New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1859-12-03
A GIRD AT THANK SGIFING.
Correspondence Of TIE N. 7. Tribune.

FREYNs-DAY, Nov. y, 1859.
Thanksgiving is over for this year. In the cold
bracing air of yesterday the people went regularly up
1 to their temples whether TO stately Trinity, to the
| little pinebuilt Westinghouse the hills Of St. Law
renee or Steuben and paid their customary annual
| tribute by recommendation Of the Governor. A wor-
| thy assembage was every one, the very "pick of
| the land the cold men and women the well-msnaging
the thrifty, the neat and well-appointed Of every
| neighborhood, rural or metropolitan that day
united in catholic worship and alteration, rrespect-
tive of denomination theological peculiarly. 1t
pleasant thing and yet full admiration is denied to
| it, and on this succeeding day, when with so many
overmuch turkey and oysters have begoten indises-
ton and sober second thought of sadder hue, we SIT
| down to soold at this ancient modern Observance
| We have had our grudge at il from boyhood when
its holiday promse was so sadly kept to the ear and
| broken to the hope; when il proved 80 usually
cold wet, slashy squashy day, neither Autumn nor
Wnter;-when il was kept not exactly Sunday, not
at all weekday, not day which we might freely
| follow our fancy;-but one on which one must be
dressed and 90 to church, and after doing through
sermon and Hallauah chorus, return and SIT gravey
| with the elders through long and tedious dinner;
after which the dull afternoon remained to be dragged
through "a best might, until fairly longed for the
morrow, which would lead US less unwilingy than
usual to school.
Now indeed we whose heads grizzed are better
content to euioy festivities sadly after the English
mode of our kind we can see the general beauty and
propriety of such an observance; can be patient
under the sermon trying it usually is and can enjoy
the dull quiet posprandal honors while the gray day
waDes TIL the evening dawn of lamp and candle,
and the fresh outbreak of conversation over the tea
table. Yet we have causes for complaint.
Imprims, of the sermon How many ministers
there WHO can once year preach one without bsratng
their congregation How many there who have
any idea of mae1ifyng the Divine Goodness, and
citing emotions of gratitude among u.s. by other means
than by magnfying unworthiness, and repre-
enting that while all other bpeds and all quadrupeds
are worthy, only man is vile" justly deserving
of wrath and Indignation and nothing else The SER
mon we heard yesterday, asserted distinctly Though
not in the words we use), that enjoyment of the
sweet air the pleasant light, the sunshine, and
refreshing showers, which we share in common with
the very crows and skunks utterly undeserved and
gratuous mercies which, if we had deserts would
be withheld from wicked race. 1t did not to
occur to our professional teacher that if such be
condition and nature scant thanks woud be due to the
author of BOTH and that to beings who really credited
such account the olden counsel Of the Internal adj
versary would come with awful power and they would
be tempted " to curse God and de-" 1t has been
privilege to hear many disoourses on Thanksgiving
days and in almost every the weaknesses, folies
and faults of our unlucky exaggerated, any
evil mischief particularly conspicuous at the time
was magnifed and the thoughtful of the congregation
who it must be owned, usually the smaller por
tom sent dissatisfied, panied and uncomfortable
away to eat their dinners with what appetite they
might We perhaps unworthy descendants of those
Puritan fathers who thought that the escape Of their
maze-crop from the frost demanded special thanks
giving, while the depravity of a and the undoub
ed doom of all but fraction to unuerable misery
softened by hope of ultimate permission to die,
accepted without murnur open regret; but it really
TO us that the prevalent style of dscourses
this occasion is much behind the general thought of
people.
And we are ill-pleased with the procamations Gov
ernor Morgans, for instance is well enough as such
things go; certainly we have seen many worse. Yet
it will hardly bear reading with attention 1t suggests
that we are to be thahkfuths Autumn of 1882 because
the has not been like 1855 one Of short crops
like 1857, of financial embarrassment and bust
ruin; nor ike some previous years season of
pestienee. This plan of making us happy and COM
Portable and grateful by recapituatng affections not
long past is somewhat inconsistent would have been
better not TO these griefs as basis for joy
And what, according to the old saw which requires
a good rule to work both ways is the lesson which
this paper reads u.s. Ii we are thankful for exemption
from misfortune, what should be said when it
upon us Certainly the implication is that no thanks
due in 1853, nor in 1857, in cholera years.
And there Is a fourth suggestion, that we are to be
thankful that while other nations have been afflicted
with war, we have been at peace. Are we 70 thank
the AnFather for apparent Partially; for allowing
us peace and prosperity while he has sent war and
ruin on Others Of his children who may be equally
worthy and deservng-I beg pardon, no more rsscaly
and ll-deserving than we New-Yorkers1 Far from
US be any such selfish graduation!
Now none of all these things are intended by the
Governor and yet in bis anxiety tosatisy the exactons
OF custom and assign special cause for thankful
ness, he has distinctly implied them all We submit
that the practice Of writing varied forms of such procIa
nations is practice worthy OF discOntinuanee These
papers are the subject OF much care and study; they
anXiously prepared suit everybody and suit but
few: they are written in she desire to avoid samensss
OF preston and yet 20 express the same thing from
year to year; they seem invite criticism and usually
are not spared.
We were told by one Of our Governors that in his
first Thanksgiving proclamation which he had care
fully framed to embrace all Christian people" he
gave bitter ofense to our most ancient and orthodox
elder brethren of the Hebrew persuasion who were
certainly excluded from this invitation respectable as
they are in character and considerable in number
Next year be submitted the preparation Of procIama
ton which should be thoroughly catholic to an excel
Iar ard a,nnant divine who hav;ny carf,it .o;da1