The day book. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1857-1867, 1866-06-08
FRIDAY EVENING, JUNE 8, 1856. y
The PaterfamiIias of PreambIes and
Resolutions -Ge.0

Il
given to the country by the municipal author
tiles of New York. The rhetoric of these
functionaries is by no means above criticism,
and their grammar is far from heing mex
pugnable. We presume these civic dignita-
ries plant themselves on the same elevation oc-
cupied by the Kaiser who scornfully boas
that he was above" the latter science.
But, be this as it may, the criticism INDUCED
by the Tribune is fully sustained by the liter
ary labors Of the city Fathers of Manhattan.
We confess, however, the levity of this ar
ttcle, clever as tits, surprises us; and we think
the taste of the performance unquestionably
bad. Had "Copperhead . newspaper in-
dulged in such humer over the great soldier
who has gone to answer to the roll call above,
we fancy it would have been held TO be very
nearly akin to treason. .aI3 aa4 ,t.a>. ,a3
But this Aldernanc effusion certainly de-
served notice; for example, the preamble re-
Whereas, The occasion Of this sad, although
not unexpected, event has plunged our whole
country in mourning, the deceased soldier, pa
triot and statesman was in his lifetime the
very personifcation of truly great and good
man. He was closely identifed-nay, almost
inseparably connected-with every great
event, &c,
"Now," asks the Tribune "can anything
be worse than this ?" Occasion. for SOC
currence" we can pass over but will the
reader notice the awful hiatus between
whole country in mourning" and the de-
ceased soldier ?" j. 1t reduces the whole part
of the whereas" to this: Whereas Gen.
Scott is dead; he was great man while live
ing"--and SO he was, although this is rather
a blundering way Of asserting the fact But
mark that he was also "the very personifca-
ton of a truly great and good mani. e., he
was the very personifcation of person
We say sometimes that man is the very
personifcation of valor, OF of truth, OF of GAL
lantry, but Gen. Scott was it seems the very
personifcation either of himself or somebody
else. Getting down, however, to "good man"
we find the whereas" giving out and ceas
ing to do duty. The sentence she was
closely identified" has about as much connec-
tion with the Koran as with what goes imme-
diately before it. We do not wonder that the
. Aldermen voted that the resolutions should
be framed-they certainly need some arti-
fetal mode of making them hang together,
for all of them are as loosely jointed as that
which we have especially noticed For in
hin, s.zrhereas' Gen Scott has left behind
Gone Of the few, the immortal u~.
That were not born to die, 300
therefore, Resolved, That our citizens be re-
9uested to close their places of business on
tae LIST of June
It is tfne that the river of the American
mind naturally rushes to the great ocean of
Whereas" dotted over with its s'Therefores"
and "Resolveds," as so many islands and con-
tinents among which it delightse'to navigate
on voyages of discovery, especially after po-
litical theories; and great traveller, one Of
the most acute who has ever ever examined
into the structure of our society has noted
this popularity. Whereas" stands in the
estimation of the public at large in the same
relation to the great family of Resolutions
that ADAM is held by orthodox christians to
maintain towards the human family
Whereas" is the beginning of all races of
Resolveds just as ADAM was of all races of
mankind The universally of this belief has
a curious and memorable illustration in the
preamble to the noble "act for establishing
religious freedom" in Virginia 1t was drawn
by Mr.. JEFFERSON, as every one knows and
as it stands in The code begins: Whereas
Almighty God hath created the mind free
that all attempts" &c. Be- ~
This as it stands is bit of very alderman
ic composition, but in the original the initial
words in Mr. JEFFRsoN's bill were "Well
aware" in place of the traditional Whereas. y
Col. CARY, of Chesterfield, was in the chair of
the Senate when the act was oh its f.
nal passage, and discovering that the
preamble began with the words 'Wel
aware" he, in the interests of that ponderous
parliamentary ADAM, Whereas drew his
pen through Mr. JEFFERsoN's phrase, and
substitute that which had the sanction of
usage and tradition We do not doubt that
the Colonel congratulated himself on his hasty
verbal amendment, in making which lie per-
petrated a blunder, which has been preserved
to this day. The act is still printed in this
form with note to explain that it has some
"mutilations in the preamble. s1~7t
There is moral in this curious old story
which it would be we'll for HORACE and his
Radical friends to ponder. That act is still
printed with its mu.ilated preamble, because
the subject was held to be too momentous, and
tho rights guaranteed too precious to allow it
to be retouched, even for the restoration of its
original purity of English This is matter
over which HORACE might think an hour or
two with some possible advantage, for there
is sound moral in our story about the Pater-
familias of the great and numerous family Of
Preambles and Resolutions a..