Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1878-06-06

men and brethren within this Union anneale,
to the bloody arbitrament of arms, to establish
the DEGREES of eternal justice Out Of the har
vests OF death upon unnumber.d la. fields
the race has winnowed the golden grain o
high art aud cisilizaton, anl that genera
spirit which can recognize hereism even whe,
t nights under hostile banners. Our faith !,
the cause for which We fought and eonquere,
Is not abated when We say Let the dead pas
bury ITS dead" The wrong cause was scat,
tered IN the dust; but the bravery which wapl,
have upheld it. is an imperishable ritt TO thu
nation only less precious than the devoted lov
atty which triumphed for the right. Time an,
place forbid discussion of the issues involved
In that contest. They have been irreyocabl,
decided by the God of battles Those decis
ions nave become part Of our constitutions
structure ana the settled policy of the govern
ment We frankly concede the greatness oi
soul which ine Intrinsic righteousness of oul
| cause enabled us 10 overcome while we do mn,
pale IN our admiration for the sublime cour-
age of our comrades, who dared the hazard Of
war aud won the victory The great qualities
which shone in thousand conflicts. amor Q
the troops on either side are in the race and
viii endure, the wrong was the elimination Of
system bequeathed TO us through nnnumber
ed generations, which In that war received lis
| hnal overthrow. The guilt of slavery was an
| inheritance from darker days, which il was
our privilege to east oft before the south was
ready Tor that mental revolution, and that
stain compelled the baptism of blood, from
winch the nation Is rising TO purer aud no.
bier llie We are but learning to read the
past with wiser appreciation OF the motives
OF which the opposing ranks were held to-
gether, TO the generations of the future such
LESSONS W al b
The wrong is never absolutely on either side.
Our common nature is never utterly lacking
Iii the mint stamp of its maker. Out of feel.
ings more bitter than those which estranged
the North from the South, there has come to
the English people a light as of revelation in
when the rebels OF the past shine as brightly
ane are cherished as sacredly as those heroes
VINO won their laurels fighting in defense of
legitimate authority
Wat Tyler and Jack Cade, come up from
their lowly grades to rank among the bravest,
who have died in fighting prescriptive right.
Success, would have secured them earlier rec.
tognition, for it is true. as Harrington, adopt.
Ing the sentiment of Seneca, said;
Treason doth never prosper. Heed the reason
When II doth prosper, none dare call ii treason
John Wyckliff's dust, scattered to the four
corners of the earth; the bones of Cromwell
gibbeted by the myrmidoms of Charles, beam
with sacred light across the centuries, to tell
us OF the sanctity of heroic faith William
Wallace, Robert the Bruce, Owen Glendewcr.
and long list of great men, who fought against
constituted authority, are remembered for
their prowess and devotion, although the dis
tinetions for which they lived and toiled, are
now erased forever. The heroes of Bannock-
burn, rank higher with Englishmen of to dav,
l.
hrelings who contaminated the destruction of
the Pretender's forces, on the ensanguined
field of Culloden. The wise reader can glory
in the courage of the defeated Richard, more
certainly than he will applaud the kingcraft of
the Tudor Richmond, who surplanted him.
The renown of Naseby and Marston Moor. is
held dear even BY those who would not rec
ognize the rulership of Cromwell They call
him Regicide and Usurper and the glorious
frotectorate is with many an interregnum, but
the strong right arm with which he wrought
upon the nation, commands the admiration OF
mankind Speaking OF Cromwell, Carlyle dis,
courses like an oracle, when he said "Beau-
ttul great soul; to whom the Temporal is IL
radated with the Eternal. God everywhere
divinely visible in the affairs of men man
himself becomes divine Ye eternal Heavens
have those days, those souls passed away with
out return2 Intrinsically they can never pass
away; they remain with US; and in nobler I'M
expected forms reappear. There have been
divine souls England has been Illuminated
though it were but once, by the Heavenly Ones
and once is alwaysi' With our mental growth
the virtues of devotion and selt-abnegation,
however exercised, will not fail of their
just appreciation. Sure as we are that right
was on our side, we are not blind to the fact,
that men as heroic as the best in our ranks,
believed there was Justice in the Confederate
demands, and in that faith laid down their
lives.
From the supreme altitude of the great
Judge, their wrong may appear an infinitesi-
NAL distinction, for before him "There is no
man righteous no not one,n and as our souls
grow stronger in the realization of our cons
mon christianity, there will remain no feeling
of estrangement from our countrymen. for the
wrong they have so bitterly atoned.
For earthly power doth then show likest Gods.
When mercy seasons Justice.
Before our land was torn asunder, by the
out burst of civil war, but while threatening
rumors were rife, and sounds from beneath the
surface of society, foretold the terrible caam-
ity through which we have passed, President
Lincoln said in his first inaugural address
awe are not enemies but friends we must
not be enemies. Though passion may have
it must not break the bonds Of affec-
ton. The mystic chords of memory stretch
ing from every battle field and patriot grave
to every living heart and hearthstone all over
this broad LAND, win yet swell the chorus of the
Union, when again touched, las surely they will
be, by the better angels OF our nature" Those
words were prophetic there was a divinity in
the soul which inspired them. and it is our
high privilege to fulfill their promise The
better angels of our nature are moving within
US even now and"Spirits are not finely touch
ed, but 20 fine issues" The chasm which has
Yawned between the North and the South so
long must be filled by memorials of mutual re-
gard. To bridge the chasm is not enough
the line which marked its existence must be
effaced and every flower strewed by our
hands upon grave in which a confederate
soldier lies buried, will hasten the day Of a
complete re-establishment of the Union, not
merely in the land, but in the hearts of all the
people who are embraced within the constitu-
ton. Hence / would urge most strenuously
hat the flowers which we place upon the
graves of our dead .be consecrated to the
larger thought Of doing honor to all the brave
who fell
1t was my fortune to stand II prisoner Of
war within the ranks of a confederate army
and and TO travel many hundreds of miles a
captive pass on from one detail OF guards to
another, during the dreary season of captivity;
besides which, have conversed with numbers
Of Union soldiers who passed through the same
bitter ordeal and it is my experience, endors-
ed by almost every man with whom Ihave exs
changed views that when wanton cruelties
were inflicted upon prisoners OF war, snch out
RACES we're traceable either to class Of vag-
abonds who infest every army or TO the ma
Ign influence of men who had not been under
FIRE. The mere circumstance Of having passed
through common danger for principle,
challenges respect, and lifts men into better
appreciation of the law of kindness, than may
be expected to prevail among persons who
follow the camp without sharing its perils.
Citizens at home, exasperated by the loss, and
suffering and bereavement inseparable from
civil war, could with difficulty comprehend the
feeling Of the soldier, who during the brief
trace which sometimes, even in the field, and
when, in violation of orders, the Confederate
and Union soldier would mingle,o in converse
with the wounded from the opposing ranks,
one discovered continually the better nature
yelling up from hearts which might have been
expected to contain nothing but gall and bit
terness. Well do remember an impressive
scene which occurred in front of Petersburg,
on February lst, 1865, when the Peace Com
sent by the Confederate Govern
ment crossed our lives with the hope of reach
ing Washington. For the occasion all hostii-
ties bad ceased. Tens of thousands of SOL