New-York tribune., 1890-03-30
PALFREY'S NEW-ENGLAND.
THE END OF THE WORK


the second and final volume (and the fifth OF the
whole work substantially complete, though re-
ouirino considerable labor in the way of revision,
vcriilcation of authorities, etc. Mr.. Francis WIN
throp Palfrey the authors son. has now puDnsheu
tho delayed volume, preiacing it with an adVer,ise-
ment explaining the cause OF SO long postpone
ment and describing the plan adopted bv MN IN
his editorial work. The present volume, he sta'eS'
is almost wholly printed from the authors man
uscript as he left IT," Some disadvantages attach
10 this arrangement and especially as regards
literary finish, for it was his habit TO make
numerous changes Of language in prooi-shee's ana
revises." But it has seemed to the editor that
these defects. such as they are matter of form
rather than of substance, and that the important
fact remains that this book and this alone is the
authors and that we are told here what opinions
q singularly conscientious and thoughtful man held
in regard to New-England men and things as they
were in the wears preceding the War Of lndepend-
once and which he held out superficial ac-
uuaintance not the result of special preparation
for special work, but after wide reading ana
long study, and the most absorbed and continuous
meditation" These considerations appear SOUND,
and it may be said further that the average
reader would be unlikely to suspect any defect
even of literary finish in volume the composition
and style of which are marked by so much dig
nity ease and felicity of expression and narrative
force.
The concluding part Of the historians work,
here presented to the world, embraces stirring
and momentous events. The first chapters plunge
the reader into that stage of epidemic excitement
which, while at the beginning it seemed TO prom
ise renewal of religious earnestness and en-
thusasm. led to a reaction from which the New
England churches never fully recovered. This
was the closing scene in that period of colonial
history disting guished by the dominance of the
Church in the State. Never before had eccesasti-
cal doctrines been carried so boldly to their ut
most logical consequences as during this period.
for it was the generation of Jonathan Edwards, and
he himself among those who began by well
coming and taking part in the revivalism of White
field though later he came to doubt the nspira
ton of the movement and to recognize and de-
plore the evils which appeared as the excitement
declined For the time, however. rcvivalism had
its way, and when, under the ensuing reaction,
religious faith seemed weakening and the power
of the pulpit Ineffective there arose political and
material issues which completely drew off the
attention of the New-England people from spr-
itual affairs and fixed their thoughts upon secular
matters, at the same time bringing the State into
the foreground and relegating the Church TO that
subordinate position from which it not 10
emerge again either under the passing or the COM
ing dispensatiOn. The grave dangers of the
with France, however, exercised a bracing effect
upon New-England. and began that gradual pro-
cess of mutual acquaintance between the colonies
which absolutely essential 10 concerted
action for any purpose, and which opened the way
for the union without which the War Of Inde-
pendence could not have been brought to a sue
cessful issue.
1t is one of the chief merits of Mr. Palfreys
<lo<
Steps toward independence which were taken with
open eyes by the colonies, and those whose real
direction was quite unsuspected by those who
took them. The author insists strenuously upon
the genuine loyalty of the colonists up TO within
o very short period before the appeal TO force
precipftated, and he abundanty demonstrates the
accuracy Of his contention on this head. But he
does not less clearly show that long before the
fatuity and inequity Of the British Parliament
sOwcd just discomfort and anger among the
Americans, events which seemed at the time to
have bearing upon the future preparing
the ground for separation, and creating the means
whereby it was to be achieved Even the reaction
which seemed to have injured New England by
diminishing the religious fervor Of her people
worked for good. An increase Of virlity followed
the diversion of the popular energies to secular
concerns, and 50 facilitated the adoption of those
martial policies and patriotic sacrifices which the
French war necessitated. That war. moreover,
was prolific in important lessons. 1t educated the
combatant power of the colonists 1t drew out
their most capable men, IL raised their sell
confidence 1t showed them the virtue Of union.
And. il last, not least, it proved to them that the
disciplined egons of Great Britain could be beaten
in the field The disaster of Braddock was un-
doubtedy notwithstanding. Had not Americans
had this experience, the prestige of the British
army in the ensuing years. when Pitt was carry
ing everything before him all over the world
might have weighed too heavily upon the magma
ton of the colonial levies. But it was known
that these conquering heroes were not invulner-
able and it was seen and laid TO heart that the
majority of British officers clung with Tory
obstinacy to a system of tactics utterly united
TO American military conditions.
In the same unprecedented and unconscious
way the bonds between the colonies were strength
ened by the combinations against common peri s.
At the beginning of the eighteenth century they
neither understood esteemed ore another.
New-England viewed New-York asllance, sus-
pected Pennsylvania, shrank from Cavalier VIZ
einia as from a profigate, and believed all the
stories about the convict population OF Georgia
This unfrendly feeling was sharply retallated.
The Southern and Northern coonies regarded
New-England as sour-minded bigotcd and narrow.
The old antagonism between Roundheads ana
Cavaliers survived in the relations between Mas
sachusetts and Virginia. All the colonies were
practically strangers 10 one another, and those
whose frontiers marched together were sometimes
the least neighborly, inasmuch as the mschevous
financial policies adopted by most of the provln-
'cial governments always extended thcir malefcent
effect over the adjoining communities. whose
merchants lost money through the depreciation
of paper money. The exigencies of war which
threatened all the colonies compelled a contact
and O mingling whence useful discoveries natu-
rally proceeded Brought together, each per-
ceived that the others were much like themselves.
The caricaturing influence of the unknown ceased
TO operate and the people began 10 cultivate real
friendships At the sane time that the founda-
ton of future union thus insensibly laid, the
diseinline Of .rar WAS raising LID American