Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1861-08-16
Speech of the Hon. Joseph Holt.

we Gull the following soul-Stlrring para
graphs from speech lately delivered by the
Hon. JOSEPH HoLT, to the Kentucky troops
at camp "Joe Holt" Indiana. We would
like to be able to give our readers the master
ly Grafton entire, but space forbids, and we
must content ourselves with few quotations:
l say citizens, since you are still such, and
it is only because you have resolved that no
earthly power shall rob you of this proud
title or in any manner curtail the priviieges
and blessings associated with it, that YOU
have become soldiers Your soldicrship ia
but the stately armor you have donncd for
the purpose of doing battle in defence of that
citizenship, which is at once the most intense
and the most truthful expression of your
political life.
No poor words Of mine could adequately
convey to you the grateful emotions inspired
by the kindness and warmth of this welcome.
| should have been rejoiced to meet you anv.
where. How full, therefore, the measure of
my happiness must be to meet you here in
such presence, and amid the thrilling as
sociatons inseparablc from the scene, YOU
can well understand. I should have felt
proud to have my name connected with the
humblest trapping Of your encampment. but
to have linked it with the cncampment itself
and thus inscribed as it were upon one of the
mile stones that mark your progress toward
those fields Of danger and of fame that await
you, is at once an honor and a token of YOUR
confidence and good will for which | cannot
be too profoundly thankful.
1t is not my purpose to occupy you with
any political discussion. The cleaning ban
| ner, the glistenng bayonetS, and the MARTA!
music, and indeed all that meets the eve or
the ear upon this tented field, admoniSh mo
that with you at least the argument is cy-
hausted, and that you have no longer doubts
to solve or hcsltating convictions to confirm.
Your resolution is taken, and YOU openlv
proclaim that, let Others do as they will, as
for yourselves, unchilcd by the Arctic airs of
neutrality, you arc determined to love your
country, unawed by traitors, to fight it's
battles, and, if need be, to Law down your
| lives for its preservation. 1t is indeed tran
sporting to the patriots heart to look upon
the faces of men that are thus sublmcv re-
solved, and thereis for me a positive enchant-
ment in the very atmosphere where pulsations
have been stirred by the brcathings of their
heroic spirits. Now that the booming of the
cannon of treason and the cry of men strick
en- unto death for fidelity to our flag are borne
to us on almost every breeze, it is narrowing o
to the soul to be dragged into companionshiD
with those who still vacllate, who are still!
timidly balancing chances and coldlv calculat-
ing losses and gains-who still persist in
treating this agonized struggle for national
existence as petty question of commerce,
and deliberately take out their scales and
weigh in our presence the beggarly Jewels of
trade against the life of our country.
Soldiers, next to the worship of the Father
OF us all, the deepest and grandcst of human
emotions is the love of the land that gave us
birth. 1t is an enlargement and cxaltaton
of all the tenderest and strongest sympathics
of kindred and of home. In all centuries
and climes it has lived, and has defied chains
and dungeons, and racks to crush it. 1t has
strewed the earth with its monuments. and
has shed undying lustre on thousand fields
on which it has battlcd. Through the nisbt
Of ages, Thermopyla glows like some noun
tain peak on which the morning sun has
| risen, because twenty three hundred wears
ago, the hallowing passion touched it's mural
precplces and its srowng crags. 1t is easy,
however, to be patriotic in piping times of
peace, and in the sunny hour of prosperity
1t Is national sorrow-it is war, with its at
tendant perils and horrors, that tests this
passion, and winnows from the masses those
who, with all their love of life, still love their
country more. While your present position
is most vivid and impressive illustration of
patriotism, 1t has glory peculiar and al
together It's own. The merccnary armies
which have swept victoriousiy over the world
and have gathered so many of the laure,s
that history has embalmed, were but ma
| chimes, drafted into the service of ambitious
spirits, whom they obcycd, and little under
stood or appreciated the problems their blood
was poured out to solve Il
Alike in the inaction Of the camp, amid
the fatigues of the march, and the charge and
shouts of battle, you will remember that YOU
nave IN your Keeping, not only yOur own
pcrsonsl reputation, but the honor of our
native State, and what is infinitely more in
spring the honor of that blood brought and
beneficcnt Republic whose children YOU are.
Any lTregularity on your part would sadden
the land that loves you; any faltering i'm the
presence of the foe would cover it with i'm
measurable humiliation. You will soon
minglc in the ranks with the gallant volun-
tcers from the North and West, and with me
you will admire their moderation their ad
mrable discipline, and that deep determina-
ton, whose earnstncss with them has no
language of menace or bluster or passion
When the men from Bunker Hill and the
men from the dark and bloody ground"
uncstrangcd from each other by the low arts
Of politicians, shall stand side by side on the
same national battlefield, the heart of free
dom will be glad.
Within so briefa period no such gigantic
power has ever been placed at the Disposal
ofany government as that which has rallied
to the support of this within the last few
months, through these volunteers who have
poured alike from hill and valley. city and
village, throughout the loyal states. All
classes and all pursuits have been animated
by the same lofty and quenchless enthusiasm
While, however, | would make no invidious
distinctions, where all have so nobly done
their duty cannot refrain from rernarkinc
how conspicuous the hard handed tillcrs Of
the soil of the North and the West have made
themselves in swelling the ranks of onr army.
We honor commerce with its busy marts,
and the workshop with it's patient toll and
exhaustless ingenuity, but still we would be
unfaithful to the truth of history did we not
confess, that the most heroic champions of
human freedom and the most illustrous
apostles Of it's principles have come from the
broad field of agriculture