But candor requires some apology to be made for our ancestors. Bigotry waz not confined to the New England settlers; it waz the characteristic of the age. The first settlers in New Jersey, Virginia and Pensylvania, and indeed in most of the colonies, prohibited witchcraft under penalty of deth; tho the laws seem not to have been executed any where except in Massachusetts. But the fame gloomy superstition reigned in England. The statutes of Henry VIII. and James I. making witchcraft and sorcery felony without benefit of clergy, upon which many persons suffered deth, were not repeeled, till the ninth yeer of George II. or about 1736. Just before the restoration in 1660, no less than thirteen gypsies were condemned at one Suffolk assizes, and executed.
But why should I go to former times and other states for apologies? Iz it not eezy to find superstition and prejudices among ourselves equally absurd and indefensible? Does not a law against playing with cards proceed from theze prejudices? What iz the difference between playing with spotted papers and spotted boards? Chequers, back-gammon and chess are not prohibited, and the games are az enticing az thoze which are prohibited. Are not such games az capable of conceelment az any domestic concerns? Wil laws ever reech them? Haz the legislature any right to control my family amuzements? In short, do laws ever suppress or restrain any species of game? By no meens; on the other hand, I can testify from actual observation, that prohibited games are practized az much az others, and in states where penalties against them are most severe, gaming iz the most frequent.
Again, are laws against witchcraft more absurd than laws against usury? Did not both originate in ages of monkish bigotry, and in the same religious scruples? Iz it not az illiberal a prejudice to say, that a man shall hav but six per cent. profit on money loaned, yet may make fifty per cent. if he can, on the same valu in goods, houses or lands; az it iz to say, that a man shal not be a fanatic, or a woman hav the hysterics? Haz not any man az good a right to be whimsical or superstitious, az a legislature to be inconsistent? Az to the right, I see no difference. A man who iz oppressed to an obvious degree by a rich creditor, wil find releef against the oppressor, in a court of equity. A fanatic, who should keep a naborhood in an uproar by hiz religious worship, would be punishable for a misdemeenor. But when two men can make a voluntary contract for eight per cent. interest, a contract which eech deems favorable for himself, that he should be punishable with a hevvy forfiture, iz a curosity in legislation, which ought to be placed on the catalog of papal bulls.
Superstition appeers in all ages under different aspects. The sailor who repozes confidence in the horse-shoe on hiz mast, the Roman who counts hiz beeds, the judge who gravely sentences a witch to the gallows, and the legislator who thinks it a crime to receev great profits for the use of money, may be equally conscientious, and to posterity in some future time, wil appeer to be equally mistaken.
But while we contemplate the censurable laws of the first New England settlers, let us not pass by many excellent regulations which proceed from their religious zeel, and which hav been the basis of institutions the most favorable to morals, to freedom and happiness.
In the first place, our ancestors made provision for supporting preechers of the gospel in every village. Abating some rigid maxims, which were propagated and maintained for the first century, with too much zeel, the influence of the clergy, in New England, haz been productiv of the happiest effects. The clergy, being wel informed men, and scattered among the peeple at large, hav been instrumental in diffusing knowlege. Frends to order, and respected by their parishioners, they hav at times saved the states from turbulence and disorder. The advocates of liberty, they espoused the American revolution with firmness, and contributed to unite the peeple in a steddy opposition to British mezures; and since the establishment of peece, they hav had no small influence in oppozing mezures, fatal to good faith and the rights of freemen.
The effects of their influence are the most generally vizible in Connecticut, where every town iz well settled and supports a clergyman. This state never experienced an insurrection; its opposition to the British power, during the war, waz steddy and unanimous; and tender laws and paper currency hav been uniformly reprobated since the revolution.
The old settlements in Massachusetts may fall under the same character; but the western and northern counties are exceptions. In a great proportion of the townships, which hav been lately settled, there iz no clergyman or other person of superior information, to direct the popular councils and check a rizing opposition. It waz obzerved, during the late insurrections in thoze counties, that the towns which were destitute of any wel informed men, furnished the most numerous and most turbulent hosts of insurgents. The wel informed counties on the see coast furnished scarcely a man.
In addition to this, it may be remarked, that the mildness of manners and the hospitality which prevail among the yemanry of New England, are ascribeable in a great meazure, to a general administration of religious ordinances. The distinction in this respect, iz so great between New England and some other parts of America, that in travelling among the settlers on the frontiers of Vermont, a man may ascertain where the settlers were born and educated, merely by their manner of receeving and treeting him. This iz asserted from actual obzervation.
The State of Rhode Island furnishes full proofs of what iz here said in favor of the clergy. That state waz settled by refugees from Massachusetts, who were banished or persecuted by the first settlers, for their religious tenets. Roger Williams and hiz adherents imbibed an inveterate hatred against the colony of Massachusetts, and in particular against the clergy, whoze rigid zeel occasioned their expulsion from the colony. The prejudice continued among their desendants, and to this day the inhabitants boast of their liberality of sentiment and their freedom from the bigotry of clergymen, which, they say, enslaves the peeple of Massachusetts and Connecticut. This aversion to the clerical order haz however had a pernicious effect in the state. The body of the peeple, unaccustomed to the sobriety and decent deportment necessary in religious worship, and despizing the puritanical manners of their nabors, are educated in licentiousness and void of principle. To this source may be traced the most unjust and tyrannical laws that ever disgraced a popular assembly, and a perseverance in executing them, which can proceed only from obstinate ignorance and dishonest views. The large trading towns are excepted from this description; the inhabitants of which are well informed, polite, liberal, and firm supporters of good government; but they encourage schools and support a respectable clergy.