_The Rhode Island Colonial Records_ are edited by J.R. Bartlett, 7 vols., 1856-62. One of the best state histories ever written is that of S.G. Arnold, _History of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations_, 2 vols., New York, 1859-60. Many valuable documents are reprinted in the _Rhode Island Historical Society's Collections_. The _History of New England, with particular reference to the denomination called Baptists_, by Rev. Isaac Backus, 3 vols., 1777-96, has much that is valuable relating to Rhode Island. The series of _Rhode Island Historical Tracts_, issued since 1878 by Mr. S.S. Rider, is of great merit. Biographies of Roger Williams have been written by J.D. Knowles, 1834; by William Gammell, 1845; and by Romeo Elton, 1852. Williams's works have been republished by the Narragansett Club in 6 vols., 1866. The first volume contains the valuable _Key to the Indian Languages of America_, edited by Dr. Trumbull. Williams's views of religious liberty are set forth in his _Bloudy Tenent of Persecution_, London, 1644; to which John Cotton replied in _The Bloudy Tenent washed and made White in the Blood of the Lamb_, London, 1647; Williams's rejoinder was entitled _The Bloudy Tenent made yet more Bloudy through Mr. Cotton's attempt to Wash it White_, London, 1652. The controversy was conducted on both sides with a candour and courtesy rare in that age. The titles of Williams's other principal works, _George Fox digged out of his Burrowes_, Boston, 1676; _Hireling Ministry none of Christ's_, London, 1652; and _Christenings make not Christians_, 1643; sufficiently indicate their character. The last-named tract was discovered in the British Museum by Dr. Dexter and edited by him in Rider's _Tracts_, No. xiv., 1881. The treatment of Roger Williams by the government of Massachusetts is thoroughly discussed in Dexter's _As to Roger Williams_, Boston, 1876. See also G.E. Ellis on "The Treatment of Intruders and Dissentients by the Founders of Massachusetts," in _Lowell Lectures_, Boston, 1869. The case of Mrs. Hutchinson is treated, from a hostile and somewhat truculent point of view, in Thomas Welde's pamphlet entitled _A Short Story of the Rise, Reign, and Ruin of Antinomians, Familists, and Libertines that infected the Churches of New England_, London, 1644. It was answered in an anonymous pamphlet entitled _Mercurius Americanus_, republished for the Prince Society, Boston, 1876, with prefatory notice by C.H. Bell. Cotton's view of the theocracy may be seen in his _Milk for Babes, drawn out of the Breasts of both Testaments_, London, 1646; _Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven_; and _Way of the Congregational Churches Cleared_, London, 1648. See also Thomas Hooker's _Survey of the Summe of Church Discipline_, London, 1648. The intolerant spirit of the time finds quaint and forcible expression in Nathaniel Ward's satirical book, _The Simple Cobbler of Aggawam_, 1647.