The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-12-17
JUDGE BALDWIN
Addresses Congregational Club in
 MiddletoWn.


 pie attended the December meeting of the Central Congregational club at Middletown Tuesday evening. The meeting was held in the First Congre- gational church and the address was given by Judge Simeon E. Baldwin of New Haven, who spoke on the sub ject, "The Fathers of New England" Y"
 The occasion was forefathers day, and the address was especially appro- priate. Judge Baldwin is one of the intellectual leadens of our times, and is well fitted to speak on such a sub ject. His scholarly habit of mind and his great learning give much weight to whathe has to say. The speaker was introduced by w. H. Catlin of this city, president of the club. An outline of the speech follows:
 "The founders of countries or of in- stitutions have 8 place by themselves. Their work glorifies them, and in the full knowledge which we have of that work their faults are forgotten. There were colonists in this country before the Mayfower. set sail on it's eventful journey. Virginia had been settled in 1907, and the Dutch had sailed up the Connecticut river in 1914
 There was much more chance for the Dutch to make a New Netherlands of this part of the country than for the English to make of it a New Eng land. But in this group of men and women who landed on the bleak coast two hundred and eighty-six years ago yesterday there was the power to carve out a new empire, and this they did while the Dutch are known here TO more.
 "There were no very rich men among them, They were being used as a sort of speculation by the men who were behind the movement. They had no charter or government with which to begin their state, and they had each been pledged to seven years of labor for the company. There were savages to fight and many diffi- culties to overcome.
 Tt is now the fashion to minimize their work and to find fault with theil ways, But they were a people of ar dor, faith, endurance and high ideals and their limitations were those oi their age There are yet many de scendants of these people living, but they are built on g different mode from their forbears
 "Once at a banquet Q boast was off, fered to the Pilgrim Fathers who had endured all things. Some one proposed also toast to the wives of the Pilgrim Fathers who endured all things, inclu- ding the Pilgrim Fathers. If they were now alive they would seem to us hard and narrow minded men of one idea But the English people know what those Pilgrims have done for America Though they left their minister behind them, they brought their religion which was a most necessary as well as most precious thing. Plymouth colo ny was absorbed by Massachusetts even as New Haven colony was ab- sorbed by Connecticut.
 "The men of both these colonies were religionists. They were interested in the founding of governments founded upon ecclesiasticism, But Massachu- setts was more mixed m it's member ship. Here was the real beginning ot American democracy and in this there was a departure from the desire ot many of their leaders who were op' posed to the principle of democracy.
 "The idea of doing work together and of having their stores in common was soon found to be a poor one, ant long before the seven years were III they were heartily tired of it. They asked that a pastor be sent them, bu he turned out to be q rogue, The ship ment of the first cattle about this time when three cows and a bull were sen over, proved of much more benefit thar the ministei.
 "The pastor was expelled in 1929, anC went to Virginia, where he committed suicide. Another pastor was soon sen to plymouth, and he proved to be z good man.
 The colony of New Haven was al attempt to place the Jewish law over Christian people. Of course the at tempt failed, but the aim and ideal wa very high. There has never been, be fore or since, such another.
 Tt was to be Gods state, Kingdom of this world, built on the basis of tn, Kingdom of heaven. The governmen was really an aristocracy, and many O the leaders were thorough aristocrats 1 having good houses, books and the in stincts of nobility, They lived well anC liked their beer and wine. They wer not at all ascetic in taste. In 7611 tn King James version of the Bible Wa made, and they of course drew mucl from it. Sir Thomas Moore's Utopia was also used.
 "They were a good people, an though they have all long since gon the way of all the eartht, they hay lived on in their institutions. Wit them liberty had a new birth, not onl here, but in England as well. Tha spirit of liberty has been caught b Congregationalism which does not al low any authority to interpose betwee man and his God"
 MEMORIAL TABLET