THE RELIGIOUS SENTIMENT. 107 Christian citizen, is that of sustaining the constituted authorities, and rallying under our country's banner. We have been for years enjoying the blessing of a mild, paternal, and Constitutional Government, under whose gentle, beneficent sway every citizen has been safe at home and respected abroad; liberty and property have been secure; industry has been encouraged, and every civil right and social blessing has been enjoyed to the fullest extent. "When such a Government is assailed by violence, shall not those who have so long experienced its benefits rise as one man in its defense, and present a solid front to its enemies? "The question is not now one of names, or of men, or of parties. It is one of country, of liberty, of national existence, of life or death. The Chief Magistrate of the great American Republic represents in his person the majesty of the law. He is the nation's head, and the blow struck at him is aimed at the Constitution and at the people, at every home and every bosom. We are in the midst of a sterner crisis than were the men of '76. What would have been the restoration of British rule over the thirteen colonies-a rule which had proved so generally beneficent and honorable to its subjects what would this have been in comparison with the danger now threatening the subversion of all au thority-the tyranny of an unprincipled and despotic usurpation, and the reducing of the goodly fabric of national grandeur to a shapeless heap? Our dearest earthly interests are now at stake, and the welfare of children, and of children's children, trembles in this balance." Loyalty of Archbishop Hughes. The venerable Bishop McIlvaine, of Ohio, in his address to the forty-first annual convention of his diocese, uttered most decided sentiments, demanding devotion to the cause of the Union as a solemn and imperative duty. Archbishop Hughes, one of the acknowledged heads of the Roman Catholic Church in America, placed the American flag upon his cathedral spire, and by his loyal sentiments, freely uttered, served to inspire the multitudes of his people with unbounded enthusiasm in the Union's cause. The Archbishop addressed a letter to the Chairman of the committee calling the great Union meeting in New York, April 20th, expressing his sentiments on the question of the hour. We quote: "It is now fifty years since, a foreigner by birth, I took the oath of allegiance to this country, under its title of the United States of America. As regards conscience, patriotism, or judgment, I have no misgiving. Still desirous of peace, when the Providence of God shall have brought it, I may say that since the period of my naturalization, I have none but one country. In reference to my duties as a citizen, no change has come over my mind since then. The Government of the United States was then, as it is now, symbolized by a national flag, popularly called The Stars and Stripes.' This has been my flag, and shall be to the end. I trust it is still destined to display in the gales that sweep every ocean, and amid the gentle breezes of many a distant shore, as I have seen it in foreign lands, its own peculiar waving lines of beauty. May it live and continue to display these same waving lines of beauty, whether at home or abroad, for a thousand years and afterwards, as long as Heaven permits, without limit of duration." The Jews came up to the crisis with earnestness and real devotion. The Rev. Dr. Raphael, who, in the fall of 1860, had preached a powerful sermon in behalf of the righteousness and beneficence of human slavery, invoked the God of Israel to crush out the enemies of the The Jews. Union, and to bless the cause of the North. Many of the rabbis preached quite in the spirit of the days of the prophets. The Methodists. The spirit of the Methodists was happily illustrated in the opening prayer of the New York East Methodist Conference, April 16th : Grant, O God, that all the efforts now being made to overthrow rebellion in our distracted country, may be met with every success. Let the forces that have risen against our Government, and thy law, be scattered to the winds, and may no enemies that those who have aimed at the very heart of the be allowed to prevail against us. Grant, O God, Republic may be overthrown. We ask thee to bring these men to destruction, and wipe them from the face of the country!" The Baptists expressed their convictions in the following stirring resolves : The Baptists. ther reference to church resolves and ad- our loyal adhesion and unstinted support in its wise, Union and our ancestral principles would involve Antagonism Excited by the South. public platform, in newspaper communica- The avow "That the members of this General Assembly, in the spirit of that Christian patriotism which the Scriptures enjoin, and which has always character-ton-all combined to alienate from them and ized this Church, do hereby acknowledge and declare their obligation, so far as in them lies, to maintain the Constitution of these United States, in the full exercise of all its legitimate powers, to preserve our beloved Union unimpaired, and to restore its inestimable blessings to every portion of the land." It would be interesting to quote from the recorded proceedings of the several other leading denominations of the North, expressive of sympathy for the National Administration; but, our point having been sufficiently illustrated, we are not permitted fur their cause not only all the mighty moral and physical energies of the North, but also the intelligence of Europe. Their cause went forth branded with infamy, notwithstanding so many men, made eminent by the Union, had embarked in the revolution. If a few sympathizers for the movement were found in Great Britain it was but natural, considering that "King Cotton" had whispered their moral sense asleep; but, even at the most despondent moment of the Union's fortunes, the vast majority of England's people gave pilot and third officer of the Baltic, was given command of the hazardous expedition. Why it failed of being prosecuted is not definitely stated. Doubtless, a careful reconnoissance showed every approach to the fort to be so swept with cannon as to render certain destruction inevitable. The fleet therefore lay off the harbor, and received Anderson, to steam away to the North. The Powhatan | had not appeared off Charleston at all. Her mission was to Fort Pickens. Re-enforcement of Fort Pickens. Pickens was successfully re-enforced on the night of Friday, April 12th. The orders came on Friday, by a bearer of dispatches from Washington, to re-enforce immediately, at all hazards. The Brooklyn steam sloop, taking on board the marines from the frigate Sabine and the sloop St. Louis, bore up as close to the outside shore of Santa Rosa island as the beach would permit. The boats were then lowered and pulled away around the end of the island, silently passing within range of the guns of forts McRae and Barrancas, without being observed. The landing was effected in safety. Lieutenant Albert W. Smith had command of the enterprise. This success induced. the order for all the marines of the squadron to embark in small boats. These were taken in tow by the Wyandotte, and drawn into the harbor until the range of the rebel guns was reached, when the boats were cut loose and pulled in, in silence. The second landing was successfully made, and Pickens was safe from the threatened assault of the six thousand troops which Bragg was prepared to launch upon the fort at any moment. On Tuesday, the 16th of April, the Atlantic steam transport arrived, heavily laden with troops, stores, ordnance, ammunition, horses for heavy service, fascines for batteries, &c., &c., all under the direct charge of Captain Meigs, of the U. S. Engineer Corps. The Powhatan steam frigate arrived April 17th. The Illinois steam transport arrived April 20th, laden, as was the Atlantic, with every appliance of war necessary to place Pickens out of danger. Under Captain Meigs' skillful management the entire cargoes were landed on the beach of the south side of Santa Rosa island, by small boats. The horses were slung in a crane and dropped overboard to be towed into shore. The troops had previously landed, while the vessels of war were so disposed as to cover the operations in event of an attack, The which was looked for every moment. success of this enterprise intensely angered the enemy, when it became known to them, since it placed the fort beyond their grasp. When the news reached the North, as it soon did by the return of the Atlantic, it diffused a sense of relief to all. Captain Meigs received, as he richly merited, the thanks of his loyal countrymen. The evacuation of Harper's Ferry was consum The Harper's Ferry Destruction. mated on the night of Thursday, April 8th. The secession of Virginia, and the prospective descent upon the Capital, placed the little garrison at the Ferry in danger of capture. Lieutenant R. Jones, in command of the post, was on the alert, keeping himself fully informed of the movements of the conspirators. On Thursday he became aware of the approach of the wellarmed detachment of State troops commissioned to seize the arsenal, stores, buildings, &c., and to retain them for their treasonable purposes. He therefore immediately prepared to burn and blow up the entire property of the Government, and to retreat toward Pennsylvania. Early in the evening the little garrison, consisting of but fifty men, commenced preparations for destroying the arsenals and arms in case of necessity. Planks and timbers were cut up to ignite the buildings. They emptied their mattresses, filled them with powder, and carried them into the arsenals. No suspicion was aroused among the people. The arms, fifteen thou sand in number, were then placed in the best position to be destroyed by the explosion, and splints of boards and straw were piled up in different places in the shops. At nine o'clock, Lieutenant Jones being advised of the advance of not less than two thousand men, who expected to be upon the place by midnight, he at once proceeded to the work of destruction. The windows and doors of the building were opened, that the flames might have free course. When all was ready, the fires were started in the carpenter-shop, the trains leading to the powder ignited, and DESTRUCTION OF THE GOSPORT NAVY-YARD, &C. 111 Destruction of the Gosport Navy - yard. his men marched out. The cry of fire alarm- | the stores, the munitions, ed the town; and just as the officer and his the valuable machinery, remen were entering the lodge to escape, an flects a shadow upon the excited crowd pursued him, threatening ven- judgment of the administration of Mr. Lingeance upon him for having fired the build- | coln, which will not be wiped away by the ings. Wheeling his men, he faced the mob. only excuse offered that of military neThe order, "present arms!" rang out on the cessity. The story of that stupendous imnight air, and the mob melted away before molation upon the shrine of treason has been the gleaming gun-barrels leveled at their variously told; but the following appear to heads. The company then fell into line and be the facts. struck up the canal into the woods, to pursue its weary way to Hagerstown, which place it reached at seven the next morning. From thence the company proceeded by omnibuses to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, where it arrived unannounced. The destruction was nearly complete. The Virginia troops, to the number of three thousand, poured into the place during the night and the following morning to find their coveted prize nothing but charred ruins. The armory was not so far destroyed, however, as to render the machinery hopelessly beyond repair; but Virginia ingenuity was not able to make much use of the fine and complicated mechanism which the fire could not consume. Harper's Ferry was thus transferred to the hands of the rebels, and, ere long, became a point around which much military interest centered. The Baltimore and Ohio railway passed into disloyal control, and ceased from that date to connect the East and West-a severe blow to Washington, but a severer one to Baltimore, for the "Monumental City" quickly became a city of deserted marts and ruined commercial enterprises. It became known, before the fall of Sumter, that, in event of Virginia's secession, she would seek to "appropriate" the Gosport Navy-yard. Anticipating this, Government, instead of reenforcing the place to a defensive position, preferred an evacuation—as if such a course would reassure the Virginia people of Mr. Lincoln's good faith in professing to desire only peace.* Stores, under orders for shipment to the Navy-yard, were withheld. Some authorities assert that, prior to the affair of April 21st, several cargoes of stores and property were reshipped to Northern stations. It is certain one cargo was returned, but it was one which had not broken bulk at all, having arrived after the evacuation had been determined upon. The Report of the Investigating Committee (hereafter referred to) stated explicitly that the amount of property destroyed exceeded the sum generally fixed upon as the total loss— showing that but little property could have been removed. That it might have been removed, who can doubt? Who shall say that the two thousand cannon, and ammunition enough for a campaign, could not have been quietly sent to Fortress Monroe, the week prior to their hasty abandonment ? That they ought to have been removed, at * See Appendix, page 480, for Cassius M. Clay's statement to the Editor of the Nashville Democrat, dated Washington, April 20th, representing that Mr. Lincoln would use force only in defense of the capital. Mr. Seward said the same thing in his communication of April 22d, to Governor Hicks. See Destruction of the The destruction of the Norfolk (Gosport) Norfolk Navy - yard was Navy-yard, &c. the next disaster-the extent of which it is hard to measure even at the end of time at which we write. That that magnificent property in buildings and material—that immense depot of stores, ordnance, and munitions — that road of fleets and harbor of recourse for the Home Squa- also Mayor Brown's statement of his interview with dron and ships in ordinary, should have been Mr. Lincoln, April 21st. The evacuation of Harleft helpless and exposed to seizure, is not per's Ferry, it is stated by Mr. Clay, was ordered the least of the crimes which attach to Mr. to favor the peace policy; and though no mention Buchanan's administration; and, that all was is made of Gosport Navy-yard, its evacuation would given up to the flames and waters, without seem to have been ordered from the motive ascribed any effort to save the vessels, the ordnance, | for the withdrawal from Harper's Ferry. |