The Witch of Salem; or, Credulity Run Mad Read online

  CHAPTER VIII.

  MOVING ONWARD.

  Laws formed to harmonize contrarious creeds, And heal the wounds through which a nation bleeds; Laws mild, impartial, tolerant and fixed, A bond of union for a people mixed; Such as good Calvert framed for Baltimore, And Penn the Numa of th' Atlantic shore.

  The Stevens family were so intimately related to their country, that thehistory of one is the history of the other. Philip Stevens, or Estevan,had located in the south and left behind a numerous progeny, while hisbrother Mathew, who came over in the _Mayflower_, had left an equallylarge family in New England. Their descendants began to push out intothe frontier colonies, those in the south going as far north asPennsylvania, and those in the east pushing out westward to New York andNew Jersey.

  The family were lovers of freedom, and, wherever a struggle has beenmade on American soil for liberty, one of these descendants of the youthwho landed on American soil with Columbus, in 1492, has been found.They disliked Andros, and the members of this now extensive and widelyscattered family were in sackcloth and ashes, so to speak, when KingJames, in 1688, gave Andros a vice-regal commission to rule New York andall New England.

  When the viceroy journeyed from Boston to New York City, early in Augustthe same year, George Stevens, a cousin of Charles, accompanied him, andsaw Andros received by Colonel Bayard's regiment of foot and horse, whowas entertained by the loyal aristocrat. In the midst of the rejoicings,the news came that the queen, the second wife of James, had been blessedwith a son, who became heir to the throne. The event was celebrated thesame evening by bonfires in the streets and a feast at the city hall. Atthe latter, Major Van Cortlandt became so hilarious, that he made aburnt sacrifice to his loyalty of his hat and periwig, waving theburning victims over the banquet table on the point of his straightsword.

  Princess Mary, the eldest daughter of King James, had married the Princeof Orange, and this new birth in the royal family was a disappointmentto the Dutch inhabitants of New York, as well as the Protestantrepublicans, who had begun to hope that William and Mary would succeedJames to the throne of England. This event intensified the generaldiscontent, because of the consolidation of New York with New Englandand the abridgment of their rights, and the people were ready to rebelat almost any moment, especially as Andros had rendered himselfparticularly obnoxious.

  Like the other colonies, Maryland was shaken by the revolution inEngland, in 1688, and, for a while, experienced deep sorrows. Thedemocratic ideas, which, for several years, had been spreading over theprovinces, could not reconcile the rule of a lord proprietor with thetrue principles of republicanism. Even when Charles Calvert went toEngland after the death of his father, signs of political discontentwere conspicuous in Maryland. In 1678, the general assembly, influencedby the popular feeling, established the right of suffrage--"casting of avote for rulers"--on a broad basis. On the return of Charles, in 1681,he annulled this act and, by an arbitrary ordinance, resisted the rightof freemen owning fifty acres of land, or personal property of the valueof forty pounds sterling. This produced great disquietude, andEx-Governor Fendall planned an insurrection for the purpose ofabolishing the proprietorship and establishing an independent republicangovernment. The king was induced to issue orders that all the offices ofthe government in Maryland should be filled by Protestants alone; andso, again, the Roman Catholics were deprived of their political rights.

  Lord Baltimore went to England again, in 1684, leaving the government ofhis province in charge of several deputies under the nominalgovernorship of his infant son. There he found his rights in greatperil; but before the matter could be brought to a direct issue by theoperation of a writ of _quo warranto_, King James was driven from thethrone, and Protestant William and Mary ascended it. Lord Baltimoreimmediately acquiesced in the political change. On account of hisinstructions to his deputies to proclaim the new monarchs being delayedin their transmission, he was charged with hesitancy; and a restlessspirit named Coode, an associate of Fendall in his insurrectionarymovements--"a man of loose morals and blasphemous speech"--excited thepeople by the cry of "a popish plot!" He was the author of a false storyput in circulation, that the local magistrates in Maryland and the RomanCatholics there had engaged with the Indians in a plot for thedestruction of the Protestants in the province. An actual league at thattime between the French and the Jesuit missionaries with the savages onthe New England frontiers for the destruction of the English colonies inthe east seemed to give color to the story, which created greatexcitement. The old feud burned intensely. The Protestants formed anarmed association led by Coode. They marched to the Maryland capital,took possession of the records and assumed the functions of aprovisional government, in May, 1689. In the following August they metin convention, when they prepared and sent to the new sovereigns areport of their proceedings, and a series of absurd and falseaccusations against Lord Baltimore. In conclusion, they requested themonarchs to depose Lord Baltimore by making Maryland a royal provinceand taking it under the protection of the crown.

  William and Mary listened favorably to the request and, moved by thefalse representations, complied with it. Coode was ordered to administerthe government in the name of the king. He ruled with the spirit of apetty tyrant, until the people of every religious and political creedwere heartily disgusted with him, and, in 1692, he was supplanted by SirLionel Copley, whom the king sent to be governor of Maryland. On thearrival of the new governor, in the spring of 1692, he summoned ageneral assembly, to meet at St. Mary's in May. New laws abolishingreligious toleration were instituted. The church of England was made thestate church for Maryland, to be supported by a tax on the whole people.

  "Thus," says McMahan, "was introduced, for the first time in Maryland,a church establishment, sustained by law and fed by general taxation."Other laws oppressive in their bearings upon those opposed in religiousviews to the dominant party were enacted, some of which remained inforce until the glorious emancipation day, in the summer of 1776, gavefreedom to our nation.

  Partly in order to better accommodate the people of Maryland, but morefor the purpose of punishing the adherents of Lord Baltimore, whoconstituted a greater proportion of the population of St. Mary's, theseat of government was moved from there to Anne Arundel, a town on theshore of the Chesapeake, early in 1694, and there a general assembly wasconvened in February. The following year, the name of the place waschanged by authority to Annapolis, and the naval station of the provincewas established there. Annapolis has, ever since, continued to be thecapital of Maryland, while St. Mary's, dependent for its existence uponits being the capital of the province, speedily sunk into ruins.

  Lord Baltimore never recovered his proprietary rights. Neither did hereturn to America, but died in England in the year 1714, at the age ofeighty-five years. He was succeeded by his son Benedict Leonard Calvert.That son had abandoned the faith of his father and, in the spring of1715, died, when his title to the province devolved upon his infant sonCharles, who, with his brothers and sisters, had been educated asProtestants. Charles Calvert, Lord Baltimore and William Penn werecontemporaries, and were equally conspicuous for their beneficentdisposition. They are regarded as the best of all the proprietors, whoowned charted domains in America.

  Rufus Stevens, an uncle of Charles Stevens, the youth of Salem, wasliving in New Jersey, when Lord Berkeley, disgusted by the losses andannoyances which the ownership of the colony brought upon him, sold hisinterests in the province to John Fenwick and Edward Byllinge, EnglishFriends, or Quakers, for the sum of five thousand dollars. The tractthus disposed of was in the western part of the province. With someemigrants, mostly of the society of Friends, Fenwick sailed for his newpossessions. They entered at a spot not far from the Delaware River,which they named Salem, on account of the peaceful aspect of the countryand the surrounding Indians. There, with the peculiar gravity of thesect, Fenwick and his two daughters, thirteen men (most of them heads offamilies) and one woman, the wife of one of the emigrants, sat in silen
tworship, according to their custom, under the shadow of a great tree,with covered heads and quiet bodies, on the ensuing "First Day" aftertheir arrival. Then they built log cabins for shelter, and so began anew life in the wilds of New Jersey.

  The principal proprietor was Byllinge; but soon after the departure ofFenwick, heavy losses in trade made him a bankrupt, and his interest inNew Jersey was first assigned to William Penn and others for the benefitof his creditors, and was afterward sold to them. These purchasers andothers who became associated with them, unwilling to maintain apolitical union with other parties, bargained with Carteret for adivision of the province. This was done in July, 1676, Carteretretaining the eastern part of the province, and the new purchasersholding the western part. From that time, until they were united andbecame a royal province in 1702, these divisions were known as East andWest Jersey. Even to this day, we frequently hear the expression, "TheJerseys," used.

  Most of the settlers of West Jersey were Friends, and the proprietorsgave them a remarkably liberal constitution of government, entitled:"The concessions and agreements of the proprietors, freeholders andinhabitants of the province of West Jersey in America." The followingyear (1677), more than four hundred Friends came from England andsettled below the Raritan. Andros required them to acknowledge hisauthority as the representative of the Duke of York. This they refusedto do, and the matter was referred to the eminent crown-lawyer andoriental scholar, Sir William Jones, for adjudication. Sir Williamdecided against the claims of the duke, who submitted to the decision,released both provinces from allegiance to him, and the Jerseys becameindependent of foreign control. The first popular assembly in WestJersey met at Salem, in November, 1681, and adopted a code of laws forthe government of the people. One of these laws provided that in allcriminal cases, excepting treason, murder and theft, the aggrieved partyshould have power to pardon the offender.

  In the year 1679, Carteret died, and the trustees of his Americanestates offered East Jersey for sale. It was bought, in 1682, by WilliamPenn and others, among them the earl of Perth, the friend of RobertBarclay, whom the proprietors appointed governor for life. Barclay wasan eminent young Friend, whose writings were held in high estimation byhis own sect, especially his "Apology for the true Christian Divinity,as the same is held forth and practised by the people called in scornQuakers," and his "Treatise on Christian Discipline." The purchase ofthese lands was not made in the interest of either religion or liberty,but as a speculation. Barclay governed the province by deputies until1690.

  England and Scotland contributed a large number of Friends to EastJersey, and other immigrants flocked from Long Island, to find reposeand peace; but repose is not to be found by lovers of freedom, underroyal rule, and they were forcibly impressed with the significance ofthe injunction, "Put not your trust in princes," for James the kingfailed to keep the rosy promises of James the duke, and they were forcedto submit to the tyranny of Andros. When that detested viceroy wasexpelled from the country, in 1689, the Jerseys were left without aregular civil government, and so they remained for several years.Wearied with contentions, with the people of the provinces and with thegovernment at home, and annoyed by losses in unprofitable speculations,the proprietors of the Jerseys surrendered them to the crown, in 1702,when Queen Anne was the reigning British monarch. The government of thatdomain was then confided to Sir Edward Hyde (Lord Cornbury), whoseinstructions constituted the supreme law of the land. He was thengovernor of New York and possessed almost absolute legislative andexecutive control within the jurisdiction of his authority. In NewJersey the people had no voice in the judiciary or the making andexecuting of laws other than recommendatory. All but Roman Catholicswere granted liberty of conscience; but the bigoted governor alwaysshowed conspicuous favors to the members of the Church of England. Thegovernor was dishonest and a libertine, and under his rule the people ofNew Jersey were little better than slaves. Printing, except by royalpermission, was prohibited in the province, and the traffic in negroslaves was especially encouraged.

  New Jersey remained a dependency of New York, yet with a distinctlegislative assembly of its own, until the year 1738, when it was madean independent colony, and it so remained until the Revolutionary War,when it became a separate State. After the province gained its freedomfrom New York, Mr. Morris was commissioned its governor. He was the sonof an officer in Cromwell's army, who, about the year 1672, settled on afarm of three thousand acres on the Harlem River, New York, which wasnamed Morrisania.

  Last of the royal governors of New Jersey was William Franklin, son ofDr. Benjamin Franklin, who was appointed in 1763, and closed hisofficial career in the summer of 1776, when he was deposed by thecontinental congress and sent under guard to Connecticut. There he wasreleased on parole and went to England, where he died in 1813.

  One of the Stevens family having served as governor of North Carolinia,it was only natural that other members of the southern branch of thatrapidly increasing family in the south should push out into theCarolinias and take part in the early settlement of these colonies.

  After the failure of the schemes of Loche and Cooper to form"Fundamental Constitutions," a splendid government, in 1669, wascompleted. The "constitutions" were signed in March, 1670, and werehighly lauded in England, as forming the wisest scheme for humangovernment ever devised. Monk, Duke of Albemarle, was created palatineor viceroy for the new empire, who was to display the state parade ofhis office, with landgraves, barons, lords of manor and heraldry, amongthe scattered settlers in pine forests, living in log cabins with theIndians. Never was a more ludicrous idea entertained with any degree ofseriousness; yet, so far as the proprietors were concerned, thissplendid government was established; but the simple settlers hadsomething to say; and when the governor of the Albemarle county colonyattempted to introduce the new government, they said, "No." They had aform of government of their own, far better adapted to their socialcircumstances than the one sent from England, and they resolved toadhere to it.

  All attempts to enforce obedience to the new form of government, alloppressive taxation imposed upon the people, and especially thecommercial restrictions authorized by the English navigation laws,produced wide-spread discontent. Most particularly was this fostered byrefugees from Virginia, who had been engaged in Bacon's rebellion, andwho sought personal safety among the people below the Roanoke. Theserefugees, smarting under the lash of tyranny, scattered broadcast overthe generous soil the germinal ideas of popular freedom, and successfuloppression was made difficult, if not impossible.

  At this period, North Carolinia did not contain four thousandinhabitants. They carried on a small trade in tobacco, maize and fatcattle with the merchants of New England. This sort of smuggling wasperhaps excusable, when we consider the grinding navigation laws of themonopolists. The little vessels, trading between North Carolinia and NewEngland, brought many articles to the southern colonies, which they wereincapable of producing. English cupidity envied them their smallprosperity, and the navigation laws of 1672 were put in force. An agentof the government appeared, who demanded a penny for every pound oftobacco sent to New England. The colonists resisted the levy and thetax-gatherer became rude and had frequent collisions with the people. Onone occasion, he went to the home of Francisco Stevens, a planter,who had shipped some tobacco to a relative in Boston, and demanded asteer in payment for the shipment. The tax-gatherer attempted to driveaway the ox, when the sturdy wife assailed him with her mop-stick anddrove him from the premises.

  The sturdy wife assailed him with her mop-stick and drovehim away.]

  The exasperated people finally, in December, 1677, seized the publicfunds and imprisoned the governor and six of his councillors, called anew representative assembly and appointed a chief magistrate and judge.Then, for two years, the colonists were permitted to conduct the affairsof their government without any foreign control. Meanwhile, JohnCulpepper, their leader, whom the royalists denounced as an "ill man,who merited hanging for endeavoring to set the people to plunder th
erich," conscious of his integrity, went boldly to England to plead thecause of the colony. While in the act of re-embarking for America, hewas arrested, tried for treason and honorably acquitted. Returning toNorth Carolinia, he was appointed surveyor-general of the province, and,in 1680, laid out the city of Charleston in South Carolinia.

  Until the arrival of Seth Sothel as governor, North Carolinia enjoyed aperiod of repose. He had purchased a share in the provinces ofClarendon, and was sent to administer the government. On his voyage, hewas captured by Algerine pirates, but, escaping them, reached NorthCarolinia, in 1683.

  It has been said of this avaricious, extortionate and cruel statesman,that "the dark shades of his character were not relieved by a singlevirtue." His advent disturbed the public tranquillity. He plundered thepeople, cheated the proprietors, and on all occasions seems to haveprostituted his delegated power to purposes of private gain. About sixweeks of his misrule were all the independent colonists could stand.Then the people rose in rebellion, seized the governor, and were aboutto send him to England to answer their accusations before theproprietors, when he asked to be tried by the colonial assembly. It isasserted by historians of note, that that body was more merciful thanhis associates in England would have been, for they found him guilty andsentenced him to only one year's punishment and perpetualdisqualification for the office of governor.

  Sothel withdrew to the southern colony, and was succeeded by PhilipLudwell, an energetic, honest man, whose wisdom and sense of justicesoon restored order and good feeling in the colony. He was succeeded byJohn Archdale, a Quaker, who, in 1695, came as governor of the twocolonies. His administration was a blessing. The people over whom heruled were as free in their opinions and actions as the air theybreathed. Legal or moral restraints were few; yet the gentle-mindedpeople were enemies to violence or crime. They were widely scattered,with not a city or town and scarce a hamlet within their sylvan domain.The only roads were bridle paths from house to house, and these wereindicated by notches cut in trees--"blazed roads." There was not asettled minister in the colony until 1703.

  The southern, or Carteret County Colony was, meanwhile, steadily movingalong in population and wealth. The settlers, perceiving the fatalobjections to the "Fundamental Constitutions" as a plan of governmentfor their colony, did not attempt conforming thereto, but established amore simple government adapted to their conditions. Under it, the firstlegislative assembly of South Carolinia convened, in the spring of 1672,at the place on the Ashley River where the colony was first seated. Inthat body, jarring political, social and theological interests andopinions produced passionate debates and violent discord. SouthCarolinia has ever been a seething political caldron, and, even in thatearly date, there was a proprietary party and a people's party, a highchurch party and a dissenters' party, each bigoted and resolute. Attimes, the debates were so heated and earnest, that they seemed on theeve of plunging the colony into civil war.

  The savages had commenced plundering the frontier, and all factions ofthe whites were forced to unite against this common enemy. The boldfrontiersman, with his trusty rifle, was often unable to defend hishome. His cattle were run away or slaughtered before his very eyes. OldTown was the first point selected for the capital; but Charleston wasfinally laid out on Oyster Point, and the seat of government was removedto this city, where the second assembly met, in 1682. Immigrants flowedin with a full and continuous stream. Families came from Ireland,Scotland and Holland, and when the edict at Nantes, which securedtoleration to Protestants in France, was revoked, a large number ofHuguenots fled from their country, and many sought an asylum in theCarolinias. The traditionary hatred of the English for the French wasshown at this time. For fully ten years these French refugees weredeprived the privilege of citizenship in the land of their adoption.

  A colony of Scotch Presbyterians, numbering ten families, was located atPort Royal, South Carolinia, in 1682, and four years later was attackedand dispersed by the Spaniards, who claimed Port Royal as a dependencyof St. Augustine.

  The persecution of the Huguenots in France drove many to seek homes inthe colonies, despite English hatred to them.

  The struggles of South Carolinia with the Indians, and the attemptedoppression of the home government is but a repetition of the experienceof the other colonies, until the good John Archdale came as governor ofthe Carolinias. His administration was short, but highly beneficial. Hehealed dissensions, established equitable laws, in the spirit of a trueChristian example of toleration and humanity. He cultivated friendlyintercourse with the Indians and the Spaniards at St. Augustine, so thathis administration was marked as a season of peace, prosperity andhappiness.