The Emancipation of Massachusetts

ith his master. The same principle apparently holds true in the evolution of the intellect; for while the oyster lacks consciousness, the bee modifies the structure of its comb, and the swallow of h

ed has passed by inheritance, and has been strengthened by use, until the tendency to vary, or think independently, has become an irrepressible instinct among some modern nations. Conservatism is the converse of variation, and as it springs from mental inertia it is always a progressively salient characteristic of each group in the descending scale. The Spaniard is less mutable than the Englishman, the Hindoo than the Spaniard, the Hottentot than the Hindoo, and the ape than the Hottentot. Therefore, a power whose existence depends upon the fixity of custom must be inimical to progr

amuel must have been an exceptionally able man, for, though he failed to control Saul, it was through his intrigues that David was enthroned, who was profoundly orthodox; yet Solomon lapsed again into heresy, and Jeroboam added to schism the even blacker crime of making "priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi," [Footnote: I Kings xii. 31.] and in consequence he has come down to posterity as the man who made Israel to sin. Ahab married Jez

ine hand, and go to Ramoth-gilead: and when thou comest thither, look out there Jehu, ... and make him arise up ... and carry him to an

oth-gilead.... And he said, I hav

s head, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I hav

ab thy master, that I may avenge the

ill make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam

.. And he said, Thus spake he to me, saying, Thus sa

trumpets, saying, Jehu is king. So

reel of the wounds which the Syrians had given h

ot, and went to Jezreel;

ss, when Joram saw Jehu, that he said, Is it peace, Jehu? And he answered, What pe

nd fled, and said to Ahaziah,

ote Jehoram between his arms, and the arrow went ou

he way of the garden house. And Jehu followed after him, a

heard of it; and she painted her face, and

e gate, she said, Had Zimri p

wn: and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wal

e be mine, ... take ye the heads of ... your master's sons, and come to me to Jezreel by to-morrow this time.... And it came to pass, when the

wo heaps at the entering in of

in Jezreel, and all his great men, and his kinsfolk

nd as he was at the shearing house in the way, Jeh

ve, and slew them at the pit of the shearing house, e

unto Ahab in Samaria, till he had destroyed him, accor

l unto me all the prophets of Baal, all his servants, and all his priests; let none be wanting: for I have a great sacrifice to do to Baal;

so that there was not a man left that came not. And they came into the

ehu said to the guard and to the captains, Go in, and slay them; let none come forth. And

al out of Israel." [Foo

tributes which are denied to common men. The syllogism of the New England elders was this: all revelation is contained in the Bible; we alone, from our peculiar education, are capable of interpreting the meaning of the Scriptures: therefore we only can declare the will of God. But it was evident that, were the dogma of "the inner light" once accepted, this reasoning must fall to the ground, and the authority of the ministry be overthrown. Necessarily those who held so subversive a doctrine would be pursued with greater hate than less harmful heretics, and thus contemplating the situation there is no difficulty in understanding why the Rev. John Wilson, pastor of

torians of the Puritan commonwealth. They have, on the contrary, steadily maintained that the sectaries

o persistently intrudes his bad manners and pestering presence upon some private company, making himself, upon pretence of conscience, a nuisance there; is-if

ffering, and death; and, as the magistrates affirmed, 'they rushed upon the sword.' Those magistrates never intended them harm, ... except as they believed that all their successive measures and sharper penalties were positively necessary to secure their jurisdiction from the wildest lawlessness and absolute anarchy." [Footnot

ts, provided they did not infringe the monopoly in trade. The only remaining question, therefore, is whether the Quakers were peaceful. Dr. Ellis, Dr. Palfrey, and Dr. Dexter have carefully collected a certain number of cases of misconduct, with the view of proving that the Friends were turbulent, and the government had r

t to send those under arrest to England for trial. Hitherto John Norton had been preeminent, but in that same December he was appointed on a mission to London, and as he died soon after his return, his direct influence on affairs then probably ceased. He had bee

kill the schismatics openly, the inference, from what occurred subsequently, is unavoidable, that the elders sought to attain their purpose by what their reverend historians call "a humaner policy," [Footnote: As to Roger Williams, p. 134.] or, in plain English,

make the infliction of death discretionary with each magistrate. It provided that any foreign Quaker, or any native upon a second conviction, might be ordered to receive an unlimited number of stripes. It is important also to observe that the whip was a two-handed implement, armed with lashes made of twisted and knotted cord o

Bellingham's moderation may have been in part due to the interference of the royal commissioners, but a mor

0.] Several suffered during this revival, the last of whom was Margaret Brewster. At the end of twenty-one years the policy of cruelty had become thoroughly discredited and a general toleration could no longer be postponed; but this great liberal triumph was only won by heroic courage and by the endurance of excruciating torments. Marmaduke Stevenson, William Robinson,

the conduct of the Friends was sufficiently violent to make it credible that the legislature spoke the truth, when it declared that "the prudence of this court was exercised onely in making provission to secure the peace & order heere established against theire attempts, whose designe (wee were well assured by our oune experjence, as well as by the example of theire predecessors in Munster) was to vndermine & ruine the same;" [Footnote: Mass. Rec. vol. iv. pt. 1, p. 385.] then the reverend hist

ONO

irst Quakers

be fined ￡100. Quakers to be whipped and imprisoned till expelled. Importers of Quaker books to be f

ll exile. Second offence, loss other ear, like imprisonment. For females; first offence, whipping, imprisonment. Second offence, idem. Th

himself to secure more stringent legislation; procu

hould be hanged. Domiciled Quakers upon conviction, refusing to apostatize

he following per

Robinson and S

(Previously condemned, repriev

Mar. William

Christison condemned

middle, tied to the cart's tail, and flogged from town to town to the border. Domiciled Quakers to be proceeded against under Act of 1658 to bani

ecting the cessation of corporal punishment in regard to Quak

. Vagabond A

ved from the king his letter of pardon, etc., wherein, however, Q

by the above letter th

ngham governor. Commissioners interfere on beha

meeting by fine or imprisonment and flogging. Also fining constables for neglect in m

wster whipped for entering

ENT QU

ince. 1662, D

bbons. 1663, T

augh. " Edw

64, Hannah Wright. [

ne Chatham. "

son. 1665, L

Hooton. 1677, Ma

re shut up close prisoners, and command was given that none should come to them without leave; a fine of five pounds being laid on any that should otherwise come at, or speak with them, tho' but at the window. Their pens, ink, and paper were taken from them, and they not suffered to have any candle-light in the night season; nay, what is more, they were stript naked, under pretence to know whether they were witches [a true touch of sacerdotal malignity] tho' in searching no token was found upon them but of innocence. And in this search they were so barbarously misused that modesty forbids to mention it: And that none might have communication with them a board

m well whipp'd." [Footnote: New England Judged, ed. 1703, p. 10.] No exertion was spared, nevertheless, to get some hold upon the

ven the boldest recoiled; Vane, Gorton, Childe, and Anne Hutchinson quailed under it, and though the Quakers abundantly proved that they could bear stripes with patience, they could not endure this. She called them "Baal's priests, the seed of the serpent." Dr. Ellis also speaks of "stinging objurgations screamed out ... from between the bars of their prisons."

tion, and at theire entrance to be seuerely whipt and by the master thereof to be kept constantly to worke, and none suffered to converse or speak with them;" [Footno

re in love and tenderness which he bare to the people and place, desired them to take heed, lest they were found fighters against God.' For this, he, though one of their church-members, and of a blameless conversation, was fined ￡20 and ￡3 more for not coming to church, whence the sense of their wickedness had induced him to abs

ture, to testify to his emptiness; [Footnote: This charge is unproved.] both had previously been imprisoned and banished, but the ferocity with which Norton at that moment was forcing on the persecution was the probable incentive to the trespass. "Th

cloth. This was during the trial of Christison for his l

reason, and, as he was led to prison, he cried, that the Lord was coming with fire and sword to plead with Boston. [Footnote: New England Judged, ed. 1703, p. 351.] At the general jail delivery [Footnote: Mass. Rec. vol. iv. pt. 2, p. 19. Order passed 28 May, 1661.] in anticipati

d from cold. [Footnote: Besse, ii. 229.] Afterward, at Cambridge, she exhorted the people to repentance in the streets, [Footnote: "Repentance! Repentance! A day of howling and sad lamentation is coming upon you all from the Lord."] and for this crime, which is cited as an outrage to Puritan decorum, [Footnote: As to Roger Williams, p. 133.] she was once more apprehended and "imprisoned in a close, stinking dungeon, where there was nothing either to lie down or sit on, where she was kept two days and two nights without bread or water," and then sentenced to be whipped through three towns. "At Cambridge she was tied to the whipping-post, and lashed with ten stripes with a three-stringed whip, with three knots at the end: At Watertown she was laid on with ten stripes more with rods of willow: At Dedham, in a cold frosty morning,

sentenced after public indignation had forced the theocracy to adopt what their reverend successors a

e in the annals of Massachusetts; and, accordingly, the breaking of bottl

ng" (at Salem), "were apprehended and ... sentenced to be whipt

ing against the persecutors in their meeting-house there; at which time he, in a prophetick manner, having two gla

suffered the oppression that makes men mad. He was a peaceable and industrious inhabitant of Salem; in 1659 he had seen Robinson and Stevenson done to death, and, being deeply moved, he said, "the guilt of [their] blood was so great that he could not bear it;" [Footnote: Besse, ii. 205.] he was taken from his home, given twenty lash

' They told him, that 'his hair was too long, and that he had disobeyed that commandment which saith, Honour thy father and mother.' He asked, 'Wherein?' 'In that you will not,' said they, 'put off

g the 11th of this instant March, by the one and twentieth of the same, on the pain of death.... 'Nay

fe for Christ's sake and the preaching of the gospel, I shall save it." They then sent him back to prison to await his doom. At the next court he was brought to the bar, where he demanded an appeal to England; but in the midst a letter was brought in from Wharton, signifying, "T

ng something furiously on the table. ...Then the governor put the court to vote again; but this was done confusedly, which so incensed the governor that he stood up and said, 'You that will not consent record it: I thank God I am not afraid to give judgment...Wenlock Christison

139.] and since their language conveys the impression that such acts were not only very common, but also unprovoked, whereas the truth is that they were rare, it cannot fail to be instructive to re

d though in feeble health, she was cast into prison, and endured the extremities of privation; her sufferings and her p

mination of her, there being nothing justly laid to her charge, yet to fulfil your wills, it was determined, that she must have ten stripes in the open market place, it being very cold

herewith this man is charged was saying in a loud voice during the service, "What you

ith pathos of the youth

: As to Roger Williams, p. 133.] This appears to have happened in 1664, [Footnote: Besse, ii. 234. New England Judged, ed. 1703, p. 461.] yet the name of Hannah Wright is recorded among those

ion, none have been made more notorious than certain extravagances committed by t

its choicest exhibitions in acts which were not only at that time in the nature of a public scandal and nuisance, but which even in the brightest light of this nineteenth century ... would subject those who should be guilty of them to the immediate and stringent attention

r, broke up the service of God's house ... the scene ending in deplorable confusion;" [Footnote: As

an argument about the Trinity, and the authority of ministers, and at last the clergyman "in a rage flung away, calling to his people, at the window, to go from amongst them." [Footnote: New England Judged, ed. 1703, p. 362.] Nothing was done at the moment, but toward winter

the King's Majesty's name, to take these vagabond Quakers, Anne Coleman, Mary Tomkins and Alice Ambrose, and make them fast to the cart's tail, and driving the cart through your several towns, to whip them on their backs,

r, dated December the 22d, 166

her was bitter, the distance to be walked was eighty miles, and the lashes

elly whipp'd them, whilst the priest stood and looked, and laughed at it.... They went with the executioner to Hampton, and through dirt and snow at Sa

s heart to mirth at Dover, before his journey's end he would certainly have joyed in giving thanks to God over the women's gory corpses, freezing amid th

now so do with them, as that they would be troubled with them no more.' The women being unwilling to go, they forced them down a very steep place in the snow, dragging Mary Tomkins over the stumps of trees to the water side, so that she was much bruised, and fainted under their hands: They plucked Alice Ambrose into the water, and kept her swimming by the canoe in great danger of drowning, or being frozen to death. They would in all probability have proceeded in their wicked purpose to the murthering of those three women, had they not

mplained of, which was an interruption of a sermon against Quak

ne, the fact appearing of record subsequently as the judgment of

runcheon in his hand." Eliakim was fined for harboring Christison, and "a pretty beast for the saddle, worth about fourteen pound, was taken ... the overplus of [Footnote: Sewel, p. 340.] which to make up to him, your officers plundred old William Marston of a vessel of green ginger, which for some fine was taken from him, and forc'd it into Eliakim's house, where he let it lie and touched it not; ... and notwithstanding he came not to your invented worship, but was fined t

n having a mind to a pied heifer Eliakim had, as Ahab had to Naboth's vineyard, sent his servan

reduced to penury, and shaken by the daily scenes of unutterable horror through which she had to pass, was totally unequal to endure the strain under which the masculine intellect of Anne Hutchinson had reeled. She was pursued by her pastor, who repeatedly commanded her to come to church and explain her absence from communion. [Footnote: Besse, ii. 235.] The mise

sat, and then, while the splinters tore her bare breasts, they had her flesh cu

more:' So to please Simon, Eliakim was sentenc'd to be stripp'd from his waste upward, and to be bound to an oak-tree that stood by their worship-house, and to be whipped fifteen lashes; ... as they were having him out ... he called to Seaborn Cotton ... to come and see the work done (so far was he from being daunted by their cruelty), who hastned out and followed him thither, and so did old Wiggins, one of the magistrates, who when Eliakim

whipped, so is she one of the most famous, for she has been

led and loose like a Periwigg, her face as black as ink, led by two other Quakers, and two other followed. It occasioned t

on those of her own faith inspired her with the craving to go to New England to protest against the wrong; so s

se cruel laws that you have made to fetch my friends from their peaceable meetings, and keep them three days in the house of correction, and then whip them for worshipping the true and living God: Governour! Let me entreat thee to put a

, and to be tied to a cart's tail at the South Meeting House, and to be d

Lord be done: I a

away." [Footnote: B

een them and the Congregationalists must be left to be decided upon the legal question of their right as English subjects to inhabit Massachusetts; and secondarily upon the opinion which shall be formed of their conduct as citizens, upon the testimony of those witnesses whom the church herself has call

em church, and Lawrence was a freeman. Josiah, their eldest son, was a m

d upon Cassandra. [Footnote: Besse, ii. 183.] Although no attempt seems to have been made to prove heresy to bring the case within t

e Southwicks were again sent to Boston, this time to serve as an example. They arrived on the 3d of February, 1657; without form of trial they were whipped in the e

od unless they worked to pay for it; but to work when wrongfully confined was against the Quaker's conscience, so they did not eat for five days. On the second day of fasting they were flogged, and then, with wounds undressed, the men and women together were once more locked in the dark, close room, to lie upon the bare boards, in the stifling July he

; then, foaming with fury, he dragged the old man down stairs, and, with a new rope, gave him ninety-seven blows, when his strength failed; and Brend, his flesh black and beaten to jelly, and his bruised skin hanging in bags full of clotted blood, was th

nd's flesh would "rot from off his bones," and he must die. And now the mob grew fierce and demanded justice on the

shioned in his own image, and he threw over him the mantle of the holy church. He made the

86.] And the man was justified, and commanded to whip "the Quakers in prison ... twice a week, if they refused to work, and the first time to add five stripes to the former ten, and each time to add three

owing letter to the magistrates, which is a good example of the writings of these "c

gistrates at C

IE

the law expresses. If you had sent us upon the account of your new law, we should have expected the jaylor's order to have been on that account, which that it was not, appears by the warrant which we have, and the punishment which we bare, as four of us were whipp'd, among whom was one that had formerly been whipp'd, so now also according to your former law. Friends, let it not be a small thing in your eyes, the exposing as much as in you lies, our families to ruine. It's not unknown to you the season, and the time of the year, for those that live of husbandry, and what their cattle and families may be exposed unto; and also such as live on trade; we know if the spirit of Christ did dwell and rule in you, t

es by the wills of men, although made free by the Son, John 8,

| SAMUEL SHATTOCK JOSHUA BUFFUM. [Footno

g to their meetings; and meeting by themselves.' They adjoyned, 'That as to those things they had already fastned their law upon them.' ... So ye had nothing left but the hat, for which (then) ye had no law. They answered-that they intended no offence to ye in coming thither ... for it was not their manner to

aching at Thursday lecture, thus taught Christ's love for men: "Suppose ye should catch six wolves in a trap ... [there were six Salem Quakers] and ye cannot prove that they killed either sheep or lambs; an

his side (so came ye to your court) and John Norton must ask them questions, on purpose to ensnare them, that by your standing law for hereticks, ye might condemn them (as your priests bef

act through the legislature, which contained a clause making the denial of reverence to superiors, or in other words, the wear

and in May were once more in the felon's dock. They asked what wrong they had done. The judges told them they were rebellious for not going as they had been commanded. The old man and woman piteously pleaded "that they h

he should not go about to speak much concerning the error of their judgments: but,' added he, 'you and we are not able well to

were sent to Shelter Island, but their misery was well-nigh done; they perished

d in the "seventh month, 1661, you had him before you, and at which a

e, but that you had made your late law to save his life, which, you said, was mercy to him.' Then he asked you, 'Whether you were not as good to take his life now, as to whip him after your manner, twelve or fourteen times at the cart's tail, through your towns, and then put him to death afterward?'" He was condemned to be flogged through Boston

m to a cart and lashed him for fifteen miles, and while he "sang to the praise of God," his tormentor swung with all his might a tremendous two-handed whip, whose knotted thongs wer

e device was conceived of enforcing the penalty for not attending church, since "it was well known they had no e

and mother perhaps he might have come." [Footnote: New England Judged, ed. 1703, p. 381.] They were fined; and on the day on which they lost their

ade the excuse that they would corrupt his ship's company. "Oh, no," said Batter, "you need not fear that, for they are poor harmless creatures, and will not hurt a

izens of Massachusetts dealt with by the pri

the marrow of their bones, and so declared it in their laws, denouncing banishment under pain of death against those "adhering to or approoving of any knoune Quaker, or the tenetts & practices of

they claimed to derive their authority from their skill in interpreting the Scriptures, or from traditions preserved by Apostolic Succession. Each man, therefore, became, as it were, a priest unto himself, and they repudiated an ordained ministry. Hence, their crime resembled that of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who "made priests

rol the people. Nothing is plainer upon the evidence, than that popular sympathy was never with the ecclesiastics in their ferociou

of his hand, for Endicott was his mouthpiece; yet even he, backed by the whole power of the c

ired the speaker ... to send for him when it was to be, lest by his absence it might miscarry. The deputies that were against the ... law, thinking themselves strong enough to cast it out, forbore to send for him. The vote was put and carried in the affirmative,-the speaker and eleven being in the negative and

ng strongly moved, flocked about the prison, so that

eir fetters, and Mary Dyer, who also was to die, walked between them; and so they went bravely hand in hand to the scaffold. The prisoners were put behind the drums, and th

at Robinson, and, shaking his hand in a light, scoffing manner, said, 'Shall such Jacks as you come in before authority with your hats on?' with many other taunti

the people they did not suffer as evil-doers, but as those who manifested the truth. He besought

g to dye with a lye in thy mouth." [Footnote: Idem, p. 125.] Then they seized him and bound h

rch, were almost equally divided, and beyond tha

e flogged through Dover, on that bitter winter day; but the men of Salisbury cut

razenly defended his tormentor; but the Boston mob succored

uthwicks like wolves, since he could not have their blood by law; but the honest sai

the gibbet, over the hole that was his grave; but even the savage Endicott knew well that all the trainban

ughts on rebellion they have exhausted human torments; nor, in their lust for earthly dominion, have they felt remorse, but rather joy, when slaying Christ's enemies and their own. The horror

numbered fields of battle; for this they have gone by thousands to the dungeon, the scaffold, and the stake. We owe to their heroic devotion the most priceless of our treasures, our perfect