Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, South-Carolina) 1852-1852, 1852-06-25
AREVOLUTIONARY RELIC.

cently lOunu among tue papers VI md). JON
Jacob Schaefmyer, a deceased patriot of tn
Revolution. 1t is discourse delivered on tn
eve Of the battle of Brandywine, by Rev. Jacol
! Trout, to large portion of the American sol
diers, in presence of Gen. Washington, Gen
Wayne, and other officers of the army.
Revolutionary Sermon
"They that take the s,sord, shall perish by til
sUord."
Soldiers and Countrymen We have met th
evening, perhaps for the last time. We have
shared the toll of the march, the peril of the fight
and the dismay of the retreat alike, we have en-
dured the cold and hunger, and contumely O
the internal foe, and the courage of the foreign
oppressor. We have sat, night after night, be-
side the camp fire; we have together heard the
roll of the reveille. which called us to duty, OF
the tattoo, which gave the signal for the hardy
sleep of the soldier, with the earth for his bed
ano the knapsack for his pillow.
And now, soldiers and brethren, we have met
in the peaceful valley on the eve of battle while
the sunlight is lying away beyond yonder heights,
the sunlight that will glimmer tomorrow morn
on scenes of blood. We have met, amid the
whitening tents of our encampment; in the time
Of terror and gloom have we gathered together
God grant that it may not be the last time.
1t is solemn moment. Brethren, does not
the solemn voice of nature seem to echo the
syrpathics of the hour! The flag of our coun-
try droops heavily from yonder statf-the breeze
has died away along the green plain of Chadds
Ford-the plain heights of the Brandywine arise
gloomiy and grand beyond the water of yonder
stream, all nature holds pause of solemn silence,
on the eve of the uproar and bloodshed and
strife of tomorrow.
"They that take the sword shall perish by
the sword"
And have they not taken the sword Let
the desolated plain, the blood sodden valley, the
burned farmhouse blacken in the sun, the sacked
village and the rayaged sgt town, answer-le! the
along the fields of his homestead answer-let
the starving mother with her babe clingng to
the withered breast that can afford no susie
nance, let her answer with the death rattle min
Cling with the murmuring tones that marked the
last struggle of her life; let the dying mother
and her babe answer.
Now, God Of mercy, behold the change
Under the shadow of pretext, under the sancti
ty of the name of God, invoking the Redeemer
to their aid, do these foreign hirelings slay our
people! They throng our towns-they darken
our pains-and now they encompass our posts
on the lonely plain Of Chadd's Ford.
+ "Thev that take the sword, shall perish by
the sword"
Brethren think me not unworthy Of belief when
I tell YOU the doom of the British is near. Think
me not vain when l tell you that beyond the
cloud that now enshrouds us, | see gathering
thick and fast, the darker cloud and blacker storm
of Divine retribution.
They may conquer us tomorrow. Might and
wrong prevail, and we may be driven from the
field but the hour of Gods own vengeance will
come
Av, if in the vast solitude Of eternal space
if in the heart of the boundless universe, there
throbs the being of an awful God, quick to avenge
and sure to punish guilt, then will the man
George Brunswick, called King, feel in bis heart
and brain the vengeance of the eternal Jehovah
A blight will be upon his life-a withered brain
and an aecursed intellect; a blight will be upon
his people and onhshildren. Great God, how
dread the punishment
A crowded populace, peopling the dense towns
| where the man of money thrives, while the la
borer starves want striding among the people
in all its forms of terror an ignorant and God
defying priesthood, chuckling over the mlsenes
of millions, a proud and mercilesss nobility
adding wrong and heaping insult upon robbery
and fraud royalty corrupt to the heart, anc
aristocracy rotten to the very core; c1me ano
want linked hand in hand, and tempting mer
to deeds Of woe and death these are par
of the doom and retrbution that will come upor
the English throne and the English people
Soldiers-I look around upon your familiar
faces with strange interest. Tomorrow morn
ing we will go forth to batte-for need l tel
YOU that your unworthy minister will march Will
YOU. invoking Gods aid in the 6ght-we vii
march forth to battle! Need l exhort you t.
fight the good fight, to fight for your homesteads
for your wives and children
NV friends-I might urge you to fight by tn
CALLING memories of British wrongs.-Walton-
/ might tell you of your father, butchered in tn
silence of the night on the plains of Trenton
might picture his gray hairs dabbled in blood
| might wiring his death shrek in your ears
Shelmire-I might tell you of butchered moth
er, and sister outraged; the lowly farm house
the night assault, the roof in flames, the shout
of the troopers as they dispatched 'helr victim:
the cries for mercy and the pleadlngs OF lnnc
ccnce for pity. might paint this all again i
the vivid colors of terrible reality, if | though
your courage needed such wild excitement.
But know YOU are strong in the might {
I The Lord You will march forth to battle O