Cotton preached powerfully and long against the proposed change. The assembly listened attentively, and then went on with the election. To make the reform complete, a BALLOT-BOX was substituted for the old method of public voting. The restriction on the right of suffrage was the only remaining bar to a perfect system of self-government in New England.

During the next year three thousand new immigrants arrived. It was worth while-so thought the people of England-to come to a country where the principles of freedom were spreading with such rapidity. The new-comers were under the leadership of Hugh Peters and Sir Henry Vane; the former the Puritan pastor of some English exiles at Rotterdam, in Holland, and the latter a young nobleman who afterward played an important part in the history of England. Such was his popularity with the people of Massachusetts, and such his zeal and piety, that in less than a year after his arrival he was chosen governor of the colony.

By this time the settlements around Massachusetts Bay were thickly clustered. Until new homes should be found there was no room for the immigrants who were constantly coming. To enlarge the frontier, to plunge into the wilderness and find new places of abode, became a necessity. One little company of twelve families, led by Simon Willard and Peter Bulkeley, marched through the woods until they came to some open meadows sixteen miles from Boston, and there laid the foundations of Concord. A little later in the same year, another colony of sixty persons left the older settlements and pressed their way westward as far as the Connecticut River. The march itself was a grievous hardship, but greater toils and sufferings were in store for the adventurous company. A dreadful winter overtook them in their new homes but half provided. Some died; others, disheartened, waded back through the dreary untrodden snows and came half famished to Plymouth and Boston; but the rest, with true Puritan heroism, outbraved the winter and triumphed over the pangs of starvation. Spring brought a recompense for hardship: the heroic pioneers crept out of their miserable huts to become the founders of Windsor, HARTFORD and Wethersfield, the oldest towns in the Connecticut valley.

The banishment of Roger Williams, instead of bringing peace, brought strife and dissension to the people of Massachusetts. The ministers were stern and exacting. Every shade of popular belief was closely scrutinized; the slightest departure from orthodox doctrines was met with a charge of heresy, and to be a heretic was to become an outcast. Still, the advocates of free opinion multiplied. The clergy, notwithstanding their great influence among the people, felt insecure. Religious de

MAP OF EARLY SETTLEMENTS IN NEW ENGLAND.

bates became the order of the day. Every sermon had to pass the ordeal of review and criticism.

Most prominent among those who were said to be "as bad as Roger Williams, or worse," was Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, a woman of genius who had come over in the ship with Sir Henry Vane. She desired the privilege of speaking at the weekly debates, and was refused. Women had no business at these assemblies, said the elders. Indignant at this, she became the champion of her sex, and declared that the ministers who were defrauding women of the gospel were no better than Pharisees. She called meetings of her friends, spoke much in public, and pleaded with great fervor for the full freedom of conscience. The liberal doctrines of the exiled Williams were reaffirmed with more power and eloquence than ever. Many of the magistrates were converted to the new beliefs; the governor himself espoused the cause of Mrs. Hutchinson; and a majority of the people of Boston inclined to her opinions.

For a while there was a reign of discord; but as soon as Sir Henry's term of office expired a call was issued for a meeting of the synod of New England. The body convened in August of 1637; a

decree was proposed; Mrs. Hutchinson and her friends were declared unfit for the society of Christians, and banished from the territory of Massachusetts. With a large number of friends the exiles wended their way toward the home of Roger Williams. Miantonomoh, a Narragansett chieftain, made them a gift of the beautiful island of Rhode Island; there, in the month of March, 1641, a little republic was established, in whose constitution freedom of conscience was guaranteed and persecution for opinion's sake forbidden.

The year 1636 was an important epoch in the history of Massachusetts. The general court of the colony passed an act appropriating between one and two thousand dollars to found and endow a college. The measure met with popular favor; the Puritans were an educated people, and were quick to appreciate the advantages of learning. Newtown was selected as the site of the proposed school. Plymouth and Salem gave gifts to help the enterprise; and from villages in the Connecticut valley came contributions of corn and wampum. In 1638, John Harvard, a young minister of Charlestown, died, bequeathing his library and nearly five thousand dollars to the school. To perpetuate the memory of the noble benefactor the new institution was named HARVARD COLLEGE; and in honor of the place where the leading men of Massachusetts had been educated, the name of Newtown was changed to Cambridge. Thus early did the people of New England stamp their approval on the cause of education. In spite of sterile soil and desolate landscapesin spite of destroying climate and wasting diseases-in spite even of superstition and bigotry-the people who educate will ever be great and free.

The PRINTING-PRESS came also. In 1638, Stephen Daye, an English printer, arrived at Boston, bringing a font of types, and in the following year set up a press at Cambridge. The first American publication was an almanac calculated for New England, and bearing date of 1639. During the next year, Thomas Welde and John Eliot, two ministers of Roxbury, and Richard Mather, of Dorchester, translated the Hebrew Psalms into English verse, and published their rude work in a volume of three hundred pages-the first book printed on this side of the Atlantic.

The rapid growth of Massachusetts now became a source of alarm to the English government. Those liberal principles of religion and politics which were openly avowed and gloried in by the citizens of the new commonwealth were hateful to Charles I. and his ministers. The archbishop of Canterbury was much offended. Something must be done to check the further growth of the Puritan colonies. The first

measure which suggested itself was to stop emigration. For this purpose an edict was issued as early as 1634, but was of no effect. The officers of the government neglected to enforce the law. Four years later, more vigorous measures were adopted. A squadron of eight vessels, ready to sail from London, was detained by the royal authority. Many of the most prominent Puritan families in England were on board of these ships. Historians of high rank have asserted-but without sufficient proof that John Hampden and Oliver Cromwell were of the number who were turned back by the detention. At all events, it would have been the part of wisdom in King Charles to allow all Puritans to leave his realm as fast as possible. By detaining them in England he only made sure the Revolution, and by so much hastened his own downfall.

ΝΕ

CHAPTER XIV.

MASSACHUSETTS.—THE UNION.

EW ENGLAND was fast becoming a nation. Wellnigh fifty towns and villages dotted the face of the country. Nearly a million of dollars had been spent in settling and developing the new State. Enterprises of all kinds were rife. Manufactures, commerce and the arts were rapidly introduced. William Stephens, a shipbuilder who came with Governor Winthrop to Boston, had already built and launched an Ameri can vessel of four hundred tons burden. Before 1640, two hundred and ninety-eight emigrant ships had anchored in Massachusetts Bay. Twentyone thousand two hundred people, escaping from English intolerance of Church or State, had found home and rest between Plymouth Rock and the Connecticut valley. It is not wonderful that the colonists began to cast about them for better political organization and more ample forms of government.

Many circumstances impelled the colonies to union. First of all, there was the natural desire of men to have a regular and permanent government. England, torn and distracted with civil war, could do nothing for or against her colonies; they must take care of themselves. Here was the western frontier exposed to the hostilities of the Dutch towns on the Hudson; Connecticut alone could not defend herself. Similar trouble was apprehended from the French on the north; the

English settlements on the Piscataqua were weak and defenceless. Indian tribes capable of mustering a thousand warriors were likely at any hour to fall upon remote and helpless villages; the prevalence of common interests and the necessities of common defence made a union of some sort indispensable.

The first effort to consolidate the colonies was ineffectual. Two years later, in 1639, the project was renewed, but without success. Again, in 1643, a measure of union was brought forward and finally adopted. By the terms of this compact, Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut and New Haven were joined in a loose confederacy, called THE UNITED COLONIES OF NEW ENGLAND. The chief authority was conferred upon a general assembly, or congress, composed of two representatives from each colony. These delegates were chosen annually at an election where all the freemen voted by ballot. There was no president other than the speaker of the assembly, and he had no executive powers. Each community retained, as before, its separate local existence; and all subordinate questions of legislation were reserved to the respective colonies. Only matters of general interest-such as Indian affairs, the levying of troops, the raising of revenues, declarations of war and treaties of peace were submitted to the assembly.

Provision was made for the admission of other colonies into the union, but none were ever admitted. The English settlement on the Piscataqua was rejected because of heterodoxy in religion. The Providence Plantations were refused for similar reasons. Should Roger Williams return to plague an assembly where an approved church-membership was the sole qualification for office? The little island of Rhode Island, with its Jewish republic, also knocked for admission; Anne Hutchinson's commonwealth was informed that Plymouth colony had rightful jurisdiction there, and that heresy was a bar to all petitions.

Until the year 1641 the people of Massachusetts had had no regular code of laws. At a meeting of the assembly in December of this year, Nathaniel Ward brought forward a written instrument which, after mature deliberation, was adopted as the constitution of the State. This fundamental statute was called the BODY OF LIBERTIES, and was ever afterward esteemed as the great charter of colonial freedom. It may be doubted whether any other primitive constitution, either ancient or modern, contains more wisdom than this early code of Massachusetts.

A further modification in the government was effected in 1644. Until this time the representatives of the people had sat and voted in the same hall with the governor and his assistant magistrates. It was now decreed that the two bodies should sit apart, each with its own officers