New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1861-10-02
THE PRESENT CRISIS.

THE PRESENT CRISIS.
When Gen. Fremont proclaimed to the Rebels %
Missouri their slaves, if any, are FREE MN" NIL
lions said to each other, tbs is what we have
waited for. tbs trumpet gives no Uncertain sound"
The eloquent VIM. II. Claiming wrote joyfully to
friend: my faith is that, as a nation, God finds rs
scOrth saving, and that we shall be saved His gori-
Gus will be done Let us try TO do it! His hope
ful words at once brought to mnd the following
noble lines by James Russell Lowell:
WHEN deed is done for Freedom, through tho
broad earth's aching breast
Runs thrill of joy prophetic, trembling On from
eaet ID west;
And the slave, where'er he covers, feels the soul
within him climb
To the awful verge of manhool, as the energy
sublime
OF century bursts full-blOssomed on the thOrny
stem Of Time.
Through the walls of hut and palace shoots the
instantaneous thrOe,
When the travail of the Ages wriDgs earths
systems to and fro;
At the birth Of each new Era, with a reeOgniz-
ing etarV.
Nation wildly looks on nation, standing with
mute lips apart,
And glad Truths yet mightier msn-child Leaps
beneath the Futures heart.
For mankind are one in spirit, and an inst'nct
bears elong
Round the earth's electric circle, the swift flash
of right or wrong;
Whether conscious or unconscious, yet Human.
tvs vast frame,
Through its Ocean-sundered 6bers, feels The sush
Of joy or shame;
In the gain or loss Of one race, al the rest have
equal claim.
Once, to every man and nation, comes the mo-
ment TO decide,
In the strife of Truth with TalsehoOd, Cor the
good or evil side;
Some greet cause, Gods asw Messiah, oeerGg
each the bloom OF blight,
Parts the goats upon the left hand, and tie
sheep upon the right,
And The choice goes by Jorercr 'twixt that dark
ness and that light.
Hast thou chosen o my people, GA whose party
thou shalt stand,
Ere the Doom from its worn sandals shakes the
dust against our laudi
Though the csuse of Evil prosper, yet It's Truth
alone is strong;
And albeit she wander outcast now, see around
her throng
Troops Of beautiful, tall angels, to eDshield her
from all wrong.
We see dimly, in the Present, what is smal
and what is great;
Slow of faith how weak an arm may turn the
irsn helm Of Fate;
But the soul is still oracular-amid the markets.
din,
List the OminouS stern whisper from tie Delphie
cave within
4" They easIGre heir ehildrens children, ,oho make
compromise ,cih Sin :"
Slavery, the earth.born CyclOps, felest of the
giant BROOD
Sons of british Force and Darkness, who have
drenched the earth with blood,
L dInlsncd III Ills Stll-IHduo DESERT, Ollnuto "
our purer day,
Gropes in yet unblasted regions for his misera-
bic prey;
Shall we guide bis CORY fingers where our help
less children play
II as easy to be heroes as to cit the Idle
slaves
OF legendary virtue carved upon our Fathers
graves;
Worshipers of light ancestral make the present
light crime.
Was the Mayfower launched by towards !
steered by men behind their time !
Turn those tracks toward Past, or Future, that
make Plymouth Rock sublime
They were men of present valOr-stalwart old
iconoclasts;
Unconyinced by ak or gibbet that all virtue waf
the PaSts.
But we make their truth our falsehood, thinking
that has made as free,
Hoarding it in moldy paychments, while our
tender spirits flee
The rude grasp of that great Impulse which
drove them across the sea.
Ne,c occasions teach aep duties Time makes
ancient good uncouth;
They must upward still, and onward, who would
keep abreast Of Truth;