Gambar halaman
PDF
ePub

of the Committee of the Commons, containing recommendations, reformatory laws, and the declaration of rights, arrived in America, the Assemblies every where passed fundamental laws, asserting their privileges, and what they conceived to be their liberties; and although these were very properly rejected in England, on the ground that it was absurd for such dependent colonies to designate the terms on which they would alone admit their subjection, still they afforded a convincing proof of the growth of democratic principles, and by the discussion to which they led, added life and strength to disaffection, which was now propagated with the utmost zeal by fanatics and demagogues. This encroaching disposition originated in an early and long-continued neglect of the colonies by England. When their importance began to demand attention, it was strengthened by an equally flagrant mismanagement; and when they became populous and obedient, it ripened into rebellion by an unjust and illegal claim of taxation, in the support of which the reasoning of English statesmen afforded topics of ridicule in the town meetings, and the conduct of the troops an easy triumph to the undisciplined levies of the agricultural districts.

It would be unavailing now to blame those who severed the connection, although, if there had been real affection on their part, the separation would not have been final. How much or how little censure they deserve, is not at the present time the question. What we owe to ourselves is a rigid self-examination. We should not shrink from laying bare our own faults, that we may avoid similar errors in future. If we yielded independence by not retaining sufficient control over the form of their constitutions, let us be more careful of concession. If we interfered with their just rights, let us respect those of the remaining colonists. If we tried responsible government, as we shall presently see we did, denuded the governor of his power, and invited resistance by our own weakness, let the salutary lesson not be lost upon us. In short, having once made shipwreck, let us survey the coast, and take the bearings of the rocks and shoals, and shape our course accordingly.

It must be admitted, that it is difficult for loyal colonists to look back upon the annals of those revolted provinces, without the deepest regret, and the most humiliating mortification. That the task of reviewing a series of absurd, negligent, and illegal acts of

needy governors and ignorant boards of control, all terminating in discreditable miscarriages and defeats, is too painful even to be attempted by English statesmen, is manifest from the fact that it has given neither prudence to their measures, wisdom to their councils, nor vigor to their conduct. When the independence of the old colonies was acknowledged, an immense number of dispatches from several governors were found in the public archives unopened. The pen had been laid aside in despair for the sword, and both were disgraced by imbecility. It is to be feared that the provincial history, every page of which is filled with valuable instruction, has shared the same fate as the official correspondence, and remained unread. A natural or accidental defect of vision is an infirmity well entitled to commiseration, but a statesman who disdains the labor of research, and remains willfully blind, is a criminal on whom expulsion or censure impose no adequate punishment.

Unhappily merit is not always the passport to office. Party convenience or family interest, parliamentary influence or successful intrigue, too often elevate men to important stations, who, from vanity, ignorance, or want of principle, are utterly unable to discharge their duties. Sad indeed is the condition of a people when such is the temper of those who govern them. This, however, is an evil that no revolution can ever cure; and it would seem to be a law of our nature, that we must depend on the lottery of life for the selection of our rulers. It has indeed become a parliamentary maxim, that Provincials must be content to have their work "coarsely and roughly done;" inasmuch as a colonial minister, who has never crossed the Atlantic, can not, in the nature of things, be supposed to know much about the young and vigorous empire committed to his charge. It is difficult to pronounce our opinion on the state of an invalid without visiting him. But when not only the disease, but its seat and its symptoms are differently represented, he who ventures to prescribe is generally found to be bold in proportion to his ignorance.

Empirics invariably proclain that they have discovered a medicine applicable to all ages and persons, and all cases and diseases. Political jugglers, who, in integrity and knowledge are not inferior to their medical brethren, possess similar powers of invention and deception, and have ever on hand some nostrum of universal application. Of these, the last and most valuable specific for con

stitutional infirmities, bears the captivating title of "Responsible Government." When the world is overrun with credulity, ought we not to cease to wonder at the number of knaves who gather the harvest? The sanatory state, however, of the colonial empire, fortunately for those intrusted with its care, furnishes abundant material for exculpation. The people will not follow the regimen ordered for them, or previous practitioners have mistaken their complaints. Their constitutions are naturally feeble, or it is an epidemic under which they suffer, that will soon pass away, of there is a complication of disorders—they are too much reduced for active measures-or their nervous temperament is difficult to manage. But who can doubt that their treatment has been both judicious and successful, when we have been so fortunate as not to have lost one of our numerous dependencies since the great pestilence of 1783, in which no less than thirteen fell victims to the ignorance and neglect of our ancestors. Warned by their failure, we have wisely avoided the route they traveled. Let us be careful that the road we have chosen does not lead to the same termination.

CHAPTER IV.

Effect of Toleration on the Ministers-Cotton Mather's Attempt to raise a Revival of Bigotry, by spreading Alarm about Witches-His Books and Sermons -Preface by Richard Baxter-Exorcises a Child at Boston-Salem Delusion -Special Court-Its Proceedings-Executions-Case of the Rev. Mr. Burroughs-Sudden Change of Public Opinion-Mather falls into Contempt-Decline of Congregationalism—Arrival of Sir William Phipps with the New Char

ter.

THE summary manner in which the State prisoners were released on their arrival in England, and the favorable reception Sir Edmund Andross met with from the court, together with the continued delay their agents experienced in obtaining a renewal of the old, or the issue of a new charter, filled the people with the greatest anxiety and alarm. Having no representation in Parliament, and neither court nor party influence in England, beyond the sympathy of the sectaries, they had every thing to fear from royalty, to which they had always manifested a determined opposition, and nothing to hope from Episcopalians, whom they had ever oppressed and persecuted, while the service they claimed to have rendered to the public by enlarging the bounds of the empire, merited and received the answer, that their settlement was undertaken for their own advantage, and not the benefit of the State; and if their endeavors had been successful, they had themselves reaped the reward of their enterprise.

This state of uncertainty as to the form of their future government, weakened the hands of their local authorities, while toleration equally diminished the influence of the ministers. It is not easy for any person, not thoroughly versed in the history of these people, to comprehend the vast extent of power wielded by the clergy during the existence of the first charter. They were not only councilors by an unwritten law, but also the authors of State papers, often employed on embassies abroad, and at home speakers at elections and in town meetings, "New England," says Cotton Mather, "being a country where interests are remarkably enwrapped in ecclesiastical circumstances, ministers ought to concern themselves in politics." They were invested with civil and spiritual authority; there was no escape from their

grasp, and never could have been, had it not been for the toleration granted, or rather forced upon the people, by the Church of England. Religious liberty struck at the very foundation of their power, for emancipation of the mind and freedom of action are inseparable. We have seen that the Puritans, in flying to the wilderness to obtain exemption from ecclesiastical control, with singular inconsistency, claimed that privilege exclusively for themselves, making Church membership the qualification for the right of citizenship. To uphold this spiritual domination, the aid of the civil power was called, in return for which assistance the clergy lent their powerful support to the government. By their united efforts, all dissent was banished or extirpated from the colony, and at the time that they were inveighing against the persecution of the Episcopalians, they themselves made liberal use of mutilation, whipping, banishment, and even the gallows, to preserve conformity.

The moment religion was left unfettered, there was an immediate reaction in public feeling. Unrestrained liberty as usual produced licentiousness. The people had been governed by their fears, no less than by their affections, and the clergy lost their authority. New sects sprang up, with a zeal and vigor that ever attends novelty; and, as usual when many kinds of dissent are found in the same field, they produced hybrid varieties of the same species in abundance, until the ground was overrun with their exuberance, and every wholesome and sound plant was smothered by their rapid growth and coarse foliage.

The ministry felt it to be their duty, as they knew it was their interest, to recall men's minds from these numerous errors. The difficulty of the attempt lay in the selection of the means. After cool reason, and exciting declamation had been severally tried and failed, recourse was had to superstition. The Puritans had ever esteemed themselves a chosen people, and were fond of comparing New England with Canaan, of tracing a resemblance in their flight to the wilderness to that of the Israelites, and of assimilating their laws to the Mosaic code. In every piece of good fortune they saw an especial answer to their prayers, and in every mortification and calamity the direct personal malice of the Devil and his agents. This vanity and credulity their preachers had always encouraged, as their own influence necessarily kept pace with the superstition of the people. They now fell back upon it

« SebelumnyaLanjutkan »