Republican vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1857, 1849-03-26


1777--united las such ill 17S7--co-operating
with you as such in the administration of our
common country from the declaration of indie
pendence to the present hour, and SO confedera-
ted, united, and cooperating with you with all
the local rights and institutions which are OBJ
jected to US now-are you agreed that what we
were andare, land ought TO be, and must be, we
shall always continue to be, your equals-in-
violably your equals still! Are you agreed 10
this! If so, then in fine sight Of Heaven and
OF man; We shall renew this day a compact, not
only OF peace, grateful as that alone would be
but compact-of immortality for our country.
Asthe powers of this Government. and, there
FORE to great extent the dc sinies of this corn-
try mrusted officially to our hands, it is our
duty to give all vigilance of car and eve and
thoueht-to every thing that can affect them
1t is forsus, then, to be warned by that voice
that comes from all the records of all the past
and comes to admonish US, that lest republics
are lost forever; that though their spirit never
dies, but abides upon tine earth to enighten, 10
improve; and to bless it, yet thatit neverrevives
to regenerate themselves. Look. at the reptile
and the tiger, as they have dwclt for ages in the
habitatiors of the1ioly City look at despotisln,
worse than either, as it has nestled and brooded
with its raven wing uTon the very bosom of
buried republics, and be warned of that mysteri-
Gus doom, that evident ordination from on HIGH,
which connects, in eternal fellowship, the pri-
vileges with the punishments of nations, and
never allots the highest blessings hut side by-sde
with the heaviest woes. Let US be warned by
this fated conjunction to Tut away all passion,
and prejudice. and mathematician
but latent parricide-frcm amongst lis, to gath
er around and press to the side of cur country:
to heal the chafings and wounds of her spirit
by the unity and telyor OF CIR own to be ready
ourselves to sacriticesand suffer- if need be, that
she may never sorrow or perish and if there is
cuse in all our borders, let it abide for the O.
verw helming of him who cometh not up in the
hour of trouble to succor TO defend, and to save
yes, for the Overwhelming Of him and such as
him for where, under Providence. but upon the
heart-the constant and devoted heart-where
but uron the patriotism and the virtue of 'ner
sons is the country to rely in the moment OF adj
versity, or at any time to rely against the per-
version OF her own mighty elements of good in
to mighty engines of evil!
Give us but a part of that devotion which glow
ed in the heart Of the younger Pitt. and ofour own
/ elder Adams, who in the midst of their agonies,
forgot not the countries they had lived for, but
mingled with the spasms of their dying hour a
last and imploring appeal 10 theParent of all Mer
ces that he would remember, in eternal blessings,
the land Of their birth give us their DEVOTION
give us that of the young enthusiast Paris, who,
listening to Mirabeau in one of his surprising vim
dications of human rights, and seeing him fall
from his stand, dying, as physician proclaimed
for the want of blood, rushed to the spot, and as
he bent over the expiring man. barred his arm for
the lancet, and cried again and again, with i'm
FASHIONED voce-s'Here, take it--take it-oh
| take it from ME let me die, So that Mrabean
| and the liberties of my country may not persh!"
Give us something only of such spirit as this
something only of such love of country, and we
are safe, forever safe: the troubles which shadow
over us and Cypress us now, will pass away as a
summer cloud. No measure ofunallowable wrong
no measure Of unconquerabe disagreement, will
be pressed uponHs here. The fatal element of all
our discord will be taken from amongst us. Let
gentlemen be entreated to remove it, as the one
only and solitary obstacle to our perfect peace
Let them be adjured by the veal of this and of
coming ages-by cur own and our children's
good--by all that we love or that we look for in
the progress and the glories of our land to leave
the entire subject Of slavery, with every account
ability it may impose, every remedy it may
qure, every accumulation of difficulty or Of press.
nre it ACKNOWLEDGMENT all to the interest, to
the wisdom, and TO the conscience of those upon
whom the providence ofGod and the; Constitution
of their country have cast it Leave it to them,
7aoac and forerer, and stop, whilst it is yet posi-
bic to stop, the furious and blind Roadway of that
wild and mad philanthropy, which is lighting up
for the Nation itself the fires of the stake, and
which is rushing on, stride after stride, 10 an in
testine struggle that may bury us all under a
harder, and wickeder, and more incurable slavery
than any it would extinguish.
Nothing but aggravaton of heart and of lot have
been brought upon the poor slave by the rash and
unwarranted efflrts which have been put forth to
reeveshim. They have broken down the foot
ing lie had reached, crushed the sympathies he
had wen, embarrassed and accused the fortunes
they were intended to control. The generous and
elesaing influence Of our free institutions was re-
taxing his bondage, LETTERING his condition. lifting
up his character, turning upon him the public anx
eties and the public counsels, as fit and deserv-
ing object ofprovident-and public provision-was
changing, at all points, the aspects of his fate
when the spirit utsAboliionism, political and ia
natic, came from abroad to scourge him with de-
mon visitation, to wrench him from the arms If
his only true and only capable benefactors, to
throw him back again upon the earth, thousand
fold more suspected separate, and forlorn than
ever; nvetting upon him every fetter it would
loosen, poisoning every blessing it would bestow;
and SO filling his whole ease with elements Of
hopelessness, explosion; and evil, that the heart
shudders whilst itweeps to look upon it. asNhat
are they who cherish and direct this spirit
Friends Of the slave? They areaobbing him Of
every vestige Of liberty he has left. Friends of
/ Hulhaii'y Hoy die S.dhiiS IL, IutHleSSly StaK-
ing 1t, upon the issues of massacre and convulsion
Friends Of the country? They are rapidly be-
coming its iron homicides, cleaving down its Con
stituton with murderous arm, and tearing it limb
from limb.
Should itever happen, as the result of any in
| terfelence and action here, that some dnsurgent
ebullition ofsthe slave will break out amongst us,
that the blood of our people will be made to stream
in our dwellings, and eoze up from the bosom Of
the soil that feeds us, it will cry aloud, like thai,
Of Abel, for vengeance against the brothers. hand
that shed it; and vengeance wonld behad, though
every drop that was left should be poured out in
one anguished aad dying effort to obtain it. Moth
ing but Heaven could stop people so dashed up
to phrenzy by rage and suffering and wrong from
sending back upon the firesides and the fields of
the guilty that visitation of calamity and death
which had first been sent to desolate their own.
Space, oh! spare us the curse Of broken broth.
erhood-of a ruined, ruined, ruined country, Re