The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1877-01-20

living lines of blue climbing Mission Ridge on
that November afternoon, II years ago, ana our
hearts beat fast and loud, as we seemed to see
that sight. But, alas! ii we had been there o
that glorious day. Why, the men VINO iormeu
those lines, who swept across the plain ana
breasted the hssing hail of death that poured
down the rugged slopes from those hl%n sun,
mts where crashed thunders far more a"lu
than even clouds engendered-those ihen .Sou'
who when the charge was ended, STOOD on lnose
submits, your eyes blazing with the GLORIOUS
eystacy of victorious battle-about your heaus
the new halo of an immortal fame-you lVcd nj
ty wears in that one hour-you sounded helghts
and depths of feeling, of which our tame lives
give us absolutely no conception.
Nor is il only such great hours and great eX-
neriences that have made you dliier from us.
One nights picket duty when the hostile watch
es were within musket shot-two hours OF lonll-
ness and silence like that-2 march, in which
YOU were happy when, hating late at night, you
could find two or three rails to place between
YOUR heayv body and the deep, cold mud-the
experience of the hospital, where you wrcstled
with wounds or fever for weeks, which seemed
endless while the tender hands the gentle voices
and loving eyes which always before that time had
caused sickness to be almost time of restful en-
ioyment, were hundreds of miles away-cach and
all of these more common experiences have
wrought their work in you, and have made you
differ from us, to whom such school days and
school masters were unknown.
You are graduates of a University, compared
with which the four year courses of our peace
full colleges are as the alphabet to the cncyclo-
pedia. The guns of Sumter found many OF you
in the beginning of college course, or almost
ready to enter upon it. You have often regret
ted that YOU missed the years of quiet study
which YOU had planned. But what you lost was
insignificant compared with what you gained.
You failed to get "A certain smatterng OF Latn
and Greek, certain thin skimmings of Natural
Science, ceatain misty metaphysical IDEAS and Il
| D,,t ,ln nft N-nn
got manhood You could well afford the exchange
our country could well afford it, Your inmost
natures experienced great culture In college
you might have pursued many studies, commit
ted many things to memory, speculated lngen-
iously on human nature, human thought and hui
man history-you would have looked out on life
and seen the outside of it, and when the fixed
course had ended, you would have been entitled
to write A. B. after your names. You would have
been calcd"educated" and what would have been
infinitely worse you might have thought that
YOU were educated, when, in truth and fact, of
the life that men live of this great real world
with its infinite heights and depths OF passion
and purpose, Of desire and endeavor, you would
have known as little as did the Babes in the
Woods
But the brown, thin checked, 1.-the limbed, qu-
ct men who scattered to hundred thousand
homes when the war was over, they were not
Babes in the Woods. No infants, they. There
was not tinge of green nor spot OF solthess
about them. However Ignorant they might nave
been of infections and mythology and similar
matters, they did know what life Is, and death
TOO. for that matter. They had heard and help
| ed to make a louder and more awful thunder
than ever Vulcan forged or Jupiter hurled. They
could not read in the original Greek about the
siege of Troy, but they knew all about the sleges
of VickSburg aud Richmond, and the Cracker
| line" of Chattanooga. They could not go to the
| black. board and demonstrate q proposition OF
Eculid but they coud and had held the regimen
| tai flag upright amid a storm OF bullets as tblcK
as swarming bees. In short, they had actually
A,e7 They sounded the heights and depths OF
| life They had had death for their mess-mate
They had learned to obey, and therefore were
fitted to command. In every quality OF strength
aud courage, in all that goes to make up inc
manhood of man, they had graduated ANA
| our nation, on! nationallife and character snow
abundanty the effects Of that four years course,
the influence of those who, if they cannot write
A. y. or a. NJ after their names, can write u A. T.
Our national character and characteristics have
changed. We are unlike what we were 10 years
ago The position which the u. S. occupies
among the nations is different 1t is higher. We
sit on an equal throne with the Oldest ana
strongest. We are no longer considered the
| loud braggadocios that we once were. we nave
come into our mGnhood-quict but strong
slower to talk than Of old-but far more compe-
tent to do There are comparatively but few
outward visible relics of the war. Our armies
have dwindled to few regiments, our fleets are
unseen and unheard of except in the reports OF
the Secretary of Navy, or in appropriations OF
congress- our ordnance and vast munitions OF war
have either wholly disappeared or are slowed awy
in remote places. But in the eyes of hundreds
of thousands of men there is cool, quiet light,
in their voices is ring, in their step, resolute
energy, which altogether tell OF a spirit when
inspires them; power which abides III them
and makes them such citizens as no other nation
can boast. For you have received an education
as citizens, as well as men, which distinguishes
YOU from the rest of us. We have always be-
longed to one political party or the other; we
are partsans by education, 1t has been gwen 10
YOU and in the young manhood OF most OF you
to stand high above political parties, and TO be
simply and entirely PATRIOTS And as result oil
this fact you have brought new element into
our politicians. There was a time whenwhat Ii
called politics seemed insignificant to you; you
looked with indifference upon the schemes and
scrambles OF politics. You laughed at the crack
of the party lash. And, having once become
careless scornful of l., you have ever since been
Iunmindiul of its scourgIng. If | were polltl-
tian | should be sorry that YOU had ever learned
how to lump the corral and find the wide plains oil
liberty But am not, and as feel bound To
speak the thing just as it seems to me, l Will
say that believe that this is, and is to be the
saving clcment-thc very salt OF American pol
itics 1t is that wniCh will save us III tins hour
of gathering and deepening dangers We have
among us some hundreds OF thousands OF ctl.
zens who know that peaceful ard united ma
ton is to be desired Il thousand times beyond
the success of aay party. They are the men VINO
know what war is-who know what our national
unity has cost And when mad partisans be
come too turbulent, those men will say, Hush,
and the noisy voices will die INTO whispers-tht
the shaking fists will fall and there WIZ be 1
great calm
But am aware that political questions anC
issues are excluded from our consideration 10
day. 1t is to maintain good feliowshlp-a'
good fellows one and all that you have gather
ed here.
1t is a grand fcllowship-that which you have
with each other. You are sulaierS ui Liberty
You represent the only army Of Liberty that the
sun shines on. There are armies OF conquest
armies that are the props OF lettering thrones
There are also armies which pillow The fields II
which the seeds are sown which sometime VII
grow into great harvest oil freedom. But YOU
were reapers-not plowmen. Toyou i was nv
en- to stand in the strength Of youth IN ma
summer in the ripening ield whose seed la.
been scattered by other hands in other ages.
uraat onnnrtunity WAS YOURS But il Is YOU