San Andreas independent., 1857-11-14
= Young America. I"

Young America"
The great gift of the century last gone
by, to man, is the American Republic
youthful, progressive, precedent-defying
people, who seem born to assail every-
thing old, and to make all things at once
young and new. The Republic cmbodies
many of the reforming ideas which set
a-going the French Revolution. The age
is one of Reform, and the Republic is one
embodied youthful reformer. 1t stands
in perpetual protest, at once against the
old and against the past. 1t is very nat
ural that in country where such spirit
domineers, the youth should be the lead
ers in everything. Age is associated
with and defends the Past, Youth appro-
priately leads in the revolutionary Present.
Thus in society and in craftsmanship,
in literature and in oratory, in law and i'll
love, the grey-beards are outnumbered or
supplanted by more Juvenile competitors.
In society, the boys and girls crowd the
married people off the carpet, and hang
them on the side seats, at once as specta-
cles and spectators. Elders of trained
manners and accomplishments arc entire
ly uninfuential, and the whole tone of
social life is superficial, snowy and shall
| low
In craftsmanship tyros take the field
Richards himself" before his beard is
grown; and veteran politicians, whose
gray hairs hang out the white flag of
truce to hostile struggle, succumb to his
audacious energy. In literature and art
startling novelties are propounded, and
principles cob-webbed with the sanctity
of time are recklessly defed. In law,
special pleading, which Daniel Webster
thought was science most admirable for
getting at "the issues. in case, and
which the old common law lawyers loved
as the apple of the eye, has been abol-
ished. In love, wise, wealthy and accom-
plished gentleman do not of necessity
bear off the blushing bride, but jaunty
and bright-buttoned coachman carries off
the modern Helen-to let loose new
domestic Iliad of woes. And finally, in
oratory, wisdom gives place to wind. 1t
seems as if the fiat had gone forth, "Be-
hold | make all things young and new"
Although there is much in this general
destruction that is alarming, yet upon the
whole the change which has come over
the worlds dream is hopeful one. Err
ror is so entrenched in institutions, that
earthquakes only can dislodge it. Soci-
ETY. wants shaking up and re-arranging.
From the poor girl who sews on shirts at
6 cents day, to the government officials
who slaughter their own armies by inhex-
ible red-tape "routine," the text of,reformp
is seen to be more obviously right. Mod
ern architecture has risen from ancient
ruins. Modern Rome is built from the
crumbling Colosseum; and if the social
age is ever to be better it must first be
worse.
We do not design to pursue these views,
but only to suggest them. 1t is curious,
however, to glance around our immedi-
ate horizon, and see many examples of
how youth advances in influence and sta
tion. In politics, here, the two candi-
dates, Banks and Gardner, are at an ace.
according to former customs, only of prom
islng hope, not of prosperous leadership.
While in literature, as poetry, many of
the best poets are young in their idolatry
of beauty and feeling; and the very right
hand men of the muse here are not old.
And in prose, the effective writers are
mostly spirits impulsive and ardent, with
the glow of the spring time in their genius.
Look over the list of contributors prom
ised to the coming Atlantic Monthly,
you will find few whose pens are not Dip
ped in the sunshine of youthful fancy and
genial hopes.
Rejoice, then, o, Young America," !"
in thy youth, but let not thy proud pros
perity intoxicate and divert thy energies
from the great task of improvement and
reform