The Portland daily press., 1863-11-21
COMMUNICATIONS.
Way-side Thoughts.
BY NJ. NJ. PATTERSON.

Bl Nj. Nj. PAIIEhsoN.
To the Editor Of the Press;
If 1866 was the year of wonders in exits
from theology to science, from Genesis to Ge-
ology, had not 1861 as luminous a light from
the efiulgence OF wisdom? That year bore on
its back a gigantic idea born of the people.
and we 1call its name God for behold a troop
cometh." The offspring was of the European
race, possessing the bone and sinew of prog
ress and free government. "When the break
ing waves dashed high" it first stepped its
American foot on Plymouth Rock, but pale
error came with 1t in prayers and superstition
This relic of feudalism has since grown with
freedom, the tares and wheat together. forging
chains for slaves ecclesiastic and civic in opin-
ions OF DIR. or Priest which said to the infancy
Of wisdom, "hither shalt thou come and no
farther
But the soul must expand, and as the circles
of water widen by the little pebble that is
thrown into the stream until they reach the
shore-will truth, though Il small stone, but
which killed Goliah, stir the turbd stream
OF error until It's clear and vitalizng, and the
circles widen TO break upon the eternal shores
This mighty tide is rolling onward and who
can say, "here shall thy proud waves be staid :"
or whine In weakness at entering the food, so
that the baptismal be one of wisdom. thoueh
1t be bathed in blood
Wisdom is in all events, though man not
being in that wisdom sees il not: vet there
are few minds SO Opaque as not to admit the
entrance Of some light,ithough they give not
back the image formed of light, so great is
their darkness 1t absorbs all rays.
Error must not enter into the calculation of
mathematics or the answer will show it. A
theory of opinions according to the wisest
men OF this agel Is not science, but false
statement Of it; il is house built upon the
sand; the winds and storm beat il down. and
the searcher after truth hangs his head in dis
may at the disaster, uncertain of the cause.
Thus our experiment of a free government
finds that this paradoxical problem of slavery
ingrafted into freedom, when wrought by wis
dom brings not the answer of equal rights for
a.product; hence wisdom goes back even in
death struggles of our brave and bleeding
soldiers to correct statement of the sum TO
be wrought viz: that "All men arc born free
and equal, possessing the unalienable right of
liberty; and now the reckoning goes on Alright.
Tor science cannot err, and if the error is out
OF the first statement the result is correct and
full of blessings.
Says one, government by the people is
democratic, and this is my household god.
Sol the true spirit OF it mine, saith another,
and in the rule of their households you will
hnd them worshipping very different divini-
ties. The former may have benevolent i'm
pulse and action, but il is impulsive only, and
his strongest tie to humanity is q desire to
govern it; his own intellect and morality en-
slaved, he wishes 10 enslave another's. and all
his philosophy is obtained from prejudice and
false reasoning, out of which he drafts his
own littleness. Now, has politics made OF
marred his manhood? No; they were but the
peg on which TO hang an individuality, and
according to his creed there it remains sus-
pended till the trump Of Gabriel instead of
Abraham Lincoln calls it to battle for the
right.
"The dearest idol have known" moulded
into wrong, injustice, and the llydra-headed
tyrannies of copperhead identity, binding with
cold manacles the warm palptating current
OF humanity, holding capital the frce-born in
diyidual right, belittling the lin the dig
nifty of offended justice would tear it from
Its throne and worship at a holier shrine.
Nov. Is, 1865.