Weekly Trinity journal. [volume] (Weaverville, Calif.) 1857-1972, 1868-03-21
NUMBER II.

of the earth, 1t streams out from every mounean
top, plays in the breeze of every vaiiey, anu
perches upon the seaward cliffs, as though IL
would take its conquering fight to other lands;
and the free winds that daily with its spotless
folds are no longer burdened with the outcries
of the aged bondman, or the wall of the dusky
mother bereft of her child. At last, and with
bloody hands, she
Store the azue robes of Night
And set her star of glory there"
We cannot dwell long on the several agencies
that were combined in this new and beautiful
creation The public Press; the Christian
Church; the orators, the poets, the patriotic
women and even the school-children, who caught
the inspiration and began to shout, " Tramp
Tramp, the Boys are Marchingi'' Why the YAM
kee school-ma'a ans have done more for the cause
of Freedom and National glory than the Demo-
cratic party have accomplished since the days of
General jackson and the saucy little flag that
hutters from the comb of the school-house is
now prouder and laughter than the standard
of the Caesars, though it bore the gilded eagle of
imperial Rome.
Though myself only man of the word, shall
never cease to be grateful to the Christian
Church for what it has done for my country
do not believe that without its influence, the re-
bellion could have been conquered and slavery
extinguished Indeed, the Protestant Church
has ever been the stronghold of Freedom, spirit
ual and temporal, and many of the reddest bat
ties that have stained the earth, were fought in
behalf of free conscience and by religious zeal
OTIS who brandshed the I" sword of the Lord and
of Gideon" 1t may be fanaticism, it may be
inspiration but it is red and portentious hour
when the Christian warrior goes from his caves
of prayer and uplifts the sign of battle, in the
name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. When
Gustavus Adophus, the war-King of Sweden,
was about to engage Wallenstein in the awful
battle of Lutzen his whole army united in sing
ing Luther's Hymn, and then swept upon and
routed the fiend of desolation, who had been
stalking like blind and deaf spectre through
the fairest portions of Germany. And am told
that when Sheridan and his Puritan troopers
were sweeping the flying rebels out of the VAL
lev of the Sheandoah, they made the woods and
hills resound with the martial air of :" John
Brown" which is hardly less inspiring than the
Hymn of the Marsellais.
X
1t is natural for me to refer to another great
| agency in that amazing revolution which has
taken place in the public mind mean the new
paper Press. Did you ever think of that ingeni-
Gus structure of iron, six stories high, throwing
off printed sheets faster than you could count,
and known as the Tribune printing press? You
have read of the ancient Sibyls who sat in their
caves writing their prophecies ION the leaves of
trees and throwing them. out to the gale. You
have heard of the incendiary French journalist,
Marat; who sat in squalid garret inditing his
sanguinary bulletins and scattering them among
the revolutionary multitude, who raved and
rOareQ fOunQ the gulllOt1ne. DuI WHdt were
they in comparison with the ten thousand iron
sibls inspired with the boiling wrath of Steam,
and casting abroad their magic sheets like snow
fakes in the drifting storm? What were he, in
comparison with twenty thousand American
journalists inspired by ambition, by nation glory,
by the love of freedom, by the sorcery of hate,
each standing in council, like the sturdy Moloch
in the cabinet of He'll declaring, My sentence
is for war, o, peers p'
The dramatist has caused Cardinal Rchelieu
to say that 90 The Pen is mightier than the
Sword" and it is wonderful to observe with
what enthusiasm the poorest and obscurest ed
itor will stamp and applaud when that hattering
sentence is roared by the g Great North Ameri-
can Tragedian" at the theater. But, alas the
Cardinal says that it is only I" beneath the rule
of the entirely great" that the Pen is so mighty.
Nor is it probable that the great French prelate
believed any such poetical nonsense, because
with all his literary and diplomatic vanity, he
laid aside his ecclesiastical character, girded on
the sword and marched at the head of the army
of Catholic France for the conquest of the re-
belious Huguenots.
Yet, wthal, how vast is the power of the mon
ster-minded Press, giving out its oracles in
every city and village of the nation following
the explorer to the sluggish tropic, to the
treme land-verge of the West, and fierce lati-
tudes of the Poles In every atmosphere
breathed by civilized men, under every sun that
lights the inception of enterprise, thrt metallic
with the ancient hero
aDispeI this cloud The light of heaven restore
Give them to and Ajax asks more!"
l am proud of my profession. Like every other,
it is mean and contemplate in the hands of ig-
norance vice and treason; but it is great aud
honorable under the rule of talent, genuus and
patriotism. 1t is high privilege to write for a
warm-hearted, appreciative and country-loving
people; to find out and traverse the mysterious
way the great heart of the deving multitude;
to commune with them at their fresides to
bring sunshine to their doors, and be ever abid-
ing on the hill-tops of Truth, sleepless sem
tinel of the people. No matter where uttered, a
great thought never dies. 1t does not perish
amid the SHOWS of mountains or the floods of
rivers or the dearth of valleys. For time it
may be lost to memory; but after while it re-
appears on the horizon of Truth, like long
gone star returning on it's orbit, and takes its
way round the endless circle of Eternity.
In looking back among the great actors in the
recreation of the American Republic, we descry
one taller than the Others like the stately Saul
amoug his brethren. 1t is the great, the good,
the immortal Abraham Lincoln
Glorious Old Abe las votive millions love to
call him in affection-how bravely he lived, how
perishable is the lustre of his name Like the
strong man of old, he shook down the polluted
temples of his enemies with his last, expiring
strength, and then sprang from the crumbling
verge of Time to the embrace OF all the Prophets
of Freedom who had gone before. The signal
of his departure was carried by swift couriers
around the circumference of the globe and
when the eternal gates were lifted up, the friends
of Liberty everywhere united in one sublime
and universal benediction. The black plumes
of the Skeleton Cavalier dropped in all the loyal
homes from the lakes of Maine to the Gulf, from
the placid Delaware to the stormy outguard of
Mendocino; and every naughty standard of civ-
ilization went down in the great sorrow of a
mighty people, who had been so lately full of
the joy of conquest and peace. Old men found
the long-lost fountain of their tears, and the
sweet, bright faces of little children were over
come with mournful shadows. After while
the sad story was heard by the settler fireside
| in the wilderness, and in the wigwam of the red
man, who bewailed the Great Father with war
| rior's stately lamentation. 1t was heard by the
dusky millions who were coming from the cruel
land of the Egyptian, and they lifted up their
] broken fetters and calloused palms and wept.