Minnesota weekly times., 1856-11-22
THURSDAY, NOV. 20, 1856.
0D To-day being thanksgiving, no paper will
be issued from this Office tor morrow.
THANKSGIVING.

THANKSGIVING.
Inasmuch as this brown, wind-cleft November
is reputed to be the month in which hypochondri-
acs generally take gloomy view of things, and
poets most do hang themselves, it was very kind
in those old witch-choking Puri:ans, to locate the
feast of chickcn-pies in the very midst of
-" these moaning melancholy days,
The saddest of the year,''
so that the stricken pilgrims aforesaid, trav-
elling over the dreary waste between the reign OF
Flora and the frolic of snow balls, may find CO.
~ halfway house, and take good cargo of sun
shine into their fog bound souls, to keep them
from applying hemp to the cervical vertebre--
at any rate, till after the feast. We never think
of Thanksgiving, but whole troop of turkeys
comes gobbling up, and the pudding, and pastry,
and pumpkin -pies-those golden trophies OF New
England range their smiling countenances along
the old farm-tabe. And such pumpkin-pies =
Ladies of St. Paul-you sociable, and worthy,
and intelligent, and good-looking, and all that
but oh Epicurus !-you can't make such pump
kin pies as our mother used to get up. That was
pumpkin, with p!
Ah! Thanksgiving Day, when from East and from West,
From and from South, the Pilgrim and Guest;
geyhsred New Highlander 'round his board
The old broken links Of affection, restored;
When the carc-wearied his mother
And the smiles where the girl smiled bcfoe
Wha moistcns the lp-what brightens the eye
What brings back the past, like rich pumpktn PIE!
Here, in Minnesota, we cannot gather around
the long table in the back kitchen at the Home
stead, as we did in our yesteryears, with Charley,
and Emily, and all of the little folks and the old
er, with q venerable sacredness upon everything
we see-the old house, the old door-yard where
our boy-days were spent, the old fence standing
sentinel-like around the whole, and the old oaken
swing, vibrating between the branches of the wide
spread elm-you remember, reader-and we do
But the dear circle is broken, and we cannot all
gather under the brown. ancestral roof to-day. A
New England sky bends over the loved ones, anu
we, the fugitives, have adopted another genial
home, in this broad, brave, young Minnesota. -
Yet we can have Thanksgiving as of old. Eve.
ry heart has regiment of bright-eyed recollec-
tions within its corridors the rill, the meadow,
the old farmhouse browning in the sun, the grey
branches swinging nearby, that used to pelt us
with chestnuts while we pclted them with clubs,
the broad mill-pond where we fshed all day long
with naked pin for sinners, and the rounding
hill-slope, where we rambled to Gull daisies with
ON elder sister-now taken to brighter home
how vividly all these long-gone scenes come troop
ing up again at the beck of Memory's finger
'But what have we got to thank God for,' says
msanthropic mourner, s's not religion declining,
vice triumphing and Slavery extending with a
frightful fearless tread Is not Kansas subdued
Is not Cuba to be crushed by pirates, and annexed
by Buchanan? Is not our country rushing thro'
a career of shame and guilt, aad earning for it.
self the execraton of Christendom? Away with
your Thanksgiving! Life is a vale of tears, Earth
hospital, and Heaven great sounding-board
to echo back the misery" Hold on my weep
ing Philosopher-not so fast! You say this is q
sad, sad world. What you say is true-part if it
Your tears are too many and lavish; your de-
nunciation is too sweeping. True-crime is in
augurated as one of the licences of Office. Never
in our Country's history has there been such un-
blushing wrong in high places. Oppressors are
clothed in purple and fine linen-men are made
martyrs for daring to speak their Thoughts the
fires of Civil War are blazing in Kansas noble
Senator has been stricken down in his seat, by a
bludgeon in the hands of bully; Governors of
Southern states, and members of Congress-the
flush and the fair--have We'd in crowning their
hero, for the coward's blow; kisses have been
silver, and rubies by his constituents, and the
assassin is de6ed as was Theseus for Staying the
monitaur, and Hercules for cutting off the heads
of the Lernean Hydra. Drunk with iolatry,
he has accepted the apotheosis, and moves, and
mods, and speaks with the conscious authority of
God! True, we have fallen on strange times. But
years will right the wrong. The people are not
blind as Sampson was, and though they have un-
Willingly invoked Black Power to rule them for
four years, they will not purposely pull down the
Temple of Constitutional Liberty upon their heads.
Dry your tears, my weeping Philosopher! Re-
member that Error cannot always prevail.
Though Wrong may firt in her butterfly plumage,
and Tyranny WELD his sceptre of an hour, there
is something irresistible in the claims of justice,
and there is beauty, and policy too, about
Truth, that will command recognition in spite of
all. Yes = there is an abundant reason for
Thanksgiving. We are thankful that the long
Future is left US to fight for the final triumph Of
principle, and for the universal prevalence of
Good thankful that we have been directed to
this brave young country, farer. richer, heal
thier more fertile than which, was never unrolled
from the hand of Deity-thankful that the broad,
bright sky is left us, and the glistening water,
and the waving woods, and the beautiful bound
less earth, to fill our hearts with hope, and to
prove to US, that this is not so bad world, if
our souls are only attuned to the melody of Ma
ture's universal harp. Yes thanksgiving does the
world good!
ca We have just received, warm from the
press, copy of "Minnesota as it is in 1862
capital work-everybody should possess a copy.
More extended office in ga few days."
u great little excitement took place in New