Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

an enduring nature. The rough contests of the political world are not suited to the dignity and to the delicacy of your sex. It is by the promulgation of sound morals, in the community, and more especially by the training and instruction of the young, that woman performs her part towards the preservation of a free goverment.

2. It is now generally admitted that public liberty, the perpetuity of a free constitution, rests on the virtue and intelli gence of the community which enjoys it. How is that virtue to be inspired?, and how is that intelligence to be communi> cated? Bonaparte once asked Madame de Stael, in what manner he could most promote the happiness of France. Her reply is full of political wisdom. She said, "instruct the mothers of the French people." Because the mothers are the affectionate and the effective teachers of the human race.

3. The mother begins this process of training, with the infant in her arms. It is she who directs, so to speak, its first mental and spiritual pulsations. She conducts it along the impressible years of childhood and of youth; and hopes to deliver it to the rough contests, and tumultuous scenes of life, armed by those good principles, which her child has first received from maternal care and love.

4. If we draw within the circle of our contemplation, the mothers of a civilized nation, what do we see? We behold so many artificers working, not on frail and perishable matter, but on the immortal mind, moulding and fashioning beings who are to exist forever. We applaud the artist whose skill and genius present the mimic man upon the canvass, we admire and celebrate the sculptor who works out that same image in enduring marble; but how insignificant are these achievements, though the highest and the fairest in all the departments of art, in comparison with the great vocation of human mothers! They work not upon the canvass that shall fail, or the marble that shall crumble into dust, but upon mind, upon spirit; which, is to last for ever, and which is to bear, for good or for evil, throughout its duration, the impress of a mother's plastic hand.

5. The feelings are to be disciplined, the passions are to be restrained, true and worthy motives are to be inspired, a pro-› found religious feeling is to be instilled, and pure morality incul cated, under all circumstances. Mothers who are faithful to this great duty, will tell their children, that neither in politi

[ocr errors]

cal, nor in any other concerns of life, can man ever withdraw himself from the perpetual obligations of conscience and of duty; that in every act, whether public or private, he incurs a just responsibility, and that in no condition is he warranted in trifling with important rights and obligations. They will impress upon their children the truth, that the exercise of the elective franchise, is a social duty of as solemn a nature, as man can be called to perform; that a man may not innoCently trifle with his vote; that every free elector is a trustee as well for others as himself, and that every man and every measure he supports, has an important bearing on the interests of others, as well as on his own.

6. It is in the inculcation of high and pure morals, such as these, that in a free republic, woman performs her sacred duty and fulfils her destiny. The French are remarkable for their fondness for sententious phrases in which much meaning is condensed into a small space. I noticed lately, on the title page of one of the books of popular instruction in France this, motto "Pour instruction on the heads of the people; you owe them that baptism.". And certainly, if there be any duty which may be described by a reference to that great institute of religion, a duty approaching it in importance, perhaps next to it in obligation, it is this.

7. You will kindly receive the assurances with which I tender to you, on parting, my affectionate respects and best

wishes.

This speech was made to several thousand ladies, at Richmond, Virginia, in the autum of 1840. It contains sentiments of immediate interest to ladies, and worthy the adoption of every patriot and Christian. When Mr. Webster resumed his seat, James Barbour, Esq. governor of Virginia, said: "I entirely accord with the views which have been so eloquently expressed, by the highly distinguished gentleman who has addressed you. 'Albeit unused to the melting mood,' I found, while he was expressing them, the tears involuntarily stealing down my cheeks; and I am persuaded that the heart of every lady here present, more than responds to

my own."

118. THE SNOW STORM.-Portland Argus.

1. The cold winds swept the mountain's height,
And pathless was the dreary wild,

And, 'mid the cheerless hours of night
A mother wandered with her child-
As through the drifted snow she pressed,
The babe was sleeping on her breast.

2. And colder still the winds did blow,

And darker hours of night came on,
And deeper grew the drifts of snow-
Her limbs were chilled, her strength was gone,
"O God!" she cried, in accents wild,
"If I must perish, save my child!"

3. She stripped her mantle from her breast,
And bared her bosom to the storm,
And round the child, she wrapped the vest,
And smiled to think her babe was warm.
With one cold kiss, one tear she shed,
And sunk upon a snowy bed.

4. At dawn a traveller passed by,-
She lay beneath a snowy veil;
The frost of death was in her eye;

Her cheek was cold, and hard, and pale ;-
He moved the robe from off the child;

The babe looked up, and sweetly smiled.

The circumstances to which this poetry relates are described as follows, in the Portland Argus: "In the month of December, 1821, a Mr. Blake and his wife, and an infant, were passing over the Green mountain, near the town of Arlington, Vt. in a sleigh with one horse. The drifting snow rendered it impossible for the horse to proceed. Mr. Blake set off on foot in search of assistance, and perished in the storm before he could reach a human dwelling. The mother, alarmed, as is supposed, at his long ab sence, went in search of him with the infant in her arms. She was found in the morning dead, a short distance from the sleigh. The child was wrapped in her cloak, and survived the perils of the cold and the storm."

[blocks in formation]

A mother's love, led Mrs. Blake to suffer the agonies of freezing to death, that her "little one,"

Peeping out

Into the mingled storm,"

might continue to breathe the air of heaven.

119. EXTRACT FROM THE CHARGE PRECEDING THE SENTENCE OF THE COURT IN THE CASE OF THE THREE THAYERS.-Hon. R. Hyde Walworth.

1. The feelings and emotions with which I enter upon the discharge of the solemn and important duty, which devolves upon the court, and which I am now about to perform, are too painful to be expressed. To pronounce the dreadful sentence, which is to cut a fellow mortal off from society,—to deprive him of existence,-and to send him to the bar of his Creator and his God, where his destiny must be fixed for eternity, is, at all times, and under any circumstances, most painful to the court. But to be compelled at one and the same time, to consign to the gallows three young men who have just arrived at manhood, standing in the relation to each other of brothers, and connected with society in the tender relations of children, brothers, husbands, and fathers, presses upon my feelings with a weight, which I can neither resist nor express.

2. From the testimony which was given on the trials of your several cases, there is no room to doubt the certainty of your guilt, or the aggravating circumstances attending the perpetration of the bloody deed. The man whom you have murdered was your companion and your friend. He had loaned you money to relieve your necessities, and to support your families. He was the lenient creditor, renewing and exchanging his judgments and his executions from time to time, to prevent the sacrifice of your property. He was the lodger of your father, and frequently enjoyed the hospitalities of your own roofs. In the unsuspecting hour of private confi dence, you decoyed him to the retired dwelling of Israel Thayer, junior, and there, while enjoying the hospitality of the social fire-side, you stole upon him unperceived, you aimed the deadly rifle at his head, and with the fatal axe you

mangled and murdered your victim; mingling his blood with that of your butchered swine. But your guilt and depravity did not stop here. Scarcely had you committed his lifeless corpse to its shallow grave, before you began to collect and to riot upon the spoils of his property. To the crime of murder, you added those of theft, fraud, and forgery, and repeatedly imprecated the vengeance of Heaven upon your perjured souls.

3. Wretched and deluded men! In vain was the foul deed perpetrated under cover of the darkness of the night; in vain was the mangled body of your murdered companion committed to the earth, and the lonely grave concealed by rubbish; in vain was the little boy sent home to his mother, and the unsuspecting wife removed from her house that no human eye should be near to witness the foul and unnatural murder; in vain did you expect the snows of winter to conceal the grave until the body of your victim could be no longer known and recognized.

4. You forgot that the eye of your God was fixed upon you; the eye of that God who suffers not even a sparrow to fall without his notice. You forgot that you was in the presence of Him to whom the light of day, and the darkness of night are the same; that He witnessed all your movements; that He could withhold the accustomed snows from falling on the earth, or His breath could melt them when fallen, leaving the grave uncovered, and thus exposing you to detection and condemnation. His vengeance has at length overtaken you.

5. The sword of human justice trembles over you, and is about to fall upon your guilty heads; you are about to take your final leave of this world, and to enter upon the untried retributions of a never-ending eternity. And I beg of you not to delude yourselves with vain hopes of pardon, which never can be realized. Your destiny for this world is fixed, and your fate is inevitable. Let me therefore entreat you, individually and collectively, by every motive, temporal and eternal, to reflect upon your present situation, and the certain death that shortly awaits you. There is but One, who can pardon your offences; there is a Savior whose blood is sufficient to wash from your souls the guilty stains even of a thousand murders. Let me therefore entreat you to fly to Him for that mercy, and that pardon, which you must not expect from mortals.

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »