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'
Juno IN
WEST POINT
ORATION,
DELIVERED BY
Gen. Geo. 8.. McClellan,
On Wednesday, June lilt, 364
West Point was the scene of a very
imposing and yet solemn ceremony, on
Wednesday, June 15th, in the dedica
tion of a portion of the grounds as a
site on which to erect a monument to
the memory of those members of the
regular arm y who 11,4vt 3 pprishe4 during
the present war. The 4rippipacement
that General McClellan would deliver
the oration on the occasion induced an
immense number of people, ladies as
well as gentlemen; to visit the Military
Academy . to witness the ceremonial, and
all the trains and boats were crowded
with them
At about one o'clock, General Mc-
Clellan, accompanied by General Ander
son, walked from the carriage along an
avenue lined with people, who saluted
him vial cheers as he passed along, to
which he replied with a military salute.
On ascending the steps pf the stand the
pheers wore continued until he took his
seat. At this lime, there were on the
stand several distinguished guests. who
all uncovered as General litef)teihtn
passed to his seat, which was in the
centre of the platform.
After prayer, Professor French ad
dressed the assemblage, expressing a
wish that as the event was to honor the
dead, there should be no demonstration
made, but that it should be allowed to
pass hrough tp the end as would a fu
petal sprvipe over the remains of those
who had fallen in war to detend the
welfare and honor of the United States.
General Anderson introduced Gene
ral McClellan as the orator of the day,
asserting that he was far better known
to the people than he (qeneral Andgspn)
could ever hope - to be.
As General McClellan arose from his
seat—in spite of what Professor French
had said, and entirely disregarding the
Gepend's signs of disapproval and at
tempts to make them desist—the crowd
saluted him with three loud and pro
longed cheers. As soon as quiet had
been restored, General McClellan, in a
clear, calm, yet perfectly audible voice,
delivered the following
Qs dloatopy Qmtion.
All nations have days sacred to the
remembrance of joy and grief. They
have thanksgivings for success; fasting
and prayerin the hour of humiliation
and defeat.; .triumph and peens to greet
the living laurel-crowned victors, They
have obsequies and eulogies for the wart
rips slain the field of battle. Swill is
the duty we are 4 . , perform totday,,,
The poetry, the histories, the orations of
antiquity, all resound with the clangor of
raTPS. They dwell rather upon the
rough deeds of w4r than the gentle arts
of peace. They hive preserved to
.us
the names of hems and the memory of
their deeds even to this distant day.—
Our own Old Testament teems with the
narration of brave actions and heroic
deaths of Jewish patriot* while the
New Testament of our meek and anger
ing Saviour often selects the soldier and
his weapons to typify and illustrate reli
gious heroism and duty. • These stories
of the aptions of the dead have fret
quently survived in the lapse of ages the
names of those whose tall was commem
orated' centuries ago. But although we
have not now the names of all the brave
men who fought and fell on the plain of
Marathon,
and in the pass of Thermo
pylie and on the hills of Palestine, we
have not lost the memory .of their ex
amples. As long as the warm blood
Nurses in the 'veins of man, as long as
the human heart heats high and quick
at the recital. of brave deeds and patri
otic sacrifices,' so long will the lesson
still incite generous men to emulate the
heroism of Ow past. Among the Greeks ,
it was the custom .that the father of the
most valiant of the slain should pro
nounce the eulogies of the dead.-i---
Sometimes it devolved neon the great
statesmen and orators to perform this
painful duty. Would that a new Dem
osthenes or a' second Pericles would
arise and taike my place to-day; for he
would find a theme worthy of his most
powers, of his roost touching
eloquence.
stand here now not as an orator, but
as the whilom commander of the most
valiant dad—_as their comrade, top, on,
many a hard-tmglat field against de
! mead° and foreign foes, in • early youth
and mature manhood—moved lay all the
love David telt when he poured forth
his lamentations for the mighty- father
and son who fell on Mount Gilboa...—
find .ewe-that, David's- love for Jort
,athrc was no More than mine for
the trial friends of many - long and
eventful years, whose names are to be
recorded upon the (truotare that is • to
rise'where tVevirTdd that his
inorethin'nOrtitlelicirerKie Gould grace
my lips , and do justice to the theme.
We have mot-to-day. my comrades,
to do honor to our (Ali 'lead; brothers
united to us by the Closest and dearest
ties, who have freely given their lives
for their country in this war, so just and
righteous, so long as its putpose is to crush*
rebellion and to save our nation from the in
finite wliltiment, :diwoh an oc
casion as this. Phould, call firih the 11041P
estm.104441W0 einetictl34,47:p**teer
pride, sorrow end praYerrilriskethat ter
oonatryilaa pOIIIIIIIBO4 kik& ski* accialy .
that shirhatt brit them, and'prayerilhall
'WAYNESBURG, GREENE. COUNTY, PA., WEDNESDAY, JULY 13, 1864.
we and our successors may adorn her an
nals as they have done, and that when
our parting hour arrives, whenever and
however it may be, our souls may be pre
pared for the great change: We have
met and assembled to consecrate a cen
otaph, which shall remind children's
children in the distant future of their
father's struggle in the days of the great
rebellion.
This monument is to perpetuate the
memory of a portion only of those who
have fallen for the nation in this unhap
py war. It is dedicated to the officers
and soldiers of the regular army. Yet
this is done in no class or exclusive
spirit, and in the act we remember with
re'verence and love our comrades of the
volunteers who have so gloriensly
fought and fallen by our side. Each
State will no doubt commemorate in a
more &ting way she services of its sons,
who abandoned the avocations of peace
and shed their blood in the rinks of the
volunteers. flow richly thi y have
earned a nation's love, a nation's grati
tude; with what heroism they have con
fronted death, have wrested victory
from a stubborn foe and have illustrated
defeat, it well becomes me to say, fur it
has been my lot to command them in
many a sanguinary field. I know that
T. but echo the feeling of the regular
army when I award the high credit
they deserve to their brave brethren of
the volunteers.
Ent we of the regular army have no
States to look to for the honor due our
dead. We belong to the whole coun
try, and can neither expect nor desire
the General Government to make a per
haps invidious distinction in our favor.
We are few in numbers, a small band
of comrades, united by peculiar and
very binding ties; for with many of us
our friendships were ponnmaneed in boy
hood when we rested here in the shad
ow of the graslite hills which look
down upon us where we stand. With
others the ties of brotherhood were
found in more mature years, while
fighting among the rugged mountains
and fertile valleys of Ne4co, within
hearing of the eternal waves of the Pa
cific, or in the lonely grandeur of the
great plains of the far West. With
all, our love and confidence have been
cemented by common danger and suffer
ing, on the toilsome march, in the
dreary bivouac, and amid the clash of
arms, and in the presence of death, on
Mires of battlefields West Point,
with her large heart, adopts us all—
graduates and those appointed from
civil life, officers and privates. •In her
eyes we are all her children, jealous of
her fame and eager to sustain her world
wide reputation. Generals and private
soldiers, men who have cheerfully offer
ed our all for our dear country, we
stand here before this shrine, ever
hereafter sacred to our dead, equals and
brothers in the presence of the common
death which awaits us all—perhaps on
the same geld and at the same hour.
Such are the ties which unite us—the
most endearing which exist itmoug
men ; such the relations which bind us
together—the closet of the sacred broth
erhood of arms. It has, therefore,
seemed and it is fitting that we should
erect upon this spot, so sacred to us 411,
an endear' mg monument to our dear
brothers Who have preceded us in the
post of all peril and of honor, which it
is tile destiny of !tinny of us to trend.
What is this regular army to which
we "belong ? Who were' the men
whose deaths merit such honors from
the living. What is the cause for
which they have laid down their lives I
Our regular or permanent army is the
nucleus which, in time of peace, pre
serves the military traditions of the na
tion, as well as the organization,
science and instruction indispensable
tq modern armies. It may be regard
ed as coeval with the nation. It de- i
rives its origin from the old Continen
tal and State lines of the Revolution,
whence, with some interruption and
many dangers, it has attained its pres
ent condition. In fact, we may with
propriety go even beyond the Revolu
tion to seek the routs of our genealogi
cal tree in the old French wars, for the
Cis-Atlantic campaigns off' the seven
years' war were not confined to the
"red men" scalping each other by the
great lakes of North America ; and it
was in them our ancestors first partici
pated as Americana iu the large oper
ations of civilized armies. +American
regiments then. fought on the banks of
tie St. Lawrence and the Ohio, on the
shorei of Ontario and Lake George,
on the islands of the Caribbean and in
South America. Louisburg, Quebec,
Duquesne, De Mitre and Portobello
attest the value of the provincial troops,
awl in that sohq , l were educated such
me n as Washington, Putnam, Lee,
1 Montgomery and Gates. These, and
men like Greene, Knox, Wayne and
Stsuben, were the fathers of our per
manent army, and under them oqr
troops acquired that discipline and
steMiness which enabled them tp meet
on equal terms, and often to defeat * the
tried veterans of England. The 80.44
of thejaistory of the ReWialution nod
peruo of the dispatches. of Wishing+.
Wishing
ton, will oonvincp the most *eptriffit of
the value of the pornutoont wrii,y. in
achieving oar independanti,tati
fishing the civil edifipe . 04 we are
now fighting to nittintain,
tn?
war of 101% found army on
a ;#o 4 narte ,?QT '*/4"'P?- ra *e)
enormyt hii iitt i&47
ad; and new gen n
(I? nsmist . i.med natal to the
.citn.rn-
meats of the occasion. Lundy's Lane,
Queenstown, Plattsburg, New Orleans,
aII bear witness to the gallantry of the
regulars Then came an interval of
more than twenty years of external
peace, marked by many changes in the
organization and strength of the regular
army,, and broken at times by tedious
and bloody Indian wars. Of these the
most remarkable were the Black gawk
war, in winch our troops met unflinch
ingly a foe as relentless, and far more
destructive than the Indians—that ter
rible scourge, the cholera; and the te
dious Florida War, when for many
years the:Seminoles eluded in the pes
tilential swamps our utmost efforts, and
in which were displayed such traits of
heroism as that commemorated by your
monument to Dade and his command,
"when all fell, save two, who attempt
ed to retreat." At last came the Mexi
can war, to replace Indian combats and
the monotony of the frontier service,
and for the first time in many years the
mass of the rggula i r army was concen
trated, and took' the principal part in
the battles of that remarkable and roman
tie war. Palo Alto, Resew and Fort
Brown were the achievements of the
regulars unaided ; and as to the battles
of Monterey, Buena Vista, Vera Cruz,
Cerro Gordo, and the final triumph in
the Valley, none can truly say that they
could have been won without the regn,
lays. When peace crowned our victo
ries in the capital of the Montezumas,
the army was at once dispersed over
the long frontier, and engaged in har
assing and dangerous wars with the In
dians of the plains. Thus thirteen long
years were spent until the present war
bi oke out, and the mass of the army
was drawn in, to be employed against a
*domestic foe.
I cannot proceed to the events of the
recent past and the present without ad
verting to the gallant men who were so
long of our number, but who have now
gone to their long home—for no small
portion of the glory of which we boast
was reflected from such men as Taylor,
Worth, Brady, Brook, Totten and
Duncan. There is a sad story of Ve
netian history - that has moved many a
heart, and often employed the poet's
pen and painter's pencil. It is of an old
man whose long life was gloriously
spout in the service of the State as 4
warrior and a statesman, and who, when
his hair was white and his feeble limbs
could scarce bear his bent form toward
the grave, attained the highest honors
that a citizen could reach. He was
Doge of Venice. Convicted of treason
against the State, he not only lost his
life, but suffered besides a penalty
which will endure as long as the name
of Venice is remembered. The spot
where his portrait should have hung
in the great hall of the Doge's palace,
was veiled with black, and there still
remains the frame, with its black mass
of canvas ; and this vacant frame is the
most conspicuons in the long line of
effigies of illustrious Doges. Oh! that
suoh a pall as that which replaces the
portrait of Marino Faliero could conceal
from history the Lames of those, once
our comrades, who are now in arms
against the flag under which we fought
side by side in years gone by. But no
vail, however thick, can cover the an
guish which fills our hearts when we
look back upon the sad memory of the
past, and recall the affection and respect
we entertained toward men against
whom it is our duty to act in mortal
combat. Would that the courage, abil
ity and steadfastness they display had
been employed in the defense of the
"stars and stripes" against a foreign foe,
rather than in this fatuitous and un
justifiable rebellion, whioh could not
have been so long maintained but for
the skill and energy of these, our for
mer comrades.
lint we have reason to rejoice upon
this day, so sacred and so eveqtful for
us, one grand old mortal monument of
the past still life high his head amongst
qa, and should have graced by his pres
ence the consecration of this tomb by
his children. We may well be proud
that we are here commanded by the he
ro who purchased victory with his blood
near the great waters of Niagara ; who
repeated and eclipsed the achievements
of Cortex; who, although a consummate
and oonftdent commander, over prefer
red, where duty and honor would per
mit, the olive braneh l bf peace to the
blood-stained laurels of war, and who
stands, at the close of a glorious and
eventful life, a living column of granite
against which have beaten in vain alike
the blandishments and storms of treason.
Iris name will ever beano of onr proud
est toasts and most moving aspirations.
In long distant - ages; when this incipient
monument has become venerable. moss
clad and perhaps ruinous,
when the
names inscribed upon it shall seem to
those who panne to read them indistinct
mementoes of an almost mythical past,
the name of Winfield Scott will still
be clear, cut upon the memory of all,
like the still fresh carvi upon - t h e
monuments of long forgotten Pharaohs.
But it is time to approach the "Relent
In the war which now shakes the land
to its foundation, the rtigalar army has
borne a float honorsbte part. Too few
in numbers to . aet by themselves, regu
with what undaunted heroism they have
upheld their ancient renown. Their vig
orous charges have often won the day,
and in defeat they have more than once
saved the army from destruction or ter
rible losses, by the obstinacy with which
they resisted overpowering numbers.—
They can refer with prid' to the part
they played upon the glorious fields of
Mexico, and exult at the recollection of
what they did at Manassas, Gaines'
Mills, Malvern, Antietam, Shiloh, Stone
River, Gettysburg, and the great battles
just fought from the Rapidan to the
Chickahominy. They can also point to
the officers who have risen among them
and achieved great deeds for their
country in this war—to the living war
riors whose names are on the nation's
tongue and beau, too numerous to be
repeated here, yet no one of whom I
could willingly omit.
But perhaps the proudest episode in
the history of the regular army is the
touching instance of fidelity on the part
of non-commissioned officers and privates
who, treacherously made prisoners in
Texas, resisted every temptation to in
cite them to desert their flag. Offered
commissions in the rebel service, money
and land freely tendered them, they all
scorned the inducements held out to
them, submitted to every hardship, and
when at last exchanged, avenged them
4elves on the field of battle the una
vailing insult offered theirTfftegrity.-t
Ilistory affords no brighter example of
honor than that these brave men, tempt
ed, as I blush to say they were, by some
of their former officers, who, having
themselves proved false to their flag, en ,
deavored to seduce the men who often
followed them to battle, and who had
naturally regarded them with respect
and love.
Such is Cie regular army—such its
history and antecedents—such its officers
and men. It needs no herald to trum
pet forth its praises; it can proudly appeal
to the numerous fields, from the tropics
to the frozen banks of the St. Lawrence,
from the Atlantic to the Pacific fertil
ized by the blood and whitened by the
bones of its members. But I will not
paw to eulogized it. Let its deeds
speak fur it. They are more eloquent
than tongue of mine.
Why are we hero to-day I This is
not the funeral of one brave warrior,
nor even of the harvest of death on a sin
gle battle field ; but these are the obse
qeieis of the best and bravest of the chil
dren of the land, who' have fallen in ac
tions almost numberless, many of them
among the most sanguinary and desper
ate of which- history bears record.—
These men, whose names and deeds
we now seek to perpetuate, rendering
them the highest honor in our power,
have fallen wherever armed rebellion
showed his front—in far distant Now
Mexico, in the broad valley of Mississip
pi, on the bloody hunting grounds of
Kentucky, in the mountains of Tennes
see, amid the swamps of Carolina, in
the fertile fields of Maryland, and the
blood-stained thickets of Virginia. They
were of all grades, from the general to
the private, and of all ages, from the
gray haired veteran of fifty years' service
to the beardless youth ; of all degrees of
cultivation, from the man of science to
the uneducated boy.
It is not necessary, nor is it possible,
to repeat the mournful yet illustrious
roll of dead he es whom we have met
to honor. Vali I attempt to name
all of those most merit praises ;
simply a few who will exemplify the
classes to whioti they belong. Among
the last gain, but among the first in
honor and reputation, was that hero of
twenty battles, John Sedgwick, gentle
and kind as a woman, brave as a brave
man can be, honest, sincere and able,
he was a man that ail may strive to
imitate, bat whom few can equal. In
the terrible battles which just prece
ded his death, he had occasion to dis
play the highest qualities of a command
er and soldier, yet after escaping the
stroke of death where men fell around
lil!tii by thousands, he at last met his fate
at a moment of comparative quiet, by
the hall of 4 single rifleman. He died
as a soldier would choose to die—with
truth in his heart and a quiet, tranquil
, smile Liman his face. Alas ! our great
nation possesses few sous like true John
Sedgwick. bike him, too, fell at the
very head of their corps, the white
haired Mansfield, after a career of use
fulness illustrated by his skill and cool
courage at Fort Brown, Monterey, and
Buena Vista ; john F. Reynolds and
Reno, both in the full vigor of manhood
and intellect; men who had proved
their ability and chivalry in many a
field in Mexico, and in this civil war,
gallant gentlemen' of whom their coun
try had more to hope had it pleased
god to spare their hves. Loon fell in
the prime of life, leading his "little army
against superior numbers, his brief ca
reer affording a brilliant example of pa
triotism and ability. The impetuous
Kearny, and such brave Generals as
Richardsion, Williams, 'Terrill, Stevens,
Weed, Saunders, and Hayes, lost their
lives while in the midst of a career of
usefulness. • Young.Bayarcl, so like the
most • repel necl of his name, that
~ t4xtgii Orve fear and &we „m
-ol*
!womb," was 0ut.0400 early ., kifik
country. No regiments con a? . ,
gallant, devoille and able mamma era
ee ,l ell, aviu RPM, Altaletug,
BOIT
Putman sadeauggir IL of
*ham**..olitoko et omens,
somis ot 'mem vs,lrins, ri ours
, ming in liKvio(4 in - good ut n and Welt
beloved. Our batteries have partially
paid their terrible debt to fate in the
loss of such commanders as Greble, the
first to fall in this war; Benson, au
! zard, Smead, Dr. Bart, Hazlett, and
those gallant boys, Kirby, Woodruff,
Dinunick and Cushing, while the en
1-gincers lament the promising and gal
lant Wagner and Cross. Beneath re
mote battle-fields ret,t the corpses of the
heroic Mcßae, Bascom, Stone, Sweet
and many other company officers. Be
) sides these were hosts of veteran ser
i geants, corporals and privates, who had
) fought under Scott in Mexico, or con
tested with the savages of the Far West
and Florida, and mingled with them
young soldiers who, courageous, steady
and true, met death unflinchingly with
oat the hope of personal glory. These
men, in their more humble sphere, serv
ed their country with as much faith and
honor as the most illustrious generals,
and all of them with perfect singleness
of heart. Although their names may
not live in history, their actions, loyal
ty and courage will. Their memories
will long be preserved in their regi
ments, for there were many of them
who merited as proud a distinction as
that accorded to the "first grenadier of
France," or to that other Russian sol
dier who gave his life for his comrades.
But there is another class of men who
have gone from us since this war com
menced. whose fate it was not to die in
battle, but who are nevertheless entitled
,to be mentioned here. There was Sum
, ner, a brave, honest, chivalrous veteran,
who had confronted death unflinchingly
on scores of battle-fields, had shown
his grey head, serene and cheerful,
where death most reveled, who more
than once told me that he believed and
hoped that his long career would end
amid the din of litale,he dies at home
from the &eats of the hardships of his
campaign. That most excellent soldier,
the elegant P. F. Smith, whom many of
us remember to have seen so often on
this very plain, with his superb bearing,
escaped the bullet to fall a victim to the
disease which has deprived the army of
so many of its best officers. John Bu
ford, cool and intrepid, Mitchell, emi
nent in science ; Palmer and many of
the officers and men lost their lives by
sickness contracted in the field. But I
cannot close this long list of glorious
martyrs without paying a soldier's debt
of official duty and personal friendship.
There was one dead soldier who pos
-1 sessed peculiar claims upon my love
and sympathy. He was an ardent pa
triot, an unselfish macs and true soldier
' —the bean ideal of a staff officer—he
' was my aid de-camp—Col. Colburn,
There is a lesson to be drawn from
the death and services of these glorious
men which we should read for the pres
ent and future benefit of the nation.—
War in these modern days is a science,
and it should now be clear to the most
prejudiced that in the organization and
command of the armies, and the high
combinition of strategy, perfect famil
iarity with the theoretical science of
war is requisite. To count upon suc
cess where the plans and execution of
campaigns are intrusted to men who
have no knowledge of war, is as idle as
to expect the legal wisdom of a Story or
a Kent from a skillful physician.
But what is the hoeorable and holy
cause for which those men laid down
their lives, and for which the nation
still demands the sacrifice of the precious
blood of so many of her children ?
. Soon after the close of the revolutionary
war, it was found that the Confederacy
which had grown up during that re
markable contest was falling to pieces •
from its own weight. The central
power was too weak ; it could only j
recommend to the different States such
measures as seemed best, and it possess-
ed no real power to legislate, because
it lacked the executive force to compel
obedience to its laws. The nation's
credit and self-respect had disappeared,
and it was feared by the friends of hu
man liberty throughout the world that '
ours was but another added to the long
lists of fruitless attempts at self-govern
ment. The nation was evidently upon •
the brink of ruin and dissolution, when
some eighty years ago many of the
wisest and most patriotic at' the land
met to seek a remedy for great evils
which threatened to destroy the work s
of the revolution. Their sessions were j
long and often stormy ; for a time the I
most sanguine doubted the possibility
of a FUCA3OBBfI.II termination to their la
hors. But from_ amidst the conflict of
sectional interests, 84 party prejudices
and of personal selfishness, their wisdom
and conciliation at length evoked the
Coestitution under which we have lived
so long..' It was not formed in a day,
but was the result of patient labor, of
lofty wisdom and of the purest pa
triotism. It was at last adopted by
the people of all the • States, although
by some reluctantly, but as being the
beat possible under the cireutnetances,—
It was accept& as giving us a form of
Government under which the nation
might live happily snd prosper,. so long
as the erople should continue to be in
fluenced by the same sentiments which
thuated those whO formed it ; which
would not be liable to destruction from
internal eauttee, so long as the people
- preserved the reeolleetion of the miter
las andesslomaithwsFhich led to its adop
t*, . • •
Um* 040,-beheiMlßl 4 ,' Constitution,
the pmsrigui of the nation. visa tines-,1
ampled in history. The rights amd . !
liberties of he cities were secure st,
8411iE.---,VOL. 6, NO. 5.
home and abroad ; vast. 'territories were
rescued from the control of .the savage
and the wild beast, and added to the
domain of civilization and Atte :
The arts and sciences and commerce
grew apace; our flag floated upon
every sea, and we took our place among
the great nations of the earth. But
under this smooth surface of prosperity
upon which we glided swiftly, with all
sails set before the summer breeze, dan
gerous reefs were hidden which now
and then caused ripples upon the sur
face, and made anxious the more cau
tious pilots. Elated by success, the
ship went on, the crew not heeding'the
warning they received, forgetful of the
dankerit, they escaped at the beginning
of' thtiaoyage, and blind to the hideous
maelstrom which gaped to receive . and
destroy them. • The, same . elements
of discord, sectional prejudices. in—
terests and institutions, which bad
rendered the formation of the
Constitution so difficult, threatened
more than once t o destroy
But for a long time the nation wait-so for
tunate as to possess a series of political lead
ers who to the highest abilitietenaethe
same spirit of conciliation which animated
the fouuders of the Republic, and thus for
many years the threatened evils werwayert
ed. Time and long continued good fortune
obliterated the recollection of the calamities
and wretchedness of years preceding die
adoption of the Constitution. They for
got conciliation, common interest and mutu
al charity had been the foundation and must,
be the support of our Government, as is in
deed the case with all governments, and all
the relations of life. At length men appear
ed with whom sectional and personal preju
dices and interests outweighed all consider
ations of the general good. Extremists of
i one section furnisher the occasion, eagerly
seized as a pretext by equally extreme men
in the other, for abandoning the pacific rem
edies and protection afforded by the Consti
tution, and seeking redress for possible fu
ture evils in war and the destruction of the
Union. Stripped of all sophistry and side
issues, the direct cause of the war, as it pre
sented itself to the honest and patriotic citi
zens of the North, was simply this: Certain
States, or, rather, a portion of the inhabitants
of certain States, feared, or professed to fear,
that injury would result to their rights and
property from the elevation of a• particular par
ty to power. Although the Constitution and
the actual conditiOn of the Government pro
vided them with a peaceable and sere pro
tection against the apprehended evil, they
prepared to seek security, in the destruction
of the Government, whiclt could protect
them, and in the use of the force against the
national troops holding the national forts.—
To efface the insult offered to our flag ; to
secure ourselves from the fateirof the divided
republics of Italy and South America - ;: to
preserve our Government from destenction;
to enforce its just power and laws ; to main
tain our very existence as nation—these were
the causes which impelled us „to draw the
sword. Rebellion against a Government like
ours, which contains the - means of self-ad
justment, •and a pacific remedy for evils,
should never be confounded with a revolu
.tion against despotic power, which refuses
redress of wrongs.. Such a rebellion cannot
be justified upon ethical grounds, and the on
ly alternatives for our choice are its supprea
gen, or the destruction of or nationality.—
At such a time as this, and in such a strug
gle,oianlay p torti o f l
t i e t h i a c en a v l d pet ob,ri r a t tv : z ie s i shouldi)o
the wthii>nl be
elevohuincht n ry i t e i.l r i g .n e kl : st i
was in this cause and with these motives
that so many of our comrades have given
their lives, and to this we are all personally
pledged in all honor and fidelity. Shall such
devotion as that of our dead comrades be of
no avail ? Shall it be said in After ages that
we lack the vigor to compl4lllrkhe work thus
begun ? That after all these noble lives free-
Iv given, we hesitated and failed to keep
straight on until our land was saved 1' For
bid it heaven, and g ive us firmer, true:-
hearts than that. Oh, spirits of the valiant
dead, souls of our slain hera; - 6s, lend us your
own indomitable will, and if it be permitted
you to commune with these still chained by
the trammels of mortality, hover around us
in the midst of danger and tribulation—cheer
the firM, strengthen the weak, that none
may doubt the salvation of the Republic and
the triumph of our grand old Flag.
In the midst of the storms which toss our
ship of State, there is one great bestoon
light, to which we can ever turn_ withconfi
dence and hope. It cannot be that this great
nation has played its part in history ; it can
not be that our sun which arose with such
bright promise for the future, has already 'set
for ever: It must he the intention of the
overruling Deity that this hind, so long the
asylum of the oppressed, the refuge of civil
and religious liberty, shall again stand forth
in. bright relief, united, purified and chasten -
ad by our trial., as an example and encour--
agement for those who desire the pregress of
the human race. It is not gi,ven,ta our
weak intellects to Understand the stops of
ProVidence as they occur; we comprehethl
them only as We look baeli upon them in the
far-distant Past. Foi l it DO
unravel the seemingly
tangled skein of the
purposes of the. : are .4 - thigh
And 4tr.:isaohiug fUr.,our
all Maori:And:His own revealed word toks4.,
u that His - ways, although inscruisehie; are