The Story of Liberty By Charles Carleton Coffin
Libraries of Hope
The Story of Liberty
Copyright Š 2020 by Libraries of Hope, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of the publisher. International rights and foreign translations available only through permission of the publisher. The Story of Liberty, by Charles Carleton Coffin, (original copyright 1879). Charles Carleton Coffin: War Correspondent, Traveller, Author, and Statesmen, by William Elliot Griffis, (original copyright 1898). Cover Image: The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth, by Jennie A. Brownscombe (1914). In public domain, source Wikimedia Commons. Libraries of Hope, Inc. Appomattox, Virginia 24522 Website: www.librariesofhope.com Email: librariesofhope@gmail.com Printed in the United States of America
Table of Contents About the Author ................................................. iii Introduction ............................................................ix The Story of Liberty ................................................1
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About the Author From Charles Carleton Coffin by William Elliot Griffis Charles Carleton Coffin had a face that helped one to believe in God. His whole life was an evidence of Christianity. His was a genial, sunny soul that cheered you. He was an originator and an organizer of happiness. He had no ambition to be rich. His investments were in giving others a start and helping them to win success and joy. He was a soldier of the pen and a knight of the truth. He began the good warfare in boyhood. He laid down armor and weapons only on the day that he changed his world. His was a long and beautiful life, worth both the living and the telling. He loved both fact and truth so well that one need write only realities about him. He cared little for flattery, so we shall not flatter him. His own works praise him in the gates. He had blue eyes that often twinkled with fun, for Mr. Coffin loved a joke. He was fond to his last day of wit, and could make quick repartee. None enjoyed American humor more than he. He pitied the person who could not see a joke until it was made into a diagram, with annotations. In spirit, he was a boy even after three score and ten. The young folks “lived in iii
that mild and magnificent eye. Out of it came sympathy, kindness, helpfulness. We have seen those eyes flash with indignation. Scorn of wrong snapped in them. Before hypocrisy or oppression his glances were as mimic lightning. We loved to hear that voice. If one that is low is “an excellent thing in woman,” one that is rich and deep is becoming to a man. Mr. Coffin’s tones were sweet to the ear, persuasive, inspiring. His voice moved men, his acts more. His was a manly form. Broad-footed and fullboned, he stood nearly six feet high. He was alert, dignified, easily accessible, and responsive even to children. With him, acquaintanceship was quickly made, and friendship long preserved. Those who knew Charles Carleton Coffin respected, honored, loved him. His memory, in the perspective of time, is as our remembrance of his native New Hampshire hills, rugged, sublime, tonic in atmosphere, seat of perpetual beauty. So was he, a moral invigorant, the stimulator to noble action, the centre of spiritual charm. Who was he, and what did he do that he sould have his life-story told? First of all, he was the noblest work of God, an honest man. Nothing higher than this. The New Hampshire country boy rose to one of the high places in the fourth estate. He became editor of one of Boston’s leading daily newspapers. On the battle-field he saw the movements of the mightiest armies and navies ever gathered for combat. As a white lily among iv
war correspondents, he was ever trusted. He not only informed, but he kept in cheer all New England during four years of strain. With his pen he made himself a master of English style. He was a poet, a musician, a traveller, a statesman, and, best of all and always, a Christian. He travelled around the globe, and then told the world’s story of liberty and of the war that crushed slavery and state sovereignty and consolidated the Union. With his books he has educated a generation of Amer-ican boys and girls in patriotism. He died without entering into old age, for he was al-ways ready to entertain a new idea.
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'I'HE STORY OF LIB�:RTY
BY
CHARLES CARLETON COFFIN AT:THOR OF "THE BOYS OF 'i6"
lllu.strntci)
lilSG JOHN SIGSING THE MAG"A CUAIITA.
[See page 22.
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Contents Chapter I John Lackland and the Barons ............................................................................... 1 Chapter II The Man Who Preached After He Was Dead ....................................................... 14 Chapter III The Fire That Was Kindled in Bohemia ............................................................... 39 Chapter IV What Laurence Coster and John Guttenburg Did for Liberty................................. 53 Chapter V The Men Who Ask Questions .............................................................................. 64 Chapter VI How a Man Tried to Reach the East by Sailing West ............................................ 81 Chapter VII The New Home of Liberty................................................................................. 107 Chapter VIII The Boy Who Objected to Marrying His Brother’s Widow................................. 124 Chapter IX The Man Who Can Do No Wrong ..................................................................... 141 Chapter X The Boy Who Sung for His Breakfast ................................................................152 Chapter XI What the Boy Who Sung for His Breakfast Saw in Rome ................................... 158 Chapter XII The Boy-Cardinal ............................................................................................. 172 Chapter XIII The Boy-Emperor .............................................................................................185 Chapter XIV The Field of the Cloth of Gold...........................................................................191 Chapter XV The Men Who Obey Orders .............................................................................. 197 Chapter XVI Plans That Did Not Come to Pass ...................................................................... 201
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Chapter XVII The Man Who Split the Church in Twain ........................................................... 214 Chapter XVIII The Queen Who Burned Heretics ...................................................................... 237 Chapter XIX How Liberty Began in France ............................................................................ 256 Chapter XX The Man Who Filled the World with Woe ..........................................................265 Chapter XXI Progress of Liberty in England ...........................................................................270 Chapter XXII How the Pope Put Down the Heretics .................................................................274 Chapter XXIII The Queen of the Scots ......................................................................................282 Chapter XXIV St. Bartholomew................................................................................................287 Chapter XXV How the “Beggars” Fought for Their Rights .......................................................299 Chapter XXVI Why the Queen of Scotland Lost Her Head ........................................................308 Chapter XXVII The Retribution that Followed Crime ................................................................ 314 Chapter XXVIII William Brewster and His Friends...................................................................... 321 Chapter XXIX The Star of Empire ............................................................................................329 Chapter XXX The “Half-Moon” ..............................................................................................347 Chapter XXXI Strangers and Pilgrims .......................................................................................352
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WJSUSOIC. CA.5-TLE, FUOll TUB bll$.\l>OW AT HU!'i.:n:,\rt•:DJ:::.
THE STORY o·F LIBERTY. CIL\PTER I. ,TOIIK L.\CKLAKD AXf, THE IlARO�S.
A
T the time when this story hegins there is \·ery little liberty in the world. It is the 15th of June, a11d the grass is fresh a11d green iu the R111111ymede meadow, where the Army of God has set np its em:amp ment. No other army like it was C\·er seeu. All the great men of Eng land arc i11 its ranks-the barons a11d lords, the owucr;; of castles who ride on noble horses, wear coats of mail, aud are armed with S\\·ords and lance;-. P:wilious and Jents dot the meadow; flags and banile1-s wa\·c in the summer air; Gm�eral Fitz1rnlter is commander. There is 110 l1ostilc army ucar at haud, uor will there be any clashing of arms on this 15th of June, and yet before the sm1 goes down the Army of Go<l will win a great vie1
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