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CEREMONIES 
 
 AT THE 
 
 UNVEILING OF THE MONUMENT 
 
 TO 
 
 ROGER WILLIAMS, 
 
 ERECTED BY THE 
 
 CITY OF PROVIDER OE, 
 
 WITH THE 
 
 Address by J. LEWIS DIMAN, 
 
 OCTOBER 1 6, 187 7. 
 
 PROVIDENCE: 
 
 ANGELL, HAMMETT & CO., CITY PRINTERS. 
 
 1877. 
 
CITY DOCUMENT, NO. 31. 
 
THE CITY OF PROVIDENCE. 
 
 RESOLUTIONS OF THE CITY COUNCIL, 
 Approved Ootoiser 22, 1877. 
 
 Resolved, That the city council of the city of Providence, hereby tender their 
 thanks to Professor J. Lewis Diman, of Brown University, for the learned, 
 scholarly and eloquent oration delivered October 16, 1877, upon the occasion of 
 the dedication of the monument in commemoration of the life and services of the 
 venerated founder of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, in 
 Roger Williams Park; and the joint committee on parks be requested to wait upon 
 Professor Diman and ask for a copy of said oration for publication, and to cause 
 the same to be printed for the use of the city council. 
 
 Resolved, That the thanks of the council be also tendered to the Grand Lodge 
 of the State of Rhode Island, for their services in the masonic ceremonies at the 
 dedication of said monument. 
 
 CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 Providence, October 20, 1877. 
 
 Dear Sir :— 
 
 In accordance with a resolution of the city council, I request you to furnish 
 for publication, a copy of the address delivered by you at the dedication of 
 the monument to Roger Williams. 1 am, sir, 
 
 Very respectfully yours, 
 
 ARTHUR F. DEXTER, 
 
 Chairman Committee on Parks. 
 
 Professor J. L. Diman. 
 
 Providence, October 25, 1877. 
 
 Sir :— 
 
 In compliance with the request conveyed in your note, it gives me great 
 pleasure to furnish a copy of the address at the recent exercises in Roger 
 Williams Park. I remain, sir, 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 J. L. DIMAN. 
 
 Arthur F. Dexter, Esq., Chairman, &c. 
 
CEREMONIES. 
 
 The city of Providence, founded by Roger Williams in 
 1636, had seen more than two centuries of prosperous life, 
 had increased till it numbered more thaij 100,000 inhabitants, 
 had become the second city in New England in wealth and 
 importance, and yet had secured no large public park, and 
 had erected no statue in memory of its founder. Happily, 
 a portion of the farm given to Mr. Williams by his friend, 
 the sachem Miantunnomi, was still in the possession of one of 
 his descendants, and she, his great-great-great-grand-daugh¬ 
 ter, Miss Betsy Williams, in whose character an affectionate 
 veneration for the memory of her ancestor had always been 
 a prominent trait, determined to honor his memory and bene¬ 
 fit the city founded by him, by bequeathing to it this tract for 
 a public use. 
 
 The farm comprises about 100 acres of plain and woodland, 
 and has many natural advantages for a public pleasure ground. 
 It is the place where the family of Roger Williams lived 
 for many years, where the old homestead still stands, and 
 where many of his descendants lie buried in the ancient 
 Williams burial ground. 
 
 Miss Williams died November 27, 1871, leaving a will in 
 terms as follows : — 
 
6 
 
 C E K EMONUiS, 
 
 In the name of God, Amen. I, Betsy Williams, of the City and county of Provi¬ 
 dence, State of Rhode Island, being of sound disposing mind and memory, do 
 publish, pronounce and declare this to be my last Will and Testament, hereby 
 revoking and annulling all former wills by me at any time made. 
 
 First. —I direct my executor, hereinafter named, to pay all my just debts and 
 funeral expenses, and to place, to mark my grave, which I desire shall be in the 
 “ Williams Burying Ground, ” upon my farm, head and foot stones corresponding 
 in size and quality with those which have been erected to mark the resting places in 
 the same ground of my parents and sister. 
 
 Second. —I give and bequeath to the city of Providence my farm, situate partly in 
 the said city and partly in the town of Cranston, lying southerly of and adjoining 
 the Stonington railroad, and also adjoining the westerly side of the Old Pawtuxet 
 Road, (now called Broad street,) containing about one hundred acres, more or less 
 being the same which is now occupied by my tenant, John Read, Jr., to have and 
 to hold the same to said city, on the following express conditions, viz. : That said 
 Farm shall never be sold, excepting, however, such small portions'thereof as it may 
 be desirable to sell or to exchange for the purpose of straightening any dividing 
 line or lines, or of leaving the main body of the Farm in a better shape than it now 
 is; that it ’never shall be used for any special punative or reformative purpose, or 
 for a hospital for any contagious or infectious disease; that no slaughter house, 
 piggery, bone or fat boiling establishment, or any repulsive trade or occupation shall 
 be allowed thereon ; that any public purpose for which the said Farm shall be used 
 shall be named in honor of Roger Williams, as “ Roger Williams Park ” “ Roger 
 Williams Cemetery, ” &c.; that the said city shall erect a monument to the memory 
 of Roger Williams, in the aforesaid Williams Burying ground, at a cost of not 
 
 less than live hundred dollars; that the said city shall maintain a good and 
 
 * 
 
 becoming fence around the said Burying Ground, and keep the grounds within 
 the enclosure in proper order; that all sums for which any portion of said Farm 
 shall be sold, as hereinbefore provided, and all sums which may be received for 
 rents, or in any other way derived from the property hereby devised, shall, after 
 defraying the expense of improvements, constitute a fund to be entitled the “ Roger 
 Williams Fund, ” the interest of which shall be applied towards the support of the 
 poor of the city of Providence,—I hereby reserving the aforesaid Williams Burying 
 Ground from the above devise as a place of sepulture of the descendants of my an¬ 
 cestor, Roger Williams, forever. Nothing, however, above contained, is intended 
 to debar the city from laying out such streets and avenues through and over said 
 Farm as the interest of the property and the public convenience may require. 
 
 Third. —I give and bequeath to Mary Alice Rein, wife of Eimerich Rein, and Fanny 
 Carpenter Pitman, wife of Henry Pitman, both being daughters of my much 
 esteemed friend, the hftc Thomas F. Carpenter, one undivided half part of a piece 
 of land, containing in the whole about four acres, lying westerly of and adjoining 
 the new Stonington Railroad, to have and to hold to them, their heirs and assigns 
 forever. 
 
CEREMONIES 
 
 7 
 
 Fourth .—I give and bequeath to Freolove B. Carpenter, widow of Cyril 
 Carpenter, and Elizabeth Tower, wife of Emerson Tower, of Providence, the other 
 undivided one-half part of the aforesaid piece of land, to have and to hold to them, 
 their heirs and assigns forever. 
 
 Fifth ,—I give and bequeath to my relative and friend, Zuriel Waterman, for the 
 term of his natural life, and to Polly Boon Waterman, his wife, after him, should 
 she survive him, for the term of her natural life, the house in which I now live, with 
 all the land belonging to me which adjoins the same, they to keep the premises in a 
 proper state of repair, and to pay the taxes thereon. 
 
 Sixth .—I give and bequeath to my nephew, Charles Williams, of the city and 
 State of New York, son of my deceased brother, Charles Williams, all of my 
 household goods, my clothing, carriage and sleigh. 
 
 Seventh .—All the rest and residue of property, real, personal and mixed, of 
 every name and nature and wheresoever the same may be, of which I may die 
 possessed or to which I may be entitled, I give, devise and bequeath, the one 
 undivided half part thereof, to my said nephew, Charles Williams, and the other 
 undivided half part thereof to the heirs of my deceased nephew, Albert Pabodie 
 Williams. 
 
 Eighth .—I nominate, constitute and appoint my said nephew, Charles Williams, 
 sole executor of this, my last Will and Testament. 
 
 In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal on this twenty-first 
 day of August, in the year eighteen hundred and sixty eight. 
 
 Signed, sealed, published, pronounced and dc- 
 dared by the said Betsy Williams, to be as and 
 tor her last Will and Testament, in the presence 
 of us, who, in her presence and in the presence of 
 each other, have hereunto subscribed our names 
 as witnesses to the same. 
 
 The word “to ” on the last line of the second 
 page having first been expunged, and the word 
 “ brother ” on the last lino of the third page ex¬ 
 punged, and the word “nephew” interlined. 
 
 Joseph J. Cooke, 
 
 Charles W. Patt, 
 
 Philip S. Paine. 
 
 Betsy Williams, 
 
 CODICIL. 
 
 I, Betsy Williams, of the city and county of Providence, State of Rhode Island, 
 do, this ninth day of October, eighteen hundred and sixty-eight, make and publish 
 this Codicil to my last will and testament, in manner following, that is to say, 
 whereas, in my said will I give and bequeath to my relative and friend, Zuriel 
 
 * 
 
8 
 
 CEREMONIES. 
 
 Waterman, for the term of liis natural life, and to Polly Boon Waterman, his wife 
 after him, should she survive him, for the term of her natural life, the house in 
 which I now live, with all the land belonging to me, which adjoins the same, I ilo 
 hereby order and declare, and my will is, that, after the death of the aforesaid 
 /uriel Waterman, one-half part of the said house and adjoining land shall revert 
 directly to and be the property of my nephew, Charles* Williams, and the other 
 undivided half part thereof shall revert directly to and be the property of the heirs 
 of my deceased nephew, Albert Pabodie Williams, instead of being the property 
 for life of the aforesaid Polly Boon Waterman. And I hereby order this, my codi¬ 
 cil, to be annexed to and make a part of my last will and testament, to all intents 
 and purposes. 
 
 In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal on this ninth day of 
 October, in the year eighteen hundred and sixty-eight. 
 
 Signed, sealed, published, pronounced and de¬ 
 clared by the said Betsy Williams, to be as and 
 for a codicil to her last will and testament, in the 
 presence of us, who, in the presence of each oth¬ 
 er, have hereunto subscribed our names as wit¬ 
 nesses to the same. 
 
 Betsy Williams, 
 
 Joseph J. Cooke, 
 Charles W. Patt, 
 Philip S. Paine. 
 
 
 The city council, by resolution of date February 12, 1872, 
 accepted this bequest, and forthwith began to plan the erec¬ 
 tion of a statue to Roger Williams that should far exceed the 
 modest requirements of the testatrix, and which should be 
 worthy the subject and the place. Various committees were 
 appointed to carry out this design, and many plans were 
 examined, resulting in the acceptance of those presented bj 
 Mr. Franklin Simmons, of Rome. 
 
 After many unavoidable delays, the monument was dedi¬ 
 cated on Tuesday, October 16, 1877. The interest in this 
 event extended far beyond the limits of the city; and from 
 all parts of the state came many people to attend the ceremo¬ 
 nies. There was great rejoicing that at last a monument was 
 
CEREMONIES. 
 
 9 
 
 to be erected to the founder of the city and state; there was 
 an eager interest to see the memorial itself; and there was a 
 strong desire to demonstrate by a large attendance at the 
 first ceremony occurring within its limits, that the park, 
 though but a few years in existence, and as yet not entirely 
 redeemed from its primitive wildness, had still greatly en¬ 
 deared itself to the public. 
 
 From these various causes, the committee having charge of 
 the arrangements found themselves compelled to provide for 
 the accommodation of a very large concourse of spectators. 
 Seats were arranged for more than 6,000 persons, and ample 
 space was provided for carriages and for the further accom¬ 
 modation of the general public. 
 
 Prof. J. L. Diman, of Brown University, was invited to 
 deliver the address, and Rev. E. G. Robinson, President 
 of the University, to make the prayer at the dedication. 
 
 In accordance with custom, the order of Ancient Free and 
 Accepted Masons was invited to assist in the dedication 
 - services. The music arranged for the occasion was sung by 
 a chorus of 1,500 children from the grammar schools, under 
 the direction of the public instructor of music, Mr. B. W. 
 Hood, accompanied by the American Band, Mr. D. W. 
 Reeves, leader. 
 
 The weather, though threatening rain, did not prevent the 
 early gathering of many thousands in the streets to witness 
 the formation and march of the masonic procession, and to 
 avail themselves of the numerous facilities for reaching the 
 park. By careful estimate, it is known that more than 
 20,000 persons visited the grounds that day. 
 
 The procession formed on Market square and the adjacent 
 streets, at 10 o’clock, A. M., and marched to the park in the 
 following order:— 
 
 2 
 
10 
 
 CEREMONIES. 
 
 Police Skirmishes. 
 
 Chief of Police, William H. Ayer. 
 
 Platoon of Police. 
 
 Grand Marshal, Samuel G. Stiness. 
 
 Grand Marshal’s Aids, Arthur W. Dennis, Stephen F. Fiskc, Henry V. A. Joslin. 
 
 FIRST DIVISION. 
 
 First Assistant Grand Marshal, Walter B. Vincent and aids. 
 
 American Band, D. W. Reeves, leader. 
 
 St. John’s Commandcry Knights Templar, No. 1, Providence, Eminent Commander 
 
 Sir George H. Burnham. 
 
 Pawtucket Band, A. D. Harlow, leader. 
 
 Holy Sepulchre Commandery, No. 8, Pawtucket, Eminent Commander, 
 
 Sir Henry A. Pierce. 
 
 Detachment of Calvary Commandery, No. 13, Providence, under command of 
 Senior Warden, Sir Horace Iv Blanchard. 
 
 Narragansett Commandery, No. 27, Westerly, Eminent Commander, 
 
 Sir R. F. Latimer. 
 
 SECOND DIVISION. 
 
 Second Assistant Grand Marshal, Thomas W. Cliace and Aids. 
 
 National Band, William E. White, leader. 
 
 Roger Williams Lodge, No. 32, Centrcdale, A. W. Harrington, Master. 
 Rising Sun Lodge, No. 30, Wateliemoket; Joseph J. Luther, Master. 
 Jencks Lodge No. 24, Central Falls; A. W. Arnold, Master. 
 
 What Cheer Lodge, No. 21, Providence; George W. Arnold, Master. 
 Harmony Lodge, No. 9, Pawtuxet; Henry B. Thompson, Master. 
 Washington Lodge, No. 5, Wickford; David S. Baker, Master. 
 
 Mount Vernon Lodge, No. 4, of Providence; Joseph S. G. Cobh, Master. 
 Grand Lodge of Rhode Island. 
 
 Grand Tyler; Grand Stewards with White Rods; Master Masons; A Brother, 
 with a Golden Vessel of Corn; Two Brethren with Silver Vessels of Wine 
 and Oil; Junior Wardens of Lodges; Three Brethren with Working Tools; 
 Senior Wardens of Lodges; Two Brethren with the Tuscan and Composite 
 Orders; Three Brethren with the Doric, Ionic and Corinthian Orders; Past 
 Masters; Two Brethren with Globes, Celestial and Terrestial; A Past Master 
 with Burning Taper; Steward with White Rod; A Past Master with the Great 
 Light; Steward with White Rod; Two Past Masters with a Burning Taper. 
 Mounted detachment of Calvary Commandery, No. 13, Providence, escorting the 
 officers of the Grand Lodge of Rhode Island, the committee of arrange¬ 
 ments, and invited guests, in carriages, Acting Senior Warden, Sir Nathaniel 
 Grant, commanding. 
 
CEftE MONIES. 
 
 11 
 
 At the park the seats, were occupied by the members of the 
 city council, city officials, the masonic fraternity, specially in¬ 
 vited guests, the school children and the general public. 
 
 The monument is erected on the high bank west of the 
 lake, facing west; and is visible from the lake, and from 
 most parts of the park, while the ancient mansion and old 
 trees give it a local surrounding peculiarly appropriate. It 
 is constructed of Westerly granite of the finest quality and 
 of uniform shade. A flight of steps leads up to a square 
 pedestal of excellent proportions and design, simple and 
 striking in effect. A figure of History, in classic drapery, 
 standing on the upper step, is writing with a stylus upon the 
 front tablet in plain script, the words, “ Roger Williams? 
 1636.” To the right of this figure is a group of bronze em¬ 
 blems, comprising a shield with anchor, a scroll, books and 
 a laurel wreath. On the rear tablet is inscribed, “ Erected 
 by the City of Providence, A. d. 1877.” Crowning the 
 whole is the statue of Roger Williams. 
 
 The monument from its base is twenty-seven feet in 
 height, the statue of Roger Williams seven and a half feet, 
 and that of History six and a half feet in height; they 
 were modelled in Rome in the studio of Mr. Simmons, and 
 cast in bronze of a peculiar brilliant color, in Munich; the 
 monument was cut by the Smith Granite Company, and a 
 good conception of its general character and of the more 
 minute details of the principal figure, that of Roger Williams, 
 can be obtained from the photographs in this volume. 
 
 At the commencement of the ceremonies, the platform in 
 front of the monument was occupied by the members of the 
 joint standing committee of the city council on parks, 
 Messrs. Arthur F. Dexter, Chairman ; William PI. Shattuck? 
 Joseph F. Brown, Charles F. Sampson, and William S. 
 
12" 
 
 CEREMONIES. 
 
 * 
 
 Hayward, to. whom had been entrusted the arrangement of 
 the services of dedication, and by the artist, Mr. Simmons. 
 
 The opening number on the programme, the overture, 
 “Fest,” was rendered by the American Band, and was fol¬ 
 lowed by the chorus, by the school children, “ Know ye the 
 land so wondrous fair.” Mr. Dexter, then opened the ser¬ 
 vices and introduced the artist, who was to unveil the monu¬ 
 ment, saying:— 
 
 Gentlemen of the City Government and Citizens of 
 Providence : 
 
 You are assembled to-day to witness the unveiling and 
 dedication of the monument erected in honor of the founder 
 of our city. The committee to whom has been assigned the 
 duty of completing the work have requested the artist, whose 
 
 genius conceived and whose skill has executed this master- 
 
 * 
 
 piece of art, to withdraw the veil that now hides it from your 
 view. I introduce to you Mr. Franklin Simmons, the artist, 
 who will unveil this monument to Roger Williams. 
 
 UNVEILING THE MONUMENT. 
 
 Mr. Simmons was greeted with applause and, bowing his 
 acknowledgment, pulled the cord which drew off the veil, 
 and the monument was disclosed to view amid the hearty 
 plaudits of the assemblage. At this instant the band 
 played a staff, and the children sang the following dedication 
 hymn, written by Mrs. Sarah Helen Whitman, of Providence. 
 
 ROGER WILLIAMS. 
 
 Aye, let the Muse of History write, 
 
 Ou a white stone his honored name, 
 
 Loyal to liberty and light, 
 
 First ou Rhode Island's roll of fame. 
 
CEREMONIES. 
 
 13 
 
 IF 
 
 While Church and State would “ hold the fort,” 
 
 With sword and scourge and penal fires, 
 
 His faith a broader haven sought; 
 
 The faith that welcomes and aspires. 
 
 While credal watchwords rise and fall, 
 
 His banner to the winds unfurled, 
 
 Proclaimed on Freedom’s outer wall, 
 
 Peace and Good-will to all the world. 
 
 Nor codes shall bind, nor creeds divide, 
 
 The souls that seek eternal good, 
 
 That follow truth’s un chartered guide, 
 
 And feed on faith’s perennial food. 
 
 Apart from controversial strife, 
 
 Ready to hail the morning’s ray, 
 
 To break with all the bread of life, 
 
 And open wide the doors of day. 
 
 Well may the Muse of History place; 
 
 Foremost among the just and free, 
 
 His honored name, wherein we trace 
 The soul of Law and Liberty. 
 
 The committee on parks (except the chairman) having 
 left the platform, it was occupied by theM. W. Grand Master 
 of Masons, Charles R. Cutler, and officers of the Grand 
 Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of the State of 
 Rhode Island, with the furniture and insignia used on such 
 occasions. 
 
 The chairman thus addressed the Grand Master :— 
 
 Most Worshipful Grand Master of Masons and 
 
 Members of the Grand Lodge of Rhode Island:— 
 
 In accordance with the invitation of the committee on 
 parks, I request you to now perform your part in the dedica¬ 
 tion of this monument with such ceremonies as you are ac¬ 
 customed to use. 
 

 * 
 
 14 CEREMONIES. 
 
 The Grand Master then directed silence to be proclaimed, 
 which was done by the Grand Marshall, after which the band 
 played a voluntary. 
 
 W.\ and Rev. Henry W. Rugg, Grand Chaplain, offered the 
 following 
 
 INVOCATION. 
 
 Almighty and ever-blessed God, in whom we all live, and 
 move, and have our being, we rejoice in thee, and in the 
 thought of thy perpetual presence and guidance. We believe 
 that thou art continually with the nations and peoples of earth, 
 leading them in an upward way, and so making thy kingdom 
 of lighteousness to extend its borders; and thus with strong 
 confidence we come to the services of this occasion, and call 
 upon thy name in thanksgiving and praise. Re thou with us, 
 O God, to bless and to direct, for we realize that without thy 
 aid the workmen always toil in vain. We thank thee for all 
 the associations of this place and occasion; we thank thee 
 for civil and religious liberty, and for all noble souls that have 
 lived and wrought for the establishment of thy truth. We 
 thank thee, O God, for what our institution stands for and 
 represents, and for the prosperity that has marked its course. 
 And now, O Father, we implore thy grace and help that these 
 ceremonies in which we are about to engage may be conducted 
 decently and in order, to thy glory and our common and 
 individual good. Amen. 
 
 The Grand Chaplain read the lesson for the day, from 
 Genesis xxviii., 10-18, Joshua iv., 19-24, and Nehemiah 
 iv., 38-39; and Psalms cxxi and cxxxiii were read by the 
 Grand Chaplain and brethren alternately. 
 
 The following hymn was then sung by the children accom¬ 
 panied by the band :— 
 
CEREMONIES. 
 
 15 
 
 Supreme Grand Master! God of power, 
 
 Be with us in this solemn hour! 
 
 Smile on our work; our plans approve; 
 
 Fill every heart with hope and love. 
 
 Let each discordant thought he gone, 
 
 And love unite our hearts in one; 
 
 May we, in union strong combine 
 In work and worship so divine. 
 
 The Grand Chaplain delivered an eloquent eulogy on 
 Masonry, after which the hymn beginning 
 
 “ When earth’s foundation first was laid, 
 
 By the Almighty Artist’s hand; ” 
 
 was sung by the children, with band accompaniment. 
 
 Mr. Franklin Simmons, then presented the sejuare, 
 level and plumb to the M. W. Grand Master, who delivered 
 them to his officers to make the usual test of the work, and 
 after receiving their reports, he ascended the steps of the 
 monument, and striking it three times with his gavel, he said: 
 “ The craftsmen having faithfully and skillfully performed 
 their duty, we now declare this monument to be well formed, 
 true and trusty, and may it endure to latest generations.” 
 
 The following hymn was sung by the children, accompanied 
 by the band:— 
 
 Before the hills in order stood. 
 
 Or earth received her frame, 
 
 From everlasting thou art God, 
 
 To endless years the same. 
 
 Time like an ever rolling stream, 
 
 Bears all its sons away; 
 
 They fly, forgotten, as a dream 
 Dies at the opening day. 
 
 Our God, our help in ages past, 
 
 Our hope for years to come, 
 
 Be thou our guard while troubles last, 
 
 And our eternal home. 
 
16 
 
 CEREMONIES. 
 
 During the singing of the hymn, corn, wine and oil were 
 poured upon the monument by the officers of the Grand 
 Lodge, who gave the customary invocations as the emblems 
 were poured, after which the Grand Chaplain ascended the 
 steps of the monument and dedicated it as follows: 
 
 “ In the name of the Great Jehovah we dedicate this monu¬ 
 ment to the memory of him who founded this city and state. 
 May the great principles of civil and religious liberty which 
 he first proclaimed be here ever maintained, and may they 
 spread until all nations who dwell on the face of the whole 
 earth shall acknowledge their truth. 
 
 May the Grand Architect of the Universe look with favor 
 upon this memorial, and cause it to endure through future 
 ages, Amen.” 
 
 The Grand Marshal then made the following proclamation, 
 which ended the Masonic ceremonies. 
 
 “ In the name of the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of the 
 State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, I now 
 proclaim that the monument here erected by the city of 
 Providence to the memory of him who founded this state, has 
 this day been consecrated in accordance with the usage and 
 custom of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. This procla¬ 
 mation I make once, twice, thrice, in the South, in the West 
 and in the East.” 
 
 The Grand Officers having left the platform, it was occu¬ 
 pied by the committee on parks, the mayor, the orator and 
 the chaplain of the day. The chairman then formally pre¬ 
 sented the monument to the citjr, saying: 
 
 Mr. Mayor :—This monument, erected by the city of 
 Providence to perpetuate the memory of Roger Williams, is 
 completed, and has, in customary and solemn form been pro- 
 
CEREMONIES. 
 
 17 
 
 nounced perfect. The only remaining duty of the committee 
 on parks, who were directed to finish the work begun by 
 others, is to deliver it to the city. That duty, sir, I now per¬ 
 form, and in asking you to accept on behalf of the city this 
 monument, I but give voice to the thought of all in saying 
 that we congratulate ourselves that, to him who was first in 
 our history, and whose memory most deserves every honor we 
 can pay, the city he founded has erected its first monumental 
 statue; and also, that through the genius of the artist, and the 
 excellent judgment of a previous committee, we shall perpet¬ 
 uate his memory by this monument that now takes its place 
 among the noblest works of art. 
 
 We are now upon land once owned by Roger Williams, 
 and bequeathed to the city of Providence by Miss Betsy 
 Williams, his great-great-great-grand-daughter. The love she 
 bore to the city her ancestor founded, and her reverence 
 for his memory prompted this bequest, by which she provided 
 that this tract of land which contains about one hundred 
 acres, might be forever kept for public uses, and be known 
 as Roger Williams Park. She died November 27, 1871. Her 
 bequest was accepted by the city, February 12, 1872. 
 November 19, 1872, a committee was instructed to procure 
 plans and estimates for a monument to Roger Williams, 
 to be erected in this park. 
 
 December 17, 1874, the design of this monument, offered 
 by Mr. Franklin Simmons, was accepted from among eighteen 
 designs offered, and the committee were directed to contract 
 with Mr. Simmons for the statues of Roger Williams and 
 History. 
 
 April 26, 1877, the committee on parks were directed to con¬ 
 tract for the granite work, after designs by Mr. Simmons, 
 which contract was awarded to the Smith Granite Company, 
 
 3 
 
18 
 
 CEREMONIES. 
 
 and were further instructed to take charge of the ceremonies 
 of dedication of the monument. 
 
 The committee venture to hope that they have not failed 
 in perfecting the work begun by their predecessors, and that 
 the ceremonies they have arranged are not unsuited to the 
 dignity and solemnity of this occasion. 
 
 And, sir, permit me also to express the hope, that we^have 
 to-day done that which shall mark the beginning of a new 
 era in the history of this park, so that from henceforth it shall 
 cease to be a struggling possibility, and shall be accepted as a 
 positive existence, able successfully to assert its claim to the 
 fostering care of the city. 
 
 By the memory of him to whom we have erected this mon¬ 
 ument ; in gratitude to her who has given this fair tract of 
 hill and vale and wood ; for the sake of the ever-increasing 
 multitude of our citizens, of all classes, who seek harmless en¬ 
 joyment and healthful rest within these boundaries ; by your 
 knowledge that your duty in developing a great city, requires 
 you to provide and maintain a suitable place for public recrea¬ 
 tion, I pray you, sir, and you gentlemen of the city council, 
 not to go backward nor to creep snail-paced onward in the 
 work of improving and beautifying this park, but rather to 
 give with liberal hand the support that your judgment deter¬ 
 mines is required to make it, in due process of time, a blessing 
 to our people and an ornament to our city. 
 
 And you, my fellow-citizens, let me urge you to encourage 
 by your frequent presence here, and by your words and acts 
 elsewhere, those who shall try to secure for you and for the 
 generations to come, the benefits of a well ordered public park. 
 
 Sir, by direction of the joint standing committee on 
 parks of the city council, I now deliver this monument of 
 Roger Williams to the city. 
 
CEREMONIES. 
 
 19 
 
 His Honor, Thomas A. Doyle, mayor, accepted the monu- 
 * ment in behalf of the city as follows:— 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee :— 
 
 As the representative of the people of Providence, I accept 
 this monument, as a memorial erected by them to the memory 
 of him who founded this city. 
 
 You have completed the work begun by your predecessors, 
 and you have the satisfaction of seeing that work approved 
 by the thousands of your fellow-citizens here assembled. 
 
 It is a memorial worthy of him in whose honor it has been 
 erected, and most creditable to the city by whose authority it 
 was constructed. 
 
 I deem it a great honor that the work has been done during 
 my official term, and that from this day the enduring granite 
 and bronze, so elegantly united by the genius of Franklin 
 Simmons, will make known the high regard in which the 
 people of Providence hold the name and memory of Roger 
 Williams. 
 
 I agree with you that this tract of land is a most proper 
 location for this monument, as it was owned by Roger Wil¬ 
 liams, and never passed from the control of his descendants 
 until it came into the possession of the city. By the action 
 of the city council, it has been dedicated as a public park, 
 and thus preserved against encroachments or improper uses 
 during the existence of the city. It is also a proper location, 
 because almost under the shadow of this memorial lie the 
 remains of her, by whose thoughtful generosity this land 
 was given to the city. 
 
 Fellow Citizens :—I join with the committee in the hope 
 that this park will now receive the care which it deserves. 
 
20 
 
 CEREMONIES. 
 
 Let it be properly laid out and enlarged by the addition of 
 adjoining territory, connect it by suitable avenues with the ' 
 land on Narragansett Bay, now owned by the city, and thus 
 secure for those who shall come after us, a park which shall 
 be as worthy as is this monument to bear the honored name 
 of Roger Williams. 
 
 Gentlemen oe the City Council :—I have performed 
 the duty devolving upon me by my official position, and have 
 accepted this monument as a finished work. It is not my 
 province to speak of the life and character of him whose 
 name is this day honored, nor to dwell upon the lessons which 
 this memorial teaches to us as members of the municipal gov¬ 
 ernment. All this belongs to him whom the committee has 
 most appropriately selected as the orator of the occasion. 
 
 I congratulate you, and I congratulate the city upon the 
 success which the artist has so grandly achieved. 
 
 The choral, “A Mighty Fortress is our God,” was sung 
 by the school children. 
 
 PRAYER OE DEDICATION. 
 
 Rev. E. G. Robinson, made the following prayer of 
 dedication:— 
 
 Let us Pray: —O, thou who art the God of the spirits of 
 all flesh, whose kingdom ruleth over all in heaven and on 
 earth, God and Father of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, 
 Thou wast the God of our fathers, and thou gavest them the 
 goodly land in which we, their descendants, now dwell. We 
 thank thee for the institutions, civil and religious, which our 
 fathers, endowed with heavenly wisdom, were enabled to 
 establish, and which, in thy good providence, thou hast pre¬ 
 served to us. We bless thy holy name for our heritage of 
 great memories, of high examples of self-denial and virtue, 
 and of unswerving devotion to righteousness and truth. 
 
CEREMONIES. 
 
 21 
 
 We thank thee for the life and teachings of thy servant, 
 to whose memory we now dedicate this monument. Thou 
 gavest him to the generation in which he lived: to the 
 country to which in his earlier manhood he came; and 
 to the city and state which he founded. As he commemo¬ 
 rated thy manifold mercies to him, by naming, with an 
 imperishable name, the city and state in which we dwell, so 
 would we commemorate thy greater goodness to him and to 
 mankind in exalting him to be a seer and teacher of imper¬ 
 ishable truths. 
 
 We bless thy holy name, O thou eternal God, that thou 
 taughtest him to teach thy people reverence for the sacred 
 rights of conscience; that thou madest him to discern and 
 enunciate true principles of religious liberty ; that these prin¬ 
 ciples, which seemed so strangely erroneous to those who first 
 heard them, are now the familiar first truths of all good gov¬ 
 ernment ; that these principles, going forth in their simplicity 
 and majesty, have to-day become part of the organic laws of 
 every state in our broad land. Grant, most merciful Father, 
 that they may most speedily encircle our globe. 
 
 And now, most gracious God, we leave this monument 
 with its statue beneath the canopy of the same heavens that 
 thy servant whom they commemorate, so often looked on and 
 loved so well. May they endure till the latest generation 
 shall have walked these fields and rested under these skies. 
 Let the lessons which they proclaim be distinctly heard by all 
 who shall tread these walks. May this statue, as it shall 
 stand here by day and by night, in storm and in sunshine, 
 speak of devotion to truth and of fidelity to conviction. 
 Make it, we pray thee, a beacon to warn against the 
 approach of the spirit of despotism, civil or religious, and 
 a reminder of the sure rewards of a life of devotion to 
 
22 
 
 CEREMONIES. 
 
 truth and right; and may all who shall look on it catch the 
 inspiration of a charity as broad as our race, a love to man¬ 
 kind as pure and unfailing as that which animated him of 
 whom it is a memorial. 
 
 Let thy rich blessings, our heavenly Father, rest on the city 
 and state in which we dwell. Preserve them we beseech 
 thee, from unrighteous and injurious laws. Give to us wise 
 and just legislators; and rulers who in the execution of 
 laws shall fear God rather than man. Help us to preserve 
 our rich legacy of freedom, and to transmit it unimpaired to 
 those who shall come after us. Bless, most merciful God, 
 our city, our state, and our common country, with peace and 
 plenty, and with the righteousness that is through Jesus 
 Christ our Lord. Amen. 
 
 The children then chanted “ The Lord’s Prayer.” 
 
 J. L. Diman, D. D., then delivered the dedicatory address. 
 


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 • ' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 > 
 
I 
 
 ADDRESS BY J. LEWIS DIMAN. 
 

ADDRESS. 
 
 We bring to a close, in these services, a long purposed 
 work. A full year before yonder shores were lighted by the 
 flames of the burning Gaspee, when this state was still a 
 dependency of the British crown, and the rule of George 
 the third was as undisputed by the Pawtuxet as the Thames, 
 the freemen of Providence, assembled in public meeting, 
 resolved to erect a monument to the “ founder of the town 
 and colony.” The population at that date scarcely exceeded 
 four thousand souls, and it is unlikely that anything more 
 was contemplated than, a simple memorial to mark the 
 western slope where, for well nigh a century, the rays of the 
 setting sun had gently touched his grave. The swift march 
 of events, the quarrel with the mother-country, the pressure 
 of the revolutionary struggle, hindered a project which still 
 never wholly passed from mind till after the lapse of another 
 century the munificent bequest of one of his lineal descend- 
 ents made any longer delay unworthy of a prosperous and 
 public-spirited community. Yet we need not deplore a post¬ 
 ponement which has* caused the original plan to be carried 
 out on a scale so far beyond what was first intended. Let 
 us rather congratulate ourselves that the final execution has 
 been reserved for a time when the real merit of Roger 
 Williams is much better appreciated, and for a generation 
 whose ampler means allow a more adequate tribute, and for 
 
 4 
 
26 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 an artist, who charged with the difficult task of embodying in 
 ideal form one of whom no authentic likeness has been 
 preserved, has divined with such admirable insight those 
 characteristics of the man which establish his chief claim to 
 our veneration. And if to any who now hear me, it may 
 seem that some more central or conspicuous site befits so 
 elaborate a work, let it be borne in mind that this statue of 
 Roger Williams stands in the midst of fields which he 
 received as a free gift from the great sachems Canonicus and 
 Miantunnomi in grateful recognition of the many kind ser¬ 
 vices he had continually done them, which for more than 
 two centuries remained in the uninterrupted possession of 
 his posterity, and which have only passed from their hands 
 to be forever preserved for the public use. What more 
 fitting site could have been selected than a spot which thus 
 recalls the estimate in which he was held by the original 
 possessors of the soil? 
 
 These ceremonies would be incomplete without a brief 
 summary of the career and services of him to whom we pay 
 this unusual tribute. In thus setting up, with solemn 
 religious rite, a memorial whose endixring bronze and granite 
 shall attest to coming generations our estimate of Roger 
 Williams, we owe to ourselves, we owe to those who shall 
 gaze upon it with respectful interest after we are gone, a 
 deliberate statement of the grounds on which that estimate 
 is based. And on the present occasion such a survey is 
 something more than a becoming close to these public 
 exercises. For as we consider the thoughtful features that 
 have just been unveiled, we cannot forget that they are the 
 lineaments of one respecting whom the judgments of men 
 have been much divided, of one whose career has given rise 
 to more difference of opinion than has existed respecting any 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 27 
 
 prominent actor in our early New England history. There 
 is, therefore, the more need to-day, that we place on record, 
 even at the risk of reciting a familiar story, the considerations 
 that have moved us to this step. A work which three 
 generations have waited to see finished ought surely to be 
 the fruit of intelligent conviction. Let us then seek to set 
 before us precisely what manner of man Roger Williams was, 
 and precisely what work it was that he accomplished. After 
 he has lain in the grave for well-nigh two hundred years the 
 time has surely come for an unprejudiced estimate of the 
 real service which he rendered, as well to this community 
 as to the world. A proper local pride may make us jealous 
 of the good name of one whose career gives the distinctive 
 significance to our early history, yet if he has really done 
 anything worthy to be remembered, he does not stand in 
 need of mere eulogium from us. The best service we can 
 pay his memory is to place him in his'true light; to assign him 
 his rightful rank among the venerated names of the past; 
 to make him if possible stand forth on the page of his¬ 
 tory in all the essential outlines of his chararcter as clear 
 and distinct as, by the hand of genius, his visible form is 
 made to stand before us now. 
 
 And should the natural inquiry here arise, why has the 
 merit of Roger Williams been so much more debated than 
 that of his contemporaries, some of the foremost of whom 
 have left on record such a generous estimate of his character 
 and motives, the simple answer is, that those who have 
 judged him most favorably, and those who have passed the 
 most adverse sentence on him, have equally agreed in assign¬ 
 ing the most conspicuous place to what was only, a passing 
 episode in liis career. It was his fate, soon, almost as he 
 landed on these shores, to be placed in antagonism with a 
 
28 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 singularly compact and homogeneous community, a commu¬ 
 nity whose early eminence in letters afforded it a marked 
 advantage in impressing upon posterity its own view of any 
 transaction in which it bore a part. It almost of necessity 
 followed, that when the earliest attempts were made to 
 vindicate his memory, the line of attack became the line of 
 defence, and thus a wholly disproportioned space was assigned 
 to his controversy with the Massachusetts colony. Unfortu¬ 
 nate^, those who for a long time felt most interest in this 
 controversy failed to estimate correctly its true aspects. On 
 the one hand it was hastily assumed that the course pursued 
 by the puritans could he successfully defended only by 
 representing Roger Williams in the most odious light, while 
 on the other hand it was supposed with as little reason that 
 his reputation could be vindicated best by denouncing in 
 most unmeasured terms the inconsistency which fled from 
 persecution in the old world only, in turn, to persecute for 
 mere opinions’ sake in the new. Hence Roger Williams 
 came to be held up either as a headstrong enthusiast, a 
 disturber of the public peace ; or as a martyr for conscience 
 sake, who suffered exile solely for his unflinching advocacy 
 of the great principle of religious liberty. But this episode 
 had no such supreme significance as has been assigned to 
 it. Had his career closed with this, we should not be here 
 to-day, for it is not on any, which attitude he assumed at this 
 time that his claim to be remembered rests. It is only in 
 the light thrown back upon it by subsequent events, that 
 the controversy demands even a passing notice on this 
 occasion. When in the month of February, 1631, Roger 
 Williams landed at Boston, from the ship Lyon, he was still 
 a young man. While very little is known respecting him, 
 his whole later history leaves no doubt that when young he 
 
ADDRESS. 29 
 
 was ardent, impulsive, fearless, foncl of disputation, perfectly 
 frank in the expression of his opinions. From the language 
 with which Winthrop notes his arrival as a “godly minister,” 
 he would seem to have received orders in the English church; 
 but he had renounced gains and preferments rather than act 
 with a doubting conscience in conforming to a national 
 establishment. Though he came on the flood-tide of the 
 great puritan migration, he did not come as a part of it. It 
 does not appear that he was specially concerned in the 
 memorable enterprise which had just been undertaken by 
 Winthrop and his associates ; for he never became a freeman 
 of the colony where he made his residence. In the series of 
 shrewd, well considered steps by which a private trading 
 corporation was silently converted into a body politic, he 
 seems to have felt no interest; nor was the ultimate success 
 of the experiment a matter which he ever had at heart. It 
 may be doubted whether his mind even took in its full 
 dimensions. A man of speculation rather than action, an 
 enthusiast in the pursuit of ideal truth, he came a pilgrim to 
 these shores, in search, not of a thrifty and well organized 
 plantation “ with a religious idea behind it,” birt of a prom¬ 
 ised land, where truth and peace might have their “ endless 
 date of pure and sweetest joys.” In his own touching 
 words he had “ tasted the bitterness of death,” that lie 
 might “keep his soul undefiled.” It was a foregone conclu¬ 
 sion that such a man should come in conflict with the 
 community which received him, at first, with cordial wel¬ 
 come ; a community without a parallel in the history of 
 colonial enterprise, welded together by a common faith, 
 inflexibly resolved on the accomplishment of definite ends, 
 earnest to establish a reign of righteousness; but intolerant 
 of difference of opinion, regarding liberty of conscience with 
 
30 
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 1 ! 
 
 equal fear and hate, and above all, a community where 
 civil and religious institutions were so singularly blended 
 that the advancement of pure religion was viewed as one 
 of the primary functions of the civil magistrate. Against 
 this community, so jealous of their rights, so resolved on the 
 exclusive enjoyment of them, “knit together as one man, 
 always having before their eyes their commission as members 
 of the same body,” the headstrong enthusiast dashed himself. 
 He had hardly landed, when we find him denouncing the 
 Boston congregation for not separating wholly from the 
 church of England. He next raised a question respecting 
 the power of the civil magistrate, which cut at the roots of 
 the theocratic system already so firmly planted; he opposed 
 the freeman’s oath; and he did all this, not in a period of 
 profound calm, when the freest discussion of fundamental 
 principles might be safely tolerated, but at an anxious crisis 
 when the very existence of the company was at stake; when 
 it was known that in the privy council grave charges were 
 insinuated that the colonists had virtually cast off their 
 allegiance, and were planning to be wholly separated from 
 the church and laws of England; when an order in 
 council had actually been obtained for the production of 
 the charter; when the influx of new comers threatened to 
 weaken essentially, if not destroy, that unity of belief and 
 action which the founders of the colony had regarded as a 
 fundamental condition of their enterprise. 
 
 Under these circumstances, the course pursued towards 
 
 V ■* 
 
 Roger Williams was not exceptional. What was done to him 
 had been done in repeated instances before. Within the first 
 year of its settlement the colony had passed sentence of 
 exclusion from its territory upon no less than fourteen 
 persons. It was the ordinary method by which a corporate 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 31 
 
 body would deal with those whose presence no longer 
 seemed desirable. Conceiving themselves to be, by patent 
 the exclusive possessors of the soil, soil which they had 
 purchased for the accomplishment of their personal and 
 private ends, the colonists never doubted their competency to 
 fix the terms on which others should be allowed to share in 
 their undertaking. So far from being exceptionally harsh, 
 their treatment of Roger Williams was marked by unusual 
 lenity. His “ sorrowful winter flight,” when for fourteen 
 weeks he was so severely tossed, “ not knowing what bread 
 or bed did mean,” was no part of the official sentence 
 pronounced against him, but hardship which he voluntarily 
 assumed. 
 
 While there is some discrepancy in the contemporary, 
 accounts of this transaction, there is entire agreement on one 
 point, that the assertion by Roger Williams of the doctrine 
 of “ soul-liberty ” was not the head and front of his offend¬ 
 ing. Whatever was meant by the vague charge in the final 
 sentence that he had “ broached and divulged new and 
 dangerous opinions, against the authority of magistrates,” it 
 did not mean that he had made emphatic the broad doctrine 
 of the entire separation of church and state. We have his 
 own testimony on this point. In several allusions to the sub¬ 
 ject in his later writings, and it can hardly be supposed that 
 in a matter which he felt so sorely his memory would have 
 betrayed him, he never assigns to his opinion respecting the 
 power of the civil magistrate more than a secondary place. 
 He repeatedly affirms that the chief causes of his banish¬ 
 ment were his extreme views regarding separation, and his 
 denouncing of the patent. Had he been himself conscious of 
 having incurred the hostility of the Massachusetts colony for 
 asserting the great principle with which he was afterwards 
 
32 
 
 ADD EES S. 
 
 identified, he would surely have laid stress upon it. It is 
 true that almost from the day he landed some form of this 
 principle seemed floating before his mind. One of the very 
 earliest charges brought against him was, having broached 
 the novel opinion that the magistrate might not punish the 
 breach of the sabbath, nor any other offence against the first 
 table ; and in the final proceedings this same offence was 
 made the ground of the foremost accusation brought against 
 him. It is clear that the conviction had a strong hold upon 
 his own mind, and it is not unlikely that “ in the spacious 
 circuits of his musing ” he already saw the fundamental place 
 it held ; but it is equally clear that in the long controversy it 
 had become covered up by other issues, and that his oppo¬ 
 nents, at least, did not regard it as his most dangerous heresy, 
 So far as it was a mere speculative opinion it was not new. 
 It had been explicitly affirmed in the confession of the 
 English Baptists at Amsterdam, put forth in the year 1611, 
 and according to Cotton there were many known to hold this 
 opinion in Massachusetts, who were tolerated “ not only to 
 live in the commonwealth, but also in the fellowship of the 
 churches.” 
 
 I repeat, that the reputation of Roger Williams has suf¬ 
 fered because such undue importance has been assigned 
 to the transaction which I have just narrated. When 
 carefully examined it will be seen that no such significance 
 belongs to it. To upbraid the puritans as unrelenting per¬ 
 secutors, or extol Roger Williams as a martyr to the cause 
 of religious liberty, is equally wide of the real fact. On the 
 one hand, the controversy had its origin in the passionate and 
 precipitate zeal of a young man whose relish for disputation 
 made him never unwilling to encounter opposition, and on 
 the other, in the exigencies of a unique community, where 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 33 
 
 the instincts of a private corporation hacl not yet expanded 
 into the more liberal policy of a body politic. If we 
 cannot impute to the colony any large statesmanship, so 
 neither can we wholly acquit Roger Williams of the charge 
 of mixing great principles with some whimsical conceits. The 
 years which he passed in Massachusetts were years of disci¬ 
 pline and growth, when he doubtless already cherished 
 in his active brain the germs of the principles which he after¬ 
 wards developed; but the fruit was destined to be ripened 
 under another sky. Though he himself, at a later period 
 complained bitterly of the treatment which he had received, 
 yet it cannot be doubted that for him exile from Massachu¬ 
 setts was an incalculable boon. As rightly put by his great 
 antagonist, John Cotton, though in a far deeper and truer 
 sense than was intended, “ it was not banishment but enlarge¬ 
 ment,”—it determined him to another, a wider, a far more 
 beneficent career. Had he remained in Massachusetts, he 
 would only be remembered as a godly but contentious puri¬ 
 tan divine. Removed for a time from tl^e heated atmosphere 
 of controversy, he first saw in its true proportions the great 
 principle which has shed enduring lustre on his name. His 
 personal characteristics also present themselves in a far more 
 engaging light when winning the confidence of the shy Narra- 
 gansett sachems, than in wrangling with his brethren of the 
 bay. It would almost seem as if Winthrop himself had some 
 presentiment of this larger future that lay before the exile, 
 when, with the kindness that never failed, he urged Williams 
 to steer his course to these shores, “ for many high, heavenly 
 and public ends.” Ipass gladly to consider him as he emerges 
 on this new stage, where his admirable qualities, his benevo¬ 
 lence, his intellectual breadth, his rare spiritual insight were 
 revealed in their clearest light. The solemn bar before which 
 
 5 
 
34 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 the actors in the world’s history are made to pass for judg¬ 
 ment is not a petty police-court, turning its microscopic eye 
 simply on their shortcomings, but a tribunal which weighs 
 the good against the evil that men have done, and which 
 fulfils its high and sacred functions not less in applauding 
 the one than in condemning the other. Few indeed would 
 remain to claim our reverence if we were only curious about 
 their faults. 
 
 It was in the spring of 1636 that Roger Williams, accepting 
 the hint privately conveyed fiom Winthrop as a “ voice from 
 God,” began to build and plant on the eastern bank of the 
 Seekonk, a little distance above the present Central bridge. 
 But upon receiving from the authorities of Plymouth a 
 friendly intimation that he had settled within their bounds, 
 he cheerfully, though with great inconvenience to himself, 
 set out in quest of another habitation. Early in the month 
 of June, when external nature in this region is decked in her 
 loveliest attire, he launched on this brief but memorable 
 voyage. Five companions were with him in his canoe. The 
 pleasing tradition has always been preserved that, as he ap¬ 
 proached the opposite bank, a group of Indians greeted him 
 with a friendly salutation, and that he stepped to return 
 their welcome on the rock which for years has been one 
 of our cherished historic spots; but which I fear, in the 
 march of modern improvement, is destined to become to our 
 
 • 
 
 children a mythical locality. Once more embarking, and 
 rounding the two promontories which, with their crowded 
 wharves and network of iron rails, have so little to remind 
 us of the winding shore and fair undulations of peaceful wood¬ 
 land that greeted his gaze, he turned to the north, and pad¬ 
 dling till he reached the mouth of a small stream which 
 poured its limpid current into a wide cove, there made his final 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 35 
 
 landing. A spring of delicious water gushing from the foot 
 of the steep hill probably determined the precise locality. In 
 grateful recognition of the guiding hand which he never 
 doubted had led him in all his way, he named the place 
 Providence. 
 
 The name has become familiar on our lips and few, as they 
 now pronounce it, ever pause to consider how much it means. 
 It is a word that carries with it a commentary on the career 
 of him who chose it. The early settlers of Massachusetts 
 brought with them tender memories of the homes they had 
 left behind. In the names which they selected for their new 
 settlements they gave evidence of the touching solicitude 
 with which these memories were cherished. But when the 
 founder of Providence pillowed his weary head for the first 
 time by the mouth of the Mooshausic, his thoughts turned 
 not to an earthly home, but to a home above. Thrice an 
 exile and a pilgrim, he now saw in his dreams only the open 
 skies and the protecting angels of an invisible power. Years 
 after, in writing of this incident, he says “ I turned my course 
 from Salem unto these parts, wherein I may say Peniel, that 
 is, I have seen the face of God.” The dreamy, mystical, 
 unworldly temper of Roger Williams is no where made more 
 evident than in this unique designation which he selected for 
 his infant settlement. 
 
 In thus settling upon the shores of the Narragansett nothing 
 was farther from the thoughts of Williams than to become 
 the founder of a new colony. Still less was it his aim, like 
 Blackstone, who was here before him, merely to escape the 
 tyranny of the “ lords brethren,” and secure for himself, in 
 solitude, the largest individual liberty. His end was nobler 
 and more unselfish than that. The great purpose that led 
 him here was simply to preach the gospel to the Indians ; to 
 
86 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 quote his own words, “ my sole desire was to do the natives 
 good.” The impulse surely was as lofty as that which had 
 led the puritans, sixteen years before, to seek in Massa¬ 
 chusetts, “ a place of co-habitation and consortship,” where 
 only those who adopted their precise creed should be 
 welcomed to their narrow domain. Already with this end in 
 view he had made, long before his banishment, a diligent 
 study of the native languages. “ God was pleased,” he 
 writes, “ to give me a painful, patient spirit, to lodge with 
 them in their filthy, smoky holes, even while I lived at 
 Plymouth and Salem, to gain their tongue.” His exile 
 seemed to open the door to this endeavor. Yet the same 
 benevolence which had led him to make his own misfortunes 
 a means of good to the Indians, constrained him not to refuse 
 an asylum to such as had suffered like himself. Not to 
 promote any private interest, but “ out of pity,” he permitted 
 others to come with him. A few had joined him while still 
 at Seekonk ; more followed him after he had fixed himself at 
 Providence. The territory belonged to him alone. In 
 obtaining it he acted on the principle which he had so 
 earnestly avowed, that the Indians were the rightful proprie¬ 
 tors of the lands they occupied, and that no English patent 
 could convey a complete title to it. But though he was 
 obliged to mortgage his house in Salem to secure the means 
 of making presents to the Narragansett sachems, it was not 
 by money that the land was purchased. “ It was not,” he 
 affirms, “ thousands, nor tens of thousands of money that 
 could have bought an English entrance into this bay, but I 
 was the procurer of the purchase by that language, acquaint¬ 
 ance and favor with the natives, and other advantages, which 
 it pleased God to give me.” The land was conveyed to him 
 by formal deed from Canonicus and Miantunnomi, and “ was 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 37 
 
 liis as much as any man’s coat upon his back.” Thus circum¬ 
 stances which he had not at first foreseen, caused a modifica¬ 
 tion of his plan. Desiring to make his purchase a “ shelter 
 for persons distressed for conscience,” and considering the 
 condition of divers of his countrymen, he “ communicated 
 his said purchase unto his loving friends.” In accordance 
 with this modified purpose, he executed a deed giving an 
 equal share with himself to twelve of his companions, “ and 
 such others as the major part shall admit into the same fellow¬ 
 ship of vote.” Such was the simple beginning of the little 
 settlement long known as the Providence plantations. Had 
 Roger Williams loved power, he might have secured for him¬ 
 self some kind of preeminence. The philanthropic Penn 
 did not disdain such a course. But the founder of Provi¬ 
 dence chose to admit his associates on terms of perfect equal¬ 
 ity. In providing a shelter for the poor and the persecuted, 
 “ according to their several persuasions,” he established a 
 commonwealth in “ the unmixed form of a pure democ¬ 
 racy.” 
 
 Still remarkable as were the circumstances under which 
 the infant community struggled into life, these do not fur¬ 
 nish its distinctive claim to our attention. It was not for the 
 broad foundation on which it rested all civil power, but for 
 the novel limitation which it imposed on the exercise of 
 that power that it holds a place in history so disproportioned 
 to its importance in every other respect. Opened as an asy¬ 
 lum for the distressed in conscience, it seems from the outset 
 to have been tacitly assumed that conscience should never be 
 restrained. Hence Williams, in seeking the advice of Win- 
 throp as to the mode by which the new settlement could 
 best become “ compact in a civil way and power,” makes 
 no allusion to the principle which he had asserted so re- 
 
38 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 cently in Massachusetts. But it would be absurd to argue 
 from this omission that the principle had lost any of its im¬ 
 portance in his mind. When the actual covenant was 
 drawn up, which became the basis of public order, in ex¬ 
 tracting from the inhabitants a pledge of active and 
 passive obedience to all orders, made by the major consent, 
 for the public good, the provision was expressly added that 
 this should be “only in civil things.” 
 
 Thus, for the first time in history, a form of government 
 was adopted which drew a clear and unmistakable line be¬ 
 tween the temporal and the spiritiral power, and a commu¬ 
 nity came into being which was an anomaly among the 
 the nations. The compact signed by the pilgrims in the 
 cabin of the Mayflower has been praised as the earliest 
 attempt to institute a government on the basis of the general 
 good ; surely the covenant subscribed by the settlers of 
 Providence deserves a place beside it, as a first embodiment 
 in an actual experiment of the great principle of unre¬ 
 stricted religious liberty. In either case the settlements were 
 small and the immediate results were unimportant; but the 
 principles were world-wide in their application. The Provi¬ 
 dence document was, in fact, the more significant, since the 
 political maxim that lay imbedded in the Mayflower compact 
 was implied rather than consciously affirmed, while the prin¬ 
 ciple to which Roger Williams and his associates set their 
 hands, was intentionally and deliberately adopted as the cor¬ 
 ner-stone of the new structure they were building. 
 
 The community which grew into shape at Providence 
 embodied in a “ lively experiment ” the principle which 
 Roger Williams had so strenuously maintained. Let us now 
 examine his position, and ascertain precisely in what sense 
 this experiment was novel. Had we no other information 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 39 
 
 than the vague charges brought against him in Massachusetts, 
 or the significant clause attached to the Providence covenant, 
 his exact theory would have remained a matter of conjecture. 
 How clearly it was held, how carefully it was limited, there 
 would have been no way of accurately ascertaining. 
 But fortunately he has left his views on record, and we may 
 know precisely what meed of praise is due him. He 
 has himself supplied us with abundant means of making 
 ourselves familiar with the arguments with which he “ main¬ 
 tained the rocky strength ” of his impregnable position. 
 When in England, engaged in procuring from the long 
 parliament the earliest patent for Rhode Island, he found 
 time,' amid engrossing duties, to publish his famous volume 
 “The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution, for Cause of Conscience.” 
 and it is in this volume, printed in the year 1644, that we 
 find the first full expression of his opinions. They are 
 views which he had long been meditating, which it cannot be 
 doubted he was revolving in some form when he first 
 arrived in Massachusetts; but which, it can be as little 
 doubted, meditation and experience had matured. The 
 book throughout is of a piece with his whole previous career. 
 It was rapidly written ; as he tells us himself “in change of 
 rooms and corners, yea, sometimes in variety of strange 
 houses, sometimes in fields in the midst of travel.” The 
 style is not unfrequently confused, as though the earnest 
 flow of the writer’s thoughts left the pen lagging behind; 
 and the course of the argument is not always well held in 
 hand. Still each page is stamped with most intense convic¬ 
 tion, and in some passages the language has a passionate 
 warmth of imagery that almost becomes poetic. The per¬ 
 sonal characteristics of Luther are not more distinctly re¬ 
 vealed in his writings than are those of Roger Williams. 
 
40 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 But wliat especially marks the “ Bloudy Tenent” is the clear 
 conception of one great principle that runs through it, and 
 the boldness with which every logical deduction from this 
 principle is accepted. 
 
 The doctrine laid down in the book is that of the radical 
 and complete separation of the spiritual and temporal prov¬ 
 inces. Roger Williams was profoundly sensible of the funda~ 
 mental importance of religion to the welfare of society, and 
 he affirms in the most emphatic manner the obligation of 
 every human being to love God and to obey his laws. We 
 could not do him a greater wrong, and could not more com¬ 
 pletely misapprehend his meaning than by confounding his 
 theory with the secular theory which has come to prevail in 
 our time, which not only separates church and state, but 
 insists on regarding religion as of secondary consequence. 
 While he removes religion from the care of the civil magis¬ 
 trate he does not weaken in the slightest its binding obliga¬ 
 tion. But this obligation binds the soul of man only to his 
 maker ; no fellow-man has a right to come between. God 
 has delegated to no one authority over the human soul. 
 Under the old dispensation he prescribed the mode by which 
 he chose to be worshipped, but under the new this was left 
 
 free, and all human laws prescribing or forbidding rites or 
 
 * 
 
 doctrines not inconsistent with civil peace, are an invasion of 
 the divine prerogative. Belief cannot be forced; to make 
 the attempt is only to cause hypocrisy. To determine the 
 standard of belief the civil authority must be itself infallible ; 
 if permitted to regulate conscience, the magistrate will only 
 make his own views the standard of truth. In these proposi¬ 
 tions we have the great doctrine of liberty of conscience first 
 asserted in its plenitude. 
 
 It is no less important to observe how, in the clear appre¬ 
 hension of Roger Williams, this principle was limited. To 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 41 
 
 those who were firmly persuaded that religion could only 
 flourish when protected by the state, above all to those who 
 regarded church and state simply as two forms of the same 
 thing, it is not surprising that his views seemed subversive 
 alike of ecclesiastical and civil order. But because he so 
 warmly opposed the order then established in Massachusetts 
 it by no means followed that he was opposed to all order. 
 Here again we most grieviously mistake him if we suppose 
 that he sought to weaken the restraints of law. His temper 
 was hasty but not anarchical. When he affirmed his doctrine 
 that the magistrate ought not to punish the breach of the 
 first table, he was careful to add, “ otherwise than in such 
 cases as did disturb the civil peace.” In his treatise we find 
 this important qualification not overlooked. He affirms that 
 civil society is necessary to the happiness of men, and that 
 to ensure its protection, a sufficient amount of power must 
 be confided to its rulers. But the object of such a society is 
 simply the promotion of civil interests. Still the civil and 
 the spiritual interests of man are so inseparable that even the 
 civil magistrate has duties with reference to religion. If the 
 religion be one that his own conscience approves as true, he 
 is bound to honor it by personal submission to its claims, and 
 by protecting those who practice it; on the other hand, if 
 the religion be false, he still owes it permission and protection. 
 But should a man’s religious opinions lead him to practices 
 which become offensive to the peace and good order of 
 society, the civil magistrate is bound at once to interfere. So 
 long, however, as this line is not passed, not even pagans, 
 Jews, or Turks should be molested by the civil power ; or, to 
 quote his own words, “ true civility and Christianity may both 
 flourish in a state or kingdom, notwithstanding the permission 
 of divers and contrary consciences, either of Jews or Gen¬ 
 tiles.” 
 
 6 
 
42 
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 To understand how far Roger Williams was the advocate of 
 a new principle we must carefully bear in mind that he was 
 not arguing simply for religious toleration. It is strange how 
 this point has been misconceived even by writers who have 
 devoted careful study to the subject. It is true, that in his 
 letter to the town of Providence, so often quoted as the most 
 felicitous expression of his views, he seems to have in mind 
 merely the right of persons of divers beliefs to be excused 
 from attendance upon the established worship ; but evidently 
 his illustration of a ship’s company “ not forced to come to 
 the ship’s prayers” is only a partial expression of his theory. 
 There can be no doubt whatever as to his true principle. 
 The doctrine which he constantly maintains is, not that men 
 of various beliefs should be tolerated by the civil power, but 
 the far broader and more fruitful principle that the civil 
 power has nothing whatever to do with religious belief, save 
 when it leads to some actual violation of social order. In a 
 word, what he advocated was not religious toleration, but the 
 entire separation of the temporal and spiritual provinces. 
 
 Mere religious toleration had long found advocates. In 
 the wonderful book which breathes the earliest and purest 
 spirit of the English reformation, the Utopia of Sir Thomas 
 Moore, it is distinctly taught. It was pathetically urged by 
 the great chancellor de l’Hopital on the brink of the preci¬ 
 pice down which religious fanaticism was precipitating 
 France ; with w T hat practical effect in either case, was shown 
 by the fires of Smithfield and the massacre of St. Bartholo¬ 
 mew. At the very time when Roger Williams was writing, 
 it had, in various forms, found much support in Eugland. 
 With the meeting of the long parliament it came to the fore¬ 
 front of discussion. In opposition to the presbyterian theory 
 of an asbolute conformity of the whole nation to one 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 43 
 
 established church, a theory carried out in the adoption by 
 parliament of the Westminster confession and discipline, 
 there were those who advocated a limited toleration around 
 a national establishment, and those who advocated an 
 establishment with an unlimited toleration of every religious 
 opinion. Roger Williams belonged to neither of these 
 parties. What he claimed was the entire separation of 
 religion from the civil power. His position may be put in a 
 still clearer light by contrasting what was done at Providence 
 with what was done at nearly the same time in Maryland. 
 By the original charter of Maryland, granted in 1632, Chris¬ 
 tianity as professed by the church of England was protected 
 but beyond this, equality of religious rights was left 
 untouched. The mild forbearance of Calvert caused religious 
 freedom to be established ; but in awarding praise for this to 
 a catholic proprietary, it must be remembered that Maryland, 
 was not an independant catholic state, but simply the colony of 
 a protestant kingdom. And, at best, it was toleration that was 
 established. Religious freedom was a boon which the civil 
 authority had granted, and which the same authority was 
 competent to limit or take away. So when, in 1649, three 
 years after the settlement of Providence, the legislature of 
 Maryland placed on her statute book an act for securing 
 religious freedom, it was expressly extended only to those 
 who professed the Christian religion ; while any who blas¬ 
 phemed God, or denied the trinity, were punished with 
 death. Surely no one can confound this with the doctrine 
 laid down by Roger Williams. 
 
 That Roger Williams completely solved the difficult prob¬ 
 lem of the relation of church and state I do not affirm. That 
 problem is more complex than he supposed, and since his day 
 it has assumed aspects which he did not consider. But he 
 
44 
 
 ADD KESS. 
 
 stated it more clearly than it had been stated by any earlier 
 writer, and more than anticipated Jeremy Taylor. He 
 cleared the path which even Massachusetts has been content 
 to tread. The principle which he laid down is now the 
 accepted and fundamental maxim of American politics. 
 More than this, his distinctive merit lays in the fact that he 
 not only defended it as an abstract principle, but himself 
 carried it into successful operation. In the ranks of sover¬ 
 eign honor Lord Bacon assigns the first to the founders of 
 states and commonwealths. In the strictest sense it cannot, 
 perhaps, be claimed for Roger Williams that he was even the 
 founder of a colony, for it was a procedure for which he 
 possessed no legal authority, and which formed no part of 
 his original plan. But since the settlement at Providence, 
 Avas the creation of his benevolence, and crystallized round 
 his great idea and at last owed its^legal recognition to his 
 disinterested labors, it may look back reverently to him as 
 the author of its existence. The unusual circumstances 
 under which it came into being only intensifies the grati¬ 
 tude with which we hail the apostle of religious liberty as 
 the founder of Rhode Island. 
 
 But it is time to consider more closely the man himself. 
 For this study the material is ample. No man who ever 
 lived in New England has had every defect of temper so 
 minutely explored and every inconsistency of conduct so 
 unsparingly exposed. The day, I trust, is long past when 
 one in the position in which I stand to-day, is expected 
 to vindicate an historical character from every charge. Of 
 that sort of commemorative discourse we have had, in New 
 England, more than enough. We have ceased to think that 
 in the days of the fathers only angels were walking the earth. 
 Let us then grant, without hesitation, that Roger Williams 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 45 
 
 was a man like other men. Let us concede that his “ many 
 precious parts ” were coupled in the early part of his career 
 with an “ unsettled judgment,” that his “ well approved 
 teaching ” was mixed with what seemed to his hearers 
 “ strange opinions,” that the “judicious sort of Christians ” 
 found him “ unquiet and unlamblike, ” and that even his 
 best friends deemed him guilty of “presumption” and 
 condemned his conduct as “passionate and precipitate;” 
 yet evidently all these are faults of a generous, a bold, 
 an enthusiastic spirit. There was no quality about him 
 that made him either hated or despised. On the con¬ 
 trary, there was in all his trials a calm courage, an abiding 
 patience, a noble disinterestedness, an unfailing sweetness 
 of temper, an unquestioned piety that won for him the 
 warmest affection even of those who opposed him. We 
 find Winthrop writing to him in words that do equal honor 
 to both: “ Sir, we have often tried your patience, but could 
 never conquer it.” And the most accomplished of our living 
 critics, Lowell, rises from the study of this period with the 
 remark : “ Let me premise that there are two men above all 
 others, for whom our respect is heightened by their letters— 
 the elder John Winthrop and Roger Williams.” The very 
 weaknesses and eccentricities of Roger Williams only make 
 him a more striking character. He stands out from the some¬ 
 what monotonous background of puritan decorum as the 
 mountains of his native Wales stand out from the uniform 
 sweep of the English coast. The recent biographer of 
 Milton terms him “ a picturesque figure forever in early 
 American history,” and adds that no man of that age de¬ 
 serves more attention. Must he not have had about him some¬ 
 thing more than usually winning, who, while still a youth, 
 so gained the regard of that morose and ill-tempered man 
 
46 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 Sir Edward Coke, that this greatest master of English law 
 that had yet appeared, took care to further Ids education, 
 and affectionately addressed him as his son ? It is inter¬ 
 esting to know that the founder of Rhode Island, who in his 
 writings laid down the principle “ that the sovereign power 
 of all civil authority is founded in the consent of the people,” 
 thus sat in his youth, at the feet of the illustrious judge who 
 was sent to the tower for resisting the encroachments of 
 arbitrary power. 
 
 Roger Williams not only merits our admiration for his per¬ 
 sonal qualities, his intellectual culture was also generous and 
 broad. By the favor of Coke, he was sent to the Charter- 
 house, then recently founded by a liberal-minded London 
 merchant, Thomas Sutton, but since become one of the most 
 famous of the great schools of England. The chapel stands 
 to-day, with the superb monument of the founder, precisely 
 as it stood when Roger Williams knelt beside it, reciting the 
 impressive liturgy of the English church. On the long roll 
 in which his name ranks among the earliest, are written the 
 names of Barrow, of Addison, of Steele, of John Wesley, of 
 Blackstone, and to pass to our own time, of GrOte and of 
 Thackeray ; and who that has lingered, with dimmed eye, 
 over the chapters which describe the closing hours of Colonel 
 Newcome, can forget how the memories of this place have 
 been embalmed on the most nobly pathetic pages of English 
 romance. After receiving the thorough classical training of 
 the Charter-house, Roger Williams proceeded to Cambridge, 
 where he was matriculated a pensioner of Pembroke college, 
 in 1625, and took his degree as bachelor of arts in 1627. 
 Cambridge was the great puritan university. There most of 
 the leading divines of the New England churches received 
 their education. Thence came John Cotton, Chauncy, 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 47 
 
 Buckley, John Eliot, Hooker, Norton, Hugh Peters, Shepard, 
 Ward and others of the men whose piety and learning did so 
 much to give New England character its distinctive shape; 
 nor is there any reason to suppose that Roger Williams, while 
 at Cambridge, was a less apt or less diligent scholar than any 
 of these. 
 
 How diligently these rare opportunities of culture were 
 used, may be gathered from a glance at those with whom, 
 afterwards, he stood on a footing of most familiar companion¬ 
 ship. Through life his most trusted counselor was the wise, 
 the discriminating, the magnanimous Winthrop, who, he 
 declares “ tenderly loved him to his last breath.” Next we 
 find him winning the warmest regard of young Harry Vane, 
 like himself an enthusiast for ideal truth, misunderstood by 
 the community in which his lot was cast, but a spirit touched 
 to the finest issues, whom even his enemy Clarendon terms 
 “ a man of extraordinary parts, ” and whom Milton praised 
 as a senator unsurpassed in Roman story. When the 
 
 acquaintance of Williams with Vane began, we are not 
 
 informed ; but it must have been soon after the latter’s 
 arrival in this country, since, in speaking of the settlement 
 of Aquidnet, Williams says : “ It was not price nor money 
 that could have purchased Rhode Island. It was purchased by 
 the love and favor which that honorable gentleman, Sir 
 
 Harry Vane, and myself had with the great sachem 
 
 Miantunnomi.” The name of Roger Williams is peculiarly 
 connected with the most brilliant statesman of the common¬ 
 wealth ; for mainly through the friendly intervention of 
 Vane the charter of the Providence plantations was obtained, 
 so, that to Vane more directly than to Williams, Rhode Island 
 owes her actual political existence. At the country-seat of 
 Vane, Williams, when in England, was always a welcome 
 
48 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 guest. But in the circle of his chosen friends was one 
 more famous than Vane. During his second visit to England, 
 we find him instructing John Milton in Dutch, who in return 
 read him “ many more languages.” It is easy to surmise how 
 two such kindred spirits were drawn together. When his 
 “ Bloudy Tenent” had appeared, in 1644, it had been ranked 
 with Milton’s “ Treatise on Divorce,” as containing “ most 
 damnable doctrines.” They had stood side by side in the 
 great battle for freedom of thought, though even Milton in the 
 magnificent bursts of his “ Liberty of Unlicensed Printing,” 
 did not advocate a liberty of conscience so complete and 
 absolute as that claimed by Roger Williams. He seems to 
 have had in mind rather toleration than perfect freedom. 
 With the great protector, too, the founder of Providence was 
 sometimes admitted to “ close discourse.” I need not pause 
 to comment on the kind of man he must have been who 
 was permitted even the occasional companionship of Vane, 
 of Milton, and of Cromwell 
 
 One of the most grievous charges brought against Roger 
 Williams is based on the apparent vacillation of his opinions. 
 “He had,” said Cotton Mather, “a windmill in his head.” 
 But these changes were far less significant than is commonly 
 supposed. With regard to the great principle with which 
 his name is connected, he never wavered in the slightest. On 
 some minor points that entered into his controversy with 
 Massachusetts, it is not unlikely that experience modified his 
 views. But with his religious belief there was very little 
 change. He was a sturdy, uncompromising separatist, when 
 he renounced the communion of the church of England, and 
 such he remained to the day of his death. Warmly as he 
 denied the theocratic theory of the churches of the bay, he 
 always cordially approved their “ heavenly doctrine.” In no 
 
 at 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 49 
 
 heat of controversy was he ever accused of being a heretic. 
 It is true that, having been for a brief period connected with 
 the Baptists, he renounced their communion and lived for the 
 rest of his days isolated from all visible church fellowship. Yet, 
 when we consider what the religious conditions of the period 
 were, we shall not censure him severely if, like Milton, he 
 shrunk from the Babel of sects that filled the age with their 
 noise ; nor, if we call to mind, how swift and how startling 
 were the transitions of that unsettled time, will it surprise us 
 to see, that like Vane, Williams was led to look for the speedy 
 revelation of a new heaven and a new earth. But whatever 
 we may think of his speculative belief, respecting his practi¬ 
 cal zeal to do good, there can be no dispute. We find him 
 repeatedly interposing his benevolent offices to save from de¬ 
 struction by the Indians the colony which refused him a pas¬ 
 sage even through its territory ; we find him interrupting his 
 arduous labors in London, to aid in providing the suffering 
 poor of that city with fuel; above all, we find him at all 
 times, on the land and on the sea, yearning to promote the 
 spiritual welfare of the Indians. Eliot has won the name of 
 the Indian apostle; but ten years before Eliot preached his 
 first sermon to the Indians, Roger Williams had consecrated 
 himself to this missionary work; not sent out by a powerful 
 and wealthy board and followed with the prayers of thou¬ 
 sands, but driven forth an exile, and selling his house even, 
 “ that he might do the natives good.” 
 
 To the seeker whose adventurous thought carried him fur¬ 
 ther than any of his time in the exploration of a novel princi¬ 
 ple ; to the wise master-builder whose faith in this principle did 
 not falter when charged with the responsibility of an experi¬ 
 ment which to so many seemed subversive of social order; to 
 
 the scholar who, trained in the languages of the old world 
 7 
 
50 
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 wrought the first key for unlocking the dialects of the new; 
 to the philanthropist whose abounding charity recognized no 
 distinction of race or tongue, we erect this statue! Why 
 need I say more ? The muse of history has already written 
 her imperishable record ; the marvelous touch, that endows 
 marble and bronze with life, has set him before us with a 
 reality that words can only feebly counterfeit! 
 
 An epoch is marked in the history of a community when 
 it thus pauses to conquer forgetfulness. We rise to higher 
 levels as we recognize the sacredness of the past; as we com • 
 merce with the great and good who have gone before us, and 
 whose examples are our most precious possession. And, still 
 more is this the case, when we invoke the aid of art to invig¬ 
 orate these ennobling influences, and, when we consecrate to 
 the departed, memorials whose very presence among us breeds 
 gracious and perpetual benediction. Let us rejoice that in 
 making, to-day, this lavish offering, we have at the same 
 time, enriched ourselves. Here have we placed our statue of 
 Roger Williams, and here let it stand; herein a seclusion 
 allowing the thoughtful study which its various excellence 
 exacts; here amid the fields which he once received from 
 Canonicus; here in solemn companionship with kindred 
 dust! Here let it stand ! Here let returning seasons greet it; 
 here let men as they rest from labor, here let children as they 
 turn from play, gaze with reverence at him who chose rather 
 to taste the bitterness of death than to act with a doubting 
 
 conscience. 
 
H O T E . 
 
 Roger Williams, according to tlie most trustworthy tradition, was a native of 
 Wales, and was born near the close of the sixteenth century. In a document dated 
 July 21,'1679, he speaks of himself as “being now near to fourscore years of 
 age.” During his youth, he lived for a time in London, where he attracted the 
 notice of Coke. He was elected a scholar of the Charter-house, June 25, 1621; and 
 was matriculated a pensioner of Pembroke College, Cambridge, July 7, 1625. He 
 took the degree of Bachelor of Arts, January, 1627. His signature is still preserved 
 in the subscription book of the University. From this date till he left England there 
 is no record respecting him, but from an incidental statement in the Bloudy Tenent 
 yet more Bloudy it has been surmised that he lived in Lincolnshire. He sailed from 
 Bristol, with his wife Mary, in the ship Lyon, December 1, 1630, and after a voy¬ 
 age of sixty-six days, arrived off Nantasket, February 5, 1631. According to his 
 own account he was invited, soon after, to become teacher of the Boston church, in 
 place of Wilson who was about returning to England, but declined the offer be¬ 
 cause he “ durst not officiate to an unseparated people.” The statement that he was 
 admitted freeman, arose from the fact that another of the same name was 
 in the colony, whose application was made nearly four months before the 
 Lyon arrived. In April, 1631, he was invited to the church at Salem, but the 
 authorities interfered, and during the summer he went to Plymouth, where 
 he became assistant to Rev. Ralph Smith. While here he composed a “trea¬ 
 tise” against the Patent, which was submitted to the examination of the 
 magistrates in December, 1633, and the author was cited to the next session of 
 the Court “to be censured,” but on his expressing submission, the matter was 
 dropped. Before the close of 1633, he returned to Salem, assisting the Rev. Mr. 
 Skelton, but “in not any office.” In August, 1634, after the death of Skelton, he 
 was called to be teacher of the church. In November, 1634, he was summoned 
 before the Court for having broken his promise “ in teaching publicly against the 
 King’s patent.” but at the March session, proceedings were again suspended, on the 
 ground that his action sprang from “ scruple of conscience” rather than “seditious 
 principle.” When the Court met again, April 30, a new charge was brought 
 against him of withstanding the Freeman’s oath. Early in the summer of 1635, 
 the Salem church proceeded with his ordination, which led to his being cited before 
 
52 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 the Court, July 8, on the ground that “ being under question for divers dan¬ 
 gerous opinions,” he had been called in “ contempt of authority,” to the office of 
 teacher. A petition of the Salem men with reference to certain lands on Marblehead 
 Neck was, on the same ground, refused. Availing himself of ecclesiastical 
 right, Williams caused letters of admonition to be written by the Salem church to 
 its sister churches, complaining of the “ heinous sin ” committed by the magistrates. 
 When a majority of the Church showed a disposition to recede from its position, 
 he wrote a letter renouncing communion with them. At the September session ot 
 the Court, when he had been cited to appear, no action was taken, and the Court 
 adjourned till October 8. At this time, Williams, when asked whether he was pre¬ 
 pared to give satisfaction, “ justified both these letters, and maintained all his opin¬ 
 ions.” In consequence, sentence was passed requiring him “ to depart out of this 
 jurisdiction within six weeks.” According to Winthrop, this was done “the next 
 morning,” which would make the date of the sentence October 9th, but the original 
 record has no mention of any adjournment. On this point there has been a singular 
 confusion. Soon after, Williams was seized with severe illness, and the authorities 
 allowed him to remain till Spring, but as he began again to maintain his opinions 
 “ to company in his house,” it was decided in January, 1636, to send him to Eng¬ 
 land, when he fled to the woods. After wandering for fourteen weeks, in the spring 
 of 1636, he began “ to build and plant,” at Scekonk, but in June, changed his 
 location, and settled on the spot to which he gave the name of Providence. During 
 the summer, he interfered to prevent the Pequot league. In March, 1639, he was 
 re-baptised by “one Holliman, a poor man, late of Salem,” and united with Holli¬ 
 man and ten others, in forming what was afterwards the First Baptist Church; but 
 after three or four months “ he broke from the Society.” In the summer of 1643, 
 he sailed for England, devoting the leisure of his vogage to the preparation of his 
 Key into the Language of America. In March, 1644, he obtained the charter of the 
 “ Providence Plantations.” In the same year he published, at London, his Key, 
 and in the year following the Bloudy Tenent. Bound up with the latter was the 
 Examination of Cotton’s Letter, in which he incidentally presents his own view 
 of the grounds of his banishment. In November, 1651, lie sailed for England 
 the second time, and published in the following year, The Bloudy Tenent yet more 
 Bloudy, the Hireling Ministry, and the Experiments of Spiritual Life and Health. 
 Early in the summer of 1654, he returned to Providence. From September, 1654 
 till May, 1657, he served as President of the Colony, In August, 1672, occurred 
 his debate at Newport with the Quakers, a full account of which he published 
 in 1676. He died some time between January 18, and May 10, 1683. According to 
 custom, he was buried on his own grounds, not far from his house, and the spot 
 where he landed. The grave was distinctly marked at the beginning of the present 
 century. 
 
PROGRAMME 
 
 AT THE 
 
 DEDICATION OF ROGER WILLIAMS MONUMENT 
 
 in 
 
 ROGER WILLIAMS PARK, 
 Providence, R. I. 
 
 TUESDAY, OCTOBER 16 , i 877 . 
 
 OVERTURE,—“ Fest.”. Leutner. 
 
 American Band. 
 
 CHORUS,—“ Know ye the Land so Wondrous Fair.” 
 
 Children op the Public Schools. 
 
 UNVEILING OF THE MONUMENT,— 
 
 By the Artist, Mr. Franklin Simmons, of Rome. 
 
 ORIGINAL HYMN,—. By Mrs. Sarah Helen Whitman. 
 
 Children of the Public Schools. 
 
 MASONIC DEDICATION. 
 
 DELIVERY OF THE MONUMENT TO THE CITY,— 
 
 By the Chairman of the Committee on Parks, Arthur F. Dexter. 
 
 ACCEPTANCE OF THE MONUMENT,— 
 
 By Thomas A. Doyle, Mayor. 
 
 CHORAL,—“ A Mighty Fortress is our God.” 
 
 Children of the Public Schools. 
 
 PRAYER,— 
 
 By Rev. E. G. Robinson, President of Brown University. 
 
 CHANT,—“ The Lord’s Prayer.” 
 
 Children of the Public Schools. 
 
 ORATION,— 
 
 By Prof. J. Lewis Diman, of Brown University. 
 
 CHORAL,—“ Praise ye the Lord.” 
 
 Children of the Public Schools. 
 
 BENEDICTION 
 


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