The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1864-01-07
letter from Oliver Wendell
Holmes.

The following letter was written in re-
sponse to an invitation to be present at the
New England Celebration in New York Citv
on the 22d instant.
My DEAR SIR Il regret that l cannot bes
come pilgrim myself, and set my foot on
that fragment of Pilgrim Rock which forms
the threshold Of the Aston House.
1t would be a great pleasure to meet my
brethren who have invaded the territory of
my ancestors-for | have auti-natal recolec-
tons of New Amsterdam and its dependen-
cies, tracing one stain of my blood to Dutch
ruling Elder and his Duchess, or Female
Hollander
l should go to listen rather than to speak.
| should hardly care to have my voice heard
in the company of those whose eloqueEce be-
longs not to New England alone but to all
America-to all English speaking or reading
| communicable civilization itAeIf-nay to
all mankind for they speaG for liberty
which is the birth-right of all earth's depend
ent children-babes in the woods, whose un-
Giles are the plotting tyrants who have disin-
herted them
There is one temptation you do not prom
Use me. | would go great way to see one
OF those persons who have tried to make fa-
vor with city mobs and border barbarians by
| busting New England.
l should have looked with intense curiosity
| to see what manner Of persons they were
whese culture entitle them to sneer at her ed
ucational institutions at Harvard and Yale,
at yarmouth, Amherst, Williams and the
rest. l would have thankfully brought
photographer with ME to catch the features
of the person whose learning authorizes him
to despise her libraries whose taste entities
him to scott at her galleries, whose science
can dispense with her museums whose
knowledge of the past fits him TO sit in judg-
ment on her historians, who can teach her phi
losophers how to think and her poets how to
sing-in short, who can whistle any tune he
chooses better than that overgrown bagpipo
foolishly called the ''Great Organ" Can play
it.
should like to take cast OF the counte-
nance of the man who surveys the benevolent
agencies Of New England her hospitals, her
city missions, her schools for every form of
bodily OF mental infrmity from platform
of moral elevation, which entities linn to
treat her as anslnferior.
That persons answering to this description
have been running at large is unquestionable,
but Mr.. Barnum has never exhibited one of
them not one of them is to be found among
the preserved reptiles Of our National Histo-
ry Societies on the shelf with a blind worm,
or among the eyeess fishes of western cav
ern, nor yet among the globe-roling beetles
of the eutomoogists | should have liked a
model of the cranical Developments in one Of
these persons, for | am curious in phrenology
and | should like to know whether the shell
has mountain in the place of "self-esteeln,"
or q bottomless pit in the situation where we
look for the organ consciousness
If could be sure Of seeing one of these
specimens of humanity, | should find it hard
to stay away from the meeting Of the New
England Society. An American by birth,
citizen of the United States who would sit
down i'll cold blood TO abuse New England at
q time when her heat il white bot furnace
in which the future is sharpening itself, and
her blood il ooZing from her veins like sweat
from a mowers face-at an hour when ma
tional division would be national DEATH and
lOy' union is the triumph OF liberty, not only
for America but for all manLind-such be-
ing is better worth studying than the AztecS
and Bushman we look at with such curiosity.
Even the homo cdudGtuS, the African human
being with cAudal appendage, would inter
est us less, as a specimen of natures aberraut
types, for he puts forward no pretensious, and
could be made decent man by slight sur
gical operation.
New-England is abused by half taught and
haf-souled people, simply because she Las
made thought her speciality, and understands
her business. Let them knock their silly
heads az ainst her as much as they like they
will find their success chronicled in few
lines, written for another set Of simpletons,
but will fit the case well enough
The fses lie ses birds blinded in the storms,
On Lome tall lightEousa dash their little forms;
and the rude granite scatars for ;heir pains
T3oss small deposits that were meant To- brains.
Yet the proud + brio in thsmornng's sun,
Sta ndG all unconscious OF the mischief done
still the red beacon pours its evening rays
Fo, the Lost p;iot with as full blazA.
Dag shines all radiance DER the scattered feet
Or gulis and boobies brainiess at his feet
Therefore, as sentiment
Nelo Eugla,od and her deamers AS long
as they will find brains she will furnish gran
ite, and let them find out which is hardest.
Yours very truly,
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES.
Boston, Dec. Is, 1863
n To-,