A patriotic appeal.
We have seldom seen a more eloquent and inspiring appeal than
Mr. Goggin's late address to the people of
Bedford.
It has the clear ring of disinterested patriotism and lofty courage.
It stirs the blood like the sound of a trumpet.
It is worthy of Old Virginia's palmiest days, of old
Bedford, and of the whole-souled orator, whose heart is on fire with love of country, and his life fervid with the inspiration of genius and heroism.
We rejoice that men of all parties are rivalling each other at this critical hour in their devotion to the national cause.
There are no longer any parties.
The original Secessionists and those who were not so, because they could not conceive human nature capable of such turpitude and cruelty as
Lincoln has exhibited, have mingled their blood together upon the altar of their country.
It cannot be said of one of the old parties that it has done more than the other in the defence of our soil, that it has contributed one more man, one more dollar, one more drop of blood, one more throb of courageous resistance and determination.
The very name of party ought now to cease to exist.
It ought not to be recognized in any way or shape, in the camp or the council, in the allotment of public burthens or the distribution of public favors — We are all countrymen; we are more, we are brothers, who are engaged in defending the graves of their common fathers from desecration, and their common homes from defilement, spoliation and murder.
Let no sound of strife, no dispute of partying be heard among us at this solemn moment, this moment big with the fate of ourselves and of posterity.
