Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1883-06-13
Aa,,caster f1,tellige1'rer.
WEDNESDAY EVENING. JUNE l3. 1885
Puritan and Quaker.

The prosecutions OF inc Vu"n1i' "AN
-Raptists in early New England have SO
long been a subject of deserved reproach
to the people responsible for them that
again and again their descendants have
sought to relieve them from the stigma
by perversions of the historical facts, or
apologies for them in asperSions OF the
victims of that intolerance. But, as
often as the champions of New England
have entered the arena have they been
unhorsed. Superficial eulogists OF the
boasted freedom of opinion which the
Puritan planted in this country, like the
late Mr.. Garfield, have never risen to the
defense of this proposition that some
stout champion of the truth, like Judge
Black, did not lay them low with the
stout club of historical citations, and
demonstrate that the spirit of Puritan
ism exterminated rather than planted
the right of private judgment.
The Puritan movement IN England
where its protest against worldly follies
was so powerful as to make 1t fiat
popery to eat a mince pie" blossomed
into nothing more genial when trans
planted to the bleak soil of Plymouth
Rock. They burned witches in Massa-
chusetts with the same holy fervor as
Sir Matthew Hale, in England, sen
fenced them TO death while lie proclaim
ed Christianity to be part of the common
law. They banished Roger Williams,
because he preached the eternal separa
tion of church and state, while the
illustrious chief justice of the realm
convicted John Bunyan for freqnentlng
conventicles. The evangelical concern
of Rev. Emanuel Downing, lest the col
ony should be held responsible for suf
feriDg the Narragansetts TO maintain
the worship of the devil, did not restrain
him from gleeful acquiescence in the
proposal to capture and exchange them
for Blackamores. deeming it right
gayneful pilladge." because they
could maintain twenty negroes cheaper
than one English servant. Their mis-
sionary zeal exhausted itself long before
it started for Africa'S sunny fountains,
& since in 164G a slave woman was rated
as beast and in 17lG they had sc
vividly realized the historical accuracy y
of Judge Taney's famous declaration III
the Dred Scott case, that in the humane
colony of Massachusetts, negroes were
judicialIy rated rs horses aud dogs, aud
the slperfuous infants were given AWAY
like puppies.
That the adherents of George Fox:
peaceful sect were treated will
scarcely less consideration has long beel
a matter of indispntablc history. but q
late years il has been the fashion in pal
liation of the old Puritan persecution:
to represent the Quakers of that da.
and generation TO have been lawleSS dis
turbers of the peace, contcmners OF th'
holy religion, whose affected inner ligh
and higher law made them despise civi
forms us heartily rs they delied eccleSi
astical decency. A most effective answc
to this defense of the Purltans by at
tacking the Quakers has been Furnished
in Mr.. Hollowell'S Quaker Invasion o
Massachusetts" which appears almos
simultaneously with Whittier's recen
burning lines on the women who wel
" stripped naked, from the middle up
wards, and tied to carts tail an
whipped through the town. Mr.. Hal
lOWell'S little book shows that when tin
Quaker visitors first reached New Eng
land no laws existed, human or Iivin,
to prohibit their coming or bringing
their books with them, but that on th
other hand the " body of the liberties
professed such tolerance of opinion as I
invite people of different faith by
guarantee of ample protection from th
authorities. Arbitrary persecution, III
human punishment and cOniiscatiOn ,
property were, nevertheless, at once d
rected against them simply because 1
their faith, ample evidence OF which fo
persecution was found in their use of til
form " thee" A civilization which CI
cOuraged the expectation Of Indians an
the trading of them for rum and negrcs
because it could 9 maymtayne twemt
MOOres cheaper than one EngliaIe :'"l
vant,'' interdicted the landing c
Quakers, punished shipn,ast"rs VIII
brought them and bnllied those WI
would not carry.iway the children of til
banished SOuthwickes and sell them n
Virginia market. Not only were wpme
stripped and exposed to public gaZ.
beaten till the blood ran down their bal
necks and bosoms, but the ears of me
were cut off and their bodies beaten I
a jelly for attending Quaker meetings
and at least four persons suffered tl
death penalty, while the number {
homes broken up by Punishment a!i
confscation can never be computed.
A reference TO tie letters and publ
declarations of the victims of these pei
secutions shows that the orgies an
indecencies and brawling spirit ascribe
to the Quakers OF that day, in justilic;
tion of their punishment, are utterl
inconsistent with their character. Tha
they may have used plain language
expressing their opinions should hav
been nothing to their discreIit or unpoi
ularity, for both in England and in IN
country the doctrines of Puritanism an
its opinion of other forms of faith wei
expressed with vehemence of explicitly
that no religious movement, Mahommt
dan, Jew or infdel has ever equalles