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attracted fresh attention, and increased that respect and awe which old age is wont to inspire.

He died in Newburyport, Massachusetts, while on a visit to his daughters, on the twenty-fourth day of June, 1803, in the eighty-ninth year of his age: his remains were conveyed to New Hampshire, and interred on the succeeding sabbath, within a short distance of Thornton's ferry, on the Merrimack river. His surviving children consisted of two sons and two daughters. James Thornton, his eldest son, was a representative from Merrimack to the general court, during several years, and died in July, 1817, aged fifty-three years. Matthew Thornton was graduated at Dartmouth college, in 1787; was admitted to the practice of the law; and died at Merrimack on the fifth of December, 1804, in the thirty-third year of his age; his surviving daughters are Mrs. Betton, widow of the late Silas Betton of Salem, in New Hampshire, and Mrs. M'Gaw, of Bedford.

Dr. Thornton was a man of large stature, exceeding six feet in height, and his form was symmetrically proportioned : his complexion was dark, and his eye black and penetrating. His countenance was invincibly grave, like that of Cassius, who read much, and never smiled; and this trait is the more remarkable, as he was distinguished for his good humoured hilarity. In his deportment, he was dignified and commanding, without austerity or hauteur.

The grave of this eminent man is covered by a white marble slab, upon which are inscribed his name and age, with the brief but noble epitaph-" AN HONEST MAN."

STEPHEN HOPKINS.

AT the time of the Declaration of Independence, the province of Rhode Island and Providence plantations was represented in the general congress by two delegates, STEPHEN HOPKINS and WILLIAM ELLERY.

Although the smallest of the British colonies in point of territorial limits, this province, as it was termed before the revolution, maintained that character which it still holds, of being among the first in energy, resources and lofty spirit. It was founded amid hardship and suffering, to secure religious and political freedom; and during its history, at no period has it been found wanting in every effort to preserve and to extend it. The claim of being the first to establish a system of religious toleration, has been made on behalf both of Penn and lord Baltimore; and we all look back with delight to the primitive records of our country, which present to us the pure ecclesiastical systems, which were founded by the amiable and accomplished nobleman, and the sagacious and benevolent quaker. Their conduct has been rewarded by the applause of every age, by the grateful recollection of their countrymen, and by what to them would have been a return still more delightful, the secure happiness of those over whose ancestors their cares were extended. Yet, it may be remembered without derogating from their virtues or destroying the benefit of their example, that the VOL. I.-U u

means they adopted were those most likely to secure the settlement of the extensive principalities from which their fortunes were derived; that they were possessed of extensive powers, which enabled them calmly to weigh and adopt the form of government which the exigencies of time and situation required; and that they were surrounded by many men differing from them in religious opinions, whose interests could not be neglected. But the settlement of Rhode Island was coeval with that of Maryland, and preceded by many years that of Pennsylvania. It was made by a band of wandering strangers, driven from their homes by religious persecution; poor, unprotected, rude in manners, and with few of the instructions, perhaps none of the accomplishments, of the times. Yet their earliest acts were marked by a christian feeling, a benevolence, and a liberal and tolerant spirit, not exceeded, if equalled, in the early history of our country.

Roger Williams, the founder of the colony, was a learned and popular divine of Massachusetts; throwing aside, however, the puritanical prejudices of the times and the people around him, he contended with vehemence for freedom of conscience in religious worship, insisted that it should be extended to all, even to "Papists and Arminians," and opposed, with the whole weight of his character and influence, those laws which went to destroy their civil rights on account of their conscientious belief. But, to use the expressive language of Mr. Burke, they who in England could not bear being chastised with rods, had no sooner got free from their fetters, than they scourged their fellow refugees with scorpions. Instead of meeting with encouragement and success, by the promulgation of his opinions, Roger Williams found himself regarded as the enemy of religion; and at last, in the year 1634, he was banished as a disturber of the peace of the church and commonwealth. With a small but hardy band of devoted

followers, he sought a refuge among the Narragansett Indians, and found among the rude pagans of the forest, that liberty and repose which were denied him by christian civilization. He was joined from time to time, by other pilgrims; and these children of persecution thus assembled, passed in their wild retreat, by solemn resolve, the earliest and the most solemn declaration of the principles of perfect freedom in religious concernments, that the world had ever known.

It might have been supposed, that thus at a distance from those from whom they differed, and obliged from the nature of their situation to gain a precarious subsistence, and defend the uncertain tenure of their property amid innumerable hardships, they would have been permitted to proceed unmolested by their ancient enemies. It was not so, however. In the year 1643, an expedition was fitted out against them and their address to "certain men styled commissioners, whose names they knew not," as it is expressed in their own bold language, affords a highly interesting specimen of the character of the colonists and the feeling of the times. "If you come," say they, "to treat us in the ways of equity and peace, together therewith, shaking a rod over our heads, in a band of soldiers; be assured that we have passed our childhood in that point, and are under the commission of the Great God, not to be children in understanding, neither in courage, but to acquit ourselves like men. We strictly charge you hereby, that you set not a foot upon our lands, in any hostile way, but upon your perils, and that, if any blood be shed, upon your heads shall it be and know, that if you set an army of men upon any part of our land, contrary to our just prohibition therein, we are under command, and have our commission sealed, all ready to resist you unto death. For this is the law of our God, by whom we stand, which is written in all men's hearts, that, if ye spread a table before us as

friends, we sit not as men invective, envious, or mal-content, not touching a morsel, nor looking from you, who point us unto our dish, but we eat with you, by virtue of the unfeigned law of relations, not only to satisfy our stomachs, but to increase friendship and love, the end of feastings: so also, if you visit us as combatants, or warriors, by the same law of relations we will resist you unto death." Their courage, however, could not save them from overwhelming force, for a time, aided as it was by the basest treachery.

These sufferings, however, were only temporary, and notwithstanding the efforts of their enemies, they succeeded in continuing their honourable course of conduct; and finally obtained for it the sanction of the government at home. Among the ancient records of the province, preserved in the office of the secretary of the state, is found an entry mentioning this circumstance, and giving evidence of the anxiety which was felt by all that it should be generally known. “At present," states the record, "the general assembly judgeth it their duty to signify his majesty's gracious pleasure, vouchsafed in these words to us, verbatim, viz. That no person within the said colony at any time hereafter, shall be any way molested, punished, disquieted or called in question, for any difference of opinion in matters of religion that do not actually disturb the civil peace of the said colony.” And in a letter written to Sir Henry Vane, in England, about the same period, we find the following sentence, which forcibly illustrates the feelings of the colonists as to religious, and the effects of those feelings, as to civil concerns. "We have long drunk," they say, "of the cup of as great liberties as any people we can hear of under the whole heavens. We have not only been long free together with all English, from the yokes of wolfish bishops and their popish ceremonies, against whose grievous oppressions God raised up your noble spirit

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