Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1878-11-29
OUR COItNTRY.

We dn not waste oar love Of country on
its hills and dnlrs, ils skies and landscapes
or its material productions. Yet we must
confess that we do feel something Of the
sublime comniingling with our loving sym
pathies when we stand facing the lakes on
the North 40 far away from the Gull on
the South with the Atlantic on our right
and the Pacific on our lcft-thcse outlines
which the God of nature has SO lovingly
placed around our national homestead
We love these waters aud that material
part OF the universe which they define all
the more because they do not shut us in,
bnt give outlets for our ships which bear
us and our commerce far away beyond the
line where the skies and oceans meet over
the wide, wide world, and bring to us in
return the stores Of other lands. Not for.
getting that our fathers and brothers and
cousins over the way and all around us
have something to boast Of, when they sur.
vey the domains that Our Common Father
has given them, yet tho conceit has taken
hold of us that there is no place like our
own country. Not that the Creator Of all
things exhausted his genius when he fin.
ished that part of North America in which
germed the U. S. For when the morning
stars sang together and all the sons of God
shouted for joy, they must have been look.
| ing upon the whole Of earth revolving in
| its order with other worlds. No there are
other things we see-not mere rocks aud
| rills, woods and tempted hills" not mere
| poets and orators, and brave men who have
| lived and died here. There are poems and
ora;ions and brave deeds on record in other
| lands. But there is one thing other lands
cannot boast of. There be Lords many, and
| Gods many the world over. But If you
want to find n place in the wide world
| where the sentiment, that God only is great
and we are his people standing on an equal.
| ity before Him is deeply woven into the
texture Of the government and the spirit
Of the masses, come to America. Here you
| may see men, women and children study.
ing the lessons of liberty. 1--WE hold that
| these truths are self evident "-"All men
are born free and equal endowed by theil
| Creator with certain inalienable rights -
u lesson OF wide spreading and practical
| import--an axiom that needs no proof
| demonstrated by the inner sense of every
man, woman and child. But although the
sentiment that all men nre equal under
heavens law il n self evident truth, men
are slow to comprehend its full import
| Persons have been born and bred in the
| U. S. who entertain the widest notions
about liberty, forgetting that it is based
upon Divine law of Justice executed in
a spirit of mercy, involving rewards and
punishment The comment of the Great
| Teacher above all statesmen and doctors OF
the law have removed all obscurity. "Thou
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." "AIl
things whatsoever ye would that Others
should do unto you do We also unto them
for this is the law and the prophets" Truly
an axiom-a self evident truth which d
child can fully comprehend. A rule based
upon equal rights which commends itseli
to every mans conscience. Such doc
trine is the death knell to hypocrites and
tyrnnts. Emperors, ,popes, kings and queens
and demagognes quail before it. An at
tempt to enforce it cost the pilgrim fathers
exile. An attempt to break it down aroused
the spirit Of '76. Another attempt to en-
force it cost Tory and Lovejoy and Lin
coin their lives. To-day the Southern Red
Shirts and Slaveocracy are fighting madly
against it. American soil has already
been baptised with the blood of freemer
from one end of the land to the other. We
tread on hallowed ground consecrated Il
freedom. The cry comes to us from the
graves of brave men on all sides: PFotec
each and every citizen; let every one who
treads on American soil he free Death oil
submission OF tyrants. Let our country be
an asylum for the oppressed in all lands.
Nor