EARLY COLONIAL HISTORY.
RISE OF QUAKERISM--GEORGE FOX--WILLIAM PENN--FOUNDS
PENNSYLVANIA--KINDNESS TO THE INDIANS--PHILADELPHIA FOUNDED--MARYLAND,
CAROLINA AND GEORGIA SETTLED--ROGER WILLIAMS--RHODE ISLAND FOUNDED--ITS
TOLERATION.
The history of Pennsylvania as a distinct colony began in 1682. Its
founder, William Penn, was the son of Admiral Penn, who had gained many
victories for England and enjoyed the favor of the king, as well as of
the great statesmen of his time. At this time there was in England a
numerous sect called Quakers. Some of their principles were true, and
most of them were far in advance of the opinions generally entertained
in that age.
The rise of the people called Quakers is one of the memorable events
in the history of man. It marks the moment when intellectual freedom
was claimed by the people as an inalienable right. The sect had its
birth in a period of intense national activity, when zeal for reform
was invading all ranks of society, and even subverting the throne. Its
creed was summed up in one short phrase, "_The inner light or voice
of God in the soul_." Their leader, George Fox, professed to {142}
have visions from heaven. Having listened to the revelation which had
been made to his soul, he thirsted for a reform in every branch of
learning. The physician and the scientist should quit their strife of
unintelligible words and solve the appearances of nature by an intimate
study of the laws of being. The lawyers should abandon their deceit and
seek to establish justice among men according to the teachings of the
Savior. And the priests should cease to preach for hire, and seek God
in prayer as the oracle of all truth.
[Image: Fox in Discussion.]
{143} No wonder there was a great commotion. In Lancaster, forty
priests appeared against him at once. Nothing could daunt his
enthusiasm. When cast into jail among felons, he claimed of the public
tribunals a release, only to continue his exertions. If cruelly beaten,
or set in the stocks, or ridiculed as mad, he none the less proclaimed
the principles of his faith. When driven from the church, he preached
in the open air; when refused shelter at a private dwelling or humble
tavern, he slept without fear under a haystack.
His fame increased; crowds gathered like flocks of pigeons to hear
him. His voice and frame in prayer are described as the most awful and
reverent ever felt or seen. His clear convictions and glowing thoughts
delivered in plain words made him powerful among the masses and the
terror of the priests in public discussions to which he defied the
world. By degrees "the hypocrites," as the historian Barclay called
them, feared to dispute with him. The simplicity of the truth he
uttered and the plainness of his speech found such ready acceptance
among the people, "that the priests trembled and scud as he drew near,
so that it was a dreadful thing to them when it was told them, 'The man
in leathern breeches is come.'"
Far from rejecting Christianity, the Quakers insisted that they alone
followed its primitive simplicity. They believed in the unity of
truth; that there can be no contradiction between correct reason and
revelation; and that the Holy Spirit is the guide that leads into all
truth. The Quakers read the Bible not with idolatry but with delight,
for in there own souls they had a testimony that it was true. "The
scriptures," says Barclay, "are not religion but a record of it; a
declaration of the fountain, but not the fountain itself." In reading a
record of those times it might appear to one that God was then ready to
restore His Priesthood and set up His kingdom on the earth. But mankind
were not yet ready nor was there a fit place in all the inhabited
countries of the world for its establishment.
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[Image: Penn's Treaty with the Indians.]
The well-known William Penn joined this sect, and by this act greatly
provoked his father's displeasure. Like Moses of old he refused the
favors and honors of the monarch, choosing {145} rather to obey what
he considered to be the truth than to enjoy all the pomp and pleasures
of the world. Space will not permit us to relate the story of his
sufferings while an exile from his father's home; how he traveled to
and fro on the continent of Europe, from the Weser to the Main, from
the Rhine to the Danube, distributing tracts, preaching to princes and
to peasants, and rebuking every attempt to enthrall the mind of man.
Before he had reached the age of twenty-five, he had thrice suffered
unjust imprisonment. To the king's messenger, who asked him to recant,
he heroically replied, "_Club-law may make hypocrites, it never can
make converts_" Single handed and alone he plead his cause before the
highest courts of England. In vain did wicked men endeavor to construe
the laws of England to his injury. After a tedious trial he was at
length acquitted, though the jurymen were fined forty marks apiece for
not bringing in a verdict of guilty. His constancy called forth the
admiration of his father. "Son William," said the dying admiral, "if
you and your friends keep to your plain way of preaching and living,
you will make an end of the priests."
At the admiral's death, William succeeded to his father's possessions.
It deeply grieved him that his Quaker brethren should endure such
wrongs as were continually heaped upon them. He, therefore, formed
the design of leading them forth to America. The king had owed Penn's
father sixteen thousand pounds, nearly equal to eighty thousand
dollars of our money. Penn offered to relinquish this claim for a
grant of land; and the king readily bestowed upon him a vast region,
stretching west from the river Delaware, to which was given the
name of Pennsylvania. Here Penn proposed to found a state, free and
self-governing. He claimed it to be his highest ambition "to make men
as free and happy as they can be." When he arrived, he proclaimed
to the people that he wished them to be governed by laws of their
own making. He was as good as his word. The people elected their own
representatives by whom a constitution was framed, and Penn signed this
charter of their liberties.
Penn also dealt justly and kindly with the Indians, and they showed a
love for him such as they bestowed on no other Englishman. {146} Soon
after his arrival, he invited the chief men of the Indian tribes to a
conference. The meeting took place beneath a huge elm-tree. The ancient
forest had long given way to the houses and streets of Philadelphia;
but a monument still points out to the stranger the scene of this
interview. They met, Penn assured them, "on the broad pathway of good
faith and good will. All was to be openness and love." And Penn meant
what he said. Strong in the power of truth and kindness, he bent the
fierce savages of the Delaware tribe to his will. They vowed to live in
love with William Penn and his children as long as the moon and the sun
should endure. Long years after, aged Indians were accustomed to come
from the distant forests and recount with deep emotion the words that
Penn had spoken to them under the old elm-tree.
The fame of Penn's settlements went abroad in all lands. An asylum
was opened for the good and oppressed of every nation. Grave and
God-fearing men from all the Protestant countries of Europe sought a
home where they might live as conscience taught them.
"For here the exiles met from every clime,
And spoke in friendship every distant tongue;
Men, from the blood of warring Europe sprung,
Were but divided by the running brook;
And happy where no Rhenish trumpet sung,
The blue-eyed German changed his sword to pruning-hook."
The new colony grew apace. During the first year twenty-two vessels
arrived, bringing two thousand persons. In three years Philadelphia was
a town of six hundred houses.
Thus did Penn prove himself a benefactor to his race. May we not also
consider him an instrument in the hands of God for the execution of His
purposes?
Meanwhile Maryland had been colonized by Catholics under Lord
Baltimore, in 1634. The first colonists were exiles who fled here to
escape persecution in their native land. Let it also be said to their
credit that they were the first who embodied in their laws complete
religious toleration.
A few scattering colonists had settled within the boundaries of the
Carolinas as early as 1653, and these colonies also became a refuge for
the Huguenots of France.
{147} Lastly Georgia was colonized, in 1732, by the English
philanthropist James Oglethorpe; and it also became an asylum and a
refuge for the deserving poor.
Had these states been colonized immediately after the discovery of
America, they must inevitably have brought with them the institutions
of Catholic Europe. Such, for example, as still characterize the
civilization of Mexico. Even had they been colonized a century earlier,
the colonists would not have been disciplined sufficiently in the
principles of civil liberty to have built up free and self-governing
states.
Who does not see a divine providence--a marvelous wisdom in all this?
Though the pilgrims had left their native lands, that they might enjoy
the liberty to worship God in the way which they deemed right; yet they
had not discovered that people who differed from them were as well
entitled to be tolerated as they themselves were. Simple as it seems
there are many to this day who have not found out that every one is
entitled to think for himself.
One day there stepped ashore at Boston, a young man named Roger
Williams. He was a man of culture and refinement, a lover of truth
and justice, a man of rare virtue and power. He had been an intimate
friend of Cromwell and Milton, in the bright days of the poet's youth.
Williams brought to America what was then considered strange opinions.
Long thought had satisfied him that "in regard to religious belief and
worship man is responsible to God alone."
New England society was not sufficiently advanced to receive such
sentiments. Williams had become minister at Salem where he was held in
high esteem. In time his opinions drew upon him the unfavorable notice
of the authorities; and he was brought to trial before the general
court of Massachusetts. His townsmen and congregation deserted him.
His poor wife reproached him bitterly for the evil he was bringing on
his family. Still he was firm and continued to testify against the
soul-oppression he saw around him. At length the court declared him
guilty and pronounced against him the sentence of banishment. All honor
to this brave and good man! He, of all the men of his time, saw most
clearly the beauty of {148} absolute freedom in matters of conscience.
He cheerfully left his home and wandered in the wilderness. During
the part of one winter he lived with Massasoit, the Indian chief, who
befriended him and gave him a grant of land, now included in the state
of Rhode Island. Here he laid out a city which he called Providence, in
grateful recognition of the power which had guided his steps. To-day it
is one of the most beautiful and thrifty cities in the United States.
Roger Williams cherished a very forgiving spirit towards those who sent
him into exile. Learning that the Indians were planning the destruction
of the Massachusetts colony, he boldly went among the Indians and
dissuaded them from their purpose. Thus did this good man put his life
in peril for his enemies.
Providence Plantation, as it was called, became a shelter for all who
were distressed for conscience sake; and so it has continued to the
present time. Rhode Island has no record of persecution in her history.
Massachusetts continued to drive out misbelievers. Rhode Island took
them in. When Massachusetts was convulsed with supposed witchcraft
and the horrors of witch-burning, Rhode Island gave no heed to such
delusions. In after years, Roger Williams became the president of the
colony which he had founded.
The neighboring states were at that time severely punishing the Quakers
with the lash, branding-iron and imprisonment; and they invited Rhode
Island to join in the persecution. Mr. Williams replied that he "had no
law to punish any man for his belief." He was opposed to the doctrines
of the Quakers. In his seventy-third year he rowed thirty miles in an
open boat to wage a public debate against them. In this manner, and
this only, would he resist the progress of opinions which he deemed
pernicious. Thus to the end of his life stood forth this good man's
loyalty to the absolute liberty of the human conscience. From the
foregoing, we may get some idea of the moral and social condition of
England and her colonies during the latter part of the seventeenth
century.
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