Samuel Gorton - Beliefs, Demonization and Restitution

Beliefs, Demonization and Restitution

Gorton had left a comfortable life in England to enjoy liberty of conscience in the English colonies of North America. He was a man of intense individualism who, according to Bicknell, recognized three pillars of power: "God, the Supreme One; the King, his vicegerent, and himself, the individual man. Between these he recognized no medium of interposition. The freedom of the individual was only limited by the express will of God or the King." In this context, his actions can be better understood. He was never punished for anything other than his opinions. He never committed any immoral act or crime against another person. He and his followers held that "by union with Christ believers partook of the perfection of God, that Christ is both human and divine, and that Heaven and Hell exist only in the mind."

In his day, Gorton was largely reviled by those who were not his followers, and his insolence towards colonial leaders made him the butt of most early writers on Rhode Island's colonial history. While Gorton was still alive, Nathaniel Morton, for years the keeper of the Plymouth records, published a libellous and scandalous book about him. On 30 June 1669 Gorton wrote a lengthy letter of denial, refuting virtually every point made by Morton. More than a century later, however, Samuel Eddy, the Rhode Island Secretary of State, wrote, "In the case of Gorton, ...no one of the first settlers has received more unmerited reproach, nor any one suffered so much injustice. His opinions on religious subjects were probably somewhat singular, though certainly not more so than in any at this day. But that was his business; his opinions were his own and he had a right to them." Later, Rhode Island historian and Lieutenant Governor Samuel G. Arnold, wrote of Gorton:

He was one of the most remarkable men that ever lived. His career furnishes an apt illustration of the radicalism in action, which may spring from ultra-conservatism in theory. The turbulence of his earlier history was the result of a disregard for existing law, because it was not based upon what he held to be the only legitimate source of power--the assent of the supreme authority in England. He denied the right of a people to self-government, and contended for his views with the vigor of an unrivalled intellect and the strength of an ungoverned passion. But when this point was conceded, by the securing of a Patent, no man was more submissive to delegated law. His astuteness of mind and his Bilbical learning made him a formidable opponent of the Puritan hierarchy, while his ardent love of liberty, when it was once guaranteed, caused him to embrace with fervor the principles that gave origin to Rhode Island.

— Lieutenant Governor Samuel G. Arnold

Gorton was described as being gentle and sympathetic in private intercourse, and generous and sympathetic in nature. He gave to others the same liberty of thought and expression that he claimed for himself. His biographer wrote that after Roger Williams, no man was more instrumental in establighing the foundation of equal civil rights and liberty in Rhode Island.