The weekly Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1861, 1856-08-28
aflistelLalltous.
Letter of Rufus Cho;aie.

We publish in full to-day the eloquent
and mastery letter of Rufus Choate, oI
Massachusetts, whicltsvAs recently read to
q Wing meeting in WaterviIe, Maine.
BosroN, Saturday, August 9, 1856.
Gent!emeu-Upon my return last evening
uftcr short absence from the city, l found
your letter of the 30th ult., inviting me 10
take part III the proceedings Of the Wings
of Maine, assembled in mass meeting.
appreciate most highly the honor and
kindness of the invitation. and should have
had true pleasure in accepting it, The
Wings of Maine composed at all times SC
importsut a division of the great national
party, which under that name, with or with.
out official power, as responsible admins.
tration or as only an organized opinion, has
done so much for our country-our whole
country-and your responsibilities at this
moment are so vast and peculiar, that &C.
knowledge an anxiety TO see-not wait to
hear-with what noble bearing you NEE,
the demands of the time. If the tried le
gions, to whom it is committed to guard the
frontier OF the Union, falter now, who, any.
where, can be trusted!
My engagements, however, and the neces
sity or expediency of abstaning from all
speech requiring much effort, will prevent
my being with you. And yet, invited to
share in your counsels, and grateful for such
distinction, cannot wholly decline to de-
clare my opinions on one Of the duties oI
the Wings in what you will describe as
s'the present crisis in the political offars oi
the country" cannot now and need moi
pause 10 elaborate or defend them. What ]
think, and what | have decided to do, per.
nit me in the bri iefest and p'ainest expires
sion to tell you.
The first duty, then, of Wings, not mere
ly as patriots and as citzens-but as Wings
and because we are Wings, is to unite with
some organization OF our countrymen to de-
feat and dissolve the new geographical par
ty, calling itself Republican. This is oul
first duty. 1t would more exactly express
my opinion to say, that at this moment it il
our only duty. Certainly, at least, it com
prehends or suspends all others; and in my
Judgment, the question for-each and every
one of us is, not whether this candidate OF
that candidate would be our first choice
not whether there is some good talk in the
worst platform and some bad talk in the
best platform; not whether this mans am
bition or that mans servility, or boldness
or fanaticism, or violence is responsible fol
putting the wild waters in this uproar; bu
Just this-by what vote can do most tt
prevent the madness Of the times from work
ing its maddest act-thc very ecstacy of it
madness-the permanent formation and the
actual present triumph of a party which
knows one half of America only to hate ant
dread it; from whose unconsecrated and rev
olutionary banner fifteen stars are erased oil
have fallen; in whose national anthem the
old and endeared airs Of the Eutaw Springs
and the Kings Mountain, and Yorktown
and those later, of New Orleans, and Bue
ma Vista, and Chepultepec, breathe no more
To this duty, to this question, all Others
{ seem to stand for the present postponed ant
secondary. a-7 a'f
And Why's Because, according to oul
creed, it is only the united America which
can peacefully, gradually, safely, improve
islift up and bless with oil social and persona
I and civil blessings all the races and all thu
!, conditions which compose our vast and vari
| GUS family; it is such an America ,on!
whose arm can guard our fog, develop on