two subordinate subjects. The first of these was a healthful extension
of French territory. In this Richelieu planned better than the first
Napoleon; for while he did much to carry France out to her natural
boundaries, he kept her always within them. On the south he added
Roussillon, on the east Alsace, on the northeast Artois.
The second subordinate object of his policy sometimes flashed forth
brilliantly. He was determined that England should never again interfere
on French soil. We have seen him driving the English from La Rochelle
and from the Isle of Ré; but he went further. In 1628, on making some
proposals to England, he was repulsed with English haughtiness. "They
shall know," said the Cardinal, "that they cannot despise me."
Straightway one sees protests and revolts of the Presbyterians of
Scotland and Richelieu's agents in the thickest of them. And now what
was Richelieu's statesmanship in its sum?
1. In the political progress of France his work has already been
sketched as building monarchy and breaking anarchy. Therefore have men
said that he swept away old French liberties. What old liberties?
Richelieu but tore away the decaying, poisonous husks and rinds which
hindered French liberties from their chance of life and growth.
Therefore also have men said that Richelieu built up absolutism. The
charge is true and welcome. For evidently absolutism was the only force
in that age which could destroy the serf-mastering caste. Many a Polish
patriot, as he to-day wanders through the Polish villages, groans that
absolutism was not built to crush that serf-owning aristocracy which has
been the real architect of Poland's ruin. Anyone who reads to much
purpose in De Mably, or Guizot, or Henri Martin knows that this part of
Richelieu's statesmanship was but a masterful continuation of all great
French statesmanship since the twelfth century league of the king and
commons, against nobles, and that Richelieu stood in the heirship of all
great French statesmen since Suger. That part of Richelieu's work, then,
was evidently bedded in the great line of divine purpose running through
that age and through all ages.
2. In the internal development of France, Richelieu proved himself a
true builder. The founding of the French Academy and of the Jardin des
Plantes, the building of the College of Plessis, and the rebuilding of
the college of the Sorbonne, are among the monuments of this
part-statesmanship. His, also, is much of that praise usually lavished
on Louis XIV for the career opened in the seventeenth century to
science, literature, and art. He was also a reformer, and his zeal was
proved, when in the fiercest of the La Rochelle struggle he found time
to institute great reforms not only in the army and navy, but even in
the monasteries.
3. On the general progress of Europe, his work must be judged as mainly
for good. Austria was the chief barrier to European progress, and that
barrier he broke. But a far greater impulse to the general progress of
Europe was given by the idea of toleration which he thrust into the
methods of European statesmen. He, first of all statesmen in France,
saw that in French policy--to use his own words--"A Protestant Frenchman
is better than a Catholic Spaniard"; and he, first of all statesmen in
Europe, saw that, in European policy, patriotism must outweigh bigotry.
4. His faults in method were many. His underestimate of the sacredness
of human life was one; but that was the fault of his age. His frequent
workings by intrigue was another; but that also was a vile method
accepted by his age. The fair questions, then, are: did he not commit
the fewest and smallest wrongs possible in beating back those many and
great wrongs? Wrong has often a quick, spasmodic force, but was there
not in his arm a steady growing force, which could only be a force of
right?
5. His faults in policy crystallized about one; for while he subdued the
serf-mastering nobility, he struck no final blow at the serf system
itself.
Our running readers of French history need here a word of caution. They
follow De Tocqueville, and De Tocqueville follows Biot in speaking of
the serf system as abolished in most of France hundreds of years before
this. But Biot and De Tocqueville take for granted a knowledge in their
readers that the essential vileness of the system, and even many of its
most shocking outward features, remained. Richelieu might have crushed
the serf system, really, as easily as Louis X and Philip the Long had
crushed it nominally. This Richelieu did not.
And the consequences of this great man's fault were terrible. Hardly was
he in his grave when the nobles perverted the effort of the Paris
Parliament for advance in liberty and took the lead in the fearful
revolts and massacres of the Fronde. Then came Richelieu's pupil,
Mazarin, who tricked the nobles into order; and Mazarin's pupil, Louis
XIV, who bribed them into order. But a nobility borne on high by the
labor of a servile class must despise labor; so there came those weary
years of indolent gambling and debauchery and "serf-eating" at
Versailles.
Then came Louis XV, who was too feeble to maintain even the poor decent
restraint imposed by Louis XIV; so the serf-mastering caste became
active in a new way, and their leaders in vileness unutterable became at
last Fronsac and De Sade.
Then came "the deluge." The spirit of the serf-mastering caste, as left
by Richelieu, was a main cause of the miseries which brought on the
French Revolution. When the Third Estate brought up their "portfolio of
grievances," for one complaint against the exactions of the monarchy
there were fifty complaints against the exactions of the nobility.
Then came the failure of the Revolution in its direct purpose; and of
this failure the serf-mastering caste was a main cause. For this caste,
hardened by ages of domineering over a servile class, despite 4th of
August renunciations, would not, could not, accept a position compatible
with freedom and order; so earnest men were maddened, and sought to tear
out this cancerous mass, with all its burning roots.
But for Richelieu's great fault there is an excuse. His mind was
saturated with ideas of the impossibility of inducing freed peasants to
work; the impossibility of making them citizens; the impossibility, in
short, of making them men. To his view was not unrolled the rich newer
world history, to show that a working class is most dangerous when
restricted; that oppression is more dangerous to the oppressor than to
the oppressed; that if man will hew out paths to liberty, God will hew
out paths to prosperity. But Richelieu's fault teaches the world not
less than his virtues.
At last on December 3, 1642, the great statesman lay upon his death-bed.
The death-hour is a great revealer of motives, and, as with weaker men,
so with Richelieu. Light then shot over the secret of his whole life's
plan and work. He was told that he must die: he received the words with
calmness. As the host, which he believed the veritable body of the
Crucified, was brought him, he said: "Behold my Judge before whom I must
shortly appear! I pray him to condemn me if I have ever had any other
motive than the cause of religion and my country." The confessor asked
him if he pardoned his enemies: he answered, "I have none but those of
the state."
So passed from earth this strong man. Keen he was in sight, steady in
aim, strong in act. A true man, not "non-committal," but wedded to a
great policy in the sight of all men; seen by earnest men, of all times,
to have marshalled against riot and bigotry and unreason, divine forces
and purposes.
GREAT PURITAN EXODUS TO NEW ENGLAND
FOUNDING OF BOSTON
A.D. 1630
JOHN G. PALFREY
Whatever might have been the historic development of New
England had it proceeded from the single plantation at
Plymouth, it is certain that the growth and character of the
new community were vitally affected by the large influx of
English Puritans who ten years later followed the Pilgrims to
these shores.
Soon after the departure of the Pilgrims from England, in 1620,
King James I incorporated a successor to that Plymouth Company
under whose patent Plymouth colony was founded. This new
company is known as the Council for New England. The territory
granted to the council extended from 40° to 48° north latitude,
and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The land was conferred in
absolute property, with unlimited powers of legislation and
government. Emigrants to New England were placed wholly under
the authority of this corporation. The great privileges
conferred upon the monopoly caused indignation among James'
subjects, but nevertheless the council made numerous grants to
settlers in New England.
Meanwhile, dissatisfaction in England increased; in 1625 James
was succeeded by his son, Charles I; at Plymouth the Pilgrim
colony was struggling for existence; at home the Puritans
chafed under the growing despotism of Charles. Out of this
unrest came the movement leading to the larger emigration to
New England which Palfrey, the New England historian,
describes.
The emigration of the Englishmen who settled at Plymouth had been
prompted by religious dissent. In what manner Robinson, who was capable
of speculating on political tendencies, or Brewster, whose early
position had compelled him to observe them, had augured concerning the
prospect of public affairs in their native country, no record tells;
while the rustics of the Scrooby congregation, who fled from a
government which denied them liberty in their devotions, could have had
but little knowledge and no agency in the political sphere. The case
was widely different with the founders of the Colony of Massachusetts
Bay. That settlement had its rise in a state of things in England which
associated religion and politics in an intimate alliance.
Years had passed since the severity of the government had overcome the
Separatists, forcing them either to disband their congregations or flee
from the kingdom. From the time when Bishop Williams was made keeper of
the great seal, four years before the death of King James, the
high-commission court again became active, and the condition of Puritans
in the Church was day by day more uneasy. While some among them looked
for relief to a happy issue of the struggle which had been going on in
Parliament, and resigned themselves to await and aid the slow progress
of a political and religious reformation in the kingdom, numbers, less
confident or less patient, pondered on exile as their best resource, and
turned their view to a new home on the Western continent. There was yet
a third class, who, through feeble resolution or a lingering hope of
better things, deferred the sacrifices which they scarcely flattered
themselves they should ultimately escape, and, if they were clergymen,
retained their preferments by a reluctant obedience to the canons. The
coquetry of Buckingham with the Puritans, inspiring false hopes, was not
without effect to excuse indecision and hinder a combined and energetic
action.
Among the eminent persons who had reconciled themselves to the course of
compromise and postponement was Mr. John White, an important name, which
at this point takes its place in New England history. White, who since
the second year of King James' reign had been rector of Trinity Church
in Dorchester, was a man widely known and greatly esteemed, alike for
his professional character and his public spirit. The subject of New
England colonization, much canvassed everywhere among the Puritans, who
were numerous in the part of the kingdom where he lived, was commended
to his notice in a special form. Dorchester, near the British Channel,
the principal town of the shire, furnished numbers of those who now made
voyages to New England for fishing and trade; and they were often
several months upon the coast without opportunity for religious worship
and instruction. Mr. White interested himself with the ship-owners to
establish a settlement where the mariners might have a home when not at
sea, where supplies might be provided for them by farming and hunting,
and where they might be brought under religious influences. The result
of the conferences was the formation of an unincorporated joint-stock
association, under the name of the "Dorchester Adventurers," which
collected a capital of three thousand pounds.
The Dorchester company turned its attention to the spot on Cape Ann
where now stands the town of Gloucester. The Council for New England,
perpetually embarrassed by the oppugnation of the Virginia Company and
the reasonable jealousy of Parliament, had recourse to a variety of
expedients to realize the benefits vainly expected by its projectors. In
carrying out one scheme, that of a division of the common property among
the associates, the country about Cape Ann was assigned to Lord
Sheffield, better known as a patriot leader under his later title of
Earl of Mulgrave. Of him it was purchased for the people of New Plymouth
by Edward Winslow, when in England on the business of that colony; and
they in turn conveyed to White and his associates such a site as was
wanted for their purposes of fishing and planting.
The Dorchester company had probably anticipated this arrangement by
despatching a party of fourteen persons to pass the winter. They carried
out live stock, and erected a house, with stages to dry fish and vats
for the manufacture of salt. Thomas Gardner was overseer of the
plantation, and John Tilley had the fishery in charge. Everything went
wrong. Mishaps befell the vessels. The price of fish went down. The
colonists, "being ill chosen and ill commanded, fell into many disorders
and did the company little service." An attempt was made to retrieve
affairs by putting the colony under a different direction. The
Dorchester partners heard of "some religious and well-affected persons
that were lately removed out of New Plymouth, out of dislike of their
principles of rigid separation, of which number Mr. Roger Conant was
one, a religious, sober, and prudent gentleman."
He was then at Nantasket, with Lyford and Oldham. The partners engaged
Conant "to be their governor" at Cape Ann, with "the charge of all their
affairs, as well as fishing and planting." With Lyford they agreed that
he should "be the minister of the place," while Oldham, "invited to
trade for them with the Indians," preferred to remain where he was and
conduct such business on his own account. The change was not followed by
the profits that had been hoped, and the next year "the adventurers were
so far discouraged that they abandoned the further prosecution of this
design, and took order for the dissolving of the company on land, and
sold away their shipping and other provisions." Another seemed added to
the list of frustrated adventurers in New England.
But Mr. White did not despair of its renewal. All along, it is likely,
he had regarded it with an interest different from what had yet been
avowed. At his instance, when "most part of the land-men returned," "a
few of the most honest and industrious resolved to stay behind, and to
take charge of the cattle sent over the year before. And not liking
their seat at Cape Ann, chosen especially for the supposed commodity of
fishing, they transported themselves to Nahumkeike, about four or five
leagues distant to the southwest from Cape Ann."
White wrote to Conant, exhorting him "not to desert the business,
faithfully promising that if himself with three others, whom he knew to
be honest and prudent men, viz., John Woodbury, John Balch, and Peter
Palfrey, employed by the adventurers, would stay at Naumkeag, and give
timely notice thereof, he would provide a patent for them, and likewise
send them whatever they should write for, either men, or provision, or
goods wherewith to trade with the Indians." With difficulty Conant
prevailed upon his companions to persevere. They "stayed to the hazard
of their lives." Woodbury was sent to England for supplies.
"The business came to agitation afresh in London, and being at first
approved by some and disliked by others, by argument and disputation it
grew to be more vulgar; insomuch that some men, showing good affection
to the work, and offering the help of their purses if fit men might be
procured to go over, inquiry was made whether any would be willing to
engage their persons in the voyage. By this inquiry it fell out that
among others they lighted at last on Master Endicott, a man well known
to divers persons of good note, who manifested much willingness to
accept of the offer as soon as it was tendered, which gave great
encouragement to such as were upon the point of resolution to set on
this work of erecting a new colony upon the old foundation."
The scheme on foot was no longer one of Dorchester fishermen looking for
a profitable exercise of their trade. It had "come to agitation in
London," where some men had offered "the help of their purses," and a
man of consequence, Humphrey, probably from a county as distant as
Lincoln, was already, or very soon after, treasurer of the fund. Matters
were ripe for the step of securing a domain for a colony, and the
dimensions of the domain show that the colony was not intended to be a
small one. A grant of lands extending from the Atlantic to the Western
Ocean, and in width from a line of latitude three miles north of the
River Merrimac to a line three miles south of the Charles, was obtained
from the Council for New England by "Sir Henry Roswell and Sir John
Young, knights, and Thomas Southcote, John Humphrey, John Endicott, and
Simon Whitcomb, gentlemen," for themselves, "their heirs, and
associates." Roswell and Young were gentlemen of Devon, Southcote was
probably of the same county, and Whitcomb is believed to have been a
London merchant.
Gorges, though not in the counsels of the patentees, supposed himself to
understand their object. Having mentioned the angry dissolution by King
Charles of his second Parliament, and his imprisonment of some of the
patriot leaders, he proceeds to say that these transactions "took all
hope of reformation of church government from many not affecting
episcopal jurisdiction, nor the usual practice of the Common Prayers of
the Church; whereof there were several sorts, though not agreeing among
themselves, yet all of like dislike of those particulars. Some of the
discreeter sort, to avoid what they found themselves subject unto, made
use of their friends to procure from Council for the affairs of New
England to settle a colony within their limits; to which it pleased the
thrice-honored Lord of Warwick to write to me, then at Plymouth, to
condescend that a patent might be granted to such as then sued for it.
Whereupon I gave my approbation, so far forth as it might not be
prejudicial to my son Robert Gorges' interests, whereof he had a patent
under the seal of the Council. Hereupon there was a grant passed as was
thought reasonable."
After three months Endicott, one of the six patentees, was despatched,
in charge of a small party, to supersede Conant at Naumkeag as local
manager. Woodbury had preceded them. They arrived at the close of
summer. The persons quartered on the spot, the remains of Conant's
company, were disposed to question the claims of the new-comers. But the
dispute was amicably composed, and, in commemoration of its adjustment,
the place took the name of Salem, the Hebrew name for peaceful. The
colony, made up from the two sources, consisted of "not much above fifty
or sixty persons," none of them of special importance except Endicott,
who was destined to act for nearly forty years a conspicuous part in New
England history.
Before the winter, an exploring party either began or made preparations
for a settlement at Mishawum, now Charlestown. With another party,
Endicott, during Morton's absence in England, visited his diminished
company at Merry-Mount, or, as Endicott called it, Mount Dagon, "caused
their Maypole to be cut down, and rebuked them for their profaneness,
and admonished them to look there should be better walking." The winter
proved sickly; an "infection that grew among the passengers at sea,
spread also among them ashore, of which many died, some of the scurvy,
others of an infectious fever." Endicott sent to Plymouth for medical
assistance, and Fuller, the physician of that place, made a visit to
Salem.
The New Dorchester Company, like that which had preceded it, and like
the company of London Adventurers concerned in that settlement at
Plymouth, was but a voluntary partnership, with no corporate powers. The
extensive acquaintance of Mr. White with persons disaffected to the
rulers in church and state was probably the immediate occasion of
advancing the business another step. Materials for a powerful
combination existed in different parts of the kingdom, and they were now
brought together for united action. The company, having been "much
enlarged," a royal charter was solicited and obtained, creating a
corporation under the name of the "Governor and Company of the
Massachusetts Bay in New England."
This is the instrument under which the colony of Massachusetts
continued to conduct its affairs for fifty-five years. The patentees
named in it were Roswell and his five associates, with twenty other
persons, of whom White was not one. It gave power forever to the freemen
of the company to elect annually, from their own number, a governor,
deputy-governor, and eighteen assistants, on the last Wednesday of
Easter term, and to make laws and ordinances, not repugnant to the laws
of England, for their own benefit and the government of persons
inhabiting their territory. Four meetings of the company were to be held
in a year, and others might be convened in a manner prescribed. Meetings
of the governor, deputy-governor, and assistants were to be held once a
month or oftener. The governor, deputy-governor, and any two assistants
were authorized, but not required, to administer to freemen the oaths of
supremacy and allegiance. The company might transport settlers not
"restrained by special name." They had authority to admit new
associates, and to establish the terms of their admission, and elect and
constitute such officers as they should see fit for the ordering and
managing of their affairs. They were empowered "to encounter, repulse,
repel, and resist by force of arms, as well as by sea as by land, and by
all fitting ways and means whatsoever, all such person and persons as
should at any time thereafter attempt or enterprise the destruction,
invasion, detriment, or annoyance to the said plantation or
inhabitants." Nothing was said of religious liberty. The government may
have relied upon its power to restrain it, and the emigrants on their
distance and obscurity to protect it.
The first step of the new corporation was to organize a government for
its colony. It determined to place the local administration in the hands
of thirteen counsellors, to retain their offices for one year. Of these,
seven besides the governor--in which office Endicott was continued--were
to be appointed by the company at home; these eight were to choose three
others; and the whole number was to be made up by the addition of such
as should be designated by the persons on the spot at the time of
Endicott's arrival, described as "old planters."
A proposal had just been accepted from certain "Boston men" to interest
themselves in the adventure to the amount of five hundred pounds, being
a hundred pounds in addition to what, it appears, they had previously
promised, "and to provide able men to send over."