From the nature of their compact, being a joint-stock company, they established a community of goods. They planted one field in common with corn; they found the seed in an Indian mound. All had to work, even the governor of the colony. They worked like bees. They had no drones in the hive. Oh, shades of the Puritans!! no Long Branch for the government to live in kingly style!!!

While every man worked in common, the people suffered great privations, and in some instances suffered from famine-at one time they were so far reduced as to live on five grains of parched corn each daily. They would have perished only for the supply of fish. They had to share with the new emigrants who came to the colony. In 1623, Governor Bradford is reported to have said, "By the time our corn is planted, our victuals are spent; not knowing at night where to have a bit in the morning, and have neither bread nor corn for three or four months together."-Moore 68. Such was the state of the colony during the time they had a community of goods. So the colonists, in violation of their agreements with the London adventurers afore-mentioned, in the spring of 1623, agreed that every family should plant for themselves, on such ground as should be assigned to them by lot."

They had but one boat in the whole colony, and parties of seven men fished in their turn for the benefit of the whole colony; when a deer was killed it was divided among the whole people of the congregation or colony. The people, while a community of goods lasted, lived whole days on fish and ground-nuts! They were in debt and had to pay 30 per cent. per annum for money. But after every man was able to work for himself, industry was encouraged, and the people of the colony, in 1629, were free from the debt they owed the London adventurers, and they were freemen! So much for communism. There never was a time, since Adam was expelled from Eden, more favorable than this to try the experiment of a community of goods, as the Puritans were all of one nation, religion, manners, customs, and habits and spoke the same language. They were one congregation-all governed by public opinion and religion. They were as one family. Yet, while they were one corporation-all one partnership concern-all possessing a community of goods, they were in a state of starvation. But when every man was for himself, they soon paid off the debt of the colony and sent for their friends to Holland.

The

The pilgrims followed the example of the Jews-like them they claimed to be the chosen of the Lord. They united church and state. The government of the colony was composed of the church and the congregation.— Moore's lives, Govs. Ply. & Mass, 284, 289, 290, 291, 300, 318. governor was elected by the people, in town meeting, the same as we now elect Town Officers. The whole body of the people or congregation elected their own officers, and transacted all business pertaining to the church and the state. While Governor Carver lived, the whole people had a vote. Both clergy and congregation, with the governor as chairman, met in one assembly, like the Greek Republics, and made laws and regulations for the colony. The town meeting was both court and legislature. The governor possessed no power but that of a magistrate. He could arrest criminals, but they were tried before the whole body of the people, as judicial and legislative power was then vested in the whole body of the people in town meeting. The governor presided the same as the foreman of a Grand Jury. He was the sole executive officer of the colony. He had no patronage, as he had neither the power to nominate or appoint to office. All officers, civil, religious and military, were elected by the people. The governor was moderator and with his deputies presided at town meetings-voting was

by ballot. In time, the franchise was confined to freemen, who had taken a freeman's oath. There was no distinction or exemption from military duty-all had to stand "watch," even the clergy. The highest military officer in the colony was Captain Miles Standish. The town was impaled, and cannon planted on the roof of the church. The people met in town meeting on a common plain. It was an assembly of the sovereign peoplefor sovereignty was in the people; for they acknowledged no higher law-making power. "They perpetually exercised the rights of sovereignty; they named their magistrates, concluded peace or declared war, made police regulations, and enacted laws as if their allegiance was due only to God."De Tocqueville, p. 19.

For the English laws were repudiated, in 1636, by the declaration in the cabin of the Mayflower. New Plymouth entered upon the record, November 15, 1636, that "the authority of the English laws, at present or to come is expressly renounced and Parliament denied the right of legislating for the colony." This was perfectly right as the Puritans were denied the protection of the King of England. They were reduced to a state of nature, and were free to make laws for themselves.-Vattel's Law of Nations, book i, chapter 4, pp. 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23. Kent's Comm., vol. i, pp. 208-9. Blackstone's Comm., vol. i, page 245. Thus the town meeting is the parent of the Colony and the State mass-meetings and constitutional conventions. "The Republic was already established in every township."-De Tocqueville, 28. Governor John Carver was succeeded by William Bradford, in 1621. The first change from the "time-honored town meetings," the fear and dread of kings, a stumbling-block to the Kings of England, and the royal governors sent over to govern New England-or the general court, where the whole people assembled for executive, legislative, and judicial business together, was the appointment of an assistant, or deputy governor. In time, the assistants were increased to five and afterwards to seven. The Puritans had no charter of title either from the king or the Plymouth company. The first patent was taken in the name of John Pierce, and the second in the name of William Bradford, in trust for the colony, in 1629. In 1640, Governor Bradford surrendered this patent to the general court-this title was as good as the crown of England could make it. In 1636, the Puritans declared their "lawful right to their lands in respect of vacancy, donation, and purchase of the natives." In Bradford's patent was granted the right of fishery in Maine, and a tract of land of fifteen miles on each side of the Kennebeck river. In the patent was the following enabling clause to empower the colony to "enact such laws as should most benefit a state in its nonage, not rejecting or omitting to observe such of the laws of their native country as would conduce to their good." The patent granted to William Bradford provided to frame and make orders, ordinances and constitutions, etc." In 1634, an important change took place in the colony. The governor and assistants were constituted the judicial court, and afterwards the supreme judiciary of the colony. The government was remodelled. The Executive and Judiciary vested in the governor and seven assistants, the town meeting remaining the assembly or general court. In 1639, the first assembly of the colony met. It was composed of four deputies from the old town of Plymouth, and two from each of the other towns. In 1649, the legislature or general court was composed of members from each town. These deputies to the general court or legislature were chosen from the freemen of each town.

The towns were governed by town officers called selectmen, who had jurisdiction in civil cases where the amount did not exceed forty shillings, with the right of appeal to the court of assistants. In 1649, the qualification

of a voter or freeman was that he should be "twenty-one years of age, of a sober and peaceable conversation, orthodox in the fundamentals of religion, and possessed of twenty pounds ratable estate."-Moore's Life of Governor Bradford, p. 75. Prior to 1634, the governor and assistants possessed only the power of magistrates. They could only arrest and bind over criminals to the general court which was the town-meeting-they had no civil jurisdiction. The general court, in 1636, established a body of organic laws for the colony. November 15, 1636, the people met, and promulgated a declaration of independence. This was the first American declaration of independence. Henceforth the British statutes had no force in the colony, except by the authority of the general court. Indeed from this period we may date the time when acts of parliament passed subsequent to the 15 Nov., 1636, ceased to have force or validity in the colony of Plymouth. It is a nice question whether this declaration did not repudiate all acts of parliament in the colony after the promulgation of this order.-Moore's Governors of New Plymouth, 144. ́ I believe that the courts of Massachusetts, after the union of the two colonies of Massachusetts and Plymouth, gave judicial sanction to some acts of parliament, and in time, gave them the force of common law. The clergy of the established church had great authority in the colony. They were the teachers and the expounders of the law-for as there were no lawyers in the colony, the clergy were the only persons who had a knowledge of the law. But they followed the laws of Moses more than the common law of England. Hence, even to this day, the judges of Massachusetts have interwoven the law of the Bible with the common law of England.-Moore's Life of Governor Winslow, 118. The clergy of the established church had great influence. The first settlers were well educated, but their children, who had to work like all those who are raised in a new country,-were not learned. The clergy were supported by private donations, until 1677, when a law was passed compelling the people to support public worship. A law was passed compelling by taxation, without any respect to any particular religion, "the support of the regular congregational ministry," in 1677.— Moore's Lives of Govs. Ply. and Mass., 210. "In 1672, a law was passed establishing the first public school in Plymouth colony."-Ibid. p. 209. In 1677, a law was passed, "requiring each town and village, in the colony, to erect, finish, and keep in repair a house for public worship." This was a heavy blow upon the other denominations. The power of the congregational ministry was great. They monopolized the learning of the colony. They held public offices and engaged in business. The Quakers grumbled and were persecuted.

MASSACHUSETTS COLONY.

A colony of Puritans settled at Salem in 1626, where "they resolved to remain as the Sentinels of Puritanism in the Bay of Massachusetts." The. settlement of Massachusetts was, at first, a corporation under a royal patent. In 1634, the first assembly of representatives of deputies from the towns met as a legislature. This was the second house of representatives in the New England colonies.-Moore's Life of Gov. Dudley, 285. This legislature was known as the General Court. In 1636, Connecticut was settled by a colony from Massachusetts. A settlement was made in Hartford, in 1637. In Jan. 14, 1639, the people of Windsor, Hartford and Wethersfield met at Hartford, and adopted a constitution for the colony, which was the basis of government for one hundred and fifty years.-Moore's Life of Gov. Haynes, 307. This constitution provided that all civil officers be voted for by ballot, by the whole body of freemen. That two sessions of the general

court or legislature should be holden annually. This was the first formal constitutional convention in New England. October 7th, 1691, a charter was granted to Massachusetts by William III, which included Plymouth. This union gave great offence to the people of Plymouth. They complained of Massachusetts, thus: "All the frame of heaven moves on one axis, and the whole of New England's interest seems designed to be loaden on one bottom, and her particular motions to be concentric to the Massachusetts tropic." "Few wise men rejoice at their chains."-Moore's Governors of Plymouth and Mass., 224. Massachusetts held a monopoly of the offices, and very few of the old residents of Plymouth, called the old colony, got office in the province of Massachusetts. The Puritans of Massachusetts repudiated the authority of the Church of England. They held that the authority of ordination should not exist in the clergy-that the clergy should be elected. The Governors of Plymouth and Massachusetts, as Justices of the Peace, solemnized marriages. Ministers of the Gospel were not allowed to solemnize marriage until 1692, as they did not want to "bring in the English custom of ministers performing the solemnity of marriage." Governor Winslow was married in Holland by a Dutch magistrate, and Governor Richard Bellingham, in the right of a magistrate, married himself.-Moore's Life Gov. Bellingham, 339. It is strange that the Puritans, who fled from English persecution, should themselves turn persecutors. The Puritans would not suffer the idea of toleration-they banished the Quakers as guilty of divers horrid errors. In 1658, a law was passed that "no Quaker, Ranter or any such corrupt person," should be permitted to be a freeman. All who opposed the Puritans were disabled from holding any office. A vagrant law was passed against Quaker preachers.

The commissioners of the United Colonies of New England, in 1658, issued a recommendation to the several colonies to put the Quakers to death "unless they publicly renounced their accursed errors." In 1637, Massachusetts banished Mrs. Anne Hutchison. In 1644, Massachusetts banished Quakers and made it penal to possess a Quaker book, or to entertain or conceal a Quaker; if banished Quakers returned they were to have their ears cut off; a female concealing or entertaining a Quaker was whipped. If the Quaker came back a second time his tongue was bored with a redhot iron. Moore's Governors of Massachusetts, 256. Quakers and members of the Church of England made violent complaints to the government of England against the intolerance of New England. Books and speeches were published in London by both parties. The struggle was kept up by the Puritans. Laws were passed against heresy, in 1646. It was ordered that the Quakers be whipped through the town, tied to a cart, and banished to the nearest town; if they should return, to be branded on the shoulder. Quakers were executed in 1659. So intolerant were the Puritans, that Governor Thomas Prence requested the Governor of Rhode Island to expel the Quakers from that colony. The Governor of Rhode Island answered: "As concerning these Quakers, who are now among us, we have no law among us whereby to punish any one for declaring by words, etc., their minds and understanding concerning things and the ways of God, as to salvation and eternal condition. And we moreover find, that in those places where these people in this colony are most of all suffered to declare themselves freely, and are only opposed by arguments in discourse, there they least of all desire to come." This answer offended the Puritans, and Rhode Island was excluded from the league of 1643.

RHODE ISLAND.

Roger Williams, a minister of Salem, Massachusetts, and 18 others entered

into a contract and founded a civil government. They were banished from Massachusetts for religious belief. They established the government of the majority. They held the following principles: "We whose names are under written, do hereby solemnly, in the presence of Jehovah, incorporate ourselves into a body politic, and as He shall help, will submit our persons, lives, and estates, unto our Lord Jesus Christ, the King of kings, and Lord of lords, and to all those perfect and absolute laws of his, given in his Holy Word of truth, to be judged and guided thereby." The Puritans imagined that they were the chosen children of God, and, like the Israelites of old, claimed the divine right to govern, and to banish all from the colony who differed with them in religion or politics. Governor Winthrop said, "It is yourselves who have called us to this office, and being called by you we have an authority from God." They claimed to be brought to the country from England, as the Israelites were brought from Egypt to the Holy Land. All who were not of the Puritan church had no toleration in the colony. "Let men of God in courts and churches watch o'er such as do a toleration hatch." All who did not belong to the established church of the colony of Massachusetts were excluded from office-and were not allowed to vote. Persons of the Church of England petitioned for liberty of conscience, or if that could not be granted, for freedom from taxes and military services. The Puritans held the argument that all men had liberty to do right, but no liberty to do wrong. "The established clergy had supreme control over the colony of Massachusetts and would not tolerate opposition."-Moore's Govs. Mass., 258. At the restoration of Charles II, in 1660, the complaints of the anti-Puritans were heard by the king, and in 1661, he issued his mandamus-"To our trusty and well-beloved John Endecott, Esquire, and to all and every other governor or governors of our plantations of New England, and of all the other colonies thereto belonging, that now are or hereafter shall be, and to all and every the ministers and officers of our plantations and colonies whatsoever within the continent of New England," which writ forbade further persecution of the Quakers. We may here remark that the Puritans derived their persecuting spirit from England.

In 1643, the colonies united against the Indians. One of the greatest delusions of the age, and one which the Puritans inherited from their Anglo-Saxon ancestors, was that of witchcraft. It was one of the sad delusions of ignorance and intolerance. The Puritans in the fulness of their zeal hanged witches for the good of their souls, the glory of God and the glory of the colony. In 1656, a sister of Governor Bellingham was executed in Massachusetts on a charge of witchcraft.--Moore's Govs. Mass., 344. Vide Cudmore's Irish Republic, p. 304. As early as 1634, the government of England wished to establish a general government for all the colonies of New England. Sir Ferdinand Gorges was selected as governor of New England Colonies. But the difficulties of Charles I, in his war in Ireland, -O'Neill's rebellion 1641-prevented this tyrannical act from consummation. Thus this great Irish rebellion prevented Laud from trampling on the chartered rights of New England. So much for Ireland's struggle for independence.-Moore's Life Gov. Winslow, 115-16. In 1674, Sir Edmond Andros was made military governor of the territories, which the crown had granted to the Duke of York. He received possession of New York from the Dutch authorities. He made himself dictator in civil, military and religious matters. He made an attempt to reduce Connecticut under his jurisdiction. Andros would not admit an assembly of the people of New York. The people had no share in the government until 1683, when Governor Dongan came into power, when an assembly of the