Resource Center OLLibrary
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[1639-1644 |
One reason why many of the Connecticut
emigrants had left Massachusetts was that they did not believe in
the principle of limiting the right of voting to church members
(§ 78). The Hartford constitution imposed no such
restriction; every citizen was politically equal with every other,
and there was nothing to hinder his taking part in making the
laws. To-day not only the United States but every state in the
Union has a written constitution -- a safeguard of liberty --
similar in that respect to the one drafted at Hartford in 1639.
That, then, may be called the parent of all that have
followed.
97. The New Haven Colony; Scripture Laws.
There were now two colonies in the territory: first, that at
Saybrook (§ 94), and next that at Hartford and the other
towns settled by bands of emigrants who had come into the
Connecticut valley. Now a third colony, that of New Haven, was
founded (1638). It was made up chiefly of people who had arrived
at Boston from London the year before. One of its leading men was
the Rev. John Davenport, a Puritan minister. The spring after they
formed the settlement (1639) all the colonists met in a large barn
to listen to a sermon from Mr. Davenport and draw up rules for the
government of the new community. What those rules were we can
guess from the old verse which tells us how
Scripture foundations for the town."
Those "Scripture foundations," a few years
later, made the severe Jewish laws of the Old Testament
1 those of New Haven. None could vote or hold any
public office but members of the church. It was practically the
same kind of government as that of Massachusetts (§ 78).
98. The Fugitive Regicides; Andros and the
Connecticut Charter. These stem New Haven colonists believed
heartily in justice, and
1 In 1644 "the
judicial laws of God, as they were delivered by Moses," were
declared to be binding. Like the laws of Massachusetts, they
inflicted the penalty of death for no less than fourteen offenses,
They were, however, far more merciful than the laws of England,
which at a very much later period made upwards of two hundred
crimes punishable with death-sheep stealing being one.
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1661-1687 ] |
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hated royal oppression. Whalley and Goffe, two of the judges
then known as "regicides," because, during the English civil war
(1649), they had voted to put the tyrannical Charles I to death
(§ 53), fled to New Haven (1661).
King charles II sent orders to arrest them.
Davenport concealed the judges, and preached to his congregation
from a passage of the Bible (Isaiah xvi. 3-4) containing the
words, "Hide the outcasts; betray not him that wandereth."
The sermon had the effect intended, and the
disappointed officers went back without capturing the
regicides.1
Charles II, who was not unfriendly to the
colony, had granted to the Connecticut people a charter confirming
their right of self-government. By that charter the territory was
extended westward to the Pacific, as in the case of Virginia
(§ 43) and Massachusetts (§ 77), though no one then had
any idea of the actual width of the continent. Saybrook had
already been united with Connecticut, and New Haven was now joined
to it.
When James II came to the throne he determined
to take away the charters of Connecticut and Rhode Island, as his
brother, Charles II, had done in the case of Massachusetts (§
88). His object was to bring them directly under his despotic
control. Sir Edmund Andros (§ 88) was made governor of New
England, and went with a body of troops to Hartford to demand the
Connecticut charter (1687).
The Connecticut people looked upon that document
as the title deed of their liberties, and resolved never to give
it up, even if the King himself demanded it.
Andros met the Legislature, and discussed the
matter until evening. At his order, the box holding the precious
charter was brought in and placed on the table. Then, according to
tradition, the candles were suddenly blown out, and when they were
relighted the charter had disappeared. It is said to have been
1 According to
tradition, Goffe saved the town of Hadley, Massachusetts (where be
was living concealed in 1675), in an Indian attack during King
Philip's War (§ 86). The savages were on the point of gaining
the day, when a venerable man with a long white beard suddenly
appeared, rallied the inhabitants, and drove off the assailants.
He then disappeared. Some thought they owed their victory to an
angel.
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[1687 |
hidden in a hollow oak not far off, which was ever after known
as the Charter Oak.1
Andros, however, declared that the colony
should no longer be governed under the charter, and, to show that
the end had come, he ordered the clerk to write "Finis" at the
close of the record of the meeting. When the people of Boston
(§ 88) compelled Andros to give up the power he had abused,
the charter was
GOVERNOR ANDROS DEMANDS THE CHARTER OF CONNECTICUT
brought from its hiding place, and Connecticut maintained her
government under it not only until the Revolution but for many
years afterward (1818).
99. Summary. Connecticut was
settled chiefly by emigrants from eastern Massachusetts and from
England. It was the first colony in America to frame a written
constitution of government -- one which gave the right to vote to
every citizen. The King granted the colonists a charter confirming
their power of governing themselves. Governor Andros, by the order
of James II, tried to get possession of the charter, but failed.
Except for a very short period, Connecticut practically continued
to maintain her own laws.
1 See
Palfrey's II History of New England," III, 542-545. The famous
Charter Oak stood in what is now Charter Oak Place, Hartford. It
was blown down in 1856. The spot is marked by a marble tablet.
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1634 ] |
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89 |
100. The Catholic Pilgrims; Lord
Baltimore; Maryland. We have seen how a band of
Protestant Pilgrims (§ 69) settled Plymouth in 1620;
fourteen years later (1634) a company of Catholic
Pilgrims came to |
America
for a like reason -- that they might build up a state
where they could worship God without
molestation.1
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[1634-1649 |
that church to stand; New England would not. It was only in the
wilderness of Maryland, in that mixed population of Catholics and
Protestants, that it was safe.
102. Political and Religious Freedom of the
Colony; the Toleration Act, 1649. From the beginning all the
colonists took part in making the laws by which they were
governed, and in a few years Lord Baltimore granted them the power
of originating those laws. In religion absolute freedom of worship
was given to all Christians,1 but to Christians only.
No other colony in this country then (1634) enjoyed such liberty,
and it was unknown in England. In 1649 the famous Toleration Act
2 confirmed their liberty.
The result was that Maryland became a refuge not
only for the oppressed Catholics of England, but also for many of
the oppressed Protestants of the other colonies of America.
Puritans driven out of Virginia by the Church of England (§
44), Quakers exiled from Massachusetts by the Puritans (§
85), both came to Maryland and found homes there.
103. The Clayborne and Ingle Rebellion; Lord
Baltimore's Government overthrown; Persecution of the
Catholics. The colony, however, was not to enjoy the peace for
which it hoped. William Clayborne, a Virginian and a Puritan, had
established a fur-trading post on Kent Island in Chesapeake Bay
within the limits claimed by Lord Baltimore. He endeavored to hold
the island by force, but was driven out. When the civil war
(§ 53) broke out in England, the colonists of Maryland, like
the people of Great Britain, took sides for or against the
King.
Taking advantage of this division, Clayborne
stirred up a rebellion (1645) and kept the whole country in a
turmoil for two or three years. Captain Ingle, who asserted that
he acted
1 It is true that
Lord Baltimore, holding his charter, as he did, from the
Protestant sovereign of a Protestant nation, could not have safely
denied liberty of worship to Protestants; but it is also true that
he evidently had no desire in his heart to deny such liberty. The
fact that he invited Puritans into the colony and protected them
from persecution shows the man's true spirit.
2 The Maryland Toleration Act of 1649
declared that no person professing belief in Jesus Christ shall be
"in any ways troubled, molested, or discountenanced for or in
respect of his or her religion, nor in the free exercise thereof."
This law did not protect Jews or any others who denied the
doctrine of the Trinity.
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1615-1689 ] |
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under the authority of the Puritan Parliament of England, but
who was practically a pirate, got possession of St. Marys. He
plundered it, and, seizing "the venerable Father White," sent him
to England in irons on a groundless charge of treason against the
Parliament of that country.
But worse was to come. After the King was
dethroned and executed, and a republic set up in England, the
authorities there sent commissioners to compel the people of
Maryland to swear fidelity to the new government. At the same time
Lord Baltimore insisted that as Maryland was his property the
settlers should swear fidelity to him. The Puritans in the colony
objected to taking this last oath, on the ground that Lord
Baltimore was a Catholic.
The commissioners went to Maryland, forced
Governor Stone, who had succeeded Governor Calvert, to resign, and
put one of their own choice in his place. They then caused a
General Assembly to be summoned at St. Marys, but ordered that no
Catholic should be elected to it, or should cast a vote for any
representative. The new Legislature repealed the Toleration Act of
1649, which granted religious freedom to all Christians (§
102). In its place they enacted a law prohibiting Catholic worship
throughout Maryland.
Furthermore, the Assembly declared that Lord
Baltimore no longer had any rights whatever in the colony which he
himself had founded, and to which he had invited many of the very
people who now turned against him. That action must have reminded
him of the story of the camel that begged shelter in his master's
tent, and, when he had got it, kicked the owner out.
104. Lord Baltimore restored to his Rights;
Loss of the Charter. But about four years later (1658)
Parliament restored Lord Baltimore to his rights. Freedom of
worship was again established, and for the next thirty years the
colony prospered.
Meanwhile, England had again become a monarchy
(§§ 53, 54), and William and Mary, who were pledged to
support the Protestant cause, came to the throne (1689).
In Maryland there was an unavoidable delay on
the part of the Governor in proclaiming the new sovereigns. The
enemies
