* * * * *
With consciences satisfied with the discharge of duty, no consequences
can harm you. There is no evil that we can not either face or fly from,
but the consciousness of duty disregarded. A sense of duty pursues us
ever. It is omnipresent, like the Deity. If we take to ourselves the
wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, duty
performed, or duty violated, is still with us, for our happiness or our
misery. If we say the darkness shall cover us, in the darkness as in the
light our obligations are yet with us. We can not escape their power, nor
fly from their presence. They are with us in this life, will be with us
at its close; and in that scene of inconceivable solemnity, which lies
yet further onward, we shall still find ourselves surrounded by the
consciousness of duty, to pain us wherever it has been violated, and
to console us so far as God may have given us grace to perform it.
WEBSTER.
From "The Trial of John Francis Knapp for the Murder of Captain Joseph
White."
* * * * *
In the short space of time spanned by a single life, as if by "the touch
of the enchanter's wand," the people have built a government before
which the mightiest realms of the earth pale their splendors as do the
stars of night before the refulgent glory of the coming day. Population
has increased from three to thirty millions. Instead of thirteen,
thirty-one stars now shine in the clear blue of this glorious flag. The
multitudinous pursuits of enlightened life are cultivated to their
highest pitch. The press is mighty and free. Peace and contentment smile
alike around the poor man's hearth and the rich man's hall. Education
scatters its priceless gift to every home in the land. Religion gathers
around its altars the faithful of every creed. Statesmen have arisen
"fit to govern all the world and rule it when 'tis wildest." Orators
have appeared who have rivaled the great masters of antiquity. The doors
of the American Parthenon are ever open to invite the humble but
aspiring youth to enter and fill the loftiest niche. The highest dignity
is within the grasp of all; for the lowly boy, born and reared in our
own sweet valley of Cumberland, shall, when the spring comes round
again, be clothed by the people with the first of mortal honors--that of
guiding for a time the American republic upon her highway of glory.
DANIEL DOUGHERTY.