Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1874-07-09

suppressed beneath the ICY hand of selfshness
this hallowed festival arises upon our vision
like lovely oasis. Its observance has be-
come time honored CUSTOM our most inter
esting national festival. 1t appeals, it thrill
ingly appeals not only to You and to me, and
to to the whole American people, but to all
who love their fellow man. 1t is associated
with all that was hazardous in the revolution.
and with great deal that was triumphant in
the rebellion. II is distinguished for the pro
mitigation of the only true theory in politics
the world ever knew, and for the grandest vic
tories in the field of arms during the darkest
hours of the rebellion 1t witnessed the signal
gun of the Revolution in no 1t witnessed at
Vicksburg and Gettysburg in '63, when scarce
ray of hope could penetrate the dark cloud
that hung over us and around US, the tollng of
the death knell Of the mighty struggle of the
Rebellion that announced that human slavery
had gone down in sea of blood.
As the clang of the bell on Independence
Hall, proelaiming to the joyful crowd below,
that new era had dawned upon mankind has
continud toverbrate and reverbrate around and
through the halls and palaces of the new world
and the old, proelaiming the equality of all
men, till the very walls vibrate, so may the
boom OF the cannon at Gettysburg and Vicks-
burg not only continue to proclaim to heaven
and earth the Joyful tidings that slavery is
doomed; but boom on till the oppressor and
his armed hosts and strong holds shall have
gone down, as did the Egyptian, the chariot,
the horse and his rider amid the fOaming bill
lows of the Red Sea.
We are not alone in our reioicings, &C, 600, 900
of freemen are joining with US. Not only from
the great lakes to the Gull, from the Atlantic to
the golden shores of the Pacific; but wherever
the American heart beats, or the Star Spang>
led banner floats on ocean or on land, in city
or in country, in forest or field, in the desert
or beside the palaces of the old world this day
is being becomDgy observed. These Offer
ings on ten thousand affairs proclaim this a ma
TONS Dirty day.
But my friends, these blessings that make
the present so glad and the future SO full of
promise, we should remember were purchased
and paid for with precious blood. 1t required
the sulferings of the Revolution from Lexing>
ton through Bunkerhill, Brandywine, Saratoga
and Valley Forge to Yorktown, and the pro-
longed agonies of the Rebellion to clear our
pathway of prerogatiye and privilege of arts
| tocracy and slavery.
See these banners, how they have been torn
in battle The ball that touched this passed
through the body of a man now living in this
county. The manned brigade is to-day 10000
strong Henry Kentner, of CO. +, 18th Wis,
who carried this aad William n Miles of the
same company, who carried this amid the iron
leaden hail at GAINESVILLE fell with them in their
hands and stained them with their hearts
blood. A half million men offered their lives
lives as precious as yours or mne-upon
their country's alter, died at home Of disease
and wounds, died in hospital died in prison,
died on the battle field and were buried where
they fell.
$50. through the day these brave men stand
Fighting for home and native land,
For freedom for you and me.
And they felt the spray of the fires of hell
Like angry pillows that sink and swell
On the battles stormy sea-"
Next to Him who rules on high, we should
| revere and respect those who suffered, those
who fell for us. Sleeping in soldiers graves,
| or walking in our midst manned and SCARED in
| battle we owe them debt of gratitude we can
| never repay.
Say, my friends, for what would you plunge
| into that seething cauldron of death? For
what would you offer your child sacrifice up
| on your country's alter or turn him over to
| the tender merces of the rebels at Lby, Belle
| Isle or Andersonville? Bring it home, right
home. What would you take for the life OF
| your father or your son, your husband or your
| brother? What price would you set upon an
| arm or a leg and have it cut from your body
| By cannon shot? What recompense can we
make the dead? Is our whole duty done when
we inscrbe heir names on our monuments
and write in the records against their names
| ''killed in battle? What recompense ought
we to make the living who in that terrib e
struggle lay wounded on those bloody fields OF
endured for you and for me more than ten
| thousand deaths.
| Oh, my friends to pay that debt the gold oil
| 0phir, the diamonds of Golconda are but dross
| Republics have been proverbiai for ingratitude
But let us make good our promies, made when
| calling for volunteers; pursue such course
| that when the storm of war shall come again
our young men will know that they have a
country worth fighting for, country worth
| dying for.
| ''Hail ye heroes heaven born band
| Who fought and bled in freedoms cause
| And now the storm of war has gone
| Enjoy the peace your yalor won.
| Let independence be our boast,
Ever mindful what it.cost
| Ever grateful for the prize,
| Let its incense reach the skies -
1t is often asked, are all these lives, all this
| precious blood to be thrown away? Is onrs tC
| be but short lived nation?
| The law that no excellence can be attained
/ or maintained without great labor, applies tc
nations as well as individuals We live upon
an inclined plane. A better civilization il
above, barbarism is below. We cannot long
be stationary. 1t is lamentable fact thai
nations as well as individuals die. In theil
| delirum--for there is a madness of nations
| they commit suicide. They are wiped out az
we'll by legal enactments as by hostile armies
! and more generally by their own inherent vices
| and corruption, than by the vices of Others
| Change is written on everything. The maps
| of Europe and of this continent have changed
in our day. The seepter has passed from Ju
| dab and the land of our Savior has become
land of vagabonds A band of robbers laughs
at the power Of Greece, that at Thermopylae
| Plataea, Salamis and Marathon withstood the
armed millions of the Persian empire The
dirty gondoler is about all that is left Of the
maritime power of Venice, for ages the mis-
| trcss of the Mediterranean. The land that pro.
duced Cicero and the Casers to-day supplies
| the world with little else than organ grinder.
and trained Monkeys.
| A race of men more intelligent than the In,
dian, preceded him and possessed these love
| ly prairies where your farms now ie The
mines of Lake Superior and of California, the
mounds In this vicinity, the mounds every
where are faithful historians of the distant past
| The Notifications on the Upper Missouri, built
many hundreds may be thousands of years be-
| fore the DAYS of Columbus exhibit high degree
| of skill in the arts of war and engineering -
Long, long before the days of the Incas and the
MoRtezumas and their nations and races then
dwelt upon the great forests of Central Amer
| lea now stand people enjoying many of the
comforts of civilized life Skilled in many OF
the arts and sciences, certainly in sculpture,
architecture, mineralogy and electromagnetic
| possessed of a knowledge of letters In those
| old jungles the magnificent ruins of their cit
| les yet remain but who can tell who they
were, and whether their blood yet flows in the
veins of single human being. Many of the
great empires of the olden times are gone and
scarce vestige remains to tell where their
proud capitals once stood. Babylon and Baal
| beck, Ninnevah and Palmyra are in ruins
The bat, the bttern, the serpent and the wild
beast of the moantain and the plain inhabit
where once ruled and reviled amid luxury and
wealth untold, the proudest monarchs of that
odcn time. The wild Arab roams wheae once
lived the teemins millions of the Medean and
| Persian empires. Damascus yet stands not
wholly in ruins, Damascus built back, back in
| the night of time before Babylon and Mime