M'arthur Democrat. (McArthur, Vinton County, Ohio) 1853-1865, 1859-12-29

nation. (Applause) But | shal b,
told perhaps that ell this is imaginary
that the alarm at THE South is llcti
tious, or rather q groundless panic, ,fur
which there is no substantial cause--
fit subject for ridicule rather than SO
rious anxiety. But see 10 signs ol
panic in Virginia, except Tor Il few
hours at Harper's Ferry, when in the
confusion Of the first surprise and il
profound Ignorance OF the extent o.
the danger, the community was for q
short time paralyzed. lam nor sur,
that 4 town of four or five hundred
families in this region, invaded at mid
night by resolute band OF twepty J
men, entering the houses of inhHeu
tial citizens, and hurrying them from
their beds to a stronghold previously
occupied, and there holding them as
hOstages--I am not sure, sir, that an
equal punic would not be created til
tho cxtcut of the danger was mcasur,
ed, Besides, sir Il the panic had
been much more extensive than It was
the pdnics OF great and grave comnu.
mites are no tniies. Burke said hl
could not frame an indictment against
4 Il whole people; it seems to me equally
in bad taste to try to point Il snrer at
a State like Virginia The French
are reputcd gallant and warIike peo.
pie; but the letters from the late seat
Of war tell us, that even after the great
victory at SollerinO, handful OF Aus
trians, struggling into n village, put Il
corps of tue French army-thousanas
stropg-to flight A hundred and fiji.
ty men overturned the French mon.
archy, on tho occasion to which have
already alluded, in 1913. When the
circumstances OF the case are taken IN.
tC consideration suspect it will be
agreed that any other community in
tho country similarly situated would
have been affected in the same way
(Applause.) A conflict Of sach IN
unprecedented character, in which
twelve ,r fourteen persons on the two
sides are shot down in the course Of Il
few hours, appears to me an event at
which levity ought to stand rebuked,
aud solemn chill to fall upon every
right thinking man! fear sir, from
tho tone Of some OF the public journals,
that we baye not made tins case our
own. Suppose party OF desperate,
misguided men, under resolved and
fearless leader, had been organized in
Virginia to come and establish them.
selves by stealth in Springfield, in this
State, intending there, after possessing
themselves at the ungarded hour Of
midnight OF the National AnnOry, to
take advantage Of some local cause Of
di5GtEucyion-8ay the feud between
Proteetants and Catholics (Which led
to u very depIorable occurrence in this
vicinity few years ago), to stir up a
social revolution; that pixies and rifles
to arm twenty five hundred men had
been procured 10y Iuuus raised by ex-
tensivc subscriptions throughout the
SOuth-that at the dead OF a Sunday
night the work Of destruction had be.
gan by shooting All unarmed man, who
had refused to Join the invading force;
that citizens OF the first standing were
seized and Imprisoned, three or four
others killed, and when Oh the entire
failure ofthe conspiracy, its leader has
been tried, ably defended by counsel
from his own part OF the country con
victed and executed, that throughout
Virginia which sent him forth On his
fatal errand, and the South generally,
funeral bells shodll be tolled, meet
ipgs Of 5, mpathy held, as at the death
oI some great benetactor, and the per.
son who had plotted TO put pike or a
rifle in the hands Of twenty five hun.
dred mer, to be used against their fel-
lows, inhabitants ofthe same town, in.
mates in the same houses; with an al.
terror intention and purpose Of wrap.
ping the whole community in It evil
war of the deadiest and bloodiess type
in which a mans foes should be those
of his own household; suppose, say,
the person who planned and plotted
this, and with his own hand or that of
his associates acting by his command,
had taken the lives of sew eraI fellow
beings, should be extolled, Icanonized,
placed on level with the great he
roes of humanity, nay assilnilated TO
the Savior Of mankind; and all this not
the effect of a solitary individual lin
pulse, but the ripe fruit OF a systenat.
ic agitation pursued in the South, un.
rebuked for years! 9 What, sir, should
We feel, think, say under sucll a state
ofthingsl Should we weigh every
phrase ofindignant remonstrance with.I \
critical accuracy, and divide our muir
murs with nice discrimination among
those whom we might believe, how !
ever unjhstly, to be directly ur inGi: |
o..t.- i q. II. L-I-- II L-L f-' Ii