The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1875-06-03

ran away from the battle of Chaeronea, and
when in his flight a bramble-bush caught
his garment cried ont in terror'spare my life .
Bravery does not sound we'll on the tongue
1t sounds well only in deeds. We will say
no more of it. But let US listen to it as
it was worded in the march of our million
soldiers to see if we can catch something Of
the brave spirit they bowed.
And out Of this word bravery grows an
other, sacrifice" This too is spoken by all
true soldiers. Whether they fight under
Leonidas or Wellington, whether they come
from Massachusetts, or Mississippi, it make s
no difference VITO they are nor what they
fight for. When man takes the dearest
thing he has,-his life,-and gives it for some
interest outside Of himself, he speaks this
grandest of al words. sacrifice" A divine
word always, whether spoken by Jesus on the
cross or John Brown on the gallows, by the
officer shot Ia the fed or the poor woman
wearing out her life at home. Too divine
word to be vulgarlzed in speech This
too sounds well only in deeds. And with
what moving eloquencc this word sacrifice
speaks to Americans north and south to-day,
from the silence of hundreds Of thousands o
graves.
But bravery and sacrifice for what? Let us
narrow tie view from all soldiers to eur sol
diers.
The common order of warfare is for pos
sessions, lands, homes. But our soldiers
did not fight for these The Sonth did no.
threaten to invade but only to separate.
We were the invaders. It was Seutherners
who fought for lands and homes Hence IT,
was Southerners who to more superficial
and sympathetic view Of the case were in
the right. Partly for this they won such
sympathy abroad. A distant more super
fetal view simply showed the South defend
ing it's cwn possessions. But profounder
view showed theNorth defending a principle.
And principle, if just, is worth more than
al the possessions in the world put together.
Principles, distractions are sometimes ig-
nsred by politicians, underratod by states
men, sneered at by practical men. But let
us remember to-day that our army fought
five years to assert principle. Some men
shake their heads and hint about good pay
and fat offices. But if I remember that
spring day when the guns of Fort Sumter
echoed through the land, there was some
thing more than pay and policy thought Of
A principle aroused the nation from Boston
Bay to the Rocky Mountains. One of these
cloudy distractions became a force that
grew and held until it moved million
soldiers and swept all before it, This is the
next word tie soldiers speak to us,-the
werth and power of principle. And they
bid US remember that pay and pocket and
policy are not all the forces in nations life,
however conspicuous they commonly are, but
that a principle now and then arises in its
divine strength and permeates, inspires,
moves the nations like soul.
But what was the principle in this case
Nominally it was union. Union has always
been a sacred word with Americans. The
colonies won victory and freedom in keeping
united. AS was said, "unless we hang toe ether
we shall hang separately. They saw they
could keep freedom only by union, and so
formed the Confederation. They soon saw
that was not enough, AMI so made tie Con
stitution to bind the states into closer and
more organic union The key note of the
new government was union. The national
motto became union, tout of many one.'
And when the doctrine of liberty grew into
| that of state rights and notification, the
| it reachedthe climax Of wordsd vigor in Web
ster's speech, Not liberty first and union
afterwards, but liberty and union, one and
inseparable, now and forever" With such
an education, nrIon becomes most sacred
principle in the northern mind And when
rose as man to repel it. And by their
work the principle was sustained, and we
meet Today ind er the old constitution, the
old motto, and the nation is still one.
And yet think with all the value We
attach to the Union, thisi is only superficial
view Of the war.
There is no greater word than union. It
is pot an American word alone, it belongs to
the world History is showing us that all
humanity is one. Science is showing US
that all nature is one. God is father of all,
nature is mother of all, and we are all one
with each other. The effort to harmonize
different sects and factions in the same ma
ton, to harmonic nations with each other,
to assert the unity that is behind our differ
ences, ard to bind men together more
closely in the sentiment and under the sys-
tenn Of common humanity, is, I think, the
best work we do. And even our national
Union in it's narrower sense, was movement
in the sane direction. To give it up and say we
cant live together wo'd have been backward
step in history To stand by it and say we must
live together, was not only the sentiment of
patriotism, but of the truest philosophy