New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1858-02-13
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FROM BOSTON,.
From An Occasional Correspondent

From An Occss.ora Correspondent
Boston, Feb. 10, 1853.
You did that nlustrious son of Massachusetts, Of
whom we are all 70 proud-I surely need not say
that mean Mr.. Caleb Cushing-less than justice
in your leader Of last Monday. That is, if, when
you intimate that his course on the bill enabling
Atheists to testify in courts Of justice might be
offensive to the great National party of which he is
defense and q sweet ornament ("d presdinm
ct dulce decus") you mean to imply that that con-
sderation could have influenced hun in the most
infnitesimal degree in such case. You do not
know perhaps that this distinguished person is not
only one of the most substantial props Of our State
but one of the most highly polished pillars of our
Church. remember, several years ago, an evangel-
icay pious gentleman, who had long resided in st.
Petersburg, was asked by brother saint What
manner of man the Emperor Nicholas might be ~
- tell You. Sir" was the emphatic response, Il
tell you Sir that he has been grossly mlsrepre-
senttd. The Emperor Nicholas, Sir, is dccidedly
pious /" The same description, undoubtedly, might
be given with equal truth Of the eminent parsonage
in question. His expeditions into Mexico and
China were, apprebebd, undertaken rather in a
missionary spirit than in OF conquest or dlplo-
macy. Their object was rather 10 spread the
knowledge of Protestant Christianity among the
Catholics and the Pagans than TO enlarge the Area Of
our Freedom or of our Teatables. Ii is not to be
supposed that such man could be made to swerve
from the line OF religious duty by any mere sublu-
nary notions of political character. At any rate,
be Was not
And here let me say parentheticslly, apTopos to
the table that YOU we're rather too hard on your
little tea and-tOastcal contemporary here, The Ecen
ing Transcript, in your comments on the speech OF
the great man in question on the uses made of the
Representatives Hall by the Anti-Sayery Society,
and the logical deductions he made from these
premises. | understand that The Transcript Isl 9
native of the same respectable though somewhat
mody old town Of NeUburyport to which We owe
the nativity of Mr. Gushing. Now il il the fortieh
article, or the sixth point, as the case may be, Of
the creed of the dwellers IN that town, and espe-
caly OF all who have grown IN there under the eye
Of the great man. and been patted 90 the head BY
him occasionally, from their very puppiest days that
he is not only the wsest virtuousest, discreetest
best" Of al possible public characters, but the
lOgicaest the elOquentest, the Unanswerablest the
consistenest, into the bargain. So that, whatever
may be your opinion as 10 the possibility Of answer
Ing that speech there Can be no question, think,
that The Transcript perfectly sincere III its be-
lief that the entire Republican party in the House
was struck dumb by its eloquence, and bad all the
breath Knocked out of their bodies by its logic.
Iou could as easy persuade II that Sigma 10 net
the most brilliant writer in the English language,
a. that Mr.. Gushing not the most splendid orator
and the most irrefragsble IN the country.
Sigma, believe have told you, is an unfortunate
old person hereabOuts afflicted with al itch for
writing beyond the power Of phur at least in this
world) to cure, and whose unaccountable idosyn-
Grassy formerly led him to grub among graves and
tOmbs for his subjects topics, l should say, for
dead body had no charms for him, till it was past
being q snbject), whence he would bring such Whit
from the church ard with him into The Transcript,
that ts worthy old mAdenly public nstinctivey held
their noses the moment they saw that he Wa there.
These dainty contributions TO literature be hss
lately collected into book, which may, perhaps be
entitled TO the distinction of being the most dsgust-
ing one mot absolutely indctable) in the English
language.
But TO return to Dir. Gushing. II any one sitting
in the Scohers Seat should presume TO question the
facts Of bis soundness in the faith or of his vital
peiy, such one can be put 10 an open shame.
His claim TO these characteristics was sOiemny
authenticated and indorsed BY the Great and Gene
raj Court Of Massachusetts, several years ago, and
thus put on record under the sanction Of the State
Il happened on thn wise. The Board of Overseers
of the University st Cambridge was reoreanized
skcut lsG2, 10 oevste certain esyIs that the con