Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1867-01-18
THE q

The Landing of the Pilgrim Father.
on Plymouth Rock-which is popularity
designated Forefathers' Day among the
people Of New England-was s~plendidly
celebrated in Irving Hall, New York
city, on the evening of the 22d of De,
cember. A grand banquet was given,
in which some of the most distinguished
men of the nation participated. The
following beautiful speech was made by
George W. Curtis, in response to the
toast, "The Day we celebrate" We
find the report of the proceedings in the
New York Tribune, of December Gath:
Why do we celebrate this day? AS
New Englanders by birth we naturally
cherish this anniversary; but its true
glory is not sectional but universal. The
little Maytiower tossing doubtfully on
the wintry sea 246 years ago was the
seed vessel of a harvest that now waves
over the world, dropping its golden
grains into every civilization. Zap
plause.l Plymouth Rock is the corner
stone Of American and fall modern civ
ilization, because the history which be-
gins there shows that the wisest nation
al polity is rooted in morality; and as
the fercest ocean storm would dash in
vain against the little rock on the New
England coast, or against the polty
upon the eternal rock Of justice,
the very gates Of rebellious hell shall
not prevail. [Applause.1 / know that
there are still those, descendants, sup
pose, of the goddess roysterers Of Merry
Mount, who insist that Puritan means
all that is sour, malignant, conceited
and meddlesome. They do firmly be-
that he-who protests so savagely
the Pope-is only a grim Pope,
in q peaked hat instead Of q triple-crown,
who hates grace and taste and beauty,
and prefers the psalmody of his own
to the breathing of the angelic
choir; or they leave details and concen-
their wrath in one word, exploding
it at the Puritans, as fanatics" They
certainly were fanatics, or we should
not be here. GApplause.1 Ibe gay
youth who tripped off to dance at Merry
would hardly have waltzed the
New World into the form we see. The
work of the world is done by just this
or fanatical spirit. For fanati-
cism is simply unwavering devotion to
a purpose. Applause In itself it
has no more moral or immoral charae-
ter. That depends upon the intention.
is like FIRE, which you may
set to q tenement house and burn all its
or to u steam ~fire-engine, to
the flames and save all the
alive. It was the fanaticism OF
that discovered America, as
il was the fanaticism Of Luther which
purified Christianity. So, two years
ago, you might have seen a terrible IA
aatic riding at MONDAY up the valley
Of the Shenandoah, far outstripping his
and straining forward, his
whole soul intent upon n purpose
from his eyes, he will moi see,
,or hear, nor believe that it is his army
,e meets ~retreating. He reaches the
ront-he leaps to the ground. The
officer whispers to him,
'Oh, sir, we are beatenl" "Beaten?
You are beaten. This army is not beat
n" And, springing into the saddle,
his arch-fanatic, Phil. Sheridan (long
ontinued a~pplause seizes that army
s Jupiter seizes a thunderboldt, hurls
t at the enemy, and sends him whirling
p the valley. (Applause.]
So through the black smoke riffs OF
be fight in Mobile Bay, our history will
ee forever one figure dashed into the
and directing the storm Of war
the sturdy fanatic Farragut. Loud
.pplause.1 But peace hath her fanati-
ism. I see near you, sir, a very Yankee
4 the Yankees, who, undaunted by de-
eat, undismayed by delay, derided as
visionary and foolish, yet persisted in
lot failing, and at last tied Europe and
America together by a thread like a
lin of seaweed, which the widest
,cean fury cannot snap. If we get mes
from London in 20 minutes, it is
III due to that restless and resistless
Cyrus w. Field. [Great ap-
Therefore, to call the Puritans
anatics, is simply to call them unswerv-
ngly devoted to an idea; and If any man
to think of them as most charac-
eristically represented by Cotton Ma
her preaching interminable sermons,
IT burning poor old women as witches,
prefer to represent them by Roger
Williams preaching and practicing re-
liberty, from which all other
reedom springs. And he did this, not
because he was a worse Puritan than
Mather, but o better. For Puri-
was but logical Professionalism,
md the most perfect protest against
ever made down to his time, was
hat of Roger Williams. His fellow
'%uritans Of Massachusetts, Bay pushed
i'm into Rhode Island. But when the
old tree Of colonial Puritanism
hook off Roger Williams, it lost its
oundest and sweetest fruit. Zap
So if a man chooses to see
he spirit and results of the Puritan
rinciple in the cropping of Quakers and
be hanging of Mary Dyer, and the blue
which forbid a man to kiss his wife
n Sunday, a law against which every
son of the Puritans lives in
hronic rebellion. Laughter. Yet
refer to see its spirit in the energy
which tames o continent, cheers it with
hurches and schools, sets the spindles
cumming and the shuttles flying, which
lives into the earth and into the sea,
uns over the prairies, and talks by
lightning from the Atlantic to the Pa
,ifc, until the whole land, where men
re intelligent, industrious, and free,
seems singing and smiling at its daily
work. [Applsuse.1 l know, sir, that
you will remind me that this is rather
90 large q cargo to have been brought
,ver in the Mayfower, while our honor
ID guests, whose misfortune, not whose
iault, it is that they were born else
will think it only another ebul-
-ition Of intolersble Puritan conceit.
But let those laugh that will. The his
fact remains that while various
parts Of the country were settled under
impulses, u political and So
;ial story has been that Of but TWO ten
the Puritan and the Cavalier.
II has been a continental contest be-
tween the steady God-fearing Puritan
and those seeding roysterers at
A. No,. ";thauk ppkipduaaa /