The daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1848-1851, 1851-11-27

mi the State 1t will be so observed by nine
enths Of the great and prosperous nation of which
10 are portion.
Thanksgiving is eminently beautiful, natural
md appropriate. 1t is an expression OF indebted
less, confession of dependence, declaration OF
confidence.
To-day there will be thanks in Cathedral, In
Synagogue, in convertible and in Westinghouse
There will be thanks rendered to Sovereign
Power. in Louisiana, Massachusetts, Tennessee,
Kentucky, Virginia, and the larger portion Of our
glorious sisterhood Of States.
It is therefore that we say that Thanksgiving |
i eminently beautiful. 1t unites all men, Of
very creed, latitude political faith, prejudice in
crest and class, in an act Of recognition Of COM
mon dependence upon a Supreme Influence. 1t
brings all to the consideration Of common benefits
enjoyed. Over the turmoil Of business life and
struggles, it spreads the cslm Of peace, and lifts
up the man Of labors and ambition into a view,
however transient, Of things higher and better
than those which daily necessities hedge him in
with 1t is beautiful in the rest it brings, in the
thoughtful holiday it offers, in the suggestions of
faith, and hope, and patience it summons before
reflection.
1t is very natural. We cannot accomplish all
we would. We fail in many things. We SOW
the harvest and tho rain either comes not, or falls
in flooding torrents and our labors are in vain.
We plan happiness and long years of familiar and
afectionate associs.ion, and soon the shadow of
the Angel of Death lies dark and heavy upon our
threshold, familiar faces are gone and familiar
voices are silent; what was loved is lost and our
plans and ambitions fade sway into thin air as
shadows fade into the night A city rejoices in
its greatness, its prosperity, its unceasing hustle
and its swelling population there is pestilence in
its streets, there is wall its households there
is mourning above freshly made graves; and then,
there is panic among its princes-merchants, pow
erty and struggle among its manly mechanics,
despair and want among its honest laborers 1t
goes back upon its path Of progress, and no sure
hope is Frightening its future into rejoicing. A
country is proud of its peaceful power and great
ness; war comes, its young thinned upon
bloody fields Of battle, and it returns conquered or
victorious, to it's career Of peace, with strength
weakened and burdens increased
These things we do not Individually create, and
their results we cannot order. We cannot make
the wind blow, the sun shine, or the rain fall W.
cannot, watch and labor as we may, bar out tn,
Angel of Death, safely chain down to earth tn,
life Of those we love. We may scheme and tot
ambitiously, and we are no more secure of ou
triumph than he who builds upon sand beaten OF
BY stormy waves. We may plant but we are no
sure that we will gather. We may fortify city
but famine, and want, and pestilence need ne
watchword to pass within its gates. We ma,
love peace, and seek its pleasantness, but human
pride, and folly, and madness, it is not ours to con
troll, and they may drive us, at any moment, from
its path.
i A higher Power orders these results. The al
we breathe would be deadly and poisonous shortly
did the sun not shine and the wind blow. Hence
a confession of dependence should follow from
these things. We do not speak in religious @
technical sense. OF that others may speak, w
speak Of the consciousness of the possibility of a
. things, the certainty of nothing Behind thi
clearer than in scrptural text, or eloquent exho
l., tation, is the mysterious presenc, of univers
Divinity; and men may talk they please, ma
Is be Catholic Protestant, Jew, Christian
Scooter, but the of this presence, so vivid
called up by the beautiful custom of Thanksgivir
day, orders prudent purpose, calm resolution, al
"a wise action. 1t is neither wild nor blind:
is doubts nothing, it fears nothing, but what
e wrong or silly; it dares every thing, it won
l. scale Alps for what is right. 1t is so in Je
Christian and Mohammedan.
81 More than all this, Thanksgiving is very app
:. pirate. 1t is appropriate in the light in which
> have viewed it, of confession of dependence a
in sense Of Indebtedness. But it is equally if 1
more, appropriate as an expression of confiden
of faith in the goodness Of everything Pow
TT 1t has been SO held by men in all ages. VIII
ID people, rejoiced and offered thanks. With
a, Greeks there was the feast of Ceres. With
a Romans the Saturnalia. With the Egyptia
n the Mohammedans, the Persians, there "
thanksgiving. With the Cyprians there were
.. beautiful festivals of Venus Aphrodite, and W
~ the earlier Christians. the no less, if not M
beautiful, festivals of the month of May 1t
d singular to mark how beautifully in all tn
n hope broke, iower-like, from the growth of SO
faith.
But in other and more practical points of vie
nd the ceremony and festival of Thanksgiving is v,
q, appropriate. As a people We are very much
,1s crossed in business we become hardened in
struggles into selfishness, and need sunny h
We days, such as Thanksgiving offers, to make
Ks more impossible to enjoyment, less forgetful
GA accident and misfortune, less callous to the
Gu impulses of thankfulness.
Nd 1t is appropriate, too, this fine old legac,
i've Plymouth Rock, in this, that our State and CO
in try, and we with them, have prospered in
30 past year. There has been peace within
III, borders. The harvests have ripened richly in
&c fields. Trade has founshed, not extravaeap
but measurably, in our cities. Plenty has Fl
tie our homes with comforts. Health has m
pleasant our walks, undarksned by pestile
TX Sectionasm has Gained down, or been scat.
into spray upon the solid and national I'm
90 spirit which it encountered.
I'll For these things, the plough should be idl,
w the furrow, to-day. No hammer should ring u
"a the anvil. No laborer should delve, or lift