Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1867-02-16
A Prophecy: of Retribution-Gloomy Re-
hecti0ns.


The venerable Nathan Lord, D. D.,
for third of century president Of Dart
mouth College, in New Hampshire, amid
all thepolitical infatuation and religious
fanaticism that has surrounded him, and
that finally compelled him to surrender
the position he had so long adorned, adj
heres steadfastly to the principles and
opinions that he espoused before the in.
sanity that now prevails in his section Of
country become general The Charles
ton Mercury, Of Saturday, publishes a
portion of private letter Written by him
last month to one of his former pupils,
extracts from which we subjoin:
81 do not justify, in point of Christian
principle or common prudence, the
methods by which you sought redress of
the wrongs you have, for more than a
generation, received from the North.
But | more blame, ourselves, first, for
our denunciation of slavery itself, in
distinction from its abuses, and then for
our irrepressible conflict with it, un-
dertaken upon false moral and politi-
cal grounds, and carried on, hatefully,
as it has been, after a Mahometan
fashion. Were the institution a NAHUM
in Sc, and not some times a conservative
necessity fer all the parties, our method
of overcoming it has been, from first to
last. unworthy of a Christian people.
We have done the work. We have given
you dreadful punishment But, as we
have done it in uurighteousness, our
retributiou, some time, somehow, will
come, perhaps to general dissolution.
yet dare not speculate about the
future / fold my hands. and wait
upon the providence of God But in the
general and in the long run see no good
before u.s. Judgment will come
81 think thus the rather because !
seem to see an approaching catastrophe
| of all the nations. The world has grown
old in transgressiou. From east to west,
the experiment Of performing and saving
il has been tried in vain. We are the
westernmost and last and now that
christianized, Anglo-Saxon, republican
1 WlsQOm mas laitClf iuctIoa VI Naihhh W
God for help, we arc calling on the negro,
We look to a brutifed, shiitless and Ii
centious people to aid US in the work oil
self-government which has been i'm
possible 70 ourselves, and which i nov
believe IS impossible on earth
.'The demonstration seems now almost
complete that man can neither govern
nor be governed, nor govern himself, and
that the last failure will somehow prove
the greatest Of all The volcanic ihroe'
of the nations 20 overturn arbitrary
power will be ultimately successful
| Then " Liberty. equality, fraternity, vii
have its short day and when rs Babe
seems 70 be completed, the dream o
earth viii vanish
Here all such prophesying is vain
] / find myself almost alone. / some
times imagine that l could do more
among your people, and even among The
outcasf. suffering and perishing negroes
than among the phiisnthr0pists WI
have given them q boon which the,
know not how - use, and which thes'
boosters never would have given then
{ bat TO make them subservient to thei
fanatical enterprises OF their lust o
power Bu; my day Is past What car
one AZ three-sc0re and fifteen do but =
] repose, and pirate, aud lament