Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes County, Ohio) 1856-1865, 1861-09-19
Eloquent Speech of Mr.. Holt at
New York.

! New York.
BY request Of the Chamber of Com
melce of New York, Hon. Joseph Holt, of
Kentucky, addressed the merchants of New
York on Tuesday evening, notwithstand-
ing violent thunder storm prevailed at
the time, he had crowded audience.
We make the following extracts from
this earnest and eloquent address:
The providence of God and the most
sacred compacts of men have made us one
people, and the experiences of three quar-
ters of century have demonstrated that
on this unity of country, and of a gov
ernnent, and of a people, consists at once
our greatness and our happiness. Dismem-
Der these States and this government, and
cast their miserable fragments on the wild
and bloody torrents of revolution, and we
become the prey cf every audacious spoil
er, and thus would be utterly destroyed
the last hope that belongs to us as ma
zion.
This is war of duty, because under
the light of our Christian civilization no
nation can commit suicide without the
Preparation of cowardly and atrocious
crime. (Applause.) That nation does
commit suicide who surrenders its life TO
an enemy from whose stroke manhood and
courage could save it. (Applause.) 1t is
war Of duty, because We have no right
to bear our fathers name if we insult and
degrade their memories by giving up the
institutions won by their blood to be trod-
den under the feet Of traitors. (Applause.)
1t is war of duty, because we have no
right to bestow our names upon our chill
dren stripped of their grand and glorious
Inheritance of freedom which rightly be-
longs to them, and for the transmission of
which we are but the appointed agents of
those ilustrious men who, having won it
with their swords and with their lives, be-
queathed it to us and TO their descendants
forever. M
1t is war of duty, because, devoted as
We profess to be to law and order and
good government, and to the highest in
terests of civilization, it behooves US to re-
buke and chaslise and punish those
crimes committed through this rebellion,
not only against us, but against the very
race 10 which we belong, all over the
world. (Applause.) 1t is finally war
of duty because we have assumed to our
selves as people the special champion
ship, not only of the right, but of the
race for selfgovernment- tremendous ap-
plause) and that assumption has been ac-
ccpted and recognized by the lovers of free
dom everywhere. And now, with the men
and nations of the world looking upon us,
from the seats of some vast amphitheatre
watching the strife in our mils,, we have
no idea Of permitting the sacred cause to
be smitten down and crushed upon the
battle fields Of tie South, to perish there
amid the SCOTS and jeers and taunts of the
kings and despots of Europe. (Eulhusi-
astic applause. ..-s
How anxiously and with what conf
denee have the enemies of freedom the
world over predicted the day, and how
have they longed for its coming. In the
essential antagonism of their institutions
to ours, and the intense adherence which
they feel to that system of government
which gives honor and the fortunes of the
earth to the toiling millions of the earth,
lies the secret of the hatred of tyrants to
us. And how gladly would every one of
these tyrants this day behold a monument
of us, in the skies, could they see inscribed
upon it these words: ain memory of the
great republic of the United States, found
ed by Washington and destroyed by
Toombs, Twiggs and Floyd, (Immense
applause.) What record for humanity
would that be-! aGCGtsr
l know there are some men-few, it is
true, who do sincerely believe that, the
question of public honor out of view, this
republic can be severed, that peace can be
patched up, and that the two governments
can thereafter live on prosperously and
peacefully as before. No more false or ia
tai thought ever crept serpent-like into
an American bosom. (Applause.) You
might as well tell me that the boat which
has been turned adrift above the cataract of
Niagara will have tranquil voyage. If
you will go and stand, as many of US have
done, amid the ruins of the crumbled en-
pires of the Old world, and ask them, they
will tell You it is delusion.
If you will go to the cemetery of ma
tions, and lay your ear to the sepulchre of
those young, but glorious and high spirited
nations that have perished amid the ccn-
vusions of civil strife, they will answer
you in accents of observation-disclosures, at
is delusion." But if You will not listen
to the voice of the past, go to Mexico and
South America, and ask the inhabitants of
those bright lands, blessed with the finest
climate on earth, occupying a soil of ex-
haustless fertility, and living amid rivers,
and lakes, and mountains full Of grandeur
and inspiration, and they will lift up their
bowed heads, and amid decentralization,
poverty and dishonor, they will tell you it
is delusion. loud applause.)
What we now need is patriotism which
will abide the ordeal of fire, patriotism
which is purged from all selfshness, from
all fear, which is heroic and exhaustless,
which vows with every throb of life, that
if repulsed, it will rally; if stricken down
il will rise again, and that under the pres
sure of no circumstances-defeat, sorrow
or suffering-shall the national flag be
abandoned or the honor of the country
Enthusiastic cheers.)-l
What we need is patriotism which rises