Year: 1860

The November festival OF Thanksgiving is sc
far religious as to require preaching, and SC
far secular as to have established the custom
Of preaching politics. In some pulpits the af-
fairs of the state find hospitality on other days
on this one the state is recognized in all of
them "The political condition Of the coun-
try" was the topic of various discourses at the
seat of government. In Philadelphia, says the
newspaper dispatch, 'the pulpit was converted
into forum for the discussion OF the present
dissensions which disturb the nation" In st.
Pauls Episcopal church the organst struck up
the national anthem, "The Star Spangled Ban
ner," the congregation rising from their seats,
and uniting their voices with those of the
choir In New York, and of course in New
England, the condition OF public affairs was
made the topic Of very nearly universal pulpit
discussion There was even no security for
the pulpit OF Rev. DIR. Adams. He preached
at the negro question with degree and quality
of courage, tlom which all others shrank'
Happy Mr.. Choate, who consoled himself,
before his death, that he had never heard
any thing but the Gospel preached from
that pulpit DIR. Adams preached from the
teXt-"Out of the north an evil shall break
forth upon all the inhabitants of the land"
and from that geographical text elaborated a
eulogy of slavery as divine institution. The
diseourses were for the most part conciliatory
an patriotic in temper; Essex street, Boston,
was probably the only malicious nursery of
spptinualisn north of thp Potomac


The average religious sentiment of the coun-
try in relation to the question Of equal rights
among men, and especial in relation 10 the
character OF our government, probably found
better and more impartial expression
this year than for many years before. The
uneXampled struggle which has just closed,
more important in its consequences than las
yet clearly appeared, and the cry OF sediiion
and rebellion with which it las been in some
localities followed, have led the oracles Of
opinion to a 1ner and maturer thought upon
the nature Of our institutions, and the sources
Of their weakness or their power. The ex
preston Of it shows that there is broad,
healthy, and generous patriotism which will
not see the republic disturbed on trivial pre-.
texts, or in the interest Of despoiism, without
invading and controlling whatever posts of ill.,
fuence it can command The conflicting and
discordant voices, which, in condition of free
society, are boisterous for slavery from an I'M
control able love Of its hideousness, are not
indexes Of any popular kindred depravity, but
are rather analogous TO the monsters which
defy classification in the realms Of natural his
tory.


The discussions of the day especially de-
monstrate the growth Of correct appreciation
of the moral bearings of an institution in a
republic which nullifies the first and best idea
otrepubhcan government-civil liberty. The
number Of those who have regarded it as one
of the prescribed themes, to be shut out like
Caspar Hauser from the contemplations Of the
living world, waste away annually, TO the advan-
tage Of correct principles, and sound public
morality. The policy Of silence is not in the
line OF the tendencies of the age The multi
tude take their places, some of them slowly,
but inevitably, on one side or the other Of
great public questions. Individual virtues and
vices are generazed in the state and its insti-
tutions. 1t is plain atheism TO hold that
sins lose any OF their siniulness by being.
''fused" and becoming organic; or that
man suffers any the less wrongfully because
lie suffers in obedience to a wrong custom
If upon the side Of such an atheism its cham
pions become more intense, they also becom,
weaker both in numbers and in individua
power. Thus truth gets its reward, anC
justice its dues.