The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1853-09-01
WHO CAN TELL A NAN WHAT SHALL BE
AFTER HIN UNDER THE STUNT"

Mr.. Webster was hardly buried till Sum
ner Free-Soiler, was returned from the
Marshfield district to the Massachusetts Con-
stitutional Convention and now, Breckenridge,
Democrat, is elected by a large majority, to
represent the Ashland of Mr.. Clay in Congress.
Already the places that knew these men know
them no more How fond great men and their
admirers are of ascribing their reyerses OF for
tune to fate 1t preserves their dignity in de-
feat-just as little men attribute their losses
and bereavements to Providence. II is grand
thing to be taken in hand by Omnipotent
power If fly might choose, it would doubt
less prefer the throat of whale to the meshes
of spiders web. How slyly Shakespeare
quizzes this fond conceit of fallen greatness, in
that pompous piece of melancholy moralizing
which he puts into the mouth OF Cardinal
Wolsey:
"Ths is the state of man to day he puts forth
The tender leaves of hope, tomorrow blossoms
And bears his blushing honOrs thick upon him.
The third day comes n frost killing FROST
And, when he thinks, good easy man full surely
His greatness is a-ripeniug nps his root,
And then he falls, as do"
He had ventured to navigate the ocean upon
bladder, to be sure but when it broke un-
der him, why, it was the state Of man, not
blunder and disgrace of the individual. Solo
mon, too and with good reason anticipated
Just such n crash in the fortunes of his king
dom, and forestalled the worlds judgment by
working the melancholy and the defence Of
the inevitable catastrophe into proverb: "To
him that is joined to all the living, there is
hope; for q hung dog is better than dead
hon" A little of the royal growl in that; but
there is no help for it for " the dead know
not anything, neither have they any more re-
ward for the memory of them is forgotten.
Their love, and their hatred, and their envy,
is no~ persisted; neither have they any more
a portion forever in anything that is done un-
der the sun"
Just so it is generally, and just now it is so
very decidedly Never did generation of
greAA men die so dead as those have done who
ruled us twenty years ago. All gone, and with
them their parties, policies, and prospects. Gen.
Pierce is the newest man of the new times
The nephew of his uncle is nothing to him.
He only displaced the new to restore the old.
Pierce's nomination surprised him. His des-
tiny will surprise him more. He is the first
President of new era. By the bye, who is to
be the next great man of the South Has
South Carolina got anybody in training? Has
Virginia anybody to train ? We don't mean
men of the Rives, or Cobb, or Walker kind,
but somebody that will give history and prece-
dent the cut direct and undertake the fulfill
ment of prophecy. Let us venture upon
prediction. The holder the better and more
probable Here it is. u The next decidedly
great man of the South.will be an EMANcIPA.
TOR! Don't "stagger at the promise through
unbeliefn There is nothing else for it. Every
thing else is worn out, and this is already wear
ing in Some child already born will have
this greatness thrust upon him, and our eyes
shall see it. The South lies now like the sleep
ing beauty in the fairy tale, dreaming of her
early glory, mingled with visions of her coming
restoration. Some gallant young Knight of
the Sun will wake her up presently the sor-
ceries that enchain her shall be dissolved, and
she will queen it again over all the continent,
as it is her right, in virtue of her eminent fit
ness to do so. h.