Henry Giessenbier's Personal Journal

The following text is from the original journal of Henry Giessenbier and is the copyright of Darcy Giessenbier.

"A marvel seems the universe,
A miracle our life and death
A mystery which I cannot pierce,
Around, above, beneath.
My spirit sighs for home,
And longs for light whereby to see.
And like a weary child has come,
O' father unto thee."

"My god in his mercy, superintend the solution."

"The great globe is growing smaller. We can
place our ears to the waters and hear the sounds
of the most distant nations."

"But men great enough to realize and observe their moral restrictions, while in possession of fleeting power are few."

Proof positive that his charge is without foundation, chimera of distorted fancy, the baseless fabric of a fevered dream. There's not a scintilla of proof of a conspiracy. The utter absurdity, not to say the wickedness of the charge, by sinister and corrupt interest to subvert the government. The combination of evil, his own evidence refutes his imagination.

All its glory was but the reflection of the precepts taught by mother.

The land which Jefferson bought is not only the granary of the world, it is the pleasure house and the playground of the nation.

I look forward rejoicing in my own vigor and richness of resource to accomplish that upon which we gaze with admiration forever. It would be foreign to my nature and alien to my purpose to set aside such a task.

May heaven forbid if anyone should wish to learn what I was forced to learn of what the worst in life means either to those who must suffer for it or try to make the best of it.

The deliberate processes of the court are the surest anchors of justice as well as liberty.

Its act has been no doubt inspired by the recognition of those principles of self-determination which the war made concrete.

The government of one of the world's greatest nations has abandoned law and the principles of law, as the rest of the world understands and cherish them, and is endeavoring to foster its ideals of lawless dictation upon all humanity.

Wish for it a future as great as its past.

Some natures are endowed with the prescience far above the ordinary. "coming events cast their shadows before" but the rare few discern the shadows and rightly interpret them. The footfalls of the march of coming events may be caught only by ears attuned to hear them. Quick to read and interpret the sign of the times.

I can see how it might be possible for a man to look down upon the earth and be an unbeleiver[sp], but I cannot see how he could look up into the heavens and say there is no God.

I will look straight out - See things - not try to evade them. Fact shall be fact for me, and the truth shall be the truth forever.

That black foul lie can never be consecrated in God's hallowed truth.

Life without toil, if possible, would be an intolerable existence. Work is the supreme engagement, the sublime luxury of life. There will be employers so long as there is leadership, among men, and there will be employees until human progress is paralyzed and the development of humanity dies on one common altar of mediocrity. Our problem is to find the highest order of employment, the ideal relationship, the conditions under which we may work to the highest attainment, and the greatest common good for all concerned.

We have two choices of force or power in which we can increase the number of desirable things or increase the desirability of things.

Let the message of Christianity go to the troubled life of men.

That the Almighty does make use of human agencies and directly intervenes in human affairs, is one of the plainest statements in the Bible. I have had so many evidences of His direction, so many instances when I have been controlled by some other than my own will, that I cannot doubt that this power comes from above. I frequently see my way clear to a decision when I am conscious that I have not sufficient fact upon which to found it. But I cannot recall one instance in which I have followed my own judgment, founded upon such a decision, where the results were unsatisfactory; whereas, in almost every instance where I have yielded to the views of others, I have had occasion to regret it. I am satisfied that when the Almighty wants me to do, or not to do, a particular thing, He finds a way of letting me know it.

With a sense of reverence that lifted her above the dull and deadly routine of the home.

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From another manuscript unknown:

America has never been on firmer ground as a republic, as a leader of nations, as a conserver of it's own resources of people and principles, than today. Our republic is occupying an advanced position - is farther along the road of democratic government and the realization of democracy's ideals than any other country since the world began.

The great mass of it's citizenship is sound, sensible and immovable from the bulwarks of that exalted human liberty which the American Constitution and the American genius for self-control have made possible for this nation to enjoy.

The United States today is a great voice in the councils of civilization, perhaps the greatest of all voices, but that voice will emit but a hollow sound unless our intelligent folk acquire the knowledge that must go with the new responsibility, an understanding of world problems, economic, political and spiritual. We have been isolated politically, so have we been mentally, but there must be a change in attitude.