"The drivers of cattle from the Appelousas, and those of mules from Mexico, on reaching a lagoon or creek, send several of their party into the water, armed merely each with a club, for the purpose of driving away the alligators from the cattle; and you may then see men, mules, and those monsters all swimming to gether, the men striking the alligators, that would otherwise attack the cattle, of which they are very fond, and those latter hurrying towards the opposite shores, to escape those powerful enemies. They will swim swiftly after a dog, or a deer, or a horse, before attempting the destruction of man, of which I have always remarked they were afraid, if the man feared not them." NIGHT. BY URIAH H. JUDAH. How calm and beautiful is the evening hour! A solemn, a holy stillness is on the earth, and it has become robed in grandeur; the night dews fall, and the air, recently so sultry, has become cool and refreshing. The little birds, tired with their warbling, have folded their wings in slumber, and will tune their matin lays with renovated vigor. The busy hum of industry has ceased. The din of the smith's hammer is no longer heard upon the anvil, and the harsh saw of the carpenter is at rest. To-morrow the darkness of night will recede before the rising sun, and, at the dawn of day, thousands will open their eyes, and thousands may have gone to their eternal rest. Night is the time to die. "O, when the hours of life are past, And death's dark shade arrives at last, 'Tis glory opening to the blest. Night! Beautiful night! In thy solemnity and stillness thou cometh kindly upon a tired multitude, and affectionately draweth around the tranquil couch thy drapery of repose. Meet time for folding of the hands in slumber!-meet time for communing with the spirits of a better world!-meet time for contemplation! Ay! for recounting the events of the past, and of recording on the tablet of memory the duties of the morrow. Another night may not be ours. Ano her morn, and our eyes may open not on the light of day. When we lie down, let the praise of God be The workman is reclining on his bed, and in our hearts; and if we should awake, on our his implement of labor is laid aside. The mother peacefully slumbers by her infant, and the infant clings closer and closer to the breast of its doting mother. Darkness is on the earth, and the sea is covered with gloom; the sailor-boy is slumbering at his post; even the helmsman is almost in dreams. Night is the time to dream. Night has wrapped her dark mantle o'er the animated face of nature, and the flowers stir not at the passing wind. God is keeping vigil over the land and over the sea, and the Guardian Angel of Paradise hovers o'er the ship as it bounds the mighty deep. lips be his praise. Night is the time for prayer. Thank Him, that he has given us a season of repose, with its darkness and its quiet, that we may the better sink into forgetfulness. Not a forgetfulness of the manifold duties which we owe to our Creator, nor an unconcernedness of the varied obligations of life. But, we must cease to remember all the injuries we have sustained, through malice and through envy; and we should bury in oblivion all feelings of hatred, of anger, and revenge. Night is the time for peace. As we would that our Judge should “forgive us our trespasses," even so let us "forgive those who trespass against us." The Eye that is never closed is His; the Sentinel that guards the tower, is God. The light of the universe may be eclipsed, and there may be, as in days of old, "darkness upon the face of the deep," still he seeth all around, and watcheth over every little insect. Night is the time to watch: High in the heavens He dwells alone, Evening on the water! A sail by moonlight on the broad bosom of our noble Hud son! Oh! God, we thank thee for the splendor of that scenery. How beautiful and magnificent appear the heavens, and how lovely the stillness reigns around! Ay, thank God for the mildness and majesty of the summer eve and for the enchantment which the spangled sky lends to such a glorious scene: "Now glowed the firmament With living sapphires: Hesperus, that led Evening in the country! How delightful to walk abroad, 'mid the brightness of the moon, and hold sweet converse with the idol of our heart. How delightful to outwatch the stars, to see their fires grow dim, and to gaze upon the magic face of beauty, until morn breaketh in the east: "And I have strayed with beauty by my side, Through the still glade, at evening's passing hour, Evening in winter! Thou, too, hast thy charms. Then, we can gather around, in hospitable mirth, the blazing hearth, and shut our ears to the whistling wind; then we can partake of the joys of HOME, and thank the Almighty Giver for the flowers which bloom around the domestic altar. "But lo! the russet hue of morn proclaims INTELLIGENCE A SAFEGUARD. BY THE EDITOR. by a corrupt party press; and, wrapping their godlike intelligence up in a piece of soiled paper, allow themselves to be quietly led by the nose to the ballot box. What partisan ever allows himself to be governed by his own intelligence in matters of this nature? Who ever raises an intellectual disputation in his own mind, with a view to find out the right and the wrong of partisan asseveration? Or, if a gleam of the truth chances to flash across the mind in opposition to our prejudices, do we not strive to strangle it rather than give it life, lest perchance it should wean us from our slavery as partisans. In a word, do we not too often make war against our intelligence, by exercising the right of suffrage at the bidding of what we call our party? OUR notions of the dangers of foreign influ- | the lies and romances coined for special ends ence upon our institutions, are often met with the reply that there can be no such danger, so long as the masses are trained to habits of intelligence This answer will never be satisfactory so long as we know that the people refuse to exercise, in political affairs, the intelligence which they possess. We are undoubtedly blessed, as a people, with a fair share of general knowledge; in fact we are apt to boast of our intelligence over the masses of other countries, and, thanks to our public schools for secular education, most Americans know how to read, write and cipher. They can take a partisan newspaper in hand, amuse themselves with the slurs and quippets which their editor flings at some nominee of the other party; laugh over articles which slander and vilify the purest private character, if that character happens to be opposed to them in politics; swallow with supreme gust, all If these things be so, of what avail is intelligence? Intelligence is a very pretty thing to talk about and boast of, but if we do not exercise it to good ends, what is it worth? Under our present system of politics, the foreign enemy has but to attach himself to one party or the other, promise a large accession of votes, make his terms, secure our support, and attain his ends by the alteration or abrogation of any law that is obnoxious to him. What becomes of your "safeguard" intelligence then? This thing has been often done, and will be done again if the same influences are permitted to operate. But there is another phase in which our intelligence exhibits itself vastly. Questions sometimes arise which appear to involve no partisan interest whatever. Ah, here is a spot where Americans will be sure to prove what they profess in patriotism and intelligence. Here there are no party trammels to induce men to make fools of themselves, and, of course, they will act understandingly, and examine for themselves; surely no man will give his vote on such a question without knowing what he votes about. Let us see what reliance we can place upon intelligence in such a case. In order to gain more especial control of public affairs, the foreign enemy finds it necessary to alter a clause or two in the constitution of the State; he is allowed the right to vote, and to hold almost every office in the gift of the State; but there is one, and that the most important to the attainment of his ends, from which, by the wisdom of our forefathers, he is debarred; it is the executive office, without the possession of which, all his plans would be imperfect. He must have that office, too, although to attain it the constitution must be amended. Accordingly his engines are set to work; it is suggested that our constitution may be made more perfect by revision, and that great and unspeakable benefits will flow from certain amendments. The people, who have hitherto possessed every civil blessing that any form of government can confer upon man, wonder what is coming; they cannot discover anything in the constitution which debars them from any element essential to the most perfect freedom and happiness; and, to quiet their doubts, they are told that the judiciary system is too complex; there is too much mystification in legal proceedings; and the lawyers have too much power over them. "Oh, ah! that is very true," says the intelligent citizen, who, perhaps, was never interested in a lawsuit in his life; "that is very true; these lawyers are great rascals; we will have the constitution amended." So they consent to the call for a convention to revise the organic law of their State, and the convention is had. Who goes to that convention? The people at large, in the exercise of their intelligence, care as much about it as the man in the moon; and while the farmer is at his plow, and the mechanic at his work-bench, those who started the plan have things pretty much their own way. Men are sent to the convention who will accomplish their purposes. Well, the convention is held-the judiciary is pretty well shaken up, and, under the great dust, which the agitation of so dry a subject produces, nobody notices the striking out of a little word, which covers the whole ground for which the convention was actually called, and, by removing which, the American is robbed of the only birthright which the old instrument had preserved so long sacred to him. The constitution, as it stood, gave the executive chair of the State to native citizens of the country only, positively forbidding its occupancy by any foreigner. By striking out the word native, that birthright was annulled, and any foreigner, five years in the country, was made eligible to the office of governor! The old constitution, guarding against the dangers of a union of church and State, also forbade that any ecclesiastic should occupy the executive office, but our sage convention drew its pen very quietly over this clause also, and thus threw open the doors, through which any foreign priest, bishop, archbishop, or cardinal, may pass triumphantly into the highest executive office of the State! The conclave, having finished its labors, submitted their bantling to the public as the new constitution of the Empire State; and, without more ado, this gross and infamous instrument was voted into vitality, and became the organic law. It cannot be for a moment believed that the American citizens of the State would have allowed this outrage upon their rights and their institutions of civil and religious liberty, had they known the character of the new constitution. But whose was the fault of their ig norance on that particular point? The instrument was printed and published by the papers of the day long before they voted upon it; the vehicles of information were before their eyes, or at least within their reach, and surely they are intelligent: they can read, digest, and understand, if they will, and on this question there was no party trammels to sway them from the right course-where was their boasted intelligence then? Did they employ it in reading the instrument that was to be fastened upon them, perhaps for life, to inform themselves whether that instrument was to take from them any privileges then enjoyed, to convert them from freemen into slaves, and drive their children into bondage, or did they leave it in their corn-cribs, their work-shops, and their counting houses, to serve the purposes of the Almighty dollar? Scarce a day passes in which we are not told by some person who voted for this infamous Constitution, "I never knew before that it had been so amended." What then is the value of your intelligence in a political point of view? If you thus blindly vote yourselves out of your rights and liberties, if you thus foolishly allow the foundation stones of your civil fabric to be knocked away before your very eyes, you might as well have been born and bred to Russian ignorance or Papal bondage. Intelligence, like patriotism, is a capital ingredient for buncomb speech-makers and writers, but until we see a better exercise of both, we are much constrained to pronounce their pretension humbug. Next, observe the deviltry and chicanery practiced in relation to the the School law of this State, under foreign influence. It is well known that Roman Catholicism took a bold and uncompromising stand against our blessed system of popular education, and in the rural districts that influence was overpowering. Thousands of well-meaning farmers were imperceptibly swayed by priest craft into a belief that the law is tyrannical, and absolutely voted against the means of disseminating among the rising generations that intelligence which we profess to be so proud of Men who were taxed less under that law than they had before been under the old free school and rate-bill system, were actually persuaded to vote against their own pockets, as well as against the law itself under the hue and cry of exorbitant and unjust taxation! There is another specimen of the exercise of our intelligence. The fact is, that in this case, as in that of the constitution, thousands of good men, by listening to the assertions of others, instead of looking at the subject for them selves, took for granted what was told them, and voted with their eyes shut, and at random. Popular intelligence, if brought to bear upon the subject, and permitted to exercise its powers, would unquestionably prove an insuperable barrier to the assaults of the enemies of freedom; but if it is to be stifled,. either through the blindness of party zeal, or the indolence of its possessor, it is difficult to perceive how it can produce any useful effect, or be of the slightest value in a political point of view; and, until these dilutents are removed, and the powers of reflection brought into full and free activity, it is simply absurd to plead intelligence as a safeguard. THE GRAVE. HERE falls the curtain on the drama of life; here, after the fitful fever" is over, mankind assemble, and, in a silence, unbroken by jarring contentions, sleep out the future. When the old mortality has laid itself here, it has achieved a triumph over ill; for here, indeed, the lion and the lamb lie down together in a true harmony. Here slavery forgets its chains, and oppression its power; there is no master in the grave, and side by side lie the we an d the strong. Here end all our aspirations, desires, affections, and animosities; even the sordid wretch whose swollen coffers groan with the burden of gold wrenched from star vation, consents to sleep here, side by side with his emaciated victim. Here the emblazoned body of royalty quits its farce of life, and forgetful of ambition, honors, ostentation, and the obeisance due to the state, crumbles without a murmur, in the companionship of the beggar and the hind. The grave is the only great leveler, the only democracy that brings mankind to an equality, placing all on equal terms before the great Judge of undying souls. By his decree the tinseled mockeries of life are torn aside; and through the alchemy of incarnate wisdom, the virtue that was a slave becomes exalted, and adorned with the garments of a glorious immortality! THE REWARD OF GENIUS. WHAT shall reward that god-like art Whose empire is the mind, That sways beneath its master hand For Genius, like the son of earth, BY J. M. KNOWLTON. And though it toil with heavenward aim, Must seek and find reward. The painter finds it in the tinge Of cheek and brow and eye, His own pure thought's embodied form, The form of beauty growing bright The sculptor, in the senseless stone Asks but the great First Cause to speak, The poet finds it not in fame, Or gems, or glittering store, The form that fills his noon-day dream, The radiant spirit of his song, That bids all base depart The almost heaven-like light that dawns, Inspiring, on his heart All these, with Faith, and Hope, and Love, A vision shall bestow Of glorious realms, and brighter far And as he sings with yearning heart, His fancy fills his glowing song Oh, these shall speed him on his flight, For dear to all the close embrace The high impulse of generous thought, If gold, and lust of wealth and power, And purest love, and holiest truth, If these shall crown, with deathless flowers, The longing soul shall find its goal, NIGHT. BY TUDOR HORTON. LOVE thou the Night whose shadows are veiling, Gentle are all of its ministers near thee, True, to the senses, dark are the places But she may know higher joys if she will. Night is the season when tend'rest emotions, Sacred the Night to inmost communion Well for the soul if it shrinks not from thought Nearer the Dead who were loved and are lovingWell for the soul if it seeks to be taught. Welcome the Night-0 spend not in riot Hours that were never intended for strife! Listening the pause in the anthem of life! |