The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1861-06-27


been been thrown over it. The corpse will |
be disinterred and brought in to-day at any |
risk.
Flag Presentation Speech, by Judge
Hughes-The Union Forever.
In presenting flag made by the fair
hands of the ladies of Bloomington, to Capt.
Kelly's company at Terre Haute on Wednes-
day last, Judge Hughes, after fe1 prelim-
mary remarks, thus eloquently expressed
his sentiments upon the great struggle for
the maintenance of the Government, one
and indivisible
GENTLEMEN SOLDIERS Dear to you as
that banner is from private considerations,
eloquent as it may be to remind you of
your homes and your fresides, precious as
it is for the sake of those who made it, the
beloved mothers, wives, daughters, sisters,
and friends of your gallant band--enough
to insure It the safeguard of your lives-yet
it is as THE FLAG OF YOUR COUNTRY that it
possesses its highest claim to your rever-
ence your affection, your loyalty, your
obedience. In that character-the proud,
the illustrous emblem of American nation
ality-it attracts the liveliest affection, it
excites the Hottest patriotism, it inspires the
deepest devotion, it commands the utmost
duty, of every American citizen. The time
/ has now come to prove who is true and
/ who is false to that flag. We are now to
realize in its fullest extent, and TO know,
the duty of American citizens, whether it
| consists in conserving to dissolution of the
Union where represented, either by force or
/ by fraud, or in maintaining, at every cost,
1 the integrity of that Union and the suprem-
acy OF that flag, against internal enemies as
we'll as foreign foes. These are questions
! now pressing and demanding of US all
practical solution, and neither admitting of
evasion, indifference, or neutrality.
Why is that banner now unfurled
| Why does our country resound with the
alarums of impending war, while martial
preparations darken the whole land Is it
to repel the invasion of some foreign pow
ers TO chastise the insolence of some Eu-
ropean despot? to second our diplomacy
upon some claim or right, or to annex some
new empire lying in the path of our mani
fest destiny, and required by the progress
i've spirit of our people and the expansive
tendencies of our institutions No; it is
none of these. The arrogant encroachments
of overweening England are no longer
pressing upon US. France is evading no
stipulated payments. Prostitute and ex-
hausted Mexico does not invite the occupa.
ton of our conquering arms. We are
nursing no purpose of acquiring new terri
tories. For the first time in our history as
a nation, those who owe allegiance to the
| Government, those who are bound to re-
spect, to defend, and to honor its flag are in
arms for the destruction of the Union, and
have plunged the country into civil war
They have raised their sacriligious hands
against the Constitution-they seek to dis.
member the confederacy- have set up
a government of their own. In the exer-
else of pretended and unfounded right of
State secess ion, they have set on foot a gI-
gantic rebellion, and seek to dispoil Union
of vast and compact empire, leaving the
remaining Suites demoralized by the opera
ton of their pernicious principle of para
mount State allegiance, denationalized, en-
closed within irregular, exposed and incon-
venient boundaries, and sure IN the progress
of time to be rent and distracted by new
schemes of disunion and the formation Of
new contederacies.
But worse than the loss of States or Ter
ritories, of harbors, Of cities or Of revenues.
is the evil which they would intict upon US
by the destruction of that s'unity of govern
ment -" declared by Washington "a main
pillar in the edifice of your real independ-
ence-the support of your tranquility at
home, your peace abroad, of your safety, of
your prosperity, of that very liberty which
you so highly prize"
Let the world know that we are no
longer one people, and we tall at once from
the high position of first class power
f among the nations of the earth, into insig-
nifcauce, weakness and insecurity. Let
our own people know that the glorious
Union, founded by Washington and bis
compatriot heroes and sages of the Revolu-
ton, has fallen; that the benefcent Consti-
tuition which was to be perpetuated, has
been subverted within a century of its crea-
ton; and you destroy their faith in free
government abuse their national pride
subdue their spirit, and consign them to
dependency, faction, anarchy, and ulti-
mately, perhaps, to despotism but never.
never again, will they be proud power
full, prosperous nation; never will their
flag be as that has been, honored and feared
throughout the earth.
What security have we, if we give I'D the
Government of our Fathers, that we will
have the free choice of another in it's place,
or that any of the fragments of the present
Union will remain together under one Gov
ernment what hope have we to cling to-
after we shall have relinquished the Con-
stitution bequeathed to us by our revoIu-
tionary sires?
Yet it is for the dissolution OF the Union.
with all its evil consequences, that war is
now TO be waged on the Government of the
United States by portion of their people
it is in defense of that Union, and
for the preservation of the Government that
this flag is now unfurled.
For every star upon that flag there is a
State of this Union the thirteen stripes
representing the original Thirteen Colonies
that achieved onr independence In this
war, the integrity of that flag is at stake;
four OF the thirteen and seven younger
States refuse longer to recognize 1.-THE
question is, shall single star be stricken
from it, or a single stripe obliterated?
! | know that no argument is needed to
convince those to whom | now speak, that
the Union ought to be maintained at every