Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1867-02-12
A Prophecy of Retribution---Gloomy Rehec-

A Prophecy of Retribution---Gl Gloomy Refec-
The venerable Nathan Lord, D. D., for a
third of century President of Dartmouth Col
lege, New Hampshire, amid all the political
infatuation and religious fanaticism that
surrounded him, and that compelled him finally
to surrender the position he had so long adorn-
ed, adheres steadfastly to the principles and o.
pinions that he espoused before the insanity
that now prevails in his section of country had
become general. The Charleston Mercury of
Saturday publishes portion of private letter
written by him last month to one of his former
pupils, extracts from which we subjon:
II do not justify, in point of Christian prin-
ciple or common prudence, the methods by
which you sought redress Of the wrongs you
have, for more than generation, received from
the North But more blame ourselves, first,
for our denunication Of slavery ITSELF in distinc
ton from its abuses, and then for our 'irrepres
sible conflict with it, undertaken upon false
moral and political grounds, and carried on,
hatefully, as it has been, after a Mahometan
fashion. Were the institution nadlum an Sc,
and not some times a conservative necessity for
all the parties, our method of overcoming it has
been, from first to last, unworthy of Christian
people. We have done the work. We have
given you a dreadful punishment. But, as we
have done it in unrighteousness, our retribu-
| ton some time, somehow, will come, perhaps
to general dissolution.
s'Yet dare not speculate about the future.
I fold my hands, and wait upon the providence
of God But in the general and in the long
run see no good before lis. Judgment will
come. ). =
II think thus the rather because I seem to
see an approaching catastrophe of all the ma
tons. The world has grown old in transgres-
sion From East to West the experiment of
| reforming and saving it has been tried in vain.
| We are the western most and last and now that
| Chrstianized, Anglo-Saxon, republican wisdom
has failed, instead of calling on God for help
we are calling upon the negro We look to a
brutifed, shiftless and licentious people to aid
us in the work of selfgovernment which has
| been impossible to ourselves, and which | now
believe impossible on earth.
| The demonstration seems now almost COM
plete that man can neither govern nor be gov
erned, nor govern himself, and that the last
failure will somehow prove the greatest Of all
The volcanic throes of the nations to overturn
arbitrary power will be ultimately successful
Then liberty, equality, fraternity, ;" will have
its short day; and when its Babel seems to be
completed, the dream Of earth will vanish. y
X X
Here all such prophecying is vain. | find
| myself almost alone. I sometimes imagine that
could do more among your people, and even
among the out-cast, suffering and pershing ne
groes, than among the phianthropists who have
given them boon which they know not how
! to use, and which these boosters never would
| have given them but to make them subservient
to their fanatical enterprises or their lust of
| power But my day is past What can one
at three score and fifteen do but to repose, and
pirate, and lament?