CHAPTER XXIV. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE COLONISTS. Religious Influences among the earlier Settlers.-The later Emigrants; their Influence.-Love of domestic Life.-Laws enjoining Morality.-Systems of Education; Common Schools.-John Calvin.-The Southerner; the Northerner. The Anglo-Saxon Element; the Norman.-Influences in Pennsylvania; in New York.--Diversity of Ancestry. XXIV. They 1760. THE conquest of Canada had removed apprehensions of CHAP war with France, or of incursions by the Indians. The colonists naturally turned to their own affairs. were poor and in debt; a seven years' war had been within their borders; their men had been drawn from the labor of industry to the battle-field. Yet that war, with its evils, had conferred benefits. It had made known to them their strength, and success had given them confidence. Before relating the events that led to the Revolution, let us take a rapid survey of the people, who were soon to take their place among the nations of the earth. From the first they were an intelligent and a religious people. They were untrammelled in the exercise of their religion, and its spirit moulded public sentiment in all the colonies, whether settled by the Puritan or the Churchman, by the Dutch Calvinist or the Quaker, by the Huguenot or the Scotch-Irish Presbyterian. The two latter were of more recent emigration; they did not diminish the high tone of morals already sustained by the earlier settlers. CHAP. The Huguenots came in small companies, and seldom settled together in large numbers, but mingled with the 1760. colonists, and conformed more and more to their customs, and, in time, became identified with them in interests. Calvinists in doctrine, they generally united with either the Episcopal or Presbyterian churches, and by their piety and industrious habits exerted an influence that amply repaid the genuine hospitality with which they were everywhere received. The Scotch-Irish Presbyterians displayed the indomitable energy and perseverance of their ancestors, with the same morality and love of their church. Even those who took post on the outskirts of civilization along the western frontiers of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina, had their pastor, and trained their children in Bible truth, in the catechism, obedience to parents,— a wholesome doctrine practically enforced by all the colonists, and reverence for the Sabbath and its sacred duties. They were a people decided in their character. They emigrated from their native land to enjoy civil and relig. ious privileges, but they had also an eye to the improve ment of their temporal affairs. The educa The endearments of home and of the domestic fireside had charms for the colonists of every creed. tion of their children was deemed a religious duty, while around their households clustered the comforts and many of the refinements of the times. The example of their ancestors, who had sought in the wilderness an asylum, where they might enjoy their religion, had not been in vain; a traditionary religious spirit had come down from those earlier days, and now pervaded the minds of the people. Though there was neither perfect uniformity in their forms of worship, nor in their interpretation of religious doctrines, yet one sentiment was sacred in the eyes of all— a reverence for the day of Holy Rest. The influences LAWS ENJOINING MORALITY. 275 XXIV. connected with the Sabbath, and impressed from week to CHAP. week, penetrated their inner life, and like an all-pervading moral antiseptic preserved, in its purity, the religious 1760. character of the entire people. The laws of a people may be taken as the embodiment of their sentiments. Those enacted by our forefathers may excite a smile, yet they show that they were no timeservers that they were conscientious and in earnest. In New England the laws noticed those who dressed more richly than their wealth would justify; they would not permit the man who defrauded his creditors to live in luxury; those who did not vote, or would not serve when elected to office, they fined for their want of patriotism; they forbade "drinking of healths as a bad habit;" they prohibited the wearing of embroidered garments and laces; they discouraged the use of "ribbons and great boots;" 'sleeves must reach to the wrist, and not be more than half an ell wide; no one under twenty-years of age was allowed to use tobacco, unless prescribed by a physician; those who used it publicly were fined a sixpence ; all persons were restrained from "swimming in the waters on the Sabbath-day, or unreasonably walking in the fields or streets." In Virginia we see the same spirit. In every settlement there was to be "a house for the worship of God." Divine service was to be in accordance with the canons of the Church of England. Absence from church was punished by a fine; the wardens were sworn to report cases of "drunkenness, swearing, and other vices." The drunkards were fined, the swearers also, at the rate of " a shilling an oath;" slanderers and tale-bearers were punished; travelling or shooting on the Sabbath forbidden. The minister was not to addict himself "to excess in drinking or riot, nor play cards or dice, but to hear or read the Holy Scriptures, catechize the children, and visit the sick." The wardens were bound to report the masters XXIV. CHAP. and mistresses "who neglected to catechize the ignorant persons under their charge." In the Carolinas laws of a 1760. similar character were enacted; and, in Pennsylvania, against "stage plays, playing of cards, dice, May-games, masques, and revels." Although, at the time of which we write, many of these, and similar laws had become obsolete, yet the influences which dictated them had, for one hundred and fifty years, been forming the character of the colonists. Hedged in on the one side by the ocean, and on the other by a howling wilderness filled with hostile savages, they acquired a certain energy of character, the result of watchfulness, and an individuality, which to this day distinguishes their descendants. While emigrants were flocking to the colonies, these influences were somewhat disturbed, but for three-quarters 1688. of a century-since the great revolution in England had restrained the hand of oppression-emigration had been gradually diminishing. Thus uninfluenced from without, the political and religious principles with which they were imbued had time to produce their fruit. A national sentiment, a oneness of feeling among the people, grew into vigorous being. The common schools of New England had exerted their undivided influence for almost three generations; the youth left them with that conscious self-reliance which springs spontaneously in the intelligent mind-a pledge of success in things great as well as small. These schools, no doubt, gave an impulse to female education. In the earlier days of New England the women were taught to read, but very few to write. "The legal papers executed in the first century (of the colony) by well-to-do women, were mostly signed by a mark, (X)”.' The custom of 'Elliott's History of New England, vol. i p. 428. EDUCATION-FREE INQUIRY AND CIVIL LIBERTY. 277 settling in townships or villages made it easy to support CHAP common schools XXIV. In the middle colonies, especially Pennsylvania and 1760. New York, a system of general education had not been introduced; the diversity of sects prevented. In the South, except partially in Maryland, common schools were not adopted. The owners of slaves usually held large tracts of the best lands, while the less wealthy were compelled to retire to the outskirts of the settlements, where they could obtain farms. The population was thus so much scattered, that generally children could not be concentrated at particular places in sufficient numbers to sustain schools. Those who, for want of means, could not employ private teachers, taught their own children as best they could. Among this class, from year to year, there was but little increase in general intelligence. The wealthy employed private instructors, or sent their children abroad. As the nation increased in knowledge, the people cherished the right to exercise free thought and free speech. Our ancestors lived not for themselves alone. With the prophet's vision, and the patriot's hope, they looked forward to the day, when all this continent would be under the influence of their descendants, and they a Christian people. Was it strange they were self-denying and in earnest, in endeavoring to spread the blessings of education and religion, as the greatest boon they could transmit to their posterity? Thus they labored to found institutions of learning; they encouraged the free expression of opinion. From the religious freedom of conscience, which they proclaimed as the doctrine of the Bible, the transition was easy to political freedom. The advocate of free inquiry became the advocate of civil liberty, and the same stroke which broke the chain binding the word of God to the interpretation of the church, shattered the fetters binding the political slave. |