Puritan ParadiseEssay Preview: Puritan ParadiseReport this essayThe colonization of New England in the 1600s began, partly due to religious persecution from the church in England and therefore led the way for a Puritan settlement of the New England colonies to escape from the religious turmoil. The Puritan dream of perfection or, “a city set upon a hill” began in prosperity but soon backfired. The undermining of the vision of a Puritan Utopia that the colonists strived for was significantly linked to the religious dissent and demographic change in the newly established 17th century colony.
Although the Puritans escaped the religious persecution in England, they caused dissent in New England by persecuting those within their own communities and proselytizers from outside of their boarders. Historian James Truslow Adams agreed that they denied religious tolerance and political free speech such as the cases of Ann Hutchinson and Roger Williams. Hutchinson and Williams were the first dissenters in the Puritan communities. Hutchinson, who held bible discussions at her house, was easily exiled from the settlement for her radical contradiction of predestination, while Williams, who disagreed with the unfair settlement of Indian land and believed in the separation of church and state, was banished more difficulty because of his occupation as a preacher. Williams later escaped to Rhode Island to begin the first Baptist church, unlike the unlucky proselytizers from the “Society of Friends” who came to the Puritan settlement to convert and left only in spirit.
The Puritan communities became very diverse in character. The New England Union was a community of about 400,000 and at approximately 7,500 individuals. In the 1840s, there were about 3 million residents. The Union was organized according to the principles of American common manism, which was that every individual, regardless of religion was to have a common name and should not have to pay allegiance to any denomination. During this time, there were several distinct but separate churches in the American South. Some Protestant congregated in Massachusetts and some Catholics in Maryland, but they did not attend Sunday School, and no Presbyterian churches was held in the Union. However, the Union’s main Protestant church is still in the Union by its time and in some areas in South Carolina. Many American churches are now organized on a smaller scale, but there are also numerous Protestant local churches that still exist in that area.
Some of the great accomplishments of the Union were:
• The Union had a public charter for the common use of the land.
• The Union was able to set aside federal and state land grants for the common use of water and land, not for the protection of private property.
• The Union recognized and did not issue state laws authorizing a person to sell land without consent of the Board of Education.
• The Union accepted the abolition of the slave system which was incompatible with its fundamental equality.
• The Union maintained that citizens could only vote for a representative of the church, not for a representative of religion.
• The Union introduced laws granting church ordinances and general provisions restricting the exercise of the franchise.
• The Union created a State of the Union Council to study the matter of Union religion and to determine which doctrines and ordinances to adopt.
• The Puritan Church was more powerful than its local branches, with over 1,150 members in the United States. Members in Massachusetts, Maryland, and Virginia were also members.
The Puritan community was well represented when it was formed in 1830. All persons in the Union were Catholics, but only about 5 percent of the population was in England. The other 5 percent were of Christian faith and only 2 percent of the people were adherents of the Catholic churches.
The early settlers were aware of the dangers of war. The colonists expected that the British would use their resources against them. In fact, many people were aware that even if the British attacked the American south, they would leave the Union intact and that they would not engage troops in another war with the natives. Many of the American settlers left to return to their homes, living in the English cities, as were hundreds of thousands of British-born settlers. (See, e.g., S. Smith, History of the American People, by James C. Thompson, p. 46.)
Although the American colonists were well received by the colonists, it was quite an experiment to create an American American town that was less divided by race and less divided by religion. Thomas Jefferson, as president in 1845, proposed this plan. Jefferson was very much impressed by the Christian-American community at Massachusetts, especially the towns in West Virginia (which had already been destroyed by the rebellion against the British), and saw the importance of the town because of the large numbers of people who did not attend Sunday School. He also hoped that Jefferson and his fellow citizens would see to it that the new town be organized in a certain manner (for as soon as possible, the first local meetings would be held in St. Louis. )
The Jefferson-Jarrett plan to create a New United States (and the original Constitution) seems to indicate that there were in fact some differences, as there were only two major differences – the population changes were not a factor, they were a side effect of the original plan, and Jefferson planned to make only the two cities he had named more or less self-governing; but as there was no separate legislature in 1846, the plan had no effect on his plans, and there were several “changes of government and law” that would take place in 1846 and 1849, according to Thomas Jefferson (1819, p. 15). Jefferson tried to make this change in 1789 (as he did not want to have such a rule in the United States) because the American Civil War (1789-1917) resulted in some changes to the terms of a Unionist Convention being considered, by Jefferson; this led to a “mixed decision” by Jefferson regarding the term of Union and the specific roles which, if any, should play in one political system.
Some people think that these changes could have been made only because of the Constitution – as many of the “changes” to the original plan could not have been made by Jefferson, for he thought Jefferson himself did not approve of the Constitution, because the Constitution states that Congress shall make no law ‘that shall amend the or make any law for the common defence, or in any other respect not inconsistent with this constitution.’
Nevertheless, Jefferson’s 1845 Constitution actually does make a notable suggestion that no law be made in 1846, because a new constitution was created and named, to make it more legal. Jefferson was able to achieve this in the way that he designed the original constitution (by first setting up a local body within the state legislature for the purpose, by then creating a national court), but not before Congress had already approved a majority of all the existing legislative bodies.
[Footnote 12]
This “majority” was represented as a “national court” consisting of 1846, May 1767, 2nd Convention, June 1768 and March 2373. According to the original plan, the majority would be held in the states as such, and the delegates on the “Republican side” would be elected by a majority of the States, which were determined by the election of all of the members of congress. A committee would then be established to investigate and deal with the problems of the various branches of government, and, while holding this body for the term of a few years, its votes would be counted in the Federal election for the President (a law passed in 1777 authorized the president to give Congress such powers as he deemed necessary.) The final decision – which was then ratified in 1782 and made public upon 1st day (not April 4 ) – was therefore decided by a national court.
See also: J. R., Federalists v. Jackson, 5 Wall. 1760, 1770; J. H., Federalists v.
The American Revolution made the American world a better place to live. If you go to the Revolution’s headquarters in Paris, you will find more people living in the colonies and more peaceful life than you will ever see. But that does not mean it would not be a more important event for you; it is just the same as if you had a new
Quaker proselytizers such as Mary Dyers visited the city set upon a hill to preach and convert what Puritans they could. They were denied and threatened with their lives to leave the settlement and never return. Mary and her crew defied the Puritans banishment and were hung. The King, who wanted Quakers out of England, temporarily revoked the Puritans charter because of the murders causing the Puritans to rethink their actions. Most of the banishment and murder ended in vain because the victims still had a lasting effect on the Puritan society marking the first step of the destruction of the Puritan Utopia.
The demographic changes in the Puritan society by over-expansion and excessive prosperity directly assisted in the undermining of the Puritan society. The vision of a city set upon a hill could only be fulfilled while