The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1859-10-15
From RecolIections of the Revolution.


mot long since" writes Mr. Hamilton
sbefnover "searching into the papers of
,yrandfstber. Major John Jacob Shefmyer,
Sbo was out in the days of the Revolution,
7 found the following discourse. delivered
in the presence of large portion of the
American soldiery, General Washington.
General WAYNE, and other officers of the
army, on the eve of the Battle of Brandy
wine"
.sThey that take the sword shall perish
by the sword st. Mathew, CHI. 81, ", 25.
Soldiers and countrymen:-We have met
this evening, perhaps for the last time
We have shared the toll of the march, the
peril of the fight, and the dismay of the
retreat alike; we have endured the cold and
the hunger, the contumely of the internal
foe, and courage of the foreign oppressor.
We have sat, night after night, beside the
camp fire; we have heard together the roll
of the reveille, which called US to duty, or
the beat of the tattoo, which gave the sig
nal for the hardy sleep of the soldier, with
the earth for his bed and the knapsack for
his pillow.
And now, soldiers and brethren, we have
met in the peaceful valley on the eve of
battle, while the sunlight is dying away be-
yond yon heights-the sunlight that to-mor-
row morn will glimmer on scenes of blood
We have met amid the whitening tents
of our encampment: in time of terror and
of gloom have we gathered together. God
grant it may not be for the last time.
1t is solemn moment, brethren. Does
not the solemn voice of nature seem to.echo
the sympathies of the hour? The flag Of
our country droops heavily from yonder
staff; the breeze has died away along the
green plain of Chadd's ford, the plain that
spreads before us glittering in the sunlight
The heights of the Brandywine arise gloomy
and grand beyond the waters of yonder
stream All nature holds a solemn silence
on the eve of the uproar, of the bloodshed
and strife of tomorrow
..They that take the sword shall perish
by the sword
And have they not taken the sword ?
Let the desolate plain, the blood-sodden
valley, the burned farm house blackening
in the sun, the sacked village, and the raw
aged town, answeri Let the whitening
bones of the butchered farmer, strewed
along the fields of his homestead, answer
Let the starving mother, with the babe
clinging to the withered breast that can at
ford no sustenance-let her answer, with
the death rattle n.ingling with the murmur
ing tones that mark the last struggle of
life Let that dying mother and her babe
answer
1t was but day past and our land slept
in the quiet of peace. War was not here,
wrong was not here Fraud and wo, and
misery, and want, dwelt not among US
From the eternal solitude of the green woods
rose the blue smoke of the settlers cabin,
and golden fields of corn looked forth from
amid the waste of the wilderness, and the
clad music Of human voices awoke the 81
lence of the forest.
Now, God of Mercy behold the change
Under the shadow of a pretext under the
sanctity of the name of God, invoking the
Redeemer to their aid, do those foreign hire
lings slay our people They throng our
towns, they darken our plains, and now they
encompass our posts on the lonely plains
of Chadd's Ford.
ssThey that take the sword shall perish
by the sword"
Brethren, think me not unworthy of
belief when tell you the doom of the Brit
ish is near Think me not vain when tell
you that beyond the cloud that now en-
shrouds us / see gathering, thick and fast,
the darker cloud and blacker storm of divine
retribution!
They may conquer US tomorrow. Might
and wrong may prevail, and we may be
driven from this field, but the hour of Gods
own vengeance will come.
Az, if in the vast solitude of eternal
space, if in the heart of the boundless uni
verse, there throbs the being of an awful
God, quick to avenge and sure to punish
guilt, then will the man George of Bruins
wick, called king, feel in his brain and his
heart the vengeance of the eternal Jehovah
A blight will be upon his life, withered
brain and accursed intellect; blight will be
upon his children, and on his people u
Great God, WHOM dread the punishment!
A crowded populace, peopling the dense
towns the laborer strives; want striding
among the people in all its forms of terror;
proud and merciless nobility adding wrong
to wrong, and heaping insult upon robbery
and fraud; God-defyiug priesthood. roy
atty corrupt to the very heart, and arlstoc-
racy rotten to the core; crime and want
linked hand in hand, and tempting men to
sdeeds Of woe aud death; these are part of
the doom and Tetribution that will come up
on the English throne, and the English peo-
pie!
Soldiers, l look around upon your famil-
lar faces with strange interest. Tomorrow
morning We will all go forth to the battle;
IoTs heeo tell you, tnat your unworthy
minister win march with you, invoking
Gods aid in the fight? We viii march
forth to battlel Need exhort you to fight
the good fight for your homestead, your
wives and your children
NY friends, might urge you to fight by
the CALLING memories of the British wrongs.
Walton, might tell you of your father.
butchered in the silence of night on the
plains of Trenton; might picture his grey
hairs dabbled in blood; might ring his
death-shrieks in your ears
ShAln,ira ] might tell Qou of q butchered