The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1862-07-04
OUR BRAVE TIMES.

preciate the Importance of the history which
is being lived all around us; if We feel the
colossal magnitude of the everyday events
which so crowd upon US that We have hardly
time to grasp them; if We are fully aware of
the infinite possibilities of what has been so
we'll called this 'iearfully glorious present !?
think not, and do not know that it is
possible for US to do so. Only when we
look back upon it from the hight Of the far
off future, shall We see the country through
which We are journeying in all its grand,
sweeping outlines, its majestic proportions,
and imperial tints of coloring. The days of
peace and tranquility in nation as in life
are robed in colors sweet and grateful to the
eye-soitened hues of green and gold-but
the days of war and tribulation are days of
scarlet and crimson, and all that can be seen
in heaven and earth is black and flame but
the days when Right achieves great triumphs,
even through bloodshed and desolation, are
days of imperial purple, hues royal in their
magnifcence. Thank Heaven that, through
the days of blood and black, we have at last
reached the purple days Of life as nation.
A little more than year of war, and now
the skies are Frightening. Thank God! for
they have been black, black, black with hor-
ror and suffering and crime. And yet such
year as this, | am almost persuaded, is
worth score of years of peace. 1t certain
ly has achieved more for truth and humanity
and God than the score Of years which pre-
ceded it. AS nation, we had become al
most despicable. Such supple, yielding
slaves of Democratic demagogues; such
cringing, fawning, knee-bending, hand-kiss-
ing agents of the diaboical, traitorous Slave
Power; such apologists and supporters of
Wrong; such pusilanimous, weak-hearted
advocates of the unpopular Right; such
slaves to Cotton and its threats, that We had
almost lost the Godgiven independence Of
American Freemen, and seemed-thank God
events have proved only seemea-to be en-
tirely given up to money and mechanics, to
have become, indeed, nation of peddlers.-
SO much so, indeed, that our prophets were
stoned in their own lands, our apostles strick.
en- down IN the national councils, and the
few voices that were raised for God and hu
manity, from out the miry slough of traf
ticking age, were almost unheard in the gen
eral din that went up from all the nations
and the burden of whose song seemed to be
There is no God but Cotton, and we are al
his prophets.' But the moment the first CUR
was fired, how all this changed How re-
gally the whole nation rose up. How mag
niticently she threw off the garment of rag
and filth which had hidden her fair proper
tons, and donned the imperial toga of hu
manity, and wrapping the rich folds of th'
gorgeous mantle around her, stood out befor,
the world with all the dignity of freedom
and virtue-a form which made the Who'll,
earth glad and the heavens clap their hand
in exultation.
What giant leaps the nation made in man
hood and heroism, strides following each 9th
er thick and fast, until the most cynical 0
the doubters ofhumanity began to open thei
eyes, and acknowledge that they would no
l have thought her capable of s1ch unexanl
pied deeds.
The national heroism which the Norther
, people have displayed is indeed unparalleled
e They have risen up as one man to the SUI
port of the Government. They have ofiere
property and life and the most sacred treas
0 ures of the heart upon the shrine Of const
s tutional liberty. At the sound of the drum
:. they have left the farm and the barn, the ar
;. vii and the mill, the church and the forum
:: and formed into the grand army of Invinc
S bles which, at the word of command, hav
J. marched forward, conquering and resistles
=, They have borne patiently with delay and d.
J. teat,with blunders and crimes, with humiliatio
e and taxation, and have, in short, prove
s. themselves americans worthy of the nam
Of course, national heroism has inspired il
IS dividual heroism, and to-day the COUNT
a blazes from frontier to metropolis with ga
e. liant records of daring deeds. Their numb
- is infinite; they cannot be individually r
/. membered, but only massed together, OF
50 sublime mosaic by which the galantry al
lie heroism of the free, untrammeled North
proved.
We doubt not there is leaf for each he
is in the heroic record of heaven, and the d
re share of o-worship paid to each by tho
angels who love to pore over the chronicl
RI of earth. And we mourn less over the CO..
a ing of this war at the present time than
ne should, did We not perceive that sooner
en- later it was inevitable. 1t was written in
ne tate-book Of God. Never before was war
he emphatically war of principle. 1t mitiga
lis the suffering much to know this. 1t is son
Ely thing to know that all the brave men W
ed, have fallen have fallen for the right; a
he when we believe so, We do firmly believe Il