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 640 WILLIAMS a small vessel was despatched to Salem to bring him away. But he was forewarned, and had left before the vessel arrived. lu midwinter, abandoning his friends and his family, " sorely tossed for 14 weeks, not knowing what bread or bed did mean," he had gone through the wilderness to the shores of the Narragansett. After purchasing lands of Ousamequin on the eastern shore of the Seekonk river, and plant- ing his corn, he learned that he was within the bounds of Plymouth colony, and set out with five companions on new explorations. In a canoe they went down the stream, turned the extremity of the peninsula, and ascended the river which forms its western boundary, to a spot which tradition has consecrated as their landing. " I having made covenant of peace- able neighborhood with all the sachems and nations round about us," says Williams, " and having, of a sense of God's merciful provi- dence unto me in my distress, called the place Providence, I desired it might be for a shelter for persons distressed for conscience." The fundamental article of government, establish- ing a pure democracy, with absolute inhibition of control over the consciences of men, which persons admitted to this corporation were re- quired to sign, was in these words : " We, whose names are hereunder, desirous to in- habit in the town of Providence, do promise to subject ourselves, in active or passive obe- dience, to all such orders or agreements as shall be made for public good of the body, in an or- derly way, by the major consent of the present inhabitants, masters of families, incorporated together in a town fellowship, and others whom they shall admit unto the same, only in civil things." The method of planting the first church in Providence, now known as the first Baptist church in that city, answers to views touching tbat matter which had been set forth by early English Baptists in Holland, fugitives from persecution in England, who had been likewise teachers of Williams in respect to the rights of conscience. These Baptists had in- stituted baptism among themselves by author- izing certain of their own number to be ad- ministrators of the rite. At Providence, in March, 1639, Ezekiel Holliman, a layman, first baptized Williams, and then Williams baptized Holliman, "and some ten more." But Wil- liams seems to have had early doubts of the validity of the proceeding; at any rate, he soon withdrew from his associates in this measure. Various explanations of his withdrawing have been given, and prominent among these the absence of " a visible succession " of authorized administrators of the rite of baptism. The history of Roger Williams, for the succeeding half century, is the history of Providence and of Rhode Island. The colony was for some years a pure democracy, transacting its public business in town meetings ; but in 1643 Wil- liams was sent to England to procure a charter. He was successful, and returned in 1644. On his voyage to England he wrote his " Key into the Languages of America," including observa- tions on the manners, habits, laws, and reli- gion of the Indian tribes. He also published there " The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience, discussed in a Confer- ence between Truth and Peace" (new ed., Providence, 1867). On the occurrence of new difficulties in the colony, he was again sent to England in 1651, and was equally successful. While abroad the second time he published " Experiments of Spiritual Life and Health, and their Preservatives," which he says was written " in the thickest of the native In- dians of America, in their very wild houses, and by their barbarous tires;" "The Hireling Ministry none of Christ's, or a Discourse touch- ing the Propagating the Gospel of Christ Jesus;" and "The Bloudy Teneut yet more Bloudy by Mr. Cotton's Endeavor to wash it white in the Blood of the Lamb." He also en- gaged in teaching, and was intimate with Mil- ton. His employments, as well as the scope and character of his learning, are thus indi- cated in a letter written to Gov. Winthrop of Connecticut soon after his return : " It pleased the Lord to call me for some time, and with some persons, to practise the Hebrew, the Greek, Latin, French, and Dutch. The secre- tary of the council (Mr. Milton), for my Dutch I read him, read me many more languages. Grammar rules begin to be esteemed a tyranny. I taught two young gentlemen, a parliament man's sons, as we teach our children English, by words, phrases, and constant talk," &c. He returned to Rhode Island in 1654, and in Sep- tember of the same year was elected president of the colony, an office which he held for two years and a half. He refused to persecute the Quakers, but in 1672 he met three of the most eminent preachers of the sect in public debate at Newport, and afterward published a contro- versial work entitled " George Fox digged out of his Burrowes." His influence with the In- dians enabled him to render signal services to the colonies around him, by averting from them the calamities of savage war ; but they refused to admit Rhode Island into the New England league, and ev'en put obstacles in the way of her procuring the means of defence. He was buried in his family burying ground, near the spot where he landed. Memoirs of the life of Roger WilHams have been written by James D. Knowles (Boston, 1883), William Gammell (Boston, 1846), and Romeo Elton (London, 1852). His works, with a volume of letters, have been reprinted as nearly as possible in facsimile by the Narragansett club (6 vols. fol., Providence, 1866-75). A tract by Williams, recently discovered, is in the John Carter Brown library, Providence. A mono- graph was published at Boston in 1876, by II. M. Dexter, D. D., entitled "As to Roger Wil- liams and his ' Banishment ' from the Massa- chusetts Plantation, with a few further words concerning the Baptists, Quakers, and Reli- gious Liberty."