Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1879-12-17
INGERSOLL'S RESPONSE.

Union Army" was toast at the Grant
banquet in Chicago. 1t was responded
to by Col. Ingersoll as follows: They
were the defenders of humanity, the
destrovers of prejudice, the breakers of
chains, and, in the name of the future,
slew the monster of the time. They fin
ished what the soldiers of the Revolu-
ton commenced They have relit the
torch that fell from their august hands
and filled the world again with light.
They blotted out from our statute-books
the laws passed by hypocrites at the
instigation of robbers loud applause
and tore with brave and indignant
hands from the Constitution of the
United States that Infamous clause
that made men catchers of their fellow
men. Applause. They made it possi
BILE for judges to be just, for statesmen
to be humane, and for politicians to be
honest. They broke the shackles from
the limbs of slaves, from the souls of
masters, and from the Northern brain.
They kept our country on the map OF
the world, and our flag in Heaven.
( Applause. They rolled the stone
from the sepulchre of progress, and
found there two angels clad in shining
garments-Na Nationality and Liberty.
[ Loud applause.
The soldiers were the saviors of the
Republic; they were the liberators of
men, In writing the Proclamation of
Emancipation, Lincoln, greatest of our
mighty dead, whose memory is as
gentle as q summer air when reapers
sing amid gathered sheaves, copied
with the pen what the grand hands of
brave comrades had written with their
swords Applause. Grander than the
Greek, nobler than the Roman, the
soldiers of the Republic, with patriot
ism as careless as the air, fought for
the rights of others, for the nobility of
labor, and battled that mother might
own her child, that arrogant idleness
should not scar the back of patient toll,
and that our country should not be
many-headed monster made of warning
States, but nation sovereign, grand
and free Applause. Blood was water,
money was leaves, and life was only
common air, until one flag hoated over
one Republic, without a master and
without a slave And then was asked
the question, "Will free people vol
UNFAIRLY tax themselves to pay ma
tion's debit" The soldiers went home
to their waiting wives, to their glad
children, and to the girls they loved.
They went back to the fields, the
shops, the mines. They had not been
demoralized. They had not been en-
nobled Cheers Mocking at reverses,
laughing at poverty, they made friend
Of toll. They said, 1--WE saved the ma
tion's life, and what is life without
honor?" They wo;k and wrought,
with all of labor's royal sons, that cv-
cry pledge the nation made might be re-
deemed And their great leader, hav-
ing put shining band Of friendship, a
girdle of clasped and loving hands
around the globe, came home to find,
and finds, that every promise made in
war has now the ring and CLEAN of
gold Enthusiastic cheers.
There is another question still. Will
all the wounds of war be healed! an
swer, yes. The Southern people must
submit. Not to the dictation of the
North, but to a nations will and ver-
dict of mankind. Great applause.
They were wrong, and the time will
come when they will say that the peO-
pie are the victors who have been van
quished by the right. Freedom con-
auered them and freedom will cultivate
their fields, will educate their children,
will weave robes of wealth, will ex-
ecute the laws and fill their land with
happy homes. Applause. The
soldiers Of the Union saved the South
as we'll as the North. They gave US a
Nation. They gave us liberty here,
and their grand victories have made
tyranny the world over as insecure as
snow upon the lips of volcanoes. Ap-
plause.
And now let us drink to the volun-
teers, to those who sleep in unknown
and sunken graves, whose names are
known only to the hearts they loved
and left, of those who oft in happy
dreams can see the footsteps of return.
Let us drink to those who died where
lfeless famine mocked at want. Let
us drink to the manned whose scars
give modesty tongue. Let us drink
to those who dared and gave to chance
the care and keeping of their lives.
Let US drink to all the living and to
all the dead-to Sherman, and to
Sheridan, and to Grant, the laureled
soldiers of this world, and last to Lin
coin, whose loving life, like bow of
peace, spans and arches all the clouds