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happily been active in all the previous proceedings, but knowing the innocency and piety of his wife, he stood forth between her and the storm he had himself helped to raise. In denouncing Mrs. Hale, the whole community was convinced that the accusers had perjured themselves, and from that moment their power was destroyed. The awful delusion ceased, and a close was put to one of the most tremendous tragedies in the history of real life. There are few if any other instances on record of a revolution of opinion and feelings so sudden, so rapid, and so complete.

During the prevalence of this fanaticism, twenty persons lost their lives by the hand of the executioner, fifty-five escaped death by confessing themselves guilty, one hundred were in prison, and more than two hundred others under accusation. Immediately upon the termination of the excitement, all who were in jail were pardoned. Nothing more was heard of the afflicted, or the confessors. They were never called to account for their malicious impositions and perjury. It was apprehended that a judicial investigation might renew the delusion, and all were anxious to consign the whole subject as speedily and as effectually as possible to oblivion. The state of things which Cotton Mather labored to bring about, in order that he might increase his own influence over an infatuated people, by being regarded by them as mighty to cast out and vanquish evil spirits, and as able to hold Satan himself in chains by his prayers and his piety, brought him at length into such disgrace, that his power was broken down, and he became the object of public ridicule and open insult.

The excitement that had been produced for the purpose of restoring and strengthening the influence of the clerical and spiritual leaders, resulted in effects, which reduced it to a still lower point. Congregationalism then received a shock from which it never afterward fully recovered. The intelligence of the ministers, if not their integrity, was questioned, and doubt, distrust, and infidelity soon struck root amid the ruins of superstition. While their fearful proceedings were in progress, Sir William Phipps arrived with a new charter, the nature of which we shall describe hereafter, and thus were terminated all hopes of the restoration of the old order of things. It forms an important era in colonial history. Hitherto, the people had governed themselves without the control of England. They still continued to do so, as we shall see, in spite of her interference. They grew up in neglect; when re

straint was attempted, they resisted; and the moment they were able, they severed the connection. The Whigs reversed this policy for the remaining colonies; they began with restraint, and ended with neglect and fatal indulgence, which are likely to produce a similar result.*

* Whoever is desirous of further information on this subject, will find ample details in Hutchinson, and the Collection of the Massachusetts Historical Society, but the best account is by the Rev. Mr. Upham, from whom I have drawn largely.

CHAPTER V.

REVIEW.

The two most interesting Periods of American History extend, 1st. From the Settlement of Massachusetts to the English Revolution of 1688; 2d. To the Independence of the Colonies in 1783-Review of the first Period-Number and Names of Colonies then settled-Their Population and Commerce-Account of the different Forms of Government then established there-Great Increase of democratic Opinions-Change in Tone of Feeling in Virginia-Some Account of the Church there-Loyalty of Churchmen-State of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New York-Effect of the Conduct of New England upon them.

THE two most interesting periods of the colonial history of America extend from the first settlement of Massachusetts to the great English Revolution of 1688, and from thence to the peace of 1783, that insured the independence of the revolted provinces constituting the United States. We have now arrived at the termination of the first, and must pause to review and contemplate it. It is by far the most curious and instructive, inasmuch as during that time the colonies were planted; their constitutions, after various alterations, assumed a definite form; and they were sensibly affected by every change which the innovations of those days introduced into the parent country. If we except Georgia, afterward planted, and Florida, subsequently conquered, the continental colonies were now firmly established, and consisted of Massachusetts, including Plymouth and Maine, Rhode Island (embracing Providence), Connecticut, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and the two Carolinas, and contained about two hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants, of which at least seventy-five thousand were settled in New England. Their commerce was carried on by twenty-five thousand tons of shipping, which was navigated by two thousand six hundred seamen.

No regular plan of colonization had ever been adopted. Settlements formed by accident or caprice were left to languish or flourish, as the character of the people, or the nature of the soil or climate, happened to operate. They were not trained up,

they grew up; and being beyond the reach of parental control, governed themselves in their own way. Many constitutions were drafted and proposed for adoption; the most arbitrary, impracticable and absurd of which emanated from men like Locke, whom England delights to honor as her most distinguished sons. It may be some consolation to the admirers of that great man to know that modern statesmen, with a wider experience and infinitely increased means of information, have exhibited as little skill in legislating for colonists as he did. Several of these forms were tried in different places with more or less success, but at the time we are now speaking of, though varying from each other in many respects, they may be classed under three heads : Charter, Proprietary, and Royal Governments. Of the first were Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut; of the second were New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Carolina; and of the third New York, Virginia, and New Hampshire.

The origin of those charter governments, as we have seen, was the surreptitious removal to America, by the Puritans, of a patent granted to certain of their number as a trading company, whose court was to meet and act in London, and the attempt to adapt this incomplete and incompatible instrument to the purposes of civil government. Subsequently other charters, equally inapplicable, were granted, in which not even the unsubstantial appearance of sovereignty was reserved to England. They were pure democracies. They elected every one of their officers, from the highest to the lowest, and displaced them at pleasure, while the laws they enacted went into operation without transmission to England for approval. The main object in devising a constitution for a dependency is, or ought to be, as has been very well expressed by an author of very great weight on this subject, "to make the new establishment as useful as possible to the trade of the mother country; to secure its dependence; to provide for the ease, safety and happiness of the settlers; to protect them from their enemies; and to make an easy and effectual provision to preserve them from the tyranny and avarice of their governors, or the ill consequences of their own licentiousness; that they should not, by growing into an unbounded liberty, forget that they are subjects, or lying under base servitude, have no reason to think themselves British subjects." This is all that colonies, according to the present and best ideas of them, can or ought to be.

The second form în use was the proprietary. It was not then difficult for a person who had interest at court to obtain large tracts of land not inferior in extent to many kingdoms, and to be invested with a power over them very little less than regal, to govern by what laws, and to form what sort of constitution he pleased. A dependence upon the crown of England was shown only by the payment of an Indian arrow, a few skins, or some other trifling acknowledgment of the same nature. In these the lords of the soil, having derived from the same source the regal rights that Counts Palatine enjoyed, stood in the place of the king, who possessed within their limits neither the means of effectually executing what the supreme legislature had enacted, nor the undefined authority which superintendence may claim. Of these, by far the most important were Maryland and Pennsylvania. In the former the constitution consisted of a Governor and Council appointed by the proprietors, and an Assembly elected by the people. The reservations of the crown amounted only to a negative on the nomination of the Governor, the appointment of the officers of the customs, and their independence from local control. In Pennsylvania the proprietary was under the same restrictions that limited that of Maryland, but was more restrained by the people, for their legislature had but two parts, the Assembly of the delegates and the Governor. The latter wanting the great influence which the Council gave in other places, found himself engaged in a very unequal contest whenever his sentiments differed from those of the House.

In the royal provinces of Virginia, New York, and New Hampshire, the Governor, the Council, and the Delegates formed a miniature of the King, the Lords and the Commons. The Governor had the honor of representing the body politic of the king; the members of the Upper House awkwardly discharged the twofold duty of the peers, by acting as a sort of privy council, and as senators in the making of laws. The Delegates engaged the submission of the people to what all had assented, since they were chosen by themselves. As the House of Assembly was the guardian of the privileges of the subject, the Council was constituted chiefly to preserve the prerogative of the crown, and to secure the dependence of the colony; and the more effectually to answer these ends, they were appointed during pleasure only. When any bill passed the two Houses, it came before the Gov

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