These better auspices, and the invitations of Winthrop, won new
emigrants from Europe. During the long summer voyage of the two hundred
passengers who freighted the Griffin, three sermons a day beguiled their
weariness. Among them was Haynes, a man of very large estate, and larger
affections; of a "heavenly" mind, and a spotless life; of rare sagacity,
and accurate but unassuming judgment; by nature tolerant, ever a friend
to freedom, ever conciliating peace; an able legislator; dear to the
people by his benevolent virtues and his disinterested conduct. Then
also came the most revered spiritual teachers of two commonwealths: the
acute and subtle Cotton, the son of a Puritan lawyer; eminent in
Cambridge as a scholar; quick in the nice perception of distinctions,
and pliant in dialects; in manner persuasive rather than commanding;
skilled in the fathers and the schoolmen, but finding all their wisdom
compactly stored in Calvin; deeply devout by nature as well as habit
from childhood; hating heresy and still precipitately eager to prevent
evil actions by suppressing ill opinions, yet verging toward a progress
in truth and in religious freedom; an avowed enemy to democracy, which
he feared as the blind despotism of animal instincts in the multitude,
yet opposing hereditary power in all its forms; desiring a government of
moral opinion, according to the laws of universal equity, and claiming
"the ultimate resolution for the whole body of the people:" and Hooker,
of vast endowments, a strong will and an energetic mind; ingenuous in
his temper, and open in his professions; trained to benevolence by the
discipline of affliction; versed in tolerance by his refuge in Holland;
choleric, yet gentle in his affections; firm in his faith, yet readily
yielding to the power of reason; the peer of the reformers, without
their harshness; the devoted apostle to the humble and the poor, severe
toward the proud, mild in his soothings of a wounded spirit, glowing
with the raptures of devotion, and kindling with the messages of
redeeming love; his eye, voice, gesture, and whole frame animate with
the living vigor of heart-felt religion; public-spirited and lavishly
charitable; and, "though persecutions and banishments had awaited him as
one wave follows another," ever serenely blessed with "a glorious peace
of soul"; fixed in his trust in Providence, and in his adhesion to that
cause of advancing civilization, which he cherished always, even while
it remained to him a mystery. This was he whom, for his abilities and
services, his contemporaries placed "in the first rank" of men; praising
him as "the one rich pearl, with which Europe more than repaid America
for the treasures from her coast." The people to whom Hooker ministered
had preceded him; as he landed they crowded about him with their
welcome. "Now I live," exclaimed he, as with open arms he embraced them,
"now I live if ye stand fast in the Lord."
Thus recruited, the little band in Massachusetts grew more jealous of
its liberties. "The prophets in exile see the true forms of the house."
By a common impulse, the freemen of the towns chose deputies to consider
in advance the duties of the general court. The charter plainly gave
legislative power to the whole body of the freemen; if it allowed
representatives, thought Winthrop, it was only by inference; and, as the
whole people could not always assemble, the chief power, it was argued,
lay necessarily with the assistants.
Far different was the reasoning of the people. To check the democratic
tendency, Cotton, on the election day, preached to the assembled freemen
against rotation in office. The right of an honest magistrate to his
place was like that of a proprietor to his freehold. But the electors,
now between three and four hundred in number, were bent on exercising
"their absolute power," and, reversing the decision of the pulpit, chose
a new governor and deputy. The mode of taking the votes was at the same
time reformed; and, instead of the erection of hands, the ballot-box was
introduced. Thus "the people established a reformation of such things as
they judged to be amiss in the government."
It was further decreed that the whole body of the freemen should be
convened only for the election of the magistrates: to these, with
deputies to be chosen by the several towns, the powers of legislation
and appointment were henceforward intrusted. The trading corporation was
unconsciously become a representative democracy.
The law against arbitrary taxation followed. None but the immediate
representatives of the people might dispose of lands or raise money.
Thus early did Massachusetts echo the voice of Virginia, like deep
calling unto deep. The state was filled with the hum of village
politicians; "the freemen of every town in the Bay were busy in
inquiring into their liberties and privileges." With the exception of
the principle of universal suffrage, now so happily established, the
representative democracy was as perfect two centuries ago as it is
to-day. Even the magistrates, who acted as judges, held their office by
the annual popular choice. "Elections cannot be safe there long," said
the lawyer Lechford. The same prediction has been made these two hundred
years. The public mind, ever in perpetual agitation, is still easily
shaken, even by slight and transient impulses; but, after all
vibrations, it follows the laws of the moral world, and safely recovers
its balance.
Appleton and Company, New York.