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��OLIVER CROMWELL.
��OLIVER CROMWELL.
��BY PROF. E. D. SANBORN.
��It is not probable that an impartial his- tory was ever yet written. No writer can, with greater justice, lay claim to impartiality than the learned Athenian who wrote " for eternity." Next to Thucydides stands the philosophic Taci- tus, the uncompromising enemy of op- pression, and the fearless defender of the oppressed. In modern historians and bi- ographers it is in vain to look for strict impartiality. The writers of histories are partisans. They have a creed to de- fend or a system of government to sup- port. They are wily advocates, making use of the facts of history to prove their own dogmas ; or they are the pensioned hirelings of an oppressive aristocracy, perverting the truth for a reward. A partisan or a pensioned dependant can not write history well. They neither write as they ought nor as they know how to write. They judge of men by the creed or politics of their party, hence they fail to do justice to individuals. No man expects justice from an opponent. A statesman's biography cannot be writ- ten with fidelity, while the principles he advocated remain unpopular. The advo- cate of necessary reform will always be abused by the majority. Tyrants never relish discourses upon liberty, nor wily bigots endure homilies upon toleration. " As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." Let him once be convinced of the divine right of Kings and Priests and his hostility to democrats and independents will know no bounds. If such a man's opinions are adopted and perpetuated by others, neither time nor distance will abate the virulence of their advocates. The Catholic of to-day hates Luther as cordially as did his Catholic contempora- ries. The cavaliers and churchmen of Victoria's reign assail the character of Cromwell with as much bitterness as did those of the time of Charles the First.
��The injustice of contemporaries is pro- verbial. The injustice of a partisan pos- terity is equally notorious. The parties which the living patriot encountered dispute over his tomb, nay, they contin- ue to dispute after his very dust has min- gled with its parent earth, and the place where his bones repose is forgotten. Soc- rates, who is said by one of the wisest of the Romans to have brought philosophy from heaven to earth, was held up to the contempt of an Athenian populace by a distinguished comedian as an impudent charlatan and a reviler of the gods of the people ; and after the lapse of 2000 years there are not wanting men who defend the shameless satirist. • It is never safe to repeat or admit the charges even of an enemy who is reputed honest, with- out careful examination. Some men seem to be born partisans. Their pecul- iar mental constitution inclines them to adopt particular opinions, and to imbibe particular sentiments. They adopt what they feel to be right ; not what reason commends. They reject what their feel- ings oppose, not what virtue condemns. Hence the integrity of a partisan wit- ness cannot secure him against errors of judgment. The more honestly he enter- tains his own views, the moie injurious will he be to his opponent.
These remarks apply, with peculiar significancy, to those men, who, from their austere lives and devoted piety, were called Puritans. Their history has been written by their enemies. Their er- rors, their foibles, and their innocent pe- culiarities, have been exaggerated into the most odious crimes. The good deeds they performed have been studiously dis- colored or concealed; the virtues they practiced have been blackened by the grossest slanders, and the inconsiderable weaknesses which they, being men of like passions with others, shared, have
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