Arnold's expedition to Quebec

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Berkshire Historical
Scientific Society
PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY
PITTSFIELD, MASS.
PRESS OF THE SUN PRINTING COMPANY.
1894.

PREFATORY NOTE.
The Berkshire Historical and Scientific Society is glad herewith to pre-
sent to its members, and to the general public also, its fifth successive num-
ber of printed papers. This, with the four preceding numbers still remain-
ing unbound, as well as copies of the bound volumes comprising those four,
are on sale with the treasurer, H. H. Ballard, at the Athenaeum in Pitts-
field. The Society has no paid officials, and no corporate expenses what-
ever ; all the proceeds of the sale of the separate numbers and of the bound
volumes are scrupulously applied to the needful costs of further printing
and binding. Any members or other persons desirous of purchasing at one
time several of either numbers or volumeswill besuppliedat lessenedrates.
All our printing is done directly from types, and not from stereotyped
plates the volumes, consequently, can not be duplicated, and they are cer-
;
tain to become in the future both scarce and costly.
The present pamphlet holds six papers:—(i) "Jonathan Edwards," by
John Bascom ; (2) "Glass-making in Berkshire and Elsewhere," by W. G.
Harding; (3) "Indian Grants in Stockbridge," by E. W. B. Canning*; (4)
"Arnold at Quebec," by William E. Collins*; (5) "Sandisfield past and
present," bv A. W. Field ; and (6) " New York at Bennington Battle," by
Henry D. Hall.
The readers of these papers will of course pass their own judgments upon
the merits of each of them and those who listened to the public reading of
;
the first one, may certainly be pardoned if they express the view, that since
Jonathan Edwards left Stockbridge in 1757, no man has appeared in New
England better qualified in every way to estimate and place him, both as a
philosopher and theologian, than the author of this paper.
A. l. P.
February 27th, 1894.
*Deceased.

JONATHAN EDWARDS.
BY JOHN BASCOM.

JONATHAN EDWARDS.
Since we are bidden to covet earnestly the best gifts, it can
hardly require an apology that, in presenting the memorable
—
persons associated with Berkshire, the tenderness of itswomen
and the strength of its men responding—to the beauty of its
valley and the grandeur of its mountains we should lay some
what eager hold on President Jonathan Edwards as a lawful
prizein our historicventure yet, that we mayseemtohavewon,
;
and not to have stolen, our best gift, we will briefly justifyour
appropriation.
Jonathan Edwaids was born in 1703, at "Windsor, Connecti-
cut. He was graduated, while yet sixteen, at Yale College.
He spent two additional years at Yale, in preparation for the
ministry. He preached eight months in New York City. In
the fall of twenty-four, he returned to Yale as tutor, where he
remained two years. In 1726, he was invited to Northampton
as colleague of Solomon Stoddard, his maternal grandfather.
Here he remained a little more than twenty-three years, the
longest period in hislife of continuous labor. His ministry at
Northampton closed with a very bitter conflict, and President
Edwards retired to Stockbridge, in 1751. Here he spent six
quiet and productive years. He was invited,in the fall of fifty-
seven, to the presidency of Princeton College. He died at
Princeton early in the following year, before the removal of
his family.
One is most identified with the communityin which he does
his work, in which the ties of life are woven and tightly drawn
under the strain of events. President Edwards would seem,
therefore, primarily to belong to Northampton, where the
greater share of his labor was performed. Most unfortunately,
however, as a result of that sudden contagion of sin to which
good men and weighty spiritual events are sometimes exposed,
4 Berkshire Historical and Scientific Society.
this tenderest, and hitherto highly prosperous, relationship was
painfully broken up, and President Edwards, in the maturity
of his powers, was compelled to seek at Stockbridge that spir-
itualrestandunrestrainedfreedom of thoughtwhichweredenied
him at Northampton.
If, therefore, the spirit is native to the land which it weds,
and which weds it in turn, to the land where God's hand shel-
ters itfrom the strife of tongues,then Northampton must waive
its otherwise fitting claims in favor of the Hills of Berkshire,
among which this Elijah of his day was so long hidden. The
descendants of President Edwards felt and indicated this sen-
timent in holding their reunion at Stockbridge, rather than at
Northampton. However wechoose to settle the less or greater
rights of the two communities, it is plain that Berkshire is not
wrong in bringing a full measure of honor to one who loved
and honored it. .
PresidentEdwards, taking so earlya part in our local history,
good in his greatness and great in his goodness, invites our
patriotic and reverent regard. Let us restore him to our
We
thought as a person, a preacher and a philosopher. cannot
understand the man without understanding the period and
the society to which he belonged. Though our social and
spiritual life flows directly, with but a brief interval, from that
of our Puritanic ancestors, it has undergone great changes.
The stream has left the rugged defiles,and themountain canon.
No longer clamoring among the rocks, or darkened by their
shadow, it spreads itself lazily out in the wide, fertile, sunny
valley. There is no such sternness inourcreeds,norstringency
in our lives, as belonged to our fathers. "We can nowtake any
two points in the chart of religious faith, and find our way
easily from one to the other by insensible gradations, meeting,
in the transit, good citizens, most of whom are going to heaven,
and none of whom are predestined, in our thoughts of them,
to eternal damnation. Our clergy go to an agnostic,like John
Fiske, to catch a word of encouragement concerningthe being
of God and afuture life; or to John Morley,or to John Stuart
Mill, for suggestions in philanthropy and the progress of the
race. Nor do they make this pilgrimage in vain. Yet our