The Mayflower Democracy: The Last Public Address of Oliver Gray Hall; Given Before the Maine Society of Mayflower Descendants November, 1913 (Classic Reprint) - Tapa dura

Excerpt from The Mayflower Democracy: The Last Public Address of Oliver Gray Hall; Given Before the Maine Society of Mayflower Descendants November, 1913

The story Of the absorption Of our Maine settle ments by Massachusetts is an interesting incident in the evolution Of the Pilgrim Democracy - the march Of robust republican principles. When, in 1692, Maine was united with Massachusetts, the stalwart principles of the Plymouth form Of govem ment had already leavened the Puritan system, and it in turn had disseminated the principles Of popular government through the regal settlement Of Gorgeswith its feudal system, and made its conquest easy, for it was a conquest in fact although under an ostensible claim Of charter rights. It was the head way Of the Democratic and free church ideas Of the Massachusetts colonists against the Royalist and State church system which had got a foothold in the Province Of Maine. But whatever may have been the cause it was most fortunate for the future Of our state that it came under the Puritan jurisdiction. But for its protecting arm the frontier Of the United States, on its Northeastern boundary, would, after the Revolution and the treaty Of Versailles, have been the Piscataqua River instead Of the St. Croix, and Maine would have remained a part of the British Provinces.

There has been much speculation by historians as to the origin of principles which have brought about great changes or eras in human government. Some find the origin Of the principles of liberty of conscience in matters Of religion in the protest Of Martin Luther; others see the beginning of the fight for freedom in the little Puritan parish of Scrooby in England in the time Of James the First. John Fiske, with his Vigorous power Of historic analysis and keen scent for the traces Of human aspiration for liberty down the ages, finds the seeds of the planting Of New England, sown anew by the Pilgrims, struggling to grow, nine hundred years before the Monk of Witten berg defied the power Of the Pope, and one thousandbefore the Pilgrims fled from the despotism of James. He traces the beginning Of New England bac k to the close of the Roman Empire. Irving in Knickerbocker's History of Dutch New York, by beginning with the fall of Adam, may have been less absurd than he intended to be.

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