Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1868-11-25
THE OLD HISTORIC STRUGGLE.

Sedgwick was but one of the soldiers of
the Union in the fierce strugg lie with which
the land still rocks and th3 air thrills.
That struggle is as old as history. 1t is
fought by the tongue and pen as earnestly
as with the sword and shell. 1t is the
contest for the largest individual freedom.
Now it is nation fighting for independ-
ence; now man asserting moral and in
tellectual liberty; now it is Leonidas and
Persians linked in the death-struggle at
Thermopl8; then it is Gallileo wrestling
with the Inquisition. There u pom the
continent of Europe it is Philip the Sec
ond and the Netherla .ds; here in Eng-
land it is the King and Parliament yes.
terday it was the colonies against the
mother country to-day it is the Union
against the Confederacy; three hundred
years ago it was Gerard shooting the
Prince of Orange; three years ago it was
Wilkes Booth shooting Abraham Lincoln.
But everywhere and always, in whatever
crude and inprfect form, it is movement
of the same confict-it is the stru u5gle
between those who declare that some men
have no rights, and those who hold the
truth to be selfevident that all men are
created equal In Europe, three centuries
ago, the cause of the people took form as
the Protestant Reform, and transferred to
the battlefield was the thirty years war.
In Eng gland-drawn to finer point in the
sermons of steam preachers, in the debates
in Parliament. But at length it was
preached and debated no longer. AT
Edgehill, John Pym's speeches had be-
come Charles falsewhood's swords. The
struggle was fierce and long, and, when
the smoke of battle rolled away, Puritan
ism remained bivoucaked upon the field.
But its complete victory was reserved for
another country and another continent
The old Puritanism was doubtless gloomy
and severe-the tree that bore the rosy
and delicate fruit of American liberty was
knotted aud gnarled. But while the
Cavalier, the Tory and the aristocrat, here
as everywhere, have always aerided Puri
tanism, remember that the greatest of al
England's poets was Puritan. The Pu.
ritan policy abroad swept the Mediterra
mean of pirates and protected the Pro est
ants of France and Savoy. The Puritan
policy at home defended civil and religious
liberty against despotism, nitred as {
bishop and crowned as king. Across
the sea it planted the rocks of New Eng
land with the seed of popular liberty and
equal rights. The harvest is as vigorous
as the soil, for Freedom is rude plan
and loves the cooler lalitudei In tht
auspicious air of new continent the Puri
tan spirit became modified, moulded, EN-
larped. Out of strength come fourth
sweetness. Government by church mem
bers become government by people. Johr
Pym became James Otis. The larger ant
generous Pritanism of America inspired
the Revolution. They were Puritan gum
whose echo is endless upon Bunker Hill
It was the Puritan spirit that spoke ID th'
Declaration of Independence. 1t was th'
Puritan will that shook the gIitterine
hand of the cavalier Burgoync from tb'
Hudson. 1t was to the Puritan idea tina
Cornvallis surrendered at Yorktown, anC
eighty three years later it was the Cavali
who again surrendered to the Puritan
under the Appomattox apple tree. Thes
stern sad men in peaked hats who praytC
in camp and despised lovelocks, and
whom quibblers and politics laugh ant
swear to-day, were the indomitable van
guard Of moral and political freedom. l
they snpfied in prayer they smote in figh
If they sang through their noses. tn
hymn they chanted was liberty--if the:
made Divine monarchy, they have found
ed the freest, the most enlightened, tn
most prosperous, the most powerful lie
public in history-Frsns George Hsq
/ Curtis Sdg,cick.