PART II. tition to NEW ENGLAND. Second pe-lish or Indians; as to their humble address unto your Charles II. royal father for his further and more particular counfor a char- tenance and encouragement of them in these their so ter. reception happy and so successful beginnings. As to their obtaining a charter of civil incorporation the grounding of their government thereupon, and causing all the visible acts of power to issue forth in his majesty's name: "And lastly, as to their manner of the entertaining the first intelligence they had of your majesty's return to your royal throne, in causing a general court to be forthwith called, and therein as a testimony of their Touching ready and joyful reception of you, and of their faithful their loyal allegiance and loyalty to you, in that they did order of of his res-their own accord and with joint consent, that your toration. majesty should be forthwith proclaimed with as much solemnity as they could in all the towns of their colony; and that all judicial proceedings and acts of power should issue forth in your royal name. Affirma "Wherefore your petitioners humbly pray your majtion of un-esty's favorable aspect towards them, who have still in bending allegiance. their remove and in the rest of their actings, made it manifest that they, as the true natives of England, have firmly adhered in their allegiance and loyalty to the sovereignty thereof, although by strangers by many fair proffers again and again allured therefrom, and have it much on their hearts (if they may be permitted) to hold forth a lively experiment, that a flourishing civil state may stand, yea, and best be maintained, and that among English spirits, with a full liberty in religious concernments, and that true piety rightly Religious grounded upon gospel principles, will give the best and liberty the security of greatest security to true sovereignty, and will lay in all govern- the hearts of men the strongest obligations to true loyment. alty; to which end we are humbly bold, royal sire, to present to your majesty this our first and second address, and therewith humbly prostrate ourselves, your royal highness' subjects, with our purchase and our THE COLONY OF RHODE ISLAND. PART II. charter government, at your majesty's feet; hopefully craving we may find such grace in your sight, as to receive from your majesty a more absolute, ample, and free charter of civil incorporation, whereby under the wing of your Character royal protection, we may not only be sheltered, but of the (having the blessing of the Most High superadded as prayed for. from former experience we have good grounds to expect) may be caused to flourish in our civil and religious concernments in these remote parts of the world; so shall your servants take themselves greatly obligedwhile they are quietly permitted with freedom of conscience to worship the Lord their God as they are persuaded to pray for the life of the king, even that he may live forever and ever, and to make it their study which way they may best approve themselves. "Your Royal Majesty's most humble, faithful, and * 1 Bartobedient subjects. JOHN CLARKE."* lett's Col. Rec., R. I., 489. At what date precisely these petitions were drawn, The petihow great an interval elapsed between them, or what tions. were the particular causes of delay or uncertainty which attended this negotiation for a charter from the crown, we have no means of ascertaining. The colonial records are silent on the subject. But the petitions themselves are important as showing the character of the people who planted the colony, the principles which they advocated, and the nature of the experiment they had undertaken in this far off land, in the midst of the fiercest and most powerful of its native Indian tribes. An experiment the grandest and most interesting of any that had as yet been attempted in any age or coun-The experitry, or even hitherto in New England. An experiment Rhode which should demonstrate to the world "that a flour-Island. ishing civil state may stand, yea and best be maintained, with a full liberty in religious concernments; and that true piety rightly grounded on gospel principles, will give the best and greatest security to true sovereignty, ment in Reception and will lay in the hearts of men the strongest obliga of a char ter from King tions to truer loyalty" to the governing power. The earliest intimation we have of the result of this Nov., 1663. negotiation, is contained in the record of the sitting of the general court, at Newport, November twenty-fourth, 1663, at which time, we are informed, ter dis "It was ordered and voted, nem contra dicente, "VOTED 1. That Mr. John Clarke, the colony agent's letter to the president, assistants and freemen of the colony, be opened and read, which accordingly was done with good delivery and attention. "VOTED 2. That the box in which the king's gracious letters were enclosed be opened, and the letters with the broad seal thereto affixed be taken forth and read The char- by captain George Baxter in the audience and view of played and all the people, which was accordingly done; and the read before said letters with his majesty's royal stamp and the the people. broad seal, with much becoming gravity, held up on high and presented to the perfect view of the people, and then returned into the box and locked up by the governor, in order to the safe keeping of it. Thanks to the king. The free 1663. "VOTED 3. That the most humble thanks of this colony unto our gracious sovereign lord, king Charles the second, of England, for the high and inestimable, yea incomparable grace and favor unto the colony in giving those his gracious letters pattent unto us; may be returned by the governor and deputy governor on the behalf of the whole colony." This charter incorporated the colony as The GovernCharter of or and Company of the English Colonies of Providence and Rhode Island Plantations in New England in America. It was in substance and reality a re-affirmance of the grant from the Earl of Warwick, with a more accurate designation of its precincts. It placed the colony on an equal footing with the other colonies, allayed all animosities, and led to the establishment of a fraternal intercourse between them. Under it the executive power was vested in a president or gov The govunder it. ernment THE COLONY OF RHODE ISLAND. PART II. free char ernor, deputy governor, and ten assistants elected by Under the the freemen of the plantation. The legislative author-ter of ity consisted of the chief magistrates, the ten assist-Charles II. ants, and delegates chosen from the several towns. Newport was entitled to send six delegates, and the towns of Providence, Portsmouth, and Warwick, four each; and all other towns two each. The governor or deputy governor, with six assistants, constituted a quorum for the transaction of executive business. general assembly was vested with full power, to enact laws, admit freemen, choose public officers, establish courts of justice, punish offences, and generally to do whatever was necessary for the common defence and general welfare of the inhabitants of the colony. The secured by The most remarkable feature in this charter, and that Religious which distinguished it from those of the other colonies, liberty was, unqualified religious toleration. It provided "that charter no person within the colony at any time hereafter shall crown. be in any way molested, punished, or destroyed, dis from the quieted, or called in question, for any difference of opin- * 2 Bartion in matters of religion, and do not disturb the peace letts Co., of the colony.”* 37. This was the first royal charter which recognized and protected the right of religious liberty; and it may at first seem strange that it should have emanated from such a monarch as Charles II., and at such a time in the history of the mother country. The principle for which so many trials had been endured, for which so many sacrifices had been made, so many lives periled, and so much blood poured out, was at length fully guaranteed under the royal seal. We will not boast of it as a New England, but are content and rejoice to say it was an American achievement. It was the proudest tri-The protumph yet recorded for the advocates of human liberty.ments de It illustrates the progress of human improvement, and veloped by magnifies while it demonstrates the power and the lib-ter. eralizing and conservative influences, of the essential ele the char Under the elements of freedom inherent in a true Protestant free char ter of Charles II. Christianity. Hence there may well linger in the minds of the curious and the inquisitive a degree of surprise that a charter so liberal should have received the sanction of Charles II. Among the variety of speculations on the subject put forth by different historians, I have found none which satisfy the enquiry. The charter of the colony of Connecticut, procured by the younger Winthrop from the same monarch, though not so liberal in its provisions as this to Rhode Island, gave rise to similar speculations. But they are made in forgetfulness, or disregard, of the progress of free principles as devel oped both in England and America during the suspenOrigin of sion of the regal authority. The idea of supremacy provisions, in the sovereign, if not wholly annihilated by the exe its free English impressions of America cution of Charles I., became at any rate afterwards so essentially modified throughout Great Britain that it could not again command the same unquestioned allegiance it had formerly done. Besides, whatever feeling of dissatisfaction might endanger the stability of the throne, in the person of the restored prince, was well disposed of by turning it to the outlet opened in America. Not only so, but the experiment had already been tried in New England, and the success of it proved in Rhode Island, that freedom of opinion, and freedom of conscience, and freedom of worship, could well consist with loyalty to the civil power in the state. It is evident that these liberal sentiments had so infused themselves into the minds of all classes of men, both in the church and the state, that the sovereign could not with safety to his crown refuse to recognize their distinctive existence and practical operation. Again, it is evident that until after the restoration of Charles II. the full extent, value, and importance of before the her possessions in America was not at all known, or even suspected, in England. The rapid and vigorous growth of the colonies of New England and Virginia, restoration. |