Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1863-10-20

accents ss wild as lovers farewell" the
tale Of your bereavement, and anguish
the legend Of Shiloh and Chickamsugs,
the stories Of the overmsreh, fever de-
lirium, ami unsolaced death, and accident
more cruel than fever or battle. 1t shall
tell Of the places made empty in your
homes, by your hearths, in your hearts
and elingirg arms. How your beautiful
and brave selfelectsd and self-dedicated
marched away, to drum beat and banner,
in the gathering twilight of darkened
love and falling tears, to find death
nothing but deth-death without knowing
whether their blood would avail, or wbeth-
er it was mere waste. Death without the
shout of victory, without the pride and
glory of return to receive the wreath and
triumph of the conquorer, when our mil
lions shall go forth to twine the necks Of
the returning with the arms Of love, and
hang them with the medalions and anu
let's and mememtoes of praise and graft
tude. They went forth in the first tbTob
Of great hearted patriotism, and the first
refuent wave stranded them, the red
wrecks of the strife along the crimson
ed strand, the mere debris and waste Of
war.
All this, and more, shall this beautiful
work pious love, standing in your midst,
psled in, hung with offerings, and shadow
ed with beautiful trees, tell TO you, tC
your generation, and the stranger and
pilgrim who shall journey bither, to view
this, the first Offering, dedicated by Q
whole people, to all their heroes who have,
or who may fall in this great war,
Succeeding generations shall hear its
legend, and when the marble itself shall
begin to dissolve in the breath of time,
the hand of some pious " old mortality,
shall re-chisel the honored names, and lit
tie children, with wondering eyes, shall
retrace them with cherub fingers. The
pale browed student of history shall come
to transfer them to his page, and they shsll
live in the great triple epic of art and
history and poetry, that shall forever
commemorate all that we have suffered
and achieved.
More this work tells and more the ora
/ tor must say: Great events we're 30 COM
mon now-crowded each other so rapidly
that we had lost the power Of being sur
| prised. One day of life now was worth
more than an ordinary life time. Old is
! sues that were thought forever postponed,
were suddenly being tried This genera
liOn by a sharp3turn confronted events as
/ signed by cur prophets TOR thousnnd
years hence. Old foretellings, made so
long ago that the prophets were thought
to be my this, were suddenly being fulfilled
with tempest and earthquake. : his was
q great corrective process, when nation
of many races and peoples we're to be Vio-
lently pluoked out of its devious way, and
placed in the way it should go.
A time when q great truth was to be
yindicsted, truth so long forgotten, and
so deeply buried, with the drift of time
and folly, that men had forgotten ibid
not believe that it hsd existed.
God has let loose a new idea ameng the
sons Of men, and senti it bowling down the
avenues of time, crushing and pulveriz-
ing men and nations. Lord, what a
scampering and crying out Of helpless, un-
believing conservatives A new deluge had
been opened up, and all sorts of dry dust
was being wetted down, all manner Of
ugly monsters were being drowned out,
and all manner of old stranded hulks were
getting afost.
The fullness Of time had come when
huge and hideous wrong was to be lOosened
from its deep and as many believed ever
lasting embedding, and stumbled out" It
was one Of those monstrOus births Of time
accomplished only by throes that we're
earthquakes. How suddenly and unex-
pectedly this awful convulsion came, as
such calamities always came to the na-
tious. Though we saw the marshsliDg of
these forces, and heard their voices, though
ho OF ha OH Inc
for the confsgration, we neither saw, nor
heard, nor understood, and 70 prophet
arose with power to interpret to our un-
derstandiDg. We and the outside world
saw and heard only the copjurations of
political legerdemain, while below all was
the purpose the great God, throboing like
the bestings of the infinite heart. The
great decalogue, erased and daubed with
slave statutes and codes, was to be re-
written in FIRE and thunder sc=rs.
From the dawn of creation TO the verge
Of our day, this western continent was
known only to its maker. Finally it was
found out, as men find out other things.
Almost from the beginning to later time,
as little was known of the continent Of
Africa.
Our race commenced at the east and
traversed the earth to Western Europe
where two. centuries ago two peoples of
the same nationality and language, yet
otherwise antagonists, were transplanted
to this continent. The puritan to Ply
mouth Rock, the cavalier to James river.
simultaneously, pirates brought the un-
known children of unknown Africa, and
planted them by the home of the puritan
and they became his bondmen and By the
mansion of the cavalier, and they became
his slaves. Thus the destiny Of these
remote races, became blended on this
far off continent. Ultimately, the puri-
tan put away his bondmen, as Abra-
ham put forth Hagar and Ishmael. Not
so the cavalier; but for his purposes pira-
cy and man-stesling was legalized; and he
multiplied his slaves, and procured i'm
munity for his course in his great compact
with the puritan. And so these two
worked forward on their great and joint
mission Of subduing the continent. and
rearing q new and better civilization.
The puritan with his hands, his brain, his
heart, his soul, and conscience. The oavs-
lier with his brain, and the hands Of his
slaves only. His soul, and heart and
conscience, were left out. The one cleared
land, built ships and harbors, constructed
canals, invented telegraphs, and railroads,
and machinery, wrote books, built school
houses and colleges, dedicated churches
and ordained preachers. The othercleared
land, raised cotton, prOpagsted slaves, cul-
tivated politics, invented conventions,
wrote platforms, elected presidents, and
ordained slavery.
The nation became externally rich and
powerful, going 10 greatness and glory
with stride that distanced imagination.
Internally, the puritan was prosperous, aud
becoming cultivated and refined. The
cavalier was prosperous, insOlent and