The mountain sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1844-1853, 1853-06-09

up there upon the fortress of ChepuItepec. and
SO helped to clear out new field for that adyen-
turous activity, the spread of which neither the
forest, nor the swamp, nor the mountain nor
the river nor yet the covenants and intripues
| the contrivances and conspiracies of the crown
ed Families down there in Europe, nor their al
| hes here or elsewhere can hamper divert. nor
| for an hour withstand
But is 1T just, considerate, delicate ofme to
put this question, when hardly day passes
withouta comrade fallingin those crippled ranks.
| whose wounds, not less eloquent than those for
! which the friend of Caesar pleaded cry out to
you not for vengeance, but for love? That YOU
could be insensible to this fatality-that YOU
could thus behold one of the pillars of the State
decay, and with its laureIled capital crumbIe to
the dust, until nothing but the pedestal was left
standing beside that stream of business. caietv.
and wealth, which threatens to efface this the
latest record of your worth-that you could he
insensib!e to fatality so striking, it would be
most uhgraclous IN me for q moment to i'm
ply.
You have not forgotten Washington. nor War
ren, nor Montgomery, nor Jackson That scene
upon Breeds iIill that off fort Moultrie: that
upon the Delaware; that upon the snow-piled
bastons OF Quebec; that at the Bayou Bienven-
ue, "hefe tne Enghsh columns were swamped
before the fire which opened upon them from
the cotton bales of Lousiana-those scenes are
no less visible to the memory of the republic.
than TO the eye of the stranger are those paint
lngs, which, in such noble proportions, decora-
ted the halls of Congress.
Which being so, you will not forget the men
who, commissioned non commissioned with
or without epaulettes, in the corn fields and
marshes at Los Portales, and at the tower of
Nueva Rancho, and along the burning rocks.
and through the woods and ravines that lay be-
tween them and their golden prize gave proof
that the spirit which broke the sword in the
hands OF Burgoyne and Cornwalls, was not laid
to rest in the grave that overlooks the Potomac
and passing which, by night or day. no craft
fails to strike the minute bel-but that it walks
the earth and shall be with the republic all days.
even to the end of time.
Would that it were my fortune to speak thus
in the land of my fathers home, for men who,
like those before me, wore scars in evidence of
their courage, and the blood poured out by them
that so their country might be saved, and all the
effaced
But since this privilege is denied me,-since
the foreign sentinel still keeps watch upon her
wall, and the flag, wet with the blood of Fitz-
gerald, Wolfe Tone and Emmett, lies buried in
the ivy of Bodenstown churchyard and no IA
voring breeze lifts the dropping folds,-then
glad am 1 to plead for those, who, to the broth
ers Of my native land, are next akin and whose
blood with ours, in thousand channels, is in
separately mingled.
And since, also, it is denied me to kiss the
flag wet with the blood of those young mobiles.
the Shadrach, Meschach, and Abeinego of
freedom, then let me embrace this, the sym
Dol of that citizenship, which, in the words ut
tered on the steps of the Capitol, on the morn
ing of the 4th of March, eFShall be an involable
panoply for American rights, and invested with
which the poorest laborer shall stand unabashed
even in the presence of kings
Soldiers of Cerro Gordoi Soldiers of Contreras
and Churubusco Far from your homes-from
the Hudson to Lake Tezuco-you have borne this
hag with honor. Romaine carried it in the left
I w -jrrhf Shatt 4
with it only when death struck it from his grasp
Lake seized it, and, waving it, was shot down
And then another, and then another, until YOU
struck it into the captured field From tn e
stormiest straits you have brought it back unin-
JuTed, save by those rents which have rendered
it sacred relic, and it is due to you that be-
meath 1T you should nurse your failing strength
You should enjoy that peace which, in the words
of the sacred book, is ''ike a clear heat upon
herbs and cloud of dew in the heat of the har-
yest"-and so spend serenely the remainder of
the days spared to you in the great storm that
swept the base and summit of the Sierra Ma
Dire.
May that flag never fail to find less eager
champions than you have been, to shield it from
disgrace, and bear it like charmed robe un-
hurt through the flames of war. May that flag
never lose one star; but, as the Old Thirteen
have multiplied in time, may others, no less
brilliant, he added thereto and may the con-
stelation which first shone out through the tenn
pest ana the IShtnlnGS ana has now become flx-
ed in the blue eXpanse of peace, on every sea,
be seen; and may the nations journeyng like
ale Kings of old, to nobler worship, be led to
new faith aud destiny by the light it gives =
May it mount to where the Amazon leaps forth
from its cradle in the Andes may it be seen
upon the rivers that wash the hidden treasures
ofJapan; and, in the effulgence which it sheds,
side by side with the ruder structures of your
making, may the graces of life spring up; may
literature and the arts flourish; may the canvass
become ineffaceably impressed with the great
conceptions of your sons; and may the chisel
the fame of Phidas and Canova, as we have seen
in her nakedness and chains, and later still
unveiling that famous production which fronts
the White House, in which the features of nature
are not only copied, but the laws of nature, by
the dumb charger are obeyed!
To this republic-renouncing all foreign pow
ers and potentates-have / taken the oath of
allegiance; and in the new sphere and citizen
ship which is opened to me here, do / trust to
prove the sincerity with which that oath was
taken and my deep sense of the duties which,
by that act, devolve upon me.
Faithful to the principles which this COM
munity is framed faithful to the laws on which
it proceeds and operates; faithful to the insh-
tutons which distribute the vitality whilst they
secure the unity of the whole; faithful, above
all, to that noble system of public schools, which,
in the illumination of the public mind, ensures
the perpetuity of a condition of government and
society, based upon intelligence and good sense,
qualifying, in each succeeding generation, the