USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > A discourse delivered at Providence, August 5, l836 : in commemoration of the first settlement of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Being the second centennial anniversary of the settlement of Providence > Part 1
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GENEALOGY COLLECTION
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01964 4639
Gc 974.5 P68d Pitman, John Discourse delivered at Providence, August 5, 1836 . .
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JUDGE PITMAN'S
CENTENNIAL
DISCOURSE.
A
DISCOURSE
DELIVERED AT PROVIDENCE, AUGUST 5, 1836,
IN COMMEMORATION OF THE FIRST SETTLEMENT OF RHODE-ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS. BEING THE SECOND CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF THE
SETTLEMENT OF PROVIDENCE.
BY JOHN PITMAN,
MEMBER OF THE RHODE-ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
No Longer The Property Of
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Providence, August 5th, 1836.
HON. JOHN PITMAN :
SIR-The Committee of Arrangements for the celebration of the Second Centennial Anniversary of the Settlement of Providence, present you their grateful thanks for the Address pronounced on that occasion, and respectfully solicit a copy for the press. They are highly gratified in believing that they express the unanimous wish, not only of the respective bodies which they represent, but of the numerous and respectable audience who were present at its delivery.
We have the honor to be,
Very respectfully, your ob't serv'ts,
THOMAS B. FENNER, Committee AMHERST EVERETT, of the
JOSEPH CADY, City Council.
W. R. STAPLES, Committee of the THOMAS H. WEBB, ' Historical Society.
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Providence, August 5th, 1836.
GENTLEMEN :
The Address, a copy of which you have been pleased to request for the press, is at your disposal.
It will afford me sufficient gratification should it, in any manner, contribute to increase our estimation of the great principle which gave being to our State, or kindle those emotions of patriotism which may lead us to promote our highest interests. For yourselves, and those whom you respectively represent, accept, gentlemen, the assurances of my lasting and grateful consideration.
I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
JOHN PITMAN.
To THOMAS B. FENNER, Committee
AMHERST EVERETT, of the
JOSEPH CADY, City Council.
WM. R. STAPLES, ¿ Committee of the THOMAS H. WEBB, S Historical Society.
DISCOURSE.
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Citizens of Providence, and Citizens of Rhode Island-
WE are assembled at an interesting period in the history of our City and State. On the narrow isthmus which separates the past from the future, we are at the close of the second, and the commencement of the third century, since the founder of Rhode- Island here erected the standard of religious liberty.
It was in the summer of 1636, that Roger Williams, banished from Massachusetts, and warned by the friendly voice of the Gov- ernor of Plymouth, sought an asylum beyond the territories of christian men. Forsaking his plantation at Seekonk, he embarked on the Pawtucket, approaching the western shore, was greeted with the friendly whatcheer of the natives, and doubling the southern promontories directed his little bark where a beautiful cove receiv- ed the waters of the Moshassuck. Here he landed ; beneath the forest boughs, and beside a crystal spring, he sought refreshment and repose ; here he offered up his thanks to God that, when the hearts of his civilized brethren were alienated, he had found sym- pathy, protection and sustenance from the rude children of nature, and here, in the thankfulness of his heart for past mercies, and full of pious hope for the future, he fixed his abode and named it Prov- idence. The spring remains and sends forth its refreshing waters, the only local memorial of the place of his landing and settlement. The principle remains which brought him hither, unimpaired by time, its truth tested and enforced by the experience of two hundred years, and now constituting, not the reproach of a small, despised, and persecuted colony, but the glory and happiness of millions of freemen.
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To commemorate this event, to honor this founder, to dwell on some passages of our history which may help us to appreciate the perils, toils, and sufferings of the Narragansett pilgrims, to discharge a portion of that debt which is due to the memory of our worthy ancestors, to cherish those principles which have made us what we are, and which we hope to transmit as their best inherit- ance to posterity-for these high purposes we are liere assembled.
The dimensions of our State are humble ; the politician of the day, in his estimate of relative power, regards us as of small ac- count ; but in the history of mind, in the progress of intellectual and moral excellence, what is there, from the dawn of the reformation, unto the present day, of more importance than the principle which gave birth to our State, and has pervaded all our institutions ?
We celebrate annually the birth day of our independence, and long may we continue to celebrate it, not because we should delight in the story of wrong and outrage, of battles fought and battles won; but because it tells the price of freedom, and shows how dearly it was purchased. But of what value is independence ? Why rejoice that we have broken a foreign yoke, if it should only prepare us for a domestic yoke of greater oppression. Unless our liberty is preserved, the story of the revolution would only cause us to lament that so much blood had been shed, and so much suf- fering endured in vain. It is liberty which gives to our annual cel- ebrations their greatest charm, their best propriety. It is that true liberty may be well understood, and duly appreciated, that lessons of wisdom may, on this day, be inculcated, that they may be en- forced by examples of heroism and patrotism which abounded in those glorious days of our republic-it is for these great ends, that this day should be commemorated, from age to age, by all that can impress the youthful mind, or animate and purify maturer years.
If, then, liberty is the charm which awakens all hearts, shall we forget him who proclaimed, and suffered for proclaiming a principle which is the corner stone of freedom, and who made it the basis of our State ? a principle without which perfect civil liberty cannot long exist, and the existence of which will ultimately destroy tyranny in church and state ?
Civil liberty may exist to a considerable extent without religious liberty ; but where religious liberty exists, her triumph insures the triumph of civil liberty. Destroy the hierarchy and you have re-
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moved the firmest support of the throne; if the throne continues, it must be filled, not by an arbitrary monarch, but a constitutional king, who executes the will of the people.
Look at the history of despotism, and you will find a two-fold cord has bound the human race. Force has enslaved the body, and superstition the mind. What but this has prevented, in our day, the regeneration of Spain and Portugal ? And what but this has deformed the history of South-American liberty and independence ? The mind, free to act upon religious topics, unawed by councils, popes, or prelates, will not acknowledge the divine, or, in modern phrase, the legitimate right of kings. It was for this reason that the reformation accomplished so much for civil liberty, and that the puritans of England were the great reformers in church and state .*
How long would the principles of the reformation have continued if the principle of Roger Williams had not been engrafted upon them ? The pope was quite as good a head of the church as Henry the eighth; quite as tolerant as Elizabeth, or James the first. The yoke of the Lords Bishops, of England, was not more intolerable than the dominion of the Lords brethren of Massachusetts.
Take the most liberal sect among us, and give it dominion over all others, make it the religion of the State, give it patronage, and tythes from the property of all, and how long would it be before fit instruments would be found to conspire against our civil liberties, or a people servile enough to wear the chains of imperial and eccle- siastical bondage ? Many fear that they behold already, among us, the signs of political degeneracy, in the influence of that patronage which extends to every village of the Union ; but if you should add to this a permanent power to feed the bodies, and sway the souls of men, how long, think you, we should celebrate, with the spirit of . freemen, the anniversary of our independence, or take any pleasure in perpetuating the evidences of our degeneracy ?
I say, then, and without fear of contradiction from those who give it due reflection, that the principle of liberty of conscience which
* " So absolute, indeed, was the authority of the crown, that the precious spark of liberty had been kindled, and was preserved by the puritans alone ; and it was to this sect, whose principles appear so frivolous, and habits so ridiculous, that the English owe the whole freedom of their Constitution."- Hume's England, chap. 40, Elizabeth's reign.
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was first promulgated in Massachusetts by Roger Williams, which he boldly maintained before all their magistrates and ministers, and which, driven from thence, he brought to these shores, and made the inheritance of our children-that this principle is of more con- sequence to human liberty than Magna Charta, and constitutes, of itself, a bill of rights which practically secures the enjoyment of all.
What honors, then, should cluster around his name, who, in an age when the most enlightened failed to perceive the simple and majestic proportions of this great truth, perceived it with a clear- ness, and illustrated it with a force, to which no succeeding age has added, and which now constitutes so much of the freedom and hap- piness of our common country. If we cannot compare with our sister States in the empire of matter, we may venture to compare with them in the empire of mind, and challenge them to produce a principle, in their settlement or progress, more vital than this to the perpetuation of our liberties.
And here it may be well to take notice of a question, which has sometimes been agitated, whether Maryland, or Rhode-Island, is en- titled to the honor of having first introduced this principle in their settlement ?
Maryland was founded before the settlement of Providence, and her Charter, in terms, secured to Christians liberty of conscience. Here was an implied exception, by which those who were not Christians were excluded from this liberty. In most cases excep- tions do not destroy, but prove the rule. In this case this exception was highly dangerous even to Christians ; for it is the peculiar fea- ture of religious bigotry, to cast out, as unchristian, those who hold not to the fundamentals of orthodoxy. Sir George Calvert was one of the two Secretaries of State under James I. He was a Protestant ; but distracted by the divisions of the various sects, took refuge in the bosom of that church whose infallibility prevents such disorders. He became a Catholic, made an open profession of his conversion, and resigned his office, retaining, however, the favor of his sovereign. He came to Virginia; but the Episcopalian zeal of this colony against Roman Catholics, prevented his settlement there, and his attention was turned to the country on this side the Potomac. He is believed to have penned the Charter of Maryland, which, in consequence of his death, issued for the benefit of his son in June, 1632. The settlement of Maryland, under this Charter, was begun
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March 27, 1634. Here, indeed, was an asylum for the Catholic and the Protestant, such as then existed no where else in the Christ- ian world; and, what might excite our special wonder, under the government of Roman Catholics.
It is to be remembered, however, that this colony belonged to a Protestant nation, and could not have existed if there had been no liberty for Protestants. It has been suggested by an able writer* of our country, that a toleration of the Church of England would have satisfied the English government ; yet it could not have es- caped the sagacity of that observing statesman, Sir George Calvert, that such a toleration would have been the most dangerous for his Catholic colonists. He had experienced, in Virginia, what his col- ony would have to fear from their Episcopalian neighbors ; and if he was compelled to tolerate one sect of Protestants, true policy re- quired that he should give freedom to all, that the Puritans might aid the Catholics in preventing the preponderance and intolerance of those who belonged to the national church. It was, no doubt, in pursuance of this policy, that afterwards, Lord Baltimore invited the Puritans of Massachusetts to emigrate to Maryland, offering them lands, and privileges, and free liberty of religion.
The founder of Rhode-Island, not guided by policy, but pursuing his principle to its legitimate conclusion, confined not his views to the boundaries of Christianity, but denied the right of the magistrate to interfere with the religious conscience of any man. Here the Papist, the Protestant, the Jew, the Turk, might have remained un- molested, so long as they disturbed not the public peace.t
In Maryland, the Statute of 1649, enacted by the Catholics to perpetuate religious freedom in conformity with the Charter, con- tains exceptions and provisions by which many of those, in our day, who at least believe themselves within the pale of Christianity, so far from being tolerated, might have been punished with death. By
*Mr. Walsh's Appeal, page 428. Note C.
1"It is the will and command of God, that since the comming of his Sonne, (the Lord Jesus,) a permission of the most Paganish, Jewish, Turkish or Antichristian consciences and worships, bee granted to all men in all Na- tions and Countries : and they are onely to be fought against with that sword which is onely (in Soule matters,) able to conquer, towit, the Sword of God's Spirit, the Word of God."-Introduction to the " Bloody Tenent."
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this Statute it was made a capital offence to deny the Holy Trinity, or the Godhead of any of the three persons of the Trinity .*
But this great, and, in our country, conservative principle of Ro- ger Williams, dates not, with him, from the foundation of our State ; he proclaimed it in Massachusetts three years before the settlement of Maryland, and more than one year before the date of her charter.
Unhappily for Maryland, the enlightened policy of Calvert did not prevail through all the periods of her colonial history. The Catholics, however, were sinned against, not sinning. During the protectorate they were in trouble from the puritans, and, at the ac- cession of the House of Orange, their chartered rights were swept away, and the Church of England became the established religion of the Colony. t
The early history of New-England presents a new scene in the great drama of human life.
The discovery of America had increased the spirit of maritime adventure, opened new sources of commerce, inflamed the cupidity of avarice, destroyed the sympathies of our nature in those who conquered kingdoms, overturned dynasties, and doomed millions of their fellow-creatures to servitude and death in their career of do- minion and plunder ; so that the philanthropist of the sixteenth cen- tury might well have pronounced a wo upon that discovery which gave a new world to the insatiable rapacity of the old, and increased only the catalogue of misery and crime. The next century pre- sents us with another picture. In the northern hemisphere a new principle of colonization commences, a new race of conquerors and adventurers appear :- they have taken the sword, it is "the sword of the spirit ;" they are clad in armor, it is " the whole armor of God;" theirs is "the helmet of salvation," "the breastplate of righteousness;" they are eager for conquest, it is for the conquest of the wilderness, that it may blossom with the rose of Sharon, and bring forth fruit unto holiness. A sound is on the waters, and echoes along the shore ; is it the war cry, or notes of martial min- strelsy ? Woman's voice is on the gale, and age and infancy are
* Bancroft's History of the United States, vol. 1, page 276.
" This act was confirmed among the perpetual laws in 1676 .- Story's Commentaries on the Constitution, vol. 1, page 96.
t Walsh's Appcal, page 50.
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there ; it is the song of deliverance, it comes from pious hearts, and is full of thanksgiving and prayer.
The twenty-second of December, 1620, is memorable for the landing of the fathers of New-England on the rock of Plymouth ; and well has it been, and long will it be commemorated, by paint- ing, and poetry, and eloquence. The success of the Plymouth set- tlers induced other puritans of England to seek here the same lib- erty. In 1623, was laid the foundation of the Massachusetts Colo- ny, by the settlement of Salem, and in 1630, the City of Boston was founded.
The fathers of the Plymouth Colony were "separatists" from the Church of England, when they took refuge in Holland, twelve years before their pilgrimage to America.
The Massachusetts fathers, and particularly those who came with Governor Winthrop in 1630, though desirous of reforming the exterior worship of the Church of England, retained communion with it; before their departure, on board their fleet, they addressed a farewell letter to their brethren of this church, expressive of their affectionate attachment to it, and of their desires for its prosperity.
In February, 1630, O. S. 1631, new style, Roger Williams ar- rived in the Massachusetts colony. He had been ordained a min- ister of the Church of England, but had become a separatist. On his arrival at Boston, he refused to communicate with the church there, unless they would express their repentance for their commu- nion with the Church of England, and then announced the great and most offensive truth that the magistrate had no right to enforce religious duties. He soon went to Salem, where he was more ac- ceptable, and was called by the church to the office of a teacher. This alarmed the Massachusetts Court. They sent a letter to Sa- lem stating his dangerous opinions. "They marvelled they would chose him without advising with the Council," and desired " that they would forbear to proceed till they had conferred about it." This was in April, 1631.
We here perceive a feature, in the Massachusetts government, which not only struck at the root of liberty of opinion, but at the independency of churches.
The church of Salem was organized August 6th, 1629, in pres- ence of delegates from the Plymouth church, and so attached were they to the principle of independency, and so jealous of whatever
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might infringe upon it, that they "declared that the church in Plymouth should not claim any jurisdiction over the church in Sa- lem, and further that the authority of ordination should not exist in the clergy, but should depend on the free election of the members of the church."*
What, then, must have been the surprize of the Salem church at this attempt, of the magistrates, to control their " free election" of a teacher ! They treated it as it deserved, and received Mr. Williams (as the historian of Salemt informs us) the same day, as their teach- er. But power, whether right or wrong, was not to be thus slight- ed with impunity. An opposition was raised against Mr. Williams, and to preserve his own peace and that of the church, he removed, in the same year, to Plymouth, and was there well received by the church, and became an assistant to Mr. Ralph Smith, their pastor. At Plymouth Mr. Williams remained about two years. His teach- ing was there well approved, " for the benefit whereof, (said Gov- ernor Bradford,) I shall bless God, and am thankful to him ever for his sharpest admonitions and reproofs so far as they agree with truth."
Mr. Williams returned to Salem, by the invitation of the church there, in August, 1633. He was induced to accept this invitation from his attachment to the Salem church, and from some of his sen- timents not agreeing with those of some of the leading men at Ply. mouth. What these sentiments were we are not particularly in- formed, but may in part conjecture from the fact that Mr. Brew- ster, the ruling elder of the Plymouth church, advised those of the church who were unwilling to part with him to let him go, saying " he feared that he would run the same course of rigid separation, and Ana-baptistry, which Mr. John Smith, the Se-baptist at Amster- dam, had done."
The church of Plymouth, had been favored whilst in England and Holland, with the instructions of the celebrated John Robinson, who, though prevented by various causes, and ultimately by death, from coming to America, may be considered as the father of the Plymouth colony. They could not have forgotten his parting memorable injunctions : " I charge you before God and his blessed
* Rev. Mr. Upham's Dedication Sermon on the Principles of the Reform- ation-Notespage 52.
+ Dr. Bentley.
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angels to follow me no further than I follow Christ, and if God shall reveal any thing to you by any other instrument of his, be as ready to receive it as you were to receive any truth by my ministry, for I am very confident that he has more truth and light yet to break forth out of his holy word, for it is not possible the Christian world should come so lately out of such thick anti-christian darkness, and that full perfection of knowledge should not break forth at once."
Roger Williams had drank deeply of this spirit, and this may have been the reason why several of the Plymouth church were so much attached to him that they followed him to Salem ; but the ruling elder beheld with fear the working of the free and searching mind of Williams, and thought it most prudent that he should depart, to be dealt with, to use his own words, "by the abler men of the Bay."*
There was no peace in Salem for Mr. Williams, though beloved by his flock, and approved by Endicott and Skelton. In about four months after his return, " by the advice of some of the most judi- cious ministers," says Winthrop, he was summoned before the Court to answer for a manuscript which he had written at Plym- outh, a copy of which he had delivered to the Governor of Massa- chusetts, at his request. In this were examined the sins of the patent, and the rights of the natives, and contained some expressions which were seized upon in vindication of the King's majesty. Mr. Williams gave "sufficient satisfaction of his loyalty," and on further consideration the offensive matters appeared " not so evil as at first they seemed," yet there was required of him an oath of allegiance, as if there had been good grounds to question his loyalty.
In August, 1634, on the death of Mr. Skelton, the church ordained him as their pastor, which was deemed a contempt of the au- thority of the magistrates. The succeeding November, Mr. Wil- liams was called before the Court " for teaching against the king's patent and for terming the churches of England anti-christian"-the next April for teaching that "an oath ought not to be tendered to an unregenerate man." In July, 1635, was preferred against him the great indictment, when he was, for the first time, held to answer for that opinion which had been no doubt the procuring cause of all the other charges against him, as it struck at the root of that au-
New-England's Memorial, page 151, Judge Davis's edition.
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thority which was so dear to magistrates and ministers. The ac. count of the proceedings of the court, at this time, in the words of Winthrop, is as follows :
" Mo. 5, 8. At the General Court, Mr. Williams, of Salem, was summoned and did appear. It was laid to his charge that, being under question before the magistracy and churches for divers dangerous opinions, viz. 1. That the magistrate ought not to punish the breach of the first table otherwise than in such cases as did disturb the civil pcacc. 2. That he ought not to tender an oath to an unregenerate man. 3. That a man ouglit not to pray with such, though wife, child, &c. 4. That a man ought not to give thanks after sacrament, nor after meat, &c .- and that the other churches were about to write to the church of Salem to admonish him of these errors, notwithstanding the church had since called him to the office of a teacher. Much debate was about these things. The said opinions were adjudged by all magistrates and ministers (who were desired to be present) to be erroneous, and very dangerous, and the calling him to office, at that time, was judged a great contempt of authority. So, in fine, time was given to him and the Church of Salem to consider of these things till the next General Court, and then either to give satisfaction to the Court, or else to expect the sentence ; it being professedly declared by the ministers, (at the request of the Court to give their advice) that he who should obstinately maintain such opinions (whereby a Church might run into heresy, apostacy or tyranny, and yet the civil magis- trate could not intermeddle) were to be removed, and that the other churches ought to request the magistrates so to do."*
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