devotional exercises. _God save the Union_, should be the first lesson
taught to the child in the cradle; and from infancy to old age, the
reverential aspirations of our hearts should ascend to him who holds
the destinies of nations in his hands; to save and bless our common
country.

From morn till eve, our hearts should breathe,
Father of mercies, God of love preserve--
Oh! preserve, our blood bought liberties;
Preserve them unalloyed, unimpaired While time shall last.

If we all could be animated by this spirit, then would peace,
prosperity and good will, abound more and more, throughout the length
and breadth of our land. Bound together by cords of love; as a band of
brothers; we should know "no North, no South;" the prime object of all
would then be, the prosperity and preservation of our common country.
We are the conservators of liberty. We hold it as a trust, and the
oppressed of all nations expect here to find a refuge from tyranny;
and here they may find it, so long as we preserve our Federal Union
unimpaired.

But unfortunately for us, ambitious demagogues have seized upon the
subject of slavery, and are convulsing the country from one end to the
other. Slavery is the demagogue's hobby, and he mounts it, raises his
hat, kicks and spurs, as if the salvation of the universe was
suspended on his elevation, to some petty, insignificant office.
Slavery is to us, as a great subterraneous fire, which is ever ready
to burst upon us with volcanic violence, deluging our country with
boiling lava, red hot stones, smoke and flames; carrying devastation,
death and destruction in its train. But the subject will be agitated,