made, in 1639, at Quinipiack, now the beautiful city of New Haven. The emigrants, men of distinguished piety and ability, met in a large barn, on the 4th of June, 1639, and, in a very formal and solemn manner, proceeded to lay the foundations of their civil and religious polity.

The subject was introduced by a sermon from Mr. Davenport, the pastor, from the words of Solomon, "Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars." After a solemn invocation to Almighty God, he proceeded to represent to the Plantation that they were met to consult respecting the setting up of civil government according to the will of God, and for the nomination of persons who, by universal consent, were in all respects the best qualified for the foundation-work of a church. He enlarged on the great importance of thorough action, and exhorted every man to give his vote in the fear of God. A constitution was formed, which was characterized as "the first example of a written constitution; as a distinct organic act, constituting a government and defining its powers." The preamble and resolutions connected with its formation are as follows:

"FORASMUCH as it hath pleased the Almighty God, by the wise disposition of his divine providence, so to order and dispose of things that we, the inhabitants of Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield, are now cohabiting and dwelling in and upon the river of Connecticut, and the lands thereunto adjoining, and t well knowing where a people are gathered together the word of God requireth that, to maintain the peace and union of such a people, there should be an orderly and decent government established according to God, to order and dispose of the affairs of the people at all seasons as occasion should require; do, therefore, associate and conjoin ourselves to be as one public STATE OF COMMONWEALTH, and do enter into combination and confederation to maintain and preserve the liberty and purity of the gospel of our LORD JESUS, which we now profess, as also the discipline of the churches, which, according to the truth of said gospel, is now practised amongst us; as also in our civil affairs to be guided and governed according to such laws, rules, orders, and decrees as shall be made.

"I. That the Scriptures hold forth a perfect rule for the direction and government of all men in all duties which they

are to perform to God and men, as well in families and commonwealths as in matters of the church.

"II. That as in matters which concerned the gathering and ordering of a church, so likewise in all public offices which concern civil order,-as the choice of magistrates and officers, making and repealing laws, dividing allotments of inheritance, and all things of like nature,-they would all be governed by those rules which the Scripture held forth to them.

"III. That all those who had desired to be received free planters had settled in the plantation with a purpose, resolution, and desire that they might be admitted into church fellowship according to Christ.

"IV. That all the free planters held themselves bound to establish such civil order as might best conduce to the securing of the purity and peace of the ordinance to themselves, and their posterity according to God."

When these resolutions had been passed, and the people had bound themselves to settle civil government according to the divine word, Mr. Davenport proceeded to state what men they must choose for civil rulers according to the divine word, and that they might most effectually secure to themselves and their posterity a just, free, and peaceable government. After a full discussion, it was unanimously determined

"V. That church members only should be free burgesses; and that they only should choose magistrates among themselves, to have power of transacting all the public civil affairs of the plantation, of making and repealing laws, dividing inheritances, deciding of differences that may arise, and doing all things and businesses of a like nature."

That civil officers might be chosen and government proceed according to these resolutions, it was necessary that a church should be formed. Without this there could be neither freemen nor magistrates. Accordingly, in the most formal and solemn manner, a church was formed, with its proper officers. After this, those who constituted the church elected Theophilus Eaton governor of the civil commonwealth, and others to the offices of magistrates, secretary, and marshal.

The governor was then charged by the Rev. Mr. Davenport, in the most solemn manner, as to his duties, from Deut. i. 16, 17: -"And I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear the causes between your brethren, and judge righteously between

every man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him. Ye shall not respect persons in judgment, but ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God's: and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will hear it."

The General Court, established under this constitution, ordered,

"That God's word should be the only rule for ordering the affairs of government in this commonwealth."

In 1662, Winthrop, whose father had been Governor of Massachusetts Colony, obtained from Charles II. a charter for the colony of Connecticut, which gave the largest civil liberty to the colonists, and contained the great American doctrine of popular sovereignty. Winthrop was a truly godly magistrate, combining learning, piety, and practical wisdom with superior administrative talents. He was for fourteen consecutive years governor of the colony.

Religion," says Bancroft, "united with the pursuits of agriculture to give to the land the aspect of salubrity; religious knowledge was carried to the highest degree of refinement, alike in its application to moral duties, and to the mysterious questions on the nature of God, of liberty, and of the soul. Civil freedom was safe under the shelter of a masculine morality, and beggary and crime could not thrive in the midst of the severest manners. The government was in honest and upright hands; the state was content with virtue and single-mindedness; and the public welfare never suffered at the hands of plain men." Under this Christian government "Connecticut was long the happiest state in the world." "The contentment of Connecticut was full to the brim. In a public proclamation, under the great seal of the colony, it told the world that its days, under the charter, were the 'halcyon days of peace.'

"In an age," says Trumbull, "when the light of freedom was but just dawning, the illustrious men of the colony of Connecticut, by voluntary compact, formed one of the most free and happy constitutions of government which mankind have ever adopted. Connecticut has ever been distinguished by the free spirit of its government, the mildness of its laws, and the general diffusion of knowledge among all classes of its inhabitants. They have been no less distinguished for their industry, economy, purity of manners, prosperity, and spirit of enter

prise. For more than a century and a half they have had no rival as to the steadiness of their government, their internal peace and harmony, their love and high enjoyment of domestic, civil, and religious order and happiness. They have ever stood among the most illuminated, fervent, and boldest defenders of the civil and religious rights of mankind."

RHODE ISLAND

Became a distinct colony in 1662, by the grant of a charter from Charles II. This charter gave the utmost Christian liberty in the exercise of the rights of conscience in religion.

The object of colonizing Rhode Island is thus expressed in the charter:-"The colonists are to pursue with peace and loyal minds their sober, serious, and religious intentions of godly edifying themselves and one another in the holy Christian faith and worship, together with the gaining over the conversion of the poor ignorant Indians to the sincere profession and obedience of the same faith and worship."

Roger Williams, a Baptist minister, and among the first emigrants to the colony of Massachusetts, was the founder of the Rhode Island Colony. Having seen and felt the evils of an intolerant spirit in matters of religion, he obtained a charter that granted freedom in religious matters to all denominations. "No person," declared the charter, "within the said colony, at any time hereafter, shall be in any wise molested or punished, disquieted or called in question, for any difference in opinion in matters of religion; every person may at all times freely and fully enjoy his own judgment and conscience in matters of religious concernments." This organic law was confirmed by the first legislative Assembly declaring, in 1665, that "liberty to all persons as to the worship of God had been a principle maintained in the colony from the very beginning thereof; and it was much in their hearts to preserve the same liberty forever." In 1680 the same fundamental law was re-enacted :-"We leave every man to walk as God persuades his heart: all our people enjoy freedom of conscience.".

"Roger Williams," says Bancroft, "asserted the great doctrine of intellectual liberty. It became his glory to found a state upon that principle, and to stamp himself upon its rising institutions so deeply that the impress can never be erased without the total destruction of the work. He was the first person

in modern Christendom to assert in its plenitude the doctrine of the liberty of conscience, the equality of opinions before the law; and in its defence it was the harbinger of Milton, the precursor and the superior of Jeremy Taylor. Williams would permit persecutions of no opinion, of no religion, leaving heresy unharmed by law, and orthodoxy unprotected by the terrors of penal statutes." He had the honor of enunciating that fundamental principle of the Bible and of American institutions, "that the civil power has no jurisdiction over the conscience,' a doctrine which, Bancroft says, "secures him an immortality of fame, as its application has given religious peace to the American world."

The colony thus founded on a Christian basis enjoyed a Christian democracy, and this original charter of civil and religious liberty continued as the organic government of Rhode Island till 1842, "the oldest constituted charter in the world. Nowhere in the world were life, liberty, and property safer than in Rhode Island."

"Rhode Island," says Arnold, in his history of that commonwealth, "was a State whose founders had been doubly tried in the purifying fire; a State which more than any other has exerted, by the weight of its example, an influence to shape the political ideas of the present day, whose moral power has been in the inverse ratio with its material importance; of which an eminent historian of the United States has said, that, had its territory corresponded to the importance and singularity of the principles of its early existence, the world would have been filled with wonder at the phenomena of its history.""

NEW HAMPSHIRE,

In 1679, was separated from Massachusetts and organized as an independent province. The colonists, having been so long a part of the Christian commonwealth of Massachusetts, constituted their institutions on the same Christian basis. Its legislature was Christian, and the colony greatly prospered and increased in population. It nourished a class of Christian men who loved liberty, and who have ever exerted a prominent influence on the civil and religious interests of the American nation.

January 1, 1680, a royal decree declared New Hampshire an independent province; and the policy of the king was to