Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1862-05-09
Our Martyrs and their Resurrection.

A young man lived few months ago on
Staten Island, intellectual, cultivated, high
toned but shy and reserved; he remained
"aionc;" his life was hidden from the world /;
they who knew him honored and loved HIM
but they were few. He was not recognized
power-he was not an acknowledged intlu-
ence. He rushes into the army of the Union /;
he is foremost in the fight; bullet finds its
way to his heart; the "corn of wheat falls
into the ground" dead, and an electrical
thrill shoots through some millions of hearts
as his heroic soul flames out of the cloven
case that held it, and like fiery angel speeds
from town to town, dropping, wherever it
goes, the seeds Of an elevated enthusiasm,
a lofty courage manly, humane, sclfsacri-
ficing patriotism. Had Theodore Winthrop
not died, he might have remained alone, iso-
ing of his young spirit has been food for
thousands Of souls, to whom, had he lived,
he would probably have remained unknown.
These deaths of noble young men in battle,
which, or our first hearing them, make us
shudder so and ask why this dreadful waste
of lie, arc the swapping open of so many
brave caskets, and the dropping into the
fruitful soil of humanity Of the quick seeds OF
new national and human life. Very sad
indeed it is to see them fall into the ground
and die, so fair, so precious built up with
so much painful labor and at such dear cost
guarded so tcnderly; cherished so anXiously
as the most precious thing in the world, by
so many good hearts but when the inspra-
ton of their devoted heroism comes to us,
when they rise before us transtigurcd as the
martyrs of liberty, when the many know ol
them more than the few knew before, and
the many feel what only the few felt, when
brave hearts are made braver, and earnest
ones are made more devoted, and the love OF
country is intensified, and the love Of human.
ity is deepened, we cannot say that life is
wasted we cannot perceive how the life could
have been spent to better purpose We can
not believe that the noble youths could have
achieved more, had their existence been ever
so long and ever so fortunate. These arc
the great resurrection days Of American char
acter and there is no resurrection without
a grave. The spirit Of liberty is increasing
in power and truth, and the volume of it, the
purity of it, are swelcd by the souls of these
young martyrs, who give their dust to the
dust whence it came, and their life to the
dear country whose ideas were its sustenance
and inspiration. In humber instances than
these, too, We see how the dropping away OF
the form reveals the power which it inclosed
The darling dies, but lives more intensely
than before He goes, but comes again; hu
vanishcs from the sigh, but appears gloritied
to the mind; he leaves house desolate, and
yet dwels in the house, and fills every part
of it as never before he makes lonelicr spot
of earth, and he ctvers the skies with angels;
ceasing f. be care, he is become an influ.
cnce; ceasing to be an object Of anxiety, he
is guardian spirit, going with his parents
wherever they go. Death is the breaking OF
star from the cloud.