STANDARD [CLARKSVILLE, TX], May 25, 1861, p. 1, c. 1-3
Maj. DeMorse:--The "Red River Home Guard" was presented by the ladies of Clarksville, Saturday last, with a most beautiful flag. Copies of the address delivered by Miss Bell Gordon and response of M. L. Sims, Esq., on that occasion have been obtained for publication and are herewith transmitted to you with the request of the company, that they may appear in the Standard.
Wm. Crittenden, Capt.
Commanding Home Guard.
N. C. Gould, Ord'y Sgt.
Address of
Miss Belle Gordon,
To the Red River Home Guard.
Gentlemen, of the Red River Home Guard:
With the most intense feelings of diffidence and pride, I appear this day before you, on behalf of the ladies, who have prepared this flag for your acceptance. With feelings of diffidence, lets, through my inability to convey in adequate terms, the strong heartfelt emotions which fill our bosoms for your prompt response to the call for your organizations; and with feelings of pride, that I have been selected as the humble medium through which you are to be put in possession of a banner, made by fair hands and accompanied with patriotic prayers.
The circumstances which call forth your organization, were urgent. The natural protectors of many families in the country, in obedience to a demand for their services out of the state had left many wives, and families in an unprotected condition. Ere the last echo of our noble hearted volunteers, had ceased sounding in our ears, you were already organizing a Home Guard, competent to help the defenceless, and impart confidence and a feeling of confidence to all.
I would be out of place, to recount the wrongs to which the south has so long submitted.—Almost from the time of the adoption of the old Constitution of the United States, a series of unjust, and unprovoked aggression, has been waged against the people of the South, by those who have been aggrandized by our energy and industry; and the election of the Black Republican Lincoln to the Presidency, pledged as he was to his party to carry out the fiendish designs of Northern fanatics, filled to overflowing the cup of our grievances.
Secession, from a compact, wantonly and openly violated, (revolution if you please to call it,) became absolutely necessary, unless we prepared to yield our dearest rights, and die in a state of serfdom. Already have eleven States withdrawn from the association and joined the Southern Confederacy. We are a united people, having a common interest; and with God and right on our side, we bid defiance to all the powers of diabolical fanaticism.
A deadly war threatens us. A war for the annihilation of our rights impends over our heads. Already have the bloodhounds of war been let loose upon us from the North; and each day brings the tidings of accumulated preparations for a most deadly contest. Already have our Southern ports been blockaded, to cut us off from that commercial intercourse with the world which God, and the position of our country intended we should enjoy.
Gentlemen! this war, the most unholy, the most unsurpassed in the annals of history for its unnaturalness—in which the father will take up deadly weapons against the son, the son against the father; brother will meet with the brother in mortal combat, and the holiest ties of kindred will be set at defiance; this war I say gentlemen, this war has neither been instigated nor courted by us; but it has been forced upon us, and as free men and the free born citizens of a free State, we are compelled to take up arms in self-defence; and woe to the laggard craven heart, which will not promptly respond to the call of its country.
Gentlemen, we feel assured from the promptness and zeal which you have exhibited in your organization, that there is not a craven heart among you; and with this faith engraven on our hearts, permit me in the name of the ladies who have prepared this flag, to present it for your acceptance.
It is now without a stain on its escutcheon—may it ever continue so. May no cowardly or traitorous heart, ever take shelter under its folds. May it descend unsullied, to your children's children in all time to come. The exigencies of your country may call many of you far from hence, to fight in defence of your most sacred rights; but there will be others to take your place, and protect your homes, and all that is near and dear to you—and placing your trust in the God of battles, no enemy will be allowed to harm you.
"No fearing, no doubting, thy soldiers shall know,
When here stands his country, and yonder her foe;
One look at the bright sun, one prayer to the sky,
One glance where her banner floats gloriously on high;
Then on, as the young lion bounds on his prey;
Let your sword flash on high, fling your scabbard away!
Roll on, like the thunderbolt over the plain!
We come back in glory, or come not again."
Response of M. L. Sims, Esq.
Ladies:--The presentation of this elegant and tastely [sic] wrought banner, through your accomplished representative, is a tangible evidence of your endorsement and hasty approval of the purposes, policy and objects of our company; and had we no other convictions of the rectitude of our cause, and no additional assurances of the necessity of the movement which we have inaugurated. Yet, in this manifestation of your good will, is a sufficient stimulous [sic] to induce us to prosecute to the end of some apparent necessity our organization now in its incipiency.
The presentation of a flag; let it come from whatever hand it may, always has an inspiring and soul-stirring effect upon the minds and hearts of men; because it is the representative of sovereignty and nationality, and with us of liberty, equality and fraternity—under it our fathers, brothers and sons have marched to victory or to a glorious death, on all the well tried fields upon which the call of their country summons them. It is the broad expansive aegis beneath whose ample folds a nation takes shelter designated itself from the other nations of the earth and vindicates its supremacy.
But that which makes the presentation of this flag peculiarly impressive, that which to the banner itself lends a charm not otherwise possessed, that which makes it unfurl its folds to the evening breeze with no borrowed lustre; and sends an electrical thrill through the heart of every member of this company is the pleasing and significant fact that it is from the fair hand of woman. The patriotic generosity which induced the fair donors to contribute it, the tender hands that wrought it and the soft, musical and earnest voice that commits it to our keeping, makes it the eloquent declarer of volumes not found in its history or visible on its folds.
And may I not be permitted to say without subjecting myself to the accusation of flattery that we ask no better assurances of the righteousness of the cause in which as a nation we are engaged, and success will eventually crown our arms, than that the united voice of woman throughout the land proclaims her readiness to submit without a murmur, to all the horror, ruin and death incident to a long, tedious and dangerous war, to establish upon a permanent basis the principles at issue between us and our enemies; and although timid as a fawn, fragile as a flower and so delicate that the minds of heaven may not visit her too rudely, yet when the shock of battle comes, and the red right armed of the God of war is stretched out across the land, and the lowering clouds gather thick and fast over our heads the angry thunders howl, and the fulgent lightning's blaze in lurid flames athwart the heavens; and the red hot cinders from conflagrated cities, towns and villages freight the whirlwind; and gaunt visaged death all stalk up and down the land—then will woman undismayed amid the ruin stand and present such a picture of patriotism, fortitude and courage, as poet never dreamed or the world ever saw.
Respected superiors and fellow members of the "Home Guard" this magnificent flag from the ladies of our county is presented to us with the declaration "that it is now without a stain on its escutcheon," and with the patriotic injunction, "that we preserve it untarnished and transmit it to our children's children "as we have received it." Before I respond may I not ask. Why is this? Why is it that we see so much enthusiasm among those least disposed to encourage the strife of death: Do we not learn through the press that the ladies are presenting flags to organizations similar to our own, and to others entering active service, in every town, village and Hamlet [sic] throughout the Confederacy? This must be the effects of some powerful, deep seated and soul moving cause. Is it because woman delights in the prompt [sic] and circumstance of war? Is it because the roar of artillery, the rattle of small arms and the clash of bayonets have no terror for her? Is it because the groans of the dying and the ghastly visage of the dead touches not a chord in her heart? The very converse is the truth. War to her is the Pandora's box out of which pours in one uninterrupted stream, a long catalogue of woes comprising the major part of ills to which humanity is heir; and when it comes and brings in its train the suffering, misery and death incident to it, she bewails the cause and weeps over the misfortunes of her unhappy country, and from her the soldier receives the solace, of all others, most efficacious in mitigating his miseries, it is because her intelligence, her information and her interests have fully awakened her to the magnitude of the issues involved in this contest! It is because she feels as only woman can feel, that all she has ever held sacred is now in peril and hence it is that she has nerved herself for the conflict, and is ready to sacrifice fortune, friends and kindred that the rights may prevail.
For twenty long years the Goddess of American liberty has been perched on the dome of our National Capitol with pinions half spread, as if doubtful whether to stay and weep over the misfortunes and perverseness of her children, or take her returnless flight to climes more congenial. At length on the 6th of November she cast a last long lingering look—bid a final and feeling farewell—and sorrowfully soared array [sic?] towards the Olympian heights and we lost in the dizzy mazes of the distance. Soon in reviewing the scene behind, her argus eyes perceives, that the love of liberty, concord and virtue, which characterized our fathers of '76 still existed in its native simplicity among the gallant sons and fair daughters of the South; and with joyful exultation she descended and now presides with magisterial dignity over the hopes, fortunes and ambitions of the Confederate States of America, and I cherish the unfeigned hope that the occasion will never necessitate the recurrence of that sorrowful event—but when the last note is pealed to the sound the march of time; when the last red sun shall have set behind the Western horizon that the people of the south united in hand, in purpose and in dominion shall go down to a common grave with the stars and bars floating triumphantly over their heads, with liberty, equality and negro inferiority inscribed in letters of blazing lights upon its ample folds.
Out of the election of the Black Republican Lincoln, to the Presidency of the United States, pledged as he was to his party, to carry out the fiendish designs of Northern fanatics, came secession, and out of secession came war! And for what is this war waged? What are the principles at issue, and what the interests at stake? By us the gauntlet of the proud Templar has been taken up, that we might secure to ourselves and our children the blessings of liberty, and to prevent our degeneration into serfs, slaves, and boot-blacks to a vandal horde of Northern fanatical infidels—to prevent these ladies from being reduced from their present proud and enviable position to a level with the abolition women of the North and negro women of the South.
The principles at issue are those which underlie all free governments, all political, religious, and social liberty—that glorious old constitutional liberty for which our fathers endured a seven years' war, and to perpetuate which we, unless we are unworthy of them, are willing to do battle from now till the end of time, or until the last son of the South shall be sleeping on the plain.
The interests at stake are those of personal security, liberty and property. To these may be added Virtue—that which nerves the strong arm of man, and sheds a halo of glory around the pure heart of woman. Honor, with which man stands in close proximity with the angels, and without which he is a demon full-fledged from the realms of hell, and one cannot determine whether he most dishonors or disgraces the devil. Self-respect, that inestimable trait in our character as a nation, that contradistinguishes us from our enemies of the North. If these things are not sufficient to buoy the patriot's heart, to nerve the patriot's arm—if they will not stimulate a nation to deeds of valor—then is the sun of liberty gone down forever, and the hopes of the South sunk in the bottomless vortex of everlasting infamy! But as sprung Minerva from the brain of Jove, so will spring full panoplied legions of as brave men as ever fought in the cause of right, or died in the cause of liberty, who will startle the world with prodigies of valor, and bear the laurels of victory from the field of fame.
Our enemies are as numerous as the waves of the forest, and as various as the hues of autumn! On the one hand, we have the treacherous and unprincipled Mexican; on the other, the cunning barbarous and blood-thirsty Indian; and still another, up in the land of dark deeds and foul designs, the not less treacherous, faith-breaking and blood-thirsty abolitionists; to which may be added the possibility of treason and insurrection at home.—It is against these, our foes, so devoid of honor, so destitute of every feeling of humanity, so insensible to every generous impulse and noble instinct, that stirs the heart of civilized man, that these ladies invoke our aid, and in the presentation of this flag, conjure us to protect them and our country.
This is a noble mission we have volunteered to execute, and it is a duty commensurate with all we hold sacred in time or in eternity. Will we shrink from duty, and prove recreant to the high trust committed to our charge? Will we disregard the patriotic injunction of these ladies, and allow this banner to trail ignominiously in the dust? Will any member of this company live to realize the humiliating reflection, that he betrayed the confidence reposed in him this day—and live on, to be pointed at as the craven-hearted, dastardly coward that shrunk from the discharge of his duty in the hour of his country's peril? I answer unhesitatingly for every name inscribed on our roll, that when every heart that beats beneath the fluttering folds of the banner is stilled; when every arm stretched forth to defend it shall be paralyzed, and when every cheek now suffused with the crimson blush of patriotic enthusiasm, shall be pale in death—then, only then, will it fall to rise no more. Like the flaming sword placed around Eden, shall it ever stand, so that none can approach but death awaits them. Like the tall plume of Henry of Navarro shall it ever wave over our heads, an appalling terror to our enemies, and a soul-stirring "Charge! Chester, charge! On, Stanly, on!" to us, and the serried hosts of citizen soldiers who march with us, until victory crowns our arms.
Ladies! permit me to assure you that your patriotism, liberality and zeal are duty appreciated by us; and your accomplished representative herself, will allow the Company through me, to congratulate her upon the felicity with which she has fulfilled this duty.
It is a fearful storm indeed that accomplishes no good, and the more fearful and dangerous it is, the more genial will be the returning sky; and when the drum, the fife, the bugle and the banner, with all the insignia of war, shall be hung up in the arsenals and magazines of the nation, and the piano, the lute, the guitar, and the full orchestra of domestic music, shall chant the requiem of war, and ushers in the halcyon days of peace—and when assembled around the social fireside we shall recount "the scenes of the days of other years," this occasion will be treasured up as an oasis in the wild waste of war, and be cherished in grateful recollection as one of the most pleasing reminiscences of the past.