921.73 W589w.pdf - Mesa FamilySearch Library

80 Memoir of
commonwealth, there was little danger but that
the tree of liberty would be carefully nour-
ished and bravely guarded, though torn from
its native soil, and transplanted under wintry
skies, in sorrow and in suffering, but with stern,
unflinching faith and trust in Him who rules
the world, and out of small beginnings brings
great endings.
But the men who founded the colony of
Massachusetts Bay were from different parts
of the mother country. They were not united
in religious or political opinions, or schemes
of civil government. There were merchants,
mechanics, farmers, and adventurers, in search
of profitable enterprises or of occupation.
With these came no inconsiderable number of
learned and highobred gentlemen, connected
with the better classes, and in some instances
with the nobility of the mother country. The
state of society here, much more than in
Plymouth, resembled that of England. Here
there was no harmony of purpose among the
colonists, no clear predetermination of princi-
ples of government, no settled ideas of reli-