to belong to the other, without having the purity of their doctrine, the simple rigor of their discipline, or the independence of their self-government. Nothing can be more destructive of true piety, ingenuous conduct, and simplicity of mind, than insincere conformity, when either adopted from prudential motives, or submitted to from compulsion. Pretending to be what we are not, and holding out ourselves to the government or to the world as Churchmen, when in reality we are Dissenters or Romanists, is, in fact, hypocrisy, and no man can long wear that garb, without a total change in his character. The essence of hypocrisy is falsehood. If a man inclines to the belief, that simulated compliance with unsound doctrines, or unscriptural churches, is defensible, he naturally seeks for plausible reasons to satisfy his own scruples, and if he succeed in deceiving himself, the inevitable tendency of his mind is to attempt to deceive others.

Dissent is progressive. When privately indulged for any length of time it grows too burdensome for a secret, and requires to be acknowledged, and when announced it assumes a new name and a new form, and ripens into secession. Its waters, however, are then drugged with bitterness and strife, and whoever drinks of them soon finds their baneful operation on his temper, on the affections of his heart, and in all his social relations of life, while he experiences a sympathetic change on his political creed, and becomes familiarized with violent and seditious measures. Demanding a charitable construction on his own motives and conduct, he is not willing to concede it to others; and as people seldom forgive those whom they have injured, he views the members of the church he has left with all the acrimony of an enemy, and all the vindictive energy of an insulted and outraged friend. To the forced compliance or voluntary nonconformity of the Pilgrim Fathers, as well as the cold Calvinistic tenets of their faith, may be traced their austere manners and gloomy dispositions their subtle reasoning and adroit evasions, their unrelenting persecutions, numerous banishments, and barbarous executions, their unmitigated hatred of episcopacy, and deep-rooted aversion to monarchical institutions. On the other hand, their patience under toil, privation, and suffering, their indomitable courage in resisting the numerous enemies, and overcoming the many difficulties with which they were surrounded, their energy, industry, and enterprise, their love of independence, their hospitality, benevo

lence, and public and private liberality, the unity that prevailed among themselves, their brotherly affection for each other, and many other correlative qualities, are attributable in part to the Anglo-Saxon stock from which they sprang, and in part to the requirements and incidents of a forest home in a new world. But their frugality, temperance, purity of morals, simplicity of manners, respect for the authorities of their little State, both civil and religious, and similar virtues, were all their own.

Such a careful analysis is due both to their character, and the faithfulness of this narrative. In order to make that intelligible, which is otherwise irreconcilable, it is necessary to seek for the springs of action that lie beneath the surface, for conduct can only be duly appreciated by its motives, and effects be fully estimated by tracing them to their real causes.

CHAPTER IV.

Reasoning of the first Settlers as to their Independence-The Colony becomes a Republic from Necessity-Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance dispensed with-They decline to set up the King's Arms-Mutilate the Flag-Drinking Healths abolished-Blackstone's Remarks about the Lord's Brethren-Order that none but Church Members be admitted to be Freemen-Another, forbidding a Stranger to settle in the Colony without a License-Petitioning the King called slandering the Brethren-Punishment of Morton, Sir Christopher Gardener, and Ratcliffe-Morton publishes a Satire at Amsterdam-Returns to Massachusetts-Is fined and banished again-Intimate Connection between their Church and State-The King orders several Vessels in the Thames to be put under Embargo-A House of Representatives meets in Boston, and is admitted as a Branch of the Legislature-The Governor is not re-elected, and is made to account for his Expenditure of the public Moneys-His manly Conduct on the Occasion-A Code of Laws ordered to be compiled-Also a uniform System of Church Discipline.

HAVING traced the origin of this republic, and its history to the removal of the proprietors and their charter to New England, I shall now give a brief sketch of their resolute and systematic defense of their independence until the year 1686, when the patent was revoked. We have seen that they apprehended aggression from three sources, the Crown, the Hierarchy, and the Parliament. It will be instructive to show with what courage they resisted, or what ingenuity they evaded compliance with the authority or claims of all. Their conduct in this particular was not the result of accident, or of public distractions in England, or of their remote and isolated situation, though all contributed to favor their object, but it was a predetermined and well-concerted plan. They had paid a large sum of money to the Council of New Plymouth for their territory, they had fortified their title to the soil by purchases from the Indians, and they affected to believe that if the fortuitous circumstance of prior discovery had conveyed any right to the Crown, the king had formally surrendered it by the charter, in consideration of the conditions contained in it. They regarded it, therefore, as peculiarly their own country, and they were unwilling to allow any interference whatever from any quarter. The form of the grant of incorporation caused at first some embarrassment, by its total want of adaptation to the pur

poses to which it had been so unexpectedly applied. But as it was based on general election, and the governor and assistant were chosen by the freemen, all power centred in the people, and the moment the government was organized, it naturally, and of necessity, became a republic. Whatever authority the general court exercised, was delegated by qualified voters, and the officers they appointed received their commissions from those whom they empowered to issue them. The fundamental principle, therefore, of this little commonwealth was originally the same as that which now distinguishes and animates the individual States and great Federal Republic of the present day-namely, that the people are the source of all power.

At first, little could be done in matters of legislation, when the individual wants and general weakness of the whole community required the personal and continued exertion of all its members. The governor, his deputy, and four assistants, were appointed justices of the peace, with the same powers exercised by persons holding similar situations in England. A court of civil and criminal jurisdiction was also created, consisting of the higher officers of the corporation. In the absence of all statute law, the Bible was substituted as a model and guide. In organizing the judiciary, a difficulty arose as to the nature of the oaths. The customary form of acknowledging the royal authority was evidently inapplicable, for the people, and not the king, was supreme, and his name, therefore, was very quickly dispensed with. The oath of allegiance required some consideration, not whether it should be adopted, for that was not to be thought of, but whether it could be so qualified as to consist with their own independence, or be made contingent on residence and protection.* Sins of omission are so much safer than sins of commission, so much more difficult of detection, and so much more capable of explanation when discovered, that it was deemed prudent to omit it altogether, and to substitute one of fidelity to the local government instead. The king's arms were not only liable to the same objections, but had no warrant in Scripture; and a tender conscience supplied a better reason for declining to set them up, than the silence of the charter, or their own repugnance. The royal colors were no less exceptionable. To substitute new ones would be to hoist a flag

* See an abstract of laws prepared for Massachusetts, by Mr. Cotton.

of independence, which it was far more prudent quietly to maintain than openly proclaim, but there was no valid objection why they should not be altered in such a manner as to retain their form and general appearance, and yet destroy their identity.

Their ministers suggested a mode of mutilation that would effectually answer their purpose, and a reason for their conduct which rendered it an imperative duty. They told them the cross was a relic of Romish superstition, and as such must be removed, if they were desirous of securing a blessing on their undertakings. The uninitiated militia at first refused to muster under this "new-fangled flag," but when its unscriptural character was pointed out to them, they admitted the propriety of the alteration, and the cross was accordingly condemned as unlawful. Foreign gold and silver coins marked in a similar manner could not be so conveniently defaced, and were suffered to pass current without objection. They were unobtrusive, and, humanly speaking, merited toleration by their intrinsic value, but when weighed in the balance with political and religious principles, were found wanting, and treated as mere dross, unworthy of the consideration of a people who had forsaken Mammon, and crossed the Atlantic to preserve and perpetuate the true faith.

Thus we see how carefully they abstained at the very outset, from all recognition of the power of the Crown, either directly or indirectly. Drinking to the health of each other at table, as it was followed by toasts, and long usage had sanctioned the priority of the king's name, with the usual benediction of "God bless him," it was thought advisable to abolish, as it would, as a matter of course, cause a discontinuance of the other practice, which might be a snare to those whose intimate associates in England thought no harm in usurping his authority, and could see no sin in compassing his death.

They were now a sovereign people, but the exercise of such unlimited power was new to them, and this novelty, as yet wholly unrestrained by constitutional checks, increased their impatience of individual resistance, which is at all times the natural tendency of a democracy,* and made them both arbitrary and vindictive in their conduct. An English Dissenter of the name of Blackstone, whom they found living at Boston, and claiming it by

* Hubbard's New England, Chap. XXVI. Wonder Working Providence, 39.