The idea that every grown-up
person should have a share in the government never entered their
heads. Their Governor, Winthrop, was an aristocrat to the backbone.
He believed heartily in the government of the many by the few, and
made it as difficult as possible for citizens to obtain the right
of voting.
But there were many people who were discontented with this
aristocratic rule. Among them was a minister named Thomas Hooker,
like John Harvard a graduate of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.
So, being dissatisfied, he and his congregation decided to move
away and found a new colony. They were the more ready to do this,
as the land round Boston was not fertile, and so many new settlers
had come, and their cattle and flocks had increased so rapidly,
that it was already difficult to find food and fodder for man and
beast. Adventurers who had traveled far afield had brought back
glowing reports of the beauty and fertility of the Connecticut
Valley, and there Hooker decided to settle.
But for several reasons many of the people of Massachusetts objected
to his going. He and his people, they said, would be in danger from
the Dutch, who already had a settlement there, and who claimed the
whole valley. They would also be in danger from the Indians, who
were known to be hostile, and lastly, they would be in danger from
the British Government because they had no charter permitting them
to settle in this land.
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