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COLONIZATION OF MASSACHUSETTS.

341

IX.

original purchasers parted with all their rights; Hum- CHAP. phrey, Endicot, and Whetcomb, retained an equal interest with the new partners.1

June

28

The company, already possessing the firmness of religious zeal and the resources of mercantile opulence, and having now acquired a title to an extensive territory, immediately prepared for the emigration of a colony; and Endicot-a man of dauntless courage, and that cheerfulness which accompanies courage; benevolent, though austere; firm, though choleric; of a rugged nature, which the sternest form of Puritanism had not served to mellow-was selected as "a fit instrument to begin this wilderness work." His wife and family 1628 were the companions of his voyage, the hostages of his fixed attachment to the New World. His immediate attendants, and those whom the company sent over the same year, in all, not far from one hundred in number,3 were welcomed by Conant and his faithful associates to gloomy forests and unsubdued fields. Yet, even then, the spirit of enterprise predominated over the melancholy which is impressed upon nature in its savage state; and seven or more threaded a path through the woods to the neck of land which is now Charlestown. English courage had preceded them; they found there one English hovel already tenanted.1

Sept.

13.

Feb.

When the news reached London of the safe arrival 1629 of the emigrants, the number of the adventurers had 13. already been much enlarged. The "Boston men" next lent their strength to the company;5 and the Mar. Puritans throughout England began to take an inter

1 Prince, 247. Col. Records. 2 Johnson, b. i. c. ix. Hutchinson's Coll. 51, 52.

3 Hubbard, 110. Higginson's N. E. Plantation, in i. Mass.

Hist. Coll. i. 123. Dudley's Letter.
4 Charlestown Records, in Prince,
250; in Edward Everett's Address,
18, 19.

5 Colony Records.

2.

IX.

CHAP. est in the efforts which invited the imagination to indulge in delightful visions. Interest was also made to obtain a royal charter, with the aid of Bellingham and of White, an eminent lawyer, who advocated the design. The earl of Warwick had always been the friend of the company; Gorges had seemed to favor its advancement; and Lord Dorchester, then one of the secretaries of state, is said to have exerted a powerful influence in its behalf. At last, after much labor 1629. and large expenditures,3 the patent for the Company 4. of the Massachusetts Bay passed the seals; a few days only before Charles I., in a public state-paper, avowed his design of governing without a parliament.

Mar.

2

The charter, which bears the signature of Charles I., and which was cherished for more than half a century as the most precious boon, established a corporation, like other corporations within the realm. The associates were constituted a body politic by the name of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England. The administration of its affairs was intrusted to a governor, deputy, and eighteen assistants, who were to be annually elected by the stockholders, or members of the corporation. Four times a year, or oftener if desired, a general assembly of the freemen was to be held; and to these assemblies, which were invested with the necessary powers of legislation, inquest, and superintendence, the most important affairs were referred. No provision required the assent of the king to render the acts of the body valid; in his eye it was but a

1 Prince, 254. Gorges' Descrip-
tion, 25. Gorges' Narrative, c.
xxvi.

2 Document in Chalmers.
3 Letter in Hazard, i. 237.

4 The patent is at the State House in Boston, and is printed in Colony Laws. in Hutchinson's Coll., and in Hazard,

CHARTER FOR THE MASSACHUSETTS COLONY.

343

IX.

trading corporation, not a civil government; its doings CHAP. were esteemed as indifferent as those of any guild or company in England; and if powers of jurisdiction in America were conceded, it was only from the nature of the business in which the stockholders were to engage.

66

For the charter designedly granted great facilities for colonization. It allowed the company to transport to its American territory any persons, whether English or foreigners, who would go willingly, would become lieges of the English king, and were not restrained by especial name." It empowered, but it did not require, the governor to administer the oaths of supremacy and allegiance; yet the charter, according to the strict rules of legal interpretation,' was far from conceding to the patentees the privilege of freedom of worship. Not a single line alludes to such a purpose; nor can it be implied by a reasonable construction from any clause. The omission of an express guaranty left religious liberty unprovided for and unprotected. The instrument confers on the colonists the rights of English subjects; it does not confer on them new and greater rights. On the contrary, they are strictly for bidden to make laws or ordinances repugnant to the laws and statutes of the realm of England. The express concession of power to administer the oath of supremacy, demonstrates that universal religious toleration was not designed; and the freemen of the corporation, it should be remembered, were not at that time separatists. Even Higginson, and Hooker, and Cotton, were still ministers of the church of England; nor could the patentees foresee, nor the English government anticipate, how wide a departure from English

1 Story's MS. Opinion.

CHAP. Usages would grow out of the emigration of Puritans to America.1

IX.

Considering the subject from the historical point of view, it must be observed, that the establishment of Episcopacy in New England, as the religion of the state, was impossible; since the character of the times was a guaranty, that the immense majority of emigrants would prove its uncompromising opponents. Episcopacy had no motiye to emigrate; it was Puritanism, almost alone, that came over; and freedom of Puritan worship was necessarily the purpose and the result of the colony. If the privilege could not have been established as a legal right, it followed so clearly from the facts, that, in 1662, the sovereign of England, probably with the assent and at the instance of Clarendon, declared, "the principle and foundation of the charter of Massachusetts to be the freedom of liberty of conscience." 2

The political condition of the colonists was not deemed by King Charles a subject worthy of his consideration. Full legislative and executive authority was conferred, not on the emigrants, but on the company, of which the emigrants could not be active members, so long as the charter of the corporation remained in England. The associates in London were to establish ordinances, to settle forms of government, to name all necessary officers, to prescribe their duties, and to establish a criminal code. Massachusetts was not erected into a province, to be governed by laws of its own enactment; it was reserved for the corporation to decide what degree of

1 The editor of Winthrop did me the kindness to read to me unpublished letters, which are in his possession, and which prove that the

Puritans in England were amazed, as well as alarmed, at the boldness of their brethren in Massachusetts.

2 Document in Hutch. Coll. 378.

THE FIRST GOVERNMENT UNDER THE CHARTER.

345

IX.

civil rights its colonists should enjoy. The charter on CHAP. which the freemen of Massachusetts succeeded in erecting a system of independent representative 1629. liberty, did not secure to them a single privilege of self-government; but left them, as the Virginians had been left, without one valuable franchise, at the mercy of a corporation within the realm. This was so evident, that some of those who had already emigrated clamored that they were become slaves.1

It was equally the right of the corporation to establish the terms on which new members should be admitted to its freedom. Its numbers could be enlarged or changed only by its own consent.

It was perhaps implied, though it was not expressly required, that the affairs of the company should be administered in England; yet the place for holding the courts was not specially appointed. What if the corporation should vote the emigrants to be freemen, and call a meeting beyond the Atlantic? What if the governor, deputy, assistants, and freemen, should themselves emigrate, and thus break down the distinction between the colony and the corporation? The history of Massachusetts is the counterpart to that of Virginia; the latter obtained its greatest liberty by the abrogation of the charter of its company; the former by a transfer of its charter, and a daring construction of its powers by the successors of the original patentees.

The charter had been granted in March; in April, preparations were hastening for the embarkation of new emigrants. The government which was now established for Massachusetts merits commemoration, though it was never duly organized. It was to consist 1 Hazard, i. 257.

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