Huntington advertiser. [volume] (Huntington, W. Va.) 1874-1921, 1875-09-09
REUNION.

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REUNION.
I'VE are not enemies but friends. The mystic
chords OF memory stretching from every battle:
held and patriot grave 70 every living heart and
hearthstone all over this land win yet swell the
chorus of the Union. when again touched as sure-
ly they will be- by the better angels Of nature
Lincolns Inaugural Address.
How grandly sublime is the above
prophecy of the martyred President.
Spoken as it was, when the fires of
hate were kindled on every hearth
stone from the Atlantic to the Pacific
and from the cold bleak hills of Maine,
to the hower-clad plains of the Lone
Star" state. A portion of the South
ern States, believing that the spirit
of American Liberty had been, by
the triumph of sectional party,
driven from the temple erected BY
the fathers, and unwilling longer to
associate with those who were making
war upon All institution peculiar to the
South, and guaranteed by the Consti-
tuition had severed themselves from
the American Union and organized a
Southern Confederacy. The Nor
thern and New England States, anx-
ious for any pretext to exterminate
slavery in the South. had raised the
cry of the Union" aud fred the bo-
SONS of the people against their
Southern brethren, and coercion of
the States had become their watch
word. While the border States, al.
ways conservative and loyal. both to
the Constitution and the Union, had
thrown themselves into the breach,
anxious to save the Union and avoid
the impending conflict. Yet, deter.
mined to give their lives if necessary,
in the defence of the rights Of the
States. Rights which they believed
were guaranteed, to every State, by
the great Charter of our confederation.
No prince ever assembled the throne
at time OF greater peril, than that
which existed when Abraham Lin
coin became President of the Ameri-
can Union. Patriotism had been ex
changed for passion hatred reigned
in the courts of love; Bunker Hill
and Yorktown were forgotten and
the example Of Washington and the
blood of Warren, were no longer re-
membered. Coercion and Abolition
ism we're preached from the forum
and the pulpit in the North while
the eloquence of fancey and Others
had taken captive the Southern heart.
Such was the state of the country
when Mr.. Lincoln made use of the
language we have quoted; and though
four years of bloody, internicine war
followed its utterance, war which
eliminated in ten years of political
bigotry and prescription, which threw
cloud of gloom around the fifteen
Southern States, and retarded their
progress, aud well nigh destroyed,
even in the Northern States, the form
of Government bequeathed by the
fathers. Yet We have at last reached
the Grand Centennial year Of the
birth of American Liberty, and tie
prophecy of Abram Lincoln is being
fulfilled.
We are indeed not only friends,
but brethren. The blood of the Revo-
luton flows freely in the veins Of ev-
cry State. The original thirteen Col
onies, uniting together for common
defense in such cause, bound US with
cord of memory, which sectional
chickering's, and political priest craft,
can never sever. Not only the Ameri-
can Union, but the freedom around
which it throws its protecting shield,
is the common heritage of us all not
only of the Original Thirteen" but
of the numerous daughters scat
tered around them, and ours it shall
remain forever.
But while we shall assemble togeth.
er for the next six years to commemo-
rate the deeds of the founders of the
American Republic, the deeds Of their
SONS shall not be forgotten. A tear
will he shed at the graves Of those
who fell in defending the liberties of
American seamen. and Laurel and
Amaranth over those who gave us a
Southwestern empire; while those
who fell at later period of our his
tory, whether clothed in blue or in
grey, who gave their lives in defense
Of principle; whether they folio we'd
the Stars and Stripes or the Southern
Cross, will be remembered by all as
American soldiers, and every part OF
the Union, proud of their prowess,
will unite in transmitting to those who |
shall come after US, the glory of their
heroic deeds. The virtues Of Robert
f. Lee and "Stonewall" jackson will
become house hold words in Massa-
chusetts, while South Carolina shall
vie with Illinois in doing honor to the
memory of Abraham Lincoln.
The better angels of our nature
have indeed touched the mystic
chords Of memory. The fire of pa
triotism is kindled upon the altar of
every State, and the miserable few,
who are anxious to keep open the
wounds of the past, are daily decreas-
ing. The patriotism of the Ameri-
can people and their love for one
common country, can not longer
lie entombed. Angels have rolled
the grave stone away. Like! some
mighty river it has washed away the
.llnders and prejudices OF wears, until
to-day, amid the shouts OF good men
of both political parties, the trown-
ing bastiles of political prescription,
and military despotisms have fallen
forever. VrRGIyIUs.
Logan G. H., W. Va.