246: My Pen Pal
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This story takes place so long ago here in America that the stuff that we normally think of as long ago is in the far, far distant future. It's 100 years before Thomas Jefferson and George Washington are even born, the year 1635. That year, this guy named Roger Williams, who was his charismatic young preacher, gets banished by the brand new state of Massachusetts because he goes around questioning a lot of things, including the central premise of what the settlers were trying to do. In particular, he was questioning the teachings of a guy named John Winthrop. Winthrop was the elected leader of the colonists, and he was very clear about what they were doing there in the New World. They were creating God's kingdom on earth. It was going to be a religious community. They would obey God's laws. That was the point of it. His young guy, Roger Williams, had the radical idea that maybe there should be a separation of church and state on this new continent. So, the powers that be, including John Winthrop, who at this point was the governor of Massachusetts, got together and agreed that this could not stand. This radical anti-Christian agenda had no place on this new continent, and they voted to expel Roger Williams, send him back to England. In this dark hour, one person steps in, secretly, to help Williams. That person was the governor of Massachusetts. Williams made an adversary. John Winthrop. There are all these fascinating hints that Winthrop really liked Roger Williams. This is Ted Widmer, historian, director of the Kluge Center for Research at the Library of Congress, and by the way, a former speech writer for President Clinton. In fact, at the crucial moment when Roger Williams is about to be arrested and put on a ship and sent back to England, Winthrop sends word privately. They don't quite know how that Williams really ought to go down to Narragansett Bay, and Winthrop helps him to escape, even as he's publicly voting for his banishment. Williams does go to Narragansett Bay, where he found the state of Rhode Island, and then he and the guy whose administration just kicked him out had this kind of amazing correspondence, which lasts for years. The governor, Winthrop, wanted to hear how Williams was surviving, and Williams, all of a sudden, is the leader of his own colony, and among other things, he needs advice. Williams is adjusting from having been this dissenting figure, this person who was very quick to point out what was wrong in the way Massachusetts was governed, to suddenly having to organize a government and get the people even crazier than him to toe the line, and he's complaining to Winthrop about how hard it is to organize a government. So this is a letter from the person who's been banished to the person who more or less banished him, and yet it's very friendly. It says, "Much honored, sir, the frequent experience of your loving ear ready and open toward me emboldened me to request a word of private advice with the soonest convenience it may be by this messenger." It's a little hard to get through the 17th century tone, but there's an enormous affection always underlying what he's saying to him, pouring his heart out to the person who is kind of a surrogate father. Does he ever actually say, "How could you do this to me? You kicked me out?" The tone comes out, but he never says it explicitly.
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