Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1853-03-16
:1fii5rellancnns.

By REV. J. sHRIGLEy.

sTherc surely is some guiding power,
That rightly suffers wrong,
Gives vice to bloom its little hour,
But virtue late and long,
Had the reader been IN the city of Phiia-
delphia on the 10Th of February, T. and
assembled the far famed steeple which rests
over the ball consecrased by the moral hero
ism Of our fathers, be might have seen in the
distance noble ship direct from the father
lara. bearing scores Of migrants who had
left relatives and friends to seek a home IN
the New World Among the number was
one eenae on whose features the traces Of
timo were visible, and whose head was silver
cd by the frests Of near three score winters.
Though friend!ess and penniless. she had re-
solved to cross the wide waste Of waters in
search Of her only son. who had LETT home at
an early age to try bis fortune in land, the
glories Of which his father had often portrayed
to bis enraptured vision. As was often the
case in tie period referred to. that poor moth
or had voluntarily bound herself to be sold
for number Of years, on her arrival in the
United States, for sum sufficient &c defray
the expenses incident to her voyage. She
was willing to brave the dangers Of the great
deep, to suffer all needed prvations and hard
ships, yea, to be sold into slavery if she could
but behold her son unce more in the fesh-
For this she had endured, for this she had
prayed, and for this she was willing to die :
Oh, the depth and strength off, parent love
1t reaches high as Heaven. deep as the foun
dations of the earth, and is as strong as the
pillars of eternity. 1t will follow its object
over the bills aud beyond the seas. to behold
and embrace it again.
Under the influence Of this pure affection,
the mother had1eft her native land, and ar.
rived in Philadelphia, on the Gay and year
above written. 1t is not easy to imagine the
feelings Of that lone woman when she first
stepped from the vessel to the wharf, and be-
held the countless throng passing to and fro
as needless of her welfare as If she bore no
relationship to the great family. On Der rghi
hand was the 5oundless sea; en- her LETT, the
ball in which was conceived and adopted the
Declaration Of Independence and in the
very shadow of that consecrated edifice, in
mind, she already bebeld herself sldre!-
A mother of near three score years. in search
of her son, sold as slave within the sound Of
the bell that first announced the birth Of free
dom in this New World! But her servtude
was voluntary. Ere she left the land of her
fathers, the soil in which lay the bones of her
kindred and where she had often prayed that
her own might repose, she had given her con
sent to be sold intu slavery; and she was now
about to realize the sorrows of chat condition
In tho bitterness Of her soul, she cried, "Oh
God desolate was the look Of my own land
when left it, but far moro desolate the ap-
pearance Of this. Darby flowed the Wiser
as, passing time honorcd Bremen, it hurried
us out to sea but blackly rolled the Della
ware heading our course. And my loved
child shall know him, even if seen? The
image Of my young son, as | last Seheld him.
ia with me but shall know that son. man,
who parted from my side a youth and will
that son detect, 10 the grief stricken features
Of the old woman, the bcaming face Of the
happy matron."
Earnestly and fesvently did she pray that