Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1870-05-14
For the Journal.
PEMAQUID AND PURITANISM.

PEMAQUID AND PURITANISM.
A late number of the Maine Standard
contains what purports to be a review OF
a small volume lately published under the
auspices of the Maine Historical Society,
under the title of jamestown of Pemaquid.
The reviewer writing over what seems to
be the appropriate monde plume Robin
| Hood" arraigns the Historical Society be-
grave offence of having attempted to
prove that there was an English settle
ment 1T Pemaquid, coeval with or prior to
the settlement at Plymouth; that they
''have spared no pains TO dig out from
Pemaquid (and other places mentioneD
some earnestly coveted proofs which 60 to
take the glory out of Il religion that has laid
the foundation of all our republican insti-
tutions and confer it''-'upon the Church
of England that by the publication of
the volume referred to they present the
Episcopal Church as being established in
New England earlier than the less preten-
tious religion of the abhorred Puritans
As strange as it MAJ seem, the only pas
sages found in the volume referred to, on
the preparatory notice, in which DR.. Bal
lard speaks of "relgious worship" at
Jamestown, and another in stanza of the
poem, where the authuress introduces the
line, 1.-The grand Church service of the
olden time" and in an appended note
gives two historical authorities in explain
alton As the Church service is the only
kind of worship spoken of in history rs be-
ing held at jamestown, it would have
seemed very ungracious in the Historical
Society to object to the introduction in the
poem, by the authoress, of an allusion to
such religious worship, for fear of offend
ing some self appointed and over-zealous
defender of the Puritans.
1t might, however, be well, hereafter,
in order to save the feelings of such sensi-
tive persons as Robin Hood, for historians
and poets to refrain from making mention
of any other form of worship than that of
the Puritans in connection with the early
settlers of our State
The Historical Society should be re-
strained by law from making any invest-
CATION tending to prove the existence of
any settlement, city or colony in our State
previous to the settlement of Plymouth,
Mass, by the Pilgrims. They should not
be permitted to ascribc any religious viz
tues to any other early settlers than the
Puritans, who, 'alone,' according to
Robin Hood, "were allowed to live and
possess the land" and who were so eXclu-
sively under the protection of divine Prov
idence that ale seems all along to have
visited with his most signal displeasure a
little sect" known as the Church of Eng
land 1t is fairly to be inferred. from this
opinion of the reviewer, that the Puritans
were acting in harmony with divine Prov
idence when they banished the Baptsts.
burned the witches, and "whippcd Quaker
women on the bare back through eleven
towns"
But seriously, is it not passing strange
that any intelligent person could be found
in this enlightened and liberal age, who
could or would convert an allusion to a
historical fact into an assault on Puritan
ism? 1t is highly probable that nineteen
twentieths of the Historical Society, to-
gether with the authors of the book re-
viewed, are lineal descendants of the
Puritans, and hold their virtues in high
esteem.
| The writer of this article is not CONVEX
SAINT with the transactions Of the Maine
Historical Society at York, and it is not
his purpose to enter into any general de-
fence of the Society against the evidently
unfounded charges of Robin Hood in re-
gard to their Investigations in other places
ION the sea-coast of our State, y but to call
attention to some erroneous statements he
has made in reference to the paved streets,
cellars, &C., at Pemaquid
In order to overthrow the conclusions at
which the Historical Society and others
nave dIIlN GU III Regard 10 inc plNcu
streets, &C., at Pemaquid, the reviewer
resorts to a peculiar mode of reasoning.
In his estimation Puritanism is evidently in
danger; Carthage est delenda. In the first
place, he asserts positively that "there
never was city of Jamestown"-tha it
twas simply a place where fishermen re-
sorted in summer for the purpose of cur
ing fish and purchasing pelteries of the
Indians" He then states that "such a
population could not have needed paved
Streets" and leaves the reader to infer
that there are no such streets.
In order to carry on an argument salts
factoriy with such reasoner, it would
first be necessary to prove the reliability
of human testimony Robin Hood evil
IDENTITY belongs to that class who would
believe neither Moses nor the Prophets.