Though to the founders of Rhode Island, and particularly to Roger Williams, belong the fame and glory of having realized this idea in the form of a civil government, they were by no means the first to maintain it. Long before the Reformation it originated among the Waldenses in the valleys of Piedmont, and by means of the crusade against them by Innocent III., it was spread far and wide. The Reformation and the coming of the Puritans to America tended to confirm it, but never was it fully realized till Roger Williams and his followers came to "the forest-shaded banks of the Mooshausic," and established a government on the principle that "the State has no right to interfere between conscience and God."
After dwelling largely on the early history and influence of Rhode Island, the author passes to the time of the Revolution. We find that this little state, though royally armed in her Charter, stood among the foremost in the great struggle for independence. She was the first to direct her officers to disregard the Stamp Act, and to assure them indemnity for so doing; the first to recommend the permanent establishment of a Continental Congress; the first to adopt the Articles of Confederation; the first to brave royalty in arms; the first to enact and declare independence; the first to establish a naval armament of her own; and the first to recommend to Congress the establishment of a Continental Navy. The oration closes with an eloquent appeal to preserve the history and early records of the State. Appended is a Poem by Sarah Helen Whitman, recited before the Rhode Island Historical Society, previous to the delivery of the address.
A Sketch of the History of Newbury, Newburyport, and West Newbury, from 1635 to 1845. By Joshua Coffin, A. B. S. H. S.
"For out of the old fieldes, as men saithe,
Cometh the new come from yere to yere,
And out of old bookes in good faithe
Cometh this new science that men lere."
Chaucer.
"Lives there a man with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,