I 1 8 HIS TOR Y OF COHASSE T. 



But the lesson in popular self-government which our 

 pioneer fathers paid for so dearly, came to the advantage 

 of all other towns of the colony ; for all needed to be 

 brought by these painful object lessons into a maturer 

 conception of true democracy. 



That the error and misery of Hingham could be so used 

 in the preparation of our colonies for a permanent Union 

 is no small alleviation of the sad affair. And another 

 permanent gain out of the conflict was the remarkable 

 speech of Winthrop after his vindication. It has become 

 a classic in legal and ethical literature for its concise dis- 

 tinctions between natural and political liberty ; as long as 

 the milestones endure which mark the progress of juris- 

 prudence in this Republic, so long will this lucid and pro- 

 found utterance of Winthrop receive the homage of men 

 and bend their eyes to the pioneers of our own town.* 



*The whole controversy is told with marvelous candor and fairness by Win- 

 throp himself in his Journal. The proceedings of the trial are recorded in the 

 Massachusetts Colony Records (to be found in our Town Hall). 



Solomon Lincoln's History of Hingham quotes fully from Winthrop's Journal; 

 and the later History of Hingham prints bodily what Solomon Lincoln wrote. 

 (Winthrop's History of New England, Vol. n, pp. 221-236.) Anyone who wishes 

 full material for making up his own judgment of the affair may find it in these 

 accessible sources. 



Hon. Thomas Russell, in his Centennial Address at Cohasset, speaks of the 

 turbulent opposition of Peter Hobart, and commends it; but I am wholly unable 

 to praise a principle and a practice which mean disloyalty to State and to nation; 

 for it is a gross exaggeration of both individual and municipal rights. 



