Southern shield., 1850-09-21

DO SHel l0toN "diOuS tL6 most SdCIeu lr6dS- ures of our renown.
 Next, we see Lewis Cass, a man of large civil and diplomatic experience, of ripe scholarship, Of spotless private character, throwing far behind him the paltry and Perishable honors of the partisan, and striking withh h bold, brave, true and patri- otic hand forthe glory and perpetuation of the Union. Shall we stand by these honor ed names? Or shall we cease to worship at the noble shrines of our country's gen jus? Shall We continue 10 reverence our old household dejties, or shall we pull them down and set up n their stead the strange Gods whose divinity comes to US in such ia questionable shape" Is Liberty so cheap, is the organization of government of such easy and every day construction, that we can afford todscard dall our present blessings, blot out every glorious prospect of the tu- ture, and stand with unmoved hearts, and unappaIled eyes, upon the brink of political dissolution?
 "A thousand years scarce serve to form a State;
 An hour may lay 1t in the dust.'
 Where has such a government ever be- fore existed? In vain do you stand among the crumbling monuments of Greece and Rome and seek its parallel. The Ancients had free cities, not free nations. Without written constitution and a representative system, such as ours, they made no nearer approaches 10 that Liberty which regulates large States. than did the navigator, without the ma1iner's compass, to that commerce which now measures the waters of the globe
 And what, other than the idle phantoms of a visionary brain, have all the schemes of modern liberty proved 10 be. Look at France in l780. With what splendor did herreyolutionary sun break upon the world! Even the master minds of England were beWildered and captivated by the rapidity of her march to freedom. And yet how long was it before the greatest man of his age said of her "Out of the tomb of the murdered monarchy of France has arisen a monster more terrible than ever appalled, the imagination of man."O Atheism, li- centiousness, disco1d, sacrilege, judicial murder, assassination, Iet loose the fures Of Hell, and celebrated their internal orgies over the broken altars of Love, Law and Religion. The sun was darkened with blood, the earth rolled and staggered be- meath the shock, until anarcy fled 10 the embrace of military despotism. And what now is ;he condition of France, after all her violent struggles and sacrifices in the pursuit of a free and enlightened system of power? What is her present government but a sickIy, unstable, and revolting despo- tism, masked under the deceiGul forms of freedom? Let us, then, hold on to our Re. public as it is, to our Union as it is, to our destiny as it is. Where shall we find such a spectacle of physical resource, of moral power, of Christian hope, of intellectual energy and actiyity-of rapid and wonder ful human adyancement-as has been ex- hibited, and is now exhibiting under our Federative policy? This Union this Un- ionl-who can count it's cost, who can es- innate it's value? All that we are, all that we hope for, all that the world, in its holiest vision of freedom ever dreamed of, is bound up in that single word. Let us not deceive ourselves with the vain belief that any form, or substance, or spirit of our institu- tions can survive the wreck of our national fabric. Quench that sun, and where shall we find the PJomethean spark that can re- kindle his glory?
 Strike downyour banner, scatterits stars, array State against State, Sovereignty against Sovereignty, and what multiplied sources of discord would spring up among thirty antagonist powers, each seeking its own aggrandizement, inviting foreign in- trgue, courting foreign favor, nursing in its own bosom locust brood of tactlous as prants, eager and panting for the prizes which float upon the tide of popular com motionl Ambition, jealousy, ignorance, fanaticism, corruption would find thousand causes of strife where one now exists.
 The mind shrinks with horror from the of the scene which awaits the knell of our Union. But the evil does not end with anarchy, bloodshed, fraternal hate, parricidal crime, the loss of liberty of civil and social security. It arrests the majestic stride of the human intellect; it rolls back the unfetterred energies of the soul upon itself; it oyerwhelms with dark ness and gloom the brightest vision of men, tai progress and redemption that ever broke upon the fancy of man. In such an event, in vain has the rapt eye of the prophetic bard hailed the progress of liberty amongI the nations of the earth!-
 "l saw the expecting regions stand,
 To catch the coming flame in turn;
 saw from ready hand to hand,
 The bright but struggling glory burn;
 And each, as she received the Hame
 Lighted her altar with its ray;
 Then, smiling, to the next who came
 Speeded it on it's sparkling way"
 The spirit-stirring cry from hundred battle fields, the consecrated Past, the blood of martvred patriots, the worlds throngingI generations call upon us to defend the great cause of constitutional freedom. The au-
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