Sir John Johnson, the First American-Born Baronet
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| Partner: | buecher.de |
| Hersteller: | Forgotten Books (Peyster, J. Watts de) |
| Stand: | 2015-08-04 03:50:33 |
Produktbeschreibung
Excerpt from Sir John Johnson, the First American-Born Baronet: An Address; Delivered Before the New York Historical Society, at Its Annual Meeting, Tuesday, January 6th, 1880 It is well for men to reflect upon two or three expressions in the Bible which demonstrate that injustice is not always to exercise omnipotent sway, and that even the "High Song" of Odin, in the "Edda," was mistaken when it sang: "One thing I know that never dies. The verdict passed upon the dead." Whoever assumed the name of the "Preacher King" to present his own opinions in the Apocryphal book, styled the "Wisdom of Solomon." uttered a multitude of truths worthy of the divinely-inspired son of David, but no grander enunciation than the assurance, "Vice [Falsehood] shall not prevail against Wisdom" [Truth]; and St. Paul, the greatest human being who, as a fact and not a fiction, ever trod this little world of man, promised that even to humanity "every man´s work shall be made manifest." It is in this interest - Truth - that the address of the evening is delivered. Victor Hugo,a truly bright, however erratic, mind, has thrown off, from time to time, sentences which are undoubted sparks of genius. One of these is his denunciation of the delusive lights of Success. "Success," says this great writer, "has a dupe - History!" It has another dupe - Public Opinion; and this latter is nowhere blinded by such obliquity, if not actual opacity, of vision as in this country ; preferring gilt to gold, and bestowing the highest prizes on men, who, in comparison with demigods like Thomas, are of mere clay. The whole of our Revolutionary history is a myth. A member of this very society has torn some of the coverings from apparently slight scratches and revealed festering sores. It would be well if there were other practitioners as daring. The effort of this evening will be simply the vindication of a gentleman who has borne up, like an Atlas, under the hundred years of obloquy heaped upon his memory, a load of which he can alone be relieved by outspoken truth. The present King of Sweden has just published a species of vindication of one who was a grand hero and a great soldier, although historian, poet and playwright have united in damning his memory with faint praise, summed up in the epithet: "The Madman of the North." Could this opprobrious term be heard by Charles the Twelfth, he might exclaim with St. Paul, and with equal justice, "I am not mad?" for Charles was a patriot King, a Soldier, a General, a Man - the latter in the grandest sense of the word - without any vice, with manifold virtues. He failed, and he fell; and the´ curs that barked from afar off at the living: lion howled in triumph over the kingly creature which Fortune not their fangs tore down. The royal author - Oscar II., in the following eloquent passages quoted, doubtless refers to the misjudgments of his countrymen in regard to prominent men who sustained the losing side in the civil wars of his country, as well to those of Swedes and foreigners upon his predecessor: "The past appeals to the impartiality of the future. History replies. But, often, generations pass away ere that reply can be given in a determinate form. For not until the voices of contemporaneous panegyric and censure are hushed; not until passionate pulses have ceased to beat; until flattery has lost its power to charm, and calumny to vilify, can the verdict of history be pronounced. Then from the clouds of error and prejudice the sun of truth emerges, and light is diffused in bright rays, of ever increasing refulgence and breadth. Every age has its own heroes - men who seem to embody the prevailing characterist
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