native courage, to your sense of real injury, were used to prepare you for the period when the mask which concealed the hideous features of DISUNION, should be taken off. It fell, and you were made to look with complacancy on objects which not long since you would have regarded with horror. 3. Look back at the acts which have brought you to this state,—look forward to the consequences, to which it must inevitably lead. Something more is necessary. Contemplate the condition of that country, of which you still form an important part!-consider its government, uniting in one bond of common interest and general protection, so many different states, giving to all their inhabitants the proud title of AMERICAN CITIZENS,-protecting their commerce,-securing their literature and their arts,-facilitating their intercommunication, -defending their frontiers,—and making their name respected in the remotest parts of the earth! 4. Consider the extent of its territory, its increasing and happy population, its advance in arts which render life agresable, and the sciences which elevate the mind! See education spreading the lights of religion, humanity, and general information, into every cottage in this wide extent of our territories and states! Behold it as the asylum where the wretched and the oppressed find refuge and support! Look on this picture of happiness and honor, and say, "WE, TOO, ARE CITIZENS OF AMERICA; Carolina is one of these proud states; her arms have defended, her best blood has cemented this happy Union!" And then add, if you can, without horror and remorse, "This happy Union we will dissolve,-this picture of peace and prosperity we will deface,--this free intercourse we will interrupt, these fertile fields we will deluge with blood,the protection of that glorious flag we renounce, the very name of AMERICANS we discard." 5. And for what, mistaken men! for what do you throw away these inestimable blessings,-for what would you exchange your share in the advantages and honor of the Union? -For the dream of a separate independence, a DREAM interrupted by bloody conflicts with your neighbors, and a vile de pendence on foreign power? If your leaders could succeed in establishing a separation, what would be your situation? Are you united at home,- —are you free from the apprehensions of civil discord, with all its fearful consequences? Do our neighboring republies, every day suffering some new revolution, or contending with some new insurrection,-do they exçite your envy? 6. But the dictates of a high duty oblige me solemnly to announce that you can not succeed. The laws of the United States must be executed, I have no discretionary power on the subject, my duty is emphatically pronounced in the constitution. Those who told you that you might peaceably prevent their execution, deceived you,--they could not have been deceived themselves. They know that a forcible opposition could alone prevent the execution of the laws, and they know that such opposition must be repelled. Their object is disunion; but be not deceived by names; disunion, by armed force, is TREASON. 7. Are you really ready to incur its guilt? If you are, on the heads of the instigators of the act, be the dreadful consequences, on their heads be the dishonor, but on yours may fall the punishment,-on your unhappy state will inevitably fall all the evils of the conflict you force upon the government of your country. It can not accede to the mad project of disunion, of which you would be the first victims,-its first magistrate can not, if he would, avoid the performance of his duty, -the consequence must be fearful for you, distressing to your fellow-citizens here, and to the friends of good government throughout the world. 8. Its enemies have beheld our prosperity with a vexation they could not conceal,-it was a standing refutation of their slavish doctrines, and they will point to our discord with the triumph of malignant joy. It is yet in your power to disappoint them. There is yet time to show that the descendants of the Pinckneys, the Sumters, the Rutledges,* and of the thousand other names which adorn the pages of your Revolutionary history, will not abandon that Union, tc support which so many of them fought, and bled, and died. 9. I adjure you, as you honor their memories,—as you love the cause of freedom, to which they dedicated their lives,—as you prize the peace of your country, the lives of its best citizens, and your own fair fame, to retrace your steps. Snatch from the archieves of your state the disorganizing edict of its convention,-bid its members to re-assemble and promulgate the decided expressions of your will to remain in the path which alone can conduct you to safety, prosperity, and honor,-tell them that, compared to disunion, all other evils are light, because that brings with it an accumulation of all,--declare that you will never take the field unless the star-spangled banner of your country shall float over you,-that you will not be stigmatized when dead, and dishonored and scorned while you live, as the authors of the first attack on the constitution of your country! 10. Its destroyers, you can not be. You may disturb its peace, you may interrupt the course of its prosperity,-you may cloud its reputation for stability,-but its tranquility will be restored, its prosperity will return, and the stain upon its national character will be transferred and remain an eternal blot on the memory of those who caused the disorder. 11. May the great Ruler of nations grant, that the signal blessings, with which He has favored ours, may not, by the madness of party or personal ambition, be disregarded and lost; and may His wise providence bring those who have produced this crisis, to see the folly, before they feel the misery, of civil strife; and inspire a returning veneration for that Union which, if we may dare to penetrate His designs, He has chosen as the only means of attaining the high destinies, to which we may reasonably aspire. 12. Sweet clime of my kindred, blest land of my birth! The fairest, the dearest, the brightest on earth! Where'er I roam,-howe'er blest I may be, My spirit instinctively turns unto thee! LESSON CXXI. CHRIST IN THE TEMPEST. J. G. WHITTIER. 1. STORM on the heaving waters! The vast sky Cloud on cloud, Towers for one instant, full and clear, and then 2. And it is very terrible!-The roar Ascendeth unto heaven, and thunders back, Like the response of demons, from the black Rifts of the hanging tempest, yawning o'er The wild waves in their torment. Hark! the cry Of strong man in his peril, piercing through The uproar of the waters and the sky, As the rent bark one moment rides to view, On the tall billows, with the thunder-cloud Closing around, above her, like a shroud. 3. He stood upon the reeling deck,-His form Made visible by the lightning, and His brow Pale, and uncovered to the rushing storm, Told of a triumph man may never know,— Power underived and mighty,-"PEACE,—BE STILL!" The great waves heard Him, and the storm's loud tone TITAN means huge. The Titans were fabled as gods, sons of Cœlus and Terra, heaven and earth. They were noted for their gigantic size and great strength. Went moaning into silence at His will; And the thick clouds, where yet the lightning shone, And slept the latent thunder, rolled away Whose presence boweth the uprisen storm,- Thy Infinite regard,-O, breathe upon The storm and darkness of man's soul the same O'er the roused waters, where Thy voice had gone A minister of power,-to conquer in Thy name. |