John Winthrop First Governor of the Masschusetts Colony

THE LITTLE SPEECH. 3
a great disadvantage to him, for he could not take that
liberty to plead the cause which he ought to be allowed
at the bar, upon this the court was satisfied."
His reasons were good, yet one perceives that his
heart was sore. Called to plead, after saying " that
he accounted it no disgrace but rather an honour put
upon him to be singled out from his brethren in the
defence of a cause so just (as he hoped to make
that appear) and of so public concernment," he had
stated the grounds on which he might justly demand
a dismissal of the suit ; but had waived the claim, as
preferring " to make answer to the particular charges,
to the end that the truth of the case and of all proceedings
thereupon might appear to all men," and
had remained there " beneath within the bar uncov-
ered " throughout the six or seven weeks' hearing that
followed. What part he had taken in the examina-
tion — marked by excitement and heat of temper,
though apparently cooling in its later stages — we are
not informed.
The end is finally reached, and the Court has judged
" the deputy governor to be legally and publicly acquit
of all that was laid to his charge."
What ensues is, in view of the circumstances that
have been noted, in a high degree dramatic ; but it
cannot possibly be better told than in the simple
words in which Winthrop himself tells it.
" Presently . . . the magistrates and deputies took
their places in the meeting house, and the people being
come together, and the deputy governor placing himself
within the bar as at the time of the hearing, etc., the