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Mew England society in the ci+
Annual report. [42d] 1847.

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fer- tie founding if_ a. College: i/ithlj. Colony"

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ME. HALL'S DISCOURSE

BE FORK THK

NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY,

CITY OF NEW YORK,

DBC. ZS, iwr.

GEOKGE F. NESBITT, PRINTER,

DISCOURSE

DKLIVEBEB BEFOKE

THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY,

IN THE CITY OF NEW-YORK,

DECEMBER !l% 1847.

J. PRESCOTT HALL,

NEW-YORK :
GEORGE F. NESBITT, PRINTER.
1848.

CORRESPONDENCE.

New-York, December 30, 1847.
Sir, In behalf of the New England Society, in the City of New-
York, and in pursuance of a resolution of its Board of Officers, we thank
you for the appropriate, well-considered, and very learned and eloquent
Address delivered by you, before the Society, at the Tabernacle, in this
City, on occasion of the recent Anniversary of the Landing of the Pil
grims at Plymouth ; and earnestly request a copy for publication.
We are, very truly, Your friends and servants,
THOMAS FESSENDEN, ,
B. W. BONNEY, } Committee.
S. DRAPER, Jun.,
To J. Prksoott Hall, Esq.

New York, December 31, 1847.
Gentlemen, In compliance with the request contained in your very kind
note of the 30th inst., I herewith furnish a copy of the Address therein
referred to, for publication ; but with no hope or belief that it merits the
commendation you have been pleased to beBtow upon it.
Deeply impressed with a sense of what I owe to the New England So
ciety for its nattering consideration, and to yourselves, as their Com
mittee, I am, Gentlemen, with very great respect,
Your obedient servant, JONA. PRESCOTT HALL.
To Messrs.
Thomas Fessenden, )
B. W. Bonnet, > Committee.
S. Draper, Jdn., Esqrs., ) 1*

DISCOURSE.

To trace the rise and progress of communities ; to follow
the fortunes and elucidate the character of those who have
laid the foundation of new associations ; to preserve from
decay the memory of illustrious men, who have transferred
from one hemisphere to another, the arts of peace, the bless
ings of liberty, and the consolations of religion ; belong
perhaps, to the province of history, rather than to a
brief address, upon a special occasion. And yet, we who
are now assembled, may with strict propriety, and not
without a sense of just pride, cast our eyes back upon the
events of the last two centuries, while we contemplate the
ancestry from which we are sprung, and the causes which
have led to our being here, this day, to present our grateful
offerings upon the altar of our national existence.'
" Difficilis est (says the learned Grotius,) rerum gesta-
rum narratio : quse absentem, fugiunt ; presentem, trahunt."
It is difficult to give a correct narrative of events ; they
escape the observation of those who were not witnesses ;
while those who were present, are drawn away by their
force, or become parties in the scene.
But the story of our origin, as a people, is not obscure.
We are not compelled, like other nations, to trace back our
race through rude ages of barbarism, to the dim uncer
tainty of tradition and fable. The foundations of society in

New England and the origin of its Institutions, both civil
and religious, may be correctly ascertained ; for their his
tory has been written and published to the whole world.
In the mythology of the ancient Greeks, the Goddess of
Wisdom is fabled to have sprung into existence from the
head of Jupiter, completely armed and all perfect. In like
manner, the first settlements of New England came into
being, as communities, with all the attributes of organized
society, and all the restraints of good government and sub
ordination. The day which we now celebrate, is a memorable one,
in the annals of our country ; a day never to be forgotten or
disregarded. If the fourth of July, 1776, was, in the esti
mation of the patriotic John Adams, a memorable epoch, to
be commemorated as the day of deliverance, to be solem
nized with pomp, shows, bonfires and illuminations, from
one end of the continent to the other, how much more is the
22d of December, 1620, which marks the period when the
national existence of New England began, to be held in re
membrance by us and our successors, " from that time for
ward forever !"
We are here assembled, Gentlemen of the New England
Society, to celebrate this great occasion. To say to those
who have gone before us, if in the mysterious ties which
bind the present and the past together, $uch communica.
tions can be held, that we have not forgotten the days of
their labor and sorrow ; that the history of their perilous
fortunes has not been blotted out, nor that of their self-de
votion gone into oblivion ; that their children, grateful for
the sacrifices which they endured, full of admiration at their
example, proud of a descent from such illustrious progeni
tors, year by year assemble themselves together to com
memorate the great events of past centuries, that their fa-
hers' names may not be forgotten or lost from among men.

This Society, of which we are members, was not found
ed upon narrow, or sectional predilections. Having its be
ginning in wise and generous purposes, its chief object is,
and ever has been, to connect the natives of New England
and their descendants with the early history of their coun
try ; that, by the considerations of a common ancestry, the
emotions of a natural sympathy might be excited, and the
bonds of union strengthened ; and thus, that the descend
ants of those, who braved the same dangers, to attain the
same ends, might be led to kindly thoughts of one another ;
and finally to kindly acts and benevolent associations.
We do not arrogate to ourselves, or assert for ourselves,
any superiority over the inhabitants of any other part of the
country, either in the manner of our origin, or in our pro
gress towards maturity. Conceding to all sections of the
Union a beginning equally as respectable, a progress
equally honorable, and a present condition quite as pros
perous as our own, we, nevertheless, have aright, without
offence to others, to consider our family relations, and as
the children of common parents, to assemble ourselves to
gether, on an occasion like the present, and look back with
grateful remembrance upon those who, through peril, hard
ship and privation, subdued the wilderness for our benefit
and laid here the foundations of law, order and religion so
broad and deep, that we may erect superstructures upon
them, massive and high, without endangering the solid
basis beneath.
Look back upon the origin ofthe first settlements of New
England, and tell me in what annals, other than our own,
can you find the history of a people, who, surrounded at
home by the comforts of social life ; suffering no intoler
able evils from the tyranny of government ; weighed down
by no excessive burthens ; untempted by prospects of gain ;
unswayed by the lust of conquest ; abandoned, neverthe-

less, all that home, kindred and country could offer, for the
sole purpose of enjoying an unrestrained liberty of thinking
and acting upon the great rights of conscience, free from
the domination of ecclesiastical control. Look at them
assembled upon the shores of their native, their beau
tiful Island, prepared to undergo all the hardship and
perils of voluntary exile ! Whose cheek blanches ; whose
eye grows dim as they look upon the waste of waters
which shuts them out from the distant and unknown
shores 1 Why should they leave this pleasant land % Why
should they desert their tranquil homes 1 What dire neces
sity drives them forth 1 It is not poverty goading the Irish
man to fairer scenes and more fruitful climes ; it is not
the Pole, scourged forth by the iron whip of a military
tyranny ; nor the blue-eyed German, escaping from the
grinding exactions of a toilsome and hopeless, because un
rewarded labor.
No, none of these motives impels or drives them forward:
but they are drawn by an impulse more powerful than the
love of home, or parents, or country. It is the still small
voice of conscience, which tells them of a duty higher and
purer and holier than all these ; and in obedience to its
dictates, they must go forth to worship the God of their
fathers in the wilderness.
" It is not the least debt" (says Sir Walter Raleigh,) "we
owe unto history, that it hath made us acquainted with our
dead ancestors, and delivered us their memory and fame.
Besides, we gather out of it a policy no less wise than eter
nal, by the comparison and application of other men's fore-
passed mercies with our own like errors and ill-deservings."
The history of our ancestors is indeed of inestimable
worth to their descendants ; though by it, our " ill-deserv
ings," may, perhaps, stand out in more prominent relief
against their fore-past mercies. But their example remains

for all time to come. Simple, unpretending, high-minded
and pure of purpose, the Pilgrims of New England went
forth for great objects, to be attempted at first by inconside
rable means.
And who composed this devoted band, these Pilgrims in
the desert 1 Were they an ignorant and fanatical sect, en
ticed from <heir homes by ambitious leaders, taking advan
tage of a newly-awakened religious enthusiasm, for the ac
complishment of their own selfish objects 1 or were they
educated and well-informed men, of large experience, pru
dent, sagacious and wise 1
TheearlysettlersofPlymouth, Massachusetts, Connecticut
and New Haven, (for at the first, these Colonies were separate
and independent jurisdictions,) numbered among their ranks
many individuals eminent for their learning, and distin
guished by their personal condition. Mr. Carver, the first
Governor of Plymouth, was a gentleman well known, and of
elevated character, who originally had a good estate in
England ; but being among the earliest emigrants to Ley-
den and America, and one of their principal agents, he lib
erally used his fortune for the benefit of his associates ; set
ting a most illustrious example of patience, self-denial and
generosity, through long years devoted to the good of others,
and the advancement of that cause, for which he staked,
and finally sacrificed, his life. William Bradford, a name
never to be mentioned without honor by a descendant ofthe
Pilgrims, although in some degree a self-taught scholar
was nevertheless familiar "with the Dutch and French lan
guages, and attained to a considerable intimacy with the
Latin and Greek. But that he might " see the ancient ora
cles of God in their native beauty," he applied himself,
in his leisure moments, to the study of Hebrew ; and
though his whole life was much devoted to literary pur
suits ; although he inherited a good landed property

10
from his father, and was educated for the manly em
ployments of agriculture; yet, in his early youth, hav
ing his mind deeply impressed with its responsibilities to a
higher power, he passed over to Holland to join the little
band of non-conformists who had chosen an asylum there
against the ecclesiastical tyranny of King James. Mr.
Cotton, one of the most learned men of his time, was edu
cated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was emi
nently distinguished for his scholastic attainments. He
wrote Latin with elegance, was a critic in Greek, and so
well skilled in the Hebrew tongue that he could discourse
in that language. Brewster, the steadfast and devout elder,
who, in the midst of want, if not absolute famine, gave
thanks to God that his family were permitted " to suck of
the abundance of the seas, and of the treasures hid in the
sand," also educated at the University of Cambridge, was
at one time connected with the British Embassy in Holland.
Higginson was a graduate from Emanuel College. Eaton
and Hopkins had been eminent merchants in London.
Mr. Davenport, a student of Oxford, and a minister of great
fame at home, was also a distinguished scholar, eminent
alike for learning and virtue. Edward Winslow, the brave
man who offered himself as a hostage for his Colony in
their first interview with the savage monarch of Mount
Hope, possessed both fortune and information. In his
travels on the Continent of Europe, becoming acquaint
ed with Mr. Robinson, he adopted his sentiments and
finally joined the emigrants who came to Plymouth ; and
after performing for them the most signal services, in the
midst of great and boldly encountered dangers, he at last
laid down his life for his country in that unfortunate expe
dition fitted out by Cromwell against the Spaniards in the
West Indies. Mr. Hooker, a most eloquent divine, and
one ofthe founders ofthe Colony of Connecticut, was edu-

11
cated at Cambridge in England. His command of lan
guage was so great, that, like Whitfield, he usually deliv
ered his discourses without reference to notes ; while his ex
pressive countenance and personal demeanor, added a ma
jesty to his presence, which commanded at once the respect
and admiration of his hearers. Mr. Stone, at one time an
associate with Mr. Hooker, and a graduate of the same
University, was one of the most accurate logicians of his
day, celebrated not only for acuteness, but also for wit,
humor and pleasantry. And it may be here observed, that
many of the learned persons whose names are now men
tioned, have left to their posterity most striking evidences
of their attainments, in the various works for which they
were, in their own times, particularly distinguished. Win
throp, a name prolific in illustrious men — a gentleman of
education and bred to the law, inherited from his ances
tors an estate of six hundred pounds a year : an income,
which would be accounted even in these less frugal days,
quite competent to maintain the condition in which he was
born% Eminent himself, he transmitted his name and fame,
through two chief magistrates of Connecticut, son and
grandson ; and finally, the same blood coming down to a
Lieutenant-Governor of Massachusetts, flows, through him,
in the veins of the distinguished representative from Boston,
who now presides over the popular branch of the American
Congress. In one word — not to swell the long catalogue —
if we look at the whole body of the emigrants by the May
flower and Speedwell, the Arbella, the Ambrose, the Tal
bot and the Jewel, we can nowhere find names more emi
nent for prudence and forecast, or more remarkable for intel
ligence, enterprise and courage. If Lord Chatham, while
speaking of the renowned Patriots of our Independence,
could say, that he never had heard or read of any body of
men superior to the Congress at Philadelphia, what may

12
we not say of those, who, on the bleak shores of New Eng
land, in the midst of the desolations of winter, surrounded
by perils and want, could, nevertheless, so far subdue them
selves to the elements, and the elements to them, as not
to venture forth from the dreary prison of their ship, until
they had combined themselves together for their better
order and preservation, by framing a general law for the good
government of the Colony. And this too in the most per
fect spirit of liberty and equality.
In what other records of man's history do you find such
evidences of just subordination, and solemn purpose ; such
moral and such Christian elevation 1 The very name by
which they designated themselves is significant of their
character, and marks at once their courage and humility.
"And the time being come (says Governor Bradford,) that
they must depart, they were accompanied to a town, sun
dry miles off, called Delft Haven, where the ship lay ready
to receive them. So they left that goodly and pleasant City
which had been their resting-place near twelve years.
But they knew they were Pilgrims, and looked not much
on those things, but lifted up their eyes to Heaven, their
dearest country, and quieted their spirits !"
What words of pathos and simplicity ! They knew they
were Pilgrims, and looked not much on those things ! Yes,
they were indeed Pilgrims. Pilgrims bound on no ordinary
journey, to lay the foundation of no ordinary society,
to establish a name not soon to fade away ; for while ad
miration of purity and excellence shall endure, so long as
respect for departed worth shall remain among their de
scendants, so long shall the name of " 'Pilgrim''' be honored
and revered.
Among the many remarkable qualities with which Provi
dence, for its own wise ends, seems to have endued the
character of our ancestors, I know of none more striking or

13
admirable than their love of order, and their submission
to those just restraints whereby society is held together,
property respected, personal security guarded, and public
liberty preserved.
From the very first, the necessity for such submission was
apparent to their minds. Recollect, that before they left
the ship which had conveyed them safely across the boister
ous waves of the Atlantic, borne up in the " hollow of that
hand" which never ceased to support them, they projected,
formed and signed, the first compact for liberal government,
under equal laws, of which we have any record.
No men ever understood better than they, the proper foun
dations of republican government, or the just principles by
which alone true liberty and equality can be maintained.
" The best part of a community," said Governor Winthrop,
in a letter to the people of Connecticut, " is always the
least ; and of that least, the wiser are still less." " There
is," said he on another occasion, " a liberty of corrupt
nature, which is inconsistent with authority, impatient of
restraint, the enemy of truth and peace, and all the ordi
nances of God are bent against it. But there is a civil, a
moral, & federal liberty, which consists in every one's en
joying his property and having the benefit of the laws of
his country ; a liberty of that only which is just and good ;
for this liberty, you are to stand with your lives.''''
Wise legislator ofthe old time, just, sagacious and true !
did your prophetic gaze pierce forward two centuries to our
times, for this picture of democratic freedom 1 to view
and describe a liberty of corrupt nature, inconsistent with
authority, impatient of restraint, the enemy of truth and
peace ? If haply, you should have beheld such scenes in
your vision, and turned your eyes from the prospect, dim
and suffused with tears, look once again, and you shall yet
behold the better portion of your descendants, "standing

14
with their lives," for that liberty, which is just and good,
which gives to every one the enjoyment of his own pro
perty, and the benefit ofthe laws of his country.
It should not be forgotten, perhaps, that when the project
for the settlement of New England was first entertained thc
state of public sentiment in the land of our ancestors began
to be favorable to the commencement of such an enterprise.
It was at the close of the reign of James the First, when
men's minds were agitated by new views of their rights and
privileges. The iron sway of the last Henry had been in
some measure forgotten, while that of his stem and lion-
hearted daughter had lost a large portion of its influence,
during the weak and undignified, yet assuming adminis
tration of the learned, but contemptible, Scottish king. His
subjects had at this period, begun to think for themselves.
The reforms of Luther had spread their influence beyond
the sea and over the land. The bigotry of Papal power
was not able to subdue or keep down the awakened spirit
of inquiry. A deep sense of religious obligation, in a large
class of English thinkers, had taken the place of forms and
masses, of indulgences and dispensations. The accounta
bility of man, as an individual, had become impressed upon
the minds of the devout and reflecting. Although the time
for the enjoyment of religious freedom in their own land
had not yet come, yet the waves of public opinion had
begun to move and heave in a manner which indicated that
the great internal power which caused the agitation, could
not long be pent up or restrained. When a true religious
sentiment takes possession of the soul, it becomes superior
to all other considerations. A sympathetic communication
extends the feeling from mind to mind and from heart to
heart. In the depth of its fervor all other objects are com
paratively forgotten. The strength of kings, the influence
of forms, and the rewards of obedience to power, have lost

15
their influence. The soul becomes poised upon itself. Not
dreading its obligation to men, while those of a paramount
nature are before it, it cuts aloof from all worldly consider
ations, and " holds itself responsible only to its God."
That this sentiment was the exciting cause of the first
removal of our ancestors to Holland, and of their subsequent
emigration to New England, has been conceded by most
historians who have written upon the subject, and may be
assumed as the basis of all our speculations upon those ex
traordinary movements commenced by the independent
churches on the other side of the Atlantic. Indeed it has
been supposed, and not unfrequently asserted, that the first
settlers at Plymouth, went thither, for the exclusive purpose
of enjoying their religious opinions and practices in their
own way, unmolested by civil control, or ecclesiastical do
mination. That this was thefirst object of those who left
England, and passed over to Holland, in 1608, is undoubt
edly true ; but that it was their only motive for leaving
Holland, and coming to New England, cannot well be ; for
from the moment when the reformation of Luther had
taken permanent hold of the Low Countries, in the year
1573 ; from that moment, the Dutch, with a wise policy,
granted a free, absolute and uncontrolled liberty of con
science, to all religions and all sects ; so that the Non-Con
formist of England could there meet the Catholic of Spain,
the Jew of Syria, and the Pagan of heathen lands, upon
the equal platform of free toleration. So far, then, as lib
erty of conscience was concerned, there was no cause of
complaint in Holland. The free exercise of every man's
religious opinions and practices, was thoroughly guarded ;
and the church of Mr. Robinson might have remained safely
in Leyden, if their only desire had been to worship the God
of their fathers, in their own mode, and according to the dic
tates of their own consciences. Indeed the liberality of

16
Dutch sentiment, in this behalf was such as to excite the
ridicule of their neighbors, who intimated that their toler
ance was the effect, not of liberal principles acting upon
religious subjects, but of an indifference towards religion
itself, in all its forms and in every aspect. Amsterdam was
denominated by Bishop Hall, a " common harbour of all
opinions ;" others called it " a cage for unclean birds," to
which "all strange religions flocked." And Beaumont
and Fletcher introduce a pedant in one of their plays as
saying : "I am a schoolmaster, sir, and would fain confer
with you about erecting four new sects of religion at
Amsterdam." What then were the causes which first moved the Pil
grims in Holland to cast their eyes towards the setting sun,
with the design of establishing new institutions in an un
known country, remote, barbarous and wild ? What feel
ings were those which swelled in the hearts of those consci
entious and brave men, to encounter hardship in all its
forms, disease, famine and death, with their wives and
children, among savage tribes, on rock-bound shores 1
Doubtless, the religious sentiment was the controlling and
first moving cause ; but it seems not to have been the only
one ; — for, as I have before observed, if the free enjoyment
of their own religion in their own way, was the sole motive,
then there was no reason for leaving Holland, where their
persons, their property and opinions, were absolutely pro
tected by the law of that land. They left England, it
is true, for this one cause ; but they left Holland for that
and for other causes, which the Pilgrims themselves
have set forth, in their own language, so that they
might be known of all men, and respected by their
descendants. I repeat again, that the first and leading
motive; that which lay at the foundation of all their designs
and actions, was the religious sentiment and feeling, which

17
glowed in their hearts, and imparted an energy to their con
duct, unknown to common men, unfelt by ordinary minds.
But there was also a feeling of human misery, as strangers
in a strange land ; a yearning after kindred associations,
and a love of their own country, which no exile among a
strange people could subdue, no absence could make them
forget, no estrangement by time could overcome. Hear
the reasons for their enterprise, assigned by one who was
with them from the beginning, and knew all their designs
and all their motives.
" They had come," says Governor Bradford, " to a coun
try where they saw many goodly cities^ strongly walled,
and filled with armed men ;" but they heard, also, " a
strange and uncouth language, and beheld manners and
customs, so far differing from the villages wherein they
were born, and bred, and had so long lived, that it seemed
to them as ifthey were come into a new world. But these
were not things which much took up their thoughts, for
they had other work on hand ; and it was not long before
they saw the grim and griseledface of poverty coming upon
them, like an armed man, with whom they must buckle
and encounter, and from whom they could not fly. After
having lived in Holland about eleven or twelve years, in
the agitation of their thoughts, and after much discourse,
they began to incline to the conclusion of removal to some
other place, not out of any new fangledness, or other such like
giddy humour, by which men are sometimes transported,
but for sundry weighty and solid reasons.
And first ; they found by experience, the hardness of the
place and country to be such, that few would come to them,
and fewer abide with them ; for many that came and de
sired to remain, could not endure the great labor they were
contented to undergo. So severe, indeed, were their suf
ferings, that many who desired to enjoy the ordinances of

18
God in their purity, and the liberty of the Gospel with them,
yet preferred prisons in England, rather than liberty in Hol
land, with these afflictions. But it was thought that if a
better and easier place of living could be had, it would take
away these discouragements.
Secondly ; they saw that, although the people generally
bore their difficulties with cheerfulness and courage, while
in the best of their strength, yet old age had begun to come
on some, which was hastened before its time by their great
and continued labors ; and it was seen, that within a few
years, they must, of necessity, sink under their burthens, or
be scattered before them. Adopting, therefore, the pro
verb, that a " wise man seeth the plague when it cometh,
and hideth himself," so they, like skilful and beaten sol
diers, fearful of being surrounded by their enemies, unable
to fight or fly, thought it better to dislodge betimes to some
place of better advantage and less danger, if any such could
be found.
Thirdly ; as necessity was a task-master over them, so
they were forced to be such to their servants and children,
which did not only wound the hearts of many a loving fa
ther and mother ; so it produced many sad and sorrowful
effects. For the children, although willing to bear a part of
the burthen of their parents, were oftentimes so oppressed
with their heavy labors, that, although their minds
were free and willing, yet their bodies became de
crepit in their early youth ; the vigor of nature being con
sumed, as it were, in the very bud. But what was more
lamentable, and, as they said, of all sorrows most heavy to
be borne, was, that many of their children were drawn away
by evil examples of the Dutch into dangerous courses ;
some becoming soldiers, others taking upon them far voy
ages by sea, or other causes tending to dissoluteness ; so that
they saw that their posterity would be in danger to degen-

19
erate and be corrupted ; wherefore, considering how hard the
country was where they lived ; how many, having spent
their estate, were forced to return to England ; how griev
ous it was to live from under the protection of the State of
England ; how like they were to lose their language and
their English name ; how unable they were to give to their
children such education as they themselves had received —
they conceived that if God would be pleased to discover
some place unto them, even though in America, and give
them so much favor with the King and State of England as
to have their protection there, where they might enjoy like
liberty, and show by example, their tender countrymen, no
less burdened than themselves, where they might live and
comfortably subsist, free from anti-Christian bondage, keep
ing their name and nation, and be a means, not only to en
large the dominions of their native State, but the Church of
Christ also ; they thought they might more glorify God, do
more good to their country, better provide for their posterity,
and live to be more refreshed by their labors, than they ever
could in Holland". And last, though not least, to use their
own language, " they had great hope and inward zeal of
laying some good foundation for the propagating and ad
vancing the Gospel of the kingdom'of Christ, in those re
mote parts of the world."
These were the reasons assigned by the Pilgrims them
selves for the great and perilous enterprise of exploring and
settling a new world. Nor let it be thought that the dangers
to be encountered, the hardships to be endured, and the dif
ficulties to be overcome, were not present to their minds and
imaginations. "The places upon which their eyes were bent, "
says Governor Bradford, " were some of those unpeopled
countries of America, which are fruitful and fit for habita
tion; where there were only savage and brutish people, which
range up and down, little otherwise than the wild beasts."
2*

20
But when these propositions were made public, the doubt
ing were alarmed and the timid dismayed, alleging things
neither unreasonable nor improbable : as that it was a
great design, subject to inconceivable perils and dangers ;
then the length of the voyage, which the weak bodies of
men and women, bowed down by age and toil, could never
endure ; the miseries also, to which they would be exposed
in the new found country from famine, want and nakedness,
and the yet greater dangers among a people represented to
them as " barbarous, savage, cruel and treacherous : fu
rious in their rage, merciless in their conquests : not con
tent to take away life merely, but delighting to torment
men, by flaying them alive, and broiling them on coals."
And surely, these things could not but move the brave, and
make the timid " to quake and tremble." To these were
added, the precedents of ill success in like designs, with the
remembrance of the hardships endured in Holland, upon
their first removal thither. For the abortive attempts to plant
in other parts of the country, were well known to the emi
grants ; so much so, that they were described as being
" like the habitations of the foolish, cursed before they had
taken root."
And what answer could be given to objections so obvious
and formidable 1 Who could observe the perils of the voy
age, and yet conceal the hardships to be endured, or chase
away the visions of hostile savages surrounding the feeble
adventurers, upon their firstlanding 1 Nothing like this was
attempted ; but in bold and manly language they proclaim
ed that all great and honorable actions were accompanied by
difficulties, and must be overcome by answerable courage.
The dangers were admitted to be great, but not desperate ;
the difficulties many, but not invincible ; and that all of
them, through the help of God, might be borne, or over
come, by fortitude and patience.
True it was, that such attempts were not to be made but

21
upon good ground and reason ; not rashly, or lightly, for
curiosity or the hope of gain. Their ends, they said, were
good; their calling lawful and urgent ; and therefore, they
might expect the blessing of God in their proceedings : "yea,
although they should lose their lives in this action, yet that
they might have comfort in the same, and their endeavors
would be honorable."
Honorable, indeed, were their endeavors ; and thrice
honored be their names and memories, who were actuated
by such high purposes, and sustained by such brave perse
verance. It will be observed here, with what natural simplicity
they describe their feelings and disclose their motives of ac
tion ; and among them, one, not the least observable, is
their love of home, language and country ! That myste
rious tie, which binds men to the land of their birth ; that in
nate sympathy with the accents of our early days, which
neither time nor distance can destroy ; that yearning after
kindred associations, which will not be denied ; that home
sickness of the heart, when banished from the scenes of its
youth and affections, which not even the great Roman ora
tor could endure ; these, all these, are most observable in
the character and feelings of our ancestors.
They lived in Holland, "as men in exile and in
a poor condition." But they seem to have felt as if
their banishment were removed, if again they could be
placed in connection with their native country, and un
der the protection of its power. On those western shores,
to which they had turned their eyes, they would be objects
of solicitude to their distant friends and relatives. Sub
jects of the same king, obedient to the same parliament,
they would be Englishmen still, though Englishmen in a
distant land. Their habitations might indeed be changed,
but their country would remain the same. Exiles no more,

22
for they were a part of the British Empire ; and the flag
which floated over their heads was the same banner which
had waved on the fields of their fathers' fame. " May not,"
exclaims Governor Bradford, "and ought not, the chil
dren of these fathers rightly say, < our fathers were English
men which came over the great ocean, and were ready
to perish in this wilderness.' "
Our ancestors were proud of their nation, and they could
not suffer the ties which bound them to the spot where they
were born to be entirely severed. Englishmen by birth ;
Englishmen they would live and die. The sun, when he
rose, came from their native land, and had warmed its soil
by his early beams. The stars of night had been gazed
upon by them under the broad canopy of heaven, while
standing by the doors of their fathers ; and their relatives
and friends in a far-distant land, would breathe a prayer for
their safety and success as members still of the same great
family; and thus their nationality itself would be preserved.
Then again, the language of their youth would not be
forgotten or lost, but would be preserved and extended far
and wide, over new and boundless regions ; and this, too,
was a matter of pleasing anxiety to them.
And which of us of New England origin, now here as
sembled, is there, who is not ready to thank those wise and
thoughtful men, for the great gift of that noble tongue, in
which our mothers first taught us to speak 1 Who would
not lament if it had been confounded and lost in the hard
jargon of Holland 1 Who would alter it, that he might
" babble a dialect of France V Who would change its
terse and manly accents for the soft voice of Italy, or the
sonorous periods of Spain 1 No ; if we —
" Would delight our private hours
With music or with poem, where so soon
As in our native language, can we find
That solace ?>>

23
Language of Shakspeare and of Milton ! Language of
the Pilgrims ! Having sounded its loud alarums in the
great cause of freedom on its native shores, from the tongues
of Burke, of Fox, and of Chatham, it has been echoed
across the Atlantic and poured out in thunders from the
lips of Webster, of Clay, and Calhoun ! Language of
free-born men ! It has fixed its abode upon this western
continent, here to remain, and advance, and spread out, un
til its voice shall have been heard in every valley and on
every hill-top, between the rising and the setting sun. Nor
shall its sounds cease to echo and vibrate in its new abode,
while man shall retain the power of self-government, and
the love of liberty be cherished in his bosom.
Observe, also, the great forecast of our ancestors in their
anxiety to give their children that education which should
fit them to be Englishmen, speaking the English language,
protected by English laws, and enjoying English liberty.
All these were precious in their eyes ; and if they could
have but one privilege more, the liberty of enjoying the
forms of their own religion in their own way ; then, though
seas were put between them and their native land, they
were no longer exiles, no longer wanderers without a home,
without a country.
In pursuance of this design, they procured the principal
Secretary of State, " to move his Majesty, King James, by a
private motion, to give way to such a people, who could
not so comfortably live under the government of another
State, to enjoy their liberty of conscience under his gracious
protection in America, where they would endeavor the ad
vancement of his Majesty's dominions, in the enlargement
ofthe Gospel by all due means." This, his Majesty said
was a good and honest motive ; and asking what profits
might arise in the part they intended ? 'twas answered,
"fishing." To which he replied with his ordinary assever-

24
ation, " So God have my soul, 'tis an honest trade, 'twas
the Apostles' own calling."
Upon this hint, for the pedantic trifler would not in plain
terms grant the favor thus sought, they obtained from the
Virginia Company that patent, which furnished the title
under which our ancestors undertook the greatest enter
prise in the annals of their race.
This Company, it appears, was ready to grant them a
patent with ample privileges, and were desirous that they
should undertake the expedition; "but the King would only
connive at them," says Bradford ; "he would not molest
them if they carried themselves peaceably, but he would
not tolerate them, by public authority, under his seal."
Although not satisfied with this Royal manifestation of
kindness, they concluded, nevertheless, to act upon it, consid
ering, that " if there was no security in the promise thus in
timated, there would be no greater certainty in a further
confirmation of it. For if afterwards there should be a
purpose or desire to wrong them, though they had a seal as
broad as the house-floor, it would not serve the turn, for
there would be means enough found to recall or reverse it."
With these resolutions, and under this title, they em
barked. But would it give them a fair right to take pos
session of lands in other regions, by a deed from a Company
which had itself obtained its title, under a grant from the
crown'? Upon this subject you must permit me to make a
few remarks, in defence of the first settlers of New England;
as their occupation of a territory, partially in possession of
another race, has been a theme for much reproach upon
them, and their sense of justice.
In the first place, it may be observed, that at the time of
the early settlements, it was the universal opinion among
Europeans, that the discovery of a new country inhabited
by races of uncivilized men, gave to the first discoverers an

25
inchoate right of control over it ; and upon this foundation
lay all the English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese
grants. Indeed, this is the doctrine of modern times, and has on
a late and momentous occasion, been the subject of critical
examination by two powerful nations, almost in the attitude
of war. The whole controversy concerning Oregon turned
upon the question of discovery and of formal possession, for
neither England, 'nor Spain, nor the United States, had ever
occupied the territory to any considerable extent. Indeed,
the Supreme Court of the United States, with that great
jurist, Judge Marshall, at its head, decided not many years
ago, that all our land titles in this country, are founded upon
grants made by the nations who claimed to have been the
first discoverers, and not upon those issued by the Pope,
with a liberal hand, to his Catholic children.
The Northern Continent of America was discovered, as
you all well know, in the year 1497, by John Cabot, a
Portuguese mariner, then in the service of Henry the VII. of
England : and this discovery being carried out by Gosnold,
Hudson and Smith, enabled the English crown to claim cer
tain portions "of it, as subject to colonization and grant,
agreeably to the then received notions of title. Capt. John
Smith, of famous memory, having in the year 1614, ranged
along the coast of New England, from Penobscot to Cape
Cod, formed a map of the country, which he presented to
King James. The impression at that time, and for a con
siderable period afterwards, was, that this part of the coun
try, so full of unexplored bays and jutting headlands, was
an island : and it was thought to resemble the mother
country, both in soil and climate, so much, that Smith be
stowed upon it the name of New England ; which name
Prince Charles afterwards graciously confirmed. The coun
try itself was described by one of the early writers, as being

26
like England in many particulars : somewhat the same
" for heat and cold in summer and winter, champagne
ground, but not high mountainous ; full of vales and
meadow ground, of rivers and sweet springs, as England is.
But principally, as far as we can yet find, it is an island, and
near about the same quantity of England, being cut out
from the mainland in America, as England is from the
main of Europe, by a great arm of the sea, which entereth
in forty degrees, and runneth up northwest and by west,
and goeth out either into the South Sea or else into the Bay
of Canada." The Indians also had the same impression,
confidently affirming that either the Dutch or French passed
through from sea to sea between Plymouth and Virginia.
" North America," says the historian, Hubbard, " is, as
to its nativity, of the same standing with her two elder sis
ters, Peru and Mexico, yet was suffered to lie in its swad
dling-clothes one whole century of years ; nature having
promised no such dowry of rich mines of silver and gold to
them who would espouse her for their own, as she did unto
the other two ; which possibly was the reason why she was
not so hastily courted by her first discoverers."
For more than a century, then, after the first discovery of
the Northern continent, and for a like period after its whole
coast had been traced, from Newfoundland to the southern
point of Florida, the territory of what is now called New
England remained almost untouched by the foot of Euro
pean adventure. The cupidity of mankind was not tempted
to invade her neglected shores, by mines of gold, or treasures
of silver. The silent forests threaded only by their wild and
aboriginal inhabitants, were untrodden by the armed heel
of the Spanish warrior, who had long before scaled the
Andes, red with the blood of conquest ; unassailed by the ad
venturous Portuguese," who had doubled the Cape of Hope ;
and disregarded by that monarch who had furnished Cabot

27
with the means of pointing out this wide country to
Europe. It is not perhaps expedient, or profitable, to go back to
abstract theories as to the rights of possession ; free,
absolute and exclusive possession, which belonged to those
who occupied, and from time immemorial had occupied the
soil upon which we now stand. But it has always seemed
to me a question in morals, not altogether clear, that bands
of roaming savages have a right, to shut from the sun all
the joyful fruits of the earth, that beasts of chase may lie
forever secluded in the depth of their boundless forests. —
If this were an original question, I confess that the axe of
the woodman would ring on my ears as pleasantly as the
war-whoop of the savage. The quiet villages of New Eng
land seem to me now as beautiful, and as becoming to the
fair face of nature, as the wigwams of the Indians. The
spires of churches pointing upwards to heaven, as if to in
vite our contemplations thither, also appear in my eyes,
objects quite as worthy of regard, as the victim bound to the
stake, and surrounded by tortures intended to tempt the en
durance of his steadfast soul.
The deep solitude of the forest fills the human mind with
gloomy thoughts and dark imaginings. Was it intended
by the God of nature that this silence should remain forever
unbroken 1 That these recesses should never be penetrat
ed'? That the beams of a glorious luminary, should never
dispel the pestilential vapor from the swamp, or warm the
generous soil into prolific and life-supporting returns for its
cultivation and improvement 1 Was it destined by Provi
dence, that ignorance should always prevail in the bound
less regions of America ? and that she alone, of all the
world, should be shut out from the blessings of civilization,
and all the aspirations of hope in the ennobling forms pre
sented by the Christian faith 1 Had the native Indian such

28
an exclusive right, in a moral point of view, to the posses
sion and occupancy of millions of acres, not required by his
necessities, merely because he happened to be upon the
soil when it was first seen by the adventurous, yet civilized
European 1 Could the suffering thousands of Ireland and
Germany be, at this time, with justice excluded by the na
tives from a participation in the blessings and enjoyments
which may be afforded by the unoccupied wastes of this
vast continent 1 Was a country capable of sustaining mil
lions of human beings in comfort and competency, to be
restricted to the use of a few thousands of savages, dressed
in skins, and roaming over their broad lands, in pursuit of
the deer, the beaver, and the buffalo 1
It seems to me, there is no law of morals, no rule of
right, no command of religion, according to any form or
manner of belief, — which does or can assert, or maintain,
any such title to an absolute, exclusive, adverse possession,
on the part of the aborigines. They had claims, beyond
doubt, which were to be respected and upheld. They
could not, with any show of justice, be driven altogether
from the graves of their fathers ; but our ancestors could
fairly claim a right to participate in that occupancy which
the Creator intended for all his creatures. The hunter
state was not that which was originally established for man;
and it was only when he had fallen and become degenerate,
that, assimilating himself to the tiger and wolf, man be
came himself a prowling beast of prey. No ! These fair
regions were not destined for eternal solitudes. Savages
with their victims were not to occupy, exclusively and for
ever, the thousand hills of the cattle, and all the pleasant
valleys of the husbandman. A better and a nobler use was
reserved for them. Ignorance was to be banished before the
face of civilization ; the ferocity of the untamed hunter,
was to be softened down by the combined influence of

29
knowledge and religion ; the trees of the forest were to
give place to the olive and the vine; the rose was to blush
and the violet, to bloom where the briar and the thorn
claimed occupation; and the fair face of natrlre was to shine
out in all that beauty for which it was originally created.
" God," said our ancestors, " had brought a vine into
this wilderness ; had cast out the heathen and planted it ;
and had also made room for it ; and he caused it to take
root, and it filled the land ; so that it had sent forth
its boughs to the sea, and its branches to the river."
But irrespective of such considerations, the first settlers of
New England were always regardful of the rights of the
natives and endeavored upon all occasions to protect them
in their just privileges, while at the same time they re
strained their ferocity, and checked their aggressions. It is
well known to you all, as a matter of familiar history, that
antecedently to the arrival of the Mayflower at Plymouth,
the whole country, bordering upon that coast, and extending
far inland, had been so desolated by a pestilence that it was
nearly, if not quite depopulated ; and it was several months
after their first landing at Cape Cod, before the Pilgrims
had an opportunity of speaking with Samoset, the first na
tive with whom they held parley. He informed them that
about four years before their arrival, all the inhabitants of
that vicinity had died of an extraordinary disease, and that
there was "neither man, nor woman, nor child remaining."
"Indeed," says an early writer, "we found none ; so,
there was none to hinder our possession, or lay claim unto
it." The great patent, issued by King James, in 1620, recites
that he had been given certainly to know, that the country
about to be occupied had been depopulated, so that there
was not left, for many leagues together, any that did claim
or challenge any interest therein ; and therefore, says the

30
Charter, it was supposed that the appointed time was come,
" that those large and goodly territories, deserted as it
were, by their natural inhabitants, should be possessed and
enjoyed by such as should, by the powerful arm of God,
be directed and conducted thither." And the grant was
made in terms, for " the enlargement ofthe Christian reli
gion, to stretch out the bounds of the king's dominions, and
to replenish those deserts with people, governed by laws,
and for the more peaceable commerce of all, who should
have occasion to traffic in those territories."
It seems that the country lying between Plymouth and
the great Narragansett Bay, was under the jurisdiction and
sway of Mas-sas-so-it, Sachem of the Wampanoags, a tribe
residing in the vicinity of Mount Hope, and chief ruler also
of all the nations who dwelt between that Bay and the sea.
This chief went to Plymouth, (which was then called
Patuxet by the Indians,) on the 22d of March, 1621, with a
band of sixty armed men to meet the newly arrived strang
ers. They saluted him with words of love from King
James, desiring to traffic, and make a firm peace with
the chief, as their next neighbor. This communication
was well received by the savage monarch ; and thereupon
a treaty of six articles was entered into between the Pil
grims and Massassoit ; which was kept with good faith,
on both sides, during his whole life. Indeed, so far as
I have been able to discover, the first settlers of Ply
mouth, of Massachusetts, of Connecticut, New Haven and
Rhode Island, never did usurp any claim of title to the
Indian lands, without their free consent, manifested either
by gift or purchase.
It is true that the considerations paid, may seem incon
siderable, estimating land by its present value ; but when
one Englishman sold to another, one fourth part of a com
mon sized township, for a wheelbarrow, you may readily

31
imagine that land was in no special estimation with the in
dolent native, who deemed all employment in its cultiva
tion to be below the dignity of a warrior, and fit only for
women. The grantees under the New Plymouth patent were ex
pressly instructed by the Company, if the savages claimed
any right of inheritance, to obtain their title by purchase ;
that " the least scruple of intrusion might be avoided."
And in 1676, after the war with King Philip began, Gov
ernor Winslow of Plymouth, openly asserted, that before
those troubles broke out, the English did not possess one
foot of land in that Colony, but what was fairly obtained by
honest purchase, from the Indian proprietors. "We found,"
says Cushman, "the place where we lived empty; the people
being all dead and gone away, and none living near by
eight or ten miles ; and though, in time of hardship, we
found some eight bushels of corn hid up in a cave, and
knew no owners of it, yet, afterwards learning ofthe own
ers, we gave them, in their estimation, double the value of
it. Our care also, hath been to maintain peace amongst
them, and we have always set ourselves against such of
them as used any rebellion or treachery against their own
governors ; and^ when any of them are in want, as often
they are, in the winter, when their corn is done, we supply
them to our power, and have them in our houses, eat
ing and drinking, and warming themselves ; which thing,
though it be something a trouble to us, yet because
they should see and take knowledge of our labors, order
and diligence, both for this life and a better, we are con
tent to bear it."
The people of Plymouth procured titles to the land occu
pied by them from Massassoit, who claimed it all as his
own, and that he alone had a right to dispose of it ; and it
was from him and his sons that the first grants were ob-

32
tained. "It is mine," said he, "and mine is the sole claim
in existence." But his chiefs gave their assent also, and
signed deeds, on several occasions. Neither was this ac
complished, says Winslow, "by threats and blows, or shak
ing of sword, or sound of trumpet ; for as our faculty that
way is small, and our strength less, so our warring with
them is after another manner, namely, by friendly usage,
love, peace, honest carriage, and good counsel."
Indeed, this objection to the occupancy of the country
by the first settlers, is as old as their pilgrimage, and was
met and answered by them, at the time.
Mr. Cushman, in his reasons for removing from England
to America, given in 1621, states expressly, that he does
not put the right of colonization upon that of discovery,
which was then assumed by all nations as the foundation
of title ; on the contrary, after mentioning that claim, he
passes it by, "lest he should be thought to meddle with that
which did not concern him, or was beyond his discerning ;"
and he places " the right to live in the heathen's country,"
upon the hope of their conversion, and the unoccupied con
dition ofthe country, where " its few inhabitants only ran
over the grass like the foxes and wild beasts, without in
dustry, art, science, skill, or faculty to use the land."
Then again, he asserts an express grant from Massassoit,
with divers ofhis chiefs, " which was obtained," says he,
" by friendly composition." Indeed, the people of Ply
mouth never did. until after Philip's war, claim or obtain
any lands belonging to the Indians, by violence or conquest.
After the defeat and dispersion of the Wampanoags, fifty-
six years after the first settlement, then, and not till then,
were the lands occupied by them, sequestrated by the con
querors, for the benefit of wounded soldiers, and those who
had been ruined by the desolations of that fierce contest.
And so, too, of Connecticut and Massachusetts, and

33
Rhode Island ; their titles were all derived by deeds and
grants from the Indians. In the year 1631, before the
country between Boston and Hartford had been explored, a
chief living near the banks of the Connecticut, made a
journey to Plymouth and Boston, for the express purpose
of inviting a settlement on that river. He described the
fertility ofthe soil, and promised, if the English would
make a plantation there, he would annually supply them
with beaver skins and corn. His object was, amongst
other things, to obtain their protection against the Pequots,
the most fierce and warlike ofthe Indian tribes ; and when
the settlements were afterwards begun upon 'the Connecti
cut, the Indian title was extinguished in every case by their
own free and voluntary consent, without' violence or fraud.
on the part of the whites. Indeed this could not well be
otherwise,. for until the subjugation of the Pequots, in>' the
year 1637, the Settlers had no powerto coerce the Indians;
being themselves but a feeble band, constantly, occupied in
the cultivation. of the' land, for the means of ' subsistence.-,
And this led them, as a- matter of necessity rather. than
choice, to seek the banks of rivers which were compara
tively free from trees^ and better prepared5, to. receive.the.'
plough than the hill-sides aud:the plains. Ai the close of;
the year 1636;. there were not more than two hundred and
fifty men in the towns planted upon the river ; and hence^
it would have been, madness' to practise either; fraud or.
violence upon the natives, who were infmitely;superior to
the settlers, both in numbers and power.
And as theplantationsi extended; so iffevery case.did the:
colonists begin' their labors byrpxirchases of the land: from»
the native occupants, giving' fair and satisfactory equiva;-:
leuts in return. Ifthe title of tbe savage to his native-soil
was ever disregarded, it was not by. the first settlers} or
their1 descendants. On the contrary, _ when in 1687,' .the
3

34
charters granted to the colonists had been vacated by the
British Crown, and the title ofthe planters derided, they put
themselves expressly upon the grants furnished by the
natives themselves. But Andros, with the haughty insolence
of delegated power, declared that Indian deeds were no
better than " the scratch of a bear's paw ;" and the occu
pants were actually compelled, in many instances, to take
out new patents for their own lands at a heavy charge. I
think, therefore, that we may challenge the world to show
one instance where our ancestors usurped a title to the
land of the Indians, or unjustly expelled them from it. On the
contrary, their claims were always conceded and respected ;
and while the right to colonize was asserted, the title ofthe
occupant of the soil was never overlooked or disregarded.
In this connection we may observe also, that it has not
unfrequently been made a subject of charge against the
first settlers of New England, that they were oppressive and
unjust towards the aboriginal inhabitants, not only in res
pect of their lands, but also in their personal and political
relations ; that if they did not openly assail the natives
with violence, they tempted them, nevertheless, to deeds
of outrage, that a pretext mightbe afforded for their de
struction. Poetry has given her aid to this subject ; and the
most beautiful writer New York has yet produced, has pur
sued the theme with all the powers of genius and eloquence,
in his essays on this vanished race. Carried away by the
fervor of this author's imagination, one might suppose that
our ancestors were little better than a band of lawless plun
derers, who trampled down the rights of the natives, spoil
ing them of their homes, and devastating their country.
Philip of Pokanoket, has furnished a subject, not only
for the resistless power of Mr. Irving's description, but for
the poetic imaginings of Sands and of Eastburn ; and the
last of this kingly race is clothed with all the savage virtues
of a Homeric hero.

35
Such sketches are the work of fancy, not of historical
truth and accuracy ; for it may be asserted with entire con
fidence, that for more than half a century after the arrival
of the Mayflower, the Pilgrims and their descendants lived
in peace and friendship with the natives, undisturbed by
outbreaks or lawless aggressions. When Massassoit was
ill, and thought to be dying, about three years after the
first landing of the emigrants, Mr. Winslow was sent
by the colony to pay him a visit at his royal residence,
near Mount Hope. In the kindest manner this friendly
messenger administered to his wants, and finally by his
skill and attention restored him to health. In grateful
recollection of this, Massassoit disclosed to the Plymouth
Colony an intention on the part of the Massachusetts Indians
to cut them off by a secret attack. At one time when
Massassoit was invaded in his own country, and hard
beset by the Narragansetts, he was relieved by the Eng+
lish ; the enemy upon their approach, retiring to their
own country without resistance. After the death of this
chief, his two sons, Wamsutta and Mettacomb, named by
the English at their own request, Alexander and Philip,
went' voluntarily to Plymouth to renew the ancient league
of friendship between the two nations and pledge again
their faith, fidelity and obedience to the English; and
for twenty years after the death of Massassoit, peace was
preserved between the parties. The same remarks which
have been made with regard to the Pokanokets, are equally
true when applied to the Narragansetts, — who for the same
length of time remained at peace with the plantations of
Connecticut, Rhode Island, Plymouth, and Massachusetts..
During all this period it was doubtless the policy of the
first settlers as well as their wish, to preserve pacific rela
tions with their uncivilized neighbors. But this was not
done by any poor of fawning submission in their weakness, 3*

36
to superior power. Their conduct was always open, bold
and manly.
Canonicus the great chief of the Narragansetts, manifested
some jealousy ofthe new comers shortly after their arrival,
but chiefly because of the friendly relations which existed
between them and his old enemies of Mount Hope. But
our fathers knew full well how to deal with the savage,
whether he came with the salutations of peace, or the
war-whoop of his race. Early in the year 1622, a mes
senger from Canonicus ai rived at Plymouth, charged
with a gift, at once significant and dangerous, " a bundle
of new arrows, lapped in a rattlesnake's skin." This
messenger was at first detained, but being considered as a
mere herald from-his master, Governor Bradford ordered
him to be dismissed with bold threats, " daring them to do
their worst;" and when informed by his interpreter that
the rattlesnake's skin and arrows portended war and deso
lation, the intrepid governor stuffed the skin with powder
and shot, and sent it back to Canonicus with the like
defiance. " This message," says Winslow, " was sent by
an Indian, and delivered in such sort, as was no small terror
to this savage king, inasmuch as he would not once touch
the powder and shot, or suffer it to stay in his house or
country; whereupon the messenger refusing it, another
took it up, and having been posted back from place to
¦place a long time, at length came whole back again."
Upon the death of Alexander, in 1662, he was succeed
ed by his brother, Philip, the renowned Metacomet, the
hero of song and of story. This chief early began to scheme
for. the entire destruction of his white neighbors, although
he could not brJDg a well-founded complaint to justify such
cold-blooded atrocity ; for if he or his nation had suffered
any wrongs from the aggressions of the settlers, they were
neither deep or wanton, nor were they such as could in any

37
degree justify such fell and savage revenge. But the fact
was not so. The English of Plymouth early perceiving
an improvident temper on the part of the Indians, and a
desire to alienate their lands, passed laws to prohibit such
traffic with them, and secured to the Wampanoags and
their descendants, all the fine country in tbe vicinity of
Mount Hope ; those lands and waters being peculiarly well
suited to their condition ; the lands as corn land, and the
waters abounding in fish and fowl. Nay, further, to pre
vent encroachments, tbe inhabitants on their northern
frontier drew a strong fence from the Taunton river entirely
across the border, to prevent their cattle from straying into
the Indian possessions.
Fiction has given to Metacomb an interest which he, in
my judgment, in no wise deserves, either from his acts or
personal character. It is true, by dissimulation and art, he
drew all the neighboring tribes, including the Narra
gansetts, his old enemies, into a general and deep laid-plot
for the total annihilation of the white race. Being suspect
ed and charged with it, he nevertheless solemnly denied
all hostile intent, until the moment came when he could
let loose Irs fierce warriors upon the midnight slumbers of
the settlers, rousing them to a hasty defence by the glare
of their burning dwellings. The War being begun, and
by the Indians themselves, was pursued by our brave an
cestors with all that constancy for which they were so
remarkable, until Philip, by his death, expiated a portion
of the bloody wrongs he had inflicted upon his neighbors.
He plunged his nation into all the perils of war, but did
not himself, so far as I can discover, encounter its dangers,
for he was never seen in battle by any white man, from
the commencement of his murders down to the time when
he was slain. Indeed he was always the first, says Captain
Church, to fly in every engagement ; and that brave officer,

38
in laying the plan for Philip's final surprise in the swamps
of Mount Hope, acted uponthis well-known habit, and bade
his men shoot the first savage who silently fled, expecting
thereby to secure the death of this relentless sachem ; and
his anticipations were all fulfilled ; for when the attack
was commenced, Philip, starting at the first gun, rushed
headlong from his concealment, and was slain by one of
his own nation in his cowardly flight. How different was
the conduct of his followers. One had openly called him,'
before the war began, " a white livered cur;" and in the
last battle ever witnessed by the mortal eyes of Philip, his
men stood their ground, so cheered on by the war-cries of
one of their chiefs, that Captain Church, attracted by his
bold conduct, asked an interpreter who that sachem was,
and what he said. "It is old Annawan," replied the In
dian, "Philip's great captain, calling on his soldiers to
stand to it and fight stoutly."
Remember, then, that the settlers of New England had
lived with their aboriginal neighbors in peace and friend
ship for more than fifty years before the great war began ;
and those relations might have been maintained for ever,
if the nations could have restrained the ferocity of their
passions, or subdued their thirst for blood ; for I undertake
to say that the complaints made by the Indians themselves,
were not causes of war, even according to their own wild
and savage notions. It may be that they would have
melted away before the plough and the sickle ; but they
would have gone peacefully, and in the order of nature.
The desolation of savage life cannot stand before the
improvements of civilization ; and blessed be God that it
cannot !
It is hardly necessary to vindicate the conduct of the
first colonists of the Connecticut Valley, in relation to
their contest with the Pequots, in the year 1637, as it is

39
universally admitted that the fault of that war lay entirely
on the side of that fierce nation. The early emigrants to
Windsor, Hartford, and Weathersfield, had never encroach
ed in any respect upon the territory of the Pequots, whose
country lay on both sides of the Thames, far from the
scenes of those early settlements ; and this proud tribe
seems to have commenced hostile attacks upon their distant
neighbors, from the mere thirst of blood, natural to
barbarians in all parts of the globe. They had murdered
about thirty persons before the towns on the Connecticut
attempted any resistance ; but finding themselves at last in
a most critical position, and driven to the necessity of
venturing upon a contest for the preservation of their lives,
they entered into it with all the fortitude and courage of
their heroic race. Raising a little force of ninety men,
they sent them in three small vessels, under the brave
' Captain Mason, by the way of the river and sound to the
Narragansett Bay. Disembarking there, and trusting to
savages for their guides, the stars of heaven for their
canopy, the brooks and woods for their supplies, they
traversed the whole territory of the Narragansetts, and
approached the barbarians with such caution and celerity,
as to take them entirely by surprise in their fort, upon the
west side of the Mystic river. Then ensued a struggle,
not merely for victory, but life itself, for if the attack had
failed, there was no retreat for this band of devoted men ;
no escape from their merciless foes. But putting their trust
in the God of battles, they charged directly upon seven
times their numbers, with such determined impetuosity as
to give the Pequots an overthrow from which they never
recovered ; and from that time forth the colony of Con
necticut remained in peace with all the native tribes, until
the great conspiracy of Philip called them forth again with
spear and shield, in their own just defence.

40
In this contest with the Pequots, the early settlers ex
hibited all their peculiar characteristics. Before their de
parture, Mr, Hooker addressed the little army with that
confidence in an overruling Providence, which never on any
occasion had deserted them. " Fellow soldiers ! (said he,)
countrymen, and companions, in this wilderness work, who
are gathered together this day by the inevitable providence
of the Great Jehovah, not in a tumultuous manner, hurried
on by the floating fancy of every hot-headed brain, but
purposely picked out by the godly great fathers of this
government, that your prowess may carry out the work
where justice in her righteous course is obstructed. Every
common soldier among you is now installed a magistrate.
Then show yourselves men of courage ; yet remember that
all true bred soldiers receive this as a common maxim :
cruelty and cowardice are inseparable companions. And
now to you I put the question, who would not fight in such
a cause with an agile spirit and undaunted boldness 1 —
Riches and honor are, next to a good cause, eyed by every
soldier ; but although gold and silver be wanting, yet have
you that to maintain which is far more precious, tbe lives,
liberties, and new purchased freedoms of the endeared ser
vants of our Lord Christ Jesus, and of your second selves
even, your affectionate bosom mates, together with the
chief pledges of your loves, the comforting contents of
harmless prattling and smiling babes ; in a word, all the
riches of that goodness and mercy that attends the people
of God even in this life." Actuated by such motives, im
pelled forward by such considerations, sustained by such
purposes, how could the early colonists of New England
fail in their enterprises 1
After the first struggles for mere existence on the part
of the settlers were over, view them marching steadily for
ward in the paths of order, religion and morality ; enact-

41
ing laws, constructing roads, establishing schools, and edu
cating their children for the new business of self-govern
ment. The colonies, it is true, were under the general
jurisdiction of the king and parliament, yet having by their
charters the power of making laws, they entered at once
upon these important concerns ; and perceiving that their
institutions were to be unlike all others in the world, they
immediately began to frame statutes suited to their pecu
liar wants. Having been subject to the common law, and
being well skilled in its maxims, tbey adopted such por
tions of it as were suited to their circumstances, but discard
ed, in effect, such English statutes as were not applicable
to their new condition ; publishing ot thejsame time, in one
of the colonies, this preface to their own enactments :
" Now in these our laws, although we may seem to vary or
differ, yet it is not our purpose to repugn the statute laws
of England, so far as we understand them;" thereby ex
hibiting, perhaps the first great example of construing a
constitution, as each man may comprehend it.
They were not bound down to a servile imitation of Brit
ish precedents, but considered the law in the abstract as con
taining rules of civil government, for free and thinking
men, who were imposing just restraints upon themselves,
and not dictating to others. The common law was evi
dently their admiration ; yet keeping the commandments
in view, if they bowed down, they did not worship it. On
the contrary, their reflections upon this great subject of law
making, were in a high degree original ; its importance
immediately arresting their attention and commanding both
solicitude and care. Mr. Cotton, or Mr. Davenport, com
posed and published in Boston, as far back as 1663, "A Dis
course on Civil Government in a New Plantation ;" and in
1650 Mr. Ludlow, a distinguished jurist of Connecticut, com
piled a body of laws for that commonwealth, at the request of

42
its government; thus showing from the very outset, that civil
rule, as it should be in a new plantation, was kept con
stantly in view ; and nothing is more striking or admirable
than the early legislation of our ancestors upon natural,
human rights, and the best mode of protecting them.
With a bold defiance of customs immemorial, and of forms
rendered sacred by antiquity, they commenced the progress
of legal reform, from the moment their feet first pressed the
sod of their new-found country. With no affected disre
gard for the wisdom and learning of their ancestors, with
no pretensions to a more perfect knowledge of man's true
social condition than that which prevailed at home, they
did, nevertheless, from the beginning institute the inquiry,
as to how much of an antiquated system was suited to their
wants and condition ; and with a steady eye upon ancient
precedents, begin a system of legal change, at once radical
yet conservative. And I may here safely assert, that many
if not all the important alterations made in the jurispru
dence of this State, within the last fifty years, have been
borrowed, directly or indirectly, from the laws of New Eng
land, and especially from those of Connecticut.
The subject of non-imprisonment for debt, for instance,
concerning which so much has been said and done within
the last twenty years, was considered and acted upon in
New England two hundred years ago ; and the act passed
by the State of New York in the year 1833, entitled, " an
act to abolish imprisonment for debt, and to punish fraud
ulent debtors," is scarcely anything more than a transcript
from an act of 1650, passed by the colony of Connecticut.
The latter act provides "that no person should be arrested
or imprisoned for any debt or fine, if the law could find any
competent means of satisfaction from his estate ; and if not,
his person might be arrested and imprisoned till satisfaction;
provided nevertheless, that no man's person should be kept

43
in prison for debt but when there appeared to be some
estate which he would not produce ;" and the chief differ
ence between the two lies in this, that the primitive act
is clear and explicit, while the modern one is so blind and
confused, that various constructions have been put upon it
by different tribunals, and sometimes by the same tribunal.
Nor was this exemption from imprisonment a vain illusion,
" keeping the word of promise to the ear, but breaking it to
the hope." It Avas substantial and complete; for no honest
man in Connecticut could ever be kept in the cells of a
prison. There was, it is true, a theory of non-imprison
ment for debt in other lands, but it was a theory only, well
illustrated in the " Antiquary," as you may remember, by
Mr. Oldbuck, in a dialogue with his nephew. " Nephew,"
said that amusing creation of Scott's fancy, " it is a re
markable thing that in this happy country no man can be
legally imprisoned for debt." " The truth is, the king, in
teresting himself as a monarch should, in his subjects' private
affairs, is so good as to interfere at the request of the creditor
and to send the debtor his roytl command to do him justice
within a certain time, fifteen days, or six, as the case may
be. Well, the man resists and disobeys. What follows 1
Why that he be lawfully and rightfully declared a rebel to
our gracious sovereign, whose command he has disobeyed,
and that by three blasts of a horn at the market-place of
Edinburg, the metropolis of Scotland. And he is then
legally imprisoned, not on account of any civil debt, bu^
because of his ungrateful contempt of the royal mandate."
In Connecticut there was no royal mandate which could send
a man to jail with three blasts of a horn.
Some years ago, letters upon this important subject of im
prisonment for debt, were addressed t o John Adams and
Daniel Webster ; and each of those illustrious men stated in
reply, that if it were an original and open question, neither of

44
them had any doubt of its oppressive character, nor the
propriety of abolishing it. And since that period a number
ofthe States, as well as Congress itself, have interfered for
the just preservation of human liberty, except in cases of
crime. But here we find that in 1650 the persons of men
were held free from the slavery of imprisonment when
caused by misfortune or poverty ; while the dishonest
debtor, who bad the means of payment, but refused to appro
priate them to* the discharge ofhis engagements, was to
be treated as a felon, and to meet with a felon's reward.
And so tender were they then of personal liberty, that
the first process against a debtor was a summons command
ing him to appear and answer the complaint made against
him ; and it was only upon his refusal that an attachment
could be issued against him for his "wilful contempt."
By another section of tbe same statute, which is also
embodied in tbe far-famed modern code of New York,
it was provided, that if any citizen of Connecticut was
about to abscond, or convey away his estate with intent to
defraud his creditors, then that an attachment might issue
against him for the benefit of all his creditors. But to
guard against abuses, it was also provided, that if any
attachment were laid upon any man's estate upon a pre
tence of a great sum, and it was not proved to be due in
some near portion to the sum mentioned in the attachment,
then that the suvet'es always required upon the issuing of
such process, should be lia^e for the damages sustained
thereby. Could anything be more wise, just or prudent,
than laws like these *? And have we, in relation to the
same subject, improved upon them down to this day 1 But
who, in modern times, has given credit to our ancestors for
their labors of wisdom and charily in this behalf or
acknowledged the source from whence these^ improvements
have been derived ?

45
So again, they had a proceeding in relation to real
property, very analogous to what is termed a creditor's bill
in this State, (land being at that time a principal object of
care and value in the colonies,) whereby creditors might
have the benefit of its sale, by a very simp'e and inex
pensive process, in the order of the presenting of their
claims. But there was a difference, nevertheless, between
the modern and the ancient law, in this, that in cases
of insolvency on the part of the debtor, the ancient law
directs that the attachments should enure to tbe benefit of
all creditors in proportion to their respective claims ; while
the modern one gives a preference and priority to the most
vigilant; and in this particular the justice of the original
act is obvious and pre-eminent. So, in relation to trials by
jury,- (an institution which was the subject of the first law
passed by the Plymouth settlement,) one colony had a
most excellent provision, which might be adopted with
decided benefit here in this city. It was, that juries might
be caUed of six or twelve persons, according to the import
ance of tbe subject;, and that a verdict of four out of six,
and eight out of twelve, should be conclusive upon the
parties, unless a new trial were granted. Now, the
requirements of our practice, derived from the laws of
England, which demand an absolute unanimity in the
minds of twelve men, even in civ;l causes, are oftentimes
the source of much delay, expense, and injury, to all the
parties concerned. Would not the pages written by our
forefathers upon these important concerns disclose some
thing more than the ancients found in the leaves of a
Sybiline oracle, blown about by the winds of heaven as the
heralds of fortuitous prophecy and justice 1 Our ancestors,
with a far-reaching sagacity, also provided for a complete
registration of all grants of land, in order that, by a public
and open inspection of conveyances, clear evidences of title

46
might be found and preserved. To this day, England
herself has not attained to these improvements, except in
a limited number of counties ; and there each proprietor
must trust to private care alone for the preservation of his
estate. The complicated forms in civil proceedings, the volumin
ous pages of the conveyancer's deeds, and the tautology of
English statutes were at once exploded, and in their place
came simple and clear statements of claim and counter
claim, direct and straight-forward pleadings, and brief, but
comprehensive, evidences of title. An English deed for an
hundred acres is engrossed on parchment, with the letters of
the alphabet tortured into a thousand useless shapes, that
ancient forms may be preserved. A New England deed, in
one brief page, contains all the elements of a perfect con
tract between the parties, with a direct assurance of title.
The known defects in the laws and practice of England
pointed out and so strikingly stated by Lord Brougham, in
his great speech upon Law Reforms, delivered in the House
of Commons, in 1828, were discovered .Und banished from
the New England States, while they were yet colonies
under the British crown. Nor can I find any essential
changes or improvements specified or called for by that
remarkable statesman, which were not adopted by our
ancestors years ago.
You are aware that in England some ofthe most import
ant offices in the civil law courts, are held by prelates of
the church, and that the whole law of marriagejand divorce,-
of personal estates, both testate and intestate, is adminis
tered under the control of bishops and archbishops. This
being an inheritance from Rome, and one of the worst of
the long-continued papal abuses, was abolished at once and
forever by our ancestors, who committed these important
trusts to responsible men, appointed by responsible tribu-

47
nais ; while dower and inheritance, which vary in Eng
land, with the varying customs of counties and manors,
were made uniform and consistent.
The complicated proceedings of English courts in actions
of ejectment were also discarded in the Eastern States,
and it is only within the last twenty years that New York
has adopted this obvious improvement from one of her near
est sisters. Then again, wise and equal laws were provided
for a just distribution of estates among children and heirs,
while tenures were made simple, and primogenitures abol
ished. In England all the lands of the ancestor, on one
side of a river, might descend to the oldest son, on the
other to the youngest ; while in a third place, the children
might inherit equally. But in New England, the dictates
of common sense and common justice were at once obeyed,
and tenures placed upon their true foundations. And then,
as to that law which prefers the first-born son to all others,
in itself so iniquitous ; what had our ancestors to say to that 1
They blotted it out from their statute-book, aud banished it
forever. How otherwise could equal rights be maintained,
or republican forms of government preserved ? In the
proud monarchies of Europe, it became the policy of the
aristocracy to preserve great estates in the same families in a
direct line, that their influence might remain continuous
and unbroken, thus transmitting from father to son not only
the wealth of the ancestor, but his political influence also.
But in a free country, how should we stand if the parent
might entail upon his son whole towns and counties and
states, even without any accompanying political authority 1
Would free men contentedly ride, for thirty miles, by the
side of a great estate, (as you may now in some parts of
Great Britain) with the reflection in their minds, that in all
time to come, the influence of that proprietor and his de
scendants must remain unchecked and undisturbed 1 What

4S
caused the most serious outbreaks among the people of
Rome ? And why did they desert their city, and take re
fuge on the sacred mount 1 The monopoly of lands by the
rich, and the debts ofthe poor. What was the remedy pro
posed there 1 A division of those lands among persons
whose claims upon them were those of hard necessity, if
not of natural justice. But what distributive law did our
ancestors provide to check, if not effectually destroy, this
dangerous accumulation of wealth in the same hands 1
They said that lands, where there was no will to direct
otherwise, should descend to all the heirs alike ; that per
sonal property should be equally distributed, and the power
of entailment so limited, that to preserve its existence it
must be renewed inevery generation. This, says Judge Story,
is the true agrarian law, which in all time to come will
guard the just rights of acquirement and possession, while
it corrects the great public evils of inordinate accumulation ;
and you see how instantly our ancestors seized upon and
adopted this indispensable restraint.
Then the criminal laws of England, more bloody than
the laws of Draco, were all remodeled, and their severities
softened down ; even at that time, when the public mind
had not begun much to consider this important subject. In-
all things, I assert with confidence, in relation to the laws,
both public and private, our ancestors made great and mar
velous improvements upon those of the land from whence
they took their origin. And these reforms became after
wards matters of the highest political concernment, when
they had shaken off the control of the mother country.
Republican in their habits of thinking and acting; republi
can in their frugality ; republican in their laws and forms
of government, tbe States of New England were early pre
pared for that great change wrought out for them by the
war ofthe Revolution. Their civil and political rights were>

49
well understood from the very beginning; they were preserved
and cherished through all their early struggles for existence,
and were all prepared to be acted upon when the day of trial
came. Hence it has been remarked, and with strict propri
ety, that at the time of our Independence, so slight was the
connection between some of the colonies and the mother
country in their relations of law and government, and the
change interfered so little with their internal concerns, that
the transition from a dependent to a sovereign condition
was almost imperceptible. In Connecticut, they merely
erased the name of " his majesty," from their legal pro
ceedings, and inserted, "by the name and authority of the
State ;" and then, in all essential particulars, the adminis
tration of the law proceeded after the Revolution, exactly
as it had done before.
I presume, before dismissing this part of the subject, it
may be expected, that I, considering my profession, should
not pass by that which has been made a matter of scoffing
and reproach upon a colony of New England, by those
who, never investigating its reality, have caught from
others the traditional jests connected with the blue laws of
New Haven.
In the first place, it seems to be supposed that there
actually were, in that colony, grave enactments against
offending beer-barrels, and that the austerity of Puritan
practice even prohibited a mother from kissing her child on
a Sunday. Let those who have lightly received such im
pressions, and lightly conveyed them to others, look into
the early laws of New Haven, and tell me whether, upon
such examination, any mirthful emotions can come over
their minds 1 And let me remind them further, that most of
the supposed enactments rest upon this one, of which, per
haps they may haye heard : " Remember that thou keep
holy the Sabbath day !"

50
Nothing more solemn, nothing more imposing, nothing
more grave or dignified, can be found in all history, than
the first acts of the colony of New Haven, when they pro
ceeded to lay the foundations of their government. The
free planters being all assembled, say their records, Mr.
Davenport commenced the business by a sermon upon these
words : " Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn
out her seven pillars." After this discouse and a solemn
invocation of the name of God in prayer, they were re
minded of the business for which they had met ; that it was
" for the establishment of such civil order as migh be most
pleasing unto God, and for the choosing of the fittest men
for the foundation work of a church to be gathered." Mr.
Davenport thereupon proposed divers queries, praying them
to consider seriously the weight of the business about which
they had met, and not to be rash in giving their votes for
things which they did not understand, but to digest thorough
ly, and without respect to men, what should be proposed to
them, giving such answers as they would be willing should
stand upon record for posterity/ And thereupon it was pro
pounded in the first place, "whether the Scriptures hold
forth a perfect rule for the direction and government of men
in their duties." This was assented to without an opposing
voice ; and let me ask whether there are any here present,
who, if they had been standing by the side of Mr. Daven
port, on that solemn occasion, would have ventured to deny
that such a rule may be found in those sacred writings 1
The second question was, whether in the choosing of ma
gistrates, the making and repealing of laws and the dividing
of lands, the planters would be governed by the rules which
the Scriptures hold forth? This also was assented to, " and
no man gainsayed it, and they did testify the same by hold
ing up their hands, both when it was first propounded, and
afterwards confirmed the same, by holding up their hands

51
when it was read unto them in public." In the improve
ments of time, we have been taught by our necessities, many
lessons in the mode of adapting laws to our changing con
dition ; but stand back in contemplation, two hundred years,
and tell me where could you discover better models for the
government of a free people, both in the choice of their
magistrates and the division of their lands, than those found
in the Jewish polity 1 Why, our own laws, in relation to
the division of estates, do not differ essentially from the laws
which governed the Hebrews ; their object being to secure
not only an equal distribution of property, but to bring back,
at given periods of time, to the same families, for equal use
and enjoyment, such allotments of land as might have been
alienated. Where in the annals of civilized Europe can
you find the history of a government more free, or more
republican, than that which existed among the Jews, during
the period of their judges 1 and when was the choice of
magistrates left more open and unrestrained than among
the same people, at the same epoch 1 What was there nar
row, or bigoted, or objectionable in the second query which
I have read 1 for you will recollect that the proposition was
not, to adopt Jewish laws and Jewish forms of government
indiscriminately; but whether fit rules for the choosing of
magistrates, the framing of laws, and the division of lands
might not be found in the Bible, including both Testaments,
the new as well as the old 1 And if the question were now
proposed here, I venture to assert, that no man would
" gainsay it, but all would testify for the same by holding
up their hands, both when propounded, and when after
wards it should be read to them." The third query had
reference merely to the form of admission to the church ;
and the fourth was : " whether they held themselves bound
to establish such civil order as might best secure the peace
of the ordinances to them and their posterity;" and this,
4*

52
of course, was carried without dissent ; for no man now,
Jew or Gentile, Christian or Pagan, can find any objection
to this proposition in the abstract, or as it was originally
presented for consideration and adoption.
Mr. Davenport thereupon declared from the Scriptures,
that the magistrates to be entrusted with the matters of
government, according to the rule thus adopted, must be
" able men, such as fear God; men of truth, hating covet
ousness." And if we could now, even in these days, by a
like vote secure such magistrates, " fearing God and hating
covetousness," I, for one, would " belong to that party."
Mr. Davenport further declared, that by their vote they
were free to cast themselves into any mould and form of a
commonwealth, which appeared to them best, for the se
curing ofthe objects contemplated in his propositions ; and
he charged Mr. Eaton the first Governor, in open court,
that he should not respect persons in judgment ; that he
should hear the small as well as the great and that he
should not fear the face of man.
Such were the rules adopted by that plantation, upon its
establishment ; but from the strict administration of them,
went forth the report concerning the blue laws of Connecti
cut. There were not in fact, any such enactments ; but there
were trials for offences against the Sabbath, and against
modest decency, founded upon the general law of morals,
which have led to a misapprehension upon this subject,
and served to cast ridicule where none whatever was
deserved. Again : it has often been made a subject of reproach up
on our ancestors, that having left their own country for the
sake of religious freedom, and the enjoyment of the rights
of conscience unshackled and uncontrolled, they did never
theless, become themselves intolerant, the moment they
were in possession of a country with their own supremacy

53
firmly established ; that they were narrow in their notions,
selfish in their designs, exclusive in their purposes, and
tyrannical in their acts ; willing to become fhe subjects and
objects of universal religious emancipation themselves, but
determined, at the same time, to subdue all others to their
opinions. It seems to me, however, that this is an unfair mode of
stating the case. The original settlers did not visit the in
hospitable shores of New England for any objects of univer
sal toleration ; nor for the purpose of allowing men of all
religions, and no religion, an opportunity of planting their
errors, or disseminating their infidelity. No ! Far differ
ent from this were the purposes and objects of those religious
wanderers ; who, if misguided in their notions, and over
scrupulous in their faith, were nevertheless sincere, devout,
and upright. With them religious faith was a principle.
It was a guide to their actions, a rule for their conduct, and
a law for their government ; the " be all and the end all "
of their objects in this world, and of their hope in that
which is to come.
What if they were misguided 1 What if they were heat
ed with zeal 1 What if they were exclusive in their opin
ions, stern in their judgments, and unyielding in their pur
poses 1 Were they not actuated by the purest and the
holiest motives that ever filled or agitated the breast of
men 1 Had they not left the consolations of home, of kin
dred, and of country, for the express purpose of worshipping
God in the wilderness in their own way 1 Seeking no as
sociations with those who entertained different opinions ;
asking no favor, requiring no aid, or succor, or comfort, ex
cept from Him who saw their hearts, and knew that they
were upright and pure ? It may be, that in their peculiar
notions in relation to religious government they were mis
guided ; and as a rule of civil action we now all believe

54
that each creed, and every religion, should be permitted to
exist by its own inherent truth, uncontrolled by human
laws, unprotected by political favor, untrammelled by
worldly device.
This is the modern theory of republican and religious
liberty, as maintained in this free, this charitable land ; but
which finds little favor in any other part of the Christian
world. We consider it, and as I think rightly, one of the
natural, one of the legitimate, if not inevitable results of
thai great reform, which shook the papal structure to its
centre, and shot through the bosoms of thinking men with
an electric force which will never cease to operate, until its
objects are accomplished, and man stands forth free from
the dictations of his fellow men in all that binds him to a
future state.
But believe me, gentlemen of New England, this
doctrine so free, so liberal, so republican, so just in itself,
so necessary to our institutions, did not originate in minds
filled with the ardor of that faith which sees but one object,
and that object under but one form and pressure. Oh, no !
The most tolerant man was not, I think, originally the
most devout man, although he might have been sincere.
No ! His lips were not touched as with a live coal from
the altar, who first proclaimed that there were no differ
ences to be regarded amongst men in their various creeds.
Our fathers cherished their faith as the immortal principle
which causes men to feel the necessity of another existence,
and to yearn after it, with that overflowing of spirit which
gives evidence of the full heart and the contrite soul.
But I am ready to maintain that the original settlers of
New England were not even intolerant, in the correct sense
of that term, when we understand their purposes and ex
amine their actions. That the congregation of Mr. Robin
son did not desire to associate in civil government with

55
arians and ranters, with papists and infidels, may be true
enough ; and why should they not be permitted to worship
God by themselves, in their own way, undisturbed by con
flicting opinions, unheated by argument, unswayed by op
posite practice ? They sought not to make converts of
others, excepting the heathen. They interfered with no
man's religious belief, unless he thrust himself upon their
jurisdiction ; and within this pale they had, in my judg
ment, a perfect right to be exclusive. If there were others
who thought that peculiarities of doctrine were not of the
essence of faith, the wilderness was open, and they might
have followed the example of the Pilgrims. " The world
was all before them where to choose their place of rest ;"
and neither Ann Hutchinson, nor Thomas Morton, the
disturbing lawyer, nor even Roger Williams himself, had a
right to come uncalled for, within the limits of Plymouth
or Massachusetts, and then cry out, "persecution and
intolerance." I would speak of Roger Williams with great respect, as
of one who had the clearest perceptions of that which is
both right and expedient in religious affairs, as connected
with civil government. Viewing the question in its
modern aspect, when time has made the truth clear, and
experience has shown that the power of law need never be
brought to act upon spiritual belief, we all of us bear
witness to the abstract correctness of Mr. Williams'
opinions. He may be considered as among the first of those
who advanced and maintained the proposition, that there
should be a total separation of ecclesiastical from civil con
trol ; and he is entitled to our admiration for the broad ex
tent of his views in the true administration of secular laws
upon religious opinion. And yet, in my judgment, there'
never was a more unpropitious moment for the promulga
tion of his peculiar notions upon all these subjects than
that selected by him in 1630 and 1632.

56
At that moment, the settlement in Massachusetts was but
just begun. Endicott and Winthrop, and Higginson, and
their associates, emigrated with feelings and purposes, and
objects, similar to those which had induced Bradford and
Winslow, and the Congregational Pilgrims of Leyden to
seek a refuge in a distant land ; nor did the views and
opinions of the emigrants to Massachusetts differ in any
essential degree from those entertained by the inhabitants
of Plymouth. Between these colonies there was generally
harmonious thought and united action ; but in their re
ligious sentiments they were not intolerant. No, not as
intolerant as we of the present day are ; although their
civil condition, in some respects, differed widely from our
own. In forming the structures of government, our an
cestors had to provide for order, safety, and subordination ;
and that these might all be secured, they had recourse to
those ordinances, which they had adopted from deep seated
conviction ; and upon what better, or broader, or more en
during foundations, could they have rested the hopes of
their new colony, than the eternal foundations of religious
truth 1 But these men were not, I assert again, either in
tolerant or narrow minded, or bigoted in the abstractions of
religious belief. On the contrary, they respected the
opinions of others ; being perfectly willing that they should
be enjoyed without molestation ; and they only asked for
themselves that which they freely granted to all mankind.
That they had no good opinion of the superstitions of the
Romish church, is true ; and that they considered the forms
of worship kept up in the church of England as mere
modifications of papal observance, is also true ; but at the
same time, they had charity for its ordinances, and respect
for its members.
This charge of intolerance was an old charge, made
against them, or rather against the independent churches,

57
to which the first settlers, for the most part belonged, more
than two hundred years ago, and was answered by them at
the time. " I have shown," (says Mr. Winslow) " that
the foundation of our New England plantations was not
laid upon schism, division, or separation, but upon love,
peace and happiness, and also, that the primitive churches
are the only pattern which the churches of Christ, in New
England, have in their eyes ; not following Luther, Calvin,
Knox, Ainsworth, Robinson, Ames, or any other, further
than they follow Christ and his apostles." Is there any
thing of bigotry or narrow minded sentiment in this 1 Any
want of toleration or of respect for the opinions of others 1
Any stiff-necked assertion of superior knowledge, virtue or
purity 1 They would not follow any sect, further than that
sect followed Christ and his apostles ; and surely, a
truer rule, one more plain, direct and certain, could not be
adopted. But what were the sentiments of John Robinson himself,
upon this subject 1 Hear his own words, addressed to
his own church, at the time of their departure to begin the
great plantation work in New England. Amongst other
wholesome instructions, according to Mr. Winslow, he used
expressions to this purpose : " That we were now, ere long,
to part asunder, and the Lord only knew whether ever he
should live to see our faces again. But whether the Lord
had appointed it or not, he charged us before God to follow
him no further than he followed Christ." He took occa
sion also, miserably to bewail the state and condition of the
reformed church, who wouldgo no further than the instru
ments of their reformation. As for example ; the Luther
ans could not be drawn to go beyond what Luther saw ;
for whatever part of God's will he had further imparted
and revealed to Calvin, they would rather die than em
brace it. "And so also," said he, "you see the Calvinists,

58
they stick where he left them ; a misery much to be lamented,
for though they were precious shining lights in their times,
yet God had not revealed his whole will to them. And so
he advised us by all means to endeavor to close with the
godly party of the kingdom of England, and rather to
study union than division, namely, how near we might
possibly, without sin, close with them, than in the least
measure to effect division or separation from them."
Can you find anything in history more liberal than these
beautiful and heartfelt remarks of the godly man, made
upon his final separation from his church, when they were
to " part asunder, and he never more to see their faces
again ?" But was he sincere 1 Hear the testimony of Mr.
Winslow upon this point. " For his doctrine " says he,
" I living three years under his ministry, before we began
the work of plantation in New England, it was always
against separation from any the churches of Christ ; pro
fessing and holding communion both with the French and
Dutch churches, yea the tendering it the Scotch also ; even
holding forth how wary persons ought to be in separating
from a church." It is true he condemned the constitution of
the church of England, but he condemned it as matter of opin
ion rather than of censure. " No man," said he, " to whom
England is known, can be ignorant that all the natives
there, and subjects of the kingdom, although never such
strangers from all show of true piety, and goodness, and
fraught never so full with many most heinous impieties
and vices, are without difference compelled and enforced by
most severe laws, civil and ecclesiastical, into the body of
that church ; every subject of the kingdom dwelling in this
or that parish is bound, will he, nili he, fit or unfit, as with
iron bonds, to participate in all holy things, and some un
holy too, in that same parish church."
But the emigrants with Governor Winthrop, were scarcely

59
separated at all from the church of England ; desiring only
its reform in matters of practice. They had been born and
brought up in the doctrines of that church, and lived in
communion with it. Their ministers had been ordained by
her bishops, and officiated in her parochial churches ; nor
was there any secession until after their arrival in New
England. Mr. Higginson, in taking a last look upon his
native land exclaimed : " We will not say, as the separatists
were wont to say, farewell Babylon ! farewell Rome ! but we
will say farewell, dear England ! farewell the church of God
in England, and all the christian friends there." Governor
Winthrop, and his company, in a parting address " to the
rest of their brethren in and of the church of England, speak
of it as their ' dear mother,' from whom they could not
part without much sadness of heart and many tears."
" We leave it," said they, not " as loathing that milk
wherewith we were nourished," " but blessing God for the
parentage and education as members ofthe same body. We
shall always rejoice in her good, and unfeignedly grieve for
any sorrow that shall ever betide her ; and while we have
breath, sincerely desire and endeavor the continuance and
abundance of her welfare, with the enlargement of her
bounds in the kingdom of Christ Jesus ; wishing our heads
and hearts were fountains of tears for your everlasting
welfare, when we shall be in our poor cottages in the
wilderness, overshadowed with the spirit of supplication."
Are these the narrow sentiments of bigotry and superstition!
Do you discover anything illiberal, anything uncharitable,
anything unchristian here 1 We find then, that there was
as much harmony among the emigrants in matters of re
ligious belief, and as much toleration, as there is now, so
far as mere opinions were concerned ; although in their civil
relations they brought their laws to bear in some degree,
upon the conduct of men, in matters of faith and practice.

60
But consider their condition, their purposes and objects.
They had gone forth from, their homes to cherish sentiments,
and secure observances within their own jurisdictions,
without let or molestation from others. Their govern
ment, both civil and ecclesiastical, was intended for them
selves alone, and not to be forced upon unwilling minds, or
uncomplying tempers. The grants gave them an exclusive
title to the land which they were to occupy, with an un
controlled right to establish laws for its good government.
They had come out for the express purpose of forming a
distinct and separate organization ; a commonwealth of
their own, to be governed just as the proprietaries should
themselves see fit.
The original grant to Plymouth only comprehended the
country lying east of the present State of Rhode Island,
and south of Massachusetts, which last colony was itself
at first bounded by the narrow limits of Charles river and
the Merrimack. Now, within these circumscribed spaces,
those who owned the soil and had the power of governing
it, proposed to lay the foundations of new societies, estab
lished for their own objects and purposes, and designed to
carry out their own peculiar views. They did not invite
within their jurisdiction settlers of all nations, kindreds and
tongues; but only those who thought as they thought upon
the great subjects of subordination and religion ; and
hence Plymouth early enacted laws prohibiting strangers,
who had not obtained a license for that purpose from the
magistrates, from settling within her territories. Recol
lect, the first emigrants and their associates in England,
owned the very soil upon which they stood ; and having
ample power, for its government, they were desirous of ban
ishing all the elements of discord from the new settlements,
by excluding all those who were calculated to introduce
them. If other persons, differing from the proprietaries in

61
their opinions and views, were desirous of emigrating to
the western world, they had merely to avoid Plymouth and
Massachusetts, if they considered their laws or ordinances
unkind, unjust, or severe. They could go to the north, or
the south, and there was " ample space and verge enough"
for all. Why then should individuals, prating of free gov
ernment, of religion and entire toleration, thrust themselves
within these colonial limits, if they did not mean to submit
to the laws which governed them 1 They were not invited
thither, nor solicited, nor called for, or even wanted.
Was there any injustice, then, in laws, in resolutions, or
practices, which merely sought to exclude the elements of
schism, anarchy and insubordination, for the purpose of pre
serving peace, good order, sound morality, and a pure reli
gious faith 1 They did not seek for proselytes, nor invite
settlers of a different creed to come within their borders ;
but such individuals came, nevertheless, without their con
sent, and insisted upon remaining there, not merely to
enjoy their own opinions in modest quietude and silence,
but to proclaim those opinions aloud, everywhere, from the
high places, and with the express intent of drawing the
original settlers from their ancient impressions. And be
cause those stout-hearted men, who had borne the burthen
and heat of the day to accomplish their own peculiar pur
poses, raised a protest, effectual and firm, against such in
novations, the intruders cried out, " persecution and intol
erance !" Aye, but some may say, " they drove Roger
Williams in the dead of winter into the wilderness, exposed
to its cold and hardship, and the tender mercies of its savage
inhabitants." This banishment of Mr. Williams was entirely of his own
seeking, and the time selected was chosen by himself. This
gentleman, who came over in the year 1630, began life with
such a furious partisan zeal, that he refused to join in fellow-

62
ship with his brethren of Boston, unless they would declare
their repentance for having communed with the church of
England before they left that country. He was also of
opinion, that there should be no punishment for a breach
of the Sabbath, or indeed for any violations of the precepts
of the first table of the law, unless they disturbed the pub
lic peace. That oaths ought not to be tendered to unrepent
ant men ; that thanks should not be given after the sacra
ment, nor after meat, and that a christian should not pray
with an unregenerate person, even though wife or child !
He also insisted, that the title of the Massachusetts Colony
to their lands was not good ; and he maintained these opin
ions in the most open and public manner ; even refusing
to commune with the members of his own church, unless
they would separate themselves from the polluted churches
of New England. These opinions were deemed to be not
only erroneous, but dangerous ; and hence he was warned
that he must not assert them in public, if he expected
to remain within the colony. But as he set the constituted
authorities at defiance, sentence of banishment was passed
upon him, in October, 1635 ; with a permission, how
ever, to remain until spring, provided he would restrain
himself from the propensity to make proselytes, and pro
claim his opinions to the people. It being soon ascertained,
however, that disregaiding these injunctions, he was hold
ing meetings at his own house, and preaching upon the
very points for which he was censured, an order was
given for his arrest ; not for the purpose of putting him in'
prison, or thrusting him out among savages, but for the
purpose of sending him back to England. Hearing of this
order, he determined to evade it, and so passed over from
Massachusettes to the west part ofthe Plymouth jurisdiction,
where he remained for some time among the Indians. His
place of retreat being known, "that ever honored Governor

63
Winthrop," as Williams himself styles him, privately
wrote him to " steer his course to the Narragansett Bay,
as being free from English claims or patents." "I took
his prudent motion," says he, " as a voice from God !"
Once established within his own jurisdiction, he re
mained there without interference or molestation on the
part of the colonies of Plymouth or Massachusetts, and in
perfect friendship with both. What is there to complain
of in all this 1 What was there of hardship or injustice in
the case 1 He had come to the colonies without invitation,
and remained there against their wishes. They did not
desire to stifle his opinions, for one of their statutes express
ly says, that " no creature is Lord, or has power over the
faith and consciences of men, nor may restrain them to be
lieve or profess against their consciences ; nor deprive them
of their lawful liberty in a quiet and orderly way to propose
their scruples." But they did desire to suppress the open
and public proclamation of opinions, hurtful to their pro
perty, and schismatical in their effects. Instead of har
mony in an infant and feeble settlement, under his preach
ing there would be inflamed zeal, heated controversy,
doubtful faith, disturbed principles, and unsettled belief;
for Williams himself afterwards became strenuous against
the Quakers, holding public disputes with some of their
most eminent teachers. At later periods of his life, he
lived in open neglect of many of the ordinances for which
he had once zealously contended. Instead of separating
himself from the anti-christian churches, against which he
had been so loud, he was ready to preach and pray for
all sects, and became entirely doubtful as to what church
he should unite himself with. Why should Mr. Williams
raise up commotion, by attacking the patent of Massachu
setts 1 Why should he, amongst a people who could not
by possibility be brought to his way of thinking, deny that

64
the commandments of the first table of the law might
be enforced by the secular power 1 Do any christian peo
ple ; does any State ; does even Rhode Island herself pre
tend to maintain good order upon the Sabbath day, without
any law for its proper observance 1 One of the moving
causes of emigration from Holland was the profanation of
the Sabbath, and the impossibility of correcting the evil
there ; the Dutch ministers themselves acknowledging the
difficulty of withdrawing the people from their sports and
ordinary occupations on that day. Should they then, at
once throw off observances which were deemed fundamen
tal and sacred 1 Should they admit themselves to be wrong
on this vital point, which has never yet been abandoned by
their descendants, and say that conscience made a law for
itself, sufficient in all these matters of outward observance ?
Are the consciences of all men alike 1 and guided by its
dictates alone, can there be uniformity af action and a de
cent preservation of order and propriety 1 The thing is im
possible. Even under Mr. Williams, matters seem not to have been
mended much, or very harmonious in their operation : for
we find that in 1638, the free principles which he wished
to establish in Massachusetts did not work particularly
well in Rhode Island. " At Providence," says Governor
Winthrop, " the devil was not idle, for whereas, at their
first coming thither, Mr. Williams, and the rest, did make
an order that no man should be molested for his con
science ; now men's wives, and children, and servants,
claimed liberty to go to all religious meetings, though
never so often or private, upon week days ; and because one
Verin refused to let his wife go to Mr. Williams so oft as
she was called for, they required to have him censured ; and
some were of opinion that if Verin would not suffer his wife
to have her liberty, the church should dsipose of her to

65
some other man, who would use her better. In conclu
sion ; when they would have censured Verin, another told
them it was against their own order ; for Verin did what
he did out of conscience, and their order was, that no man
should be disturbed for conscience."
But they whipped the Anabaptists and persecuted the Qua
kers, you say 1 They moderately punished one individual
of the former sect, it is true, in the year 1644 : "Not," says
Mr. Winthrop, " for his opinions, but for his evil behavior,
both at home and in court ; he being a scandalous person,
of loose, habits, and much given to lying and idleness."
And as for the Quakers, what were they in the days of our
fathers 1 Were they the decent, orderly, quiet and modest
people, which we see now, every where obedient to the
laws, thrifty, industrious, benevolent and gentle ? Would
John Winthrop, and William Bradford, and Francis Hig
ginson lay their hands, think ye, upon the excellent per
sons who at present occupy New Bedford, setting an ex
ample of subordination, virtue and propriety, to all
the world ? No, no. The Quakers of the seventeenth
century were no more like the gentle Friends of the nine
teenth, than the latter are like the Mormons. The former
were ranters and fanatics,, disturbers of public peace and
decency, entering the churches during the time of service,
in the most shameless manner, and insulting the ministers
there, in the administration of their sacred office. They
invaded public houses, uttering their wild exhortations, and
foaming forth their mad opinions, like persons possessed ;
disturbing, also, the relations of private life, and meddling,
everywhere, with matters beyond the pale of propriety, or
even common modesty.
One Eccles, a Quaker tailor, who wrote a narrative of
his persecutions, as he termed them, in 1659, declares that
he felt bound to go to the steeple-house in Aldermanbury 5

66
(as he called the church) on Sunday, "and take with
him something to work upon, and do it in the pulpit, at
their singing time ; and he carried with him a pocket to
sew." Making his way with proverbial slyness into the
pulpit, he sat himself, he says, " upon the cushion with his
feet upon the seat where the priest, when he has told out
his lies, doth sit," and pulling out his pocket, went to
work. Was it not a marvellous persecution, that the peo
ple thus disturbed, should have taken this insane zealot
before a magistrate for punishment 1
George Fox himself, entered " a steeple-house," and cried
out to the minister, in the time of divine service, " come
down, thou deceiver ;" and on another occasion, approach
ing Lichfield, he pulled off his shoes and walked barefoot
through the place, crying out " woe to the bloody city."
But even men like these were mild and decent, in compari
son with others of their sect, who were carried away by
the wildest impulses of phrenzy and fanaticism, putting the
followers of Mathias even to the blush ; and against such
public disturbers as these, the colony laws were directed.
These laws were at first mild and gentle, and in 1659, Ply
mouth, by statute, made a proposition to the Quakers, that
if they would depart out of their jurisdiction within six
months, no fines should be exacted of them ; promising
that such of them as were poor should be supplied out
of the public treasury. And to show the desire they had
of preserving their own institutions merely, within their
own jurisdiction, banishment from the Province, was in
almost all cases, the first penalty prescribed for offences of
this character. As measures of a mild nature were of no
effect, the laws became more stringent, and it was then
enacted, that if " ranters, Quakers, and other such vaga
bonds," should come within any town, they might be
seized and whipped with a rod, not exceeding fifteen stripes,

67
and a pass given them to depart out of the government.
Associate this law with the image of the gentle Friend of
our day, with his modest coat and quiet' manners, and it
becomes absurd. But associate it with Mathias, wandering
about the streets of New York, uttering his disgusting
blasphemies to curious crowds and deceived proselytes, and
I think you would certainly bestow upon him at least fifteen
stripes with a rod before you gave him a pass to depart from
the government. But if our ancestors were too severe in
their measures for the suppression of " ranters, and such
like vagabonds," they were not a whit more severe than
the English themselves ; for we find that one James Naylor,
a convert of George Fox, the great founder of the sect, was
condemned to death for his extravagancies by the House
of Commons, in 1656. Even the mild and excellent William
Penn himself could hardly tolerate them ; saying that they
were troublesome to the better sort, and furnished an occa
sion for the looser to blaspheme.
In considering the character and conduct of those who
lived and conducted the affairs of government, with the ad
ministration of its laws, two centuries ago, we should view
them, not with eyes which have seen all the changes of
thoughts, and all the improvements which that long period
has produced, but they should be judged by the sentiments
which prevailed in their time, and the lights by which they
themselves were then guided. Itis an easy thing now to
ridicule the laws of Massachusetts concerning witchcraft, and
hurl anathemas against the pious men who carried them into
effect. But what was the state of public opinion throughout
the whole christian world upon this subject at that time 1
Was New England the only spot where laws of this nature
were enacted 1 Had old England no statutes upon the
subject 1 or if they remained upon the record, had they,
by disuse become obsolete and forgotten 1 5*

68
"Todeny," says Blackstone, in his commentaries, written
more than seventy years after all trials for this crime in
New England had ceased ; "to deny the possibility, nay,
actual existence, of witchcraft and sorcery, is at once flatly
to contradict the revealed word of God, in various passages
both ofthe Old and New Testament ; and the thing itself is
a truth to which every nation in the world, hath in its turn
borne testimony, either by examples seemingly well attested,
or by prohibitory laws. The civil law punishes with
death, not only the sorcerers themselves, but also those who
consult them, imitating in the former the express law
of God, ' thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.' And our
laws, both before and since the conquest, have been equally
penal, ranking this crime in the same class with heresy, and
condemning both to the flames."
Laws of the severest kind against this supposed offence,
were passed in England, during the reign of Henry the
eighth ; repeated and extended during that of James the
first ; and continued on their statute books down to the year
1736, when, in the ninth year of George the second's reign
it was enacted, that prosecutions should not, from that time
forward, be carried on against any person for conjuration,
witchcraft, enchantment, or sorcery ; leaving however, up
on the face of the law itself, an implied belief in their
existence. Who was Sir Matthew Hale, and when did he live 1 He
was the Chief Justice of the King's Bench at one period of
his life, and died in the year 1676, one of the most learned,
just, and upright of all the magistrates that ever presided
in an English court. And did he never try witches 1 Why,
under his administration, and those of other learned and
high minded judges of that time, more persons were put to
death for this crime of witchcraft, in a single county of Eng
land, in a brief space, than ever suffered in all the

69
States of New England, from the time of their settlement
to the day when the delusion passed away, and, as I trust,
for ever from the annals of mankind. No execution for
conjuration or sorcery ever took place in New England, I
believe, after the year 1693 ; but in old England, death con
tinued to be inflicted for the same offences as late as 1722 ;
showing conclusively that the crime had not its " local
habitation and name " in Massachusetts alone.
But how much have we improved, upon the score of
superstition, even in these enlightened times 1 In what days
of New England history can you find anything so monstrous
and revolting as the Mormon superstition, crime or folly,
which is now before your eyes ? When did Jemima Wilk
inson flourish 1 And where, did a reverend fanatic speak to
deluded crowds in unknown tongues 1 No ! credulity and
superstition are not confined to particular periods or places ;
but are of all times, and in every part of the world ; and
happy are they who escape its influence.
In paying a tribute to the merits of our dead ancestors,
let not their modesty and freedom from ambition be forgot
ten. To discharge their duty before God and man was their
only aspiration. Power and place offered no temptations
to their chastened minds. No matter in what condition
man, under ordinary circumstances may be placed, whether
as the Inca of Peru, surrounded by ingots of gold and pyra
mids of silver, or as the poverty-stricken sachem of a north
ern tribe, without wealth, or comfort, ot outward signs of
magnificence ; power is nevertheless the strongest temptation
to ambitious souls. In the desire for its possession, all other
earthly regards are absorbed ; fraud, violence, and cor
ruption, are invoked for its acquirement ; the endearments
of home, the consciousness of right, the obligations of vir
tue, and the sanctions of religion are all forgotten, while
the human energies are concentrated into one fierce and in-

70
extinguishable motive. For it, man spurns the rights of
his fellow man ; disregards the obligations of duty ; despises
present retribution, and tempts that which is to come.
In what s*trong contrast with all that we see exhibited,
day by day, upon the busy theatre of human affairs at this
time, does the conduct of the Pilgrims appear? Simple,
unambitious, conscientious, and devoted ; considering pow
er as a burden which all were bound to endure, they assum
ed its cares without coveting its honors. There was no
strife among them as to which should be greatest. Far from
it. William Bradford having been repeatedly elected
Governor, " got off" on one occasion, " by importunity."
" If this appointment," said be, " was an honor or benefit,
others beside himself should partake of it ; if it were a bur
den, others beside himself should help to bear it." Nor
was this feeling peculiar to him, for we find that in the year
1632, it was solemnly enacted at Plymouth, " that if then,
or thereafter," any were elected to the office of Governor,
and would not stand to the election, nor hold and execute
the office for his year, that then, he be amerced in twenty
pounds sterling, fine. And if any were elected to the
office of Counsel, and refused to hold the place, that he be
amerced in ten pounds, sterling." There is some reason to
suspect, however much we may have adhered to the cus
toms of our Pilgrim ancestors, that in this particular, weare
somewhat degenerated.
We have thus seen who the first planters of New Eng
land were, and the causes which led to the great enterprise
of establishing colonies upon our north-Atlantic shores. We
have seen that they were men imbued with morals, sound
and practical, though severe ; of principles high-minded
and pure, though firm and unyielding ; of a religious faith
and temperament, heated perhaps, by zeal to observances
over-strict and formal : yet kind, tolerant and forgiving.

71
We have seen them everywhere carrying out the purposes
and fulfilling the designs for which they emigrated. The
darkness of the forest gave way before the vigorous strokes
of the woodman ; the hum of the mill was mingled with
the dash of the waterfall ; the noise of the hammer was
heard in the solitude of the desert, and the lowing of herds
penetrated to the abodes of the wolf and the panther ; the
hill-side reflected back the gleam of the ploughshare, and
the plains waved with the golden plumage of the harvest ;
the wild incantations of the savage gave place to psalms of
thanksgiving and the song of praise ; while civilization
advanced everywhere over the land, sounding its glad voice,
and pouring out its blessings.
The progress of those little bands, from small beginnings
to considerable communities ; from these communities to
separate and independent States ; and from such States, to
a harmonius union of all their descendants, under one com
mon government, wisely constructed, powerfully main
tained, and eminently respectable ; may be easily traced,
when the sources ofthe mighty current, flowing so steadily
on, are once well known.
The «principles inculcated by our fathers, the education
they bestowed upon their children, and the habits of pa
tience, long-suffering, and perseverance in which they
were trained, could not fail to have an influence, deep and
abiding, upon their characters. Standing by their chartered
rights on all occasions, when attacked, conscious that they
were entitled to the immunities and privileges for which they
had toiled so long, and suffered so much, the Pilgrims and
their descendants were not likely to submit with tameness
to wrongs and oppressions, come from what source they
might. The contests in which they were involved with the na
tives, after the termination of Philip's war, the blood which

72
they poured from their veins, and the desolations which
came upon their borders, had been occasioned, for the most
part, by controversies between the mother-country and her
European neighbors, in which the colonies were compelled
to take part. But they "remembered that they were Eng
lishmen," and bore their portion of the burthens of war
with patience and courage, murmuring at none of these
things; for wherever the British flag waived on this conti
nent, the sons of New England could be found marshalled
under it, and standing side by side with their kinsmen.
But their sympathies were always on the part of liberty,
and from the beginning, they were essentially republican.
H'snce, though not engaged in the conflict between the king
and his parliaments, their hearts were always with the peo
ple. They rejoiced in their success, they mourned over
their misfortunes ; nor was it a day of fasting and prayer in
the colonies, when the news came that the independent
churches had established for themselves equality of rights,
in the land where they were originally formed.
" Full little did I think," exclaimed that stout old Puri
tan, Governor Bradford, " full little did I think that the
downfall of the bishops, with their courts, their canons, and
ceremonies, had been so near when I first began this writ
ing, in 1630 ; or that I should have lived to have seen or
heard the same. And do ye now see the fruits of your labors,
ye little band amongst the rest, the least amongst the thou
sands of Israel? But who hath done it ? Even He, who sitteth
upon the white horse : who is called faithful and true, and
judgeth and fighteth righteously. It is He that treadeth the
wine press, and hath upon his garment and upon his thigh
a name written, the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords !"
After that great revolution, which was the prelude mere
ly, to the still greater one, which finally expelled the Stu
arts from the British throne, the people of New England

73
steadily adhered to their early principles, and hence they
furnished a refuge to such of King Charles' judges as es
caped to their country, desolate and forlorn. They did not
look upon them as regicides, who had murdered their sove
reign, but in the language of Bradshaw's epitaph, as a part
of "that band of heroes and patriots, who had fairly and
openly adjudged Charles Stuart, tyrant of England, to a
public and exemplary death ; thereby presenting to the
amazed world, and transmitting down, through applauding
ages the most glorious example of unshaken virtue, love of
freedom and impartial justice, ever exhibited on the blood
stained theatre of human action !"
These principles, and these sentiments, they maintained,
and in Boston boldly avowed and acted upon, even before
tidings of the expulsion of James from his throne had
reached their glad and expecting ears. As good citizens,
as obedient subjects, they remained during the reigns of his
daughters, and the first two of their successors from Han
over; cherishing their free institutions, and, what was
more, maintaining their independent sentiments with the
unconquerable resolution of intelligent minds.
How unwise then in the mother country ; how dangerous
to wound the feelings of attachment which bound the de
scendants of the Pilgrims to the early home of their fathers.
How unjust to attempt to restrain their energies, circum
scribe their powers, and subdue their spirit. Were men
like these ever intended to be mere " hewers of wood and
drawers of water," for taskmasters on the other side of the
Atlantic ? Were the sons of the Pilgrims like the children
of Issachar, " a strong ass couching down between two
burdens ?" Were they likely to " see that rest was good,
and the land pleasant," and so " bow their shoulders to
bear, and become servants unto tribute ?" No, no. Eng
land should have remembered that " Judah was a lion's

74
whelp, and that his hand, would be in the neck of his ene
mies." A writer, to me unknown, who composed a preface to an
edition of Hubbard's wars, printed in Boston, shortly before
the battle of Bunker's Hill, speaking of his ancestors, ob
serves, that however they may have been misrepresented,
they were men of whom the world was not worthy.
" According to the usual course of things," says he, " in
this depraved and mutable state, their descendants, at this
day, as might be expected, have, in a measure, departed
from that simplicity of manners by which their renowned
ancestors were distinguished. We, of this province, have
been called upon, from an early period, to defend our lives
and property against more distant savages. Our trust has
been in our fathers' God, and hitherto, he hath delivered
us. Our frontier settlements are exposed to savage inva
sion ; and, though we trust not in our own bow, we are all
armed and prepared for a defensive war !"
Who were the savages hinted at here, as nearer than
those more distant ones, who had formerly assailed the
frontier settlements ? Against whom did the descendants
of the Pilgrims then stand, all armed and prepared for a
defensive war ? Could not those, who controlled the des
tinies of Britain, hear the mutterings of the distant thunder,
in these audible breathings-out of a suppressed, but concen
trated and indomitable spirit ? Could nothing but the fierce
lightning of the battle, and the peltings of the pitiless storm
of war arouse them to the recollection, that the fathers of
these men were Englishmen, who came over the great
ocean, and that their children would perish in this wilder
ness, rather than bear anything here, which would not be
borne at home ?
The same spirit which had planted the colonies, sustain
ed and supported them through the whole Revolutionary

75
struggle ; so desolating, so unequal, so fierce, and unrelent
ing. The history of that event is so remarkable, when care
fully examined, as to excite astonishment, if not incredu
lity ; and if an overruling Providence ever did interpose
directly in the affairs of men, surely, its cloud by day, and
pillar of fire by night, may be seen and traced through all
the long and wearisome years of that eventful contest.
Severed then, and forever, were the silver cords, which
bound distant, but affectionate colonies to their parent
country. The golden bowl had been broken at the foun
tain. With ruthless violence it had been dashed down, and
its fragments in after times, were never to be gathered up
by the parent hand. But all the fruits of that vine which
God had planted in the wilderness, were to remain to the
descendants of those who had nurtured and nourished it,
even with their tears and with their blood. Its branches
were destined to shoot forth and spread out, and extend and
blossom in the unknown and unthought-of depths of that
vast continent, where its roots had struck so firmly and so
deep. Equal rights and equal privileges for all men, were then
and there secured ; and as I trust, made safe and enduring
for ever. Freedom of thought, freedom of action under
proper restraints, the inestimable gift of self-government,
were each and all of them bestowed upon us by our fathers,
at the close of that great drama, in which they, and the
principal nations of Europe were finally actors. They es
tablished institutions, which we are bound by all the sacred
obligations of filial affection, of parental reverence, and
common gratitude, to preserve and maintain, and hand
down to those who may come after us. And by all these
great and hallowed recollections, we will maintain and
preserve and hand them down, that no reproach may come
upon us or our generation. That education we have received,

76
we will transmit ; that language taught to us, we will teach
to others ; those principles in which we have been wrapped
as with a mantle, we will bequeath to posterity, as the
last, best gift, which one generation can bestow upon
another. The seeds sown by the Mayflower, shall be borne and
wafted on the gentle winds of heaven, to every part of this
vast continent, to spring up thirty, sixty, and an hundred
fold, in the blossoms of that glorious and never-dying plant.
The dove which was sent out from the Ark, was to ex
plore the face of the waters, to see where rest could be
found for the sole of her foot. The dove which went forth
from the Mayflower, carried in her beak a leaf of the
olive which was to be planted, and take root, and grow and
flourish, after the great waters of toil, and suffering, and
trial, and Revolution, should have subsided.
The land is visible to us on every side, fertile and plea
sant as the garden of the Lord. It was given to us as an
inheritance ; as an inheritance we will preserve it. Our
tears did not water it ; our blood did not nourish it ; our
toil did not smooth down its surface ; but we are bound to
it by the blood, and tbe tears, and the toil of our fathers ;
and by all these sacred obligations we will guard it.
The great orator of our time, and of his race, in his elo
quent and profoundly philosophical discourse, delivered at
Plymouth in the year 1820, speaking of his own native and
beloved New England, expresses himself in these words:
" Instead of being confined to its former limits, her popu
lation has rolled backward and filled up the spaces included
within her actual local boundaries. Not this only, but it
has overflowed those boundaries and the waves of emigra
tion have pressed farther and farther towards the West.
The Alleghany has not checked it, the banks of the Ohio
have been covered with it. Two thousand miles westward

77
from the rock where their fathers landed, may now be found
the sons of the Pilgrims, cultivating smiling fields, rearing
towns and villages, and cherishing the patrimonial bless
ings of wise institutions, of liberty and religion." " It may
be safely asserted that there are now more than a million
of people, descendants of New England ancestry, living
free and happy in regions which, hardly sixty years ago,
were tracts of unpenetrated forest. Nor do rivers, or moun
tains, or seas, resist the progress of industry and enterprise ;
and ere'long the sons of the Pilgrims will be upon the shores
ofthe Pacific."
This prophecy, made just twenty-seven years ago, has
become history within that brief space of time. The mil
lion of the descendants of New England parentage here re
ferred to, may, in all probability, be found in Ohio alone.
The boundaries of the great rivers have been overleaped.
The sterile plains, and still more sterile hills, beyond the
.Mississippi, have been traversed. The barrier of the Alle-
ghanies has presented no resistance ; the Rocky Mountains
themselves have been scaled ; the stormy Cape has been
doubled ; and now the sons of the Pilgrims stand upon the
shores of the Pacific. They stand there with no eye turned
towards the rising sun, except for the cheering warmth of
his kindred rays. They stand there with no fainting reso
lution, no faltering thought of return. As their march was
westward, so, with an intrepid front, they follow the sun
in his flight, and look out upon the broad Pacific to see in
what distant land he hides his fading beams. That piercing
gaze will never cease until the mystery has been solved. The
isles of the sea will be measured ; the spherical form of the
globe itself be proved by American exploration ; and the
Anglo Saxons of this continent, steadily pursuing the on
ward progress of their career, will put a girdle around the
-earth, and yet come back to the Rock of, Plymouth, from
whence they originally set forth.