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Growth and Development of New England

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Connecticut colonised-Thomas Hooker, father of American democracy-Connecticut professes no allegiance to British CrownNew Hampshire New Haven - The Pequot Indians - Roger Williams as peacemaker-Pequots implacable-Exterminated—Missionary labours—John Eliot, apostle to the Indians, translates Bible -First missionary corporation-United colonies-Rhode Island left out—Massachusetts predominant-Expansión of New England— Attitude of England-A Governor-General of Commission threatened --Resistance of colonists-False relation between colonies and mother country-Measures to prevent emigration, especially of clergymen— Eight ships arrested-Cromwell and Hampden not on board-Loss to mother country by New England-Long Parliament-Emigration stayed—Prosperity and longevity of colonists—Contrasted with Europe-Winthrop's fine description of liberty.

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CHAPTER IV

GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF NEW ENGLAND

IT is quite beside the purpose of this work to give any detailed and connected history of the colonies of Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and the way in which they rose into political importance. Only as this bears upon the establishment of the Puritan theocracy in New England does it come within the scope of our present purpose.

Colonisation of Connecticut. We do not propose, therefore, to give any extended description of the new communities that were formed, and the Puritan villages which rose in rapid succession upon "the delightful banks" of the Connecticut, nor of the rich harvest that sprang from the cultivation of these alluvial lands. Thomas Hooker, "the light of the Western Churches," was the chief pioneer in this movement. He was one of the most learned and eloquent of the Puritan leaders, and was specially distinguished for his broad and advanced views in regard to the self-governing power of the people. Winthrop and Cotton held such views to be both inexpedient and dangerous. Winthrop defended the restriction of the suffrage, on the ground that "the best part

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is always the least, and of that best part the wiser part is always the lesser." Hooker, on the other hand, held that “in matters which concern the common good, a general council, chosen by all, to transact businesses which concern all, I conceive most suitable to rule, and most safe for relief of the whole." To this position Hooker steadfastly adhered, and in the course of a sermon preached by him, after Connecticut had commenced its separate and independent existence, he maintained that "the foundation of authority is laid in the free consent of the people; that the choice of the public magistrates belongs to the people of God's own allowance; and that they who have the power to appoint officers and magistrates have the right also to set the bounds and limitation of the power and place unto which they call them.” The government of Connecticut was settled on a purely democratic basis, and its Constitution was the "first written Constitution of modern democracy," and more, perhaps, than any other man, Thomas Hooker deserves to be called the father of American democracy. Well knowing," its preamble recited, "where a people are gathered together the Word of God requires that to maintayne the peace and union of such a people there should be an orderly and decent government established according to God, to order and dispose of the affayres of the people at all seasons as occasion shall require; doe

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1 "We have passed from the world of unwritten to that of written Constitutions, from a world of government by usage, tradition, and chartered privileges, wrested from kings, to a world of government by public reason embodied in codes of political law.”—The United States, an Outline of Political History, by Goldwin Smith, D.C.L., p. 20.

therefore associate and conjoyne ourselues to be as one Publicke State or Commonwealth, and doe, for ourselves. and our successors, and such as shall be adjoyned to us hereafter, enter into Combination and Confederation together, to maintayne and preserve the liberty and purity of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ which we now professe, as also the discipline of the Churches; which, according to the truth of the said Gospell, is now practised amongst us; as also in our civill affairs to be guided and governed according to such Lawes and Rules, Orders and Decrees as shall be made, ordered, and decreed, as followeth : "1 What is omitted from the written Constitution is almost

as significant as what it contains. Such expressions as those introduced into the compact drawn up in the cabin of the Mayflower, "dread sovereign," or "gracious King," are conspicuous by their absence. Connecticut recognised no allegiance to the British Crown, nor to any government outside its own bounds. It refused to make church membership a condition of exercising the franchise, and also church attendance compulsory, in this respect departing from the practice of Massachusetts, and conforming to the example of New Plymouth. "More than two centuries have elapsed; the world has been made wiser by the most varied experience; political institutions have become the theme on which the most powerful and cultivated minds have been employed, and SO many constitutions have been framed or reformed, stifled or subverted, that memory may despair of a complete catalogue; but the people of Connecticut have found no reason to deviate essentially

1 Dr. Borgeaud's Rise of Modern Democracy, p. 121.

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