Year: 1865

command by the strokes of the lash, and awe
into submission by the slave auction block.
1t is with shame and confusion, that 1t must
be acknowledged, that many in the tree
States were willing to bind the car of free
dom to the chariot of the slave king, and
elevate blood hounds into noble philan-
thropic institution.


The progress of the principles gathered
in and symholized by our own glorious
Fourth, has ground to atoms their gigantic
wrong, as the Alpine glacier crumbles the
the granite walls, that oppose its slow but
irresistible march to the wide plains below.
1t is well that we commit ourselves to the
logic of events in the vast sweep of Divine
providence. It is well if we can regard our
selves as nation an instrument in the hand
of God TO solve or help towards its solution
the great problem of the practicability of O
free, popular government. When We can
intelligently help swell the current of free
dom. we are doing something towards eman
eipating the people of every cline from the
oppression of civil power.


The great struggle in which we have been
engaged the four years past, has demonstrate
ed the impossibility of founding an empire on
this continent based upon negro slavery.
This war Of the Titans was fought around
the ''self- evident truths" expressed in our
Declaration Of Independence. The slave
power massed its forces, and hurled its arm
ed legions against .fi'se-msn, the bulwark of
liberty, and their battaions melted away be-
fore the steady valor Of men who knew how
to vote, as well as fight. The Union, in all
lis integrity its principles in all their puri-
ty, It's guarantees in all their sacredness,
were the essential things for which our
patriots fought. and for which they died
We may accept the impassioned words the
splendid lunatic Of Boston, as expressing
the true spirit in the perpituation ef the
Union-'' Union that should knit and work
into the very blood and bones of the original
system in every region, as fast as settled"
To-day-nearly hundred years after these
words were spoken the American people
sand in position to fulfil them. TIE Uai5a,
in name as well as fact, touches, this dav.
the great chain OF lakes on the north, anl the
Gull of MeXieo oa the south, the Atlantic on
the east, and the Pacific on the west; and what
is more the Uai0n IS borne aloft upon the
mighty shout OF freedom. l. it nothing to
behold, this day, twice three millions and
half hands lifted to heayen-frec t. hear
that shout that floats over all this broad land,
proclaiming to bond as well as free the wear
of jubilee has come? Il is nothing to have
lived at a period in this Republic, and heard
the last ciank OF the slave chain, and listened
to the last shrek Wrnng out by the lash of
the slave driver, and seen the end of this
most infamous traffic in human flesh? Is it
nothing to stand to-day under the Stars and
Stripes floating over the land of the brave,
I(but emphatically. tie land Of the free. Well
may we rejoice over tie tripmpls oGireeaom !;
rejoice III the assertion of the rights of man,
over the most formidable combinations that
could have been formed. We think that tho
last great battle within the boundaries Of the
United States and her Territories, flr human
liberty, has been fought. America may
now justly stand forth the champion Of human
liberty in its broardest sense, consistent with
virtue, intelligence, equity and justice She
has won the right, by her triumphs in this
colossal war, to assert the power of free
thought, and the superiority of difused in
telligence, over the boast of noble BIRTH
and chivalric assumption, having their source
stand before the nations Of the earth, and
point to the Star Spangled Banner, with
the proud consciousness, that every stripe is
clean from the foul stain of slavery, and
every star shines forth in the calm lustrous





with the past in our hist0ry-save the natal
day-is as the stepping forth of the sun from
the dark cloud into q serene and cloudless
sky. The baptism of fire we have received
has cleansed our national domain OF some of
its chronic disorders, and we doubt whether
there viii be left as much as a single root
that can again live in free soil.


The enemies of freedom must look here
after to more congenial climes to cultivate
their principles. We fancy that Richmond,
Andersonville, and the miasmatic swamps Of
Georgia will prove in the future far more fa-
tai TO the spirit that inaugurated this rebel
lion, than they have to our patriot soldiers
who sealed their devotion to the Union with
their lives. The blood and bodies of loval
men have mingled with the dust of every
slave State the agony and suffering of our
patriot soldiers, under the terrible ordeal of
starvation, are inwrought into the very at
mosphere of the sunny South that wall of
human sorrow, mingled with the cry of the
oppressed, went qp to heaven. believing
that God had tolled the hour of human bond
age, and the next hour would be vocal with
aNation's JOY, for the great day of deliyerance
had come. Freedom has renewed her title
to all the land, and now she can devote it
forever to the cause of human progress and
the 8 natural rights Of man." The sons of
liberty in the late war, have lain down by
the side Of their patriot fathers Of the Revo-
luton, in defence of the sacred principles of
free people and free government. Our
victorious legions come home crowned with
highest triumph for they bring in their
hands the olive branch plucked from many
hard fought battle field, to the capital of the
United States, and laid it upon the altar Of
The Laioa. The principles Of our Independ-
ence are written by the finger Of b ool upon
the hearts of the American people The
immense sacrifice demanded to preserve our
constitutional government, will deepen our
love for the memory of the great men who
gave it to posterity for all time We shall
cherish the principles Of civil and religious
liberty, with deeper emotion. for now we
have our National cemetries. These almost
sacred places Will. in the future. be the resort
of patriot pilgrims. not to worship, but to re
viye memories and quicken affection for the
priceless principle Of freedom


To-day we welcome back our old flag.
crowned with a glory that never encircled
the Roman eagle in its proudest triumphs.
Infinitely dearer to US are those stripes ana
stars, those far-of graves of our patri5st dead
than thrones Of gold and the crowns Of EN-
plres, If they were laid at our feet.


We think it would be difficult to subject