The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-12-21

same" This charge Is s1pernciaily TUE
/ The might Of the Puritan majority
| was invoked 10 hang witches and
| Quakers, TO Danish vafious dissenters and
| heretics, TO massacre the Indian and TO
| hold slaves. The stern paternal govern
/ nent of the church, which originally
/ made the Old and New Testament an
! elemental part Of the colonial law, 50
| compIetely invaded every household that
there were fewer happy children among
| them than are found in our sTeeter ana
/ ripper civilization. The legal code was
| stern and bloody. as is shown by enact
| Indian, or $50 if the scalp was that OF
! child under 10 years. The Puritan
| lynehed Indians q. promptly as Omaha
| does negroes, and massacred the garri-
sons of the Pequos and Naragansett forts
! as merciIessiy as our troops within
twenty years did the occupants OF sur.
| prised Indian camps.
The Puritans were many Of them Crom-
wellians, but, while Cromwell was
thorough in war, he was in peace inclined
TO practice a degree Of humanity that the
Puritan never reached, for Cromwell re-
called the Jews from exile; was lenient
with the Quakers and interfered 10 stop
the wholesale burning Of witches in Scot
land. Not only did the Puritan hang
witches and Quakers after CromwelVs
day, but the lieutenant governor OF the
Massachusetts, colony saw his own sister
tried, convicted and executed as q witch
without lifting his voice in behalf OF the
condemned. Even Governor John Win
throp believed in witehcraft; the most
enlightened man of his colony, he could
not rise TO the level of Cromwell's
sagacity and humanity in the matter Of
witchcraft. The Puritan Law excluded all
Catholic priests from the colony, and sold
for use as domestic slaves. Inc colonial
minister often held more slaves than any
man in his congregation.
All this is true, but after all is said that
can be fairly said of the vices Of the
Puritan character, the only fair test of
him is to measure him by his time and
by the stateliness and grace of the civili-
cation whose seed he sowed. If it be said
that the colonial clergy included the
Mathers, who held superstitious belief in
witchcraft, and Jonathan Edwards. who
preached the horrors of literal hell, il is
the part of justice not to forget that
the finest types of New England
genius today are children of IN
broken line of New England min
listers, colonial judges and patriots,
Emerson, Lowell, Whittier, Parker.
Holmes and Phillips were OF unbroken
New England lineage, and they sucked
from the cradle the spirit of the Puritan's
unquailing allegiance to the idea of the
sacred, natural and equal rights OF the in
dividual. The virtues OF the Puritan made
the struggle for independence of England
success, colonized the great West and
colored ITS civilization with its industrial
energy, exceptional sobriety and unyield-
ing austerity of purpose. The virtues of
New England are still the propulsivs
power of our Western civilization. The
railroads that were pushed to Chicago, to
Omaha and finally 10 the Pacific coast
date back to New England energy,
audacity and enterprise for their eIplana-
ton and existence.
With the color of his vices We are also
familiar, for it tinges the fringe Of our
civilization with its hues. but when all is
said it is true that the New England Puri-
tan is today what he was in good old COL
ony times, the finest flower of the Anglo
Saxon race for every great hour that
arrived when man for that great hour and
opportunity was wanted. New England
on the Atlantic coast in colonial times;
New England in the Revolution; New
England IN the Middle West; New Eng
land in the war tor the Union. and New
England beyond the Mississippi and climb
ing the crest of the Rockies" has AWAY.
been the prime, nervous, intellectual force
OF this continent, and without forgetting
her defects Of brain and character she de-
serves Lowell's tribute:
Brown foundlin' o the woods. whose b,by-bed
Vas prOw.ed roun' by the Injun's c.ackIin'
tread,
An who grew'ss strong thru shifts an wants an
pains,
Nussed By stern men with empires in their
Thou, skilled by Freedom an by greet events
To pitch new States ez Old-World men pitch
tents,
An whose free lateh-s.ring never was drawed
Against the poorest child Of Adarn'skin.