Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1861-05-09

stood faithful and sundaunted beneath the
iron storm bursting from above, and the
raging fires around them, we shall deserve
ourselves, on some disastrous day, to pass
through like fiery ordeal.
| speak, fellow citizens, in no spirit of m
kindness 10 the South. l have been, through
my public life, some of you have thought,
too much her friend. To avert what
deemed the impending danger of a general
convulsioD, l have been more willing than
some Of you to pursue-always / hope
through honorable paths-the policy Of con-
ciliation. Besides this, in my humble eff
forts to rescue the home and tomb of Wash
ington from desecration land oh, saddest
desecration of all. that the sacred precincts
should perhaps even now be trodden BY
armed bands, Fastening to lay the city which
bears his name. in ashes. have trayersed
the South. everywhere received with the
most fattering kindness, more than most
Northern men. In no part of the Union
have | more or more valued friends; but as
Heaven is my judge, it is my most profound
and solemn conviction, that it is infinitely
more desirable for the South than the North,
that this suicidal attempt to break up the
Union should be frustrated. y. IN. H. n
For consider, fellow citizens, that that 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 involved
the county in what all history proclaims the
direst of national calamties-a civil war
but it has at once placed the South at the
mercy Of every foreign power. Xxx.
| No Gnyorpn,nnf nr, fbfo oont,naox .. :,
command the respect of Europe, that does
not possess navy; and the North, from
natural causes, must ever be the exclusive
Our climate, our harbors, our fisheries, our
commercial marine are the elements of this
strength. The South has naval stores, brave
officers, live oak forests; but what are live
oak trees without live oak men to compact
them into noble ships, and to launch their
thunders What would it avail the South
to possess the whole English navy, while
their harbors are shut up BY bars, over which
you cannot float bomb-ketch? No, fellow
citizens, the South, if she succeeds in rend-
ing the Union; not only madly throws away
her share in all the future naval glories Of
the country, but she puts herself in the
eyes. OF Europe, by the side of the petty
trading Republics of Bremen, of Hamburg,
OF Lubbock; she exposes her commerce to
the insults of every rover of the sea she
holds her coasts and her harbors, not only
at the mercy of the great maratime powers
Of England and France, but of Austria and
of Spain, of any third rate Government
that keeps a few steam fiigates at sea. AT
this moment there is nothing but that flag
which you have this day displayed; that
navy which the South is seeking to paralyze
and destroy, which protects Norfolk and
Charleston, and Savannah and Pensacola,
and Mobile and New Orleans from the in
suits of Spain justly irritated at the flibus-
tering war, which has been so often waged
upon Cuba. a'l.is
But, fellow-citizens, forbear. When
Mr.. Crane and the other gentlemen wished
me last evening to take part in this cere-
monlai, In reply to my observation, that no
long speech would, l supposed, be expected,
he intimated the wish that my remarks
should be Short pithy, and to the point. +"
| cannot claim much "pith or moment for
these unstudied suggestions but l will hope
they are not very wide of the point and
promise you they shall be short, for will
only say, in conclusion, All hail to the flag
of the Union! Courage to the heart and
strength to the hand to which in all time it
shall be entrused May it ever wave in un-
sullied honor over the dome of the Capitol,
from the country sstrongholds, on the tented
field, upon the wave-rocked topmast 1t
was originally displayed on the lst of Janu-
ary, l776, from the headquarters of Wash
ington, whose lines of decentralization around
beleaguered Boston traversed the fair spot
where we now stand and as twas first Civ
IL