Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1890-12-22
9ew gapen @ailg Ngorning gunrnal and Gonrier.
Notes of Pilgrim History by Rev. Il.
@. TOwne.

Notes of Pilgrim History by Rev. Il.
@. Towne.
No. 1.
There is one date in American history
which ought to be more distinguished in
study and commemoration than it has
ever been, and on account especially of a
double significance which may be given to
it. I refer to the day after Christmas, De-
cember 26. On that day (then counted the
16th), in 1920, the Mayfiower and her ia
nous company entered the harbor of |
and the anchor fell in the hav- |
en- where an exploring party Of ten men
had first gone on shore five days before. |
In strict truth the landing of the pilgrims |
did not occur on the 21st, as now cele-
brated, nor indeed for many days after.
The question whether to settle at Plymouth |
was not decided until January 10, 1921
January 2, as then counted), when a
small party went on shore to first
in the forest near at hand. The day was
Saturday, and not only the next day, but
three later Sabbaths were kept on board
the ship in the harbor; and it was not
until February 10, January 81, as then
counted), that they were sufficiently
landed to have the record say eve kept
our meeting on land" From July of 1920
to February of 1921 the only home and
only church of the Pilgrims had been on
shipboard, and what that long story of
dismal confinement had meant we can
best realize when we see how rapidly half
of the whole company sank into their
graves before the year of the pilgrimage
was over The moment at which they
are best seen in the picture
is that at which their ship
cast her anchor in the har-
Dor of Plymouth, and the
entire band, save the four
that had died at Cape Cod, saw their des-
wilderness. That day was December 20
December 16 as they counted). On the
Christmas day of our reckoning their ship
was on the way up the Coast from Cape
Cod. The Christmas day of their reckon
ing came ten days later, and on that day
the record they made was: Monday, the
25th day, we went on shore, some to fell
timber, some to saw, some to rive, and
some to carry; SO no man rested all that
day." The feeling was not to keep Christ
mas after the manner of the old churches
of England. They had left an old culture
to lay the foundations of a new. The
date which the new may most fifty count
from is that of the Goth of December, when
the anchor of the Pilgrim ship fell in Ply
mouth harbor.
There fell another event on that same
day, when, in 1776, December 26, Wash
ington, by the battle of Trenton, let drop
an anchor by which the cause of Amer
lea was safely held from drifting to de-
struction on what seemed sea of hopeless
trouble.
In that fight Washington left such a
| footprint as there is hardly anything like
it on the whole face of history. 1t was the
| deep midnight of the revolution, and the
| wan and wasted cause lay stark and death
| like, save as the single figure of Washing
| ton held a mere fragment of the army to
fidelity and courage hardly paralleled in
| the annals Of human struggle for life and
| liberty. History, as it stands, re-
lates that on the 23d of Decem-
Der Washington wrote, for the watch
| word of the fight then impending, "Vic-
| tory or Death" But it adds that such was
| the state of the troops who had been with
Lee, that the plan could not be ripened
| before Christmas night. This was to
| bring the attack at a mement when the
| British and Hessian troops would be in
| the midst of Christmas festivities, when
/ plumber would undoubtedly tempt the
hungry, penniless, ragged assailants of an
| enemy who had been stealing silverware
and other precious things throughout the
whole region. Washington, as my grand
father, who heard the order given. used
always to relate, gave with the order to
march, on the afternoon of De-
cember %, the watchword, death
to plumber or retreat" My grand
advance of the column under Sullivan,
which made the nine miles march (afte1
the Delaware was crossed) by the river
l road; and he was one of four thrown for
ward in advance of the forty. AS he
paused an instant under the windows of q
tavern, to doctor his wet mnsket, and saw
the long table loaded with cleaning plates
he thought why it was that the watchword
had been what it was. 1t was just this
matter of plumber which made the Ameri
can success SO great as it was. Wher
Rail-, the commander at Trenton, and his
Hessians were first driven back into ar
might, by q bold dash, have
forced q passage by Washington's left
and got away by the road to Princeton
But the immense plumber they were losing
tempted them to try to regain the town
and, thrown back from that desperate eff
fort worse than before, and Rail- brough
down by musket ball, the chance wa
II
were in the grip of the strong hand thai
had in thirty-fve minutes dealt a blow
which told all Europe which way destin.
was looking.
| There is to my mind no greater story il
human annals than that of Washington
genius and character, from his beginning
at nineteen in Virginia to his at
! tainment on December 26, 1776, o
q place of greatness, forward from
which for more than twenty years h
was on the top of the world, the creates
figure the English race has produced
! There is abroad just now, and having
great vogue, the idea that we have had
conventional and false Washington, ant
that exposure of the real Washingto,
would shock our feelings and depress GU
view. am familiar with the facts whicl
have suggested the idea, and esteem it tn
most contemplate delusion ever fathers
by detraction upon ignorance of the grea
! facts, and exageration of the merest super
] ficials of the mind, character and conduc
of man whose greatness rose out of reac
| of oil about him.