Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1864-07-07
The Signs of the Times,


form and the Declaration of Independence.
She has risen to comprehension of the cri
sis. The oath day of this month will be
memorable one in her history. Generations
of Marylanders, yet unborn, will rise I'D and
call that day blessed, for on that dav the
Constitutional Convention of Maryland. in
session at Annapolis, by vote of So ayes
against p nays, passed the following article
of the bill of rights:
g Hereafter in this State there shall neither h.
slavery nor involuntary servitude, excapt in MN.
lshment of crime whereof the party shall have beon
duly convicted, and all persons held to service or
laoor as Slaves are hereby declared .tree.'
SO fall, ore by one, under the red hand of
war, the strongholds of the ''sum of all villa
MES" Southwark the star of Liberty takes
It's way. With one hand clutching the throat
OF the rebellion, and With the other fastened
upon the throat of its hateful bag of moth
er, our grim-visaged War pushes his way to
the Gulf, and when he gets to the Gulf
he will 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 60 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 sputter; it
| takes many such to make a war. And it
takes good deal Of war to accomplish what
| is expected of our war A war is an awful
and august era. Wars for ACKNOWLEDGMENT
are wicked, but a war such as ours is a neces-
| slty, 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
would come back to US arm in arm with the
Union as it was" 1t was three years 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 but
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 now
with opinions and impressions of it's 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 at
last understood to mean in Maryland. It
means Liberty. Those who are opposed to
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 will be the sui
eide of slavery. The triumph of Liberty the
historian will credit to the war. A half cen
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 US 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 manifestly our fate and the or
dering of Divine Providence that only just so
fast as slavery goes down shall the rebellion
go down-that the flag of our idolatrous at
tachment must be washed in blood, in our
own blood, that it may be washed Of the i'll
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.