Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-07-10
THE PURITAN.
MI. Curtis Grafton at the Unvail-
ing Of the Pilgrim Statue.

The bronze statue of "The Pilgrim" by
by J. Q. A. Ward, the sculptor, was III.
vailed in Central Park, New York, a few
days ago, in the presence of the New En-
gland Society of New York and many dis
tinguished persons, among them ex-Presl-
dent Arthur, representatives from New
England societies, and a large %concourse of
citizens.
The statue is heroic in size, placed upon
3 granite pedestal with bronze panels. 1t
is that of a nan about forty years of age,
standing erect and looking away toward
the west. He is attired in the old pilgrim
garb, and one hand rests on tho muzzle OF
Of atlint-lock musket.
The ceremonies began with prayer by
Assistant Bishop Potter. Then followed an
address by Park COMMISSIONS Beekman,
the singing of Mrs. Heman's hymn, "Pil-
grim Fathers" by chorus societies of New
York and Brooklyn; the unvailing of the
statue by Mr.. Ward; its presentation to the
New England Society by Daniel f. Apple
ton, Chairman of the Monument Commit
tee; its formal transfer to the city of New
York on behalf Of the society by General
Stewart l.. Woodford, and its acceptance
by Alderman Sanger, who represented
Mayor Grace. The societies then sang the
pilgrim chorus from Verdi's "PLombar-
da,' and the ceremonies closed with a com
memorative address by George William
Curtis. The speaker was frequently inter-
rupted by applause. He spoke as follows:
New England, have but one thought, the
Puritan; one pride and JOY, the Puritan story.
That t.ranscendent story, in its larger rela-
tons, involving tho whole modern develop
ment, and diffusion, and organization, OF Eli
gilsh liberty, touched into romance by the
glowing Imagination, is proudly repeated by
every successive generation Of the English;
burns, in legend and insong. In its greatest
incident, the Pilgrim emigration to America,
it is a story Of achievement unparalleled in
the annals Of the world for the majesty of its
purpose and the poverty of its means. the
weakness of the beginning and the grandeur
OF the result. Contemplating the unnoted and
hasty fight by night Of a few Englishmen
land-he peaceful life in exile-the perilous
ocean voyage afterward, lest in that friendly
land the 1ervor of the true faith should fail
the frail settlement at Plymouth, a shred of
the most intense and tenacious life in
Europe floating over the sea and clinging
to the bleak edge of America, harassed
posture, by. death in every form, beyond civil
ization and succor, beyond the knowledge or
interest of mankind, a thin, thin thread Of the
old world by which incalculable destinies of
the new world hung, yet taking such vital
hold that it swiftly overspreads and domi-
mates a continent, covered to-day with a pop
ulation more industrious, more intelligent,
happier, man for man, than any people upon
which the sun ever shone-contemplating this
spectacle, our eXulting hearts break into
language which was m~ost.familiar to the lips
prophecy accomplished-"The Desert shall re.
joice and bloom as the rose" "a little one
shall become q thousand and a small one a
strong nation"
most familiar to the eyes of the Pilgrims; we
are surrounded by other traditions and So
licited by other memories. But under these
beauty of summer, u hearts go backward
to IL winter day. The roaring city sinks
to q silent wilderness. These flower: fringed
somber .garb, scans wislfuliy the solitary
waste. The contrast is complete.
We'll, NAV the statue o, the Puritan stand
here, for in the mighty miracle of the scene
around us his hand, too, has wrought. Here
upon this teeming island the children of New
built the metropolis of the continent, the far
shining monument of their united energy,
enterprise and skill. Together at the head Of
than any American stream, the Puritan and
the HOllandcr with their associate %cOlonist
meditated. the American Union. Together in
this city, in the Stamp act congress, they de-
fed the power OF Great Britain; and once
upon the Hudson, the Puritan and the
Cavalier and Hollander, born again us Amer
leans. resistlessly developed and overwhelmed
the army Of Burgoyne, and in his surrender be-
held the end OF British authority in the col
onies. Here, then, Shall the statue stand, inn
memorial Of imperishable friend-
ship; blending the historic memories Of the
two worlds and two epochs, the soldier OF the
Netherlands, the soldier OF old England and
the soldier of New England, at different times
and under different conditions, but with the
same uncomfortable enthusiasm and courage
battling for liberty.
The spirit which is personified in this statue
Puritan, but it is far older than he. Beyond
Plymouth and Leyden, beyond the Manor
House of Scrooby and the dim shore Of the
Humber, before Wicklitfe and the German re.
formers on lcaven-kissing pastures of the
everlasting Alps, on the bright shores of the
Medicean Arno, in the Roman forum, in the
the human heart has beat for liber-
ty and the human consciousness has vaguely
quickened with its divine hirthrightS
wherever the instinct of freedom challenges
than the poetry OF the t~radition-there, there,
whatever The age, whatever the country, the
man, the costume, there is the invincible spir-
We must.not think'of Puritanism as mere
ecrid defiance and sanctimonious sectarian-
ISM, nor OF The PurltanS as u Dand OF ignorant
and half.craZy ZealOtS. Yet mainly from the
vindictive caricature of a voluptuous court
and q servile age is derived the popular con
ception OF the Puritan. He was only SLAM
dercd by Ben Johnson's Tribulation Whole
some and Zeal-of-theland Busy. The Puritan
OF whom Macaulay, following Hume, said that
he hared bear batting, not because it gave
pain to the bear, but because it gave pleas
ure to the spectator, was the Puritan OF the
plays OF Charles H., when Shakespeare had
been replaced by Aphra Behn, and the object
OF the acted drama was to stimulate u pas
sion palled by indulgence and u taste brutal
lied by debauchery. The literature that
travestied the Puritan sprang from the same
impOtcnt hate which scattered the ashes OF
Wickliile upon the Severn and disintcrred
the dead Cromwell and hung the pody in
chains at Tyburn, insulting the dust Of the
hero who living had made England great, and
to whose policy, after the etfeminate and
turned. The Cavaliers ridiculed the Puritan
as Burgoyne and the idle British officers in
Boston burlesqued the Yankee patriot. They
had tier laugh. their jest, their jibe. But it
is not to the rollicking masqueradcrs OF the
British barracks, to the scarlet soldiers OF the
crown, that we look to see the living pict-
ures OF our Washington and Hamilton, our
Jay and Adams, who plucked from the crown
its brightest gen.. 1t is not the futile ribald-
~ of tops and fribbles, OF courtiers and
courtesans, of religious slavery and political
despotism, whose fatal spell over England
the Puritan had broker forever, which can
truly portray the Puritan.
When Elizabeth died, the country gentle.
men, the great traders in the towns, the
sturdy steady middle class in England, the