The daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1848-1851, 1851-01-23

cold, selfish and Indifferent world without parents,
without home, without friends, without any one to
care for them, without any one to relieve them IN
Distress or protect them in danger, or succor them
in want We have all been spared in health and
safety We have also reason to be thankful for
such s,lDply as we have received of the fruits of the
earth to be sure the floods, and drought and frost
have shortened the supply, have diminished the
abundance but we have yet, thank God, expe-
rienced, as a State, such return for our labors,
such reward for our industry from kindly soil and
genial climate, as, at least, to meet the wants Of our
natures, and, possibly sustain many of us in COM
fort. 1t should be matter of special and devout
thankuness, that while the people OF other nations
are suffering from the pnchings Of hunger, pro-
duced by general poverty, by famine, by war, by
the exactions OF remorseless landlords, who roll in
wealth and luxury, unknowing of the wants and
necessities of their tenants, by the oppres-
sive exactions of arbitrary governments, which
know not, and, if they know, do not care for the
necessities of their people, which grind and oppress
long there is the power to grind and oppress,
or any thing left to be ground oppressed for the
purpose OF sustaining an empty grandeur, or pur-
suing empty and bootess conquests, ours have at
least subsistence, if not abundance. They have
houses to shelter them, and raiment to cover them,
and food to sustain them. Beginning at the sea-
board and going thence to the mountains, you will
find smiling, conteated, industrious, comfortable
popnaton IN every part OF our highly favored State
every one having enough to support his family and
educate his children, unless he has squandered his
substance by Incidence diss patton, or lost it by
misfortune or extravaganza If every one is not
comfortable, IT is not because Heaven is not bounti-
full, but because man, with some exceptions in be.
half of misfortune, is prodgal. Peculiarly favored
as State we in every thing that pertains to the
means OF subsistence, the comforts, individual or
social, of living. Blessed with soil prodgal in its
productions, and climate smiling in reward upon
the hushandInan and rvers which ramif, tho S,,t,
furnishing to the whole population the means of
travel and transportation, and marts accessible to
our products, we should be grateful contented and
happy people we should, upon every occasion like
the present, as upon all ordinary occasions repair
to the temple of the Most High, and return to Him
the reverence and devotion OF thankful hearts.
As general thing we may be permitted to saw
people not thankful to the Gver of all Good
as they should be- They apt, in the bounty of
the supply OF heaven, to forget the source from
whence they comc-the gracious hand which con-
fers them they look too little to the first great
cause, and too much to secondary causes and their
effects. When they have grateful showers and
propitlous seasons they thank the showers and the
seasons, but never think of thanking Him who
sends the seasons and the showers; when they
have drought or Hoods or irosts they complain OF
them, without ever thinking that it is the Judgment
of Him who sends them. This is as irrational as it
is irreigious If the bounties of Providence were
received with more thankful hearts, we have not
the least doubt that the judgments would be fewer
and we come to this conclusion from the simple
fundamental acknowledgement of Gods existence
For to acknowledge final cause without an eff
cisnt would be TO acknowledge an absurdity
But another cause of thankuness is for the blessing
of peace No hostile army within the last year
has invaded our shore, bringing terror and dismay
to our families, saughtering and capturing our
people, or laying waste our houses or estates
hppn no prpa sln tbara ,x,ba
England coveted our land for possession, to fight
Tor our affairs and our tiresdes, to turn out in ou,
strength to protect our property and defend our
families at the point OF the bayonet, and beat back
the daring and potent invader TO his native element
the Nor have we been called on to engage in
any foreign war OF honor ot conquest. No buglt
blast has summoned clans from their homes
and marshaled them for the march, for the battlt
against some nation or power more nsolent than
wise; who has dared to insult our flag, or incar
cerate our citizens, or plunder annoy com
merce. No, we peace with all the world
The temple OF Janus is shut, never we trust agail
to be opened. The sword is sheathed, we trus
never again to be drawn save in defence of the
holy cause of political liberty and political ndepen
dence. Another cause for special thankfulness
alluded to, prominently, in the proclamation OF his
exceil2ncy but not more prominently than il
deserved, IS the continuance OF domestic peace
the preservation unbroken OF the bonds of union
glorious arch Of conederated union, between State.
sovereign in themselves, and hitherto independent
erected by the labors and treasures, and cementet
by the blood and sacrifices of the heroes of th
Revolution. We look upon this as the most sigma
blessing of the year that has gone by; and to
much praise cannot be offered to God for his good
ness in the production OF a result so fortunate. Fo
years there has been brewing between the tw
sections OF the Union, North and South, disadec
ton, partly the result OF supposed conflict o
interest," and conflict OF policy the administration
OF the Government partly the result OF a suppose,
fundamental difference of social institution, and we
may add, in great measure the result OF jealousy
aggravated, If not produced, by sectional pohti
clans. Of late the dsafIecton from numerous
causes, social and political, has gathered inten
sity beyond that OF any preceding year in th'
annals of our political history and seemed ready t.
develop in dsunion in the disruption in twain, o
in fragments OF our contederacy of States.
The cloud which a few years ago appeared upol
our political horizon no larger than mans hand
had enveloped the whole armament with lis black
ness, ready 10 burst forth in tempest upon GU
heads the sound which, when heard at a distance
fell upon the of Mr.. Jefferson the tone of
fire bell at night, had assumed the ominonsuess of
knell, tolling the nations ohseques. Aggression
in one quarter, and resistance to aggression in th
other, produced an agitation which has well-nisl
involved us in political ruin. We have no doubt
that the agitation has been strengthened and in
creased by the undue sensitiveness felt and show
In our quarter of the Union, by the uncalled-fo
and inirusive interference upon the part of tb
other, with an institution for which ii is in no way
either morally or politically responsible. The in
sUtuton complained OF has The prescription OF time
extending in origin back to a period whereof III
memory Of the world runneth not to the contrary
and has the sanction OF God as can be proved III
conlestaby by references to scripture, two dspen
sations, Mosaic and Christian Whatever may b.
said of ii evil, 1t is not institution sinful il
Itself, and If 1t were, the country which sustains
is solely responsible to God. As TO its evils, the
only affect ourselves; they affect neither the inter
ests nor consclences Of others; they are neihe
| injured in time nor are they punished in eternt
| for sins not committed, aud for evils not invoke
| by themselves. In this matter, to borrow the in
spired language of Scripture, Every man stand
eth or falleth to his own master" We look there
| fore upon the philanthropy Of interference, as
little extraneous, and the religious feeling dispaye
as pariaking of fanaticsm n little fanciiui, and p
| allied with a zeal not according to knowledge. w
| hope we shall never be wanting in respect iC
honest scrupes of conscience held by any one, upo
any subject, but where we see conscience develop
| ing In anatclsm as irrational as it is dangerous
| setting aside and nulliying the Law of God, as tn
| government and laws of men, seeking to overtur
society, and deluge the land in the blood of brethre
of the same lineage, and language and country
and that too for an abstraction, we think it parakt
| strongly of the nature of madness, and should
| arrested by the strong arm of law. That an ind
vidua should be honestly opposed to The institute
of slavery, from education or other cause, we free
allow. 1t is one Of those questions about whlc
men may certainly have an opinion; but it is or
thing 10 have an opinion, aud another thing SO
exai that opinion, to give it an obligation high,
than the explicit commands of religion, the autho
ity of law and Constitution, and the obligation
oaths solemnly administered. When these lam
marks, thrown up as they have been for the pr
tecton of society, are overturned, as in some il
stances they have been overturned, by the NADINE
of fanaticism, falsely styled conscience, soc'e
may tremhe for its safety. Nothing indeed, say
the arm of God can arrest the work oil dnsIrncfio