Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1862-12-18
WORCES tt
THURSDAY. DEG. Is, lsoa.
An Hour before Dawn.


The assurance that il is always darkest lust be-
fore dawn is standing consolation in distress,
Its merit is that it is universal, and the world ac-
cepts it as one of its articles of belief Doubters
and scoffers there are, indeed, as of every other
creed in Christendom; but mankind are sustain
ed in the faith that while darkness and gloom
are thckening over their heads there is yet Day
somewhere, waiting for the night to be lifted,
and to let in its light and glory upon the world.
Something of the same faith is needed now,
when great expectations have been disappointed
again, and hopes raised too high have been bro.
ken. 1t is thankess task to grope about in the
darkness and wreck to find which of our pilots
and guides are at fault The time will come
when justice will. search out the guilty, and in
competents will be brushed away for the benefit
of moths and rust 1t is only clear that the
grand, radical defect in our policy, from the
presidents reading of the riot act in April 1861,
to this hour, has been DELAY. With cause
that will command the eternal appreciation of
HISTORIAN established government fighting to
maintain its integrity on the side of hberty-we
have failed because the eXigency of each hour
has found no strong hand to seize and guide it
till its opportunity has passed forever.
1t may be that the time has not yet come to
win any great and decisive success 1t may be
that the country does not care enough for its
cause to purchase its safety at the price that is
demanded for it. To those who read the record
of these times it will be marvellous to see how
tender and careful we were-after the perfidy of
the rebellion had wounded or slain a hundred
thousand of the young men of the land-to send
Of I'M
it, issuing declarations of battle on time and So
licting submission with mild propositions, when
it should have been compelled in the instant of
revolt, without warning and without mercy.
The good intentions and the honest purpose of
leader will not absolve him before the tribunal of
the future if it be clear that he led his people
astray in defiance of the light that was given
him, and of the power that was confidcd TO his
hands. The statesman who contributed to their
misleading by his fair.seeming, but wholly hol-
low and false diplomacy, will not escape the
Judgment that is due TO him because he prophe-
cied pleasant things. Truth IS the only safe
leaven for diplomacy. Candor and fair dealing
are Indispensable to craftsmanship. He who en-
tiers the arena decorated with roses when he
should carry a sword-dcceving the nation and
prophecies of results which persuade both of a
condition OF things that does not exist, is pre-
tender, wearing mask but for seasonal char
latan whose tricks of craftsmanship will insure
his discontinue in their own time.
We shall see. Scarcely two weeks are left-f
the president is firm the ole policy will be at an
end. Two weeks and Yictory-a yoke lifted
from bond race-three millions OF Caspar Hau-
serS led out of darkness into the marvellous light
which belongs to them. Shall we have the ccur-
age to put this new element CT strength 10 its
best use2 We hope so. But whether SO or not,
the experience Ct the three months undtr the
proclamation will not be unlearned. The seed
sown at fortress Monroe and Hilton Head will
bear fruit, some thirty, some sixty, some an hun
dred fold. A race oppressed for generations can
not rise in an hour to the stature and dignity of
freemen; but with the burden taken from them
they will begin to rise. Great ends are not
achieved altogether according TO the forehought
and the hopes of men. The eddes and currents
that affect progress are not always visible 10 the
wisest seers. Something must be trusted to
Providence, whose ways are not at every step
fathomable, but which never be!rays the faith
that trusts it, in the end. There is compensation
for the cloud that is over US yet. 1t may be the
immemorial cloud that anticipates the dawn.
The nation had its beginning in the last bleak
days of December. If there were stars for its
weary builders, there are surely sun. for us. The
new birth of humanity may not come with fes-
tvity and holiday rejoicing, but it will come none
the less Let not the unbelief be tolerated which
assumes that there is no hope because its blaze
is for the moment eclipsed. Let no welcome at
tend the atheism which puts God out Of the
struggle because some of His champions have
thrown away the opportunities He gave them to
triumph. Better opportunities will come to wor.
thier men when the nation is ripe for them, and
deserves TO be made whole.