Valley Spirit

In response to the call of the Chairmen of the Democratic County Committees a large and highly respectable portion of the Democracy of Franklin County assembled in the Court House, in the Borough of Chambersburg, on Friday, 15th inst., to consider, and submit their views on, the present fearful crisis in our national affairs, and to appoint delegates to a State Convention of the Democratic party to convene at Harrisburg on the 21st inst.

The Convention was composed of the county's best men and its proceedings throughout were characterized by the utmost harmony and good feeling.

The meeting was called to order by Hon. JOHN ORR, of Southampton township, and organized by electing Hon. WILSON REILLY, President; Hon. JOHN ORR and PHINEAS EACHUS, Esq., Vice Presidents; and B. M. STINGER and W. H. BLAIR, Secretaries.

The President on taking the chair briefly and appropriately stated the object of the meeting. His remarks were listened to with deep interest and afforded the liveliest satisfaction to his hearers, and met the hearty approval of all Democrats in attendance on the meeting. He impressed upon the meeting, in the most eloquent and effective manner, the importance of maintaining Democratic principles as the only sure foundation upon which the Union can rest with honor and safety. He urged the party to stand up unitedly and battle manfully for these great and vital principles which have heretofore bound together this great constellation of States and harmoniously and beautifully bestowed light and power on the whole Union. We regret our inability to do justice to Mr. Reilly's effort by such a sketch as his speech merits. It was altogether a highly credible address and entitles him to the thanks and gratitude of the whole party.

The President of the Convention was on motion authorized to appoint a committee of seven to draft resolutions expressive of the sentiments of the meeting, with power to select five delegates to attend the State Convention. In pursuance of this motion the President appointed the following gentlemen the Committee--Hon. G. W. Brewer, Col. Jas. B. Orr, Maj. John Rowe, Wm. Linn., Esq., J. W. Douglas, Esq., Dr. Joseph H. McClintock and T. B. Kennedy, Esq. The members of the committee retired to perform their duties and while consulting J. McD. Sharpe, Esq., was called to address the meeting. Mr. Sharp entertained the meeting for over half an hour with an eloquent, forcible and patriotic address which drew forth frequent burst of applause from his hearers.

The Committee returned and through their chairman, Mr. Brewer, submitted the following resolutions which were taken up separately, and without any discussion, adopted. The committee asked to be relieved from appointing Delegates to the State Convention and suggested that the meeting assume that responsibility. The following named gentlemen were then placed in nomination as Delegates to the State Convention and elected without opposition, viz., Hon. G. W. Brewer, Senatorial Delegate; Hon. Jas. Nill, Col. J. B. Orr, Hon. John Rowe, and C. M. Duncan, Esq., Representative Delegates.

Hon. G. W. Brewer was called upon and addressed the meeting in an eloquent and impressive manner, when on motion the Convention adjourned.

Resolutions.

WHEREAS, the Constitution was ordained and established by the people of the United States, "in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty, and

WHEREAS, under the Constitution, all the States of the Union are equally sovereign and independent, and the citizens of of each State are entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States, Therefore,

Resolved, That the Democratic Party, believing the amendments to the Constitution embodied in "the Crittenden Compromise," and its kindred plans of adjustment, to be nothing but a fair expression of those rights and that equality, which the South ought to enjoy in the Union, and not at all either unjustifiable or unmanly concessions to unjust demands, does most earnestly call upon the government, and all parties, to adopt the compromise of the patriotic Crittenden, or some similar proposition as the basis of a settlement of the present national troubles.

Resolved, That the Democracy of Franklin county is bitterly opposed to the repeal of the tonnage tax on the Pennsylvania Railroad company, and that no specious promises introduced into the repealing act, for the purpose of deceiving and misleading the tax-payers of the Commonwealth will ever reconcile the party in this country to its passage.

It is with much gratification that we take this early opportunity to lay before our readers the able and eloquent address of J. McD. Sharpe, Esq., delivered before the County Convention. It will not only be read with deep interest, but admired for its force and beauty, by all who may give it a perusal.

ADDRESS

Delivered by J. McD. Sharpe, Esq.,
Before the Franklin County Democratic
Convention, Feb. 13, 1861.
Mr. President and fellow-citizens:

Almost everywhere throughout the country, the people have come together in "Town Meetings" for the purpose of consulting together, and suggesting some plan of escape from the perils that environ the government. The Democratic State Committee lately issued a call for a Convention to be convened in Harrisburg, on the 21st of this month. It seemed proper to the chairmen of your county committees, that the voice of the Democratic party of Franklin county, should also be heard in the present crisis. You are here to-day in pursuance of our call. The presence of so large a number of Democrats from almost every section of the county, indicates the unusual interest, that you feel in the objects of the Meeting.

From the days when our forefathers signed the charter of our liberties in Independence Hall, down to the present hour, there never has been a time, in our history as a nation, so pregnant with danger, or so well calculated to inspire the liveliest apprehensions in the mind of the patriot. Our ship of state is tossing to and fro, in thick weather, far out upon the troubled ocean, and whilst the night and tempest are gethering around her, the crew, whose duty it was, to man the noble vessel, and to steer her clear of the dangers of the deep, has broken into open mutiny, and in their mad efforts to gain the mastery of the ship, have scuttled her and left her to drift at the mercy of the winds and waves. It is in vain to disguise the fact, that the pillars which uphold our government, are rocking upon their foundations, as f shaken by an earthquake.--It is useless to deny that dark clouds of discontent are rolling up, from the four corners of the land, towards the zenith, and that, ere long, they may meet in mid air, in a fierce and fearful conflict. We cannot conceal from ourselves, that there are alarming symptoms of a deadly disease in the body politic. We are living in the very midst of a revolution bloodless as yet, but how long it will be before it begins in blood, no one knoweth, except Him, "who sitteth upon the circle of the Heavens, and ruleth among the children of men." At the feet of this revolution, business and trade are lying prostrate, struck dead by the untold horrors, that are hidden in its womb. In the North a hundred thousand laboring men, have already been thrown out of employment. Their wives and little ones, are at this very hour, sitting around the desolate hearth stone at home in want of bread. The richest capitalists have been engulphed in a whirlpool of ruin. The loftiest mercantile houses have fallen, and the pride of the haughtiest commercial name and credit, has been humbled in the dust. The farmer, who last fall, with a light heart sowed his seed, beneath the mellow light of an autumn sky, knows not now if he shall live to reap his harvest, and if perchance he should be living at harvest time, he knows not but that an invading army may trample his ripening crops under foot, ere it is ready to fall before his sickle.

But let us take a more comprehensive view of the dreadful sweeps of the present crisis. Let us not indulge in purely selfish repinings. Let us turn our eyes away from ourselves, towards our country. Let us ask the old man, the President, sitting at the helm of state, in the city of Washington, is it well with the country? Let us ask him to look out upon the troubled sky, and count for us the stars that are now shining in our national constelation. Listen, my Fellow citizens, to his answer, as it is carried back to our ears, upon the melancholy winds of the night. "One new star has risen in the west, the star of Kansas, but seven new stars have set in the South." Let us ask that venerable man, to tell us of the Union. Again his answer comes back to us," the Union was, but is not, the Union is dissolved. A new empire has been founded within the borders of the United States. A new dynasty is about to mount into power. A new President and Vice President have been elected. A new Congress is now in session. A new Constitution has been adopted, and this new Government, calls itself the government of the Confederate States of America." These are strange tidings that we hear. These are new names to our ears. "The confederate States of America?" What are they? Where are they? We have heard it said, by our fathers, and even by our cotemporaies, that this whole continent was sooner, or later, to be brought under one Government, and that the government of the United States. Now however a rival dynasty has started into being called "the Confederate States of America," which threatens to compete with the United States, in this great work of the colonization of a continent. Is this true? If so, what has become of the "Monroe doctrine?"

Three months ago the domain of the United States extended from Maine to Florida, from the Atlantic to the Pacific; now, it stops far short of the gulf of Mexico. Three months ago "the Stars and Stripes" waived over the forts at Pensacola, over Moultrie and Pinkney in Charleston harbor, an honored ensign, a shield to its friends, but a terror to its foes.--Now, that glorious banner whose stars have so often risen upon the night of humanity, as a beacon of hope to the oppressed, the world over, is lowered amid the howlings of Southern mobs, and trampled in the dust, with every mark of indignity. Three months ago, our national airs, "Hail Columbia" and "Yankee Doodle," thrilled with t he deepest emotions of patriotism, the hearts of more than thirty millions of people, in thirty three sovereign states; now, these same national ballads are greeted with hisses, and in seven states of the old confederacy, have been banned and proscribed, and banished from their borders, as being the utterances of treason, against the new empire of "the Confederate States of America." Nor, is this all. Private property has been confiscated--The government forts, Arsenals, Custom Houses and Post Offices have been seized, and robbed. IN all the States of South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Florida and Louisiana, there is not a single U. S. officer to execute the laws, or collect the revenue. The government is openly defied. In the states just named, the heavy tread of artillery, has usurped the swift step of the tradesmen and mechanic. The pomp and circumstance of glorious war, have banished from out their borders, all the arts of peace. The north too, is seized with a military frenzy. New companies are being formed and armed. The mechanic rushes from his shop, the merchant from his store and the professional man from his office to fill up the ranks. There is a growing thirst for military fame, and an impatience of restraint or delay. Washington city is full of armed men. Pennsylvania Avenue is bristling with bayonets, and the neighing of war steeds, and the rumbling of cannon wagons, drown the noise and din of the trade and business of the city. The very atmosphere about us is ladened with the noise of preparation. The next gale that blows from the south, may bring to our ears, the clang of resounding arms, and the booming of cannon. Such, fellow-citizens, is the state of the country. I have drawn no fancy sketch, I have deepened no hue, nor have I added a single sombre color, to the melancholy picture. Would that I could persuade myself, that I have been suffering from a nightmare of the mind. The words, are those of soberness and truth. Yet we do not believe them. We do not realize their meaning. Our confidence in the stability of our institutions, has been so great that we have come to believe, that nothing short of an earthquake can move them.--Would that I had a tongue of flame, that I might be able to burn into your hearts, the fearful truth, that the Union, which cost so much blood, which was framed with so much wisdom, and embalmed in so many prayers, is indeed dissolved. "Hath reason fled to brutish beasts," that we are so slow of understanding? There are some in the North, there are some in our midst, there may be a few in this meeting, who say, "that there is no danger, that all these troubles will right themselves by and by." This is not to be wondered at. All ages have furnished their misguided men. In the days of the flood, there were those who laughed at Noah's folly in building the ark. so in the days of the Revolution, there were those who cried "peace, peace," until they saw British men-of-war vomiting their cargoes of mercenary soldiers upon our free shores. Travelers tell us, that those who live at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, can decide with almost unerring certainty, from the belching's forth of his anger in volumes of smoke and flame, how soon the river of burning lava will gush forth from his mouth, and flow down, over the smiling villages in the plain below.-- When this grim monarch of nature has given such indications of his rising wrath, were the dwellers about him, to see a traveler walking deliberately up his trembling sides, and lying down to sleep at the very edge of the crater, they would call him a fool and a madman. How much better are we, than fools and madmen, if we sit down, and fold our hands with composure, when the very earth beneath us is trembling with the volcanic fires of revolution? I beseech the Republicans, in the name of humanity, in the name of justice, in the name of the fathers of the Republic, in the name of the children that have descended from their loins, in the name of an unborn posterity, in the name of all they hold dear on earth, or hope for in Heaven, to arise from this lethargy, and save the country. This sleep is unto death, unless you are aroused. You--Republicans--have the power; exercise it for the nations safety. You say, we cannot give up our principles. What is an individual man? With his aims, his ambitions, his purposes and his interests, compared with the civilization of the world, and the cause of civil and religious liberty, that are bound up in the life of the country? What is a party worth, without a government? What availeth its creed, without an opportunity for its development, in the economy of the state? He that loves his party better than he loves his country, is to say the least of him, more of a partisan, than a patriot. If the Republicans withhold their help, and let the Union perish, merely because they cannot save it, consistently with "the Chicago platform," I tell them that the time is coming, and that speedily, when the blast from the nostrils of an indignant and outraged people, will blow away all parties, all party creeds, all party platforms, and all partisans, just as "the moths are blown away before the whirlwind." Oh that Webster could break away from the bondage of his tomb, far off there by the sea shore, where, "old ocean" chants his morning and evening requiem, and mix again with the living, and raise his voice once more in the Senate, to speak not as a Massachusetts man, or a northern man, or a southern man, but as an American Statesman ought always to speak, for the whole country.

The Border slave States are holding out the olive branch, for our acceptance. Tennessee, in whose kindly bosom the immortal Jackson sleeps, has spoken for the Union; Virginia, "the Mother of Statesmen and of Presidents,"--Virginia, containing within here borders the grave of Washington--that Mecca of America--at whose sacred urn the Heir of the British throne lately stood with uncovered head, awed by the majesty of the deeds and name of the mighty dead, hath spoken for the Union; Kentucky, whose gallant Clay, "after life's fitful fever," now sleeps so well beneath the shades of his own Ashland, is loyal to the Union; Maryland too, the home of the illustrious "Charles Carroll of Carrollton," is for the Union. Shall we scornfully reject these overtures of peace and compromise from the Border States? If we do, fearful will be our responsibility, for the "sic semper tyrannis" of Virginia will become the battle-cry of the United South.

There are two remedies for the disease of the state. They are different in their nature, and emanate from different sources.--When a man is sick, his physicians often differ about the proper treatment of his case, but all agree that such remedies should be used as will restore him to health. So the doctors of the body politic, although differing widely in their diagnosis of the disease, are all striving after the same object--health. The cures proposed are coercion and concession. We propose to speak briefly of both. What is Coercion? Mr. Lincoln asked the large crowd that welcomed him the other day, to Indianapolis, "would it be coercion for the government to retake the arsenals, forts and other public property taken by the South, and hold them by force?" This question he asked, but he left it to the people to answer. I will answer it. I say, the simple recapture and holding by the government of its own property, would not be coercion. If a man's horse is taken from his stable, he has a right to retake him wherever he finds him, provided he uses no more force than is necessary for his purpose. But I will ask Mr. Lincoln a question: When you send an armed force to the South, to recapture the forts and arsenals, will the South resist? Now everybody knows she will. I ask him what will he do then? We have no answer to this question from Mr. Lincoln, but we have an answer from one of his followers, a gentleman who holds a very important relation to us, being our representative in Congress; he said the other day in a speech, there, "that blood is not the worst thing in a nation's history." There, fellow-citizens, you have the answer. If there is resistance made by the South, we are to have blood, how much? Oceans of blood will scarcely suffice. "The Father of Waters" will run red with fraternal gore, and our fair soil will be so stained with blood drops that multitudinous seas will not be able to wash away the stains. Thus will be commenced a civil war, in comparison with which famine would be a friend, the pestilence an angel of mercy, and a war with all the nations of the earth a positive blessing. In such a struggle, I have no fears that the North would be subdued. The attempt of the South to conquer the North, would be the prowess of a dwarf mounting upon a giants shoulder to put out his eye. But could we conquer the South, that is the question? Perhaps we could. But I would remind you, that three millions of raw, badly equipped and poorly armed militia men, in the days of the revolution, trusting in the justice of their cause, during the eight long years, resisted the flower of the British army, and at last, snatched from the lion of England, a the mouth of the cannon, the brightest jewels of the crown. The South is eight millions strong, rich in resources, skilled in the art of war, and fertile in military genius. But suppose, we do, at length, succeed in achieving the victory, who can calculate the incalculable costs? What a spectacle this land, would present to the eye of the patriot: Commerce destroyed, cities burned to the ground, fields uncultivated, the people debauched, the arts of peace banished, and the fruits of industry relinquished for the more easily acquired spoils of robbery. But what would we do with the South, after we had conquered her. Could we hold her in the Union by force? The idea is preposterous. Would we govern her as an inferior state, an appendage of the United States, where is the constitutional right to do so, to be found? But we could not do so, if we would. The men of the South have loved liberty too long and too well, are too much like ourselves, not to prefer to die freemen, rather than to live slaves.

We turn with pleasure from the remedy of coercion, to that of concession. The South hath complained of certain grievances. We propose to see what they are, and how they are to be remedied, if they by real. The first one is, that slavery is no longer safe in the States where it now exists, that the Republican party is pledged to the overthrow of the odious institution. This charge is stoutly denied by the Republicans.--Without stopping to prove its truth, we will only say, that we never could understand what the favorite doctrine of that party, known as the "irrepressible conflict" between freedom and slavery means, if it does not mean, that, sooner or later slavery must go down, and freedom must go up. However, if we are mistaken in attaching this meaning to that doctrine, if the Republicans are sincere in their declarations against any interference with slavery in the States, the best pledge they can give the South of their sincerity, and the only one which will effectually allay all apprehension, is to adopt an amendment to the constitution, denying the right of Congress to legislate upon the subject of slavery in the States, without the unanimous consent of the whole confederacy.

Again the South charges upon the North, a want of fidelity to the Constitutional requirements, in regard to the rendition of fugitive slaves, to their owners. There is no disputing the fact that, under the constitution, slaves are property. If we don't like to entertain the idea we will either have to change the constitution, or take up our domicil, in some place, beyound its jurisdiction. If we are loyal citizens, we will carry out the requirements of the constitution, both in their letter and spirit, no matter how unpalatable they may be. No reasonable man, can doubt the justice of the charge of the South against the North in this behalf. Not only have legislatures, attempted to set the fugitive slave law, at defiance, but mobs of lawless citizens, have on more than one occasion, made the life of the master, the price of the return of the slave. From whom did we purchase an indulgence to violate the rights of property of our neighbors? This then is all wrong. Every candid man, who will open the eyes of his understanding, to the admission of the truth, and to a proper conception of his constitutional duties, will unhesitatingly say, that this grievance must be corrected. But how shall the wrong be redressed? The remedy is very plain. Let all these "Personal Liberty Bills" be repealed at once, and then we will be in a better frame of mind to advance further in the attainment of complete justice. But how are mobs of lawless citizens to be prevented from resisting the recapture of slaves? This too is of easy accomplishment. When a man takes your horse away by force, he knows very well that if he resists your retaking your property, that he will have to pay its value, consequently, there are very few cases of wanton and unprovoked violations of the rights of property in this respect. Let the same rule be applied to those who take away slaves from their owners. Give to the master a full compensation for his loss, out of the State Treasury. Give to the State a right of action against the county; and the county a right of action against those who infringe upon their neighbors property, and this evil will soon be probed to its bottom. When it is once known that such violations of the law are, and must be punished as all other violations are punished, we will have fewer of them. If after such enactments are passed, there be any who love the liberty of the slave better than they do their money, let them go on in their work of emancipation, but we as loyal citizens will see to it that these philanthropists, while indulging their quixotic propensities, shall not rob the master of his pound of flesh, until they lay him down in lien thereof, their pound of gold.

We come next to the vexed question of the disposition of the national territories. The South has become justly alarmed at the advent to power, of a party whose cardinal doctrine is, that slavery must be restrained at all hazards, within its present limits. The argument is this, that slavery is sectional, and freedom is national, and that, therefore, Congress has the right, and it is its imperative duty to prohibit involuntary servitude in all the territories, from henceforth and forever. In other words, that all the territory now owned by the Government must and shall be devoted to Northern settlement, and shall become the exclusive domicil and possession of the sons of the North to the total exclusion of Southern men, and their property and domestic institutions. If these pretensions of the North to absolute sovereignty over the national domain are legal, then, they may be right. If they are just and fair, then, I am for them. But this assumption of right, is very far from being based on axiomatic truth. The claim, when understood, in all its meaning and hearings, cannot strike the enlightened understanding, as being founded, either in reason, or upon the commonest principles of common honesty. All property is the product either directly or indirectly of labor.--If the owner earns it by his toil, it is the direct offspring of his labor. If he buys it with money that he has inherited, that money was the product of his ancestors industry, and that industry, thus becomes the indirect title of the present owners property. When two or more persons buy possessions with their joint labor or joint funds, they necessarily become joint owners.--If after this joint investment, the stronger party were to say to the weaker, "it is true, you helped us to buy this tract of land," "it is true your labor has helped to enrich the soil, but we dont like your principles, they are an abomination in our eyes, and as we are the stronger, and you the weaker party, we will appropriate the whole of the land to ourselves, as a penalty for your entertaining such obnoxious principles, but if you will repent and come to think and act, just as we do, by and by, we will restore you to your rights, in the meantime we will hold your interest in the property as a pledge for your good behavior."

My fellow citizens, would such an argument as this, in regard to the ordinary business affairs of every day life, stand the test of a trial at the bar of reason? Would we not denounce it in unmeasured terms, as a most wanton and outrageous assault upon the principles of justice? In common parlance, the whole transaction would be called rascally, and the perpetrators of the wrong consummate hypocrites, who sought to cover their vilainy, under the specious cloak of hostility to evil principles.

Now, what whit better is the territorial policy of the Republican party? It will scarcely be denied, that the territories are the common property of the whole country; that the Government is the Trustee, and the citizens of the South as well as the North, are the cestui que trusts. Purchased, as they are, with common treasure and common blood, how does the North acquire an exclusive ownership, an exclusive right to populate them? If it is in the Constitution, be kind enough to point out the clause; if the right is to be found in the eternal principles of justice, please tell us what particular one it is, which thus overleaps the barriers between meum et tuum. It cannot be that the American people will long tolerate that injustice in the conduct of their government, which they would not endure for a day in the business relations of life. Let us, then come up to the requirements of the Constitution and of equity in this matter of the territories. If the North and the South cannot dwell together harmoniously within the same territory--if their principles and institutions are obnoxious to each other--that may be, and is, a very good reason, why they should divide the territories in fair proportions, but no reason at all why the north should seize upon the whole. That is just the plan we propose. Let the Territory the United States now own, be divided between the North and the South by a consentable line; let slavery be prohibited in all the territory north of it, and recognized as an existing institution, beyond Congressional or Legislative control, in all the territories south of it. Such a compromise recognizes the equality of both sections in the Union, and will, without, doing any real harm to the cause of freedom remove that nervous sensibility, which the south very naturally feels about her constitutional rights. Judging from our present experience this compromise can not and will not do the north any harm. Slavery is established by law in New Mexico, a territory large enough, to make fours States as big as Pennsylvania. Although slave owners, for years, have had a right to go there with their property, there are now only twenty-four slaves in the whole territory. The extension of slavery is controlled by a higher than human law--that of climate and soil; wherever it is profitable, it will go, not stealing into the territory, as a thief by night, but welcomed into it, in broad daylight, and through an open door, by the legislation of these very men, who now so much revile it. You cannot make a better fire-eater out of all the material in the United States, than you can out of a Massachusetts abolitionist, by transplanting him to the South, and endowing him with a rice plantation and a good crop of negroes. He at once begins to see that slavery is profitable--aye, indeed--that it is right in itself--founded upon scripture--and he says, "I'll stand up for it." If the government has now any territory, (which is exceedingly doubtful) in which slavery would be profitable, it will go there, and be established by the strong arm of self-interest, as a common and perpetual institution, no difference, whether the territory is peopled by Northern or by Southern men. Self-interest, the world over, makes more marvellous converts to its views, than would be the conversion of a northern anti-slavery man into a Southern pro-slavery man. If the climate and the soil of the territories are unsuited to slave labor, the North needs no prohibition against it, because self-interest will raise an impassible barrier to its entrance; and all the laws in the universe could not force it there. You will thus perceive, fellow-citizens, what a poor, miserable abstraction, this territorial imbroglio, is, after all. Yet, upon this figment of the brain hang suspended the salvation of the Union. To the casual observer, the cause seems totally inadequate to the production of such momentous consequences. But he who scans the question narrowly, can easily see why the controversy has assumed such stupendous proportions. Everybody admits the equality of the States. To deny the right of the South to emigrate with their property, into the common territory, is to destroy that equality, and the destruction of their equality in the Union, is the opening wedge to the destruction of the States themselves. Hence, it is, that the South clings with such fierce tenacity to an equal dominion over the territories. The sceptre may be barren, it is true, but it is, nevertheless, the emblem of that sovereignty which alone can protect the existence of the Southern States. The North has no such excuse for its pertinacity in this matter. No one denies to her citizens the right to take themselves and their property, wherever they please to go. With them the controversy involves no question of equality or existence, and they therefore can afford to be generous. Such is the remedy of concession which I would be willing to see applied to the disease of the country. In the language of the gifted California Senator (Latham) "the country must be just or perish." The basis of settlement, I have proposed, is just. Why then should the country be suffered to perish?

Is not this Union worth some sacrifices? You have all read the story of Leonidas and his three hundred Spartans, at the pass of Thermopytos. Their heroism has been sung in poetry, has inspired the eloquent tongue of the orator, and been embalmed in the pages of history. Greece must have been a noble mother to give birth to such sons, and thrice worth sons were they of such a mother, who dared to purchase her salvation with the price of their lives.

But my Fellow-Citizens, do our times furnish no examples of patriotism and heroism equal to Leonidas and his band? I think they do; away down in Charleston harbor, seventy of our fellow-citizens, with their gallant commander, Major Anderson, are shut up in Fort Sumter. All avenues of escape are blocked up. All chances of rescue doubtful. Day after day for two long months they have looked out from their beleagured fortress and watched the active preparations, the armed forces of South Carolina were making for their destruction. Day after day the terrible batteries of their enemies have been drawing closer and closer until they can look into the very mouths of the frowning cannon. There they are chained to inactivity by the stern command of the Government, doomed like Tantalus, to feast their eyes upon the prepared instruments of their torture without the power to stretch forth their strong arm and utterly destroy them. Theirs is the melancholy satisfaction which the gaoler sometimes affords his prisoner, when he allows him to look out through the grated window, at the hangman who is erecting the scaffold for his execution on the morrow.

But, my Fellow-Citizens, do these patriotic and brave men repine? Not they. Do their cheeks blanch with fear, or their knees smite together? No, no. Do they talk of desertion? No, no. Do they send flags of truce to the enemy? No, no. Do they talk of surrender? Not they. Do they talk of lowering that consecrated flag, which was wafted to the top of the flag-staff by the incense of their prayers when they took possession of the fort? No, no. The last message they have sent us is that they are contented, that they will hold the fort as long as they can, that they will uphold the honored ensign of their government to the last and when overpowered, then they will apply the torch to the already prepared mine and blow themselves, and the fort into the Ocean, rather than fall into the hands of the enemies of their country. Oh, my Fellow-Citizens is not a country that can give birth to such sons worth saving? I ask the Republican party if it will allow a political platform to stand in the way of the salvation of such men. If so, oh terrible and swift will be the retribution.

Dissolve the Union, and where will the eagle cower? Dissolve the Union, and who will take the stars and stripes, on our national flag? Dissolve the Union, and who will take "Hail Columbia," and who "Yankee Doodle?" Dissolve the Union, and how shall we divide the Mississippi? Methinks, "the Father of Waters" would rise from his oozy bed and smite with his princely sceptre, alike the treason and the traitors. Dissolve the Union, and we of the North will have to go down to the battle fields of the South, to Camden and New Orleans, illustrious names, and gather up the bones of our forefathers, who fought and died there, because we will never let them lie in an enemy's country. Dissolve the Union, and then too the South will have to go up to Bunker Hill and collect, from beneath its monument, the ashes of their mighty dead who fought and bled for the defence of that very city of Boston, which now so hates and reviles them. Dissolve the Union, and you commit a crime, second in atrocity only to that fearful crime which wicked men perpetrated on Calvary eighteen hundred years ago. Dissolve the Union, for a mere abstraction, and the whole civilized world will cry shame on us and our children and our childrens children to the latest generation will rise up and curse our memories.

The "indefinite postponement" of this subject at the meeting on Saturday Evening last, by an almost unanimous vote, should not be regarded as if the people of our town are opposed to the construction of Water Works. This, I believe, is not the case. But it is generally thought by our citizens, as far as I have been enabled to know their sentiments, that the present time is most unpropitious for carrying forward such an improvement. Monetary matters are in an unsettled state, and to procure a large sum at this time, unless at an unusual rate of interest, is out of the question.

Then again, the bill under consideration was still born, and this of itself created some prejudice from the start. Besides it included other objectionable objects, foreign, entirely, to the subject. And finally, it proposed that the Town Council--men liable to be changed every year, and who have quite enough to do--should build and superintend the Water Works. This feature in the Bill, was one of the most objectionable to very many of our citizens. The plan suggested by Mr. McClure and others, strikes me as feasible, namely: That a private company be formed, and that the Borough vote a certain amount (say $10, 000 or $20, 000) to that Company, and allowing the stockholders to have the benefit of this appropriation, until they are enabled to pay more than 6 per cent. on their own shares. It is supposed that, with such an amount, a company could successfully build Water Works and experience no risk therein.

K.

--The East Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church will convene in this place, on the 13th of next month and remain in session eight or ten days. About 250 ministers are expected to be in attendance. Bishop Simpson will preside as Chairman of the Conference. Many distinguished divines will also be in attendance and add interest to the occasion. Among those most noted we would name Rev. Dr. Henry Slicer, for 7 years chaplain to the U. S. Senate; Rev. Dr. Sargent; Dr. A. A. Reese; Rev. Dr. Durbin, Cor. Sec'y Missionary Society, M. E. Church; Dr. Holdick, Sec'y American Bible Society; Drs. Carlton and Porter, of Book Concern; these, together with other celebrities in the church, will be present.

We are gratified to learn that our citizens, of all denominations, have with commendable liberality responded to the appeal of the Chairman of the Committee of Arrangements, Rev. Wm. Harden, by generously offering to entertain all members of the Conference who my visit our place.

We understand that arrangements have been made with the Cumberland Valley, Penn'a Central, Franklin and Northern Central Railroads for a reduction of fare, for the round trip, one half. All persons in attendance on Conference by paying full fare to this place will be returned over these roads without any additional charge.

This will be one of the largest and most interesting ecclesiastical bodies ever assembled in this place. It is supposed that from four to five hundred persons, in addition to the clergy, will be attracted here by this convocation of divines.