The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1920-12-21
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BENNINGTON,
TUESDAY, DECEMBER q, 1920
rAE plLeRlM ANNIVERSARY

and the ships company OF the May ,
flower landed at Plymouth. All over
the United States the anniversary is
being celebrated this week by the de-
scendants Of the most remarkable
body OF colcnists who ever came to
the new world.
1t is common error OF those who
have not read history carefully TO
confuse the Pilgrims of Plymouth with
the Puritan colonies which were lat
err established at Salem and Boston.
In fact there was wide difference
between the two colonies on the
shores OF Massachusetts.
To Salem and Boston came the rigid
Puritans the sternly righteous, un'
smiling, supporters OF their own views
who would brook no interference with
their own iron theories. These relig-
Gus zealots of Massachusetts Bay and
their followers have been great
force in the world and anyone who
reads history must admit that the
rigid purity of their life and doctrine
was needed in the world in their day
and generation.
But the Pilgrims, who landed three
hundred years ago today on Plymc nth
Rock, were OF a superior type For
eleven years they had lived In exile in
Holland. They had learned something
Of relig GUS tolerance and civil liberty
and these lessons they brought to the
shores of New England. They never
hanged witch or dubbed q Quaker.
They lived in peace and friendship
with the Indians and permitted those
who did net agree with them in relig-
ious belief to settle on lands owned by
Plymouth IN the town OF Eastman.
From Governor William Bradford and
Elder Robinson down 70 Perigrine
White, the boy baby, born at Province.
town, ere the Mayfower reached Ply
mouth, the Pilgrim Fathers and
Mothers we're the most tolerant and
broad minded Of the colonial groups,
which laid the foundations OF
Amer ca.
There is so much that may be said
in honor OF the pilgrim torefathers
and the colony which they founded
that brief newspaper article can in
no sense do them Justice The fam
Gus pact" signed in the dingy cabin
OF the Mayfower may rightly be sara
to be the precursor of the Deelaration
ofIndependence and the Constitution
of the United States Plymouth Rock.
in more senses than one. is the foun-
dalton Of American freedom
The doctrine declared by Elder Rob.
inscp pastor Of the Mayaower flock.
for fourteen years in England and
Holland. you have no right to trouble
yourself with any mans conscience
so long as nothing is done to cause
private harm or public scandal
is the great doctrine Of religious
liberty which is the brightest
jewe! in the crown Of the American
Republic.
II was the Pilgrims who founded thu
free public school, 1t was the Pilgrims
who discovered that the rights OF tbs
individual and the rights of propert!
must go hand in hand and that neithei
can continue without the other. I
was the Pilgrims who discovered tina
representative government acquiesce,
in by the people 1.-THE consent of tn
| governed is the best form of govern
ment that the earth has yet produced
1t was the Pilgrims who, to defen
Their colony dared to burden then
| selves with a public debt greater tina
the total value Of all their property
No country in the recent war ha
shouldered greater propo-tionate oil
| liga'icn than did these rugged for,
fathers of New England. And the
paid the debt in full We of this da
and generation, in view Of their e,
ample, ought to be ashamed to con
pla n OF the public burdens we ar
called upon to bear
| The world, and particularly III
United States, has learned more c
the essentials Of self government. {
civil and religious liberty, and of tn
correct relation of the state to the il
divldual and the individual to tn
state, from that colonial experiment a
Plymouth than from all other source
| combined.
| Sons and daughters Of New En-.
land, wherever they may roam, an
patriots OF every blood and breed fror
now to the writing on the last page (
the book of Time, should honor III
Pilgrim Fathers, not only in name an
fame, but, chiefly in needing the lei
sons they learned and have transmi
ted tc us and to the future.