The Feliciana Democrat., 1858-08-07
w @ NJ A y

Tho following eloquent tribute to WOMAN
was spontaneously given, ut the semi-rentcn.
nia celebration Of the New York Hisioral
Society, in 1854, hy Theodore T.. Thomlinson,
ESQ. 1t was delivered at the close of the
feast, and after Mr. Bancroft and the most eel.
ebrated orators had spoken in reference TO the
most imposing regular ioatS Ii was then that
the President, Hon Luther Brandish ninonl.
ced the last one, thus woman although
last in our toasts yet ever first in our aifec-
tions"
A smile passed over the faces of the grave
Swans, and with what might have been deem.
ed a sort of patronZing sneer, they looked to-
wards Mr.. TomlinSon, who was the youngest
member of them NIL lay many years, and call.
ed on him to respond Mr. Tnmlinson at once
sprang 70 his feet, and 1t would seem, hy the
impassioned vindicnton he made of the gran
deur of his text, that he intended TO admins
ter rebuke to the sentiment which had waiv-
ed the respond to him as n sort Of joke:
'"WoMAN 7 if first in our affections should
moi be last in our toaSts. She has fallen into
my arms. and | will uphold her with all the
ch'valry OF the frudal ages. Woman is Il
theme worthy of the poet or orator Did not
Homer, the blind. bard sing Of woman and
when we read Of Hector bearing thick battle
on his sounding shield, as holding aloft young
AstyanaX, trembling at his nodding plume,
do we not revert TO the beauteous Helen--sad
Andronache?
Ibid not our orator-hs' orian to-day from
whose hand centuries seemed to ny-did he not
pause to play celestial music to woman--did
he not say, that of all things beautiful of earth
the vail of her spirit was most beautiful that
in our hrery life, she was the lily. or---I for.
get, for the flowers were all cmulouS the gen
tie daisy lifcd up its head, the violet breath
ed newer fragance and the rose angrily blush.
ed woman's pride, and womars IovcneSs She
is greater than the historian he but records
the past, she makes history her gentle hand
bends the twig that gyrS inclination to the
oak on the infant brow she stamps the char
ter of the nation 1t was only when luxury
crept into the domestic circle, aud stained the
freside, when there were Spartan mothers, no
Roman matronS. that Rome and Sparta fell
"Woman is the type Of civilization in saw
age life, slave; in refined, a queen What
distinguishes this nation most what impress
es the noble Of other lands that the American,
is the more delicate, the higher refinement, is,
our veneration for woman. She can go, ul-
harmed, all through our vast conntry--her
gurdian angel the spirit Of the people
~ cannot read the future, the horizon is oh
scure the frmamen is not clear Who can tell
what will grow ont of the conflicts of the Old
World, and the anXeties of the New This
! believe, that as long ns the American People
preserve their respect for woman, aud respect
follows worth, the American Republic will live.
This knou, that if the mothers Of the nation
are good and pure, the sons Of the nation will
be strong and free
Woman Empire is in thy hand. Lead
forth from beyond the mountains, from the far
Pacific, out of the virgin bosom of the peer
less West, the young States, and they will come
to our union as mighty as our own without
canker to consume their youth, without a
cloud to darken their destiny
"Power in arms, or song, or coquence, has
made mau immortal HIS very organ enshru
ed the muse of Milton Wonan's is greater
than his. Man is made Of the dust of the earth,
woman out of the image Of God. She is sll.
preme in good or evil Did not Cleopatra
lead captive couquerors Who but Eve could
have destroyed Paradise, where day was ecsat-
ic joy, and night came as the approach of gen
tie music where the couch was the fragrant
embrace of flowers where the rich, luscious
grape fell without the wooing-where the very
mountains arose in their sublimity to extend
their shade over mans repose? Though the
chosen angel Of the Destroyer still her name
is stamped on the decaloguc Honor thy fa-
ther and thy mOther'