1636]

Anne Hutchinson and her Adherents

75 a year for agricultural purposes, and some such idea was in all probability in the minds of the Indian chiefs who signed Williams's deed and who "sold" land to Baltimore's colonists, to William Penn, and to the settlers in Massachusetts where the grantees from the company were obliged to satisfy the Indian proprietors.

freedom. Hart's Con

temporaries, I, No. 115.

Williams founded his settlement on the basis of equality Religious in the state and freedom in religious affairs. The religious freedom of Maryland was in the nature of toleration; in Rhode Island it was held that the state had nothing to do with a man's religion. It is to Roger Williams and to the settlers of Providence that the student must look for the origin of one of the most important principles underlying the American form of government, -the separation of church and state, which necessarily implies absolute religious freedom. For this Williams deserves a place beside the most prominent statesmen of the revolutionary and the constitutional periods.

gious liberty.

Island, I, 254.

The settlers in the new colony found it hard to understand the precise limitations of the new principle of government; in their new-found freedom, they did many things which greatly annoyed Williams, and he wrote a letter explaining Williams exthe meaning of liberty. In this remarkable writing he plains relilikened a state to a ship with officers, crew, and passengers, Arnold's among whom were persons of many religions. Liberty of Rhode conscience turned upon these two hinges,—that none of the ship's company be forced to attend the ship's services, or prevented from holding his own services. The commander of the ship, however, ought to command the ship's course, preserve order, and punish according to their deserts all who shall mutiny or assert that "there ought to be no . . . officers, because all are equal in Christ, therefore no masters nor officers, no laws nor orders, no corrections nor punishments." 65. Anne Hutchinson and her Adherents. - Roger Wil- Anne Hutchliams had hardly ceased to offend the Massachusetts magistrates ere another comer appeared to cause some of them renewed perplexity. This disturber of the religious calm land, 116–

inson in Boston. Fiske's New Eng

Stedman and

any

119; Welde's was a gifted woman, by name Anne Hutchinson. Precisely Short Story in what the doctrines were which she preached, it is not Hutchinson, possible to say; Winthrop declared at the time that only a few who "knew the bottom of the matter could tell where difference was." It is clear enough, however, what was at the bottom of the magistrates' and ministers' dislike of Mrs. Hutchinson: she set herself against the ministers. Many colonists at first looked upon her ideas with favor, and the new governor, Henry Vane, fell under her influence. Gradually, however, Winthrop and the old leaders regained

I, 233-244; *Hart's Contemporaries, I, No. 108; Chandler's Criminal Trials, I, 3-29.

Rhode Island settled, 1637. Greene's Rhode Island, 17-20.

Samuel Gor

their former authority. Vane departed for England and Anne Hutchinson was banished with her followers. With Williams's assistance they secured the island

of Aquidneck, or Rhode Island (1637-38).

66. Settlements on Narragansett. Bay. The Hutchinson colonists founded two towns on Rhode Island,

-Pocasset

or

Portsmouth on the northern end of the island, and Newport on the southern end. Each town managed its own affairs, with a general government based on equal representation ton. Fiske's of the two towns for matters of general interest. Later, New Enganother town was founded on the mainland by an eccentric but sincere person, - Samuel Gorton. He had no objections to the other Puritan colonies on religious grounds, but he denied the legality of the government of Plymouth and

land, 163-168. Hart's Contemporaries,

I, No. 113.

1635]

Founding of Connecticut

77

1647.

Greene's

Rhode Island, 23-27

of Portsmouth, as not resting on royal grants but on compacts between the settlers. Even Providence proved to be unfriendly to him; he secured land on the western side of Providence Narragansett Bay and founded the town of Warwick. He, Plantations, too, fell under the displeasure of the Massachusetts authorities, who arrested him; but in the end, with the help of the Puritan leaders in England, he was reinstated in his hamlet. In 1643 Roger Williams obtained from the Commissioners of Plantations, appointed by the Long Parliament, a patent known as the Incorporation of Providence Plantations. This instrument permitted the towns on Narragansett Bay to form a federal union, if they so desired; but no use was made of this permission until 1647.

Arnold's

Rhode Island.

Fiske's New

England,

123-128;

Walker's
Thomas

(M. A.).

67. Founding of Connecticut, 1635-40.-Entirely unlike Connecticut, the feeble bands of colonists who settled the Narragansett 1635-37. towns were the numerous and well-equipped settlers who founded Connecticut. The former had been banished from Massachusetts; the latter left that colony owing to their dislike of the narrow spirit displayed by those who were in Hooker control of the government. Probably they also saw opportunities for material prosperity in the fertile Connecticut valley. At all events, in 1635 and 1636 the inhabitants of Newtown, with many of those of Watertown and Dorchester, founded three towns on the Connecticut River, which afterwards came to be called Hartford, Windsor, and Wethersfield. Two Puritan noblemen, Lord Brooke and Lord Saye and Sele, had obtained from the Council for New England a grant of this region. In 1635 John Winthrop, Jr., son of the governor of the Bay colony, acting as their agent, built. a fort at the mouth of the Connecticut River, which he named Saybrook in their honor. It was scarcely more than a military post, but it was sufficient to maintain the control of the river for the English. These settlements were hardly made before a dangerous Indian war broke out with the Pequods. The campaign, which resulted in the extinction of the tribe, was conducted by Captain John Mason and his soldiers with wonderful skill. Those who wish to see the

The Pequod
War. Fiske's
New Eng-

land, 129

134; Stedman and

Hutchinson,

1, 176–189.

Connecticut Constitution, 163839. Hart's Contemporaries, I, 120; Old South Leaflets, Gen. Ser., No. 8.

Connecticut boundaries. Hinsdale's Old Northwest, 87.

Reasons for founding New Haven, 1638.

Fiske's New England, 135.

Puritan soldier at his work in the forest should read Mason's account of this exploit and the glowing narrative of his vigorous supporter from Massachusetts, Captain John Underhill. 68. Connecticut Orders of 1638-39. — The early history of Connecticut is important from a constitutional point of view. In the winter of 1638-39 the heads of families of the three towns of Hartford, Windsor, and Wethersfield met together and drew up a fundamental law, the Orders of 1638-39, which Bryce, an English writer on American politics, calls the "first truly political written constitution in history." The government established closely resembled that in operation in Massachusetts, with the important exception that there was no religious qualification.

69. Extent of Connecticut. - In the end the Connecticut colonists secured the rights as to land which Lord Saye and Sele and Lord Brooke had received from the Council for New England. This grant was limited on the east by the "Narragansett River," a stream which proved to have no existence. On this point a bitter contest arose with Rhode Island, which was finally decided by the English authorities against Connecticut; in this way the Pawcatuck, a river which nowhere approaches Narragansett Bay, became the eastern boundary of Connecticut. The western boundary of the latter colony under the grant above mentioned was the South Sea; but all attempts of Connecticut men to settle in Pennsylvania and New Jersey aroused fierce opposition.

70. New Haven, 1638. - The settlement of New Haven was due to the energy and ability of two men, — John Davenport and Theophilus Eaton. The former was a Puritan minister, the latter a prosperous merchant of London and one of Davenport's principal parishioners. Silenced by Laud, Davenport interested Eaton in a scheme of colonization, and the two determined to found a colony where they could try an experiment in government on their own lines, as the Massachusetts people were trying one on theirs. They soon gathered a large band of colonists and founded the colony of New Haven (1638). In the government of

1641]

The United Colonies of New England

79 their settlement only church members had any share, and great care was taken as to the admission of persons to church membership. Other churches and towns were soon founded in the vicinity and entered into confederation with New Haven; but the early career of New Haven was not fortunate. At length, in 1662, it was absorbed by the stronger colony of Connecticut.

71. The First New England Code of Laws, 1641.- During the period of contest with the English government on the one hand, and with discontented persons in the colony on the other, the freemen of Massachusetts had constantly pressed for the publication of a code of laws. Until this was done, the magistrates enjoyed great freedom in applying the general rules of the English common law and the precepts and commandments set forth in the Bible. No man could be certain whether he were committing an offense or not. The magistrates opposed the making of the code, because as things were they exercised great power; they also feared lest the publication of the laws might give their enemies in England some ground on which to base a successful prosecution of the company. For years the demand of the freemen was put off by the expedient of referring the matter to committees which never reported. The meeting of the Long Parliament changed the whole aspect of affairs; the magistrates gave way, and a code was drawn up (1641). It was not printed at the time, but a manuscript copy has been preserved and reproduced in facsimile.

72. The United Colonies of New England, 1643. — Meantime other settlements had been formed along the New England coast, in Maine and on the shores and rivers of New Hampshire. There were constant disputes as to jurisdiction between these colonies and Massachusetts which frequently used her power to enforce her own views to the disregard of the rights of others.

In 1643 the four colonies of Massachusetts Bay, New Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven entered into a league "for mutual help and strength in all our future con