Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 1.
Frank Moore, Ed.

[396] it has now burst with angry violence; but the pulse of the nation beats coolly and calmly, the partial local inflammation but serves to exhibit the lusty health of the body politic, and when this rebellion is extinguished, and its cause removed, we may hope that we are safe from an organized rebellion for at least a century to come.

With what speed this rebellion shall be crushed depends solely upon yourselves. Let public feeling lag throughout the land, and the War Department will lag in Washington. Let us become careless and indifferent about the matter, and contractors will cheat our soldiers, incompetent officers will expose them to defeat, official indifference will produce general demoralization. But let us keep ever in mind the lesson we have so dearly learned — that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. Let the administration and the army feel that their every act is canvassed by an intelligent people, and, when approved, greeted by a hearty appreciation; that every branch of industry awaits the ending of the war, and that from every part of the land comes the cry of “forward,” and the arm of the Union at Washington will obey the heart of the nation, whenever a prayer rises in its behalf, or its flag kisses the breeze of heaven.

Let us with this sleepless vigilance on our part, repose a generous confidence in our President, who has won the generous applause of his Democratic opponents, nor scan too impatiently the warlike policy of Scott.

Like all true-hearted and brave veterans, he wishes to spare as far as possible the blood alike of loyal soldiers and deluded rebels, and to carry with the flag of our Union not simply the power to make it respected, but the more glorious attributes that cause it to be loved. “Not,” to adopt the words of Gov. Andrew, of Massachusetts, “to inaugurate a war of sections, not to avenge former wrongs, not to perpetuate ancient griefs, or memories of conflict,” will that flag move onwards until it floats again in its pride and beauty over Richmond, and Sumter, and Montgomery, and New Orleans; but to indicate the majesty of the people, to retain and re-invigorate the institutions of our fathers, to rescue from the despotism of traitors the loyal citizens of the South, and place all, loyal or rebel, under the protection of a Union that is essential to the welfare of the whole.

The eyes of the whole world are this day fixed upon you. To Europeans themselves, European questions sink to insignificance compared with the American question now to be decided. Rise, my countrymen, as did our fathers on the day we celebrate, to the majestic grandeur of this question in its twofold aspect, as regards America, and as regards the world. Remember that with the failure of the American Republic will fall the wisest system of republican government which the wisdom of man has yet invented, and the hopes of popular freedom cherished throughout the globe.

Let us, standing by our fathers' graves, swear anew, and teach the oath to our children, that with God's help the American Republic, clasping this continent in its embrace, shall stand unmoved, though all the powers of slavery, piracy, and European jealousy should combine to overthrow it; that we shall have in the future, as we have had in the past, one country, one Constitution, and one destiny; and that when we shall have passed from earth, and the acts of to-day shall be matter of history, and the dark power now seeking our overthrow shall have been itself overthrown, our sons may gather strength from our example in every contest with despotism that time may have in store to try their virtue, and that they may rally under the Stars and Stripes to battle for freedom and the rights of man, with our olden war cry, “Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable.”