The Oxford intelligencer. (Oxford, Miss.) 1860-18??, 1861-03-20


out the land deafened every ear-thougl
smoke could be seen from every battlemcn
to rise and curl in awful magnifcenee, min
Cling with the clouds, as il sent as messen
ger to Heaven to implore the aid and assist
anee of God himself in behalf Of Liberty
though the deepest and darkest clouds low
cred round his head, as il they would swal
low him up in their horrible blackness, yei
we see him with still undaunted resolution
acknowledging no opposition, rise amid the
impending storms and dispel them all with
one wave Of his god-Iike hand. 5s
Ills heart was given to his country--his
best blood freely at her command, and with
patriotic devotion, such as was never be.
fore witnessed, he grasped with irresistible
power the young tree of freedom, and plant
ed it firmly in the virgin. soil, neper to fade,
neper to withh. Thus did the great Wash
ington place his country in a station une-
quailed by any other in the world. qs
lie whose name u WatcuMotN, sucii ~ ne CT
Shall sink while there's an echo left to air."
And methinlxs, even now, see his immor-
tai spirit lowering over us to guard those sa-
cred republican institutions as embodied In
the Constitution, and whose birthplace was
in his own immortal mind. Those principles,
too noble and of too rapid growth, have ris
en- too high, and are spreading too fast, to be
confined to their own native land, but have
been waited by Atlantic breczes to another
continent, and like an invisible essence, are
stealing into the hearts of the people, firing
their souls, and nerylng their arms with Wig
or aud power, and to the achievement of glo-
rious deeds. All Europe is about to breathe
this noble spirit, and feel its magic influence.
And the time must inevitably come when it
will have rcvolutlonized the world. Who,
then, can hesitate to call him the Father of
all that is truly greatl
ellis, the noble mind, unconscious Of fault,
No fortunes frown could bend or pride exat;
But like some firm old rock that in mid ocean braves
The fierce wild war of whirlwinds and the dash of
waves"
But, alas the immortal soul of our great
aud good Washington has long since depart
ed it was borne calmly and peacefully up
ward to IFS God, amid the fearful prayers of
the whole American people. Then Freedom
sighed-Earth wcpt, bat Heaven smiled
And if his country has not yet reached the
goal of perfection, to which he pointed her,
vet the time cannot be far distant, for she
has been borne onward and upward by other
great geniuses not the least mortal of Amer
ical minds-by those who, in times of trou-
bic and danger, have stood irmly by the
principles of the Constitution, the one great
centre around which the wheel Of our Fcler-
al Republic revolves. One of these heroes,
| am proud to say, halls from our own sun
nv State; hero in the true sense of the
worl-his life record OF unbemished deeds,
his word bond, his name watchworl with
the brave. The only stimulus to fire the
hearts of Mississippi's sons, is to breathe in
their ears the name of the brave and gallaHt
Davis. have alluded to those great minds
that have moved in the literary world, in or
der that might present plainly to your con-
ception, the unmcasurable gulf which seps
rates the mere corporeal, the mechanical man,
from the man Of thought-the great vacuum
between intellect and ignorancc-to show
that while the one moves on to his senseless
doom, without thought, without feeling, with
nothing but a mere sensual, brutc-like exist
ence, the other can, at pleasure, turn within
himself and hold converse with his heart aud
soul; then, with an Imagination bright and
unobstructed, look forth upon the unnum-
bered beauties and wonders Of the outward
world. With the inspiration of Manfred,
even he may soar to the widest crags of
cloud-piercing mountains, clothed in all their
native beauty and grandeur; tread with de-
light the calmly rcposing valleys, whose bo-
SONS are studded with joyous beauties, and
over which gentle zephyrs play, mingled with
the sweet perfume of roses.
The sweeping tempest that rocks the lofty
tree, and chants Its mournful music through
each trembling bough and aspen leaf, so like
unto The song of death, to him is pleasing.
The ocean that dashcs its white-capped waves
against each other, till they break and glistcn
in the clear sunlight, like the cluster of a
thousand pearls; the ocean, that in its fury
rolls its mountain waves high upon the shore,
swallowing up every vestige Of things that
come within its balcful grasp--the lightning
and thunder that chase each other through
the cloud-bIackened armament, roaring their
fierce artillery o'crhead, all possess poetry to
the intellectual man. Even Fancy herself, af
ter her wide careerings and hsppiest flights,
returns bewiIdered and intoxicated, leaving
the sweetness, the beauty and the sublimity
of the vast and noble scenes of nature but
half exhausted. Who, then, when oppcrtu-
nifty is offered, can refuse to enter the bound.
less realms of intellect, whose confines are
infnity, whose lifetime eternity, and whose
ornaments and decorations are bright, lnmin.
ous thought 1t is this exalted view of in.
tallect-tLis sablime conception of the no.