His administration exhibited a happy blending of his constitutional mildness and moderation, combined with a firmness that could not be shaken, a patience that would not wear out, and an optimistic hope that was based upon his Christian faith. Offenders against the law and the community's peace felt his determination, but no one was more ready to pardon the humbled and restore to them the full privileges of citizenship. In matters of diplomacy and difficult correspondence, including delicate foreign relations, he was tactful yet insistent upon principle, defending with a keen sense of justice the honor of the colonial state. Conventional courtesies did not deceive him, where opposition lay concealed; yet he modestly disowned sincere and merited praise when he considered it unwarranted. Scrupulous not to exceed his prerogatives, he was ready to surrender what some in his place would have thought their proper rights. In a word, he did not hold his office anxiously. To him it was not a prize, a dear object for ambition to gain and shrewd policy to perpetuate, even when the Plymouth Colony grew in size and dignity. He mentions his first election only, in particular, adding "once for all," that he was returned "sundry years together."
There was indeed need for strength and calmness; and the unfailing fortitude, coupled with a cool, clear foresight, gave assurance to the people alike during sudden but transient alarms and prolonged periods of impending disaster. Thus their confidence was not disappointed, but was strengthened with every fresh proof. Others had the same high spirit, for it was a noble democracy; but in all such situations courageous leadership cannot fail to have a steadying effect upon the body politic.
America did not outgrow this need, and this benefit, in the later days of Washington and Lincoln. It is not at all strange that in the formative, we may say experimental years of New England, an unpretentious but wise and kind administration should have been gratefully appreciated and sustained, by the popular suffrage annually accorded.
As an instance of Bradford's repeated defense of the Colony in its course of action, this letter may suffice, which was addressed to Weston in answer to the latter's complaint that the Mayflower carried a light return cargo of pelts:
"S^r: Your large letter writen to M^r. Carver, and dated y^e 6. of July, 1621, I have received y^e 10. of Novemb^r, wherin (after y^e apologie made for your selfe) you lay many heavie imputations upon him and us all. Touching him, he is departed this life, and now is at rest in y^e Lord from all those troubls and incoumbrances with which we are yet to strive. He needs not my appologie; for his care and pains was so great for y^e commone good, both ours and yours, as that therwith (it is thought) he oppressed him selfe and shortened his days; of whose loss we cannot sufficiently camplaine. At great charges in this adventure, I confess you have beene, and many losses may sustaine; but y^e loss of his and many other honest and industrious mens lives, cannot be vallewed at any prise. Of y^e one, ther may be hope of recovery, but y^e other no recompence can make good. But I will not insiste in generalls, but come more perticulerly to y^e things them selves. You greatly blame us for keping y^e ship so long in y^e countrie, and then to send her away emptie. She lay 5. weks at Cap-Codd whilst with many a weary step (after a long journey) and the indurance of many a hard brunte, we sought out in the foule winter a place of habitation. Then we went in so tedious a time to make provission to sheelter us and our goods, about w^{ch} labour, many of our armes & leggs can tell us to this day we were not necligent. But it pleased God to vissite us then, with death dayly, and with so generall a disease, that the living were scarce able to burie the dead; and y^e well not in any measure sufficiente to tend y^e sick.
And now to be so greatly blamed, for not fraighting y^e ship, doth indeed goe near us, and much discourage us. But you say you know we will pretend weaknes; and doe you think we had not cause? Yes, you tell us you beleeve it, but it was more weaknes of judgmente, then of hands. Our weaknes herin is great we confess, therfore we will bear this check patiently amongst y^e rest, till God send us wiser men. But they which tould you we spent so much time in discoursing & consulting, &c., their harts can tell their toungs, they lye. They cared not, so they might salve their owne sores, how they wounded others."
Two problems quickly confronted the new chief magistrate, and they were surely serious enough: the problem of a bare subsistence, and of defense against hostile invasion by the natives.
New Plymouth was not new as a plantation. This was the site of the Indian village of Patuxet, whose occupants had worked its somewhat restricted area of tillage, until about four years previously, when they and other settlements of the aborigines were desolated by plague. A survivor of these Patuxets, Tisquantum or Squanto, showed himself to the Englishmen, and became their valued friend and helper. Doubtless glad to return to his old home, he instructed the colonists in the cultivation of the maize, or Indian corn, an indigenous American product which has become appreciated over the world wherever it thrives. It was the Pilgrims' dependence, and a staple article of trade. The wheat and peas they brought with them failed, and without the corn, threatening starvation must soon have closed their career. As it was, during the first two years they had a veritable battle for existence. Though distemper did not return to them after the horrors of the first winter, they became emaciated under reduced rations; but regulations in severity here were merciful, saving the Colony from annihilation, from one planting time to another.
Squanto lightened this task of the authorities by his lessons in hunting venison, snaring rabbits, catching wild fowl, and fishing, especially during the yearly herring run in the town brook up to the lovely pond called Billington Sea because its discoverer, young Francis Billington mistook it for a salt inlet.
Also the faithful shallop was in constant use by successive parties, who went out into the bay and came not back without a haul of lobsters, cod, or other fish, though at first they were poorly provided with deep-sea tackle and proper nets. Clams afforded a further help, the people treading and digging the flats at low tide, while eels and crabs supplemented this. They were grateful for these means of nourishment from sea and shore, preventing their extinction; yet such could not suffice for permanent living.
Bradford did all in his power to relieve the shortage of food supply.
Little could be procured from abroad, and in the case of a visiting ship, the captain's price was cruelly prohibitive. A generous captain of different character, in a fishing fleet to the north, persuaded his fellows to spare from their own allowance enough to load the Pilgrim boat. But the most of the required amount of corn was obtained by bartering various utensils and beads with the Indians, though their natural improvidence usually left them without much of a surplus in crops. In trading expeditions by land and water, Standish and Bradford were both active. And each of them at times was alone, of white men, among the natives. Bradford once left a boat and walked fifty miles back to Plymouth from the south, for the friendly neighboring tribes were not long in discovering his inherent gentleness and fairness.
But firm discipline was necessary in times of dire need. A few unreliable persons had become mixed in the original company, and colonists new or old were punished by flogging, for the theft of corn, some of which was occasionally abstracted even before it was ripe.
Bradford's appreciative quotation of Seneca's fine affirmation, that a man is free who has control of his stomach, in this near famine would seem to apply where self-denial meant malnutrition, to prevent starvation.
Weakness and numerical smallness hindered the cultivation of the soil, and the climax was a severe drouth from the last of May, 1623, till about the middle of July, when the stalks nearly perished in the excessive heat. A day of prayer was appointed, in which the Pilgrims engaged earnestly for eight or nine hours, until a general cloudiness overspread the sky. This was followed that night by a gentle shower, which was renewed again and again, with intervals of sunshine, throughout a fortnight. The planting was saved, to the astonishment of the Indians and the deep gratitude of the Christian community. Famine fled for ever. And as the spared crop matured, a Day of Thanksgiving was ordered by the Governor and concurring Council, a season which has been observed annually ever since, and finally throughout the nation.
Bradford did not show favor to the industrial policy of holding all things in common, which was at first attempted and which, because of its early apostolic connection, was supposed to be under divine sanction. If he tolerated the idea at first, he gives no sign of approval; and when it was abandoned he observed: "The experience that was had in this comone course and condition, tried sundrie years, and that amongst godly and sober men, may well evince the vanitie of that conceite of Plato & other ancients, applauded by some of later times; that y^e taking away of propertie, and bringing in comunitie into a comone wealth, would make them happy and flourishing; as if they were wiser then God."
This farsighted judgment applied equally to the communistic concept of that time and the present idea of a short working day, a living wage whether earned or not, and an absolute democratic control over all individual rights, which is the perversion of civil liberty, and more potent than despotism because imposed by a multitude.
Under private ownership of land, which superseded the common stock plan, there was better incentive to toil, and the Governor with pleasure observed that even the women and children went willingly afield.
Assignments came to be made of one acre to a family, near the palisaded hamlet for convenience and better security. But on petition of the planters, Bradford directed that the allotments should be for continuous use, rather than for one year as heretofore. This encouraged those who had achieved good success on their area, to go forward still in their agricultural accomplishments. They raised the more, as soon as numbers and strength allowed, because they found a corn market among the half-hundred fishing vessels which annually visited the northern coasts.
The story is familiar, how the distressed new-comers at first smoothed the graves of their plague-smitten members, to hide the number of deaths from the savages, whose derisive shouts from the forests mingled with their lamentations. But this local Indian menace was comparatively slight. All the Cape Indians, including those whom the Pilgrim explorers had unintentionally aroused, became before long their permanent good neighbors. This desirable outcome was facilitated by a singular circumstance, the roaming of a boy who lost his way. John Billington, Jr., wandered in the woods until the Cummaquid Indians found him twenty miles down the coast. They carried him farther, to the Nausets, the very tribe of the first encounter. Bradford sent notice of the missing lad to Massasoit, who inquired for him among his subjects. On ascertaining his whereabouts, ten colonists and two interpreters were dispatched in the shallop to Nauset, who received the boy bead-laden and well, and held a friendly parley with Chief Aspinet and his men. These natives forwarded peace delegates to Plymouth, a course not actually required but acceptable after their conflict of 1620.
The whole region of Plymouth was offered free and empty to the white men, through the ravages of previous pestilence. This providential visitation extended as far west as the confines of Narragansett Bay in present Rhode Island, depleting the population where it did not wholly destroy. And further, these Pokanokets, the Sunrise tribes in a confederacy under Massasoit, were the more willing to heed their lord's pacific injunctions concerning the English, because they themselves in their weakened condition were threatened with invasion and conquest by the powerful Narragansetts. Self-preservation, as well as commercial advantage, prompted the never broken treaty made that spring. It was an idea mutually welcome, a most happy plan for both afflicted parties.
Only one chief, Corbitant in the Taunton valley, was displeased and jealous, and threatened trouble; but a prompt expedition to the interior frightened him away back home. He sued for favor through Massasoit, and affixed his mark below those of eight other chiefs, in a covenant of loyalty to King James across "the big water."
The Rhode Island Indians were irritated by this unprecedented alliance of natives with foreigners, and knowing the English losses they sent the famous rattlesnake skin with its challenging arrows, to Plymouth. But its speedy return filled with powder and balls and accompanied by a friendly but warning message, punctured their pride and put for a while a complete quietus on their warlike aspirations.
The most serious peril arose in 1623, from the populous Massachusetts tribes along the northern bay which, with the later state, adopted their name. These were never over-friendly, and the later Salem and Boston colonists found their own numerical strength was a needed preventive of further native hostilities after the first had been suppressed. The wrath of the red northerners was fanned into fury by the wicked and abusive conduct of sixty Wessagusset settlers, a worthless and improvident lot which Thomas Weston imposed upon Plymouth in the time of scarcity, until they went up the coast by themselves. Even then Standish, and later Bradford, took command of their pinnace the Swan in attempts to procure corn for distribution in both colonies; and the efficient Squanto died in one of these voyages, despite tender nursing by the Governor.
But the Wessagusset men repaid the terribly taxed hospitality and courtesy of the Pilgrims by attempted thefts of corn and insolent demeanor while at Plymouth; then they provoked their heathen neighbors, with whom they competed in bad behavior; and finally their remnant accepted the guidance of Myles Standish to the fishing fleet off the Maine coast, whence they returned to England for the good of America.
It was in situations like these that the coolness of the Governor greatly helped to prevent the note of dismay, for the exasperated Massachusetts, in hope of exterminating every foreigner, sent far and near for concerted action of all tribes, and many joined in the conspiracy. In view of an uprising so wide-spread, it was natural that some in the little Colony should feel apprehensive, for the peril of extinction was real. Approximately between twenty-five and fifty thousand Indians occupied New England. Supported by limited artillery and musketry, the wooden palisade was hardly adequate against the firebrands, hatchets and arrows of bloodthirsty swarming thousands; yet it never came to the test. This is less surprising when we recall the fact that, in addition to showing an almost complete lack of organization, all the Atlantic coast natives were numerically weaker and socially inferior to the inland tribes. White immigrants to the Old Colony found them especially weak there; and in Patuxet, or Plymouth, they were extinct, except for friendly Squanto.
At this time the people revealed their trust in Bradford's judgment by leaving him to decide what measures should be taken in a crisis so acute, of which he informed them on the annual court day. Captain Standish was sent to Wessagusset, with only eight men, as more would excite suspicion; and they equipped the shallop for trading. But one day when two ringleaders and a couple of followers were in a hut with the whites, Standish gave the word, the door was shut and a struggle ensued, three red men being soon cut down, fighting to the last, while a fourth was taken alive and afterward hung. Three more warriors in the neighborhood were killed. This summary execution of only seven persons quickly prepared the way for finishing the disagreeable but necessary business without that further and abundant bloodshed, which would inevitably have ensued but for this stern action. A force of Indians who hastened to the scene were turned to flight without loss after a few shots, and the heart of opposition failed. The sudden collapse of warfare so carefully planned, is explained not only by the loose organization of those rude folk among themselves, but by the fact, as often in ancient history, that dependence upon leaders was extremely strong, and the fall of a hero caused consternation and despair. Also the terror of Standish, with his decisiveness and daring, was universal among all disaffected natives, who regarded him as invulnerable, for he had repeatedly escaped the plots of intending assassins; and he surprised his foes by his quick penetration of their deadly designs though covered by amicable professions.
This perception of sinister purposes was also well developed in Bradford, as the following instance will show, though out of chronological order; and it was well for the Colony that both men possessed such a faculty, the impetuous Captain and amiable Governor, who in their respective dispositions may fairly be compared with Christ's leading disciples, Peter and John. When the Massachusetts Bay Colony was at its full inception in 1630, there appeared the greatest threat of native opposition up to that time, considering its extent. It aimed at the annihilation of all New England settlements, north and south along the coast where they had obtained, or were securing, a firm footing. The older community was to be attended to first.
The scheme was to request another grand sporting festival at Plymouth, natives and whites together, such as had been allowed to Massasoit and his men in 1621, the year of the treaty. Though this pleasant precedent was shrewdly cited with all openness and apparent amity, Bradford refused the petition. Then the red men, realizing that they were understood, declared wrathfully and with unwonted boldness, "If we may not come with leave, we will come without."
They rallied near Charlestown, whose people were also warned by their constant native friend, Sagamore John. Therefore the English, including women and children, hastily erected earthworks and built a small fort on top of the town hill. But the slightly older settlement of Salem made use of what cannon it possessed, and the booming reverberations struck such panic in the dusky breasts, that they immediately abandoned their campaign, although, as later in New England's interior, it might, if once started, have proved no farce even against explosive weapons. Thus ended the troubles with aborigines of martial mind in William Bradford's time.
Within a year, lacking one day, after the Mayflower had cast anchor in Provincetown harbor, the Fortune had brought an accession of thirty-five souls, mostly men, who replaced the male losses of the first winter.
They were somewhat heedless youth, with more of adventurous ardor than judgment, yet such as could be controlled, and useful in the shortage of masculine muscle and total absence of horses and oxen. They stood ready for work or warfare, in those uncertain years before colonial establishment. Then, just after the drouth of 1623, the Anne and the Little James arrived in August with sixty persons, some of whom, however, proved so undesirable that the Colony, financially burdened though it was, willingly sent them back at its own charge. The most of them, both Separatists and others, were very worthy and welcome; and they included women and children, who had been left behind until they could expect an assured settlement to occupy. Elder Brewster received his two daughters, Doctor Samuel Fuller and Francis Cooke rejoiced to greet their wives, and there were brides to be.
Besides these sixty, certain prospective planters were accepted who did not wish to join Plymouth's colonial organization bound in partnership with the company in England. Specifications regarding them were drawn up, and mutually agreed upon. The opening article was thus generous in its spirit:
"First, that y^e Gov^r, in y^e name and with y^e consente of y^e company, doth in all love and frendship receive and imbrace them; and is to allote them competente places for habitations within y^e towne. And promiseth to shew them all such other curtesies as shall be reasonable for them to desire, or us to performe."
A letter came with these ships, from the general company in England, subscribed by thirteen names representing those who in that body were friendly toward the Pilgrims and were sending them this accession of people. The missive concluded in this tenor of sympathy and encouragement, which doubtless did the recipients much good:
"Let it not be greeveous unto you y^t you have been instruments to breake y^e ise for others who come after with less difficulty, the honour shall be yours to y^e worlds end....
"We bear you always in our brests, and our harty affection is towards you all, as are y^e harts of hundreds more which never saw your faces, who doubtles pray for your saftie as their owne, as we our selves both doe & ever shall, that y^e same God which hath so marvelously preserved from seas, foes, and famine, will still preserve you from all future dangers, and make you honourable amongst men, and glorious in blise at y^e last day. And so y^e Lord be with you all & send us joyfull news from you, and inable us with one shoulder so to accomplish & perfecte this worke, as much glorie may come to Him y^t confoundeth y^e mighty by the weak, and maketh small thinges great. To whose greatnes, be all glorie for ever & ever."
Edward Winslow was appointed to return with the Anne, for the procuring of needed supplies and especially to report the truth about the Colony, whose enemies had maligned it. This gifted and honorable man rendered a valuable service to Plymouth at that day, and to posterity ever since, by his detailed journal of events to that time, entitled Good Newes from New-England. He and Bradford, unnamed, had previously prepared a Journal of the Plantation through June of the first full year, which was printed in 1622. That and the longer account were embodied in "Purchas his Pilgrims" in 1625.
In the feminine contingent of these latest arrivals, there appeared one who was to share her life for thirty-three years with the Governor of the Old Colony. She was previously well acquainted with him, and born in the same year. Alice Carpenter was the widow of Edward Southworth a descendant of Sir Gilbert Southworth, knight of Lancaster. When a maiden of seventeen, she had cast in her lot with the Puritans and lived a while as an exile in Holland, with her father. She became a woman of devout mind and great force of character.
Alice must often have seen William Bradford in the Separatist community at Leyden. And in her widowhood, two years after the tragic decease of Dorothy May Bradford, she received with favor his suit for marriage, which was happily consummated at Plymouth on August fourteen, Old Style.
She brought over considerable property with her. Dorothy Bradford's son John, a lad under seven then, did not come till a few years later. He himself though married died childless, after threescore years of life; and he was given the position of Deputy to the General Court, before his father passed away. He received a house and land from a paternal will.
Goodwife Southworth's own sons Thomas and Constant Southworth rejoined her within seven years, meeting their half-brothers, the Plymouth family having then been blessed with three little ones, William, Mercy and Joseph. The Bradford household, of parents and children, therefore comprised eight persons, residing in the Governor's assigned homestead at the south-west corner of the square in the intersection of the two main streets.
Mrs. Bradford engaged earnestly and long in labors for the young people at Plymouth.
Though she survived her life-partner by nearly thirteen years, he had the joy of knowing some of the fifteen children of his son and namesake William, the Deputy Governor and Major, and several of his other son Joseph's seven children. His only daughter, Mercy, married and was living in 1650. The grandmother's name was repeated in Alice, daughter of William Junior.
Following a long debility, on April 5, 1670, shortly before the dark days of King Philip's war, the Governor's consort closed, at her home of peace, her course of almost fourscore years; and a relative, Nathaniel Morton, Secretary of Plymouth Colony, writing verses which are copied on the first original leaf of Bradford's History, "Upon the life and death of that godly matron Mistris Alice Bradford," said of her that after the obsequies of her husband,
"E'r since that time in widdowhood shee hath Lived a life in holynes and faith In reading of God's word and contemplation."
IV
THE GOVERNOR: LATER ADMINISTRATION
_In thanking God for the mercies extended to us in the past, we beseech Him that He may not withhold them in the future, and that our hearts may be roused to war steadfastly for good and against all the forces of evil, public and private. We pray for strength and light, so that in the coming days we may with cleanliness, fearlessness and wisdom do our allotted work on the earth._
THEODORE N. ROOSEVELT, _in National Thanksgiving Proclamation_.
_It is much better to keepe a good conscience and have y^e Lord's blessing, whether in life or death._
WILLIAM BRADFORD.