an eloquent tribute to the other founders of the States; to their motives, policy, and personal qualities; to their fervent piety, calm wisdom, and unwavering constancy; to their love of learning, their thirst of liberty, and irreproachable lives, he adds, 66 'Among these names, that sense of justice, which eventually triumphs over temporary prejudice and wrong, has already placed that of ROGER WILLIAMS. Long misunderstood and misrepresented, he was excluded from his appropriate place among the chief founders and benefactors of New England. The early historians, Morton, Mather, Hubbard, and even Winthrop, spoke harshly of his character. His principles, both political and religious, were offensive to the first generations; and it is not strange, that he was viewed and treated as a fanatical heresiarch in religion, and a factious disturber of the state. "Later writers have treated his memory with more respect; and we might quote many honorable testimonies to his principles and his character. But no extended memoir of his life has ever before been published. It would not be difficult to assign reasons for this neglect. The want of materials, and the contradictory accounts of various writers, were sufficient to deter his friends from the undertaking, and a lingering prejudice against him prevented others. The attention of some able writers has, nevertheless, been drawn to the subject."—pp. ix, x. There were undeniably great and generous qualities in the character of Roger Williams, which, even while his peculiarities were exciting opposition and alarm, conciliated for him the highest personal regard. "In Salem," writes Dr. Bentley, in his History of that place, "every body loved Mr. Williams. He had no personal enemies under any pretence. All valued his friendship." "And he was never forsaken by the friends he had ever gained. He had always a tender conscience, and feared every offence against moral truth. He breathed the purest devotion. He was a friend of human nature; forgiving, upright, and pious." And to the same purpose, Governor Hutchinson, in his History of Masachu many valuable materials, among which were between twenty and thirty unpublished letters, copied from the originals, which were kindly lent to him by the Hon. Thomas L. Winthrop, and which he placed at my disposal." "Besides Mr. Greenwood, my thanks are especially due to the venerable Nestor of Providence, Moses Brown, and to John Howland, Esq."- Preface, p. xi. setts, concludes a narration both of his opinions and their "After all that has been said of the actions consequences, or tenets of this person while he was in Massachusetts, it ought for ever to be remembered to his honor, that for forty years after, instead of showing any revengeful resentment against the colony, from which he had been banished, he seems to have been continually employed in acts of kindness and benevolence, giving them notice from time to time, not only of every motion of the Indians, over whom he had very great influence, but also of the unjust designs of the English within the new colony, of which he had himself been the founder and governor, and continued the patron." His love of liberty, civil and religious, and his courage in maintaining it, though it justly incurred the reproach of being schismatical, has given him a place among republican heroes. But his disinterestedness, exhibited amidst all his straits and poverty; his perfect uprightness in his dealings with the Indians, scrupulously refusing any advantage, which their ignorance or his influence might have given him; his magnanimity in conferring favors, when revenge for injuries was in his power; his faithful and successful interpositions for Massachusetts after it had banished him from its limits; his forbearance, when his undeniable claims were questioned or denied; his generous confidence in Governor Winthrop, and their unbroken friendship, honorable alike to both; these and kindred qualities, of which his history gives abundant evidence, entitle him to our veneration and love, as among the most generous of mankind. It is comparatively easy to exhibit virtues of this class amidst prosperity and honor; in the high places of dignity, and when all men are speaking well of us. But to be faithful to them, as he was, amidst injustice and reproach, under the pressure of want and the irritations of persecution, is a glory attained, perhaps attainable, by few. Very little, it appears, is known of the early life of Roger Williams. From some traditions, collected no earlier than 1775, it is believed, that he was born in Wales in 1599. He was probably of humble parentage, but appears while a youth to have attracted the attention of that eminent lawyer, Sir Edward Coke, who persuaded his parents to entrust their son to his care; under whose patronage he was educated at one of the English Universities, and commenced the study * Hutchinson's History, Vol. I. p. 42. of law, which he soon relinquished for the more congenial pursuits of theology. He received orders in the Episcopal Church; but with the same dread of oppression and thirst of liberty, which actuated others, he resolved to forsake the land of his fathers, and with his wife, who was the cherished companion of his fortunes, prosperous and adverse, for half a century, arrived in Boston, February 5, 1631. His eldest child, a daughter, was born two years afterwards, at Plymouth; and his eldest son, to whom his father gave the name of Providence, was born in Providence in 1638; said to have been the first English male child born in that place. Of his first term of ministry in Salem, and his Puritanic, or rather schismatical zeal; of his deep and unrelenting hatred of Episcopacy; his refusal to unite with the churches in Boston, unless they would declare their repentance for having communed with the Church of England before they came to America; of his differences with his colleague, Mr. Skelton, and his consequent removal to Plymouth; of the opposition excited by his opinions there, and the influence exerted by Mr. Brewster, the ruling elder, to procure his dismissal thence; of his return after the short period of two years to his ministry in Salem, where upon the death of Mr. Skelton he became sole pastor of the church; of the effect speedily produced by his peculiar sentiments and conduct, - specially by his maintaining that offences against the first table of the law ought not to be punished unless they disturbed the public peace; that an oath should not be tendered to an unregenerate man; that a Christian should not pray with the unregenerate; that a man should not give thanks after the sacrament, nor after meat; and more specially still, by his refusal to commune with his own church, and even, as Hutchinson declares, with his own wife, unless they would separate from the polluted and antichristian churches of New England; of the sentence of banishment passed upon him by the General Court, who afterwards, upon his persisting to preach in disobedience of their orders and violation of his engagements, had resolved to seize his person and send him. back to England; of his escape from their hands, by the friendly counsel of Winthrop, to the neighbourhood of Narraganset Bay; of his exposures and sufferings there; of the foundation he laid of the town, which in grateful commemoration of the divine goodness he named Providence, and thence of the whole colony of Rhode Island, of which he is justly to be honored as the father and patron, the volume before us presents ample and highly interesting details; for which, as among the best authorities cited by the author, we may also refer to the "Historical Account of the Planting and Growth of Providence," ascribed to the pen of the venerable Governor Hopkins, and published among the valuable collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society. It is gratifying to find, that personal animosity had little, if any share in procuring the sentence of banishment against the subject of this Memoir. "Towards Mr. Williams," says Professor Knowles, "there was a general sentiment of respect. Governor Winthrop was a generous friend to him throughout his life." Mr. Cotton, the minister of Boston, and perhaps the most influential man in the commonwealth, while he sincerely thought his opinions and his influence dangerous, had no private enmity against him; and it is asserted by Dr. Bentley, "that, had Winthrop been at liberty to confer with Governor Endicott, and had not been deterred by the competition of Boston and Salem, Williams might have lived and died at Salem." Of the esteem in which he was held, no surer evidence can be given than the fact, that he was accompanied or soon afterwards joined by several of his flock, who voluntarily shared with him his exile and his sufferings. These sufferings were exceedingly great. It was in January 1635-6 that he left Salem. His journey was on foot, through a wilderness. He had no dwelling at Seekonk for his shelter, and as yet knew not what awaited him from the natives. In a letter written thirty-five years afterwards to his friend Major Mason,* in which, with great simplicity and devout thankfulness, he looks back upon the way, through which God had led him, he says, "When I was unkindly driven from my house and land and wife and children in the midst of a New England winter, that ever-honored Governor, Mr. Winthrop, privately wrote to me, for many high and heavenly and public ends, to steer my course to the Narragansett Bay. I took his prudent motion as a hint and voice from God, and waving all other motions, I steered my course from Salem, though in winter snow, which I feel *This interesting letter, containing a full detail of Mr. Williams's history, was first published in the Massachusetts Historical Collections, and will be found at length in the Appendix to this work. yet, unto these parts, wherein I may say that I have seen the face of God."—"I was sorely tossed for one fourteen weeks in a bitter winter season, not knowing what bread or bed did mean." And in another letter, still referring to the same generous friend, "It pleased the Most High to direct my steps into this Bay, by the loving private advice of the ever-honored soul, Mr. John Winthrop, the grandfather, who, though he were carried with the stream for my banishment" (that is, as Mr. Knowles well remarks, believed that the public peace required it, and that the personal interests of Mr. Williams might be best promoted by it), "yet he tenderly loved me to his last breath." The companions of Williams are entitled to their full share in the glory of this enterprise. Their faithful and heroic friendship is worthy of all praise. Their names, with those of others who afterwards joined them, are given by Governor Hopkins, in the history, to which we have already referred; and with him, we admire their sufferings and their patience, and "wonder how they could possibly live, quite destitute of every necessary; having no magazine of provisions or stores of any kind; no domestic animal to assist them in their labor, or afford them sustenance; nothing to help themselves with, but their hands; nothing to depend on but God's goodness, their own endeavours, and the charity of savages. The extremity of such a condition is well expressed in the simple lines that follow. "Nor house, nor hut, nor fruitful field, Nor lowing herd, nor bleating flock, "No friend to help, no neighbour nigh, Alone, forlorn, and most extremely poor." In no account of Roger Williams could be justly omitted his conduct and influence with the Indians, with whom, from his first arrival at Narraganset Bay, he was brought into near and most perilous connexion. His intercourse with them exhibits some of the noblest traits of his character, to which his biographer has done full justice, as they are developed in the course of the narrative. "He understood the Indians," says Dr. Bentley, "better than any man of his age." Of their |