Mark Abramov
Dr. David Houpt
History 103
September 9th, 2015
John Winthrop’s Speech to the Massachusetts General Court In 1629, the Massachusetts Bay Colony was chartered by London merchants who, similar to the Virginia Company’s founders, yearned to turn a profit. But unlike Virginia, social unity was significantly more essential in Massachusetts. The Puritan settlers’ religious mission necessitated that the common good was put above the individual’s rights or needs, at least during the colony’s beginnings. Massachusetts’s governing body in 1645 was composed of men chosen by the eight shareholders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in addition to a group of deputies elected by freemen (landowning church members). This single ruling body was called the General Court and on July 3rd, 1645, John Winthrop, first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, gave a speech to this Massachusetts legislature. He gave instructions to the General Court on how they should choose magistrates, as well as expounded on the subject of the liberty of the people. …show more content…
He was not talking to the common people, but to those who would be ruling over them, and he needed to inculcate in them the way that the social order and common good could perpetuate itself. “Liberty is the proper end and object of authority, and cannot subsist without it; and it is a liberty to that only which is good, just, and honest,” he spoke. Authority seemed to be the byword of liberty. Without subjection to authority, Winthrop believed, man would be like a wild animal – enjoying the “freedom” to do both good and evil. “The exercise and maintaining of this liberty makes men grow more evil, and in time to be worse than brute beasts.” Indoctrinating the ruling body of the colony on this belief would be essential to maintaining subjugation to the common authority of the church and the
Dr. David Houpt
History 103
September 9th, 2015
John Winthrop’s Speech to the Massachusetts General Court In 1629, the Massachusetts Bay Colony was chartered by London merchants who, similar to the Virginia Company’s founders, yearned to turn a profit. But unlike Virginia, social unity was significantly more essential in Massachusetts. The Puritan settlers’ religious mission necessitated that the common good was put above the individual’s rights or needs, at least during the colony’s beginnings. Massachusetts’s governing body in 1645 was composed of men chosen by the eight shareholders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in addition to a group of deputies elected by freemen (landowning church members). This single ruling body was called the General Court and on July 3rd, 1645, John Winthrop, first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, gave a speech to this Massachusetts legislature. He gave instructions to the General Court on how they should choose magistrates, as well as expounded on the subject of the liberty of the people. …show more content…
He was not talking to the common people, but to those who would be ruling over them, and he needed to inculcate in them the way that the social order and common good could perpetuate itself. “Liberty is the proper end and object of authority, and cannot subsist without it; and it is a liberty to that only which is good, just, and honest,” he spoke. Authority seemed to be the byword of liberty. Without subjection to authority, Winthrop believed, man would be like a wild animal – enjoying the “freedom” to do both good and evil. “The exercise and maintaining of this liberty makes men grow more evil, and in time to be worse than brute beasts.” Indoctrinating the ruling body of the colony on this belief would be essential to maintaining subjugation to the common authority of the church and the