Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1866-03-08
}, THURSDAY MORNING, MARCH 8, 1866

tes q,toties," till the be-cowskinned blaca-
moor should travel. The exception made
in favor of the subjects of the Emperor of
Morocco oddly illustrates the old saying
that there "is nothing like leather" The
Bostonese had much traffic in those days
with the Moors. Though they loved not
the abstract negro, still when he came
bringing bags OF silver and gold. they saw
Othello's visage in his purse! They could
be to him as liberal as the Roman Emperor
was in similar conjunction. He had raised
a tax from very unsavOry source of in
ternal revenuc, and when his fastidious son
objected to the proceeding, caught up a
coin from his Golfers, and sagely smiling at
1t, observed, "My son, the money don't
smell badly"
The truth about the Puritans and their
| pOsterity is, that the people who call them
selves New Englanders to-day are the liv-
ing proof not of the success, but of the fail
ure of the celebrated planting on Plymouth
Rock. There is no more sense in the polit-
ical genealogy which runs from Charles
| Sumner back to John Winthrop, or in the
theological genealogy which brings Henry
| Ward Beecher up out of the loins OF Nor
ton of Boston, and Philips of Essex, than
there is in that celebrated genealogical de-
| ductiOn of picked cucumbers from King
| surdity in history than the perpetual re-
currence of the New England writers and
speakers, who have manufactured so much
| public opinion for so many years in Amer
lea, to the pilgrims of 1920 as the founders
of American liberty, morals and prosperi-
| ty. The matter has been SO buttered over
! with blarney and rigmarole that If man
simply looks into the realities of that
memorable exodus and honestly tells what
he sees, he is sure to be aSsailed. Rash
man he is lampoOning the fathers of our
race or, as the 0rientals would put it,
dancing jackass dance on the graves OF
our ancestors!
One might laugh at this, just as he does
at the vanity of the Chinese, who really
think their Emperor descended from the
sun or the moon. or of the Biscayans, who
are sure that Adam spoke the most elegant
Basque, were it not for the evil effects it
has wrought in the past and still daily
works upon our morals, our manners, and
our politics.
i do not propose to weary you tonight
with historical sketch of the rise and pro-
gress of the American race, as We may now
fairly enough begin to call it. But while |
maintain that the people who really revile
the Puritans of 1920 are they who protest
that those iron-clad adventures meant to
breed generation of transcendentalists
free-lOvers, abolitiOnists, ratiOnalistS and
socialists, | maintain also that the New
England element has not only not been the
! grand determining element in our national
story, but that almost all our troubles aud
difficulties have arisen out of it. Cheers.
Your New England takers and orators
are forever claiming that whatever is best
| in America is OF New England origin.
desire to record my faith on the contrary,
that whatever is best in New England is of
| American origin. | mean, that is, to assert
! that New England owes on the whole even
more to her sister colonies who had become
| her sister States than they owe to her.
| Anti-slavery, now her special boast, she
steals from the Quaker, aud religious liber-
| ty from the Catholic and Baptist, all OF
which sects were prosecuted by her. do
not now estimate as a part Of our debt to
| her the moral discipline we owe to her veX-
atiOus and repellant qualities. In the mid
die ages pious persons used to put peas into
their shoes when they went on a pilgrim
age. They hoped thereby to insure their
safe arrival in Heaven through the mOrtif-
cation of their SOles. NeW England has been
the pea in The national Shoei LSughter.l- i
This am willing to admit, but no more.
AS matter of Revolutionary history, we
| all know that the New England colonies
would never have ventured upon the as
sertion of their rights against parliamentary
usurpation had they not been held up to the
world by the Inagnanimous and highsouled
people of their sister colonies. Is it not of
| record that, when the Massachusetts, "great
and general court" met at Salem in June,
| IVA, and the delegates were elected who
were to meet the committee of the other
colonies and lay the foundation with them
of American independence and nationality,
Sam. Adams, the "noblest Yankee of them
ALL" was absolutely compelled to lock the
door, put the key in his pocket, and para
| lyze the doorkeeper, as the only way OF pre-
venting 'skedaddle" of his irresOlute and
timid fellow members? To this course he
was urged by Warren, who wrote to him aU
this time, "the party who are for paying for
the tea, and by that making way for every
| compliance, are too formidable" Warren
agreed with him in thinking that New
| England neither could nor would do any
thing serious if lett to herself. Indeed.
| when his own people sought for fit praises
| to bestow upon this brave, firm spirited old
original Democrat, Sam. Adams, they were
| forced to describe him, not as Puritan, not
as a model Pilgrim, but as zone of Plu-
tarch's men,"
Referring to facts of history to sustain
| this view, Mr.. Cox went further back to the
coming of the Maytlower, to show that the
great Puritans, Cromwell, Pym, Hampden,
and Eliot were left alone to fight the great
battle against prelacy and kingcraft. Lu-
ther did not run away from Worms, nor 90
to Holland, or to wilderness. True hero
ism stands up to its work. But waving
the question, "Why did not the Puritans
stay in England and fight it out ?" we ought
to remember that it was by no choice of
theirs that they came into bowling will
derness at all. On the contrary, when they
made up their minds to quit insisting on
their rights at home, they went into Hol-
land, which was at that time Just the rich
est, cheCriest, and most agreeable country
in the north of Europe. 1t was a much
pleasanter residence in every way than En-
gland itself, which at that time was as far
in the rear of Holland in the matters of
comfort and civilization as Iowa or Kansas
to-day is in the rear of Paris or London.
remember to have heard of the wise vir-
gin of New Bedford, who, having not only
the spirit of the Lord, but some sixty thou
sand dollars year of income, felt herself
moved to become missionary. After much
deliberation and prayerful communion with
the elders of her church, she decided to
obey the Divine motion; declared herself a
missionary; bought agreatnumber of tracts,
and elected to undertake the cure of souls
in the heathen city ot-Parisl This was
pretty much the sort of missionary duty to
which the founders of New England de-
voted themselves when they abandoned
their British island, their rude residences,
and their cantankerous Politics, to go and
fill themselves with peace and fatness