MASSACHUSETTS. The rank sustained among nations by the United States of America, as a consolidated, political body, is high. The second power in commerce on the earth, it compares well, at length, if not with the greatest, at least with the great, in population also. China, Great Britain, Russia, Austria, and France, with, probably, Japan, which still refrains from intercommunity with the rest of mankind, exceed it in numbers. Yet the general character of its inhabitants for intelligence, enterprise, and vigor excites inquiry. The rapid growth of the country increases curiosity, and prompts to further investigations. For it is found that, so far as we can be warranted by the extent of the period of proof, that growth is of a durable character.

Republican principles are not new to the world. The effort to maintain them has been made in various ages and countries, from the period of the free states of Greece, and the early years of republican Rome, to the centuries of Venetian, Swiss, and Dutch liberty.

But the constituent elements of their liberty seem to have been of a character different from that of the government of the United States. Hereditary aristocracies existed in most of them, as they do still in the only European republic that survives. In ours, this principle is unacknowledged; and the people are, by constitution and actually, the originators of executive and legislative power. And the singular phenomenon is beheld, of a sovereign ruler, vested for a time with the exercise of supreme but constitutional power, and descending from that height to the level of private life-then called to and accepting grades of inferior influence, without the effort to seize, in any one instance, on a superior station. Such has been the uniform experience of more than half a century.

Here, then, a problem important to the welfare of the world is in process of solution: Can communities be trusted to govern themselves? Thus far, the system adopted by the United States succeeds admirably, even beyond the expectation of many wise and good men. And while the ever-varying phases of government, in those provinces of this western continent which shook off the yoke of Spain, exhibit an instability of condition and character that still portends increase of evils, the march of our Union has been onward; and its citizens have exhibited the cheering spectacle of a nation enjoying the widest desirable range of human liberty regulated and rendered stable by law.

It is true, that, to a foreigner, it would appear impracticable to adjust the jarring interests of a multitude of sovereign states composing a federal whole. And great difficulty is, in fact, occasionally found. Yet it is not insuperable, nor of necessity fatal.

This truth results, in great measure, from the character, history and circumstances of the members which projected and which compose the Union itself. It becomes, therefore, a matter of curious research to investigate these, and it should be done with care. Especially is it of consequence to examine the condition, character and progress of those members of the great political community, which, in the providence of God, have exercised, in their respective individualities, any considerable or peculiar influence in forming the general character of the whole body.

And in this view Massachusetts shines. She was one of the earliest formed states. Her history, compared with that of almost any other political community, has features of distinct peculiarity, more especially in reference to the origin of her colonial existence. Nor has the influence she has since exerted, as regards the rest of the states, been inconsiderable. Far otherwise, indeed; and there is reason to believe, notwithstanding a variety of counteractions, that it increases. For she is vigorous and powerful-not, it is confessed, in extent of territory, or in the number of citizens subjected to her immediate control, and enjoying her maternal solicitude and care; but from the character of her cherished sons and daughters.

To understand as well as to substantiate this, it is necessary to contemplate the causes which, in the course of divine Providence, contributed to produce this character. And these causes are to be sought, not in the prompt resolution, or wise management, or prudent foresight merely, attendant on the conduct of the great enterprise itself; we must look beyond the period of the actual settlement of the country, courageous and well considered as the bold project itself was, to a source higher and more remote.

What, then, was it which formed the leading actors, such as they were, and nerved them with uncommon vigor to undertake, and prosecute, and, with the blessing of God, to accomplish, the establishment of an energetic civil community, three thousand miles from their native home, and on the shores of a savage, inhospitable country? It is fearlessly replied, Religion, the religion of the Bible. To this their ancestors had been introduced by the glorious reformation from Popery, under Luther, Zuinglius, Melancthon, Calvin, and their associates. And the sincerity of attachment to the truth of God, which they professed, had, in the case of many of them, been tested by much trial and suffering. This endeared to them that truth, and rendered it precious. They learnt to glory in the possession of the Scriptures, and were earnest in their efforts to carry out into life, and fully to enjoy, improve, and transmit their sacred injunctions and counsels.

Add to this the history of public policy in Great Britain for preceding ages; the contests of the nobles with the crown, producing at length the concession of the Magna Charta, A. D. 1215; the establishment of the popular branch of the English Parliament, commencing half a century after, in the ambitious shrewdness of Simon de Monfort; the rise of new interests by the gradual progress of trade and manufacturing industry, and the consequent opening of new avenues to political power, and new channels of political influence,-all these eventuating in the examination of the first principles of government, and tending to establish the rights of subjects, and to limit the prerogative power of kings; let these be considered, as developing popular influence, and tending to establish a reciprocity between ruler and subject, which had been indeed discernible at a very early period in the original Saxon character, and previously in the ancient British, and no one can be at a loss to determine, that such successive training, in combination with the deeper excitement of religious conviction and zeal, would produce in the seventeenth century men of moral hardihood, wary, bold, energetic, and effective.

Sprung from an ancestry thus disciplined, and possessing the advantages which accrued to England from the light of the reformation, the diffusion of books by printing, and the access enjoyed especially to the Sacred Scriptures, with the deepest reverence for them, the fathers of the colony of New Plymouth and that of Massachusetts Bay commenced their important work. It was of God, unquestionably. And His providential leading they were accustomed to observe and acknowledge in all their concerns. This was their habit and delight.

Equally attentive do they appear to the condition of their children after them. Hence, although, by fleeing to Holland, the persecuted Puritans were allowed to enjoy freedom from the annoyance and pursuit of officers of the Star Chamber commission, such freedom for themselves lost no small part of its charm, when they found the morals of their offspring endangered, and the good habits inculcated on them liable to abandonment under the example and influence of the Dutch. In 1617, therefore, their excellent pastor, the truly reverend John Robinson, countenanced the project of removing to America.

That such a motive should be allowed so great influence on the judgment, feelings, and conduct of those much-enduring men, and that they followed its leading with so much conscientiousness, lays their posterity and countrymen under great obligations. We should be grateful to God, and to them. We should gird ourselves to the accomplishment of the object they had in view, and labor to fulfil what appears to be emphatically their “mission,” and that indeed of our nation-to fix and stamp the worth of individual men, and develop his power of self-government, in establishing a system of liberty guarded by law.

Massachusetts may be viewed,—

In the establishment and form of its government. Both these seem to have been, very providentially, forced, as it were, upon the earliest undertakers. For, after the repeated disappointments they had suffered, in applications for aid and authority from the crown, during their stay in Holland, and after the resolution they had taken to remove to America, the Puritans of Leyden were left to unite, as a civil community, after their own choice. Had they landed, as they aimed to do, within the jurisdiction of the colony planted in Virginia, they must, of course, have submitted themselves to its government. But being driven back in their attempts to go south, after they had discovered land, they agreed, November 11, 1620, before leaving their ship, on a few simple but distinguishing articles, and chose John Carver, one of their company, and a beloved and respected member of their church, to be their governor for the ensuing year.

The state of Governor Bradford’s health rendered it expedient to give him an assistant, and a deputy governor was elected by the people; then a court of assistants was chosen, as the growing population increased the business of the government. But it was not until near twenty years after the first settlement that deputies were chosen by the towns, to form what is now termed a House of Representatives. No important alterations were made in this system of government, while the old colony of Plymouth retained its separate establishment; that is, until the union with the government of Massachusetts Bay, in 1692, except during the interruptions occasioned by the assumptions of Andros.

Governor Winthrop, on the other hand, had been appointed to the direction of the colony of the Bay, and which took more appropriately the name of Massachusetts, by the Plymouth Company in England, instead of Governor Cradock, who never came over. Thomas Dudley was also appointed deputy governor. Yet, previously to their leaving England, the principal members of the company entered into a solemn agreement, providing that “the whole government, together with the patent [obtained about five months before] for the said plantation, be first by an order of court legally transferred and established to remain with us and others which shall inhabit upon the same plantation.” This company landed, with their charter or patent, at Salem, (a settlement formed but a few years before, and then under the government of John Endicott,) July 12, 1630. From Salem they went first to Charlestown, and then settled at Boston, which became, from nearly that period, excepting only a few meetings at Newtown, or Cambridge, the seat of government down to the present day.

The instrument which vested the executive power in a governor, deputy governor, and eighteen assistants, constituted a General Court, consisting of these officers and the freemen of the colony. But alterations were soon made; for, in 1631, the General Court enacted that the governor, deputy governor, and assistants should be chosen by the freemen alone; and, in 1634, they erected a representative body, which, ten years after, when the court was divided into two houses, took the name of deputies, as the other house took that of magistrates. Trial by jury was early introduced; yet not until the Court of Assistants had often judged and punished in a summary way.

Thus it was, that, while a respectful acknowledgment of subjection to the mother country and dependence on her was frequently made, and the colonists boasted the name and privileges of Englishmen, they still retained the right of popular elections, and formed a government representative, yet dignified, and in all respects paternal.

In its literary institutions.

If in Holland the Puritans exhibited an anxious apprehension of injury to the youth from the irreligious influences surrounding them, the considerate, religious colonists of Massachusetts manifested, with much consistency, a wakeful care to instil instruction into their minds, when removed to the wildernesses of America. As early as 1636, the General Court appropriated £400 to the erection of a public school at Newtown, afterwards called Cambridge. “Scarcely,” says the Rev. Dr. Holmes, “had the venerable founders of New England felled the trees of the forest, when they began to provide means to insure the stability of their colony. Learning and religion they wisely judged to be the firmest pillars of the church and commonwealth.” What the General Court had contemplated and partially provided for, the liberality of John Harvard, the worthy minister of Charlestown, who died in 1638, aided to accomplish. To the public school at Newtown he left by will £779 17s. 2d.; and by order of court, and in honor of its earliest benefactor, the school was named Harvard College, and the town called Cambridge, in memory of the place in England, at whose university several of the influential “planters” had received their own education.

The establishment of this college, consecrated “to Christ and the church,” has been generally regarded as a striking proof of the far-seeing wisdom of the fathers of Massachusetts.

It shared the prayers and best wishes of ministers and churches, and proved a nursery of many “plants of renown,” distinguished not in the walks of sacred labor alone, but in council, at the bar, upon the bench, and even in the field. For more than half a century it was the only college in North America, and is now the best endowed of all our literary institutions. Within the present bounds of the commonwealth, two other institutions, Williamstown and Amherst Colleges, have since been incorporated, and have enjoyed a very considerable share of legislative patronage, besides the results of private liberality. In addition to these is the important Theological Seminary at Andover, whose graduates are found, not officiating as pastors of our own churches only, but laboring in the missionary stations, from the Sandwich Islands, in the east, to the regions assigned our own Indians in the west; also a similar institution of the Baptist denomination at Newton, emulating its elder sister, and the “Wesleyan Academy" of the Methodists at Wilbraham.

Equal attention was at an early period paid to the establishment of common schools in the several townships; and academies have been founded in not a few of the counties of the state, as at Andover in Essex county, Leicester in Worcester county, &c. Thus it has resulted that the inhabitants are found capable of reading, writing, and casting accounts, with very rare exceptions among male and female adults, to an extent as great, probably, as in any state of the Union, with the exception perhaps of Connecticut, and comparing with any the most favored population in the world. Indeed, the schools of Massachusetts have been and are the just cause of gratulation and pleasure with every intelligent friend to the permanent prosperity of its citizens.

In its churches.

These were esteemed by their founders the glory of the community. For the enjoyment and transmission of religious liberty, mainly, the country had been settled. As is specified in their patent, and as they profess in the articles of their association, it was to advance the kingdom of Christ by the conversion of the savages of America, as well as to escape the pains and penalties of unrighteous orders in council against liberty of conscience in religion, that they were willing to encounter the perils of the sea, or the equally threatening perils of the land. “O that I might have heard you had converted some, before you had killed any,” exclaimed the pious Robinson in Holland, when, in 1623, he heard of the bold energy of the warrior Standish, who had stifled a threatening insurrection of Indians against the feeble colony, by killing with his own hand its fomenter and leader. And this was the feeling which prompted the missionary labors of “the apostle” Eliot, as that early, consistent, and attached friend of the Indians, and who translated the whole Bible into their language, has not unaptly been named. Nay, it was chiefly through the efforts of Governor Winslow, when visiting England on the affairs of the colony, that in 1649 was founded the Society for propagating the Gospel, having principally in view America as its field of labor. Gookin, the Mayhews, and other worthies exerted themselves nobly in this cause; and several Indian churches were gathered, and sustained as long as subjects for such attention continued among us.

Harvard College was soon in a capacity to supply no small number of those worthy men, who formed an efficient ministry for the multiplied religious communities that grew up with the respective settlements or towns. These churches were gathered, served, and maintained, with direct reference to the authority of the Holy Scriptures. Their first supply came, of course, from abroad, for not a class received the honors of the college till more than twenty years after the settlement at Plymouth; and even afterwards, especially on the disgraceful persecutions that so soon followed the restoration of the monarchy in the person of Charles II., several excellent ministers accrued to our commonwealth, and shone as lights in the churches, aiding to maintain in them a primitive faith and a holy practice.

In the industrial pursuits of its inhabitants.

The evidence of thrift, in an application to all those arts and employments by which human life is sustained, rendered comfortable, or adorned, is in few communities more rife, perceptible, and tangible, than in the industrious communities of the citizens of Massachusetts. For the special statistics which exhibit this evidence, reference is made in this work. But, although the present notices must be rapid and brief, it will be of benefit to classify a few of the particulars that deserve attention in the general estimate.

The soil of the state, when compared with portions of the Union, is not considered as the most inviting from its fertility, being hard and unyielding, generally, and often rocky. But the climate is wholesome, the air bracing; and patient, skilful cultivation brings its reward.

Yet at a very early period the whale, cod, and other fisheries attracted many. The coasts of New England had been visited successfully before any European settlements of a permanent nature were made. And, since that period, the fisheries have been pursued with highly important results-not merely as relates to the supply of food and increase of wealth, out the training also of a hardy, and skilful, and adventurous race of mariners. These pursue the whale in every ocean, and return richly laden with the spoil. That perilous employment has found no men more energetic and able than the whalemen of Massachusetts.

Manufactures of almost every kind have flourished, and still flourish, in this state. Those of cotton fabric are detailed in the account given of Lowell, Waltham, &c., exhibiting not merely a large and judicious investment of capital, and the application of ingenuity and skill to the several facilities for rendering the labor easy and profitable, but, more especially, delighting the philanthropist with the appearance of health, sound morals, and a cheerful devotion to labor, joined with self-cultivation, particularly in the female operatives, hardly, if at all, paralleled in any other portion of the civilized world.

In regard to commerce, it has often been said of New England, that “her canvas whitens every sea;” and Massachusetts is the most commercial of this family of states. Salem engaged among the first in the trade to the East Indies, and derived immense wealth from the skill, hardihood, and faithfulness of her intelligent seamen. But Boston has been a noted mart from its very settlement. Its commerce has literally extended to every sea, and the first American vessel that circumnavigated the globe sailed in 1787 from her port.

The manufacture of iron was commenced as early as 1643; but the minerals of the commonwealth are not abundant, and its furnaces and forges are supplied chiefly from other states. In carpentry of every kind much is annually effected, and furniture of all sorts is extensively exported to the West Indies, along with the produce of the dairy, the orchard, and the meadow.

Passing from this view of the commonwealth, its history demands attention, and may be considered advantageously in several periods.

From the settlement, respectively, of the Plymouth colony, in 1620, and that of the Bay in 1626, or ’8, and 1630, to the union of both in one government, 1692. These two colonies alone are mentioned, as space cannot here be afforded to a labored survey of the variations in the jurisdiction of the state at different times. Thus, at one period, Maine and Nova Scotia were attached to the Plymouth colony, and included in its government. At another, New Hampshire formed a part of Massachusetts, and shared the cares of its rulers. Maine, too, was an important portion of the state for many years, until it became itself a sovereignty in 1820.

The period above stated includes, then, the emigrations from England, which lasted without intermission to the times of the commonwealth under Cromwell, when the friends of a republic could enjoy at home what had been sought before in America. It includes, likewise, the bloody struggles with hostile, marauding savages, stung by want, by envy and criminal neglect, as well as corrupted by the evil examples of worthless men, such as in every period since have abounded on Indian borders. And it embraces particularly that critical season in which, under the brave and cunning Philip, son of Massasoit, and sachem or king of the Wampanoags, a most deadly warfare had well nigh depopulated several of their rising settlements, although it terminated fatally for the Indians.

Yet this period, as we have seen, though it be one that includes such a calamitous contest with the natives of the country, extensively leagued together, and ably led on, was not barren of Christian effort to civilize and convert them. The history of these exertions is no small part of the true glory of the state.

This period, too, embraces the trials of leading men with the arbitrary councils and exactions of a corrupt and licentious court, under the brother Stuarts, Charles and James, until, in the memorable case of Andros, the faithful representative of the latter king, a weak, yet tyrannical despot, the abuse of power met not only a firm resistance, but personal violence, in actual seizure and imprisonment.

The revolution of 1689 could in no part of the British dominions give greater joy than in Massachusetts. For it quelled the fear of a retribution for certain convenient assumptions of power, which might, for very many years, have well been anticipated. And it prepared the way for a government, which, although it abridged subsequently, and for a long period, the exercise of a popular voice in elections, commenced with a chief magistrate named by a clergyman of Massachusetts, one of the agents of the colony.

The next period may extend to the taking of Louisburg from the French in 1745. It Degins with the operation of the new charter, which was soon effected, and the government organized; and it develops a series of contentions between the provincial assembly, or magistrates and deputies, and the crown officers, beginning with the successor of Sir William Phips, and lasting for near a quarter of a century. These disputes tended to discipline the minds of those who engaged in them, and to extend their views, rendering political subjects familiar; while, at the same time, the extent of territory subjected to the jurisdiction of the crown governors, embracing, not the colonies of Plymouth and the Bay alone, (as before observed,) but also Maine, Nova Scotia, the territory of New Brunswick, and the islands along the coast, and also New Hampshire occasionally, increased the connection by sea, at least, with a broad country, and familiarized the colonists to enlarged calculations and extended enterprise.

Much, however, of the distinctive features of the old and rigid Puritans had now been softened. Other views in theology were occasionally broached. The discipline of the churches began, with the increase of trade and commerce, to decline; and although, in the main, a spirit of religion continued to distinguish the community, when compared with other portions of the British dominions, it cannot be denied that “the gold had become dim, and the most fine gold changed.”

Near the end of the period, nevertheless, a revival of religion was witnessed, of great power. It commenced at Northampton, under the searching ministry of the eminent Jonathan Edwards, and extended widely; for in the midst of it Whitefield visited America, and fanned, though he did not produce, the flame.

But the sagacity and energy of Governor Shirley, in planning the expedition to Cape Breton, engrossed soon the cares and efforts of the colonists, and prepared the way for the succeeding period of their history, the opening and presentation of a drama in which the world is concerned. The complete success of the expedition drew the attention of the mother country towards its colonies, which it had previously underrated; the pay, in ready money, added greatly to the colonial aggrandizement, and encouraged an active industry, while it empowered the hitherto straitened inhabitants to avail themselves of the resources of their country, and, in various ways, aided the advance of the approaching revolution. Still they were among the most loyal subjects of the crown, and gloried, as yet, in the privileges as well as name of Englishmen.

From 1745 to the revolution, the history of Massachusetts is familiar to every politician of the day. In the war for subduing Canada provincialists took a deep interest, and were extensively and warmly engaged. And it proved a school for not a few of those whose courage was soon to be tested in the scenes of Lexington, Concord, Bunker Hill, and Boston. And as the difficulties with Great Britain originated in Massachusetts, her people were at no time backward to discharge their full share of duty, in council and in action, when the flames of war spread widely, and the whole series of English colonies along the coast were roused, as by the community of one spirit, to draw the sword in defence of their injured rights.

But the history of the American revolution, its causes, progress, accomplishment, and results, forms a theme too vast to be comprised in limits such as are assigned to this brief and rapid sketch. Men were in long preparation for the opening contest. The British ministry are encroaching and arbitrary. A decided stand is taken and maintained; and Massachusetts and her sister colonies become, at length, an independent nation.

The formation of a constitution for the state, which was effected in 1780, marks an important era in its history. A sublime spectacle indeed was presented, when the delegates were engaged in fixing the boundaries of civil rights and claims, and establishing the foundations of social order and prosperity. Yet not a less sublime spectacle appeared, when, in 1820, after a lapse of forty years, a revision of the same constitution was publicly effected, under the presiding auspices of that distinguished son of Massachusetts, who succeeded Washington as President of the United States, and had been a principal framer of the civil constitution of his own state.

That must be a people of peculiar character, among whom it is possible, without war, or contentious turbulence, or violence of any kind, or tendency to abandonment or licentiousness, to take apart the constituent portions of a civic system, and readjust them as quietly and orderly as if they formed but the mechanism of a watch. Yet several of our states have successfully followed the example. How nearly impracticable has it been in South America!

In 1786, the strength of attachment to “law and order” was tested by the rebellion. Yet this served, probably, to convince the majority, that, in order to maintain their freedom, that freedom must be guarded sedulously by wise provisions, to which men must submit. The quelling of that rebellion seems to have destroyed the very seeds of anarchy and confusion. Still, the sympathy excited by the French revolution threatened for a time no little disturbance of the political quiet, until the extravagances of the miserable leaders alienated from them all sober men.

The actual adoption of the federal constitution forms another era. The state had just experienced the necessity of resorting to arms to preserve its own domestic government. And it was but right to expect that its leading men should prove warm advocates for a system of rule that should fulfil the legitimate end of such an establishment, and be “a terror to the evil, and a praise and encouragement to them that do well.”

Under the subsequent operation of this government, Massachusetts has partaken both of the weal and woe of the United States. She has furnished from the beginning her quota of able men in the councils of the nation, and twice has a citizen of her own been promoted to the presidential chair. Her orators and statesmen from Ames to Webster have distinguished themselves, and honored and gratified their constituents, while they have contributed to advance the welfare and fame of their country.

In the mean while, that is, in 1820, Maine, ripe for self-government, was disconnected, and became a separate and independent state. The measure, it was apprehended, would greatly diminish the weight and influence of Massachusetts in the national councils, by the withdrawment of so large a constituency in respect to representation. Yet has the increase of population since been such, that at the present time it is nearly as great within the actual bounds of Massachusetts proper, as it was in both territories during the last year of the union of Maine with the state.

The deliberate adjustment of the various civil and political rights and privileges of a people, as asserted and maintained on this side the Atlantic, published in regular codes of law; the enrolment of citizens authorized to vote, whereby the violences attending some elections elsewhere are avoided-violences, in the detail of which the enemies of republican institutions greatly delight and triumph; the deeply-engraven spirit of their forefathers, which can with difficulty be erased; the strong love of home and its enjoyments, ruling in the hearts of absentees, and exerting an attractive influence in every climate; the general respect for religion and its ministers, which yet lingers in the population, and is sustained by the ordinary worth of those who bear the character of pastors and sacred guides; the introduction and general extension of instruction by schools on the Sabbath as well as the week days; the ample provision made for education, and the distinction and influence gained by real science and moral worth in heads of colleges and eminent professors; the improvements made in agriculture, rendering the farmer desirous and capable of raising much from a few acres, rather than superficially to run over a large extent but half cultivated; the improved character of seamen; the introduction of the temperance reform, and establishment of literary and benevolent associations,-all conspire to augur well for the future prosperity of the state.

In the catalogue of governors will be seen the names of several whom the people “delighted to honor,” and whose memory will be dear to the intelligent, sober, religious patriot. The names of Carver, Winslow, Bradford, Winthrop, Haynes, among the early chief magistrates, and Strong among those of recent years, can hardly be named without emotion. The fame of Pownall and Hutchinson, as faithful recorders, and of Hancock and Adams in the list of patriots, is spread as widely as the history of the state; and Franklin, Bowdoin, Adams, both the father and son, can never be forgotten. Among judges and counsellors, ministers of the gospel, authors and teachers, physicians, merchants, farmers, and mechanics, in short in every department of life will be found those who have honored themselves by their talents, integrity, and usefulness, and proved worthy sons of a distinguished mother. All such will join in the devout aspiration with which the public document for her annual fasts and thanksgivings closes, —

“God save the Commonwealth of Massachusetts!”