Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1855-12-27
The Old and New Year.

'A~ASieAAoNNo y Nh's eHN W OfSh oii-
other. The eye now open-for the
old fellow never sees out of more than
one at once-has looked upon a good
many queer things; but yet the gene
raj course Of events has been the
same that he has constantly surveyed
4, in his march of six or seven thousand
years. Men have lived and died, and
laughed and wept, as they have done
nearly ever since that big ball, the
world, was cast by the Creator out of
the raw material of chaos. The eau
ses of these results change and vary,
but the results remain. The success
i've eras of history only show us re-
productions of old things in new
shapes, and so it will continue to be,
We suppose, until the old measurer of
that fraction of eternity in which we
flutter our waxen wings shall arrive
at the other end of his beat, and re-
sign his commission for ever.
The past year, however-to drop
mysti6cation-has been a right pleas
ant one to many of us; and, taking
us together as a collective national
noun, we have had a right jolly time
of it. A sagacious author (never
mind his name it has slipped out of
the commonplace-book of our memo
ry) says that the first emotion felt by
man, on hearing Of the misfortune of
man, is pleasure. This is not much
to the credit of the celestial part of
our composition, but there is spice
of truth in it. There is an honest
though selfish principle, which ex-
claims on the spur of the moment,
Thank God it was he, and not II"
Now, if this principle has place in the
heart of nations as of men, then that
solidarity of the peoples" known by
the style and title of the United States
have good reason to feel hugely de-
lighted in recalling the events of the
year now about to slip through the
fingers of mortality. We have stood
In the sunshine, while other nations
have shivered in the shadow. While
some of the smaller republics of this
hemisphere have been gunpowdering
and bulleting each other, or engaged
in those rumpuses known as civil wars,
we have quietly reaped and garnered
our harvests of grain and gold. Des-
potism on the other side of the At
lantic has been dancing over the grave
of popular rights, while here we have
SO much liberty that, when in state
of ebullition, it not unfrequently bub-
bles over at the edges. So, taking us
altogether, we stand, on the threshold
of 1856, great and happy people;
and, moreover, we have, under Provi-
dence, our destiny in our hands. If
we stick to the management of our
own concerns, repelling all interference
from outsiders, and interfering with
none. a time will come when our pow
or will be so gigantic that even in re-
pose it may overawe the world. All
our country has to do is to bide her
time. She has an immense quantity !
of muscle, but it is young muscle, and
she must at least wait until it hardens
before she challenges all the despot-
isms of the earth. BY the time she
is strong enough to pummel them,
perchance they will have dissolved in
the sunlight of her example.
But we exceed our privilege. The
year before us-nay, its initial day
S our proper text. The young year
5 always welcome, for it leads US by
he hand in pheasant places" Is
interrupted-that is the
Law to re-unite it; has a more tender
attachment grown triAe cold or So /;
hat is the day to- take the chill off. !
f the pores of the heart have been I
losed all the previous year, they open {
" instinct the moment year is born T
and the soul of everybody that has 8
soul worth saving, or the reverse,
1-...J,1cc