USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Lexington > History of the town of Lexington, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, from its first settlement to 1868, Volume I > Part 3
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The town historian, therefore, in wading through the rec- ords of these meetings cannot fail to perceive the feelings of the people, and drink in the spirit of the age at its fountain. Next to the fireside, which we are hardly at liberty to invade, the primary meetings of the people give us the clearest insight into the motives, wants, and feelings of the masses of men. Municipal records furnish a sure index to the character of a town and its principal inhabitants. If the people are peace- able, orderly, and law-abiding, these characteristics may be discovered on the local record; and if the contrary traits pervade the community, the fact can be discovered by the
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careful observer. The town record is a sort of mirror which reflects the moral and political features of the people; and whoever visits this picture-gallery, and studies the paint- ings carefully, will be able to delineate the features of the whole group.
Town histories, if faithfully written, give us the best pic- tures of real life and the best insight into the characters of men. They also serve to collect scattered and perishing ma- terials, which would otherwise be lost. And by hearing the traditions of the elderly people, the local historian will glean information which the more public annalist could not obtain; and by standing side by side with the narrator, he can sift this valuable though sometimes uncertain species of evidence, and so elicit facts which may prove of great importance. Even in cases where the municipal historian finds no facts of im- portance, he has rendered a public service by showing that the field is barren, and so saving others from a fruitless search. He has also, as a general thing, more time to trace effects to their remote causes, and so present a more faithful view of the connection between the past and the present than the general historian can do.
The history of every people or nation bears the impress not only of the master minds of that generation, but of the char- acteristics of the first founders of the State. Every colony which springs up in any part of the world will, for many gene- rations, reflect in a greater or less degree the character of the original emigrants. Young communities, like young persons, are peculiarly susceptible to impressions, and early influences brought to bear upon them are likely to mould their charac- ters and fashion, in no small degree, their institutions. It becomes important, then, in every history, to recur to the origin of the community whose annals are presented, that we may see, in a proper light, the character of the events recorded, and the causes from which they spring.
Though towns are small communities, the same principles will apply to them. The object of a town history is not merely to collect and preserve a record of the events which have occurred from time to time, but to glance even at the remote causes, present the character of the inhabitants, and the spirit of the age in which they lived. All our early New England towns were settled by the Puritans - a class of men of marked characters, decided opinions, and fixed purposes.
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The trying ordeal of persecution through which they had passed in Great Britain had developed the sterner qualities of their characters, and prepared them for the arduous task of subduing a wilderness and converting it into a fruitful field. They were men inured to hardships and, being trained in the school of adversity, were prepared to do and to dare. Imbib- ing the spirit of the Reformation, they had learned to examine and judge for themselves. The Catholic bigotry of Mary, and the Protestant intolerance of Elizabeth, served to confirm their faith, increase their zeal, and purify their morals. Nor was the political state of the kingdom less adapted to the de- velopment of their political principles. They had seen the same tyranny in the State that they had witnessed in the Church; and Monarchy and Episcopacy were equally abhor- rent to their feelings. In fact the union of Church and State brought the intolerance of the one to bear upon them through the enactments of the other, so that the Puritans were the victims of both civil and religious persecution. This twofold trial implanted in their minds a strong aversion to the Estab- lished Church and the hereditary monarchy of their native land. Rather than submit to the intolerance of the one or the oppression of the other, they voluntarily exiled themselves from the land of their birth, the ties of kindred, and the endearments of home, to seek a peaceful resting-place in an inhospitable wilderness. The same fortitude which brought them to this country would not degenerate under the trials and privations they were called to suffer after their arrival.
And though the persecutions they endured in the land of their birth, and the difficulties they encountered in the land of their adoption, would naturally give them a stern, inflex- ible character, there was behind all this experience, a firm, unwavering faith in the righteousness of their cause, which gave a definiteness of object and a persistence of purpose which nothing could shake. The great idea with them was the religious idea. They came to this country that they might worship God according to the dictates of their own con- sciences. And though they were not political adventurers, seeking a retreat from the Old World in order to build up a mighty empire in the New, yet their own good sense taught them that they could hardly erect religious institutions without a civil government to protect them. But, whatever might have been their original speculations, when they were
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called to view the subject practically, they soon saw that a church and a commonwealth were so essential to each other that they could not enjoy the one unmolested without the protecting arm of the other. They accordingly had incor- porated into their Charter a provision authorizing them "to make laws and ordinances for the good and welfare of said company, and for the government and ordering of the said lands and plantation, and the people inhabiting and to in- habit the same, as to them, from time to time, shall be thought meet, so as such laws and ordinances be not repugnant to the laws and statutes of the realm of England."
The free and undisturbed worship of God, which was the primary object bringing them to these shores, was soon asso- ciated with free civil institutions; so that we may say, in fact, that their great object was to establish a holy religion which should bring its solemn sanctions to bear upon the Common- wealth; and a free Commonwealth, based upon the broad principles of religion - a Commonwealth where Christ should be the acknowledged Head of the Church, and his Gospel the fundamental law of the realm. In all their labors and efforts, this was the great object at which they aimed. In prosperity, this was the end of their rejoicing, and in adversity, this was their main support. A colony more orderly and moral, more devout and self-sacrificing, never settled in any part of the globe. With an object at once grand and glorious before them, and with a trust in Divine Providence which subdued both doubt and fear, they were prepared to meet any trial, encounter any obstacle, and endure any suffering, which beset their path. Such was the object of our Puritan fathers, and such the steadfastness with which they pursued their end.
We do not, however, ascribe immaculate purity to them or maintain that they were free from infirmities or faults. They were men of like passions with others; and because they were in advance of the age in which they lived, we must not look for absolute perfection and expect that, because they abounded in the cardinal virtues, they would be free from every defect of character. Their defects were such as grow out of the excess of virtuous principles. Their religion was of a rigid and austere type, and the strength of their faith hardly permitted them to tolerate a dissent from their creed. They were imbued with the spirit of the age; and the persecutions through which they had passed in their native country had
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the effect upon them that persecutions generally have, to con- firm their faith rather than increase their charity. Though they had dissented from the Church of Rome, and could not admit the infallibility of the Roman Pontiff, such was the strength of their faith that they cherished the persuasion that sincere Christians should not be permitted to wander ma- terially from the true faith. With such sentiments and feel- ings, they would naturally look upon heretics as wilfully blind, and as enemies, not only of the great object they had in view, but of the cause of Him to whom they had consecrated themselves. This conviction would, of course, lead them to guard, with jealous care, the creed they professed, and to visit with their displeasure those who dissented from their faith or preached what they regarded as "another gospel."
They lived under what may be denominated the "Mon- archy of Religion." Their familiarity with the Jewish Scrip- tures, in which the Almighty is presented in the stern char- acter of a Ruler or a Judge, more frequently than in the milder character of a Father, naturally inclined them to dwell upon the sterner attributes of the Deity, to draw moral in- struction from divine sovereignty rather than from divine compassion, and to elevate the attribute of justice at the expense of that of mercy. But they have the apology that if they erred in this respect, they erred with the age in which they lived, and reflected in a milder form the severe features of religion as it was then understood. We may smile at their austerities, and censure their intolerance; but if we had lived in that age of the world, we should, undoubtedly, have im- bibed their spirit. They were strict, rigid, and, if you please, superstitious; but these defects of character were only the vigorous growth of that abiding faith and trust in the provi- dence of God which was requisite to fit them for the great and glorious enterprise in which they had embarked. While we cannot justify their persecution of the Baptists, Quakers, and other dissenting sects which arose among them, there are circumstances which go to extenuate these faults. They came to the country that they might enjoy their religion in peace. For this object they had encountered trials and dangers; to this end they had labored and toiled, and submitted to every privation. And after they had, by great personal sacrifices, established religious institutions according to their own notions of right, and hoped to enjoy, unmolested, the free and
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full advantages of unity of faith, and simplicity and order in worship, they found their quiet molested by what they regarded as intruders and disturbers of the peace. It was not on account of their religious tenets alone that the Puritans banished them from their jurisdiction. These sects mani- fested their contempt for civil authority, and a portion of them opposed even defensive war, which the Puritans deemed essential to their very existence, situated as they were among hostile Indian tribes. This led our fathers to believe that the safety of the State would be endangered by the presence of these men, who were active in their efforts to disseminate their views. These facts, though they do not justify, certainly go far to extenuate, the course of the Puritans; and while our sympathy for the persecuted naturally leads us to espouse their cause, we should not shut our eyes to the provocations which were frequently offered to the severe treatment they received.
Viewed impartially, there is much in the Puritan character to admire. Their unwavering trust in Divine Providence, their self-sacrificing spirit, their inflexible integrity, their devotion to civil and religious freedom, founded on broad principles, and regulated by law, their desire to educate the rising generation, so that they might become good citizens and exemplary Christians, their zeal in the great enterprise in which they were engaged, their readiness to endure priva- tions and to face dangers, and their persevering fortitude under all circumstances - these, and qualities such as these, must commend them to the respect and admiration of man- kind. Men more genial in their manners or pliant in their character, more yielding in their dispositions or easy in their virtue, with a faith less firm, or a will less persistent, may be more agreeable and popular in fashionable circles, and their society may be more eagerly sought in ordinary times; but in days of painful anxiety and peril, we instinctively seek coun- sel of men of confirmed faith and inflexible principles, and flee for support and protection to men of persistent purpose and unconquerable will. So our stern Puritan ancestors belong to the very class of men on which the community will always lean in an emergency.
The Puritans were raised up by Providence to accomplish a great work, and to mark an important era in the world's pro- gress; and the stern qualities which they possessed were the
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necessary qualifications to fit them for the task assigned them. Had they been a mild and timorous race, gentle and yielding in their manners, wavering in their faith, and com- promising in their principles; or had they been a mere band of adventurers, seeking their fortunes, or a few lords with a set of serfs in their train, they could never have accomplished the herculean task of subduing the hostile savage tribes, clearing up dense forests, and covering the country with prosperous towns and thriving villages. And what is more important to us and to the country, they could never have built up those civil, literary, and religious institutions which have been the pride of this country and the admiration of the civilized world.
To the Puritans we are indebted for most of the blessings we enjoy.1 The impress of their principles is seen and felt in every- thing around us. The moral and religious tone of the New England people, their sense of justice and love of order, and their devotion to liberty and the rights of men, are but the reflex of ancestral virtues. We are hardly aware of the numer- ous ways in which Puritan principles have affected our charac- ters, and shaped our destiny as a people. Their modes of faith, their habits of industry, their reverence for law and order, the equality between man and man, - all these have had their influence upon us, and have tended to make us the energetic and persevering, the thrifty and prosperous people we are. Many of our institutions have grown as of necessity from their religious notions. Their love of public worship induced them to settle near each other, so that they could conveniently assemble together and enjoy church privileges. This enabled them to erect meeting-houses and support schools, which could not have been done if the population had been sparse. This, also, gave rise to that system of town organization, which is one of the distinctive features of the Puritan settlements, and which has done more to improve and elevate the people than any other political institution. By assembling together in town meetings, where all freemen met on a level, and where every subject, whether secular or religious, was freely discussed, the whole people were made acquainted with each other, learned the policy of the com- munity, and the mode of transacting public business. Here
1 Compare Douglass Campbell, The Puritan in Holland, England, and America. Harper & Bros., 1892. Ed.
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they provided for the support of public worship, for the maintenance of their schools, for laying out their highways, supporting their poor, and regulating their internal police. Here, too, were discussed those great principles of civil and political rights which have made us an independent and prosperous nation.
If we were to compare the Puritan Colonies with those settled by a different class of people, we should see at once the effects of Puritan principles. The Colonists who settled in Virginia possessed many natural advantages over the Col- onists who settled in Massachusetts. Their climate was more mild and genial, and their soil more productive than ours. Their facilities for commerce, manufactures, and agriculture were incomparably greater than those presented to the Massachusetts Colony. Yet the Puritan Colony has been more prosperous than that at Jamestown.1 In wealth, in learning, in social order, in everything which goes to make a people truly great, the Colonies settled by the Puritans are decidedly in advance of any others.
Compare the first settlers of Virginia with those of Massa- chusetts, and the future destiny of the two Colonies will be foreshadowed. The first settlers in Virginia were mostly mere adventurers, who came to the country to retrieve a ruined fortune and return; those in Massachusetts were sober, pru- dent men, who came here to remain. The former came with- out families, and so enjoyed none of the chastening endear- ments of home; the latter brought their wives and children with them, which sanctified their humble dwellings. The one class were, to a great extent, men of idle habits, desperate fortunes, and dissolute character, too proud to labor, but insolent in demanding their full share of the products of others' toil; while the other class were men of moderate means, but .of sober, industrious habits, ready to perform their share of labor, to endure their proportion of hardships, and to subsist upon the fruits of their own industry. The Jamestown Colony did not profess any particular regard for religion; while the Colony of Massachusetts made it their bond of union - their solace and support. The former were separated in interest and feeling; the latter were united as a band of brothers. The settlement in Virginia commenced
1 Compare John Fiske, Old Virgiria and Her Neighbours. Houghton, Mittlin & Co., 1897, p. 156. Ed.
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with a distinction of castes - master and servant, lord and serf, the bond and the free, were early recognized as perma- nent classes; but among the Puritans of Massachusetts such distinctions were ignored. This difference has given marked characteristics to the two States. Hence, in the one, we hear the vain boasts of having descended from one of the priv- ileged class - one of the "first families"; while in the other, all are willing to be recognized as descendants from the humble and hardy Puritan stock.
The relation of master and slave has not only exerted an unfavorable influence upon the morals of the Colony, by making the master haughty and tyrannical, and the slave cringing and servile, but has exerted a baneful influence upon its institutions. Large plantations and a scattered popula- tion grow almost necessarily out of that relation, and thus the support of churches and schools is to a great extent rendered impracticable; and the same cause deprives them of the town organization, which has done so much to improve the char- acter and increase the prosperity of New England.
The difference in the two Colonies, growing, in a great measure, out of their religious faith, may be seen in the state of education in each. Massachusetts early established her glorious system of free schools, while Virginia has not, to this day, provided for the education of her whole population. In everything relating to moral improvement, Massachusetts has been immeasurably in advance of her more southern rival. As early as 1647, Massachusetts, by express statute, required her towns to support schools, while in Virginia, Berkeley, her Governor, as late as 1671, sixty-four years after the first set- tlement, thanked God that there were neither schools nor printing-presses in the Colony, and hoped there would be none for a century to come.
Massachusetts, in 1638, established her University, which was ninety years earlier than any similar institution was created in Virginia. It is also worthy of notice that the first printing-press in our own State was set up in 1638, being ninety years earlier than any press in Virginia. The first five issues from the press at Cambridge are so suggestive that I cannot refrain from naming them in the order of their appear- ance: The Freeman's Oath, An Almanac, A Psalm Book, A Catechism, and a body of their laws, entitled A Body of Liberties. Here we have a portraiture of our Puritan
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Fathers-a kind of pictorial representation of their thoughts and feelings, of their manners and customs. Their Bibles, which they brought with them from England, were, of course, first read; then the Freeman's Oath must be taken; then the Almanac consulted to learn the signs of the times; then they were prepared to join in Psalms of Praise, and to teach their children the Catechism; and, after that, they were prepared to study their Body of Liberties, and when they learned their rights, they were ready to assert them in any presence, and to defend them at any hazard, whoever might be the aggressor.
We have dwelt longer upon this subject than might at first view appear necessary in a town history; but, as our towns are constituent parts of the State, and the source from which the State itself must derive its history, it seemed important to inquire into the character of the men who first settled our townships, and whose acts we are to record, and also to ascer- tain the general causes which led to our system of town organization. As in courts of justice the character of an act is determined somewhat by the reputation of the actor, so in history, in order to judge accurately of the character of a transaction, we should know the parties to enable us to ascertain the motives which led to the transaction. And besides, as institutions are but the embodiment of thoughts and principles, we can understand the nature of our institu- tions better by becoming conversant with the men who estab- lished them - their character, feelings, and principles being a sort of contemporaneous construction of their true mean- ing. Besides, gratitude to their memory will fully justify us, who are enjoying the fruit of their labor, in passing their many virtues in review. And it is presumed that no one now upon the stage, whose lineage can be traced to the Puritans or Pilgrims, will blush to own such ancestry.
The early history of the town of LEXINGTON is included in that of Cambridge, of which it was originally a part. Until its incorporation as a town, in 1713, it was known by the name of "Cambridge North Precinct," or more generally by the popular designation of "Cambridge Farms." In like manner Cambridge itself was originally included in, or more properly known by the name of, "the Newe Towne," or Newton. It appears to have been the original intention of the General
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Court to make "the Newe Towne" the Capital of the Col- ony, and measures were adopted to encourage settlements there; but, some misunderstanding arising with the Governor, and the Newe Towne being, as was alleged, too far from the sea, the Court was induced to select Boston as the seat of government.1 It would seem, from the imperfect records of that day, that the territory now included in Charlestown, Somerville, Medford, Winchester, Woburn, and Burlington, on the one hand, and Watertown, a portion of Belmont, Waltham, and Weston, on the other, was granted before the Newe Towne was created; so that her extension was limited on two sides at least, and by Boston and Roxbury on the third - her territory lying between the towns above men- tioned. But, though the Newe Towne contained a large terri- tory, and the nearest settlements were Boston, Charlestown, Roxbury, and Watertown, like most settlers in a new coun- try, the inhabitants appear to have had a great thirst for land, and they soon began to complain that their limits were too circumscribed. Several disputes arose between them and their neighboring settlements, about their boundaries, and between them and the General Court respecting their limits. It was maintained by Rev. Mr. Hooker on behalf of himself and his flock, then resident in the Newe Towne, that they were actually suffering for the want of room; that it was im- politic to have settlements as near each other as Charlestown, Newe Towne, and Watertown; and that, unless their borders were extended, they should be compelled to leave the place, that they might enjoy ample territory and so be able to grow and thrive as a Christian church.
As early as 1634, only three years after the first settlement of the place, they alleged that "the number of inhabitants had become disproportionate to the township." They com- plained that "they were straitened for want of land, especially meadow, and desired leave of the Council to look out either for enlargement or removal." Their territory, probably, extended at that time nearly to the easterly line of the present town of Lexington. In the mean time the General Court adopted every reasonable means to satisfy their wants. At their ses- sion, held on the 25th of September, the General Court adopted the following orders: -
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