Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1856-09-12
A WORD OF WARNING.

1t has not been our habit, in the ut
most excitement of fierce party conflicts,
to proclaim, either for the sake of at
tracing attention, or of stimulating our
friends to more than ordinary efforts.
that great crisis was at hand. 1t is
neither honest nor wise to sound alarms
that are false or of doubtful import.
The mere suspicion of danger will not
justify this. The moral obligation upon
every actor in public life forbids it, and
should prevent it. The mere enthusiast,
however, sees sights of frightful portent,
which men of calmer nature cannot per-
ceive. 1t is always, therefore, just and
liberal to concede something to that pc
culiar temperament of the human mind
where it exists, because it units it to
repel such influences, and makes it sub
ject to the continued apprehension of the
worst of evils. With these views, we
could very naturally pardon the alarms
which were early sounded as to the safety
of the Union; and we were led to hope
that much of all that was expressed from
many quarters of the country as to the
coming danger, long before, and up to
the very day Of the meeting of Congress
in December, was the offspring of fear,
and the exaggeration of heated imag-
nation. 1t is true that we believed we
saw then the probable growth of success
sive events which might in their progress
produce great, perhaps extraordinary,
results. But we felt no serious alarm.
If we did not, however, underrate the
evils which were present, we took no
sufficient account of the euI men who
'oere at acork. The criminal magnitude
Of the mischiefs to which their conduct
tended seemed to us in itself to be enough
to deter them from attempting to pre-
cipitate final catastrophe. We were
mistaken. Bad as we thought them to
be, they have proved to be worse. They
have at length revived by their acts the
history Of every traitor who has cunningly
plotted the ruin of his country; and we
are compelled solemnly to declare to the
whole people, to the North and the South,
that they have brought upon us great
and alarming crisis. We appeal to every
man in the land, who loves our institu-
tons, who desires the perpetuation of
our liberties, to come up to the contest
with determined purpose to rescue the
Constitution and save The Union. There
is not one hour TO be lost. Let every
patriot be up and doing. Let him advise
his neighbors, stir up his friends, and
Jet all do as our ancestors did in the rev.
olution--unite as a band Of brothers. -
In other days the North and the South
stood together. To all our friends of
the far East we would say, your glorious
battle of Bunker's Hill went to the heart
OF every man, and when your troubles
we're greatest. the South rallied with you
on the heights of Boston, and their eyes
saw what you saw, and their hearts felt
what you felt, when the enemy evacu-
ated the city Of that Faneuil Hall which
had been consecrated in the affections of
every American. Will you not now
rally with us TO preserve what we won in
that confiict-the Union Of the States
To the old State Of New York, then
not the empire, we would recall the day
when, led by Washington, the same
South stood shoulder to shoulder upon
her soil with her own devoted patriots
Shall the glory of those days be sullied ?
Shall our flag of the Union, the work of
that brotherhood, kiss the dust of humil-
iatlon : We hear that you are fighting
calamity for the good national cause. -
Go on in your counsel The fortunes
and the greatness Of the republic, the
Union, and your own unexampled pros
perlty, rest upon your noble efforts. Let
no man falter, and victory win be GER
tain. We say TO New Jersey, the land
Of the gallant blues-of the Ogdens and
the Bloomfelds, and Of Witherspoon-