The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1856-09-10
Joseph Holt, Esq. q.--Eloquent and
Patriotic Speech at Frederick
City. MARYLAND.

( The political campaign has not pro
duced as eloquent and brilliant a speecl
as that made by Joseph Holt, Esq, o
Louisville at Frederick City, Maryland
a few weeks since. From the man,
brilliant gems which it contains we quot,
| the following concluding passages. DIR
Holt said
Allow me to add, that upon these
questions, so delicate and so distractins
in their nature, the South has ever dep
reeated agitation. From her limos
| soul her yeagnings have been for peace
and that she might be allowed {" to si
under her own vine and fig tree" " anG
enjoy those blessings which the institu
tious of the country promise alike to all
Standing With unsandaled feet upon the
hallowed ground Of the Constitution,
and laying her hand upon is altar, she
calls upon the men of the North to re-
spect her position, to forbear their rude
onslaught, and press her not to the wall
amid that ever-riuging insolent cry OF
self righteousness, with which her ears
have been so long stunned. But while
we thus seek peace and entreat for it,
let no man in this contest fail in his du-
ty from rash and overweening couf-
doeoo IN -tho-=troagth- our govern
meut. 1t may Or it may not survive
the ordeal which is in preparation for it.
Thus much is certain, that when all is
at stake which can bring happiness with
in CT glory withQut, it would be worse
than folly, it would be guilt, to run the
hazards of the experiment SO long as it
can be avoided. True, your govern
ment has passed, and passed brilliantly
through the convulsions incident to for
eign war, but how many nations have
done the same and have sunk beneath
the first shock of domestic strife Free
dom forsakes with a shriek shrines Grim
soned with fratricidal blood. Sublime
indeed the wisdom and the patriotism
in which your institutions were founded,
and by which they have been so long
preserved but let it never be forgotten
that with all their boasted strength they
are but the work of human hands, and
that the highway of the past is whiten-
ed with the tombstones of Republics,
which amid the anguish Of civil commo-
tions, like Brutus of old, have inglori-
ously fallen on their own swords, leav-
ing the closing page of their history
daTkened by the night and horrors of
suicides death. If any man believes
that this Confederacy once surrendered
could ever be reconstructed, he las pom
dercd to little purpose the tragic story
of the past. Who has been able to rec
oncile the States of Italy and of Greece,
severed by feuds without remorse, and
wasted by wars in which victory itself
was but dishonor The great and the
good of those lands have been seen from
age to age, standing amid the graves of
the past, watching with streaming eyes
for the resurrection of that brotherly
love which the madness of other times
had entomed. They appear to US like
an unhappy maniac, who, after having
in paroxysm of insauity crushed to at
oms some magnificent vase, gorgeous in
hue and priceless in value, is seen in the
frst glimpses of returning reason, striv-
ing with tears to gather up and reunite
the glittering fragments, but striving,
alas, in vain
q The Union-it must and shall be
is sentiment which, utter
I'd by that lion of Democracy, the re-
nowned Andrew jackson, in moment
Of impending national calamity, curdled
the blood and palsied the hand of re-
oellion as it was extended to clutch the
sword -hilt. These words, glowing from
your transparencies, and, speaking from
your flags, should in this crisis kindle
lney with every throb of your Demo
,ratic hearts. Your faith is broad
enough in its sym pathies. as it is in its
VOWS of loyalty, to embrace the whole
If this great Confederaoy, which, in its
shelter and blessings, is proving to un-
numbered millions of the sons of toll far
more than {" the shadow of a great rock
n the weary pilgrimage of life. You
walk by the Pickering light of no sig
cen stars obscured and sicklied DER by
anaticism and treason, but upon your
pathway is poured the gushing efful-
,cnee of the entire national constella-
ion, undimmed and unmutilated. If
n the sunny days of prosperity and
this faith was dear to you,
low much more precious is it in this
hour of aggression and dis
raction, when the lie5htniDgs are fash
ug along the horizon and clouds of mis-
.ule and of boding are rolling up from
every quarter It is in such moment
hat pressing this faith to our hearts as
he mother presses her infant the closer