Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1867-09-05
Mr.. Murdoch's Grafton to
the Soldiers.
A Unique and Vivid Presentation of
the Issues of the Day.

before the Pittsburgh Soldiers and Sail
ors' Convention, last Summer, was one
of the most finished productions we ever
read. The fact that we did not print 1t
in full then, and because his presentation
of the issues before the people are so
unique aud vivid, is our excuse for print
ing it now in full. 1t is a document
worth preserving.
THE ADDRESS.
My FRIENDs:-I shall not preface the
few words have come to speak to you
with apologies. / would rather thank
your committee for this opportunity
for there are times when every true man
feels it a privilege to make his confession
of faith-to give, he can, a reason for
the faith that is in him, or at the very
last, to strengthen it, as L do to-day, by
communication with those who have
vindicated it, by making life, and all its
interests, a willing sacrifice upon the
altar of patriotism.
l have met you, friends, under differ
ent circumstances-on your gunboats, in
the field, in the camp, and the hospital;
my heart has swelled with pride, and
gratitude to God, as have heard your
ringing huzzahs, responding to our grand
cliffs of Lookout Mountain; but under
no circumstances have felt more deeply
than do to-day, that the responsibilities
of national preservation hang upon you;
that it is still to you the country must
look to keep her honor untarnished be-
fore a watchful world. ....
For the worlds battle is being fought
on American soil. The question is
whether civilization on this continent
shall renew itself only in old forms, in
the interests sofout-grownid ideas, OF wheth-
er liberty shall here be organized into
permanent form of human government.
The old despotisms stare at us with stony,
despairing faces; new andliving nation
alities springing from their decay, gaze
at us with eyes full of eager hope.
Your work, your duty to your country
is not vet finished. By its early history,
by its struggles of the Revolution, and
still more by that from which you have
lust emerged is consecrated to the cause
of freedom. at was discovered when
the great principle of human liberty, lib
erty of thought, broke itsswaddling bands
in the Reformation, and is thus connect
ed with the progress of Christianity and
the spirit of religious freedom. 1t was
settled by men who sought on its inhos-
pitable shores refuge from persecution,
for conscience sake; it was born into the
family of nations in the throes of revo-
luton which inaugurated the greatest
political changes the world ever seen; it
began its peculiar existence by formally
declaring its faith in human freedom
and equality, and thus made America
and equality inseparable ideas. "*
The Fathers of the Revolution laid the
foundation only of structure which
your hands and mine must assist to COM
hill InI
knew, it has been said. Their founda-
ton was laid in belief in the capacity
of men for self-government, and that the
exercise of this faculty would fit them
for the position of rulers in a system of
government whose rulers were subjects
and servants of the people.
They were men who set honor and
duty above all personal interests count
ing all losses gains if thereby they could
leave to their posterity the inheritance
of freemen. The new continent was a
fair field for the development of a new
dispensation of temporal government, in
secured to institutions having deeper
root in the rights and necessities of men.
When they gathered in Liberty Hall,
at Philadelphia,
"All soemnly inside,
The delegates of Congress,
With but reason for their guide,
Ger the simple scroll debated,
Which, though simple II might be,
Could shake the cliffs of England
With the thunders of the free"
Then entered into their counsels the
demon of compromise. They could
not exclude it. -.
Close beside these grand doctrines of
equal rights and immutable principles,
lay an existing evil, a plague spot, a sore,
openly acknowledged as such by those
most familiar withit, which they hoped
might disappear in the healthy process
of national growth. ...
They fully realized the antagonism be-
tween the two systems of labor then ex-
isting, and the danger that these would
produce sectionalism, but they were in
the iron grasp of necessity, and their
first duty was to secure national exist
ence.
Franklin said: "We must appear to
be unanimous if we want the nations
to respect US This Constitution is not Il
good one, but it is the best we can get.
Letus adopt it, and work by it until we
can produce better. 1t contains with
in itself the element of changes; its
spirit will lead to unity and national
power. (" f' -.t.H-
The trainers of the Constitution meant
nationality, always and all the time
w men LllaU COllSllluIlOil was duOptcu,
Patrick Henry's voice warmed the Vir-
gnians against the elements of univer-
salty (that is, nationality contained in
it, which he feared would, in time, be-
come subversive of Estate Rights. u
He insited, in the debates on the adop-
ton ofthe Constitution, that the "instru-
ment" (documenD should read, We, the
sovereign State, &C., and not, " We, the
people," &c. He contended that the
latter presentation had within it a power
that, in time, might expand into pro-
portions to overshadow the boundaries of
State supremacy. "In short" said he,
sit may one day arm your negroes to
fight in war of its creating, without
your rconsentandw without compensation"
Is there man within reach ofmy
voice who does not acknowledge the
Justice and orescieaceof the statement of
the great patriot lawyer of Virginia? In
his speeches noble and true patriot as he
was), we see the germ which developed
into full form in the teachings of GAL
houn. But Patrick Henry's patriotism
was the instinct of person al liberty sOi-
dened to include his State and section,
rather than that far-reaching sentiment
of human rights which animated WASH
ington, Franklin and Hancock, and
nIaced their names high among those of