Early Days in New England e-bog

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. The experiment of self-government, which began on the shores of New England less than three centuries ago, has borne such grand results that interest in the early formative period has in creased with each succeeding generation, until the desire to know every detail and the history of every struggle connected -with the first settlements has given rise to careful study of that character and principle which have hadso much to do with the successful attainments that have followed. Family history, though cover ing in some respects only a limited line of inquiry, has brought to light many interesting facts, while the study of that larger. Field of combined effort, which gave direction and infused life and strength into the government of New England, has given to the world a broader knowledge of the foundation upon which it has rested. When we look across the sea to the mother country and behold how slowly she has struggled out of that conservative Spirit, which for centuries was the all-controlling and over-mastering element in her character, and how Slow she has been to grant larger liberties to her subjects, we turn with honest pride to our own New England and note how She has led the way and evolved out of the dark and contentious past, higher and better conditions for the human race than were known before our ancestors set their high example. Equality of race, equality of manhood, found here a realization then unknown in the European schemes of government. In the Old World the few were born to govern the many. Here the order was reversed, and the founders having regard for justice and equity built not for themselves alone, but for every one who joined with them in upholding a living faith in humanity, and in those civil and religious principles which have since marked every move ment in the line of progress throughout the world.