The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-02-08

NEWS AND OBSERVER, SUNDAY NOR
ants-not Masters), to be correctly rep
resented by the figure of the fair and
gracious Goddess of Liberty, in garments
solled and tretted, her golden tresses "ali
C'sheVelled and torn with pallid face
ana melancholy stare, sitting amid the
ruins OF dead Republic, painting and
SICK unto death after the long, bitter,
oeVour1ng contest and waiting in the
eark night and shedding burning tears
over blasted hopes, over broken prom
iSes' over wide scene of desolation and
rum. have caught the idea of the fair
form OF the weeping Goddess, without
remembering the graceful and we'll chosen
language, from very eloquent and mas
terry speech delivered at Oxford in the
early hfties by the late superbly endow-
co Henry Watkins Miller. of Raleigh, a
native of Virginia. 1t was in reply to
the late very gifted and truly eloquent
Abram W. Venable of Granville county.
another Virginian by birth. Very many
of our ablest North Carolina nubIic men
were born in "Ole Virginnv -Chief
Justice Ruffin, Governor H. G. Burton
Governor Turner, Judge John Williams,
Judge Richard Henderson. Judge John
Kerr, Governor John NJ. Morehead. John
Penn, the signer of the National De-
Claration of independence; and others.
Nor does the very splendid picture drawn
by that great artist and master of
rhetoric, Lord Macaulay, with so much
of vivdness and graphic power, repre-
sent the view. l would not now fain
cherish the picture of a traveller from
a distant country sitting by "the
river of ten thousand masts" endeavor-
ing in vain ito decipher on some mould
ering pedestal the mar , of our proudcst
chief; when shall be heard some savage
hymn chanted to some misshapen idol
over the ruins of our proudest temple:
when only a solitary fisherman shall wash
his nets in the mighty river Of the West
the great father of waters" / have
not the magnificent passage by me as
write, and only reproduce very imper-
fectly some of the language and thought
do not accept now, / say, this adum-
hration of our future as a country or as
a free, brave and powerful people.
rather find a nobler, more fitting ex-
preston OF expectancy, of faith, of hope
in the truly magnificent imperial Ian
guage in Millions great tractate entitled
"Areopagitica." Says that Incompatible
master of the loftiest language, whose
prose is poetry often and is worthy of
his majestic Muse, when in his sublimest
mood "Methinks l see in my mind
noble and puissant nation rousing herself
like a strong man after sleep, and shak-
ing her inyincible locks; mcthinks I see
hnr oil rirorr hn- tcrbtv
youth and kindling her undazzled eyes
at the full midday BEAM purging and
unscaling her long abused sight at the
fountain itself of heavenly radiance"
After such an exalted strain as that,
ordinary prose must appear flat, stale
and improbable" Let the people watch
with unslumbering vigilance their public
servants, and see to it that no detriment
befalls their State and country. Let
them unite at once at the first approach
of unconstitutional power and swear
upon their shields that the liberty
of the individual, and the rights of SOW
ereign and independent States, shall be
preserved intact at any hazard. Let
each true, manful and good citizen do
his whole duty as a man and patriot, and
ir his own place. Let the people at home
in every sphere of action, and in every
condition of life, watch with eyes that
never sleep, guard increasingly, and reso
lutely defend the precious, blood bought
nuniments of freedom and freemen The
white men of Aryan blood, of relation
it sacredly to their country, ma
tive or adopted, to themselves, TO
their dear mothers and wives and cher
iehed members of their households, to
do their whole duty in times like these
so full of wavcrings, of menace, of por
tents, and so promising OF great crisis
in the future, with splendid fortitudo,
answering devotion, consummate couT-
age. Let the whites unite for freedom.
Let all discord and clamor cease. Let
the people consecrate themselves with
renewed VOWS to the all-importart, stu
pendous work of preserving, of perpetU-
ating the great fundamental principles
of liberty and independence and of
handing down 10 unborn generations the
Anglo Saxon civilization, the product OF
a thousand years of struggle sacrifice,
and blood shed, which we have inherited,
have enjoyed and should preserve at all
perils.
THEODORE BRYANT KINGSBURT.
Wilmington, n c.. Feb. s. 1903.