The Portland daily press., 1865-03-30
Thursday Morning, March 80, 1865.
From the Universal.st. es .t.5.'
The Nations True Ground Of Safety.
BY REV. e. w. REYNOLDS.

The Nations True Ground of Safety.
BY REV. E. W. REYNOLDS.
'No weapon that Is formed against thee sha prosper
1t is conviction deeply cherished by wise
men that nothing can hurt the truth. Men
conspire against it in vain. In vain they re
vile, misconstrue, oppose and assail it. In vain
with forests of prejudice, they hedge up the
way whereon it would travel. In vain they
slash its fair face with the ponderous axe OF
Bigotry. The Truth stands unhurt. Only its
enemies suffer harm only its assailants fall
said the truth stands; but, in fact, it never
stands, but always advances. And well it may
For the currents OF the uniyerse-the tides Of
Providence-bear it onward. God propels it.
Woe to those who resist it. Their broken
weapons and trampled armor pave the way
whereon it marches to victory.
1t is q conviction instinctiVely felt by good
men that nothing can hurt Justice. Like Truth.
justice is dear to God. Like truth, it is inyul-
nerable. Bad men hate it, and foolish men
are persuaded to ally themselves against it.
Out OF the twilight OF barbarism whole epochs
of grinding tyranny are hurled upon its angel
ic head But it is not smothered it is not
overcome. Sdil it stands-mildly defiant; still
1t advances-a nolseless omnipotence. No
weapon that is formed against it can pros
per. f.A az
All this has been demonstrated. many times
in no part ofthe world so clearly, it appears
TO me, IS here in America. Ii seems as though
our country had been crealed-our people
tried and trained-on purpose to illustrate the
irresistible weight OF moral forces. For-doWn
to the present hour--our history is the record,
and our people are the witnesses of the prog
ress and triumph OF truth and Justice, under
the most dubious auspices.
Thirty years ago, how weak and hopeless
seemed the cause OF justice, under the appal-
ling shadow of the slave power! 1t was not
enough that the fate of the servile race SEEM
ed fixed in eternal bondage; for the mind and
conscience of the nation-North as we'll as
South-Were subdued to the wicked will of
slave oigarchy. While only few men were
really interested in the gains of slaveholding,
the system had extended its fatal enchantment
over the American people. 1t is not in vain
that we recall that evil day, ii we thus acquire
new conception of the wonderful work
which God has wrought in the land. To all
human appearance, the slave was abandoned
to his chain, the oppressor to his crime, and
the nation to its infamy; and there appeared
no hope for either. Justice-if it dared to
speak, even In Northern air-was stoned in
the streets, rejected by the "wise and mighty .
and blackened by popular odium. Yet Justice
spoke-louder, clearer, with more resistless
emphasis; and men who came to smite her
went away boaring ho- dae th less word in Their.
hearts. the mobs were pitiless, the politicians
were depraved, the churches were accomplices
in the supreme crime; but the cause which
God had inspired, which Heaven cherished,
and which incarnated the mercy of Christ fol
the poor and needy-What could resist it?-
Justice continued to live in America, and
swept its heavenly tone through the anarchies
of an evil time; and all divine agencies
wrought with 1.-THE imperturbable logic OF
facts, the eloquence of generous passion, tn
instincts OF our spiritual nature, and the ire
Versbile Verdlcts of the human conscience.
What instruction there is in the successive
efforts Of the Slave Power to overcome the
cause of Humanity We need not go back i'll
our review farther than the conflict in Kan
sas. What tremendous exertions were made
on the part of the South to plant Slavery in
that Territory What unscrupulous means
were resorted to, embracing frauds, raids and
murders, persisted in with frantic determin-
alton to carry the pointi And with what
shameful subserviency did the Federal Chiei
Magistrate lend his authority to the business
of dragooning rising State into Slavery =
Still the unjust enterprise continually tailed
With all the power OF the naughty oligarchy
to back it, and with the inexhaustible baseness
of President Pierce to connive at 1t, the en-
terprise broke down. The politicians at Wash.
3 ington and the planters in Missouri the
Stringfellows on the Border and the Bogus
Conventions were mighty in their way; but
Justice was far mightier, supported by the
visible equity of God. No weapon formed
against it could prosper. zHQl 40 ara%0
In the meantime, what an appalling retribu
ton has fallen upon Missouri, for the part she
played in that bootless tragedy. The guilty
instrument OF the Slave Power in its mad as
sault upon Kansas, Missouri has bled, during
four years, under the fangs of that beast o
Despotism whose malignity she then served
The cup of cruelty of murders
burnipgs, and every species of social outrage
{ which she forced upon a sister community
by command of the Slave Oligarchy, has beer
commended to her own people, in augmented
bitterness, by those same enemies OF the hui
man aace. And the result is now DISPLAYED
in complete revolution of the political DO
litical policy of that State, and in genera
renovation of social sentiment, evinced in
common loyalty to the Union and to Emanci
patton. 20 s -
What instruction in this grand War O
Redemption, now being rapidly consummatel
in the universal triumph of Human Liber
tyl
The Slave Power rebelled against the Fed
eral Government, because the Government
was beginning to represent Justice 1t re
belled under fattering encouragement. Al
greatly the advantage at the beginning OF the
contest. Its armament was greater, its organ
ization better, and its authority far more Wig
orous, than those OF the Federal Government
1t was despotism which had parted with al
embarrassing scrupies-which had a clearly
defined purpose, and which trampled on tht
Moral Law: and on the moral sense OF Chris
tendon, without compunction and without
apology 1t was despotism armed to tht
teeth, booted and spurred, and firmly seated
in the saddle. So far as power, essential,
diaboic, can be strong, the slaveholders' re.
belIion was strong. Such puissance as tn,
Devil may confer, took its naughty seat a
3 Richmond and breathed its barbaric fire intC
the rebel legions.
But the overnment-surprised, embarrass
ed. imperilled, as it was-tound its first succo
in Divine Providence. Il 1t was not consisten
with the purpose OF God, which has in vieN
the progressive development of society, t
suffer the rebel edfice to rise or the Union ed
iice to fall. The model of this new slave en-
pire was no sooner submitted than 1t stoo
condemned in the light of history, as well
in the light OF humanity. 1t was monstros
ty of bygone times, conceived thousan
years too late. 1t is not Asiatic despotisn
but "a Christian Republic, which is to enshrin
the destiny of humanity, and marshal it fol
ward into its boundess Future. The rebellio
found its death warrant in this-it was allie
to the Age, and antagonistic to the Right
The Union found its security in this-it wa
necessary to the work of Providence, and
was beginning to represent Justice.
Without recognizing the agency Of mora
forces it we're impossible to explain the SUE
cess of the Government-the failure of th
Rebellion. In the issue it made with the FED
eral authority, the Rebellion was notoriousi
t. and In fha ~. -