Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-07-15
MASSACHUSETTS Tercentenary,

Massachusetts, there she stands
northumberland exemplar of con-
stitutional government in North America,
predestined, despite her foundation
within the framework of an empire, to
become the model for liberty under law
throughout vast continent It is fit
ting that the Old Bay Colony should
foregather in its myriads on Boston
Common this anniversary day to COM
memorate events which had their in
ception on the bleak shores of New
England in 1880. Massachusetts claims
the day for her own. The Nation at
large shares in its glories and imperish-
able memories.
OF special appropriateness are the
appearance at the celebration of a dis
stinguished Englishman as orator of the
day and the attendance of the British
Ambassador TO the United States. For,
though three centuries of Massachusetts
have accustomed us to think of her in
exclusively American terms, it .needs to
be remembered that the charter by
which the self-governing Commonwealth
came into existence was conceived,
signed, sealed and delivered in England.
1t was strongly tinctured with the iodine
of Runnymede. Its terms ran in
favor of Englishmen, who were origi-
nally mere partners in a trading COM
pany. James Truslow Adams, in his
Founding of New England" reminds
us that 1.-The rulers of this Common
wealth treated the charter as if it were
the constitution of an independent
state" Doubtfully legal as such an in
depreciation was, Mr.. Adams adds, 1T
was a completely new departure, which,
In its far-reaching consequences, was
one of the most important events in the
development of the British colonies"
So under Charles I were planted in this
soil the seeds of movement which was
70 fructify into the War of the Revolu-
ton and the foundation of the United
Stass of America.
Under the governorship of John VIM
throp and the deputy governorship OF
John Humphrey, band of between 900
and 900 immigrants landed in America
in the early Summer of 1880 and settled
what were later known as the towns OF
Charlestown, Boston, Medford, Water
town, Roxbury, Lynn and Dorchester.
Hardships almost uncomfortable ensued as
the architects of American independence
literally pitched their wind-swept tents
on terrain that soon became freezingly
inhospitable. Often conditions of cold
and famine caused Winthrop and his
comrades to consider the abandonment
of the noble experiment" of that pri-
meval day. Political differences began
to manifest themselves in the church
state" springing mainly from the fact
that among community of 1000 per-
sons. all political rights were limited to
ga tiny self-perpetusting oligarehial
group of not more than a dozen citi-
GEMS" Ninety-nine and one-half per
cent Of the population was thus unen-
franchised and unrepresented. 1t was
even denied the right of appeal to the
higher authorities in England.
AS the cultured DR.. Fisher of oxford
and Sir Ronald Lindsay stand on Bos-
ton Commons today, and let their minds
travel back to those early hours of CON
stitutionalisrn" in America, they will
realize how far the conception of gov
eminent has progressed since Win
throp's day 1t was none other than
that intrepid pioneer himself who wrote
that democracy, amongst civil nations,
Is accounted the meanest and worst of
all forms Of government"
Much water has run beneath the
bridges of the Charles since that strange
sentiment found utterance. Massachu-
sets, on this, her natal day as free
State, may not feel that democracy I'M
der the American system has Powered
into perfect plant. But under univer-
sal suffrage-except in the de-Ameri-
canized District of Columbia-and a
Federal Constitution which has with
stood the shock of nearly century and
a half Of experience, our form Of gov
eminent typifies today fiber of quality
which reduces Winthrop's bigoted con-
ception of democracy to an historical
absurdity. He sowed better than he
knew.