Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1861-01-10
Stand By the Old Flag.


opinions or weak foith are reliable to have
their condolences in our political system shs-
ken. The hour de mands self-recollection
and trustful recourse to our Iaoss sacred
principles and traditions. True souls, inn
bued with the legitimate sentiments of the
age, and worthy of the destiny appointed TO
the nation, will not finch before the present
trial; they will. remind themselves that such
eAigencies are the discipline of good institu>
tions, as of good men that virtue and great
ness, whether of states or of individual men,
ness to principle; that is to say, confidence
in principle when adversely most menaces it.
Never has there been an hour in which the
citizens of these free states should have stood
more manfnlly around the Gag which sym
bolizes their principles and their history,
than they should in this period of trial. 1t
is the testing time of our destiny; if found
faithful and worthy, that flag will yet wave
more proudly than ever before the eyes of
the world. We must show our regard for it
by all possible dispositions for compromise
and concilia ton, but not by one concession
of the principles of political truth, righteous
ness and liberty, essential to the genius and
mission of the nation. What is its genius,
if not freedom What its mission, if it is
not to build up the new world with the in
stitusions of Christian ciyilization-to spread
over it's vas: domains the triumphs of indus
the homes, the intelligence, and the virtues
Of self. relying humanity? This is what the
natural conditions of the country demand,
what God demands. what the founders of the
republic designed. We cannot forego this
design without defying the will of heaven,
the conscience of the civilized world, and the
undeniable purpose o: our fathers. The lat
ter treated the difficulty which now threat
ems us with wise expediency, but with no
sacrifice of principle. 1t was to them, as to
US, problem which required forbearing
treatment; they met its practical embarrass
ments by constitutional provisions, but with
the protest of all their avowed principles,
and with the direct protest of the express
language of many of the best and greatest of
them-of Washington, Jefferson, franklin,
Patrick Henry, sc. They admitted its in
ccDgruity with the legitimate destiny of the
country they expected its gradual and
peaceful extinction in the progress of the
country Every provision they made in re-
lation to 1t was made with this tactic calcu-
lation. No man who knows the state of opin-
ion at the revolutionary era will question the
assertion.
| 1t is IN thaspirit of these men, the foun-
should lie expounded by al just and compre-
hensiye statesmen. Il is in that spirit, and
that alone, that the compromises of the pres
ent controversy, if compromises there can be,
should be constructed. There can be no wav-
ering at this point, without an outrage to
the memory of our national founders, to our
self respect, and to the supreme moral seuti
ment of the Christian world.
These great Free States, charged with a
solemn amenability to the opinion of the civ.
ilzed world, and to the God of nations, can
not give way at this point. To do SO would
be to show moral feebleness unworthy of
their country and dishonorable TO the hu-
man race. They could not give surer
proof of the political enervation of the ma
tion-of the extinction of the spirit of its
founders, and of its best hopes. Such an ex-
ample would be pointed to as stronger
demonstration of the failure of our political
system than any local disruption of the Uni-
on, fbrit would prove not merely political
perplexity, but radical decentralization.
We must then, stand by our flag, by
standing firmly ON the position here indica-
ted. Standing here, we shall not only be
faithful to the spirit and design of the Con-
stitution and its founders, but we shall be
mighty in our national morale; we shall
maintain our self-respect and dignity, and if
calamities are to be confronted, we can meet
them as true men. Let US not distrust, in
this testing hour, oar destiny or the great
principles upon which divine Providence has
projected it. LIE: US away with even doubt
full language respecting the Republican ex-
| pertinent No American artisan, among
his children at his hearth, no farmer in his
cottage, no teacher at the public desk, should
allow the utterance of such treason to his
fathers, and to the hopes Of mankind it is
fit only for unprincipled demagogues who
can sacrifice the public good for their indi-
vidual hopes.
Whatever may be the result of southern
secession, these Free States are sufficient to
continue, with but transient disturbance, a
mighty and invincible government of free
and sovereign men they could at once,
with the loss Of all the disaRscted States, be
a first rate power among the nations they
can be if they simply move forward, as here
tofore, under the Constitution, not only q
first rate power, but soon the first power
their granaries feeding the world, their COM
meroe in all lis ports, and their old and hon.
ored flag. the emblem of successful self-gov-
ernment, before the eyes of all nations.-
Without the seeding States, they would be
still as great as the Roman empire in its
greatest glory. Let them bear in mind,