The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1861-02-05
THE PURIPANS.

In an article (says the Richmond Dspatch) we
averred that the Puritan pretence Tor coming to
this country for freedom to worship tied was an
unmitigated humbug. They enjoyed perfect
freedom of conscience in Holland, to which coun-
try they hadremoved from England, and where they
remained for eleven years. ''They were tolerated,
in Holland, but watched" quantity observes the
philosophic author of European Settlements .
They always have required watching, and never
more than now. They did not leave Holland
however, till they had failed in. saas Efforts TO
undermine It's institutions. even then. till after
repeated missions to England, they had succeeded
in driving favorite bargain with a company OF
merchants, who had more capital and as much
sharpness themselves, and till they obtained
under sign aud seal a charter, which in its mag
nifcent endowments and grants rivalled the pow
ers of Parliament and every court within the
realm.
The company in Eagand with whom the Puri-
tans had leagued themselves, under the shade eff
whose priucely privileges they expected to grow
from mustard seed to "the greatest of trees, y
were incorporated as 1.-The Council established at
Plymouth, in the county of Devon, for the plant
ing, ruling, ordering and governing New England,
III America. "Ihe territory conferred on the
patentees in absolute properly, with unlimited iu-
rsdiction, the sole powers Of legislation, the ap-
pointment of all the officers and all forms of gov
ernment, extended in breadth from the 4Oth to
the 4oth degree of north latitude and in length
from the Atlantic to the Pacifc-that is to say,
nearly all the inhabited British possessions in the
north Of the United States, all New England. New
York, half of New Jersey, very nearly all of Penn
sylvania, and the whole Of the country west of
these States comprising, and at the time believed
to comprise, much more than million Of square
miles, capable OF sustaining far more than two hun
Gred million OF inhabitants, were by single sigma
ture of King James, given away to single cor
poration within the realm composed of but forty
individuals. The grant absolute and exclu
slFe; 1t conceded the lands and islands, the rivers
and hart ors, the mines and the fisheries
The real reason Of the pill lgrimage of the Puri-
tans was their love of gain aud power: In Ameri-
ca, as in England, under Cromwell, they were the
most odlous OF tyraGts and prosecutors. Having
secured their charter, they established spirit
ual despOtlsm IN America, such as was never sur
passed IN the annals of High Commissioners or
Star Chambers. In the volume before us are ex-
amples innumerable Of the manner in, which they
arrested, tried, condemned, fined, mprisoned feC-
tered, branded, lashed, manned, cursed, banished
hung and left naked and unbulied their brethren
in common Christianity. They re-enacted what
Bancroft calls ''tte U0rSt statute IN the ERQlfsh
code, that which did but enforce attendance upon
the parish church" and with military and civil
power dragged men whom they had voted hereto,
to hear these whom they had voted orthodox. They
allowed no one to be judged for life or limb,
name or estate,' unless the jury Was made up of
members of their church. Baptiss, Episco palians,
Quakers, were scourged from the land by their
unsparing prosecutions Hereafter as occasion
permits, we may give some example of the man
ner in which III Sc fine fellows practised freedom
of conscience With gunpowdr and rum they
"extended the kingdom of Christ" among the saw
ages, and "enlarged the domnons of their natural
prince" by squatting the territories of the
Dutch OF New Amsterdam whom, in grateful re-
membrance Of the kindness they had received in
Holland, they cheated out of their fairest posses
sions Whenever any foray Of this kind was med-
tated, the public mind always prepared for it
by sermons from the pulpit, in which the Dutch
were denounced little better than heather,
whom the Lord had delivered over to the hands of
his chosen people.