Massachusetts spy and Worcester advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1823-1825, 1825-02-09
For The Massachusetts Spy.l
THE BLUE STOCKING CLUB.
.Nn- n.

The freedom with which a man, cor woman
either'' is allowed to cherish or TO speak out
his or her own individual opinion, forms one of
the happiest features in our national charac-
ter. Our press has no shackles, and our
tongues have no brides. Our sentiments and
affections are as fetterless & unconGned as the
wandering wind or as a disembodied spirit.
This dearest privilege of nature, man in his
own wisdom has long seen fit to keep from her.
She has reganed it with her other attributes,
in this land of republicanism, and, like a lamb
escaped from its fold, or bird that has broken
its prison bars, she is now playing her pranks,
in all her native and untamable wilduess. 1t
is this freedom of thought and action, which
has given to our character many of its most
striking pecularities: it has thrown over it a
magic charm ofever-changing light and shade !;
it has driven away that China-like state of I'M
varying monotony; it has removed that dead
and stagnant calm from the ocean of life, and
our eyes are delighted with the wild and rest
less play of the waves on its bosom. Our sons
are at liberty to follow the path which they
choose, or to follow none at all. One man Pc
ttions Congress for an exclusive right to navi-
gate the fields of air, to accompany the pig
con i'll her flight,
"Away through the deep and the fathomless sky"
and TO make, with her, his dwelling-place
and his habitation in the clouds. Another
wishes to penetrate the bowels Of this "spher-
&c plaything," the earth, aud to found an en-
pre in the interior of the shell whose dirty
surface we inhabit; and a third talks as ia
miiarly, as the school-boy does of his pop
gun, of throwing balls of a ton weight from En-
gland to France with steam.
1t Is gratifying to contemplate the effects,
which this free enjoyment and circulation of
opinion has already produced, and it is no less
pleasing to contemplate the consequences
which must continue to result from it. 1t in
fuses spirit stirring energy into the mind, and
controlled by our mild but efficient laws, there
is no reason to fear that it will ever degenerate
into dangerous RIGHTEOUSNESS.
The subject is susceptible Of many illustra-
tons, drawn from contrasting the people thus
blessed, with those OF an opposite character.
but we wish not to cumber our papers with
the show and circumstance Of learned pomp,
and Therefore We shall not mount historical
hobhy-horse, caparisoned in pedantic trappings,
to ride back through the long vista Of departed
years; we shall not go to grope through the
rayless'gloom of the dark ages, nor to Chamber
over the rocky fields of the iron ones, in search
OF evidence to support US in our opinions.
The versatility of character which this un-
restrained liberty has produced, may in some
degree have given us the appearance offckie-
ness; it may have rendered us superficial
delivers in the fields of learning and science :;
but these evils, if such they can be called,
will work their own remedy. On the other
hand, it has rendered the American character
almost synonymous with the idea OF fearless
intrepidity. 1t has nervcd the young arm of
useful and glorious enterprize-it has pene-
trated the depths of the everlasting forests-it
has made the desert rejoice and the wilderness
blossom as the rose-it has guided the waters
of one ocean TO nlingle with those of another,
and, if we may be allowed TO pcrsonify this
characteristic and ennobling spirit, we would
liken it to our own untamed Eagle, clapping his
glad wings on our mountain tops, and exult-
ing under the bright sky of national greatness
and prosperity. z.