  Arrival of a new regiment—Domine Freylinghausen. A regiment came to town about this time, the superior officers of which were younger, more gay, and less amenable to good counsel than those who used to command the troops which had formerly been placed on this station. They paid their visits at the Flats, and were received—but not as usual, cordially; neither their manners nor morals being calculated for that meridian. Part of the royal Americans or independent companies, had, at this time, possession of the fort; some of these had families—and they were, in general, persons of decent morals, and a moderate and judicious way of thinking, who, though they did not court the society of the natives, expressed no contempt for their manners or opinions. The regiment I speak of, on the contrary, turned those plain burghers into the highest ridicule, yet used every artifice to get acquainted with them. They wished, in short, to act the part of very fine gentlemen; and the gay and superficial in those days, were but too apt to take for their model the fine gentlemen of the detestable old comedies, which good taste has now very properly exploded; and at which, in every stage of society, the uncorrupted mind must have felt infinite disgust. Yet forms arrayed in gold and scarlet, and rendered more imposing by an air of command and authority, occasionally softened down into gentleness and submission; and by that noisy gaiety which youthful inexperience mistakes for happiness, and that flippant petulance, which those who knew not much of the language, and nothing at all of the world, mistook for wit, were very ensnaring. Those dangerously accomplished heroes made their appearance at a time when the English language began to be more generally understood; and when the pretensions of the merchants, commissaries, &c. to the stations they occupied, were no longer dubious. Those polished strangers now began to make a part of general society. At this crisis it was found necessary to have recourse to billets. The superior officers had generally been either received at the Flats or accommodated in a large house which the colonel had in town. The manner in which the hospitality of that family was exercised; the selection which they made of such as were fitted to associate with the young persons who dwelt under their protection, always gave a kind of tone to society, and held out a light to others. Madame’s sister, as I before observed, was married to the respectable and intelligent magistrate, who administered justice not only to the town, but to the whole neighbourhood. In their house, also, such of the military were received, and kindly entertained, as had the sanction of their sister’s approbation. This judicious and equitable person, who, in the course of trading in early life upon the lakes, had undergone many of the hardships, and even dangers, which awaited the military in that perilous path of duty, knew well what they had to encounter in the defence of a surly and self-righted race, who were little inclined to show them common indulgence, far less gratitude. He judged equitably between both parties; and while with the most patriotic steadiness he resisted every attempt of the military to seize any thing with a high hand—he set the example himself, and used every art of persuasion to induce his countrymen to every concession that could conduce to the ease and comfort of their protectors. So far, at length, he succeeded; that when the regiment to which I allude, arrived in town, and showed in general an amiable and obliging disposition, they were quartered in different houses; the superior officers being lodged willingly by the most respectable of the inhabitants, such as not having large families, had room to accommodate them. The colonel and madame happened at the time of these arrangements, to be at New-York. In the mean while society began to assume a new aspect; of the satellites, which, on various pretexts, official and commercial, had followed the army, several had families, and those began to mingle more frequently with the inhabitants, who were, as yet, too simple to detect the surreptitious tone of lax morals and second-hand manners which prevailed among many of those who had but very lately climbed up to the stations they held, and in whose houses the European modes and diversions were to be met with; these were not in the best style, yet even in that style they began to be relished by some young persons, with whom the power of novelty prevailed over that of habit; and in a few rare instances, the influence of the young drew the old into a faint consent to these attempted innovations; but with many the resistance was not to be overcome. In this state of matters, one guardian genius watched over the community with unremitting vigilance. From the original settlement of the place there had been a succession of good, quiet clergymen, who came from Holland to take the command of this expatriated colony. These good men found an easy charge among a people with whom the external duties of religion were settled habits, which no one thought of dispensing with; and where the primitive state of manners, and the constant occupation of the mind in planting and defending a territory where every thing was, as it were, to be new created, was a preservation to the morals. Religion being never branded with the reproach of imputed hypocrisy, or darkened by the frown of austere bigotry, was venerated even by those who were content to glide thoughtless down the stream of time, without seriously considering whither it was conveying them, till sorrow or sickness reminded them of the great purpose for which they were indulged with the privilege of existence. The dominees, as these people called their ministers, contented themselves with preaching in a sober and moderate strain to the people; and living quietly in the retirement of their families, were little heard of but in the pulpit; and they seemed to consider a studious privacy as one of their chief duties. Domine Freylinghausen, however, was not contented with this quietude, which he seemed to consider as tending to languish into indifference. Ardent in his disposition, eloquent in his preaching, animated and zealous in his conversation, and frank and popular in his manners, he thought it his duty to awaken in every breast that slumbering spirit of devotion, which he considered as lulled by security, or drooping in the meridian of prosperity, like tender plants in the blaze of sunshine. These he endeavoured to refresh by daily exhortation, as well as by the exercise of his public duties. Though rigid in some of his notions, his life was spotless, and his concern for his people warm and affectionate. His endeavours to amend and inspire them with happier desires and aims, were considered as the labour of love, and rewarded by the warmest affection, and the most profound veneration; and what to him was of much more value, by a growing solicitude for the attainment of that higher order of excellence, which it was his delight to point out to them. But while he thus incessantly “allured to brighter worlds, and led the way,” he might, perhaps, insensibly have acquired a taste of dominion, which might make him unwilling to part with any portion of that most desirable species of power, which subjects to us, not human actions only, but the will which directs them. A vulgar ambition contents itself with power to command obedience, but the more exalted and refined ambition aims at domination over the mind. Hence the leaders of a sect, or even those who have powers to awake the dying embers of pious fervour, sway the hearts of their followers in a manner far more gratifying to them than any enjoyment to be derived from temporal power. That this desire should unconsciously gain ground in a virtuous and ardent mind, is not wonderful, when one considers how the best propensities of the human heart are flattered, by supposing that we only sway the minds of others, to incline them to the paths of peace and happiness, and derive no other advantage from this tacit sovereignty, but that of seeing those objects of affectionate solicitude grow wiser and better. To return to the apostolic and much beloved Freylinghausen. The progress which this regiment made in the good graces of his flock, and the gradual assimilation to English manners of a very inferior standard, alarmed and grieved the good man not a little; and the intelligence he received from some of the elders of his church, who had the honour of lodging the more dissipated subalterns, did not administer much comfort to him. By this time the Anglomania was beginning to spread. A sect arose among the young people, who seemed resolved to assume a lighter style of dress and manners, and to borrow their taste, in those respects, from their new friends. This bade fair soon to undo all the good pastor’s labours. The evil was daily growing—and what, alas! could Domine Freylinghausen do but preach! This he did earnestly and even angrily, but in vain. Many were exasperated, but none reclaimed. The good domine, however, had those who shared his sorrows and resentments; the elder and wiser heads of families, and, indeed, a great majority of the primitive inhabitants, were steadfast against innovation. The colonel of the regiment, who was a man of fashion and family, and possessed talents for both good and evil purposes, was young and gay; and being lodged in the house of a very wealthy citizen, who had before, in some degree, affected the newer modes of living, so captivated him with his good breeding and affability, that he was ready to humour any scheme of diversion which the colonel and his associates proposed. Under the auspices of this gallant commander, balls began to be concerted, and a degree of flutter and frivolity to take place, which was as far from elegance as it was from the honest, artless cheerfulness of the meetings usual among them. The good domine more and more alarmed, not content with preaching, now began to prophecy; but like Cassandra, or, to speak as justly, though less poetically, like his whole fraternity, was doomed always to deliver true predictions to those who never heeded them. |
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