The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1877-03-10
determination of the Puritan Element

Ot tnc IuEttdn E1ftfntnts
In one of our exchanges we find the
opinion that the Puritan element in this
country will be exterminated within the
next hundred years. This introduces q
subject upon which we care not to ex-
press IN opinion of our own, but il
must be evident to any one acquainted
with our history as people, that we
have undergone great change in the
last fifty years, and that change is O
clear departure from Puritanism. We
do not say as some do, that the world is
growing worse; on the contrary, we
think it is growing better, but there has
been a change. What the change is
must be apparent to even an indifferent
observer. Nowhere is that change more
obvious than in New England. Take
my town you please and mark the diff
ference between now and fifty years
lgo. Those whose recollections run
back half a century will remember how
exact and exacting the people of that
lay were in keeping the Sabbath and
attending religious services on that dav,
Almost every farmhouse turned out its
quota of worshippers who would no
moro fail to be in their accustomed place
i'll church Oh the Sabbath than they
would fail to go to mill when their
meal was out. We have now in mind q
half-dozen school districts, which are
now seldom represented in the churches
On the Sabbath, that once sent to tine
sanctuary wagon-loads, besides multi
tudes of bsretooted boys and girls .on
foot.
Fifty years ago, boys were brought
up to steady manual labor. Then they
enjoyed it, and there was among them,
in their everyday work, a rivalry that
made labor pleasant and attractive, as
well as efficient and productive. Now
how changed in this regard. Of the
Yankee-born young men between the
ages of eighteen and twenty-five who
are steadily at work on our farms, the
number is comparatively small, prob
ably less than one-fourth of the number
fifty years ago. We may put it down
as how rare that young man of good
parts settles down to work on farm.
The ways of the world now seem to
teach him that farm work is a drudgery
and don't pay, and that u young man OF
enterprise should engage in some other
calling. So he looks for place in 8
store, or office, or goes west, leaving his
place on the farm to bo filed by some
foreigner. But what has this to do with
Puritanism, inquiries one. Let US note
the change in our own good town OF
Poultney, and sec if it does not show
what it has to do with Puritanism. Il
so&ae 'Sniae-f6ird) ofs fafmnss ns ii ftGt tGe to11k Nj
of Poultney, are now owned, occupied
and worked by persons of foreign
birth. Twenty-Five years ago, hardly {
foot of real estate within the limits O.
the town was owned by one of foreign
birth.
Now the point is, how came thi,
change? The answer to this question il
so obvious as hardly to demand q re
ply. One farmer after another, who's,
sons "got sick of farming" and left tn,
homestead ''to seek their fortunes" pu
his farm upon the market for sale, anC
some Irishman, with Il few dollars tina
he had saved from working by the montl
| bought it. The lrishmen would hav,
enough to mako the first payment, if
small one, and with his economy ant
constant hard work, would meet hi
payments as they came due. In thi
way the change has come about, ant
for aught we know it will go on unit
all our farm lands are in the hands O
Irishmen and others of foreign birth
and all this comes too, from the fac
that the Irishman is willing to work an,
the Yankee is not; the latter wants +
get living by his wits. No reflection
are here intended upon foreigners; bu
the change that has been going on,as a
must concede, goes to the exterminatio
of Puritanism. 1t is gradually substi
tuting foreign born element in on
population for tho native, or what W
may call the Puritan elemcnt.-rEx.