MASS
CONVENTION
At Old Deerfield!!
SEPTEMBER 18, 1856.
The People of Old Deerfield to their Brothers of the Val-
ley of the Connecticut, send their Greeting.
BROTHERS: The footsteps of blood are
upon our soil. The infernal war, whose distant echoes have long muttered horrid
forebodings, has
seized as a victim one of our sons. DAVID STARR HOYT, our brave
and honored
townsman, has been treacherously murdered on the plains of Kansas, by lurking
enemies more sav-
age, cruel and merciless that those whose terrible “war-whoop woke the
sleep of our mothers’ cra-
dles, and who lighted up the darkness of midnight with the blaze of our fathers’
dwellings.” We in-
vite you to come and aid us in honoring his obsequies. We call you to no ceremonial
of mourning:
but to a festival of retribution. Come to us, that we may nerve one another’s
hearts and hands for
the struggle, which is to sweep away with the stern besom of an outraged people
the legions of mis-
rule and oppression. The hills already rock, the valleys heave with premonitions
of the storm which
is gathering to burst in thunder upon the heads of traitorous counsellors and
perjured rulers. When
it bursts, our brother, all our brethren slaughtered in that nefarious war,
are avenged, and that shall
be the triumphant funeral anthem.
Hon. Henry Wilson,
HON. N. P. BANKS,
HON. ANSON BURLINGAME,
Henry Ward Beecher, Geo. W. Curtis, S.W. Webb, Eratus
Hopkins, Mark Trafton, E.W. Hoar, C.C. Chaffee,
and others, whom true men honor, who in counsel and eloquent
in speech, have been invited to be here
Come then, and be welcomed to our gathering.
PER ORDER OF THE COMMITTEE OF ARRANGMENTS,
HORATIO HAWKS, Chairman.
Deerfield, Sept. 10, 1856.
Gazette & Courier Job Office, No. 2 Bank Row, Greenfield,
Mass. |