Mineral Point weekly tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1859-1868, 1864-07-06
The Signs sf the Times

' 0"Jo VIC SnlcaSc Jouyuai
marches to the music of the Baltimore nI,+
form and the Declaration of Iaiependenoo
She has risen to comprehension of ,ho -,
sis, The Oath day of this month vi,fha
memorable one IN her history. Genar..;o-
of Marylanders, yet unborn, will risa
call that day blessed, for on that da1 a.
Constitutional Convention of Maryland (,
session at Annapolis, by vote of SO ava.
against 27 nays, passed the following artioI.
of the bill of rights:
az Hereafter III this State there sba,, ,,,s
slavery nor Involuntary servitude, except in TpU
ishment of crime whereof the party shall have Rd
duly convicted, and all persons held 70 sas Deeh
labor as slaves are hereby declared free" CT
So fall, one by one, under the red hand of
war, the strongholds of the "sum of all will.
MES" Southwark the star of Liberty tall,
its way. With one hand clutching the tbroat
of the rebellion, and with the other fastened
upon the throat of its hateful bag of moth
er, our grim-yisaged War pushes his way II
the Gulf, and when he gets to the Gulf
he viii open his hands over its waters.
Let those who love and revere our Republic
genuinely, and who ardently labor, toll and
pray for its triumph, be encouraged. Our
cause, however slowly it may seem to 90 for
ward relatively, really goes forward with
marvellous rapidity.
Our cause is on the one hand Union and on
the other Liberty. On one side of our ban
ner is written the Sovereignty of America,
and on the other the Liberty of America
These two commanding errands combined
make an errand for our sword, of transcen-
dent magnitude. Our cause is too immense,
then, to go forward more rapidly than it does.
Large bodies move slowly. Vast interests
get on step by step. The swallow darts
the eagle swoops. A battle is a sputter; If
takes many such to make a war. And il
takes good deal of war to accomplish what
is expected of our war. 4 war is an awful
and august era. Wars for ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
are wicked, but war such as ours is a neces-
sity, and being necessity, it is terribly sub
lime. Its mission now is well defined. When
it commenced, its design was only partially
comprehended. We knew as little of its
scope, and its bearing on the future as We
did of its duration. We thought it might
end i'll year; we imagined that peace
" 3uld come back to US arm in arm with the
Union as it was" 1t was three wears and
more before we learned better We have
been three years and more in learning that,
as in the affairs of individuals, so in the con
Germs of nations, Man proposes, God dis
poses"
Whatever may have been our idea of the
war when it commenced, we can have bat
one idea of it now. However inadequately
we may have conceived of it when we first
went at it, we ought to look upon it
with opinions and impressions of its mission,
somewhat commensurate with its magnitude
1t must now be patent to the most obtuse
and the most prejudiced that this war means
everywhere sonth of Maryland, what it is al
last understood to mean in Maryland. Ii
means Liberty. Those who are opposed 10
Liberty have only themselves to censure for
this great gain and advance of Liberty, while
those who desire it for every dweller upon
the earth, may not thank themselves for the
miraculous progress that it is making in the
land. The death of slavery viii be the sui
eide of slavery. The triumph of Liberty the
historian will credit to the war. A half cox
fury of peace would not have done for Mary
land what three years of war have done.
If, then, we are disposed to fret at, and
quarrel with, the sloth of the sword of the
Republic, let remember that its work is of
a vastness unprecedented In spite of all
that we, through timidity or through preju-
dice, may have desired and devised to the
contrary, it is Inanifestly our fate and the or
dering of Divine Providence that only Just SO
fast as slavery goes down shall the rebellion
go downfall the flag of our idolatrorfs at
tachment must be washed in blood, in our
own blood, that it may be washed of the in
consistency, the shame and stain of human
bondage.
To uproot slavery then, is to uproot the
rebellion; to plant liberty where slavery has
been is to plant loyalty where treason has
long been growing, to the peril of the ma
ton.