Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1877-08-22
sion of Canada to Great Britain and

inroads. The inducements to immi-
grafton and settlement here, we of this
age should reckon not inviting. There
were no prairies spread out in readi.
ness for the plough; no open pastures
ready prepared tor sheep and oxen ;
no tropic climate and fruits inviting
to rest from labor and to easy truition ;
not yet fresh discovered gold fields TO
Set on fire the lust ofmen and draw
them, as by sucking whirlwind, from
the four corners of the earth, in mad
rush to fortune-or a grave but, on
the contrary, valley and mountain
sides covered with forests which kept
out the sunlight, and concealed below
their Interpreting roots the possible
meadow, pasture and cornfeld, but
possible only to the sweat Of labor
and the pain OF toll short summers,
with trosts both late and early long
winters bound in ice and buried in
snow. But to men like our grand
sires, trained to labor and hardship,
the sons Of generations of men to
whose axes the sight Of tree had been
constant temptation, there was moth
ing in climate or savage features OF
the land to deter them from following
the emigrating instinct of the race /;
and so long as they could, in the
minds eyes, see among the dissolvlny
forests the comfortable homestead, the
waving grain fields, the garden and
the orchard, the school-house, the
meeting house, the mill and the vii
lage, creations Of their industry, they
were rahter melted than repelled by
the difficulties which nature had inter-
posed in the way to such trultlon.
With the thoughts Of lettering their
condition, in mere prosaic sense, the
love of adventure, the love of the new
and untred to find what may be in it,
love of the free life of the woods and
of new society, doubtless, added 70.
nance to the movement Yet it was
no Texas or California that allured
them.
Another reason for this early emil
grafton, particularly from Massachu-
setts and Connecticut, and which pre-
vailed to considerable extent, par
took of a religious character, aud was
akin to that which impeled their an
cestors, the Puritans and the Pilgrims,
to leave their homes in England for
the sake of founding a church of their
liking and freedom Of worship in the
New England wilderness for it is
written of these early emigrants by
one of tfeir number, that "Great
numbers of the early settlers on the
New Hampshire grants were OF the
sect OF New Lights Of Separates, who
fled from persecution in the New Eng
land States, and found an asylum
here, where they enjoyed their relig-
ious liberty" This persecution spok-
ell of came naturally Of the ideas then
prevalent, that one of the functions OF
government was to aid the Church IN
enforcing upon the whole cummunlty
conformity Of doctrines and worship
"to the Word of God"-that is, prac-
tica,ly, conformity to the prevailing
religious belief, and those standards
of belief, or profession, called ortho-
dox, to be found in certain accredited
"Plattorms.' Upon the New Lights
in doctrine, and the Separates from
the standard order, it bore hard to be
compelled by law to pay towards the
building of meeting-houses which they
would not attend, and to contribute to
the support of ministers to whom they
would not listen, and this while sus.
tanning, unaided, their own systems OF
worship aud teaching and then, II
their own ministers chanced to be
caught preaching outside the limits Of
their own parish, without orderly in,
vitation, to see them treated as poach'
ers or tramps, with fines and the
stocks. The religious liberty which
they enjoyed in this their asylum they
founded and established. 1hey stamp
ed upon their earliest church records
of their reputation of the doctrine Of
State interference with matters of re,
ligious doctrine and worship, and made
their plan of organization as church
a charter OF religious liberty. Thus
in organizing 'fThe Church Of Christ
in Bennington" December 3, 1862
the first church organization of the
New Hampshire grants, it was agreed
and voted to except. from their adop-
ton of the Cambridge Platform, that
part sin respect TO using the civil law
o.. ,,,,,oo,, a., r,oeno1 and olsO ihat