Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-10-29


This is the time to print Thomas Francis
besgher's fine apostrophe to the sword.
There is not word or a line in it that does
not apply with ten-fold force to the present
struggle for liberty upon these shores
do not abhor the use of arms in the vim
dicstion of national rights There are times
when arms will alone suffice, and when
political ameliorations call for. a drop of
blood, and many thousand drops of blood.
Opinion, | admit, will operate against
opinion. But, as the honorable member for
Kilkenny has observed, force must be used
against force. The soldier is proof against
an argument, but he is not proof against
bullet. The man that will listen to reason,
let him be reasoned with. But it is the
weaponed arm of the patriot that can alone
prevail against battalioned despotism.
Then, my Lord, do not condemn the use
of arms as immoral, nor do / conceive it
pTofane to say that the King of Heaven-the
Lord of Hosts the God of Battles-bestows
his benediction upon those who unsheath
the sword in the hour of a nations peril.
From that evening" on which, in the Val
ley of Bethulia, he nerved the arm of the
Jewish girl to smite the drunken tyrant in
his tent, down to this our day III which he
has blessed the iusurgent chivalry of the
Belgian priest, His Almighty hand hath ever
been stretched forth from His throne of light
to consecrate the flag of freedom-to bless
the patriots sword Be it in the defense, or
be it in the assertion of peoples liberty,
hail the sword as a sacred weapon; and if
my Lord, it has sometimes taken the shape
of the serpent and redeemed the shroud of
the oppressor with too deepa dye like the
anonted rcd Of the High Priest, it has, at
other times, and as often, blossomed into
celestial flowers to deck the freeman's brow.
Abhor the swoId-stgmatize the sword
No, my Lord, for, in the passes of the Tyrol,
it cut to pieces the banner of the Bavarian,
and, through those cragged passes, struck
path to fame for the peasant insurrectionist
Of Inspruckl
Abhor the sword-stigmatiz the sword
No, my Lord, for, at its blow, giant nation
started from the waters of the Atlantic, and
by its redeeming magic, and in the quivering
of its crimson light, the crippled colony
sprang into the attitude of proud Repub-
lic-prosperous, limitless and invincibleI
Abher the sword-stigmatiz the sword 2
No, my Lord, for it swept the Dutch
marauders out of the fine old towns of Bel
gium-scourged them back to their own
phlegmatic swamps-and knocked their flag
andsceptsr, their laws and bayonets into the
| sluggish waters of the Scheldt.
| My Lord,1 learned that it was the right of
a nation to govern herself-not in this Hall,
but upon the ramparts of Antwerp. This,
| the first article of a nations creed, learned
upon those ramparts, where freedom was
| justly estimated, and the possession Of the
| precious gift was purchased by the effusion
of generous blood.
My Lord, honor the Belgians, I admire
the BelgiaDs, love the Belgians for their
enthusiasm, their courage, their success, and
! /, for one, will not stigmatize, for l do not
abhor, the means by which they obtained d
Citizen King, Chamber of Deputies.