The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-11-25
THANKSGIVING /:
Customary, Formal, Ethical. Moral and
Religious.

| A debt of thanks and gratitude IS at Gil
times due from every rational human being 10
the GREAT SOURCE from which we receive our
| life, and all that pertains to life.
As often as any sentient and sane member
of the human race reflects upon what he IL
and upon what surrounds him, his Thoughts
will turn in gladness to the only Power which
can give what he enjoys.
Beyond all question, in view of the value OF
the gift of rational human life and OF the &C.
compartments by which it is surrounded
the foremost, primal, constant and paramount
duty of every being that has memory, reason
and hope Joined with faith in deathless e1-
istence is to thank the Supreme Origin OF all
reason, all faith and all life for the boon
which He has conferred.
Thanksgiving comes before petition ana is
the genesis of praise. Gratitude lies at the
base of every true character. He who Is not
grateful to his Creator for gifts beyond esti-
mate, can not be grateful to his fellow-men,
and if not grateful, he can not be honest.
The worst of cheats in all merely secular and
human affairs is the man who gets and en-
joys favors without feeling Of gratitude 10
the giver When the favors and boons re-
ceived are intellectually, immeas urably, in
mprehensibly, infinitely beyond all that
human power can bsstow, ingratitude In the
recipient becomes an enormous and stu
pendous crime, second, but only second to
A. III Wv OF Of
When are the people. the rich and the poor,
the lofty and the lowly, the lucky and the
disappointed, the sons of wealth and the sons
of toll, the heirs Of opulent idleness and the
daughters Of misfortune, the friend of So
ciety and its foe, the follower Of virtue and the
trader in vice, the norny-handed laborer and
the pampered aristocrat, the serf in his fur
row, the slave in her mill, the wanton in her
gilded cage, the felon in his dismal cell, the
child in his glee, the invalid on his bed of
pain, youth in its joyousness or age in It's
tottering INSTRUMENTATION are they to give
thanks and pay their several debts OF graft
rude according to their strength OF heart and
mind? Must they wait until the earth
TOLLS IOuuu W b bPcSAAou ou'"A r.
Rod before they offer the incense Ct
gratitude to the Omnipotent? Must they
wait the bidding Of chiefs and magistrates
before they pour out their offerings of thanks,
mingled with petition, humiliation. fasting
and praise, before the affairs OF the Most
High? Are there set days, or set and speci-
fed day in each year, when at public bidding
q special sacrifice of thanksgiving is due?
The proclamation of our tyrant Presi-
dent, echoed by our usurping Governor,
fixing this the 25th day of November as day
of thanksgiving and especial worship,
sounds to our ears like q dismal and
hideous mockery. When President Grant
and Gov. Kellogg cease from their persecu.
ton, the people of Louisiana will thank the
Power that in His infinite mercy has deiRned
to grant deliverance And, in the meantime,
all who are so inclined will obey the prompt.
ings of their own hearts in rendering, each
for himself and in his own way and hour,
such thankofferings as he may deem fit. We
can not recognize the right even Of friend
to issue presidential religious mandate; but
when the hypocritical ukase comes from re-
lentless enemy, our people will ignore it.
although "more in sorrow than in anger"