Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1867-09-05
1867. New Series--vol 7. No. 80.

litical organizations with II into the great
party Of the North.
This party owed it's existence to prin-
ciples which lie deep IN the human heart,
and constitute In their aggregation one
of the great elements of Christianity
itself. 1t may change its name and its
leaders. Judas as well as Peter may be-
long to it, but its immortality is sure, be-
cause founded in principles as stable as
the Almighty himself. "a.
1t was this party, my friends, that
chose for leader the best representative
of the American middle class-the class
which, reaching to all above it, bends to
all below it. Itchose the simple-hearted
Christian patriot, our martyr President,
Abraham Lincoln. There was no stain
on that mans character, no blot on his
public record he was son of the Free
West, honored and beloved in the State
which had given the illustrious talents OF
Douglas to the service of the very men,
the very party, who made the election OF
Mr.. Lincoln an excuse for the most dia-
bOlical and insane treason ever hatch
ed in hell.
Great ideas sometimes embody them
selves in the lives of men, and, looking
back to the beginning of the war, we
feel that it was by an inspiration we
were led to choose for leader a man so
simple, yet so wise so gentle, yet firm /;
so lenient, yetso just. Of whom Brown
ell, the sailor-poet, says:
"Kindly spirit! All, when did treason
Bid such generous nature cease;
Mild by temper. and strong by reason,
But ever leaning TO love and peace.
"a head how SOBER a heart how spacious,
manner equal with high and low,
Rough but gentle, uncouth but gracious,
And still inclining to lips of woe.
patient when saddest, calm when sternest,
Grieved when rigid for justice sake,
Given to jest, yet ever In earnest
If aught Of right or truth were at stake.
''Simple of heart, yet shrewd Herewith,
Slow to resolve but firm to hold,
Still with parable and with myth
Seasoning with truth, like them Of old,
Aptest humOr ana quaintest pith--
Still we smile DER the tales he told"
Oh, friends would we not gladly ac-
cept and bear as badges of honor those
scornful epithets with which the South
ern leaders worked up the passions of
the masses to revolt? Would you not
to-day be willing to be called "Lincolu
hirelings?" Would to God ours was to-
day the Lincoln Government!
You all remember the time when they
hoisted the rattlesnake flag; with an
army and navy subsidized under the adj
ministration of James Buchanan, with
Floyd in the Treasury, their most des-
perate and dangerous leaders in Cabinet
and Congress, they went to war to estab-
lish their rights-to the Federal property
within their borders.
You have not forgotten the opening of
theyear '6l-the moral cOwardice of those
peace econventions-the trepidation of the
political gamesters-the general bowling
and scraping to the power which old
John Brown and his handful of wooden
picks had year before shaken with ter
rOr.
And who will soon forget how the
voices of politicians and the adjuratiOns
of a craven clergy, crying peace, when
there was no peace, were swallowed VI
to be heard no more, when the cannon.
ade upon Sumter fixed our eyes upon
that dear old flag, which, in every land
and on every sea, was the esymbol of light
and law-how the hearts of the people,
with one great throb, declared, come
what might, from foes without or with
in, that flag should never be dishouor-
ed.
"Our flag on the land, and our flag on the ocean,
An angel Of peace wheresS9eyer 1t goes,
An angel of dedth ii shall be to our foes.
"True to its native sky. still shall our eagle fly,
Casting It's sentinel glanCes afar;
Though bearing the olive branch still in his tall
ons Staunch
Grasping the bolts of the Munders of war;"
You soldiers and sailors followed the
flag, and it led you through a Red Sea-
through wilderness-over mountains
and deserts. From the day that the
Young life of Ellsworth was thrown be-
tween it and dishonor to the day of your
triumphant return with it from the field
of strife, love and loyalty to the flag has
been the simplest and most universal test
of true citizenship.
Nv friends, this is test that will an
swer for all time. | should be quite
willing to naturalize foreigner upon it
alone. / am quite willing; we are all
willing to nationalize by it the alienated
inhabitants of the late Confederacy. |
should be willing to send it Southward,
guarded only by a detachment of the
manned and shattered men who have lost
half their bodies in its defense-from
Mason and Dixon slime to the Rio Grande
and to receive into the full privileges of
representation and citizenship, individ-
uals, cities, States, aOh0 lore IL, and the
principles it itreprcsents.
And if there should also come those
nutiUe AMERICANS of african descent, to
whom the starry flag means more than
it can ever do to you and me, let them
come, too-those broad folds are filed
with the free air Of free heavens. Let it
Uitdtize them also i,
The following incident is opposite to
my argument. 1t was related to me by
Il participant in the terrors of the fight.
During the assault upon Fort Wagner,
our lines were shattered by furious can
nonade, and the trenches left filed with
the dead and the dying. Our brave boys
fetreating to aplaceof comparative safety,
found one of their flags had been left be-
hind. An officer with II handful of men
attempted its recovery. Feeling their
way along path strewn with terrible
proofs of the vaIor of the colored regi-
ments, they saw through the lifting
smoke on heap of mangled bodies the
object OF their search, tluttering feebly
near the ground as if held by a dying
hand. Tire officer rushed to the spot,
and snatched' it from the hands of black
soldier, who recognized him, and raising
his shattered body to his knees said !:
"All right, Captain God bless the old
flag it never touched the dirt" Though
wounded and dying, forgetful of self, his
whole care was for the flag; next his
God, he loved that emblem of his new
born freedom. That lore made him an
american citizen.
Suppose we apply this test to the ques-
tions now before the country-to the one
we are here TO discuss. to-day Do the
men who are knocking for admission at
Al, (tonoraSS Iowa ai har tb a n ao