The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1864-01-29

ment mas ceen founded under which man, il
the highest and best sense, can be FREE
Oh how sweet that word sounds. Libert,
.l-Liberty speak it out, no man can harm
you. Liberty let it ring through ever,
valley. Liberty let it sound from ocear
to ocean. For ages, men have tasted il il
the air, have smelt it in the mountains-hav.
heard its music in the leaping rills, and hav.
been forced to bow down to chains and sla
very, and to die with the worm of despotism
knawIng at their vitals. But here, while The
banner OF our country floats over US, we are
FREEMEN. There are none to question oul
rights. This one boon which our Union con-
fers without money and without price," has
cost the world more lives than the Union now
contains. For it, Europe has been lighted
up with the fires of martyrdom, and her pris-
onS filled with the bravest and noblest OF
earth. For it, her scaffolds have been STAIN
led with gore, and her battlefelds have drank
OF human blood like the spring rain. And
shall we place no value upon civil liberty
now? Shall NE hold that constitution and
Union which secure it, as of little moral
worth? Shall we let that flag which repre-
seDts il, be torn down by traitorous hands
| q.
the blood it will cost" And none can feel
more deeply than | do. the weight of that
sorrow which presses upon the countless bro
ken households of our land. But is it the
brave and suffering soldier who complains,
or those who, refusing to lend their aid, re-
main at home to find iault ? If men cannot
shed blood for freedom, and make sacrifice
for principle, they are born in the wrong age,
and belong to the wrong nation. Those who
are now upholding the flag of our country,
came of race who for centuries have dared
to suffer death, and even have counted il
sweet to die for liberty. And now when
the sons of God" are called together for
one more struggle in behalf of the "good
old cause" if any are found among them
coun.eling otherwise, it is because Satan has
come also. know some will say this nation
as whole has not honored liberty. | grant
it. and the thought makes my blood tingle
with shame to my fingers ends. But hope
Into field in the south of England, refuse
mill stone was thrown. Up through the hole
shot an oak; i grew till it filled the hole
and raised the stone up with it, som. inches
| from the ground. The problem was, wheth-
/ "
would die. At length. in a storm which
tried every fibre of the trunk. the stone gave
way. and the oak lived. Slavery has hung
| like mill stone around our tree of Liberty,
| threatening to destroy it. till the hearts of
good men have sunk within them. Bat thi.
war has cracked tie stone, and now the grand
old tree, rising loftisr than before bids fair
to brave the storms of thousand winters.
Oar flag to-day, thank God means Liberty
And Slavery-to change the isure-wll find
this stone with which it sough, to overthrow
the Union, ha:. ging around their own NECK.
Til it is sunk, Ike Mltons rebel angels, ten
thousand fathoms deep
In adamantine chains and penal fire.
and the nations OF the earth, heholding, shall
shout Alleluia while the smoke OF lis tor
ment ascendeth up forever and ever
lhus the most cursory view makes ii evil
dent, that our Federal Union is the pledge
OF those principles which are dearest to the
heart of man. rs value to every one who
loves the cause of humanity is above all
price. 1t embodies, doubtless, in greater
purity than any other government, all those
| active forces of Christian civilization, which
! are placing this age in advance of the past.
and this nation, 10 the forefront OF the pres
ent; hence the battle shock which ha. come
upon Us. Had the moral sentiment of this
nation been like that of Spain for instance.
we might have lived in peace The Constitu-
| ton of our country, interpreted according TO
the spirit of civil liberty has thus far borne
The Declaration of Independence touched
the nigh water mark OF the eighteenth
century; the Proclamation of Emancipation,
by President Lincoln, has reached the highest
point in the nineteenth. Should this nation
go down, man, as man, would lose half the
sacredness Of his personality. What check
would there he upon arbitrary power? What
hope for the poor and appres.ed9
3. In girding ourselves once more how
ever to meet our present duties, We do not
need to be pointed to the history of otner
nations for heroic examples. Our own his
tory abouds in incidents of lofty heroism and
sacrifice. DO You recall Banker Hill ani
Lexington Do you remember the blood that
crimsoned the snow at alley Forge? Those
frozen, bleeding feet were Your fathers
| What nation CAN point TO a brighter record
! And shall not the sons be worthy of their
sres Coming nearer home-have YOU for
gotten our last national holiday, when the
news of a two-iold victory came-tellin.
what your husbands, brothers and sons had
achieved at Gettysburg, and the Mississippi
How grandly the stars shone out that night
The earth put on mantle of glory the air
was stung into melody by the whisper of in
visible spirits fore-telling tie grand hour o!
universal liberty. Now, after all this toll
and suffering, and sacrifice, bringing us 10
the very gate of victory, and opening the
folding doors to wider liberty, and a purer
and firmer government, shall it be said tha,
We, with such an end full in view, talter and
pause? No, never. He who counsels this
forgets God. The work will go on.
A German haron constructed vast wind
harp by stretching cable fIom his castle tur.
ret to The mountain side beyond. There were
those who jeered at his folly. The summer
zephyrs played past it, and it was silent; ;he
autumn winds swept past it, but it gave nc
sound. BY and by, on winters night, when
a tempest howlet up the valley, the baron;
harp humme1, hour after hour, with strange
unearthly melody, its deep tones rising ant
falling in the storm. So now the sinews o
war have been strung, but there is momen
tary pause and hush in the nations heart-ar
expectancy and longing as if for some un
spoken word, awful in the grandeur of it.
tone and promise. Soon, tine great wind
of Jehovah" will sweep along tie earth, and
as If music of mlllennial trumpets, the hest
OF freedom will 90 forth to final victory. Got
speed the hour.
Justin s. Morrill,.