Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-08-03

most important farm in the colony. Cod
dington was the first importer of thor
oughbred cattle and horses, and his house
became the rendezvous of the most bril-
liant intellectual lights In the colony.
Gov. Sir Harry Vane was his frequent
visitor, and every other prominent man
on the coast. At this time a theological
conflict known as the Antinomlan con-
troversy'' broke out. 1t was question
between religious liberation and theology
cal conformity. salvation by faith or by
works, and Coddington, being of liberal
views and having left England in order
to enjoy the privilege of his own opinion,
was, of course, on the liberal side and at
tracted liberals to his home. But he was
not strong enough to maintain himself,
was expelled from Massachusetts, and
compelled to move to Rhode Island. AS
a famous writer has said: Had Cod
dington and his associates triumphed,
Baptists might not have been banished,
Quakers and witches might not have been
done to death and hundred years of in
tellectual torpor and bgotry might not
have blighted the fair promise of Massa-
chusetts history"
ed to the Mount were William Mutchin-
son and Anne Hutchinson. his wife, of
Boston. The latter was the first woman
in America who dared to speak out III
meeting" She was first to organize a
womans club; she was the first who had
the nerve to criticise Puritan doctrines
and the preaching of the ministers she
was arraigned before the great and gen
eral court for holding meetings in her
own house, "a thing not tolerable. not
cornely in the sigh of God, nor fitting for
her sex" And she was banlshed from the
colony.
Among her sympathzers was the Rev.
John Wheelwright who had been col
leee mate of Oliver Cromwell and was
possessed Of similar characteristics. his
wife was cousin of Anne Hutchinson,
and he defended her right to think and
speak as her conscience preferred
Guilty of "Sedition.
For a few months Wheelwright preach
ed at Mount Wollaston and early in the
spring of 1887 q meeting house was built
for him. But he had scarcely organized
his congregation when he, too, was called
before the general court, declared guilty
of "sedition' and banished. His congre-
CATION was deprived of arms, were for
hidden to meet together and otherwise
treated as traitors. Edmund Quincy died
of modification? Coddington abandoned
his farm and followed Roger Williams to
Rhode Island, where he became the first
governor Of that colony. Thus ended the
first attempt to enjoy religious liberty in
New England.
But the seed was sown and grew, and
the worshipers who met at Coddington' $
house to hear William Wheelwright
preach afterward organized the first
church Of Quincy, in which two Presidents
of the United States lie at rest.
The society was organized in 1899. John
Hancock's father was its minister for
many years. The present Temple was
erected in 1927 The present pastor is
William E,llery Charming Butler The
change from the Congregational to the
Unitarian creed occurred gradually. AS
IF or4c1aS pXnOunHpI il
NO one knows when it begun and no
one can tell if it has ended yet
The church is gray, grim and solid, with
fight of steps leading up to 1t from the
sidewalk over the portico rises a bell
tower and a lantern shaped like those
of the pagan period In Rome John
Of stone, and in his will provided that
a temple for the worship of God should
be built of it, In the center aisle, five
rows back from the lofty pulpit, is '"The
Presidents Pew" which was occupied by
John Quincy Adams whenever he was at
home and later by his son, Charles
Francis Adams, and their descendants.
The adjoining pew belongs to the Quincy
family and was first occupied by one of
the several Josiah Q.'s." who was presi-
dent of Harvard College and is supposed
to have written the epitaphs of the two
Adamses which are inscribed upon tablets
eacn S1Oe OF the pulpit. IHey are eloIuSul
tributes written in Addisonian English
Only One Living.
A carpenter who was mending one of
the pews told me that only one of the
Adams family was left alive in town, al
though thirty or forty dead ones are
buried in the Wollaston cemetery two
thirds OF mile east of the Village.
In the crypt John Adams and his wife,
Abigail, and John Quincy Adams and his
wife, Louisa Catherine Adams rest from
their labors in granite boxes and their
works do follow them The epitaph upon
the tomb Of John Adams reads as fol-
lows.
ION the 4th of July, 1925 he was sum-
moned to the Independence of Immor
tally and to the Judgment Of his God.
This House will bear witness to his Piety;
this town. his Birthplace. to his munifi-
cence; History to his Patriatsm; Pos
terity to the Depth and Compass of his
Mind
PILGRIMS.
From lives thus spent thy earthly duties learn.
From fancys dream to active virtues turn
Let freedom. friendship faith thy soul engage,
And serve, like them, thy country and thy age.
The bier used at the funeral of John
Quincy Adams and the casket In which
his body was brought from Washington,
where he died, while member OF the
House Of Representatives, stand beside
his saroophaSus.
John Adams suggested his own epitaph.