Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-05-14

'iThou shalt say Bo."-JudOss Nv: 20.
There is q tremendous power in words.
Richter said Of Luther that bis words were
half battles; and Lord Bacon declares that
ambiguous words shoot backward like q
TartaT's bow upon those who utter then.
They are signs, indeed, butsigns of realities.
AS ships at sea men raise their banners in
their words-the nation that protects that
flag is revealed whether il be strong or
weak. And while a weak dapper word only
exasperates inward tempters, and invites
wrong to riot from without, strong free
words send both shrinking to their dehs
a Phocion's words bringing every Athenian
to his feet; aCromwells words under which
throne and parliament become fluid a Paul's
words, at which Felix trembles.
wish to day to emphasize the Importance
of the word No. There is none simpler and
shorter in our language, and yet perhaps,
none which it is so hard TO say. Yet it is of
the first importance that we should learn to
say No boldly and emphatically; stick to No
TO the death. For in the life of every soul
born upon this earth must come times when
its grandeur or degradation, its heaven or
hell must depend upon its ability to utter
that word-times, too, when it were SIS easy
to face cannon's mouth as TO utter it. For
what is this grave thing we call life, but an
array of temptations and souls conflict
herewith; what vice and virtue, but the
advance or retreat of one or the other of the
opposing forces. And war brings in its train
not sofas, not drawiDg-room phrases, but
things stern and hard. In times when wrong
springs forth with deadly aim toward right,
honey must be left to do honey's work; then
your words must be hard as cannon balls.
The soul that in question of. truth and
falsehood right and wrong, at once com.
Mtg itself to the side of God by an un-
hinching no, in that instant becomes the in
vincible ally of Heaven.
1t should be always borne in mind that all
conflicts of society, all struggles on battle
fields, have had an earlier struggle in the
hearts and brains of men. Liberty con-
quered in the heart of Socrates and was bap-
tized in the fires of martyrdom, ere she
gained the swords of Cromwell and Wash.
ipgton. A thing must be an idea before it
is a fact-a word before it is victory. Iu-
deed, the revolutions and conflicts of Che
outward world are but the summed-up ag-
gregate of the untold and hidden struggles
of the sacred heart Of man. 1t is by long
conflict with tyrant passions and usurping
Iusts within, that man has trained himselfto
resist the tyrants and usurpers of communi-
ties and nations. In peaceful times we do
not see fully the links which relate man to
the whole world and society; but to-day the
largest interests of humanity are seen
to be resting upon the moral force and
honesty of few men,. The other day
when General Scott was visited by the
Commissioner of Virginia, when the strug.
gle in his breast was known to be great be-
tween love of his native State and his
sense of duty TO his country, how did the
breathless nation await his decisive word
How easily could we count the heart t-beats
of the people, as they felt the momentous
interests which hung on the ability of one
man to say mol Brayely, and with a clear
voice, he uttered the word; at it Treachery
shrank back from the Capitol, and every
Northern sinew grew to iron. But we need
not look TO the distinguished men. There's
not soldier of the thousands called to the
field whose ability to say No may not involve
the fortune of any encounter, or the safety
of any position. We have just been to the
verge Of losing an almost impregnable po-
sition--that at Fort Pickens-through SOL
dier's moral weakness. He was addressed
by some friend of his among the Confeder-
ates who offered him and his companions
large sums of money, at a time when the
United States officers could not pay them.
This friend wrote to him; "You will be
simply saving human life. You can not
keep the fort; we must and will have that,
come what may; but it will cost many lives,
and you can save them" The appeal was
cunning; and the man, though he didn't say
yes didn't say No; and if the Lieutenant
had not discovered the matter in time, it
would not have required saying yes to have
lost us the fort. And there is not one of our
soldiers on whom may not rest the same
burthen for the common veal or woe. We
have been in this war long enough already
to have found out that Arsenals are defense
less, unless they have stand of man to every
stand of arms, and forts unfortifed, unless
covered with heart easements and impregna-
bic with virtue and courage. Ti.
! do not mean to bewail that which is past,
but to strengthen the things that remain,
when | say that our trouble has come upon
US in its worst form-tbat of war-chiefy
through the inability of the Northern people
to say Mol Long ago Daniel Webster said,
bitterly, "There is no North To all the
demands of Slavery Freedom had but one
word and that the compliant Yes. 1t asked
for new Territories, for all offices, for the 1
right to enslave men in free States without
trial and, like Poe's raven, we said only
one word-as if in that one word we did
our souls oHtpour-but alas instead of
Nevermore, the Northern raven always said
Yes. And what was the result of this long
series of compromises and concessions to the
morbid Slaveocracy 2 We fostered the poi.
son in the veins of our own brothers; we
encouraged their madness and sin; we
prophesied deceits for them; and when here
, and there some one inspired with a love for
them genuine enough to have saved them,
! lOlu pitlnlJ Ou dEO uLItEly,
dangerously wrong; your institution is an
arrow shot directly against the great current
of civilization and will inevitably be re-
turned with fatal plunge to your own heart"
such true friend of the Sonth was accused as
its foe, and the country cried Hush Then
the North went on smiling and saying "Yes;
it is their affair, not ours are we our broth.
ers' keepers2" AT last at last--the hour of
settlement strikes; the frown must replace
Hha eVfyila tha dala No, he nj
tered Once We might have said it to afeeble
thing, and the grave, earnest word would
have been enough; now it must be uttered TO
full. grown, formidable monster, fattened
by ourselves, and the utterance must be
given from the lips Of another grim monster
War. An old fable relates that fox once
coveted snme grapes in q vineyard, but TO
this vineyard the fox could only find one
entrance and that was too small to admit
his body. So be tasted three days, to reduce
himself enough to squeeze in where the
gTapes were. Then he got in and greedily
devOured vast quantities of grapes. Turning
round, then, to get out of the vineyard, he
found he could not, The hole that was large
enough for fox after three days fasting
was too small for fox full of grapes. TO
stay in the vineyard was death What could
he do2 There was no alternative, but he
must fast three days more, and then squeeze
out, as thin and as hungry as when he went
in. So, for the grapes which grew in the
Southern vineyard, the North made its
moral sense plant, conquered its prejudices
in favor of Liberty, thinned out the love Of
Justice and freedom, which swelled her
heart; and thus, on al fOurs, crawled into
the Southern cotton field, under the black
wall that surrounded it. There is no use
denying that the North got fat down there.
Bot now the time comes when we must get
hack. But the wall is unrelentng. II re-
minds ps plainly that We can not have our
vain VI plead; we plead with stone wall
And now, what is left us2 We must
diseorge millionsi we must lose our