John Howard Burnham

“ It is, indeed, enough to assert that, as the sturdy Cromwellians in England, men of almost exactly the same faith, demonstrated to the world at large the tremendous power of the people, so the progressive and liberty-loving Puritans of Massachusetts Bay demonstrated, to the little world on its side of the Atlantic, the real value of the large share of independence enjoyed by them before their Charter was annulled by the British Court of Chancery, June 21, 1684. ”

“ In carrying on that war the Colony compelled every able-bodied man to furnish and keep in order his own gun and gunpowder, and to private ownership of guns and ammunition in thousands of homes, we no doubt owe the wonderful success of Boston's revolution in April, 1689, when the people, under the lead of a committee of leading citizens, took the law into their own hands and instinctively obeyed the orders of a few Captains. ”

“ During the fifty years of home rule the New England Colonists had made remarkable progress. They had been confederated together in 1641 for mutual protection against Indian raids. Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven had thus united with Massachusetts, and here we find the germ of our national confederation of a later date. These communities were bound together by almost the same ties of religion. However, the others were much more liberal and moderate than was Massachusetts, and they did not bring upon themselves so much of the hatred and fury of their British rulers as did Massachusetts Bay. ”

“ In carrying on the expensive Indian War without calling on England for assistance, Massachusetts had exercised nearly all of the attributes of sovereignty and independence, and yet felt itself loyal to Great Britain, and its people were fairly astounded at that interference with their Colonial affairs, which was evidenced by King James when he sent Sir Edmund Andros as General Governor to Boston accompanied by the frigate Rose and a company of British Red-Coats. ”

“ There were very few lawyers at this time in all of New England and none in the Legislature of the Colony. The Pastors of the Churches were the leading politicians and it had been customary for them to take the lead in defending and maintaining the much-loved Charter, which gave the ruling Church of the Puritans power to protect itself. All of my ancestors were Puritans of the strictest sort, and I can but lament that their intense zeal for their Church led them so often into the advocacy of extreme measures. ”

“ These Indians burned over five hundred houses and utterly destroyed thirteen towns. They brought the frontier to within forty miles of Boston and within fifteen miles of Ipswich. One-half a million dollars was the financial cost, all of it borne in New England mostly by Massachusetts, and, at the end of the war in 1676, the sufferings of the people were enough to appal the stoutest heart. Ipswich furnished its full quota of fighting men and some of the ablest leaders in this terrible war were from Ipswich. ”

“ Puritan influence prevailed at headquarters in London, and the leading idea of those who procured the Charter was to furnish a safe home to the Puritan Independents or Congregationalists, although it was hoped that mines of precious metals might be discovered, or that the pine forests and the fisheries might yield some return to the Chartered Corporation of the Massachusetts Bay Company. The settlers were given the right to make their own laws, elect their own Legislature and Governor, to make war, if necessary, in their own defense, and to exercise all of the privileges of Englishmen. ”

“ That considering the said act doth infringe their liberty as free born English subjects of his Majesty by interfering with the statutory laws of the land, by which it is enacted that no tax shall be levied on the subjects without consent of an assembly, chosen by the freeholders, for assessing same, they do, therefore, vote that they are not willing to choose a commissioner with such an end without said privileges, and moreover consent not that the select men do proceed to lay out any such rate until it be appointed by a general assembly concurring with the Governor and Council. ”

“ During the great immigration of Puritans, which occurred mainly from 1631 to 1640, the population of Massachusetts Bay was increased by over twenty thousand souls, bringing with them property and money to the amount of one million dollars. ”

“ The influence of the clergy upon people of all sects was very strong up to the breaking out of the War of the Revolution, and no doubt ministers of all denominations had been influenced by the patriotic Pastor's demonstration of Christian republicanism and Christian democracy in these re-published volumes. ”