Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1876-10-06
The Heroes Of the War.

The Heroes OF the war.
The following burst of touching
eloquence, is from Col. Robert In
gersoll's speech at the Indianapolis
Convention Of the Boys in Blue. 1t
was entirely impromptu, and born
of the inspiration of the OCCASION
Itshows how consummate an oratorhe
is. He said:
The past rises before me like a
dream. Again we are in the great
struggle for national life. we hear
the sounds Of preparation-the music
of the boisterous drums-the silver
voices Of heroic bugles. We see
thousands of assemblages, and hear
the appeals of orators; we see the
pale cheeks of women. and the flush
ed faces of men; and in those assem-
blages 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 mai.
dens they adore. We hear in the
whisperings and the sweet VOWS Of
eternal love as they lingering part
forever. Others are bending over
cradles, kissing babies that are asleep.
Some are receiving the blessings of ,
old men. Some are parting who
hold them and press them to their
hearts again and again, and say moth
ing; and some are talking with wives, "
and endeavoring with brave words
spoken in the old tones to drive from
their hearts the awful fear. We see
them part. We see the wife stand
ing III the door, with the babe in her
arms,-standing In the sunlight sob
bing,-at the turn Of the road hand
waves,-she answers by holding
high in her loving hands the child.
He is gone, and forever.
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 through
the towns and across the pralries-
down to the fields of glory to do and
to die for the eternal right.
We 90 with them one and ALL
We are by their sides on all the CORY
tields,-in all the hospitals of pain,-
on all the weary marches. We stand
guard with them in the wild storm
and under the quiet stars. We are
with them in ravines running with
BLOOD in the furrows of old fields.
We are with them between contend.
ing hosts, unable to move, wild with
thirst, the life ebbing slowly away
among the withered leaves. We see
them pierced by..balls 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 can never tell what they en-
dured
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 whips; we see the
hounds tracking women through
tangled swamps. We see babes sold
from the breasts of mothers. Cruel
ty umspeakable! Outrage infinite!
Four million bodies in chains
four million souls in fetters. All the
sacred relations of wife, mother, faith
er, and child trampled beneath the
brutal feet of might. And all this
was done under our own beautiful
banner of the free.
The past rises before us. We hear
the roar and shrek of the bursting
shell. The broken fetters fall. These
heroes died. We look. Instead Of
slaves we see men, and women, and
children. The wand of progress
touches the auction-block, the slave
pen, the whipping post, and we see
homes and tiresides, and school-houses
and books, and where all was want
and crime, and cruelty, end fetters,
we see the faces of the free.
These heroes are dead. They died
for liberty--they died for us. They
ore at rest. They sleep in the land
they made free, under the flag they
rendered Stainless. under the solemn
pines, the sad hemlocks, the fearful
willows, and the embracing vines.-
They sleep beneath the shadows of
the clouds, careless alike of the sum
shine or of the 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 l have one sentiment for
the soldiers living and dead-cheers
for the living and tears for the dead.