The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1865-04-27

, is free from slavery since that banne
: fell.
, When God would prepare Moses fo1
emancipation, he overthrew his first steps
and drove him for forty years to brood il
the wilderness. When our flag came
down, four years it lay brooding in dark
ness it cried to the Lord "Wherefor
am l deposcr ?" Then arose before it
, vision of its sin. 1t had strengthened
the strong and forgotten the weak i
proclaimed liberty, but trod upon slaves
In that seclusion it dedicated itself tt
liberty. Behold, to-day it fulflls its
VOWS. When it went down four million
people had no flag. To-day it rises, and
four million people cry out 'Behold oul
flag ~ The mighty hand of Government
made strong in war, by the favor of the
God of battles, spreads wide to-day the
banner of liberty that went down in dark
ness, that arose in light, and there il
streams like the sun above. 1t neither
parceled out nor monopolized, but food
ing air with light for all mankind. Ye
scattered and broken ye wounded and
dying, bitten by fiery serpents for op-
pressson, everywhere, in all the world.
looksupon the sign lifted up and live and
We homeless and houseless slaves, look
and ye are free.
At length you, too, have part and lot
in this glorious ensign that broods with
impartial love over small and great, the
poor and strong, the bond and free. In this
solemn hour let us pray for the quick
coming of reconciliation and happiness
under this common flag. God does not
stretch out his hand, as he has for four
dreadful years, that men may easily for
get the might of his terrible act. Res
tore things as they were? What, the
alterations and jealousies, the discords
and contention and causes of them p
No. In that solemn sacrifice in which a
nation has offered up for its since as ma
ny precious victims, loved and lamented,
let our sins and mistakes be consumed
utterly. No. never again shall things be
restored as before the war. 1t is writ
/ ted in Gods decree of events fulfilled
''Old things are passed away )" that new
earth in which dwellcth righteouness
draws men.
| Emerging from such a prolonged Re-
/ bellion, he is blind who tells you the
States by mere amnesty and beneyo-
lence of the Government can be put a
gain by mere decree in its old place
1t would not be honest, it would not be
honest, it would not be kind or fraternal
for me to pretend that the Southern Rev
olution against the Union has not
wrought revolutieu in the Southern States
themselves, and inaugurated a new dis
pensation. Society is like broken loom,
and the piece which Rebellion put in and
was weaving has been cut and the thread
broken. You must put in new warp and
woof, and weaving anew, as the fabric
slowly unwinds, we shall see-it in no gor-
gon figures, no hideous grotesque of the
old barbarsim, but figures of liberty,
vines and golden grains, framing in the
heads of justice, love and liberty, Mr.
Beecher proceeds by showing what had
been settled and determined by the war /;
first, that these United States shall be
one and indivisible; second, that States
are not absolute sovereigns, and have not
right to dismember the Republic ; third,
that universal liberty is Indispensable
to republican Government, and that sla-
very shall be forever abolished. Such
are the results of the war. They are the
best fruits of war; they are worth all
they have cost. They are the foundations
of peace they will secure the benefits to
all nations as we'll as to ours. Our high
est wisdom and duty is to accept facts as
the DEGREES of God. We are expected to
forget all that has happened yes, the
wrath, the confiAt, the cruelty, but not
those overruling DEGREES Of God which
the war has pronounced as solemnly as
on Mount Sinai. God says, "Remember,
remember, hear it to-day under this SUM-"
under that bright child of the sun our
banner, with the eyes of the nation and
the world upon us, we repeat the sylla-
bles of Gods providence and recite the
solemn deerees No more disunion no
more Secession no more slavery. Gap
plause).
He next proceeded to review the causes
OF our civil war and the condition and
tendencies of Southern society, and con-
cluded as follows From the pulpit Of
broken stone we shrek forth our earnest
greeting to our land. We offer to the
President of these United States oul
solemn congratulations that God has sus-
tanned his life and health under the un
paralled burdens and sufferings of four
bloody years, and permitted him to be-
hold this auspicious consummation of that
national unity for which he has waited
with so much patience and fortitude, and
for which he has labored with such dis
interested wisdom. (Applause.) Totht
members of the Government associated
with him in the administration of perllou
affairs in critical times to the Senators
and Representatives of the United States
who have eagerly fastened the instrumen
by which popular will might express an'
enforce itself, we tender our gratefu
, thanks. applause.
, To the officers and men of the arm
, | lox,o fpll In Sk fin Ii