USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > Rehoboth > Rehoboth in the past. An historical oration delivered on the Fourth of July, 1860 > Part 3
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Thus much of this ancient church. The town, as it originally existed, has given birth to seven towns and fragments of three or four more; and in the follow- ing order : Swansea, in 1667; Attleborough, in 1694 ; Cumberland and Barrington as it now is, and Warren, in 1746; Seekonk, in 1812; and Pawtucket, in 1828. Thus, to use geographically a genealogical figure, this old town has had three children and four grand-chil- dren,-all now living and doing well. The venerable mother, instead of one log-thatched church and thirty families, now has thirty-eight churches and thirty thou- sand inhabitants ; and, as offshoots and adopted chil- dren, we cordially, in her behalf, extend to you all a maternal and fraternal greeting.
Without time for anything like connected history, we can only slightly glance at a few of the leading events within the limits of this mother of towns. Here, for forty years, lived, and died, the venerable patriarch who was the first and sole white inhabitant of Boston, and who raised from English seeds the first apple in New England. Here, too, Roger Williams, [whose skeleton, by one of Nature's singular trans- mutations, now exists in wood,] built his cabin and planted his first and last corn, before going to settle the first free State in the world. (¿) Here was shed the first blood in King Philip's war, and here was cap- tured the last of his commanders; and that direful
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drama, which for more than twelve months drenched New England in blood, and spread fire and devasta- tiou in every direction, was opened and closed here. Twenty-nine of the men of this sparsely settled town were furnished for the army, thirteen of whom were in the great fight at Narragansett, in Rhode Island ; and those who remained to take care of the wives and children, contributed four hundred and eighty-four pounds, five shillings and five pence, in all, for the support of that Indian war. These patriotic sacrifices were in all sorts of sums, from one shilling by Ebenezer Amidown, to one hundred pounds by Nathaniel Paine. The great city of New York was indebted to this town for special favors two centuries ago. After Manhattan had been settled by the Dutch, they were joined by a colony of English. This mixed people were without an organized government, and no man among them was fitted for the task. They borrowed the services of a citizen of this town, who understood Dutch and English, and had all the other necessary qualifica- tions in an eminent degree. He straightened their difficulties, organized a good municipal government, and was unanimously elected the first mayor of the city of New York. He was re-elected ; and after serv- ing two years, thought he had got them trained so that they could manage for themselves, took leave of them, receiving their united benedictions, and re- turned to his family and home in this town; and his grave is with us to this day ;- the worthy Thomas Willett. (j) The town has given birth to several very eminent men, and among them Benjamin West, the distinguished Professor of Mathematics and As-
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tronomy in Brown University-a philosopher whose merits and reputation are co-extensive with astro- nomical science.
There was another of "Nature's noblemen " among the original settlers of the town, whose grave is with us to this day ;- John Brown, who was elected and served as Governor's Assistant for seventeen years. He was the first magistrate in the United Colonies who raised his voice against coercive support of the ministry, taking the stand that all church support should be voluntary, and backed his precepts by lib- eral example. He was a man of abilities, intelligence, piety and patriotism, and was buried with military and civic honors in 1662. He has worthy descendants, one of whom is chairman of the Committee of Arrange- inents on this occasion.
As we glide down into later periods, we are arrested by the fact that in the affairs of the Revolution this town acted a noble and patriotic part. The hatred of oppression and love of liberty coming in contact early, struck a spark that ignited the united hearts of this people, and continued to blaze, undiminished, till the completion of National Independence. The town unanimously voted instructions to their representa- tives in the Legislature to resist, to the last extremity, and inch by inch, every act of aggression on the part of the British Crown. A letter of these instructions by the town's Committee of Correspondence, presumed to have been drawn up by its chairman, Ephraim Starkweather, breathes a spirit of intelligence, judg- ment and patriotism, clothed in a soul-stirring elo- quence, but rarely to be found in the whole annals
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of that great Revolution, and gave evidence that the seeds of the sublime eloquence of Otis found a con- genial and prolific soil in the hearts of the people of this town.
The drafts upon this town for men, for various peri- ods of military service, required two hundred and six, which were all answered promptly. The voluntary en- listments, for various terms of time, were one hundred and four. Thus the town furnished three hundred and ten of its men, from beardless youth to veterans in age, for the continental army, thirty-seven of whom served as commissioned officers ; and the records show but one single desertion from the post of military duty. Besides furnishing its portion of the supplies called for by the government for the military chest, the town voluntarily imposed heavy taxation upon itself for the comfort of its own absent soldiers; and the inhab- itants also made voluntary contributions, six pounds of which came from this church, for the relief of the poor of Boston, sufferers by means of the Boston port bill; and the treasurer of the Provincial Congress ac- knowledged the receipt of ten pounds from this town to help sustain the expenses of that body. Through- out the Revolution, the patriotic conduct of this people will bear an honorable comparison with almost any spot in the whole thirteen colonies, and deserves to be remembered in gratitude by all their descendants. And throughout all the past history thus glanced at, the town has been ample in its provisions for the edu- cation of its youth, as then compared with surrounding places ; and perhaps in this is to be found the secret of much of its early reputation and patriotic influence. (k)
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But let us turn from these tedious locals, and pay a glancing tribute of respect to our common country, especially as this is her natal day. Such are the facil- ities of the present day, and for which we should be profoundly thankful, that the history of the Revolu- tion, and a good view of our subsequent annals, have become familiar to the school-boys; but there are points in our colonial existence which may have too much escaped the attention of even "children of a larger growth." By this I mean, there is a sort of three-fold connecting idea, through which may be seen the gradual development of our childhood of colonial history, and our manhood in the final inde- pendent Union of this Republic.
On the 11th of November, 1620, [old style,] thierc was drawn up, on the lid of a chest, on board the Mayflower, in Plymouth harbor, and signed by forty- one of the principal men of the first band of Pilgrims, a platform of civil government which, notwithstand- ing all the civic and ecclesiastic aberrations from it in later times, contained the elemental seeds of all that is now valuable in the civil polity of this great Western Empire. I think that the more that brief but comprehensive document is studied, and studied, too, in connection with the noble and most instruc- tive farewell discourse of John Robinson, their pastor, before they left Leyden, the more will this important and fundamental truth become apparent. (l) This is the first point in what I denominated a three-fold ideu, the whole essence of which was, under God, human freedom enshrincd in human progress.
The second point in this progress was in 1652; and
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it developed itself through the medium of coinage. The coinage of money has, in all nations, ever been considered a prerogative of the government ; and de- vices upon coin are intended as emblematic of some leading proclivity of the people. The first coin struck in North America, at Boston, in 1652, was intended as a Liberty coin. It was, in later times, and for special reasons, called the "Pine Tree Shilling," but it was no such thing; it was as bold an effort at a Declaration of Independence as they then dare make, and was founded on the following passages from the seven- teenth chapter of the Prophet Ezekiel :
"Son of man, put forth a riddle, and speak a parable unto the house of Israel. And say, thus saith the Lord God ; a great eagle with great wings, long wings, full of feathers, which had divers colours, came unto Lebanon, and took the highest branch of the cedar : He cropped off the top, and carried it into a land of traffick ; he set it in a city of merchants : and it shall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar; and under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing; in the shadow of the branches thereof shall they dwell."
It is a quite remarkable feature in the Prophet Eze- kiel, that the success of man, under Divine Providen- tial blessing, is variously typified under the idea of a ring within a ring-the first as enclosing the acts of men, and the outer ring as the surrounding Providen- tial protection. We are now prepared to present the solution of this prophetic riddle as exhibited in this first coin, erroneously, but for reason of fear, called the "Pine Tree Shilling," pence, and so forth. The coin has a cedar tree enclosed in a ring, with the word " Massachusetts" in an outer ring ; and on the opposite side, " 1652 : XII pence," in the inner ring, and "New England " in the outer ring, or between the two rings. This coin was thus struck in the time of the Common-
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wealth, under Cromwell, when the restraints of mon- archy were hardly thought of in the colonies. They thought that they were a full grown, goodly cedar; but they were too fast; the time indicated in Ezekiel's riddle had not yet come. In a little time, Charles Second came to the throne; monarchy was restored; and they began to be fearful about their coin. The King's Commissioners reported it to him, but knew nothing about the riddle of Liberty contained in it. Sir Thomas Temple, who was well acquainted in New England, and a sound friend to the colonies, and yet a confident of the King, suddenly ameliorated much of the King's ill feeling from this encroachment upon his prerogative in coinage. The King asked Sir Thomas why they dared to coin money contrary to law ? He took some of these shillings from his pocket, and showing them to the King, remarked, evasively, that these people knew but little about law; that they were coined merely for convenience, not supposing there would be any objections. The King asked what tree that was? Sir Thomas told him it was the Royal Oak of Boscobel. [When Charles Second, in his attempt to regain his father's throne, was routed by the army of Cromwell, at Wor- cester, he saved his life by hiding in the thick boughs of an oak tree at Boscobel; and after his restoration, this tree acquired the name of the Royal Oak; and Sir Thomas Temple thus evasively called the tree on the coin the Royal Oak, in honor of his preservation, adding that they dare not put his name on, being then under the Commonwealth.] The King, smiling, said : " They are a set of honest dogs; let them coin their
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shillings." And they continued to coin their shillings and pence, without much alteration, calling it an oak or a pine, as best suited their whim, only keeping out of sight the original secret of their cedar tree coin.
There is wisdom to be learned from this second point in our three-fold idea of the development of American freedom. They were right, in the great outer ring of God's ultimate designs, in setting His eagle to crop the monarchies of the Old World and to replant the twigs to grow into Republics-setting the first example in our portion of the earth. But nations, like men, are some- times impatient and too fast. They thought the small twig plucked from the top of the prophetic cedar of Lebanon, and developed in the miniature platform of the Mayflower, had grown into a goodly tree at Boston in thirty-two short years, so that it could bear national fruit, and shelter, in its ample boughs, "all fowls of every wing;" or, in other words, welcome the op- pressed of all nations under their protecting shadow. But such was not the case ; the time had not arrived ; they had to do more than to " wait a little longer."
" Man, in feebleness, can plan, : But God, in wisdom, executes."
Their emblematic Declaration of Independence was, indeed, the still, small Vox Dei, but, in His wisdom, not then to be ratified by the Vox populi ; but, after a cen- tury and a quarter more had rolled away, and Divine Providence had so shaped the affairs of men that all was ripe, then came, in thunder tones, the Vox Dei, ratified, in universal acclamation, by the Vox populi, and developed itself in the immortal declarative Char-
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ter of our Liberties, read here to-day ;- and although they had no further need of the boughs of the cedar, having received the whole canopy of the stars as our immortal birthright, yet they retained the agent that cropped the twig, and commissioned his ever-expand- ing wings to hover over the down-trodden stranger from every clime, and to forever glitter upon our coin as an emblem of the great enigma of human FREEDOM and human RIGHTS. (m2)
Such is the three-fold idea of the gradual develop- ment of the great problem of human rights, as seen in the summary of our colonial history. From the Declaration of Independence, eighty-four years ago to-day, the history of the growth and present ener- gies of our Republic is known of all men, and per- haps is well expressed, in a single word, by the term PROGRESSION. A PROGRESS in that art and skill which are essential to a nation's prosperity,-PROGRESS in that knowledge which Lord Bacon declares to be but an- other name for power,-PROGRESS in those all-conquer- ing energies which have stamped their impress not only throughout our own land, but on the distant na- tions of the Eastern World, and unbarred the icy gates of the frozen North,-PROGRESS in all the elements of that civilization which is commanding the universal re- spect of the nations of the earth,-and PROGRESS in the knowledge and practice of christianity, without which no nation can be permanently prosperous or happy.
Such are the leading features of our Republic to-day. It is true that we can see the threatening penumbra of a dark cloud in the South, and hear the distant mutterings of a harmless thunder, and we can occa-
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sionally see faint and unmeaning flashes of political lightning; but showers are refreshing to the land, and usually give us a purer atmosphere. It is not in the power of any men, or parties of men, to rend asunder our well cemented. bond of Union, merely because it is not yet what we should all like to have it. We may be too fast in our anticipations, as well as the little nation of Massachusetts in 1652, when they coined their shilling. The halcyon days of a political millenium are not to be expected till Divine Provi- dence sees best ; and we must be content to each one endeavor to clear his own skirts from all wrong, and " wait a little longer." This year we are only passing through one of our accustomed quadrennial political spasms, and before another twelve-month shall have rolled away, we shall again see a noble spectacle-a ceremony that makes thrones and diadems tremble- that of one national administration quietly and sub- missively laying down the robes of office, and another administration as quietly and calmly putting them on ; and all this mighty change, involving the interests of many millions of our race, at the simple will of the sovereign people, expressed through a harmless bal- lot, instead of a hostile bullet.
Our Republic has hardly yet begun its career in the destiny assigned it. We are yet to pass through many more revolutions; so that if the statesman of to-day could re-visit his native home a century hence, he would search in vain for some of his now familiar institutions. But these approaching revolutions are not to be produced by the cartridge-box; they will be achieved at the ballot-box, and under an increased
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influence of the band-box. And although there may be politicians who would, if they could, blot out the principles of the founders of the Republic, and sell their immortal birthright for the potage of office, yet there is a recuperative moral power always held in re- serve, and equal to the emergency. To short-sighted and desponding men it has certainly appeared as if de- parted greatness itself had fallen into the hands of polit- ical degeneracy, and that even the principles and fame, and name and dust of Washington were to be driven into oblivion. But there is, in the providence of God,
" A sovereign balm for every wound, A cordial for our fears ;"
and the name and fame, and principles and counsels, and sacred dust of the revered Father of his Country shall be preserved, and exert their intended influence on unborn generations of men ; and for this we have an ample guaranty in the fact that woman, the cheer- ing solace in man's last extremity,-sublime woman,- now holds the keys of Mount Vernon.
And now, Fellow-citizens, may that overruling Di- vine Providence whose protection has encircled the inhabitants of this ancient settlement through the sunshine of prosperity and storms of adversity for more than two centuries, still protect and bless you and your descendants, down the long vista of coming ages; and may the lessons of wisdom and fraternal influence which the motive of your gathering this day is so well calculated to inspire, be inscribed as with a sunbeam on the tablets of your town, and all its churches, and there leave its impress forever.
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APPENDANT NOTES.
[NOTE A .- Page 12.]
Extract from the " ATHENE ET FASTI OXONIENSES," by Anthony Wood, Third London Edition ; now in Library of Harvard University :
" Samuel Newman, a learned divine of his time, received education in this University ; but being puritanically affected, he left it, went into New England, became a Congregational man, minister of the Church of Rehoboth there, a zealous man in the way he professed, indefatigable in his studies, and marvelously read in the Holy Scriptures."
This extract and a correspondence between Wood and Dr. Increase Mather in 1690, contain some discrepant inaccuracies, but they have been carefully collated and corrected from the records of the Univer- sity, so that the sentence in the text contains the FACTS in a condensed form. [See said correspondence in Mass. Hist. Coll., Vol. VII., p. 187, Third Series.
[NOTE B .- Page 12.]
This Dr. Featly was one of the brilliant scholars of his day, and Wil- liam Gouge was one of the ministers called the " Assembly of Divines," and was appointed one of the annotators of the Bible. They cach wrote a prefatory advertisement, which is in the third edition of Newman's Concordance ; thus giving their high sanction to the merits of his Bibli- cal attainments. [See more of them in note on the Concordance, and in Lempriere's Biographical Dictionary.
[NOTE C .- Page 15.]
Taking into view the then price of lands, the general price of mer- chandize, and annual cost of living as style was then, and it will be
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APPENDANT NOTES.
found that £500 was a larger estate than $20,000 would be now. Thus he was then ranked among their wealthy men ; but he used it as becoming a meek, pious and humble christian,-considering it in the light of a boon from heaven, with which he was bound to be kind, benevolent and charitable to the less fortunate of his floek.
[NOTE D .- Page 16.]
" This combination, entered into by the general consent of all the inhabitants, after general notice given the 23d of the 4th month [July].
We whose names are underwritten, being, by the providence of God, inhabitants of Seacunk, intending there to settle, do covenant and bind ourselves one to another to subject our persons [torn off-probably, according to law and equity] to nine persons, or any five of the nine, which shall be chosen by the major part of the inhabitants of this plan- tation, and we [torn off-probably, promise and agree] to be subject to all wholesome [torn off-probably, rules and regulations made] by them, and to assist them, according to our ability and estate, and to give timely notice unto them of any such thing as in our conscience may prove dangerous unto the plantation, and this combination to continue untill we shall subject ourselves jointly to some other government."
(Signed,) *Walter Palmer,
Ephraim Hunt,
*Edward Smith,
Peter Hunt,
Edward Bennett,
*William Smith,
Robert Titus,
John Peren,
Abraham Martin,
Zachery Roades,
John Matthewes, Edward Sale,
Job Lane,
* Alexander Winchester,
Ralph Shepherd,
*Henry Smith,
Samuel Newman,
*Stephen Payne,
William Cheesborough,
Ralph Allen,
*Richard Wright,
Thomas Bliss,
* Robert Martin,
George Kendricke,
John Allen,
*Richard Bowen, Joseph Torrey, William Sabin, James Clarke, Thomas Cooper.
The orthography as in the original is retained in the above.
Those marked thus * were the first chosen " townsmen,"-in Decem- ber, 1643, and their first meeting as such, January 3, 1643, O. S.,
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APPENDANT NOTES.
and Alexander Winchester was chairman. From a comparison of these dates and other circumstances, I suppose this compact was made at Wey- mouth, before the general migration, which most probably did not take place till the spring of 1644, O. S .* These thirty names were nearly or quite all then heads of families, and may be considered as the original, actual settlers of Rehoboth, although there were non-resident stockhold- ers in the company, more or less of whom, at various periods, joined them as later residents.
The phrase " intending there to settle " will justify this view of the matter.
Stockholders were those who participated in the expense of fixtures and improvements, and not speculators in lands, so cheap that seven towns cost fifty shillings and a coat. [See Note F.
[NOTE E .- Page 17.]
For many of these early New England habits, see Sears's " Pictures of Olden Time," and Palfrey's Hist. New Eng., Vol. II.
[NOTE F .- Page 18.]
This town was originally bought of Massasoit, in 1641, for ten fath- oms of beads or wampum [money]. This was delicate shells strung like beads, and was the Indian currency. Their white they called wampum [white], and their black money they called suckauhock-seki being their adjective for black. This bead money was nine shillings the fathom in 1630, but, owing to the fall of the price of beaver in England, it was, at the time of this purchase, only five shillings per fathom ; so that this town cost £2 10s. of English money, and a coat which the chief made them throw in to boot. This trade was made at the house of Roger Williams, at Providence, he acting as interpreter. Thus the Indians, without a written language, transacted their business in " black and white " -- especially their cash trades. [For Indian Coin, see Williams's Key, p. 128.
[NOTE G .- Page 20.]
These facts are gathered from a brief family record and notes written by his grandson in an old family Bible which I deciphered twenty years ago, and then almost illegible.
*The year then commenced on the 25th of March.
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APPENDANT NOTES.
[NOTE H .- Page 33.]
Much of this note is extracted from an able but too brief a paper read before the Old Colony Historical Society by its President, Hon. John Daggett. Such parts of it as are from his paper are here enclosed in brackets :
[The work now exhibited to the Society is an interesting relic of the past. It is the third edition of Rev. Samuel Newman's " Concordance of the Bible."
This Concordance seems to have been not merely a new work, but substantially an original work, and the author of it was a minister of the retired settlement of Rehoboth, about ten miles from the ancient Cohannet [Taunton].
Most of the first generation of ministers in the New England Colonies were learned men, educated at the Universities in England-at first, ministers of the Established Church, who, from non-conformity, were obliged to flee from religious persecution at home, and to seek an asy- lum in the American wilderness. Many of them were eminently prac- tical men, fitted by their varied experience in life to be the advisers, the guides, or the pioneers, of their flocks in these early settlements. Among them was Samuel Newman, who followed, or rather led, his people into the rough and hardy soil of Rehoboth, where an original settlement was formed in 1643, and where he remained in the laborious and faithful discharge of his duties as pastor of the first church for a period of twenty years. He died July 5, 1663.
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