Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1865-03-23
ynIedictory OF Speaker CoIfax.
The Speaker 'snid profound quiet rose
and delivered the following address:

and delivered the following address:
Gentlemen of the House of Relrcsentd-
tiues:--The parting hour has come, and
yonJer clock, which takes no note Of time
but by its loss, will soon snpouncs that the
Congress Of which We are members has
passed into history. Henored by your votes
with this responsible position, have faith
fully striven to perform its always complex
and often perploxing duties without parti.
san bias and with the sincerest impartiality.
Whether have realized the true ideal Of
just presiding officer, aiding, on the one
hand, the advance OF the public business,
with the responsibility Of which the msjor
ity is charged, and on the other hand, al
lowing no trcspass on the parliamentary
rights of the minority, must be left for 9TH
ers to decide; but, locking back new, ever
the entire Congress cannot remsmber
single word addressed to you which, dying,
could wise to blot. On this day, which,
by spontaneous consent. is being, observed,
wherever our flag floats, as day Of nation
al rejoicing with the roar efcannon greeting
the rising sun on the rock bound coast Of
Maine re-echoed and re- echoed by answer
ing volleys from city to city, and from
mountain peak to mountain peak, till, from
the Golden Gate, they die away far out on
the calm Pacific, We miDgle our congrstu-
lations with those of the freemen we repre-
SENT over the victories for the Union that
have made the winter just closing 30 warm
with 10y aud hope. With them we rejoice
that the national standard which our Rev
olutionary fathers unfurled ever the land,
but which Rebellion sought to strike down
and destroy, waves as undisputed at this
hour over the cradle of Secession at
Charleston as over the cradle Of liberty at
J Fansuil Hall, and that the whole armament
: is ahame with the brilliant show Of triuuphs
for that cause, 90 dear to every patriot
heart. We have but recently comDemor-
! ated the birthday of the father Of his coun-
try, and renewed our pledge to each other
that the nation he founded should not be
sundered by the hand of treason. And the
COED news that assures the salvation of the
, Republic is doubly joyous, because it tells
us that the prayers Of the past four years
, have not been unanswered, and that the
, priceless blood of our brave defenders, 50
freel offered and SO prefusely split, has not
J been shed in vain.
} We turn, too, to day, with.a prouder joy
= than ever before to that banner, brilliant
\ with stars from the heavens and radiant
with gloriss frsm the earth, which from
Bunker Hill to Yorktown, from Lundy 6
Lane to New Orleans, and all through the
n darker hours of the rebellion in the past, to
Savannah, and Fort Sumter, aud charles
. ton, and Columbia, and Fort Fisher, and
: Wilmington in the present has ever sym
), bolized our unity aud national life as we in
o scribed on it ineffaceably that now deubly
u noble inscription, Liberty and Union, now
and forever, one and inseparable." But il
the hour ofgadness cannot forget the OBJ
t, legations, paramount and uadyiRg, We owe
l. to our heroic defenders.
10 On every battle. field upon the land ant
D. every wave rocked monitor and frigats upoI
I'd the sea; inspired by the sublimest spirit OF
self sacrifice, they have realized . million
ID fold the historic fable Of Curtius, Is they
as have offered to close up with their owl
- bodies, if need be, the yawnng chasm tha
E. impcrilled the Republic. For you, and me
and fer their country, they have turne
Is their backs on the delights of home an
I'd severed the tenderest of ties to brave deaf
at in thousand forms: to confront with Ut
q blanched cheeks the tempest of shot, an
ID shell, and fame, to storm frswning batterie
at and bristling intrenchments; to bleed, t
We suffer and to die. As we look from thi
d. Capitol Hill over the nation, there ar
m crushed and broken hearts in every hamlet
there are wounded soldiers mangled wit
he rebel bullets, in every churchyard ther
en- there are bleaching bones on every battl
ng field.
ls- IL is the lofty and unfaltering hersism
ne the honorsd living and the even more ho
VS. ored dead, that has taken us from evel
Ter valley Of disaster and defeat, and place
et' our feet on the sun crowned heights of vi
'iy tory. The granite shaft may commemora
their deeds. Our American Aslbella mi
ing be crowned with the statues OF our heroe
Ter but our debt Of gratitude to them can new
ne be paid while time shall last and the hi
ere tory of q rescued nation shall endure.
ne NV voice, from this Representative hi
re- could be heard throughout the land, wou
ith adiure all who love the Republic to preser
tne this obligation ever fresh in grateful hear
The dead who have fallen in those stru
glss to prevent an alien flag from wavi
over the ashes Of Washington, or over t
:. graves where sleep the great aud patrio
vice rivals of the last generations, the hero
5 in New Orleans and the illustrious statesm
for of Kentucky; cannet return to u.s..
~. ~ Shiloh's plain and Carolina's sandy sho
ults before Richmond. and above the clouds
,our Constitutional liberty sleep in their bloc
lold shrouds till the morning oithe resurrscti'
ised But the living are left behind, and as
ave Sacred Record appro priatsly commeads
yist poor, who are ever with US. to our benef
One tions and regard, may they not remind )
i to that the widow and the fatherless,
the maimed and the wounded, the disab Z
With the suffering, whose anguish springs from
lilies great contest have claims on all of us, heig
ened immeasuraby by the sacred cause
ak. which they have given so much. Thus,i
cen. thus alone, by pouring tho oil ofcsnsolat
ing into the wounds that wicked treason
and made, can we prove our devotion to
,sms fatherland and our afoctionate gratit'
ould to its defenders. And, rejoicing over
rove. bow of promise we already see arching
auds stormsd cloud of war, giving assurance
visits no deluge of Secession shall again o
A har vhelm or endanger our nation, we can
wing, with heart and soul, and sincerely
nj. trustingly in the poets prayers:
es- "Now, father lay thy healing hand
Nh re- In mercy our slr1cken land E.H
Lead all its wandererst TO the ioio,
rs, ~ And be- their shepherd us OF old
hold So .haR our nations song ascend
houl S Ihse or, mss, .Ids a%eb re.ounds again.
d the With peace on EARTH good will 10 men,"
We 20 hence, with our efficial labers
IN tns ed. to tho Senate Chamber aud the POI
rue, of the Capitol, there, with the statue
Oucc u IN o1Jas. NJ Viherfv locking down