The Grand Haven news. [volume] (Grand Haven, Mich.) 1858-18??, 1861-06-26
Extract from a Letter written by
Hon. Joseph Holt,

Formerly Commissioner Of the Patent
Office and Post Master General, under
James Buchanan's administration. Mr..
Holt is Kentuckian, and for his patriot
ism LET his own words speak:
"Let us then Irvine each thread Of the
glorious tissue Of our Country's flag about
our heart strings, and looking upon our
homes and catching the spirit that breaths
upon us from the battle-felds of our faith
or let us resolve, come veal or woe, we will
in life and in death,n now and forever, stand
by the stars aud stripes. They have
floated over our cradles, let it be our pray
err and our struggle that they shall float
over our graves. They have been unfurl-
ed from the SHOWS of Canada to the
plains of New Orleans, and to the halls of
the Montezumas and amid the solitudes
of every sea; and everywhere, as the lu-
minous symbol of resistless and beneficent
power, they have led the brave and the
free 10 victory and to glory. 1t has been
my fortune to look upon this flag in for
eign lands and amid the gloom of an orr
entail despotism, and right well do know
by contrast, how bright are its stars, and
how sublime are its inspirations! If this
banner, the emblem for US of all that is
grand in human history, and OF all that
is transporting in human hope, is to be
sacrificed on the affairs of Satanic am
bition, and thus disappear forever amid
the night and tempest Of revolution, then
will feel-and who shall estimate the
desolation of that feeling?-that the sun
has indeed been stricken from the sky of
our lives, and that henceforth we shall be
but wanderers and outcasts, with nought
but the bread Of sorrow and penury for
our lips, and with hands ever outstretchcd
in feebleness and supplication, on which,
in any hour n military tyrant may rivet
the letters of despairing bondage
May God in his infinite mercy save you
and me, and the land we so much love,
from the doom of such degradation.
No contest so momentous rs this has
arisen in human history, for, amid all the
conflicts of men and of nations, the life
of no such government as ours has ever
been at stake. Our fathers won our in.
dependence by the blood and sacrifices of
a seven years war, and we have main
tanned it against the assaults of the great
est power upon the earth; and the ques-
ton now is, whether VIC are 10 perish by
our own hands, and have the epitaph of
suicide written upon our tomb? The or
deal through which we are passing must
involve immense suffering and losses, for
us all, but the expenditure of not merely
hundreds of millions, but of billions of
treasure will be well made, if the result
shall be the preservation of our insttu-
tons.
"Could my voice reach every dwelling
in Kentucky, would implore its inmates
If they would not have the rivers of
their prosperity shrink away, as do unfed
streams beneath Summer heats-to rouse
themselves from their lethargy, and fly to
the rescue of their country, before it is
too late. Man should appeal to man, and
ncigEborhood to neighborhood, until the
electric fires of patriotism shall flash from
heart TO Heart in one unbroken current
throughout the land. 1t is n time in
which the workshop, the office, the count
ing house, and the field, may well be
abandoned for the solemn duty that is up
on us, for all these tolls will but bring
treasure, not for ourselves, but for the
spoiler if this revolution is not arrested.
We are all, NTH our every earthly inter-
est, embarked an mid-ocean on tie same
common deck. The howl of the storm
IS an our ears, and "he Hghtning'S red
glare as painting hell on tie sky" and
aOhile the noble ship pitches and rolls an
der the lashings Of tie waves, tie cry as
heard that she has sprung leak al
many points, and that tie rushing vqterS
are mounting rapidly an tie hold. The
man aChO, an such an hour, aoiW not work
at the pumps, IS either a maniac or
monster. Sincerely yours, j. Holt"