The Beginnings of New England Part 8

The case of Mrs. Hutchinson is treated, from a hostile and somewhat truculent point of view, in Thomas Welde's pamphlet ent.i.tled _A Short Story of the Rise, Reign, and Ruin of Antinomians, Familists, and Libertines that infected the Churches of New England_, London, 1644. It was answered in an anonymous pamphlet ent.i.tled _Mercurius America.n.u.s_, republished for the Prince Society, Boston, 1876, with prefatory notice by C.H. Bell. Cotton's view of the theocracy may be seen in his _Milk for Babes, drawn out of the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of both Testaments_, London, 1646; _Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven_; and _Way of the Congregational Churches Cleared_, London, 1648. See also Thomas Hooker's _Survey of the Summe of Church Discipline_, London, 1648. The intolerant spirit of the time finds quaint and forcible expression in Nathaniel Ward's satirical book, _The Simple Cobbler of Aggawam_, 1647.

For the Gorton controversy the best original authorities are his own book ent.i.tled _Simplicitie's Defence against Sevenheaded Polity_, London, 1646; and Winslow's answer ent.i.tled _Hypocracie Unmasked_, London, 1646. See also Mackie's _Life of Samuel Gorton_, Boston, 1845, and Brayton's _Defence of Samuel Gorton_, in Rider's _Tracts_, No. xvii.

For the early history of the Quakers, see Robert Barclay's _Inner Life of the Religious Societies of the Commonwealth_, London, 1876,--an admirable book. See also _New England a Degenerate Plant_, 1659; Bishop's _New England judged by the Spirit of the Lord_, 1661; Sewel's _History of the Quakers_, 1722; Besse's _Sufferings of the Quakers_, 1753; _The Popish Inquisition newly erected in New England_, London, 1659; _The Secret Works of a Cruel People made Manifest_, 1659; and the pamphlet of the martyrs Stevenson and Robinson, ent.i.tled _A Call from Death to Life_, 1660. John Norton's view of the case was presented in his book, _The Heart of New England Rent at the Blasphemies of the Present Generation_, London, 1660. See also J.S. Pike's _New Puritan_, New York, 1879; Hallowell's _Pioneer Quakers_, Boston, 1887; and his _Quaker Invasion of Ma.s.sachusetts_, Boston, 1883; Brooks Adams, _The Emanc.i.p.ation of Ma.s.sachusetts_, Boston, 1887; Ellis, _The Puritan Age and Rule_, Boston, 1888.

Some additional light upon the theocratic idea may be found in a treatise by the apostle Eliot, _The Christian Commonwealth; or, the Civil Polity of the Rising Kingdom of Jesus Christ_, London, 1659. An account of Eliot's missionary work is given in _The Day breaking, if not the Sun rising, of the Gospel with the Indians in New England_, London, 1647; and _The Glorious Progress of the Gospel amongst the Indians in New England_, 1649. See also Shepard's _Clear Suns.h.i.+ne of the Gospel breaking forth upon the Indians_, 1648; and Whitfield's _Light appearing more and more towards the Perfect Day_, 1651.

The princ.i.p.al authority for Philip's war is Hubbard's _Present State of New England, being a Narrative of the Troubles with the Indians_, 1677.

Church's _Entertaining Pa.s.sages relating to Philip's War_, published in 1716, and republished in 1865, with notes by Mr. Dexter, is a charming book. See also Mrs. Rowlandson's _True History_, Cambridge, Ma.s.s., 1682; Mather's _Brief History of the War_, 1676; Drake's _Old Indian Chronicle_, Boston, 1836; Gookin's _Historical Collections of the Indians in New England_, 1674; and _Account of the Doings and Sufferings of the Christian Indians_, in _Archchaeologia Americana_, vol. ii.

Batten's _Journal_ is the diary of a citizen of Boston, sent to England, and it now in MS. among the _Colonial Papers_. Mrs. Mary Pray's letter (Oct. 20, 1675) is in _Ma.s.s. Hist. Coll._, 5th series, vol. i. p. 105.

The great storehouse of information for the Andros period is the _Andros Tracts_, 3 vols., edited for the Prince Society by W.H. Whitmore. See also Sewall's _Diary, Ma.s.s. Hist. Coll._, 5th series, vols. v.--viii.

Sewall has been appropriately called the Puritan Pepys. His book is a mirror of the state of society in Ma.s.sachusetts at the time when it was beginning to be felt that the old theocratic idea had been tried in the balance and found wanting. There is a wonderful charm in such a book. It makes one feel as if one had really "been there" and taken part in the homely scenes, full of human interest, which it so naively portrays.

Anne Bradstreet's works have been edited by J.H. Ellis, Charlestown, 1867.

For further references and elaborate bibliographical discussions, see Winsor's _Narrative and Critical History of America_, vol. iii.; and his _Memorial History of Boston_, 4 vols., Boston, 1880. There is a good account of the princ.i.p.al New England writers of the seventeenth century, with ill.u.s.trative extracts, in Tyler's _History of American Literature_, 2 vols., New York, 1878. For extracts see also the first two volumes of Stedman and Hutchinson's _Library of American Literature_, New York, 1888.

In conclusion I would observe that town histories, though seldom written in a philosophical spirit and apt to be quite amorphous in structure, are a mine of wealth for the philosophic student of history.

NOTES:

[1] Milman, _Lat. Christ._ vii. 395.

[2] Gardiner, _The Puritan Revolution_, p. 12.

[3] Green, _History of the English People_, iii. 47.

[4] Steele's _Life of Brewster,_ p. 161.

[5] Gardiner, _Puritan Revolution_, p. 50.

[6] It is now 204 years since a battle has been fought in England. The last was Sedgmoor in 1685. For four centuries, since Bosworth, in 1485, the English people have lived in peace in their own homes, except for the brief episode of the Great Rebellion, and Monmouth's slight affair.

This long peace, unparalleled in history, has powerfully influenced the English and American character for good. Since the Middle Ages most English warfare has been warfare at a distance, and that does not nourish the brutal pa.s.sions in the way that warfare at home does.

An instructive result is to be seen in the mildness of temper which characterized the conduct of our stupendous Civil War. Nothing like it was ever seen before.

[7] Picton's _Cromwell_, pp. 61, 67; Gardiner, _Puritan Revolution_, p.

72.

[8] Quincy, History of Harvard University, ii. 654.

[9] C.F. Adams, _Sir Christopher Gardiner, Knight_, p. 31.

[10] The compact drawn up in the Mayflower's cabin was not, in the strict sense a const.i.tution, which is a doc.u.ment defining and limiting the functions of government. Magna Charta partook of the nature of a written const.i.tution, as far as it went, but it did not create a government.

[11] See Johnston's Connecticut, p. 321, a very brilliant book.

[12] See the pa.s.sionate exclamation of Endicott, below, p. 190.

[13] Excursions of an Evolutionist: pp. 250, 255.

[14] A glimmer of light upon Gorton may be got from reading the t.i.tle-page of one of his books: "AN INCORRUPTIBLE KEY, composed of the CX PSALME, wherewith you may open the Rest of the Holy Scriptures; Turning itself only according to the Composure and Art of that Lock, of the Closure and Secresie of that great Mystery of G.o.d manifest in the Flesh, but justified only by the Spirit, which it evidently openeth and revealeth, out of Fall and Resurrection, Sin and Righteousness, Ascension and Descension, Height and Depth, First and Last, Beginning and Ending, Flesh and Spirit, Wisdome and Foolishnesse, Strength and Weakness, Mortality and Immortality, Jew and Gentile, Light and Darknesse, Unity and Multiplication, Fruitfulness and Barrenness, Curse and Blessing, Man and Woman, Kingdom and Priesthood, Heaven and Earth, Allsufficiency and Deficiency, G.o.d and Man. And out of every Unity made up of twaine, it openeth that great two-leafed Gate, which is the sole Entrie into the City of G.o.d, of New Jerusalem, _into which none but the King of glory can enter_; and as that Porter openeth the Doore of the Sheepfold, _by which whosoever entreth is the Shepheard of the Sheep_; See Isa. 45. 1. Psal. 24. 7, 8, 9, 10. John 10. 1, 2, 3; Or, (according to the Signification of the Word translated _Psalme_,) it is a Pruning-Knife, to lop off from the Church of Christ all superfluous Twigs _of earthly and carnal Commandments_, Leviticall Services or Ministery, and fading and vanis.h.i.+ng Priests, or Ministers, who are taken away and cease, and are not established and confirmed by Death, as holding no Correspondency with the princely Dignity, Office, and Ministry of our _Melchisedek_, who is the only Minister and Ministry of the Sanctuary, and of that true Tabernacle which the Lord pitcht, and not Man. For it supplants the Old Man, and implants the New; abrogates the Old Testament or Covenant, and confirms the New, unto a thousand Generations, or in Generations forever. By Samuel Gorton, _Gent._, and at the time of penning hereof, in the Place of Judicature (upon Aquethneck, alias Road Island) of Providence Plantations in the Nanhyganset Bay, New England. Printed in the Yeere 1647."

[15] Father of Benedict Arnold, afterward governor of Rhode Island, and owner of the stone windmill (apparently copied from one in Chesterton, Warwicks.h.i.+re) which was formerly supposed by some antiquarians to be a vestige of the Northmen. Governor Benedict Arnold was great-grandfather of the traitor.

[16] _Gorton, Simplicitie's Defence against Seven-headed Policy_, p. 88.

[17] De Forest, _History of the Indians of Connecticut_, Hartford, 1850, p. 198.

[18] Doyle, _Puritan Colonies_, i. 324.

[19] See below, p. 222, note.

[20] See my _Excursions of an Evolutionist,_ pp. 239-242, 250-255, 286-289.

[21] Gorton's life at Warwick, after all these troubles, seems to have been quiet and happy. He died in 1677 at a great age. In 1771 Dr. Ezra Stiles visited, in Providence, his last surviving disciple, born in 1691. This old man said that Gorton wrote in heaven, and none can understand his books except those who live in heaven while on earth.

[22] Doyle, _Puritan Colonies_,: i. 369.

[23] Doyle, i.: 372.

[24] Milman, _Latin Christianity_, vii. 390.

[25] Doyle, ii. 133, 134; Rhode Island Records, i. 377, 378.

[26] Colonial Laws of Ma.s.sachusetts, pp. 14-16; Levermore's Republic of New Haven, p. 153.

[27] See my remarks above, p. 145.

[28] The daring pa.s.sage in the sermon is thus given in Bacon's _Historical Discourses_, New Haven, 1838: "Withhold not countenance, entertainment, and protection from the people of G.o.d--whom men may call fools and fanatics--if any such come to you from other countries, as from France or England, or any other place. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers. Remember those that are in bonds, as bound with them. The Lord required this of Moab, saying, 'Make thy shadow as the night in the midst of the noonday; hide the outcasts; bewray not him that wandereth. Let mine outcasts dwell with thee, Moab; be thou a covert to them from the face of the spoiler.' Is it objected--'But so I may expose myself to be spoiled or troubled'? He, therefore, to remove this objection, addeth, 'For the extortioner is at an end, the spoiler ceaseth, the oppressors are consumed out of the land.' While we are attending to our duty in owning and harbouring Christ's witnesses, G.o.d will be providing for their and our safety, by destroying those that would destroy his people."

[29] Palfrey, _History of New England,_ in. 138-140.

[30] See Parkman, _Conspiracy of Pontiac_, i. 80-85.

[31] De Forest, _History of the Indians of Connecticut,_ pp. 252, 257.

[32] The story rests chiefly upon the statements of Hutchinson, an extremely careful and judicious writer, and not in the least what the French call a _gobemouche_. Goffe kept a diary which came into Hutchinson's possession, and was one of the priceless ma.n.u.scripts that perished in the infamous sacking of his house by the Boston mob of August 26, 1765. What light that diary might have thrown upon the matter can never be known. Hutchinson was born in 1711, only thirty-six years after the event, so that his testimony is not so very far removed from that of a contemporary. Whalley seems to have died in Hadley shortly before 1675, and Goffe deemed it prudent to leave that neighbourhood in 1676. His letters to Increase Mather are dated from "Ebenezer," i. e., wherever in his roamings he set up his Ebenezer. One of these letters, dated September 8, 1676, shows that his Ebenezer was then set up in Hartford, where probably he died about 1679 In 1676 the arrival of Edward Randolph (see below, p. 256) renewed the peril of the regicide judge, and his sudden removal from his skilfully contrived hiding-place at Hadley might possibly have been due to his having exposed himself to recognition in the Indian fight. Possibly even the supernatural explanation might have been started, with a touch of Yankee humour, as a blind. The silence of Mather and Hubbard was no more remarkable than some of the other ingenious incidents which had so long served to conceal the existence of this st.u.r.dy and crafty man. The reasons for doubting the story are best stated by Mr. George Sheldon of Deerfield, in _Hist.-Genealogical Register_, October, 1874.

[33] If Philip was half the diplomatist that he is represented in tradition, he never would have gone into such a war without a.s.surance of Narragansett help. Canonchet was a far more powerful sachem than Philip, and played a more conspicuous part in the war. May we not suppose that Canonchet's desire to avenge his father's death was one of the princ.i.p.al incentives to the war; that Philip's attack upon Swanzey was a premature explosion; and that Canonchet then watched the course of events for a while before making up his mind whether to abandon Philip or support him?

[34] A wretched little werewolf who some few years ago, being then a lad of fourteen or fifteen years, most cruelly murdered two or three young children, just to amuse himself with their dying agonies. The misdirected "humanitarianism," which in our country makes every murderer an object of popular sympathy, prevailed to save this creature from the gallows. Ma.s.sachusetts has lately witnessed a similar instance of misplaced clemency in the case of a vile woman who had poisoned eight or ten persons, including some of her own children, in order to profit by their life insurance. Such instances help to explain the prolonged vitality of "Judge Lynch," and sometimes almost make one regret the days in old England when William Probert, after escaping in 1824 as "king's evidence," from the Thurtell affair, got caught and hanged within a twelvemonth for horse-stealing. Any one who wishes to study the results of allowing criminality to survive and propagate itself should read Dugdale's The Jukes; Hereditary Crime, New York, 1877.

[35] Weeden, _Indian Money as a Factor in New England Civilization_, Johns Hopkins University Studies, II. viii., ix. p. 30.