The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-02-13
REV. DR.. DEWEY ON THE NATIONAL

REV. IN, DEW FL ON The NATIONAL |
CRISIS.
The following extracts from a sermon recently
delivered by DR.. Dewey, the wei. known pastor of
the "New South" Church, Boston, eloquently de-
pics the horrors that would befall the country in
the event of civil war. The high reputation that
DIR. Dewey has acquired both as pulpit orator
and as a writer, combining, as he does, great
and originality with conservative views
and genial sympathies, gives more than ordinary
Importance to any opinion expressed by him on
the consequences that must result from the adop-
ton of coercive policy as advocated by one wing
of the Republican party, and as foreshadowed by !
Mr.. Lincoln in his speech at indianapolis on
Monday last:
Within the last week, we have laid down. with |
reverent hands, the remains of the most venerable |
of our pastors CDR. LOVELY to the last repose.
Full of years-his work done-his memory fra
grant as the flowers which were laid upon his tomb
his record in the love and gratitude of all who
knew him-he has gone to his rest. AS | attended |
those obsequies, | confess the thought rose in nv
mind, that it might be good to die now; "before |
the evil days come, and the years draw nigh, |
in which we must say, that we have no pleasure in
them" For, so seriously, my friends, do / look
upon these days of our history, and must be al
lowed so to speak of them.
If pestilence, or famine, war, were desolating
our country, city; if thousands of our
people were stricken down bloody fields, or laid
low in their dwellings by disease or starvation,
such palpabe horrors would press upon with a
weight that could not be shaken off, at home
abroad, in the church or in the street. But some.
thing more portentous than pestilence, or famine
or war, is pressing upon us now; a more ominous
spectre is stalking through the land, and pointing
to darker future, than any temporary calamity
could be or threaten to be; and yet, much as the
public mind is doubtless impressed by it, | am
tempted to say that do not discern the signs of
this time. We do not seem yet to have fully
I ftI tg
horrors. The hour is big with the fate of all this
continent of North America Our children and
our children's children are to feel, through the
| born ages what we are doing to-day.
Yet while the fabric of our national existence is
threatened with shock that shall rend it aSunder
from side to side; while its pillars actually top
| ping down, one after another, we seem to look
| upon the spectacle as if it were, the shifting of
! scenes in theatre, or magician's phantasma-
| goria of diSsoving views. pray to hea ven that
there might be delay and deliberations for we
have not had time yet, to take into our minds the
stupendous proportions of this crisis or to under
stand what the dissolution of this Government
means. i
| | cannot consent whether as private or as pro-
fessiona man. to be silent in this rightful anarchy.
| As in the old Revolutionary time, so now, | think
the pulpit should speak out l think all men should
speak out. There must be an immense mass of
private thought and feeling in the bosom of the
| nation-conservative, patriotic. sober, anxious
weighed down with care and sorrow-whch, if it
could be uttered, might lift up barrier against
the rage and recklessness of the time. There are
hundreds of private letters passing to and fro
every week, every day, burdened with this great
troube-l would a collection of such could be
published! They would be revelation of what
is lying beneath all party and sectional interests in
the inner heart of the people, which would avail
more for good guidance to US, than all Committees
and Conventions, or passionate speeches in Con-
gress. And this inner sentiment of the public
heart-this patriotism, this deep-seated trouble,
this sorrow of thousands and millions, ought to
have expression. = &
Providence has cast our lot together. We can.
not break the bond; and all we can do by drawing
apart, is to strain and tear and wound the fbres
that hold us together. These communities of men
must lie alone Side bv side. viii noilics ds.nIn.
tion bind US in moral amity? Will it be easier to
make conventions with a hostile people, than with
brother States? Shall we have less to do with sla-
very, or with the slave people, for the separation?
Way, far more; and on far more dangerous terms
Shall we be able to exert better influence on the
solution of this dark social problem for visible an
tagonism and mutual observation-disclosures, | say
public opinion In other words; it is coming to be a
new power in the world England and France and
Germany to have an influence on this system of
Southern slavery; but we, more immediate one.
They may dscountenance, scorn it-assail its trade
on the high seas; that will be distant source of
irritation, and must be borne by the South with
what patience it may. But for to treat the syS-
tenn, must breed war. And thus must the solution
OF this awful problem 60 on, amid strife and hate,
war and bloodshed, with slave Instructions; not
hindered, but abetted by us; with ever increasing
fury of discord-slaves and Shareholders and our
selves with them, swept it may be, into that fiery
torrent OF slave agitaton-that ever-heaving vol
cano of human wrath and wrong.
| That line of separation extending from the At
| lantic to the Pacific ocean-never was a line
stretched on the earth like that; cut through the
body of the living Repubic-staned with blood,
and if partially healed, fostering with wounds
ever renewed, with ever breaking out; that
line of separation, studded with forts and custom
houses, bristling with standing armies, entang
endless taxation and burdens of national debt
which shall weigh down the masses of the people
to poverty, low wages and miserable degrade
ton, preparing for horrible military despotisms
fight out with more shocking atrocities, tie terri
bic battle between the two Kingdoms and civiliza-
tions of the North and South that line of separa
ton, did | say ?-nay, it might be, if it were an
impossible wall a mile high-would to Heaven it
were, II We are to be sundered-but no; line OF
junction, not of separation, which shall glue to-
gether the North and South, embrued in each 9th
er's blood-a line across which slaves shall rum and
pursuers shall follow them to meet foes on the 9th
er sde-over which taunts and scorns shall be
flung at each others society, schools, literature
and civilization, and death-shots shall be fired
and blood shall tiow-my mind sickens at the pros
, root Of what may come =
But if we must part-if this mighty fabric of EN-
pire must be hurled to the ground by the breath OF
angry passion, |, for one at least, cannot stand still
or silent, as look upon it. 1t may do no good
to speak, but we must speak. a voice of lamenta,
ton at least, must rise over the extinction of so
many precious hopes. Young people can hardly
know, how we, that are older, have cherished
them. We have lived in them; we have garnered
up our hearts in our country's freedom and honor
, we have been proud ofit we have seen its flag
floating over foreign seas and ports. respected anC
, honored, and were proud to call ourselves Ameri
. cans there; we have maintained that we were
proving the capacity of an intelligent and educated
people to govern themselves; we have trusted tina
this, our country, would be the permanent lun
ofpure and unshacked liberty; and now if ali oui
hopes are to fail; if all this bright promise is tC
vanish from our eyes; if we to present to the
world spectacle like that of the miserable Mexi
can states, disjointed and broken into fragments
if foreign despots are to say, "aha We could no
do it, if noble souls signing in their dungeon
should say, calais the bright orb that glded ou
night has gone down, and let us in utter despair
if indignant history is to write upon its tablets
'never such folly perpetrated in sight of thu
sun! If all this is to be, we shall never be happy
again, as we have been; we shall 90 sorrowing t.
our graves; and moan will spread itself through
the world, over our downfall. God in mercy
, avert it!
D F F | G L.
INV