USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence County court house, 1885 > Part 2
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1 C'harters and Constitutions, Vol. 1. p. 921.
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advantage of the ignorance about the topog- raphy of this region : vet even had he on- deavored to encroach upon some previous grant, we may believe that Parliament would not have felt much hampered by the patents of a king then a fugitive from their power. But with no desire to encroach upon his neighbors, he was content to take our bound- ary from those which had already been estab- lished for Massachusetts and Plymouth. on the north and east. To the westward he had a wider scope. The towns in the Connectiont Valley had been settled under a commission from the General Court of Massachusetts. "that commission taking rise from the desire of the people that removed, who judged it inconvenient to go away without any frame of government -not from any claim of the Massachusetts of jurisdiction over them by virtue of Patent."" The towns of Windsor,
1 Charters and Constitutions, Vol. 1. p. 219
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Hartford and Weathersfield, thus united un- der a voluntary constitution, without charter or grant from King or Parliament. Surely, up to those towns, if not including them, Williams might easily have carried his line. But the United Colonies, after the war against the Pequods, claimed the Pequods' country by the right of conquest. They had van- quished and exterminated the tribe. None were left to dispute the appropriation of their fields and streams by the Connecticut settlers, and unmolested and unobstructed these were gradually spreading over the lands of their fallen foe.
Williams was as unwilling to encroach upon his neighbors on the west as on the cast. He knew how far the charter bound- aries extended and how far the Colonies could claim to hold by conquest. He there- fore drew what he terms "our poor and in- considerable line" between them. This is
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graphically set forth in his letter to Major Mason, in which he says :
". Considering (upon frequent exceptions against Prov- idence men) that we had no authority for civil govern- ment. I went purposely to England, and upon my report and petition, the Parliament granted us a charter of gov- ernment for these parts, so judged vacant on all hands. And upon this, the country about us was more friendly, and wrote to us. and treated us as an authorized colony ; only the difference of our consciences much obstructed. The boands of this, our first charter. I (having occular knowledge of persons, places and transactions), did hon- estly and conscientiously, as in the holy presence of God. draw up from Paweatuck river. which I then believed, and still do, is free from all English claims and con- «nests : for although there were some Pequods on this side the river, who, by reason of some sachems' mar- riages with some on this side, lived in a kind of neutral- ity with both sides, yet, upon the breaking out of the war, they relinquished their land to the possession of their enemies, the Narragansetts and Nianticks, and their land never came into the condition of the lands on the other side, which the English, by conquest, challenged ;
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so that I must still affirm, as in God's holy presence I tenderly waived to touch a foot of land in which I knew the Pequod wars were maintained and were properly Pe- quod, being a gallant country ; and from Pawcatuck river hitherward, being but a patch of ground, full of troublesome inhabitants, I did, as I judged, inoffensively, draw our poor and inconsiderable line."
Having accomplished his mission, Williams returned by the way of Boston, where he ar- rived September 17, 1644, venturing to land under shield of a letter which he brought from members of Parliament to the authori- ties of Massachusetts, announcing that he was the bearer of a charter and bespeaking their "utmost endeavors of nearer closing and of ready expressing those good affections (which we perceive you bear to each other) in effect- ual performance of all friendly offices."1 He was permitted to pass through their territory unmolested; but the only knowledge we have
1 Winthrop's History of New England, Vol. 2, p. 236.
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of any other effect of the letter is the state- ment of Hubbard, who says :1
" Upon the receipt of the said letter, the Governor and magistrates of the Massachusetts found, upon ex- amination of their hearts, they saw no reason to con- demu themselves for any former proceedings against Mr. Williams ; but for any offices of Christian love, and duties of humanity, they were very willing to maintain a mutual correspondency with him. But as to his dan- gerous principles of separation, unless he can be brought to lay them down, they see no reason why to concede to him, or any so persuaded, free liberty of ingress and egress, lest any of their people should be drawn away with his erroneous opinions."
The determination to have none among them who did not assent to their religious doctrines is further shown by an act of the Massachusetts General Court, passed in No- vember, 1644.
The preamble recited that "experience had
1 Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc'y, 2d Series, Vol. 6, p. 349.
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plentifully proved " that Anabaptists had been "the incendiaries of commonwealths" and " troublers of churches ;" "that they who have held the baptizing of infants un- lawful have usually held other errors" and that some had denied "the lawfulness of magistrates and their inspection into breaches of the first table, which opinions, if they should be connived at by us, are like to be increased amongst us and so must necessa- rily bring guilt upon us, infection and trou- ble to the churches and hazard to the whole commonwealth," therefore it was voted that every person who should put forth such opinions should be "sentenced to banish- ment."1
Probably by the same path he had followed eight years before, though doubtless with quite different emotions, Williams wended his way
1 Records of Massachusetts, Vol. II. p. 83.
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to the banks of the Seekonk. By some means the news of his coming preceded him and the inhabitants of Providence, to testify their joy at his return and their sense of obligation for his service, turned out to meet him at the Seekonk shore, and to escort him home. It was a plain and simple pageant, but it was the first one by the people of the town. It marked as an epoch in their history the first step in the organization of the colony as an independent government. The greatness of an event is not to be measured by its pomp. What this one lacked in splendor was more than compensated by its genuine and homely sincerity. The only description we have of the scene is that contained in a letter which was afterwards written by Richard Scott, in detraction of Williams, to whom he had be- come hostile.1 Scott says :
1 Appendix to "A New England Fire-Brand Quenched, by George Fox and John Bornyeat, London, 1678."
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" He went to England and there he got a charter, and coming from Boston to Providence, at Sea-conck the neighbours of Providence met him in fourteen cannoes and carried him to Providence. And the man being hemmed in in the middle of the cannoes was so elevated and transported out of himself that I was condemned in myself that amongst the rest I had been an instrument to set him up in his pride and folly."
Mr. Rider remarks concerning this letter :1
" It is suggestive of reflection that this Scott letter, so severely condemnatory of the very act which has been here perpetuated, is our only means of learning the de- tails by which the preservation of the event was pos- sible."
It is highly probable that, from some of the Dutch or English vessels which had been here before that time, or from the handiwork of some of the people, the community had a boat; although no mention is made of such
1 Book Notes, Oct. 25, 1884, Vol. 2, p. 14.
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a fact. The frequent trips to Newport and Narragansett, with the necessary transporta- tion of men and merchandise, together with the fact that Englishmen were little accus- tomed to the use of Indian canoes, at least suggest that they would not be long in provid- ing. something more substantial than these .- In a letter written in 1682, referring to the grant of lands by Canonicus, Williams says : " I never denied him, or Miantonomoh, what- ever they desired of me, as to goods or gifts, or use of my boats or pinnace."1 If the peo- ple had a boat, certainly Williams would be received in it ; and in it too, the first to greet him after his long absence, would, naturally, be his wife and children, including the babe, born after his departure, whom, longing to behold, he would now see for the first time. This babe, born in December, 1643,2 was the
1 R. I. Col. Rec., Vol. 1, p. 25.
2 Records of Births, Providence, Book 5, p. 129.
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Joseph Williams whose remains were buried in the family burial-ground at Roger Wil- liams park, where his grave-stone now stands.
Such is the scene which is portrayed in the picture in this building. Of course, the "hemming in" by fourteen canoes could not be actually represented without throwing Williams, the central object, into the back- ground. The canoes on one side therefore appear, with a suggestion of others surround- ing by the prows which are shown in the lower corner of the picture. The charter is supposed to have been enclosed in a round tin box, because sea-captains were accustomed to carry their papers in that way and also because it is said the second charter, about twenty years later, came in such a box.
A word about the cost of the charter. The first Assembly, in 1647, voted one hundred pounds to Roger Williams "in regard of his so great travaile, charges and good endeav-
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ors."1 Mr. Coddington in a letter appended to "Fire-Brand Quenched," said: "He is Hired for money and gets a Patent from Long Parliament." Williams himself says, in a letter written in 16812 " No charters are obtained without great suit, favor or charges. Our first cost one hundred pounds (though I never received it all.) Our second about a thousand, Connecticut about six thousand." It is evident from this that Williams's mo-
tives were not mercenary. The pittance of one hundred pounds was not voted until three years after his return, and it was three years more before any of it was paid. Then the Assembly voted3 to pay Mr. Williams the one hundred pounds, "now due " and another hundred pounds if he would go
1 R. I. Col. Rec. Vol. 1, p. 151.
2 Letter to Daniel Abbott, Publications of Narragansett Club, Vol. 6, p. 402.
3 R. I. Col. Rec., Vol. 1, p. 231.
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again to England to obtain a confirmation of the charter from Cromwell, who had then come into power.
No proceedings were had under the charter until June, 1647, nearly three years after its reception. Prof. Gammell, in his "Life of Roger Williams," gives these reasons for the delay: " Many local questions were to be de- cided and jarring interests harmonized. Be- sides this, the distracted state of affairs in England created party divisions among the colonists of America. In this way the hopes and plans of Mr. Williams were deferred."1 Among the questions to be decided was, doubtless, that of the policy of liberty of conscience. Had the colony been larger, it is by no means certain that such a policy could have been first exemplified here.
It is beyond the present purpose to con-
1 Gammell's Life of Roger Williams, p. 124.
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sider the organization of the colony under the charter. The delay of the people to make use of it, until they were ready to do so, does not at all detract from the import- ance of the fact that it had been obtained.
Neither does the fact that, twenty years later,-when a Stuart was again upon the throne, when the acts of the Long Parlia- ment were ignored and the time of its power treated as an interregnum,-our people came to the conclusion that Charles HI. would look with little favor upon a colony that held its tenure from such a source, and therefore . sought and obtained another charter from the royal hand. It was still the instrument by which the colony had been united and protected, recognized and respected, and un- der which its policy had been shaped. It should be remembered and venerated, as the corner-stone of the State.
To this hasty review of the procurement of
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the charter, permit me to add a suggestion or two; first, as to Williams himself, and second as to the result which he accomplished.
The facts referred to show the magnanim- ity of the man. An attempt has lately been made to justify the authorities of Massachu- setts in the sentence of banishment, upon the ground that Williams was a contentious per- son, "a subverter of the very foundations of government, "1 and "a nuisance which it seemed to them they had no alternative but to abate, in some way safe to them and kind- est to him."
That he entered with much zest into the theological discussions common to his time. and upheld his opinions, on any subject, with vigorous enthusiasm and in good set terms, we all know. His writings are so largely polemic that we have fallen into the no-
1 As to Roger Williams, by Henry Martin Dexter, D. D., pp. 79. 80.
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tion that he was a whimsical, crotchety man. But this, I think, is wrong. However small and insignificant many of the matters about which he argued now look, through the vista of two centuries, we must remember that they were real differences and were the same that stirred the people of old as well as of New England. It was a period of ecclesias- tical controversy, and Williams simply dealt with the living issues of his day. His acts showed the man. Banished from Massachu- setts, in the next year, still smarting from a sense of injustice, he risked his life to save that and the other colonies from an Indian alliance to exterminate them ; going into the camp of the conspiracy, and, by personal persuasion, thwarting the fearful scheme. When, in return for this, Gov. Winthrop pro- posed that the sentence of banishment be recalled, not only was this refused, but exas- perating efforts were made to bring the place
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of his refuge within the power of his per- secutors. Ignored as an outlaw, when the colonists united for mutual defence, and fore- stalled in his attempt to secure a charter, he. nevertheless, "tenderly waived to touch a foot of land" claimed from the conquest which his influence had made possible; but. on the contrary, as he "judged inoffensively." he drew "our poor and inconsiderable line" for "a patch of ground." Could greater re- gard for the claims of others have been shown: or greater care taken to avoid a con- troversy with his neighbors? Could there have been less of vindictiveness or of self- assertion? Beside magnanimous acts like these no charge of petty quarrelsomeness can stand. Indeed, at no time did Wil- liams seek a quarrel with those around him, and the worst that can be said is that. firm in the right, as God gave him to see the right, he was ever ready sturdily to maintain
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his cause. We almost wonder at the man who would risk his life for a colony that had banished him; and who, annoyed in his pos- sessions, waived the chance to extend them with safety. In view of these facts the charges before quoted are as unwarrantable as they are unjust, and partake more of the spirit of the scold than of the historian. Massachusetts needs no such vindication. Her magistrates were honest, sincere and conscientious men. Their course was con- sistent with their theory of government. They treated others, who would not be called brawlers, just as they did Williams. If their course was ill-judged and narrow, as we now look upon it, the fault was not so much in the magistrates as in the times. Williams was simply in advance of the ideas of his age and, like most social reformers, met with op- position and persecution. People have been much misled by the lines of Mrs. Hemans :
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" They left unstained what there they found, Freedom to worship God."
The Puritans did not come to this country to establish freedom of worship for every man, according to his own idea; but only to find for themselves that freedom to wor- ship, after their own form and notion which they did not find in England. Williams. though with them, was not of them. in this respect. He sought a larger liberty. In ban- ishing him and others they followed out their system, and it is abundantly evident that what they did was in consequence of it. It is therefore neither necessary nor fair to re- sort to vituperative charges to justify their action. Happily for the reputation of Wil- liams, his conduct exhibits a magnanimous rather than a contentious spirit.
The next suggestion is in regard to the statesmanship of Williams. I have heard it said that the development of a government
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in which there should be an absolute freedom of conscience, consistent with civil order, was accidental, rather than intentional, on his part. If his design was to form a govern- ment of this sort, he should rank with the most liberal and wisest of statesmen. What is the evidence? Upon his arrival at Boston he refused to unite with the church, declar- ing that the magistrate had no right to pun- ish violations of the first four of the ten commandments, except as they disturbed the civil peace.1 He taught the same doctrine at Plymouth and Salem. This was the first of the charges brought against him by the Gen- eral Court, in October, 1635,2 and his banish- ment for this cause is clearly implied by reference to his "dangerous opinions" in the vote,3 as well as in the charges where this is
1 Winthrop, Vol. 1, p. 53. Hubbard, Mass. Hist. Coll., 2d Series, Vol. 5, p. 203.
2 Winthrop, Vol. 1, p. 162.
3 Records of Mass. Vol. 1, p. 160.
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the first one specified. Arrived at Provi- dence, the first recorded agreement was for town-fellowship "only in civil things." The charter which he obtained was for a "form of civil government," and the code of laws enacted under it consistent with the policy thus foreshadowed by Williams, had the same limitation.1 His settlement at Provi- dence was, from the first, free in religious matters, offered as a "shelter for those dis- tressed for conscience";2 while the compacts of Portsmouth and Newport required the set- tlers to be Christians and to be governed by the word of God.3 To all this may be added numerous passages in his letters and writings, insisting upon this principle from the earliest to the last. This chain of evidence is too continuous to be accidental. That Williams
1 R. I. Col. Rec., Vol. 1, p. 156, et seq.
2 R. 1. Col. Rec., Vol. 1, p. 22.
3 R. I. Col. Rec., Vol. 1, pp. 52 and 90.
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did not, at first, contemplate founding a col- ony may be true. His own words indicate that he had thoughts of living as a mission- ary with the Indians. "My soul's desire was to do the natives good, and to that end to have their language, (which 1 afterwards printed,) and therefore desired not to be troubled with English company."1 Out of pity he permitted some to join him.
Knowles says:2 "It seems then that his original design was to come alone, probably to dwell among the Indians, and to do them good; but he altered his plan, and resolved to establish a refuge for those who might flee from persecution. The project was his own, and worthy his generous and liberal mind."
Evidently from the first he comprehended
1 R. Williams to Court of Commissioners, Nov. 17, 1677.
R. I. Hist. Tracts, No. 14, p. 52.
2 Memoir of Roger Williams, p. 108.
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the idea which he subsequently put into ac- tive operation. Thus he displayed the wise forecast which proves the quality of a states- man. His policy is best set forth in his own strong words:
" There goes many a ship to sea, with many a hundred souls in one ship, whose weal and wo is common, and is a true picture of a commonwealth, or an human combi- nation or society. It hath fallen out sometimes, that both Papists and Protestants, Jews and Turks may be embarked into one ship. Upon which supposal, I do affirm, that all the liberty of conscience that I ever pleaded for, turns upon these two hinges, that none of the P'apists, Protestants, Jews, or Turks, be forced to come to the ship's prayers or worship ; nor secondly, compelled from their own particular prayers or worship, if they practice any. I further add, that I never denied, that notwithstanding this liberty, the commander of this ship ought to command the ship's course ; yea, and also to command that justice, peace and sobriety be kept and practised, both among the seamen and all the passengers. If any seaman refuse to perform their service, or passen-
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gers to pay their freight ; if any refuse to help in person or purse, towards the common charges, or defence; if any refuse to obey the common laws and orders of the ship, concerning their common peace and preservation ; if any shall mutiny and rise up against their commanders and officers ; if any shall preach or write, that there ought to be no commanders nor officers, because all are equal in Christ, therefore no masters nor officers, no laws nor orders, no corrections nor punishment-I say I never denied but in such cases, whatever is pretended, the commander or commanders may judge, resist, com- pel and punish such transgressors according to their deserts and merits." !
The importance of the result accomplished by Williams can hardly be over-stated. We need not stop to inquire whether he origina- ted or first published the doctrine of liberty of conscience. Bancroft gives him the credit of it in strong and eloquent terms.2 But it would not be strange if others had thought
1 Pub. Narr. Club, 6, p. 278.
2 Hist. of U. S., Vol. 1, p. 298, centennary ed.
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of it before. It is enough to know that he was the first to put it into "lively experi- ment." The man who does that is accorded the credit and rights of discovery. To Watt is commonly ascribed the invention of the steam-engine. He made the experiments by which it was brought into general operation ; but he neither discovered the properties of steam, nor made the first machine for its use. Physicians before Harvey may have con- ceived the idea of the circulation of the blood; but to him, who was the first to demonstrate its truth, is given the honor of discovery. The priority of Morse's inven- tion of the telegraph was disputed; but as he, by " lively experiment," first gave to it practical utility, he has been honored, in both continents, as its inventor. The colony of Rhode Island agreed to organize upon the principle which Williams had all along maintained. His fellow-settlers had the good
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sense to see that it was reasonable, practical and just. Like Watt, perhaps, they little thought they were building a model, which, in its essential principle, would long, if not always, afterwards be followed.
It is true that during the maintenance of the edict of Nantes, freedom of worship was allowed to Protestants in France, and they were eligible to civil office; but it was not a complete and absolute freedom. There were restrictions on worship and education; tithes were to be paid to the priesthood of the es- tablished church and its festivals observed. The situation of Protestants was that of a tolerated sect, rather than that of an equal and independent class of citizens. The edict was a bond that held together two discordant elements and not a union that mingled them in one. Wise and liberal as it was, it fell far short of the Rhode Island idea of a state in which there should be unrestricted religious
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liberty. It reached towards it but did not grasp it.
As Williams said:1 "Our charter excels all in New England or in the world as to the souls of men." Here then, in Rhode Island, was first set up the novel system of a purely civil government, with no yoke of religious doctrine upon its subjects. It was not the adversary, but the handmaid of religion. It gave to civil authority and religious teaching, each its proper sphere. The colony was too feeble and too little known for its new de- parture to attract attention or to make any stir in the great world. But it was the little leaven that was to leaven the whole lump of civilization. It was the germ that was quietly to grow and spread its roots until it should spring up in every commonwealth of the land, and in time scatter its seed across the
1 Letter to Daniel Abbott, Pub. Narr. Club, Vol. 6, p. 402.
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