Mississippi palladium. [volume] (Holly Springs, Miss.) 1851-1852, 1851-06-20

+. VI. SILLILAND, bOCN
PUBLISHED BY REQUEST.
AN ADDRESS
Delivered at Lamar, before Marshall
Lodge. No. 25, 1. o. u. F., April e6th,
1851, the National Anniversary of the
Order, by A. III. Conkey.
BRETHREN AND FELLow-CITIzEss:
Honored by your conf
dence and generous partiality, sppear be
fore you at your bidding. asstzr humble
organ of your Lodge, to join with you in
the joyous scenes of this auspicious day
to this duty at period too late
for just and adequate preparation and pres
sed with the conviction of my own inability
to do justice to the cause | rise to advocate
it is therefore with a distrustful heart that
| assume the responsibility of your present
speaker. But the sympathy of feeling
which subsists among us all, assures me
that | may rely upon your indulgence fol
my unpretending efforts to add to the in
terest of this occasion
We have assembled here to-day, breth-
ren, surrounded by the significant insignia
and pregnant emblems of our Brotherhood,
to commemorate the thirty second anniver-
sary of American Odd Fellowship And
it is with glad hearts that We meet together
to unite our congratulations, and to give
public demonstrations of our Joy at the pro-
gress and prosperity of our beloved order
Thirty-two years this day, have termin-
ated, since branch of the parent stock
from which it sprang, was borne from the
British Isles across the broad Allan ic, and
planted upon American SOIL From that
little germ which was planted here, nur-
iShed into life and nursed through feeble
and slckly infancy, by few unpretending
individuals of Baltimore, whose hearts
Were filled with generous symps by and
prompted by the noblest impulses, has
sprung such a mammoth trunk, and with
such amazing rapidly, that the fact seems
SO startling, $50 tinged with the lights and
shadows OF romance, SO clothed in the dra-
perry of the marvellous, We are almost lost
in wonder and astonishment
Like that energy which characterises the
onward march of the Anglo-American
mind, in few short years it has spread its
mighty branches over every district, sta {
and territory of this broad confederacy
scattering every where It's cheering fruits
and on this day the proud spectacle is pre-
sented of beholding, bron ght under its
broad and ample folds more than one hun.
dred and seventy five thousand free citizens
of this Republic, banded together "fol
deeds of good and errands of mercy, gui-
ded by one common head, speaking one
mystic tongue, worshiping upon one broad
platform, devoting the best energies Of
mind and heart to stay the hand of want
to mitigate the pangs of life, to exemplify
the iruthfulness of the brotherhood of man. y
Who can look over this wide Republic
stretching It's gigantic arms from the SUR
covered beach Of the Atlantic to the golden
shore of the Pacific, and observe the ten
dency of all this mighty Empire to closer
bond of union, and not feel with US an en-
thusiastic Joy on this occasion of our Frater-
nal anniversary.
Did we deem it point of peculiar inter
est to the present occasion, We would here
pause and enquire when and where origin
ated Odd Fellowship. But we consider il
a matter of no importance whether this So
ciety IN its present form took its origin in
the first or fourteenth century-whether in
some secret hall of the seven-hiled city, OF
In some mountain cavern of the land of the
Scots. Indeed, were We to prove its ex-
istence coeval with the time defying mon
uments of the Nile, or with the expulsion
of father Adam from his primeval bowers,
1t would add nothing to its real value. Odd
Fellowship must be taken for its intrinsic
worth, for its great principles which We
claim not only as noble and good, but an.
clent-old as the volume Of divine truth
from which they were taken.
In world like this, where the strangest
contrasts in society are every where presen
ted we deem this and every similar institu
ton as performing heaven-sent mission
Every effort made to beat down the false
distinctions and oppressive barriers, which
the pride and ayarice of man have erected
In human society, and to bring men togeth
er upon fraternal basis, should be hailec
With demonstrations of JOY. As power
ful agent to accomplish all this, our order
occupies prominent rank.
The phllanthropist has long been seeking
for something of q kindred nature, some
thing more elevated than the mere instinct:
OF his animal life. The tendencies and as
piratiens of his nature led him to look fal
beyond the groyeling appetites and pur
suits of selfishness, to an alliance with be
ings of kindred mould This helong ant
ariently sought. The worlds heart ht
found callous; its throbbings never felt be
yond the walls of selfishness and interest
And as he ranged over earth's ample fields
be beheld on ether hand honest poverty
striving against the most adverse circum
stances-worsh and goodness toiling to OBJ
tain a morsd for their famishing frames
Genius spurned and doomed to the haunt.
of misery-sickness, pining and suffering
on its palletof straw-oppressed and wsop
ing virtue struggling TO avert lmpendin.
mfamy y;-and all of this within a stone :.
cast Of The gilded palace of Dives. where i
heard the careless laugh of pleasure, th'
song of merriment, and in whose gorgeous
apartments revels the pampered soulles.
lord, surrounded by his obsequious menials
Turning with a sickened and dispairin;
heart from this tru. .hful picture of tn,
worlds charity, in the lamentation of hi
soul he exclaims, schere! 0 scAere IS Broth
erhood!. In thunder tones from ten thous
and altars comes the response, I'm Odt
Fellowship 2"