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TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE JAMES BRYCE, M. P.
TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE JAMES BRYCE, M. P.
My dear Mr. Bryce : In giving an account of the origins of the United States, I have told a story of English achievement. It is fitting that I should inscribe it to you, who of all the Englishmen of this generation have rendered the most eminent service to the American Commonwealth. You have shown with admirable clearness and candor, and with marvelous breadth of thought and sympathy, what are the results in the present time of the English beginnings in America, and to you, therefore, I offer th
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LIST OF MAPS.
LIST OF MAPS.
(In the coast line the American maps follow the charts of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey; the third map conforms to the British Ordnance Survey.)...
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CHAPTER THE FIRST. ENGLISH KNOWLEDGE AND NOTIONS OF AMERICA AT THE PERIOD OF SETTLEMENT.
CHAPTER THE FIRST. ENGLISH KNOWLEDGE AND NOTIONS OF AMERICA AT THE PERIOD OF SETTLEMENT.
The Elizabethan age. The age of Elizabeth and James—the age of Spenser, of Shakespeare, and of Bacon—was a new point of departure in the history of the English race. All the conditions excited men to unwonted intellectual activity. The art of printing was yet a modern invention; the New World with its novelties and unexplained mysteries was a modern discovery; and there were endless discussions and agitations of spirit growing out of the recent reformation in religion. Imagination was powerfully
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Elucidations.
Elucidations.
Note 1, page 3. See the careful and learned discussion of the Voyages of Cabot by the late Charles Deane, in Winsor's Narrative and Critical History of America, vol. iii. Mr. Deane effectually destroys the delusion which so long gave the credit of this discovery, or a part of it, to Sebastian Cabot, the son of the real discoverer. Mr. Henry Harrisse, in John Cabot, the Discoverer of America, and in an earlier work, Jean et Sebastien Cabot, etc., reaches the same conclusion. He even doubts Sebast
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CHAPTER THE SECOND. JAMES RIVER EXPERIMENTS.
CHAPTER THE SECOND. JAMES RIVER EXPERIMENTS.
Departure of the emigrants. In December, 1606, there lay at Blackwall, below London, the Susan Constant, of one hundred tons, the Godspeed, of forty tons, and the little pinnace Discovery, of but twenty tons—three puny ships to bear across the wintry Atlantic the beginners of a new nation. The setting forth of these argonauts produced much excitement in London. Patriotic feeling was deeply stirred, public prayers were offered for the success of the expedition, sermons appropriate to the occasion
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Elucidations.
Elucidations.
Note 1, page 29. In 1889, when I visited Jamestown, there was no apparent trace of Sandy Beach which had connected the island with the mainland. This bit of sand, in the antique phrase of one of the early colonists, was "no broader than a man may well quaite a tileshard." Strachey, in Purchas, p. 1752. Jamestown is now a farm; the ruins of the church and many of the tombs in the eighteenth-century churchyard remain; but the upper end of the island is wearing away, and I picked out of the crumbli
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CHAPTER THE THIRD. THE PROCESSION OF MOTIVES.
CHAPTER THE THIRD. THE PROCESSION OF MOTIVES.
The chief mistake. The cause of the sorrows of Virginia will be more plainly seen if we turn again to the motives that propelled Englishmen to plant a colony. The chief mistake lay in the main purpose. If the founding of a state had been other than a secondary and remote end, the managers might have sent at first families and not bachelors, farmers and not gentlemen, laborers and not riff-raff. But more visionary motives dominated the action. A state was planted, but something else was mainly in
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Elucidations.
Elucidations.
Note 1, page 74. Two of the chapter heads to Hakluyt's Westerne Planting, printed in 2d Maine Historical Collections, ii, sufficiently indicate the views prevailing at the time: "V. That this voyadge will be a greate bridle to the Indies of the Kinge of Spaine, and a meane that wee may arreste at our pleasure for the space of tenne weekes or three monethes every yere, one or two hundred saile of his subjectes Shippes at the fysshinge in Newfounde lande. "VI. That the mischefe that the Indian thr
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CHAPTER THE FIRST. RISE AND DEVELOPMENT OF PURITANISM.
CHAPTER THE FIRST. RISE AND DEVELOPMENT OF PURITANISM.
Love of display in Elizabeth's time. Not religious disputants only, but the world in general, exaggerated the importance of vestments and ceremonies in the reign of Elizabeth. The love of formality and display that characterized the Renascence was then at its height. It was a time of pomps and royal progresses. Great historic characters went about dressed like performers in a show. Some of the queen's gowns were adorned with jewels on every available inch of space. These bespangled robes were dr
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Elucidations.
Elucidations.
Note 1, page 99. Evelyn's Diary, pp. 4, 5; date, 1634: "My father was appointed Sheriff for Surrey and Sussex before they were disjoyned. He had 116 servants in liverys, every one livery'd in greene sattin doublets. Divers gentlemen and persons of quality waited on him in the same garbe and habit, which at that time (when 30 or 40 was the usual retinue of a High Sheriff) was esteem'd a great matter.... He could not refuse the civility of his friends and relations who voluntarily came themselves,
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CHAPTER THE SECOND. SEPARATISM AND THE SCROOBY CHURCH.
CHAPTER THE SECOND. SEPARATISM AND THE SCROOBY CHURCH.
Importance of the Separatists. To the great brotherhood of Puritans who formed a party within the church there was added a little fringe of Separatists or "Brownists," as they were commonly called, who did not stop with rejecting certain traits of the Anglican service, but spurned the church itself. Upon these ultraists fell the merciless hand of persecution. They were imprisoned, hanged, exiled. They were mostly humble people, and were never numerous; but by their superior boldness in speech an
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Elucidations.
Elucidations.
Note 1, page 146. The eccentricities, moral and mental, of Browne were a constant resource of those who sought to involve all Separatists in his disgrace. Odium has always been a more effective weapon than argument in a theological controversy. Browne's enemies alleged that even while on the gridiron of persecution his conduct had not been free from moral obliquity. I have not been able to see Bernard's charges on this score, but John Robinson, in his Justification, etc. (1610), parries the thru
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CHAPTER THE THIRD. THE PILGRIM MIGRATIONS.
CHAPTER THE THIRD. THE PILGRIM MIGRATIONS.
Accession of James I. The accession of James of Scotland to the English throne in 1603 raised the hopes of the Puritans. James had said, in 1590: "As for our neighbour kirk of England, their service is an ill-said masse in English; they want nothing of the masse but the liftings." Neal, ii, 28. Compare Burns's Prel. Diss. to Wodrow, lxxiv. Later, when the prospect of his accession to the English throne was imminent, James had spoken with a different voice, but the Puritans remembered his lifelon
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Elucidations.
Elucidations.
Note 1, page 162. Sir John Harington says: "The bishops came to the Kynge aboute the petition of the puritans; I was by, and heard much dyscourse. The Kynge talked muche Latin, and disputed wyth Dr. Reynoldes, at Hampton, but he rather usede upbraidinges than argumente; and tolde the petitioners that they wanted to strip Christe againe, and bid them awaie with their snivellinge: moreover, he wishede those who woud take away the surplice mighte want linen for their own breech. The bishops seemed
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CHAPTER THE FOURTH. THE GREAT PURITAN EXODUS.
CHAPTER THE FOURTH. THE GREAT PURITAN EXODUS.
Result of the Pilgrim settlement. Men who undertake a great enterprise rarely find their anticipations fulfilled; they are fortunate if their general aim is reached at last in any way. The Pilgrims had migrated, hoping to be "stepping-stones to others," as they phrased it. They thought that many like-minded in matters of religion would come to them out of England, but the Separatist movement had been worn out by persecution. There were few open dissenters left, and the Pilgrims, by their long ex
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Elucidations.
Elucidations.
Note 1, page 191. Morton's settlement has become the subject of a literature of its own, and of some rather violent and amusing discussion even in our times. Morton's New English Canaan has been edited by Mr. C. F. Adams for the Prince Society. His defensive account of himself leaves the impression that the author was just the sort of clever and reckless rake who is most dangerous to settlements in contact with savages, and who might be expelled neck and heels from a frontier community holding n
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CHAPTER THE FIRST. THE CATHOLIC MIGRATION.
CHAPTER THE FIRST. THE CATHOLIC MIGRATION.
Centrifugal forces. At every new stage in the history of the American settlement, we are afresh reminded that colonies are planted by the uneasy. The discontent that comes from poverty and financial reverse, that which is born of political unrest, and that which has no other cause than feverish thirst for novelty and hazardous adventure, had each a share in impelling Englishmen to emigrate. But in the seventeenth century religion was the dominant concern—one might almost say the dominant passion
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Elucidations.
Elucidations.
Note 1, page 223. "Voto a Dios que la Corte d'Inglatierra es como un libro de cavalleros andantes." Quoted by Chamberlain in Birch, i, 413. In view of the swift mutations of fortune among courtiers, Dudley Carleton the younger wrote on December 18, 1624, "He is happiest who has least to do at court"—a truth which Calvert probably had come to appreciate by that time. Note 2, page 224. "The third man who was thought to gain by the Spaniard was Secretary Calvert; and as he was the only secretary em
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CHAPTER THE SECOND. THE PROPHET OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM.
CHAPTER THE SECOND. THE PROPHET OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM.
Centrifugal forces in Massachusetts. The centrifugal force of religious differences acted with disastrous results in Maryland, because the Catholic party, which had always a controlling negative there through the proprietary, was in the minority. The Massachusetts people, on the other hand, were fairly homogeneous in religious opinion, and their government was admirably compacted. In Massachusetts religious sentiment was a powerful centripetal force. Magistrates and ministers were nicely poised,
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Elucidations.
Elucidations.
Note 1, page 268. Sir William Martin, an early friend of Williams, describes him as passionate and precipitate, but with integrity and good intentions. Hutchinson Papers, 106. See also, for example, the two letters of Williams to Lady Barrington, in New England Genealogical Register, July, 1889, pp. 316 and following. Note 2, page 269. Letter to John Cotton the younger, 25th March, 1671. "He knows what gains and preferments I have refused in universities, city, country and court," etc. Williams'
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CHAPTER THE THIRD. NEW ENGLAND DISPERSIONS.
CHAPTER THE THIRD. NEW ENGLAND DISPERSIONS.
Importance of the Rhode Island colony. The removal of Roger Williams and his friends was the beginning of dispersions from the mother colony on Massachusetts Bay. The company that settled Providence was too small in number at first to be of great importance. The emigration of Williams and his followers to the Narragansett country was an example that may have turned the scale with Hooker and his party in favor of a removal to the Connecticut instead of to some place in the Massachusetts wildernes
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CONCLUSION.
CONCLUSION.
Later English emigrations to New England. The emigration to New England from the mother country was quickened by the troubles that preceded the civil war. In 1638 it reached its greatest height, having been augmented perhaps by agricultural distress. Fourteen ships bound for New England lay in the Thames at one time in the spring of that year. There was alarm at the great quantity of corn required for the emigrants, lest there should not be enough left in London to last till harvest. "Divers clo
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Elucidations.
Elucidations.
Note 1, page 321. There is a paper on this debate in the British Record Office indorsed by Archbishop Laud, "Rec: Octob: 7. 1637," "Propositions wch have devided Mr. Hooker & Mr. Cotton in Newe England. 1. That a man may prove his justification by his works of sanctification, as the first, best, and only cheife evidence of his salvation. 2. Whither fayth be active or passive in justification. 3. Whither there be any saving preparation in a Christian soule before his unyon with Christ. Th
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D. APPLETON & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS.
D. APPLETON & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS.
WITH THE FATHERS. Studies in the History of the United States. By John Bach McMaster , Professor of American History in the University of Pennsylvania, author of "The History of the People of the United States," etc. 8vo. Cloth, $1.50. "The book is of great practical value, as many of the essays throw a broad light over living questions of the day. Prof. McMaster has a clear, simple style that is delightful. His facts are gathered with great care, and admirably interwoven to impress the subject
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