The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1861-02-08
Our Flag is There.

We may add,-act Of the Secessionists in
the Cotton States, has been their insult
to our Flag,--not the Flag of the North,
nor Of the South. but to our common
Flag. Every sentiment Of human nature
in minds we'll organized m,ist revolt from
the degradation to which they have ex-
posed our Flag.--the achievements of
which, the history of which, the glories
of which, are theirs, as well as ours. A
Flag is but piece of bunting TO be sure,
but there is a sentiment in IL dear to every
human heart, and the way that sentiment
has been trihed with, in the Cotton States.
is disgraceful to every man concerned.
The Flag,--tbe Stars and the Stripes, =
does not personify, nor represent, the
Abolitionists Of the North nor the Disun-
| ionists per sc of the South, but it en-
bodies, unrolls, and unfolGs the History
of our common Fathers,--the men who
fought together from Lexington and Con
| cord on to South Carolina and Georgia.
the men, who, on the sea- In old Iron
sides, and on land, at New Orleans and
Luudy's Lane, stood shoulder to should
err together,-and such Flag is so full
of sentiment and OF story. that only the
baser material of mankind can trifle with
or dishonor it. The folly, the crime, of
the Seccssionists of the South, is, that in
their Fight for JrsrlcE and Equality, in
the Republic, they abandon to "the enc
my" the flag of the Republic, and in
abandoning, tr:ae with or dshonor that
hag-and that flag, too the flag of their
Washingtons, their Marions, their Sump-
tiers, their Lees, their Moultries, their
Pickenscs! They expect men like Gen.
Winfield Scott, who, in battle has born
that Flag against the Cross of ST. George,
and who, in Mexico, won honors and
glory with it, side by side with Southern
Regiments, too,-beyond what Cortez ev-
err won,-not only, to abandon the old
flag, its inspiring sentiment in historic
story,-all radiant with GLORY, but &c
tritle with, and to dshonor it! Why
they forget, that men part with house
home, wife, child, often with only tear
while they cling to Flag as to Life, and
die rather around its staff, and in it.
folds, than part with it. This SENTIMENT
is PArRIoTIsM-IIERoIsM,- and this senti
ment it is, which creates n country, ano
ennobles man above the brute about him
The Secessionists of the South are sacri
ficing, and degrading this sentiments
and bringing disgrace upon themselve,
in doingit. 1t is of no use, to tell IL,
"the Flag is the Flag of Abolitionsts'
"of Sectional Tyranny" &c,-for it i.
not so,--and if it were so, it is because
SEcEssroNIsM has abandoned the flag tc
Abolitionism.
OF "Palmettos," and "Pelicans," ano
Lone Stars" we hear great deal from
the South!--fiass about as important a.
some Bedouin Arabs rag upon the River
Jordan, or Atfghanistan's bit of bunting
in the Upper India, and about as wei
known over the world, as their rags and
their bunting. The STARS and the
Stripes" are the only flag the American
is known by, or that can be respectable
or respected under. In tho great tumble
and jostle of European or Asiatic diplo
macy, "the Palmettos" and "Pelcans'
will be showed aside with the negro fla.
of the IIuytien Republics, or the flag o
Jumbo Jumbo from the Congo or the
Senegal. The mixed blood Gautamaliar
will be just as important diplomat a
st. James and the Tuilleries, as "the Pei
lean" Of Louisiana. 1t is time then thi
nonsense, this folly of secession was owe
in the Southwest, and even if Justic,
is not yet to be done by the North to tn,
South, the Stars and the Stripes ough
never to be surrendered to the Abolition
lists of the North. There are thousand
and tens Of thousands of us, who, if tn,
crisis ever comes, never intend to marcl
under the black flag of Abolitionism, :
but who feel SHAME" ard cry SHANE
to the Secessionists of the South tina
exchange OUR FLAG,-and THEIR FLAG, a
|, well rs ours,-for "Palmettos" and "Pel
leans"