New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1856-01-25
REVOLUTIONARY RELICS,

" Great thoughts never dls.S Great deeds,
y whicfl sre but tie manifestation of these
Il thong I'D, enjoy d like Immortality. We have
lnow embalmed in our chronicles those great
ideas which, like arrows Of fire, entered the
II brain Of Arohimedes and Praxiteles, and created
\ there an Intellectual conaagration that the
waters Of Lethe, tabled to destroy all over
which they Whelmed, have left intact; still
standing, as firm and durable az the pyramids,
Or the monster creations Of Druiaical times.
Our own American Revolution, the exponent.
and full development Of an idea which had been
foreshaaoWed in the barbaric efforts and wild
| throes Of many nations before in the revolt Of
the sclayi-in the uprising Of the Roman gladia
torii--in many Q brave but unsuccessful effort
Of oppressed peoples aside from its historic
embalmment, has another Of more literary
nature which will endure when our present his
tories have gone to join the lost books Of
Livy, and those other printed or written
pages Of which We have left only the titles and
general nature. That immortality is one which
no learning has been gifted to comprehend by
its own direct causes. 1t is not scientific, nor
is it classic; but in every sense Of the word,
popular. Il springs from the people; lives in
thems and is affected by them It is the actual,
warm, hearty and sincere offspring Of the feel
ing and emotion Of the masses It is generally
lyric, rough, unmetered and crude; but CONT
Snent Of . life and vitality which learning can
not touch--Whioh erudition Yainly seeks to
sembody. We still have the ideas and resolves
Of the patriots Of olden times in the lines which
expressed them-the songs which accompanied
the monster tea party Of Boston, when they
made their bay Q cauldron for hundreds Of
chests Of pure Bohea-the wild ballads that
inspired the COW boys who dared Tarleton and
his grenadiers- the rough and rude metres that
made the waters Of the Mississippi and its firing
ing woods as vocal as the oaks of Dodona, when
orr kinsmen came down from the ssdark and
bloody ground to fight out d great problem on
the plains Of Chalmette. &
These relics and evidences are as noteworthy
as any which we have Y are far more spirited
and correct than Bancroft, or De Tocqueville
They were written for the immediate period Of
which they treated; for body Of judges as
strict as the ancient Areopagii, and as severe
rs the Venetian &C Council Of Ten The Wri-
tiers were compelled to embody in them the ac-
tual condition Of affairs and the resolution to
which that condition gave rise They were not
only to be chronicles and brief epitomes Of the
times, but political histories and treatises CON
cerning national economy. They Weret paint
9 part as gloomy as language could depict
present overclouded with disaster and forebod-
ing, and future which might realize the dreams
Of More and Ponce de Leon, or fill up the full
measure Of foreboding which Aaron Burr en-
:deav0red to realize. That the men who sat
themselves to the task were competent for the
labors they assumed, their execution Of those
#labors is the best evidence They knew the
portion Of it, They knew the suferings, for
they endured them; and the high resolve with
which they were to be met and conquered, for
the resolution sprang from their own hearts.
Possessing thus all theessential requisites and
being, moreover, endowed with that high re- |
solve which makes the coal upon the altar to
any achievement worthy Of fame and after
remembrance, they breathed out the whole in
q melody which, if it had the roughness of an
Ukraine colt, had also his strength and fire.
There was none Of that literary Identification
and fine writing which emasculates composition
in the more refined ages, but direct, straight
forward expression of sound feeling, upon
sound subject, which thrilled the nearer or the
reader like the sound Of q trumpet, and fitted
him for deeds Of the highest emprise
IT is said of the Dorians that their courage
| had that excellent edge, that when going into
battle, the soft notes Of the flute and recorder
were all-suficient to an accompaniment. The
World has seen but one such people, and our
own were not Of the order. They could fight,
and, if need be, die for the great cause they
upheld but they wanted the inspiration Of let
tiers to rouse them and of music to sustain them
Both were provided, and ssYankee Doodle DAN
dy'' is now immortal over the whole world;
accompanies the heaving up Of the anchor in
Nankin and Bombay; the putting down of
liquids and solids in London or Paris; the pur-
suit Of the whale by the frozen shores of Green
land; the glorifcation of adventurous Yankees
on the top Of the Pyramids. Long may it con-
tinue to grace our festivals at home and abroad;
to accompany the g star-spangled Banner
and those other revolutionary relics which,
whenever and wherever heard, go to the Ameri-
can heart like arrows of sunshine, golden and
glorious. "a @. s.....ss
GRAND COUNCIL OF WAR IN PAR1s.--Latest