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SACRED FROM WAR.

211

CLX.-SACRED FROM WAR.

CHARLES SUMNER.

IT is a beautiful picture in Grecian story, that there was at least one spot, the small island of Delos, dedicated to the Gods, and kept at all times sacred from war. No hostile foot ever sought to press this kindly soil; and the citizens of all countries here met, in common worship, beneath the ægis of inviolable Peace. So let us dedicate our beloved country; and may the blessed consecration be felt, in all its parts, everywhere throughout its ample domain! The TEMPLE OF HONOR shall be surrounded, here at last, by the Temple of Concord, that it may never more be entered through any portal of War; the horn of Abundance shall overflow at its gates; the angel of Religion shall be the guide over its steps of flashing adamant; while within its enraptured courts, purged of violence and wrong, JUSTICE, returned to earth from her long exile in the skies, with mighty scales for Nations as for men, shall rear her serene and majestic front; and by her side, greatest of all, CHARITY, sublime in meekness, hoping all, and enduring all, shall divinely temper every righteous decree, and with words of infinite cheer, shall inspire those good works that cannot vanish away. And the future chiefs of the Republic, destined to uphold the glories of a new era, unspotted by human blood, shall be "the first in Peace, and the first in the hearts of their countrymen."

But while seeking these blissful glories for ourselves, let us strive to extend them to other lands. Let the bugles sound the truce of God to the whole world forever. Let the selfish boast of the Spartan women become the grand chorus of mankind, that they have never seen the smoke of an enemy's camp. Let the iron belt of martial music, which now encompasses the earth, be exchanged for the golden cestus of Peace, clothing all with celestial beauty.

CLXI-PLEA IN THE MICHIGAN RAILROAD CONSPIRACY

TRIAL.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

GENTLEMEN, in the middle of the fourth month we draw near to the end of what has seemed to be an endless labor. While we have been here, events have transpired which have roused national ambition-kindled national resentment -drawn forth national sympathies-and threatened to disturb the tranquillity of empires. He who, although He work eth unseen, yet worketh irresistibly and unceasingly, has suspended neither His guardian care nor His paternal discipline on ourselves. Some of you have sickened and convalesced. Others have parted with cherished ones, who, removed before they had time to contract the stain of earth, were already prepared for the kingdom of Heaven. There have

been changes, too, among the unfortunate men whom I have defended. The sound of the hammer has died away in the workshops of some; the harvests have ripened and wasted in the fields of others. Want, and fear, and sorrow, have entered into all their dwellings. Their own rugged forins have drooped; their sunburnt brows have blanched; and their hands have become as soft to the pressure of friendship as yours or mine. One of them--a vagrant boy-whom I found imprisoned here for a few extravagant words, that, perhaps, he never uttered, has pined away and died. Another, he who was feared, hated, and loved most of all, has fallen in the vigor of life,

"hacked down,

His thick summer leaves all fallen."

When such an one falls, amid the din and smoke of the battle-field, our emotions are overpowered-suppressed-lost in the excitement of public passion. But when he perishes a victim of domestic or social strife-when we see the iron enter his soul, and see it, day by day, sinking deeper and deeper, until nature gives way, and he lies lifeless at our feetthen there is nothing to check the flow of forgiveness, compassion, and sympathy. If, in the moment when closing his eyes on earth, he declares: "I have committed no crime against my country; I die a martyr for the liberty of speech, and perish of a broken heart"-then, indeed, do we feel that the tongues of dying men enforce attention, like deep har

mony.

DANGER OF MILITARY SUPREMACY.

213

Who would willingly consent to decide on the guilt or innocence of one who has thus been withdrawn from our erring judgment, to the tribunal of eternal justice? Yet it cannot be avoided. If Abel F. Fitch was guilty of the crime charged in this indictment, every man here may nevertheless be innocent; but if he was innocent, then there is not one of these, his associates in life, who can be guilty. Try him, then, since you must condemn him, if you must-and with him condemn them. But remember that you are mortal, and he is now immortal; and that, before that tribunal where he stands, you must stand and confront him, and vindicate your judgment. Remember, too, that he is now free. He has not only left behind him the dungeon, the cell, and the chain, but he exults in a freedoin, compared with which, the liberty we enjoy is slavery and bondage. You stand, then, between the dead and the living. There is no need to bespeak the exercise of your caution-of your candor-and of your impartiality. You will, I am sure, be just to the living, and true to your country; because, under circumstances so solemn-so full of awe-you cannot be unjust to the dead, nor false to your country, nor to your God.

CLXII.-DANGER OF MILITARY SUPREMACY.

HENRY CLAY.

RECALL to your recollection the free nations which have gone before us. Where are they now?

"Gone glimmering through the dream of things that were,
A school-boy's tale, the wonder of an hour."

And how have they lost their liberties? If we could transport ourselves to the ages when Greece and Rome flourished in their greatest prosperity, and, mingling in the throng, should ask a Grecian, if he did not fear that some daring military chieftain, covered with glory, some Philip or Alexander, would one day overthrow the liberties of his country, the confident and indignant Grecian would exclaim, “No! no! we have nothing to fear from our heroes; our liberties will be eternal." If a Roman citizen had been asked, if he did not fear that the conqueror of Gaul might establish a

throne upon the ruins of public liberty, he would have instantly repelled the unjust insinuation. Yet Greece fell; Cæsar passed the Rubicon, and the patriotic arm even of Brutus could not preserve the liberties of his devoted country! We are fighting a great moral battle, for the benefit, not only of our country, but of all mankind. The eyes of the whole world are in fixed attention upon us. One, and the largest portion of it, is gazing with contempt, with jealousy, and with envy; the other portion, with hope, with confidence, and with affection. Everywhere the black cloud of legitimacy is suspended over the world, save only one bright spot, which breaks out from the political hemisphere of the west, to enlighten and animate, and gladden the human heart. Observe that, by the downfall of liberty here, all mankind are enshrouded in a pall of universal darkness. To you belongs the high privilege of transmitting, unimpaired, to posterity, the fair character and liberty of our country. Do you expect to execute this high trust, by trampling, or suffering to be trampled down, law, justice, the constitution, and the rights of the people? by exhibiting examples of inhumanity, and cruelty, and ambition? Beware how you give a fatal sanction, in this infant period of our republic, scarcely yet two-score years old, to military insubordination. Remember that Greece had her Alexander, Rome her Cæsar, England her Cromwell, France her Bonaparte, and that if we would escape the rock on which they split, we must avoid their errors.

CLXIII-EXECUTIVE CLEMENCY.

HENRY W. BEECHER.

EXECUTIVE clemency, on its frequency, has been a temptation to dishonesty. Who will fear to be a culprit when a legal sentence is the argument of pity, and the prelude of pardon? What can the community expect but growing dishonesty, when juries connive at acquittals, and judges condemn only to petition a pardon; when honest men and officers fly before a mob; when jails are besieged and threatened, if felons are not relinquished; when the Executive, consulting the spirit of the community, receives the demands

DEATH OF JEFFERSON AND ADAMS.

215

of the mob, and humbly complies, throwing down the fences of the law, that base rioters may walk unimpeded, to their work of vengeance, or unjust mercy? A sickly sentimentality too often enervates the administration of justice; and the pardoning power becomes the master-key to let out unwashed, unrepentant criminals. They have fleeced us, robbed us, and are ulcerous sores in the body politic; yet our heart turns to water over their merited punishment. A fine young fellow, by accident, writes another's name for his own; by a mistake equally unfortunate, he presents it at the bank; innocently draws out the large amount; generously spends a part, and absent-mindedly hides the rest. Hard-hearted wretches there are, who would punish him for this! Young inen, admiring the neatness of the affair, pity his misfortune, and curse a stupid jury that knew no better than to send to a penitentiary, him, whose skill deserved a cashiership. He goes to his cell, the pity of a whole metropolis. Bulletins from Sing-Sing inform us daily what Edwards is doing, as if he were Napoleon at St. Helena. At length pardoned, he will go forth again to a renowned liberty!

CLXIV.-DEATH OF JEFFERSON AND ADAMS.

EDWARD EVERETT.

THE jubilee of America is turned into mourning. Its joy is mingled with sadness; its silver trumpet breathes a mingled strain. Henceforth, while America exists among the nations of earth, the first emotion on the Fourth of July will be of joy and triumph in the great event which immortalizes the day; the second will be one of chastened and tender recollection of the venerable men, who departed on the morning of the jubilee. This mingled emotion of triumph and sadness has sealed the beauty and sublimity of our great anniversary. In the simple commemoration of a victorious political achievement, there seems not enough to occupy our purest and best feelings. The Fourth of July was before a day of triumph, exultation, and national pride; but the angel of death has mingled in the glorious pageant to teach us we are men. Had our venerated fathers left us on any other day, it would have been henceforth a day of mournful

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