The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1868-12-16


of rebellion and cause men to rise to the dig
nifty OF the work of to-day-thc work Of re-
generating and identifying the temple of
freedom in our land where all shall worship
before the God and fatherof alg-where men
shall forget they were bondsmen- where the
poor and the rich shall be equal before the
law-where Christ shall be master and all
men brethren. sf."Gfsa, d4oil3 siH /
D; 81 Htgla The Pillow. i ]a g
To the thoughtless and casual reader, an
article on subject with the above caption,
may appear trifing and unworthy of consid-
Grafton. Dean Swift, the celebrated Di-
vine, wrote a learned and voluminous treat
Use on a broomstick The stately pages of
the leading Reviews of England, Scotland,
and Ireland were full of able criticisms on
Dean Swift's rare and extraordinary produc-
ton The discussion of the subject in the
journals of the day, led to important measures
of reform in the British Parliament M sd
The Plow is the great lever by which all /
the pursuits Of tile human family are raised
up and put in motion. 1t takes the first step
in the civilization of man. 1t was the wise
remark of French philosopher, that man
began to be civilized when he could restrain
his wanderings in the forest as a. barbarian,
OF his migrations as shepherd, and fix him
self down to the tilling of the earth. $50
forth and till the land" Such was the COM
mand of the Earth Maker to His first intel
lectual creature. To work the soil, and in
working, to find sustenance and comfort, is
the condition of all the children of the first
man. 1t is Humanity's great charter. Earth
labor is the primitive inheritance and the
pristine calling of man, and to-day it should
be held sacred as the emblem and outward
mark of the pilgrim spirit which passes over
the world, and crosses the frontier of death,
to live in the hereafter. The rough and Bills
tered hand and the homely pillow are the rel
les of the anointed laborers of the earth,
whose mission is of God, and whose path is
to God. Institutions, cities, systems, are as
warts and wens on the face of society, to
which the pillow is the limb and heart, the
sweating brow and the fast producing brain.
The Divine Legislator has ordained the plow-
mans task, has defined his rights, has de-
nounced terrible punishments on those who
defraud him of the reward of his hands.
In all the arts and industries of human life,
there is none of profounder interest than that
of the Plow. Five millions of the citizens
of the United States. are engaged in Agricul-
turc for living. Over two millions of this
number turn the soil with the pillow and the
spade. Two hundred thousand, and possibly
million, of people are employed in mercan-
tile and manufacturing pursuits. If we run
over all the acquisitions of human society,
the useful and the fine arts if we trace the
polished productions of the Grecian pencil,
the architecture of Rome, and the whole
modern world, we shall find that they spring
necessarily from the first great principle and
element of human civilization, the cultiva'
| ton of the earth and the production of fruits
for mans sustenance. 49, -l- glE
How true the language of writer who, in
speaking of our country, says that that new
race of potentates now take the place of that
dethroned monarch, King Cotton" The
mightiest Of these agencies is the Plow. 1t
has furrowed its way through all the ages.
Its victories have been waved by the barley
90 Dol 81 40 of
Germany, the rice stalks of China, the tomato
vines of Sicily, and the rich grapes Of Italy.
Il hath turned up the Mammoth of Siberia,
| the Mastodon of South America, the Num-
mics Of Egypt, and gone where stood the
walls of Dodona and the pines of Thessaly.
With its iron foot it has marched where
Moses wrote, and Homer sang, and Aristotle
taught, where Buceplialus reared in the battle
field and Washington mounted his charger
1t hath rung its coulter in Norwegian wiIds,
and ripped out the stumps of American for
ests, pushing its way through the savannahs
of the Carolinas, and trembling in the grasp
of the New Hampshire yeomanry American
civilization hath kept step with the rattle of
its cleyises, and IN its beam have ridden
honest thrift and National plenty. ~ si5.
All hail to the chivalry of the pillow! A
few years ago, our country was trackless
wilderness here and there a log cabin, whose
ascending smoke gave evidence of civiliza-
ton. Now behold it, overspread with wa
wing fields, teeming with luxuriant harvests,
and covered with solid mansions Now
that the civil war is over; now that the SOL
dier has hung up his trusty musket as re-
membrance ofthe brave days that are gone !;
now that peace once more pervades our land,
let the soldiers of the North and of the South
cry out, "God speed the pillow, wherever it
fights may it triumph, for its victories are all
for the welfare of man." Within the bounds
of our own State are millions of fertile acres,
with their blank faces gaping at the sun.
Let the charter of labor, written by the hand
of God be interpreted in a large sense, and
the prize of honest industry be given to the
brave pillow holders and disciples of our fore
ordained destiny, the true chiyalry, who work
in the fields for independent bread to eat in
the sweat of their brows, and new North
Carolina is created io.ii '-Ilssa -'7.t
The age Of chiyalry is gone, and the glory
of Europe is extinguished forever" So said
Edmund Burke, in that glowing passage in
which he eloquently depicted noble wo-