Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1863-04-10
$l,5O A YEAR IN ADVANCE
Address of Rev. Henry Ward
Beecher,


What Shall be Done with New England
The Academy Of Music in Brookly
was filed at an early hour last evening
crowds of ladies and gentlemen anxior
to know what was to become of Ne
England after it should be "left out
the cold.' At the appointed hour th
lecturer. the Rev. Henry Ward Beeche
entered the hall, acc ,mpanied by Ger
John G. Fremont, who was at once recoe
nized with cheering. redoubled when MI
II. b. Duryea, the Chairman of tn
Committee, introduced Gen. Fremont t
the audience. He rose and bowed si
lently and the Chairman then introdue
ed the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, VIII
said There lies cooped up between tn
River St. Lawrence and the Atlanti
Ocean small gore of land, a few hun
dred miles broad and long, which appear
to have been made up from what wa
left after the rest of the continent wa
made. Its ribs stand out past all cover
ing 1t has sand enough to scour al
creation. There are not within its terri
tory many large and navigable rivers
but there are many small streams mos
nimble, that have kept themselves in good
heart apparently by leaping over ledges
and rocks since the food. The indigen.
Gus productions of this country were
principally Indians, ice, and trees. Its
wild fruits were mostly chestnuts and
whortle5erries. About the time Of its
discovery plague had swept from it the
Indian inhabitants. An atrempt was
made to populate it by commercial COM
panics from the East, but the climate and
the soil proved too tough for Indians or
for traders. But this tongue of land
seemed made on purpose to be wilder
ness. 1t had peculiar attributes for
keeping people away from it. Its Sum-
mer was short its Winter long its soil
meager, its rocks innumerablc. 1t was
bounded north by perpetual cold, east by
perpetual fog, south by perpetual water,
and only upon the west was there land
opening through which its people could
run away, if there should be a people
there. 1t was apparently on purpose to
settle such a country that a race was
raised up. Naturalsts tell us that every
species of plant has its own insect, and
every animal its own parasite. There
seems to have been something created to
live on the shore of New England and
that animal was called a Puritan
Laughter and applause. Puritans are
not described in books Of natural history,
50 far as have consulted them but
they have been largely described in po-
ltcal speeches and political newspapers j;
and if we believe them-and if we may
not believe political speeches and news
papers, what shall We believe ?-the Pu-
ritan is tough, gaunt, wiry creature,
devoid of taste and of all the finer af-
fections, and excessively endowed with a
holy combativeness. He is always to be
seen. they tell US, when at leisure, with
his eyes rolled up, and sanctimcnious
face; and whenever his eyes are turned
down, it is to find fault or money, as the
case may be. He regards all men wrong
but himself, and his business is to make
right. Therefore, he is regarded as the
moral tinker of the universe, and is for
ever mending rips in conduct or putting
patches upoa morals. Like sca-bird,
always upon the wing, he is restless and
going so happy as in storm. This
creature iutests the whole western hemis-
phere, and is regarded as the author Of
h
ments and agitations, than all the rest of
the population put together. No other
creature could live in New England for
he is tougher than the stones, dryer than
the sand more obstinate than the season.
Indeed, we are told by naturalists, that
within the last $50 years the Winters
there have grown sensibly milder. Even
the Winter could not stand the continual
bullying of the Puritan. Laughter and
applause So long as the contest was
between h m and nature. men were con-
tent. Within one hundred years there
have been great many nuisances intro
duced upon this continent; the Hessian
fly, weevils curculios, weeds, and among
them the Canada thistle, the very Yam
kee of botany, vigorous thriving, with a
million seeds, and every seed sure, and
growing ten times faster when you cut it
up by the roots than when you let il
alone But among all these annoyances,
none has been so much deplored as the
Yankee Puritan. lie is the plague OF
the continent He goes everywhere, en-
cages in everything, and is always and
everywhere the same prying, teasing im'
pertinent, meddling, irritating creature
that he was in England and seems likely
to be everywhere to the end of the world
10 creature ever lived with such rare
qualities for making people angry with
him. Dlsputations in theology, an aglta.
tor in politics, fault-fnding in moral and
social reforms, he is forever prying up
mems houses to see if they do not need
new foundations. He is the inventor OF
all the gimcracks and modern inconven-
lenses, and new ways to grind, screw, sew
twist, turn, knit, dig and to plow tor cv'
cry month in the year; and has made
enough new machines in the last fifty
years te reach round the world. He has
made so many inventions, that he has ex'
hausted the patience Of the South. and il
has been determined to "hunt him back
to his den," as Mr.. Cox Of Ohio elegant
ly expressed it, and to shut him up there
by himself would suggest that all the
Yankee inventions scattered over the
land be collected together, and made into
a wall along by the Hudson River, and
L. ~ ,IIauod 20 ka outcitf