The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1870-12-29
COLUMBIA. s. C.
Thursday Hornine. December 20 1870.
A Pcrversisn or History.

Shfy VI tue ltuuluS VI INC IeW LuBlhuu
Pilgrims appears to have been celebrated
this year by their descendants with even
more than the usual manifestations of
complacent and self-glorified sectional
ism. At the celebration ut Plymouth,
we find the following among the regular
toasts: plymouth and Jamestown
Pilgrims and the Cavaliers freedom and
slavery they met on the field of Gettys-
burg, and freedom conquered" There
may be some oaptious critics, the Balti
more San remarks. who, on purely his
torioal grounds. will object to the truth
fulness Of the antithesis thus tersely
stated, and of the parallelism sought to
be established between the men and
ideas Of 1920 and of 1870. They may
even presume to question whether the
issues which "the field of Gettysburg"
is supposed to have decided are correctly
stated. Mr.. Frederick Douglass. the
popular colored orator, of recent cele-
bration of the same kind, based his
claim to participate upon the well-known
historical fact that the Mayfower, which
brought over the Pilgrims, was subsc-
quently employed by her Puritan owners
in bringing over cargo of slaves. From
one Of these latter and involuntary 'pil-
grims," Mr.. Douglass claimed to be lin
eally descended. and to have therefore
at least an equal interest in the May
flower with any son of New England.
That the descendants of the Pilgrims had
establishment of slavery in this country
than the descendants of the Cavaliers,
no one with the slightest knowledge of
colonial history will pretend to deny. It
is not improbable even that among those
who drank to tho toast We have quoted,
there were some whose ancestors had nt-
tanned to both wealth and social position
in the good town of Boston in the olden
time by their successful participation in
the traffic in human flesh.
Equally preposterons is the further
suggestion. that the two armies which
fought at Gettysburg were, in the sense
indicated, the representatives of the men
who landed at Plymouth and at James
town. On the Southern side were min
gled the descendants of the Huguenots
of South Carolina, the sturdy Scotch
Irish of North Carolina and Tennessee,
and the French of Louisiana, with Geor-
gians, Mississippians and Virgininns;
and we presume that the men OF New
York, of New Jersey, of Pennsy ylvania
and the West, the men of Irish and Ger
man blood and lineage, had quite as
large share in General Meadc's victory
MS the New England regiments which
participated. We forbear the further
inquiry ms to what proportion OF those
who took the liberal bonntics offered by
the New England towns, and filled up
the ranks Of the regiments nominally
recruited in those States, had any al1ini-
ty In race, feeling or faith with the
Rllgrim fathers. Our object is not to
open old sores, but simply to protest
anew against tho attempt to convert the
results or the war into mere sectional
aug eectarlhn triumph, by means OF u
deliberate Justification of the facts Of
history. With as much truth and reason
might our New England friends substi-
tute for f'Pigrims" and Cavaliers, {"
"Puritpns" and "Episcopaliuns," and
claim the result at Gettysburg as vim
dication Of the doctrines OF John Calvin
and 'of Presbyterian Or Congrtgationalist
IDEAS of church government. The GUS
tom Of ep@H9P9}atihg the landing of
the Pilgrims would be more cffectualy
honorca ia thS 'btehch5 thah the OBJ
seryahe4e,"'aiJ i ,tbe .aelebration is, tor be
made othe Hoccasian of perpetuatipg q
geographical and Religious fend, founded
up9RiasFilftAte4ls eef fqsegtaitoa n 'hAshs Of
colonial and of recent history.