The weekly Columbian. [volume] (Columbia, Tuolumne Co., Cal.) 1856-1???, 1856-12-06

savage, and in the relics of nature which lie
imbeded in her soil.
We did not come here. like the twin children
of lila to the Palatine Hill, repudiated by their
parentage, and sucked by beasts; perpetual
ing to the nation which they founded, nothing
but brute power and war-like passions We
know who were our ancestors, and we are just
ly proud of the natal spot where our infant
couch was spread with maternal love in the
cradle of liberty. Every soul of us has been
watched and nurtured. with more tenderness and
care than ever was the daughter of Saturn by
her vestal train Religion presided at our in
gress to the world. Her guardian spirit has
never forsaken our pathway, while every gift
that Love and Liberty, Education and Science
can command, was given for heritage, as we
babe adeu to venerated home, with all its
charms and beauties, its mourning, but hopeful
hearts
And on this spot are we to make mark.
IT'S not enough, that the world shall learn that
fortune has smiled or frowned on our honest toll.
Though we should find on the boughs of every
tree that shades our mountain home the golden
apples of the Hesperides, the discovery would
not cOnsummate the destiny of single soul.
Though the mantle of Lazarus should envelop
us from the cradle to the grave, it could not
| smother that heavenly torch which lighted
Lnnieus and Fulton to Immortality. We
have duties to perform to our country, our chill
dren, and to pOsterity. And no pressure of out
ward circumstances can absolve us from the re-
sponsibilities connected with our position as
civilized refined educated, moral members of
the human family.
Fellow-citizens, we have gathered here for the
purpose OF writing an additional caption to the
history of our mountain town. Christianity has
long since erected the affairs of religion among
u.s. Institutions of benevolence. charity and
learning have established their claims to be per-
petuated SO long as the sun shall continue to
rise over republican America. But we lack
common bond of social and Intellectual COM
munion. We require something to eliminate
the knowledge and mental power, which lie
lmbedded in the rough exterior of the miner |
and mechanic We wish for medium through
which that intelligence may again be scattered !
broadcast through the land. to yield its increase
of fifty and hundred fold. We desire to pre- I
serve, while it can be done. memorials of race
whose nationality once proclaimed: itself with |
such terrible herosm. before the invincble Cor
ter; as he struggled, for the temples ofMOntezu-
ma; but who are now reduced to few scattered
tribes. broken in spirit decayedin intellect and
hunted down with cruel ferocity, by men pro-
Tossing to christian name and character. Aud
the animals which dwell in our solitary places:
and the birds whose native songs awake us so
gently from invgorating. slumber, shall not
they be registered, as having among us 40
cal EabltatOn and a Nance
/ But the field for observation and study is not
restricted to these subjects. The domain of
physical science. extends to the past as well as
to the present 1t not only recognises the eX
listing condition of inorganic matter, as display
ed in mountain ranges, in valies, and in cur
'rents of water: bu5 also those atomic changes
which are continually going on, resolving old
forms of naatterinto new products, and gradu-
ally altering and modifying the surface of the
globe.
To us the study of those revolutions which
have occurred on the EARTH is one of more than
ordinary interest While the success of the
miners toll depends in great measure, on an
intelligent comprehension of the true relation
ofstrata to each other, the developments which
are made during the course Of his operations
are ofincalculable Importance TO geological his
tory. 1t is almost impossible to realize the
magnitude OF those revolutions which have oc
CURED in our alluveal formations That moun-
tain chains should be gradually upheaved so as
to reach far above the line of perpetual snow,
that valleys of denndation should be formed of !
immense thickness by the running water:-eve-
ry student of Geology can fnfy understand
But when we discover trunks o. trees apparently !
in the same state of preservation as though {
they had recently been feicd by { Woodlands I
axe. ard mortars in which Indians have ground |
their corn. embedded more than one hundred !
feet below the present surface of the soil and /
when see. in contemporancous strata teeth of /
the mast olon more than eighty feet below the sur
face. our credulity is almost staggered at the |
shortness OF the epoch in which such tremendous !
change could have been produced. The poe |
try of science has never vet dreamed, that the |
Leviathan races of animals which are known on
~ by the fragments of bone recently found de- |
posted were co-eXistent even with the earliest |
progenitors of the human race. But our imme- |
date neighborhood reveals the probable fact |
that the sports of the Indian extended to hunting
the ponderous Mastodon. and of reducing him
to state ofservilty; just as the native of Hin
dostan now eptraps the Elephant. and trains
him to be the gentle and affectonate compan-
ion of his toll. But the occasion forbids that | |
should enlarge on this tempting theme Suf-
fcient has been said to demonstrate that we
have before us an original and absorbing field
of mental entertainment, to participate in which !
we warmly invite every intelligent man. irres-
pective ofhis nationality.
We owe it to ourselves that department for
the cultivation Of science should be here estab-
lished. We owe it to our children, that they
may know that their parents were not wholly |
absoved in laboring for the meat which perish
eth We owe it to our cOuntry:--that we may
aid in sustaining and perpetuating those en-
lightened institutions which proclaim liberty
throughout the land" and which break every
yoke which superstition and ignorance would
bind upon the human soul. We owe it to our
race, to add to the general stock of knowledge,
by preserving those memorials of past ages
which are scattered round, and which form so
many induces to the unwritten history of the
world. We owe it to our God, that the talents |
with which he has blessed us, should be appro- |
prlated in accordance with that magnificent de- |
sign, which promises man an Immortality be-
yond the grave.
REPORT OF SPECIAL CoMMITTEE.-Mr Jack
son renOrted the success of the Committee in