Page:American Historical Review vol. 6.djvu/148

1 38 Rcvic2os of Books The Puritan Republic of the Massachusetts Bay in Neiv England. By Daniel Wait Howe. (Indianapolis : The Bowen-Merrill Company. 1899. Pp. xx.xviii, 422.) A CURIOUS and interesting feature of this book is that it comes from the Middle West. Manufactured in Brooklyn, New York, it appears or is published at Indianapolis. The author treats of "some of the features of the Massachusetts Puritan Commonwealth that I thought would be most interesting to the people of to-day, and especially to those who are descendants of the early Puritans" (p. x. ). He is not satisfied with the tendencies and drift of modern historians, whom he arraigns in this wise: "the unsparing censure of modern writers, nota- bly of some in Massachusetts, whose cardinal idea seems to be that we magnify ourselves in proportion as we belittle our ancestors. In the writings of this new school the history of the Puritan age in Massachu- setts is delineated as a dreary waste " (p. 393). In othei connections he refers more directly to the offenders, Mr. John Fiske, Mr. Charles Francis Adams and others, whose work has established itself. Such criticism, if it would attain a historic basis, should be sustained by definite rebuttal of the offending matter ; which does not appear. At many points we have the altercation of debate, with hardly any digesting of proofs. In his incomplete attempt to define theocratic principles and methods (pp. 194-199), as well as in other developments of his theme, the author renders himself liable to Mr. Burke's famous saying, concerning the lim- itations of legal education and practice. For example, he says if "the Massachusetts Commonwealth had been filled by Roger Williams, Gor- ton, Coddington and the motley brood that flocked to the shores of Nar- ragansett Bay, we should have had a grotesque conglomeration that, for a time, might have assumed the semblance of a government, of which possibly the chief features might have been religious and political tolera- tion." . . . Inasmuch as the foundations of civil government and religious liberty laid in Rhode Island have extended themselves over the whole United States — into which enlightened circle Massachusetts herself came after a delay of nearly two centuries — to call this evolution of civilization a " grotesque conglomeration " betrays a singular lack of insight into his- tory. Such defects are not mere prejudices ; they proceed from astig- matism of the mind. Again, in respect of the large issues of history, Mr. Howe does not appear to have recognized that Connecticut was a better example of a Puritan Republic than Massachusetts. His collateral reference to Con- necticut (p. 305) does not indicate that he was conscious of this patent fact. The true historical problem is more interesting than anything he develops or suggests. Massachusetts struggling in religious unrest, Con- necticut steadily guided by theocratic control, Rhode Island in absolute religious freedom — all three commonwealths went in one direction ; they went by democratic means to republican ends.