Kanawha Valley star. [volume] (Charleston, Va. [W. Va.]) 1856-1861, 1857-01-20
.rh, pilgrim Fathers

sff2s 20 .---l.
We trust we have sufficient respect
forsthe memory Of good and wise ner
in all ages of the world-tlIose WHO
have aivancel civil and religions
freedom and ma lie the world better
by.liyving init. Anil We do know
THAT we slionl festeeml onrself any bet
ter or any worse conld We trace our
lineage 10 what might be- considered
a good or bal stock ; bnt we altlst
say five feel proa1 of any thing over
which We halno control, it is that
there is nota drop Of Puritan blood
n our veins. lis too hun'lred and
thirty six years TO day since the ssiil;
grim Fathers" as they are called,
landed on Plylnouth ROCK, "the BLAIR
ney stone Of New England" Since
that day their dcccnlents have been
distinguished, first, for religious OPP
preston in their own State, and Sc
eondIy, for endeavors to impose their
opinions upon others by the direct in
reference Of law. The TINS, with
its British affnities, says:
/ II i. ssThe Pilgrim spirit has beenthe
salt which: has sayored the morals OF
the nation, and whatever We have to
boast of that makes us respected as a
people, and a great power OF the
earth. may be traced to its source in
that band Of heroes who landed in
Massachusetts Bay, in Il the bleak.
month Of December two hundred and
thirty six years ago.
There could not bea greater perver-
sion Of the truth ofrhistory crowded
into smaller compass. SO far from
our tracing anything of which We may
boast to New England. it is the only
place to which we can trace anything
of importance (which we are aslEim:
ed. In the Revolution its citizens
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES ftomthe moth.
4er country. not Tor Republican princiss
pies, and had it not been for tJeffer-
son, Madison, &C.. We should have
had government exactly like. that
Of England, excepting the name. -
Two hundred years ago or thirty,six
years after landing at plymouth. they
hanged Quakers ! a hundred years Ia
Ten they banished Anne Hutchinson
and Roger Williams, and whipped
Baptists at posts in the city Of Bos-
toni In fact, Massachusetts was al
ways the most anti-republican State
in our Union, for it is scarcely fifty
years since the last vestige Of her es-
tablished church was destroyed. For
years after our civil independence,
she compelled dissenters to pay for
the support Of a church they despised
and 70 uphold q religion they con.
demned. XXI
We grant Massachusetts all the
credit due lleriin the war of Indepen-
dence, but she was more directly in-
terested in the result than most Of the
other States. Her course I'm the con-
tcderacy has been ever markea by her /,
adherence 10 federal, tory ideas. II
Only twice since the organization off
our government, has she cast her vote
fora Democratic President. No one
can doubt that THIS prevalence Of fed L
eralismin Massachusetts, flows DIRECT |
" from the old Puritan clement
Indeed, wherever this blood flows +,
will be found tile same disposition to
regulate other peoples affairs, and
make them square to their notions of
AMI propriety. The blind-I
est can see this spirit in the Kansas
difficulties. and in the result of: 'thcf,
recent election. In another column
will. be found two extracts, one from
the Philadelphia Leslyer. and the 9th
erfrom the Ereemaa's Jonfaal which.
forcibly settforth This truth. We dol
not desire to detract a 7single grain
from all the honorsthat justly. belongs
TO Massachusetts, but we do say She
has made preposterous claims to dis
tinction, and it is time that ficts had |
some sway instead of. the annual
s..blarney't erationsthat are male over
.sPlvm6uth Rock and our noble Pu-
r.tan Fathers. r.: r. Day Book.
II