The mountain Democrat., 1863-05-30
[From the NnwAukee Weekly Newsl
American Ideas, and Whore they
Came r0ms

lot solutions 10 many questions IHat were
once supposed settled. A great many
hoary old shams that have imposed on
them are getting pitched into the gutter
A great many things they had supposed
true are turning out false. The thing
must go on. design doing my small
share then to help.
The Americans have a certain distinct
type of national character. We have
certainly clearly defined national ideas.
Where Do Te hBs Tnem Last Decem-
Der, on Forefather's day." thousand
voices answered, 1--WE got them all
from Plymouth Rock. They all came
over in the Mayflower. A noble band of
pilgrims fleeing from persecution in
wicked old Europe came over to the des-
ert new world, and established here free
dom to worship God, free schools, free
presses, universal suffrage, and every no.
BILE thing there is in America"
That was the answer at all the "pil-
grim dinners" in December. 1t is also
the answer in half our school readers,
and so-called school histories. The inno-
cent children of all Americans are taught
that they, poor little things, are descend
ed from four forefathersH of the May
flower; that all the people of this broad
continent came from the loins Of the Rev.
Mr.. Robinson and his congregation; that
the gentlemen in steeple-crowned hats,
in short, made America.
Let US look at it In the first place
then, the Puritan emigration was but a
drop in the bucket. 1t formed scarcely
the hundredth part Of the original emf
grafton. 1t was not the first emigration
either. Flourishing colonies were plant
ed years before in various parts of the
country. There were English in Vir-
ginia; Sweedes and Firms coming into
New Jersey Dutch into New York !;
French Huguenots into Carolina. As
near as | can make out, the proportion Of
people now in the United States Of En-
glish descent is about six millions; OF
these about two millions are of Puritan
descent.
Now, what did the Puritans come to
America for2 Mrs. IIemans says to es-
tablish Freedom to worship God"
Mr.. Beecher, ct id omne genus, says to
establish this and escape persecution.
What does history say? They came
simply 70 better their condition. They
emigrated from precisely the motive that
caused emigration then, and causes it
now, and ever will cause 1.-THE prospect
of larger material benefits. They emf
grated from Holland, not from England.
They certainly were not prosecuted in
Holland. deny that they were perse-
cuted in England. AT all events, they
were not troubled on account of their
religion in Holland. Europe did not
drive them out. They were doing well
among the Dutch. But mark the Puri-
tans! at grieved their hearts that the
Dutch would not reform their church ac-
cording to the pure work Of God" They
left Holland because they could not com
pei the Dutch to turn Puritans. That is
their own work. Well, in 1920, being
then in Leyden, and being satisfied they
could not turn Dutchmcn into Puritans,
they concluded to leave, and asked james
I. for a grant Of fand, James, an Episco
pal king. gave them grant, the cXcu-
sive right to the soil, to the fisheries, and
to the trade. That certainly is not per-
Secution,
They came for the land, the fisheries,
and the trade, and We find as specimen
of Puritan gratitude, that the first row
they got into was a fight with their old
hosts, the Dutch, because they trcspassed
upon these same fisheries.
Now what did they bring, and what
did they leave? Separation Of Church
and State? Edward Everett, a very fine
talker, says yes. Judge Story, man of
more brains and less fine writing, says
1.-The fundamental error of our anccs-
tors, an error which began with their set
tlement of this colony, (Mass.) was doc
trno which has been happily exploded, |
mean the necessity Of union of Church
and State. To this they clung as to their
ark of safety" In fact tithes were abol-
iShed finally in Massachusetts, in 1854.
federation is an American idea. Did
they leave US that? Did they bring that
Freedom to wo ship God ?" In 1859
they cut off the ears of three Quakers.
1869 they hung dozen or so and would
not allow their friends to bury them.
1860 they suspended" few more, a
poor old woman who had to be carried to
the galows, among the rest. Even in
1899 they drummed" Mr.. Finlay, a
distinguished Presbyterian divine, out of
the colony. They hanged Roman Catho-
lies. They cut the tongues out of the
Quakers. They whipped Presbytcrians.
They fined man for using the Episcopal
prayer book. All this is matter of his
tory.
But the reply is, "This was the fruit
of the times" OF course then the argu-
ment is given up. They were really no
better than the wicked, these pious Pu-
ritans. But it was not the fault of the
times. They were behind the times,
They prosecuted after all the world had
ceased to persecute. They were hanging
and Sitting tongues for fifty years against
the worlds remonstronces. The last
death for religion in Old England took
place in 1912, before the landing on Ply
mouth Rock. In 1860, ,forty-eight years
after, the Puritans were hanging Quakcrs
in New England. Before they left Eu-
rope death for religion had ceased. Eu-
rope had given up fire and faggot, and
these delightful Puritans came hither,
and revived and stuck to the cast-otf bar
barities of the Old World. In 1920, in
Massachusetts,, they enacted law of
death against a Roman Catholic. In
1774 they sent formal protest against the
"Quebec act" by which the British Par
lament tolerated that religion in Canada.
In England if a man absented himself
from public worship he. was fined one
shilling, in Massachusetts, he was fined
five, and in Plymouth, where the Crock
is, he was fined ten. For non conformity
to established Congregationalism the fine
was forty shillings month, and if the
men were "incorrigible" the law said