The Newberry herald. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1865-1884, 1867-09-11

plause.]S Come, Do not abandon
your rights. Defend them. Talk
fer them, and if need be, before
God and the; country, fight and
die for them, [Enthusiastic and
prolonged applause.l: ]: Do not talk
or think of secession or tlisrnioh,
but come up to the good old plat
form of our fathers-the Constitu-
tion.-Let all, North and South,
come and swear before God that
we will abide by it in good faith,
and oppose everything that vio-
lates It. !; The man who loves the
Constitution now, and is willing
to, live and die for it, is my. friend
and brother, though he come from
the frozen peak of Mount Wash
ington; and the man who is for
trampling upon it is, my enemy,
and I shall hold him so, though he
come from the sunny cline Of :he
&orange and the cotton bloom. That
is my issue.
O! how sorry creature is the
man who cannot stand up to the
truth, when the country is in
danger. There never was such al
opportunity as now exists for a
man to show of, what stuff he is
made. How can you 60 about the
street and say S'all is wrong, but I
cannot help it ?" You want cour-
age, my friend! You are a cow
lard You lack courage to tell the
truth, and would sell your birth
right for a: temporary mess of pot
tage, even for a little bit Of g
judgeship or q Bureau officers
place.
But some one says, ,aHow will
you resist it ?' 1 will resist it first
By, not approving it. If every
body5woufd< do that it would be-
efectually resisted so far as We
are concerned. But the so-called
Congress has provided cover for
itself in advance, under which: to
hide from the odium attaching
to this scheme. It has provided
sthat yeI can vote either for 'or
=, against a convention, and again
vote for or against whatever CON
stitution it may frame. It is.
sought to make us responsible for
whatever may be the consequences,
:. and relieve them. After while
when you become alarmed at the
results, they will say, eve did not
do this; only gave you chance,
and you didit."
But if we defeat this, it is said,
military rule viii continue. Ger
tainfyuntil wicked men shall be
driven from power. But let it be,
so. General Pope seems to be a
gentleman, and / infinitely prefer
: his rule to the rule Of such men. as.
you will get under this scheme.
Besides, the new government, if
I inangarated, viii not be able to
live 5 day. without military pro-
It is safer to. be governed
By power than by treachery.
Perhaps You will think have
oyerdrawn the picture of,the fear
fal Consequences of accepting this
scheme. recolect> an incident
> which occurred oversix years ago,
when I was urging the people Of
Georgia MOTTO secede, because the
country would thereby fall into
the hands of Radicals, and predic-
ted war and-iss attendant suffer
isgs as the result-though then
Ssdeemed visionary. I would be al
most ashamed now to read my re-
marks, Of that day-my picture
would be so tame and SO far short
of the dreadful reality that has
followed. A very prominant gen
man replied to- me, urging that
{ there would be. no war, and. to
prove It, he read an article from
Horace Greeley.s Tribune, and
old Ben. Wade's speech declaring
the South had a right to secede,
and if she chose to exercise that.
right, they should be allowed to
do so IN. peace. He then said that
Greeley and Wade were better
friends of the South than l, who
was born here, forI was trying to
frighten the southern people. out
of the exercise of right which
they conceded, and they were rep
reseRtative men Of their party
What could / say in replys I
seeould only tell him the truth
.<that these men on'y desired to.
encourage the South to disunion
for their wicked purposes to des-
trey the Constitution and that
great government could not be
dissolved without blood ; and
what have Greeley and Wade
done since that time? And now
I advise you to reject this scheme
of force, fraud and deceit which
;: Congress has devised. Ifyou; Of