Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1880-12-24
Hailp &snrtbtf Journal.
Augusta, Friday Morning. Dec. a.


New England.
Once > year this corner Of the United
States called New England is toasted.
praised and criticised considerably BY the
people within it, own borders, and quite
A. largely by the descendants OF New
England ancestors without. 1t is theme
which never grows old or wearisome.
The landing at Plymouth is an event that
vii be remembered and talked OF as long
Is the world stands. Not merely that the
landing was made in rough wintry weather
upon an unknown, bleak and wilderness
shore. but because of the motives which
brought the Pilgrims to America and the
results which have followed their coming.
At the New England dinner in Brooklyn
the other evening there were some very
eloquent speeches from eminent men, but
the speech which most happily por-
trayed in the fewest words the chief char
acteristics Of the Puritans and the history
and achievements of their descendants was
that by Henry Ward Beecher.
when the Puritans came to New Eng
land Mr.. Beecher said, ''they brought
themselves with themselves. They came
here to become larger men, and they ac-
comp.ished their purpose. They made
some mistakes, as many men fresh from
the prosecutions which they had suffered,
and fearing an enemy in every bush, were
pretty sure to do. They hung few
witches. New England had the last
shower of what in Europe had been
deluge. They had seen hundreds OF ttous-
ands of witches sacrificed in the old
country. and they could not at once rid
themselves of the idea that the witches
we're the devils own children. 1t is not
strange that they hung few OF them in
the New World. The great mistake
about hanging is the want Of proper Sc
lection. Laughter.] God seems to have
picked out the hardest territory on the
globe for the Puritans to inhabit. He
placed them on the sterile soil OF New
England. and told them to show what they
could do and they have shownitto the world.
They impressed themselves on nature
as well as on man, and transformed sterile,
sandy, rocky New-England into bloom
ing garden Now it is full of all beauty.
of all fruitfulness, of all joy, and of all
sweetness. Il pleased God to place
4 Il Il ..at halt
in human greatness and equality in the
garden spot of this fair land-the South
The works of the anti-Puritans of the
South and the Puritans Of New-England
speak for themselves and need no COM
ment. New-England is small territory,
but 1t is very populous one. The poor
err New-Eugland man, the larger his
family. and when they spread over the
world they carry New-England ideas
with them everywhere. Wherever you
find good schools. banks well conducted,
or railroads paying dividends. there you
will find Yankees, and if the managers
of the enterprises are not Yankees, you
may be sure that their wives are. The
best thing that can be said Of the Pilgrim
Fathers, after all. is to point to their posteri-
ty. What kind of men must they have beento
be the fathers OF such fellows rs we are9
Laughter. The Puritans have controlled
the world more than Rome OF Greece
ever did. and the best inscription for a
monument to our Pilgrim Fathers would
be that used as an epitaph for Sir Christ
opher Wren: Isl queris m0numentun'
circumspisce. II you want to see the
monument to the Puritans. behold this
continent That is it,
More could not very well he said for
New England than this, and yet it is no
exaggeration New England ideas and
men and women are everywhere and
wherever they are they make their mark.
The statesmen, lawyers. orators, poets,
merchants, divines. inventors. .navigators,
and soldiers of the land. how many of them
trace their origin back to these New Eng
land hills, and their success in lite to the
impress upon their characters made by the
lives and example of the early settlers OF
New England! The soil is hard and the
winters cold but the New England product
of men and women is of the best that the
sun shines upon.
The democrats in the House of Repre-.
sentatives placed themselves squarely on
record Wednesday morning against ares
olu.ion to assemble on the second We'd
nosdax nf Enbrt,arr in mint incafinu