Calvert and Penn Part 4

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Mr. Joseph Hunter's "Collections concerning the Early History of the Founders of New Plymouth." London, 1849: No 2 of his Critical and Historical Tracts, p. 14.

[2] It is believed by historians that Sir Walter Raleigh fell a victim to the intrigues of Spain at the Court of James. His American adventures and hardihood were dangerous to the Spanish Empire. A small pamphlet ent.i.tled: A NEW DESCRIPTION OF VIRGINIA, published in London in 1619, a reprint of which is possessed by the Virginia Historical Society, shows how the prophetic fears of the Spaniard, even at that early time, conjured up the warning phantom of Anglo-Saxon "_annexation._"

"It is well known," says the pamphlet, "that our English plantations have had little countenance; nay, that our statesmen, (when time was,) had store of Gundemore's gold," (meaning Gondomar, Spanish Minister at James's Court)--"_to destroy_ and discountenance the plantation of Virginia; and he effected it, in great part, by dissolving the company, wherein most of the n.o.bility, gentry, corporate cities, and most merchants of England, were interested and engaged; after the expense of some hundred of thousands of pounds; for Gundemore did affirm to his friends, that he had commission from his master"--(the King of Spain,)--"to destroy that plantation. For, said he, should they thrive and go on increasing, as they have done under that popular Lord of Southampton, _my master's West Indies_, AND HIS MEXICO, _would shortly be visited by sea and by land, from those Planters in Virginia_."

Generals Scott and Taylor--both sons of Virginia--have verified, in the nineteenth century, the foresight of the cautious statesman of the seventeenth.

_See Virginia His. Reg. Vol. 1. p. 28._

[3] Dr. Miller's "History Philosophically Ill.u.s.trated," vol 1. p. 95.

[4] "Men who have to count, miserly, the kernels of corn for their daily bread, and to till their ground, staggering through weakness from the effect of famine, can do but little in settling the metaphysics of faith, or in counting frames, and gauging the exercises of their feelings. Grim necessity of hunger looks morbid sensibility out of countenance."--_Rev. Dr. G. B. Cheever's edition of the Journal of the Pilgrims;--1848: p. 112._

[5] "The New England Puritans, though themselves refugees from religions intolerance, and martyrs, as they supposed, to the cause of religious freedom, practiced the same intolerance to those who were so unfortunate as to differ from them. In 1635, Roger Williams was banished from the Ma.s.sachusetts colony for differences of religious opinions with the civil powers. This was the next year after the arrival of the Maryland colony. In 1659, fifteen years later, a Baptist received thirty lashes at the whipping post, in Boston, for his peculiar faith; and nine years later, three persons suffered death by the common hangman, in the same place, for their adherence to the sect of Quakers."--_Rev. Dr. Burnap's Life of Leonard Calvert, in Sparks's Am. Biog. 2nd series, vol. IX. p.

170, Boston, 1846._

On the 13th Sept. 1644, these N. England Puritans, pa.s.sed a law of banishment against Anabaptists; in 1646, another law, imposing the same punishment, was pa.s.sed against Heresy and Error; in 1647, the order of Jesuits came in for a share of intolerance;--its members were inhibited from entering the colony; if they came in, heedless of the law, they were to be banished, and if they returned after banishment, they were to be _put to death_. On the 14th of October 1656, the celebrated law was enacted against "the cursed sect of heretics lately risen up in the world, which are commonly called Quakers:"--by its decrees, captains of vessels who introduced these religionists, knowingly, were to be fined or imprisoned; "quaker books or writings containing their devilish opinions," were not to be brought into the colony, under a penalty; while quakers who came in, were to be committed to the house of correction, kept constantly at work, not allowed to speak, and severely whipped, on their entrance into this sanctuary!--See original Acts, _Hazard's His. Coll. 1, pp. 538, 545, 550, 630_.

[6] See Mr. John P. Kennedy's discourse on the life and character of Sir George Calvert, and the reviews thereof, with Mr K's reply, on this question of religion, in the U. S. Catholic Magazine, 1846. Since the publication of Mr. Kennedy's discourse and the reviews of it, in 1846, I have met with an English work published in London in 1839, _attributed_ to Bishop Goodman, ent.i.tled an "Account of the Court of James the first." In vol. 1, p. 376, he says: "The third man who was thought to gain by the Spanish match was Secretary Calvert; and as he was the _only Secretary employed in the Spanish match_, so undoubtedly he did what good offices he could therein, for religion's sake, _being infinitely addicted to the Roman Catholic faith, having been converted thereto by Count Gondemar and Count Arundel, whose daughter Secretary Calvert's Son had married; and, as it was said, the Secretary did usually catechise his own children, so to ground them in his own religion; and in his best room having an altar set up, with chalice, candlesticks, and all other ornaments, he brought all strangers thither, never concealing anything, as if his whole joy and comfort had been to make open profession of his religion_." As the Prelate was a _contemporary_, this statement, founded, as it may be, on report, is of considerable importance. Fuller, also, was a contemporary though thirty years younger than Calvert. The Spanish match, alluded to, was on the carpet as early as 1617, and was broken off in the beginning of 1624. It was probably during this period that Lord Arundel and the Spanish Minister influenced the mind of Sir George as to religion.

[7] Mr. Chalmers, in his Hist. of the Revolt of the Am. Col. B. 2 ch. 3, says that the charter of Maryland was a _literal copy_ from the prior patent of Avalon; but of this we are unable to judge, as he neither cites his authority nor indicates the depository of the Avalon Charter.

If the Maryland charter is an _exact_ transcript of the Avalon doc.u.ment, it is interesting to know the fact, as Calvert may have been a Protestant, when the latter was issued. Bozman states an authority for its date, as of 1623, which would indicate that this doc.u.ment may still probably be found in the British Museum. If it was issued in 1623, it was granted a year before, Fuller says, Calvert resigned because he had become a Catholic. In all likelihood, however, Sir George was not converted in a day!--_See Bozman Hist. Maryland ed. 1837, vol. 1 p. 240 et seq. in note._

[8] The Baron Von Raumer, in his Hist. of the XVI and XVII Centuries, vol. 2, p. 263, quoting from Tillieres, says of Calvert: "He is an honorable, sensible well-minded man, courteous towards strangers, full of respect towards emba.s.sadors, zealously intent on the welfare of England; but by reason of all these good qualities, entirely without consideration or influence."

The only original work or tract by which we know the character of Sir George Calvert's mind is "THE ANSWER TO TOM TELL-TROTH, THE PRACTISE OF PRINCES AND THE LAMENTATIONS OF THE KIRKE, _written by Lord Baltimore, late Secretary of State_." London, _printed 1642_:--a copy of which, in MS., is in the collections of the Maryland Hist. Soc. This is a quaint specimen of pedantic politics and toryism--larded with Latin quotations, and altogether redolent of James's Court. It was addressed to Charles I, and shows the author's intimate acquaintance with the political history and movements of the continental powers. We may judge Calvert's politics by the following pa.s.sage in which he _commends_ the doctrines of his old master:--

"King James," says he, "in his oration to the Parliament, 1620, used these words _very judiciattie_; Kings and Kingdoms were before Parliaments; the Parliament was never called for the purpose to meddle with complaints against the King, the Church, or State matters, but _ad consultandum de rebus arduis, Nos et Regnum nostrum concernantibus_; as the writ will inform you. I was never the cause, nor guiltie of the election of my sonne by the Bohemians, neither would I be content that any other king should dispute whether I am a lawful King or no, and to tosse crowns like Tennis-b.a.l.l.s."

[9] It may seem strange, that, being a Catholic, he still had the right of advowson or of presentation to Protestant Episcopal Churches; but it was not until the Act of 1st William and Mary, chapter 26, that Parliament interfered with the right of Catholics to present to religious benefices. That Act vested the presentations belonging to Catholics in the Universities. An Act pa.s.sed 12th Anne, was of a similar disabling character.--_Butler's Hist. Mem. vol. 3, pp. 136, 148, 149._

[10] See Appendix No. 1, in regard to the erroneous translation of this clause from the Latin, that has. .h.i.therto been adopted from Bacon's laws of Maryland.

[11] As an ill.u.s.tration of this feeling, I will quote a pa.s.sage showing how it fared with Marylanders in Ma.s.sachusetts in 1631. "The Dove," one of the vessels of the first colonists to Maryland, was dispatched to Ma.s.sachusetts with a cargo of corn to exchange for fish. She carried a friendly letter from Calvert and another from Harvey, but the magistrates were suspicious of a people who "_did set up ma.s.s openly_."

Some of the crew were accused of reviling the inhabitants of Ma.s.sachusetts as "holy brethren," "the members," &c., and just as the ship was about to sail; _the supercargo, happening on sh.o.r.e, was arrested in order to compel the master to give up the culprits_. The proof failed, and the vessel was suffered to depart, but not without a special charge to the master "_to bring no more such disordered persons!_"--_Hildreth Hist. U. S., vol. 1, 209_.

[12] See Appendix No. 2.

[13] In order to ill.u.s.trate the spirit in which the region for the first settlement at St. Mary's was acquired, I will quote from a MS. copy of "A Relation of Maryland, 1635," now in my possession: "To make his entrie peaceable and safe, he thought fit to present ye Werowance and Wisoes of the town (so they call ye chief men of accompt among them,) with some English cloth (such as is used in trade with ye Indians,) axes, hoes, and knives, which they accepted verie kindlie, and freely gave consent toe his companie that hee and they should dwell in one part of their towne, and reserved the other for themselves: and those Indians that dwelt in that part of ye towne which was allotted for ye English, freely left them their houses and some corne that they had begun to plant: It was also agreed between them that at ye end of ye Harvest they should have ye whole Towne, which they did accordinglie. And they made mutuall promises to each other to live peaceably and friendlie together, and if any injury should happen to be done, on any part, that satisfaction should be made for ye same; and thus, on ye 27 DAIE of MARCH, A. D. 1634, ye Gouernour took possession of ye place, and named ye _Towne--Saint Marie's_.

"There was an occasion that much facilitated their treatie with these Indians which was this: the Susquehanocks (a warlike people that inhabit between Chesapeake Bay and Delaware Bay) did usuallie make warres and incursions upon ye neighboring Indians, partly for superioritie, partly for to gett their women, and what other purchase they could meet with; which the Indians of _Yoacomaco_ fearing, had, ye yeere before our arivall there, made a resolution, for there safetie, to remove themselves higher into ye countrie, where it was more populous, and many of them where gone there when ye English arrived."

At Potomac, Father Altham,--according to Father White's Latin MS. in the Maryland Hist. Soc. Col.--informed the guardian of the King that _we_ (the clergy) had not come thither for war, but for the sake of benevolence,--that we might imbue a rude race with the principles of civilization, and open a way to Heaven, as well as to impart to them the advantages enjoyed by distant regions. The prince signified that we had come acceptably. The interpreter was one of the Virginia Protestants.

When the Father, for lack of time, could not continue his discourse, and promised soon to return: "I will that it should be so," said Archihau--"our table shall be one; my men shall hunt for you; all things shall be in common between us."

The Werowance of Pautuxent visited the strangers, and when he was about departing, used the following language, as recorded in the MS. Relation of Maryland of 1635: "I love ye English so well that if they should goe about to kill me, if I had so much breath as to speak, I would command ye people not to revenge my death; for I know they would not doe such a thinge except it was through mine own default." See also Mr. B. U.

Campbell's admirable SKETCH OF THE EARLY MISSIONS TO MARYLAND, read before the Md. Hist. Soc. 8th Jan. 1846, and subsequently printed in the U.S. Catholic Magazine.

[14] In William Penn's second reply to a committee of the House of Lords appointed in 1678, he declares that those who cannot comply with laws, through tenderness of conscience, should not "revile or conspire against the government, _but with christian humility and patience tire out all mistakes against us_, and wait their better information, who, we believe, do as undeservedly as severely treat us."

[15] Preface to Frame of Government, 25 April, 1682.

[16] Those who desire to know the precise character of the celebrated Elm-tree Treaty, should read the Memoir on its history, in vol. 3, part 2, p. 145 of the Memoirs of the Pennsylvania Hist. Soc., written by the late Mr. Du Ponceau, and Mr. Joshua Francis Fisher. It is one of the finest specimen of minute, exhaustive, historical a.n.a.lysis, with which I am acquainted. These gentlemen, prove, I think, conclusively, that the Treaty was altogether one of amity and friendship, and was entirely unconnected with the purchase of lands.

[17] Janney's Life of Penn, 163.

[18] See 2nd Bozman Hist. Md. p. 616--note XLIII, Conditions, &c.

[19] 2d Bozman, 597, and Orig. MS. in Md. His. Soc.