Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes County, Ohio) 1856-1865, 1861-05-23
Edward, Everett ON, the Crisis.
Hon. Edward Everett, on Monday, de-

E0W8r0r EHeKctS Oh suc NEISIss
Hon. Edward Everett on Monday, de-
livered the following speech in Boston, on
the occasion of raising flag in that city.
Fellow citizens and Friends: The great
assemblage that see around me, the sim
ple but interesting ceremonial with which
the flag of our country has been thrown to
the breeze, the strains ofinspiring music, the
sweet concert of these youthful voices, the
solemn supplication of che reverend cler-
pyman which fills our ears-all these pro-
claim the deep patriotic sentiment, of which
that flag is the symbol and expression.-
Nay more, it speaks for itself. Its mute
eloouencs needs no aid from my lips to in
terpret its significance. Fidelity to the
Union blazes from its stars; allegiance to
the Government beneath which We live is
wrapped within its folds.
We set up this standard, my friends, not
As matter Of idle display, but as an express
i've indication that, in the mighty struggle
that has been forced upon us, we are of one
heart and one mind that the Government
of the country must be sustained. We
are a law-ab;ding, quiet-loying community.
Our time, our thoughts, our energies, are
habitually devoted to the peaceful arts BY
which States grow and prosper; but, upon
anTissue in which the life of the country is
involved, we rally as one man to its defence.
All former differences of opinion are swept
away; We forget that We have ever been
partisans; we remember only that We are
Americans, and that our country is in peril.
And what is it that has kindIed this qui-
ct and peace-loving community to the pres
ent unexampled excitement-a patriotic u
nanimity not witnessed even in 1775! Why
is it that the flag of our country-always
honored: always beloved-is now, all at
once, worshipped, I may say, with the pas
sionate homage of this whole people? Why
does it float, as never before, not merely
from arsenal and masthead, but from tow
er and steepIe, from the public edifees, the
private dwelling, in magnificent display,
or miniature presentment? Let Fort Sum
rgiye the answer. When this day fort
night, the 18th of April Ia day forever to
be held in iuauspicious remembrance, like
the dies ALensis in the annals of Rome,)
the tidings spread through the land that
the standard of Uuited America, the pledge
of her Union and the symbol of her pow
or, which SO many gallant hearts had pour
ed out their life blood on the ocean and
the land to uphold; had, in the harbor of
Charleston, been, for day and half, the
target of eleven fratricidal batteries, one
deep, unanimous, spontaneous feeling, shot
with the tidings through the bosoms of
twenty millions of freemen, that its out
ragged honor must be vindicated.
Aud, Oh, fellow-eitizens, if aloof as We
are from the immediate danger of the con-
fiet, sheltered in our comfortable homes,
with the objects of our affection around us,
we can refuse our support to the Constitu
ton, the Laws, and the Government, in
whose defense those seventy brave men, for
thirty frightful hours, without sleep, almost
without food, compelled to draw the breath
of heaven into their lungs through moist
ened handkerchiefs, stood faithful and un-
daunted beneath the irou storm bursting
from above, and the raging fires around
them, we snail deserve ourselves, on some
disastrous day, to pass through a like fiery
ordeal. g.
Il speak, fellowci citizens, in no spirit of
unkindness to the South. / have been,
through my public life, some of you have
thought, too much her friend. To avert
what 1 deemed the impending danger of
general convulsion, /. have been more will
ing than some of you to pursue-always
I hope through honorable paths-the poll
cy of conciliation. Besides this, in my
humble efforts to rescue the home and tomb
of Washington from deseeration (and oh,
saddest desecration of all that the sacred
precincts should perhaps even now be trod-
den by armed bands, Fastening to lay the
city which bears his name in ashes, have
traversed the South, everywhere received
with the most fattering kindness, more
than most Northern men. In no part of
the Union have more valued friends; but
as Heaven is my judge, it is my most pro-
found and solemn conviction that it is inf
fnitely more desirable for theSouth than the
North that this suicidal attempt to break
up the Union should be frustrated.
For consider, fellow citizens, that the
flag, which you have this day given to the
breeze, is not merely the symbol of Union
at home, but of peace, safety, and respect
abroad. The unhallowed blow which has
been struck at it has not only, as its first
result, invoked the country in what all his
tory proclaims the direst of national calam-
ities-a civil war-but it has at once placed
the South at the mercy Of every foreign
Power ~. i'' '-.',l
No Government on, this continent can
command the respect of Europe, that does
not possess navy; and the North, from
natural causes, must ever be the exclusive
seat of the naval strength of the country.
Our climate, our harbors, our fisheries, our
marine are the elements of this
strength. The South has naval stores,
brave officers, live oak forests; but what
are liye-oak trees without live-oak men to
compact them into noble ships, and to
launch their thundersi What would it
avail the South to possess the whole Eng.
lish navy, while their harbors are shut up
BY bars, over which you cannot float a
bomb ketch9 No, fellow citizens, the
South-if she succeeds in rending the I'm.
on-not only madly throws away her share
in all the future naval glories of the coun-