Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1878-06-20
w WHOLE NO. 1896.
GENERAL SHERMAN.


| Though new generation has
! grown up Stree the events which We
now assemble to commemorate, there
still remain here, in this very pres.
ence, sams of the witnesses of o
fierce civil war. which left half mil.
lion graves and so untold amount oil
human pain and anguish; million
/ of widows and orphans left to strug-
| gle 10 cold world, without the sup
port of the strong arms on which
they had right TO lean a pension
roll of 232, 104 names at an annual
cost of S25 ,371 ,212; national debt
of $4,000, 900, 600, tho interest on
which is annually near $100, 600, 900;
and vast amount of property, the
result of the toll of hundred years,
leveled to the earth and destroyed
forever yet we hear men of infiu-
ence contend that all this should be
forgotten. 1t has long since been
forgiven, and some of the very men
who caused this state of facts share
in the councils of our government,
and | would be the last man TO will
it otherwise. lCheers.l They are
now our equals 10 all the attributes
of citizenship share in the common
taxes and responsibilities, and L am
most happy TO bear witness that
many of them manifest the most ar
dent desire to join with Us ia making
the future more safe and more glor-
ious than the past. ICheers.1 We
have welcomed them back into the
family group, as was the prodigal
son of old, and it may seem to some
of our old Union comrades that it
has gone too far to the predjudice of
| tho remainder of the family who
stood faithful all the time. This is
one of the great political questions
now on trial, and for one l hope and
pray that old antagonists OF the
South will have learned wisdom, and
| by their acts prove to the world the
sincerity of their patriotic declara-
tons. Some OF them, however, con-
tend that because their individual
motives were pure and honorable,
they are entitled to the same meas
ure OF honor aud glory as those who
had the right on their side, and who,
by war and violence, had to enforce
submission to lawful authority.
There are such things AS abstract
wrong, and when history is written
| human actions must take their place
IN one or the other category. We
| claim that in the great civil war we
of the national Union army went
right [cheers] and our adversaries
wrong, and no special pleading, no
excuses, no personal motives, how
ever pure and specious, can change
this verdict ofth war. | would not
for the world revive the angry pas
| sions OF that period OF time, nor do
question the personal motives of
our then antagonists but / do and
ever will contest the proposition
| that we should tear from the history
of our country the pages which re-
cord the great events from 1860 to
| 1865; for they should stand there
forever as warning to those who
come after us-who from passion,
self-lnterest or any human cause or
pretext whatever, may undertake to
destroy this government by violence.
No! the deeds of our dead heroes
| are already recorded in the great
book of time, and marble and brass
| will continue to record them long af-
ter we are dead and gone. In the
language ofour great leader, Gen.
eral Grant [prolonged cheers1 we
will never apologize for deeds done
in 1861 65. but will treasure up their
memory, and on every suitable oc-
casion, as long as life lasts, will pre-
sent them anew TO the youth of this
country as noble examples of hero
ism and patriotism for they saved
this nation from absolute annihila-
ton, or. at the very least, from
long period of intestine war and an
archy. [Cheers. 1t is related of
Gen. Scott that when asked in 1861
the probable duration of the then
| civil war. he answered 1.-THE con-
flict of arms will endure Eve years,
but will be followed by twenty years
of angry strife by the belligerent non
combatants The war of arms only
lasted four years, and let US hope
that the belligerent combatants will
give us a correspondingly shorter
period of civil contention than was
predicted [laughterl so that nature
and natures benign laws may be al
lowed to assume their sway, to lead
us out of the mazes of wordy con.
troversy, and give to each and ev-
cry man in this land perfect freedom
to work out his own destiny by his
own industry and by his own thrift
with ample protection to his life and
property, and without fear of further
civil strife.
Now beg you and the general
public will not misconstrue my mean
ing. Though the head of any army,
publicly proclaim our profession to
be to "prevent war;" and claim that
my predecessors in office-Wash-
ington, Scott and Grant [cheers1-
were essentially men of peace, who
saved our country from many wars
into which public clamor tried
to push them. / now hope and beg
that all good men South and North
will unite in real earnest to repair
the mistakes and wrongs of the past;
will perseverE in the common effort
to make this great land of ours to
blossom as the garden of Eden will
so unite in effort that every part of
it from Main to Texas, from Florida
to Puget's Sound, will be made go
safe 90 life and property that men
may engage safely in every possible
pursuit, whether for farming, ranch
ing, in navigation inland and upon
the high seas, in every variety of
mechanical pursuits, each one to reap
the full measure of his own industry
and sagacity without envy of his
neighbor. Surely this is field
worthy the ambition of the proudest