The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1877-06-22
Plain Talk.

Governor George L. Anthony
never goes foolin' round when he
gets before an, audience. This is
the way he stated the case for the
union side on Decoration day at
Mound City:
AS intelligent accountable be-
ings, we must be able to justify .
conflict OF this character and cost
by conclusive evidence that we con-
tended for the right against the
wrong, and that the right for which
we contended was equal in it's val
ne to the life and blood and treas
ure expended. Falling to do this,
we stand CONDEMNED before God and
man of measureless crime, and the
men whose names we cherish and
whose deeds we are here to com
memorate, were criminals most
guilty, in the dust of whose graves
we should hide our faces for shame.
And here, again, the question
with which we started is forced
back upon rs for an answer: For
what are we here 2" It is not to pay
respect to departed kindred or per-
sonal friends, for such relations are
exceptional If they exist at all. 1t
is not because these men volunteer
ed, endured, suffered and died as
brave men, in q struggle with men
equally brave, for men have done
all this in every age of the world
and received the excavations of
mankind as a just reward for their
deeds. No, no, my conntrymen :;
let us not be self-beguiled into
chasing the shadow and losing the
memorial day. We come here in
response to our best conception of
duty and the noblest impulse of
our natures. Reason and sentiment
unite in commanding us to do these
acts in the name of liberty and to
the honor of those who fell in it's
service; to do them as the repre-
sentavives of the Judgment and
conscience of q great and free peo-
pie, who are living in the enjoy
ment and are charged with the
keeping of the crown Jewels of HUI
man liberty and equality, which
were secured to US by the death of q
quarter of q million of our broth
ers, who fell into their graves as
these men fell into theirs.
1t is not that Christ lived, and suf-
fered and died, that Christians bow
at the foot of the cross and wor-
chip him. 1t is because he lived
and suffered aud died for them,
that the Cross upon which he died
will be forever cherished as the
idol of the heart, the emblem of
salvation to the los. So, also, it is
not that these men lived, suffered
and died, that we cherish their MEM
ores. 1t is because they suffered
and died to save for US the boon of
civil and religious liberty that we
revere them - cherishing their
graves as the emblem of hope to
the oppressed and downtrodden of
earth; covering them with flowers,
the sweetest of afection's offer
ings.
And 1 am here to say that this is
right, for Even as Christ died to
save mems souls, these men died to
make men free.
1 am not unmindful of the exis-
tence of q sentiment which will con-
denim this view-a sentiment that
falsely pleads in the name of tran
guilty and peace for forgetful-
ness of the past. 1t asks that this
record of blood be wiped from the
tablet of memory and torn from
the book of history. IL asks US to
| forget how these graves came to be
filed with the flower of youth and
vigor of manhood; it asks us to
forget that the sun has been dark
ened by widows weeds, and the air
laden with orphans signs; it asks
US to forget that treason is not pat
rio tism and traitors not patriots
it asks US to mingle the ashes OF
Union and Con federate dead in q
common urn, and blend the mem
DRY of the faithful and faithless in
common respect and reverence
| il asks US to Intervene the names
of Lincoln and Davis, Grant and
Lee, Sherman and johnson, Sheri.
dan and Beauregard, in wreath
wherewith to crown an ideal god
dess of liberty, 7robed in the min.
gled folds of Stars and Stripes and
Stars and Bars. .ss-e
As ready as any man living tc
forgive the erring, yet / have nc
sympathy with this weak and wick
ed sentiment. Standing here be.
tween the dead and the living he.
roes of the war, it is my solemn du.
| ty to protest against it, and to de-
clare an unalterable conviction that
forgetfulness of treason in the past
is open treason to the future. Wis
dom and justice unite in declaring
that the dividing line between pat.
riotism and treason must not, can.
not be ebliterated. AS well attemp
to bring heaven and hell together
and unite angels and devils in tn,
bonds of an eternal wedlock.