APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 235 will not abandon that Union to support which so many of them fought, and bled, and died. I adjure you, as you honor their memory, as you love the cause of freedom to which they dedicated their lives,-as you prize the peace of your country, the lives of its best citizens, and your own fair fame, to retrace your steps. Snatch from the archives of your State the disorganizing edict of its convention; bid its members to reassemble and promulgate the decided expressions of your will to remain in the path which alone can conduct you to safety, prosperity and honor; tell them that compared to disunion all evils are light, because that brings with it an accumulation of all; declare that you will never take the field, unless the star-spangled banner of your country shall float over you, that you will not be stigmatized when dead, and dishonored and scorned while you live, as the authors of the first attack on the constitution of your country; its destroyers you cannot be. Fellow citizens, the momentous case is before you. On your individual support of the government depends the decision of the great question it involves, whether our sacred Union will be preserved, and the blessing it secures to us as one people shall be perpetuated. No one can doubt that the unanimity with which that decision will be expressed will be such as to inspire new confidence in Republican institutions, and that the prudence, the wisdom and the courage which it will bring to their defence, will transmit them unimpaired and invigorated to our children. May the Great Ruler of nations grant that the signal blessings with which he has favored ours may not, by the madness of party or personal ambition, be disregarded and lost, and may His wise Providence bring those who have produced this crisis to see their folly before they feel the misery of civil strife; and inspire a returning veneration for that Union which, if we may dare to penetrate, His designs, He has chosen as the only means of attaining the high 'destinies to which we may reasonably aspire. Ex. CLII.-INDIAN'S FAREWELL SPEECH. BLACK HAWK.* I You have taken me prisoner, with all my warriors. am much grieved; for I expected, if I did not defeat you, to hold out much longer and give you more trouble before I surrendered. I tried hard to bring you into ambush, but your last general understood Indian fighting. I determined to rush on you, and fight you face to face. I fought hard. But your guns were well aimed. The bullets flew like birds in the air, and whizzed by our ears like the wind through the trees in winter. My warriors fell around me; it began to look dismal. I saw my evil day at hand. The sun rose dim on us in the morning, and at night it sank in a dark cloud, and looked like a ball of fire. That was the last sun that shone on Black Hawk. His heart is dead, and no longer beats quick in his bosom. He is now a prisoner to the white men; they will do with him as they wish. But he can stand torture, and is not afraid of death. He is no coward. Black Hawk is an Indian. He has done nothing of which an Indian ought to be ashamed. He has fought for his countrymen, against white men who came year after year to cheat them and take away their lands. You know the cause of our making war. It is known to all white men. They ought to be ashamed of it. The white men despise the Indians, and drive them from their homes. They smile in the face of the poor Indian to cheat him; they shake him by the hand to gain his confidence, to make him drunk, and to deceive him. We told them to let us alone, and keep away from us; but they followed on, and beset our paths, and coiled themselves among us like the snake. They poisoned us by their touch. We called a great council, and built a large fire. The spirit of our fathers arose and spoke to us to avenge our wrongs or die. We set up the war-whoop, and dug up the tomahawk; our knives were ready, and the heart of Black Hawk swelled high in his bosom when he led his warriors to * Black Hawk was an Indian Chief, commanding several tribes on the upper Mississippi, who in 1832 ravaged large portions of the western country, breaking up settlements and killing whole families. Generals Scott and Atkinson were sent to defend the frontier, and succeeded in scattering the hostile tribes and taking many prisoners, among whom was the dreaded chief. FAREWELL ADDRESS. 237 battle. He is satisfied. He will go to the world of spirits contented. He has done his duty. His father will meet him there and commend him. Black Hawk is a true Indian, and disdains to cry like a woman. He feels for his wife, his children and his friends. But he does not care for himself. He cares for the nation and the Indians. They will suffer. He laments their fate. Farewell my nation! Black Hawk tried to save you He drank the blood of some of and avenge your wrongs. the whites. He has been taken prisoner, and his plans are stopped. He can do no more. He is near his end. His sun is setting, and he will rise no more. Farewell to Black Hawk!. Ex. CLIII.-FARWELL ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES, 1837. ANDREW JACKSON. FELLOW-CITIZENS: We have now lived almost fifty years under the Constitution framed by the patriots and sages of the Revolution. We have had our seasons of peace and of war, with all the evils which precede or follow a state of hostility with powerful nations. We encountered these trials with our Constitution yet in its infancy, and under the disadvantages which a new and untried government must always feel when it is called upon to put forth its whole strength, without the lights of experience to guide it, or the weight of precedents to justify its measures. But we have passed triumphantly through all these difficulties. Our Constitution is no longer a doubtful experiment, and at the end of nearly half a century, we find that it has preserved unimpaired the liberties of the people, secured the rights of property, and that our country has improved and is flourishing beyond any former example in the history of nations. The progress of the United States, under our free and happy institutions, has surpassed the most sanguine hopes of the founders of the Republic. Our growth has been rapid beyond all former example, in numbers, in wealth, in knowledge, and in all the useful arts which contribute to the comfort and convenience of man; and from the earliest ages of history to the present day, there never have been thirteen millions of people associated together in one political body who enjoyed so much freedom and happiness as the people of these United States. You have no longer any cause to fear danger from abroad; your strength and power are well known throughout the civilized world, as well as the high and gallant bearing of your sons. It is from within, among yourselves; from cupidity, from corruption, from disappointed ambition and inordinate thirst for power, that factions will be formed and liberty endangered. It is against such designs, whatever disguise the actors may assume, that you have especially to guard yourselves. You have the highest of human trusts committed to your care. Providence has showered on this favored land blessings without number, and has chosen you as the guardians of freedom to preserve it for the benefit of the human race. May He who holds in his hands the destinies of nations make you worthy of the favors He has bestowed, and enable you, with pure hearts and pure hands, and sleepless vigilance, to guard and defend, to the end of time, the great charge He has committed to your keeping. My own race is nearly run; advanced age and failing health warn me that before long I must pass beyond the reach of human events, and cease to feel the vicissitudes of human affairs. I thank God that my life has been spent in a land of liberty, and that He has given me a heart to love my country with the affection of a son. And, filled with gratitude for your constant and unwavering kindness, I bid you a last and affectionate farewell. Ex. CLIV. THE UNITED STATES FLAG. WILLIAM ROSS WALLACE. FLAG of the valiant and the tried, Where Marion fought and Warren died! Oh, fairest flag! oh, dearest land! THE UNITED STATES FLAG. Heart pressed to heart, hand linked to hand, Still glorious banner of the free, The ancient trumpets long for breath; To vengeance from each clanging sheath, As if they sought some traitor's heart! Oh, sacred banner of the brave! Oh, standard of ten thousand ships! Of Washington lights all the gloom, "Americans! your fathers shed Their blood to rear the Union's fane; On mountain, valley, prairie, flood, By hurling down that temple there, The Right shall live, while faction dies; Then, dearest flag and dearest land, Who shall your banded children sever? God of our fathers! here we stand, A true, a free, a fearless band, Heart pressed to heart, hand linked in hand, 239 |