Southern sentinel. [volume] (Plaquemine, Parish of Iberville [La.]) 1848-1858, 1854-09-23
~ weapon surer yet,
And mighticr than the bayonet;
A weapon, that comes down as still
As snow-fakes fall upon the sod,

And executes a freeman's will,
As lightnings do the will of God"
East and West, and North and South--in the
chief marts md capitals of the Uuion, its stroke
has fallen swift and sure, and politicians and
parties, stripped Of every guage of accustomed
calculation, have only been sure of its presence
when they saw their petted candidates, and
schemes, rolling headless in the ditch of over.
whelming defeat. New Orleans, long at the
mercy ofinsolent, foreign-born brawlers, bears
witnesss So does Washington, as it will, des.
pite the executive guilIotine that flashes it's
knife madly aud in vain. So does St. Louis
should be put down-and Phiiadelphia--dese-
Grated too long by foreign.born mobs-and
Mobile, and Norfolk, and many a lesser place
We might name. Aud so, by aud BY. in our
own city and State, this silent scourge will
fall, and many a d%emagogue's back will wrishe
under the biting blow, and all true men will
gladly coufess that this is yet an American land,
and that Americans can and uiN rule ii, as they
ought ever to have done.
And far wider than municipalities and States,
the blow will be struck all over the Union, and
the next occupant of the White House chair,
will owe his e~levation-of which he must be
wor,hy-to invisible hands. Even now, while
no man can say Of it more than is said of the
wind, at goeth and comelh as it listeth," there
is fright and confusion in every political camp.
The master ~demasogues, the w~ilippers in, the
men who have been the leaders, the Simpsons
OF their hosts, grope stone blind in the midst OF
their temples, waiting to be buried when the
pillars shall be shaken by the coming scourge.
The tricky placemen feel their doom at hand.
They would trade to avert it, but they idle beat
the air in their search for the angel of the
scourge. Here he is, and there he is, they cry
but they find him not. One says the scourge
is against that party, and another that it is
against this; yet the only thing men know is
this:-that it is against all men, and all parties,
who have been false, or are likely-haying
the power-to be false to this Union, this Anne.
rican Republic.
1t any party may seem-as one perhaps |
does-to have most severely felt the scourse, |
it is because that party has most betrayed and
trampled on the principles that should accom-
pany its sacred name; because its possession of
that name-a pretentious cheat-has most
enabled it to barter the offices and interests of
the land to a foreign horde. No party could
have 80 sold a country, and raised up in its
midst a sedition against its most cherished
and ideas-nor can this one do it
longer, nor could it have done it, but for a
delusive name, and the easy temper, until tho.
roughly aroused, ofthe American people. The
game is now up! Neither coaxing nor threat.
ening can stay the impending blow, that is to
punish the shameless traders and traitors, native
or foreign, until every citizen shall be glad and
proud to say, Il, too, am an American"
The secret forces that WELD the silent scourge
understand their work. They aim at
The right mark. They strike no indiscriminate
but smite the jockies who have curried
The foreign horse (worse than the tabled
who have seduced and misled the
and for a time have played their game
Of place and plumber without check. These
are the heads to lop of: be they little or big,
be they representatives or executives. Its
preserved, a party organization avoided,
and eternal vigilance-the price Of liberty
on its front. and all men will yet bless
This scourge. It will purify the land. 1t will
bury all young or old f~oreignalities, and, pla.
the d~estiuies of the country in American
hands. at home and abroad, will make the name
tho American Republic honored and respect.
I'd throughout the world-which is not the
;ase now. We warn nobody, for we know
more than is open and visible, to all
who choose to see. But we reckon a warning
IS felt, and that it has struck deep in the right
and will strike deeper, until the joints
IF political schemers are made to rattle louder