Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1849-06-01


from HIS ''weslern railroad,'' could he
find the man competent to superintend
its construction, And her be deemed il
time to spur up his lazy energies and SEQ
if some things could not be done as we'll
as others; TO try if his gold roubles
could not buy the talent; skill and inieg4
rity Of the American railroad engineer
who had done so much i'm his own land
10 promote the interests of trade and ans
initiate lime and distance; and he sent
over his trusiy commissioners TO mako
terms with MIR. Whistler.
The hargnin was struck, and in i842,
after having fulfilled the arduous and res
ponsible duties Of superintendent of con-
struction of the great iron highway
through the whole length of our state To-
the satisfaction of all parties, Mr.. Whist
Ter sailed with his family, to act as the
master mind in the carrying out of one
O. the grandest undertakings that ever
was conceived by man the building a
continuous line of railroad from ST. Pc.
ter burgh to Moscow, a distance of four
hundred miles,
Since he has resided in Russia his
9N''' NV thflSN nave won LOT nun inc
most splendid tokens Of royal favor, and
his whole career has been such as 10 re-
fleet the highest honor upon the country
which gave him birth. Had he lived u
year longer he would have seen the COM
pletion of the noble work in which he
has been engaged. But heaven, for
wise purposes has willed it otherwise,
and to its DEGREES we all reverently bow.
The schcming brain is mingling with its
kindred dust, and the cunning hand is
Palsiod for ever, but the moral of tha {
mans life is n rich inheritance TO his
country and 10 the world. 1t is u beau,i-
ful illustration of the civiIizing and re,
timing influences of the mechanic arts.
The construction of the railroad. soon call.
ed into exercise other intelligences among
the half-civllized Doors Of Russia, and made
other demands upon the skill and genius Of
our c%ountrymen; and The workshops of Phil
a~deIphia ere long rang with the clink Of ham.
mers, "~closing rivets up " Of those huge lea
viathans of The land, which were destined Ia
change the whole aspect and civ i~liza,ien of
half a continent, and influence the moral and
intellectual condition of sixty millions of peo-
pie now sunk in the glossness Of semi-baIba-
Tous life.
We saw some of those locomotives, a few
years ago, upon which the finishing touch OF
the workmen had Just been laid, preparatory
to their shipment 10 Russia, and we confess
that no work of mems hands ever Impressed
us SO deeply. To us they seemed endowed
with most of the attributes OF humanity, To
be- as 1t were, great missionaries, with lungs
that would never weary, and limbs that would
never faint, about 10 bear abroad the blessed
! I.H - a". alt.-t. -
culture. In Imagination we traced Them as
they plunged through the dark pine forests
and over The wide morasses of the Russian
a%utocrat, startling by their shrill screams the
wild beasts in their lairs, and The wild birds
lrom their nests along the borders of the Ne.
va and the Nolga, and, as we thought how
rapidly In the train of these mighty monsters
would come The schoolmaster and the Chris
tian preacher TO enlighten, humanizo and
bless the ignorant, degraded and depressed
children Of our Common Father, we felt more
5 than ever, how true it is, that 10 the men whd
toll, the world is indebted more than to all
others besides for every advance which is
made towards that higher and better condi-
ton Of mankind, when 1.-The knowledge &C
God shall cover the whole earth as The wa-
teTs cover the sea- and when men shall
dwell together in harmony and love.
How often in The history of human affairs
does it occur that the g~randest results are
bro't about by acts of the least ostentation,
that even as in the case of the poor widow
who deposited her two mites in the treasury,
the assurance was given her That her contTI-
button was greater than that of all The veal
thy ones in the temple, so while our Cons
gress were urging among the advantages 10
be gained by a Mexican war, the considera-
lion Of gaining honorable distinction abroad
far higher distinction was Men icing achiev.
ed for the nation by the acts of a Philadel-
phia mechanic and a subordinate officer in
the army who had thrown up his commission
in preference for the arts of peace, than could
by any possibility be achieved, even though
every acre Of Mexican territory were as rich
in gold as the sands Of the Sacramento, and
all had been secured by the victories Of our
armies.
Distinction abroad :" Look there at that
Russian railway, at those three score iron
horses tearing through that wild rugged coun-
try, some Of them at the speed of sixty miles
an hour, bearing whole cargoes of merchan'
disc or whole villages of people in their train.
! Look at that, We say, as the result OF The
, prowess Of American Mb0r and American
skill, and then contrast it with the =" brain
. splitting g windpipe-slllting church-burn-
ing operations of Scott and Taylor, and strika
= the balance between the distinction abroad
! that has been secured by the conquest OF
J Mexico on the one hand through tie united
generalship of The whole military corps Of
/ the country, backed up by an army of fifty
thousand men and appropriations Of an hun
bred millions of money, and that which has
been realized by this engineer and locomc-
tive builder away of there in tho heart Of
Russial Yes, strike the balance, and SEQ
on which side is the prepondennce of dis
tinclion abroad and real glory al home.
The laurels won in the Mexican strife will
wither aud perish before the rising sun Of
truth, Justice and righteousness which viii