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cial acts during the separation should be esteemed valid CHAPTER or not; and, at the ensuing election, the towns on the island and those on the main organized separately. The 1653. new government on the island demanded the records of May 17. Coddington, but he fled with them to Boston. The war

with Holland being then pending, Dyer, who had ruined himself by contentions and lawsuits with Coddington, obtained a commission to himself and Captain Underhill to act against the Dutch of New Netherland, and a piece of cannon and twenty men were sent to co-operate with the English settlers on the east end of Long Island, plunder being the great object. It was at this very time that the Commissioners for the United Colonies were defeated in their design of declaring war against New Netherland by the firmness of Massachusetts. Providence and Warwick also protested against being drawn into Aug. 13. a war with the Dutch. The disputes reached a high pitch; and Williams, returning home, brought with him an admonitory letter from Sir Henry Vane, who had lately retired from the public service, in consequence of Cromwell's violent close of the Rump Parliament, and the subsequent dissolution of the Council of State. That old friend of the colony inquired, "How is it that there are such divisions among you-such headiness, tumults, disorder, injustice? The noise echoes into the ears of all, as well friends as enemies, by every return of ships from those parts. Are there no wise men among you— no public, self-denying spirits?" And the letter ends with urging union and reconciliation.

The reception of Williams was at first so dubious, and his attempts at conciliation so little regarded, that he declared himself "like a man in a fog." He found it necessary to address a very plain and strong remonstrance to his fellow-townsmen of Providence, recapitulating his

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CHAPTER labors and services in behalf of the colony, and for the cause of "freedom of conscience," both of which were 1653. now put to hazard by their senseless contentions. This remonstrance had the desired effect; the town agreed upon steps toward conciliation; and Williams was deAug. 27. puted to answer Vane's letter. Having recounted, by way of "first answer" and excuse for their dissensions, the misbehavior of Coddington and Dyer, the letter adds: "Our second answer is (that we may not lay all the load upon other men's backs), that possibly a sweet cup hath rendered many of us wanton and too active; for we have long drunk of the cup of as great liberties as any people that we can hear of under the whole heaven. We have not only been long free (together with all New England) from the iron yoke of wolfish bishops and their popish ceremonies (against whose cruel oppressions God raised up your noble spirit in Parliament), but we have sitten quiet and dry from the streams of blood spilled by that war in our native country. We have not felt the new chains of the Presbyterian tyrants, nor, in this colony" -a significant parenthesis-"have we been consumed with the over-zealous fire of the so-called godly ministers. Sir, we have not known what an excise means; we have almost forgot what tithes are, yea, or taxes, either to church or commonwealth. We could name other special privileges, ingredients of our sweet cup, which your great wisdom knows to be powerful, except with more than ordinary watchfulness, to render the best of men wanton and forgetful."

Aug. 31.

Commissioners from the four towns presently met, when it was agreed that all past acts should be valid, and the government for the future according to the charSept. 12. ter. At a general election, held shortly after, Williams was chosen president, and letters of "humble thanksgiv

ing" were ordered to be written to his highness the Lord CHAPTER Protector and Sir Henry Vane.

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Hardly was Williams installed in office when a paper 1653. was sent to the town of Providence, no doubt by one Harris, who proclaimed similar sentiments at the next court of elections, "against all earthly powers, Parliaments, laws, charters, magistrates, prisons, punishments, rates, yea, against all kings and princes," and "that it was blood-guiltiness and against the rule of the Gospel to execute judgment upon transgressors."

To this doctrine of non-resistance and no government, not altogether without its advocates even at the present day, Williams made the following answer: "That ever I should speak or write a tittle that tends to such an infinite liberty, is a mistake which I have ever disclaimed and abhorred. To prevent such mistakes, I at present shall only propose this case. There goes many a ship to sea, with many hundred souls in one ship, whose weal and woe is common, and is a true picture of a commonwealth, or a human combination or society. It hath fallen out sometimes that both Papists and Protestants, Jews and Turks, may be embarked into one ship. Upon which supposal I affirm that all the liberty of conscience that ever I pleaded for turns upon these two hinges that none of the Papists, Protestants, Jews, or Turks be forced to come to the ship's prayers or worship, nor compelled from their own particular prayers or worship, if they practice any. I never denied that, notwithstanding this liberty, the commander of this ship ought to command the ship's course; yea, and also command that justice, peace, and sobriety be kept and practiced both among the seamen and all the passengers. If any of the seamen refuse to perform their service, or passengers to pay their freight; if any refuse to help in

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CHAPTER person or purse toward the common charges or defense; if any refuse to obey the common laws or orders of the 1653. ship concerning their common peace and preservation; if any shall mutiny and rise up against the commanders and officers; if any should preach or write that there ought to be no commanders nor officers, because all are equal in Christ, therefore no masters nor officers, no laws nor orders, no corrections nor punishments, I say I never denied but in such cases, whatever is pretended, the commander or commanders may judge, resist, compel, and punish such transgressors according to their deserts and merits."

The government of the colony thus again reorganized, and Williams being rechosen governor at the next gen1655. eral election, a letter also having arrived from CromMay 22. well confirming the government as now established, Cod1656. dington presently made his appearance at a General March 14. Court, and freely submitted "with all his heart;" and he and Dyer, who had been engaged in violent lawsuits and contentions, signed a paper signifying their submission to an award of five referees, of whom Gorton was one, for the settlement of all disputes between them.

The only difficulties that now remained were those growing out of the opposition of William Arnold and one or two others, who had submitted to Massachusetts, and out of the depredations of the two sachems of Shawomet, vassals also of that colony. On this subject Williams 1655. addressed a letter to Governor Endicott, reminding him Nov. 15. of the suit by Gorton's company pending before his highness and the lords of the council for £2000 damages, and complaining of the conduct of the English and Indian adherents of Massachusetts, and also of a law of nonintercourse, by which it was forbidden to sell to Rhode Island arms and ammunition even "in this bloody and

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massacring time". —an allusion to the internal wars then CHAPTER pending between the neighboring Indians. The letter closed with intimating an appeal to his highness and his 1656. council. This intimation was not without its effect. The magistrates of Massachusetts stood in some awe of Cromwell, to whom they had lately forwarded a congratulatory address. Williams was presently invited to May 12. Boston, where he presented a memorial to the General Court, reiterating his former complaints, as to which some redress was now granted.

Attention, indeed, in Massachusetts, was speedily absorbed by a new influx of heretics, in comparison with Sept. which, Antinomians, Anabaptists, Familists, and Seekers sunk into insignificance. At the same meeting of the Commissioners for the United Colonies at which Massachusetts had complained of the neglect of Plymouth in providing support for her ministers, information was given to that board of the arrival in Massachusetts of "several persons professing themselves Quakers, fit instruments to propagate the kingdom of Satan," and the commissioners were earnestly entreated to recommend to all the colonies "some general rules to prevent the coming in among us from foreign places of such notorious heretics." The immediate occasion of this alarm was the arrival at Boston of two women from Barbadoes, whose names, "after the flesh," were Mary Fisher and Ann Austin. Their trunks had been examined, and their books burned by the common hangman. The women themselves had been thrown into prison, and their persons searched for "signs" of witchcraft.

The popular faith in witchcraft had just been gratified by the execution of no less a person than Anne Hibbins, sister of Bellingham, and widow of a magistrate, the late colleague of Peters and Welde in the

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