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

DRQK WILSON
lsetts Company
nent 7cith the President through
e1uspaper Syndicate.
by Harper & Brothers,
,Clure Newspaper syndicate)
y protected under the copyright laws
for infringement by use either
Z in part.
/ to quiet these reports. because they were
practically true.
They tried to explain away their novel
proceedings when they wrote to persons
Of influence at home; they tried to per-
suade even themselves that they were
| not separatists. but only a distant and
necessarily distinct fragment Of the
Church of England, Of the form which
| they hoped and expected to see that great
| church some day assume; but they were.
in fact. founding a separate establish
ment which denied the authority of the
mother church altogether.
Virginia had slowly grown to a popula-
ton of 5000. while the Puritans organized
their company and transported it to
America. Virginians bore themselves very
much as EnSlishmen did everywhere.
There was nothing peculiar about them
except their hardihood. as of frontiers
men, and their knowledge Of how life
| was to he managed and set forward in
a wilderness. 1t had not made much diff
ference among them that the Virginia
! Company was dissolved and the colony
put into the hands of the King. Vir-
! ginians wished their individual rights to
! be left untouched. and watched their
government narrowly to see that it did
not impose upon them; but their life
went well enough. and they were not dis
posed to seek radical changes either in
church or state.
New Netherland grew also. in a way
! which might have looked to chance
! victor very like the growth of Virginia.
The Dutch West India Company had
| found that if they kept to the plan with
which they had begun. they could not
hope to make anything out of their slow
growing settlement at Fort Amsterdam.
The council of the company. accordingly
determined to offer large tracts Of land
to any one who would send over at his
own cost fifty adult settlers. with stores
and equipment-and with the land eN-
traordinary powers of independent con-
troll. which should constitute the owner
sort of feudal prince. as PATRON
and lord of his estate.
The Dutch farmers and peasants who
slowly filled the estates of the pa
troons with tenants were not like the
free yeoman of the southern colony
of the English They were just as
little like the New England colonists
to the northward. Among these set
Element had still another way OF
growth. They did not develop by the
slow spreading of private estates alons
the river valleys. The New England
valleys were not fertile; the rivers
were not deep or broad enough to be
the highways of the colony
The sort of government the Puritan
settlers wished to maintain, more
over. would have been almost impos-
siblc had the people not kept together
in close groups for common action
and worship. The governor and COM
pany who ruled Massachusetts, Bay
governed there very watchfully in the
midst of the settlements. and took
care to know the men to whom they
made grants of land. Sometimes they
made grants to individuals for special
services or liberal contributions to
the company's funds; but usually they
who meant to form communities, and
who were under the leadership of per-
sons whom the governor and his as
sociates trusted.
The government of the colony as a
whole was by no means so democratic.
The company" governed: and the COM
pany consisted only of those who were
as "freemen' by its own vote.
At first there were only twenty such
bay. and twelve of these were the officers
of the company. By slow degrees the
was enlarged: but the company
was very reluctant and very cautious
a bout increasing its membership Four
years went by before there were SO many
as $50 "freemen," and by that time there
were more than 5000 settlers.
The King and his ministers oversee
did not fail to observe how the company
made its colony stronghold for the OBJ
Puritans. The temper of
Charles government grew harsher and
harsher during those first years of set !
Element at the bay. and became as med |
dlesome and tyrannical in the manage
ment of the church as in the MANAGE
ment of the State. In 1853 he had made |
Laud Archbishop of Canterbury. Now he |
was backing the implacable primate in |
4 thorough-goinS and pitiless attempt to !
clear the church of all Puritans and nom |
Laud was quick to see what |
comfort the rapidly growing colony at !
Bay gave his enemies, |
and complained very holly that it was /
filing up with persons openly hostile to !
he Kings government. Certain persons
with the old council for New |
Jealous of the prosperous COM
oany at the bay. with its Independent |
'oyal charter. easily persuaded the all
powerful archbishop, and through him
he law officers Of the crown, to take /
steps to destroy it: and in 1886 the blow
anne. A judgment was obtained against
he Massachusetts charter in the court |
II Kings Bench: the government Of the |
,olony was declared transferred into the
Kings hands. as the government of Vir-
sinia had been. and orders were issued
which authorized the dispatch Of a COVER
Tor general. to be accompanied. II neces-
AIRY. by an armed force.
Tomorrow - The Province of