Holmes County farmer. [volume] (Millersburg, Ohio) 1857-1926, 1864-06-23
The House being in Committee of tn,
Whole on the state of the Union
Mr. VOORHEES, said

'
Mr.. VOORHEES, said
Mr.. CHAIRMAN | arise to address the
House to-day with feelings Of profound de-
preston and gloom. 1t is melancholy
spectacle to behold free government die.
The world it is true is filed with the eyi-
dences of decay. All nature speaks the
history and of life is strewn with the wrecks
which time, the great dcspoiler, has made.
But hope of the future, bright visions of re-
viving glory are nowhere denied to the heart
of man save as he gazes upon the downfall
of legal liberty. He listens sorrowtully tC
the autumn winds as they sigh through dis
mantcd forests, but he knows that their
breath will be soft and vernal in the spring,
and that the dead flowers and the withorcd
foliage will blossom and bloom again. lie
sees the sky overcast with the angry frown
of the tempest, but he knows that the sun
will rcappear, and the stars, the bright en-
blazony Of God, cannot perish. Man him
self, this strange connecting link between
dust and. deity, totters wearily onward un-
der the weight Of years and pain towards
the gaping tomb, but how briefly his mind
fingers around that dismal spot. 1t is filled
with tears and grief and the willow aud the
cypress gather around it with their loving,
but mournful embrace, And is this all 2
Not so If man die shall he not live
again? Beyond the grave, in the distant
Alden, hope provides an elysium Of the soul
where the mortal assumes immortality and
life becomes an endless splcndor.
But where, sir, in all the drcary regions
of the past, filled with convulsions, wars,
and crimes, can you point your finger to the
tomb of free commonwealth on which the
aprn1 n hus Inc,plnJ -,
from whose mouth the stone of despotisn
has ever been rolled away ? Where, il
what age and in what cline, have the ruin,
of constitutional freedom renewed then
youth and regained their lost estate BY
whose strong grip has the dead corpse of {
Republic once fallen ever been raised p
The merciful Master who walked upon the
waters and bade the winds be still left no or.
daincd apostles with power to wrench apart
the jaws of national death and release tho
victims of despotism. The wall Of the
heart-broken over the dead is not so sad tc
me as the realization Of this fact. But al
history, with loud unbroken voice, pro
claims it, and the evidence of what the pas
has been is conclusive to my mind Of wha
the future will be. Wherever in the wild,
domain of human conduct n people one,
possessed of liberty, with all power in the
own hands, have surrendered these grea
gifts of God at the command Of the usurp
cr they have never afterwards proven them
selves worthy to regain their forfeited trea
surcs.
Sir, let history speak on this point. -
Bend your ear, and listen to the solemn
warnings which distant ages pcrpctually ut
term their uneasy slumbers. -Four thou
sand years Of human experience are opcl
and present for the study Of the American
people. Standing as We do the last an,
greatest Republic in the midst of the earth
it becomes us most deeply in this crisis o
our destiny to examine well the career ant
the final fate of kindred governments in tn,
past.
The principles of self lfgovernmcnt are o
ancient origin. They were not created b.,
the authors of the American Constitution
They were adopted by those wise and giltet
minds from the models of former times anC
applied to the wants of the American people
Far back in the gray, uncertain dawn OF his
tory, in the land of mystery and Of miracles
the hand Of Almighty benevolence planted
the seeds of constitutional government b.
which life, liberty, and property were mad,
secure, Abraham and Lot each govern
his household and his hcrdmen by law: an,
although they became offended at each 9th
cr, yet under the divine sanction they re
Trained from the pleasures of conquest, sub
jugation, confiscation. They divided tn
country before them by primative treaty
and the grass begin to grow for their flock
unstained by fraternal blood and uncrushe,
by the hoof of war And in long afte
years, when the descendants Of the patri
archs broke their prison doors in Egyp
and lay cncamped in the wilderness, the ON
niscient presence came down and gave then
framework Of fundamental law in whicl
the popular will was largely recognized. 4
system Of jurisprudence was devised for th
people of Israel which protected liberty ant
administered justice. Under its inhuenc
the feeble fugitive and homeless wanderer
without bread and without water in the dc
scrt became au empire Of wisdom, OF health
and of power The liberal institutions o
the Jewish thcocracy produced statesmen
poets, historians, and warriors, who vii
continue to challenge the admiration Ofpos
terity by the splendor Of their achievement
as long as generations come and 30 on tn
waves of time. They lived within the i'm
mediate jurisdiction of Jehovah The
possessed the ark of the covenant and too
counsel with mnistering angels direct
from the portals of paradise. With a
these evidences of celestial favor in their be
half, it is not to be wondered that the
claimed an exemption from the change
and mutations of human affairs, and boa'
ed that the seal perpetuity had been in
pressed by the Divine hand on the pillars c
their government But public virtue be
came debauched; the popular heart corrC
ded with the lust of conquest and of gain
primitive purity faded away under the bale
full breadth of embittered factions; the fire
of patriotism were smothcred by rankin
hate and the thirst of revenge; and all thes
evil passions broke forth in the voice of
malignant majority clamerng for king
In that hour of disastrous eclipse, the spin
of liberty took her fight forever from tn
hills of Judea. Thousands Of years hay
rolled away since then The Holy Land ha
been the theatre of conflicts which rookie
the world as throes of an earthquake. Gt
MUS and heroism have there blazed as til
stars in the eastern skies. There, too, wa
enacted the sublime tragedy of redemptio
that tragedy which summoned the inhal
itants of all the worlds as its witnesses, an
filled nature with agony in all her parts
The eyes of mankind have been turned bac
and fixed upon those scenes of immortal Il
tercst for more than thirty centuries. Bu
who has lifted up and restored her falle
system of liberal Institutions 4? The peopl
surrendered their rights, their franchises
their selfcontrol, and welcomed the powo
of one man. The base act has never bee
reversed. AS the tree fell so it lies.
died at the root, Despotism reigns undis
turbed and unbroken, in darkness and in s.
lence, where once the light and music {