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Show Pilgrim Fathers of America Extolled in Address Before Legislators by John Jensen THE history of the Pilgrims' conquest con-quest of America. 100 years after the landing of the Pur an Fathers on the shores of Plymouth Ply-mouth Rock, was recounted in an address ad-dress made this afternoon by John Jensen, well known local attorney, before be-fore a Joint session of the Utah legislature legis-lature at the capltol. The members of the two houses convened con-vened at 1:15 o'clock In the house of representatives and heard the address. It marked Utah's official recognition and participation in the Puritans' tercentenary celebration being held this year throughout the nation. WIN ADMIRATION. Mr. Jensen said. In part: ""We are met to commemorate the memory of the Puritan Fathers. Three hundred years have gone since they landed at Plymouth Rock, but even the passing of centuries has not 1 dimmed our memory of them. Out from the past their stalwart figures loom more majestically than ever. Their outstanding Puritan conscience, mW their stern sense of individual guilt, their happy faculty of establishing or-, f dered liberty under law, take on a I new significance and an added charm 1 in these days of unsettled standards and world chaos following a World war. ' As WQjnore-Clcarlyperceiva-Jn, these simple virtues what is basic in character and fundamental in government, govern-ment, our respect is challenged, our admiration is 'won, and the conviction is borne home that as long as these United States are. the Puritan Fathers will never bo forgotten. DEFIANCE OF KING. "Wo see. them as though It were yesterday. In defiance of king and state church, banding themselves to- Relher into a sacred company of Chris- tian men and women, worshiping their God at the home of William Brewster at Screeby, England. We behold them harried out of their native land by that foolish king, James I. Through fourteen long years we watch them as exiles in Holland, and then, that they mie;ht the better work out their ideals and carry the gospel to the New World, we find them returning to Kn-gland. Kn-gland. from where, on September 16, 1620, they set sail with 102 passengers toward shores unknown. We behold them storm tossed on an unfriendly sea In that historic little ship, the Mayflower. Weary In body, but undaunted un-daunted in spirit, we see them land at Plymouth Kork. We observe the Impression Im-pression made by a new and strange land. We share their wonderment as they first behold the aboriginees of this continent, and enjoy the fine courage and fortitude with which they meet the Indians. Wo go with them to the nearby forest and fell the trees to build the first house and likewise that historic church, and although three centuries have passed, we walk with them down the narrow path, through the snow to that same church and how our heads with them In reverent rev-erent and sincere worship. We live ' with them through the winter of want, 'and disease, and death, burying half ; their number. We help them drive off a. 'the attacks of savage Indiana, and at "" ' the end of tho first year we Join with i : them In riving thanks - to Almighty. 0d and celebrating their first Thanka-, Thanka-, giving In the new land. "When wo think of the Puritan we 'Instinctively think of honest man. of a suffering and enduring man, of a Godfearing man, of man who was more concerned with his soul and the freedom of his conscience than with any other thing in life. , The Puritan was not an impracticable person. He realised that he must live, but he also realised that the one enduring and worthwhile thing about life was the human soul. He waa a believer in the immortality of man. "The Puritan will always hold an important place In history not only because of the great conflict in which he participated in his homeland, and in which be continued to have a part even after leaving, but likewise because be-cause of the Important Influence which he exerted over the destiny and direction of events In the New World. Let us not forget that the Puritan -was an exile by virtue of the tyranny of a king. It waa not unnatural that his descendants should be lacking in reverence or affection for kings. ONLY PART. "Put the later struggle on this side of the water is only part of the picture, pic-ture, and we lose the real perspective If we detach and separate the American Ameri-can from the Knglish Puritan. "Both the Puritans and their religion re-ligion were an enigma to James I. The king looked upon iham as esvolmiew ists. In their worship James perceived something more than a religious organization. or-ganization. He read a challenge to the established order and the devine right of kings. At the historic conference at Hampton court In 1604 the enraged James declared: "1 will make them conform or else I will harry them out of the land, or I will do woree.' "It was the effort to carry out that threat that sent the Puritan Fathers first to Holland In 1607, and later to Massachusetts In 120. Relatively only a few left. The larger number remained re-mained at home. As the controversy waxed warmer their ranks, few in number and humble In character, at first, grew and increased with incredible in-credible rapidity. NOT EXILE3. I "It is a mistake to think of Our Puritan Fathers as exiles, cut off from the world and this particular controversy. con-troversy. It was their struggle: they held it such. Had they not sacrificed everything for It home, comfort, the society and companionship of friends and relatives? With the seal only sacrifice sac-rifice for a cause can give, they threw themselves Into the struggle. "Though It took more than a century cen-tury to achieve It, the final result was Inevitable. Reverence for kings had received a fatal blow In this new land. The l-urltan Fathers, wittingly or unwittingly, sowed the seed George III reaped the harvest. "Liberty waa Instinct with them freedom was In the very air they breathed. The control of the king-thousands king-thousands of miles removed and separated sep-arated from them by a great and little traveled ocean waa rather fictitious than real. The Puritan Fathers were, and felt themselves to be, free men In the fullest sense of the world. WERE INDEPENDENT. . "They set up an Independent govern ment, aa far as they were able. They schooled their children in the art of self-government. The New - England town meeting (As aptly been described aa V prophecv nf the continental gresa.' and is at the very root of democratic dem-ocratic government. The covenant of the Mayflower has sometimes been characterized as the first draft of the Declaration of lndependence.Whether it Is all that Is claimed for It In that respect may be doubted, but certainly It smacked of defiance to king, and was as full and complete a declaration of Independence In matters of religion anC - eonsclencelheTssue ItTlhat day, as the later declaration was in matters of politics and government. When more than a century thereafter, the Issue became one of taxation without representation, rep-resentation, and government without the consent of the governed, tt was but natural that the sons should follow fol-low In the footsteps of their fathers and part company with kings for all time. "As we stand hero today and look about In the world, what lesson comes to us from the Puritan Fathers. NO 8TATE SECT. "They established no creed, they left no sect; but the church of their day waa a power. Would that the church the world over had something of the hold on men it did In their day. Russia's example convinces us that you cannot take God out of the hearts of men and have good citizens: that there Is no such thing as liberty without law. Only license remains. "What this sad, weary, war worn world needs today, to brighten Its outlook out-look and revive Its faith, is not less but more Christianity. It needs the abiding courage of the Puritan Fathers: Fath-ers: their fixed and rigid standards of morality; more of their living Christian Chris-tian faith. It wants the restoration of that good, old-fashioned Puritan conscience. CONCOMFORMIST. "But In that connection let us remember re-member this: The Puritan, with all his strictness of conscience, did not forget for-get he was a noncomformlst. In this he was an individualist and the re straints which he Imposed were upon his own actions and his own conscience. con-science. "Ho brought to these shores Individual In-dividual freedom and set In motion what developed Into the conception of a free state, a free church, and free schools. Coming down through three centuries of growth, these are the final fruits of Puritanism the fully blossomed flower of Amerirjinlsm. |