executed, and a republic set up in England, the authorities there sent commissioners to compel the people of Maryland to swear fidelity to the new government. At the same time Lord Baltimore insisted that as Maryland was his property the settlers should swear fidelity to him. The Puritans in the colony objected to take this last oath, on the ground that Lord Baltimore was a Catholic.

The commissioners went to Maryland, forced the governor 1 to resign, and put one of their own choice in his place. They then caused a General Assembly to be summoned at St. Mary's, but ordered that no Catholic should be elected to it, or should cast a vote for any representative. The new legislature repealed the statute of 1649, which had granted religious freedom to all Christians. In its place they enacted a law prohibiting Catholic worship throughout Maryland.

Furthermore the Assembly declared that Lord Baltimore no longer had any rights whatever in the colony he himself had founded, and to which he had invited many of the very people who now turned against him. Such action must have reminded him of the story of the camel that begged shelter in his master's tent, and, when he had got it, kicked the owner out.

106. Lord Baltimore restored to his Rights; Loss of the Charter. But about ten years later (1658), Parliament restored Lord Baltimore to his rights. Freedom of worship was again established and for the next thirty years the colony prospered.

Meanwhile England had again become a monarchy, and in 1689 William and Mary, who were pledged to support the Protestant cause, came to the throne.

In Maryland there was an unavoidable delay on the part of the governor in proclaiming the new sovereigns. The enemies of Lord Baltimore circulated the report that this delay was part of a plot, and that the Catholics of Maryland who were now not

1 Governor Stone, Governor Calvert's successor.

MARYLAND RESTORED TO LORD BALTIMORE.

105

nearly so numerous as the Protestants - had conspired with the Indians to massacre all the people of the colony not of their faith.

The story was wickedly false, but many of the Protestants were so foolish as to believe it. They rose in revolt, and in consequence the new king thought it wise to take the government of the province into his own hands. "The best men and the best Protestants" of the colony stood up for Lord Baltimore, but without avail.

107. Establishment of the Church of England; Restoration of Maryland to Lord Baltimore; Mason and Dixon's Line. The Church of England was now established as the government church in Maryland, and every taxpayer, no matter what his religion, had to pay forty pounds of tobacco yearly towards its support. The Catholic worship was not again allowed to be openly observed until Maryland became independent.

In 1715, on the death of the third Lord Baltimore, his son, who had become a Protestant, was made proprietor and governor of Maryland. He and his descendants held it until the Revolution (1776). Meanwhile (1729), the city of Baltimore was founded, and named in honor of the originator of the colony.

In 1682 William Penn founded the colony of Philadelphia, in Pennsylvania, and from that time for many years there were bitter disputes about the boundary between that Province and Maryland. At length Mason and Dixon, two eminent English surveyors, were employed (1763-1767) to establish a boundary that would be satisfactory to both colonies.

They ran a line from the northeast corner of Maryland due west nearly three hundred miles. At every fifth mile a stone was set up having the coat-of-arms of William Penn cut on the north side and that of Lord Baltimore on the south. That line became one of the most famous boundaries in the country, for it eventually marked the division between the free and the slave states, formed from the original thirteen which entered the Union.

108. Summary. The colony of Maryland was planted by Lord Baltimore, an English Catholic. He, first in America, established freedom of worship for all Christians. The peace of the colony was interrupted by civil war, and enemies of Lord Baltimore, joining with Puritan settlers, who had come in, overthrew the government and forbade the exercise of the Catholic religion. Lord Baltimore succeeded after a time in regaining his power and again granted freedom of worship; but finally the king took possession of the province and compelled the people to maintain the Church of England until the Revolution-though the government of the colony was eventually restored to the Baltimore family, who had become Protestants.

VIII. RHODE ISLAND (1636).

109. Roger Williams seeks Refuge among the Indians; settles Providence. — When in 1636 Roger Williams fled from Massachusetts1 into the wilderness, his situation was one of extreme peril. It was midwinter and the snow was deep. Williams was in feeble health and a wanderer in a trackless forest. Fortunately he had made the Indians his friends and could speak their language. The exile made his way to the hospitable wigwam of the chief Massasoit,2 at the head of Narragansett Bay. There he found a home till spring.

Then with five friends, who had joined him from Massachusetts, he went to the Seekonk River3 and built a cabin on its eastern bank. Word was sent to him that the place he had chosen was under the control of Plymouth colony. Such a message meant that he and his companions must move on. Crossing the river a little lower down, in a canoe, they were hailed by some Indians who were standing on a flat ledge of rock on the western bank.*

1 See Paragraph 81.

2 See Paragraph 76.

8 Seekonk River: it flows into the Providence River on the east side of the city of Providence.

"What Cheer Rock," on the eastern side of the city of

4 "Slate Rock or Providence, foot of Power Street.

LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE.

107

"What cheer? "1 cried the friendly red men to the wanderers.

This welcome from the natives led Williams and his friends to land for a short time. Then, guided perhaps by what the Indians told them, they paddled down the river a little distance, rounded the point, and again landed at the foot of some rising ground, where they found a spring of excellent water.

Here (1636) they determined to stay

and build homes for themselves.

Out of

with others, founded (1639) the first Baptist church in America. To-day Providence ranks as the second city of New England in population and wealth. In Roger Williams's case banishment did not mean destruction, but growth and increased influence.

11o. Williams establishes a Colony; Liberty of Conscience; Growth of the Principle. - Williams had at first no intention of founding an independent colony; his main thought was to build up a mission for the conversion of the Indians. But others came and the town of Providence took firm root. From the beginning entire freedom of conscience was given to every settler. Maryland2 had granted such liberty to all Christians, but the colony of Providence did not limit it, - not Protestants and Catholics only, but Jews—yes, unbelievers even were protected,

1"What cheer?": an English salutation the Indians had learned from the whites. It meant How do you do? or, How are you?

2 See Paragraph 104.

and thus men of all religions and of no religion were safe from molestation so long as they behaved themselves.

In all other colonies of America, as in every country of Europe, the government favored some particular worship, and in some degree compelled people to maintain it and conform to it. But here there was nothing of the kind. Roger Williams first laid down and put in actual practice what we may call the American principle that is, that government has nothing whatever to do with the control of religious belief.

That idea was so new and strange that the other colonies thought it false and dangerous, and predicted that it would soon die out. Instead of that it steadily grew and spread, until in time it became a part of the Constitution of the United States, and there we read this sentence, which Roger Williams himself might have written, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."1

--

III. Settlement of Rhode Island; the Charter. -In 1638 William Coddington of Massachusetts, with Mrs. Anne Hutchinson2 and a few others, in sympathy with the founder of Providence, bought the island of Rhode Island 3 and there planted the colony of Portsmouth and then that of Newport. A few years after, another colony was planted at Warwick, south of Providence. In 1644 Williams went to England and got a charter which united these colonies into a province and gave them full power to rule themselves by such form of government as they thought best. That charter was confirmed by a second, issued not quite twenty years later, and though Andros, when made governor of New

1 Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, Article I.; compare also Article VI. of the Constitution: "No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States."

2 See Paragraph 81.

3 Rhode Island: a name given to it apparently from its supposed resemblance to the Isle of Rhodes in the Mediterranean, though some accounts state that it was because the Dutch called it Rood or Red Island.

4 See Paragraph 100.