In 1628 another settlement was made at Salem, under John Endicott. The next year this colony was large enough to admit of a lively quarrel, the consequence of which was a division of interests and the establishment of Charlestown. In 1630 the “Colony of Massachusetts Bay” was augmented by the arrival of a large number of settlers, many of them being people of education and refinement. The towns of Boston, Watertown, Roxbury, and Dorchester were founded. In August the first Court of Assistants met since the arrival of the colonists, and voted to build houses and to raise salaries for ministers. This year was made a bold step toward the establishment of civil liberty in the removing of the governing council from England to Massachusetts. In 1633 the settlement of Connecticut was begun. In another year there were “between three and four thousand Englishmen distributed among twenty hamlets along and near the seashore.” It seems a good deal of a pity that these grand old Pilgrim Fathers had so little sense of humor, else the absurdity of allowing no one liberty of conscience, after they themselves had fled from just such a state of affairs, must have dawned upon them. The early history of New England is one long catalogue of religious persecutions. To the first of these is due the settlement of Rhode Island. Later dissensions helped to people Connecticut, Maine, and New Hampshire. Roger Williams was a talented young Puritan preacher who had been driven out of England by the intolerance of Archbishop Laud. Arriving in Boston, he found himself quite as much out of harmony with the Church in that place as he had been with the Church of England. He was subsequently called to a Salem pastorate, where his doctrines were very popular; everywhere else in the colonies they were regarded as abominable. No wonder, for the obnoxious parson declared boldly that it was wrong to enforce an oath of allegiance to any monarch or magistrate, that all religious sects had a right to claim equal protection from the laws, and that civil magistrates had no right to restrain the consciences of men, or to interfere with their modes of worship or religious beliefs. This heretical doctrine, if carried to its logical conclusion, would permit even Roman Catholics and Quakers to dwell in peace! It was decided to send Williams to England, where he would undoubtedly have fared ill, for he had preached a crusade against the cross of St. George in the English standard, pronouncing it a relic of superstition and idolatry, and so inflaming the [Illustration: ABRAHAM LINCOLN.]