Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1856-08-01

lief were held as delinquencies calling Tor
severe punishment. Among the strict
est laws, was one compelling all persons
not mere infants to attend church. New
" escaped, as they were, from persecu-
ton for conscience sake at home, they
had not learned to be tolerant to any doc
trines, which to themselves seemed |
strange. There was Roger Williams at
Salem-a man of accurate and capri
cious understanding, who had ''revolved
the nature of intolerance" and ARRIVED
at the great principle which is its sole
effeetual remedy''-the sanctity of the
conscience. "The civil magistrate" he
said, SHOULD restrain crime, but never
violate the freedom Of the SOUL" On
this doctrine, he reasoned luminously,
accepting every fair inference from it,
and with great ingenuity repelling every
objection. 1t brought him painfully in
collision with his fellow-citizens, for he
condemned the law for church-attendance,
as one violating natural rights, and tend
ing to generate hypocrisy. What must
have been more exasperaing, he said
than to select magistrates exclusively
from members of the church, was no more
reasonable than it would be to choose a
doctor of physic or pilot according to
his skill in theology. "The controversy,
says Mr.. Bancroft, FINALLY turned on the
rights and duties of magistrates to guard
the minds of the people against corrup-
ton, and to punish what would seem to
them error and heresy. Magistrates,
Williams protested, are but the agents of
the people, or its trustees, on whom NO
spiritual power, in matters of worship
can ever be conferred; since conscience
belongs to the individual, and is not the
property Of the body polite; and, with
admirable dialectics, clothing the great
truth in its boldest and most general
forms, he asserted that the civil magis-
trate may not intermeddle even to stop
a church from apostocy and heresy-that
this power extends only to the bodies and
goods, and outward estate ofmen.' With
corresponding distinctness, he foresaw
the influence Of his principles on society
The removal of the yoke of soul-op-
preston, as it will prove an act of mercy
and righteousness to the enslaved nations
so it is of binding force to engage the
! whole and every interest and conscience
to preserve the common liberty an:
! peace
; Lamentable to say, the settlers of Mas
sachusetts could not put up with the nov
el doctrine of Williams; and he had t.
fly from his home at an inclement season
and seek shelter among the Indians
The man to whom the honor is due O
>. being the first on earth to announce thu
i great doctrine of soul-liberty, wanderers
~ in the wilderness without guide, and of
ten had no house except hollow tree
n At a more propitious season, he wen
with five companies to Narraganset bay
n and, making small Independent settle
q ment, proved the founder of the State @
O Rhode Island. He took care, of course
Y to exclude the magistrates of this infan
= community from any concern in the at
e fairs of conscience. The character a
1t first given to its institutions had neve
to been obliterated. Mr.. Bancroft says =
10 "The annals of Rhode Island, if write
lie in the spirit of philosophy, would exhib
at the forms of society under peculiar a.
is pect; had the territory of the State COZ
to responded to the importance and singt
st larity of the principles of its early ext.
ID tence, the world would have been file
E. with wonder at the phenomena of its e.
rs istence."