CHAPTER V.

Vane an Adherent of Mrs. Hutchinson.

sis of the Controversy.

Vane superseded.

Cri

Colonial Election.

Supported by Boston.One of the earliest Advocates of Religious Liberty. Eulogized as such by Mackintosh. -Colonial Legislation adverse to the Rights of Conscience. Views of the Colonists on the Subject of Religious Liberty. - Vane's Controversy with Winthrop. His Embarkation for England.

It was necessary to give a fair representation of the famous controversy between Mrs. Hutchinson and the Puritans of Massachusetts, in order to do justice to the memory of Governor Vane. He was deeply implicated in its progress. It was indeed impossible for one of his character and temperament to stand aloof, and take no interest in such an affair. He came to America prepared to engage in it with all his soul. He was fresh from the theological schools of Geneva, where such inquiries received, as they deserve, the highest degree of attention; and where the genius and intellectual energy of Calvin had been so deeply stamped upon the minds of the people,

that they continue, to this hour, to bear witness to them in the zeal with which they engage in religious investigations, and in that strong desire for truth, which characterizes them as a community. The mind of Vane, originally prone to take delight in the topics of religion, received an additional impulse in that direction, while residing in Geneva; and in the great controversy, which absorbed all other questions, during his administration of the government of Massachusetts, he not only naturally but necessarily took a lively interest; and, I doubt not, that, when the subject is thoroughly understood, his agency in its scenes will reflect no discredit upon his judgment or his feelings.

He espoused the cause of Mrs. Hutchinson. He believed her to be a woman of unquestionable piety as well as talent; and, however worthy of censure he might have thought her on the score of propriety and prudence, it was scarcely possible for him not to sympathize with her; for he entirely approved of her theological sentiments, and throughout his whole life regarded with abhorrence any such proceedings, as those instituted against her on account of her religious opinions.

With the support of Governor Vane and John Cotton, Mrs. Hutchinson was, for a time, enabled to protect herself against the persecution with which she was threatened in consequence of her

theological sentiments. Winthrop, the founder, and father, and first governor of the colony, led the opposition, and was supported by Mr. Wilson and all the other ministers of the country, by all the churches but that of Boston, and by a considerable and very active minority there.

In a contest where the parties were so unequally matched, it could not long remain a matter of uncertainty on which side the victory would rest; and, in that age of the world, the genuine spirit of toleration had gained admission to so few minds, that the defeated party could expect no mercy. As the quarrel continued to rage, not only with unmitigated, but with ever-increasing fury, the hearts of the contending parties were constantly growing more and more full of anger and bitterness towards each other. Mrs. Hutchinson had rendered herself inexpressibly odious by her actual or supposed attempts to injure the clergy, and the same odium was directed against all, who dared to countenance or tolerate the opinions. with which she was charged.

At length the theological storm reached its crisis. The day of the annual election came round, and the party opposed to Governor Vane was concentrated at the appointed place and time. The Rev. Mr. Wilson clambered up into a tree, and harangued the electors in a style, which, in those grave times and in one of his calling, could not

have been endured, except during the prevalence of a most engrossing excitement. Mr. Winthrop was elected Governor, and all the friends of Vane were left out of office.

The people of Boston, who were devotedly attached to Vane, expressed their sentiments on the occasion by instantly electing him with others of his most zealous friends to represent them in the General Court. Influenced more by zeal than discretion, the party in possession of the majority in the Assembly, declared their election void. The Bostonians, with a spirit, which has actuated them from the beginning, and still lives and burns brightly among them, indignant at such an outrage upon their rights of suffrage, returned the same men back to the House, by a new election, the very next day!

At a meeting of the "Protestant Society" in London, in 1819, a speech was delivered, from the chair, by the late Sir James Mackintosh in support of the principles of civil and religious liberty, and in commemoration of its great champions in previous ages. In the course of the speech the following eulogium was pronounced upon the subject of this memoir. "I would also mention another individual greatly entitled to our admiration, and who also developed these principles; Sir Harry Vane. His writings are little known to the majority of readers; but he is alluded to

by Hume, and his book contains the principles of religious liberty in three or four pages, in a manner clear and irrefragable." *

No

The above attestation is of conclusive weight, considering the source from which it comes. man was better qualified to pronounce such a panegyric, than the illustrious political philosopher from whom it proceeded. For Vane to be praised by Mackintosh is indeed "laudari a laudato." Clearly, however, as Sir James perceived the merits of Sir Henry, it is very improbable that even he was aware at how early an age the great doctrine of civil and religious liberty was discovered and proclaimed by the latter. Vane was not only in advance of the times in which he lived, but he had attained that extraordinary superiority to prevalent errors, at a period of life, when men in general are considered as just beginning to act and think for themselves. While he was in America, and when not more than twenty-five years of age, he expounded, illustrated, and vindicated the great principles of religious liberty, with a clearness and fulness of comprehension, and a strength of argument, which have never been excelled.

The successful party had no sooner secured their seats in the colonial government than they

* London Monthly Repository, Vol. XIV. p. 392.