It was indeed a new order of things which was introduced by the pilgrim fathers, in their removal to America. The Mayflower came to these shores freighted with great moral principles, as well as with a precious cargo of godly men and women. Of those principles, some were the following, viz: The right of private judgment in the examination of divine truth, is to be held sacred--Conscience, enlightened by the Word of God, is a sufficient guide as to truth and duty--a majority governs in church and state--universal education is the basis of free government--the observation of the Sabbath is a moral virtue, and essential to the safety of a people. From these principles, others have been deduced; or to them others, of scarcely less importance, have been added in more recent times. [Illustration] FOOTNOTES: [6] Holmes' Annals. [7] New England Memorial, by Nathaniel Morton. [8] New England Memorial. [9] New England's Memorial--Appendix. [10] Young's Chronicles of the Pilgrims. [11] Trumbull's History of Connecticut. [12] Bacon's Historical Discourses. [13] T. Robbins. [14] T. Robbins. III. MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN SETTLEMENTS.[15] NEW YORK--New Jersey--Delaware--Maryland--North Carolina--South Carolina--Georgia--Pennsylvania. The settlement of the state of NEW YORK commenced in 1613, so far as the erection of a fort, near the present city of Albany, and a few trading-houses on the island of Manhattan (New York), may be said to constitute a settlement. The Dutch founded their claim to the soil from the discovery of the Hudson by an Englishman of that name, who was then in the employ of the Dutch; but the British king disputed the claim, from the fact of the previous discovery of the country by the Cabots. The Dutch were forced, for a short time, to yield to the demands of the English; but, the colony having increased in the course of a year, the English were required, in their turn, to yield their authority to the original occupants. For a series of years, the latter continued in peaceful possession, and, by characteristic toil and perseverance, secured the blessings of a growing settlement.