The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1875-10-20
Historical RecoIIeetions Preserved

I In the matter OF concentrating
the virtuous deeds and acts of hero
4 ism of their ancestors, no section OF
the Union can begin to vie with New
England. They embalm them In
poetry and recount them 10 fowery
prose. They everywhere erect non
/, aments to point out the place and
recall the time that particular incl
dents of a glorious nature occurred.
p Thus, although the settlement of the
Puritans was the third in the United
States in point of date, it has come
to be regarded 10 the public mind as
the first that occurred. While every
body knows and remembers the 22nd
of December almost as well as Christ
mas, how few can tell the time Of
the wear when a white settlement
was made at jamestown, Virginia,
or another in New York, at the
Hudson river, both occurred long be-
fore that in Massachusetts. l. not
the founding of New York as import
ant as that of Boston, or Virginia as
Massachusetts? Ought they not, as
historical events, be equally well
known aud celebrated? But the Nir-
ginians and New Workers have been
careless and neglectful in this respect
They have not paid the tribute TO
their ancestors that they deserved
While a splendid shaft pierces the
clouds upon the spot where a few
hundred New England MALTA re-
pulsed the British, at Bunker's Hill,
there is nothing TO remind one of the
far greater occurrence that closed the
Revelation, in Virginia, and secured
the independence of this country.
The grand military event of York.
town, where CORVALLIS, with a large
British army, surrendered to the
combined American and crench
forces, under Washington and Roch-
ambeau, has nothing to distinguish
it 8s consecrated ground. 4,
The sulferings Of the first settlers
at jamestown were greater-tbe in {
cidents connected with them more t
striking and romantic-than those {
that attended the landing of the Pill. {
grims at Plymouth but they have f,
no celebration TO recall them. The I
heroes of the former slept in their for t
gotten graves, while those of the lat q
ter have become immortalized 10 the
pantheon of history. Daniel Webs r
ter, with his powerful %elOquence, his
grand and sonorous language, took Y
a leading part in placing before the P
mind the annals of our .
country, az the puritans desired to ?
recall them. The rock of Plymouth q
little celebrated until the impos-
ing figure of this illustrious orator
appeared. on its two hundredth ami
versary, before a Massachusetts au-
iience, and by the power of his die
ton and the eXhuberance of his i'm ,
.agination, made it stand out as fhe !
great pedestal upon which all our ,.
history had been built and all its in !
stitutioDs founded. =
Again FIVE years later, Mr.. Webs !.
ter stood, on the fiftieth anniversary :
Of the battle of Bunker Hill, to re- !;
hearse its story and make it classical :
forever to the American people. For !.
q quarter of a century his great iYtel- :
lect was employed in ~euiogies OF the :
Puritans and their descendants, until !.
deeds became as familiar as :
household words to the country. :
After i'm came a crowd of others. :.
like Edward Everett, who took up :
the s.-ain and repeated it with great :
err cxaggeration at every point. New ,
England has been wise in this: She =
has made the great vents of her :
history useful in establishing a pow :
erful mental influence over the whole !
country. New York and Pennsylva- :
MIA are commonwealth that tower :
in physical grandeur and importance !:
far above the little New England !
but the latter, owing to their e
industry in looking after their annals, !.
have taken political precedence Of "
hem. they have been as careless
rs Massachusetts has been active. I
They have had no word-painters like :
Webster TO put them upon the :
historical canvas, or array them in :
be brilliant colors of rhetoric. y
Pennsylvanil wears the phil Quaker =
yarb of historical simplicity, and the =
New York Knickerbockers have tax I"
n no pains to dress up The exciting
tory of Hendriek Hudson for ami ;.
Tersary occasions. Il
The land of the Cavaliers, good =
I'D Virginia, has also slumbered q
on, without working the i'm :,
nense mines of historical treasures =
hat are ~containedin her land. Thus, =
what there is of American history, :;
,ur New England friends have taken -
possession OF, and proceed to quietly .,
nonopolize its glories.-From BlOss' :,
Historic and Literary Miscellany. ~
Won. L