202 VII. Nov. 2, 1630. THE COLONIAL CHURCHES. CHAP. was gathered at Charlestown about three weeks after reaching that place; and two years later the Church at Charles1632. town, the seventh in the colony, was separately organized.1 July 30, The Church at Watertown, the fourth in order of time, organized at the same date as that of Boston, was involved in difficulties for a season, in consequence of the "heresies" of its pastor, and one of its elders; but these were soon settled, and peace was restored.2 The church at Lynn, 1632. June 8, the fifth in the colony, was also involved in difficulties with Mr. Stephen Batchelor, and a new church was gathered in 1636, of which Samuel Whiting, of Boston, in Lincolnshire, one of the worthiest ministers of those days, was chosen pastor. The churches at Roxbury, under Messrs. Welde and Eliot; at Dorchester, under Messrs. Maverick and Warham; and at Newtown, under Messrs. Hooker and Stone, were at peace. That at Salem was agitated by the controversy with Mr. Williams; but of this we shall have occasion to speak hereafter. 1636. to 1650. Nine churches at least were in existence in the Massachusetts Colony before 1636; and before 1650, twenty were added to the number, making twenty-nine in all,1 over most of which "godly ministers" were settled, of respectable talents, and commanding influence, who were as "burning and shining lights" in the propagation of their own system of "Orthodox faith," and zealous in suppressing heretical opinions, and in laboring to preserve the unity and purity of the churches of the land. Since those days, what changes have taken place!— changes, to some, pregnant with evil;-changes which the 1 Winthrop, 1. 36-9; Morton's Winthrop, 1. 70, 81, 97, 113; Winthrop, 1. 187, 210-11; Hubbard, 191-4; Lewis's Lynn, 78-9. An excellent notice of Mr. Whiting may be seen in Lewis, 160–6. Savage, on Winthrop, 1. 114, the best authority on these matters with which we are acquainted. THE SPIRIT OF TOLERATION. 203 VII. far seeing hail with joy. Churches and sects have multi- CHAP. plied and increased; creeds and opinions have been essentially modified; and, though the Episcopal Church may boast that it has "made no change," out of this conflict of Puritan intellect has sprung that spirit of toleration, which is shedding abroad its beneficent influences; and a warmer, and a more comprehensive Christian charity, is not only weaving into kindlier union the various branches of the great Christian Church, but is extending its roots through all grades of society, prompting philanthropy to succor the needy, reform the vicious, instruct the ignorant, relieve the oppressed, and lift up the down-trodden, the outcast, and the despised; and infusing into the great heart a more vigorous life, which will hereafter, we doubt not, lead to still nobler attainments, in the diffusion of intelligence, civilization, and the yet inexhausted blessings which the gospel of Christ has in store for the world as it becomes better fitted to receive and enjoy them. 1 Coit's Puritanism. CHAPTER VIII. SETTLEMENT OF CONNECTICUT. THE PEQUOT WAR. CHAP. THE government of the Massachusetts Colony, for the first four years following the transfer of the Charter, was committed to the hands of the excellent Winthrop, than whom, perhaps, no one better qualified for the office could well have been selected. But the wisest and best find that life is not all sunshine, and that popular favor is often inconstant. Among the hundreds who had emigrated to America, there were not wanting some of a factious temper, with whom liberty might easily degenerate into licentiousness. Nor were there wanting ambitious minds, eager for political preferment, and anxious to hear their own names "Swell the trump of future fame." In the management of such a body of men, exulting in their escape from the oppressions of the mother country, and luxuriating in the sense of newly acquired freedom, it would not be strange if some errors were committed, or if those prejudices were awakened, which are easily induced by conceived assumption of authority in magistrates, or conceived encroachments upon civil and spiritual rights. Such assumptions were supposed to have been made; and, attributing to Mr. Winthrop a desire to perpetuate his incumbency of the office he held, the freemen, full three May 13, hundred and forty in number, 1 resolved to make their power felt in electing a new Governor. 1634. 1 Not three hundred and eighty, as in Bancroft, 1. 364. The exact number was three hundred and forty-one. See Mass. Rec's., 1. 366-9. The error of Mr. B. probably originated from oversight, in computing from the statements of Savage, on Winthrop, vol. 2, App. C., where, in the first table, are the names of about forty persons who were proposed, but were not then made freemen. THOMAS DUDLEY CHOSEN GOVERNOR. 205 VIII. Mr. Cotton, recently arrived in the country, and admit- CHAP. ted to citizenship, entered the lists in defense of one with whose views he so fully sympathized; and in a public discourse, on the day of the election, maintained that the right of an honest magistrate to his place was like that of a proprietor to his freehold, and that neither should be removed unless convicted of injustice. This was an aristocratic position which many disliked; the court discussed the doctrine with no little freedom; and the opinion of the ministers being asked, they prudently deferred it "to further consideration;" but the people, impatient of control, and more democratic in their views, followed their "own notions," and Thomas Dudley was chosen Governor, and Roger Ludlow, Deputy Governor; but, with the exception of the election of Mr. Haynes as one of the Assistants, no other change was made, and "all the other Assistants were chosen again." 1 There had been, for some time, a misunderstanding between Mr. Winthrop and Mr. Dudley, growing out of personal matters, as well as those of public concern; and although an outward reconciliation had been effected, the spirit of jealousy seems not to have been wholly laid; and, possibly upon the principle that all is fair in politics, a little manoeuvering may have been resorted to by Mr. Dudley, to ingratiate himself into the favor of the people.2 And a step soon taken seems to confirm this view, for in the fall of the same year, Mr. Winthrop was called to an Sept., account for his receipts and disbursements during his administration. On this memorable occasion, although he might have justifiably "torn his book of accounts as Scipio Africanus did, and given this answer: 'A colony, now in a flourishing estate, has been led out and settled under my 1 Winthrop, 1. 157; Hubbard, 156. • Winthrop's Journal. Mr. Dud ley's version of these matters has 1634. 206 ADMINISTRATION OF HAYNES. CHAP. direction; my own substance is consumed;-spend no VIII. more time in harangues, but give thanks to God;""—yet, 1635. for the vindication of his character, his frank reply was: "In all these things I refer myself to the wisdom and justice of the court, with this protestation, that it repenteth me not of my cost or labor bestowed in the service of this Commonwealth, but do heartily bless the Lord our God, that he hath been pleased to honor me so far as to call for anything he hath bestowed upon me, for the service of his church and people here, the prosperity whereof, and his gracious acceptance, shall be an abundant recompense to me."-"I conclude," he adds, "with this one request, which in justice may not be denied me,- that as it stands upon record, that upon the discharge of my office, I was called to account, so this my declaration may be recorded also, lest hereafter, when I shall be forgotten, some blemish may lie upon my posterity, when there shall be nothing to clear it." 1 Mr. Dudley's term of office was much shorter than that May, of his predecessor; for the next year another change took place, and John Haynes was chosen Governor, and Richard Bellingham, Deputy Governor; Mr. Ludlow, the former Deputy, being left out entirely, "partly because the people would exercise their arbitrary power, and partly upon some speeches of the deputy, who protested against the election as void, for that the deputies of the several towns had agreed upon the election before they came." 2 During the magistracy of Mr. Haynes, "godly people in England beginning to apprehend a special hand of God in raising this plantation, their hearts were generally stirred to come over," and Massachusetts Bay was thronged with squadrons, three thousand emigrants arriving, notwith 1 Winthrop, Journal, 1. 476; Mass. Rec's., 1. 131-2; Hutchinson, 1. 43-4. 2 Winthrop, 1. 188. |