Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1845-01-03
The Old Year and the New.

of all things, has numbered the old year with the
multitude of its predecessors, and ushered in the
new. And what more fitting than that, from the
moral observatory furnished by the numbering OF
the three score and ten cycles allotted to man. he
should arm hnseffrom the experience of the past
for the uncertainties Of the hINnre?
How natural, at such time, to revert to the
gladstone years of our childhood, when every pulls
alton of the young heart beat responsive to the soft
music of the Spring wind, the meadow brook, and
the forest songser; and how does the soul long to
unburdeu itself ofthe responsibilities and distract
ing anxeties of maturer years, and again mnge
in the innocent dreams and pastinles Of youth
And thus it is: in the advanced stages of life, we
yearn for the freedom, the innocence and joyous
ness of early life while the YOUTH basking in the
sunbeams and feasting hinlseIf upon the milk and
honey of earthly enjoyments, longs to exchange
them for the active scenes and engrossng cares of
maturer ycars:-proving concusivey that
MAN never is, but always to be bIest.'
But we wander from our suhjeet-the old
year and the new.
The events of the past year! who can recount
them, or who sum up their various infiuences!-
As they have passed in order before us, they
may have attracted but little notice, prone as
we are, be gazing at the past and the future, for
getting that the present is everything to us. But
however little notice they may have attracted,
they have excited vicious or vrtuous emotlons-
have contributed to form private character and
public sentiment, the nature and extent of which
eternity alone can fully disclose.
How many, during the past year. in the social
circle have been called to "pass under the rod" in
consisning to the house appointed for all living
those in whom their lives were bound up; and how
fe,c of such, as they have brooded over crushed
hopes and withered affections, have learned the
lesson that "u isgoOd to be afflicted" How ma
ny vIrtuous and Industrious poor have suffered
from the gripping hand of poverty; and if some OF
them have been led into vicious habits, for the
want Of that which a moderate degree of charity
on the part of the hard-hearted rich might furnish
in whose ''skirts will their | lood be found:" Oh
deliver us from the fate of the oppressor of the
poor! How many thousands and millions in oul
boosted land of liberty, have been compelled tc
quaf' the bitter dregs Of that cup Of legazed op
preston, cone hour Of which" Jefferson pronoun
ced to he ''worse than ages of that which our revo
utionary fathers rose to suppress" Alas, 70
the cruel fate of The bondmGn! born with the God
like aspirations and capacities of the immorGa
soul, and yet doomed to the degradation of tn
brute, with no rainbow of promise beaming upo
his halfway, either for himself or his children !
, How heayen-daring is the hypocrisy Of this ma
ton, which boasts Of liberty and equality, and ye
: dooms one-sixth of its whole population to tn
lash of the nhuman task master from the cradle t
81 the grave; shuts them out from all possibility c
! knowing and accomplishing the great end of the
being, & makes them lawful victims of the cupid
ty, the avarice and brutal usts Of their oppressor:
But where are the men of God whose special dul
it is to rebuke these outrages, and "preach deliN
erance to the captive, and the opening Of the pr
on doors of those that are bound" Some fe
l. have shown their fidelity to their calling: and tt
ID walls of the loathsome prisons Within which SON
N have been incarcerated for Remembering tho:
| that are in bonds "a bound with hem," and dolr
s. as they would that others should do unto them
m like circumstances, can testify that the pracIc
ne duties of Christianity still meet with the bitter
g. position, Imprisonment and stripes that they did
as the days of the apostles. And while these bret
nd rem are suffering the torturcs Of the slnve-hod
TO inuusition, the mass of our protested christian
no and ministers, instead of ministeng unto their il
ar prisoned brethren. connVng at, APOLOGIZE
W for, and even supporting this cruel abomlnatl(
,at which
de "Drinks its daily cup of human blood"
&C. Will not God visit US for all these things, a
teach this guilty people the lesson they ought 10
since to have learned from the history of other
tons, that those who refuse to be reclaimed
s,ercies will be with fiery judgments?
Il But the events of the Nea0 Year-what proph
- ic ken can unfold their mysteries? No one,
tunately; but as every one is in a great meas
the architect of his own character and fortune,
say of the new year-"what you would haUt
make it." Do you see much in the past year
, you would fain mend? Alas, it is TOO late! fo
is irrevocably written upon the page of history
with the point of diamond, and all regrets vii
: vain, only in so far as they teach a lesson for
3 present Let the actions of to-day be in accorda
with Justice and right, and to morrow will not
q occupied in vain regrets.
O In accordance with the loved aud tme-hont
0 custom, we wish our readers "hapPy neao ye'
. and should we bo spared TO behold Old Fla
y y Time cut another notch upon his tally board,
. we have the satisfactory reflection that we
8 done what we could to fulfil the great end of
U being, by preparing ourselves and all within
n influence for a blissful immortality; and shout
0 be cut down in the midst of the year, may our
0 ing moments be cheered by the thought that
- have "fought the good fight, kept the faith,
snoll that henccforth there is laid up for US crow
eternal life"
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