USA > Massachusetts > The history of Massachusetts, the provincial period. 1692-1775 v. II > Part 3
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The province charter of 1692 differed in many respects from the charter of Charles I. The government under the latter instrument, after its transfor, was established by the people ; and all officers were chosen by the majority of the votes of the freemen of the colony, attending at Boston, in person or by proxy, without summons, on the last Wednesday in Easter term annually. The deputies to the General Court were chosen by the freemen of each town. No town could send more than two deputies ; towns having but twenty freemen could send but one ; and those having less than ten could not send any. No person being an attorney was eligible as a deputy ; and all persons aspiring to the immunities of citizenship were re- quired to be church members, in full communion, and approved by the General Court. The legislative power was seated in the General Court, from which there was no appeal. This
17
CHARTER OF CHARLES THE FIRST.
court was likewise the supreme judicature of the colony, having CHAP. sole power to make laws, raise money, levy taxes, dispose of I. lands, give and confirm property, impeach, sentence, and pardon 1692. criminals, and receive appeals from inferior courts ; and it could not be adjourned or dissolved without the consent of the major part of its members.
In ordinary cases the governor and assistants sat apart, and transacted business by themselves, drawing up bills and orders, which, being agreed upon, were sent to the deputies for assent or dissent. The deputies also sat by themselves, consulting upon the common good ; and all matters acted upon by them were sent to the magistrates for concurrence or nonconcur- rence. No law could be made without the consent of the major part of the magistrates and the greater number of the deputies ; and the governor had a casting vote in all courts and assemblies, and could call a General Court, or any other court or council, at his pleasure. The executive power was lodged in the governor and council, of whom seven constituted a quorum, the governor or deputy being one ; but in particular emergencies the acts of a less number were valid, so far as related to the impressment of soldiers, seamen, ships, ammuni- tion, provisions, and all other necessaries for the public defence ; and warrants could be drawn upon the public treasury for the payment of these expenses. Under this charter, with all its . defects, a high degree of political independence had been en- joyed ; and its destruction was feared as the precursor of the destruction of all it had secured.1
By the terms of the provincial charter, the governor, the lieutenant governor, and the secretary, were appointed by the king ; and the powers conferred upon the former were supposed to be sufficient to counterbalance the republican tendencies of the people, and keep them in a state of immediate subjection. But if the powers of the people were circumscribed, they were
1 See Randolph, in Hutch. Coll. 477, 478; Hutchinson, ii. 15. VOL II. 2
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THE PROVINCIAL CHARTER.
CHAP. not annihilated. A share in the administration of affairs was I. conceded to them ; nor could it have been withheld without 1692. exciting a spirit of rebellion. Yet no act of the legislature was valid without the consent of the governor ; and, as the appointment of all military officers was vested in him solely, and it was in his power to reject other officers chosen by the people or their deputies, his influence upon the affairs of the province was great, and might be so wielded as to repress the soarings of the spirit of freedom, and favor the designs entertained by his employers. All laws passed in the province were subjected to revision by the king, and to rejection at his pleasure ; and appeals were allowed in personal actions where the matter in dispute exceeded in value the sum of three hundred pounds. Liberty of conscience was assured to all but Papists ; and wor- ship in the Episcopal form was placed on the same footing as worship in the Congregational form. Church membership was no longer to be the qualification for citizenship ; but all persons of a certain estate were entitled to its immunities, and were eligible to office. In some respects the new charter was preferable to the old ; in others it was but its shadow. As a whole, it has been doubted whether its defects were not as great as the defects of the former instrument. Certain it is that, from the powers it reserved to the king, and the extent of his prerogative, many reluctantly consented to its acceptance, and trembled for the consequences of its adoption to the coun- try. Yet it was the supreme law of the land, and continued such, with but slight alterations, until the nation threw off the yoke of bondage, and asserted its title to freedom and self- government.1
The circumstances of the country, at the date of the arrival of this charter, have been already partially described. The old institutions, which had grown up under the colonial char-
1 Mather, Magnalia, b. ii., Life of 4, 5, ed. 1721; Minot, i. 57. Phips, § 14 ; Dummer's Defence, pp.
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CONDITION OF PARTIES.
ter, yet existed, or were but imperfectly eradicated. The laws CHAP. of the country had undergone but little alteration. The ten- I. ures of lands were substantially such as prevailed when the 1692. Body of Liberties was framed. And though a new church and a new ritual had been admitted, which were to be fostered from abroad, the old churches were still in the ascendant, and the old ministers had lost little of their influence. In political affairs, no servile doctrines were eagerly avowed, contrary to the maxims which had long prevailed ; and few were in haste to signalize their loyalty by the basest ingratitude, insolence, and treachery. Differences of opinion, indeed, had arisen ; and there were two parties in the land - the party of freedom, and the party of prerogative : the former exceedingly jealous of all encroachments from the mother country ; the latter inclining to yield to her demands rather than by resistance to arouse her anger, and, without doubt, honestly of opinion that a partial compliance would be for the interest of the country, by com- mending it to the royal favor, and averting the consequences of discord and confusion. Patriotism, if ever pure, is pure in the hour of trial and discipline. Its senses are quickened by the consciousness of danger. It scents from afar the approach of tyranny, and prepares for the contest with firmness and courage. There was much of such patriotism in the fathers of New England. Unquestionably there were some who were sordid and selfish ; incapable of true friendship ; sensual, frivo- lous, false, and cold-hearted ; hurried on by the promptings of a lawless ambition. Such possess few qualities which command the esteem of the world ; few which entitle them to be named with respect. Yet the number in Massachusetts who would rank in this category was exceedingly small. The temper of the times was ill suited to their growth.
The people of New England were emphatically a moral peo- ple. If the legislation of a community indicates the evils which prevail in its borders, it at the same time indicates the standard of public opinion. Mistakes have been committed in all ages,
e
e
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MORALITY OF THE PEOPLE.
CHAP. perhaps, in legislating for the suppression of vice, and too much I. stress has been laid upon penal enactments. But over legisla- 1692. tion is better than none ; for vice, if unchecked, grows like weeds. The precise point beyond which restraint ceases to be salutary, it may be difficult to determine ; but it is better to suffer the inconvenience of imperfect laws, than to tolerate practices subversive of the best interests of all classes of society. It is no impeachment, therefore, of the wisdom of our ancestors, if, in some things, they went farther than would be approved at the present day. Their motives were good, if their policy was defective. But for their policy they found precedents in the writings of the Old Testament ; and their earnestness to pro- mote the welfare of the community is an evidence of their recognition of the claims of practical religion. I know not where else in the world to look for nobler specimens of unbend- ing integrity than among the early settlers of New England. All who have written intelligently of those days have concurred in awarding them a high share of praise. Stern they may have been, and rigid to a fault ; but better that than the laxity which confounds all moral distinctions, and looks with indifference upon the decay of substantial virtue, or views unmoved the inroads of licentiousness, profligacy, and crime.
Some may sneer at laws regulating the use of intoxicating drinks, punishing incontinency, prohibiting the taking of tobacco in the highway, kissing on the Sabbath, and other the like civil regulations. Candid minds see in such things evidence of the scrupulousness of the age ; and if such legislation proved inef- ficient, it was because human passions are not always suscepti- ble of outward control. The Puritan may have erred in the excess of his zeal against what he esteemed the sinful customs of the established church ; and he may have condemned too severely indulgence in those amusements which the spirit of youth naturally craves, and which, within rational bounds, can never be deemed criminal. But it was his desire to build up a strong character - strong in the elements of a rigid morality.
21
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INTELLECTUAL CULTURE.
To the accomplishment of this object he bent all his energies ; CHAP. and hence he prohibited both dancing and drinking, masses and I. 1692. merriment, hunting and hawking, starched ruffs and stiff petti- coats, and every thing else which betrayed, to his eye, a leaning to the world, or the fashions of the world. And, without doubt, we owe much to this code of inflexible morals in diffusing throughout the New England character a reverence for sacred things, and the subjection of the passions to the control of reason.
In point of intellectual culture, the condition of the colonies did not admit the classical refinement which distinguished a later period. Printing was introduced into Massachusetts in 1639 ; 1 yet in 1692 there were but a few presses established,2 and not a newspaper was issued until after the opening of the eighteenth century.3 Books were comparatively scarce ; and those which were in circulation were mostly of a religious char- acter, though the libraries of the clergy and of the wealthy laity were many of them respectable in size and varied in con- tents. The versification of the age was exceedingly rude. The poems of Mrs. Anne Bradstreet constitute the principal exception to this remark.4 We shall look in vain, among the specimens which have descended to us from Governor Bradford, Secretary Morton, Edward Johnson, and John Norton, for pieces equal- ling in merit those of Milton and Dryden. Anagrams, halting, limping, and pointless ; epitaphs, ponderous, stiff, and leaden- winged, were the ordinary evidences of the existence of the " divine passion." Of few could it be said, -
1 The first press was at Cambridge, and was brought over by Mr. Glover. Pierce's Hist. H. Coll. 6; Quincy's Hist. H. Coll. i. 187, 188; Drake's Boston, 242, 424.
2 I find, before 1692, the names of nine printers in Massachusetts, viz. : S. Day, S. Green, S. Sewall, Jno. Foster, Jno. Allen, Benj. Harris, Barth. Green, Jas. Glen, and Marma- duke Johnson. MS. Notes of S. G. Drake, and the Mass. Archives.
News Letter, issued in 1704; the sec- ond was the Boston Gazette, printed in 1719; and the third was the New England Courant, printed by James Franklin, in 1721. Curious particu- lars concerning these papers may be seen in Thomas's Hist. Printing, the Mass. Hist. Coll's, and Buckingham's Reminiscences.
4 Her volume was dedicated to her father, Governor Dudley, in a copy of verses dated March 20, 1642. A third
3 The first paper was the Boston edition was published in 1758.
22
HABITS OF THE PEOPLE.
CHAP. I.
1692.
" The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven ; And, as imagination bodies forth The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing A local habitation and a name." I
It was an age of too much seriousness to admit of an ardent devotion to the Muses. The company of the Nine was devoutly eschewed. The classics, if not proscribed, were the delight of but few. Men who had before them a wilderness to subdue, cities to build, and a government to frame, had little leisure to devote to the elegances of life ; little time to spend in culti- vating the imagination. Their poetry was in action, not in words. Yet there is enough in their character to form an epic of surpassing power ; and when " the hour and the man " come, we shall look for a delineation of their manners as pregnant with interest and as extensive in its influence as the legends of other days, which have immortalized the deeds of men far less earnest, and far less worthy of an undying fame.
The habits of the people were, for the most part, simple. Travelling was principally performed on foot or on horseback, the women mounted on pillions behind the men. Stage coaches were not introduced until near the close of the seventeenth century, and then we hear of but one.2 Pleasure carriages were rarely seen, save in Boston, until towards the middle of the eighteenth century. The chaise was introduced at about that date.3 The wagons of the farmers were rude structures, hung on thorough braces or bedded on the axles ; and, from the roughness of the roads, filled with stumps in many cases, riding was far from voluptuously easy, and a trip of a few miles was
1 Midsummer Night's Dream, Act v. Sc. 1.
2 In 1687, Lady Andros rode in a coach. Felt's Salem, i. 315 et seq.
3 In 1753, there were no chaises in the counties of Worcester and Barn-
stable ; but one was reported in Bris- tol; and there were 47 in Essex, 50 in Middlesex, and about 200 in Suffolk. Felt's Salem, i. 316; Ann's Am. Stat. Ass'n, i. 348-358.
23
HABITS OF THE PEOPLE.
a sure cure for the dyspepsia. The roads of New England, CHAP. however, were not much worse than those of Old England at I.
1692.
the same date ; for, in some of the best counties, at the opening of the nineteenth century, travellers were subjected to as great, if not to greater annoyances than existed in Massachusetts.1
Among the wealthy, the luxuries of life were indulged as freely, perhaps, as among persons of like standing in the old world. Their furniture was of a costly description ; their apparel was sumptuous ; their tables groaned with delicacies ; and their hospitality was unbounded.2 It was contrary, however, to the sternness of the Puritan character to countenance or encourage extravagant expenditures in living or dress ; and sumptuary laws prohibited unnecessary profusion, and attempted to pre- scribe the length of the hair and the fashion of the dress.3 The yeomanry, who were the bulk of the people, were hardy, indus- trious, temperate, and frugal ; given to hospitality, and enjoying the necessaries of life, with a fair share of its luxuries. But pleasing as those days seem in comparison with our own, we can hardly claim for them a particular preëminence ; and the more minutely we examine the annals of the past, the more shall we find to satisfy us that the condition of the people, how -. ever simple, was not such as we should voluntarily choose for our own lot. There is a charm which fancy lends to the past, and, always, imaginative minds see things painted in colors of unsurpassed brilliancy and beauty. And it is not, perhaps, unnatural to desire to invest the lot of those who have preceded us with some of the rose tints which render it attractive ; but could we go back in reality to any anterior age in the history of the world, and live in it as it was, we should see enough to convince us that
" Distance lends enchantment to the view,"
and that the past, so far from excelling the present, is as infe-
1 See Dibdin's Tour, ed. 1801, 4to, vol. i. pp. 46-56.
2 All travellers concur in commend-
ing the hospitality of the people. See Randolph, Josselyn, Dunton, &c.
3 Mass. Rec's, in different places.
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HABITS OF THE PEOPLE.
CHAP. rior in comparison as the rough block of marble which the I. sculptor is chiselling into the likeness of man, is inferior to the 1692. statue when finished, in its exquisite symmetry and life-like expression.
Such were the people whose history is to be traced in these pages : a peculiar people, zealous of good works : a people descended from the best English stock ; yearning for freedom ; far from perfect in their characters ; far from faultless in their habits ; yet possessing the germs of a higher development, and earnest to advance in the work of reform : men, who, less than a century later, made themselves felt as the champions of lib- erty, and whose deeds of heroic valor challenged the admiration of statesmen and philosophers.
CHAPTER II.
THE WITCHCRAFT DELUSION.
No event probably in the whole history of New England has CHAP. furnished grounds for more serious charges affecting the char-
II. acter of the people than the witchcraft delusion, as it has been 1692. commonly termed ; an episode of thrilling and melancholy inter- est, impressing the mind with a vivid sense of the evils of su- perstition, and the unhappy consequences which flow from that morbid excitement of the passion for the marvellous which seems to have had its cycles of recurrence from the earliest period to the present time. The mind of man is a perplexing mystery, which the wisest philosophers have failed to unravel. In its normal state it moves forward generally without much ex- citement ; and the laws which govern its motions are laws of harmony and progressive improvement. But in its abnormal conditions, when its balance is disturbed and its functions are diseased, it soars aloft upon aerial excursions of the wildest description, guided by no chart but that of conjecture, and following, without judgment, the blind promptings of an erratic fancy, which spurns control, and rises higher and higher in its restless flight until, from utter exhaustion, its drooping pinions refuse longer to sustain its course, and it swoops down to earth again, glad to find rest, like the returning dove, from the waves which had swept over its abode in its absence, threat- ening to wash away the landmarks of ages.
Yet even the follies of our race are not without some com- pensation ; and the discerning will find that
(25)
26
THE WITCHCRAFT DELUSION.
CHAP. II.
"There is some soul of goodness in things evil, Would men observingly distil it out."
1692. The lessons which the world is taught by its errors are often of great service ; and it would seem as if temporary fits of excitement, like occasional disturbances in the physical world, were necessary to purify the atmosphere, and to scatter the seeds from which new and more vigorous forms of life may spring. All such phenomena are controlled by a Power who has assured us that the wrath of man shall be made to praise him, and that the remainder of wrath he will restrain.
Ps. 76: 10.
From a cursory view of the popular delusions which have prevailed, it will be seen that on no subject has the human mind been more prone to dwell than upon the influence which spiritual agents have been supposed to exert upon beings in the flesh. The belief in such influence is as old as the Bible, and is often alluded to in the sacred writings. How far such belief is founded in truth, every man must judge for himself. Differ- ent minds form different conclusions from the same premises ; and it would be presumptuous for any one to set up his own opinions as infallible. To many, it seems hardly credible that such belief should have prevailed so extensively without having some foundation ; 1 nor can it be doubted that phenomena have occurred and do occur, for which the wisest and best have been and are unable to account. And although it does not necessa- rily follow that what cannot be accounted for may be legiti- mately ascribed to causes beyond the present sphere, neither does it follow that nothing can be ascribed to such causes, because such phenomena, when investigated, have been found, in most cases, to fall within the province of recondite laws, imperfectly defined, which have hitherto eluded the grasp of the mind. Profound mystery encircles life on every hand ; and
1 " It seems to me," says Black- stone, Com. b. iv. c. iv,, " the most eligible way to conclude, that in gen- eral there has been such a thing as
witchcraft, though one cannot give credit to any particular modern in- stance of it."
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PREVALENCE OF THE BELIEF IN WITCHCRAFT.
the world is only in its infancy in knowledge. What the future CHAP. may unfold, it is impossible to say. Time may bring wisdom II. and increasing light ; and the prudent will suspend judgment 1692. until such light appears. Nor can harm result from that cau- tious reserve which, while it leaves the mind open to conviction, reposes calmly upon the power of truth. Wisdom will ever be justified of her children.
Before sketching the progress of the witchcraft delusion in Massachusetts, it may be proper to remark that the belief in witchcraft was by no means confined to America, nor was it the indigenous growth of the soil of New England.1 Long before the settlement of this country, all nations, civilized and uncivilized, gave more or less credence to marvellous tales of ghosts and witches ; and in England, within the bosom of the national church, there had not been wanting a high degree of credulity relative to the invisible world, and the supposed power of demons and departed spirits to visit earth, to terrify the timid and torment the helpless. The theories of ancient philosophers, developed in the writings of Hesiod, Plato, Aris- totle, Pythagoras, and Empedocles, incorporated into the poetry of Homer, Virgil, Ovid, and Horace, and adopted, to some extent, by the Jewish rabbis, peopled earth and sky with a race of demons - beings between the gods and men, and the channels or media through which intelligence was communi- cated from the one to the other. Clothed with air, wander- ing over heaven, hovering over the stars, or abiding in this sphere at pleasure, they beheld unveiled the secrets of time, attended man from the cradle to the grave, and, according to their character, affected his fortunes for good or for ill. The agatho dæmons were his good spirits, his wise counsellors, con- ducting his soul to the abodes of the blest. The caco demons
1 The Indians, indeed, were sup- posed to be worshippers of the devil, and their powwows to be wizards ; but the form in which witchcraft prevailed among them was somewhat different
from that of more civilized nations, though similar in character and in its pernicious effects. See T. Morton's N. Eng. Can. ; N. Morton's N. Eng. Mem. ; Hutchinson, ii. 22, &c.
28
WITCHCRAFT IN THE DARK AGES.
CHAP. were his evil spirits, the disturbers of his peace ; horrid phan- II. toms which had power to annoy by inflicting diseases, convulsing 1692. the body with frightful spasms, and driving their victims to the verge of despair.1
The introduction of Christianity did not at once eradicate these opinions, for the writings of the fathers abound in allu- sions to the doctrine of possessions. In the dark ages, super- stition held unlimited sway. Nor at the dawn of the refor- mation were the mists which had brooded over the mind wholly dispersed. No spell had been found sufficiently potent to exorcise the delusions which had seized upon all. "He that will needs perswade himself that there are no witches," says one, " would as faine be perswaded that there is no devill ; and he that can already beleeve that there is no devill, will ere long beleeve that there is no God." 2 Hence " every old woman with a wrinkled face, a furr'd brow, a hairy lip, a gobber tooth, a squint eye, a squeaking voyce, or a scolding tongue, having a rugged coate on her back, a skull cap on her head, a spindle in her hand, and a dog or cat by her side," was not only " sus- pected, but pronounced for a witch."3 The young and the beautiful - the bewitchers of modern times - were rarely ac- cused ; but every town or village had its two or three old women, who were charged with laming men, killing cattle, and destroying children.4 Nay, even a hare could not suddenly spring from a hedge, or an "ugly weasel " run through one's yard, or a "fowle great catte " appear in the barn, but it was suspected as a witch.5 " A big or a boyl, a wart or a wen, a push or a pile, a scar or a scabbe, an issue or an ulcer," were
-
1 For an elaborate sketch of the opinions of the ancients, see Cud- worth's Intellectual System of the Universe.
2 Gaule, Cases of Cons. concerning Witchcraft, p. 1, ed. 1646.
3 Gaule, pp. 4, 5. Riding through the air on sticks was another infallible token of witchcraft. Hale, 31.
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