The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-12-25
NEW ENGLAND PURlTANS.
PunEent Remarks which We're Not
4 Made at the Recent Dinner.


To the Editor Of the Indianapolis Journal:
The report published in your paper of
Dec. % of the astonishing performances of
the meeting held on Dec. % OF the so-called
New England Society of this city, leaves
some Of the descendants of the New England
Puritans in a state of bewilderment as to the
purposes of the society. AS stated by the
president, the object was Ito revere the
sacred memory of the homes, the life, the
grand history of old New England, to cele-
prate the virtuous and noble deeds Of the
men who planned this great Nation" The
first speaker the Hon. r. S Taylor, began
oy saying that, so far as he knew, he has
not drop Of New England blood in his
veins; that he knew but little of New Eng
land history, literature, the country or the
people, and that in youth he did not mbibe
any admiration for the New England char
acter, "as the few New England people he
knew were rather disagreeable" Then he
devoted some time to poetry, which, he said,
was mot the mere inflorescence of a glow
ing imagination and wound up with some
remarks about the prevalence of greenback-
ism and free-siverism in Michigan and
Kansas.
Then Mr.. Charles Major, of Shelbyvlle
the author of when Knighthood Was in
Flower was introduced. and he, according
10 your report, used the surgeons knife in
laying bare the fiber of the Puritans in New
England. The Puritan, he said was a
Fharisee;" one who lost no opportunity to
point out his pet virtues to the world and the
Lord. lest they might be overlooked by either
or both, and who was addicted to canting
Phrases" OF course, he denounced Crom-
well and the "Barebones" Parliament He
also descanted upon the absurd doctrines
OF the Puritan religion and 'poked fun at
the opposition of the Puritans to dancing and
other amusements.
The Rev. Charles H. Percival, of Terre
Haute spoke partly in humorous vein
and said many bright things" one of which
your report omitted, but which the Sentinel
report contains and this was that "the
Puritans came over with e5,O0O which they
Immediately invested in Massachusetts
savings banks and Western farm mort
cages"
some other divines made speeches, and the
Hon. John A. Finch also made humorous
speech, IN which he spoke of the enormous
quantities of rum consumed by tho old
PuritanS, the inference being as / SuppoSa
that they Were. therefore, rum creeturs
Now. all this is very humorous hut as
one of the descendants Of the old Massachu-
orous denial that the New England Society
represents me or my ancestors
OF the Puritans of England when he said
that it made them shudder when they
passed two sticks of wood lying crosswise.
Nevertheless, Hume admits that English
liberty and English constitutional govern
ment owed their preservation to the Puri-
tans; We would not in this day. like to see
another Cromwell turning Parliament out of
doors at the point of the bayonet; STILL
without Cromwell and his psaIm-singing
have lost all the constitutional guarantees
that That had been Wrested from King John.
Cromwell made the English flag respected
al over the globe. 1t was under the reign of
his prongate successor that England sunk
10 the lowest depths of degradation When
DE Ruyter had swept the English navies
from the ocean, chased them up the Thames
and burned them, when the sound of foreign
cannon was heard for. the first and last
TIME In the streets of London, the Merry
Monarch was playing games with the dis
soIute women of his court.
me PurtanS left England because they
were hunted and prosecuted there like wild
beasts by archbishop I.aud the most in
Their founding of the colony of Massachu-
sets Bay was the most notable event in
American history. and one of the grandest
characters in American history was John
winthrop, the leader and for many years the
Governor of that colony. One of the speak
ers at the meeting says that they landed in
to mention that the next winter they were
compelled to live upon CLAIMS and roasted
acorns, and that many Of them persisted.
With singular and apparently studied
avoidance Of historical facts. the speakers
that the old Puritans of Massachusetts did
that was worthy of note One after another
Of the American colonial governments went
down, but for sixty years the Massachu-
sets Commonwealth defed all the Kings of
England and yielded at last only to ever
whelnng power. In this period they had
established the right of local self-govern-
ment; they had formed the United Colonies
of New England, and hundred years before
the Declaration of Independence they had
laid deep and strong the foundations OF a
republic. Moreover during this period they
Harvard College. They had also carried On
with King Philip war more bloody and
destructive in proportion to the population
than any other in American history, Il war
in which six hundred men, the flower OF the
colony. persisted and nearly the whole cpun-
try was devastated, and this, too, without
the aid of man or a shilling from England,
and | may add without the ijsue CT any
rat money.
The laws OF the old Puritans were harsh
and some of them like the laws against
wtchcraft. now seem ridiculous. But. as
oddities of Colonial Legislation" their laws
were no harsher and no more ridiculous than
those of Virginia and most of the other
colonies.
The old Puritans were economical in their
ways of life. Their families were large and
their soil was poor. No great fortunes were
made in those days by wrecking railroads
and watering stock and cornering wheat.
They did not spend their money in gambling
and horse-racing, as did your true gentle
mar in the days when ''knighthood was
in flower in England and when "chivalry'
not stingy in providing comfortable houses
for their families, barns for their stock and
substantial churches and .schoolhouses. They
were economical Also in their public eX-
penditures. In 1876 the General Court of
assachusetts made this declaration, which
no modern legislature has ever initiated:
I'VE spend nothing super1uousy in build
ings, feasting, pensions, public gratuities,
officers fees, the like; nay, we
are ashamed sometimes our parSi-
moniousness but we had rather beare
shame and blame than overburden the
people. Such as are in chief office amongst
us are content to live beneath the power of
their places, that they might ease the COM
mon charge.
But when the war of the revolution came
the expenditures of Massachusetts in be-
half of the general government were nearly
equal to those of all four of the States of
New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and
Maryland and nearly ten times as much as
those of Virginia Maryland. North Caro-
lima South Carolina and Georgia Indeed,
without the aid of Massachusetts and the
other New England States there would
have been no revolution, and Great Britain
would to-day be ruling the Dominion of
America instead of the Dominion of Can
ada They set the example of resistance to
the odious navigation acts when they upset
the tea into Boston harbor. and when
guards were stationed around the State
house i'm Boston. with cannon pointed at
the doors the attempt to suppress free
speech was found to be in vain.
Mr. Fiske estimates that Is, 100000 of the
of tho aCi nd