Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 January 1889 — A CALL TO-ARMS. [ARTICLE]

A CALL TO-ARMS.

We have been haned a recent copy of the Oiymphia, Wash, Terr. Beview, containing a reprint of the call for the formation of a company of soldiers, published in The Republican's lineal ancestor, The Rensselaer Gazette, early in February 1861. It is believed that this is the first call for Union troops. The following is the text of the call: Prepare lor War. Rensselaer, Ind , Fed., 7,186 L Fellow-Citizes: The glorious flog of our country has been fired upon—torn down by traitor hands and trampled upon by permitted impunity. The sovereignty of our Government has been insulted, treated with contempt, defied, and set aside within its own rightful limits by traitors, led on by disappointed demagogues, whose motto is ‘-rule or ruin.” Treason and armed rebellion have raised their upas heads under strange banners within six of the Southern States of our Union. Shall the fl ig of our country, the glory aud honor of which has been sealed by the blood of a thousand battles, be thns disgraced? Shall the boasted sovereignty of our Government, the foundations of which were laid ami established by the wisdom of our our forefathers, “to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and onr posterity.” and before which tyrants have trembled, and that iwaeySr yet been A>tyyt-n? questioned with, impuni‘fy,d»e thus coutemned and set aside within our own borders? “Forbid it, Almighty God!” But. now the time has come to test the strength of our Government, to determine whether it is a mere rope of sand, that will tumble into discordant fragments upon the first breath of organized treason; and like Mexico and the states of Central and Southern America, become the scorn and contempt of the great nations of the earth; or whether it is to continue that Government whose “gi-" gantic progress is the wonder of the world, has no parallel in history, and whose example is melting ■the thrones and despotisms of of Europe and Asia. Within the next thirty days the imbecile administration whose pusillanimous conduct has given strength and confidence to this impious treason, will have expired, and a new administration, pledged that “the Union must and 6hall be preserved,” will have commenced. The new administration will doubtless require thousands of Unionloving volunteer soldiers to assist in crashing out this rebellion and in restoring the displaced sovereignty of onr Government Volunteers in the Union states should therefore be organized and ready at a moment's warning. It is 4 desired to organize a company in Rensselaer. All those who desire to join in this company can do so by giving or sending their names to the undersigned, and as soon as a sufficient number of names are enrolled a meeting will be called for the election of officers.' All who love their country, and are resaJH to lay down their lives for the perpetutation of onr glorious Union, are requested to come forward and enroll their names.

E. H. MILROY.