The Potter journal. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1857-1872, 1862-10-08
TER COUNTY Pa WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER g. 1852.

yes, it is Gods voice speaking to you
from every page of history. "Let them
60, or perish" "Let them go, and save
tie temple where your goddess dwells,"
looking back over hundreds of centuries
over the desolation which has followed
swiftly after dlsobedience and disregarded
duty, | declare am willing to "let them
go." | make my VOW before you-I will
let individuals die, and communities die,
and institutions die, and interests die,
but l will save the nation, if l can
Will you?
Slavery is the cause of the war, and
the strength of the enemy. He battles
for it, and draws his supplies from it.
What law of God condemns the resistance
of evil; what usage of war forbids weak
eniDg the adversary when it can be done
without cruelty? The nation and the
crime are confronted. If we are for the
nation we must be against the crime; we
know that those who are for the crime
are against the nation. 1t is as impossi-
BILE to serve both as it is to serve God and
Belial show you the "irrepressible
conflict" and demand the full discharge
of sacred obligation. On the one hand
is virtue, which exalts; on the other,
vice which casts down-the two cannot
mot go hand il hand, and have a COM
mon cause. When they come in con-
fict one or the other must fall. We
have tried time and again to make COM
promises between them, but confusion
has always followed the effort. When
will kings, and princes, and presidents
learn plain duty, to do justice and love
mercy? We must let the people so -
There has been no decisive progress IN
the present war for the single reason that
we have not finally decided to abandon
all effort to reconcile and perpetuate an
tagonistic and ever-warring principles.
The Administration, protesting to be
wiser than all mankind beside, struggle
against eternal DEGREES, and are deter
mined to save both slavery and freedom
AS God is greater than Lincoln, aud cab
iLets, and congresses, l asseverate it is
impossible. Change Of policy or dis
graceful failure is the only choice left to
| the Government.
Citizens, you not only deserve success,
but you can compel 1t. When the small
engine cannot move the heightened train,
push with the eight-wheeled driver. We
may not be perfectly safe, but it is better
than stand-still. The hands of Moses
were heavy, they were upheld, and Anne.
lex was overcome. You are the power
behind the train-push 1t on. The hands
of our leaders have fallen hold them up.
Do not hesitate to active are the SOW
ereigns-thcso above US are but servants,
and must obey,
We are fast disgracing ourselves before
those who have hitherto regarded US as
honest, consistent, and invinc:b :ble-let us
determine to exalt ourselves in the eyes
of Him "that sitteth upon the circle of
the earth" When we shall do SO, slavery
shall vanish as black cloud from before
the face of the sun, and Liberty and
Union will really become, for the first
time, one and inseparable.
do not expect the war to be brought
to a sudden conclusion by great victory.
Far from it. [ look for days of toll and
nights of anguish. But We will succeed.
Although l do not approve, L have faith.
The Union will be sacred for posterity,
for the subjects of absoutism, for the
glory of man. We are now going to
school and learning rapidly. We know
much more to-day than we did yesterday,
and some time in the future we will re-
coive our diploma. Although we are in
the valley worshipping golden calf, we
may yet hear and accept the tables of the
law, and be saved through them. But
FIRST the idol must be burned in the fire,
ground to powder, strewn upon the
waters, and we be made to drink of it.
Neither trials nor delays should discour-
age us, for the land of promise can cer-
tainly be reached. We will wash our
hands of the crime-we will let the peo-
pie go.
| have never had doubt as to the re-
suit Of the contest in which we are so
closely engaged. Our armies are but
just gathering for the strife, and the
rebel legions will ultimately fall before
them as the mighty hosts of Senacherib
before the avenging angel of the Lord.
This shall remain an asylum for the op-
pressed, and our hallowed banner he still
honored on every land and every sea.
When, before, since the first transgres-
sion, have such mighty interests depended
upon such simple and easy act of justice
"a spoken word.
A Drunkard is the annoyance of mod
esty, the trouble of civility, the spoil of
wealth, the destruction of reason. He is
ba thiaf of hio l,t,-oo IL