Page:The Yankee and the Teuton in Wisconsin.djvu/53

 disposed to lament. "In mercy," he says, "to the sober, industrious, and well disposed inhabitants, Providence has opened in the vast western wilderness a retreat sufficiently alluring to draw them from the land of their nativity. We have many troubles even now, but we should have many more if this body of foresters had remained at home."

The above citation doubtless contains an element of exaggeration, due to Dwight's ingrained conservatism. He was outraged by the radical views no less than by the erratic and ignorant harangues he heard "by many a kitchen fire, in every blacksmith's shop, and in every corner of the streets...." Yet we must not lose sight of the fact that he here sketches for us some Yankee social traits of rather extended application which were important in the building of the West. These people belonged to the outstandingly non-conformist type. They were sufficiently independent—contemptuous, one might say—of established customs and institutions to be willing, with what ignorance or awkwardness soever, to bring about changes, some of which were sadly needed. Religiously they were apt to be come-outers. It was largely among this class that were recruited the Millerites, Millennialists, and original Latter Day Saints, together with many other minor sects and factions. In politics, when all orthodox New England was Whig, they were mainly Democratic; many, however, backed the program of Nativism; in the person of John Brown they exemplified the principle of direct action as applied to slavery. The social innovator, the medical quack, and the political demagogue found among them welcome and encouragement, sometimes to the temporary distress of society, often to its ultimate benefit. Not unlike the original Puritans who represented "the dissidence of dissent and the protestantism of the protestant religion," they constituted a dynamic social