The Puritan Commonwealth, an historical review of the Puritan government in Massachusetts in its civil and ecclesiastical relations, from its rise to the abrogation of the first charter, etc

Front matter

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Preface

. "'©©•**•* " The following pages have been wrought, at no little expense of time and labor, out of the mate rials at the author's command. The early history of New England, the stately commonwealth that sprang up under the shadow of the Puritan Church, the extraordinary virtues that were called into life by a colonization such as the world has seldom or never before witnessed, and the moral and political results of a new experience in a new world and in a superstitious age, are subjects of great interest, and which will well repay the inquirer. " I have entered upon this study con amore, and have found fresh interest at every step. The sub ject grew formidable, at last, from its variety; but doubts had arisen whether the whole truth had ever been spoken, and I determined to satisfy myself whether they were well founded.

The result is before the reader. " I am aware that I have entered upon a field only partially explored. The labor was difficult, because it was obscure ; for it has been the fashion to bury the errors of our forefathers beneath their many virtues, and to conceal the whole truth by expressing but a part. Every writer, from the earliest times,

PREFACE.

. IV has done something to hide from our gaze those faults which would lead us to doubt the entire virtue of our ancestors ; and so great have been the consequent mistakes, that the ridiculous proposition has been maintained, by both judges and historians, that the Puritans were lovers of religious freedom, and that civil liberty was a principle first understood upon the shores of Massachusetts Bay. " To question such doctrines is forbidding to those who write not so much to instruct, as to win popu larity; and perhaps a certain degree of moral courage is necessary, to encounter public opinion on a point where it is especially sensitive. It would be egotistical in me to claim more of this virtue than belongs to persons in general ; at the same time that I do not, in this instance, shrink from the per formance of a duty."

The above forms a portion of a preface but par tially completed, which was found among the man uscripts of the author. The work to which it was designed to be an introduction, and the substance of which is contained in the present publication, was originally written during the leisure hours of a commencing professional life, for the pages of a review. But the author had determined to revise the whole, and prepare it for the press in a separate form, and was engaged in this undertaking when he was interrupted by death. The fact that he was unable to carry out his design, will explain to the reader the controversial tone of the work, and an occasional warmth of expression, which may be thought better suited to the character of periodical literature than to the more sustained dignity of his torical composition.

PREFACE.

. V The work is divided into chapters, and several of the chapters are subdivided into parts. Each chapter is distinct by itself, and independent of the others. The first is taken up with the history of the charter of The Massachusetts Bay Company ; its nature, the ends it was intended to subserve, and its fraudulent transfer to Massachusetts. The subject of the second chapter is " The Pu ritan Commonwealth ; " its construction, its failure to accomplish the end of all government, in the preservation of good order and the prevention of immorality, and its aggressive spirit toward the aboriginal tribes. The third chapter discusses "The Puritan Church;" its construction, its intolerance, as shown in the per secution of the Familists, Quakers, and Baptists, and its missionary claims, as compared with those of the Church of England and the Church of Rome.

The fourth chapter is political in its character, and shows the spirit of discontent and rebellion that actuated the colonists from the first. The fifth, commencing with a succinct history of the Church down to the time of the Reforma tion in England, asserts the gradual degeneracy of the Puritans, after their separation from the great Catholic body. The sixth, and last, contains reflections on the English colonial policy, and on the general charac ter and tendencies of Puritanism. It is believed that, in the treatment of his sub ject, the author has brought to light many facts which have been hitherto passed over in silence by a * VI

PREFACE.

. the historian, and has presented others, more fami liar to the general reader, in a way to excite new interest and attention. At any rate, the cause of truth can never suffer from discussion and inquiry; and it is in this confidence that the editor, in exe cuting a trust which circumstances seemed to have imposed upon him, submits the following pages to the candor of an impartial and discriminating public. F. e. o. F. E. O. Boston, July 23, 1856. CONTENTS. — @©e—

Chapter I

The Charter of the Massachusetts Bay Company and King Charles the First. Grant of James I. to the Colonial Companies of London and Plymouth 7 The Northern Company but partially successful 8 Obtains a fresh Grant 9 But again fails 10 Formation of a new Company, which likewise fails 10 Rise of a Missionary Spirit 11 Which leads to a new Organization 12 Endecott appointed Superintendent 12 The Company obtains a Royal Charter 13 Cradock first Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Company 13 Endecott becomes a Brownist 16 Persecutes the Brownes 17 Transfer of the Charter proposed 20 Decided upon 21 Objects of this Measure '• 22 True Character and Object of the Charter 23 The Puritan State charged with Disloyalty, and with violating the Rights of the King's Subjects 34 Sir Christopher Gardiner 35 Thomas Morton 37 Philip Ratcliss 39 The Council orders an Investigation 40 Further Complaints against the Puritan State 41 Cradock ordered to exhibit the Charter 41 Appointment of a Royal Commission 44 Which directs its Attention to the Transfer of the Charter 45 Orders the Transmission of the Charter to England 48 The Order not complied with 48 Vindication of Charles I. "49

Chapter II

The Puritan Commonwealth. Part I. Nature of the Corporation Government 52 The Magistrates assume to be an Oligarchy CONTENTS. VIII The Freemen claim to be a privileged Body 56 Struggle between the Aristocratic and Liberal Parties 57 The General Court becomes a Legislature 60 The Magistrates call the Elders to their Support 61 The Elders establish a Council for Life 63 They erect the Magistrates into a Senate 66 The Judicial Authority conferred by the Charter 76 The Puritan State claims the Common Law 78 The Assistants claim to be Judges 80 The Freemen demand a Body of Laws 81 The Criminal Code of the Puritan State 83 The Moral Influence of the Puritan State 90 Part II.

Moral Character of the Government of the Puritan State 99 As illustrated by its Treatment of the Aborigines 100 The Pequods. 106 The Murder of John Oldham 108 Leads to an Invasion of the Pequod Territory no The Pequods seek Alliance with the Narragansetts 112- Who enter into a Treaty with Massachusetts •' 113 Total Destruction of the Pequods 114 Fate of the Leaders of this Expedition, an Instance of Divine Retribution 116 The Narragansetts 118 Intrigue of the Mohegans 120 Defeat and Capture of Miantonimo- • • ■• 122 His Fate 1 24 The Narragansetts seek the Aid of Massachusetts, to avenge his Death-i26 But without Success 127 The Treatment of their Deputation 129 Desperate Condition of this Tribe 130 A new Treaty extorted from them 131 Their Lukewarmness in its Observance, a Cause of Alarm 132 Preparations for War 132 Destruction of the Narragansetts 133 Heroism of Canonchet jjj The Wampanoags j 3 - Treachery and Death of Sausamon 130 Which leads to War r ,0 Fall of Philip Aa War with the Tarranteens r ,6 The Puritans seek the Alliance of the Mohawks 148 Defeat of the Allies I4„ Terrible Effects of the Puritan Wars ,,0

Chapter III

The Puritan Church. Part I. \ The Fundamental Principle of Independency I55 CONTENTS. IX The Puritans avow the Doctrines of Independency, but are false to its Principles I^6 Peculiar Position of the Elders 157 Practical Inconveniences of the Contract System 159 To remedy which, the Covenant is devised 162 Want of Unity and Vitality in the Church 165 The Antinomian Heresies 169 Condemned by a Synod 178 Banishment of the Antinomian Leaders 180 Subsequent Condition of the Puritan Church 182 Divisions on the Subject of Baptism 184 Part II. Intolerant Spirit of the Puritan Church 191 Rise of the Familists 194 Persecution of Gorton 195 The Quakers 205 The Anabaptists 219 Persecutions in Massachusetts, Violations of the Charter and of the Laws of England 227 Inconsistent with the avowed Claims of Puritanism 228 Part III.

Mode of Conducting the Puritan Missions 234 Thomas Mayhew ■ 235 John Eliot 237 Results of these Missions 242 Causes of their Failure 244 The Puritan Church not entitled to the Credit of their Establishment -249 The Missions in New England contrasted with those of Virginia- •■ -251 With the Jesuit Missions in New France 253

Chapter IV

The Elders Conspire against the Crown. Part I. The Elders and Magistrates feel the Insecurity of Puritanism in Massachusetts, in Consequence of its Illegality 261 Freeman's Oath 262 The Cross of St. George removed from the English Flag 264 The Civil Wars 267 The Long Parliament encourages the Trade of Massachusetts, and enlists the Puritan State in its Cause 269 Massachusetts openly renounces her Allegiance to King Charles 270 Acknowledges that she is represented in Parliament by the Knights and Burgesses of the Manor of East Greenwich 270 Makes it a capital Offence to side with Charles, and sends Soldiers to join the English Rebels 272 Confederates with the other New England Colonies CONTENTS. X Objects sought by this Union 277 Frustrated by Parliament 2 2' *7' Parliament asserts Authority over the Colonies, by attacking their i ..•••.••■280 1 rade Massachusetts ordered to surrender her Charter Petitions Parliament and Cromwell Considers herself an Ally of Cromwell only 2»3 Effect of Cromwell's Death 2°-5 Massachusetts refuses to acknowledge Charles II. 285 Reaction in the Colony 'f'." ' The Elders and Magistrates dissatisfied with the Answer of the King- 288 Part II.

Declaration of Rights z89 Charles II. proclaimed 29* Special Mission to England 292 Agreeable Disappointment of the Agents 293 Ingratitude of Massachusetts towards the Agents 295 The two Parties of Prerogative and Freedom 296 King's Letter disregarded 296 The General Court secretes the Charter 298 The Royal Commissioners 299 The General Court again refuses to accede to the Royal Demands- • • -301 Again addresses the King 302 Superstitious Fears of the Colonists 303 The Confederacy broken up by the Commissioners 304 111 Success of the Commission 305 Objections to the Legality of the Commission answered 314 Third Royal Letter to Massachusetts 315 The General Court again disobeys the King 316 The Policy of Massachusetts during the Wars with France and Holland 317 Rapid Advance of Massachusetts in Wealth and Population 318 Fourth Royal Letter to the Colony 319 Conflicting Emotions of the Elders 327 Judgment against the Charter 330 Death of the King 332 Effect of the Judgment against the Charter 333 Part III.

Fears concerning a Royal Governor 334 Colonel Kirk 334 Dudley's Commission 33-7 Its Reception by the General Court 338 Intrigues against the Commission 330 The mild Nature of the Commission and its Government 330 Colonial System of James II. 34! Its Merits examined , . 2 The Arbitrariness of James compared with the Tyranny under the Charter. , . ,. Arrival of Sir Edmund Andros , .5 Character of his Administration , .- Restraint upon Marriages , . CONTENTS. XI Fees for Quitrents to Crown Lands 348 Levying of Taxes 350 Other arbitrary Aots of Andros 35 1 Causes of his Unpopularity 352 The Colonists petition the King 354 Renewed War with the Eastern Indians 356 The humane Policy of Andros, frustrated by the Outrages of the Charter Government 357 Andros, kind as a General 358 The Elders excite Rebellion against him 359 Political Struggles between the Liberty and Prerogative Parties 361 Andros acquitted by King William 362 Conclusion. 363

Chapter V

Progress of the Elders from Schism to Sectarianism. Part I. Political Religionism 365 The New England Puritans, Politico-Religionists 367 The Charter, not Puritan in its Character 368 Antiquity of the Church of England 370 The Saxon Church 371 Its Relation to the See of Rome 372 Its happy Influence 373 Effect of the Danish Invasions 375 Fall of the Scaldic Mythology 376 Condition of the English Church at the Time of the Norman Conquest. 377 Rise of the Papal Supremacy 378 The Papal Dominion, a System of Spiritual Feuds 380 Introduced into England 380 True Claims of the English Church 382 Iniquitous Character of English Dissent 383 Absence of any reasonable Ground for Complaint 384 Dissent, private Reasoning, in Opposition to Authority 385 Penal Laws, levelled at Railing, not at Honest Difference of Opinion. .386 The Conference at Hampton Court 389 Frustrates the Designs of the Puritans 392 Absurdity of Puritan Arguments 392 Ecclesiastical Policy of James 1 393 Causes of the Increase of Puritanism" 395 It begins to embarrass the Government 396 Causes the arbitrary Acts of Charles 1 397 Develops rapidly under Abbot's Protection, during the King's Contests with Parliament 398 Growth of Republicanism 399 Policy of the Royal Government 399 Part II.

Motives of the Puritan Emigration 402 Grief manifested at leaving England 404 The "Humble Request" from Yarmouth CONTENTS. Ambiguity os the Farewell _ 4°8 Assertion by the Puritans of a Catholic Ministry 409 Their rapid Assimilation with the Independents 410 Renounce Catholic Orders as sinful 412 Growing Enmity to the English Church, aided by Superstition 413 Promoted by Legislation 4J5 Influence of Harvard College 4l6 Samuel Maverick 4'8 Robert Child 42° Gross Tyranny of the Magistrates 42 r Child and Maverick, with others, petition 422 Trial of the Petitioners, for Sedition 428 The Petitioners denounced by the Elders for appealing ■ . .429 Church Feeling in Massachusetts at the Restoration 43 1 Alarm of the Elders at the Restoration of the Church 432 They assert the Divine Right of Puritanism 433 Refuse to allow the Use of the Common Prayer 434 Again refuse to allow Churchmen Liberty of Conscience 435 Randolph opens the Way for the Church 438 Presses for able and sober Ministers 440 Obstacles in the Way 440 Arbitrary Proposals of Randolph 442 Arrival of Robert Ratcliffe 443 Formation of the Parish of King's Chapel 444 Opposition of the Elders 444 Difficulties of Randolph 445 Andros entreats the Elders in Behalf of the Church 446 Arbitrary Act of Andros 447 Loyalty of the Church Party 449

Chapter VI

Some General Reflections on the English Colonial Policy, and on the Character of Puritanism. Erroneous Spirit of popular Historians 453 Rise of the English Colonies 454 Classes of Colonies .-r Conflict of Interests between the Crown and Charter Colonies 456 Commercial Policy of Charles I. 458 The Ordinance of 1651 »„ Cromwell's Policy 464 The Navigation Laws of Charles II. 465 Their Fourfold Object -68 How received by the Colonies 468 Character of the restrictive System 47o Contrast between Virginia and Massachusetts 47- How accounted for ,_g Character of Puritanism § , Protestantism, the Triumph of Reason over Faith • 4S5 Puritanism, the Protestantism of England .- 486 Eminently superstitious ,gg Unfriendly to Literature *s g Hostile to Civil and Religious Liberty -480 Advocates the indiscriminate Use of the Bible ,J0 Which causes its Decline

Chapter I. Charter Of The Massachusetts Bay Company, And King Charles The

FIRST. Grant of James I. to the Colonial Companies of London and Plymouth — Northern Company unsuccessful — Obtains a fresh Grant — Formation of a new Company, which likewise fails — Rise of a Missionary Spirit — Which leads to a new Organization — Endecott appointed Superintendent — The Company obtains a Royal Charter — Cradock, the first Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Company — Endecott becomes a Brownist — Persecutes the Brownes — Transfer of the Charter proposed — Decided upon — Objects of this Measure — True Character and Object of the Charter — The Puritan State charged with Disloyalty, and of violating the Rights of the King's Subjects — Sir Christopher Gardiner — Thomas Morton — Philip Ratcliff — The Council orders an Investigation — Further Complaints against the Puritan State — Cradock ordered to exhibit the Charter — Appointment of a Royal Commission — Which directs its attention to the transfer of the Charter — Orders the transmission of the Charter to England — The Order not complied with — Vindication of Charles I. When King Charles, the Martyr, bestowed a franchise upon a company, mercantile in character but missionary in design, he little thought that he was planting the germ of Republicanism in the New World.

Beholding, with the favor of a truly Catholic mind, the project that was then forming in the English Church to extend Her borders over his dominions in the West, he willingly added the weight of his prerogative to an enterprise which, it seemed, must draw down a benediction from Heaven. Had he foreseen that his gift would be perverted to a disloyal purpose, that in a few years the parchment which CHAP I. CHARTER OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COMPANY, CHAP I contained merely an act of incorporation would be sold into the hands of his enemies, and, borne over the ocean into the wilderness, be set up as the constitution of an independent state, he would have hesitated ere he allowed the great seal of England to stamp it into life. But could he have looked further into futurity, and beheld the rising England of the New World perpetuating the glories of the mother country, protected by the laws of the Saxons, the Danes, and the Normans, and enlight ened by the religion which St. Augustine professed, doubtless the pious monarch would have furthered the schemes of the uneasy Puritans, and rendered their secret intrigues unnecessary.

We, who are in a transition state, can see how good is finally to come out of evil. The Church is grasping in her embrace the great empire of the West, and her garments are unstained by the blood of the aborigines, while her reputation is untainted with the guilt of disloy alty. Puritanism has been working for her advantage. Fraud, violence, and cunning; enterprise, daring, and self-sacrifice ; the vices and virtues of the Puritan pilgrims, have prepared the way for the nobler, the only true Christianity. From the bigotry of a few have arisen the blessings of the many. The guiding wisdom of Omnipotence is now discernible beneath the shallow surface of human fanaticism. Regeneration, the voice that waked the pagan slumbers of the Old World, was to be. the genius of a new creation here. The painted savage was no longer to tread his forests in the simple majesty of his nature and strength.

His shrill war whoop was to be echoed back by the thunder of cannon, and his native cunning was to become powerless before the art of civilization. His woods were to be prostrated, his game annihilated, and his wigwam deserted ; and he ■3 CHAP, I. AND KING CHARLES THE FIRST. himself was to be driven before a power he understood not, further and further towards the setting sun, until the waves of the Pacific received the last remnants of his race, and his existence had become but a name. A new day was to dawn upon the West, a day carrying with it all the blessings of Christianity. There was to be there a new heaven and a new earth, and the cross of a true faith was to be erected upon every spire, and reflected back to the sky by every lake and stream. Such is the philosophy taught by the true understand ing of the past.

We search in vain for a reason for the bloody traces of civilization, unless it can be found here. The greatest achievement of art is but a poor equivalent for the happiness of a single family of savages, if it reaches no further than the external and material world. A civilization, crimson with blood and reeking with fraud, would be but little worth, if it comprehended nothing beyond the creations of steam and the magic of the telegraph. We propose to make some inquiry into the origin of the most energetic colonization the world ever beheld, that of Massachusetts Bay. That this subject has been curiously distorted alike by doctors of law and history, the sequel will show ; and we think that our examination of the original authorities will prove that we are indebted for the groundwork of this fair New England picture, not to the magnanimity of Puritanism, but to the zeal of the English Church.

Of the historians who have dealt with this subject, Grahame and Bancroft occupy the most false and partisan attitudes. Grahame, educated in the narrow school of the Scottish Kirk, possessed a mind so warped by prejudice and so infected with bigotry, that his prolix history is false alike in fact and principle. He beheld the world through a Calvinistic mist. The most CHAP, I. CHARTER OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COMPANY, depraved exhibitions of Protestantism had attractions for him, and, with incredible assurance, he can assert that those fanatics, the Brownists, were the most loyal of the English people, as well as the most pious, virtuous, and courageous.1 He magnifies the virtues of the hardy pilgrim, and distorts, with equal complacency, the faults of the government towards which the pilgrim displayed not disloyalty merely, but rancor and malice.

He sneers, in execrable taste, at James I., for assuming the style of " sacred majesty ; " forgetting the anointed character of the princes who then sat upon the throne of England ; and, also, that not a successor of John Knox " beats the drum ecclesiastic " in his beloved kirk, who does not appropriate to himself with scrupulous care the title of " reverend." He carps at such " heathenish customs " as the drinking of healths, but passes over the atrocious crimes of Puritanism with gentle rebukes. He sees nothing excellent but in some form of dissent. He belongs to that class of Protestant writers who consider worldly prosperity as a sign of heavenly benediction. He fully believed in Cromwell's maxim, that the Lord's people are to be the head and not the tail, and that any means are justifiable to obtain this headship.

A malig nant hater of the Stuarts, a bigoted enemy of the church, a zealous apologist for the crimes of Puritanism, and, with all this, neither an impartial, nor thorough, nor truth ful relator of facts, he was totally unfit for the high office he assumed, of teaching the world by examples. He wrote not for the world, but for New England ; not for the New England of the present, but for that which has long since passed away. And he had the bitter mortification of living to see the America he so much wor- 1 Vol. i. p. 180, 2d edition. CHAP, I. shipped repudiate his gift, and accept a more genial offering from one of her own sons. As Grahame sees nothing excellent except in secta rianism, so Bancroft acknowledges nothing to be bad unless it emanates from kingly institutions. He hates the Stuarts because they used, but more because they had, prerogatives.

It is not the tyrant merely, but the King, which brings out the venom of his pen. Radical ism, pure and unadulterated, that species of radicalism which beholds nothing bad in the many, and little that is good in the few, seems to be the ruling impulse which animates his labors as an historian. To have gained his approbation, a king must have undermined his throne, and a bishop have broken his crook. The walls of a ballot-box are large enough for his philanthropy, and that species of liberty which consists in compelling the few to submit to the many, brings down his apotheosis. A " press free even to dissoluteness " is one of the merits which he claims for an advancing civilization.1 As he writes not to let the past speak for itself, but to bend it to support his own theories, so he does not scruple to identify himself with any party or system, however con tradictory, if he can thereby promote his own ends.

With the Quakers, he can " thee " and " thou ; " with the Puritans, he out-Puritans Cromwell ; with the Ana baptists; he can kiss the dust under the feet of Roger Williams, with a more superstitious reverence than the humble Papist, in a better spirit, bestows on a nail-paring of St. Peter ; and, with those noble missionaries who bore the white lily and the cross among the terrible war riors of the Five Nations, he can condescendingly become a hero and a martyr. These do not contradict his favor- 1 Vol. ii. p. 270. 1* ite philosophy. But, on the other hand, whatever is good and holy in the conservatism of the church, and whatever adds strength and grandeur to the pyramidal structure of civil and social communities, meets from him with untir ing assault. And thus it is with this writer that an apostolic faith becomes mouldy tradition ; that a kingly government and a loyal obedience are transformed into tyranny on the one hand and slavery on the other ; and that a gradual scale of social order is distorted into an odious antagonism between the few and the many.

His hatred of loyal old England is the characteristic of his work, and he seeks, with unbecoming eagerness, oppor tunities for digression, in order to indulge in his favorite theme. So far is he carried away by this hostile spirit, that he perpetually violates the rule of the res gestœ in his descriptions and illustrations, without making any allowance for the circumstances of time and place. Thus, in describing the Treaty of Utrecht, he refers those of its provisions relating to the slave-trade in favor of Eng land, to the promptings of bad hearts and unscrupulous avarice, rather than to the faults of the time.1 By the light of a clearer day, England was the first nation to repudiate the system which preyed upon helpless Africa, and, as if to show her shame for the past, she has gone to the other extreme.

This is merely one instance of many, and we have not space, in this connection, to go more into detail. The candid inquirer, who is unaffected by that worst of all cant, the cant of New Englandism, will judge for himself, in spite of common-school false hoods and fourth of July hyperboles. He will not allow himself to be coaxed or threatened into the support of popular errors, even though they should be stamped with 1 Vol. iii. p. 232. the counterfeit of truth by judicial decisions ; and, doubtchap. less, his conviction will gain fresh strength, as he pro- ' — ' — ceeds, that the history of the Western Republic is yet to be written. In the mean time, let us calmly review the character of the enterprise which led to that most important event for Europe and the world, the settlement of Massachusetts Bay.