The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1866-01-01
The Year of Grace-1365.
"The year is dying in the night: :.
R.nr nnr will hal.s and lie him die !!

Ring out, will bells, and lie him der
Before the morning readers OF the Press
shall have ,lnfolded the damp sheet on which
these words are printed, this eventful and ever
memorable year of 1865 will have been swept
into the tomb of the past. Its sands are rum
ming low; its hurrying moments are few now,
and easily counted. As we watch the last
grains failing one by one we may well pause
moment before we turn the glass, and consider
what this period of time now closing has done
for Us, and what it has laid upon us. ~
The striking events which have made the
year 1865 marked one in the calender OF
time, are too recent and too intimately associ
ated with the interests of the hour to need
reorganization. The triumphant close of our
civil strife; the blow which like thunder
bolt out of clear sky, struck down, in the
hour of the nations greatest pride and joy,
that nations chosen head; the passing OF the
Amendment which efaees from the national
escutcheon the stain OF completely with slave
ry; these, and other events of almost equal
importance, are fresh in tie minds of all. But
these events, however memorable they may
be, do not of themselves constitute the chiei
interest which in the future is to attach to
this year. The salient and shining point which
is to draw the eyes Of coming generations to
it is something beyond these. f-sg-
Said Theodore Parker: "Our clocks strike
from hour to hour; but no hammer in the
horolose of time peals through the universe to
announce that there is change from era to
era" This thought is true in the mali, the
great transitions in human affairs, the turning
points in the destiny of the world have usu-
ally passed almost unnotced in their time
But is there any thoughtful person who, scan
ming the broad field of the world to-day, can
not perceive how rapidly old organizations are
being resolved into their elements, and crys-
talizing into new and very different forms?
If we consider the full meaning of what we
see, if we lean the ear close, it viii almost
seem to us as if we could indeed hear the faint,
far off stroke of that solemn hammer an
nouncng to us that new era is inaugurated
in toe history of man. Cd things are passing
away, and all things are becoming new. Adj
verse principles which have been !contending
together with varying fortunes, since the world
began, have wrestled anew, and the cause o.
truth and progress has gained victory which
must give it tremendous impetus. The greai
principle of Human Equality has had new
and magnificent vindIcation. What was be-
fore held as theory is now demonstrated as
fact, namely: the indestructible vitality, the
Irresistible force OF free institutions. Hence
forth the aspirations ana the hopes or men
set in new currents. When Columbus found
the new world he revolutionized the old. He
closed one era, and opened up another. But
the events which are fresh in all our memo
ries have revealed America to Europe anew,
and the second discovery is destined to work
changes not less important than those which
followed the first. The youthful nation whose
part it has hitherto been deemed to he to holu
le.selfmodestly back in the grand march ofthe
world, finds herself suddenly thrust forward
to the van. She is become the pioneer of pro-
gress. Her example is the inspiration, hel
success the encouragement of the nations o.
the earth. She begins now to comprehend
her glorious destiny and she is girding hersel
to fulfil it.
So, then, the year that is fading from us
to be ever memorable because its events have
rounded inuo completion one of the great cy-
cles of human progress. Its successor is
Fastening toward US from the far of land -ol
sun-riie, and soon he viii be here. In few
hours the old king will be dead, and the new
kily wi ho c,ognsl. 1888, with all its fresh
hopes and fair promises, its new plans and its
new dlsie; will be with US. Its history, is
st Il an unwritten page, but its possibilities
ri,, be ore lis vast and glorious. Well Will il
b. .or us, and for those who are to come aftel
u, if from the year which now departs We
have gathered such lessons as will fit US to as
sumo the responsibilities and to discharge the
duties of the one which lies before us.
And in the sincere hope that such may be
the case with each and all Of us, we cordially
wish to every Reader of the Press Happy
New Year!