The Lansing state Republican. [volume] (Lansing, Mich.) 1855-1874, 1860-04-18

kieps vision They will find ''that the bed
is shorter than that a man can stretch him.
self On it, and the covering narrower than
that he can wrap himself in it" Treat
them kindly. for they speak half in the
speech Of Ashdod," and will have to lisp,
for they cannot frame to pronounce your
shibboleth
You taunt US with cowardice; that We
have not the courage to do as Brown did.
May it long be our boast. as it is now our
pride, that we have not the courage to do
wrong.
II dare to % al that may become a nas
Who dsres 10 d. more Is cone"
Why this boast of courage? Are you
net aware that bravery is an instinct Of the
man and brute creation! You see it in
tue gentle wren and the bold eagle, in the
,iniest insect and the king Of the forest, in
all nations, in every age Of the world. in all
climates, and under all forms of society.
You never heard of a nation lacking brave
nv. IL is not the result of education or re-
ligion; out the nearer you reach the bar.
barian and uncivilzed, the stronger the
instinct, the more stubborn the bravery, the
greater indifference to torture and death.
See the Goths and Vandals. as they poured
out the cold and gloomy recesses Of the
North, and overran the polished Roman
Empire. See the Russian heart stand IN
Welding before the scence-directed missiles
Of the Allies. See the North American
savage, with soul unsubdued, ready to brave
all dangers in battle Your knowledge of
history will teach that the most unconquera-
bic bravery comes from the cold climates
and rough regions Of northern countries.
Again / ask, why do gentlemen thus talk !
Mark the first and second wars Of England.
Go home and ask the remnant Of the gal
liant Palmetto regiment, who received the
shock of battle on the plains Of Mexico,
where stood the New York volunteers, who,
with them side by side, were in the thick
est of the fight. at Churubusco. Cerro Cor
do. and Chepultepec; and, when your gal
liant Butler fell at the head of the regi.
ments of my State and yours, Northern
warriors joined yours to carry him from
the field. and regret that one so brave had
fallen! Ask your own regiment what they
think Of Northern bravery.
In the history Of the country you pro.
voked and melted controversy in whicl,
YOU met Northern bravery face to face on
the plains of Kansas, and you quailed be-
fore it and fled Ask your border-ruffian
banditti what they think Of Northern cour.
age? After the fight at Ossawatomie,
where Brown received his cognomen, your
men covered at the very thought of meet.
ing the stern freemen of the North, sus.
tanned by right, in battle array. and they
made a precipitate flight not waiting fol-
morning dawn. in spite of just such vaunts
and boasts as you daily make on the floor
of this House. Talk no more of North
ern courage. You have felt their steel
and seen their metal. They went not to
meet in bloody strife, but to carve them
out homes and fortunes amid those bound.
less prairies; but you met them as enemies,
hedged up your highways, prevented their
passage over your rivers by cannon, and
compelled them to toll with arms in the
furrow " for the builders, every one, had
his sword girded by his side, and so bull
ded, and half of them held the spears from
the rising Of the morning till the stars ap-
peared." Sir, t csc men went as men Of
.fThey crossed the prairiss a of old
Oar fathers crossed the sea,
To make the West, az they the East,
The homestead Of The Free
But, sir, while bravery is an instinct,
true courage is the result of an educated
head and disciplined breast not to delight
n the exhibition of physical ferocity, for
mere qualification or personal resentment,
but courageous from principle, to resist ag.
erosion and defend the right, at all hazard
and every sacrifice.
Gentlemen have rebuked the great State
which, in part, represent. Sir, she needs
no defence at my hands Unlike South
Carolina, she has history written in books
also in the blood of her fathers, and the
battle-6elds of the Revolution and the Sec
Ond war; upon her monuments and her
aqueducts in all her industrial, CONNER
mercial, mechanical, manufacturing, benevo.
lent. aud educational enterprises. 1t is
written upon her mountain sides; by the
banks of her rivers, and upon her towing
streams iu her thousands of miles of tel
egraph, railroad, and canal navigation in
her commerce, that whitens every sea, and
floats the stars and stripes in every port Of
the wide, wide world. When did she ever
hesitate to respond to the demands of her
country, whether the call was for treason or
blood! The craven, traitorous notes of
disunion are never heard in her borders,
from the Canada frontier to the valley of
the Susquehauna, from the inland seas to
the crested waves Of the Atlantic.
Let me speak of my own people-the district
more Immediately represent. In the days of the
Revolution, her soil was pressed with the foot of
the invader, aud her women and children felt the
knife and tomahawk and merciless barbarites of
savage warfare. Through the valley Of the Ma
makatng and by the mountains of Minisink
sThe mammoth cane, the foe, the monster Bandit,
With all his hownng, desoaie band"
On the evergreen mountains and by the crystal
streams Of Sullivan and in the valleys Of Orange,
rest the bones of those who nobly fought and fell
The graves of those brave men have never been
violated BY the steps Of the dsunionist, or their
long repose disturbed by the sound OF rebellion.
In that district still stands the old mansion occu.
pied by Washington in it the same chair in
which he sat, and the same table ON which he
wrote his celebrated answer TO the mutinous let.
ter of Armstrong, and presented to the world the
spectacle Of an army victorious over its enemies
victorious over ITSELF" On the same spot, too,
he disbanded his grand army.
You reprOach us because we will not do tho