The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1877-06-07

= Sherman 10 the moment o. their tri.
E umph. Tue Conflicts Of the present
} hour can not shut out from the hearts
+ Of grateful men the spectacle OF thst
dismal day, when, rising shove the
passions OF victory and the ruins ai
cOaqussts, the chiefs OF the armies OF
the North rememD Dered not merely
that they We're soldiers aud men of
honor, Uut that they were Americans.
It was our Lee who paid th-. hOnOrs
Of war t. your hesrDy. When the
body of Morgan was borne u it, last
resting place, soldiers OF the Union,
assem- bled by chance on the public
squire in Nashville, stood, so,dier-IiSe,
J uncovered as their fallen adversary
passed. When Mcpherson fell q
thrill OF sorrow went along the whole
Confederate line. / believe to-day
that the assassination OF Abraham
Lincoln is lsmented in tue south
hardly less than in the North.
l know, my friends, that narrow
minded and embittsrsd partiZsns will
say there is nothing in all this. /
know that theorists will declare that
great results are not reached through
the affections. l am ready to admit
the caprice SIS well as the insubstan-
tiality which belong TO Influences of
the sentimental sort. But every line
of understanding must have ssOme
bond OF feeling and l maintain that
those touches of manhood, OF nature,
Of sorrow, Of pride, of generosity and
pity, which make the whole world
kin, tell US specifically and with en-
phasis that we are of one family, and
should be OF one household forever.
It Is not a matter OF faith or hope, but
OF experience and observation, with
me, prOclaImed Oh all occasions these
dozen years and more, that the people
OF the North aud South are one people,
thoroughly homogeneous, differing
only in those externals which, all the
earth over, distinguish several COM
munities. That which is wanting in
US is less Of self-lOve and more OF love
for our country deeper. sincerer de-
vOtion to the principles Of civil liberty
which are bound up in the system un-
der which We live (; 3 selfsscrIficing
spirit where the honor of the nation
is at stake. To sectiOnalism and
partyism we owe our uUdOing. We
] shall owe our restoration to nation
alism, and to natiOnalism alone. The
man who was a confederate, and is y
nationalist, must feel when treading
the floor of Faneuil Hall that he is at
/ home. In every part of the South the
starry ensign OF the Republic must be
not only q symbol of protection, but
the source and resource Of popular en-
] thnafaGnn hnun oil tho Of l.,
poor man, whatever his color, race or
/ opinions. must he free mans castle.
/ In tine North, constitutional tradi-
/ tiOn3 must revive; in the South, the
old insDiTatiOns OF the Union.
| l declare here to-day that the South,
more especially the young manhood
of the South, years for national fell
/ lOwship. 1t stretches out its arms to
the National Government beseecbing-
/ ly; it entreats the North not to build
/ up national spirit which shall in
word or thought prescribe it, or those
/ who are to come after it. The present
generation OF southern men is in no
wise responsible for the acts of the
last. 1t has no sntecedents except
/ those which illustrated its sincerity
and its valOr on the battlefield its
fidelity to its belief its fidelity to its
leaders its fidelity to itself. These
are but so many hostages to the na-
ton at large. Instead Of stigmatizing
it, the victor in the fight should throw
over the South tue flag of the Rspnb-
/ lie; should place in front of il the en-
| blemstic eagles of the State should
fold it round from the dark and the
light with the instinct OF maternity,
| tenderest of its crippled offspring. To
the young men OF the South the coun-
! try must look for the resurrection OF
the South. They should carry no
dead weights either in their hearts or
on their backs. The work Of physical
] liberation, which is happily ended, is
to be followed by greater, grander
WOfk-the work OF moral emancipa-
| tiOn. A sagaciOus statesmansbip,
even more than q generous magma
nimity, points to this as the hope Of
the white man and the black man
the real restoration OF the Union the
true solution of the problems Of life
and labor raised us by the mighty
vicissit udes Of the last fifteen years.
1t is not my purpose to speak of
current political issues, except those
which are above all parties-our
whole Peopls-the glory Of the one,
/ the integrity OF the other. Those of
US VINO stood in the front OF the battle
who suffered and endured, settled the
account between ourselves long ago
We may quarrel ever so much, as
honest men will and as honest men
ought, about the things of to-day.
That Is Republieanism which gives
each man the right, as it imposes up
on each the duty, to speak his mind
out freely, to make his wants known.
subject neither to bayonet nor ban
limited only by the injunetions set by
God upon the sincerity, no less than
the courage, CT all mems convictions.
In the party sense, we may quarrel
to-day and fraterrize tomorrow
what boots it +? There Is no one of US
who does not know in the core of his
heart that, as matters of fact and
truth, such qusrrels have no bottom
to them. Trey make us angry, abu-
sive, ungeneTOus. As a rule, the
warmest and tTuest natures are, for
the moment, most intOlerant. The
most charitable, the most mRgnani-
nous Of men, believing themselves
in the right, believing all who do not
agree with them in the wrong, become
unyielding, and even bitter. It is an
attribute of simple earnestness. Those
who possess it should prize it, and,
after the event, weigh its conclusions
with discrimination. Let q counter
interest come between, let a common
grief, and 10 the mist rises. Those
who worship the same God, who
kneel at the same shrine, who sing
the same songs, in whose mouths the
inspirations of holy writ and the
precepts Of AnglO Saxon freedom are
as familiar as household words, can
afford no impossible gulfs, can not
seriously and permanently be estrang-
ed. The dead who lie here the dead
OF all the battle-fields, the dead Of the
South and the North comrades ST last
in the immortality Of the soul, can
leave us, do leave us, this lesson only;
that we are a mericans that We are
blessed in our condition f; that we
should eherishait and one another, for
Gods sake and for the honor of the
flag The poet put it inversely when
he wrote
Il think In the lives OF most women and
There's a time when all might go smooth
and even,
II only the dead could find cut when
To come back and be for .iyeu."
Alas, it is the living who must gOl
to the dead Tor Instructions. Toe
brave hearts that lie about Us here
have nothing to ask or US. They are
everlasting, now. They know all.
They are moved no longer by the
lever, the worry and the fret, the er-
rOr and the folly, the laughter and
the tears OF this poor world. rhey
need seek the forgiveness Of none Of
Us. They earned their title Oi the
everything tod on the field of battle.
| would put upon their graves the
inscription which marks the last rest
ing place Of two brothers III Virginia,
who fell on opposing sides, (Which
was right, God knows ." / care not to
know. I do know that all Of u
thought we were right and feeling
as 90, = wcuit visit and revisit,
these burial plsc=s, not tD iliumine
the torches Of the past, bat, by humii.
iatiOn and prayer, 60 draw from those
mystic !Orces Of faith, which move Us