New-York tribune., 1866-12-22
FOREFATHER'S DAY

after their day of small beginnings that Bishop Berke
! lev wrote his often quoted verse, and when "the
| "star of Empire" had fairly struggled through
! the portentous clouds which obscured its
rising We know, indeed, that something of the in
spraton of an achievement which was to affect the
! destinies of the world warmed the hearts and
strengthened the hands of the first yoyagers rom
Leyden; but their idea Of political boundaries must
| have been somewhat insular, and they hrdly con-
| ceved that they were founding Republic ordained
to exceed in limits the possessions OF Imperial Rome
There is something indefinite evep III our own antlel-
pations We know that railways have well nigh aDol-
shed time and space, and that the steam navigation
| of the ocean has made all the emgratiOns OF past
| centuries seem numerically Insignificant; but
as we try to measure the future or our
| country the wing Of imagination grows weary,
| and We are iain to content ourselves with
mathematical approximations and to abandon
the search for precise and complete solutions ol the
problem The Pilgrim Fathers obeyed literally the
| Injunction of the great German poets they knew the
aim and reason of yesterday; they worked well to-day
for worthy things and they calmly trusted the futures
hidden season, and believed with unquesiionng faith
that their children would eat Of the fruit of the tree
which in a sterile soil and under wintry skies they
! planted.
We. too in our own day, have been taught
the worth and virtue Of patient waiting, ana the
value Of honesty and justice in public affairs. Surely
! American history, FROM its dark and perpleXed
beginning down to It's present Frightening pages, is
| far from dishear,euing. Il shows that people
intelligent and honest in their treatment Of causes
need not petuantly worry and fret about effects that
! Justice in the long run Is the best policy, that the
steady everyday bravery which yaunteth not itself
! i, more than match for the headstrong rashness
which presumes that every which is desperately
defended must be a good one. without conscience in
national affairs we now know that there can be no
escape from national destruction, and by conscience
we mean a quick sense OF the right and the mora!
courage which acts upon IL. This was the
"nnatical" element in the Puritan character about
which tie orators and writer's in the interests Of slave
holding have made themselves SO merry, many OF
these sporyc gentlemen being, We are sorry to say,
themselves Of Puritan extraction. II is an unpleasant
fact that even in Massachusetts,, for too many years. II
vas held to be exceedingly disreputabIo to have
a conscience in State matters at all, 1t being
quite forgotten that the Commonwealth owed
| lis existence % an opposite system OF political
ethics Il seemed 10 be thought that the Puritans
| were noble men TO write essays upon TO make fine
speeches about, TO be commemoraed by dinners,
| and orations and monuments to fire the fancy OF
poets and to develop the talents Of rhe,oricans; hut
il did not appear to be understood by the mid con-
servatism of Boston and Cambridge and Andoyer that
conscience was the same thing in 1920 and IN 1885,
and quite as safe guide for the grandchildren as for
! the grandathers.
When this scorn was thus practically cast
upon the tombs Of their ancestors, by progeny
at least incorsidemte the desperate defenders
of Human Slavery caught up eagerly the sophistry
aud the sander which were suggested to them in such
an unexpected quarter; and then began, in Southern
newspapers and magazines, that scnseles and lbelous
TRADE against tho Purtans, their works and their
ways, which had not even the merit Of a distorted
caricature-those sneers at Blue Laws which were
never enacted at customs which never existed, and at
opinions which were never entertained No allow
ance was made for time place, or age or cir
cumstances or the coemporary aud generally re-
ceyed opinions Of mankind. a witch was hung (or
burned) in England long after the last execution Of
the kind in Masachusetts-but what OF that! Quakers
were il-treated in every land to which the spirit con-
Quoted them--but what Of thatl Religious persecu-
ton went on brskly in England under that God-iear'
ng prince Charles II.-but what Of thati 1t wasa
! fine thing for Laud 10 hang Puutan-t was
frghtful thing for the Puritan to hang Quaker, IN
an age when hanging was the ready resource of all
courts. civil and ecclesiastical. II was nothing for
'tho merry monarch" after the declaration OF Breda
liar and swinder as he was to eject from their homes
600 or 3 900 cergymen-it was a crime never to be
forgotten that the tred settersof Massachusetts
! banishcd that excellent but uneasy gentleman, Mr.
Roger Williams Persecution for opinions sake can
never be Justified; but il must be remembered that IN
Massachusetts, and in Plymouth the original coonists
owned every inch Of the land 1t was bought and paid
for at price quite as adequate that which was given
for Pennsylvania by its founder, against whom no.
body must say one word. The little farms, the strug
Cling villages the slowly growing towns, were the
absolute private property Of their occupants; aud in
time of unusual commotion, when their settlements,
for which they bad done and dared so much, might
easily have been converted into a receptacle for all
the spawn Of England, they took upon themselves to
| decide who should be welcomed as follOw'cltlzens,
who should be treated as guests, and who should be
directed depart and never return under the heaviest
| of penalties. If we would understand the dih1cult
situation Of the Puritans in America we must
| make their case our own. Imagine an intruder
forcing his way b. dint of impudence into our
houses and informing us that, by message from
above he was directed to live there at free quarters
for tho rest of his life Imagine naked gentleman
stalking into Trinity Church in the very middle of the
morning service aud commanding DR.. Vinton in the
name of tho Lord, to down from the desk
The softestheartod would turn prosecutors at once,
and the seordaned apostle be consigned to the ten
dor n.rnns of tho nenrest nnlicn station Yet u Is