The Portland daily press., 1869-11-18

ThnnksGiVh"s'
Tn the domain of journalism, as well as in
most of the departments of business and in the
courts of law, to-day is dies non. The setting
apart of one of our secular days in which TO
gather as families and gratefully acknowledge
the goodness and gifts of the beneficent Father
is a custom handed down to us from our Pu-
ritan ancestry and receives added sanctity
from that origin. We naturally contrast our
present situation with theirs; and cannot fail
to see how much more of temporal blessing
we have to be thankful for than they had. 10
DE sure, they brought with them across the
stormy, wintry sea, and planted upon these
bleak shores, the great, primal, fundamental
boon of civil and religious liberty from which
all our other blessings flow. But of almo
all the other home-comforts which we enioy
they were destitute. To them a few drv
weeks in summer, or the appearance of any
contagious disease, was a national danger
threatening them with determination and
calling for set days of fasting and prayer An
opportune rain, the arrival of single small
craft laden with provision, was the salvation
OF the germ of this mighty nation, calling for
day of special thanksgiving and praise.
Now, neither the wasting of pestence nor
the havoc of war sensiby affects our onward
march in population and wealth; and our
store-houses are the granaries of the civilized
world. Then the hostility of few naked.
wandering, unskilled Indians was deadly
peril; now, though the chief magistrate pro-
claims the desire for peace and all the people
say amen, yet in a just quarrel we would dare
to bid the world in arms come on and we
would shock them. The compact signed in
the cabin of the Mayfower guaranteeing 'just
and equal laws" "for the general good"
was the precursor of an inestimable constitu-
ton. These pilgrim fathers were the hand
fu of corn in the earth on the top of the
mountain; and 10! the fruit of it shakes like
Lebanon. And all over this broad land, not
wthstauding all attempts to cast prejudice
upon it as relic and mark of puritanism, this
custom of setting apart one day at the close
OF the natural year, after the crops are garner
ed and the locks folded, to return thanks for
these manifold and perpetualy recurring
blessings, is spreading yearly and in the new
er States OF the distant West as well as along
the shores which first resounded with the
psalm OF the Puritan, families are gathered
around the social hearth and in the paternal
homestead, to join in these offerings of CRATE
full hearts and to exchange fond greetings and
friendly congratulations. This is because the
usage finds sanction in the deepest and best
feelings OF the human heart To have given
them this united and public expression, as an
acknowledgment of national blessings, was a
wise conception that would have been carried
into execution by none but such as they who
were the pioneers of liberty, law and religion
in New England.
The other ideas cherished and promulgated
by them which concern our relations toward
our fellow men, being founded upon the same
sense of duty, right and moral obligation.
VII also spread despite prejudice and opposi-
lion Till the whole earth is subdued to their
sway.
We have used this occasion to recall its Or
igin, and to remind the rising generation how
much we owe to those by and among whom
it was first observed, because so many of their
descendants, who have not been away from
New England long enough to get the twang
out OF their speech, take every occasion to de-
cry her and her institutions, to which they
owe all they are and have; and who to con-
ciliate the favor of the bigoted and ignorant,
Witty the memories they should revere. And
even this day we are now celebrating they
would have disregarded, and speak sneeringly
o. the custom because it originated with their
own ancestry and in the land of their nativity.
"Rather than fail they will defie
That which they love mos. tenderly;
quarrel with minced Pi rs anu disparage
Their best and dearest friend Plum Porridqe:
Fat P e and Goose itself oppose
And blaspheme Custard through the nose,