WILLIAMS OBTAINS A GRANT OF LAND AND FOUNDS A COLONY.-FORM OF
GOVERNMENT IN THE COLONY.--WILLIAMS GOES TO ENGLAND TO OBTAIN A
ROYAL CHARTER.
The territory which now forms the State of Rhode Island, with the
exception of Bristol County, in which lay Mount Hope, the seat of
Massasoit, chief of the Wamponoags, was held by the Narragansetts, a
tribe skilled in the Indian art of making wampum, the Indian money,
and the art common to most barbarous nations of making rude vessels
in clay and stone. They had once been very powerful, and could still
bring four or five thousand braves to the warpath. Their language was
substantially the same with that of the other New England tribes, and
was understood by the natives of New York, New Jersey and Delaware.
With this language Roger Williams had early made himself familiar.
It was labor well bestowed, and he was to reap the reward of it in his
day of tribulation. The chiefs of the Narragansetts when he came among
them were Canonicus, an "old prince, most shy of the English to his
latest breath," and his nephew, Miantonomi. Their usual residence was
on the beautiful Island of Conanicut; and when Williams first came he
found them at feud with his other friend, Ossameguin, or Massasoit,
Sachem of the Wamponoags. His first care was to reconcile these chiefs,
"traveling between them three to pacify, to satisfy all these and their
dependent spirits of (his) honest intention to live peaceably by them."
The well founded distrust of the English which Canonicus cherished to
the end of his life did not extend to Williams, to whom he made a grant
of land between the Mooshausick and the Wanasquatucket; confirming it
two years later by a deed bearing the marks of the two Narragansett
chiefs. This land Williams divided with twelve of his companions,
reserving for them and himself the right of extending the grant "to
such others as the major part of us shall admit to the same fellowship
of vote with us." It was a broad foundation, and he soon found himself
in the midst of a flourishing colony.
The proprietors, dividing their lands into two parts, "the grand
purchase of Providence," and the "Pawtuxet purchase," made an
assignment of lots to other colonists, and entered resolutely upon
the task of bringing the soil under cultivation. The possession of
property naturally leads to the making of laws, and the new colonists
had not been together long before they felt the want of a government.
The form which it first assumed amongst them was that of a democratic
municipality, wherein the "masters of families" incorporated
themselves into a town, and transacted their public business in town
meeting. The colonists of Plymouth had formed their social compact in
the cabin of the Mayflower. The colonists of Providence formed theirs
on the banks of the Mooshausick. "We, whose names are hereunder," it
reads, "desirous to inhabit in the town of Providence, do promise to
subject ourselves in active or passive obedience to all such orders
or agreements as shall be made for public good for the body, in an
orderly way, by the major assent of the present inhabitants, masters of
families, incorporated together into a town fellowship, and such others
as they shall admit unto them only in civil things."
Never before, since the establishment of Christianity, has the
separation of Church from State been definitely marked out by this
limitation of the authority of the magistrate to civil things; and
never, perhaps, in the whole course of history, was a fundamental
principle so vigorously observed. Massachusetts looked upon the
experiment with jealousy and distrust, and when ignorant or restless
men confounded the right of individual opinion in religious matters
with a right of independent action in civil matters, those who had
condemned Roger Williams to banishment, eagerly proclaimed that
no well ordered government could exist in connection with liberty
of conscience. Many grave discussions were held, and many curious
questions arose before the distinction between liberty and license
became thoroughly interwoven with daily life; but only one passage of
this singular chapter has been preserved, and, as if to leave no doubt
concerning the spirit which led to its preservation, the narrator
begins with these ominous words: "At Providence, also, the Devil was
not idle."
The wife of Joshua Verin was a great admirer of Williams's preaching,
and claimed the right of going to hear him oftener than suited the
wishes of her husband. Did she, in following the dictates of her
conscience, which bade her go to a meeting which harmonized with her
feelings, violate the injunction of Scripture which bids wives obey
their husbands? Or did he, in exercising his acknowledged control as a
husband, trench upon her right of conscience in religious concerns? It
was a delicate question; but after long deliberation and many prayers,
the claims of conscience prevailed, and "it was agreed that Joshua
Verin, upon the breach of a covenant for restraining of the libertie of
conscience, shall be withheld from the libertie of voting till he shall
declare the contrarie"--a sentence from which it appears that the
right of suffrage was regarded as a conceded privilege, not a natural
right.
Questions of jurisdiction also arose. Massachusetts could not bring
herself to look upon her sister with a friendly eye, and Plymouth
was soon to be merged in Massachusetts. It was easy to foresee that
there would be bickerings and jealousies, if not open contention
between them. Still the little Colony grew apace. The first church
was founded in 1639. To meet the wants of an increased population the
government was changed, and five disposers or selectmen charged with
the principal functions of administration, subject, however, to the
superior authority of monthly town meetings; so early and so naturally
did municipal institutions take root in English colonies. A vital
point was yet untouched. Williams, indeed, held that the Indians, as
original occupants of the soil, were the only legal owners of it, and
carrying his principle into all his dealings with the natives, bought
of them the land on which he planted his Colony. The Plymouth and
Massachusetts colonists, also, bought their land of the natives, but
in their intercourse with the whites founded their claim upon royal
charter. They even went so far as to apply for a charter covering all
the territory of the new Colony.
Meanwhile two other colonies had been planted on the shores of
Narragansett Bay: the Colony of Aquidnick, on the Island of Rhode
Island, and the Colony of Warwick. The sense of a common danger united
them, and, in 1643, they appointed Roger Williams their agent to repair
to England and apply for a royal charter. It has been treasured up as a
bitter memory that he was compelled to seek a conveyance in New York,
for Massachusetts would not allow him to pass through her territories.
His negotiations were crowned with full success. In 1644 he was again
in the colonies, and the inhabitants of Providence, advised of his
success, met him at Seekonk and escorted him across the river with an
exultant procession of fourteen canoes.
To defray the expenses of his mission he taught Latin, Greek and
Hebrew--counting "two sons of Parliament men" among his pupils--and
read Dutch to Milton.