Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/102

  branch, the freedom of trade, religious toleration, exemption from foreign taxation, and the universal elective franchise. Whenever, at any subsequent time, there was deviation from these principles, it was the result of foreign authority and compulsion, not of the people's free will and consent.

 

1632—1660.

settlement of Maryland was in several respects different from that of Virginia or Massachusetts. The former had many perilous struggles before its existence and liberties were secured. The latter put forth many sincere but fruitless efforts, to establish itself on a foundation of theocracy, where private judgment and religious toleration should obtain no resting-place. In the case of Maryland, however, the advantages of a government in which the freemen of the colony were to bear a part, and where toleration in matters of conscience was to be allowed, were wisely provided for by its founder; so that its origin was peaceful, and its course prosperous from the beginning. And this deserves to be noted the rather, because the founder of Maryland was a sincere and liberal-spirited member of the Roman Catholic Church, a church whose principles, as is well known, are totally opposed to all toleration in religion, and when opportunity serves to carry them out, lead necessarily to persecution. The Romanists, at this period, from a variety of causes, found their position uncomfortable in England, for the Puritans, equally with others, were bent upon the full execution of the penal statutes against them; consequently they had even greater reason than the Puritans to desire to escape from their trials at home, by emigrating to the New World.

About the beginning of James First's reign, George Calvert, a native of Yorkshire, and a graduate of Oxford, was so popular in his own county, by far the largest in England, as to be chosen its representative in 