The Portland daily press., 1863-07-07
Our Present Duty.
PORTLAND, July 2, 1863.

PORTLAND, July 2, 1868.
Tothe Editor Of the Press:
Now that the rebels have astonished us by
daring aud unprecedented feat in our harbor,
there is great likelihood that the mass of the
people will overrate the present danger as
largely as they did the former security of the
city. To alarm us for ourselves and thereby
divert from the army if possible the recruits
now so much needed there, is doubtless one
and the principal ain in these daring raids:
1t requires, as we have seen, but alacrity of
movement and dashing audacity, which is
its own protection to accomplish them sue
cessfully; for the failure OF the Tacony's
scheme must be regarded as Providential. In
such operations, which tend largely to give
them the foreign prestige that they enjoy,
they risk and lose fewer lives than in the usual
routine of warfare. Therefore while the Con-
federacy lasts as belligerent power, opposed
to us land will it not ever be thus, if suffered
to exst?) we shall be compelled to guard
against privateers. The surest way to kill the
oti-shoots of rebellion is to strike more forci-
bly,, as they annoy us the more, at the root
iioh sucy opiIiS. DSSauoO vi tiio
outrage we ought not to desire to withhold or
withdraw man from the field While doing
all that is necessary to protect ourselves from
such assaults in the future, let us not fail to
remember that oftentimes, and never more
than now, victory abroad is the surest pro-
lection at home, The danger now is not so
great as before our awakening, though doubt
less sufficient to render vigilance essential to
our safety.
Let Names answer to this foray upon her
barbor and shipping be an overwhelming adj
dition to our present list of noble soldiers in
the field. Let none but the feeble and super
animated consider it their bounden duty to
be "home guards" With all the men in the
army who belong there, and with all the home
traitors who have merited it in close confine-
the war. To have learned our errors is long
stride toward reform. May we not hope that
we have advanced thus far?
An experience like that Of the past few
days is even useful, if it but tends to reveal
the enemies in our midst, and to arouse to
new life, as it certainly has, the timid and
timeserviDg. If a man never felt real patri-
otto impulse before, an attack upon his own
town is, to him at least, blessing, if it gives
him the sensation for once And where there
is as much of doubtful sentiment on national
affairs / have met with in the last few
months, any event which compels division
and arranges all on one side or the other, is
something over which we ought to rejoice
rather than mourn.
Then let each advocate, more strenuously
than ever, a vigorous prosecution of the war,
and never, neper view for one instant as pos
si6ie, what would be so disastrous to the
cause OF freedom and truth everywhere as
would be final defeat to our army in the
present war.
Do not speak the sentiment of every 10y
al woman in the city? Such surely ought to
be the feeling in each heart. The world will
believe that it is so, if the action of our sons
and brothers correspond Herewith. Now is
the time to write for ourselves either the
brightest or the darkest page in our history.
Shall the land through our remissness be Civ
EN- over TO the rule of anarchy and rebellion?
or shall we again become the most prosperous
of the nations? S.J.F.