The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1915-04-22

which Impose . severe penalt!
| entire q
HE business of both church and
state had altered very ominously
| = in England during the eventful
years which brought James reign to a
close and gave Englishmen their first
taste Of Charles quality. The air had
filled with signs of revolution. and it was
| one of the most serious Of these tina,
the Puritans, who had once been merely
champions Of pure doctrine and a sim
plified worship with the church, had
now become a political party, and were
trying to put a curb upon the King In
] every matter.
James had come to the throne and
! srievously disappointed them; and
Charles. after him, had turned out to
| be not even a serious opponent of Rome
Itself. He dismissed the Parliament OF
l629, resolved to have done with Parlia-
ments For eleven years he kept his
resolve. No Parliament was summoned;
money was raised without warrant of
| law; and the government was conducted
entirely as he willed
| 1t was in that way he brought great
, revolution on and lost his head, for he
was dealing with men who could not
safely be defied. But for the moment
he seemed master. The first shock of
such events was enough to dismay men
who were lovers Of law and of right.
who had intended no revolution. who had
meant to fight tyranny only by legal proc
ess and in behalf of privileges acknowl-
edged time out of mind. Even stout
hearted men lost hope for a little. and
thought their cause undone in that dark
year 1879. when they saw their leaders
in the Kings prisons. and the King
masterful and hot against all who dared
so much as protest. And SO a new exc
dus began, not to Holland this time.
but direct to America-an exodus not of
separatists, Of whom the law had al
ready made outlaws, but of those sober
Puritans who had remained in the
church, and had been its hope OF re-
form.
company had been formed among
them for the purpose of attempting a
settlement in America even before the
end of all Puritan hopes had seemed to
come. Lands had been purchased from
the Council for New England i'll March.
les. and a party of settlers had been
sent out that very summer under John
Endecott. a blunt. passionate. willful
man, hard to deal with, but more etfi-
cient than any other the company could
find and more likely to succeed. lie
chose Salem, not far within the northern
cape of the great Bay of Massachusetts,,
as his place of settlement; and when Il
large body OF new settlers were sent out
to him the next summer he and his peO-
pie were ready for them. with houses
built and crops ripeninE. That same year.
1872. the company in England obtained a
charter from the crown and assumed
new Importance and authority as The
Governor and Company of Massachusetts
Bay in New England.
The real rulers Of the new colony had
no mind to conduct their business in
London I'm open courts under the eye of
the King. and draw all the talk of the
town upon them. as the Virginia Com
pany had done. There was nothing in
their charter which prescribed where the
councils of the company should meet.
They made bold. therefore, to take their
charter and all the business done under
it with them to America.
More than seventeen ships and q thous-
and colonists got away from the western
and southern seaports-Bristol, Ply
mouth. Weymouth, Southampton-in the
spring and summer of 1850. Mr.. John
Winthrop, n man of gentle breeding, OF
of private means. and OF the !
high principles of the best Puritan tradi- |
ton. a man trained to the law, and. what !
was much better. schooled in firm but |
moderate temper0sweet yet commanding |
going out as governor to supersede En- |
decott. Thomas Dudley went as his dep !
uty. a man cast in another mold and of
another type. a doughty Puritan soldier
who had served under Henry of Navarro. |
an incorporating partisan. more man. |
alarms than statesman.
Want and diseases had done their ac-
customed work among Endecott's people |
before the new governor and company
reached the bay. It was necessary to
at once and begin other settle
ments where Mr. Winthrops people
might prepare shelter for the winter.
As soon as possible. therefore. places
were chosen. WATERFOWL. Roxbury. Bos-
ton. Dorchester were begun. and the
Of Charlestown. already be-
gun before their coming, was pushed for
places far within the bay. I
where groups Of sheltering islands
shouldered out the heavier seas. and
harbors were quiet. But the work was
sadly belated. Autumn had come and
was gone before much could be accom-
plished. A full hundred of the immi-
grants lost heart and went back with
he ships to England Winter found
hose who remained short of food and
still without sufficient shelter, and want
and disease claimed 200 victims among
hem. Even the ships they despatched
hastily to England for corn brought very
little when they came again, for grain
vas scarce and dear at home also.
With the spring came health and hope
again. as always: but bad news. too.
Those who had returned home disheart-
med had spread damaging reports about
he colony. not only telling Of the sore
traits 1t was in to live. but also de- :
:laring that Mr.. Winthrop and his peo-
lie had openly repudiated the Church
Il England and turned separatists. like
he people at Plymouth. It was difficult