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 “In your patience, possess ye your souls.” “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.”

In our country, where freedom of opinion is every man’s right and privilege, there will be all kinds of opinions expressed, and all kinds of movements and excitements got up: but their existence will, and must be, transient. “A breath can make them, and a breath unmake.”

The endless tide of public opinion rolls ceaselessly on, and each wave is swallowed up, by the succeeding. And what though that ocean, at times, looks stormy, rough and angry, and threatens destruction to all upon it: it is but the effervescence of our young, vigorous and healthy, American spirit, that sparkles, flashes, explodes and dies—the mere foam upon the surface; while underneath, lies the pure, clear, deep fountain of sober thought, and vigorous intellect, with moral excellence, that, in the hour of our country’s extremity, will supply every needed aid.