The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1840-05-26
MISSOURI is CoMINGl


MISSOURI is COMING!
We gave in the Madisonan of Thursday last.
in letter from st. Louis, most lively and gra-
phic account Of the great gathering of the PEG
Pile al the great Log Cabin Raising on the 9th
instant near ST. Louis. We now publish the
eloquent address on the occasion, Of Charles ID
Drake, Esq, to the assembled multitude, as fol
lows:
Citizens of free america:
Let us rejoice at the advent of this suspicious
.sday! Let our hearts be gladdened that, in a
time when the glory OF our country was grow
ing dim, when our recollections Of her brilliant
history was becoming enieebled, and our
thoughts were straying away from the contem-
paton of her past greatness, the fire Of freedom
has been rekindled. and burns again in the hearts
of a noble and gallant people. Let us rejoice
that in the midst of a widespread and despe-
rate official prohigacy, when corrupt Government
struggles to seize on the very life-strings Of the
people, in order to drag them 10 their ruin /;
when every engine which official ingenuity can
devise is used to sustain official insoence and
usurpation when freedom Of opinion and ac-
lion is practically denied and destroyed by a
grasping and hitherto successful party at such
n time let us, indeed, rejoice with our whole
heats that on this ground, not long since re-
garded as the impregnable fortress Of arrogant
and audacous power, we can thus assemble in
thousands, and dedicate ourselves to the defence
of our cherished institutions from violence and
prostitution; the preservation Of our dearly pur
chased prerogatives, and the revival in our land
of the virtues of our fathers, and the plain sin
cere, and honest republicanism Of other and bet
ter days.
We come together not as drilled partizans who
dare not stay away not as blind applauders of
party men and measures of which we know
nothing not as duped and hoodwinked follow
ers of officous Office holders, who earn their
bread by pulling the wires and turning the
thumb-screw Of party; nor as the reckless train
bands of despotic Government, having no
idea of duty save that contained in the creed Of
cringing obedience to orders, and feeling no
courage hut that which superior numbers give !;
but we come from the hill and the valley, from
the field and the forest, from the river and the
land, from the town and the country, from the
city mansion aud the log cabin, treemen each
and freemen all !; fearing nothing, dreading no
thing, and hating in our lnmost souls every spe-
cies of tyranny, whether exercised over the
rights, the actions, the bodies, or the minds OF
men, We come to take fresh draught
from the fountain Of patriotism to give our me-
mories q holiday among the glowing reml-
niscences of past but uniorgotten greatness, and
to open afresh in our hearts the gushing springs
of love for our beloved and bleeding country.
We are united by common interests, common
hopes. and deep and unmerited injuries. Our
hearts are Joined into one, which beats with
struggling energy and gigantic violence to ac-
complish its holy object, the prostratlon OF a
corrupt and misruling Government, and the
erection in its stead of a fabric based on the
broad foundation of popular virtue, political
tolerance, perfect freedom of opinion and action
from official dictation, and the settlement OF
every delegated power by such salutary
limits and checks that it shall not overstep its
rightful bounds We come, in a word, as sol
ders in the great cause of human liberty; the
same that lighted up the fires of the revolution
that covered the old States Of the confederacy
with honor as undying and fadeless as the glori-
Gus Heaven which overlooked their struggle; that
ever, until few short years ago, dwelt undis-
turbed in the boundless plains Of our favored land,
but which, in those few years, has been hunted
down by the emissaries OF power till now,
taking refuge in the hearts Of The people, they
are aroused TO its preservation, and turn upon
its foes with heroic courage and resistless force.
The day is worthy of such an in-gathering OF
the friends of freedom. 1t is proud day Tor
every true-hearted American. II IS day which
stands marked with beams of glory on the page
of our country's history glory which the passing
away of time alone can dim, and from which no
lover Of his land, no admirer of the greatness OF
Seven and twenty years ago, at this very hour
there was progressing in the wilderness a series
of battles, in which the chivary of the Yves,
was engaged against a more numerous army o
British and Indians, headed by the infamous
Proctor, who in cruelty and barbarity equalled
If he did not exceed, his savage allies. On the
one side was this man, seeking TO ravage the
land--to destroy the homes of the hardy pio-
neers--to let loose on the inmates OF the log
cabins the dogs of war that followed in his train
a man who knew no feeling of mercy com
passion who delighted in the banquet of blood
and the revelry of carnage; who heard unmoved
the cries and petitions of victims slain in his
very presence; who, with the form and aspect
Of a man, possessed not one manly virtue, but
had expelled them all from his bosom, and sub
stituted there every characteristic of a demon.
On the other side at the head of devoted
band in whose veins coursed the best blood OF
the Young and gallant West, was man, moi
only in semblance, but in heart and soul; mar
whose whole life before and since, seems TO have
concentrated in the one thought OF serving his
country, when in her service, with an unwaver
ing fidelity and tireless assiduity; who had filled
and was destined afterwards to fill, posts oil thu
highest responsibility, and in them all acquitted
himself with honor; man whose courage u
the field was only surpassed by the private var
tues which clustered in his character; who hat
ever led his troops 10 victory and who, on tn
day we have met TO commemorate, was pluck
ing green laurels from the grasp of time, e
wreathe around his brow, there 10 flourish in un
diminished vigor; the mention of whose nam,
will call up "reminiscences of glory in the heart.
of many now present; whose history is that o
the West; who derives no splendor from her an