Thibodaux minerva. [volume] (Thibodaux, La.) 18??-1858, 1855-11-17
A Picture of our Country.

America as she now stands, IS striking
fact The Western cearDgs, the immense
farms of the Mississippi Valley, the lake trade.
the foreign immigration, toiling Africa chained
u the ear of commerce, gorgeous and reckless
New York aud sudden San Francisco, excite
ina gination by all thai they imply aad fore
shadow. They represent many ideas, and en-
body many wonderful and moTlng story; tor
business has its danger and daring, its suffer
ing and endurance. and the changes of fortune
in this world of boundless resources and
free activity, are more marvellous than the
tales Of the Arabian Nights This bold enter
prise that stretches to the Pacific, this skilled
aud thoughtful race grasping 4 vast empire like
homestead, to cultivate and plant aad adorn;
this brave army of worshippers, marching on
irresistible to the conquest Of nature, from 8
grand spectacle Though their weapons-the
axe the plough and the steam englne-Eave
rot the lustre OF poetry that CLEANS from the
point of the sword; though heroes of the farm,
the work shop, and the counting house IKE
village Hampdens. die unsung, yet great quail
ties are often exhibited in these humble fields
OF mans efforts, and their efforts found nations,
as those Of the coral insect lift the basis Of an
island above the sea, to the light and air OF
! Heaven.
| But the picture has its dark side The eager
/
less" pursuit of it has become the universal
passion and occupation. We have that love of
money which is the root Of all evil and under
the deadly shade Of the tree from that root,
! the love of knowledge and art, of truth, and
virtue and beauty, Tithers and dies. So IN
| prosperity no affairs smoke" The curse OF
| Midas is upon US. Our feelings, our ideas our
aspirations, are all turned into gold and We
are starving amid our barren abundance. We
worship the material, not the splrltual the
visible AMI transient, not the Invisible and
eternal. We are practical, not intellectual
and our pleasures are Of the senses, not OF the
reason, imagination and taste. We are smtten
with the lust of flesh, and the lust OF the eye,
and the pride of life" We are true disciples
of the ethics of interest and utility, and our
| only morality is cash payment.
Truly has it been said, that she who makes
haste to get rich shall not be innocent" If in
temperate drinking be the degrading vice of one
| portion Of our people, Mtemperats money -nad6uag
IS the beseitiag sin of another and much larger
portion and it is difficult to say which is the
more pernicious One is vice of the senses,
destroying the mind the other delusion OF
the mind and selfish passion, blasting the
moral sentiments, and palsying the higher
powers of tho intellect. The poor drunkard
cannot resist the .sbaneful cup which be-
numbs the soul, 'unmoulding reasons MIN
tage," and transforming him
/ Into the inglorous likeness Of beast"
and the infatuated worshipper of Mammon.
deliberately uses his mental faculties for his
own destruction, prefers the ignobe and low to
the pure and high, and shuts out the light of
Heaven from his life. Successful industry,
rapid gains rank, prosperity. without coun-
teracting causes to modify their influence, have
stimulated this passion for wealth to excess,
and have produced already in this new country,
luxury, venaity, corruption, contempt for in
tellectual pursuits and pleasures, and sneering
Indifference to ennobling and elevated sentl-
ulent Hence the vulgar ostentation of our
cities: hence the general want Of literary taste
and culture hence the deplorabfe frauds of
business; hence much Of the baseness OF our
poIitics