Kenosha tribune and telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1855-1855, 1855-03-01
The Ordinances of God and Statutes OF
Men.
Extract from an address, delivered at the
.Salem Academy, Kenosha, Co., WIS,
BY A. J. HOLDER.

bcdteW ~1CudeWy, heNOSHO, co., vas,
BY A. j. HOLDER.
ga nation may possess amin
dustrious and economical people. Her
fields may groan beneath abundantharyests.
Temples may lift their stately peaks TO the
clouds, and institutions of learning may ex-
list in every precinct Genius may strike
out of crude elements why courses for
thought to race on, or iron arms to embrace
a continent; and may create breath from
fire and water for iron lungs and give life
and wings to uncouth monsters to fly to the
nethermost parts Of the earth atits biddings
Every man may be poet, orator and phio-
sopher and pile uplving, breathing thoughts
"hlgh as Olympus" Her cloud clapp'd
towers and gorgeous monuments 4" NAV
laugh to defiance the decaying touch of time
Her banner may command the obeisance of
foreign potentates, and wave in triumph
over millions people Her booming can
non may thunder forth her strength, her
warriors may all be proud conquerors with
plumes stained with the blood of their foes,
and her Golfers may TEEN with treasure
Such anation will be great-will be fear
will march steadily forward to the meridian,
and there frown down upon other powers,
that will glitter for a time and then sink in
to the gloom Of forgetfulnoss.
But unless her external policy is founded
: on equity and justice her internal govern
ment, her laws, "laid in the bosom of God )"
q her sun will surely descend to the horizon,
and set in the gloom of eternal night.
The historian may hand down to coming
generations its power and glory. Or some
persevering Ledyard may eXhume it from
its tomb, or in the solitude of the sepuiehre
decipher " hat it once was, and what it might
still have been
The admonitions Of the past, arc lessons
Of dear bought experience. Mightitr powers
than any now existing, are obscured with
the dust of the grave an / scarce lelic re
mains TO attest their existence
When the country of the Nile was at the
summit Of her glory, and her triumphant le-
gions poured into her lap the treasure of
other lands, when within her bosom the arts
and sciences found a nursery and her peo-
pie were wise in abstruse things, and her
fountains Of learning, poured grateful and
refreshing streams into the country OF the
Greeks. Who would not have predicted
for her glorious and immortal existence?
But she is gone. Egypt has swallowed up
herself. Her empire is one gteat charnel
house The land of the Ptoleyms is des
ert waste. Her gigantic pyramids mock
the assaults of time. The wandering Ishma
elite rests in their shade whilst his spear re-
clines against the mighty, wondrous Sphinx
-Pompey's Pillar, and Cleopatra's Needle,
like eternal fingers point to the heaven as
if in solemn recognition of the power that
hurled her to destruction.
When Persia glttered in the zenith of
her glory, oriental gorgeousness made sac
riGces to the rising empire. The mantle
of greatness hung easilyupon her shoulders.
As each limb developed, magnideenee took
possession Off, and tricked it out with pro-
fusion of the richest ornaments. Persian
armies glittcred like silver and gold in the
rays of an eastern sun. Cyrus Cambyses
and Xerxes moved their lcgions with all the
pomp and spendor of victorious loyalty
Ispahan bathed in sea of glory, beat and
Ehrobbed, the heart of proud and glorious
nation.
But her glory was based upon the broken
ordinances of God Her aurels were lau-
rels of the grave. Her skirts were stained
with blood Her Golfers were polluted with
acquisitions of injustice. The curse of heav-
en- brooded in the folds Of her majesty,
and she fell, as she rose, with death and
desolation. Ispahan still lives. but pines
IN rsssgnifcance. Her deeaying gorgeous
ness frets the memory with mournful rec
objections of what she once was, and the
wandering followers Of the false prophet,
tnd temples for their idolatries in her moul-
dering palaces.
Greece-classic Greece-the nursery of
pscts, orators and statesmen, where the or
~cle ofDeiphl rent the veil of the future and
proguosticated events. Where Homer
trahshgured the muses., and Virgil warbled
ssweeter than the songSters of the aviarv
The enactments of Lyrcurgus that made
theft virtue nor those of Draeo that made
capital every offence. The eioquence of
Demosthenes-the virtues of Alcbiades
could not charm the spoier. In their hur-
ried march they had trampled o the laws
of God, and lived in open mockery of his
divine edcts. Faction drove the great
wedge Of dissension through their midst
Outraged humanity, Ph@nix-ikc, raised
erom the ashes Of despair and gnawed at
heF E'ais. Eternal foes attracted hither by
her teuds Poonced upon her, and she fell
snto the common vortex Of destruction.
Classic story preserves her history
Scholars weep over her fate. The temple
of Theseas lives a mute yet eloquent me.
morial of classic greatness and glory.
When Rome shook her CORY locks in
proud defiance ofthe powers that be-her
centuriens pranced their snorting war steeds
over fields of slain-and harnessed to her
emperors' chariots the kings and emperors
OF foreign hads. When philosophers, or
a.ors spd statesmen adorned her senate, and