His success was announced in the year 1663. It would seem that charters were going up in price. According to Roger Williams’ testimony, this second one meant an outlay of about a thousand pounds. It was cheap at that, considering the great privileges it carried with it. Under this precious new document, the colony continued to live for one hundred and eighty years, long after the close of Roger Williams’ life. When finally abandoned, it was the oldest constitutional charter in the world.
A “very great meeting of the freemen” of the colony was held to receive the royal paper with due respect and honor. With appropriate ceremony, Captain George Baxter, the bearer, opened the box in which it was kept and read the gracious words of Charles to the assembly, after which the charter was “held up on high and presented to the perfect view of the people,” then safely locked up in the box again.
By virtue of this latest document, the colony received a new name—or, rather, a bulky addition to its old one. In this charter it was called “The English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, in New England, in America.” From now on, the name “Rhode Island” became more prominent and “Providence Plantations” less so until, in common usage, it was dropped altogether. In 1776, the word “State” was substituted for “English Colony.”
Besides a change of name, the charter also provided that henceforth governors should take the place of presidents and the first governor and his assistants were named. Roger Williams was one of the latter and he repeatedly held this office in the years following.
The most wonderful part of the whole charter was that section granting perfect liberty of conscience to the colony. It was all the more remarkable and surprising, as King Charles was not noted for either tolerance or liberality.
“Our royal will and pleasure is that no person within the said colony any time hereafter, shall be any wise molested, punished, disquieted, or called in question, for any differences in opinion in matters of religion, and do not actually disturb the civil peace of our said colony; but that all and every person and persons may, from time to time, and at all times hereafter, freely and fully have and enjoy his and their own judgments and consciences, in matters of religious concernments, throughout the tract of land hereafter mentioned.”
The words might have been penned by Roger Williams himself. Very likely they never would have been written had it not been for his persistent struggle for that same liberty of conscience, about which he said, “We must part with lands and lives before we part with such a jewel.”
The founder of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations was now approaching the evening of life. He had carefully watched and tended the infant colony so that it could stand alone. He had raised it to a position of respect and importance. For his unselfish and loving labors, he surely deserved a brief period of rest. Yet, contrary to his wishes, he was drawn into public life again. He wrote his friend Winthrop these reluctant words: “I have since been occasioned and drawn (being nominated in the charter to appear again upon the deck) from my beloved privacy; my humble desires are to contribute my poor mite (as I have ever, and I hope ever shall) to preserve plantation and public interest of the whole New England and not interest of this or that town, colony, opinion, etc.”
From this time on, both in and out of office, Roger Williams showed what an immense amount of good can be accomplished by a public-spirited citizen if he is willing to sacrifice selfish aims for the benefit of all. Time and again there was occasion for him to act as peace-maker, as in the years gone by. Gentleness, tact, and forbearance were the means he used. In a word, he was a great diplomat. Because his victories were bloodless ones, his fellow-citizens did not appreciate his greatness.
For one thing, Roger Williams was chosen to copy the charter into the records of the colony. For drawing up colonial documents of various kinds, his skill was constantly in demand. In 1664, when a revision of the laws was thought necessary, he was appointed member of a committee to attend to this business. In the same year he was named one of the agents to determine an eastern boundary line between the colony and Plymouth.