USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Fairfield > Fairfield, Connecticut tercentenary, 1639-1939 > Part 3
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Hear us finally, Oh Lord God, for all who suffer by sick- ness, poverty or bewilderment; for all who are wronged and are oppressed; for all who are underworked or underpaid; for the homeless; for those who can find no work; for prisoners and outcasts; for the victims of degrading lust, intemperance and self-indulgence. And, Oh God, prepare us that we, Thy child- ren, may be ready to enter into the glorious realization of those desires which Thou hast implanted in our hearts by the spirit of Thy gracious Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.
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INTRODUCTION OF THE SPEAKER
The Rev. David P. Hatch
I count it a very gracious privilege accorded me by the Committee on Religious Observance to welcome at this time on your behalf as speaker this afternoon at the opening of our Ter- centenary observances Dr. John C. Schroeder, Professor at Yale Divinity School. Dr. Schroeder was given as a general theme "Our Religious Observances," and I assure Dr. Schroeder that we accord him full liberty in dealing with that subject as he chooses. Dr. Schroeder.
ADDRESS-"Our Religious Liberties"
The Rev. John C. Schroeder, D.D.
All measurements of time are relative. The horror in which the world has been living since the second of September seems like an awful and terrifying millenium. Yet three hun- dred years in the established life of a community like this seem but a short time in long reaches of history. Whatever man thinks of his governments or of his empires, if he thinks of them against the background of history, he realizes always how mutable his life is. "All our days are as grass." "A thousand years in Thy sight are but as yesterday when it is passed, and as a watch in the night."
St. Augustine once said, "If you do not ask me what time is, I know. If you ask me, I do not know." Yet as human communities go, as existent cultures and traditions among men go, three hundred years is a long time. The governments of men do not last long, and in contrast to other empires and other established traditions three centuries is a long time. The history of a community like this over these three hundred years has been an authentic continuity. Within this space people have been born; they have lived; they have died. Yet they have passed their days within a tradition that has been both consist- ent and abiding. The memory of all these people who have so lived and so given their life to this community must for us be a hallowed thing, a gracious and a true remembrance.
We do right in a celebration like this to turn back to them with gratitude in our own hearts and with hallowed remem- brance upon our own lips. After all, having become in the providence of time a part of a communty like this, a part of this tradition, it becomes our problem to keep it so. You and I have to be so careful lest, whenever we contrast our lot with that of people in other nations and in other communities, we become complacent. We become so sure of our tradition; it has come to us so easily with no effort upon our parts that we are liable to take all this for granted. In this community for three hundred years people have lived their days in peace. May it continue to
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be so. Here for three hundred years people have lived their lives in tolerance of one another. May that continue to be true. Here people have been able to find their own ways in freedom. May that continue to be a fact. Here men and women have been enabled to seek the truth as they saw it, to find out of the free- dom in which they were reared, their own answer to life.
Let Liberty and Tolerance be Preserved
This after all is your problem, and it is mine as well; and it is not an easy thing to continue, even though it has existed for three hundred years. For this is an indisputable fact for us -the heritage of liberty and of tolerance in which you and I live our days is real. It is something to be cherished, and, there- fore, it can never be easily taken for granted.
I would for a while talk with you about the people from whom this tradition came. We owe a debt of gratitude to those who founded this community with a high regard for freedom and with some understanding of what religious liberty means.
Now, it is an amazing thing, as I think about it, that this tradition of religious liberty should have come from people whom history has called Puritans. You and I, as we think about the Puritans, if we do so superficially, will surely think that these people after all were dour; that they were sour; they were bigoted; they were joyless; they were unctuous hyprocrites, who had no joy or beauty or urbanity in their lives.
It is true they were hard working; it is true they were intense in their belief. It is true that they were thrifty. Yet by some miracle these same Puritans with all of these unlikable and unwelcome characteristics came to these shores to found communities in which religious liberty was real.
How can that possibly have come about? How did it happen that out of the lives of people like this there should have been born a tradition in which religious liberty was a real thing? Well, it may be that you and I do not understand what kind of people they were that this should have been so.
"What is a Puritan?"
A few years ago the late Stuart Sherman wrote a brilliant essay called "What is a Puritan," in which he adduced a great deal of material which helps us very much to understand the Puritan and perhaps to know why it is that you and I should live in a tradition of religious liberty.
Of course, what is most evident about the Puritan is that he was a sincere man, a person of utter sincerity. It would be possible to adduce thousands of illustrations that this was char- acteristic of his mind, his thinking and his living. I take only one. A certain William Prynne, a Puritan, who lived in Eng- land, having been put into jail because of his convictions, never-
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theless would not give them up. So there were branded upon his cheeks the letters "SL," which stood for seditious libeller. When Prynne was finally released, he said that those letters stood for the words, "Stigmata Laudis,"-marks of praise. And the time came one day-so sincere and adamant was he in his opinions-that he helped to take off the head of Arch- bishop Laud, who had had the letters branded upon his cheeks. Any man who did that can at least not be accused of insincerity.
These people were harsh and intolerant, it is said; they were bigoted. As we think of the Puritans, we think of the hanging of twenty poor old women in Salem, Massachusetts, as witches. Yet as we contrast the Puritans with other people of that day, one is bound to remember that, horrible though the hangings may have been in Salem, the frenzy lasted but a year. In contrast in Europe and in South America at the same time the people of those lands put more than a hundred thousand people to death as witches, hanging them, burning them, tor- turing then. The persecution lasted for more than a hundred years. One wonders whether if it is fair to call these Puritans, when one judges them against the background of their time, harsh or intolerant.
The Puritans Enjoyed Life
But it is said they put duty before pleasure, and it is per- fectly true that they did. But that does not mean that the Puri- tans did not enjoy life. Such people, of course, are never popu- lar with those who put pleasure before duty, but you and I understand, nevertheless, that the working world and the bear- ing of its burdens come from those who have a sense of respons- ibility and know the meaning of duty.
As for pleasure the Puritans we say did not know what pleasure was. Well, in part the Puritans would have shocked some of us by their behavior. Do you remember in Pilgrim's Progress when Christian's wife set out for her salvation, she suddenly remembered and stopped, and sent one of the children back for a bottle of liquor? They presumably had some idea of what pleasure is.
John Robinson, who was pastor of the flock which came over on the Mayflower, once said, "Abstinence from marriage is no more a virtue than abstinence from wine. Both marriage and wine are of God and good in themselves."
You say the Puritans had no love of pleasure or of beauti- ful things. After Shakespeare there was John Milton, who stands second in the ranks of English literature. Milton not only loved beauty, as the cadence of his poetry reveals, but Milton also knew something about those who were responsible for the life of the state. Milton classified citizens of a commun- ity in order of merit in this way. First he put those who make
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the social existence of the citizen just and holy, and second he put those who make the social life of the citizen splendid and beautiful.
If you and I for a moment believe that the Puritans had no love of exquisite things, all we have still to do is to travel about New England, and see meeting houses, whose beauty rises to the sky in the praise of God.
You say this harsh Puritan had no tenderness. During the first terrible year in the Massachusetts Bay Colony it was two very masculine men, Miles Standish and Brewster, who nursed the sick with the care of a woman.
You say there was no thrilling excitement in the life of the Puritans. Well, after all it was these people who killed their king; who overthrew the throne of the Archbishop of Canter- bury; who came across the Atlantic Ocean in a boat so small that even the most daring of us would not trust our lives in one to go fishing in the Housatonic.
You and I are a movie-bred generation. We say that in order to have excitement in life there ought at least to be a triangle in every household. Yet every Puritan husband knew that his rival was one who constantly claimed the love and affection of his wife, a jealous rival, the Lord God Jehovah. Him his wife could never forget-a much more ardent com- petitor for the love of his wife than any contemporary movie idol could possibly be for any woman.
Romance in Puritan Days
You say that these people who were bigots had no charm. Well, we generally think of Cotton Mather as the most bigoted of them all. Cotton Mather was married three times, and be- tween wife number two and wife number three, when he was forty yars old, he received a proposal of marriage from a girl of twenty, who all admitted was the wittiest and the prettiest girl in the colony. It can hardly be said that that man had no charm.
If you feel that these people had no charm in their lives, may I read you a letter from John Winthrop to his wife, after they had been married eleven years. Those of you who have been married eleven years might well take this deeply to heart as an example of as lovely and gracious a message as any hus- band could write to his wife.
"Sweetheart, I was unwillingly hindered from com- ing to thee, nor am I like to see thee before the last day of this week. Therefore, I shall want a band or two and some cuffs. I pray thee send me six or seven leaves of tobacco, dry and powdered.
"Have care of thyself this cold weather, and speak to the folks to keep the goats well out of the garden.
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"If any letters come for me, send them by this bearer. I will troubel thee no further. The Lord bless and keep thee, my sweet wife, and all our family, and send us a comfortable meeting.
"So I kiss thee and love thee ever, and rest
Thy faithful husband, JOHN WINTHROP."
No charm in people like that?
Or you say they were bigots who had narrow minds, and yet these same Puritans were characterized by the fact that they trusted their reason, and they trusted implicitly the integrity of the mind. This same Cotton Mather, whom you and I are wont to scorn as a bigot, was made, I remind you, a member of the Royal Scientific Society. He was the man who introduced into this country inoculations or vaccinations for small pox in a day when that was a brave, daring, scientific thing to do. So intrepid was Cotton Mather in his trust in this new medical discovery that a bomb was thrown into his home, because he insisted that all people ought to have their children vaccinated against the pox.
This same John Robinson, the pastor of the Mayflower flock, once said, "Our Lord Christ calls himself truth, not custom."
Therefore, if one looks for the characteristics of these Puritans, he is bound to recognize certain things; that they had a dissatisfaction with the past; that they had the courage to break with the past; that they understood the meaning of a vision for a better life; that they had the readiness to accept discipline in order to achieve this life, and that there was among them a serious desire to make this good life prevail. One has the feeling as he reads their record, that by and large they were better men than we.
Are we tolerant or indifferent?
Here, then, is the problem. Their very history reveals the nature of the meaning of the problem of religious liberty. How can you produce men of such intense convictions, men who be- lieve something so deeply that actually they are committed to it? Men who believe something so deeply that they will not waiver compromise, and yet at the same time be men of tolerance? That after all is the crux of this problem of religious liberty. You see your difficulty is that we have so few people of great and enduring conviction.
Yet we are inclined at times to pride ourselves upon our tolerance, and yet our tolerance is hardly tolerance. What we mean by tolerance are beliefs that mean so little to us that,
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therefore, we do not care when someone disagrees with us. That is not tolerance. It is not tolerance not to care about a convic- tion. It is not tolerance simply to be indifferent to belief. The problem of religious liberty is to have those who believe deeply and yet to have religious liberty.
Now, this is not an easy thing to do. There have been many times in the world's history when you have had people of intense belief. The bigots, the fanatics, the inquisitors in the world's history are indices of the fact that at various times there have been people of belief. How at the same time can there be people of belief and yet with tolerance?
If you look upon these Puritans who finally gave us our religious liberty, you will find surprisingly enough, whether or not you agree with these people, that the intensity of their belief virtually produced an ideal of religious liberty, because even though they did believe intensely, they always had respect for individuals. It is that which finally produces religious liberty ; it is that which produces democracy, in which alone religious liberty is possible.
Now, you and I, when we are describing democracy, think of democracy as being the will of the majority, which is not democracy at all. We must always make that clear. If democ- racy really were the will of the majority, then it would not long survive, because the majority is always wrong. In history if the government of people depended upon the will of the majority, then man would go to destruction, because the major- ity is always wrong. That does not mean that if you belong to a minority, you are sure that you are right. But it does mean that if you are in a minority, the chances are better of your being right than if you belong to a majority.
Democracy a respect for Minority
Democracy is a respect for the minority. This you see is the very basis of any ideal of religious liberty. The Puritans had intense convictions, but they always respected individuals, and because they did, the time came when they knew that they had to cease to be intolerant, simply because individuals had to be respected.
Now, you and I live in a time when this belief in democ- racy is challenged. Unfortunately there are many people in our land who feel that the only way to defend democracy is to fight for it. But democracy will be established not by people fighting for it. Then it will be lost. It will be found as people demon- strate it.
You and I in our belief in democracy have been challenged 'by men in our time who do not believe in it. Yet it is the essence of belief in religious liberty that even these people who challenge our system shall yet be allowed freedom. It is a very
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difficult belief to believe in, but this is the belief that has given us the traditions we have now. This is the belief that enables you and me to live in freedom. It is the belief that must be continued, even though the fascists, the bundists, the Jew bait- ers and the Communists; even though the Kuhns and the Pelleys and the General Mosleys challenge it; even though these people say, "We have the truth, and you must accept it at your peril." Yet you and I, if we believe in religious liberty, if we believe in democracy, must nevertheless allow them freedom of speech, even though we challenge to the very basis the truth of what they say.
The Puritans were Refugees
There is one other thing that is indisputably a part of this tradition of religious freedom. May I point out that these Puri- tans who gave it to us were refugees, driven from their own home land? If you watch human history, you will realize that some of the greatest contributions to history have come from refugees-from the refugee Greeks who came into the Roman Empire all the way down to the refugee groups who have given vitality to the American tradition.
Tolerance-religious liberty-is almost the hardest of the virtues to practice. This is true particularly in the realm of religion where people have intense faith. Yet you will have religious liberty only when you will be able with your high faith to have respect for the person whose faith challenges or disagrees with your own.
This, then, is the tradition which has given this community three hundred years of hallowed life. It is this tradition which has made everything that is sacred in the life of this town pos- sible. This community reveres these three hundred years because of its respect and reverence for the minorities who have come to dwell within it, through which minorities it has had its life.
Your problem and mine-your task and mine is that this hallowed tradition shall continue, because you and I have faith, and you and I have conviction, and you and I will continue to trust in the one form of government which deep in our heart we know will last, because all other kinds that trust in the repression of groups within it in the long run must perish. This is our belief; without it we cannot live.
MR. HATCH: However wrong the majority may always be I am sure the majority here this afternoon is right in express- ing gratitude to Dr. Schroeder for the penetrating appraisal that he has brought to us.
May we all rise and after the pronouncement of the bene- diction by the Rev. William J. Blake join in the singing of "America."
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BENEDICTION - The Rev. William J. Blake May the blessing of God, the Father, who created us; of God, the Son, who redeemed us, and God, the Holy Ghost, who sanctified us, descend upon us today to cast over our beautiful town and our beautiful country a care, and to keep us away from all the evil of dark clouds that may be hovering over our country now; and grant that this blessing may inspire the lead- ers of our country with the thought that our people do not want to become mixed in foreign conditions of any kind; they do not want our boys to fight foreign battles on foreign grounds. May the Most Blessed Trinity inspire our country that our people want nothing else but peace, and may the blessing of God and the Blessed Trinity preserve us and give us that peace now and forever more, Amen.
In the name of the Father, the Son and Holy Ghost, Amen.
"AMERICA"
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Harmonia Angelicana
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1939 4:00 P. M.
FAIRFIELD DAY SOUTH TERRACE, FAIRFIELD TOWN HALL
PRESIDING OFFICER - William O. Burr
INVOCATION - The Rev. David P. Hatch
TERCENTENARY ODE, by Mrs. Walter H. Hellmann
Chorus of Fifty
PAGEANT SCENES
CAPTURE OF GEN. GOLD SELLECK SILLIMAN
Holland Hill School LIFE OF THE REV. TIMOTHY DWIGHT
Timothy Dwight School
ADDRESS - - His Excellency, Raymond E. Baldwin Governor of Connecticut
ADDRESS - -
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Honorable Charles Seymour.
President of Yale University
HYMN "America" BENEDICTION The Rev. William J. Blake
Instrumental Music by the High School Band
GREETINGS William O. Burr Chairman, Fairfield Tercentenary Committee
On behalf of the Tercentenary Committee and the people of the Town of Fairfield I welcome Governor Baldwin of Connecticut and President Seymour of Yale University and other distinguished guests.
Three hundred years ago Roger Ludlow and four men. whose names were Thomas Staples, Thomas Newton, Edward Jessup, and Edmund Strickland, left Hartford with their cattle to make a settlement at Pequonnock, now Bridgeport. It was a long way to travel in those days. There were no roads to follow nor any fences to keep their cattle from straying off into the bushes and wilderness, through which the path led. When they came to Quinnipiac, now New Haven, where there was already a settlement, they expected to sell some of their cattle. "But," Roger Ludlow wrote, "the hand of the Lord was against us," for they lost several of their cattle.
They came to Pequonnock, their destination, but for some reason they did not like it there. So they traveled a few miles farther west, and came to Uncowa, now Fairfield. They were pleased with the land here and began preparations for the winter that was soon coming. They were making history, but they did not know it. They were only interested in finding a suitable place to make a living.
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They arrived here in the middle of September, 1639, and we are celebrating this week the three hundredth anniversary of that event.
We will now be led in prayer by the Rev. David P. Hatch, pastor of the Fairfield Congregational Church.
Invocation by Rev. David P. Hatch
MR. HATCH: Let us of one accord invoke the presence of God in prayer.
Eternal God, whose spirit prevails from generation to gen- eration, and by virtue of whose presence in man's life our fore- fathers in the past have bravely sought that which is brave, true and abiding, grant now Thy spirit to be with us in this high and significant hour. May we bear upon our hearts a consciousness of all that is rich and good in the heritage they have passed on to us.
Bless Thou, we beseech Thee, the Governor of this com- monwealth and those who exercise authority with him. Bless also him who speaks to us on behalf of the educational forces in our state, one who leads and guides the destiny of youth in an historic institution, to which our town has contributed so richly in the past.
We thank Thee, oh God, for those experiences of men and women in our time that are the more rich and worthy in civic life, in domestic happiness and security because of all the well won graces in the lives of our fathers; and do Thou help us so to acquit ourselves in this time that we may indeed be worthy trustees of that which they have given unto us. Through Jesus Christ, Our Lord, Amen.
MR. BURR: The spirit of our Tercentenary was caught by the eight playgrounds of the town this summer, and influ- enced their handcrafts and sports. When the playgrounds presented their closing exercises in the Roger Ludlow Audi- torium, a song was sung by fifty girls selected from all the playgrounds because of the excellence of their voices.
The song was entitled "Fairfield, Our Town," and the words and music were composed by Mrs. Hellmann, wife of the director of our playgrounds, Walter H. Hellmann. Mrs. Hellmann trained the chorus, and we thought it so good that it should be on this program. Mr. Clifford Seymour will be at the piano.
(The Tercentenary Ode was sung by a chorus of fifty.)
MR. BURR: The Tercentenary Committee appointed a committee on education. Dr. Mccullough, superintendent of Schools, is chairman of that committee.
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Last October he started the children studying the history of Fairfield and the times. The committee decided to put on a pageant. So they invited Mr. Henry B. Spelman to write a story of Fairfield with an episode for each of the schools. The Pageant was presented at Gould Manor Park last June, and two of the episodes have been selected for this program.
The first one is "The Capture of Gold Selleck Silliman" by the Holland Hill School directed by Miss Smedley, principal. You will now listen to the Voice of History.
(The pageant episode of "The Capture of Gen. Gold Selleck Silliman" was presented by the Holland Hill School.)
MR. BURR: The second episode is "The Life and Times of The Rev. Timothy Dwight" by the Greenfield Hill School directed by Mrs. Walker, principal. You will now listen to the voice of Dwight.
(The pageant episode, "Life of The Rev. Timothy Dwight" was presented by the Dwight School.)
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