The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-08-18
WASHINGTON, d. G..
OK THE RoAD, August 1, 1859

"Ef0," for l think it is very stupid to address
a bit of wrought rag and printers ink with
terms of endearment. But saying my dear
in general way, you may understand that l
mean you, you cunning little rosy cheeked,
rly-haired girl, or staid-browed, hazeleyed
maiden, or calm-faced, motherly matron or
even you, black-bearded, broad-shouldered,
ron-gray haired, lam / not Homeric in my
adjectives y individual, merchant, farmer, doc
tor, who glance SO patronizingly and carelessly
over my column, as if it was infinitely beneath
your dignity, yet, if it will give me any pleas
ure, why-really-perhaps you can spare FIVE
minutes or so. Yes, even to you / magnani-
mousy stretch out the hand of pity and for
giyeness and embrace you in that all-compre-
hensive my dear" and will prove the sim
cerity of my affection by stopping moment to
administer to you deserved rebuke.
1t is this There are many of you who open
your damp Gazettes, Journals, Chronicles,
Coriers, and plod through miles of dry, dusty,
dreary political editorials, going to show that
the country will sink to remediless ruin, if Jen-
kins is elected own-clsrk, but will rise to un.
told heights of glory, should the spotless Mug
gins radiate his spendor from that lofty station
and you fancy yourselves patriotic, absorbed in
noble themes, interested only in what is excel
lent and of good report or you plunge into
the foreign news column, litter your brain with
the grand dinner given by the Legation on
somebody's birthday, or the astute prophecies
of some mercantile agent, whose historical
knowledge is bound up in Whelpley's Com
pend, concerning the ultimate fate of Italy, the
far-reaching designs of Louis Napoleon, and
the balance Of power in Europe and you
don't think, probably, but have kind of pleas
ant, unconscious feeling, that you are employ
ing your vast intellect on abstruse and weighty
matters; or you watch the light-heeled Blondn
on his tight rope, admire the financial operations
of the enterprising Mrs. Goddard, marvel at
the red-hot, kissing, whizzing meteor that did
not fall up in New York, and call this intell.
gent" well-informed -" keeping up with the
tines" while you pass over the stories, the
essays, the poetry, to your wife and daughters,
as light reading, quite too small for the atten-
ton of your stupendous mind.
You dear old respectable owl-(for "with
the world go to, if there was nobody to love
the owls p Did you read the story Just
finished in the National Era, called " Her
man; or Young Knighthood? No. |
thought so. Do you know that that story com.
prises the whole duty OF man? That it con-
tains not only more wit, but more wisdom-not
only more beauty, but more grandeur--not only
more play of fancy, more power of imagination,
more directness OF purpose more felicity of ex-
preston, and more elegance of diction, but
more knowledge of human nature, more sound
ness Of judgment, grander conceptions Of hu
man aspirations and human capacity to love
and to suffer, to enjoy, to act, to die, and to
rise again-a vaster sweep of thought, broader
generalization, more comprehensive views, more
logical and accurate reasoning, nicer analysis,
and higher standard of Christian manhood,
than you will find in column of your solid
reading" that would reach from Maine to
Georgia. There now!
IT, however, on the strength of this, you fall
straightway to reading this letter of mine, or
any letter, essay, poem, or document, whatso-
ever, which has been may be written by the
aforesaid me, you will only show yourself-I
really beg your pardon, my dear-a more as
tounding simpleton than you have ever been
credited to be. For, understand me, | don't
pretend to write sense. | lay no claims to wis
dom. | don't suppose ever took view in
nv life. If YOU want all those fine things, you
need not come ringing my door-bell, for am
not at home to you. And did not say this to
induce you to read what shall write, but only
to suggest to you that the reason why you
consider light readers 40 very far be-
meath you, may be because you are looking
through the wrong end of the telescope, and
that if you viii only change your glass, {" lis
pense with it altogether, you may find IT. Se
are after all, within speaking distance Of u.
Do you ask me, then, what under the sun l
writing for, if L have nothing to sayY My
dear sir, if none Of us said anything until we
had something to say, / suspect heaven would
not long continue to be the only place IN which
there was silence for the space OF hall an hour.
| once knew a man who had strong tendency
To ask impertinent questions, and, upon being
lectured thereon by his far better half, was
wont to justify himself by saying, it's my
business to ask questions, and their business to
answer them if they're a mind to-" So say
to you, it is my business to write, and yours to
read" if you're mind to-" Why / write is
not your business
After all, don't know that it isn't just as
well to busy ones self about ones self and ones
neighbors, as it is about the world in general.
If you are going to Nahant, or Mrs. Jones pur-
poses to refurnish her parlor, you and she have
definite objects in view, and you take definite
means to accomplish them. You know where
you stand-the cause of your action-its bear
ings, and probable consequences But if you
look abroad on the world, everything seems to
be illogical and helter-skelter. You were in
tensely interested in Fremonts election. You
thought nations honor. perhaps integrity, de-
pended upon it. You wrote, perhaps, Il did,
or at any rate thought,
What is gained and whs, is lost
When the foe your lines have crossed?
Gained-ihe nfamy of fame,
Gained-a dastsrds deaihess name,
Gained eternity of shame.
Lost-de ser, of manly worth.
LoSt-ihe rights had by birth,
Lost-lost-t reedOm for the earth!
Well Fremont was not elected, and-we don't
endorse James Buchanan's Administration, and
there is undoubtedly great deal of wickedness
in high places, but really cannot perceive that
the country discovers that increased alacrity
in sinking" which her prophets foretold, and
which l, for one, dovOutly believed In.
You hear muttered thunder in the Tuilleries
on New Years Day, and you think certainly
something is going to happen. Over the waves
comes the roar of the cannonade, and you say
something is happening" A hundred thou
sand men, fathers and brothers, sons, husbands
lovers, beating hearts, yearning human souls
60 down to the grave in agony and blood, 60
down to nameless grave, 60 down without
prayer, or psalm, or passing bell, and you still
your own 1eart's wild beating, and bring back
the flush to your white face, by saying, some
thing has happened" Great results AN be
brought about only by great action, heroic
doing, patient suffering. Austria will be
overthrown, dismembered. Her TYRANNY will
be broken up. Her iron heel will be lifted
from Hungary's neck. Her iron chains thrown