In
The Goths in New-England he wrote, "The Goths, the common ancestors of the inhabitants of North Western Europe, are the noblest branch of the Caucasian race. We are their children. It was the spirit of the Goth that guided the May-Flower across the trackless ocean; the blood of the Goth that flowed at Bunker's Hill." Marsh's position invited a parody from an anonymous critic: "About the only part of the human race worth mentioning is the Gothic race. About the only part of the Gothic race worth mentioning are the Puritans who emigrated to New England, and their present descendants. The circumstance of chief importance in the world's history is the emigration of the Puritans. The Reformation is important, for it led to this. The revelation of Christianity, at an earlier period, is also important, as a fact discovered at the time of the Reformation" (
Remarks on an "Address Delivered Before the New England Society of the City of New York"). Perhaps well chastened, Marsh did not promote this theme in his later writings, except that the strain of anti-Catholicism here introduced was to survive to the end of his career. A theme more worthy of his abilities was sounded in
The American Historical School (1847); in this address Marsh proved to be far ahead of his time in calling for a new kind of history, one "so totally different from existing models as to constitute a new field of literary effort.
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