New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1862-03-31
Judge Brockenbrough's Speech.
From tha Richraond Khie /


We find in the last issue of the Lexington (va.)
Gazette full copy of an address delivered at the
Courthouse of Rockbridge county, on the Sd inst,
by Judge John ". Brockenbrough, on the state of
the country. The address is published in the
Gazette at the request of committee of citizens,
who obtained a copy from Judge B. for that pur-
pose.
The address commenced with reference to the
efforts made by Virginia to maintain the peace of
the country, and then reviews briefly "the causes
which, proximatey at least, produced the war of
invasion waged against us by our ruthless enc
miles," Judge B. says:
have always deplored the failure of the Con-
vention to declare our State out of the Union i'm
mediately after the promulgation Of the Inaugural
as a sad and disastrous blunder. | am assured by
those who had the best opportunity Of forming
weakly garrisoned, and Harper's Ferry, might
have been seized by Virginia, and their rich treas
ures of arms and munitions Of war secured at
very small expenditure of blood. Had the former
been seized by coup d'etat, we would have held
the command of the Chesapeake, and Maryland,
"my Maryland would have eagerly rushed into
the loving embrace of her Southern sisters. Hold
ing the key OF the Potomac, Washington must have
been evacuated and the war which ensued would
have been waged, if, indeed, any would have en-
sued, along the line Of the Susquehanna instead of
the Potomac. But the golden opportunity was not
seized and the powerful fortress, the Gibraltar of
the South, left in the undsputed possession of
an enemy who was allowed quietly to throw into
it an overwhelming army, and strengthen its forti
fcations to such an extent as to make it impreg-
nable
The following additional extract from the ad-
dress will be read with interest:
But, my friends, we must now address ourselves
to the task Immediately set before us, of de-
picting in its true colors the actual condition. of
public affairs. l will deal frankly with you, for
the crisis demands it.. Your country is in imminent
peril. A powerful army, chated by the memory of
former defeats, flushed with recent victories,
threatens the destruction of your liberties and the
confscation OF your property: The foe has sworn
in his wrath that he will crush, what he nsolenty
calls your rebellion, within sixty hays Can he
accomplish his wicked boast? Never, if you
rally bravely around her sacred flag But, to
avert SO dire catastrophe, the highest energies
| of our Government and people will be severely
taxed. There is not State in our Confederacy
whose soil is not pressed by the foot of the in
| vader. His numerical strength and warlike ap.
| pances are far greater than ours :; but his ends
and the means by which he hopes to accomplish
them are, alike, infamous and detestable. Our re-
sources are great, our cause the noblest that
nerved the arm of a free people. 1t were an i'm
| peachment of Divine justice to doubt that God
will protect and guide us safely through the terri
| BILE conflict! We have sinned, grievously sinned
| and in His own mysterious way, and for His own
mysterious purpose, He has severely chastised us,
to bring us backto just sense Of our dependence
| on Him Such is my Interpretation of the re-
victorious arms. Behind shifting Providence,
he hides smiling face.n How beautifully fit and
| appropriate, then, wasi in the Chief Magistrate
OF our young Oonfederacy to call upon the people,
Friday last, to go up the temples dedicated to
| His service, and in spirit OF penitence aud
prayer, invoke His forgiveness of our sins, and
beseech Him to save US from our enemies and
| from the hands of all who hate US! Who that
united in the solemn services Of the sanctuary that
day but felt his soul refreshed, his heart strength
| ened. his arm nerved!
| Was there not something unutterable tender and
touching, nay sublime in that act of national us-
| frat w m oil VtrU
| angels around the throne of God paused in their
alteration, that day, and pointing to a nation pros
trate in prayer, exclaimed Behold, they pray ~
Can any be so skeptical TO doubt the incense of
| devotion ascending to heaven from thousand
| altars, was Offering acceptable to Him who
| ruleth the Universe? But God worketh by means,
and the instrumentalfty of human effort. Address
yourselves earnestly and persstenty to the task of
will aid you He hel ps the brave, the vigant s5e
active, not the timd, the slothfui, the supne. So
| thought your own Henry when he said ''Three mil
lions of people armed ii the holy cause of liberty,
| invincible by any force which our enemy can send
against US. Besides we shall not fight our battles
| alone There is just God who presides over the
destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends
to fight battles for The battle is not to the
strong alone it is to the vigiant tile active the
| braye!" These words were prophecy then-they
are history now. God did raise up friends to fight
the battles Of our Revolutionary fathers-he did
crown with success the vigilant, the active, the
| brave! Shake off all gloom or despondency. We
are now in the darkest hour of our second Revolu
| ton! In period of similar gloom during the first
war OF Independence, when the stoutest hearts
quaed aud the bravest cheeks grew pale. the
| author of Common Sense u exclaimed: :" These
are the times that try mems souls. The summer
soldier and the sunshine patriot will in this crisis
shrink from the service of his country, but he who
stands by US now deserves the love and thanks d
man and woman"
When, in the tide of time, was a great revolu
ton worked out without pain and suffering, occa-
sional disasters and defeat? Shall we dare to
claim exemption from an universal law? Bu
though in every protracted war reyerses must neei
come, yet know that six millions of people were
never yet subjugated their own soil. Smal
nationalities like Poland, Hungary, or Switzer
land, have indeed been overcome and enslayed
but country of 100000 square miles in extent
with every diversity of soil and climate, inhabi
by a race the most martial on earth, inspired b.
an inbred and incl xsinguishable love of liberty, in