propagation or assertion of erroneous opinions, even about things indifferent." 1 It will thus be seen that the Church position taken up by the colonists at Salem was substantially the same as that which had been outlined by Robinson and adopted by the Fathers at Plymouth. There is no preciser form of democracy extant than that which was established as the basis of the government of Massachusetts. Voting by ballot was introduced from the beginning, and "government of the people, for the people, by the people "-to use the memorable words of Abraham Lincoln-gave token that it was nevermore to "perish from the earth." The time was not yet ripe for universal suffrage, but, with this exception, representative democracy was as perfect in New England as it is in the America of to-day. Church membership a condition of the franchise. In their zeal for religion the colonists of Massachusetts went beyond the Fathers of New Plymouth, for "to the end the body of the commons may be preserved of honest and good men, it was ordered and agreed that for the time to come no man shall be admitted to the freedom of this body politic but such as are members of some of the Churches within the limits of the same." On this account the accusation of narrowness has been freely brought against the colonists of Massachusetts. But it does not appear that, in this instance, the accusation has any firm basis on which to rest. The condition imposed seemed to the members of 1 The Genesis of the New England Churches, by Dr. Leonard Bacon, pp. 456, 462. a theocracy such as Massachusetts aspired to be, the most suitable and the most natural thing possible under the circumstances. Unquestionably it would have been wiser if they had seen their way to the broad position taken up by Cromwell: "The State, in choosing men to serve it, takes no notice of their opinions. If they be willing faithfully to serve it, that satisfies." But in Massachusetts things were not ripe for such a principle of selection. Indeed, it is difficult to see how they could have acted upon any other principle than that which they did, though it was sure to be found unworkable as the colony grew stronger and more numerous. We may say, with Dr. Palfrey,' that the conception, if a delusive and impracticable, was a noble one. "Nothing better can be imagined for the welfare of a country than that it shall be ruled on Christian principles; in other words, that its rulers shall be Christian men-men of disinterestedness and integrity of the choicest quality that the world knows-men whose fear of God exalts them above every other fear, and whose controlling love of God and of man consecrates them to the most generous aims. The conclusive objection to the scheme is one which experience had not yet revealed, for the experiment was now made for the first time." In New Plymouth church membership was not made. a condition of the elective franchise. As we shall have occasion to show in what falls to be said upon this subject, the spirit of toleration was more prevalent among 1 History of New England, vol. i. p. 345. See also, for defence of Massachusetts, Dr. Dexter's Congregationalism as seen in its Literature, P. 420. the Fathers than among any of the early colonists. It is even said that Miles Standish, the stout-hearted soldier and leader at Plymouth, was a Roman Catholic, and considering the fiery hatred of Rome which, even more than their zeal for liberty, distinguished the early Puritans, this fact (if it were a fact) registers considerable width of view and catholicity. "Their residence in Holland had made them acquainted with various forms of Christianity; a wide experience had emancipated them from bigotry; and they were never betrayed into the excesses of religious persecution, though they sometimes. permitted a disproportion between punishment and crime." Leading men in Massachusetts.-The early history of Massachusetts is the history of a class of men as remarkable for gifts of statesmanship and organising power as for their moral and religious qualities. Francis Higginson, the leader of the first party of emigrants, had been rector of a church in Lincolnshire, and had been. deprived of his living for nonconformity. John Cotton, a fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, had been for more than twenty years rector of St. Botolph's, Boston, and, rather than continue in a position which had become. intolerable to his conscience, chose to give up his living, and quit the most magnificent parish church in England to officiate in the rude meeting-house in Boston, Massachusetts. In the same ship came Thomas Hooker, also fellow of Emmanuel College, and afterwards known as "the light of the Western Churches." Other emigrants were Hugh Peters, afterwards the friend and chaplain of Cromwell, and who, for the part he took in connection with the execution of King Charles I., suffered death as a regicide; John Harvard, the founder of the celebrated university, which is now the glory of the literary republic; Henry Vane, the younger, "young in years, but not in sage counsel old," one of the greatest of Puritan statesmen, a prominent actor in the Cromwellian republic, and who preferred to die upon the scaffold rather than desert. the "righteous cause" of liberty, or abate his testimony against kingly and tyrannical usurpation. The accession, however, which bore most closely on the immediate interests of the colony was the arrival of John Winthrop and Thomas Dudley, men cast in very different moulds, but both destined to exercise great influence upon the young rising republic. Dudley, like Endicott, was a stern and unbending Puritan, but less liberal, a good hater, and hating nothing so much as tolerance of what he deemed laxity and error. A quatrain found among his papers after his death reveals not only a foible for making verses, but also the spirit of the man and of the age in which he played his part― "Let men of God in courts and churches watch O'er such as do a Toleration hatch, Lest that ill egg bring forth a cockatrice John Winthrop was a gentleman of wealth and position who, at the age of forty-two, left his manor-house in Sussex to help in the planting of faith and freedom in New England. In Winthrop is seen the noblest type of Puritanism; the same mingling of firmness and charity, purity and grace, which is exhibited in the character of Colonel Hutchinson, and imparts to it such singular charm and beauty. In the art of managing men, and in the power of winning confidence and commanding respect, he has been compared to Washington, and, indeed, in this and in other respects he bears no little resemblance to that most stainless of all patriots. The fortitude of his mind, and the disciplined patience and sweetness of his temper, enabled him to encounter and to endure what would have been insupportable to others, nor did all the hardships and untoward circumstances of New England lead him to cast one longing, lingering look behind at the treasures he had quitted in the Egypt of his native land. Writing to his wife, whom he had left behind in England, he says: "We here enjoy God and Jesus Christ, and is not this enough? I thank God I like so well to be here, as I do not repent my coming. I would not have altered my course though I had foreseen all the afflictions. never had more content of mind." I Winthrop and Dudley were associated together, the one as governor, the other as deputy-governor, of the colony for many years, indeed, with one or two breaks, during the whole term of their natural life. The accession of such leaders to the colony of Massachusetts was the means of originating a tide of emigration, which, with more or less intermission, did not cease to flow till the rising of the English nation against Charles and Laud, and the success which attended it was the means of inducing a goodly number of the exiles to return to their native land. It was in 1630 that Winthrop and Dudley reached New England, and before the year had expired seventeen ships had come to New England, |
