Author: Egbert Cowles

Publisher: Forgotten Books

Published: 2017-10-19

Total Pages: 54

ISBN-13: 9780265492888

Excerpt from Sketches of the Early Settlements of the Plymouth Colony: Historical, Biographical and Anecdotical It has been represented by many honest and candid men that te ligious bigotry gave the first impulse to encountering the perils of a new and untried land, but it seems to the writer that a simple state ment of the facts connected with the early settlement of New Eng land will exhonerate the first settlers from this charge of bigoted re ligious feeling. That they were truly religious men, sincere believers in the gospel of Jesus, is much to their credit; but in all their con duct in their varied and eventful lives, sound reason and wise fore thought seemed to have a predominating influence, and few people have ever exhibited in the erices they were called upon to meet more sound discretion or cool, deliberative wisdom in all the great ques tions they were called upon to decide. Even in the first settlement in Holland, under Rev. John Robinson, caused by religious persecu tion, our ancestry showed the same qualities they so eminently dis played in their after lives. Let their Dutch civil ruler testify in their behalf as they were about to embark for their new home. In a pub lic address to his countrymen he said: These Englishmen, who have resided among us for more than twelve years, have never once been arraigned for a breach of our laws, have led peaceable and quiet lives, always submitted quietly to law without dispute, and have never broken any known law. I wish as much could be said of you, my countrymen. Let their peaceable and quiet lives be an example to you. I am sorry to leave them. Surely there is no proof of re ligious bigotry here, and in their new home we can find but little evidence in all their lives to sustain or corroborate the charge. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.