The Shasta courier., 1872-03-09
THE LESSON OF A LIFE AND
DEATH

such man is the most striking commentary
that could be made upon the character and
| tendencies of this God forgetting, money
loving, pleasure-seeking generation. In
sound Republic sucL growth would be
abnormal in a rotton body polite, such as
| we are fast becoming, the excrescence has
not only been tolerated, but its gilded
mockery has dazzled the common eye
Woe to the nation and TO society if such
lessons as the sudden death of Fisk, and the
downfall of Tamm ny Rings, and the retri-
button that overlook Napoleon I'LL, be not
recognized as salutary judgments and warn
ings. We may hear no voice of Prophet
Jonas threatening destruction to our
Nineveh but if we are wise we will heed
the moral of such life as James Fisk led,
and such death as James Fisk died:
Nv hat shall we say of the society which
developed the Prince of Erie-what of the
generation which made his death possible ?
K, cry age and every people fud themselves
reflected in the men they give and the deeds
| they do. We speak of the revolutionary
Duke of Orleans but he was the offspring
of his time. its luxury, its extravagance,
its defiance of law and religion and God $
ordinances. What was George Prince Of
Wales the first gentleman of Europe, but
the concentrated dandyism and extrava-
gauce of an era Of folly and fashion? Aaron
Burr was the outgrowth of that loose moral
| ity which came with the social upneaval
that succeeded our Revolution. Rebes
| pierre was the man of his time and his race.
He was possible to maddened people,
wild with thirsting for the blood of kings.
He was impossible to the calmer and more
practical men, whose leader was Bonaparte.
Degenerate France expressed itself in Louis
Napoleon and his gang of adventures
| DeMorny and Fleury and St. Arnaud aud
the reck less gamblers with the wealth and
glory Of the richest aud most renowned
nation of Europe Regenerate Germany
is seen in the manly genius of Bismarck,
the honesty and valor of Kaiser William
he Prince of Erie was representative.
Do we know what we have been doing, and
whittier we have been drifting these later
years? Thi, is a volcanic period, and the
lava still rolls over u.s. The war was a
great upheaval The work of century
has been undone iu day. Old customs.
traditions, constitutional rights, respect for
property and law have been overthrown as
easily as Pompeii and Herculaneum. The
slave power, which was imperial ten years
ago, is now despised and offensive. King
lotion has been dethroned end his kingdom
given to serfs The invncibe Tammany
has been dashed in pieces, as with pot
ter's shred. The Democratic party which
made jackson irresistible is now as helpless
as Napoleon's army retreating before the
Cossacks. The Pontiff of the venerable
Catholic Church has been driven from the
Qu;rinal, and usurping king sits in the
palace of the successor of ST. Peter and the
Vicegerent of Christ. Napoleon, whose
frown made Europe trcmble, is harmless
exile among the trees and garden walks OF
Chiselhurst Still the volcano burns
Kings sit upon rocking thrones. Society
is like the mass of molten fire. Men war
upon the Church and tate-nay, even up
on sacraments sanctifed by centuries of
reverence. We are told that there is no
God that Christ is fiction that mar
riage is bondage that none shall live in
marriage, and that in the general over
throw the hearth and home and the family
itself must perish.
In this age of cbaos-this heaving,
tumblng age-all things are possible
The life of this prince of Erie--his sad,
tragic, sudden death-whatever we may
call it-are natural phenomena. Let us
look to it and apply the lesson which is
written upon this days chronicle in such
terrible, bloody letters. Society needs a
general publication. The war did its share,
but more remains to be done. The Pyra-
mids spoke to Napoleon with the lessons Of
forty centuries Shall this Republic hope
to have "forty centuries" of existence p
See what Rome did in her three hundred
years Of republican life. The memory of
that epoch is ever present. 1t gives US
Brutus. We are about to close the first
century of our nations life. What have
We given to the world What lesson have
we taught ow much have we coutrib-
uted to the comfort and happiness OF man.
kind Iu our pride we may say that if
Rome gave the world Blutus, America has
given ii Washington 1t is only our pride
that speaks. Rome passed from Brutus to
Heliogabulus and Nero IN four centuries
We have passed from Washington to this
poor Prince of Erie. But Rome did more
She developed Caesar aud made Chrst's
teachings possible. Even kings pay trib-
ute to that splendor, when Russia crowns
ber' Gzar and Germany her Kaiser. and
adore the humble Jew who paid tribute to
Tiberius. America has not reached such
consummation, nor are We Oh the way to
it, There was this in the Prince
of Erie !; that his life, his death, and the
social chaos which found expression in their
impress upon all, were grave and immedi-
ate responsibilities. Chaos seems to have
triumphed, but is it not time the triumph
should end Is it not time that govern
ment and order and tradition and religion
and moral law should begin to reign
But will the lesson be needed Will
violators of the law Of God and man, who
are doing just the same as Fisk and Stokes
has done-only less openly-take heed of
the volcano crust on which they walk daily
God sleeps not.
In CoTToNwooD One day last week.