Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1858-04-01
Roger Williams.

Roger Williams.
In 1880, there was large emigration from
England to Massachusetts,, chiefly Puritans, in
Guiding many men of high endowments, some of
large fortune, several good scholars, and eminent
cergymen 1t wasnow that the city of Boston
was founded. In those days. when the Scnp-
lures, with their wonderful narratons and
deep spiritual reachings, were a novelty to the
intelligent English mind, men acted towards
them and from them with an earnestness which
we scarcely see anywhere now The Puritans
desired no other rule of life, Or any better code
OF public laws. Massachusetts, therefore, be-
came kind of theoretic republic. All men
were expected to vote, but not unless they were
- church members" Scofings and hesitations
In belief were held as delinquencies calling for
severe punishment. Among the strictest laws,
was one compelling all persons not mere in
iants to attend church. Newly escaped, as they
We're, from persecution for conscience sake at
home, they had not learned to be tolerent to any
doctrines, which 10 themselves seemed strange
There was Roger Williams at Salem--a man of
accurate and capacious understanding who had
g revolved the nature of intolerance" and Ear
rived at the great principle which is its sole ef-
fectual remedy'-the sanctity of the conscience
$ The civil magistrate he said, should re-
strain crime, but never violate the freedom of
the SOUL On this doctrine, he reasoned lu-
mlnously, accepting every fair inference from it
and with great ingenuity repelling every objec-
tion, 1t brought him painfully in collision
with his fellow-citizens, for he condemned the
law for church-attendance, as one violating
natural rights, and tending to generate hypoc-
racy' What must have been more exasperating
he said, than to select magistrates exclusively
from members Of the church, was no more rea-
sonable than it would be te choose doctor of
physic Or pilot according to his skill in theol-
ogy. "The controversy" says Mr.. Bancroft,
&c finally turned on the rights and duties of
magistrates to guard the minds of the people
against corruption 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 con-
ferred; since conscience belongs to the individ-
ual, andis 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 g civil magistrate may not
intermedde even to save a church from aposta-
cy and heresy-that this power extends only to
the bodies and goods, and outward estate of men.
With corresponding distinctness, he foresaw the
influence of his principles on society, The re-
moval of the yoke of soul-oppresion, 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 con-
science, to preserve the common liberty and
peace"
Lamentablc to say, the settlers of Massachu-
setts could not put up with the novel doctrine
of Williams; and he had to fly from his home
at an inclement season, and seek shelter among
the Indians The man to whom the honor is
due of being the first on earth to announce the
great doctrine of soul-liberty, wandered in the
wilderness without guide, and often had no
house except hollow tree. AT more propi-
tious season, he went with five companies to
Narraganset bay, and, making small indcpen-
dent settlement, proved the founder of the State
of Rhode Island. He took care, of course, to
exclude the magistrates of this infant communi-
ty from any concern in the affairs of conscience.
The character at first given to its institutions
has never been obliterated Mr. Bancroft says
The annals of Rhode Island, if written in the
spirit of philosophy would exhibit the forms of
society under peculiar aspect had the terri
tory of the State corresponded to the importance
and singularity Of the principles of its early
existence the world would have been filed with
wonder at the phenomena of its existence, "