Landing of the Pilgrims.
They had experienced what despotism was, and they determined from the first to be a self-governing people. In memory of the hospitalities which they had received at the last English port from which they had sailed, this colony took the name of Plymouth.
The years which followed the settlement of Plymouth was a time through which good men found it bitter to live. Charles I., was upon the throne of England. William Laud, archbishop of Canterbury, was the king's right-hand man for dealing out persecution. Whoever refused to perform the religious ceremonies commanded by Laud was forthwith imprisoned. A Scotch clergyman named Leighton, was publicly whipped, branded on the cheek, had one of his ears cut off and his nostrils slit, for calling Laud's ceremonies the inventions of men. Many others were treated in a similar manner. Meanwhile John Hampden, the incorruptible patriot, was arrested for not paying an unlawful tax. A greater than he—his cousin, Oliver Cromwell—was leading his quiet, rural life at Huntington, not without many anxious and indignant thoughts about the evils of his time. He walked over his fields and along the streams,
"Pondering the solemn miracle of lifeAs one who, wandering in a starless night,Feels momently the jar of unseen waves,And hears the thunder of an unknown seaBreaking along an unimagined shore.And as he walked he prayed."
"Pondering the solemn miracle of lifeAs one who, wandering in a starless night,Feels momently the jar of unseen waves,And hears the thunder of an unknown seaBreaking along an unimagined shore.And as he walked he prayed."
The weary victims of this senseless persecution looked to New England for refuge. The pilgrims wrote to their friends at home; and every letter was read with interest. They had hardships to tell of at first; then they had prosperity and comfort; always they had liberty! Every Summer a few ships were freighted for the settlements. At one time eight ships lay in the Thames, with their passengers on board, when the order was issued, that no one should leave without the king's permission. The soldiers cleared the ships, and the poor emigrants were driven back in despair to endure the miseries from which they were so eager to escape. Among these were Hampden and Cromwell. Well would it have been for theking if he had let them go! But God had a work for them to do. They were to be the instruments in His hand
"To hurl down wrong from its high seat,To the poor and oppressed, firm friends and true."
"To hurl down wrong from its high seat,To the poor and oppressed, firm friends and true."
The details of the long war between the king and the people we need not here relate. The result was the death of the unhappy monarch, and another step forward by the British people in the principles of self-government.
Meanwhile the settlements in America continued to flourish. The virgin soil yielded abundant harvests. From the fleece of their sheep, and the flax of their fields they made a supply of clothing. They felled the timber of their boundless forests, and built ships and sent away to foreign countries, the timber, the fish and the furs which were not required at home.
They were a noble people who had thus begun to strike their roots in the great forests of the west.
Their peculiarities may indeed amuse us; as for example the strange names they gave their children. Many of the boys bore names in memory of some fortunate circumstance, or historical event, as "Rejoice in the Lord," "Pillar of Fire," "Strength of Israel," "Praise God Barebones," etc.; while the girls rejoiced in such names as "Truth," "Temperance," "Patience," "Chastity," and "Love the Lord."
We may smile at these things; yet the most wise of all ages will admire the purity and earnestness of this people. They brought with them the love of learning. In a very few years schools began to appear. Such means as could be afforded were freely given. Some tolerably qualified brother was "entreated to become the schoolmaster." Soon a law was passed that every township, containing fifty families, must have a common school. Harvard College was established within fifteen years of the landing. The founders of New England were men who had known at home the value of books. Brewster carried with him a library of two hundred and seventy-five volumes, and his was not the largest collection in the colony. At that time books were very scarce and twenty times more costly than they are now.
Twenty-three years after the landing of the pilgrims, the population of New England had grown to twenty-four thousand.Forty-nine little wooden towns, with their wooden churches, wooden forts and wooden ramparts, were dotted here and there over the land. There were then four separate colonies: Plymouth, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Haven. For mutual defense and protection these colonies united together and thus formed the first confederation of states on the western continent.
THE CONFLICT IN THE NETHERLANDS.
DESCRIPTION OF HOLLAND—A LAND OF REFUGE—TYRANNY OF ALVA—THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE—SIEGE OF LEYDEN—THE COUNTRY SUBMERGED—FAMINE IN THE CITY—SPEECH OF THE MAYOR—HEROIC CONDUCT—TRUST IN GOD—STORM RAISES THE WATERS—SPANIARDS RETREAT—LEYDEN IS SAVED—THANKSGIVING—WATERS RETIRE.
In a previous chapter have been described the circumstances which led to the colonization of Acadia and New England.
While these events were transpiring in old England and New England, others of scarcely less importance were occurring in Holland, or the Netherlands, as it is frequently called, and in its colony of New Netherlands. It is a fact too frequently forgotten, that at least three of the thirteen original states were colonized by Holland. It is true Pennsylvania and Delaware received a few colonists from Sweden and Finland, who had settled there to escape religious persecution; but their dominions in the new world were not of long duration. To Holland and England belong the chief glory of colonizing the lands embraced in the United Colonies of 1776. The country now embraced in the states of New York, New Jersey andDelaware, received the name of New Netherlands, and like the inhabitants of New England, they were for the most part a religious people.
During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries Holland had been the refuge of exiles from many lands. When John Huss and Jerome of Prague fell under papal vengeance, many of their followers there found a home. When the fury of persecution was raging against the Waldenses, many of them fled to Holland for protection. After the terrible massacre of the French protestants or Huguenots, as they were called, in 1572, many of them took refuge in the Netherlands. This liberty-loving population was the cause of that deadly hatred manifested toward them by the Duke of Alva. This insatiate monster, during his brief administration, caused more than eighteen thousand persons to perish by the hand of the executioner. His cruelties at length aroused the indignation of the people, and brought about those notable events so well described by the historian, Motley, in hisRise of the Dutch Republic. This contest was one of the most memorable in the history of the human race, for in it was clearly shown the wonderful providence of God.
Holland, as is well known, is a low, flat country, so low, in fact, that the inhabitants have been obliged to build dykes, or embankments of earth, along the coast, in order to protect the country from the waters of the ocean during high tides and storms. Were it not for this precaution, Holland would frequently present the appearance of a vast, shallow bay or lake, thickly studded with orchards dwellings and cities half submerged in the water.
At this time Holland was under the dominion of Spain. The tyranny of Alva, the governor, provoked the people to resistance, and King Philip sent an army from Spain to enforce submission. Rather than longer endure this oppression, the brave Hollanders resolved to achieve their independence or perish in the attempt. The fortifications of their country were few, but, in one respect, they held the keys of the ocean. They opened the flood-gates of the dykes and prepared to submerge the country when the first storm should come. Meanwhile the Spaniards were besieging Leyden, and if that city fell, theconquest of the country would inevitably follow. The Hollanders well knew that the ocean would damage their fields and destroy their growing crops, but they preferred the chances of starvation to an indiscriminate massacre.
Leyden was situated twenty miles inland. It was impossible to bring Leyden to the ocean. They prayed that God would aid their efforts to bring the ocean to Leyden. Meantime the besieged city was at its last gasp. At the dawn of each day the brave defenders turned their eyes toward the vanes of the church steeples, that they might ascertain the direction of the wind. So long as an easterly wind prevailed, they felt that they must look in vain for the welcome ocean. Yet, while thus patiently waiting, they were literally starving. Such was the condition of Leyden on the 11th of September, 1574. The commander of the Dutch fleet, Admiral Boisot, had constructed a number of flat boats, by which he hoped to be able to bring provisions and munitions of war to the besieged city. But a week elapsed after the opening of the dykes, and no storm nor high tide had come to force the ocean inland. The flotilla of boats now lay motionless in shallow water, having accomplished less than two miles. Everything wore a gloomy aspect; still the hearts of the patriots were lifted to God in prayer. On the 18th the wind shifted to the north-west, and for three days blew a gale. The waters rose rapidly, and before the second was closed, the flat boats were again afloat. Onward the boats flew before the breeze, and soon arrived at the villages of Zoetermeer and Benthuyzen. A strong force of Spaniards were stationed at each place, but they were astonished to see these brave and liberty-loving men, sailing on a sea, where a few hours before, was dry and solid land. Some of their officers even asked in amazement, "was it true that God and the elements were going to fight against them?" Few things are more appalling to the imagination than the rising ocean tide, when man feels himself within its power. The Spanish soldiers saw the waters deepening and closing around them, and, as it were, devouring the earth beneath their feet, while on the waves rode a flotilla, manned by a liberty-loving and determined race, whose courage was known throughout the world. No wonder the Spaniards were seized with a panic and fled precipitately.Behind them came the roaring tide; and thousands sank beneath the deepening flood. In a few hours the flotilla had arrived at North Aa, from whence Admiral Boiset sent, on September 28th, a carrier pigeon with a letter of encouragement to the famished inhabitants of Leyden.
As time passed on, the mortality in the city became frightful. Mothers dropped dead in the streets with their dead children in their arms. A terrible plague, engendered by hardships and famine, was sweeping away the people like grass before the scythe. From six to eight thousand human beings sank before this scourge alone, yet the people resolutely held out—women and men mutually encouraging each other to resist the entrance of the foreign foe—an evil more horrible than pest or famine. The heroism of the Hollanders towered to sublimity. True a few of the faint-hearted one day assailed the mayor of Leyden, the heroic Adrian Van der Werf, with threats and reproaches as he passed through the streets. He stepped to one side and mounted the steps of the church of St. Pancras. There he stood, a tall, haggard, imposing figure, with dark visage, and a tranquil, but commanding eye. He waved his broad-brimmed hat for silence, and then exclaimed: "What would ye, my friends? Why do ye murmur that we do not break our vows and surrender the city to the Spaniards?—a fate more horrible than the agony which she now endures. I tell you, I have made an oath to hold the city, and may God give me strength to keep my oath! I can die but once; whether by your hands, the enemy's, or by the hand of God. My own fate is indifferent to me, not so that of the city entrusted to my care. I know that we shall starve if not soon relieved; but starvation is preferable to the dishonored death which is our only alternative. Your menaces move me not; my life is at your disposal, here is my sword, plunge it into my breast, and divide my flesh among you. Take my body to appease your hunger, but expect no surrender, so long as I remain alive."
The words of the firm, old mayor, inspired a new courage in the hearts of those who heard him, and a shout of applause and defiance arose from the famishing, but enthusiastic crowd. After exchanging new vows of fidelity with their magistrate,they left the place and again ascended tower and battlement to watch for the coming fleet.
From the ramparts they hurled renewed defiance at the enemy. "Ye call us rat-eaters and dog-eaters," they cried, "and it is true. So long then, as ye hear dog bark, or cat mew, within the walls of the city, ye may know that it still holds out. And when all has perished but ourselves, be sure that we will each devour our left arms, retaining our right to defend our women, our liberty and our religion, against the foreign tyrant. Should God, in His providence, deny us all relief, even then will we maintain ourselves against your entrance. When the last hour has come, with our own hands we will set fire to the city and perish, men, women and children, together in the flames, rather than suffer our homes to be polluted and our liberties to be crushed."
The Spaniards shouted back derisively: "As well can the prince of Orange pluck down the stars from the sky as bring the ocean to the walls of Leyden for your relief." But they had forgotten that "prayer moves the arm that moves the world;" that He, whom the winds and seas obey, and who holds the tempests as in the hollow of his hand, had heard the cry of that patient and persecuted people, and was sending the darkness and the storm, to sweep away their enemies as with the besom of destruction.
When the stoutest hearts began to fail, the tempest came again to their relief. A violent gale, on the night of the 1st of October, came storming from the north-west, shifting after a few hours, and then blowing still more violently from the south-west. The waters of the North sea were piled in vast masses upon the southern coast, and then dashed furiously land-ward. The waters rose higher than ever before known, and swept with unobstructed fury across the ruined dykes. The fleet of flat-boats at North Aa, was no longer stranded. At midnight, amidst the storm and darkness, Admiral Boisot gave orders to advance. A few sentinels challenged them as they swept by the village of Zoeterwoude. The answer was a flash from Boisot's cannon, lighting the dark, wild waste of waters. Then came a fierce naval midnight battle. It was a strange spectacle among the branches of those quiet orchards andchimney stacks of half submerged farm-houses. Swiftly the fleet sailed on over the waters between Zoeterwoude and Zwieten. As they approached shallows the sailors dashed into the sea and literally shouldered the vessels through. These forts and that of Lammen might have proved serious obstacles, had not the panic, which had hitherto driven their foes before the advancing patriots, come again to their relief.
A long procession of lights was seen to flit across the black face of the waters, in the dead of night. The Spaniards had fled precipitately along a road which led in a westerly direction toward the Hague. Their narrow path was rapidly vanishing in the waves, and hundreds sank in the constantly deepening flood, to rise no more.
The morning dawned, but all was calm and still around the city of Leyden. The hand of God which had sent the ocean and the tempest for her deliverance, had likewise struck her enemies with terror. The lights which had been seen during the night, were lanterns of the retreating Spaniards. The succoring fleet sailed victoriously into the city on the morning of the 3rd of October, 1574. Bread was freely given to the poor creatures, who for months had tasted no wholesome human food. When the admiral stepped on shore a procession was formed consisting of citizens, sailors, soldiers, women and children. They repaired to the great cathedral; and they who had been firm in their resistance to an earthly tyrant, now bowed in humble gratitude before the King of kings. After prayers the whole, vast congregation, joined in the thanksgiving hymn. Thousands of voices raised the song, but few were able to carry it to its conclusion, for the universal emotion, deepened by the music, became too full for utterance. The hymn was abruptly suspended while the multitude wept like children.
"On the following day, the 4th of October, the wind shifted to the north-east, and again blew a tempest. It was as if the waters, having now done their work, had been rolled back to the ocean by an Omnipotent hand, for in the course of a few days the land was bare again, and the work of reconstructing the dykes commenced."
From this terrible ordeal came out many illustrious characters. Its results tended to civil and religious liberty, as well as the great principle of federal union which has since been carried out to such a wonderful extent. These principles the Dutch emigrants brought with them; and when a few years afterwards their settlements fell into the hands of the English they were already assimilated to the ideas prevailing in the New England colonies.
EARLY COLONIAL HISTORY.
RISE OF QUAKERISM—GEORGE FOX—WILLIAM PENN—FOUNDS PENNSYLVANIA—KINDNESS TO THE INDIANS—PHILADELPHIA FOUNDED—MARYLAND, CAROLINA AND GEORGIA SETTLED—ROGER WILLIAMS—RHODE ISLAND FOUNDED—ITS TOLERATION.
The history of Pennsylvania as a distinct colony began in 1682. Its founder, William Penn, was the son of Admiral Penn, who had gained many victories for England and enjoyed the favor of the king, as well as of the great statesmen of his time. At this time there was in England a numerous sect called Quakers. Some of their principles were true, and most of them were far in advance of the opinions generally entertained in that age.
The rise of the people called Quakers is one of the memorable events in the history of man. It marks the moment when intellectual freedom was claimed by the people as an inalienable right. The sect had its birth in a period of intense national activity, when zeal for reform was invading all ranks of society, and even subverting the throne. Its creed was summed up in one short phrase, "The inner light or voice of God in the soul." Their leader, George Fox, professed tohave visions from heaven. Having listened to the revelation which had been made to his soul, he thirsted for a reform in every branch of learning. The physician and the scientist should quit their strife of unintelligible words and solve the appearances of nature by an intimate study of the laws of being. The lawyers should abandon their deceit and seek to establish justice among men according to the teachings of the Savior. And the priests should cease to preach for hire, and seek God in prayer as the oracle of all truth.
Fox in Discussion.
No wonder there was a great commotion. In Lancaster, forty priests appeared against him at once. Nothing could daunt his enthusiasm. When cast into jail among felons, he claimed of the public tribunals a release, only to continue his exertions. If cruelly beaten, or set in the stocks, or ridiculed as mad, he none the less proclaimed the principles of his faith. When driven from the church, he preached in the open air; when refused shelter at a private dwelling or humble tavern, he slept without fear under a haystack.
His fame increased; crowds gathered like flocks of pigeons to hear him. His voice and frame in prayer are described as the most awful and reverent ever felt or seen. His clear convictions and glowing thoughts delivered in plain words made him powerful among the masses and the terror of the priests in public discussions to which he defied the world. By degrees "the hypocrites," as the historian Barclay called them, feared to dispute with him. The simplicity of the truth he uttered and the plainness of his speech found such ready acceptance among the people, "that the priests trembled and scud as he drew near, so that it was a dreadful thing to them when it was told them, 'The man in leathern breeches is come.'"
Far from rejecting Christianity, the Quakers insisted that they alone followed its primitive simplicity. They believed in the unity of truth; that there can be no contradiction between correct reason and revelation; and that the Holy Spirit is the guide that leads into all truth. The Quakers read the Bible not with idolatry but with delight, for in there own souls they had a testimony that it was true. "The scriptures," says Barclay, "are not religion but a record of it; a declaration of the fountain, but not the fountain itself." In reading a record of those times it might appear to one that God was then ready to restore His Priesthood and set up His kingdom on the earth. But mankind were not yet ready nor was there a fit place in all the inhabited countries of the world for its establishment.
Penn's Treaty with the Indians.
The well-known William Penn joined this sect, and by this act greatly provoked his father's displeasure. Like Moses of old he refused the favors and honors of the monarch, choosingrather to obey what he considered to be the truth than to enjoy all the pomp and pleasures of the world. Space will not permit us to relate the story of his sufferings while an exile from his father's home; how he traveled to and fro on the continent of Europe, from the Weser to the Main, from the Rhine to the Danube, distributing tracts, preaching to princes and to peasants, and rebuking every attempt to enthrall the mind of man. Before he had reached the age of twenty-five, he had thrice suffered unjust imprisonment. To the king's messenger, who asked him to recant, he heroically replied, "Club-law may make hypocrites, it never can make converts" Single handed and alone he plead his cause before the highest courts of England. In vain did wicked men endeavor to construe the laws of England to his injury. After a tedious trial he was at length acquitted, though the jurymen were fined forty marks apiece for not bringing in a verdict of guilty. His constancy called forth the admiration of his father. "Son William," said the dying admiral, "if you and your friends keep to your plain way of preaching and living, you will make an end of the priests."
At the admiral's death, William succeeded to his father's possessions. It deeply grieved him that his Quaker brethren should endure such wrongs as were continually heaped upon them. He, therefore, formed the design of leading them forth to America. The king had owed Penn's father sixteen thousand pounds, nearly equal to eighty thousand dollars of our money. Penn offered to relinquish this claim for a grant of land; and the king readily bestowed upon him a vast region, stretching west from the river Delaware, to which was given the name of Pennsylvania. Here Penn proposed to found a state, free and self-governing. He claimed it to be his highest ambition "to make men as free and happy as they can be." When he arrived, he proclaimed to the people that he wished them to be governed by laws of their own making. He was as good as his word. The people elected their own representatives by whom a constitution was framed, and Penn signed this charter of their liberties.
Penn also dealt justly and kindly with the Indians, and they showed a love for him such as they bestowed on no other Englishman.Soon after his arrival, he invited the chief men of the Indian tribes to a conference. The meeting took place beneath a huge elm-tree. The ancient forest had long given way to the houses and streets of Philadelphia; but a monument still points out to the stranger the scene of this interview. They met, Penn assured them, "on the broad pathway of good faith and good will. All was to be openness and love." And Penn meant what he said. Strong in the power of truth and kindness, he bent the fierce savages of the Delaware tribe to his will. They vowed to live in love with William Penn and his children as long as the moon and the sun should endure. Long years after, aged Indians were accustomed to come from the distant forests and recount with deep emotion the words that Penn had spoken to them under the old elm-tree.
The fame of Penn's settlements went abroad in all lands. An asylum was opened for the good and oppressed of every nation. Grave and God-fearing men from all the Protestant countries of Europe sought a home where they might live as conscience taught them.
"For here the exiles met from every clime,And spoke in friendship every distant tongue;Men, from the blood of warring Europe sprung,Were but divided by the running brook;And happy where no Rhenish trumpet sung,The blue-eyed German changed his sword to pruning-hook."
"For here the exiles met from every clime,And spoke in friendship every distant tongue;Men, from the blood of warring Europe sprung,Were but divided by the running brook;And happy where no Rhenish trumpet sung,The blue-eyed German changed his sword to pruning-hook."
The new colony grew apace. During the first year twenty-two vessels arrived, bringing two thousand persons. In three years Philadelphia was a town of six hundred houses.
Thus did Penn prove himself a benefactor to his race. May we not also consider him an instrument in the hands of God for the execution of His purposes?
Meanwhile Maryland had been colonized by Catholics under Lord Baltimore, in 1634. The first colonists were exiles who fled here to escape persecution in their native land. Let it also be said to their credit that they were the first who embodied in their laws complete religious toleration.
A few scattering colonists had settled within the boundaries of the Carolinas as early as 1653, and these colonies also became a refuge for the Huguenots of France.
Lastly Georgia was colonized, in 1732, by the English philanthropist James Oglethorpe; and it also became an asylum and a refuge for the deserving poor.
Had these states been colonized immediately after the discovery of America, they must inevitably have brought with them the institutions of Catholic Europe. Such, for example, as still characterize the civilization of Mexico. Even had they been colonized a century earlier, the colonists would not have been disciplined sufficiently in the principles of civil liberty to have built up free and self-governing states.
Who does not see a divine providence—a marvelous wisdom in all this?
Though the pilgrims had left their native lands, that they might enjoy the liberty to worship God in the way which they deemed right; yet they had not discovered that people who differed from them were as well entitled to be tolerated as they themselves were. Simple as it seems there are many to this day who have not found out that every one is entitled to think for himself.
One day there stepped ashore at Boston, a young man named Roger Williams. He was a man of culture and refinement, a lover of truth and justice, a man of rare virtue and power. He had been an intimate friend of Cromwell and Milton, in the bright days of the poet's youth. Williams brought to America what was then considered strange opinions. Long thought had satisfied him that "in regard to religious belief and worship man is responsible to God alone."
New England society was not sufficiently advanced to receive such sentiments. Williams had become minister at Salem where he was held in high esteem. In time his opinions drew upon him the unfavorable notice of the authorities; and he was brought to trial before the general court of Massachusetts. His townsmen and congregation deserted him. His poor wife reproached him bitterly for the evil he was bringing on his family. Still he was firm and continued to testify against the soul-oppression he saw around him. At length the court declared him guilty and pronounced against him the sentence of banishment. All honor to this brave and good man! He, of all the men of his time, saw most clearly the beauty ofabsolute freedom in matters of conscience. He cheerfully left his home and wandered in the wilderness. During the part of one winter he lived with Massasoit, the Indian chief, who befriended him and gave him a grant of land, now included in the state of Rhode Island. Here he laid out a city which he called Providence, in grateful recognition of the power which had guided his steps. To-day it is one of the most beautiful and thrifty cities in the United States.
Roger Williams cherished a very forgiving spirit towards those who sent him into exile. Learning that the Indians were planning the destruction of the Massachusetts colony, he boldly went among the Indians and dissuaded them from their purpose. Thus did this good man put his life in peril for his enemies.
Providence Plantation, as it was called, became a shelter for all who were distressed for conscience sake; and so it has continued to the present time. Rhode Island has no record of persecution in her history. Massachusetts continued to drive out misbelievers. Rhode Island took them in. When Massachusetts was convulsed with supposed witchcraft and the horrors of witch-burning, Rhode Island gave no heed to such delusions. In after years, Roger Williams became the president of the colony which he had founded.
The neighboring states were at that time severely punishing the Quakers with the lash, branding-iron and imprisonment; and they invited Rhode Island to join in the persecution. Mr. Williams replied that he "had no law to punish any man for his belief." He was opposed to the doctrines of the Quakers. In his seventy-third year he rowed thirty miles in an open boat to wage a public debate against them. In this manner, and this only, would he resist the progress of opinions which he deemed pernicious. Thus to the end of his life stood forth this good man's loyalty to the absolute liberty of the human conscience. From the foregoing, we may get some idea of the moral and social condition of England and her colonies during the latter part of the seventeenth century.
MODERN ENGLAND AND HER COLONIES.
CONDITION OF ENGLISH SOCIETY—MANUFACTURE OF GIN AND RUM—ORIGIN OF METHODISM—ELOQUENCE OF WHITFIELD—JOHN AND CHARLES WESLEY—REMARKABLE TEACHINGS—ROBERT RAIKES—JOHN HOWARD—WILLIAM WILBERFORCE—MECHANICAL INVENTIONS—GROWTH OF AMERICAN FREEDOM—THREE GREAT BATTLES—COOK'S VOYAGES—EXTENSION OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE—GREATNESS OF PITT—WASHINGTON'S EARLY LIFE—BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
"Westward the course of empire takes its way."
"Westward the course of empire takes its way."
From the first settling of the North American colonies, the relations between Europe and America were such that every great revolution occurring in the parent country had its due effect in the colonies.
In 1688, just sixty-eight years after the sailing of the pilgrims, another famous departure took place from the coast of Holland. It was that of William, prince of Orange, coming to deliver England from tyranny, and give a new course to English history. A powerful fleet and army sailed with the prince, the wicked and foolish King James fled from the people he had so long misruled, and William, prince of Orange, with Mary his wife, were proclaimed joint king and queen of England.
With the revolution of 1688, a new spirit appears in England. Hitherto English philosophy and literature were almost unknown upon the continent. It was only after the revolution that we hear of foreigners visiting England, learning English and seeking to understand English life and character. Thus on the eve of the eighteenth century English ideas took agreat stride forward. The people instead of the king became the virtual rulers of the nation.
The preceding age had done its work. It had given to the world the philosophy of Newton, the literature of Shakspeare, and Addison, Pope and Swift, the political agitation of Cromwell, and the colonization of America. The avenues of knowledge were thus opened to the masses. Even the dullest and most backward minds began to have notions of literature and the discoveries of science. The ancient forms of royalty and chivalry had lost their prestige and stood in the shady background of the past. A new world of citizens henceforth occupies the ground, attracts the gaze, imposes its ideas on the public manners and stamps its image on the minds of men. In 1709 appeared the first newspaper, a sheet as big as a man's hand which the editor did not know how to fill. At the present time there are more than 1,000,000,000 copies of newspapers published in the English language annually, many of which contain more reading matter in a single number than the whole New Testament scriptures. With the increase of intelligence the power of the people began to be felt.
Increased intelligence brought political reforms, and these in turn were followed by a reform in morals and manners. During the reign of the Stuarts the morals of the people had been extremely low. As an illustration might be mentioned the disrespect shown to the clergy. A parish priest was only permitted to dine at the second table, after his superiors (?) had been served. He might fill himself with the beef and cabbage, but did not dare to touch the better dishes until invited to do so by the hostess. A law had been passed during the reign of Charles II., that no clergyman should marry a servant-girl without the consent of her mistress. Most of the prominent statesmen during the previous half century were unbelievers in any form of religion. Such were the irreligious tendencies of the age, that drunkenness and foul talk were considered no reproach to Robert Walpole, prime minister of England. Purity of life was sneered at by the nobility as "out of fashion." For example, Lord Chesterfield, in his letters to his son (which were designed for publication),instructs him in the art of seduction, as part of a polite education.
At the lower end of the social scale lay the masses of the extremely poor. They were ignorant and brutal to a degree which it is hard to conceive. The manufacture of gin and rum had been discovered in 1684; and intemperance overran the nation as a plague. Tavern-keepers, on their sign-boards, invited the people to come and get drunk for a penny. For two pence they might get dead drunk, and have "a place to lie down with no charge for straw." Much of this social degradation was due, without doubt, to the apathy and sloth of the religious teachers.
Such was the condition of society when a remarkable religious revival began in a small knot of Oxford students whose revolt against the wickedness of the times expressed itself in enthusiastic religious worship and an austere and methodical regularity of life, that gave them the nickname of "Methodists."
Of these students, three soon attracted special attention by their religious fervor and even extravagance. One of these, George Whitfield, became the greatest orator. His voice was soon heard in the wildest and most barbarous corners of the land, among the bleak moors of Northumberland, in the dens of London, and in the dark and gloomy mines of Cornwall. Whitfield's preaching was such as England had never heard before, theatrical, extravagant, sometimes common-place, but winning favor by its earnestness and deep tremulous sympathy for the sins and sorrows of mankind.
He was no common enthusiast who could so eloquently plead the cause of the erring and unfortunate as to draw out the last cent from the cool and calculating Franklin, and command admiration from the fastidious and skeptical Horace Walpole; or who could look down, from the top of a green knoll at Kingswood, on twenty thousand colliers, grimy from the Bristol coal-pits, and see as he preached, the tears making white channels down their blackened cheeks.
On the rough and ignorant masses to whom they spoke, the effects of Whitfield and his co-workers were mighty both for good and ill. Their preaching stirred a passionate hatred inthe hearts of their opponents. Their lives were often in danger; they were mobbed, ducked, stoned and smothered with filth; but the enthusiasm they aroused among their followers was equally intense.
Very important to the cause was Charles Wesley, a student at Oxford, who came as the sweet singer of the movement. His hymns expressed the fiery zeal of its converts, in lines so chaste and beautiful that many of the cultured classes were numbered among the adherents of the movement.
But most important of all was the elder brother, John Wesley, an ordained minister of the Church of England, who by his learning, energy and power of organization gave stability to the movement. No man of that age surpassed him in self-denial and trust in God. With all his extravagance and superstition, Wesley's mind was essentially practical and orderly. He, beyond most men of his age, saw that he lacked divine authority to found a church. Hence to the last he clung passionately to the Church of England, and looked upon the sect he had formed as only a lay society or branch in full communication with the parent church.
For a long time he would not permit his co-workers to administer the sacrament of the Lord's supper; as he considered they did not possess the requisite authority. Wesley saw with wonderful clearness a fact that no one of that age perceived or, if he did, had not the moral courage to declare. He perceived the universal as well as the total apostasy of the so-called Christian church. In his 94th sermon he says; "The real cause why the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost were no longer to be found in the Christian church wasbecause the Christians were turned heathens again, and had only a dead form left." In another place he says: "A string of opinions is no more Christian faith, than a string of beads is Christian holiness." The justifying faith which he considered so essential and taught so earnestly, implied a personal revelation—an inward evidence of Christianity. Thus he unconsciously yet logically taught the insufficiency of the ancient scriptures as a guide to salvation. It also implied the need of new and continuous revelation as necessary for the vitality and growth of the church. Wesley continued his labors for upwards of fifty-twoyears, traveling and preaching until within a short time of his death, which occurred in his eighty-eighth year. At the time of his death, his followers numbered more than one hundred thousand. Now they are estimated at nearly eight millions.
John Wesley.
It was the teachings and practices of the Puritans, the Quakers and the Methodists that gave to England that great moral impulse which led to the establishment of Sunday schools by Robert Raikes of Gloucester, the reforming of prisons by John Howard, and the abolition of the slave trade by William Wilberforce. The ardor and perseverance which these men showed in behalf of the poor, the wronged and the afflicted, excited a wave of human sympathy throughout the length and breadth of the civilized world. It is from this time that may be dated the commencement of charity schools, foundling hospitals, insane asylums and other institutionsof benevolence for which English-speaking people are now so famous.
While the moral and religious movements were in progress, others of a political or scientific nature, were pressing forward with rapid strides. Amid the tumult of these times, James Brindley was quietly making England a net work of canals. Watt was silently perfecting his invention of the steam-engine and Adam Smith was working out the great problem of political and industrial economy, which has made England and her colonies the leading commercial and manufacturing countries of the world.
Meanwhile John Hargreaves, Richard Arkwright and Samuel Crompton, by their inventions were revolutionizing the art of spinning and weaving. However, these ingenious devices would have done but little had it not been for the new and inexhaustible labor force of the steam-engine which had then come into general use. One of the first effects was to develop the iron manufactures of England. Previous to 1750, England and her colonies imported four-fifths of their iron goods from Sweden; now they produce more than four-fifths of all the iron used in the world.
The influence of the steam-engine and spinning jenny on the civilization of England is beyond human calculation. Mines were developed, manufactories established and the whole national industry so increased that the population of England was twice doubled in less than fifty years. At the same time agriculture was so improved that one-sixth of the people raised food for the remainder.
While these events were transpiring in England they had their due influence in the colonies. Europe saw for the first time a state growing up amidst the forests of the west, where religious freedom had become complete. Religious tolerance had been brought about by strange circumstances—a medley of religious sects such as the world had never seen before. New England was the stronghold of the Puritans. In some of the southern colonies the Episcopal church was established by law and the bulk of the settlers clung to it. The Roman Catholics formed a large majority in Maryland. Pennsylvania was a state of Quakers. Presbyterians and Baptists fled frompersecution to colonize New Jersey; Lutherans and Moravians from Germany abounded among the settlers of Georgia, and the persecuted Huguenots of France had fled from their native land to the forests of Carolina. In such a chaos of creeds, religious persecution was well nigh impossible.
As there were but few large fortunes among the colonists, so nearly all had the same social standing and privileges. Education was general. It was the proud boast of many of the colonies that every man and woman could read and write.
Such was the condition of the colonies in 1748, when Montesquieu, the wisest and most reflecting statesman of France, declared that a free, prosperous and great people were forming in the forests of America. The hereditary dynasties of the old world were all unconscious of the rapid growth of this power, which was soon to involve them in its new and prevailing influence. The hour of revolution was at hand, promising freedom to conscience and dominion to intelligence. From the fragments of European society—fragments that in some instances had been considered worthless—humanity in the providence of God was building up a self-governing and democratic dominion.
About the middle of the eighteenth century occurred three famous battles which did much to determine the destinies of men for ages to come. The first of these, was the great victory achieved by the English arms on the plains of Plassey, June 23, 1757, which laid the foundation of the empire of British India, an empire which comprises more than one hundred and twenty millions of people. The second was the victory of Rossbach, which determined the re-union of the German states and laid the foundation of the present German empire. The third was the triumph of Wolfe on the plains of Abraham, September 13, 1759, for with it virtually began the history of the United States. France had ever been an enemy whose dread had knit the colonists together and to the mother country, England. By wresting Canada from her grasp and breaking through the line with which France had barred the British colonists from the basin of the Mississippi, Pitt laid the foundation of the great republic of the West.Hitherto the possessions of France in North America had been twenty times as vast as those of England; henceforth they were destined to dwindle into insignificance and eventually become extinct.
The close of the seven years' war, which ended at the peace of Paris, 1763, was a turning point in the history of the world. England was no longer a mere European power. Her future action lay in a wider sphere than that of Europe. Mistress of North America, the future mistress of India, claiming as her own the empire of the seas, Britain suddenly towered high above rival nations whose interest and position, being on a single continent, doomed them to comparative insignificance in the after history of mankind.
It is this that gives William Pitt so peculiar a position among the statesmen of the world. It was his faith, his daring—shall we not say his inspiration?—that called the English people to a sense of the destiny that lay before them.
With England on one side and her American colonies on the other, the Atlantic was dwindling into a mere strait within the British realms; but beyond it to the westward lay a vast ocean where the British flag was almost unknown. True the Pacific ocean had been discovered by Balboa in 1513, and crossed by Magellan in 1521. Dutch voyagers had discovered that "Great Southern Land," which they had named New Holland and also the northern extremity of New Zealand. But the discoveries had remained unheeded for more than a century.
It was not till 1778 that, under Pitt's direction, Captain Cook was sent into the Pacific ocean on a voyage of discovery. He discovered the Sandwich Islands circumnavigated New Zealand and took possession of Australia, or New Holland, in the name of the English king. The reports which he published of that vast ocean and those far-off islands, of their coral reefs, and palms, and bread-fruit, and gum trees, and kangaroos, and tattooed warriors, awoke an interest in the minds of the English concerning this world of wonders. They saw in all this a vast realm opened for the expansion of the English race, and English civilization.
The extension of the English language over vast territories and populations is without a parallel in the history of the world. Fully one-fifth of the surface of the globe and one-fourth of its population are under the dominion of England and the United States. The English language is now spoken, and English and American literature is read in every zone.
"They spread where Winter piles deep snows on bleak Canadian plains,And where on green Pacific isles eternal summer reigns.They glad Acadia's misty coasts, Jamaica's glowing isle,And bide where gay with early flowers green Texan prairies smile."They dwell where Californian brooks wash down their sands of gold,And track the Frazier's swelling flood thro' sunset valleys rolled;They're found in Borneo's camphor groves, on shores of fierce Malay,In valleys washed by Ganges' flood where Ceylon's zephyrs stray."Old Albions laws, Columbia's songs rejoice the captive's limbs;The dark Liberian soothes her child with English cradle hymns,Tasmanian maids are wooed and won, in gentle Saxon speech.Australian boys read Crusoe's life, by Sidney's sheltered beach."They speak to men so far apart, that while this praise we sing,Some may rejoice with autumn fruits, others with flowers of spring,They speak with Shakspeare's searching thoughts and Bryant's lofty mind,With Alfred's laws and Franklin's lore, to cheer and bless mankind."
"They spread where Winter piles deep snows on bleak Canadian plains,And where on green Pacific isles eternal summer reigns.They glad Acadia's misty coasts, Jamaica's glowing isle,And bide where gay with early flowers green Texan prairies smile.
"They dwell where Californian brooks wash down their sands of gold,And track the Frazier's swelling flood thro' sunset valleys rolled;They're found in Borneo's camphor groves, on shores of fierce Malay,In valleys washed by Ganges' flood where Ceylon's zephyrs stray.
"Old Albions laws, Columbia's songs rejoice the captive's limbs;The dark Liberian soothes her child with English cradle hymns,Tasmanian maids are wooed and won, in gentle Saxon speech.Australian boys read Crusoe's life, by Sidney's sheltered beach.
"They speak to men so far apart, that while this praise we sing,Some may rejoice with autumn fruits, others with flowers of spring,They speak with Shakspeare's searching thoughts and Bryant's lofty mind,With Alfred's laws and Franklin's lore, to cheer and bless mankind."
Who does not see a marvelous wisdom in all this? The language thus widely spread was destined to be the medium by which the gospel is to be spread in all the nations of the earth. Who does not perceive that the statesmanship of Pitt was one of the great instrumentalities for the execution of the divine purposes? Like all great men, Pitt was in advance of the age in which he lived. But England could not forget the eminent services of him, who had done so much to promote her greatness. The ashes of Pitt (now best known as the earl of Chatham) repose in Westminster Abbey, the burial place ofthe kings of England. History will declare that among statesmen, few have left a more stainless, none a more splendid name.
While these leading events were transpiring around them two remarkable persons were developing in the American colonies. One of these was George Washington, the other, Benjamin Franklin.
Washington was born in 1732. His father, a gentleman of good fortune, died when his future illustrious son was only eleven years of age. Upon Washington's mother devolved the care of his early education. She was a devout woman, of excellent sense and deep affections, yet of a temper which could brook no shadow of insubordination. Under her rule—gentle and yet strong, George learned obedience and self-control. In boyhood he gave remarkable promise of those excellencies which distinguished his mature years. His person was large and powerful. He was accustomed to labor, which gave him endurance to perform the work that lay before him. His education was limited to the common English branches, mathematics and land surveying. In his eighteenth year he was employed by the government as surveyor of public lands. Many of his measurements are still on record, and long experience has established their unvarying accuracy. A massive intellect and an iron strength of will were given to him, with a gentle, loving heart, dauntless courage, and loftiness of purpose. He possessed, in a wonderful degree, clear perceptions of his duty, and a deep insight into the wants of his time.
While Washington's boyhood was being passed on the banks of the Potomac, Benjamin Franklin was toiling hard in the city of Philadelphia to earn an honest livelihood. He edited a newspaper, bound books, made ink, sold rags, soap and coffee. He also published the first American almanac. Afacsimileof the title page is given on the next page.