Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1874-08-06
GRAND RAPIDS WIS THURSDAY AUGUST g. 1871

uous not to have been seen; they art
too recent to be forgotten. 1t vii
suffice to present schedule of the
leading events.
At home and abroad the Union wa:
proclaimed to be dissolved in 1861
The Union is restored now
Nine States then claimed to have
left the protection of the Constitution
forever They have all returned tc
that protection now. Those that
thou gavest me | have kept, and none
is lost, said the Savior Of men.
Tie Republican party has preserved
more than the States you committed to
its keeping. 1t has found those which
were lost.
In 1861 the Confederate States of
America" so called, were elamoring
for admission into the family of ma
tions. There is no longer any such
pretense Each one of those great
but misguided communities now has
honorable recognition as an intregal
part of the United States.
J 4 race numbering millions has been
raised from the condition Of chattels
to the state Of man. Human rights
have gained the sanction Of three new
chapters added to the national Consti-
tuition. Murder organized in several
States, bearing the name of kuklux,
wearing the garb and plying the trade
of fends, has been exposed, convict
ed, punished.
Abroad our career has been scarcely
less triumphant Great Britian has
corrected the mistake she made when
she assumed that the appearance of
the Confederate States was the sure
premonitiOn Of the departure Of the
United States. She has done what
Great Britain never did beforc-she
has apologized FOR a mistake. Out of
that mistake has sprung a new era in
diplomacy.
Without the employment of force,
but peaceably, the Bepublic which was
defeu by her own citizens, and despised
everywhere IN 1861, has led Great
Britain voluntarily to submit her con-
duct to the Judgment OF n tions, and
in pursuance OF their Judgment, she
has paid fine Of fifteen millions for
the wrong size did us.
That is not all Those islands to
which she made claim ON our North
west coast are rehnquished, That
claim Great Britian submitted to the
Judgment of the Emperor of North
Germany, and submitted herself to the
unortincatioH OF being told TO surren-
der it. She was not award 81 an equiv
aleut for it. She was siufFfy toIG she
had claimed great possessions 10 which
she had no right
That is not all If there ever was
one principle Of English jurisprudence
which En2land believed to be irrever-
sible and unalterable it was the prin
ciple that a British born subject couid
never change his allegiance. ''Once a
Briton, always a Briton' was a law
she held to be as fixed as gravitation.
She fought one war with Us in defense
or IL. but aItcF seeing our plllIui
army Of eleven thousand men sudden
ly swollen by volunteers to nearly
millioa, he wisely concluded it was
not worth while to fight another war in
defense of that principle, and by peace
ful negotiation she has repealed the
law so long and SO obstinately held to
be irrepeaIable. Germany has follow
cd that Sc example, or rather set the
example. Belg um, Sweden, Norway,
and Denmark nave done the same, aud
now when the Republic grants the
boon Of citizenship to one Of Irish,
English, German, or Scandinavian
birth, the grant is recognized in the
land Of his nativity.
OUR POWER yISDICATED.