286 Series II Volume VII- Serial 120 - Prisoners of War
Page 286 | PRISONERS OF WAR AND STATE, ETC. |
upon the social current, like waifs, too valueless for serious thoughts, or lost in the dregs of slumbering pools waiting to be upheaved by the surging of the first commotion, or patiently endured as ineffaceable blemishes upon the body politic. Their elevation to place has brought to view their inherent vices of character but has not developed one virtue. There is, in the contemplation of their wide field of action, exploit, and unaccomplished purpose, but one object of palpable subject upon which our special wonder can exercise itself - their audacity! It should be too much for credulity without sad experience of the truth, in the light of these days of human advancement, and on the soil of North American, too, which yet feels the nourishing aliment of the choicest blood which watered the tree of liberty when planted in the "New World," that such men should be so bold! They have polluted every sacred thing existing on which their lightest finger has fallen, and have even desecrated every object and idea which had been enshrined in holiest memories of the glorious past! Brothers! the future is enveloped in thick clouds, dark, and growing darker, to our view; yet true patriotism, aided by abiding faith in the virtues transmitted to us through our sires as our inheritance of honor, discerns clear, transcendent brightness beyond. We will with our swords, if need be, sweep away these clouds and welcome the splendor which shall glow in its old-time brilliancy upon the arms of our several States, redeemed from the thraldom of an irresponsible "despotism. "
Read often and ponder well the lessons which our order imparts and let them abide in your heart of hearts. All will be well if we are true to ourselves, but if we shall not prove true in this the hour of our country's great peril, the ghosts of our fathers will take palpable shape and voice, and pointing at us will cry, Shame! Shame! If we shall prove recreant to our sacred trust in this present our children will curse our memories for leaving to them a heritage of shame.
Listen to our brothers of one of our noblest States:
In view of these signs of the times we believe that every State and every individual right is in jeopardy; that law and order, and society itself, are imperiled; that the dark and bloody cloud of anarchy is beginning to overshadow us, and that a grinding military despotism of the direst character must be the result, unless the spirit of the fathers animates with its brightest, purest fires of devotion and self-sacrifice, the free minds, the brave hearts, and still unshackled limbs of the true democracy.
To be prepared for the crisis now approaching we must catch from afar the earliest and faintest breathings of the spirit of the storm. To be successful when the storm comes we must be watchful, patient, brave, confident, organized, armed.
Our watchword should be law and order, the Constitution, and the Union of our sires, the sovereignty of our several States.
We must be law-abiding, as we are liberty-loving. We are against usurpation in whatever guise it comes. We will revere, sustain, and obey the Constitution of the United States and all law passed in pursuance thereof. We acknowledge the supremacy of the judiciary, and shall abide by its pure, unsought, unawed, interpretations of the law. In all our works and acts we shall seek peaceably to avert the dangers that threaten us; to uphold the laws, and in all cases and in every way possible to stand and act on the defensive.
But the surest mode of averting danger is to confront it boldly; the most certain means of preserving peace is to be prepared for war.
P. CAIUS URBANUS
Supreme Commander.
T.
SAINT LOUIS, Mo., April 18, 1864.
Colonel J. P. SANDERSON.
Provost-Marshal-General Department of the Missouri:
COLONEL: In compliance with your verbal instructions I started for Detroit, Mich., on the 13th instant and reached that city on the morn
Page 286 | PRISONERS OF WAR AND STATE, ETC. |