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 OUR COUNTRY 
 
 A SERMON 
 
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OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 A SERMON 
 
 PREACHED ON 
 
 THANKSGIVING DAY 
 
 NOVEMBER 3-i, 18G4, 
 
 IN THE METHODIST CHURCH, 
 
 (UNION SERVICES,) 
 
 NEWPORT, 1ST. EL 
 
 BY 
 
 EEV. C. M. DINSMORE. 
 
 CLAREMONT, N. H. : 
 
 PRESS OF THE CLAREMONT MANUFACTURING COMPANY. 
 1865. 
 

 • t 
 
 D^8 
 
 Newport, Nov. 24, 1804. 
 Rbv. C. M. Dihbkorb: 
 
 S — We, the undersigned, having beard your very interesting and 
 e delivered before the united religious Societies of this place, this 
 Thanksgiving May. and in accordance with our own and the expressed wishes 
 of many others who heard you. have called upon you and earnestly request 
 a copj of said Discourse for publication: believing that its perusal would 
 arouse in the mind of the readers spirit of Christian patriotism, and a purer 
 a to Country. 
 
 LEVI W. BARTON, 
 WILLIAM NOURSE, 
 BENJAMIN F.SAWYER. 
 
 Newport, Nov. 25, 18C4. 
 Messrs. L. W. Barton, William Nourse. B. F. Sawyer: 
 
 Gentlemen, — Your polite and complimentary note was duly received ; and 
 allow me to say that the Discourse referred to is a very humble and unpre- 
 tending document, not written for publication; but if in your judgment you 
 think it would, by being read, promote in any degree a " spirit of Christian 
 patriotism, and a purer devotion to Country.'' it is at your disposal. 
 Respectfully yours, 
 
 C. M. DINSMORE. 
 
SERMON. 
 
 " Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his 
 courts with praise." — ps. 100 ! 4. 
 
 " For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good 
 land."— Deut. 8:7. 
 
 As a Christian people we meet to-day, to celebrate again 
 a time-honored festival, established by the wisdom and piety 
 of our pilgrim fathers. But not as in years past. Then 
 war's dark cloud had not risen. Law and order prevailed 
 throughout the whole country. Peace and uninterrupted 
 prosperity brightened our skies. Our once glorious Union 
 was everywhere shedding its rich and impartial blessings 
 upon a land "unrent with civil feuds or drenched in frater- 
 nal blood." Peace was within our w r alls, and prosperity 
 within our palaces. Each State rejoiced in the privileges and 
 blessings of the Federal Government, and the woes of Re- 
 bellion, the folly and madness of Secession were unknown. 
 But though a terrible civil war has befallen us, yet we are 
 not without occasions of gratitude and praise to God. 
 
 In the language of the President's Proclamation, "It has 
 pleased Almighty God to prolong our national life another 
 year, defending us with His guardian care against unfriendly 
 designs from abroad, and vouchsafing to us, in his mercy, 
 
many and signal victories over the enemy, who is of our own 
 
 household. It has also pleased our Heavenly Father to 
 favor, as well our citizens in their homes, as our soldiers in 
 their camps and our sailors on the rivers and seas, with unusual 
 health/' We assemble not only at the request of his Excel- 
 li ncy the Governor, and in accordance with the rccommcn- 
 dation <>i' the Chief Magistrate of this nation, — hut because, 
 I trust, we an' nol wholly unmindful of the many mercies 
 with which a kind Providence has crowned the year. An 
 abundant harvest has rewarded the labors of the husband- 
 man. The blight and mildew have not blasted our fair fields. 
 The gaunt form of poverty and famine has not visited our 
 dwellings. The God of the Seasons, who has ever revealed 
 ! imself to us better than our fears, has sent the early and 
 ! : i<' latter rain and rescued the land from threatened drought ; 
 and the various products of a well-cultivated soil have not 
 failed us. Our granaries are full, our barns and cellars are 
 uiting in the necessary food for man and beast, disarm- 
 ing the terrors of cold Winter's approach with his face "sullen 
 and sad." wreathed with clouds and storms, for joyous Plenty 
 sits smiling at our doors. Life, too, with its innumerable 
 1 Les8ings and gracious opportunities, is still granted unto us, 
 and the rieh boon of health, without which life becomes a 
 burden. Our homes and our friends, our social comforts 
 and enjoyments have not been denied us. We have been 
 mercifully protected from "the pestilence that walketh in 
 darkness, and the destruction that wasteth at noonday." — 
 Though we are plunged in war and thousands of our noble 
 - ais and brothers, at their country's call, rushed to arms 
 with the battle-cry of freedom sounding in their ears, brav- 
 ing tin' perils of war, sacrificing their lives for the honor of 
 our flag anil hurling J>aek the armed legions of traitors striv- 
 ing in their madness to overthrow this fair fabric, reared by 
 the Bweal and toil and blood of our fathers, vet we as indi- 
 
yiduals have known but little of the devastations, hardships 
 and horrors of this terrible conflict. We know nothing of 
 the stern realities of war ; we are too far removed from the 
 awful scenes of carnage and death. It is true we have read 
 and heard much, but seen and felt but little.. Our fields 
 have not been laid waste, our hills and valleys have not 
 resounded with the tread of marshalled hosts, our mountains 
 have not re-echoed with the booming cannon's loud peal ; 
 pillage, fire and sword have not driven us from our peaceful 
 homes. From the quietude, the thrift and enterprise every- 
 where seen around us, the ease and cheerfulness with which 
 taxation for the support of our Government is borne, the 
 apparent unconcern for the future, who would suppose that 
 our country was involved in one of the most terrible con- 
 flicts ever recorded in the annals of history, — in a contest 
 involving our very existence as a nation. Strange as it may 
 seem, the various branches of business have not been mate- 
 rially affected. The usual channels of activity, the different 
 departments of trade, the usual industrial pursuits have ex- 
 perienced but little interruption. When did our farmers 
 ever receive more for their hay, grain, beef, butter, pork and 
 wool, or pocket money faster than during the past year ? — 
 When was your own community more prosperous than to- 
 day? Your mills, your stores and shops, your fields and 
 homes, your comforts and luxuries too, betoken no pressure 
 of the times ; no temporal wants, no fears of bankruptcy, 
 or doubts concerning the stability of our government or the 
 ultimate and complete triumph of our cause. Not a family 
 is destitute of food, raiment and shelter. The cry of chil- 
 dren for bread is nowhere heard amongst us. While we 
 acknowledge our temporal blessings and prosperity, we would 
 not forget our spiritual mercies : The Bible, the Sabbath, 
 the glad tidings of the Gospel, the Sanctuary, the privilege 
 of worshiping God according to the dictates of our own 
 
G 
 
 iences, the gentle influences of the Holy Spirit, the 
 gracious answers to prayer, the success of Christian efforts to 
 do good, the blessed results of the "< christian < !ommission " 
 
 alleviating the Bufferings of our brave soldiers— shedding 
 light and comfort to the wounded and dying in camp and 
 hospital ; frequenl revivals of religion, the prosperity of our 
 as domestic and foreign, the integrity of the Chris- 
 hurch, peace throughout her borders, the humane and 
 brotherly spirit of all the true followers of Him who. while 
 hereon earth, "went about doing good." God in his sov- 
 ereign mercy has given to this nation during the past year 
 Buch prosperity — temporal and spiritual — as no other people 
 hive ever known during the vigorous prosecution of an inter- 
 nal war. It behooves us on this day, publicly to acknowl- 
 
 . Him "• from whom cometheveryg 1 and perfect gift," 
 
 and humbly repenting of our sins of omission and commission, 
 with devout reverence and gratitude to "enter into his gates 
 with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise : for the 
 Lord is good ; his mercy is everlasting ; and his truth 
 endureth to all generations." Through a kind Providence 
 v. ■ have been spared to enjoy another Thanksgiving, to 
 participate in the festivities of an institution which has been 
 fondly and sacredly cherished, especially in New England, 
 since the days of our pilgrim ancestors, and whose annual 
 recurrence is ever welcomed by the young and the old, the 
 poor and the rich. We are reminded that another year has 
 flown — gone to return no more — hearing with it the impress 
 of ouf deeds now stamped upon the scroll of eternity. We 
 have seen the goodness of our Heavenly Father in the 
 chapging seasons, and have been cheered and Messed as in 
 their beauty and freshness they have come and gone. We 
 greeted gentle Spring with its "ethereal mildness," its 
 swelling buds, its Bong-feasts amid leafy groves, itsrefreshing 
 showers and hope-inspiring breath. We have admired the 
 
shadowing roses and the green meadows of refulgent Summer, 
 and rejoiced when Autumn, nodding o'er the yellow plain, 
 
 " Crowned with the sickle and the wheaten sheaf/' 
 
 comes jovial on with her rich and varied hues gorgeous in 
 her robes of orange and crimson ere the falling of the sere 
 and yellow leaf ; and as we have been gladdened with those 
 who have plucked the luscious fruit from the bending bough, 
 reaped the golden wheat fields and harvested the yellow 
 corn, it is meet that friends and old acquaintance dear, that 
 scattered family circles should gather as in days of yore 
 around the familiar hearthstone to clasp the friendly hand, 
 to kindle anew the fires on Friendship's sacred altars ; to 
 recall the past — the sunny memories of by-gone years — to 
 brighten each other's countenances, while hope sheds her 
 cheering rays upon the future, and forge tfulness and charity 
 throw their mantles upon the faults and griefs of the 
 past. And when with thankful hearts we are permitted to 
 gather once more, as in childhood's days, around the well 
 spread board, laden with the rich bounties of heaven, and 
 there behold the vacant seat, — for time hath wrought sad 
 changes, and, alas, all are not here ! — the joyous spirit is 
 o'ercast with sad and mournful thoughts, and affection's 
 gentle tear trickles down the cheek — may we not murmur 
 and repine at the dispensation of " Him who doeth all things 
 well," remembering that "affliction cometh not forth of the 
 dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground." Let 
 us not unduly mourn for those who have passed to the better 
 land, either from our peaceful homes with loved friends to 
 watch around them in their departing hours, or on the 
 battle field with no soft hand to soothe and cheer those 
 precious gifts so willingly laid upon our Country's altar, 
 those heroes and patriots who have so gloriously fallen in 
 our country's defence. Let us cherish most sacredly their 
 
8 
 
 memory, their many virtues, their lofty patriotism, un- 
 daunted courage, unmurmuring fortitude, heroic patience, 
 unswerving fidelity to the dear old flag, and offer thanks 
 to the Grod of battles that we still have a Country and 
 cause worthy of bo rich a Libation and so costly a sac- 
 rifice. 
 
 Bui what is our Country, and what are our hopes for the 
 future P Our enemies tauntingly say, " Watchman, what of 
 the night ?" Though the dark clouds of disunion have so 
 long o'ercast our skies and the red right hand of treason 
 
 brandished alofl the bl ly sword, may we not answer " the 
 
 morning cometh ?" May we not confidently hope that our 
 courage will be equal to our perils, — for 
 
 "Already we have conquered half the war, 
 And the less dangerous part is left behind," — 
 
 our resources prove commensurate with our dangers; the 
 abundance of our supplies be adequate to all our wants, and 
 
 that the fearful strain brought to bear upon our Government 
 -hall be more than matched in the strength and patriotism 
 of a brave people, the greatness of our country, the wealth 
 of our land and the righteousness of our cause ? In the 
 language of Holy Writ, the lines have fallen to us in pleas- 
 ant places, we have a goodly heritage. The God of our 
 puritan fathers brought them into a good land : " For the 
 Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of 
 brooks of water, of fountains, and depths that spring ou1 of 
 valleys and hills ; a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and 
 fig trees, a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarce- 
 ness, thou shall not lack anything in it ; a land whose stones 
 are iron, and oul of whose hills thou mayest dig brass." As 
 in the days of Israel. 80 now God requires a proper recogni- 
 tion of his authority and of our dependence upon him with 
 due regard to his holy will and word: " When thou hast 
 
9 
 
 eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy Grod 
 for the good land which he hath given thee." 
 
 But turning to our country, to glance at our resources, we 
 find ourselves geographically situated in the midst of ;i vast 
 and almost boundless continent ; as the poet hath it, 
 
 " No pent up Utica contracts our power." 
 
 We are favored with a climate the most agreeable and 
 healthy, a soil the most fertile and productive, a national do- 
 main vast in extent, of superior advantage, rich and abundant 
 in treasure. A land indeed of " wheat and barley, of vines 
 and fig trees." Our mountains and hills are the depositories 
 of iron, zinc, copper and lead. From the depth of our 
 verdant valleys where " sleep the mineral generations," the 
 silver and the gold glitter washed from its silent bed by 
 mountain streamlets, gushing in their fullness and wanton- 
 ness, as they leap from the moss-grown rocks and sparkle 
 in the sunbeams of heaven. Literally it may be said, 
 "Out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass, whose stones 
 are iron." 
 
 However long the war may continue, there can be no lack 
 of material for our iron-clad and invulnerable monitors and 
 gunboats. The bowels of the earth are filled with coal, 
 amply sufficient to furnish the nation with fuel for thousands 
 of years to come. Our land contains Ophirs and Eldora- 
 dos of silver and gold, whose shining treasures are constant- 
 ly laid open, dissipating all fears of the ability of our 
 Government to pay the interest on the national debt and in 
 due time to redeem all her pledges in pure gold, and then 
 leaving a surplus adequate to supply the gold currency of 
 the whole moneyed world. 
 
 Our Eastern and Western shores are washed by the two 
 great Oceans, upon whose broad bosoms our Commerce has 
 hitherto floated in safety, unharmed by Floridas, Sumters 
 
10 
 
 Uabamas. All thanks to Capt. Winslow and the heroes 
 
 who are clearing our seas from the annoyance and danger of 
 
 piratical crafts and the blockade runners thai they 
 
 have so successfully overhauled and brought to justice. Our 
 
 sails have whitened ever} sea, throwing to the breeze, in 
 
 port of the world, the Stars and Stripes, everywhere 
 commanding respect. It was reserved for Southern rebels 
 and traitors -nourished and enriched 1>\ Northern Commerce 
 — to offer the first insull to the American Flag. 
 
 Behold our mighty rivers which, like great veins and 
 •ad and deep, afford us thousands of miles of 
 valuable navigation, as they majestically wind and sweep 
 along through the length and breadth of the continent — 
 and every river and lake in the land, every bay and gulf 
 along our coasts, utter a solemn protest against a dissolution 
 of the Union. The voices of many waters sound to every 
 passing breeze againsl a division of this country. These 
 silver threads and shining expanses cannot be broken or dis- 
 severed. They hind the different sections of the country 
 together more effectually and (irmly than hands of si eel. 
 Ii is one of the things that by Nature and Providence are 
 
 d, that weare to be one Country ; that the American 
 people and nation are ''one and inseparable/' — and what 
 "God hath joined together let not man put. asunder." The 
 beautiful Hudson, the majestic Ohio, the far-reaching Mis- 
 souri, the broad Cumberland, the rolling Mississippi— the 
 " father of waters," which can never be severed in twain, 
 and now unobstructed by rebel forts, for, long since Vicks- 
 burg, Porl Eudson and New Orleans were wrested from the 
 usurped grasp of the enemy — will all, as in other day-, bear 
 their thousands of noble steamers, ploughing their way 
 from city to city and from the interior to the ocean. And 
 when Peace shall again return, our steamers and sailing 
 
 . now required in the service of the Government, will 
 
11 
 
 not go crowded with armed posts, chariots and horsemen, 
 monster cannon and all the paraphernalia and munitions 
 of war, but laden with the rich products of Agriculture 
 and the Mechanic Arts, and connected by our grand sys- 
 tem of canals and railroads with the great inland lakes, 
 thereby rendering our internal traffic and foreign trade the 
 most lucrative and extensive of any other nation on the 
 globe. . 
 
 The progress of this war has developed or brought to view 
 the varied and wonderful resources of this country. How 
 valuable have become our sturdy old forests — venerable as 
 those in which the ancient Druids worshiped — with then- 
 great oaks and lofty pines, grown stout and firm by battling 
 against the northern blasts and ready to furnish our rapidly 
 increasing navy with solid ribs or towering masts, and thus 
 contributing to make those floating death-belching forts 
 firm and impregnable from keel to deck, and stout and strong 
 from stem to stern ; and with such a growing navy as ours, 
 we shall be able, when this rebellion is put down, to settle 
 any little difficulties with John Bull or Louis Napoleon, and 
 bid defiance to the leagued squadrons of the Old World. 
 Our prairies also, almost boundless, decked with flowers and 
 waving in wild luxuriance, whose soil is inexhaustible, are 
 yet reposing in their primeval grandeur and fertility, undis- 
 turbed by the plough, the loom and the anvil. The great 
 West, — that has given to us in these trying, times an honest 
 President, — with her teeming millions, so enterprising and 
 loyal, is yet comparatively uninhabited. Millions more will 
 find there a home, with plenty of wheat, pork, cattle and 
 corn. None need famish in this " good land," for the earth 
 has brought forth bountifully ; and our brave soldiers pin- 
 ing in Southern prisons, and the suffering sons of want in 
 other lands, need not go unfed. By a law of necessity, 
 foreign emigration continues to pour its swelling tide of 
 
12 
 
 humanity in upon our shores, and it stops not to crowd 
 our Eastern cities, bul sweeps on toward the Rocky Mount- 
 ains — for indeed 
 
 ■ Westward the Star of Empire takes its way," — 
 
 to cultivate with " vines and fig trees" our new and unoc- 
 cupied territories, peopling Oregon and founding along the 
 shores of the Pacific greal commercial cities ; and, moulded 
 by our institutions to a higher civilization, contributing to 
 the growth of our country, the development oi its latent re- 
 sources, thai by our energy, industry, liberty and free labor, 
 we may outstrip the Old World in commerce, wraith, agri- 
 culture, art, and general intelligence among the 
 masses of a free and brave people. The great store houses 
 of the land, with their untold millions of bushels of wheat 
 ami corn, like the sources of our political power and national 
 Btrength, are to be found in the West. Here are the future 
 granaries of other lands as well as our own. The long de- 
 lay, id projecl of the Pacific Railroad must soon become a 
 fixed fact, and when the snorting of the iron horse is heard 
 along the valleys of the great West, through the passes of the 
 Rocky Mountains and si retelling on over the broad expans - 
 to the Pacific, and thus opening a direcl line of communi- 
 cation between the tw i greal oceans of the world, across our 
 entire continent, then will the United States necessarily 
 become the central mart of trade for the civilized world — the 
 lap of commerce into which, if we are true to our history 
 and destiny, will be poured the wealth of the nations. 
 
 The American nation is yet new. born in 7(> with a people 
 of versatile genius, of active habits, adventurous spirit and 
 indomitable energy. As a young giant, it has sprung from 
 the wilderness, and, though scarcely out of iis minority, it 
 posesses Titanic muscle and Eerculean arm and is new 
 
 rapidly developing into true national manhood, determined 
 
13 
 
 to run with heroic strides the proud race marked out for it. 
 Grown rich in " houses and lands, flocks and herds, silver 
 and gold," chastened hy sorrow, redeemed through suffering, 
 baptized with blood and saved as by fire, let us faint not nor 
 quail in the hour of trial, but gird on our strength and 
 bravely work out our heaven-appointed destiny as 
 
 "The land of the free, 
 The home of the brave." 
 
 The utility of the Federal Union was seen in the depend- 
 ence of one section of the country upon another, and mutu- 
 ally contributing to the prosperity of the whole. The East, 
 or New England, has been the seat of our manufacturing 
 interests, and the home of the mechanic arts. With our 
 beautiful waterfalls, our mill-privileges, our dashing streams, 
 along whose banks spring up as by magic wealthy cities, 
 thriving villages, whose industrious inhabitants sing to the 
 music of the spindles and rejoice amid the din and buzz of 
 mighty machinery, we have become chiefly a manufacturing 
 people ; not so much from choice as necessity, for a large 
 portion of our soil is better adapted to grazing than to the 
 interests of agriculture. Hence, to supply our Eastern or 
 Atlantic cities we must draw largely from the West for our 
 beef, pork, flour and corn. From the sunny South, with 
 soil so rich and so miserably cultivated, must come our 
 cotton and rice. But northern mechanics have furnished the 
 agricultural implements used in the cotton fields and rice 
 swamps of the South. And the North supplied the South 
 with cotton cloths, woolens and delaines manufactured at 
 Lawrence or Lowell. Before the rebellion broke out it was 
 convenient for our " Southern brethren " to educate their 
 sons at our colleges aud law-schools ;. their fair daughters at 
 our various seminaries of learning, and to depend upon the 
 North for their school teachers and tutors, in their families. 
 
14 
 
 Northern publishers furnished the stationery and printed 
 the' books of the South, and for the most part read them 
 The Wesl has hitherto received in a great part from 
 si her ploughs to till the soil, steam engines and cars 
 for her railroads, to say nothing of the minor comforts of life. 
 1 d wagons found their way to California. Machinery 
 
 Ituilt in Worcester is used all through the South and West. 
 Springfield rifles are found alike in the hands of rebel and 
 Onion soldiers. Connecticul clocks, like Lynn shoes, found 
 their way into every part of the land : and, for ought we 
 know, the same may be said of the flannels manufactured 
 in N swport, or the scythes, rakes and hoe handles or the 
 Leather from our tanneries. 
 
 I' ours is especially a "good land" in that it is so highly 
 favored with educational advantages, thus securing general 
 intelligence among the masses as the chief hope of our repub- 
 lican institutions. Our government, which is of the people 
 and for the people, is both democratic and republican. We 
 our own rulers, and the exercise of the sovereign 
 power is lodged in representatives elected by the people. — 
 The people being the only sovereigns of the land, they of 
 course must be educated in order to insure safety and per- 
 manency to our institutions. Ignorance is better suited 
 aarchical governments than to our free, elastic and 
 popular system, whose strength is being now so terribly 
 tested. If we mistake not, the question to be decided by 
 us in this struggle is whether the people possess not the 
 right— for this is granted— but the capacity of self-govera- 
 nieni ; whether we shall have an Oligarchy or a pure Democ- 
 racy ; whether a self-constituted landed aristocracy or the 
 ji' ople shall control in the administration of the government, 
 and the policy of the nation be dictated not by the few but 
 the many ; the majority of the citizens, in the exercise of 
 their just and constitutional rights, being permitted to 
 
15 
 
 decide the policy of the government, the character of < mi- 
 legislation and who shall hold the reins of government and 
 pilot the ship of State. 
 
 The power of a nation lies in the character of the people, 
 and the whole people — their intellectual, moral and social 
 condition — recognizing the great fundamental truth of reason 
 and revelation, that all men are created free and equal ; 
 with no exclusiveness, no privileged classes, no barrier- of 
 rank, caste or color, whether Patrician or Plebeian, feudal or 
 serf, gentry or commoner. This is our Anglo-Saxon Bill 
 of Rights, the Magna Charta, not of English barons, but 
 of American liberties, the self-evident truths, the funda- 
 mental principles of the Yankee nation. The friends of 
 monarchy and aristocracy in the Old World have never been 
 in sympathy with our form and spirit of government. They 
 have watched with jealous eyes our .unparalleled prosperity, 
 and our overthrow would be the occasion of rejoicing to every 
 crowned head in Europe. Their motto has been " divide 
 and conquer." But for many years past there has been a 
 change taking place in our favor, a revolution steadily going 
 forward in the old government of Europe in behalf of the 
 free and oppressed. The Patrician or noble, grown luxurious 
 or effeminate, has gone down on the social ladder, and the 
 Plebeian has gone up ; and every half century brings them 
 nearer, and they are destined soon to meet. De Tocqueville 
 in his Democracy in America says : " The various occur- 
 rences of national existence have everywhere turned to the 
 advantage of Democracy : all men have aided it by their 
 exertions ; those who intentionally labored in its cause and 
 those who have fought for it and those who have declared 
 themselves its opponents, have all been driven along in the 
 same track, have labored to one end, some ignorantly and 
 some unwillingly ; all have been blind instruments in the 
 hands of God. The gradual development of the equality 
 
16 
 
 of condition is therefore a providential fact and it 
 
 all the characteristics of a divine degree; it is universal ; 
 it is durable : it constantly eludes all human interfer- 
 and all events as well as all men, contribute to its 
 I ss." 
 
 In reviewing the past history of our country at this point, 
 it Is evidenl thai the puritan elemenl has done much in giv- 
 ing character to our free institutions. New England, which 
 the rebels proposed to ••leave out in the cold," has contrib- 
 uted her share in laving the foundations of true national 
 greatness. Take our Public School System as an illustra- 
 ; t lie wisdom and foresight of our puritan fathers. The 
 early settlers of New England, collected from the better 
 classes of English society, having learned to prize free prin- 
 ciples in polities and religion at home, brought with them, 
 in the Mayflower, views and opinions in advance of their 
 times, and which by the blessing of God are destined to 
 triumph in the deliverance of the oppressed and the estab- 
 lishment of this country on a higher basis of civilization, 
 with liberty and equality rather than slavery for its chief 
 corner-stone. Intelligence, virtue, freedom and religion, are 
 the pillars upon which must rest the national edifice. The 
 pilgrims recognized the importance of public education. — 
 It is a remark-able fact in the history of those times that, 
 while there were fewer dwellings for the living than graves 
 fa- the dead, in those stern hours when the stoutest hearts 
 may well have quailed before the difficulties which were to 
 be encountered, and while they tended the watch-fires of a 
 wilderness, exposed at all times to the incursions of savage 
 t rilies. they still provided by law the school and schoolmas- 
 ter, and directed the one to be maintained and the other to 
 toil "for all the youth within the town, whether they be 
 children of the poor or children of the rick." In 1634, only 
 fourteen years after their settlement on the rock-bound 
 
17 
 
 shores of New England, they made ample provisions by law 
 for the support of free schools. Following this they laid the 
 foundations of Harvard College and Yale, that the growing 
 wants of the New World should not suffer for lack of men 
 " liberally educated." Massachusetts, the home of Hancock, 
 Adams and Warren, is not the worst State in the Union — 
 she need not be ashamed of her record. The selectmen of 
 every town were required bylaw " to have a vigilant eye 
 over their neighbors and brethren, to see first that none of 
 them shall suffer so much barbarism in any of their families 
 as not to teach by themselves or others their children and 
 apprentices so much learning as may enable them to read 
 the English tongue and obtain a knowledge of the capital 
 laws, upon a penalty of twenty shillings for each neglect 
 therein ;" which penalty was afterwards increased to twenty 
 pounds. The school, like the family, is an embryo republic 
 in which is moulded republican character. The children 
 learn obedience to law and order, they are taught to respect 
 themselves, their minds are disciplined, their latent energies 
 developed in the exercise of free thought, the hearts fortified 
 by the precepts of morality and religion, so that our sons 
 may be as " plants grown up in their youth," prepared 
 to appreciate the responsibilities of free government ; and 
 the intellectual attainments and accomplishments of our 
 daughters make them " as corner stones polished after the 
 similitude of a palace," whose virtues and patriotism, like 
 those brave and heroic women of the Revolution, shall fit 
 them to become the future wives and mothers of this great 
 nation. 
 
 While our common school system has been exerting such a 
 powerful influence in the free and loyal States, it has proved 
 a failure, as far as adopted, by the slaveholding and rebellious 
 States. It has been in conflict with their laws to teach a 
 slave to read and write, and the poor " white trash " has 
 
18 
 
 beeo beneath the aotice >>t the lordly aristocrats of the soil. 
 Ex-G-overnor Eammond, of South Carolina, recently 
 id, in his inaugural address in L842 uses the follow- 
 ing language : "The Common School System has failed. — 
 This fad has beeo announced by my predecessors, and there 
 is scarcely an intelligenl person in the State who doubts that 
 its benefits sue perfectly insignificant compared with the ex- 
 penditure, lis failure is owing to the fad that it does not 
 suit our people, our government, and it can never be reme- 
 died." Comment is unnecessary. Bow different the senti- 
 ments of Thomas Jefferson, who. in his day, saw the success- 
 ful working of this Bystem in New England and endeavored 
 to do something for Virginia. " By this bill," said this pro- 
 found statesman, legislator and true patriot, "the people 
 would be qualified to understand their rights and maintain 
 them, and to exercise with intelligence their parts in self- 
 nmenl : and all this would be effected without the viola- 
 tion of a single natural right of any individual citizen." 
 Our southern brethren have departed from the doctrines 
 of tin- fathers, — education, liberty and equality,— seeking 
 the greatest good to the greatest number, remember- 
 ing that God " made of one blood all nations of men." It 
 is not in vain that we have pointed to the "school-house and 
 the church." While speaking of our educational advanta- 
 ges in connection with the government and the rights of man. 
 we would not forget that we are a reading people. That 
 can be affirmed of our country, which can be asserted of no 
 other, vi/. : thai everybody reads, especially "the daily;" 
 and we are emphatically a newspaper people. Hence jour- 
 nalism has received great attention and been deservedly 
 popular in this country. It has absorbed the best talent, 
 spared no pains or expense, and consequently been carried to 
 a nigh Btate of perfection. Foreigners on visiting our shores 
 are -truck with the reading habits of our people. "A porter 
 
19 
 
 or farmer's servant in the States," says Anthony Trollope, 
 "is not proud of reading and writing. It is to him quite a 
 matter of course. The coachmen on thiflr boxes, and the 
 hoots as they sit in the halls of the hotel, have newspapers 
 constantly in their hands. The politics of the country and 
 the Constitution are familiar to every laborer. The very 
 wording of the Declaration of Independence is in the memory 
 of every lad of sixteen." And it is worthy of note, that 
 no sooner do the freedmen or contrabands come within 
 our lines than they are seized with an unaccountable desire 
 to learn to read, that they too may share in the rich boon 
 of knowledge. According to the last census it appears 
 that we have five hundred daily newspapers, and two 
 hundred and fifty million copies are daily sent forth, with 
 ink scarcely dry, fresh as the snow flakes, scattering in- 
 formation to every nook and corner of the land ; with three 
 thousand weeklies, and five million copies struck off annu- 
 ally, making their weekly visits to every family, receiving 
 everywhere a cordial welcome ; thousands of magazines 
 and pamphlets also, that would do honor to the most 
 polished and elite of the literary world ; and of " making 
 of books there is no end." The magic art of printing is 
 doing wonders. 
 
 The time was when it was sneeringly asked " Who reads 
 an American book ?" It is not so now. We have men 
 eminent in science, art, literature, theology, and historians, 
 who deservedly stand prominent in the world of letters, 
 whose works are known and admired in other lands. When 
 we compare our journals with those that come to us from 
 across the waters we are proud to retort, " who does not 
 read an American Journal ?" But while we should be 
 grateful for our abundant facilities for information, for it 
 would seem that the inspired prophecy — " many shall run to 
 and fro and knowledge shall be increased" — is being fulfilled 
 
20 
 
 in our day, we would not overlook the fact that our priv- 
 'n these respects are far superior to those enjoyed by 
 our worthy ancestors. It is somewhat beyond "the memory 
 of the oldest inhabitant " when there was but one solitary 
 aper in the whole land, and that was published in 
 ;. had but a Limited circulation, and was called the 
 "Boston Weekly News Letter." This pioneer sheet that 
 was destined to be so numei»us in its progeny, commenced 
 in 1704. In 'tla' year 1S00 the number had increased to 
 two hundred, all of which were local and confined chiefly to 
 political matters. Other sections out of New England 
 following in tlif wake of Yankee enterprise, established their 
 Local papers. The first religious newspaper published in the 
 United States appeared in Boston in 1816, and was called 
 •• The Boston Recorder." Boston is not the most ignorant 
 city in the world. 
 
 A daily, now an indispensable luxury, was a thing un- 
 known in those days of rattling stage coaches and tardy 
 mails, when a journey to New York and back required at 
 Least three weeks time and any amount of hard jolting. — 
 With the mammoth presses of our day we are favored 
 with morning and evening editions, at least, unless so 
 far situated from the " hub of the universe," or so remote 
 from the line of railroad that we are compelled to defer 
 our morning repast till evening. But so complete and 
 rapid are the modes of conveyance that a fact of general 
 interest is caught up by the press, or put on "the wires'" 
 and it Hies with the wings of the wind and is read by 
 every citizen from the eastern frontiers of Maine to the 
 remotest settlements of the far West, and is discussed in 
 the saloons of California before the sun sinks behind the 
 western hills. 
 
 But notwithstanding all our advantages and blessings, our 
 growth and success, and all those things that go to make up 
 
21 
 
 a great nation, the all-pervading thought for the last four 
 years— the theme that absorbs all else, is the war. What do 
 you think of the war ? What will be the end of this terrible 
 struggle ? Shall we survive the contest ? Is our cause a 
 righteous one ? — one upon which we may implore the gra- 
 cious aid of the God of battles, that he will continue to bless 
 our gallant soldiers 'and crown our arms with ultimate and 
 glorious victory ? All know that this rebellion was wholly 
 without justification, and wicked in the extreme. We had 
 a good government justly administered, and so lightly did it 
 rest upon us that it was felt only in its innumerable and 
 impartial blessings, Jefferson Davis, the President of the 
 so-called Southern Confederacy, said in United States Senate 
 in the session of 1860-61 that it was " the best government 
 ever instituted by man, unexceptionally administered and 
 under which the people have been prosperous beyond 
 comparison with any other people whose career has been 
 recorded in history." The voice of twenty millions of 
 American citizens, the utterance of every loyal heart is : " Mr. 
 Davis, we intend to preserve and maintain this ' good govern- 
 ment,' and hand it down unimpaired, to our children's 
 children, ' so help me God.' " And Alexander H. Stephens, 
 the Vice President, said in the State Convention in Georgia 
 called to consider the subject of secession, " This step once 
 taken can never be recalled, and all the baneful consequen- 
 ces that must follow must rest on the Convention for all 
 coming time." Then depicting the horrors and desolations 
 of war — their green fields trodden down by the murderous 
 soldiery and the fiery car of war sweeping over the land, he 
 endeavors to stay the tide. " Pause, I entreat you. and 
 consider for a moment what reasons you can give that will 
 even satisfy yourselves in calmer moments, what reasons you 
 can give to your fellow sufferers in the calamity that it will 
 bring. What right has the North assailed ? What inter- 
 
22 
 
 . si of the South has been invaded ? What justice lias been 
 denied, or whal claim founded in justice or right has been 
 withheld ? Can "/>// of you to-day name one governmental 
 acl of wrong deliberately and purposely dune by the govern- 
 menl al Washington of which the South has a right to com- 
 plain ? 1 challenge the answer.'" But the dark tide of 
 don that was sweeping over the South was irresistible 
 and you find him carried along with it. War is a calamity. 
 and the history of the world shows us that most of its wars 
 and national frays have been such as religion and equity 
 could nol sanction, and have mostly been entitled to Napo- 
 leon's harsh compliment, " War is a hellish trade." But to 
 sustain our government is a plain Christian duty. Self pres- 
 ervation is a law of nature. Government is a divine institu- 
 tion. "The powers that be are ordained of God." The 
 American Government is God's ordinance for the American 
 j eople. This hold conspiracy to. overthrow our Government. 
 wicked than that of Cataline, this heaven-daring slave- 
 holder's Rebellion — bora of nullification, treason and despot- 
 ism, sprung from ambition, fattened by thieving, enriched 
 by traffic in human blood and carried on by brute force, 
 must be put down at whatever cost. The siuord is the 
 only way to a permanent and honorable peace. While 
 traitors are in arms, let such heroes as Grant, Sherman and 
 Sheridan, by the blessing of heaven, be our only peace com- 
 missioners. The clearly-expressed sentiments of the loyal 
 people of America, as evinced in the late elections (I speak 
 rj a of party triumphs) is, in the ever memorable words of 
 Andrew Jackson, "The Union it must and shall be pre- 
 rved." There is power in ballots as well as in bullets and 
 swords. A-> we fear God, as we love our country, as we 
 > igard the interests of our fellow-actors in the strife, as we 
 desire to leave a valuable and peaceful inheritance to pos- 
 terity, as we reverence the eternal principles of truth, justice 
 
23 
 
 and humanity, let no one hesitate nor shrink for a moment 
 from the momentous issues that we are called in the }) j< >\i - 
 dence of Grod to meet. In the language of Holy Writ, 
 " Cursed be he that doth the work of the Lord deceitfully/' 
 or with a faint heart, and " Cursed be he that keepethback his 
 sword from blood." And says the Psalmist David, " Bless- 
 ed be the Lord my strength, which teacheth my hands to 
 war and my fingers to fight." I know it is said that fight- 
 ing is contrary to the teachings of Christ, who is called 
 " the Prince of Peace." True, his doctrines are all peaceful, 
 all conducive to the highest interests of man, but to sin 
 in every form all these doctrines are terribly antagonistic. — 
 Men hate them ; devils hate them ; and so make war upon 
 them. Christ declared the tendency of the promulgation of 
 his doctrines and the result of their conflict with human 
 nature. " Think not," he says, " that I am come to send 
 peace on earth : I came not to send peace, but a sword. For 
 I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and 
 the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law 
 against her mother-in-law. And a man's foes shall be they 
 of his own household." The doctrine of an "irrepressi- 
 ble conflict " did not originate with Wm. H. Seward or 
 Northern abolitionists. The religion of Christ is not to be 
 propagated by the sword ; its spirit is to use moral means 
 only, and is disposed to suffer wrong rather than do wrong 
 or resist. But when the question comes, Shall we give up a 
 right principle or fight ? sacrifice our Government and with 
 it all civil and religious liberty as taught in the Bible, or 
 contend ? Providence makes plain our duty. The history 
 of the world shows that men are called of Grod to " resist 
 unto blood, striving against sin." He declares that he will 
 " overturn, overturn, until He come whose right it is." 
 Despotism, barbarism, struggle to crush freedom and civiliz- 
 ation, and for a time the conflict may seem doubtful, but 
 
24 
 
 God always raises up those who successfully defend and 
 
 maintain the right. War is noi always the worst evil that 
 can befall a nation. And we were compelled by justice, 
 patriotism and the principles of our holy religion, to take the 
 Bword. The first guu fired at Sumter awoke a nation to 
 arms! Suddenly the war-blast burst upon us I Astonish- 
 menl was written upon every countenance. But every 
 loyal hear! beal in unison. The whole North was aroused 
 and united, and as by magic or like the dragon's teeth sown 
 by Cadmus, armed hosts sprang up and a million of as 
 brave and patriotic men as ever wore a soldier's uniform, 
 stood in martial array ! The baptism of the old fire was 
 upon them ! The scenes and exploits of the Eevolution 
 were to be re-enacted with a courage and daring equal to 
 Leonidas of old or the heroes who fought and bled at Mara- 
 thon and Plat;ea. 
 
 " The sword ! a name of dread, yet when 
 i the freeman's thigh 'tis bound, 
 While for his altar and his hearth, 
 While fur the land that izave him birth, 
 The war-drums roll, the trumpets sound. 
 Bow sacred is it then !" 
 
 In the name of our republican institutions, in the name of 
 liberty, justice and equality, shall the great problem of self- 
 government so successfully and gloriously entered upon by 
 our Revolutionary lathers — the heroes and patriots of '76 — 
 prove a failure, and the rising hope of the world set forever 
 in darkness and gloom ? 
 
 '• We are summoned to new energy and zeal by the high 
 nature of the experiment we are appointed in Providence to 
 make, and the grandeur of the theatre upon which it is to 
 be performed." When the Old World no longer afforded 
 a/ay hope, it pleased Heaven to open this last refuge to 
 aity. The wise and good of all past ages, the sages. 
 
25 
 
 philosophers and heroes of antiquity, are interested in the 
 final issue of this great struggle. The noble spirits of 
 Greece and Rome, in their Periclean and Augustan agee 
 that long ago passed to the shades, with bright visions of 
 model republics, more glorious than Sparta or Athens, turn 
 their anxious gaze toward us : and, not only generations 
 past, but generations to come hold us responsible. Our 
 fathers from behind admonish us with their anxious parental 
 voices ; posterity calls to us from the bosom of the future. 
 Let not the warnings of history be lost upon us : Rome, 
 the seven-hilled city, once mistress of the world, but through 
 her oppression, imbecility, corruption, and traitors at home 
 and enemies abroad, fell from her giddy height ; and though 
 three hundred years in dying, she now sleeps in the sepulchre 
 of ages. But though nations have sunk and disappeared : 
 humanity endures. Nations die ; but people live. The 
 majestic current of history flows on forever, bearing on its 
 mysterious waves the- priceless freight of humanity ; and 
 while rocks and breakers threaten, shall we come boldly to 
 the rescue and make our country immortal as that humanity 
 of whose hopes it is the centre,— for our land is to be the 
 last great battle ground of the ages, the Thermopyla3 of the 
 nations, — or shall we by our imbecility and cowardice prove 
 recreant and false to the solemn trusts committed to our 
 keeping by the God of humanity, and this priceless freight, 
 and we ourselves along with it, go down foundering amid 
 darkness and tempest ? Forbid it, Almighty God ! If 
 departed spirits take cognizance of what transpires on earth, 
 it is no flourish of rhetoric or the imagination to see those 
 who lavished their treasures and their blood of old, who 
 labored and suffered, who spoke and wrote, who fought and 
 perished, in the one great cause of freedom and truth, now 
 hanging from their orbs on high over this last great experi- 
 ment, and this last terrible and bloody conflict ! c: They 
 
26 
 
 adjure us. and with outstretched hands they implore us, by 
 the long trials of oppressed man, by the noble faith which 
 has been plighted by pure hands to the holy cause of liber- 
 ty, by the awful secrets of prison-houses where the s< 
 freedom have been immured to famish and to die, by the 
 noble heads which have been brought to the block, by the 
 wrecks of time, by the eloquent ruins of nations, they con- 
 jure us no1 to quench the light which is rising on the 
 world !" 
 
 In i ur b tasted land of freedom there were, at the break- 
 ing oul of the war, four millions of our fellow-beings held 
 The cry of the bondmen had sounded long in 
 our ear-, unheeded. " Behold, the hire of the laborers who 
 have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept hack by 
 fraud, crieth : and the cries of them which have reaped are 
 entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth." The wail 
 of the oppressed and down-trodden, groaning under the 
 lash, their manacles tightened, hopelessly grinding in the 
 prison-house of ignorance and degradation, has been "0 
 Lord ! how long!" 
 
 " i » from the fields of cane. 
 From the low rice-swamp, from the trailer's cell 
 From the black slave-ship's foul and loatl ■■ 
 
 Ami coffle's weary chain ; 
 
 Eoarse, horriblej and strong, 
 Rises i" heaven that agonizing cry. 
 Filling the arches of the hollow sky. 
 
 How long, God, how long!" 
 
 James .Madison once said, " This has been the pride and 
 boasl of America — the rights for which we contend are the 
 rights of human nature." The time has come in the provi- 
 dence of G-od when the iron heel of despotism must be 
 removed from the necks of the oppressed. 
 
27 
 
 " Was man ordained the slave of man to toil, 
 Yoked with the brutes and fettered to the soil ; 
 Weighed in a tyrant's balance with his gold 1 
 
 Woe then to all who grind 
 Their brethren of a common Father down ; 
 
 To all who plunder from the immortal mind 
 Its bright and glorious crown !" 
 
 If in putting down this Kebellion, Slavery goes down with 
 it— as the logic of events most clearly indicates — if God in 
 his justice, who has been saying " Let my people go," has 
 seen fit to cause the wrath of man to praise him, and by his 
 wrathful thunderbolts is striking down to earth the giant 
 Slavery, when it is now weak and bleeding and insensible 
 and about to expire, and soon to be buried forever out of 
 sight, let no sympathizing heart draw near for other purpose 
 than to smooth and hasten its passage to oblivion. Let no 
 traitor to truth and God and man and all the virtues dare 
 attempt to resuscitate the unseemly monster — by breathing 
 into his nostrils the breath of life. In that case no eye 
 should pity, no hand should spare. While we are passing 
 .through the Bed Sea may we leave Slavery as Israel did the 
 Egyptian host — dead beneath its waves. Then with them 
 let us sing 
 
 " Sound the loud timbrel o'er Egypt's dark sea, 
 Jehovah has triumphed, his people are free." 
 
 We live in eventful times. We are making history rap- 
 idly. It is said that the " mills of God grind slowly," yet a 
 nation is born in a day. The Lord hath led us in a way 
 that we knew not. " By terrible things in righteousness 
 wilt thou answer us, God of our salvation." This baptism 
 of blood means something. 
 
 " Heaven but tries our virtues by affliction, 
 And oft the cloud which wraps the present hour 
 Serves but to brighten all our future days." 
 
28 
 
 L i us qo1 forget the Divine promise, "At evening time 
 it shall be light." This rehel war. precipitated upon the 
 country by slaveholders for strengthening the "peculiar 
 institution," and to establish a Confederacy with Slavery for 
 it- corner-stone, is to-day "proclaiming liberty throughout 
 all the land to all the inhabitants thereof— liberty to the 
 captive, ami the opening of tin- prison doors to them that 
 are bound." Slavery, which Jefferson in his forecast had 
 anticipated as '" the rock on which the Old Union would 
 split," is now doomed in this country. It never had a moral 
 right to live, and by the exigencies of war it has lost its 
 legal and political right to existence; and its death-throes 
 are already felt at Richmond and through the South, for 
 tlic rebels know that to arm slaves is to kill Slavery. This 
 {i sum of all villanies" must give up the ghost and ho locked 
 in a grave which no trumpet of resurrection shall ever dis- 
 turb. Upwards of two million of freedmen, made such by 
 the progress of the Rebellion, now rejoice in the priceless 
 boon of liberty. Is not God in this war ? Does he not 
 ride upon the whirlwind and direct the storm ? lias not 
 the A.ngel of the Lord led our winding march ? The "pil- 
 lar of cloud" has indeed swept broad circuits before us. The 
 "pillar of tire'' has rolled its blasting brightness in far 
 curves, transcending our thought to explain, revealing the 
 foolishness of human wisdom, mocking all our hope, but 
 forcing us to follow. But better to go a crooked way under 
 the guidance of the God of Israel, than straight to the 
 promised land without it. Better wander forty years in a 
 wilderness of wars and desolations than turn from the path 
 to which he calls us. Ee has higher ends in view than the 
 dot ruction of our foes. He has richer experience tor us 
 than the joy of victory, lie has better gifts for us than the 
 spoils of the conqueror : "For my thoughts are not your 
 thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. 
 
29 
 
 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways 
 higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your 
 thoughts." In concluding, let us devoutly remember that 
 the Lord " hath not dealt with us after our sins nor 
 rewarded us according to our iniquities." He desires not 
 our overthrow and destruction, hut our chastisement and 
 deliverance. In our pride and eager pursuit of gain we had 
 forgotten God and those things that make for our peace. 
 The Lord having brought us into a good land, in our unpar- 
 alleled prosj)erity we were saying, in the words of our Scrip- 
 ture lesson, " My power and the might of my hand hath 
 gotten me this wealth. But thou shalt remember the Lord 
 thy God ; for it is he that giveth thee the power to get 
 wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware 
 unto thy fathers, as it is this day." 
 
 Let us be thankful as we call to mind our victories, naval, 
 and military ; the ability, bravery and skill of our command- 
 ers ; the fortitude and heroism of our gallant soldiers, who 
 have met the enemy on many a well-fought field — and 
 alas, who have fallen , it may be, in the moment of victory, 
 and who now sleep in the patriot's green grave. Let us be 
 thankful for the loyalty of the people to the Government 
 and the administration, the progress of emancipation ; for 
 the re-election of our honest and faithful Chief Magistrate, 
 the increasing respect shown us from abroad, the allaying 
 of political animosities and party strife among ourselves, 
 and the omens of a speedy return of the "era of good 
 feeling ;" the kindness and benevolence shown to our sick 
 and wounded soldiers, and for the bright hope, like the 
 rain-bow in the cloud, we are permitted to cherish of a 
 peaceful and glorious future, when war shall cease, the 
 Union be restored, and over every foot of our free and 
 happy land 
 
 " The Star- Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave." 
 
30 
 
 And in the festivities of the day let us not forget the 
 v.IiImu and the fatherless, the poor and the needy, especially 
 the families of our noble soldiers, thai none in our midst 
 shall be wanting in any of the good things that usually 
 accompany a New England Thanksgiving; thus loving our 
 neighb iras ourselves, ever bearing in mind the words of our 
 1 Lord and Saviour: "Inasmuch as ye have done it 
 unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it 
 
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