolu- tion to emigrate to America, where their posterity could preserve their nationality, and where they could gather around them those who spoke the English language, had the same religions habits of life, and maintained the observance of the Sabbath more in consonance with biblical direction than the Dutch.
It is rather an amusing fact, in view of subsequent events, that when the Pilgrim Fathers solicited from King James permission to worship God as they saw fit, this royal bigot, in refusing the application, graciously intimated that if they would carry themselves " peacefully, and made no disturbance by their fanatical practices," he would not molest them, "as they were too insignificant to be looked after." Too insig- nificant to be looked after! What would have been the emotions of King James if he could have then caught a " glimpse of the future; if he could have anticipated this day ; if he could have seen what his successor on the British throne now sees, - this handful of persecuted exiles, "too
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insignificant to be looked after," grown into one of the most prosperous and powerful nations of the . earth, occupying a territory thirty times larger than his own kingdom, and con- taining a population ten times greater than that over which he tyrannized? If the haughty Stuart had deigned to take counsel of that humble, but saintly Puritan, the Rev. John Smyth, he might have judged and spoken differently, for that inspired divine did anticipate the future of America; for in a letter to his church, on their departure for New England, he says, "You are few in number; yet considering that the Kingdom of Heaven is as a grain of mustard seed, small in the beginning, I do not doubt you may in time grow up to a multitude, and be, as it were, a great tree full of fruitful branches."
Arrangements were made with certain companies hold- ing grants from the Crown by the Pilgrims, by which they were permitted to establish a plantation in America. On the 21st of December, 1630, the "Mayflower " landed on 1620 Plymouth Rock, amid the snows and ice of a New England winter, one hundred and one emigrants, weary, worn, and tempest-tossed, but brave, hopeful, and undaunted. Nearly one-half of these died during the first winter from exposure and want; but the inflexible spirit and high resolve of the survivors did not abate, and none returned to their old homes.
" Oh! strong hearts and true - not one went back in the ' Mayflower; ' No, not one looked back who had set his hand to that ploughing."
The Puritans who came with Winthrop and those who . subsequently followed them belonged to a different set of dissenters. They were dissatisfied with the Church as estab- lished under Elizabeth, and regretted that the principles of
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the Reformation had not been adopted to a fuller extent; but they did not wish to sever their connection with the English Church as completely as the Separatists. They ac- quiesced for the most part in the new establishment, in the royal supremacy, the uniformity of worship, and the articles of religion. They looked for future reformation at more prosperous times, and looked for it within, and not as the Separatists, without, the Church Establishment. But they were grievously disappointed. The system of Elizabeth being continued under her successor, all the nonconformists, both Puritans and Separatists, were alike most cruelly persecuted by Archbishop Bancroft, who had succeeded to the primacy. In 1604, excommunication, with all its disabilities and penal- ties, was launched against them. In a single year three hundred clergymen were deprived of their livings, and the laity were prosecuted on the slightest suspicion and for the most trifling causes.
In 1625 Charles I. succeeded James, and new persecutions against all who were not in full sympathy with the Church were commenced by Laud, with greater cruelty than even Bancroft had exercised in the preceding reign.
Soon the sad conviction that time would bring no amelio- ration of their condition forced itself upon them. They saw no reason to expect the English hierarchy would abate any of its pretensions; that it would concede the right to worship God according to the dictates of conscience, or tolerate any differences of religious opinion. For three-quarters of a cen- tury, the English Church, as established by Elizabeth, had compelled, by the severest edicts, conformity throughout the realm, and there was no promise of relief, no dawning rays of a brighter day, when religious liberty was to be declared the right and prerogative of an English subject. It was evident
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that the nonconformists must either abandon their religious views, and accept the English Church with all its objectionable ceremonies, or depart from the land of their birth and share the exile of Robinson, and Brewster, and Carver, and the other Pilgrims who went over in the "Mayflower." They chose the latter alternative.
If the great Puritan leaders had anticipated the political changes of even the immediate future, it may be doubted if many of the Pilgrims of high birth and social standing, who emigrated in 1620, and who accompanied Winthrop, and Dud- ley, and Johnson, and Endicott, and Sir Richard Saltonstall, in 1630, would not have preferred to remain and suffer for the time, leaving New England to be colonized by those interested in mercantile adventures, rather than separate from the father- land. But they did not then see what is now so apparent, that the persecutions of Crown and Church were generating a revo- lution which was to overturn both king and aristocracy, and bring to the block the former, for being what the sentence of his Puritan judges declared him to be, "a tyrant. a traitor, a murderer, and a public enemy." They did not then see that the reign of the Stuarts would soon terminate forever; that the brave Puritan statesmen would soon rouse the people to resist their oppressors, and establish that civil liberty which must first exist as the basis of religious liberty. They could not then see that the principle afterwards asserted by Roger Williams, " that a most flourishing civil state is best maintained with full liberty in religions concernment," would be soon rec- ognized in England; nor did they then anticipate that the seet so long despised and persecuted would soon lay the founda- tions of those free institutions which have done so much for the Anglo-Saxon race, since even Hume, the panegyrist of the Stuarts, had admitted, that "the precions spark of liberty was
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kindled and preserved by the Puritans alone, and it was to this sect that the English owe the whole freedom of their consti- tution."
No such pleasing visions were vouchsafed to these liberty- loving, God-fearing men, and sadly and sorrowfully they pre- pared to leave their English homes, with all their endearing associations, for freedom in exile.
The Rev. John White had attempted to form a settlement in the Massachusetts Bay, in 1625; but it was about being abandoned when a scheme of colonization on a large scale was projected by the Massachusetts Company, of London, and a royal charter obtained for the purpose.
As so much has been said in respect to the rights of the patentees under this charter, and as much of their subsequent action -and especially the action of the people of Boston - can only be explained by reference to the powers therein granted, a few words in relation to its provisions may not be inappro- priate.
The executive power of the corporation was vested in a governor, deputy-governor, and eighteen assistants. The legislative power was vested in a "more solemn assembly," composed of the governor, deputy-governor, the assistants, and all the freemen of the company in person, whose meetings were called " Great and General Courts." These courts were empowered to make all laws and ordinances for the govern- ment of the plantation "which should not be repugnant to the laws of England," so that it " might be so religiously and civ- illy governed, as the good life and orderly conversation of the inhabitants might invite the natives to the knowledge of the Christian faith, which in the royal intention, and in the adven- turer's free profession, was the principal end of the plantation." They were authorized to elect freemen,- the governor, deputy-
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governor, assistants, and other officers. The emigrants and their posterity were declared "to be natural-born subjects and entitled to the immunities of Englishmen within every other dominion of the crown as if born within the realn."
It has been claimed that the chief object of the emigrants was to provide an asylum "where nonconformists might trans- port themselves and enjoy the liberty of their own persuasion in matters of worship and church discipline; " but it is difficult to see how they got this privilege through their charter. They could make laws and execute them, but they could make no laws "repugnant to those of England." All colonial legisla- tion must accord with that of the mother-country. As they were not allowed there to worship God as they pleased, they could not lawfully do so in the colony. The charter granted no such liberty, and, as Lord Coke declared, it could not grant any such liberty, because it would be in violation of the com- mon law. Nor did the charter "recognize the least departure in religious worship from that of the Church of England." As has been observed, King James refused to allow the Separatists who settled at Plymouth the enjoyment of liberty of conscience and the free worship of God; and his successor, under the direction of Laud, followed the same policy. The letter of Winthrop and his associates on their departure from England expresses the warmest attachment to the Church of England, and we are warranted in inferring from it that the writers not only had no intention or disposition then to separate from the Church, but felt they had no power to do so.
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