Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1863-01-02
CITY OF NIUSCATINE.

CITY OF MUSCATINE.
FRIDAY MORNING.. $3.50. JAN. 2, 1858.
Liberty-A New Years Gift.
We have no doubt that the President will
this day, in pursuance of the tenor Of his
Proclamation of September ~, 1862, and by
virtue Of the authority vested in him to
"defsnd, protect and preserve the Constitu-
ton of the United States, declare the slaves
of all rebellion free. So magnificent New
Years gift has never till now been heard of.
An act of single man more just, more right,
more sublime, we will search for in vain among
oil the records Of history. Whatever may be
the immediate result of the terrible contest in
which we are engaged whether Liberty,
Law and Justice shall triumph over Oppres.
sion, unbridled License, and Wrong, or shall
60 down in the wreck of our free Govern
ment,-whatever, We say, may be the issue
of the quarrel now in hand, it cannot be
doubted that, wherever and whenever the
spirit of liberty shall prevail, the proclamation
Of emancipation of to-day win be cherished
by the few or the many who shall hold in
respect the inalienable rights of man.
Men like the drunken, BLACKBOARD Richard.
son, Of Illinois, shallow vallandigham, super
Acial Cox, supercilious, bcrufi1ed Wicklife,
the vicious denizens of localities Of impiety
and crime who vote for Ben. and Fernando
Wood, and Pendleton, and, It may be, our
amiable neighbor himself, will no doubt look
upon this great gift Of freedom IS trifling
affair, because it has direct reference to pro.
scribed, prosecuted, if you will, inferior, race.
Other and better men than these will not fail
to Sc. in it, on this very account, greater
maguanimity and q nobler spirit. With all
the true men who can rise to the dignity Of
loving Liberty for its own sake, this will be =
reason for placing the Proclamation by the
side of the Declaration of Independence.
They greatly err who suppose that it is
needless often to recur to first principles, and
to proclaim aloud those universal truths which
conventional trammels and the mere formulas
Of existing governments may have kept in
practical obeyance. Upon this point see how
admirably Petrarch speaks. We quote .
splendid passage from his Latin writings, a.
translated by Coleridge:
''Nor let any one falsely persuade himself,
that those who keep watch and ward for
LIBERTY, are meddling with things that do
nok cNncorp fhoy,, instead of r,;uI;nr <ho;.
own business. For all men should know that
as in common repository. Here is the
merchants security, the soldiers honor. the
farmers profit. Lastly, in this one good of
LIBERTY the Religious will find the permits
sion of their rites and forms of worship, stu
dents their learned leisure, the aged their re-
pose, boys the rudiments of their education,
womanly honor and the dignity of their
natural affection and the sacred privileges of
therefore, let all other cases yield the priority
If you await this, be occupied as much and
sedulously as you may, you are doing moth
ing; if you apply your heart and strength to
this, though you seem to be doing nothing,
you will, nevertheless S, have been fulfilling the
duties of citizens and of men, yea in meas
ure pressed down and running over"
1t was by putting into practice this ad-
mirable admonition that our forefathers were
able to achieve independence and freedom
By precisely the same spirit have all men
been animated who have achieved anything
for the religious, intellectual, or political
liberties of mankind. Calico, Luther,
Wickelife, Algernon Sydney, Hampden,
Patrick Henry, Jefferson, were scarcely more
missaprehended by the men-haters of their
day than will be Mr.. Lincoln by those of his
time, but the fires they kindled on the altar
ofLiberty still burn, bright and warm. It
Is the business of every friend of his race to
keep watch and ward for Liberty, and that
in the broadest, highest sense, for let US do
ever so well, there will still be left enough of
mans inhumanity to man to make countless
thousands mourn. Depend upon it, friends,
they who labor for universal freedom, are
they who will the largest defend the liberties
Of American citizens. They who excuse
themselves in the plea that it sis none Of
their business" therby confess, if they only
knew it, to crime against the rights of man.
Gam my brothers keeper ~ asked CAIN
1t is only those who wrong their brothers
who are SO terrified about questions touching
their welfare.
There is no reason in freemen being
frightened because the boon is now given to .
despised race. Says Macauley:
"Ariosto tells pretty story of fairy,
who, by some mysterious law Of her nature,
was condemned to appear at certain seasons
in the form of foul and poisonous snake
Those who injured her during the period of
her disguise were forever excluded from par
ticipation in the blessings she bestowed. But
to those who, in spite of her loathsome
aspect, pitied and protected her, she after
wards revealed herself in the beautiful and
celestial form which was natural to her,
accompanied their steps, granted all their
wishes, filed their houses with wealth, made
them happy in love and victorious in war
Such spirit is Liberty. At times she takes
the form Of hateful reptile. She growls,
she Kisses, she stings but woe to those who
in disgust shall venture to crush her. And
happy are those who, having dared to receive
her in her degraded and frightful shape, shall
at length be rewarded by her in the time of
her beauty and glory"
Beware how you trample on the freedom
even of degraded race. It may have con-
cealed under its forbidding drapery the ele-
ments of future power and glory. Who can
tell what influence upon the world the free
dom of the African race in this country might
exertp Who shall saw hut the covn-trodden