East Saginaw courier. (East Saginaw, Mich.) 1859-18??, 1861-06-27
EAST SAGINAW, MICHIGAN, JUNE q, 1861.

snOuiu oe ihiu III tne uuse Ia tuS pieSehSe
Of every bit of rebel bunting that might
appear. But he did none of these things,
nor could he have done them without
forgetting his oath and betraying the
most sublime trust that has ever been
confided to the hands of man. With a
heroic fidelity to his constitutional obi.
cations, feeling justly that these obliga-
tions charged him with the protection OF
the Republic and its Capital against the
assaults alike Of foreign and domestic
enemies, he threw himself on the loyalty
of the country for support in the struggle
upon which he was about to enter, and
nobly has that appeal been responded to.
States containing an aggregate popula-
ton of ninteen millions have answered
to the appeal as with the voice Of one
man, offering soldiers without number,
and treasure without limitation, for the
service of the Government. In these
States, fifteen hundred thousand freemen
cast their votes in favor of candidates
supporting the rights of the South, at
the last Presidential election, and yet
everywhere, alike in pupulsr assemblies
and upon the tented field, this million
aud half of voters are found yielding to
none in the zeal which they rally to their
country's flag. They are not less the
friends of the South than before; but they
realize that the question now presented
is not one of administrative policy, or OF
the claims Of the North, the South, the
East, or the West; but is,simply, whether
nineteen millions of people shall tamely
and ignobly permit five or six millions to
overthrow and destroy institutions which
are the common property, and have been
the common blessings and glory of ALL
The great thoroughfares of the North,
the Last, and the West, are luminous
with the banners and glistening with the
bayonets of citizen soldiers marching to
the Capitol, or to other points of rem
devious; but they come in no hostile
spirit to the South. If called to press
her soil, they will not rufile q flower of
her gardens, nor blade Of grass of her
fields in unkindness. No excesses will
mark the footsteps Of the armies Of the
Republic; no institution Of the States
will be invaded or tampered with, no
rights of persons or of property will be
violated. The known purposes of the
Administration, and the high character
of the troops employed alike guarantee
the truthfulness of this statement
When an insurrection was apprehended
few weeks since in Maryland, the Mas
sachusetts regiment at once offered their
services to suppress it. These volunteers
have been denounced by the press of the
South as "knsves and vagrants," "the
dregs and offscourings Of the populace, !"
who would "rather filch handkerchief
than fight an enemy in manly combat !"
yet we know here that their discipline
and bearing are most admirable, and, /
presume, it may be safely affirmed that
. larger amount of social position, cul
ture, fortune and elevation Of character,
have never been found in no large IN
army in any age or country. Ii they
60 to the South, it will be as friends and
protectors, to relieve the Union senti-
ment of the seeded States from the
cruel domination by which it is oppress-
ed and silenced, to unfurl the stars and
stripes in the midst Of those who long
to look upon them, and to restore the
flag that bears them to the forts and ar
senals from which disloyal hands have
torn it. Their mission will be one Of
peace, unless wicked and blood thirsty
men shall unsheath the sword across their
pathway.
While Car more fearful responsibility
has fallen upon President Lincoln than
upon any of his predecessors, it must be
admitted that he has met it with promp-
titude and fearlessness. Cicero, in one
of his orations against Catiline, speaking
of the credit due himself for having sup.
pressed the conspiracy Of that arch trait
or, said, "if the glory Of him who found
ed Rome was great, how much greater
should be that Of him who had saved il
from overthrow after it had grown to be
the mistress Of the world?" So it may
be said Of the glory of that statesman or
chieftain who shall snatch this republic
from the vertex of revolution, now that
it has expanded from ocean to ocean, has
become tho admiration of the world, and
has rendered the fountains of the lives
Of thirty millions Of people fountains ol
happiness.
The vigorous measures adopted for
the safety Of Washington and the Gov
ernment itself may seem open to criti
csm, in some of their details, to those
who have yet to learn that not only ha,
war like peace its laws, but that it ha,
also its privileges and its duties What
ever Of severity, or even of irregularity
may have arisen, will find its justification
in the pressure of the terrible necessity
under which the Administration has beer
called to act. When q man feels the
poignard Of the destroyer at his bosom
he is not likely to consult the law book,
as to the mode or measure Of his right,
Of self-defence. What is true of indi
viduals is in this respect equally true o
governments. The man who thinks he
has become disloyal because of what the
Administration hes done, will probably
discover, after close determination
that no was disloyal before. But fol
what has been done, Washington nigh,
ere this have been . smouldering hear
of ruins.
They have noted the course Of public af
| fairs to little advantage who suppose tha