Litchfield enquirer., 1861-11-21
SWORD PRESENTATION TO LIEUTEN-
 ANT JAMES M. PIERPONT, OF COM.
 PANY E., 1lTH REGIMENT CONN.

l FAN h., 1lIH RECIi iNEN CONN.
 VOL
 A meeting was held at the Town Hall in Nor. ris, on Friday evening, November 9th, for the purpose of presenting Lieutenant Pierpont with a Sword and Sash, which had been purchased by the citizens of that town, and which was ten dered to him as a testimonial, of respect and es- teem by his fellow townsmen
 Rev. D. L. PARsE1EE was called to the Chair as President.
 Mir. WILLIAM H. LAUREss was appointed Clerk.
 Messrs. HENRY E. DALEY, WILLIAM RAY, ALEXANDER H. HARRISON, and RICHARD TUR- KISeroN, were appointed Vice Presidents.
 The exercises were opened by Prayer from the President to which every Christian Patriot could respond: after which, he addressed the meeting upon our national troubles, tracing the hand of God in events, as relating to our own and foreign nations, taking very hopeful view, and trusting that God in His Providence, would bring us to happy deliverance from all our diff 1 fculties.
 i Lieutenant PIERpoNT, and spoke as follows:
 LIEUTENANT PIERPoNT Upon every occasion like the present, of late so common in this our Northern section of the land, I suppose that two sets of emotions agitate the minds of re- fiective men who participate therein-emotons of sorrow and notions of joy. Of sorrow that the reckless sin of men who are determined to be ungoverned, gives occasion for their coming together for the purposes in hand, and of joy that in the circumstances where we find our selves as a people, there are those who like your self, are ready to devote their energies and lives to the support of the nations life and honor. | Such certainly are my own feelings as. to. night, the mouthpiece of these citizens of Nor rls, your friends and acquaintances, l stand be- fore you to discharge welcome office. We ap- pear here on no vindictive errand. Our minds, if we know them, are under the sway of no spir- It Of hostility to any man or set of men. We do not desire that You imbrue your hands in the blood of your brethren. We mourn that any possibility that this may be needful should ex- | ist.
 | But, Sir, necessity is laid upon us as people that we execute the laws of the land. In large part of what we hold to be the national domain, in so far as the proper reach of the law of the land is concerned, the spirit of Rebellion thereunto is rampant-is armed. You know as well, nay better than l, Qor you have stood in it's armed presence,) what aspect it has taken on, and to what it has grown. That which is pro- posed by those you go to encounter, is this-to disintegrate the Republic, to take the United States out of the family of Eations and sink us into the insignifcance of the petty Repub- lies of South America, or of the few that exist in Europe. Sir, necessity is laid upon us that we execute the laws-that we vindicate the Government-that we sustain it's rights, until they be acknowledged from ono end of the land to the other.
 Viewed in this light, then, the struggle into which you are a second time going, is no Wu', ill the proper sense of the term. I understand 8 state of war to be that existing where two Nations having matters of dispute, and unable to settle their difficulties in other ways, recog- nlzlng TO common superior to whom they may appeal, proceed to the terrible adjudication of force, with the desire to do one another as much injury as may be. And this spirit is born of He'll. But, Sir, yours, as Soldier of your Country, is one of the nobcst of errands. Be. hold these armies of the UNION, sleeping to- night on the banks of tho Potomac, ready for the word that shall send them forward to the discharge of their solemn mission. Behold that other army, watching tonight, perhaps, on the plains of Missouri, the immediate signal for the onset into deadly strife. Behold that great fleet, with all it's grand appointments, that has de- parted. we know not whither See the line of battleships riding in grim guardianship of the blockade, from Hatteras to Galveston. Behold the few fortresses in OUT Southern regions, not yet betrayed by the treachery of some who were but lately in power, bristling with men zealous ; in tho defence of the flag that waves over them. What are they all but so many great executors Of tho laws? They will maintain the obligation of these words" This Constitution and the laws of the United States which shall be made 1 in pursuance thereof under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land" These words, Sir, are irrepeaable by the action of any State-they can only be broken by the voice of the People, which voice, I am bold to say, Sir, in the Southern States has nev- CT been heard-this Constitution, from which I have extracted, all the while taking it's binding force from a still higher quarter even that which Paul discerned as tho foundation of all civil obligation when he wrote to Titus" Put them in mind to be subject to principGlities and pow CTS. and to obey magistrates
 1 It is doubtless, here, whatever may be directly or immediately connected, that the great oues. tion of the day presents itself to the American People. To say in action, whether or not we have had a Government, and that with strenotb enough to protect itself from all foes, foreivn and domestic. The loose heresies of a school oi southern statesmen have filled many minds at the south with an opposite theory. To the adoptlon or this theory their minds have been found to be wellftted, from the existence and power of the accursed institution under which they l7e-slavery rredisposing them to the ac- ceptance Of theory that has for it's cornerstone the position that any men may do as they will, regardless of the rights of others.
 on't the other hand, the minds of the mass of the men at the North-thanks be to .GOd-the men Of all political parties, are penetrated with the opposite theory. They hold that tho PEO- 1 PILE made the Cove nment ofthe United States, that the People have built the noble fabric that has sprung up under 1t. l On, Sir! what has it not been! Under it you and were born Under it, We have lived. Un- der it the nation has grown from small begin, n:n.s to thirty-four millions of men. Under it we have held out for generations, an asylum for the downcast, the oppressed, over the face of all the Earth. Under it our material interests have prospered as those of no other people on Earth, in so short time We have been one people one nation-strong in power, happy ut home and respected abroad.
 The claim set up and attempted to be carried to day, is, that all this may, of right, be dashed in an instant, and that without Consultation. agreement, permission-with nothing to dictate and determine action, beside the wish of those oI