Transcriber’s Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
FAC SIMILE OF THE HANDWRITING OF ROGER WILLIAMS.
Copied from a Document written in 1677.
MEMOIR
OF
ROGER WILLIAMS,
THE
FOUNDER OF THE STATE
OF
RHODE-ISLAND.
“Roger Williams justly claims the honor of having been the first legislator in the world, in its latter ages, that fully and effectually provided for and established a full, free and absolute liberty of conscience.”
PREFACE.
The citizens of the United States, have sometimes beenridiculed, for an alleged propensity to please their imaginationswith romantic visions concerning the future gloryof their country. They boast, it is said, not of what thenation has been, nor of what it is, but of what it will be.The American faculty, it is affirmed, is anticipation, notmemory.
If the truth of this charge were admitted, it might bereplied, that the ‘proper motion’ of the youthful imagination—instates as well as in individuals—is towards thefuture. It springs forward, with buoyant wing, forgettingthe past, and disregarding the present, in the eagerness ofits desire to reach fairer scenes. It is the instinct of ournature, the irrepressible longing of the immortal soul forsomething higher and better. It is never extinguished,though frequent disappointments abate its ardor, and longexperience confirms the testimony of revelation, that perfecthappiness is sought in vain on earth. In mature age,therefore, reason has corrected the erro