William Coddington, who had been a mer chant in Boston, was elected as magistrate with the title of judge, and three elders were elected to assist him. This form of government continued until 1640. Meanwhile the antag onism of the Boston Colony to Williams con tinued, and a law was passed which practically excluded the inhabitants of Providence from entering Massachusetts. In March 1641 the government of Rhode Island was regularly or ganized.
The formation of the New England Confed eracy, in 1643, which included the four colonies, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Plymouth and New Haven, was a matter of anxious concern to the Rhode Island and Providence settlements. The open hostility of the Confederacy, together with the claim made by Massachusetts that the Rhode Island and Providence colonies had no authority to set up civil government, induced these latter colonies to seek a charter from Eng land. At an assembly held in Newport 19 Sept. 1642, a committee was appointed to procure a charter and in July 1643 Williams set sail from New York for England. Here on 17 March 1644 he obtained a charter which gave to the towns of Providence, Portsmouth and New port full power to rule themselves under the name •The Providence Plantations of Narra gansett Bay.' This charter granted in the most friendly spirit everything that Williams prayed for.
Williams returned to America in 1644, land ing in Boston 17 September. He sentured to tread on this forbidden ground by exhibiting a letter from 12 leading members of the Parlia mentary party in England, addressed to the gov ernment of Massachusetts. lie, therefore, pro ceeded without hindrance to Providence. In May 1647 a form of government was agreed upon after many delays; the office of president of the colony, which so naturally belonged to Vs illiams, was bestowed upon John Coggeshall of Newport Dissensions arose within and without the new colons ; William. was called upon to pai fy the to settle numerous eccle•Listical and civil In October 1652 Williams was again in England making efforts to secure a renewal of the colony s charter; this he secured and returned to America, landing in Boston in 1654. In this same year the reorganization of the Rhode Is land government took place, and on 12 her Williams was elected president colony. He was again elected 20 May 1656. In this year the persecution of in Bos ton soon made Rhode Island a r refuge. and they were made welcome largely through the influence of Roger ‘Villiams. For many
years, until 1677, Williams continued to hold various offices and to guide the affairs of the colony. In the Indian wars of 1675-76, when Providence was attacked, Williams was cap tain of militia and drilled companies in Provi dence. See RHODE ISLAND. • The life of Roger Williams was now rapidly nearing its end. His Providence friends did not fully appreciate the life-work of this sturdy champion of soul liberty, which was destined to bring happiness to a continent. At his death the brief record was conveyed to the outer world in a letter dated 10 May 1684, stating •The Lord hath arrested by death our ancient and approved friend, Mr. Roger Williams, with divers others here.* He was buried in a spot which he himself had selected on his own land, near where, 47 years before, he had first landed within the colony he founded.
The principles of religious liberty had been proclaimed in all ages and under many dimes. with more or less plenitude, but Roger Wil liams was the first to organize and build up a political community with absolute religious lib erty as its chief cornerstone. To him the suc cessful pioneer of these principles is due to a larger extent than to any man, the American system of a •free church in a free State.' No portrait of him in bronze or in marble. or of any kind, has come down to us, and when in 1872 the State of Rhode Island presented a statue of her founder to the nation, which now stands in the rotunda of the Capitol at Wash ington, the artist had to make the memorial from an ideal conception.
Among the great men of his times with whom Williams stood in close personal rela tions, besides his earl patron, Sir Edward Coke, were Cromwell. ohn Milton, Sir Henry Vane, the younger, Major-General Harrison of the Parliamentary army, Lawrence Lord, presi dent of the Council of State, and others of dis tinction in England and America. (See therm STATES — CIVIL AND RJELIGIOUS LIIMEETT), COD SOH by James D. Knowles (Boston 1833); Gammell (Boston 1846); Elton (Lae don 1842); Guild, R. A., 'Biographical Intro duction, etc.' (Providence 186636) 'Works of Roger Williams,' published by the Nar ragansett Club of Providence (6 vols., Provi dence 1866-74) • biographies by Oscar Straus (New York 1894) and Carpenter, E. .). (ib, 1910); Tyler, N. C, 'History of American .5 Literature, 1607-176' (New York 1878); Dexter, Henry M., 'As to Roger Williams and his •Banishment* from the Massachusetts Plantation' (Boston 1876).