"When I think of Puritan 'temperance' I am reminded of cherry bounce and also the good old Jamaica rum which New England used to make in such quantities that it would float her mercantile marine. When I think of 'demonology,' I remember that son of Boston, Benjamin Franklin, whose liberality of spirit even Mencken celebrates, when he falsely attributes it to French influence, having never in his omniscience read the Autobiography. When I think of 'liberty and individual freedom,' I shudder to recall stories of the New England slavers and the terrible middle passage which only Ruskin's superb imagination could picture. When I think of 'pluck and industry,' I recollect the dogged labors of French peasants. Catholic in faith and Celtic in race. When I see the staring words 'brutal intolerance' I recall the sweet spirit of Roger Williams, aye, the sweeter spirit of John Milton whose Areopagitica was written before the school of the new freedom was established. When I read 'hypocrisy' and 'canting' I cannot refrain from associating with them the antics of the late Wilhelm II who, I believe, was not born in Boston. So I take leave of the subject. Let the honest reader, standing under the stars, pick out those characteristics that distinctly and consistently mark the Puritans through their long history."
The New Republic posts a 1920 article by Charles A. Beard taking on the Puritans of New England.
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