THE PILGRIM GOVERNMENT.
“A free republic, where, beneath the sway
Of mild and equal laws, framed by themselves,
One people dwell, and own no lord save God.”
MRS. HALE’S _Ormond Grosvenor._
Just here it is perhaps fit that the salient features of the unique
government under which the forefathers lived and prospered should be
briefly sketched; and in order that this exposition may be clear,
claiming the privilege of a chronicler, we shall command the clock of
this narration to stand still, while we peer at times into the then
future, in tracing some law to its result, or in depicting the change
of front of an exploded policy.
At the outset, the arrangements of the Pilgrims were extremely
simple, and grew naturally from their needs, from their crude
ideas of liberty, and their imperfect conception of a model state.
Nominally, the sovereignty of Britain was recognized; in fact, all
through these opening decades of American history, the colonists
were despised by the home government, and left free to plant the
most radical principles of a “proper democracy.” It was only when
the greed of gain squeezed her heart, not repentance nor love,
that England recognized the legitimacy of the neglected child whom
she had pronounced a bastard, and left to freeze in the winter
wilderness. When God wrote success upon the frontlet of the colony,
the Shylocks on the Rialtos of the world were eager to invest in the
enterprise, while England, with motherly pride, patted New England
upon the head and said, “I rocked your cradle; but, bless me, how you
are grown, and how like me you are. You may pay me your earnings, and
I’ll send you a governor.”
But through the bitter months of the incipient settlement Shylock
could see nothing in New England but a barren coast, while Britain
could not discern Plymouth Rock across the water; nor if she had
would any craving governor have itched to set up his chair of state
in a cheerless Eldorado of ice and snow.
So the Pilgrims were left to shift for themselves until, strengthened
by incessant tussles with a rugged climate and the savage foe, they
expanded into robust manhood. In these first months, the Plymouth
colonists regarded themselves as one family, at whose head stood the
governor, _in loco parentis_.[310] But as business increased, the
whole burden of government was felt to be too onerous for the single
shoulders of the governor to bear; and when Bradford stepped into the
gubernatorial chair left vacant by the death of Carver, he was voted
an assistant.[311] In 1624, he was given five assistants. Afterwards,
in 1633, the number was increased to seven; and these, called “the
Governor’s Council,”[312] governed the commonwealth in conjunction
with their primitive executive. The vote of each councillor counted
one, and the vote of the chief magistrate was but double—the only
check he had over the action of the Council.[313]
The governor was chosen annually, by general suffrage,[314] as were
also the councillors.[315] The name of the man who was disposed to
shirk his civil duty we do not know; “but a curious law was passed
in 1632, that whoever should refuse the office of governor, being
chosen thereto, should pay twenty pounds; and that of magistrate, ten
pounds. Very singular, certainly; and we may suppose that that race
has run out even in Massachusetts.”[316]
The legislative body was at first composed of the whole company
of voters.[317] Then, when their numbers grew, church-membership
was made the test of citizenship[318]—a test which endured till
1665, when it was reluctantly yielded at the requisition of
the king’s commissioners.[319] It was not until 1669 that the
increase of population warranted the establishment of a House of
Representatives.[320]
“Narrow as the restriction of citizenship to church-members was, it
is easy to explain it by remembering that toleration, in any large
sense, was hardly entertained by the most liberal religionists
in that twilight age, and that the one idea which inspired this
emigration and nerved these men for the bitterest sacrifices was,
that they and their children might be free from an ecclesiastical
tyranny which, if it followed, would endanger them. It should also
be borne in mind that the history they studied, and the guide they
felt bound to follow, was the Jewish theocracy, ordained by God, as
they doubted not, to be a model in church and state for all time; and
that, under that dispensation, death was the punishment for smaller
errors than dissent. These facts explain and palliate the religious
precision and severity afterwards practised in New England. But the
free idea with which they started gradually grew broader, overcame
the evil customs of the time, and strangled the prejudices of the
Pilgrims themselves.”[321]
So early as the 17th of December, 1623, it was decreed that “all
criminal facts, and all manner of trespass and debt betwixt man and
man, should be tried by the verdict of twelve honest men.”[322] Thus
the jury trial, the distinctive badge of Saxon civilization, a right
which a long line of able lawyers, from Coke and Hale to Mansfield
and Erskine, have united in styling the palladium of civil liberty,
was planted in America.
Previous to the year 1632, the laws of Plymouth colony were little
more than the customs of the people.[323] In 1636 these were
digested, and prefaced with a declaration of rights; and, with
various alterations and additions, the whole manuscript collection
was printed in 1671.[324] Let us open the ponderous old folio, and
cull from the mass a few specimen and characteristic samples. Early
provision was made for the education of youth. Many of the Pilgrims
were men of liberal culture, as Winslow and Brewster,[325] and all
recognized its value and necessity; so, in order that knowledge and
civil liberty might clasp hands, it was enacted, “that twelve pounds
should be raised for the salary of a teacher, and that children
should be forced to attend school.”[326]
Decreed: “For ordering of persons and distributing the lands, That
freemen shall be twenty-one years of age; sober and peaceable;
orthodox in the fundamentals of religion. That drunkards shall be
subject to fines, to the stocks, and be posted; and sellers be
forbidden to sell them liquors.
“Horse-racing is forbidden; so also walking about late o’ nights.
“The minister’s salary shall be paid by rate levied on all the
citizens. Sabbath work and travelling is forbidden; also all visiting
on that day.
“Profane swearing punishable by ‘placing in the stocks; lying, by the
stocks or by fine.’
“Fowling, fishing, and hunting, shall be free.
“Every wolf’s head shall be worth, to an Indian, twelve shillings or
‘a coat of duffels;’ to a white man, twenty shillings.
“Haunters of ale-houses shall be disciplined by the church.
“A motion of marriage to any man’s daughter, if made without
obtaining leave, shall be punished by fine or corporal punishment, at
the discretion of the court, so it extend not to the endangering of
life or limb.
“Women shall not wear short sleeves; nor shall their sleeves be more
than twenty-two inches wide:”[327] an enactment the object of which
was, to prevent indecent extremes and extravagance in dress.
So runs this “quaint old volume of forgotten lore.” If some of these
laws seem severe, as we scan them through the vista of two centuries,
and in an age when sumptuary laws are perhaps too little known, it
may be said in their defence, that they were quite upon a level with
the kindred legislation of Europe, even in their most obnoxious
features, while their progressive and liberal tone is as new and
unique as the colony which gave them birth, and whose ideas they
mirror.
In May, 1621, the first marriage in New England was celebrated.[328]
Edward Winslow espoused the widow of William White, and the mother
of Peregrine White, whose infant lullaby was the first ever sung by
Saxon voice in New England.[329] “According to the laudable custom
of the Low Countries,” says Bradford, “the ceremony was thought
most requisite to be performed by the magistrate, as being a civil
contract upon which many questions of inheritance do depend, with
other things most proper for their cognizance, and most consonant
to the Scriptures,[330] it being nowhere found in the gospel to be
layed on ministers as a necessary part of their office. This practice
continued, not only among them, but it was followed by all the famous
churches of Christ in those parts to the year 1646.”[331]