and Warwick. They sent a remonstrance to Newport and Portsmouth, setting forth at length their objections to their proceedings, and deprecating the consequences of the commissions they had issued, saying "they may set all New-England on fire, the event of war being various and uncertain."

Mr. Williams, hearing of the divisions in the colony, hastened home. He brought with him letters to the colony from Sir Henry Vane, reproving them for their dissensions, and suggesting a mode by which an union might be effected. Mr. Williams also, on his arrival, wrote a letter to Providence for the same purpose. By his influence, and the respect paid to the advice of their noble and constant friend, the mode which Sir Henry Vane advised was adopted, and a meeting of commissioners from all the towns was holden at Warwick, August 31, 1654, when articles of reunion were agreed upon, and the government under the charter, as at first, reorganized, and an election ordered, at which Roger Williams was chosen President.

Mr. Williams, as President of the Colony, wrote a letter to the government of Massachusetts, complaining of the licentiousness and anarchy which prevailed among those in this colony over whom they pretended to have jurisdiction. "The Indians (said he) which pretend your name at Warwick and Pawtuxet, (yet live as barbarously if not more so than any in the whole colony,) please you to know their insolences upon ourselves and cattle are insufferable by English spirits." He adds: "Concerning four families at Pawtuxet, may it please you to remember the two controversies they have long (under your name) maintained with us, to the constant obstructing of all order and authority amongst us. To obey his Highness's authority in this charter, they say they dare not for your sakes, though they live not by your laws, nor by your common charges nor ours, but evade both under color of your authority. Be pleased to consider how unsuitable it is for yourselves to be the obstructors of all orderly proceedings amongst us; for I humbly appeal to your own wisdom and experience, how unlikely it is for a people to be compelled to order and common charges when others, in their bosoms, are by such seeming partiality exempted from both."

We thus see that Massachusetts was one cause of those dissentions and divisions, in this colony, with which she was so ready to

G

reproach us, and to allowed among us.

attribute to the too great liberty of conscience In this letter also there was the following appeal: "I pray your equal and favorable reflection upon that your law which prohibits us to buy of you all means of our necessary defence of our lives and families, (yea in this most bloody and mas. sacreing time). We are informed that tickets have rarely been denied to any English of the country, yea, the barbarians (though notorious in lies) if they profess subjection, they are furnished; only ourselves, by former and latter denial, seem to be devoted to the Indian shambles and massacres."*

Mr. Williams having written again to the Governor of Massachusetts, was encouraged by him to come to their Assembly at Boston, which he did, and addressed them in a manner which produced the effect he desired.

Mr. Williams was chosen President again in 1756, and the difficulties with the Pawtuxet men were settled by arbitration, as proposed by Massachusetts, who relinquished all claim to authority over them, and they were admitted as freemen of this colony.

In 1657, the Commissioners of the United Colonies, being informed (as they say) "that divers Quakers had arrived at RhodeIsland, and were entertained there, which they apprehended might prove dangerous to the colonies," wrote to the Governor of this colony, requesting that those that had been received might be removed, and their coming in future prohibited; and to enforce their request, intimated that otherwise they might be compelled, to preserve themselves from the contagion of such a pest, to discontinue intercourse and trade with this colony. An answer to this letter was returned by the President, Benedict Arnold, and the four Assistants, in which they say: "And as concerning these Quakers (so called) which are now among us, we have no law among us whereby to punish any for only declaring by words, &c. their minds and understanding concerning the things and ways of God as to salvation and an eternal condition," and then suggest that persecution only tended to increase the sect, and that they delighted to be persecuted by civil powers, that by their patient sufferings they might gain adherents. In regard to their fear of contagion, they suggested there was less reason to apprehend danger, as they sent them out

* Knowles, 286.

of the country as soon as they came among them. They state, however, their determination to lay this matter before the next General Assembly, expressing a desire that all honest and fair commerce with them might be preserved.

This letter from the United Colonies was laid before the General Court of Commissioners for the colony; they wrote, in reply, stating the freedom enjoyed here, as in the letter of the President and Assistants, and gave notice of their intention to write to their agent, in England, that he might present the matter unto the supreme authority, to crave their advice how they should conduct in respect to these people, without infringing on the freedom of conscience.

The letter written to Mr. John Clarke, the agent, from the Court of Commissioners, shows how the threat contained in the letter from the United Colonies, was understood and appreciated. They say: "There is one clause of this letter, which plainly implies a threat, though covertly expressed, as their manner is, which we take to be this, that as themselves (as we conceive) have been much awed in point of their continued subjection to the state of England, lest in case they should decline, England might prohibit all trade with them, both in point of exportation, and importation of any commodities, which were an host sufficiently prevalent to subdue New-England, as not being able to subsist. Even so they seem secretly to threaten us, by cutting us off from all commerce and trade with them, and thereby to disable us of any comfortable subsistence, being that the concourse of shipping, and so of all kinds of commodities, is univer. sally conversant amongst themselves, as also knowing that ourselves are not in a capacity to send out shipping of ourselves," &c. They then request their agent, that, as in their letter to the United Colonies, they stated their intention to ask the advice of his highness and honorable council, that he "would have an eye and ear open" (to use their words)" in case our adversaries should seek to undermine us in our privileges granted unto us, and to plead our case in such sorte as we may not be compelled to exercise any civil power over men's consciences, so long as human orders in point of civility are not corrupted and violated, which our neighbors about us do freequently practice, whereof many of us have large experience, and do judge it to be no less than a point of absolute cruelty."

There is no part of our early history which is more honorable to the fathers of this colony than this. It exhibits their wisdom, libe

rality and firmness, in strong contrast with the spirit and conduct of the United Colonies. Here was a test of their principles; they were tempted; they were threatened; but, though poor and weak, they resisted the temptation, and, at the hazard of losing the comforts of life, clung to their principles; and for whom? not for those who had become members of their body politic, or for whose doc. trines they had any attachment, but for a new sect, that was then every where spoken against! If it should be thought, as has been sometimes suggested, that the liberty of conscience here allowed, proceeded from the circumstances of the colony, rather than from principle, let this correspondence be perused, and such suggestions will be silenced forever.

In looking over the list of Commissioners, six from each town, that formed the Court which gave these instructions to their agent, we find the names of Roger Williams, from Providence, Obadiah Holmes, from Newport, and Samuel Gorton, of Warwick. Well might they say in speaking of the practice of their neighbors, "whereof many of us have large experience." And the agent, to whom they were writing, might have spoken of his own experience in this respect, he having been with Holmes in the same condemnation, fine, and imprisonment, though he was delivered from the cruel scourge by the ability and kindness of his friends.

The restoration of Charles II., in 1660, caused the inhabitants of this colony to fear that those rights which they had obtained from the Parliament, when at war with the father, would not be respected by the son. And they had reason to apprehend that what they had gained so much by the influence of Sir Henry Vane, might be taken from them by a government which brought him to the scaffold. They had reason also to expect, that the same exertions which had been made by their neighbors to produce the recall of their Charter, would now be repeated, and with more success. They therefore adopted all those measures which prudence required, to guard against this calamity, to procure the favor of their new king, and a confirmation of their privileges. The king was proclaimed at Warwick, in October, 1660, where the Assembly sat immediately after the news of the restoration arrived here, and the proclamation was "solemnized" by military parade and festivity, and ordered to be thus solemnized, on the 24th of that month, in the same manner, in every town in the colony. A new commission

was issued to Mr. John Clarke, who was still in England, appointing him their agent for the preservation of their chartered rights and liberties. Three, from each town, were appointed a Committee to draw up an humble petition to his majesty; to correspond with their agent, and to do what seemed to them best to accomplish their wishes in this respect, and the sum of three hundred pounds was raised and placed at their disposal.

This Committee were for Providence, William Field, Roger Williams, and Zach. Roads; for Portsmouth, William Baulston, John Roome, and John Porter; for Newport, William Brenton, Benedict Arnold, and Joseph Torrey; and for Warwick, John Greene, John Weeks, and Samuel Gorton, Senior.

Fortunately for the colony, the new king was disposed, from disposition and policy, to forget past animosities, and unite in himself. the affection of all parties. And fortunately, also, about the time when the new Charter was granted, the king, from a desire to serve the Roman Catholics, to whom he was secretly attached, had, with his brother, the Duke of York, formed a plan, on pretence of easing the Protestant dissenters, for introducing a general toleration, that the Catholics might enjoy the free exercise of their religion, at least in private houses.

This plan was defeated by the intolerance of Parliament; but it would naturally render the king well disposed to grant the same toleration in the plantations, where the Catholics might resort, and, no doubt, well disposed him towards this little colony, which had anticipated his wishes, and served to counteract the adverse influence of our neighobrs, whose policy was so different.

The new Charter was granted on the 8th July, 1663, and was received in November, 1663, by the Court of Commissioners at Newport, "at a very great meeting and assembly of the freemen of the colony," says the record, and read in presence of all, and held up to the view of all, "with his majesty's royal stampe, and the royal seal." Thanks to the king-thanks to Lord Chancellor Clarendon-and thanks and a gratuity of one hundred pounds to Mr. Clarke, their agent, were unanimously voted; and a gratuity of twenty-five pounds, besides his expenses from Boston, to Captain George Baxter, the bearer of the Charter, and the reader of it to the people on this occasion.