The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1857-01-28
LETTERS TO De. o. A. BRowNSoN, ON THE IN
COMING ADMINISTRATION

LETTERS TO DE- o. A. BROWNS0N, ON THE IN
COMING ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
DHAR There certainly something charming in the
idea Of antiquity all delighted almost beyond cur
capacity by the very ihoagh Of travelling back along The
sun and deeply shaded Of time to the earliest
periods Of human history; are &mszsd at tbs awiu
preparations Of physical nature connned through count
less centuries necessary the establishment Of theatre
suitable for man we enter In negotiations Paradise
ITSELF and reve in adj the uxuries Of The rich and beautiful
gardens waiered by the river Of life; we forgive every
error and apologize for every Questionable virtue Of these
ancient ePochs; even crime itself invest with
toD and crown with species of glory which make il
object OF the most intense interest the entire modern
world we never dream of blaming Adam for eating of the
tree OF the knowledge Of good and evil and Cain would
hardly hang npon Saxon gAows for the murder Of his
brother We are pleased in short with everything that
CURED from Edea down to the food and of would
consent under any circumstances the substitution of
different state of facts from that which presented in the
first i've books OF Mose do not think for moment that
those poor creatures who persisted In the of Noah su
kred would suffer suddenly precpitated be-
meath the ICE Of the Potomac As forgive the
his crimes and turn him loose die under the cheer
ing sun Of heaven, 80 magnanimously pardon ali the
ansgrrssions Of antiquity. We zee the rose of Sharon
ard the lily of the valley, but the therns and thses
Dos within onr vision walk the Mount Of Olives
and feel not that the parent-rees of those Of our day wit
nsased she spectacle Of agonizng Divinity stand in
e city of Jerusalem and weep mot the awful suffer
ss Of this Jewish people aud the fearful ravages Of the
army Of xiisA HsAthsn oeaassst cid Tamsrans i
nofs charming and intoxicating TO than the
ofiies romance, though every step of the mighty
queror was marked by the widows and the orphans
cry There halo of grandeur and glory and beauty
protecting everything that is old and which no effort
the human imagination Of the human heart can ever
completely efface
should find il impossible moi to admire every portion
Qf thp I,,;.a
" Pleasd with the place which gave Eaza birth,
I'D kneei and kiss the consecrated earth"
II pleasant and not entirely Improbable to look back
to the good old days when honor 80 often purc ased
at the expense of blood upon the battlefield and brains in
the closetwhsn myrads attended church without such
, conyeniencss as fire and pew--wben became n
lawyer upon certificate, issued by clerk of moral
characterization imDemoral nobility only forfeited its
Immortality by the commission Of crime and it is sad to
think that England has reached the day when honors are
sold and bought under the hammer Of the auconeer and
rise and fall in the arketpace with corn cattle tobacco
and Jamaica rumwhen the eoquence of Pecles and the
genius of Bacon weighed down in the scale by the
omppoent gold Of Ausraliawhen the brave and lofty
spirit that s.., .rr.-t. "a. ~ ....,1
" Buys its ransom T IN
From those twin jniors OF the daring heart,
Low birth and iron fortune
by toing the midnight lamp and descending unat-
tended into the remoest of polite learning
crushed beneath the Of ignorance and audacity But
sir there two sides to The past Antiquity is not ali
beautiful along the waysde il the whited sepulchre ul
OF dead mems bones and all uncleanness grim moRu-
ments Of crime and power remind that man was for
thousands Of years that the was
thing, the individual nothing that tyrans ruled by Di-
vine right" and the people served from imnemorial neces-
siy The truth h the times have changed and men have
changed with them the world since the morning stars
sang together for joy has been stationary it has
tinnay progressed it has evolved from the womb of the
passing ages splendid child OF light 1.-THE spell that bound
to darkness and ignorance and necessity has been bro
ken syogisc prisons have been boldly assailed by
the aspiring genius Of analytic philosophy and we are
mited survey ssndepebdent man, the universe of God
We have code Of morals A modern David.
though he "Autocrat of all the Russina could not
with mpunity sacrifice gallant soldier in the front
Of battle for the vile purpose of sppropating his wife
Even the wreched srs Of Siberia would rise and avenge
his death and not wait for the slow but potent agency
the poisoned cup St Peersbugh or the dagger of Mos
COW No Calgula would be permitted to write his laws in
small characters and hanging them high they could not
be read punish their violation. Queen Victoria could
not string the heads of her friends upon bridge OF
London, the shortest method of opening way for
avorites she could not impsos and murder Queen
of Scots she could not embowe the Catholics and burn
the Anabaptists do many other things which dark
ened the fame of Elizabeth by the grace Of God Queen
of England, France and Ireland defender of the true
ancient and Catholic faith most worthy Empress from the
0rcade isles 10 the mountains Pyrenee The present Eng
ish Queen could not very consistently, indulge freely
frightfal oaths devote large share of her time to
ullhaiting and bear-fght yet the that regned
over Britain three hundred years ago even
sured by the British public of any of these
practices On the contrary, her obsequous subject Mr.
Speaker Williams dared suggest the propriety of her
taking husband without first offering an increase Of
revenue, and comparing her to Ceres to Marc wife OF
Bathlicus the antediluvan Queen Paesina to Cyrus
lac Ia tI.1rn
every century A little than generation ago. the
monster crimes which Turkey committed among the
Grecian isles but ages before Europe looked on with
stoid indifference while Tamerlane the great Tartar
monarch put thousands of in mortars and had them
beaten TO death. The etiquette of day might allow
Heliogahaius to swim in water peumed with saffron and
aronaiics and sacrifice the and beautiful birds
for the purpose OF eang their heads brains tongues
but it would permit him to himself by sitting
courier to death in bed OF roses hyacinhs lilies vioets
and narcssuses President of the United States might
he not paid miserable salary display upon his
dnnctabe the beads of six hundred osches with those
of the famngo the thrush the parrot the peacock and the
nightingale but be could with safety like the monster
who wore the imperial purple of Rome keep lions and
leopars at his table with which ghten bis guests
The fact is comparison Of the state Of morals thirteen
and fifteen hundred years ngo at Rome and Byzanurn
then after Athens the great beacon lights Of the WORLDLY
with that of morality and temperance in age and
country affords an argument in favor of democratic
institutions which nothing bat the strongest devotion
the past will attempt TO answer IL fashionable to