Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1876-10-13
An ELOQUENT AppenI.

An Eloquent Appeal.
Ir any have thought that Col. Robert In
gersoll was merely brilliant stump speak,
er, destitute of the genuine qualities of the
great orator, they should read the follow
ing powerful passage from his address 10
the soldiers at indianapolis:
"The past rises before me like a dream.
Again we are in the great struggle for ma
tional life. We hear the sounds of prepar-
ation-the music of the boisterous drums
the silver voices OF heroic bugles. We
see thousands of assemblages, and hear the
appeal of orators; we see the pale cheeks
of omen and the flushed faces of men;
and in those assemblages we see all the
dead whose dust we have covered with
flowers. We lose sight of them no more.
We are with them when they enlist in the
great army of freedom. We see them part
from those they love. Some are walking
for the last time in quiet woody places with
the maidens they adore. We hear the
whisperings and the sweet VOWS af eternal
love as they lingeringly part forever. 9th
ers are bending over cradles, kissing ba-
bies that are asleep. Some are receiving
the blessings of old men. Some are part
ing who hold them and press them 10 their
heart again and again, and say nothing;
and some are talking with wives, and en-
deavoring with brave words spoken in the
old tones 10 drive from their hearts. the
awful fear. We see them part. We see
the wife standing in the door, with the babe
in b er arDis-standng in the sunlight Sob
bing-at the turn OF the road hand waves
she answers by holding high in her low
ing hands the child. He is gone, and for
ever.
We see them all as they march proudly
away under the Haunting flags, keeping
time TO the wild, grand music OF war
marching down the streets OF the great cit
ies-tbrough the towns and across the prai-
ries- -Gdown To The fields OF glory, 10 do aud
to die for the eternal right.
We 90 with them one and all. We are
by cir side on all the CORY fl lds-in all
The ii hospitals of pan-on all the weary
marc hes. We stand guard with them in
the wild storm and under tine quiet stars.
We are with them ia the ravines running
with blood-in the furrows of old fields.
We are with them between contendlng
hosts, unable TO move, wild with thirst, the
life ebbing slowly away among the wither-
ed leaves. We see them pierced by balh
and torn with shells in the trenches by
forts, and in The whirlwind of the charge,
where men become iron with nerves of
steel.
We are with them in the prisons of hatred
and famine; but human speech eau never
tell what they endured.
We are at home when the news comes
that they are dead. We see the maiden in
the shadow Of her first sorrow. We see the
silvered head Of the old man bowed with
the last grief.
The past rises before us and we see four
millions of human beings governed by the
lash we see them bound hand and foot /;
we hear the strokes Of cruel whlps we soc
the hounds tracking women through tan
gled swamps. We sec babes sold from the
breasts of mothers. Cruelty unspeakable!
Outrage infinite!
Four million bodies in chaius-fuur mill
lion souls in letters. All the sacred rela-
tions OF wife, mother, father and child
trampled beneath the brutal feet of might.
And all this was done under our own beau
tiful banner of the free.
The past rises before us. We hear the
roar and shrek of the bursting shell. The
broken letters fall. These heroes died. In-
stead of slaves we sec men and women and
children. The wand of progress touches
the auction block, the slave pen, the whip
| ping post, and we see homes and fresides,
and school houses aud books, and where
all was want and crime and cruelty and
fetters, we see the faces of the free.
These heroes are dead. They died for
llberty-they died for us. They are at rest.
They sleep in the land they mado free, under
the flag they rendered stainless, under the
solemn pines, the sad hemlocks, the tear
full willows and the embracing vines. They
sleep beneath the shadows of tie clouds,
careless alike of the sunshine or of storm,
each in the windowless palace Of rest
Earth may run red with other wars-they
are at peace. In the midst of battle, in the
roar of conflict, they found the serenity OF
death. "a voice-'Glory l have one
sentiment for the soldiers living and dead
cheers for the living and tears for the
| dead"