The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1875-03-20
"THEY THAT TAKE THE SWORD SHALL PERISH BY


"THEY THAT TAKE THE SWORD SHALL PERISH BY
THE SWORD"
SOLDIERS AND CoUNTRYMEN:-We have met
this evening perhaps for the last time. Wehave
shared the toll of the march, the peril of the
fight, the dismay of the retreat; alike we have
endured toll and hunger, the csntume-
ly of the internal foe, the outrage of the for
eign oppressor We have sat night after night
beside the campfire, shared the same rough
soldiers fare; we have together heard the roll
of the reville which called US to duty, or the
beat of the tattoo which gave signal for the
hardy sleep of the soldier, with the earth for
his bed, and the knapsack for his pillow.
And now, soldiers and brethren, we have
met in the peaceful valley, on the eve of battle,
while this sunlight is dying away beyond yon-
der heights, the sunlight that tomorrow
morn will glimmer on scenes of blood. We
have met amid the whitening tents of our en-
we gathered together. God grant that it may
not be for the last time. 1t is solemn time.
Brethren, does not the awful voice of nature
seem to echo the sympathies of this hour?-
The flag of our country droops heavily from
yonder staff-the breeze has died away along
the plain of Chadd's Ford-the plain that
spreads before US gistening in sunlight-the
heights of the Brandywine arise gloomy and
grand beyond the waters of yonder stream,
and all nature holds pause of solemn silence,
on the eve of the bloodshed and strife of the
morrow.
''They that take the sword shall perish by
the sword"
And have they not taken the sword Let
the desolated plain, the blood soddened valley,
the burned farmhouse, the sacked village, and
the ravaged town answer-let the whitening
bones of the butchered farmer, strewn along
the fields OF his homestead, answer-let the
starving mother, with the babe clinging to her
withered breast, that afford no sustenance, let
her answer, with the death rattle mingling
with the murmuring tones that mark the last
struggle for life-let the dying mother and her
babe answer 1t was but day past and our
land slept in the light of peace. War was not
here-wrong was net here. Fraud, and woe,
and misery, and want dwelt not among u.s.
From the eternal solitude of the green woods,
arose the blue smoke of the settlers cabin and
golden fields of corn peered forth from amid
the waste of the wilderness and the glad music
of human voices awoke the silence of the for
est. Now God of mercy, behold the change
Under the shadow of a pretext-under the
sanctity of the name of God, invoking the re-
deemer to their aid, do these foreign hirelings
slay our people! They throng our towrs, they
darken our plains, and now they en- upass
our posts on the lonely plain of Chada Ford.
"They that take the sword shall pc. by
the sword"
when tell you that the doom of the Britisher
is near! Think me not in vain when tell you
that beyond that cloud that now enshrouds US,
l see gathering, thick and fast the darker
cloud, and the blacker storm, of Divine Ret
ribution They may conquer us tomorrow
Might and wrong may prevail, and we may be
driven from this field, but the hour of Gods
own vengeance will come
Aye, if in the vast solitudes of eternal space
if in the heart of the boundless universe,
there throbs the being of an awful God, quick
toavenge, and sure to punish guilt then will that
man George of Brunswick called King, feel in
his brain and in his heart, the vengeance Of
the Eternal Jehovah blight will be upon
his life-a withered brain, an accursed intel
lect-a blight will be upon his children, and
on his people. Great God how dread the pun
ishment.
Soldiers, l look around among your familiar
faces with a strange interest! Tomorrow
morning we 60 forth to battle, for need tell
you, invoking Gods aid in the fight? We will
march torch to battle: Need l exhort you to
fight the good fght-to fight for your home
steads, for your wives, for your children? You
will go forth to battle to morrow with light hearts
and determined spirits, though the solemn
duty-the duty Of avenging the dead-may
rest heavy on your souls. And in the hour of
battle, when all around is darkness, lit by the
luried cannon-glare and the musket- flash, when
tho WOuuucu StTeW Ine STouuu, anu eu0 0Oau
litter your path, then remember, soldiers, that
God is with you. The Eternal God fights for
you-he rides on the battle cloud, he sweeps
onward with the march OF the hurricane charge.
The awful and the Infinite for you, and you
will triumph.
"They that take the sword shall perish by
the sword"
You have taken the sword, but not in the
wrong and ravage. You have taken the sword
for your homes, for your wives, for your little
ones.
You have taken the sword for truth, for JUS
tice, for right; and to you the promise is, be OF
good cheer, for your foes have taken the sword
in defiance of all that man holds dear-in
blasphemy of God they shall perish by the
sword.
And now brethren and soldiers, bid you all
farewell. Many of us may fall in tho fight of
TO- -morrow-God rest the souls of the fallen
many of us may live to tell the story of the
fight to- morrow, and in the memory of all, will
rest and linger the quiet scene of this autum-
nal night Solemn twilight advances over the
valley; the woods on the opposite heights fling
their long shadows over the green of the mead
ow around us are the tents of the continental
host, the half suppressed hustle of the camp,
the hurried tramp of soldiers to and fro; now
the confusion, and now the stiffness which
mark the eye of battle. When we meet again,
may the long shadows of twilight be flung over
peaceful land. God in Heaven grant it.
@-A Rockland county IN. W girl, who
was recently finished" at fashionable semi
nary, has begun diary. Her mschievous
young brother cut out the first entry and it
got inte print Here is portion OF it; sun,
day Night.-it has Just struck IL and / am still
writing. What are these thoughts that surge
across my hearth What is this strange long
ing after the unattainable ? Am what real
ly seem, or is it, as it were, not so much the
infinitesmal as the unspeakable? Let me be
calm. / have read Don Juan to-day. All
alas will there ever be another Byron May
from the mist of the mountain top, or the how-
ers of the valley some sun crowned youth,
who"