The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1865-08-04
SAINT PAUL. FRIDAY. AUGUST A. 1865

their true places. Even Divine Provi-
dence, we may say, always seems to work
after certain military necessity. Every
nation Furnishes the General who is not vic
torious. 1t is rule in games of chance
that "the cards beat all the players" and
revolutions disconcert and outwit all
the insurgents. The revolutions carry
their own points, sometimes to the
ruin of those who set them on foot. The
proof that war also is within the highest
right, is marked benefactor in the hands
of Divine Providence, is its morale. The
. war gave back integrity to this erring and
immoral nation. 1t charged with power,
peaceful, amiable men, to whose whole
life war and discord were abhorrent. What
an infusion of character went out from
this and the other colleges! What an in
fusion of character down to the ranks !!
The experience has been uniform, that it
is the gentle soul that makes the firm hero
after all. 1t is easy to recall the mood in
which our young men, snatched from every
peaceful pursuit, went to the war. Many
of them had never handled gun. They
said: "It is not in me to resist. I 60
because must. It is a duty which I shall
never forgive myself if I decline it. do
not know that l can make q soldier. I
may be very clumsy; perhaps l shall be
timid; bat you can rely on me. Only
one thing is certain, can well die, but I
cannot afford to misbelieve." Loud ap-
plause. In fact, the infusion of culture
and tender humanity from these scholars
and idealists who went to the war,
in their swn despite,-God knows
they had no fury for killing their old
friends and countrymen,-had it's signal
and lasting effect. 1t was found that
enthusiasm was a more potent ally than
science and munitions of war without it.
"'Tis principle of war;" said Napoleon,
principe de guerre, "that when you
can use the thunderbolt, you must prefer
it to the cannon" Enthusiasm was the
thunderbolt. Here is this little Massa-
chusetts, in smaller Rhode Island, in this
little nest of New England republics, it
famed out when the guilty gun was aimed
at Sumter. Mr.. Chairman, standing here
in Harvard College, the parent of all the
colleges, in Massachusetts, the mother of
all the North, when / consider her in
fuence on the country as principal planter
of the Western States, and now by her
teachers, preachers, journalists and books,
as well as by traffic and production, the
diffuser of religious, literary and political
opinion, and when I see how irresistible
the convictions of Massachusetts, are on
those swarming populations, / think the
little State bigger than knew; and when
her blood is up, she has fist that could
knock down an empire. And her blood
was reused. [Great applause Scholars
exchanged the black coat for the blue. A
single company in the Forty-fourth Mas
sachusetts contained thirty-fve sons of
Harvard. You all know as well as the
story of these dedicated men, who knew
well on what duty they went-whose faith
ers and mothers said of each slaughtered
son, "We gave him up when he enlisted. 4"
One mother said, when her son was offered
the command of the first negro regiment,
eff he accepts it, shall be as proud as if
l had heard that he was shot" Zap
plause. These men, thus tender, thus
high-bred, thus peaceable, were always in
the front, and always employed. They
might say, with their forefathers, the old
Morse Vikings, "We sung the mass of
lances from morning until evening"" and
in how many cases it CHANGED, when the
hero had fallen, that they who came by
night to his funeral, on the morrow re-
turned to his war-path, to show his slayers
the way to death! All! young brothers,
all honor and gratitude to you! you, man
ly defenders, liberty's and humanity 8
home-guard. We shall not again dis2arage
America, now that we have seen what men
it will bear. We see-we thank you for it
"a new era, worth to mankind all the
treasure and all the lives it has cost; yes,
worth to the world the lives of all this
generation of American men, if the y had
been demanded. Loud applause