The weekly mountain Democrat. [volume] (Placerville, El Dorado County, Calif.) 1861-1862, 1862-02-01
speech Of De Jarnstts.

1
The following eloquent extract is from
. speech made in Congress, on the state
Of the Union, on the 10Th Of January,
1861, by Hon. d. c. De Jarnette, of Vir.
ginia:
What, Mr.. Speaker. will the Republi.
cans Of this House, when they return to
their people, carry with them to compen.
safe for the ruin and havoc which they
have created To them will belong the
responsibility Of disrupting this once hap.
by Union. To them will be attached the
awful responsibility of exciting thirty
million of the happieSt people on Gods
earth to forget that they are brethren,
and with all the destructive machinery OF
Srim-viSaged war, to destroy each other
in civil strife. On them will fall the
CURSES of millions at the North, whose
trade they have destroyed, and whose
homes they have made deSOlate. Ii is OH
you, Republicans, will fall the curses Of
the widowed mother who can no longer
find bread for her starving children. Go
to your crowded cities, not to the gilded
palaces OF your merchant princes, but tu
the lanes and alleys, and when you hear
the cries OF thousands, frantic with hun
ger and despair, and behold here a moth
er with her innocent children claSped
around her in the agony of death from
starvation, and there another tearing her
bosom because it can no longer afford
nour>hnent to her dying %infant, you
will see the result. Of your devotion TO
your party platform. YOU viii have saved
YctH party, but you will have lost your
-ceuaWy. You will have vindicatvd your
devotion To the negro by disrcgarding the
voice of humanity and the DEGREES Of
Heaven. This is what you have already
done. If, then, the prospect Of civil war,
which YOU have created, has done all this,
what, | ask, must be the misery, the ago
ny, and death which twenty-five million
brave people will intiict on each other?
Sir, ~;NSW the tlNmeS Of civil war have
swept over our once happy land, from St.
Johns to the Rio Grande, and from the
Atlantic to the Pacific; when your cities
and ours M longer rcSnunI with the hu-
~ hum Of industry, because they will be
the first victims which the relentless
mouths Of cannon will demand; WHEN
nur beautiful country, where innocence
resides and virtue sits enthrOned, shall
Is'ifIrn-,e lis etaMit've occupants because
nothing save the hyena can live amid such
scenes Of dcSnlation and death-thcn you
will behold the work of your own hands.
II YOU have not yet seen enough to make
YOU pause before you declare war on the
South, and thus invoke. on your heads the
wrath Of humanity aud the vengeance of
Heaven, those Of you who survive when
it shall have been ended, will witness
scene which will melt your hearts, though
they may be harder than adamant
When you are called on to witness the
procession Of ten million mourncrS. and
hear their cries for those who have fallen
in battle, and hear that mighty multitude,
with one voice, proclaim you the author
Of all their atiiiction, you will, indeed, cry
that the rocks may hide and the hills may
cover you from their sight. All this will
you inilict on your country and your
selves sooner than let slavery alone.