By Carl Carmer

We Americans are proud that the Pilgrim Fathers and the Puritans who soon followed them dared the Atlantic for the chance to worship God in their own way. Every Fourth of July, every Decoration Day, every Pioneer Picnic Day, and on the birthdays of Washington and Lincoln, our speechmakers repeat the story with a good deal of eloquent embroidery. Usually they try to give us the idea that we have had freedom of worship and the other freedoms that go with it— freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly— ever since. We are willing to cheer but we are not fooled. When we get down to brass tacks we know that the Pilgrims were human and likely at times to get excited and forget the very things they stood for—just like many of us.

Hinds, Hayden & Eldredge, 1947, 69 pages