IX. CHAPTER ton harbor; the fort in the town was ordered to be armed; other forts were to be commenced at Dorchester 1634. and Charlestown; and power was given to impress laborers for the purpose. A cannoneer was appointed, and overseers of powder and shot; military watches were ordered to be kept in all the towns; and Dudley, Winthrop, Haynes, Humphrey, and Endicott were appointed commissioners "to consult, direct, and give command for the managing and ordering of any war that might befall for the space of a year next ensuing, and till further order." In the midst of these preparations, a dangerous dispute as to the extent of their respective powers broke out between the magistrates and the deputies. In the course 1633. of the previous year, Oldham, the Indian trader, with three companions, had traveled over land as far as the Dutch and Plymouth trading-houses on the Connecticut, and had brought back very flattering reports of that country. The people of Newtown, dissatisfied with their situation, had sent explorers thither, and they now asked permission of the court to remove and settle there. It was objected, however, that such a removal would be a violation of their oaths as freemen, by which they were bound to seek the welfare of the "commonwealth," still weak, and now in danger of being assailed. Perils from the Dutch and the Indians were also alleged, and the danger of settling without a patent beyond the limits of the Massachusetts charter. Nor were more mystical reasons wanting. "The removal of a candlestick is a great judgment, which ought to be avoided." These arguments decided a majority of the magistrates against granting permission; but a majority of the deputies, amounting to a majority of the whole court, were inclined the other way. Were the magistrates, under these circumstances, entitled to a negative? The dispute on this point grew very warm, and the session was adjourned. When the CHAPTER court reassembled, Cotton preached a sermon in favor. IX. of the magistrates' negative; "and it pleased the Lord 1634. so to assist him, and to bless his own ordinance, that the affairs of the court went on cheerfully." The Newtown petitioners, upon promise of certain neighboring lands, were induced to forego their project of removal, and the necessity of deciding the disputed question of authority was thus for the time avoided. Stoughton, one of the deputies, not content thus to let the matter rest, circulated a small treatise in manuscript, in which he argued against the magistrates' negative, and also maintained that the office of governor was merely ministerial; and for this offense he was presently summoned before the magistrates. Not finding the sup- 1635. port he had expected from the deputies, he desired "that March. the said book might forthwith be burned as weak and offensive." Even this humble submission did not save him, for the court imposed, as an additional punishment, incapacity for three years to hold office. In the case of Roger Williams had occurred a previous instance of like magisterial interference with freedom of opinion. That zealous young minister, after a two years' residence at Plymouth, had returned to Salem, 1633. where, though not in any office, he "exercised by way of prophecy" to the acceptance and edification of the Church. During his late residence at Plymouth, Williams had presented to the magistrates there a manuscript treatise, in which he had denied any validity in a royal patent, especially from such kings as the present one and his father, to give title to lands in America. Called upon by the magistrates of Massachusetts, who still regarded him with some suspicion, to produce a copy of this treatise, in which treason was thought to lurk, CHAPTER Williams had written a submissive letter, in which he IX. offered his book, or any part of it, to be burned. In the 1634. light of this letter, the offensive passages appeared "very obscure, and to admit of doubtful interpretation;" and January, the magistrates, after consultation with Cotton and Wilson, agreed to pass the matter over upon Williams's taking the oath of allegiance to the king. Scarcely, however, had he escaped from this difficulty, when his uncompromising zeal involved both himself and Endicott in another. Just before the late alarming news from England, Williams had persuaded Endicott, the military commander at Salem, to cut from his colors the red cross. Scruples on the subject of this cross in the colors were by no means confined to Endicott and Williams. It was commonly esteemed in Massachusetts "à relic of antiChrist," a popish symbol savoring of superstition, and not to be countenanced by Christian men. But would not such a defacement, especially at this crisis, assume the appearance of an open renunciation of the king's authority? 1635. A complaint was presently lodged with the magis January. trates, who called in the elders to advise, not only as to the cross in the colors, but as to the general policy to be adopted in the present threatening aspect of affairs. It was agreed unanimously by the elders, that if a governor general were sent over, he ought not to be accepted; and that the colonists ought to defend "their lawful possessions," forcibly if they could, or if too weak for that, by "avoidance and delays." The question of the cross in the colors proved more difficult of solution, March. and was referred to the next General Court. That court May. also postponed it, and meanwhile the commissioners for military affairs ordered all the colors to be laid aside. Several new members having been added to that commission, it was now intrusted with entire control over the May. A IX. military array of the colony, with authority to make war CHAPTER either offensive or defensive, and to imprison, or, in case of resistance, to put to death "any that they shall judge 1635. to be enemies of the Commonwealth." This dictatorial power, wisely limited till the next court, was renewed at several successive sessions. The governor was to have a guard of six men with halberds and swords. beacon, to be fired in case of alarm, was ordered to be set up on Sentry Hill, in Boston. An oath of fidelity to the Commonwealth was imposed upon all resident non-freemen, and trade with any ships was prohibited without leave of the magistrates. The charge of dieting the assistants and deputies during the general courts was ordered to be paid out of the public treasury. Fines were imposed for absence from public worship. Grand juries were ordered to be appointed twice a year, to give information of all breaches of orders. This court was no sooner over than Williams found himself a fourth time in trouble. He denied the lawfulness of the oath imposed on the non-freemen, on the ground, it would seem, of the sinfulness of joining with the unregenerate in any religious act. He also questioned the law compelling attendance on public worship. Amid all his whimsies, the vigorous intellect of Williams had seized the great idea of what he called "soul-liberty," the inviolable freedom of opinion, that is, on the subject of religion—an idea at that time wholly novel, but which, by its gradual reception, has wrought, in the course of two centuries, such remarkable changes in Christendom. So alarming a heresy was not suffered to go long unrebuked. Being sent for by the magistrates, Williams was April 30. "heard before all the ministers, and very clearly confuted." Endicott was at first inclined to support him, but finally "gave place to the truth." CHAPTER At the Court of Elections, a few days after, the freemen followed up the doctrine of rotation in office by 1635. choosing Haynes as governor, a choice agreed upon by May 6. deputies from the towns, who came together for that pur pose previously to the meeting of the court-the first instance of the "caucus system" on record. Ludlow, the late deputy, who seems to have expected the office of governor, was so indignant at this proceeding, that he called in question the validity of the election; to which the freemen replied by leaving him out of the magistracy. Richard Bellingham, who had arrived during the preceding year, was chosen in Ludlow's place as deputy governor. A joint committee of four magistrates and one delegate from each town, chosen by the assembled freemen, to which Endicott's conduct in the case of the mutilated colors was referred, reported " that he had offended many ways; in rashness, uncharitableness, indiscretion, and exceeding the limits of his authority;" whereupon the court sentenced him "to be sadly admonished," and declared him incapable of office for a year. But this sen tence related more to form than to substance. The scruples about the cross in the colors still remained. It was proposed to substitute the white and red rose instead; but final action was delayed to wait the opinion of certain of "the most wise and godly in England," to whom the ministers proposed to write. Meanwhile, the colors remained disused. Leave was given at this court to the people of Roxbury and Watertown to remove where they pleased, provided they continued under the jurisdiction. They alleged the want of pasturage for their cattle as their reason for removal. A bark having arrived from England with twenty servants, sent by Sir Richard Saltonstall, to plant on the Connecticut, the project of removing thith |