Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1861-09-27
SPEECH OF
HON. DANIEL s. DICKINSON,

plc vi NtSleTu ANcW lOTk, nelu AT ltnaca,
Saturday, Sept. 9Th, Hon. Daniel S. Dick
inson, after having been received with great
cheering, made the following speech:-
Mr. President, Ladies and Geatiemen =
That there should be Free Government
founded upon this continent wherein no
kingcratt should bear sway, and where the
people themselves should be sovereign. our
fathers pledged their lives, their fortunes.
and their sacred honor. They staked all
upon great issue, and stood the hazard of
the die. They asserted the great the sim
pie, and the sublime truth that men were
created free and equal, and endowed by
their Creator with certain inalienable rights;
and that among their rights we're life. lib
erty, and the pursuit of happiness. After
having evolved that great idea, so easily
understood by all, they marched barefoot
over frozen ground that they might estab-
Iish and defend and maintain the liberty and
freedom that they had asserted. Go back
with me TO the history of that grea, period
mot merely in the history of this conti-
nent, but in the history of the world, such
as man has never seen--and there we find
that they laid the foundations of this gov
ernment broad and deep, and adorned it
with all the learning and craftsmanship of
modern times, and especially taught that
man is sovereign being. They denied the
impious divine right of kings; they alleged
and maintained that every people should
govern themselves. And, after having as
serted this truth, thay wen. forward upon
I . he. u IL al
experimental was an experiment and hope
to them it is realization and fruition to US.
| The great fact has been established, and it
sped far beyond what they had anticipated
or imagined. The little cloud gave the
sound of abundance of rain. The sparse
colonies that struggled along upon the At
lantic slope have now grown TO be more
than thirty free and prosperous States, not
by any means confined TO the limits which
even those great men and greater minds be-
lieved would be prescribed, leaped over the
Mississippi, which had been established as
westerly boundary, scared the eagle from
his crag on the Rocky Mountains, and have
only paused where the Pacifc's wave rolls
on the golden sands of California on the
north and east it stretches to the limits of
monarchy, and has gone down to the south
where tropical breezes breathe their gales
of perpetual fragrance. Yes, this tree Of
Liberty, which was planted by our fathers,
has sho, up--its roots have struck deep, its
trunk has reached high, and so widespread
are It's branches, that all the children of the
earth may come and subsist on its fruits, or
/ refresh themselves in its shade:
awoodman, spare that tree
Touch not single boughi
In youth il sheltered me,
And III protect il now
| Cheers.
These institutions, established in such
disinterested heroism, with a progress that
has astonished The world, and wrung from
1 it unwilling admiration, are now threaten
| ed. These institutions are now menaced
with destruction. Is il by foreign foe ?
No il has stood the thunderstorm and de-
/ fed the world in arms, and now it is to be
destroyed, if destroyed it must be, by the
insidious worm of ambition that is gnawing
at its heart. Those who have been reared
under this Government, who have been
pampered at It's treasury, upon whose brows
have been wreathed the choicest laurels, are
tearing its heart, corrodiDg its very vitals.
And we are told that they are brethren, and
that there must not be any contention with
them. Yes, they are our brethren. But
shall we stand tamely by and see them
baihe their hands in the blood of our vene-
rated mother? No; she must be defended
at all hazards from these murderous parri-
cides. And the crime is the greater and
more heinous because they are brethren. Ii
they were remorseless savages. or proving
Arabs, they might have better apology to
offer But they are attempting to over
throw her who gave them existence, and
nursed them on the lap of indulgence, and
dandled them on the knee, and who nursed
/ them and fostered them, and placed arms
in their hands to defend her, with which
they attempt to destroy her. Yes, they are
our brethren. But they are not the first
beings who have rebelled. Cheers and
laughter There was rebellion even in
heaven-blind, needless, naughty, dark am
bition caused Satan to rebel there. For
| lust about the same cause as this rebellion
| r Laughter and cheers. And the end of
this rebellion will be the same. Renewed
laughter and cries of Good" Those
| Who instituted il will be hurled down to
darkness aad chains forever by an indig-
nant and outraged people. When this re-
bellion reared its snaky head laughter
the whole American people trembled. We
felt the earth throb and heave and beat as
with the eonvulsion of mighty volcano.
found it perhaps more difficult than any in
dividual in the United States, if not in the
world, SO far as personal convenience or
considerations were concerned, and person
al and political friendships, and domestic re-
lations. and kindred associations could infiu-
ence, to take ground against this rebellion.
! MANY years in the Senate of the United
States, friendships had grown up, and the
course of public affairs had clustered around
me Southern sympathies which gave me
position in the Southern States that no 9TH
er man in the North or South held. For
myself, therefore, found il more difficult
fer these reasons 10 sever these ties than any
other one ceaid have done; but. in patri-
otic sense, / did not find it difficult at ALL
| Cheers.1 With the very first booming of
the gun that fred upon Sumter, declared
| in a moment that was in the field against
the rebellion. [Cheers. The FIRST news
told me that there would be meeting IN
New York | flew there as on the wings
of the wind, to declare my principles, that
| might summon my friends to initiate my
example. Amen believed then that
had the kissing. devilish, disunion serpent
by the neck. and now | know ! have