USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Salem > Reminiscences of Salem, Massachusetts : embracing notices of its eminent men known to the author forty years ago > Part 12
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But for the short-sightedness of Britain we might to-day have been her subjects. Would it have diminished her greatness, disturbed her peace, or injured her prosperity, if she had retained her hold upon us, by adopting the Amer- ican policy, in accordance with the advice of her best and wisest men ? "Let us reflect," said the good Bishop of St. Asaph, in his speech intended for the House of Lords, on the bill for the better regulating the government of Mas- sachusetts, -"Let us reflect that, before these innovations were thought of, by following the line of good conduct which bad been marked out by our ancestors, we gov- erned North America with mutual benefit to them and ourselves. It was a happy idea that made us first con- sider them rather as instruments of commerce than as objects of government." This is the New England idea happily presented ; and how do these generous sentiments shine, in contrast with the miserable doctrine of Sir Wil- liam Blackstone, concerning the power of parliament over these colonies-a doctrine based on the fiction that ours was a conquered territory, and our rights, only such as were vouchsafed by the clemency or bounty of the con- queror !* How, unlike, too, those pettifogging arguments
*See Sharswood's edition of Blackstone's Commentaries, Vol. i, p. 107, and the note by the American editor.
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on the abstract power of parliament, which could be log- ically reduced to the proposition that the solemn pledges of the Great Charter, and every article in the Bill of Rights, nay, even parliament itself, existed solely, by the sufferance of the king's most excellent majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons, in parliament, for the time being, assembled !
As the history of the revolution becomes more thor- oughly studied, interest will not be so exclusively felt in those later scenes which have been oftenest depicted - the final separation from the mother country, the larger military movements, and the incidents attending and fol- lowing the close of the war; the earlier stages,- of de- bate, of personal heroism, and of the first organized re- sistance will be more eagerly studied. To the men and doings of the Puritan commonwealth, the student of English history is quickly remitted, to find a key to the sudden mastery of great ideas exhibited by the historic personages who gave lustre to the reign of William and Mary.
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Our independence was not the growth of a year, or of ten years. It began in the infancy of the colonies ; and found its best tutelage here in New England.
The founders of these states were Englishmen, with all the characteristics which that name implies when spoken of those who did most to establish the reputation and shape the destiny of England in the sixteenth century. Their clergymen were, almost without exception, gradu- ates of the great English universities ;- well versed in the learning of their time, deeply interested in all political and ecclesiastical movements, and with a strong bias against un-English tendencies in church or state. Next to the Bible and the Catechism, they knew the old Charter.
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They discussed it line by line, and word by word; and, as, from the Pentateuch they were able to deduce a civil and moral code minutely particular, so, in this instrument, they found authority for, or, at least, no obstacle to, the advanced ideas of political liberty which they had imbibed elsewhere. Children were taught to consider it the source of inestimable blessings ; and the old men were glad to relate its perilous history.
The sentiments which the fathers had entertained for the Charter of King Charles, were, by their posterity, transferred to the Charter of William and Mary. True, this new Charter reserved to the Crown the appointment of the chief executive officers of the province-a feature which was, at first, carnestly opposed; but, as these officers, when not native born and enjoying public confi- dence, had, sometimes, commended themselves to popular favor in various ways, hostility to the Charter, on this account, grew feeble, and, finally ceased. The King had also reserved in this instrument the right to reject the acts of their legislature; but this negative voice, though it might embarrass them and retard their progress in some directions, was not a positive encroachment on their in- dependence.
In a school of politics thus peculiar, and confined to few and simple issues, our fathers were educated. The absence of complex interests in their political and civil affairs, led to clearness in their perception, and adroitness and force in their treatment, of topics of political contro- versy. For a long time before what the good Bishop of St. Asaph calls " these innovations " were started in par- liament, they had, skilfully, and generally with success, conducted a diplomatic contest with the privy council, and the Lords of trade, who, from courteously advising and negativing, had begun, in a more imperious tone, to direct
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and order. From the privy council they had been in- clined to appeal to parliament ; not, indeed, with the idea of surrendering their independence, but to secure a pow- erful ally in the defence of their rights under the charter, or as submitting their case to a referee accepted by their opponents. While the prospect of redress by parliament was fair, they were disposed to look too exclusively to that quarter for a remedy, and had well-nigh submitted to some encroachment, on their traditional autonomy. The joint operations of the home government and the colonies, in the wars with France and Spain, had the effect, in a great measure, to push aside, as of secondary importance, questions that in times of peace had appeared of vital moment.
When it was discovered that the chances of securing a recognition of their claims by parliament were even less encouraging than at the council-board, they began to cor- rect their recent error. They repudiated the authority of parliament ; first, in matters of internal government. And, though they appealed in vain to their own courts for the preservation of their rights under the charter, their success in parliament encouraged them, in due time, to deny the authority of parliament in all matters of external government peculiarly affecting them; and they came back, at length, to the original claim of the fathers,-to entire exemption from legislative and execu- tive interference in all matters of government, except in those particulars stipulated in the charter; in short, to the claim of local independence.
This point they had reached at the time of the events we have been considering.
Having thus viewed the outward incidents in which the event we commemorate is clothed,-the garb in which it moves across the stage in the grand drama of history, and
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having, I fear, overstepped the limits which the occasion, and your patience, prescribe, by a too dry and a very im- perfect representation of the interior processes which led up to this event, I shall not trespass upon your indulgence by pursuing these subjects further.
The theme is fruitful of suggestions, appropriate and deeply interesting. How it tempts us, for instance, to emphasize the distinction between liberty and indepen- dence, to look both backward and forward from this event, for epochs in the history of personal independence-of individual liberty ; to trace the indebtedness of Massa- chusetts, for this blessing, to a despised sect, now fast dissolving in the beams of toleration ; to note how that toleration had been secured in this colony by the meek persistency of the same sect-the long-suffering Quakers -almost a generation before the great act of William and Mary ; how Thomas Maule, a Quaker, in this very town, and in the court house which preceded the building of 1774, vindicated the freedom of the press, and the right of the jury to judge of the law, as well as of the fact, in criminal cases, more than two generations before the discussion of the same issues in Westminster Hall shook the very foundations of the British throne ;* how the Quaker inhabitants of Dartmouth and Tiverton, a generation later still, secured, for the members of their own sect, an exemption from the support of the ministers and meeting-houses of another denomination ; } and how this exemption was, afterward, extended to the Baptists, and, finally, to all citizens.
* See an account of this trial in Chandler's American Criminal Trials, and in Historical Collections of the Essex Institute, Vol. iii, pp. 238-253.
t See Acts and Resolves of the Province of Mass. Bay, Vol. ii, note to the act of 1722-23, chap. 8, on p. 269.
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On an occasion like this, when the heart is stirred by patriotic emotions, and the cheek mantles with the glow of pride, as we recount the peculiar blessings of liberty which we enjoy, it is well to make some inquiry after the forgotten few by whose testaments, sealed with their blood, we, the descendants of their persecutors, have re- ceived these invaluable legacies, and to make, even thus late, an acknowledgment as free and broad as the bounty bestowed.
The story of the past intimate connection between the two kindred nations, revived by this great occasion, and the change of feeling which a century has wrought, irre- sistibly impel us, at this time, to do something to remove any lingering trace of that old and indiscriminate preju- dice against the country whose ministers inflicted such harsh and unnatural wrongs upon our fathers ; to plead that the abuses of a party, however large, should not forever be laid to the charge of a nation ; to invoke a larger measure of love and veneration for the great char- acters who, in both houses of parliament, on the bench, and in the cabinet, were our stanch friends throughout sour contest with the mother country ; and to pay a fresh tribute of gratitude and sympathy to our warm friends, in the great community of England, who were forced to bear their portion of the burden of a useless and fratricidal war,-a war begun and continued against their entreaties, and absorbing from the public treasury the enormous sum of one hundred millions of pounds sterling.
As we recall the eloquence of Chatham and Burke, Barré and Conway ; the efforts of the representatives from London ; the mild persuasion of Jonathan Shipley, Bishop of St. Asaph ; and, above all, the intense earnest- 'ness and the mighty weight of authority which Lord Camden unsuccessfully brought to the support of his views
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of our cause,- views so accordant with those of our own patriots that, while we read, we query whether, after all, his ideas were not furnished from Boston; - when we behold that array of noble names in the House of Lords, which, once and again, appears subscribed to a protest against the passage of the acts of tyranny ; when we read the appeals in our behalf by the mayor, aldermen and livery of the city of London,-we begin to feel, as our fathers felt, that skies may change, but not the hearts of those who pass beyond the sea. We are at home, once more, on the green sward of England, all aglow with our old-time love and admiration.
'Tis true, alas ! that there was the darker and the pre- vailing side. But the minority who were with us far out- weigh, in point of character and intellect, the misinformed and infatuated crowd opposed to us. The thoughts of Joseph Priestly, Richard, Price, and Lord Camden, will be studied with profit by coming generations wherever our tongue is spoken ; while the "Taxation no Tyranny" of Dr. Johnson; the imitations of his weak idolaters ; John Wesley's abridgment of the Doctor's tract,-his prayers for our overthrow, and those Wesleyan songs, breathing anathemas and invoking Divine vengeance upon us, have passed into oblivion. Possibly, by the aid of the bookbinder, they have been turned to their only useful purpose-pasted, it may be, in the backs of elegant edi- tions of the speeches of William Pitt and Edmund Burke.
The mention of these things must suffice. Resisting the temptation to wander further from our immediate theme, let us turn once more to the earnest men whose daring and fortitude secured the boon of independence which has been transmitted to us, their posterity. What inspired them to attempt so great an enterprise, and why ? were they successful ?
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We have been accustomed to hear it said that our fathers were sensitive of their rights, persistent in their purposes, unwearied in endeavor and fortunate in achievement be- cause of their education ; that they had been taught to cherish every tradition of liberty, and ever to aspire to the high ideal presented by the self-sacrifice, courage and devotion of their fathers. Be it so; then this is a suffi- cient reason for imitating their example, and fully justi- fics what we are doing to-day in commemoration of their deeds.
But was there not, a deeper and more comprehensive cause than this? Something not accidental, nor elective ; not dependent upon tradition, time's or circumstances, but inherent ; sure to produce the same peculiarities in every generation, and under all circumstances ; something spon- taneous, irrepressible, constitutional ?
Start not when I affirm that there was such a cause : it lay in the superiority of the American stock.
Superiority in the feudal sense may not always indicate native excellence, yet the distinctions of rank were, orig- inally, the badge of preeminent services rendered to what represented the state, and, in early times, when pecuniary possessions were insecure, they were the only adequate rewards which could be conferred for superior valor and virtue. Families which can be traced step by step, for centuries, must have possessed some commanding qual- ities to have continued to hold a conspicuous place among their contemporaries, and to have thus marked their course by enduring monuments.
In the great struggle for existence I think it will be found, that not only the strongest and healthiest survive, but that, in the end, the best prevail and make the most permanent impressions. Indeed, if this is not so, the world is surely retrograding and the highest hopes of mankind are a snare and a delusion.
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Our fathers from the first cared perhaps too little for what they considered the accidents of birth and lineage ; and, except in the case of John Adams, and the few who shared his views, there was a universal tendency among the revolutionary patriots to suppress even the mention of family superiority. But, though they would not boast of it, they could not be insensible of its influence not only on the character of the people, but as a motive of conduct. Time has lifted the veil which the Puritans and revolutionary republicans allowed to fall between the public eye and their family records. All around us are surnames, inherited from the first immigrants, that are to be found in Domesday-Book and the Roll of Battle Abbey. The later investigations of genealogists have surprised us with their revelations of the antiquity and historic eminence of a large number of early New Eng- land families. Several hundred elaborate pedigrees have now been published, some of which have been traced through noble lines, with names and dates, from genera- tion to generation, back to the days of the Plantagenets, and the house of Blois .* In our probate files, among private papers, and on neglected tombstones in the oldest grave-yards are yet to be seen the arms of many families whose connection with their ancient kindred in England
*Savage's Genealogical Dictionary of New England, in four vol- umes, Whitmore's American Genealogist, and the Heraldic Journal, exhibit striking evidence of the accurate and full manner in which family histories are preserved in New England, and of the social supe- riority of the colonists. Savage declares, "Even if our views be restricted to the lineal origin of those people here, when the long- protracted impolicy of Great Britain drove our fathers iuto open hos- tility, and forced them to become a nation in 1776, in that century and a half from its colonization, a purer Anglo Saxon race would be seen on this side of the ocean than on the other;" and Whitmore affirms that nine-tenths of our native citizens can prove their descent for eight generations, and at each step find a man of distinguished posi- tion. There are no better authorities.
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has thus been pointed out and subsequently verified. We know as a matter of history that in those grave-yards re -. poses the dust of descendants of Saxon earls and Norman kings. A Puritan daughter of the Earl of Lincoln, de- scendants of the Earls of Northumberland, and the fa- mous old family of St. John, share here, without a monu- ment, a common receptacle with the posterity of Bishops Morton, Bonner and Still, and the known kindred of Archbishops Cranmer and Grindal. These are our kins- folk and ancestry, and no foolish affectation of self-abase- ment, after the style of Mr. Bounderby,* and no fear of derision should deter us from a frank avowal of the fact.
Why should the man who discriminates between his Berkshire pig and a common shote, or jealously guards the pedigrees of his thoroughbred cattle and horses, admit nothing in favor of the transmission of good qualities in his own kind ? It matters not whether transmitted excel- lence in the human family be congenital or traditionary. Either way the fact is most satisfactorily illustrated in the history of Puritan New England, and may account for the. marked purity, frugality, industry, intelligence, courage and enterprise of her people in all generations.
Though, for want of evidence, I am not prepared to assert that this condition of society prevailed in the other colonies, it is unquestionable that the Revolution was not a protest against rank and titles. Samuel Adams de- clared that "The seeds of aristocracy began to spring even before the conclusion of our struggle for the natural rights of men."¡ At the close of the war there was more
* " What would Mr. Bounderby say ?"-Gradgrind.
"Not that a ditch was new to me, for I was born in a ditch."- Bounderby. " Hard Times," chaps. 3 and 4.
t The Life, etc., of Samuel Adams, by William V. Wells, Vol. iii, p. 316.
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than mere discussion as to the propriety of establishing something like the European system here. Fortunately, the' more democratic ideas prevailed. Our fathers wisely concluded that hereditary offices and honors were exces- sive compensation for the highest 'services which it is possible for any member of society to render. It seemed to them that they had gone far enough in that direction in confirming the principle of inheritance of property,-in permitting the wealth acquired by the skill or industry of one to pass intact to his descendants, who might be drones in society, and utterly unworthy to possess it.
Besides their natural inclination to dwell on the history and example of their forefathers, and their conviction of the legal soundness of their claims to the right of local in- dependence, they were instinctively hopeful of the future.
The vision of a New Canaan in this wilderness, - that prognostication of ancient Puritan seers, which had been repeated in Puritan sermons and borne aloft on Puritan prayers ; a prospect which had nerved them in battle, supported them in hardships, encouraged them to enter- prise on the sea, and in the settlement of new territory, and made their exile from their native land not only tol- erable but happy, grew in their descendants into a fore- sight of a great and prosperous state, eclipsing the effete kingdoms of the old world and becoming the chief gem in the British crown.
Nor was the idea peculiar to them. Their hopes ripened into assurance when they read the concurrent tes- timony of European bards and philosophers. Forty years before, they had committed to memory the stirring pre- diction of Bishop Berkeley : -
"The muse, disgusted at an age and clime Barren of every glorious theme, In distant lands now waits a better time, Producing subjects worthy fame.
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There shall be sung another golden age, The rise of empire and of arts, The good and great inspiring epic rage, The wisest heads and noblest hearts.
Not such as Europe breeds in her decay, Such as she bred when fresh and young, When heavenly flame did animate her clay, By future poets shall be sung.
Westward the course of empire takes its way; The four first acts already past, A fifth shall close the drama with the day ; Time's noblest offspring is the last."
Minds thus certain of their rights, proud of their his- tory, and constitutionally hopeful of a great destiny, would naturally be conscious of their dignity. They would be apt to resent any treatment implying indiffer- ence or contempt, and would submit to no imposition. While such men might lavishly respond to applications for favors, they would indignantly refuse the slightest tribute.
The claim of the Home Government to be reimbursed by the colonies a portion of the expenses incurred in the reduction of the French possessions in America, -the claim which was embodied in the acts of parliament that led to the revolt of the colonies-was considered by the latter as grossly unjust and inequitable. The colonists could not forget the story of alternate hope and disappoint- ment,-the sad tale recorded in the annals of New Eng- land through a whole century-of their own endeavors to take and hold those possessions ; of long, expensive war, signalized, it is true, by heroic achievements and crowned with the laurels of victory, but yet involving bloodshed, misery, poverty and despair.
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Acadia and Canada wrested from the French before the settlement of Boston, but restored by the perfidious Charles, at St. Germain ; - Acadia re-conquered by New England forces in the time of the commonwealth, but re- surrendered to France, after the Restoration, by the treaty of Breda ; - Port Royal, and the whole coast westward, again taken by New England in 1690, but seven years later, together with Labrador, Hudson's Bay, Canada and the great Mississippi valley, ignominiously given back to France by the treaty of Ryswick ;- Port Royal once more rescued from French dominion by the united forces of Old and New England, in 1710, to be held only three years, and then basely returned by the treaty of Utrecht ; - the capture of Louisbourg and Cape Breton in 1745, and their restoration to France at Aix la Chapelle in 1748 ;- the conquest of Nova Scotia under Gen. Winslow in 1755 ;- the losses of the colonies in previous unsuccessful attempts, and their contributions to the recent war, seemed not only to entitle them to exemption from further burdens but to merit ampler acknowledgment from the mother country, than they had yet received.
Indeed, the forbearance of the colonies to press de- mands for reimbursement of their comparatively enor- mous expenses, incurred in extending and preserving the dominions of the Crown, can only be explained by the fact that they deemed it but a necessary incident to local independence, and that if they were incapable of main- taining their local dominion without assistance, they could not expect the home government to recognize their right to claim it.
I will pursue the theme no further. The slow march of a century has brought the mother and her distant prog- eny into new and more amicable relations. Unity of thought and language have inseparably blended their
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literature and their science. The common law of both is expounded alike in their courts of justice, and the pro- gressive tendencies of their legislation are identical. The ancient social distinctions of the mother country have lost much of the exclusiveness which formerly char- acterized them, and England no longer wears an aspect of hopeless senility but begins to realize the vision of the great Puritan bard : - 4
" Methinks I see in my mind a noble and puissant nation rousing herself like a strong man after sleep, and shaking her invincible locks; methinks I see her as an eagle mewing her mighty youth, and kindling her un- dazzled eyes at the full midday beam."
In all directions we find a marked progress, in both countries, towards the embodiment of the grand idea of human brotherhood. Following the example of England, the United States have abolished the system of involun- tary servitude, with all its demoralizing influences. We take a common pride in the thought that our language has already begun to be the chosen vehicle of science, and we unite in rejoicing in the belief that it will, one day, be the universal tongue.
Has not the time arrived for forgetting all feuds, bury- ing all animosities, and uniting the two nations by a mutual pledge to abolish war, succor the oppressed, en- lighten the ignorant, replace misery and poverty with joy and plenty, and set an example to all nations of dignity without tinsel and power without tyranny ?
As a step towards this happy consummation, I suggest that, in the coming centennial celebration at Philadelphia, we unveil the statues of Charles Pratt, Lord Camden,- always the firm friend of America,-and Samuel Adams, our first patriot.
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