Newspaper Page Text
SI PER ANNUM. THE SOUTHERN IS PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY MORNING?, BY ~W BATE^CAIT, AT . ONE DOLLAR PER ANNUM, ~ .. -m ■ IX ADVANCE, OTHERWISE One Dollar and Fifty Cents, Will be charged. ( | t RATES OF ADVERTISING. One square, (ten lines or less,) three inser tions, SI.OO. Each subsequent insertion 25 cts. One square three months $3.00; Six months $5.00: Twelve months SB.OO. Business cards of six lines or less, $5 a year. No subscription taken for less than a year. P4snllaiuoiis. SPEECH OP FRANKLIN PEIRCE. At a Democratic Mass meeting in Con cord, N. H., on the Fourth of July, thfi Hon. Franklin Peirce made the following remarks : My Frundsawl Fellow-Countrymen; — Whilo. I have come to preside at this meeting, at your bidding, permit me to * say that no command less imperative than your wish on such an occasionwould have brought inC here ; and I trust that, in view of the great aggregation of personal relations which thirty years of manhood life have formed between us, you will re cognize in this fact a warm reciprocation, on my part, of the respect aud affection which, in all that time, I have never fail ed to find on yours. We meet on the an niversary of a day hallowed by solemn memories, and sanctified as that of the birth of the American Union. The De • claratioo of independence laid the foun dation of our political greatness in the two fundamental ideas of the absolute inde pendence of the American people, and of the sovereignty of their respective States. Under that Standard our forefathers fought the battles of the Revolution ; un der that they conquered. In this spirit, tl oy established the Union, having the ci uservativh thought everpresent to their minds, of the original sovereignty and in dependence of the several States, all with their diverse institutions, interests, opin ions aud habits, to be maintained intact and secure, by the reciprocal stipulations aud mutual compromises of the Constitu tion. They were niaster-builders, who reared .up tbe grand structure of tbe Union, that august temple beneath whoso dome three generations have enjoyed such blessings Dt the civil liberty as were never before vouchsafed by Providence to man ; that temple before whose altars you an 3 I have not only bowed with devout and grateful hearts, but where, with patriotic vows and sacrifices, we have so frequently consecrated ourselves to the protection and maintainance of those lofty columns of the Constitution by which it was up m held. [Applause ] No visionary en thusiasts were they, dreaming vainly of the impossible, uniformity of some wild Utopia of their own imaginations. No desperate reformers were (hey, madly bent upsf schemes which, if consummated, could only result, in general confusion, an areby, and chaos. Oh, no ! high-hearted, but- Sagacious aud practical statesmen they wer’s wlm saW- society as a living fact ■uojj as, fled Vision; who knew that n i 1 power consists in the reconcile inc-itWif diversities of inflations and in* i conflict" and obji/cration; and .who savftliut variety aud adaptation of,parts are the* necessary elements of all Jbhete iS'sublimo or beadtiffil in tpe works of art or' Of nature. Majestib were the solid foundations, the juassive masonry,, the columned loftiness of that magnificent ■structure of the Union. Glorious was the ■career of prosperity, and peace, and # pow er its very birthday the the American Uniun'entered, as with tbe assured march of the conscious offspring •f those giauts of the Revolution. Such ' was the Union, as conceived and adminis tered by Washington and Adams, by Jef ferson, and Madison, and Jackson. Such, I say, wos the Union, ere the evil tiroes befel us; ere it) the third generation, the ell-comprehensive patriotism of the Fatb lers had died out, and 'given place to the passionate emotions of narrow and aggres sive sectionalism. The Extern , States covered the sea Tfitb their ships, the land with litoir farnfs And (heir manufactures;. so did, Jhfe Mids .AfUtnlic States, with additions -of .their mineral wealth uf qogl THE SOUTHERN JXHS, ‘ .4 : A.,3STX> ■ ’ .... ■ .. ‘ v ' • HARFORD COUNTY INTELLIGENCER. U ~ p ( • dj- ♦! • .1 til • ' - W .M ; •V■- .1 . f “LET US CLING TO THE CONSTITUTION AS THE MARINER CLINGS TO THE LAST PLANK WHEN THE NIGHT AND TEMPEST CLOSE AROtTND HIM.” ) and iron ; while the Southern States, with their soft cliontte and congenial soil raised up those great staples of cotton, tobacco, sugar, rice, corn, which are the life of commefce and manufactures ; and the vast regions of the West grew to be the granaries of Europe and America; and still further on was revealed the land of gold and tylver, on the remote shores of tbe Pacific. These were the material elements of our'national power, each State with its difference of interests co-operating with the whole. And so the various European races co existing here, though differing in blood, religion, temper, the Protestant and the Catholic, the Puritan and the Cava lier, yet, by their very differences of char acter, afforded the mental and pioval ele ment of the power of the Union. Glori ous, sublime above all that history records of national greatness, was the spectacle which the Uni6n exhibited to tHe world, so long as the true spirit of the Constitu tion lived in the hearts of the people', and the Government was a Government of men reciprocally respecting one another’s rights, and of States, each moving.planet like in the orbit of its proper place in the firmament of the Union. Then we were the model Republic of the world—honor ed, loved, or feared where we were not loved, respected abroad, peaceful and hap py at homo. No American citizen was then subject to be driven into exile for opinion's sake, or arbitrarily arrested and incarcerated in military bastiles—even as he may now be—not for acts or words of imputed but if ho but mourn in silent sorrow over the desolatio’n of his country —(applause)—n® embattled hosts of Americans were then wasting' their lives and resources in sanguinary civil strife; no suicidal and parricidal civil war ‘then swept like a raging tempest of death over-the stricken homesteads and wailing cities of the Union. Ob, that such a change should ever pome over our country in a day, as it were—as if all men in every State of tbe Union-North and South, East and West—were suddenly smitten with homicidal madness, and “the,custom of fell deeds” rendered as familiar as if it Were a part of qur inborn nature ; as if an avenging angel had been suffered by Prov i lenco tp wave a sword of flaming fire above our beads, to convert so many mil lions, of goo£ men, living together jn brotherly love, into insensate beings, sav agely bent on the destruction of them selves and of each other, and leaving but a smouldering ruin of conflagration and of blood in the place of our once blessed Union. f I endeavor sometimes, as I have no doubt you do, to close my ears to the sounds, and shut my eyes to the sights of woe, and to ask myself whether all this can be- —to enquire which is true, whether the past happiness and prosperity qf my country are but the flattering vision of a happy sleep, or its present misery and dcsolat'on haply the delusion of some dis turbed ff ream. Ohe or the other seems incredible and impossible; but alas, the Stern truth cannot thus be dispelled from our mind. Can you forget, ought I es pecially be expected to forget, those not remote days in the history of o’ur country, when its greatness and glory shed the re flection at least of their rays upon all our lives, and (thus enabled us td read the les sons of the Fatherspnd their Constitution in thfi light of their principles and their deeds? Then war was conducted only against the foreign enemy, tidt in tbe spirit and purpose of persecuting non combatant populations, nor f burning un defended towrtk or private dwelling!?, atjd wasting the fields of the husbandman or the workshops of the artizan, but of sub duing uruied'hflsts in the field: Then the Congress of the United ' States was the great Council of the whole Unioti and of all its parts. Then the*Executive admin istration looked with impartial eye over the whole domain .of the Union, anxious to, promote the interests and curfSolt the heupr and just pride of all the Stales, see ing, ao power beyond the law, and devout ly, obedjent to the commands pf the Con stitution. flow is all this obanpefi ?r-*. And why ? f&ve we not been told in' this yery place, no| tho wedts ago, by the, voice of an authoritative expositor ; do wo not |pow that the cause of out calamities is the vigjous iolcnueddiing of too many of the citizens of tbe Northern States, co operating iftth.thc discontents of thp peo ple of thdlaq.(States?., Do we not know I haf the disregards of . the Constitution,, and of the security whidh it affords to the' rjghts of the States aud of ' individual*, has Been the cause of the calamity which our country is catted* to undergo? And now, war !in its direst shape—wir, such as it makes the blood run cold td read of BEL AIR. MD. FRIDAY MORNING, JULY 31. 1863. i in the history of other nations and of oth er times—war, on the scale, of a million , of men in arms—war, horrid as that of i barbaric ages, ruges in several of the [ States of the Union, us. its more immedi ; ate field, and casts the lurid shadow of ; its death and lamentation athwart the 1 the whole into every nook i and corner of our vast domrfn. Npr is that all; for in IhOse of the States which r are exempt' from the actual ravages of i war, in which the roar of the cannon, and the rattle of the musketry, and the groans i of the dying are heard but as a faint echo i of terror from other lands, even here m I the loyal States, the mailed hand of mili tary usurpation strikes down the liberties of the people, and its foot trafaples a des ecrated Constitution. Aye, in this land of free thought, free speech, and free i writing—in this Republic of free suffrage, ■ with liberty of thought and expression as , the very essence of republican institutions —even here, in these free States, ft is made criminal for a citizen-soldier —like ■ gallant Edgerly, of Jfew Hampshire—to ; vote according to his conscience; or like . that noble martyr of free speech, Vallan ■ dighftra, to discuss public affairs in Ohio; i (applause;) aye, even here, the temporary agents'of the sovereign people, transitory ; administrators of the Government, tell us that in time of war the mere arbitrary will i of the President Hakes the place of the ■ Constitution, aud "the President himself announces to us that it is treasonable to i spoak or to write otherwise than as ho ' may prescribe; nay, thatnfr is treasonable even to be silent though we be struck i dumb by the shook o( the calamities with i which evil counsels, incompetency and • corruption have overwhelmed our country! i (Applause.) I will not say this without ■ referring to thfe authority upon which I rely. In his letter of June I)?, 1863, ad dressed to Erastus Corning and other cifi jsens of the State of New* York, the Presi dent makes use of the following extraordi nary language: “Indeed, arrests by process of cohrts, and arrests in cases of rebel Hot), do hot proceed altogether upon the same basis - Tbe former is' directed at the small per centago of ordinary and continuous perpe tration of crime, while the latter is direct ed atsuddeu and cxtensive.uprisin'g against the Government, which at most, Will suc ceed or fail in no great length of time.— In the latter Case, arrests are made, not so much for what has been done as for what probably would be done. (Laugh ter and applause.) The latter is more for the preventive and less for the vindictive than the former. In such cases the pur- * poses of men arc much more easily under stood than in cases of ordinary crime.— i The man who stands by and says nothing when the peril of his Government is dis cussed cannot be misunderstood. (Laugh ter.) If hot hindered, he' is Sure to help . the enemy; much more if he talks am biguously—talks for his country with ‘buts’ and ‘ifs’ and ‘ands.’ ” It seems by this letter, at least, that : there is no longer doubt as tt> where the , responsibility of those unconstitutional acts ■ of the last (wo years, perpetrated by, in ; subordinate officers of the Federal Gov ernment, both civil and military, properly . attaches ; but who, I ask, has clothed the President with power *to dictate to any of us when we must or when we may speak, or be silent upon any subject, and espe eillly in relation to the conduct of any public servant? By what right dope ho pro sum6 to prescribe a fbrmula of language for your lips or mine?" It seems incredible, and even with this authenticated paplnf before ua,'is amazing, that any such sentiment should have found utterance from ’fhe elected representatives of a free Govcru luout like that? of the UfKted Sta'fis. My friends, i let thos8 l! obey such behests as will, you and I hive been nurtured' hrre -among 1 the granite hills, and'under ’the ’ clear skies of New Hampshire, tirtb m j such servile temperaofent [Applause J ; True it lit, that anybf '.you, that I myself,'” may bdHlw of unoonstitutionU ttly arbitrafyt irresponsilfle power- Hut tyif nevertheless, are'free we ’ ■ jpesolvcd'to live l , or if if must be, to die, , 'suoLu' Falter who may, we will qerer : cease to held up on high the UottltitatlOn 1 of the Union, though tbrn to Shreds by’' ■ tbe smriUgiotts hands of it enemies ' {Ap-'f -planseijj Slow strikingly how suggestive to us, on (his occasion, is the , contemplation of that august spectacle of (he recent Ofnvention at IndtanapoUs, : nf J eoventy-fivo thousand citizens calmly and 1 bravely partiflipating'in the discussion the great! principle underlying (fheiresaered * right! as awpd by Can non frowning on their liberties, nor pro yokwl by threats retaliatory violence. £ would say to you, ttdiow-cirizons. eniu •9} # . late that exhibition of wisdom and pa triotism. Be patient, be resolute. Yield nothing of your rights; but bear and forbear. Let your action show to the world, that, with courage 'to confront despotism, you have also the discref tion to avoid inconsiderate action jn' re sisting its advances. George Washington and Samuel M.dams; Matthew Tbdrntdd and Charles Carroll, George Reed' and Roger Sherman, Philip Livingfetop and Williap Hooper, Benjamin Franklin ahd Edward Rutledge, George Walton and Riohard Stockton, with their associates of all the thirteen then independent sover eigo States, stood eighty-seven years ago to-day, in that simple but most memorable Igoni, where' the Declaration wUs signed, uke the people of the States whom they represented, with the solijraq grandeur of high resolve, if apparently weak, yet With armor on and their hdarts. strung for the contest of civil liberty. If we cannot be joyons and eyultant ort this anniversa ry of that day, it may do ns good tQ re member that joy and exultation werq far from the beans of the brave men who sanctioned the Declaration of Indepen dence, and then fought seven- years, to maintain it. No! they were, not joyous but determined. They fqlt (he jnspfra tiou of a great object J and they sought, its accomplishment with a stern, devoted, self-saorificing spirit. They were anima ted by that determifiation which in a rigteous cause of self-defbnce and ?elf-vjn dication is invincible. They knew the condition of the Provinces ip point of men aud munitions, and they had a clear per ception of the colossal po'wer which they were to confront. But neither one nor the other consideration, nor both combin ed, shook eitbfer their faith or their cour age. They compensated for the want of numbers, arms, and all which under ordi-, nary circumstances goes to constitute the sinews of War, by the glory of theit patri-, otism and the strength of their purpose. To be sure, they fought for their rights, but their endurance and energy were quiokehed by an incalculable power; tHey4 , fought for their homes, their hearth'-stones, tbeir Wives and cliil3ten behind them. I trust it may be profitable on this occasion, us the Ihll of your meeting suggests) to revivb the memorifls of that heroic epoch of the Republic, even though they come laden With regrets, and hold up that pe riod of out history in contrast witfl the present. Though they come to remind'us of what 1 were our relations during the revolution, and in later years, prior tfo 1861, to the great which we wore accustomed (o refer to by the l name of “the mother of f Statearaen and'of States;” and of what those relations now are. Gan it be that we are neVer again to of the , land where the dust of Washington and Patrick Hear}, ! of Jeffer son and Madison repose, With erofitibns of gratitude,-admiratibn and filial regard?— ts hate for all that Virginia has taught, all-that Virginia has done, all (hat Vir ginia now is, to place of senti ments Which wc have cherished all our I lives? Other men may be asked to do this, but it is in vain to appeal to too, So far as my heart is concerned, it is not a subject of rinlajion. Whiie there may be those ill whose breasts such sehlmiebfs as these awaken nq responsive feeling, I feel assured, as I look over this vast assem blage, that the grateful emotions which hare'Signalized this anniversary id all our past history, afe not less youfs thaf they are. thinb, to-day. Let us ( bo tharikfhl, at leaft,'“that wc have ever enjoyed them; that nothing can takh frbili us the pride aud eXirWUVion.we havip felt, as we saw the old'flag unfold oVet 1 ' us, a&d realize its glnriOiri apereatifin bY stirs frpfti the ori ginal thirteen to this^ffUr;' that(we in tbt if wl' can. with 'SSaurhulee say na morb, ; “ThifiPa'st'ist least is But if we ‘ cannot be joyous, my friends, as wp have ■; bcea Ua thiji khnirerstiry’, let' us Snow that '■ it'.U tittr privilege, with Gqd, to be oqpriaerate, brave, and wise— If there be anything of the great > tance, ’finder 2 circumstances save] tnay wc not in an humble, earnest • way contribtrtfi to that' ?‘ If we 1 ohnuot do all for which .‘.tifif hearts, i&ra,* i^e'topt at apnroa,cli ! , its ponsutu ’ mation, in that SplHt of dpvfitcd loyalty, to'the Gonstitritioii‘ftfifi, the tlbioi which . we feel? Let thkffisrogard of Others wj?. what the wCvqhifion'ary fath'drsi achicvpd, 1 and for the bdWpact wWcli they made, ' subdued ii they Were‘{fit 11 things ’fiat a fefie W. Inf tw 'people r'fialiie l '|lhat tfiip constant ringing in ffieir cars bf the charge, that “the Con ati tat inn is a covunant*wilh 1 death and'* league with heir’ bas bfeught i VOL. VH.~NO.-81, _ -, ,I ■ : —J I ■■ ■ ■ r about.*i And then let them see and feel what we4mdin eighty years of unexam pled prosperity and .happiness under that i Constitution. Let them look baok upon : those eighty years of. civil liberty, of the i reign of Constitutional law, eighty years of security to orfr homes, of living in cur castles, humble though they may have been, with no power to iivade them by night or by day, .except under the well' delined and exhibited autiprity of law„ a written published law, ebdeted sclves lor the punishment of crime and for their own protection, eighty of the great experiment *4ieh astonished the world. . ' . If the people will |o this, J cannot, I will not believe that .we are so smitten by judicial tlptJhe greatmass of ' our population,' North and South’, will not some day resolve that we .come together again undpf thd did CJpnstitutioO, with the old Flag. [ApplauseJ I will not be- Ijove' thdt this experiment of man’s capa city for self-government Which was so suc cessfully illustrated until all tiormry men had to their final re ward, is to prove a humiliating failure.— Whatever others may do, we will never abandon the hope that the Union ip to be restored. [Appease,] Whatever others may do, we will cling to it “as the mari ner clings to the last plank when night imd the tempest close around him.” No matter what may Kaye been, done North or South to produce it, this tfirrible ordeal of blood which has been visited upon us ought to be sufficient to bring us an back" to consciousness of responsibilities and du ties. The emotions of all good men are those of sorrow and shame and sadness now, over the condition of their country when they retire at tight, and when they open their eye’s upon the dawning day, struggle against them though they may, . they attempt Wdisguise It ? 1 J Solicitude which hinges Upon appre hension of personal danger or ’personal lass, and that alone, is contemptible.— Trifling men mhy indulge'in trifling word land thought, while this foundaiftns laid 1 by the Fathers are crumbling beneath their feet; but the artificers who laid those foundations found no time for" tri lling while engaged in their grand and se rious work y nor can yon! They could lift up their souls in prayerbut they hail no heart for levity and mirth. My friends, ’yomhave hjd, most of yon have had great sorrows, overwhelming pertonal sorrows, itlinay be true,; but none like these, none like these, which Come welling up, day by day,, from the great fountain of national disaster, retf with the' best and bravest blood of the country, North and South'; , red with’the blood of those io both sec tions of the Union whoso fathers |pught thq.jComluoa battle at Independehee. —*' Not* have’these sorrows'brought with them aby compensation, whether of natHnal pritie or- victorious arms, i For is k not A vain to appeal to you to raise ivsliottt of’ ; joy tecapse the men.,from the land of Washington, Marion and Sumter, are baring their breasts to the steel of the men 1 from the . laud of VVlarrmk Stark and > Stockton, ,or, because, if fhifwar is to eon- • tiuuo to be waged, one or the other must go the. he consigned to the humiliating subjugation ? This fearful, a fruitless, faiaL/civil war has exhibited our a timing resources aud vast military pow- ' er. It;hips shown that united, even in 1 cstrying opt, io thfi widest interpretation,-. ■ the Moproe doctrine, oa this: We could with sunk protection as the broad occait whicj|i.flaws, between ourselves d . European powers affords, have: stood 'agaiust,the in arms. X speak of s '.,cleaa’ that, m proscqijW upon the basis of the proclama-, tions, cuted, as X most understand thh* parMlft-u mationn, towy, nothing of the. kiadnlil:- k 'brood which has followed, upon the tbgoe- s fw of ,€mMoipatipn,.,|ieyntaiion, tion, it cannot f*il 10. be guides* t ftriery- r.i thing except }be harvest of woe wbieb ifc. i is ripening for what Ps peerless Bep.uWic. ,[A.ppl#up,3 Kow,ielWw-cjt’v Vvtng ,#M tXw much. it.i* ! Mir***• ex^omity; .JLn&tot* trpm stjuggi to,.th< tJ .t as > W,“r. cir'yfo! Ti rNOtjptft SBF . 1 ’ % WF® 33 . city, from the ba|coay of the hotel hi f jPt iwbc s either|t suitable or possible dmii,* existing ' evils. 4U thgt <, has occurred since then etp^pgMtr^ ened and eonfirffted my w^hig