Page:History of Barrington, Rhode Island (Bicknell).djvu/270

 214 THE HISTORY OF BARRLNGTON. 2. Voted, "not to clear the Baptists from paying to the minister's rate this year." 3. Voted, "not to raise more money for an addition for the minister's salary this year for the Baptists minister." 4. Voted, "to accept the meeting-house as it is conveyed to the town." 5. "That the selectmen shall give orders to the town treasurer to pay the Reverend Mr. Peleg Heath's tenth and eleventh years salary." 6. Voted, "to allow the Committee all reasonable charges they are at in answering a petition of Mr. Peleg Heath's at the Court of General Session to be holden at Bristol on the second Tuesday of March next." 7. Voted, " that the two years money the Church mini- ster hath drawn out of the town treasurer the last years, (two years) out of Mr. Peleg Heath's salary should be made in a rate by itself." The seven votes recorded above show a complete triumph for the Heath party in a contest of nearly three years' stand- ing, during which the bitterest sectional feeling was aroused, which continued to divide the town for a century. The. second town meeting held a month later shows a better state of feeling concerning taxing the Baptists, and the victors of February 1 1 unite with the opposite party in exempting the Baptists from assessment on account of Mr. Heath's salary and law suits, and the town allows bills of John Adams for ;^76, 2s., up.; of Matthew Watson for £S^> 5s. 6p. ; with interest and bills of the selectmen for £iS, all growing out of and closing up the struggle with Rev. Peleg Heath. The town had spent over two years in the wrangle over a new meeting-house and the incidents growing out of the quarrel with the pastor, and at its close accepted the house built on the new site, paid all salary arrears, and law suit expenditures amounting to several hundred pounds, and found itself wiser in its experience, at a cost of much labor and self-respect. The lesson is not far to seek in the con-