North Branch democrat. [volume] (Tunkhannock, Pa.) 1854-1867, 1864-04-13

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Mr.. CHAIRMAN arise to address the
House to-day with feelings of profound de
preston and gloom. 1t is a melancholy
spectacle to behold free government die
The world it is true is filled with the evi-
dences of decay. All nature speaks the
voice Of dissolution, and the highway of his
tory and of life is strewn with the wreck.
which time, the great despoier, has made
But hope of the future, bright visions Of re
vvng glory are no where denied to the
heart of man save as he gazes upon the down
| fall of legal liberty. He listens sorrowfulIy
| to the autumn winds as they sigh through
dismantled forests, but he knows tnat their
breath will be soft and vernal in the spring,
andgthat the dead flowers and the wlthered
foliage will blossom and bloom again. He
sees the sky overcast with the angry frown
of the tempest, but he knows that the sun
will reappea-, and the stars, the bright en-
blazonry of God, cannot perish. Man him
self, this strange connecting link between
dust and deity, totters YEARLY onward under
the weight of years and pain toward the gap
ing tomb, but how briefly his mind fingers
around that dismal spot. 1t is filled with
tears and grief and the willow and the cy.
press gather around it with their loving, but
So If a man die shall he not live again q
Beyond the grave, in the distant Alden, hope
provides an elysium of the soul where the
mortal assumes Immortality and life becomes
an endless splendor.
But where, sir, in all the dreary regions Of
the past, lied with Commissions, wars, and
crimes, can You point your finger TO the
tomb Of free commonwealth on which the
angel of resurrection has ever descended or
from whose mouth the stone Of despotSm
has ever been rolled away? Where, in
what age and in what cline have the ruins
of institutional freedom renewed their
youth aud regalned their lost estate? By
whose strong grip has the dead corpse Of
Republic once fallen ever been raised ? The
merclfu master who walked upon tho waters
and babe the winds be still left no ordained
apostles with power to wrench apart the jaws
ofnaiunal death and release the victims of
despotism, The wall Of the heartbrOken
over the dead is not SD sad to me as the rea-
lizarion of this fact But all history, with a
loud unbrokcn voice, prOclaims l., and the
evidence Of what the past has been is concu-
sive TO my mind Of what the future will be.
Wherever in the wide domain of human con
duct people once possessed of liberty, with
all power in their own hands, have surrcn.
dered these great gifts of God at the com
mand of the usnrper they have never after
wards proven themselves worthy to regain
their forfeited treasures.
Sir, let history speak on this point. Bend
your ear, and listen to the solemn warnings
which distant ages perpetuaiy utter in their
uneasy slumbers. Four thousand wears of
human experience are open and present for
the study of the American people. Standing
as we do the last and greatest Republic in
the midst of the earth, it becomes us most
deeply in this crisis of our destiny to exam
inc well the career and the final fate Of Kin
dred governments in the past.
The principles of self government are of
ancient origin. They were no. created by
the authors Of the American Constitution
They were adopted by th"se wise and gifted
minds from the models Of fer uer times and
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 beneyolence planted
the seeds of constitutional government by
which life. liberty, and property were made
secure Abraham an1 Lot each governed
his household and his herdmen br law and
although they became offended at each other,
vet under the divine sanction they refrained
from the pleasures of conquest, subjugation,
confiscation. They divided the country oe-
fore them by primitive treaty, and the
grass continued to grow for their fpcks un-
stained bv fraternal blood and uncrushed by
the hoof of war. And in long after years,
when the descendants Of the patriarchs broke
their prison doors in Egypt and lay encamp
ed in the wilderness, the Omniscent pres
cnce came down and gave them frame work
OF fundamental law in which the popular
will was largely recognized. system of
was devised for the people of
Israel which protected liberty and admins.
tered justice. Under its influence the feeble
fugitives and homeless wanderers without
bread and without water in the desert be-
came an empire of wisdom, of wealth, and of
power. The liberal institutions of the jew
ish theocracy produced statesmen, poets, his
torians, and warriors, who will continue to
the admiration of posterity by the
splendor of their achievements as long as
come and 60 on the waves of
lime. They lived within the immediate j1-
ri,diction Of Jehovah. They possessed the
ark of the covenant and took counsel with |
angels directly from the portals |!
Of Paradise. With all these evidences of ce
estial favor in their behalf, it is not to be |
wondered that they claimed an exemption |
from the changes and mutations of human af. |
fairs, and boasted that the seal of perpetulty |
lad been impressed by the Divine hand ON |
the pillars of their government. But public |
virtue became debauched !; the popular heart
with the lust of conquest and of
gain primitive purity faded away under the |
baleful breath of embittered factions; the
fires of patriotism were smothered by rank
ling hate and the thirst for revenge; and all
these evil passions broke forth in the voice of
A malignant majority claporing for king.
In that hour of disastrous eclipse, the spirit
Of liberty took her flight forever from the
hills of Judea. Thousands of years have
rolled away since then. The Holy Land has
been tho theatre of conflicts which rocked
The world as the throes of an earthquake
Genius and heroism have there blazed as
stars in the Eastern skies. There, too, was
enacted the sublime tragedy of redemption
hat tragedy which summoned the inhabit-
,pte AZ all rwnrldm an itw witrNaee ea w,,1 I,t~9