USA > Rhode Island > Bristol County > Bristol > Celebration of the two-hundredth anniversary of the settlement of the town of Bristol, Rhode Island : September 24th, A.D. 1880 > Part 7
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back to the colonial and to the Indian period. Among her cit- izens have been men of the highest distinction in commerce, in politics, in jurisprudence, and in statesmanship, and men who have made liberal benefactions to religion, to learning, and to charity. She has contributed her full share of the renown which the State has added to the renown of the na- tion. She has taken her position in the advance line of civi- lization, and has marched steadily on, keeping even pace with its advancing steps. She has a right to survey the past with an honest pride ; to congratulate herself on the condi- tion of the present, and the prospects of the future. Her citizens have taken up the matter with their usual spirit and enterprise, and with the thoroughness that distinguishes every thing which they undertake. They have marked the day by a commemoration, which will render it doubly mem- orable in her annals. The history of her origin, her founda- tion and her progress, and of the virtues of her earlier citi- zens, has been recited by one of the most eminent of her living sons, and her praises have been rendered by the muse of another. I can add nothing to the eloquent words and the diligent research of the first, who, having made the history of all nations his study, has brought his power of generaliza- tion and of the selection of striking detail especially to the illustration of that of his native town ; and it is given to few, certainly not to me, to " build the lofty rhyme." There is something more than sentiment ; there is a real value in com- memorations of this kind. We cannot understand the pres- ent, nor provide for the future, without studying the lessons of the past. One of the greatest thinkers in Rhode Island, and many men eminent for thought in various departments of human study, have flourished in our borders ; a man who lived just across the narrow water that divides the State, said : "Would to God that men would learn something from history ! But it has been well observed that we ever place the lantern at the stern, and not at the prow. It sheds its
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light only on the tumultuous billows of the past. We there see the wreck of nations that have committed themselves to anarchy, tossing and heaving on the stormy surge. Yet on we go, exulting in our superiority over our predecessors, heedless of the rocks beneath the bow, until the billows on which we are borne sink beneath us and dash us into frag- ments." I apprehend that this graceful, elegant passage is not strictly accurate in fact ; for we are told that history con- stantly repeats itself. The light that illumines the past also sheds its reflected rays upon the future, and gives its warning and its encouragement, by example.
Two hundred years ago ! What mighty changes have taken place on the face of the globe since that time. France was then the leading power of Europe. Louis XIV., with his army of two hundred thousand men, and his fleet of one hun- dred men-of-war, was dreaming of the continental supremacy which was accomplished by his successor, the great Napoleon ; Charles II., the purchased vassal of Louis, was holding high and dissolute revel at Whitehall : Russia was emerging from barbarism under Peter ; the Turks,-if I have not got the date with entire accuracy, I deprecate the criticism of my learned friend, the orator of the day-but it was at about that time, that the Turks were thundering at the gates of Vienna, and John Sobieski was hastening to the relief of the Cross, sorely beleagued by the Crescent. The interior of the American con- tinent was quite unexplored. A narrow line of adventurous colonization fringed the Atlantic coast ; but all beyond was a pathless wilderness. The vast prairies that are now the granary of the world, that feed the millions of both hemis- pheres, where rise the palaces of luxury, the centres of com- merce, the seats of learning, were the pastures of the buf- falo, which shared them with the savage beasts and the scarcely less savage aboriginees. The great rivers and lakes that now hear the commerce of an empire, were disturbed only by the sound of the paddle that drove the Indian's light canoe. Of the changes mighter than those of geographical
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discovery and mutations of power, the changes wrought by science and art, I do not venture to speak. To touch ever so lightly on these would open a discussion which would ex- haust your patience, and far exceed the limits of time allotted to me.
Shall those who will stand here two hundred years hence, and review the proceedings of this day, have such a record of progress to look back upon? Will the race advance as it has advanced in the two centuries gone ? or will civilization turn back and lose itself in darkness? No; the wonderful discoveries that have been made, in modern times, in the laws of nature and their application to the wants and uses and elevation of mankind, forbid the idea. The wildest flight of the imagination cannot reach the height that will be attained in the conditions of humanity in the next two hun- dred years. Things that do not now enter into the dreams of enthusiasm will have become accomplished facts. From the vantage ground of the present, the future will start to higher aspirations and to nobler accomplishments.
Let us so improve our advantages that the generations that come after us shall hold our example in the reverence that we hold those who have gone before us ; that they may look upon a country, not only teeming with population and enriched by labor and art, but richer in public virtue and in united patriotism.
SENATOR BURNSIDE. The next regular toast is :
William Bradford.
This will be responded to by a distinguished citizen of Rhode Island, who has always been a great favorite in Bris- tol, and is identified with the town in a marked way through his ancestors. I have the pleasure to introduce to you ex- Governor Van Zandt.
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SPEECH OF EX-GOVERNOR VAN ZANDT.
Mr. Toastmaster and Ladies and Gentlemen :- I have been for some time wondering exactly where an ex-Governor be- longs ; and since this is the first occasion of this sort that I have attended since I laid aside the emblems of office in favor of my excellent friend, who now fills the executive chair, I was affected with some curiosity to know whether or not. having been through all the offices in the State, I was now expected to begin anew and go all over them again. And I can only account, sir, for my being called upon at this some- what early period in our festivities, by the fact that my name is linked with that of the great and the good man in whose honor this sentiment is proposed. But before I proceed to scatter, in my poor way, a few flowers over his grave, you will per- mit me to allude, generally, to the festivities of this occasion. It seems to me that for the last six or seven years, the air of the great republic, from the North to the South, and from the East to the West, has been filled with the sweet fragrance of its blossoming century-plants. In every State, in every town, and in almost every village, the hundredth or the two hundredth anniversary of some great event-or some event at any rate great to the people who celebrate it, has rolled around, and this morning the whole flower opened and the whole air was fragrant with its perfume. And this is the second time, my friends, that your dear old aloe has blos- somed in your lovely old town ; and I come here to keep the anniversary with you.
I am, as my friend has said, nearly identified with every- body in Bristol. If the toastmaster would allow it, I think I should take the liberty, even now, before I leave, of putting my arm around Bristol neck. (Laughter. ) As I rode through your streets, embowered in greenness and rich with rainbow decorations that were hung out all along, I saw the smoke curling up from the grand old house on Mount Hope
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that stands just by the side of the place where my great- grandfather builded and lived. I passed the mansion that his hand had erected in your streets. I paused, in my heart, even if the procession did not stay its steps, in front of the house that my grandfather erected, and where my mother was born ; and is it strange that I came here now, if not the son of Bristol, her grandson and her great-grandson-or per- haps I had better say that if not her son, I am her most con- stant lover?
And you propose a sentiment to the memory of William Bradford. So rapidly does time move on, and so fast do events tread, one upon the heels of another, that we are too apt to forget the great men in the early days of the republic. But who was William Bradford? He came from old Ply- mouth, in Massachusetts, a lineal descendant of the Plymouth Governor Bradford, who landed with the Pilgrims. He was for eighteen years, Mr. President, the Speaker of the House . of Representatives in our State. He was a member of the Continental Congress. He was a Senator in Congress, and he was for three years Lieutenant Governor of this State.
And since this is the day of memories, you will pardon me for being a little personal, and painting for you, just for one moment, in my poor way, a picture of my childhood. I remember sitting by my grandmother-and she was blind, but now she sees-and hearing her tell, when she was nearly ninety years old, of the old days of Bristol, when it was bombarded by the British fleet, and many of the people fled from the town, or the then village, up to Mount Hope for refuge and for safety ; of how Washington visited this fair town and passed a week at the Mount with Governor Brad- ford ; of how she sat at the table with him and heard him talk ; of how the two, clad in that beautiful, old-fashioned attire of black velvet-dressed very much alike-with ruffles around their wrists and at their bosoms, and with powdered hair, promenaded the piazza and talked together hour after hour. And so as she went on, and I drank in her sweet
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words like a bee resting on a flower, I could see the whole picture before me, and it was more vital and real to me, un- doubtedly, than if I had seen it myself. She told me of the good words that Washington spoke. She showed me letters yellow with age-and some of them I now have-that he wrote William Bradford after he left here. She showed me a lock of his hair, and a lock of that of her father, William Bradford, of your own town. She suffered me to read curious letters of life in Philadelphia, when Gov. Bradford was a member of the Senate, and at the time he was in the Continental Congress-describing most graphically the polit- ical and the social life of that carly period of the Republic. And so, drinking in words like those, when I was a child, remembering them ever since, I have come to love Bristol for what she then was. And since I have been in public life, I have received so many favors and honors at her hands that my affection has become a real and a personal one, for the kindness and the honor which the town of Bristol and her citizens have done me.
SENATOR BURNSIDE. Our excellent friend, Bishop Howe. will now present to you a curious manuscript book, and will read a poem by Richard Smith, his ancestor, written in 1680.
Bishop Howe then made a few remarks, introducing the literary curiosity referred to, which excited much interest. He also read a paper prepared by the venerable Bishop Smith, presiding Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States, who was present at the morning exer- cises, but was unable to attend at the dinner.
MANUSCRIPT OF BISHOP SMITH.
Friends and Fellow Townsmen :- Fearing, from my ex- treme old age-more than eighty-six-that I shall not be able to deliver, in person, what I am about to write, I entrust it to the care of my beloved nephew, better known to you as Bishop Howe, to read it on your festival day.
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(A.) First, you will naturally desire to know what records and traditions have been brought down to our times of those of our ancestors, who were amongst the first settlers of the town of Bristol, Richard Smith, and Deacon Nathaniel Bos- worth. This, being personal, may not be worthy of being read, but might perhaps be thought deserving a place in your printed record.
(B.) A larger and less questionable place may be allowed for the memorable attack upon the town, and the burning of no inconsiderable part of it, by the British troops in 1777.
(C.) The question before us of much larger and more enduring interest is, the testimony which the founder of the State, Roger Williams, bore to the great principle of perfect freedom of conscience in all religious matters.
To return to our first item, the Smith and Bosworth fami- lies amongst the first settlers. Bishop Howe will show you a little manuscript volume, given to me by the last Richard, of the original stock. It mainly consists of brief outlines of Puritan sermons, listened to by the stone mason, Richard Smith, for several years, about 1672. The double effs, in- stead of the single, the odd shaped ees, and the many abbre- viations, make the reading of it rather difficult. Several pages show that a little poetic blood flowed through his veins, perpetuated and highly improved amongst several of his descendants, down to this very time. On one page he commemorates a favorite son, Benjamin. On another, there is a distich. Of course, these are not at all to be compared with the higher flights of one of his contemporaries, a certain John Milton, but they shine rather conspicuously along side of another, one John Bunyan, and are very devout, which is far better : --
" Close then, my soul, Oh close with Christ, and be
" Secure from evil for eternity."
There is a tradition in the family, that the first child born in Bristol would have been his, had he not been obliged to
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send his wife over to Rhode Island, in order that she might have the necessary medical attendance.
There is another tradition, concerning our other ancestor, which I fear the records disprove, that Deacon Nathaniel Bosworth was one of the six first proprietors of the original six thousand acres. At any rate, in point of social position he belonged to the same class with the first proprietors. In proof of which we find amongst his children, or grand-chil- dren, the Rev. Bellamy Bosworth, a Puritan Divine, as his name shows, but of no marked zeal or fiery eloquence, as is proved by his never having had a settlement. But this anec- dote shows that he was not lightly esteemed by his brethren, for, it is related, that having to go to New York, he started on horseback with a pistarcen (twenty cents) in his pocket, and timing his stops at night to the distances of the Con- necticut clergy, he returned safely, with the same coin on hand. For, in those days, the clergy had free passage over the many ferries and the few bridges.
My dear mother has often told me of her visits to his study, adorned, where a cornice should be, by a row of old wigs ; he mounted a new one every year.
(B.) My father, Stephen Smith, and my uncle, Samuel Bosworth, were in the service of their country at the time of General Sullivan's expedition, when a corps under Lafayette was stationed on Fort Hill; the former a Commissary, the latter as his Secretary. I am not informed at what period, whether before or after this, a fleet of war vessels entered Bristol harbor, and, as a punishment for not complying with a requisition for cattle and other stores, commenced sweep- ing the narrow neck, at the north end of the town, with grape shot, completely preventing ingress or egress by that route, and occasionally discharging shells and balls over the town. I have often heard my uncle describe the events of that time ; such, at least, as he himself witnessed, or heard discussed on the streets, at the time or afterwards. One cannon ball passing over my father's house, went through
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Governor Bradford's town house, which stood somewhat above it. His old colored servant, witnessing it, immedi- ately took up his stool and placed it before the hole, grum- bling as he went, "no two balls ever go through the same hole." It is matter of conjecture whether the rush of another ball close by the head of the Rev. John Burt, the minister of the Congregational Church, was the cause of his death, but it is a fact that he was (after the bombardment) found dead, in a lot, back of his house.
A small detachment of troops, Hessians, marched through the town, burning the Episcopal Church, and several houses, and amongst them that of my father, on the very spot, where, after it was rebuilt, less than twenty years later, I was born.
A colored man, sexton of the Episcopal Church, for safety, had run off. Returning, he was told that the Church had been burnt. "Oh, no !" said he, "that cannot be. They would never burn our Church ; besides, I am sure it is not true, for I have the key in my pocket !"
(C.) We come now to the graver and most important part of our record, not so much for the benefit of Bristol, or Rhode Island alone, as for that of all the nations upon earth, to the end of time-what Roger Williams, the founder of our State, did, for the cause of free thought and free wor- ship, in a free State.
He fled from the severe intolerance of the National Church of England, only to encounter the rough intolerance of the Established Congregational Church in Massachusetts. He hoped to find the perfect freedom of conscience he longed for among the Baptists. For its sake he became an exile, and in time the founder and father of our small free State.
Towards the close of his eventful life, either from dissatis- faction with their organization, or their want of it, or for lack of more perfect concord or sympathy with his brethren, he seems to have withdrawn himself somewhat from them, preferring the title of a SEEKER.
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All this time the fire burned within him of an intense desire for something better than toleration, however generous and free. He did not write, but he intensely felt the words I am about to quote of a distinguished author, whose name I have entirely forgotten : "Toleration, what is it? The very word is a badge of bye-gone slavery ! What does it mean ? Why, that I, your supreme ruler and master, have a sover- eign right to compel you to believe, in all religious mat- ters, as I believe, and to worship God, as I worship Him ; but, out of mere condescension and pity, I allow you to believe and to worship as you like !"
The response was very slow to come even from Massachu- setts and Connecticut, which is hard to believe, now, when there is not a State in the Union of whose very constitution it does not form a part.
If my memory serves me aright, the original Charter of Rhode Island was so very liberal in all these respects, that, whilst all the other States were adopting new constitutions, Rhode Island remained quite satisfied to live under her old charter, granted in (1663) until (1843), when the present constitution was adopted.
Soon after my ordination, in the fall of 1818, I had occa- sion to pass through a portion of Connecticut. I found many people greatly excited over the downfall, as it was expressed, of the Standing Order (Congregationalism), brought about (in a way that rather shocked me) by the united vote of all other denominations, and all the misbelievers and unbelievers in the State. And yet I could not but rejoice, for it was the triumph of free thought and free worship. A marked incident is thought to have contributed in no small degree to bringing it about. An intelligent and substantial Baptist farmer, it is said, for twenty successive years, bought a new Bible, which was regularly handed over to pay the enforced assessment for the established minister's salary.
Taking all the nations upon earth, there are but few who have accepted this grand idea. One of the first iron-bound
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governments which accepted it was Sweden. The few Bap- tist missionaries who have been laboring there with singular wisdom, patience, and faithfulness, have recently received permission to exist from a Protestant government. Even Russia has relaxed its severity, by acknowledging the exis- tence of a body of pious Separatists.
Most wonderful of all, Italy, of all the European States, has come nearest to solving the problem of a Free Church in a Free State. There is entire and strict equality, both in a civil and religious sense. In France, civil freedom is well secured, but toleration, instead of equality, for the present, rules the hour.
In the more enlightened States, Germany and England, and especially in England, toleration has become and is becoming so very expansive, as hardly to be covered by that almost obsolete term.
Oh ! for the coming day, when the Christian's Charter of Freedom, an open Bible in the hands of an enlightened peo- ple, shall make glad all the waste places of the earth.
It seems to be the gracious purpose of our Heavenly Father that America shall bear no secondary part in hastening the" coming of that day, and God forbid that dear Rhode Island, small as she is, should be behind the very chief of all her sis- ters, in efforts to perfect the diadem with which Christ, at no distant day, let us hope, shall be crowned King of Nations, as well as King of Saints ! ! !
SENATOR BURNSIDE. The next regular toast is :
Brown University.
We are fortunate in having with us to-day, the President of this time-honored institution. I have the honor to present to you the Rev. Dr. E. G. Robinson.
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SPEECH OF PRESIDENT ROBINSON.
Mr. President and Ladies and Gentlemen :- There is. per- haps, a fitness in the recognition of Brown University here to-day. The light of that institution first fell upon this State from the immediately neighboring town of Warren. That light of course fell upon the streets and homes of Bristol. The light was both of a restraining and of a stimulating in- fluence. It was restraining. There is an incident in the history of Bristol to which the orator of the day did not allude. Soon after the founding of this town, it protected itself against evil doers by the erection of stocks and a whipping post. During the five years of the continuance of Brown University-then " Rhode Island College "-in War- ren, the stocks fell into disuse, and the whipping post decayed and disappeared. Immediately after the removal of Brown University to Providence, which took place in the year 1770, the Town Meeting in 1771, ordered John Howland to re-erect stocks and a whipping-post. It was evident that the restrain- ing influence of Brown University had been removed. Its influence has been felt among the distinguished men of this part of the State for the last century. The most distinguished sons of Bristol were graduates of Brown University. Its clergy and its gentlemen of other professions I need not enumerate. To Brown University is due not a little of the credit of the elegance, the eloquence, the philosophical spirit of that admirable oration to which you listened to-day. To Brown University is due the imagination, the rhythm, the rhyme of the admirable poem to which we listened. I need enumerate no others. Brown University is closely allied to Bristol. Bristol has to-day shown its appreciation of that institution.
Pardon me for a word personal. I have a personal interest in this celebration of the town of Bristol. The first of my own American ancestors that I know anything of was a resi-
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dent of the neighboring town of Rehoboth. He was stimu- lated, with others, by the example of those Boston merchants who purchased this land, wrung from King Philip. They purchased what was called " The Rehoboth North Purchase," out of which were divided the town of Attleboro', in which I was first permitted to see the light, and the town of Cumber- land, which belongs to the State of Rhode Island. But for the example of those Boston merchants, I should very likely have first seen light on the fair hills of Pappoosesquaw, or some other part of this town. I feel in some sense related to the descendants of the first settlers of Bristol.
But, gentlemen, I have thought to-day several times : What did Nathaniel Byfield anticipate as he looked down the centuries? Had he the remotest thought of what we to- day see, of what this town has accomplished and is to-day accomplishing? We have excelled the brighest promise of their futurity.
" Good which they dared not hope for we have seen ; A State whose generous will through earth is dealt ; A State, which balancing herself between License and slavish order, dares be free,"-
all attributable to the principles of those from whom we descended.
I have felt, as I have to-day turned my thoughts backward and forward, how we ought to prize the convictions of the Puritans. It is easy to criticize them. It is easy to speak of their acrid spirit, of their controversies. I tell you, friends, it is something to have convictions. It is something to be proud of, to be descended from men who believed, and because they believed, dared to do. And all belief, and all daring, is troublesome-troublesome to those who hold the convictions ; they quarrel with one another, do you say ? But out of their quarrels came strength, and beauty, and order. We have entered into their heritage. And I have thought it is well for us to remember, on such a day as this, that in our
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