Bradford opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1874-1881, 1875-01-02
The Pilgrim Festival.

!. The Pilgrim Festival.
g There are some aspects of th
n Forefath ers' day celebration of th
n New England Society in New Yorl
1 which seem entitled to special con
g sideration, and we are glad they dit
Y not escape the attention of the ora
t tors of the day. So much chea,
sentiment has been expressed abou,
; the Pilgrims as compared with thcil
descendants of to-day that it is we'll,
occasionally, to see how we actually
stand in reference to them. That
there are points in which We may
we'll initiate their example is plain
enough, but our deficiencies do not
show that we have as a whole retro.
graded from their position, but that
our broader life has with its great {
material prosperity brought " ith it
the defects which are insel arabic
from this sort of progress. The men
who drafted the memorable compact
i'll the cabin of the Mayfower,
which Bancroft, in one of his most
eloquent passages, shows was of
more value than the charter which
John Locke drew for Carolina, or
than the political instruments of
many other noted philosophers and
statesmen, had with their rigid vir.
tues something of the ruggedness
which seems inseparable from the
stern struggle for principle in which
they were engaged. Men do not
fight political and religious persecu.
''sa with ,rosewater, and the severe
a@t rigor With fit(hh"afhth %fkhltthf f1fGaafnIess amuse,
ments were kept down by penal
statutes. Why, the celebration of
Christmas was a crime in those days
and instead of warning against the
pretensions of the Pope with words
as Gladstone now docs, our fore
fathers tabooed innocent festivities
in which they detected his sinister
influence. The men who discerned
treason in plum pudding and beresy
in mince pic, had such lofty virtues
that they can we'll afford to have
their failings pointed out,
Senator Conkling did well to
show by contemporary writer's, that
there was considered to be a good
deal of wickedness and irreligion
among our forefathers, although a
stricter idea of what constituted
these evils prevailed. at that time,
There was sense, too, in his appeal
to his fellow citizens not to rely on
The achievements of their ancestors,
but work out their own salvation,
albeit the Pilgrim fathers might not
have thus liked to be lugged in as
authorities for rapid transit and
cheap transportation. Yet it is GER
tainlv in harmony with the princi,
pies of the founders of the Pilgrim
wealth that the homogene.
BUSINESS and prosperity of the
should be assured by the
of law and order in the
South. 1t is seldom that the sig.
lificance and results of the embark.
ltion Of the Pilgrims are more
illustrated than in the
eloquent speech ofMr. Davis, which
we'll pictured the heroic and devOut
spirit which animated them, and
he lessons for our inspiration and
guidance that their lives afford.
The fact emphazied by Mr.. Beecher
hat the landing celebrated was not
hat of the Puritans, but of the
Pilgrims, who were not extraOrdi-
lary but common men, is encourage
ng, as showing the results within
he reach of earnest and upright
workers., however humble their po.
ition.
There are many glib eulogists of
,ur forefathers who would never
ave been found ready to share their
rails and privations. There are
,lenty of admirers of the poetry
which later writer's have extracted
rom the Pilgrims life, who would
ave seen nothing in it but grim
nd dreary prose had they been
Orced to share its hardships and
rivatiOns. 1t was amid those trials
f faith and of works that the lofty
irtues of the forefathers were nur-
ursd, and their very persistence in