The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1850-01-01
The New Year.


Before this sheet reaches our readers
another year will have dawned on the Re-
public and its twenty millions Of freemen;
to all of whom may it be year Of well
deserved happiness and well-enjoyed pros
perity! To our many friends we tender
the customary greetings of the day. We
salute them, all and each, with our best
wishes for their welfare; and we doubt not
that they will all join with us in sincere
invocation to the God of our fathers that
he will continue to watch over the inherit
ance of the children. May He sustain the
institutions under which we live. May
he confirm and perpetuate the charter of
civil and religious liberty, which was de-
MED to the prayers and tears-of the fugi-
tive Huguenot, but which was proclaimed
successfully by the sterner Puritan from
the deck of the Mayhower, and sealed
with the blood of patriot-martyrs on the
battle-fields of glorious Revolution.
May he confirm and perpetuate that Con-
sTITUTIoN and that UNION which give
safety, strength, peace, and honor to the
American people. May he extend their
unimpaired blessing to all the nations
which may be brought within the enlarg-
ing circle of hope, interests, and destinies
which they embrace. Silently and surely
as the rays of the same sun which now
bathes the Potomac traverses this vast
continent till they irradiate the crumbling
tenements of Santa Fe, and dispelled the
shades of night from San Francisco-may
the laws, the institutions, and the bless
ings of higher civilization, find their
way to our brethren of the Pacific in the
same noiseless and luminous path.
The occasion suggests a thousand re-
Elections, which have been thousand
times repeated, and which no language
can render more eloquent or impressive
than the silent monitor of the heart. The
day itself is the best teacher of its appro-
pirate lessons. 1t is season of forgive
ness and reconciliation; the burial-day of
old enmities and animosities; the birth
day of new hopes, interests and affections.
No one can fail to be reminded by il that
he has taken another stride on the broad
pathway that leads to the universal gravel
No one can fail TO reflect at such period
on the vanity of human competitions and
the emptiness Of human triumph. All
be better impulses of humanity, all the
,nnobling charities of our nature, spring
INTO renewed life and action, with the re-
:urrence Of day which speaks to us all
n a common language, and reminds us of
our common destiny.
BY many the approach of the day will
re hailed with melancholy pleasure. Since
he dawn of the last New Year, friends
nay have fallen around them, bright pros
)ects have been dimmed, fond hopes
rave been extinguished. The past year
las failed to realize its promises, and they
nave exchanged the garments of gladness
or those Of mourning We would not in
rude upon the sacredness of sorrow; but
nay all who sit in its solitude and shadow
ind solace in the tender sympathy OF
friendship and kindred, and may the kind
ess Of an overruling Providence temper
them the severity Of their bereavement.
So all others, favored by fortune, buoyant
4 expectations, blessed in the enjoyment
{ the present, and glad in the promise 81
ne future, who are happy beyond the
each of our good wishes-we will only
ope that the coming year may witness no
hange in their destiny. May their lines
yer fall TO them in pleasant places, and
the abundant benefcence which crowns
ieir lot may they (and all Of us) remem-
er those who have need Of something
nore genial than good wishes, and whom
icy may send from their doors more
ad OF countenance and lighter of heart,
enter on the pilgrimage of the year
On such a day we may be pardoned q
ord personal. We should do injustice tc
hers, no less than ourselves, if we should
it The expression Of our sincere thank:
the ever-increasing multitude of friend.
10 bste sustained and encouraged Us in
o.s vhich are none the less arduou:
esphnsible because they are labors we
Jly the bffT existence Of this jour.
m has been 10 pursue such a
public affairs as the interests
ser of the Union seem to require
n u m riot citizens We have recog-