I. were Eaton, Saltonstall, Rosewell, Browne, Vassal, and CHAP. Foxcroft, and pleaded that they never usurped "the franchises in the information," nor did "they use or claim any of the same, but wholly disclaimed them." Judgment was accordingly given, that they should be wholly excluded from the liberties usurped by the company. Cradock, the former governor, alone interpleaded, but he afterwards suffered default. Judgment, therefore, was entered up against him, that he was convicted of the usurpation charged in the information, and that the liberties and franchises of the company should be seized into the king's hands. "The rest of the patentees stood outlawed."1 Little further took place. The energies of the crown were required for other and more pressing duties. In 1637, initiatory measures were taken for the reconstruction of the colonies, and Sir Ferdinando Gorges was appointed by the king general governor of New England. But the real difficulty of the plan prevented its execution. In the mean time, Massachusetts was continually receiving an accession of numbers from England, which encouraged her to more bold opposition when again summoned before the sovereign she had wronged. Two hundred and ninety-eight ships were estimated to have sailed for New England, from the time that the charter was granted down to the decline of the royal cause, and of these one only is said to have miscarried.3 On board these ships, which bridged the Atlantic, poured the turbid yet vigorous stream of Puritanism that England emptied into her colonies. In 1638 alone, three thousand persons forsook their native land for the sterile soil and ungenial climate of New England. Priests I Hazard. 2 Chalmers's Annals. 3 Johnson, B. i. ch. 14. July. CHAP. apostatizing, and flying in disguise, people abandoning I. the Holy Mother which had borne and blessed them, Orders the transmis and nourished them with her choicest food, present a spectacle sad enough; but how awful does it become, when we consider that few of this recreant multitude could have left the kingdom without first taking the oaths of supremacy and allegiance, and producing certificates that they were in communion with a church which they had abandoned! It was not until 1638 that the lords commissioners, sion of the "calling to mind their former order to Mr. Cradock," England. and fortified by the judgment of the King's Bench, deApril. spatched fresh orders to Massachusetts, requiring the charter to governor, "or any others in whose power or custody" was the charter, to transmit the same forthwith to England, and threatening, in the event of "further neglect and contempt," to "take a strict course against them.” They were the more determined in this course, from the fact, that the colonial government already considered it "perjury and treason" for the freemen of the commonwealth to speak of appeals to the king. The freeman's oath recognized no country, no church, no God, but The order those of Puritanism. The general court no sooner plied with. received this order than they voted an address to excuse September. their compliance with a demand founded " not com upon pretence that judgment had been passed against their charter upon a quo warranto." An ingenious answer was accordingly prepared, wherein the general court declared, that if they had been notified of the quo warranto, no doubt they could have put in a sufficient plea to it: that, if they should transmit the charter to England, "they would be looked at as runagates and outlaws;" that the common people would think that his majesty had cast them off; and that they would, for their safety, confederate them I. selves under a new government, which would be of danger- CHAP. ous example to other plantations. "We do not question your lordships' proceedings," said they, in conclusion; "we only desire to open our griefs where the remedy is to be expected. And we are bold to renew our humble supplications to your lordships, that we may be suffered to live here in this wilderness, and that this poor plantation, which hath found more favor with God than many others, may not find less favor with the king." A semiofficial reply was returned by the lords commissioners, 1639. through the medium of Mr. Cradock. They endeavored to allay the jealousies and fears, which the peremptory demand of the charter had occasioned, declared their only intentions to be the regulation of all the colonies according to their commission, and promised to continue the liberties of the people of Massachusetts as English subjects. They again called upon the corporation to send home the charter, and, as an earnest of their benevolent designs, authorized its present government to continue until a new patent passed the seals. The general court voted to take no notice of this last order; for, said the members, in their debates, it is unofficial; and the lords commissioners cannot "proceed upon it," since they can obtain no proof that it was delivered to the governor. And, the better to insure this result, they directed Mr. Cradock's agent, when he again wrote to his principal, not to mention the receipt of his last letters.1 tion of And thus ended the controversy. Puritanism in Eng- Vindicaland had passed from the ideal to the actual, and Charles Charles I. was called upon to struggle for his crown over the tottering ramparts of the Church. Ought we not to have gentle thoughts of his memory, when we consider that his last wishes for New England were, that the Holy 1 Winthrop's Journal. Hubbard. Hutchinson, &c. I. CHAP. Faith, which had rendered the Mother Country glorious for eight centuries, might bless the colonies that had received her name? In his controversy with the Massachusetts Bay Company, he has been represented by popular writers as harsh and tyrannical; but not only have they shut their eyes to the circumstances under which he acted, but they have also forgotten, that, had he been a real tyrant, he would have avoided the forms of law, and with a single armed ship have obtained summary redress. In fact, the candid inquirer into the merits of this controversy will admire the genius of English liberty. He will behold a great monarch defrauded by a portion of his subjects, and resorting for redress, like the humblest citizen, to the courts of law. He will carefully watch each step of this remarkable process, from the issue of the writ to the final decree; and he will look in vain for any abuse of power, or even undignified menace. Calm, quiet, patient, yet determined, is each feature in the curious exhibition. And when the proper tribunal has pronounced, at last, that a serious wrong has been inflicted by a party of malcontents upon their sovereign, he will find that no pomp or noise announces the royal triumph, but a simple order follows for the surrender of a perverted franchise, and a powerful corporation, the mere creature of law, becomes, ipso facto, resolved into its primary elements. We conclude with a single quotation. In their address to Charles II., in 1664, the General Court of Massachusetts made use of the following remarkable language: "The deepest invention of man cannot find out a more certain way of consistence than to obtain a royal donation from a great prince, under his great seal, which is the greatest security that may be had in human affairs." What other or happier vindication does the honor of the royal martyr need! CHAPTER II. THE PURITAN COMMONWEALTH. PART I. Nature of the Corporation Government - The Magistrates assume to be an Oligarchy The Freemen claim to be a Privileged Body - Struggle between the Aristocratic and Liberal Parties - The General Court becomes a Legislature - The Magistrates call the Elders to their Support - The Elders establish a Council for Life-They erect the Magistrates into a Senate The Judicial Authority conferred by the Charter — The Puritan State claims the Common Law- The Assistants claim to be Judges - The Freemen demand a Body of Laws The Criminal Code of the Puritan State - The Moral Influence of the Puritan State. II. "WE had now fair, sunshine weather; and so pleasant CHAP. a sweet air as did much refresh us, and there came a smell off the shore like the smell of a garden.' Heaven seemed to smile upon the Puritan-Pilgrims. The Old World, with its mighty associations, was shut from their eyes forever, but, as if to make amends for the loss, Nature, in the New World, assumed her brightest colors; and the flowers of the forest, arrayed in superhuman glory, shed their richest perfume, to welcome the advent of Puritanism. But the transfer of the charter was only the forerunner of civil and religious usurpations. In England, a small bit of parchment, decorated with the great seal, and guarded by the courts of Westminster 1 Winthrop's Journal. |