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1658.

always so near, while protection had to be invoked from such a distance, professed their willingness to do so, but for the fear of offending Massachusetts. This imaginary, if not pretended, scruple was easily removed. Their petition," in behalf of themselves and all the inMay 26. habitants of Pawtuxet, for a full discharge from their submission," was cheerfully granted by the General Court of Massachusetts.3 Plymouth did not care to revive her claim. They were received as citizens of " Providence Plantations; "8 and, with a view to prevent the recurrence of such difficulty as they had occasioned, a penalty of forfeiture of estate was denounced by that government against whosoever should "put his lands, or any parts thereof, that are within this Colony's bounds, under the government of any other jurisdiction, or endeavor actually to bring in any foreign power to govern in any part or parts of this Colony's precincts."

Nov. 2.

Continued disorder.

When it had at last accomplished a political union, the Colony was not yet prepared to enjoy the sweets of peace and order. "A tumult and disturbance" took place at Providence, "under pretence of a volun1654-5. tary training." A reforming citizen addressed a letter to the town, maintaining "that it was bloodguiltiness, and against the rule of the Gospel, to execute judgment upon transgressors against the private or public weal." It was found judicious to provide that," in case

1 Williams's letter to " The General Court of Magistrates and Deputies assembled at Boston," in Knowles, Memoir, &c., 285. In this letter the harassed President of Rhode Island says: "Honored Sirs, I cordially profess it before the Most High, that I believe if not only they [the Pawtuxet people], but ourselves and all the whole country, by joint consent, were subject to your government, it might be a rich mercy."

* Mass. Rec., IV. (i.) 333.

R. I. Rec., I. 339.

* Ibid., 401.

It is gratifying to know that Williams was now allowed to come to Boston. There is a letter from him to Winthrop written there, May 17, 1656. (Knowles, 292.) The vote in his favor is in the Mass. Archives, XXX. 62.

• Staples, Annals of Providence, 113. * Knowles, Memoir, &c., 278.

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3

1655. "" 1 June 30.

"4

1656.

any man should strike another person in the Court, he should either be fined ten pounds or be whipped, according as the Court should see meet; and, because the Colony was "rent and torn with divisions," it was "ordered that if any person or persons should be found..... to be a ringleader or ringleaders of factions or divisions, he or they should be sent over at his or their own charges as prisoners, to receive his or their trial and sentence at the pleasure of his Highness and the Lords of the Council."2 Coddington was suspected of furnishing guns to the Indians; and was required to give assurance of his fidelity to the government by publicly uttering and signing the March 11. following declaration: "I, William Coddington, do freely submit to the authority of his Highness in this Colony as it is now united, and that with all my heart; a submission which scarcely procured him admittance to a seat in the Legislature when he was elected as a Commissioner from Newport.5 William Harris had been one of Williams's earliest associates." He was disposed to follow out his master's doctrine to its last results. His ardor occasioned a fierce quarrel between them. He "sent his writings or books to the main and to the island, against all earthly powers, parliaments, laws, charters, magistrates, prisons, punishments, rates, yea, against all kings and princes, under the notion that the people should shortly cry out, 'No lords, no masters!' and in open Court protested, before the whole Colony Assembly, that he would maintain his writings with his blood." liams caused him to be formally arraigned for high treason, and he was laid under heavy bonds for good behavior till such time as the Colony should be

1 R. I. Rec., I. 321.

2 Ibid., 319.

* Ibid., 332.

4 Ibid., 327.

5 Ibid., 328.

• See Vol. I. 422, note 2.

Wil

1657.

May 19.

7 Williams, "George Fox digged out of his Burrowes," 20; comp. 14.

instructed from England how to proceed with him.1 At the annual election, which took place at the same time, Williams was superseded as President by Benedict Arnold, of Pawtuxet, the young man who, as interpreter for the Indians, had been so disliked by the party of Gorton.3 The deposition of Williams may not unreasonably be interpreted as indicating the popular feeling respecting the strictness with which he was proceeding against Harris. He was never again employed in any office higher than those of Assistant, and of Commissioner (or Deputy) from Providence. Nor did Coddington, Coggeshall, or Easton, for years afterwards, reach a higher station. For the present, new men and men commonly cooler, though younger were to administer the affairs of the Colony on Narragansett Bay.

A circumstantial account of these transactions is justified by the exhibition it affords of the position and temper of the several parties concerned in them. Plymouth, the nearest neighbor of the Narragansett settlers, was unaspiring and poor. When she preferred to have Massachusetts undertake the management of Pawtuxet, and finally desisted from her claim upon that country, her course accorded as well with the scantiness of her means as with the moderation of her aims. She had felt obliged to decline a proposal from her confederates to take a part in a trade to be conducted on joint account with the Indians, by reason, as her vote expressed it," of such a disproportion in our estates to theirs, and so many thousands

1 R. I. Rec., I. 361, 364.- He "published to all the towns in the Colony dangerous writings, containing his notorious defiance to the authority of his Highness the Lord Protector, &c., and the High Court of Parliament of England, as also his notorious attempts to draw all the subjects of this Colony into a traitorous renouncing of their alle

giance and subjection, . . . . . and now
openly in the face of the Court, de-
clared himself resolved to maintain the
said writings with his blood." (Wil-
liams's warrant for the arrest of Harris,
in Arnold, Hist., &c., I. 263.)
2 R. I. Rec., I. 353.
See above, p. 123.

required therein, the which we are not able to reach unto;"1 and her poverty and her uprightness appear at once in the frugal, but considerate, provision from time to time made for her magistrates.2

66

1649.

June 6.

Plymouth was careful to keep on good terms with the rising power in England. Probably it was because the royal authority was recognized in the oaths of office which had been in use, that, in the summer after the King's execution, the freemen unanimously concluded to continue the existing administration in place, without a new choice; since, said they, things are much unsettled in our native country in regard of the affairs of the state, whereby the Court cannot so clearly proceed in election as formerly." When the war in England had been closed by Friendliness the battle of Worcester, "the Court desired that of Plymouth a public day of thanksgiving throughout the Col- to the Parony might be observed therein, to give thanks for the great victories granted to the army in the behalf of the Parliament and Commonwealth of England." 4 On receiving intelligence of the breach with Holland, Plymouth immediately made efficient and expensive military preparations, which, "in April 6. obedience to his Highness the Lord Protector," were still further prosecuted on the arrival of the expedition destined to act against New Netherland. order was issued "for the pressing of the number June 20.

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1 See above, p. 152, note 1. 2 Plym. Rec., III. 51, 121. Magistracy in those days was an inartificial thing in Plymouth. In 1652 and 1653, Governor Bradford was invested with power "to choose a Deputy to serve in his room." (Ibid., 7, 30.) In 1655, after his election, he "propounded some particulars as reasons wherefore he was not willing to accept his place unless some speedy course were taken for the redress of the same." They

An

liament.

1652.

March 2.

1653.

1654.

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of fifty men to be taken out of the several towns." They were "to go forth under the command of Captain Miles Standish." Provisions were collected for a campaign of two months; and "Captain Thomas Willett was ordered speedily to repair unto the Commissioners in chief, who were at present at the Massachusetts, to accompany them unto the Manhatoes, and to be assistant unto them in advice and counsel."1

The thanksgiving of Plymouth for the successes of the Parliament was nearly contemporaneous with an apTerritory of plication of that Colony to the Council of State Plymouth for a confirmation and enlargement of its propnebec. erty on the Kennebec.2 The application was granted, and was accompanied with a requisition "that

on the Ken

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2

January 26, 1652, it was ordered by the Council of State "that Mr. Holland, Lieutenant-General Fleetwood, Mr. Gurdon, Mr. Love, Mr. Carew, and Sir Arthur Hazelrigge, or any three of them, be appointed a committee to take into consideration the paper given in by Mr. Winslow concerning New England, and to report their opinion to the Council thereon; and Mr. Holland was desired to take care thereof." What that paper was, I do not know; but March 8, 1652, Winslow, in behalf of Bradford, presented to the Council of State a petition for a grant of" the whole river of Kennebec, with all the parts thereof, with the government of the same;" and the Council recommended to Parliament to make the grant. (Journal of the Council of State; see also Vol. I. 230, 523, 529.) Winslow had hoped to obtain a Parliamentary patent for Plymouth, but had become discouraged. April 17, 1651, he wrote from London: "Yes

terday, as I am informed, Mr. Coddington had something done for him at the Council of State, which I believe was his patent confirmed; for the truth is, since I perceived by letters from Plymouth that, after another year's warning, nothing is likely to be done in reference to the old order of Lords and Commons sent over in 1647, as I take it, I looked upon it as a vain thing to strive against the stream, whereas indeed that was the main material objection above a twelvemonth since, which I could not answer, that we had such an order, but never looked after the performance thereof, nor made any return upon it. And if I could not then answer it, how much less after another year, if not eighteen months' expiration. But the will of the Lord must be done." (Hutch. Coll., 229.) Coddington's "commission " interfered with the patent which Winslow wished to obtain for Plymouth; and the "order of the Lords and Commons" which had been neglected was, I suppose, that which had been issued in Gorton's favor. (See above, p. 206; Winthrop, II. 281.)

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