Lynchburg daily Virginian. [volume] (Lynchburg [Va.]) 1852-1861, 1854-07-07


". contemptaously, and with pretenee of OF right
to impose it. Now, such achievements as these,
pprf1rrued in the simple might of manhood, I'M
conscious Of any world wide mission (for men had
no mi. -ions in those days were the agen-
cies whereby the race of man would be really
elevated if in this this ". rid it capable Of
elevation.
besides, a. TO the argument that these theo-
rc- ifrcceiyed, would take away one main motive
for excrton in good cause II Is further TO lie
said that tie good aud brave men Of the enrth
act their bravery aud their goodness not for the
sake Of posterity or Of the other hrmi phere. hut
simply because they good and brave; and 1t Is
a necessity of their being to act accordingly-to
act in the living present letting unborn posterity
take care Of i.,cf, and the dead bury the dead.-
Men must work All things are full Of labor.-
Man cannot utter it the eye il. not satisfied with
seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
These good and heroic men, and the work they
do, can by no means be dispensed with. BY vir-
tue Of these men and their work, the world is n
world and moi II waste and desolate wilderness.
Take these away, and human society and the race
of men would soon rot off the face Of the earth.
These, in the strictest and most literal sense, are
the SaH Of the earth and the Creator OF the
world will not permit the salt 10 lose its SAVIOR.
True heroism, then. true beneyolcnce, courage,
self abnegation, individual worth, lofty cult re,
tyer-laboring thaumaturzn thought, are if not
sublime and godlike, nj least preventative and
antiscptic. They prevent our life from sinking
into foul, obscure slime, peoplcd with monsters
they are the centrifugal force which prevents the
world from rushing blndy into the hungry fire,
and being burned there-not before its timc-for
without lis mighty aud glorious souls, it would
not be worth its fuel
Moreover, if the whole genus homo cannot he
elevated and improved in one mass, yet nation
can. To he sure such improvement and eleva-
ton are certain to be compensated by the CON
trmporaneous decay and degradation of some
other race and to bc rcquited, moreover, by ages
of evil against years Of good. What, them Snail
YOU, indeed, refuse to bask in the warmth of your
summer, and to kindle your hearts and souls at
the beams of the sun when it has climbed your
solstice, because other nation is falling into
the valley OF shadow, and sinking into the y inter
OF its discontent or because you foresee that the
! glorious fraltage of your teeming summer will
assuredly wither when the autumn comes, and be
buried at last in winters grave of SHOWS
Americans young Americans! it is your day
now; your turn has come. For you the sun
shines, for you the fruit ripens and reddens. vii
you deem II presumption III me, foreigner, who
have come to shelter myself IN your green shades
If ! say to you. that ON you the OnHs also lies
you. much has been given; of you, also
much will be required. OF all the people and
tribes, and tongues, and nations now eXtant there
are two--one III the East-Russa one III the
West-Amerca-o whom has devolyed as | be-
heye, the task of carrying ON the main concerns
of the world, in these our days-the task of tax
ing order, not for the regeneration, but for the
conservation of the human race.
Placed, physically, in two hemispheres-plac
ed morally at two opposite poles of thought, ii
two separate centres of action, those two nations
appear to me, (now that Asia is dead,and Africe
unborn. aud Western Europe in the agonies, al
most with the death-rattle i'll her throat those
two young nations seem to be set each in its place
each with its own work to do, each its own prob
lem TO solve, at its own proper peril. The mair
difference is, that Americans will themselves work
out their experiment; the Russians will have
theirs worked out upon them, and for them
These two nations How, in the only prop
er sense of that term. the civilized and civiliz
ing nations of the globe. Each will, probably
IN its own direct on, go far and labor much
ana in the sweat of their brows and in heavy
toll Of hand and of BRAIN they will labor to full
fill their task yet, when all is done, they may
consider it success if they leave mankind where
they found it,no better and worse. Their
charge Is like the mission of the Roman Die
tator, SO far the human race is concerned
to provide ne quid detriment cdpjat. 1t will neet
all the conservative energies and antiseptc virtue
of all their great men, to stay modification anC
to give new lease of life to the old earth.
On America especially and in a more signal man
ner. as | fondly believe, devolves this glorious
business. You cannot, young Americans yot
cannot regenerate your kind; but you can make
your lives sublime; you can u AXE the history o
your own land panorama of great ends Pan
theon of demigods And is this nothing DO yol
not find this an aim high enough, good and grea
enough, to nerve your souls to all manly actions
That block Of cold, grey granite which presses
the dust of Jefferson on Monticello, speaks to yor
here and now-Ile that hath ears to hear, let hin
hear! The genius of your country beekons to you
from the summit of the Cordilleras- woos you
in the balmy airs of the Pacfc-sghs to you
out of the palm-groves of the Antilles,as chained
Andromeda sighed for her devercr. Aye, and
Opportunity, too,a winged horse of Perseus, sad
died and bitted, comes bounding by:-mss it,
and you may sit long helpless 10y the waysde;
but seize the steed. mount and ride VIGOROUSLY,
and the sounding corridors of Time shall long echo
the clang of your trampling hoofs, and the pages
OF history shall CLEAN and glow forever with the
pomp of your pre-destined march.