Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1867-08-22
New Series--vol. T, No. 80.

liberty on the scroll Of her martyrs.
DIR. A. p. Dostie died at the Hotel Dieu |
on the same Sabbath evening, and about |
the same hour that saw Rev. Mr.. Hor- |
ton sink to rest. Prominent as Union |
list all through the war; active In every |
effort to roll back the tide Of lawlessness |
that was invading the land, he was long |
an object Of malignant hate to the foes of
liberty. His Spartan energy and perse- |
verence, his Roman firmness and bravery, |
made him a shining mark for these as
sassins. They knew him by his manly
voice and fiery eye they felt him by the
electric shock which earnest men always
convey to those about them. When,
with bold step he walked out of this hall
at the front door, and looked his assail
ants i'm the eye, had they been of
the true chivalry, they would have ad
mired his courage. When, all unarmed,
he asked them to spare his life, had they
been of the true chivalry, they would
have stayed their hands. But the cry
was, "Kill him! kill him" with oaths
and imprecations which cannot be here
repeated. They added indignities to
death. They trod upon what they sup
posed to be his lifeless body, and contin-
ued to add other wounds and bruises to
those which were already mortal. Let
us turn from the painful scene.
On the day he died, when the lower
half of his body was paralyzed, and when
his last hour stole on apace, his reason
was yet clear, and his mental energy re-
markable. Nobler sentiments never es-
capped dying lips than those uttered by
DIR. Dostie. ~ want no Cne to avenge
my DEATH" he said to the kind Sister of
Charity who ministered to his wants.
Upon hearing visitor remark, "Dr.
Dostie would risk his life for friend, i'm
case of an epidemic of yellow fever or
cholera, and believe he would do it for
an enemy" he said, with empasis, ~
would do it for the rebels who killed me-"
Again with patriotism worthy ofthe dy-
ing Sidney, he said a short time before
he breathed his last, 81 am willing to die,
if my death will promote the cause of
liberty"
Some of you here were among the few
who attended the burial of Dostie, at
time when even the solemn rites of sep
ulture were in danger of outrage; when
the public prints were endeavoring to
excite further persecution; when pub
lie funeral of any one of the martyrs
would have been in danger of demOniac
assault. The time and place of Dostie's
interment was not generally known, and
among his hosts of friends, not many
were present at the burial. A few words
were spoken; a fervent prayer was offer
ed, and his mortal part was laid away in
the narrow house, to rest till the last morn
shall beam upon the world.
Others died and were buried. I cannot
enumerate all. Some of them have
friends to visit their graves, dressing
them with flowers in the spring, and
watching them with paternal solicitude
all the year. Some are at rest whose
sepulchers are known only to Him who
looks down and watches their dust till He
shall bid it rise in the newness of immor-
tai life. Scarcely less than hundred
killed, and four hundred wounded, was
the result of the massacre. So far as pos
sible the names of all the victims should
be collected for inscription upon the
proposed monument to the patriot mar
| tyrs.
"But are they dead9 What, they whose souls
To scatter life around them shower?
| Who did their deathless selves dispense SO well
| That freedom grew immortal where they fell?
All, no. AS soon would mingle wave with flame,
| Or hate with love, as death with hero's name !"
| You know the dark days which follow
ed the massacre. The Union man for a
| time walked the streets as pilgrim and
a stranger. His castle at night was liza
BILE to be assaulted by desperadoes who
had demonstrated themselves to be capa-
| Oh Ullc DluthtSb uCCus Wv
iZens whispered their plants. lest the
treacherous walls oftheir dwellings might
betray them to some vindictive neighbor.
Widows mourned their martyred hus-
bands in that hushed and silent grief
| which breaks the heart. Newly made
orphans moistened their bread with tears
as they thought of their murdered and
mutilated fathers. Hope seemed to have
taken wings and flown away from the
souls of loyal men. Had the war been
in vain? After waiting with heart-sick.
ening solicitude through the long night
of the war for the bright morning of peace
to dawn, had the sun really risen in blood
After waiting for the nation to regain its
power, was it true that the executive arm,
the only instrument by which the Gov
ernment could be felt by the people, was
raised, not to protect but to oppress them
not to restrain but to encourage the enc
my? "How long, o Lord, how lOng!"
When would deliverance come! When
would law and order be restored! The
wronged and helpless for time groped
in almost hopeless gloom. If they walk
ed abroad the ground seemed to tremble
beneath their feet; the tremulousness
was in their own tread. If they remain
ed at home the very walls seemed to
tremble with despair; it was the echo OF
|
gazed upon the serene moon in the heav-
ems, and she seemed to look down upon
them in sympathetic tears, and there
were tears, but they were in our own
eyes. The soft evening breozes from the
Gulf seemed to come, singing funeral
dirge; alas! the dirge was in our own
souls. We were all among the wronged
and helpless; the star of hope was for a
time ecllpsed to us all. The city, the
parish, the nominal State Government,
even the national Government seemed to
be arrayed against us; and what could
we, bound thus hand and foot, manacled
and fettered in links of steel, what could
we do, when the very heavens appeared
dark above us? Such was the agony OF
our hearts that we almost felt constrained
to cry out, in the dying words of the di-
vine martyr, "Eloi, Eloi, Lama, Sabach-
THANH; my God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken mel"
But these feelings of dependency were
neither permanent noruniversal. Strong
men were here, and the spirit of John
Hampden was in their bosoms. The trials
and privations of the war, and the pro
scription which they had suffered from
youth up at the hands of the enemies o.
liberty, had educated them to persever
ance and daring. Wronged men were
here who had bled in and around thi:
hall m the 2Cth of JulY and who n aG