Year: 1861




| A few words more and / shall close.


The Congress Of the United States, this


day, and at about this hour, is assembling,


in obedience to the call of the President,


to deliberate upon the unhappy condition


of our country. May they be inspired


from on High with wisdom in their delib.


erations. May passion and fanaticism be


banished from their councils, and may


they realize, that i'll this dark hour, their


acts may permanently influence the desti-


ny of a great nation. May their every


impulse be dictated by patriotism, and
! by an inhexiblc determination to mains


tain the constitution in all its integrity,


and to preserve our noble Union.
In that National assembly, the theatre
of his renown, and of the many brilliant
exhibitions of his genius and eloquence,
the familiar form of one will be seen no
more, and his voice be heard no more for
ever. One Of the brightest stars from
amongthe galaxy of American Statesmen,
is shroudcd in the gloom Of death. Ste
phen A. Douglas is in his grave, and the
cold earth rests upon his bosom. He has
gone down to the tomb in the noon Of
life, before the approach Of age had bow
ed his form, or clouded the vigor of his
intellect. In this troublous hour of his
country's peril, his counsels were needed
and his death seems to us untimely. But
fortunately for his country, he left on
record abundant evidence of his DEATH
less devotion to the perpetuity Of the
Union he loved so well. At a time when
his advice and influence were wanting, his
words of encouragement and support were
not withheld "Obey the laws and sup'
port the Constitution of the United
States" was his dying advice to his chill
dren. May it be engraved on the hearts
of his countrymen. His death is Ma
tional calamity--the voice of party is
hushed in its presence-milions watched
his death bed, and mourn his departure.


:" When tho bright guardians of a country die


The grateful tear in tenderness will start;


And the Keen anguish of a readening eye


Disclose the deep aifction Of the heart


In conclusion, fellow cstizcns, let me
say that the founders of this Republic
transmitted to us a rich and great inher-
itance. Let us show to the world and to
posterity that we are not unworthy Of the
sacred trust, and may We register our
VOWS in heaven, that it shall never be be-
trayed May the noble cdlfce, which
they erected and cemented with their
blood, endure as long as the great ocean,
which washes the shore on which We stand,
shall roll its ceaseess waves, and while
the everlasting mountains of this sea-girt
isle, shall point their granite peaks to
heaven. When the sun, in its annual rev.
olution, on the next anniversary of this
day shall rise upon this Western Cont.
ncnt, may we, in the immortal language
of Webster, "Not see him shining on the
broken and dishonored fragments of a
once glorious Union on States disscver-
ed, discordant, belligerent; on land rent
with civil fcuds, or drenched, it may be,
with fraternal blood; but may We ''rath-
er behold the gorgeous ensi gn of the re-
public, still full high advanced, its arms
and trophies streaming in their original
Iustre not stripe erased or polluted, nor
a single star obscured, bearing for its
motto no such miserable interrogatory as
What is all this worth ?'-nor those
other words Of delusion and folly, Liberty
first and Union afterwards; but every
where, spread all over in characters of
living LIGHT, blazing on all its ample folds,
as they float over the sea and over the
land, aud in every wind under the whole
heavens, that other sentiment dear to
every American heart, Liberty and
Onion, now and forever, one and inseI a.
able