USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > History of the state of Rhode Island and Providence plantations, Vol. I > Part 16
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2 Equivalent to £72 sterling, if black peage is meant, or half that sum if the payment was to be in white.
177
SUBMISSION OF THE SACHEMS TO MASSACHUSETTS.
cently submitted to Massachusetts, was sent to Warwick " to understand how things were," and to bring back with - May 10.
CHAP VI. them a certain Indian if possible 1 On the same day the 1643. magistrates and certain deputies were appointed a com- mittee to treat with the Sachems of Warwick and Paw- tuxet about their submission, " and to warn any to desist June 22. which shall disturb them." The next month Pomham, with Soconoco, Sachem of Pawtuxet, submitted themselves and their lands to the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, de- nied having assented to the sale of Warwick, or having received any portion of the payment, and by this act of submission afforded another pretext, of which their ene- mies at once availed themselves, to harass the unhappy Gortonists in this their last retreat. The proceedings that followed are so extraordinary, that we are led to examine closely the motives and the means employed by the Gen- eral Court.
Gorton was beyond the reach of any English jurisdic- tion. Having left Pawtuxet, he was no longer a tres- passer on the lands of the proteges of Massachusetts. Some new pretext must be found to secure their object. A submission of the Warwick Sachem would furnish it, claiming, as Massachusetts always did, that an act of submission to their government by any party extended their jurisdiction over the lands of such party. Gorton had purchased Shawomet of its undoubted lord. The at- tempt of Pomham to deny the sale is, to say the least, suspicious. The witnesses on this point, at the General Court, were deeply interested parties. Arnold had bought land of Soconoco, the Pawtuxet Sachem, a short time be- fore, and the validity of his title depended on establishing the independence of his grantor. The Pawtuxet men were bitter against Gorton, and naturally desirous to please their new and self-imposed rulers. They were pro- minent, if not the instigators, in the whole matter. The Narraganset empire was rapidly falling. Massasoit had
1 M. C. R., ii. 35.
VOL. 1-12
178
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. availed himself of an English alliance to sever his allegi-
VI.
1643.
ance to the Narragansets, and the petty Sachems of Paw- tuxet and Shawomet wished to follow his example. Eng- lish ambition assisted their design. Miantinomi was shorn of his vassals by the act of the General Court in receiving their submission, as a few months later he was deprived of his life by a like interested tribunal. The motive in all this is barely concealed. At the time of the submission of the Pawtuxet men, Winthrop honestly gave as one reason for accepting it, that it would furnish them " an outlet into the Narraganset bay ; " an object which Massachusetts kept steadily in view, and which furnishes a key to this dark intrigue. One other motive animated the actors in the coming drama. The heretics yet lived, and the sting of their last impolitic, although truthful, letter could only be assuaged by their blood. Territorial ambition, religious bigotry, and wounded pride, all united to demand their persecution, and for the time, blinded their assailants to the illegality, the injustice, and the dishonesty of the means employed to accomplish their end. At the next General Court active measures were
Sept. 7. taken to follow up this scheme to its consummation. The 12. Comissioners of the United Colonies were in session, the same day, at Boston. The case of Gorton was referred to them and their assent obtained, in advance, to what- ever course Massachusetts might see fit to adopt.1 A letter, or warrant as Gorton again terms it, similar to the one sent on the submission of the Pawtuxet men, was written to the purchasers of Shawomet, informing them of the submission and the complaints of the Sachems, re-" quiring them to appear at once before the court, where the plaintiffs were then present, and granting them a safe conduct for that purpose. A verbal reply by the messen- ger was returned to the court denying their jurisdiction, and rightly asserting that they were amenable only to the
1 Hypocrisie Unmasked, p. 79, where the Act of the Commissioners is published.
179
GORTON'S LETTERS TO MASSACHUSETTS.
government of Old England from which they expected CHAP. VI. " in due season to receive direction for their well ordering in all civil respects." A lengthy letter was also sent, ad- 1643. dressed " To the great idol General now set up in Massa- Sept. 15. chusetts," signed by R. Holden, if possible more bitter from a sense of accumulated wrong, than that of November previous. In this letter they denounce the conduct of Pumham and forbid his return to Shawomet ; they com- plain of outrages committed by the Indians under the shield of Massachusetts, and refer to two rumored threats, uttered by subjects of that government, which foreshadow the crimes that were to follow-one, that Miantinomi should die because he had sold Shawomet to Gorton, the other that the Gortonists should be subdued or driven off even at the cost of blood. The proposal to attend the court, and the offer of safe conduct for that purpose, are rejected with scorn. An array of charges are next brought against the two sachems, and a demand is made that the Massachusetts should come to Warwick and answer them. A postscript refers to their treatment of Mrs. Hutchinson, news of whose massacre had lately been received, and for which they are held morally responsible. The letter, as usual, is full of scriptural allusions disparaging those to whom it is addressed. The General Court could have expected no other reply than one that would increase the rancor engendered by the former letter. These two let- ters were furnished to Winslow, and form the chief evi- dence against Gorton, published in his official reply to Simplicitics Defence. They give occasion for " certaine observations collected by a godly and reverend divine," classed under three heads :
1. Their reproachful and reviling speeches of the gor- ernment and magistrates of Massachusetts.
2. Their reviling language against magistracy itself and all civil power.
180
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. VI. 1643. Sept.
3. Their blasphemous speeches against the holy things of God.
Gorton says they "framed out of them twenty-six particulars, or thereabouts, which they said were blasphe- mous, changing of phrases, altering in words or sense ; not in any one of them taking the true intent of our writings ; " and it is certain, by Winthrop's account of the trial, that whatever may have been the real cause of hos- tility towards Gorton, his heresy was the ostensible reason of their severity.
19.
The court immediately dispatched another letter, ac- ceding to the demand of the Warwick men that Massa- chusetts should send to them, and informing them that they should shortly send commissioners to obtain satisfac- tion ; adding, that an armed guard would attend the commission, and closing with the assurance " that if you will make good your own offer to us of doing us right, our people shall return and leave you in peace, otherwise we must right ourselves and our people by force of arms." The following week Capt. Cooke, Lieut. Atherton, and Edward Johnson with forty soldiers were sent to War- wick: On their way to Providence they received a third letter from the " owners and inhabitants of Shaw- omet," informing them that their offer to Massachusetts was a peaceable and not a warlike one, and warning them upon their peril not to invade Warwick. To this the commissioners replied that they desired to speak with the men of Warwick, to lead them, if possible, to see their misdeeds and repent, but if they failed in that they should " look upon them as men prepared for slaughter," and would proceed accordingly. This outrageous missive spread terror in the humble settlement of Shawomet. The women and children fled for their lives, some to the woods and others in boats to gain the neighboring plantations. The men fortified a house and there awaited their assail- ants. A number of Providence men accompanied the
28.
181
FUTILE ATTEMPTS AT RECONCILIATION.
troops to see what would be done, and to aid in effecting CHAP. VI. a peaceable adjustment of the difficulty. A parley was proposed. Four Providence men were selected as wit- 1643. nesses thereto. The commissioners briefly stated their Sept. 28. case ; that the Gortonists had wronged some of the Mas- sachusetts subjects, and that they held certain blasphe- mous errors of which they must repent or be carried to Boston for trial, or otherwise be put to the sword, and their goods seized to defray the charges of the expedition. From this proposition the owners of Shawomet dissented, on the ground that their adversaries would thus become their judges, but offered to appeal to England, which was refused. The Gortonists then proposed to refer the dis- pute to arbitration, offering their persons and property as security that they would abide by the decision of impar- tial men mutually chosen for the purpose. This seemed so reasonable that a truce was agreed upon until a mes- senger could be sent to Massachusetts to learn the views of the magistrates. The Gortonists charge the troops with many outrages during this truce, which are stoutly denied by Winslow. The four Providence witnesses 1 sent Oct. 2. a letter to Gov. Winthrop giving an account of the par- ley, and entreating him to accept the proposal of arbitra- tion. " Oh, how grievous would it be (we hope to you) if one man should be slain, considering the greatest mon- arch in the world cannot make a man ; especially grievous secing they offer terms of peace," is the carnest language they employ. The commissioners also wrote a letter. A committee of the General Court happened to be con- vened, upon news of the murder of Miantinomi, when these letters were received. The elders, as usual, were consulted. The result was what we might anticipate from such a tribunal. It was " agreed that it was neither seasonable or reasonable, neither safe nor honorable, for
1 They were Chad. Brown, Thomas Olney, William Field, William Wick- enden. Simp. Defence, 108.
.
182
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. us to accept of such a proposition. 1. Because they VI. would never offer us any terms of peace before we had 1643. sent our soldiers. 2. Because the ground of it was false, Oct. 2. for we were not parties in the case between the Indians and them, but the proper judges, they being all within our jurisdiction by the Indians and English their own grant. 3. They were no State, but a few fugitives living without law or government, and so not honorable for us to join with them in such a course. 4. The parties whom they would refer it unto were such as were rejected by us, and all the governments in the country, and besides, not men likely to be equal to us, or able to judge of the cause. 5. Their blasphemous and reviling writings, etc., were not matters fit to be compounded by arbitrament, but to be purged away only by repentance and public satisfaction, or else by public punishment. And lastly, the commission and instructions being given them by the General Court, it was not in our power to alter them." 1 Gov. Winthrop replied to the Providence letter, declining 3. arbitration. The commissioners were directed to proceed at once. They notified the besieged that the truce had expired. A final effort was made to speak with the commissioners, but failed. The Providence men were warned to have no more intercourse with those of Shawo- met. All hope of accommodation was at an end. The cattle were first seized and then the assault commenced. The Warwick men hung out the English flag in token of their allegiance to Old England. It was immediately riddled by the shot of their assailants. The troops had entrenched themselves and opened a regular system of approaches, so that the siege lasted some days. During all this time the Gortonists acted solely on the defensive, not firing a shot, although prepared to do so in case the house should be set on fire, or a forcible entry be at-
1 Winthrop, ii. 139, 40. How far these reasons justify Gorton's suspicions of the impartiality of his adversaries, the reader can judge.
183
ATTACK UPON WARWICK.
tempted. On Sunday morning the works of the besiegers CHAP. were advanced so near the house that an effort was made VI. - Oct. 8. to set it on fire, which failed. The commissioners sent 1643. to Massachusetts for more soldiers. The affair had reached a crisis. The Gortonists must surrender, or a fearful slaughter on both sides, with certain death, under form of law, to those of the besieged who might survive the conflict, would result. They submitted to superior force, and were carried in triumph as prisoners to Boston,1 where 13. they were committed to jail to await their trial. The next Sabbath morning the prisoners refused to attend 15. church. The magistrates determined to compel them. They agreed to do so if they might have liberty to speak, should occasion require, after the sermon. This was con- ceded, so accordingly they came in the afternoon. Mr. Cotton preached at them about Demetrius and the shrines of Ephesus, after which, Gorton, leave being granted, re- plied, somewhat varying the application of the text, to the great scandal of his hearers .?
1 Gorton says this was a violation of the articles of surrender, by which . they were to "go along with them as freemen and neighbors," and not as captives ; and also that they took eighty head of cattle, besides swine and goats which were divided among themselves and their subjects, and broke open the houses, robbing the corn and other supplies. A part of these allega- tions are rather feebly denied by Winslow, while other parts are admitted by Winthrop. Gorton in a note on page 119, Staples' Simplicities Defence, taunts his captors with the extent of their triumph, "a whole country to carry away eleven men," and says that one had died, Sampson Shatton, be- fore, of his hardships, and but ten handled arms in this memorable siege. Winthrop, p. 140, says three escaped, and that nine were brought in as pris- oners, p. 142, but the Court records show that ten were put on trial.
2 This was not the last time that our over-zealous neighbors found, to use an expressive phrase, that they had " caught a Tartar." The author of the Ecclesiastical History of Massachusetts, in a note to 1 M. II. C., ix. 38, relates a pertinent anecdote as having come under his own observation in Boston. "A man from the State of Rhode Island was accused of blasphemy, and brought before a Court of Justices. He was said to be a Deist, an Atheist, blasphemer of the Bible, &c. He denied it all. Witnesses were produced who had heard him say that the Bible was not the word of God. He acknowledged that he said it, and that every Christian would say the same ; that he was no Atheist
184
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. VI. 1643. Oct. 17.
Gorton and his company were brought before the court upon the following charge of heresy and sedition : " Upon much examination and serious consideration of your writings, with your answers about them, wee do charge you to bee a blasphemous enemy of the true re- ligion of our Lord Jesus Christ and his holy ordinances, and also of all civil authority among the people of God, and perticularly in this jurisdiction." It is worthy of no- tice that nothing is here said about Pumham. The os- tensible cause of the first summons by Massachusetts is no longer regarded now that the heretics are in their power. Upon this absurd accusation, containing no fact that admitted of any possible reply, the captives were put on trial for their lives. A warrant was also issued for the arrest of Waterman, Power, and John Greene and son, who had fled during the siege. The two former appeared ; the latter escaped entirely. The prisoners' exceptions to the jurisdiction were overruled on the ground that Ply- mouth claimed them, and had yielded its power, in this
20
or Deist, but loved his Redeemer, and venerated his Bible. Being asked how he could be consistent, he answered, 'That his Bible told him that Christ was the Word of God, and the Bible a record of the divine will. This was all he meant by saying the Bible was not the Word of God.' He was dismissed, and he laughed heartily at his accusers. This man had been a Quaker preacher ; became a preacher of the Universalists, and had a small congrega- tion in the county of Berkshire, in 1794; but has never been permitted to preach in the other churches of Universalists, his notions being very peculiar, and such his manner of expressing himself as people of all persuasions must dislike. Yet he possesses that acuteness of reasoning, and recollective mem- ory for quoting Scripture, which would have been fully equal to Gorton, had he met with the same opposition. But the spirit of persecution has flown from this State, to the mortification of many who wish to be of consequence, and would fain raise its ghost, for the sake of complaining of the present magistrates and clergy, but cannot find even the shadow on the wall."
The writer of this history desires here to express his concurrence in the truth and the spirit of the concluding sentence above quoted, because thus far in the progress of this work the hostility between the two colonies was so con- stant that a casual reader might infer that the feeling, for which there was so much occasion two centuries ago, still lingered, at least in the mind of the author. This he expressly disavows, and only regrets that the nature of his
185
WINSLOW'S DEFENCE OF MASSACHUSETTS.
case, to the Bay ; and that, if they were under no juris- diction, then Massachusetts had no redress for her wrongs, and must either right herself by force of arms, or submit to their injuries and revilings. This was but a weak de- fence in a desperate cause ; nor is it strengthened by the special pleading of Winslow, who says, on this important point, " And if any ask by what authority they went out of their own government to do such an act, know that his former seditious and turbulent carriage in all parts where he came, as Plymouth, Rhode Island, a place of greatest liberty, Providence, that place which releived him in that his so great extremity, and his so desperate close with so dangerous and potent enemies, and at such a time of con- spiracy by the same Indians, together with the wrongs done to the English and Indians under the protection of that government of the Massachusetts, who complained and desired relief ; together with his notorious contempt of all civil government, as well as that particular, and his blasphemies against God, needlessly manifested in his proud letters to them. All these considered you shall see hereby cause enough why they proceeded against him as a common enemy of the country." If these general charges were the real cause of their proceedings, why are they not all specifically alleged in the indictment, since,
theme requires him, while speaking of the Puritans, to dwell almest wholly upon the dark side of characters that possessed so much real piety and essential greatness of soul. The Massachusetts writers of recent date have well atone d for the injustice committed by their forefathers, displaying the liberality of feeling which ever accompanies elegant scholarship. Bancroft, Dean, Elliott, Felt, Hildreth, Savage, Sparks, Upham, Young, and since this work was com- menced, Mr. Barry's stirring and truthful volumes, have all illustrated the tri- umph of truth over prejudice, and shown how a scholar may rise superior to the biases that misled his ancestors. The times have changed, and the sev- enteenth century was the period of transition. The Puritans exemplified the spirit of the past ; the founders of Rhode Island foreshadowed that of the fi- ture ; and we of the present may render justice and do honor to both, by placing ourselves, so far as practicable, in the position of those whose acts we record. The Puritans we should view in the light of bygone centuries ; their opponents in that of the present age, which has adopted their principles.
CHAP. VI. 1643. Oct. 20.
186
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
if true, they might easily be proved ?- instead of which the latter only is brought out at the trial, and the whole attention of the Court engaged in proving it.
Their letters were produced as evidence against them. These they were required to retract or explain, which they refused to do. "The Court and the elders spent nearly a whole day in discovery of Gorton's deep myste- ries, which he had boasted of in his letters, and to bring him to conviction, but all was in vain." He denied the consequences imputed to them by the elders, and shroud- ing his opinions beneath an impenetrable veil of mysti- cism, maintained them to the last. A series of questions were propounded by the Court, upon which he was to answer for his life. These were-
1. Whether the Fathers, who died before Christ was born of the Virgin Mary, were justified and saved only by the blood which he shed, and the death which he suffered after his incarnation !
2. Whether the only price of our redemption, were not the death of Christ upon the cross, with the rest of his sufferings and obediences in the time of his life here, after he was born of the Virgin Mary !
3. Who is that God whom he thinks we serve ?
4. What he means, when he saith, We worship the star of our god Remphan, Chion, Moloch ? Written re- plies, signed by himself, were given to the Court. They appeared so reasonable that even the governor said he could agree with them in their answers though not in their writings,1 to which concession the bigoted Dudley object- ed, while the more liberal Bradstreet, at Gorton's desire, requested that no further questions should be put to him.
It was a peculiarity of the mystical philosophy of the age, that ideas were couched in language of which the apparent meaning would lead to every excess, and which
1 Simps. Defence, 132. Hutch. Hist. of Mass., i. 121. Eccles. Hist. of Mass., 37.
CHAP. VI. 1643. Oct. 20.
187
SENTENCE OF THE GORTONISTS.
were too transcendental to be otherwise understood by the CHAP. greater part. Such ideas were announced and defended VI. by Gorton and the Antinomian school, all of which, as 1643. explained by the promulgators, were harmless enough ; but their danger consisted in the possible and probable abuse of them by the masses, while their opponents, as in the present trial, imputed to them results which the authors denied. Heresy was the only charge against the Gorton- ists, and the sole object to which the attention of the Court was directed. The crime being sufficiently proved, the punishment was the next consideration.
Upon this " the Court was much divided." The case of Gorton was the most difficult. All the magistrates, but three, condemned the great heresiarch to death, but a majority of the deputies refused to sanction the diabolical sentence. In the end he, with six others, were sentenced to be confined in irons, during the pleasure of the Court, to be set to work, and should they break jail, or in any way proclaim heresy or reproach the church or State, then, upon conviction thereof they should suffer death. They were sent to different towns, Gorton to Charlestown, Wicks to Ipswich, Holden to Salem, Potter to Rowley, Carder to Roxbury, Weston to Dorchester, and Warner to Boston. The other three were more mildly treated. Waddell was allowed to remain at large in Watertown ; Waterman, giving bonds to appear at the next Court, was dismissed 1 with a fine, and Power, denying having signed the first letter, a year previous, was dismissed with an admonition. A warrant was forthwith directed to the constables of the several towns to be ready within one week to receive the prisoners. Their cattle were appraised and sold to defray the cost of the seizure and trial .? The
1 At the Court on the 29th May following, being " found erroneous, he- retical and obstinate," he was remanded to prison till the September Court, unless five magistrates should meanwhile see cause to send him away, in which case he was banished on pain of death. M. C. R., ii. 73.
2 The justice of this piece of judicial robbery can only be defended on
Nov. 3.
188
HISTORY OF THE STATE- OF RHODE ISLAND.
1643-4.
CHAP. VI. prisoners were allowed to name two of the five appraisers selected for this purpose, which they properly declined to 1643. do.1 The convicts, secured in chains, were sent off to the several towns named in their sentence, not however till they had been paraded in a body before the congregation at Mr. Cotton's lecture, with their irons upon them, as an instructive spectacle. In this condition they were con- fined the whole winter, in the course of which Gorton ac- cused Cotton of having advised, in a sermon, that he should be starved to death. This charge could scarcely Jan. 12. be credited had not the elders and magistrates, at the trial, doomed him to die. This led Gorton to write a let- ter to the ruling elder of the Charlestown church, which is preserved in his book. But public opinion did not sus- tain such severe proceedings, and what was more to be dreaded by these zealots, the prisoners corrupted the peo- ple with their heresies. Now this offence, by the terms of the sentence passed upon them in November, was to be punished with death ; but a mightier power demanded their release. At the next General Court they were set at liberty, and banished from all places claimed to be within the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, including Prov- idence, and the lands of the subject Indians ; and if found anywhere within those limits after fourteen days, they were to suffer death .? But even this brief period was not allowed them, for three days after, while Gorton and a
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