22 THE SACRIFICE OF CONTINUAL PRAISE. every nation and of every name, who have cast in their lot with ours. By the ennobling power of knowledge, we may and will, lift what the .slave aristocracy of the South have termed the mud-sills of society, up, so that the whole structure of the body politic shall rise, noble, imposing in its grandeur. The Bible and the common-school are our best defenders. Said one, who had sought refuge in our land from the green isle of the Ocean, that has given more than one noble hero to this war:— “ I landed in America a poor boy ; a little trunk contained my earthly possessions; alone and friendless I had my fortune to carve out for myself. I resolved to rise. In America 1 found, for the first time, helping hands and warm hearts. I knocked at the door of the school-house and it flew open. I went on, step by step ; the land of my adoption gave me what I asked,—an education,—without money and without price. All that I am I owe to her; all that I am, body, soul and spirit, I lay upon her altar ; this right hand is pleged to her, and shall ever be raised to strike down the traitor-foe that shall dare assail this heaven-originated Nationality." lie wore the uniform of a major in the volunteer service of the United States. Leaving his studies, preparatory to the gospel ministry, when the sound of war was heard, and the nation’s call for volunteers rang through the land, to use his own language, “ I buckled on my armor and went marching along.” If we are faithful to our own high and solemn duties we have little to fear from the rapid increase of our free population by immigration.
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