The Trinity journal., 1856-11-01
What Might Have Been.

NJ
haven to which her voyage was directed
there is in the touch of land, the release from
Ship-board, and escape from the perilS of the
deep, an influence which speedily conSigns to
forgetulnesS the alternated fears and hopes
that each bosom bore day after day. with
the ocean raging around them so we, in
the triumphant realization Of our hopes, the
joyful attainment of our ends, pause not to
reflect on what might have been the record
of the past five months 1t is glorious
picture that now adornS the pages of our
city'S history people crushing tyranny,
vet Snaring tyrantS revolution not only
avoiding excess, but unmarked 10y the Slight
est abuse of power ; community submit
ting to be Stigmati2ed as traitors, and re-
framing from reyengng the perpetrators of
the insult ; a mob OF ruilianS malHhalled
under banner bearing the sacred motto of
law and order, defeated without battle,
captured without q struggle, and compelled
to submit to a higher law than that which
offered encouragement to crime more per-
feet order than savish submission to tyran-
ny and outrage.
But it might have been far diilcrent.-
!
! triumph, attained bloodlessy, a struggle
such as our country has not vet seen.-
There might have been days of carnage and
nights Of horror mornings in which the
rising sun shone but to show the rIleman his
mark the cannonecr his aim There might
have been crumbling walls and flying shot,
and men moved down Ike grass before the
scythe. There might have been children
dying in the arms Of mothers, or orphans
wandering from street to street in frantic
search of fathers only to fall and die upon
their discovered bodies Innocent and guilty
would have fallen side by side or front to
front, for battle knows not discrimination.
The friend of yesterday might in that day
have been the first to threaten and fell with
his sword the one so lately held dearest !;
the ruilian might have escaped the death
that rcentlcSsly bowed down the patriot
And amid flaming ruins and men raging
like wild beasts what limit would there
have been to outrage, what victory could
have been gained, whose rcjoiengS would
not have mingled with the sounds Of WO ?
How feeble the praise, how empty the hon
9ys seem with which the popular heart greets
,", f3,E.otS th"t avertCd this calamity when
compared with their deserts, and with what
should be our thanklumess And yet this
is a year in which we have not yet named Il
Day Of Thanksgiving
If the feeble picture we have drawn from
imagination had in multiplied horrors been
copied from reality if the earnest determine
alton to do right whatever might be the
. II -. fp IaH ~
made waste paper Of the Governors Procla-
nation what would have been the feelings
of that misguided official now? For him
there would have been no more peace on
earth For him, had Providence punished
his crime by denying him death in such Il
contest there would have been no future
days of walking happiness. or nights of I'M
disturbed rest. On him would have fallen
the full responsibility of such calamity
TO him would orphaned children have cried
for fallen fathers on him would widowed
and childcss mothers have called down the
vengcucc of Heaven for homes made desc
late. No far-trayced letter OF an cgotistical
divine could in its tardy coming have
brought him its logical consolation. Hurled
from his position by an indignant community,
yanquishcd, and branded traitor by the
slandcrcd patriots his action had called to
arms against the State he might IN some
far land have found refuge where he would
at least have had opportunity for repentance,
and time to experience such a reaction Of
opinion, as could alone offer him hope Of
pardon for his cuIpahIc weakness. 1t has
been the will Of the Almighty that such
should not be his fate let him not be I'M
grateful for that mercy for if ever man had
reason TO thank God that his bIuuder had
not become a crime Of deepest dye, sin Of
highest magnitude, that man now sits in the
Executive chair Of this State. And yet it
is he who would deny us an opportunity for
Thanksgiving
There are few men who can control cir
cumstanccs fewer who are not in great
measure their creatures Prayers have
gone up to Heaven from Christian lips when
in the eyes of law and those in authority
4 Christianity was a crime And centuries
later many a heart has swelled in the utter
ance of petitions to the throne of the Most
HIGH, in our period of peril, whose suppl
cations have no record in time, and will
find publication only in eternity. 1t is not
by a Governors neglect that such utterances
can be stiAcd. Such duty needs not in
spiration from the highest of earthly mag
istratcs and the most potent of mortal
Governors cannot prevent its fulfment.-
Such prayers have been borne upward on
the wings of angels, and they have found an
answer. No gubernatoral authority could
prevent our reception of the blessings that
Providence has showered on US, and it is
equally impotent to rcpress our gratitude'S
EXPRESSION. There will be days and nights
of Thanksgiving throughout our State, as
there have been of earnest prayer even
though our people are not called upon to
unite on a particular date in offering up
their acknowledgements to the Almighty
And there is one day in the future @hich
will be by the Governors act, Involuntary
though 1t be. one of general Thanksgiving