JOHN WINTHROP (1588-1649) THREE EXTRACTS FROM THE 1645 3. (May) 14.... Presently after the lecture the magistrates and deputies took their places in the meeting house, and the people come together, and the deputy governor placing himself within the bar, to as at the time of the hearing, etc., the governor read the sentence of the court, without speaking any more, for the deputies had (by importunity) obtained a promise of silence from the magis-5 trates. Then was the deputy governor [Winthrop] desired by the court to go up and take his place again upon the bench, which he did accordingly, and the court being about to arise, he desired leave for a little speech, which was to this effect. 20 I suppose something may be expected from me, upon this charge [he had been charged with exceeding his powers as 25 deputy governor] which has befallen me, which moves me to speak now to you; yet I intend not to intermeddle in the proceedings of the court, or with any of the persons concerned therein. Only 30 I bless God, that I see an issue of this troublesome business. I also acknowledge the justice of the court, and, for mine own part, I am well satisfied, I was publicly charged, and I am publicly 35 and legally acquitted, which is all I did expect or desire. And though this be sufficient for my justification before men, yet not so before the God, who hath seen so much amiss in my dispensations 40 (and even in this affair) as calls me to be humble. For to be publicly and criminally charged in this court, is matter of humiliation, (and I desire to make been. I am unwilling to stay you from your urgent affairs, yet give me leave (upon this special occasion) to speak a little more to this assembly. It may 5 be of some good use, to inform and rectify the judgments of some of the people, and may prevent such distempers as have arisen amongst us. The great questions that have troubled the country, are about the authority of the magistrates and the liberty of the people. It is yourselves who have called us to this office, and being called by you, we have our authority from God, in way of an ordinance, such as hath the image of God eminently stamped upon it, the contempt and violation whereof hath been vindicated with examples of divine vengeance. I entreat you to consider, that when you choose magistrates, you take them from among yourselves, men subject to like passions as you are. Therefore when you see infirmities in us, you should reflect upon your own, and that make you bear the more with us, and not be severe censurers of the failings of your magistrates, when you have continual experience of the like infirmities in yourselves and others. We account him a good servant, who breaks not his covenant. The covenant between you and us is the oath you have taken of us, which is to this purpose, that we shall govern you and judge your causes by the rules of God's laws and our own, according to our best skill. When you agree with a workman to build you a ship or house, etc., he undertakes as well for his skill as for his faithfulness, for it is his profession, and you pay him for both. But when you call one to be a magistrate, he doth not profess nor undertake to have sufficient skill for that office, nor can you furnish him with gifts, etc., a right use of it.) notwithstanding I be 45 therefore you must run the hazard of thus acquitted. If her father had spit in her face, (saith the Lord concerning Miriam,) should she not have been ashamed seven days? Shame had lien his skill and ability. But if he fail in faithfulness, which by his oath he is bound unto, that he must answer for. If it fall out that the case be clear to upon her, whatever the occasion had 50 common apprehension, and the rule clear, also, if he transgress here, the error is not in the skill, but in the evil of the will: it must be required of him. But if the case be doubtful, or the rule doubtful, to men of such understanding and parts as your magistrates are, if your magistrates should err here, yourselves must bear it. For the other point concerning liberty, 5 20 through frowardness or wantonness, etc., she shake it off, at any time, she is at no rest in her spirit, until she take it up again; and whether her lord smiles upon her, and embraceth her in his arms, or whether he frowns, or rebukes, or smites her, she apprehends the sweetness of his love in all, and is refreshed, supported, and instructed by every such On the other side, ye know who they are that complain of this yoke and say, let us break their bands, etc., we will not have this man to rule over us. Even so, brethren, it will be between you and your magistrates. If you stand for your natural corrupt liberties, and will do what is good in your own eyes, you will not endure the least weight of authority, but will murmur, and oppose, and be always striving to shake off that yoke; but if you will be satisfied to enjoy such civil and lawful liberties, such as Christ allows you, then will you quietly and cheerfully submit unto that authority which is set over you, in all the administrations of it, for your good. Wherein, if we fail at any time, we hope we shall be willing (by God's assistance) to hearken to good advice from any of you, or in any other way of God; so shall your liberties be preserved, in upholding the honor and power of authority amongst you. I observe a great mistake in the country to dispensation of his authority over her. about that. There is a twofold liberty, natural (I mean as our nature is now corrupt) and civil or federal. The first is common to man with beasts and other creatures. By this, man, as he stands 15 in relation to man simply, hath liberty to do what he lists; it is a liberty to evil as well as to good. This liberty is incompatible and inconsistent with authority, and cannot endure the least restraint of the most just authority. The exercise and maintaining of this liberty makes men grow more evil, and in time to be worse than brute beasts: omnes sumus licentia deteriores. This is that 25 great enemy of truth and peace, that wild beast, which all the ordinances of God are bent against, to restrain and subdue it. The other kind of liberty I call civil or federal, it may also be termed 30 moral, in reference to the covenant between God and man, in the moral law, and the politic covenants and constitutions, amongst men themselves. This is the proper end and object of authority, and cannot subsist without it; and it is a liberty to that only which is good, just, and honest. This liberty you are to stand for, with the hazard (not only of your goods, but) of your lives, if need be. Whatsoever crosseth this, is not authority, but a distemper thereof. This liberty is maintained and exercised in a way of subjection to authority; it is of the same kind of liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. The woman's own choice makes such a man her husband; yet being so chosen, he is her lord, and she is to be subject to him, yet in a way of liberty, not of bondage; and a true wife accounts her subjection her honor and freedom, and would not think her condition safe and free, but in her subjection to her husband's authority. Such is the liberty of the church under 55 the authority of Christ, her king and husband; his yoke is so easy and sweet to her as a bride's ornaments; and if 35 40 45 so 5. (July 3.)] By order of the general court, upon advice with the elders, a general fast was kept. The occasions were, the miseries of England, and our own differences in the general court, and also for the great drought. In this latter the Lord prevented our prayers in sending us rain soon after, and before the day of humiliation came. Divers free schools were erected, as at Roxbury (for maintenance whereof every inhabitant bound some house or land for a yearly allowance forever) and at Boston (where they made an or der to allow forever 50 pounds to the master and an house, and 30 pounds to an usher, who should also teach to read and write and cipher, and Indians' children were to be taught freely, and the charge to be by yearly contribution, either by voluntary allowance, or by rate of such as refused, etc., and this order was confirmed by the general court' '[blank]). Other towns did the like, 28. (June.)] The Welcome, of Boston, about 300 tons, riding before providing maintenance by several means. By agreement of the commissioners, and the motions of the elders in their several churches, every family in each colony gave one peck of corn or twelve 5 Charlestown, having in her eighty horses pence to the college at Cambridge. 1684 and 120 tons of ballast, in calm weather, fell a rolling, and continued so about twelve hours, so as though they brought a great weight to the one side, yet she would heel to the other, and so deep as they feared her foundering. It was then the time of the county court at Boston, and the magistrates hearing of it, and withal that one Jones (the husband of the witch lately executed) had desired to have passage in her to Barbadoes, and could not have it without such payment, etc., they sent the officer presently with a warrant to apprehend him, one of them saying that the ship would stand still as soon as he was in prison. And as the officer went, and was passing over the ferry, one said to him, you can tame Also some children were killed, and men sometimes, can't you tame this ship? others sore scorched with wearing 25 The officer answered, I have that here, cloaths of cotton, which was very apt that (it may be) will tame her, and make to take fire, and hard to be quenched; her be quiet; and with that showed his so as one man of Watertown being so warrant. And at the same instant, she cloathed, and taking fire by endeavor- began to stop and presently staid, and ing to save his house being on fire, was 30 after he was put in prison, moved no forced to run into a well to save his life. I. (March) 25.] Another strange ac- 10 cident happened by fire about this time. One Mr. Peck and three others of Hingham, being about with others to remove to Seaconk (which was concluded by the commissioners of the United Colonies to 15 belong to Plymouth,) riding thither, they sheltered themselves and their horses in an Indian wigwam, which by some occasion took fire, and (although they were all four in it, and labored to their 20 utmost, etc.) burnt three of their horses to death, and all of their goods to the value of 50 pounds. 35 2. (April 13.)] Mr. Hopkins, the governor of Hartford upon Connecticut, came to Boston, and brought his wife with him, (a godly young woman, and of special parts,) who was fallen into a sad infirmity, the loss of her understanding and reason, which had been growing upon her divers years, by occasion of 40 her giving herself wholly to reading and writing, and had written many books. Her husband, being very loving and tender of her, was loath to grieve her; but he saw his error, when it was too late. 45 For if she had attended her household affairs, and such things as belong to women, and not gone out of her way and calling to meddle in such things as are proper for men, whose minds are 50 stronger, etc., she had kept her wits, and might have improved them usefully and honorably in the place God had set her. He brought her to Boston, and left her with her brother, one Mr. Yale, a mer- 55 chant, to try what means might be had here for her. But no help could be had. more. There appeared over the harbor at New Haven, in the evening, the form of the keel of a ship with three masts, to which were suddenly added all the tackling and sails, and presently after, upon the top of the poop, a man standing with one hand akimbo under his left side, and in his right hand a sword stretched out toward the sea. Then from the side of the ship which was from the town arose a great smoke, which covered all the ship, and in that smoke she vanished away; but some saw her keel sink into the water. This was seen by many, men and women, and it continued about a quarter of an hour. Divers letters passed between Our governor and the Dutch governor about a meeting for reconciling the differences between our confederates of New Haven, etc., and him. But Mr. Bradford, the governor of Plymouth, (being one of the two whom the Dutch governor desired to refer the differences unto, being sent unto about it, came to Boston, and there excused himself, by bodily infirmities and other reasons, that he could not go to Hartford that summer, but promised (the Lord assisting) to prepare against the middle of the (4) (June) next summer. So the governor (Mr. Hopkins being then also at Boston) despatched away letters presently to the Dutch governor to certify him thereof, who returned answer soon after, that he was very sorry the meeting did not hold, and the synod, the representative of the churches of Christ in New England. The devil had formerly and lately attempted their disturbance and dissolu5 tion; but their faith in the seed of the woman overcame him and crushed his head. The synod went on comfortably, and intended only the framing of a confes professed his earnest inclination to 10 sion of faith, etc., and a form of church peace, and that he never had any thought 15. (6) (August 15.)] The synod 20 discipline (not entertaining any other business). For the first, they wholly agreed with that which the assembly in England had lately set forth. For the other, viz., for discipline, they drew it by itself, according to the general practice of our churches. So they ended in less than fourteen days. This month, when our first harvest was near had in, the pigeons came again all over the country, but did no harm, (harvest being just in,) but proved a great blessing, it being incredible what multitudes of them were killed daily. It was ordinary for one man to kill eight or ten dozen in half a day, yea five or six dozen at one shoot, and some seven or eight. Thus the Lord showed us, that he could make the same crea30 ture, which formerly had been a great chastisement, now to become a great blessing, It fell out, about the midst of his sermon, there came a snake into the seat, where many of the elders sate behind the preacher. It came in at the door where people stood thick upon the stairs. 35 Divers of the elders shifted from it, but Mr. Thomson, one of the elders of Braintree, (a man of much faith,) trode upon the head of it, and so held it with his foot and staff with a small pair of grains, until it was killed. This being so remarkable, and nothing falling out but by divine providence, it is out of doubt, the Lord discovered somewhat of his mind in it. The serpent is the devil; 45 40 About the midst of this summer, there arose a fly out of the ground, about the bigness of the top of a man's little finger, of brown color. They filled the woods from Connecticut to Sudbury with a great noise, and eat up the young sprouts of the trees, but meddled not with the corn. They were also between Plymouth and Braintree, but came no further. If the Lord had not stopped them, they had spoiled all our orchards, for they did some few. THOMAS MORTON (1575-1646) The negative side of the Puritan argument was furnished by one Thomas Morton, an Eng lish adventurer, a lawyer by profession, who established himself at the Mount Wollaston, or Merry Mount, settlement in 1625, and began to exploit the Indians after the manner that was to be so common in later years. Undoubtedly he introduced the natives to "fire-water," and sold them fire-arms, and undoubtedly he was as immoral generally as the usual trader in savage lands. His conduct was exceedingly annoying to the Plymouth Puritans, especially his flaunted adherence to the Church of England prayer-book and ritual, and his hilarious observance of May Day assisted by Indian squaws. Accordingly Captain Miles Standish in 1627 was sent forcibly to abate the settlement as an intolerable nuisance. Morton's only book, written about 1634 after his four different sojourns in America, during one of which he spent a year in prison at Boston, was published in 1637 with the title the New English Canaan. As noted on its title page, it is in three parts: "The first Booke setting forth the originall of the Natives, their Manners and Customes, together with their tractable Nature and Love towards the English. The second Booke setting forth the natural Indowments of the Country, and what staple Commodites it yealdeth. The third Booke setting forth, what people are planted there, their prosperity, what remarkable accidents have happened since the first planting of it, together with their Tenents and practise of their Church." The book probably was produced as propaganda against the Puritans at the time when their charter was threatened. It is a coarsely clever work, and amid the tremendously serious tomes of the Puritan divines it is an element of lightness and facetious worldliness that stands out strangely distinct, but it is too prejudiced and too full of inaccuracies to be of real value. One needs only to compare Bradford's account of the Miles Standish raid with Morton's to realize its radical defects. The episode has furnished material for later writers, Hawthorne finding in it the theme for his "The May-pole of Merry Mount" and Motley for his novels Morton's Hope and Merry Mount. It is a curious fact that the first poem known to have been made in New England is Morton's bacchanal song, "sung," as he has recorded, "with a chorus, every man bearing his part; which they performed in a dance, hand in hand about the May-pole, whiles one of the company sung, and filled out the good liquor like gammedes and Jupiter.' This harmless mirth made by young men (that lived in hope to have wives brought over to them, that would save them a labor to make a voyage to fetch any over) was much distasted of the precise Seperatists; that keep much ado, about the tithe of mint |