Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1865-02-25
THE MOTTO OF THE GOVERN.
MENT,

crush those who seek its destruction, to
declare policy and utter warning which
finds an answer and receives an endorse
ment in every patriotic American heart.
The Department of State is the voice
with which the nation speaks to the other
nations Of the earth, and, on that night of
national rejoicing, was written in letters of
fire, over the doors of the State Depart
ment at Washington, this motto: "PEAcE
AND Coon WILL TO ALL NATIONS; But
NO ESrANGLING ALLIANCES, AND NO For
E1GN INTERVENTION % This motto, so
inscribed in fiery words in such place.
and by such authority, was not mere
tumble of high-sounding words to please
the eyes and tickle the patriotic vanity of
the people. 1t was firm, outspoken, I'M
mistakable declaration 1t was not ad-
dressed to our own people; it was adj
| dressed to those powers that, under the
thin mask of neutrality" have been
persistently, insiduously and treacherously
stabbing at the life of the Amencan nation
and the principles of. free Government.
To prove this principle false and the capa-
bility of the people for self-government a
chimera, these exasperated monarchies
have schemed and plotted, and secretly
furnished the poison and the dagger to the
assassins of freedom. The treachery Of
these neutral foes has been too thinly
masked to deceive; but the proportions Of
the foe upon our own soil have been too
gigantic and required too much of the force
of the nation for its suppression, to render
it expedient to strike the blow at our
transatlantic enemies that their treachery
would have justified. The phase of
things has materially changed within the
past few months. Even the past month
has placed US in an attitude to defy our
foreign foes; not only to defy them, but
to take the initiative, and strike the first
blow in war of retribution for four years
of cowardly and persistent wrong. Dur
ing these four years of continuous battle
with a domestic foe, our peaceful COM
merce has been devastated upon every sea,
| and we, the carriers of the world" have
been, in a measure, driven from the ocean,
to make way for the commerce of nations
whom in the days of peace and enterpris-
ing competition we had long ago eclipsed.
We know in what dock-yards were laid
the keels of these scourges of the main.
We know whose arsenals furnished the
guns, the shot and the shell that swept
our merchantmen from the seas !;
we know whose harbors have been
the asylum and the sure refuge of the
pirates. We know whose workshops
have furnished arms and munitions of war
| for the rebels, and whose swift steamers
have piled busy trade with the ports Of
rebeldom. We know whose crafty but
deceptive diplomacy has kept alive the
hopes of the rebellion, and given it vital
ity which has prolonged the war for years,
and cost the lives of hundred thousand
brave and loyal men. All these things
we know, and have always known; but
because these wrongs were unavenged, it
is not to be supposed that they were either
forgotten or forgiven. This foreign aid,
comfort and encouragement of our domes-
nc foes was serious but it was not ruin
Gus and our Government has endured it,
contenting itself with protests, until peace
at home should leave our arms free to
strike blow abroad. That peace is close
at hand. The military power of the re-
bellion is broken; it is writing in the
last faint struggles of inevitable doom. OF
all the armies of the Confederacy, but one
remains to be crushed. The "tolds of the
anaconda" are now frightened around the
small spot where that only remaining
army stands at bay. The line of sea-ports
through which foreign aid so long poured
its steady tide are closed, and closed for
ever against it, and their forts and fleets
now constitute an impresnable barrier
against the navies of the world. There
was day when Europe could have come
to the rescue of the Confederacy. That
day is past. There is now but one battle
field for Europe and America. That
battlefield is the ocean. We have but
one assailable point and that point is our
commerce. An embargo on our commerce
would, in six months, clear the ocean of
our merchantmen. and leave it a clear
field for our navy to perform its work of
destruction upon the commerce of our
foes. There is no commercial nation that
would suffer so little from such an en-
barge as the United States. France and
England are ruined when their commerce
is destroyed. The United States could
thrive and prosper were all other CONT
| nents to sink beneath the surface OF the
ocean. There never was nation posses
sing within itself, so completely as this, all
the elements of self-sustalnlng greatness ;
and there never was time when this ma
ton could, with such perfect confidence,
cast the gauntlet 0: defiance at the feet Of
| the monarchies of the world. Thus it is
that at this moment the mouth-piece Of
the Government declares to the world that
from this time, henceforth, foreign nations
must cease to disturb, modest or "inter-
fere with our affairs. Some of our
people regard the declaration as indica-
tive of warlike intention. We view it
differently. We regard it as plain de-
claration of intention to resent any future