Gallipolis journal. [volume] (Gallipolis, Ohio) 1837-1919, 1855-01-18
HEROIsM.

Yates the imagination, and takes with
the popular heart. But what is hero
ism? What is it in its nobIest, mos
divine, most pure exercise? The king
of the earth would make their subject
believe it is physical. military daring
So they have employed their bards /,
sing and historians to record such ex
ploits, and perpetuated the memor,
thereof in marble and oil. So if a MAJ
killed one man, it might indeed be mur
der; but when he had killed million
he was hero.
Peace. we are told, is unheroic; il i,
stagnsnt, tame, corrupting. GA subtl,
poison" in the language Of Mr.. Allison
"debases the public mind at such !
time. Peace exhibits, indeed. an en-.
chanting prospect; but beneath that
smiling surface are to be found the
rankest and most dangerous passions OF
the human heart" The commissions OF
war shake up and renovate this state OF
things; war is sort of subsoil blowing,
it is the refner's fire and fuller's soap;
it is the thunderstorm that settles the
dust, and clears the sultriness of hot
day..
l am obliged to say there is more
heroism, more gallant daring, more
and manhness, in one year
of peace, than in whole ages of war
l mean that there is more strict, un-
doubted, legitimate heroism in our
and railroad enterprises, in
our cotton mills and saw mills, in our
scythe factories and starch-factories, in
our securing the ocean for whales, and
excavating the earth for its ores, and
similar things, than in the battles of a
century. There was more heroism in
John Jacob Astor's attempt to found a
colony in Oregon in 1919, than in the
war that broke it up; more in De Witt
who about the same time
started the project of the Erie Canal,
than in the same war that broke that
up; more in Whitney who would give
US a railroad to the Pacific; more
graphing with difficulties, more forti-
tude in peril, more GOODNESS in the midst
Of assault, than in Leonidas or Odin.-
mean at least to say, that the greatest
qualities of the human mind which, it
may be, war sometimes developes, ex-
sts in full force in peace.
There is need of heroes at the pres
snt moment. America has need of
hem, and the kingdom of God has
need of them; heroes, not of brute
force but of ideas; not of waste and
ruin, but of reconstruction; not of
carnage and rapine, but of virtuous ac-
ton. The old race of heroes is becom-
ing extinct, and new one is rising;-
Did notions of strife and aggrandizement
are supplanted by new ones of peace
and prosperity; outward excitement and
passion yield to inward enterprise and
want not heroes in epau-
etts, but in pepper and salt; not those
of the sword, but of the plough. the
Dom and the anvil. We want heroes
,f the river and the forest, of the field
md the ocean, of the pulpit and the
orum, of the ballot-box and the Sen
ste-chamber.
Hang up the old musket and the ket-
le-drum. The lightnings of heaven are
Irming for US; and recruits from the
mpalpable air, on the pathway of the
elegraph, are ready to run round the
world in behalf of the great cause of
liberty and virtue. Steam, with all its
,onderous agencies, comes up from the
ouDtains of water, and asks to be en-
isted for God and the right; The
'ress, like the rising sun, waits to ir-
adiate the brightness of our thought,
he gladness of our love, the wonders
# our genius.
Hang up the musket and the kettle,
rum. Take up the spade and the drill,
nd the mountains fly away at your ap-
roach, the vallies are filed up, and
way, highway is made for our God
"a railway is made for our wives and
hildren, and our mothers and fathers,
ur brothers and sisters, the world
ver.
In ancient times, the French had
anner, called the Ori1amme, or Golden
lame, which was used only on august
ccasions, and when the Christians
rent to war with the In6dels. It was
great banner, wrought Of silk and
.arnished with gold, and bearing in its
entire a white cross; and when it was
Infurled to the breeze, it glistened like
he auroral lights.
The sacred Orifiamme Of America,
} ye young men, unfurl! the banner of
'rogress, the banner of universal bro
herhoodl golden flaming banner, a
Ehite cross banner, a banner Of beauty
nd delight unfurl it to the admiration
f all people, gather your force around
!, carry it at the. head of your ranks;
% forth under it to the conquests of
in and error, vice and iniquity, oppres-
ion and injustice; let it stream above
our civil professions, let its golden
ght glesm upon your homes and your
elds; plant it upon the top Of Amer
an destiny; and the worlds hope; let
catch the eye of posterity; let il greet
be heavens, let it bless the earth.
Be heroes, and. if need be. martyrs
nder it, the Orifiamme, the Golden
tanner. the White cross banner, nail