The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1888-05-10
CORRECTING HISTORY.

In the Eurouean correspondence Of
the Poultney Journal, we find the fol
lowing, written from London:
1t was the PuritauiCal wave, the re-
action from political and religious op-
preston, and intolerance that caused the
commonwealth to be declared in 1919,
and carried Oliver Cromwell into power,
as Lord Protector, in 1853, 1t is a
strange anomaly, an unaccountable
characteristic of human nature, that the
oppressed becomes the oppressor as soon
as power is acquired. So the puritans,
in their enthusiasm and their excessive
admiration for the Jewish Sabbath, de-
clared that the music in the churches
was a desecration and that the chu, ch
organ was an unholy thing which must
be expunged Consequently the organs
and music books were burned and the
choIrs driven out of the churches; and
music well nigh died out in the entire
kingdom. Upon the restoration, in 1860,
not church choir existed, and the first
attempt at music in the churches was by
few wind instruments, which survived
the bigoted persecution of these liberal
reformers (0 The Puritans had out
Heroded Herod, out-Jewed the Jews
They said that the singing of the psalms
from one side of the church to the other,
(responive, or antiphonal, singing was a
desecration of the time and place. They
had not read their Bibles well, or they
would have known that the Jews in their
synagUgues chanted the psalms re-
sponslvely, In the first account we have
of singing praise, with instrumental ac-
companiment.it Is recorded that Miriam,
with her timbrel, sang, Il will sing unto
the Lord, for he hath triumphei glori-
ously, etc., and that the people respond.
ed. The choir of LevItes in Solomon's
temple numbered four thousand, ac-
companied by all kinds of musical in
struments then known, and the singing
consisted of antiphonal chanting of the
psalms. These facts the Puritans *.
nored.
And here l beg leave to digress some
what to correct an erroneous impression
that has crept into the beads and liter
ature of all English speaking people
even of Americans, largely through the
| ignorance or carelessness of a very
worthy and talented woman, Mrs
hemans. She says, "A band of Pilgrim;
moored their bark on wild New Eng.
lands shore;' for whati Freedom Il
worship God This is not strictly true
and has led to the confounding of the
Pilgrims with the Puritans. The Pill
grims emigsted from England to Hol
land, and from thence to the new
world, mainly for political and not fol
religious reasons. Later, band OF Puri-
tans, mot the Pilgrims) Of the mos
staightest sect emigrated direct from
England to Salem. Mass. mot Plymouth
and there established strict Sunday
Sabbath community. No one was al
lowed to build a house further thar
easy walking distance from the meet
ing house. II one worked on Sunday
except meeting, or for doctor, he wat
arrested by the thithing man. No foOC
must be cooked on Sunday, and thinl
man was debarred from kissing his
wife on that day, under penalty of being
church mauled.' 1t was the Puritani
who burned witches. But, by a mos
grievous and unfortunate error thu
sturdy band of strong minded, noble
hearted Pilgrims, who laid the founda
tion of free government and of liberia
institutions that have spread over tn,
entire length and breadth of the nov
United States, have been made TO bea
the odium of all the crimes and incon.
sistencies Of a fanatioal religious sect
the Puritans. Render unto Caesar tn
things that are Caesars, and honor I,
whom honor is due. The Puritans how
ever inconsistent. possessed the virtu
Of strict adherence to their principles,