Year: 1863

one, To De raised al Inc present; ana II 80
it is Just and proper that the watchnah
should respond to it to the best of his
ability.


1t is evident to all, that the nj sht is up
ON ~ and long has been, though We be-
iIeve It's dark shadows are being liiIe,i.
and ii Is fast merging towards morning.
1t Is certainly past midnight. but still 1t
is night. This term is used in Scripture
TO represent a state of calamity. Night
is period of darkness and gloom. As il
approaches, how apt it is to tinge the soul
with sense of sadness. 4 strange unac-
countable depression often comes over Us,
as we sit down i'll the twilight, and behold
the darkness stealthily creeping over the
enth. 1t Is the hour for pensiy thought.
when We seam 10y the darkness To be shut
out of the world, and must retire within
ourselves, to muse awhile with our own
quiet reflections. Such a night is now
upon us as a nation; a night, which seems
almost to shut US out OF the rest of the
world, for we are so much absorbed III
our own imperiled interests, as To who
have but little time to think of others.
We are shut up, and left alone, to work
out the problem OF our own destiny
That problem is now being solved and
every eye IS turned toward home.


Tue question is, the only question, shall
we live or die? A stab has Ueen made at
the nations heart, II is ours TO say,
whether we will turn aside the traitors
blade, or give strength and power 10 the
arm that bears it, and TO the heart that
thirsts with tiendish malice for the na-
tion's life blood? This is the question,
and there is, there can be only two sides
of it; there can be no neutrality, nor can
there he any question, that can take
precedence TO this, so vital, and ail-absorb-
ing. 1t was this conspiracy ot traitors, to
take the nations life, that brought down
the night upon US, and continues that
night; and whether it shall wrap around
US more and more closely its folds OF
darkness, and seal our eternal grave of
Woe" or shall dissolve into the light OF a
clearer morning, Is question yet 10 be
settled; u question Tor strong arms, and
brave hearts to settle. That is "a time for
calamity and darkness, the moans coming
up from a hundred battle fields, and
thousands of desolate homes sufficiently
proclaim. War under any circumstances
Is calamity, and especially such a war
as this. We had hitherto hoped, that
with our just and equitable government,
such a war were impossible; and now that
our hopes all lie withered and dead,
and we look back over all that we have
suffered, the necessity that made the war
inevitable, the reasonable acts that haye
aroused it, seem to US, in the retrospect,
all the more hideous and damnable; they
are of such character as 10 have stamp
ed the war spirit with a determination
the most desperate, with a patriotism the
most noble; and until those acts can be
redressed, the authors and abettors of
them receive their just reward, 1cG hope,
los pray, t0e belieVe that that purpose, that
patriotism will not bate one jot or title
of its power; but that if need be, we will


Fight till the last armed foe expires


Fight for our affairs and our fires


Eight! for our green graves and our siFes.


God, and our native land


For, though war be a calamity, yet such
were the provocations, that made the war
a necessity, that to permit them TO 90 on
unrebuked, would be calamity in the
presence of which, civil war even were n
blessing. The war should not stop until
those proyocatons are redressed, and the
spirit OF treason that has conspired against
US, is driven back against the wall, and
when there. nailed there forever.


While then in the midst of calamities,
and the night is all around Us, yet we
hail with JOY these calamities, as relief
from those that are greater; We prefer
this night, TO one that is starless, hope
less and eternal. There are still left some
bright stars in the horizon, to cheer the
solemn gloom, and if We prove ourselves
worthy the name of Americans, soon shall
be ushursed in brighter morning.


In the proceeding remarks, we have in
dicated to some extent, the character OF
the night which is upon us. Its long,
dark shadows have been cast over US, by
disappointed ambitions, political aspi-
rants, whose motto Is to rule or ruin,
whose necks deserve halter whose bod
les would disgrace a common dung hill,
whose names ought to be synonym for
infamy, and whose memory will be
stencil to all time. Had it not been for
the fact, that patriotic and loya people
had timely come to the rescue, ere this,
the light had gathered an intenser gloom,
and its black shadows would have hung
over us as the pail of death.


Notwithstanding, all the corruption
and Venality that has been brought to
light by this war, there has also been
kIndled, as lofty patriotism az ever
glowed upon our Revolutionary altarS, and
which will not 90 out for many genera
tions; and this, with Gods blessing has
saved rs. This has dispersed the dark
mes. The sun of our national being,
which seemed fast sinking, has stood still
before this almost omLIpotent power, and
may yet roll out brighter day, when the
treason spots that obscured this bright
ness have been removed, and leagued
traitors have gone down to the night
that knows no morning, where secession
had Its birth, and shall have its final home.
While We have given the character of
this strife, so far as its origin and immedi-
ate authors are concerned; as to the gov
ernment, 1t is simply war OF self-defence.
1t is a question whether we shall live and
prosper or admit doctrine that would
seal our national damnation, 1t is a
struggle for dear life. And the soldiers
who nave gone to fight our battles, are
standing between the sword of traitors
and the nations life. And a man who is
dong all in his power to degrade and in
juire the character of those noble men,
and to make obnoxious to public odium,
the work in which they are engaged, is,
to say the least, unworthy of the protect
ion he enjoys through them. And the
public leading man, who can boast
THAT he never gave his vote for a
man or q dollar" for such a work
and whose record shows the boast too sad
ly true, is worthy of the execrations of
his race. Such an one must be lineal
descendant of Benedict Arnold, for the
blood of revolutionary patriot could
hardly have become thus corrupted ban
ishment is too good for such man. If
this be politics, have it SO, and make the
most of it, for there is no political shibo-
leth can shield such incompatible mean
ness from the just animadversion of the
Christian pulpit.


The army of this nation is great police
force to save us from reckless mob; and
il is the only thing that stands between
:. md destrTction The existence of