Bradford's History of 'Plimoth Plantation' Part 4

It is that, not, as Mr. h.o.a.r has said, any influence or special effort of mine; but it is international good feeling and comity which brought about to you the pleasure and the joy of having this ma.n.u.script returned, and so it will ever be. A generous act will beget a generous act; trust and confidence will beget trust and confidence; and so it will be while the world shall last, and well will it be for the man or for the people who shall recognize this truth and act upon it.

Now, gentlemen, there is another coincidence that I may venture to point out. It is history repeating itself. More than three hundred years ago the ancestors from whom my father drew his name and blood were French Protestants, who had been compelled to flee from the religious persecutions of that day, and for the sake of conscience to find an asylum in Holland. Fifty years after they had fled and found safety in Holland, the little congregation of Independents from the English village of Scrooby, under the pastorate of John Robinson, was forced to fly, and with difficulty found its way into the same country of the Netherlands, seeking an asylum for consciences' sake.

Time pa.s.sed on. The little English colony removed, as this ma.n.u.script of William Bradford will tell you, across the Atlantic, and soon after the Huguenot family from whom I drew my name found their first settlement in what was then the New Netherlands, now New York. Both came from the same cause; both came with the same object, the same purpose,--"soul freedom," as Roger Williams well called it. Both came to found homes where they could worship G.o.d according to their own conscience and live as free men. They came to these sh.o.r.es, and they have found the asylum, and they have strengthened it, and it is what we see to-day,--a country of absolute religious and civil freedom,--of equal rights and toleration.

And is it not fitting that I, who have in my veins the blood of the Huguenots, should present to you and your Governor the log of the English emigrants, who left their country for the sake of religious freedom?

They are blended here,--their names, their interests. No man asks and no man has a right to ask or have ascertained by any method authorized by law what is the conscientious religious tenet or opinion of any man, of any citizen, as a prerequisite for holding an office of trust or power in the United States.

I think it well on this occasion to make, as I am sure you are making, acknowledgment to that heroic little country, the Lowlands as they call it, the Netherlands,--the country without one single feature of military defence except the brave hearts of the men who live in it and defend it.

Holland was the anvil upon which religious and civil liberty was beaten out in Europe at a time when the clang was scarcely heard anywhere else.

We can never forget our historical debt to that country and to those people. Puritan, Independent, Huguenot, whoever he may be, forced to flee for conscience's sake, will not forget that in the Netherlands there was found in his time of need the asylum where conscience, property and person might be secure.

And now my task is done. I am deeply grateful for the part that I have been enabled to take in this act of just and natural rest.i.tution. In Ma.s.sachusetts or out of Ma.s.sachusetts there is no one more willing than I to a.s.sist this work; and here, sir [addressing Governor Wolcott], I fulfil my trust in placing in your hands the ma.n.u.script.

To you, as the honored representative of the people of this Commonwealth, I commit this book, in pursuance of my obligations, gladly undertaken under the decree of the Episcopal Consistorial Court of London.

ADDRESS

OF

HIS EXCELLENCY ROGER WOLCOTT.

[Ill.u.s.tration:]

ADDRESS OF GOVERNOR WOLCOTT.

On receiving the volume, Governor Wolcott, addressing Mr. Bayard, spoke as follows: I thank you, sir, for the diligent and faithful manner in which you have executed the honorable trust imposed upon you by the decree of the Consistorial and Episcopal Court of London, a copy of which you have now placed in my hands. It was fitting that one of your high distinction should be selected to perform so dignified an office.

The gracious act of international courtesy which is now completed will not fail of grateful appreciation by the people of this Commonwealth and of the nation. It is honorable alike to those who hesitated not to prefer the request and to those whose generous liberality has prompted compliance with it. It may be that the story of the departure of this precious relic from our sh.o.r.es may never in its every detail be revealed; but the story of its return will be read of all men, and will become a part of the history of the Commonwealth. There are places and objects so intimately a.s.sociated with the world's greatest men or with mighty deeds that the soul of him who gazes upon them is lost in a sense of reverent awe, as it listens to the voice that speaks from the past, in words like those which came from the burning bush, "Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground."

On the sloping hillside of Plymouth, that bathes its feet in the waters of the Atlantic, such a voice is breathed by the brooding genius of the place, and the ear must be dull that fails to catch the whispered words.

For here not alone did G.o.dly men and women suffer greatly for a great cause, but their n.o.ble purpose was not doomed to defeat, but was carried to perfect victory. They stablished what they planned. Their feeble plantation became the birthplace of religious liberty, the cradle of a free Commonwealth. To them a mighty nation owns its debt. Nay, they have made the civilized world their debtor. In the varied tapestry which pictures our national life, the richest spots are those where gleam the golden threads of conscience, courage and faith, set in the web by that little band. May G.o.d in his mercy grant that the moral impulse which founded this nation may never cease to control its destiny; that no act of any future generation may put in peril the fundamental principles on which it is based,--of equal rights in a free state, equal privileges in a free church and equal opportunities in a free school.

In this precious volume which I hold in my hands--the gift of England to the Commonwealth of Ma.s.sachusetts--is told the n.o.ble, simple story "of Pli[~m]oth Plantation." In the midst of suffering and privation and anxiety the pious hand of William Bradford here set down in ample detail the history of the enterprise from its inception to the year 1647. From him we may learn "that all great and honourable actions are accompanied with great difficulties, and must be both enterprised and overcome with answerable courages."

The sadness and pathos which some might read into the narrative are to me lost in victory. The triumph of a n.o.ble cause even at a great price is theme for rejoicing, not for sorrow, and the story here told is one of triumphant achievement, and not of defeat.

As the official representative of the Commonwealth, I receive it, sir, at your hands. I pledge the faith of the Commonwealth that for all time it shall be guarded in accordance with the terms of the decree under which it is delivered into her possession as one of her chiefest treasures. I express the thanks of the Commonwealth for the priceless gift. And I venture the prophecy that for countless years to come and to untold thousands these mute pages shall eloquently speak of high resolve, great suffering and heroic endurance made possible by an absolute faith in the over-ruling providence of Almighty G.o.d.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

BY THE

BISHOP OF LONDON.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE BISHOP OF LONDON]

(Copy)

FULHAM PALACE, S.W.

Oct. 16, 1897.

DEAR SIR,

I would ask you to express to the Convention of the two branches of the General Court of the Commonwealth of Ma.s.sachusetts my grateful thanks for the copy of their resolution of May 26, which was presented to me by Mr. Adams.[A]

I consider it a great privilege to have been a.s.sociated with an act of courtesy, which was also an act of justice, in restoring to its proper place a doc.u.ment which is so important in the records of your ill.u.s.trious Commonwealth.

I am

Yours faithfully, M. London.

H.D. COOLIDGE, Esq.

Clerk of the Convention.

OF PLIMOTH PLANTATION.

Of Plimoth Plantation.

And first of y^e occasion and ind[~u]sments ther unto; the which that I may truly unfould, I must begine at y^e very roote & rise of y^e same.

The which I shall endevor to manefest in a plaine stile, with singuler regard unto y^e simple trueth in all things, at least as near as my slender judgmente can attaine the same.

1. Chapter.

It is well knowne unto y^e G.o.dly and judicious, how ever since y^e first breaking out of y^e lighte of y^e gospell in our Honourable Nation of England, (which was y^e first of nations whom y^e Lord adorned ther with, affter y^t grosse darknes of popery which had covered & overspred y^e Christian worled,) what warrs & opposissions ever since, Satan hath raised, maintained, and continued against the Saincts, from time to time, in one sorte or other. Some times by b.l.o.o.d.y death and cruell torments; other whiles imprisonments, banishments, & other hard usages; as being loath his kingdom should goe downe, the trueth prevaile, and y^e churches of G.o.d reverte to their anciente puritie, and recover their primative order, libertie, & bewtie. But when he could not prevaile by these means, against the maine trueths of y^e gospell, but that they began to take rootting in many places, being watered with y^e blooud of y^e martires, and blessed from heaven with a gracious encrease; He then begane to take him to his anciente strategemes, used of old against the first Christians. That when by y^e b.l.o.o.d.y & barbarous persecutions of y^e Heathen Emperours, he could not stoppe & subuerte the course of y^e gospell, but that it speedily overspred with a wounderfull celeritie the then best known parts of y^e world, He then begane to sow errours, heresies, and wounderfull dissentions amongst y^e professours them selves, (working upon their pride & ambition, with other corrupte pa.s.sions incidente to all mortall men, yea to y^e saints them selves in some measure,) by which wofull effects followed; as not only bitter contentions, & hartburnings, schismes, with other horrible confusions, but Satan tooke occasion & advantage therby to foyst in a number of vile ceremoneys, with many unproffitable cannons & decrees, which have since been as snares to many poore & peaceable souls even to this day. So as in y^e anciente times, the persecutions[2] by y^e heathen & their Emperours, was not greater then of the Christians one against other; the Arians & other their complices against y^e orthodoxe & true Christians.

As witneseth Socrates in his 2. booke. His words are these;[B] _The violence truly_ (saith he) _was no less than that of ould practised towards y^e Christians when they were compelled & drawne to sacrifice to idoles; for many indured sundrie kinds of tormente, often rackings, & dismembering of their joynts; confiscating of ther goods; some bereaved of their native soyle; others departed this life under y^e hands of y^e tormentor; and some died in banishm[=e]te, & never saw ther c.u.n.trie againe, &c._

The like methode Satan hath seemed to hold in these later times, since y^e trueth begane to springe & spread after y^e great defection made by Antichrist, y^t man of si[=n]e.

For to let pa.s.s y^e infinite examples in sundrie nations and severall places of y^e world, and instance in our owne, when as y^t old serpente could not prevaile by those firie flames & other his cruell tragedies, which he[C] by his instruments put in ure every wher in y^e days of queene Mary & before, he then begane an other kind of warre, & went more closly to worke; not only to oppuggen, but even to ruinate & destroy y^e kingdom of Christ, by more secrete & subtile means, by kindling y^e flames of contention and sowing y^e seeds of discorde & bitter enmitie amongst y^e proffessors & seeming reformed them selves. For when he could not prevaile by y^e former means against the princ.i.p.all doctrins of faith, he bente his force against the holy discipline & outward regimente of the kingdom of Christ, by which those holy doctrines should be conserved, & true pietie maintained amongest the saints & people of G.o.d.