The Indianapolis leader. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1879-1890, 1879-11-29
NAME.

'HThe North, filled with intelligence
and wealth-children of liberty
marsbaled her hosts and asked only
for a leader. From civil life man,
silent, thoughtful, poised and calm,
stepped forth, and with the lips of
victory, voiced the nations first and
last command Unconditional and
immediate surrender. From that mo-
ment the end was known. That ut
terance was the first real declaration
of real war, and, in accordance with
the dramatic unities Of mighty events
the great soldier who made it re-
ceived the final sword of the rebel
lion. The soldiers of the republic
were not seeking after vulgar glory.
They were not animated by the hope
of plumber or the love OF conquest.
They fought to preserve the blessings
of liberty and that their children
might have peace. They were the
defenders of humanity, the destroyers
of prejudice, the breakers of chains,
and in the name of the future they
slew the monsters Of their time. They
finished what the soldiers ofthe Rev
olution commenced. They relighted
the torch that fell from their august
hands and filed the world again with
light. They blotted from the statute
books laws that had been passed by
hypocrites at the instigation of rob-
bers, and tore with indignant bands
from the constitution that infamous
clause that made men catchers Of their
fellow-men They made it possible
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 north.
ern brain. They kept our country
on the map of the world, and our flag
in heaven. Great applause. They
rolled the stone from the sepulchrt
of progress, and found there two an
gels clad in shining garments-na
tionality and liberty. The soldiers
were the saviors of the nation
they were the liberators of men
In writing the proclamation
of emancipation, Lincoln, great
est of our mighty dead
whose memory is as gentle as tn,
summer air when reapers sing annie
the gathering sheaves, copied will
the pen what Grant and his brav,
| L. n
er than the Greek, nobler than tn
Roman, the soldiers of the republic
with patriotism as.shoreless as the air
battled for the rights of others, TO
the nobility of labor, fought tina
mothers might own their babes, tina
arrogant idleness should not scar tn
back of patient toll. and that thei
own country should not be many
headed monster made of warrin,
states, but a Nation, sovereign, grea
and free. Blood was water, none,
was leaves, and life was only common
air until one flag floated over a coun
try without master or without
slave. Applause. Then was asked
question; will a free people ia,
themselves to pay the national debt!
The soldiers went home to thei
waiting wives, to their glad children
and to the girls they loved they
went back to the fields, the shops ant
mines. They had not been democrat
lied. They had been ennobled. They
were as honest in peace as they hat
been brave in war. Mocking at pow
erty, laughing at reverses, they made
friend of toll. They said: wv
saved the nations life, and what il
life without honor? They worked
and wrought, with all OF labor's sons
that every pledge the nation gave
should be redeemed And their lead
er, having put shining hand o
friendship girdle of clasped anc
happy hands around the globe
comes home and finds that every
promise made in war has now the
ring and CLEAN Of gold. There ii
another question still: will all the
wounds OF the war be healed? / an
swer-yes. The Southern people
must submit, not to the dictation o
the North, but to the Nations will
and to the virdict of mankind. They
were wrong, and the time will come
when they will say that they are vic
tors, who have been vanquished BY
the right. Freedom conquered them
and freedom will cultivate their
fields, educate their children, weave
for them the robes of wealth, execute
their laws, and fill their land with
happy homes. The soldiers of the
Union taxed the South as well as the
North. They made us a Nation
Their victory made us free and rem.
dered tyranny in every other land as
insecure as snow upon volcano lips
And now let us drink to the volun.
teers, to those who sleep in unknown
sunken graves, whose names are only
in the hearts of those they loved and
left-of those who only hear in happy
dreams the footsteps of return. Lei
us drink to those who died where lip
less famine Knocked at want-tO all
the manned whose scars give modesty
a tongue-to all who dared, and gave
to chance the care and keeping Of
their lives-to all the living and to
all the dead-to Sherman, to Sheri-