The Beginnings of New England | Page 3

the House of Commons (June 5, 1628) ... 98, 99
The King turns Parliament out of doors (March 2, 1629) ... 100
Desperate nature of the crisis ... 100, 101
The meeting at Cambridge (Aug. 26, 1629), and decision to transfer the charter of the Massachusetts Bay Company, and the government established under it, to New England ... 102
Leaders of the great migration; John Winthrop ... 102
And Thomas Dudley ... 103
Founding of Massachusetts; the schemes of Gorges overwhelmed ... 104
Beginnings of American constitutional history; the question as to self-government raised at Watertown ... 105
Representative system established ... 106
Bicameral assembly; story of the stray pig ... 107
Ecclesiastical polity; the triumph of Separatism ... 108
Restriction of the suffrage to members of the Puritan congregational churches ... 109
Founding of Harvard College ... 110
Threefold danger to the New England settlers in 1636:--
1. From the King, who prepares to attack the charter, but is foiled by dissensions at home ... 111-113
2. From religious dissensions; Roger Williams ... 114-116 Henry Vane and Anne Hutchinson ... 116-119 Beginnings of New Hampshire and Rhode Island ... 119-120
3. From the Indians; the Pequot supremacy ... 121
First movements into the Connecticut valley, and disputes with the Dutch settlers of New Amsterdam ... 122, 123
Restriction of the suffrage leads to disaffection in Massachusetts; profoundly interesting opinions of Winthrop and Hooker ... 123, 124
Connecticut pioneers and their hardships ... 125
Thomas Hooker, and the founding of Connecticut ... 120
The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut (Jan 14, 1639); the first written constitution that created a government ... 127
Relations of Connecticut to the genesis of the Federal Union ... 128
Origin of the Pequot War; Sassacus tries to unite the Indian tribes in a crusade against the English ... 129, 130
The schemes of Sassacus are foiled by Roger Williams ... 130
The Pequots take the war path alone ... 131
And are exterminated ... 132-134
John Davenport, and the founding of New Haven ... 135
New Haven legislation, and legend of the "Blue Laws" ... 136
With the meeting of the Long Parliament, in 1640, the Puritan exodus comes to its end ... 137
What might have been ... 138, 391
CHAPTER IV.
THE NEW ENGLAND CONFEDERACY.
The Puritan exodus was purely and exclusively English ... 140
And the settlers were all thrifty and prosperous; chiefly country squires and yeomanry of the best and sturdiest type ... 141, 142
In all history there has been no other instance of colonization so exclusively effected by picked and chosen men ... 143
What, then, was the principle of selection? The migration was not intended to promote what we call religious liberty ... 144, 145
Theocratic ideal of the Puritans ... 146
The impulse which sought to realize itself in the Puritan ideal was an ethical impulse ... 147
In interpreting Scripture, the Puritan appealed to his Reason ... 148, 149
Value of such perpetual theological discussion as was carried on in early New England ... 150, 151
Comparison with the history of Scotland ... 152
Bearing of these considerations upon the history of the New England confederacy ... 153
The existence of so many colonies (Plymouth, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Haven, Rhode Island, the Piscataqua towns, etc.) was due to differences of opinion on questions in which men's religious ideas were involved ... 154
And this multiplication of colonies led to a notable and significant attempt at confederation ... 155
Turbulence of dissent in Rhode Island ... 156
The Earl of Warwick, and his Board of Commissioners ... 157
Constitution of the Confederacy ... 158
It was only a league, not a federal union ... 159
Its formation involved a tacit assumption of sovereignty ... 160
The fall of Charles I. brought up, for a moment, the question as to the supremacy of Parliament over the colonies ... 161
Some interesting questions ... 162
Genesis of the persecuting spirit ... 163
Samuel Gorton and his opinions ... 163-165
He flees to Aquedneck and is banished thence ... 166
Providence protests against him ... 167
He flees to Shawomet, where he buys land of the Indians ... 168
Miantonomo and Uncas ... 169, 170
Death of Miantonomo ... 171
Edward Johnson leads an expedition against Shawomet ... 172
Trial and sentence of the heretics ... 173
Winthrop declares himself in a prophetic opinion ... 174
The Presbyterian cabal ... 175-177
The Cambridge Platform; deaths of Winthrop and Cotton ... 177
Views of Winthrop and Cotton as to toleration in matters of Religion ... 178
After their death, the leadership in Massachusetts was in the hands of Endicott and Norton ... 179
The Quakers; their opinions and behavior ... 179-181
Violent manifestations of dissent ... 182
Anne Austin and Mary Fisher; how they were received in Boston ... 183
The confederated colonies seek to expel the Quakers; noble attitude of Rhode Island ... 184
Roger Williams appeals to his friend, Oliver Cromwell ... 185
The "heavenly speech" of Sir Harry Vane ... 185
Laws passed against the Quakers ... 186
How the death penalty was regarded at that time in New England ... 187
Executions of Quakers on Boston Common ... 188, 189
Wenlock Christison's defiance