History of Bureau County, Illinois, Part 35

Author: Bradsby, Henry C., [from old catalog] ed
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Chicago, World publishing company
Number of Pages: 776

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"Is the fact that 'James and the Court' Jumped together a mass of men under one name, a positive proof that there was no dif- ference between the individuals of this mass ?

"If the Plymouth Pilgrims were identical in all respects with the persecuting Puritans of Boston and Salem, etc., and were guilty of the same offenses, why cannot that fact be shown ?

"If the Pilgrims were guilty of persecu-

" My declaration is, that the Pilgrims never persecuted anybody; if they did, show it. That would be a short way of settling the whole matter. But nobody does it, for the simple reason that it can't be done.

"Allow me to suggest that 'atheists and infidels' are made by bigotry, uncharitable- uess, and a willingness to blacken worthy reputations, quite as frequently as in any other way.

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"And finally, 'with malice toward none, with charity for all,' and with increased re- spect for Pilgrim and Puritan, I must beg to take leave of the discussion until the critics come out over their own names; this, surely cannot be deemed unreasonable."

Following swiftly upon this reply of Mr. Edward's came all the critics, new and old, and the first one that we can lay our hands upon signs, "Truth Seeker." He starts out by defending his references to the encyclope- dia as his authority for historical references, and he then proceeds to say :

"But, to be exceedingly charitable with the Doctor, I will permit the encyclopedia, from which I quoted, to be laid aside and not received in evidence, what then does the Doctor do with Evert A. Duyckinck, one of the most eminent] historians, who (Vol. IV, page 58) says: 'In 1619 the Puritans, a body of men who were averse as a matter of conscience to living under the religious rules of the English Church and had been resid- ing for years in Holland, resolved to embark for America, where they could regulate mat. ters of religion according to their sentiments.' Or with J. R. Green, M. A., Examiner in the School of Modern History, Oxford, in his History of the English people (page 497), says: 'The little company of the Pilgrim fathers as aftertimes loved to call them, landed on the barren coast of Massachusetts, at a spot to which they gave the name of Plymouth, in memory of the last English port at which they touched. *

* From the moment of their establishment the eyes of the English Puritans were fixed on the lit- tle Puritan settlement in North America.'

" The Doctor says: 'My declaration is that the Pilgrims never persecuted anybody. If they did, show it.' I answer, is it a fact that the Pilgrims united themselves with the Massachusetts Bay, New Haven and Connecti-

cut Colonies in the year 1643? Is it a fact that Jefferson Davis was the President of the Southern Confederacy ? If he was guilty of killing anybody why can not the instance be given ? He was guilty because he was a party to and with those who did the killing, and upon the same premises were the Pilgrims guilty by being a party to, and with those who did the persecuting.

"Is it not a fact in law that if the writer should harbor horse thieves, and enter in and be a party with them, though he never laid his hand upon a horse, and should be dis- covered, the law would presume him equally guilty with those who did the stealing and measure out to him the same punishment ?

"But, should the foregoing argument not be strong enough to settle the matter, I will refer the Doctor to Samuel M. Schmucker, L. L. D., one of the smartest men in the Lutheran Church, who says in his history of all de- nominations (page 56), on Congregationalism, 'that its history is closely identified with the history of New England. It extended more and more widely as the country became more thickly settled. In 1638 Harvard University was founded at Cambridge. In 1646, com- mon schools were established by law in Massachusetts. In 1658, the Cambridge Platform was adopted by an assemblage of Congregational ministers which set forth what is usually known as the Calvanistic system of theology. At that time the number of churches of this sect in Massachusetts was 39; in Connecticut, 4; in New Hampshire, 3. The Quakers first made their appearance in Massachusetts in 1656. There were two women, who had fled thither from Barbadoes, hoping to find religious toleration and free- dom in the land of the Pilgrims. They were cruelly disappointed, were arrested and imprisoned for witchcraft, and afterward sent back to Barbadoes. Others arrived,

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three of whom were subsequently punished with death, though their only offense was their religious opinions.' Now, dear Doctor, I have given you instances from the highest authority, and you declared most emphat- ically, if I could do so, that should settle the whole matter."

Then follows a long, very long diatribe from Independent. Among other things he says: "These mistatements of history have become popular errors, which have been her- alded by the press and proclaimed from the pulpit and political rostrum until they are in the mouth of every school boy and pedagogue, especially if he is of strict Puritan morals.

"The poets'enshrine the name of the Pil- grims and Puritans in their hearts, and sing to their memory sweet songs of liberty.

* *

" We would suppose on hearing the elo- quent eulogies pronounced, and hearing the inspiring poem read above referred to, on the 259th anniversary of the landing of our fore- fathers, that it was questionable indeed whether our ears would ever have been saluted on the Sabbath day by the sound of a Protest- ant bell had it not been for the Pilgrims; that all our wide land, with her towns and cities, mountains, valleys and plains, had it not been for these forefathers, would have been either Catholic or infidel; that either no God would have been our creed, or an image would have been substituted for the true God. We would suppose that our institutions would have resembled those of Catholic Spain or infidel France. We would suppose in read- ing these eulogies and the reading of the poem that the pages of history were falsely written; that these forefathers never hung Quakers, or incorrigible Baptists, that they never cropped the ears of the heretic or bored the tongue of a dissenter with a red hot iron; that the wail of grief and

pain arising from the colonial whipping post was nothing but the gentle sighing of the wind through the New England pines. It is often said by the apologists for the col- onial persecutions, and by men in their rep- resentative churches, that the errors of these forefathers were the errors of an illiberal age. This is also a mistake. These heinous per- secutions of the Quakers and Baptists, to prison to death, the whipping post and exile, were traits of character peculiar to these Puritan forefathers, their form of religion and their union of Church and State.

"In 1659, when the Quakers were execut- ed at Boston, you might have traveled the length and breadth of old England without seeing a whipping post. England had not put to death a heretic for forty-three years, and in common with other Christian coun- tries, she was remonstrating against the in- tolerance of Puritans in this country.

" Massachusetts had already put to death a number of heretics, as they called them, and, doubtless, would have continued her bloody persecutions had not King Charles II abso- lutely prohibited it by the celebrated man- damns order, referred to in our former letter. These forefathers were imbued with a bigot- ed, illiberal and intolerant spirit towards those differing from them in religion. Many were whipped for even refusing to have

their babies baptised at the Colonial Con- gregational Churches. We can gather up the key note of their malevolent religious dis- positions from their leading statesmen, scholars and orators. Let them now speak for themselves.

"The noted Colonial preacher, Rev. Catton, says: 'It was toleration that made the world anti-Christian, and the world never took hurt by the punishment of heretics. The Lord keep us from being bewitched by the whore's cup of toleration lest while we seem to detest

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and reject her with open face of profession, we do not bring her in by a back door of tol- eration and so come at last to drink deeply of the cup of the Lord's wrath.'

"It is said Harvard University was founded by the Pilgrims within twenty years after their advent upon these shores. Presi- dent Oakes, of that University, and who was an eminent Congregational preacher, said: ‘I look upon religious toleration as the first born of all abominations.' 'To authorize untruth,' said the eloquent and learned Col- onial preacher, the Rev. Ward, 'by toleration of State is to build a sconce against the walls of heaven, to batter God out of His chair; to say that a man ought to have liberty of con- science is impious ignorance.'

" ' God forbid,' said the learned and gray- headed Dudley, another noted divine of the Massachusetts Colony, 'our love for the truth should be grown so cold that we should toler- ate error; for the security of the flock we pen up the wolf.' Gov. Endicott said, 'we will be as ready to take away the lives of heretics as they will be willing to lay them down.' When the court of Massachusetts was delib- erating what they should do with several Quakers, President Chauncy of Harvard University, in his sermon on the Sabbath- day, said: 'And suppose ye should catch six wolves in a trap and you cannot prove that they ever killed either sheep or lamb, and now you have them they will neither bark nor bite, yet they have the plain mark of wolves. Now I leave it to your con- sideration whether you will let them go alive. Yea or nay ?'

" Here, then, are the sentiments of some who have always been called the best and greatest who ever bore the Puritan name. They taught intolerance in their schools and churches and in their State; it pervaded the whole mass of the Colonial people. In the

catechism, which was taught in every family, toleration of a false religion was enumerated as one of the sins forbidden in the second commandment, and this clause was retained in the catechism as late as 1768.

"In conclusion, let us ask the orator upon such anniversary occasions, and the poet who so sweetly sings of the virtue of these fore- fathers, how they can shut their eyes against the truth of history and eulogize such a race of men by authority of the same kind of tes- timony by which the Puritans branded the Quakers and Baptists as ranters, rogues, vaga- bonds and cursed heretics ? By such evidence the Catholics could have convicted Martin Luther of being a wolf of hell, as they claimed he was, or the Apostle Paul of being a mad- man, the Pentecostal Christians of being drunkards and Jesus of being a glutton and a devil."

And then a number of other correspondents " shied their castors into the ring," and the Doctor, not being able ever to get them to discuss the real point in all the controversy, on which he had made his position plain in his first address, namely, that the Puritans and Pilgrims were separate and distinct bodies of men, he evidently only looked on and smiled while they so valiantly did battle with the wind-mills of their own construction.

Among others is "Sucker" who comes with his cruise of oil, to pour, as he says, "on the troubled waters." His opening sentence is a pertinent quotation, "Men, except in bad novels, are not all good or all evil." He then proceeds: " What a hullabaloo has been kicked up because a few of our people, 'de- generate children of illustrious sires, held a little mutual admiration society on Forefa- ther's day. What would you expect on such occasions? What is the usual bill of fare ?" He then describes a little innocent eagle soar- ing that we all indulge in on the Fourth of

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July, and wants to know, you know, who ex- pects anybody on such occasions to tell the horrid truth about Washington, Jefferson, Jackson and all the good, old patriots, even up in Massachusetts, being horrid slave own- ers, etc., etc. He quotes the good old maxim, " De mortuis nil nisi bonum." And then he says: "On the occasion referred to, I too was ' a looker-on in Venice.' Knowing they deserved it, I was expecting to hear in praise of the Pilgrims from their descendants, and I did not care to ask whether it was in good taste to boast until we have 'added honor to ancestral fame.' No one but a mule 'who (sic) is denied posterity, and who has no an- cestry particularly to boast of,' would find fault with people for being proud of their re- lations, and if, in 'ascending the family line they should find it waxed at the other end, or even ending in stronger twine that vexed some worthy relation,' you would not expect them to mention that, and so I looked for un. stinted praise of the Pilgrims. But I am sure the efforts, as I understood them, were hardly up to the average in eulogy."

In a good deal that "Sucker" has to say we can not but see, that under the guise of pouring oil on the waters, there is some play- fulness and a free lance sent hurtling into the whole crowd. He refers to "the gallant Colonel " (Elliott) and while he calls his eu- logy extravagant, etc., yet he says he told the crowd he was a Sucker (born in Illinois) and that " the untraveled Yaukee of to-day is an intolerable bigot, and this in face of the fact that it is not much traveling to come from Massachusetts to Princeton." Then he does not spare Dr. Edwards as he says he " made a distinction without a difference, in begging us to remember that it was not the Pilgrims but the Puritans who were guilty of all these things-such as hanging Quakers and Bap- tists, and drowning witches, thereby confess-

ing all the charges in the indictment, but pleading a misnomer.

"Now, if our Pilgrim descendents were satisfied with this, why should 'Independent,'

'Truth Seeker,' 'Fair Play,' and all the rest rush into print about it? Or, why does some Pilgrim retort with Virginia, 'you're * another,' * ' Men of strong con- victions, those who make their mark and compel reform, are generally extremists, their very zeal makes them intolerant of what they believe is wrong, their sins should not prevent us recognizing the good they do, nor need we, in recognizing it, claim they are immac- ulate. *

* I do not believe we are in- debted to the Pilgrims for all we enjoy, nor do I believe they were such an intolerant, bigoted, fanatical set that they were incapa- ble of any good, any more than I believe what Ingersoll would have us believe about Tom Paine.

"Let us give to each his meed of praise, honoring the memory of all for the good they did. To do this we need not blacken the memory of any. If they had gross faults and committed great errors, let us frankly own it, but let not their faults damn them or hide their better traits. Bury the faults, 'and if from the tomb the veil be removed, weep o'er it in silence, and close it again.' * * "

CHAPTER XXI.

SWAMP LANDS-HOW DISPOSED OF-HON. L. D. WHITING SUCOESS. FULLY FIGHTS THROUGH A DRAINAGE LAW-ITS GREAT BENE- FITS TO THE WHOLE COUNTY, ETC., ETC.

I N the year 1850 Congress passed an act to enable the State of Arkansas and other States to " reclaim their swamp and over- flowed land," providing where each subdi- vision of forty was more than one-half over-

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flowed or swamp land in the meaning of the act. In June, 1852, the State gave these lands to the respective counties in which they were located. The law required the proceeds arising from the sale of these lands should be first expended in draining these lands in so far as it might be found neces- sary in making them arable. Upon a careful survey of the lands there was found to be 38,000 acres of swamp land belonging to the county, mostly along the valley of Green River and in the bottoms of the Illinois River. The county concluded to sell the land at public sale-ten per cent cash and the remainder on long time. The sale, in Sep- tember, 1856, amounted to $115,000, and the Board decided to appropriate the money to the school fund. A contention at once arose on the part of the purchasers, they contend- ing that the purchase money should be exclu- sively used in draining the lands. They re- fused to meet their back payments, and soon the county was not only in a law suit, but in a general wrangle on the subject. In May, 1856, the Supervisors had appointed a com- mittee to examine the subject and report gen- erally what should be done. The committee reported that the title of the county to these lands was unconditional; that it could sell, and use the money as it saw proper and its acts could not be questioned. The Legisla- ture, it said, had incorporated the Winebago Drainage Company, which company intended to grab the lands of Bureau and other counties without paying any equivalent there- for; this would be done under the pretext of draining the county and improving the general health of the people; that the small minority in the lobby at Springfield from Bureau County, had been bitterly denounced by the "drainage lobby " -that this drainage act meant to drain the peoples' money from their pockets more than to take off the water;

that many of the tracts of reported swamp lands were already contracted for, and this would materially affect the sale of others; that Lee and Whiteside Counties having sold their lands were using their influence to have the State drain the Winnebago swamps at the expense of the lands benefitted. And that as long as the lands remained unsold that they may be wrested (gobbled) from the county; that many of the lands are partly covered with timber and are being stripped by timber thieves, etc. This report was powerful in influencing the action of the Board in hurrying up the sale above men- tioned.

In January, 1862, the Board took up the matter to unravel it once more, and another committee was appointed. It reported and went over in detail the law and the terms on which the lands were given to the county; that much trouble and vexation had arisen by selling the land and making the great mistake of not applying the proceeds to drainage purposes as the act contemplated, etc. There- upon the following resolution was passed:

Resolved, That the Board of Supervisors will scrupnlously apply the proceeds of the swamp lands of the county exclusively, so far as necessary, to draining and reclaiming the same. About one-half of the lands sold were paid for and deeds taken, while the remainder was forfeited and reverted to the county, and were again sold. The total of the sales amounted to $227,761. The county com- menced an extensive system of drainage along the Green River country and expended here about $200,- . 000. And the finest cornfields in the county are now upon lands along Green River, over which a steam- boat could pass in former times.

This rather compulsory act of draining the swamp lands of the county was the com- mencement of one of its best public and per- manent improvements. It gave the people the first ocular demonstration of the value of drainage, as it reclaimed a great body of land that is now in cultivation that might,

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without this improvement, have remained a great water waste for centuries. The law was a wise one, wherein it provided the gift should be turned to the general good. It was at this time that drainage received its first impetus in Illinois. The improvement in the surface drainage resulting from the first settlement of the country, and weaken- ing the strength of the original strong prairie sod, had failed to impress the average farmer of the inviting possibilities in the marshy, swampy, wet lands that were so common all over the Illinois prairies, and the ponds, and lagoons along many of the streams. And since that day drainage has rapidly grown, and is now recognized as one of the most valuable permanent improvements that can be put upon the land. And from surface drainage has come the knowledge and now wide use of tile drainage, and this is found to be attended with the greatest benefits even to the uplands. It strengthens the soil, creates it, and warms it to that extent that it visibly affects the early spring vegetation. It is of the greatest value for the rain that falls upon the ground to pass off by going through soil instead of running off on the surface. Water always carries a certain portion of air wherever it goes, and from the air and the water is extracted rich plant food, and the trickling of the water makes many air openings, and here is carried both the early warmth of spring as well as the nutri- tion for plants, and in addition to all this is the advantage of preventing water from standing a long time on the surface, and excluding the air and killing the natural strength of the land, which stagnant or still waters will do, while moving water will not, at least not so rapidly. Opening the soil for the admission of air is one of the principal objects of plowing, harrowing and otherwise breaking up and disintegrating the earth's

surface. The presence of air in the soil in as large aggregate quantities as possible is indispensable, because it brings with it car- bonic acid and ammonical gases, which reach the minute roots or spongioles of plants. Air also supplies the oxygen necessary to the decomposition of vegetable matter, which in turn becomes what may be termed the food of plants. Aeration of soils cannot be ac- complished by opening holes in the ground or breaking the earth into large lumps and clods, but the air should be admitted in many minute streams or channels, in order that each particle of soil may come in con- tact with a particle of air.

Plowing, hoeing and weeding growing crops are aerating processes well understood by the scientific agriculturist who never neglects them, even when no weeds are pres- ent; for experience has taught him that luxuriant growth will be promoted and often sustained by aeration, whether the season be wet or dry. Heavy, stiff clays become beaten down and hard during the heavy rains of spring, and then porosity is almost entirely destroyed, as neither air nor moisture can enter except very slowly, if at all; but when they are broken up and pulverized, aeration proceeds with rapidity and regularity. Air not only enters loose soils direct, but also with water, and whenever the soil is in such a condition as to admit water rapidly, we may conclude that aeration is also going on. Water, however, should not rest in the soil, but circulate; first by descent as a liquid, and then by ascent in the form of vapor, thereby assisting aeration as well as carrying the fertilizing elements of the soil to the roots of plants growing therein. Water ex- posed to the atmosphere, even by passing through it in the form of rain, absorbs at- mospheric gases in sufficient quantities to be perceived by the human palate. These are

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removed by the soil as the water passes through it, thereby adding more or less to its fertility.

Experience has fully demonstrated that the wet land, land that has produced only coarse, woody swamp grasses can readily be converted into the richest agricultural lands by tiling. The experiment is now common all over central and northern Illinois, that by thorough tiling the value of lands, worth $30 and $40 an acre, have been more than doubled by drainage, and unlike any other improvement, when properly done, it is a permanent benefit, needing only the slightest future attention in order to carry on its great work perpetually; fires, tornadoes, nor time affect its good work. Hence, it is recognized as the most important farm work yet under- taken by all intelligent farmers. The cau- tious farmers a few years ago, who reasoned themselves into the first experiments, would sometimes select a piece of ground and tile one-half of it and observe the results. When the entire field was planted in corn and the plants were half grown, he could stand off at a distance and easily tell the boundary of the tiling by the appearance of the growing corn. And even in the spring plowing many testify that in plowing across the fields that were partly tiled they could tell by the pulling of the horses the moment the plow came into the tiled ground. One would beclammy and heavy and the other loose and light. But these things are now too well known to all intelli- gent farmers to need recapitulation here. We have no doubt that the time will soon come when every acre of our agricultural lands, except on our steepest hills, will be all thor- oughly tiled. Its value has ceased to be experimental-its increase of the certainty and amount of crops each year are now matters universally known.

But the history of drainage in our State,

especially the efforts to enact laws that would best promote its universal use, and at the same time inflict the least wrong upon the rights of adjoining lands, is quite an inter- esting and important subject, and what is remarkable in the enacting of laws to fit this new condition of affairs there was nearly the same legal points and obstruction thrown in the way that there was in the anti-monopoly- movement, spoken of elsewhere, and the further fact that here as there the lawyers and the courts were largely on one side, and the people on the other. The lawyers following the bent of their education appealed to ancient precedent and law for the solution of the most modern of practical questions; laws that were made and had applications to the old subject of building dams and digging drains, where there was only the one principle to consider, namely, the injury that might result to others' property. Upon these points the English law was full of "wise saws" and learned decisions, and when our people com- menced to place tiling in their grounds, they at once began to see that they must have an outlet; that their drains must be laid according to the shape and lay of the sur- face, and that very often the only possible manner of doing the work was to throw the water upon their neighbor's land, and according to the law, of this the neighbor might complain, and the law would give him redress. If each land owner had for neighbors men of equal enterprise, then there would be little difficulty, because they would extend and carry along their neighbor's drain and there would be nothing to adjust. But this is not human nature. There were plenty of course who would not drain their own land and much less allow their neighbors to increase the flow of water upon them. The Legislature was appealed to, but the attorneys said this remedy could not be afforded by

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History of Bureau County, Illinois, Part 35

Author: Bradsby, Henry C., [from old catalog] ed Publication date: 1885 Publisher: Chicago, World publishing company Number of Pages: 776

Author: Bradsby, Henry C., [from old catalog] ed
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Chicago, World publishing company
Number of Pages: 776