In 1786 David Humphreys, in his "Poem, On the Happiness of America; Addressed to the Citizens of the United States," wrote: Here equal fortunes, ease, the ground their own, Augment their numbers with increase unknown Here hamlets grow - here Europe's pilgrims come From vassall'd woes to find a quiet home.1 The following extract is taken from the Independent Chronicle of January 6, 1794: CONCORD, December 26, 1793. At the Anniversary Meeting of the Pilgrim Society in Concord, on the 25th instant, at Lieut. John Richardson's,* for the purpose of commemorating the Divine Nativity; after transacting the necessary business of the Society, they spent the evening in grateful and Christian conviviality, and most cordially drank the following pertinent Toasts on the occasion, viz. First. The Birth-Day of our SAVIOUR. Second. The Pilgrims in Concord. Third. The Day. rejoice as Christians. While we feast as strangers and brethren, let us Fourth. May the light of Reason and Philosophy, banish superstition. Fifth. May we never want a WASHINGTON, nor a WASHINGTON a grateful People. Sixth. May the basis of our freedom be virtue, and lasting as time. Seventh. May those, who are struggling for Freedom and Equality, ever enjoy them. Eighth. May we ever rejoice in each others freedom and prosperity. Ninth. Strangers, wheresoever they are. After which the Members retired to their respective places of abode, in great good order and filled with many good impressions. * A Society formed in Concord, some years since by a number of young Men, who emigrated from various towns, and settled in Concord, and replenished from time to time, with persons only of that description. The Society now consists of about 20 members.2 1 Boston Magazine, 1786, iii. 397. 2 P. 4/1. Presumably it was at Concord, Massachusetts, that this Pilgrim Society existed; but no other allusion to it has been found. John Richardson was born at Watertown July 11, 1758; went to Concord in 1778, opened an inn there in 1789, but moved away in 1804; became a member of the Social Wherever the terms Pilgrims and Pilgrim Fathers are found after 1798, of course their use is due to the Pilgrims of Plymouth. In 1830 John F. Watson published his "Annals of Philadelphia, being a Collection of Memoirs, Anecdotes, & Incidents of the City and its Inhabitants from the Days of the Pilgrim Founders." In 1831 John V. L. McMahon wrote: Leonard Calvert . . . purchased the town from the natives, and established his colony within it by their consent. In pursuance of his agreement with the natives, the colony was disembarked at the town of Yaocomoco, on the 27th of March, 1634, and took possession of it by the name of St. Mary's. Then and thus landed the Pilgrims of Maryland, and then and thus were laid the foundations of the old city of St. Mary's, and of our present State. . . . The close of the second century since that event, is now near at hand; and why should not the return of the day, which commemorates the landing of these pilgrims, be the occasion of a jubilee to us? . . . The landing of the Pilgrims of New England, has been the burden of many a story, and the theme of many an oration. . . . Yet whilst we would avoid all invidious contrasts, and forget the stern spirit of the Puritan, which so frequently mistook religious intolerance for holy zeal; we can turn with exultation to the Pilgrims of Maryland, as the founders of religious liberty in the new world.2 "Thus much," remarked William L. Stone in 1842, "for the public career of this great Indian benefactor to the Pilgrim Fathers of Con 1 The following appeared in the Columbian Centinel of January 20, 1802 (p. 4/1): SIR MR. RUSSELL. - THE following lines were addressed to our late excellent fellow-citizen, G. R. MINOT, ESQUIRE, while he was composing the 1st Volume of his History of Massachusetts, by a sincere admirer of his character - - ANALASKI. Then follows a poem in sixteen stanzas, the last reading: Yes, ere the fabled Tale is wrought, While yet the features are imprest, Pourtray the Pilgrims of the West. The first volume of Minot's Continuation of the History of the Province of Massachusetts Bay bears on its title-page the date "Feb. 1798." If the above lines were written before that date, then their author probably was not influenced by the Plymouth and Boston celebrations. * Historical View of the Government of Maryland, i. 195, 197, 198 note. necticut."1 "It was a beautiful thought," declared Joseph R. Chandler in 1855, "and does honor to those who entertained it and gave it utterance, and finally put it into practice, to make a public celebration of the 'Landing of the Pilgrims of Maryland;' " and in the oration he delivered on the occasion, he alluded to "the Pilgrim Fathers of St. Mary's," "the Pilgrims of St. Mary's county," "the Pilgrim Fathers of Maryland," and "the Pilgrims of St. Mary's city."2 "The Pilgrims of Plymouth," wrote Whittier in 1872, "have not lacked historian and poet. . . . The Quaker pilgrims of Pennsylvania, seeking the same objects by different means, have not been equally fortunate; " and so he composed his poem "The Pennsylvania Pilgrim," dealing with Francis Daniel Pastorius.3 THE PILGRIMS OF PLYMOUTH AND THE PURITANS OF MASSACHUSETTS We now reach the last phase of our subject—namely, the distinction between the Pilgrims of the Plymouth Colony and the Puritans of the Massachusetts Colony. Were the passengers in the Mayflower Puritans in religion? During the past half-century this 1 Uncas and Miantonomoh, p. 143. 2 "Civic and Religious Equality. An Oration delivered at the fourth commemoration of the Pilgrims of Maryland, celebrated May 15, 1855. Under the auspices of the Philodemic Society of Georgetown College. To which is prefixed a notice of the proceedings at the Celebration. Philadelphia: . . . 1855," pp. 5, 23, 30, 42, 45, 53, 54. Mr. Chandler's "Address. . . at the celebration of the Landing of the Pilgrims of Maryland, at the site of St. Mary's City, May 15th, 1855," was also printed at Baltimore. The same use of the terms will be found in New England Historical and Genealogical Register (1877), xxxi. 224; J. W. Thomas, Chronicles of Colonial Maryland (1900), p. 19; Rev. W. T. Russell, Maryland; the Land of Sanctuary (1907), pp. 76-77, 84, 197 note. 3 Complete Poetical Works (Cambridge edition, 1894), pp. 103–112, 519–520. The term is also occasionally used in a figurative sense. Thus on October 18, 1906, Life said: "The early efforts of Josh Billings and Artemus Ward, the Pilgrim Fathers of Phonetics, to introduce their Sound System of Spelling were not taken seriously; these fanatics of funetics were laughed at, and in time spelling as a branch of humor died out" (xlviii. 431). At the Boston celebration in 1804 was sung a song called New-England, written for the occasion, (by a gentleman in a neighbouring State)," which contained the following lines (Columbian Centinel, December 26, 1804, p. 4/1): From Discord, oppression, injustice and strife, Here FREEDOM, the PILGRIM a refuge shall find, A covert secure from the tempest of life The WONDER, EXAMPLE, and PRIDE of MANKIND. question has been hotly contested, and admirable authority can be cited in both the affirmative and the negative. The problem is too complex for treatment here, and its discussion is reserved for a future occasion. Moreover, for our present purpose it is immaterial whether the Mayflower passengers were or were not, properly speaking, Puritans. It will be sufficient to show what views have been held on this subject since 1769. In 1776 the Rev. Sylvanus Conant said: "In these and the like ways, GOD as it were searched out and prepared a place in this wilderness for the flight of his little persecuted flock. It must be noticed that the civil and ecclesiastical powers of England at this time, were against them, on account of their puritan principles." "Hence they," remarked the Rev. Samuel West in 1777, referring to the enemies of "our fathers," "called them, Fanaticks, Schismaticks, and, in scorn, Puritans; and they doubtless thought that God would be glorified by their thus cruelly persecuting their brethren." 2 In 1794 Belknap stated that in 1620 “A Company of ENGLISH PURITANS, who had resided twelve years in Holland, began a colony in New England, which they called New Plymouth." "Two Centuries are this day completed," said the Rev. John Chester in 1820, "since the PURITAN PILGRIMS of New England landed on the soil of the new world; "4 and in the same year the Rev. Daniel Huntington remarked, 1 Anniversary Sermon (1777), pp. 14–15. 2 Anniversary Sermon (1778), p. 38. • American Biography, i. 46: cf. ii. 151. The following is taken from the Massachusetts Magazine for May, 1794: DEACON Account of an Ancient and Curious STAFF. EACON Joseph White, of Yarmouth, in the County of Barnstable, great grandson of Peregrine,* has in his possession a Staff, which is valuable for its great antiquity. It had conveyance, agreeably to well authenticated tradition, in the first ship which came to New England in 1620. When those vencrable puritanic sages landed at Plymouth, one of their company walked with this Staff. It is three feet in length; and is a striking instance of that noble simplicity, which so eminently dignified the character of those primitive, and justly celebrated fathers of this country. * Peregrine White was the first born of English parents in New England (vi. 288). Sermon (1820), p. 6. The term "Puritan Pilgrims" occurs again on p. 7 of this Sermon, and is also employed by the following writers: 1835, P. Sprague, Speech (1836), pp. 5, 32; 1849, D. Wilson, in History of the Puritans in England, |