The republic., 1851-07-16
The TRAITORS Doom.


St. Louis, Missouri, on the 4th of July instant
on the occasion of opening the Pacific Railroad,
used the following eloquent language:
.We need not dwell upon that darkest period Of
our history, the interval between the Declaration
of Independence and the establishment of the Fed
cral Constitution. Collapsed after the excitement
of the Revolution, exhausted by the efforts of a
seven years. war, without trade without manu-
factures, without the prestige of name among
nations, and the States bound together only by the
feeble ties OF the Articles Of Confederation, our
try stood in her utmost peril. The kings of
Europe looked on with hope and expectation of
seeing the failure of our republican experiment
The wisest Of our countrymen at their wits
end, and the spiris of the brnvest Of our patriots
sunk within them. But tho same good providence
of God, which had shielded our fathers from the
perls of the Revolution, was still over them. Hope
was revived, courage terminated, and wisdom
and virtue, and strength were given to states
men, and they enabled TO produce the glo-
rious Constitution under which we live.
"It was made, as the preamble declares, In order
to form more perfect Union, to establish iustice,
ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the COM
mon defence, promote the general welfare, and
secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and
prosperity And has it not accomplished, to the
letter, all its grand desigus' Never was nation
blessed with all the elements of prosperity, and
all the means of honest and virtuous power. Ind
vidual comfort and national glory are not only
within our reach, but are actually attained. Our
territory, stretching the breadth of the con-
tinent. is not only enough for and posterity
but enough, also, to supply plentiful and happy
homes to the landless and houseless millions of re-
dundant Europe. Our nation, though yet green
DI,y,x-, l.
nations of the earth Our flag floats with honor in
every port. Our commerce whitens every sea, and
the name of our country is published in thunder
around the globe. And all these blessings are the
fruits of that glorious Constitution.
n.Hence, of her sacred Charter proud,
With ev'ry earthly good endow'd,
O'er land and sea unfurPd
Columbia waves her standard wide
Hence seas her freightcd navies ride,
O'er rivera, lakes, and oceans tide,
The wonder of the word
''It is hard to conceive of an American citizen
striving to overthrow that Constitution, and plot
ting to dismember that great and growing nation
And yet the unwilling mind is forced to the con-
cusion that our country has q few such unnatural
and parricidal sons. Men, soured by dsappoint-
ment, perverted by false ideas of sectional inter
ests, and blinded to truth and reason by the mad
ness of their own lnwless ambition. Men whose
morals do not restrain them from tn king the oath
Of allegiance, while they plotting treason
whose pride cannot deter them from dishonoring
their fathers; and whose patriotism is not strong
enough to prevent them from denouncing and
desecrating all that history has recorded as great
and good in the worthless of the Revolution. Men
who, for the qualification of their own bad pas
sions, would renounce all the blessings we now
enjoy, destroy the worlds last hope, and tear
their country to pieces, for the sake of ruling one
Of its lacerated fragments.
"But, thanks be to God, they are poweress for
such mighty mischief There is, pervadng the
whole mass Of our people, deep-seated, heartfelt
loyalty to our institutions. Whenever real danger
shall present ITSELF millions of freemen will rally
to the rescue and drive back crush the foe whe-
ther foreign or domestic. Before one line of the
Constitution shall be erased one stone removed
from the Capitol, by treacherous conspiracy hos
tile violence, thousands and tens of thousands of
loyal freemen will die in its defence
"But if, in the wrath of Heaven, some ambitious
leader should be allowed to accomplish the awful
ruin, his name would 60 down TO posterity black
cned monument of parricidal crime. Living, he
would have to bear the exccrations of the wise and
good throughout all christendom; and in his own
desoated land
"sMads and matrons on his name
Would call down wretchedness and shame,
And infamy and woe
Woe to the traitor-woe" "