statute-book, the reflex of the age, shows this influence. The State

was developed out of the Church.

The annual "ELECTION SERMON"

a perpetual memorial, con

tinued down through the generations from century to centurystill bears witness that our fathers ever began their civil year and its responsibilities with an appeal to Heaven, and recognized Christian morality as the only basis of good laws.

The origin of this anniversary is to be found in the charter of "the governor and COMPANIE of the Massachusetts Bay in New England," which provided that "one governor, one deputy-governor, and eighteen assistants, and all other officers of the said companie," not of the colony1- should be chosen in their

"novelties, oppression, atheism, excess, superfluity, idleness, contempt of authority, and troubles in other parts" of the world "to be remembered "—" for the want of rain, and help of brethren in distress"—"in regard of our wants, and the dangers of our native country"-" for God's great mercy to the churches in Germany and the Palatinate"-"for a bountiful harvest, and for the arrival of persons of special use and quality"-"for success and safe return of the Pequot expedition, success of the conference at Newton, and good news from Germany "— "sad condition of our native country." These occurred before the year 1644. May 29th, of that year, it was "ordered, the printer shall have leave to print the Election Sermon, with Mr. Mather's consent, and the Artillery Sermon, with Mr. Norton's consent."

1 These were the officers of the "COMPANIE " in England; but the charter also provided for another government in New England" for the formes and ceremonies of government and magistracie fitt and necessary" in and for the "plantation," or colony. Thus the charter ordained two governments, -one for the “COMPANIE " in England, and resident there, and one in and for the COLONY in New England, and two such governments existed, Mathewe Cradock being governor of the "companie," and Endecott governor of the colony. The illegal transfer of the government of the "companie" to New England invalidated both governments, and rendered the colonial government, as provided for by the charter, practically impossible. As we have seen, Endecott was the legally elected governor of the "plantation," and he was never legally displaced. On the 20th of October, 1629, Cradock resigning, Winthrop succeeded him as governor of the "companie," but not of the colony, for one year; and as the records show no election after, till May 18, 1631, there was an interregnum of about seven months, till Winthrop became de facto, but not de jure, governor, — -the charter distinction between the "companie" and the "plantation" being winked out of sight, and the two made one in fact. "The whole structure of the charter pre

"general court, or assemblie," on "the last Wednesday in Easter Terme, yearely, for the yeare ensuing."

About the year 1633, the governor and assistants began to appoint one to preach on the day of election, and this was the first of our "Election Sermons." In a few years, the deputies, or representatives, jealous of the power of the magistrates, challenged the appointment as theirs; and the magistrates, unwilling "to have any fresh occasion of contestation with the deputies," yielded, though some judged it"a betraying, or, at least, weakening, the power of the magistrates, and a countenancing of an unjust usurpation. For," says Winthrop," the deputies could do no such act, as an act of court, without the concurrence of the magistrates; and out of court they had no power at all, but only for regulating their own body; and it was resolved and voted at last court, according to the elders'"- ministers' 66 - advice, that all occurrents" orders"out of court belong to the magistrates to take care of, being the standing council of the Commonwealth." Such were the trifles which involved the popular character of our institutions. The occasion was simple; the principle was momentous. So it was when Hampden refused to pay twenty shillings, and when our grandfathers resisted the Stamp Act and tea duty. Governor Winthrop's critical notice of the discourse by the Rev. Nathaniel Ward, of Ipswich, in June 1641, is, perhaps, the earliest sketch of an "Election Sermon❞ now to be found. It appears that "some of the freemen, without the consent of the magistrates or governor, had chosen Mr. Nathaniel Ward to preach at this court, pretending that it was a part of their liberty. The governor (whose right, indeed, it is, for, till the court be assembled, the freemen are but private persons) would

supposes the residence of the company in England, and the transaction of all its business there." The removal was an "usurpation of authority; " but of its expediency and wisdom there can be no doubt. - Story on the Constitution, 1. §§ 64, 65. Winthrop was not, de jure, governor, as were Conant and Endecott. See note 1, p. xi.

not strive about it; for, though it did not belong to them, yet, if they would have it, there was reason - since it could not be helped "to yield it to them. Yet they had no great reason to choose him,

— though otherwise very able, — seeing he had cast off his pastor's now no minister by the received deter

place at Ipswich, and was mination of our churches. In his sermon he delivered many useful things, but in a moral and political discourse, grounding his propositions much upon the old Roman and Grecian governments, which sure is an error; for, if religion and the word of God make men wiser than their neighbors, and these men have the advantage of all that have gone before us in experience and observation, it is probable that, by all these helps, we may better frame rules of government for ourselves than to receive others upon the bare authority of the wisdom, justice, etc., of those heathen commonwealths. Among other things, he advised the people to keep all their magistrates in an equal rank, and not give more honor or power to one than to another, which is easier to advise than to prove, seeing it is against the practice of Israel (where some were rulers of thousands, and some but of tens), and of all nations known or recorded. Another advice gave, that magistrates should not give private advice, and take knowledge of any man's cause before it came to public hearing. This was debated after in the general court, where some of the deputies moved to have it ordered" and enacted into a law.

be

By the charter of William and Mary, October 7th, 1691, the last Wednesday of May was established as election-day, and it remained so till the Revolution. The important part which this institution of the Election Sermon played at that period, and an account of its observance, are minutely and accurately presented by the Rev. William Gordon, of Roxbury, the contemporary historian of the Revolution, and in a manner so pertinent to our purpose that we give it entire.

He says that the "ministers of New England, being mostly Con

gregationalists, are, from that circumstance, in a professional way, more attached and habituated to the principles of liberty than if they had spiritual superiors to lord it over them, and were in hopes of possessing, in their turn, through the gift of government, the seat of power. They oppose arbitrary rule in civil concerns from the love of freedom, as well as from a desire of guarding against its introduction into religious matters. The patriots, for years back, have availed themselves greatly of their assistance. Two sermons have been preached annually for a length of time, the one on general election-day, the last Wednesday in May, when the new general court have been used to meet, according to charter, and elect counsellors for the ensuing year; the other, some little while after, on the artillery election-day, when the officers are reëlected, or new officers chosen. On these occasions political subjects are deemed very proper; but it is expected that they be treated in a decent, serious, and instructive manner. The general election preacher has been elected alternately by the council and House of Assembly. The sermon is styled the Election Sermon, and is printed. Every representative has a copy for himself, and generally one or more for the minister or ministers of his town. As the patriots have prevailed, the preachers of each sermon have been the zealous friends of liberty; and the passages most adapted to promote the spread and love of it have been selected and circulated far and wide by means of newspapers, and read with avidity and a degree of veneration on account of the preacher and his election to the service of the day. Commendations, both public and private, have not been wanting to help on the design. Thus, by their labors in the pulpit, and by furnishing the prints with occasional essays, the ministers have forwarded and strengthened, and that not a little, the opposition to the exercise of that parliamentary claim of right to bind the colonies in all cases whatever."

Protestantism exchanged the altar for the pulpit, the missal for

the Bible; the "priest" gave way to the "preacher," and the gospel was "preached." The ministers were now to instruct the people, to reason before them and with them, to appeal to them; and so, by their very position and relation, the people were constituted the judges. They were called upon to decide; they also reasoned; and in this wayas the conflicts in the church respected polity rather than doctrine the Puritans, and especially the New Englanders, had, from the very beginning, been educated in the consideration of its elementary principles. In this we discover how it was, as Governor Hutchinson remarked, that "men took sides in New England upon mere speculative points in government, when there was nothing in practice which could give any grounds for forming parties." This was a remarkable feature in the opening of the Revolutionary war. It was recognized by Edmund Burke, in his speech of March 22d, 1775, 66 on conciliation with the colonies." "Permit me, sir," he said," to add another circumstance in our colonies, which contributes no mean part towards the growth and effect of this untractable spirit, I mean their education. In no country in the world, per

haps, is the law so general a study. The profession itself is numerous and powerful, and in most provinces it takes the lead. The greater number of the deputies sent to the congress" - at Philadelphia-"were lawyers. But all who read-and most do read. endeavor to obtain some smattering in that science. I have been told by an eminent bookseller, that in no branch of his business, after tracts of popular devotion, were so many books as those on the law exported to the plantations. The colonists have now fallen into the way of printing them for their own use. I hear that they have sold nearly as many of Blackstone's Commentaries in America as in England. General Gage marks out this disposition very particularly in a letter on your table. He states that all the people in his government are lawyers, or smatterers in law; and that in Boston they have been enabled, by successful chicane, wholly to evade