The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1878-06-20

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"Watchman, what of the night?"
But there will come no response from
them. They spoke their last Wcrd and
went down to their final rest; and
/ whether they shall be remembered or
whether they shall be forgotten,
whether their work shall be indicated
or basely betrayed, there will come up
Inc murmur from all these silent acres
They spoke once and spoke forever.
THE LANGUAGE OF THEIR LIVES
is written deep in the annals Of their
country. At Charlottesville and
Chickamauga; at Gettysburg and in
the Wilderness; on an hundred differ
| ent battle-delds they Denned an epic in
| American history which will be read
and reread while patriot iSm is hOnored
OF heroism is remembered.
Standing here between the living and
the dead between the sleeping hero
and the surviving comrade; between
the struggling past and the hopeful flu
ture ; between the battle-ground Of war
| and the harvest-felds Of peace, charged
with dealing justly by the victor and
yanquished alike, ours is q fearful re-
sponsibility today.
If we would fifty honor these dead
we must bate not one j0t nor title
from the story of their lives. In the
language of their inustrious comman-
der, penned under Italy's clear sky. we
must show mo disposition to apologize
for the part they took in the late strug-
gle for national eXistance, nor for the
cause for which they fought" We
StreW flowers upon their graves; we
drop passing tear upon the sod that
covers them; we pay formal tribute
to their memories and their worth; but
: if these tears and these tributes, like
d these flowers, are to vanish i'll to-mor-
:, rows sun, then indeed have we mock
ed our dead with idle ceremonies and
lempty words. These were men Of acts
and deeds. They dealt little in senti-
ment, less in ceremony. 1t matters not
to them whether we talk much or lit
!, tie of the @blue and the grey" here to-
I day, on whether regiments of the late
! Contending armies march out in form
: al parade to greet each other with loud
: huZzas. What they would want to
;, know, and what their surviving com
rades are most anxious to understand
i is, whether this country, in truth and
\ in fact, is rohabilitated in the garments
: of national unity and forever dedicat-
! ed to the cause of equal rights; net
! whether, as we sometimes now hear
), wealth, responsibility, and culture
must rule, but whether, in the language
e of our martyred Prisident, "A govern
!, ment Of the people, by thepeople, for the
. people" has been established which
: can and will protect the citizen in the
= the fullest enjoyment of his rights
And whether he be rich or whether he
j be poor; whether he be learned OF
I whether he be ignorant; whether he
be powerful or whether he be weak, Sc
! long as he obeys the laws, pays his
: taxes, contributes to the common de-
: Tense, can express his opinions, cast
his ballot, or exercise amy other of his
q constitutional rights with at least as
much protection under a republican as
! under a monarchial form Of govern
f ment. 1.-The can, then these men did
> not die in vain; if he cannot, then
: their blood was but water spilled upon
the ground.
t We hear much in this day and age
f of the necessity for the material de-
e velopment of this country. The press
f teens with article after article re-
Winding the American statesman that
:, it is now time for him to drop the
c minor matters Of mere emotional poll
tics and devote himself to the pro-
! founder problems Of business. That
l he should acquaint himself with CUES
| tionS Of tariff, finance, the balance of
l trade, the development Of material re-
sources, the building Of ships, and the
5 extension of commerce; the opening of
trade with India, China, Japan, Afexi-
co, the South American Republics, and
/ the islands Of the sea.
!. Themes indeed worthy of the best
: thought of the economist and the
broadcast capacity of the statesman,
: but involving no generic principle OF
question that has not been solved over
and over again since the dawn of civ
| llization, and which after all require q
: little more Of the shreWdness and tact
of the shopkeeper than of the gen
!, eralization Of the statesman Just
here let me put the inquiry: What
, form OF government III vogue with the
, Anglo-SaXon race since the sixteeeth
century, established on this Western
continent would have failed to produce
a nation great and powerful in the
mere physical sense of these terms
A nation " hich would have gathered
wealth, built ships, developed COM
merce, and become vast and command
ing among the great nations of the
earth Does any one suppose that if
our particular form of government
: had failed to be established America
to-day would remain a dense forest or
! a desert waste?
Such queries answer themselves,
, but the question of questions which
: this country undertook to solve in adj
vance of all others was: whether a
form Of government could be estab-
lished and maintained, which, by the
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