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Show Edward Everett. Philippe was flying in disguise from his capital; the Tuile~ r.ies were sacked, and the oldest monarchy in Europe hacl ceased to cxi t. I hold it to be time, then, ir, as I bavc said, for good men nnd good patriot ~, ca ting aside all mere party con iderations, and po tponing at least all ordinary political i . ues, to pau c; to look ~teadi ly in the face the condition of things to which we arc approaching; and to ask their own con. cienccs whether they can do nothing or say nothing to avert the rrisi , and bring about a hnppicr and a better Rtatc of thing . I do not ask them to search the pa t for topics of reproach or recrimination on men or parties. 'V e have had. enough of that, and it has contributed materially to bring nbout our pre -ent perilous condition. In all countries. where ::~pccch and the press are free, especially tho. c countries which by control1ing natural cau es fall into two g reat ections, each possessing inuependent local legi. latnre. aml centres of political opinion and influence, there will in the lapse of time unavoidably be a ction and reaction of word and def'd. Violence of speech or of act on the one side, will unavoidably produce violence of speech and act on the other. Each new grievance is alternately cau c and effect; and if, before rc orting to healing coun cl .. , we arc determined to run over the dreary catalogue, to see who was earliest or who has been mo t to blame, we engage in a controversy in which there is no arbiter, and of which there can be no solution. But, without reviving the angry or sorrowful memories of the past, let me, in all friendlinc. ~,a k the que tion, What has either section to gain by a di solution of the Union, with reference to that terrible question which threatens to destroy it? I a:-;k patriotio men in both sections to run over in their minds the causes of complaint which they have, or think they have, in the existing tato of thing~, and then ask thcmsel vns di. passionately whether any thing is to be gained, any thing to be hoped, br pushing the present alienation to that fatal .. - Edward Everett. 243 bourn, from which, as from death, there i.:- no re.tnrn? Will the South gn,in any great ' l' . tability for her social sy:tcm,any la.rg r entrance into t.hc vacant puulic _territories? 'Vill the North have c ff' ,ctcd any one e;bj 'Ct, which by men of any shade of' opinion, extreme or moderat , i deemed desirable ; 011 the contrary, will not every evil she clc.' ires to rcm.cdy be confirmed and arrrrravated? If thi view of the subJeCt be bb • . 1 1 } coiTC ·t, what can be more unwise, what more suH'H a, t 1an to allow the c dcploraulc di sen ions to result in a Rcvolu~ion, which will lr•ave the two great sections of the country m a wor~c condition than it finds them, with reference to the very ohj<!Cts for which they allow themselves to be impellcu to . ? the dreadful consummatiOn. But I shall be told, perhaps, that all thi is imaginary; that the alarm at the South is a factitious or rather a groum1~e s panic, for which there is no suo tantial cause,- fit sul~J ect for ridicule rather than serious anxiety. But I see no 1 g~s of panic in Virginia, except for a few hours a~ Harpe~ s F erry, where, in the confu ion of the first surpn ~e, anJ m profound irrnorancc of the extent of the danger, the commu-nity was foo r a short t1. mc par. a1 y zcc1 · I am not sure that a c • • town of four or five hundred families in this regiOn, I.nvaued at midnirrht by a resolute band of twenty men, en~cnng th_c lwu. es of influential citizens, and hurrying them from th.en· beds to a stronghold, previously occupied, and there holdm_g them as ho tages- I am not sure, sir, that an equal paniC would not be created till the extent of the danger ·was meas-ured Besides sir if the panic had been much more cx_t~n- sivc • than it wa' s, th' e panics of great anu.1 b rave co.m~u mtws t larc no r 'flc . · l3tJrke s•' lid he could not frame a.n mdwtm 'nt again ·t a whole people ; it seems to me c~ually _m_b:td t:1.~tc, at least, to try to point a sneer at a State_ hke Vu·gmm. I h~ ] rcnch arc r •putcd a gallant anu warlike people; ~nt the lcttcr.3 from the late scat of war tell us, that . even after ~lte grea t n.c t ory of Sol.C1C' l'l·no ' n" handful of Austnans, str~gglwg |
