The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1879-11-20
THE VOLUNTEER SOLDIERS.

gersOll.
At the banquet of the Society of the
Army of the Tennessee, in Chicago, the
toast, "The volunteer soldiers of the
Union army, whose valor and patriotism
saved the world Government of the
people, by the people, and for the peo-
pie" was responded to by Col. Bob In
gersoll, as follows:
When the savagery of the lash, the barbarism
of the clan, and the insanity of secession con-
fronted the civilization of our century, the
question, "Will the great republic defend it
self?" trembled on the lips of every lover Of
mankind.
The North, filed with intelligence and wealth
children of liberty-marshaled her hosts and
asked only for leader From civil life man,
SILENT thoughtful, poised and calm, stepped
forth and with lips of victory voiced the ma
TONS first and last demsnd: Unconditional
and immediate surrender" From that moment
the end was known. That utterance was the
first real declaration of war, and in accol dance
with the dramatic unities Of mighty events, the
great soldier who made it received the final re-
ward of the rebellion.
The soldiers of the republic were not seekers
after vulgar glory. They were not animated
by the hope of plumber or thelove of conquest
They fought to preserve the blessings of lib
erty and that their children might have peace.
They were the defenders of humanity,
the destroyers of prejudice, the break
| ers of chains. and, in the name
of the future they slew the monsters of their
time They finished what the soldiers of the
Revolution commenced. They relighted the
torch that fell from their august hands and
filed the world again with light They blotted
from the statute book laws that had been
passed by hypocrites at the instigation of rob-
bers, and tore with indignant hand from the
constitution that infamous clause that made
men the catchers of their fellow-men.
They made it possible for judges to be just,
for statesmen to be human, and for politicians
to be honest.
They broke the shackIes 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.
They rolled the stone from the sepulcher of
progress, and found there two angels clad IN
shining g2rments-Nationality and Liberty
The soldiers were the saviors of the nation,
they were the iberators of men. In writing
the proclamation of independence, Lincoln, the
greatest of our mighty dead, whose memory is
as gentle as the summer air when reapers sing
amid the gathered sheaves, copied with his
pen what Grant and his brave comrades wrote
with swords.
Grander than the Greek, nobler than the Ro-
man, the soldiers of the republic, with patriot
ism as stainless as the air, battled for the rights
of others, for the nobility of labor, fought that
mothers might own their babes, that arrogant
idleness might not scar the back of patient toll
and that our country should not be man
headed monster made Of warning States, but a
nation sovereign, great and free.
Blood was water. money was leaves and life
q q
republic without master and without slave
Then was asked a question: "Will free peo-
pie tax themselves to pay the nations 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, and mines They had not been demon
allied. They had been ennobled. They were
as honest in peace as they had been brave in
war. Mocking at poverty, laughing at revers-
es, they made friend of toll They said @We
saved the nations life, and what is life without
honor?" They worked and wrought with all of
labor's sons that every pledge the nation gave
should be redeemed. And their great leader,
having put shining band of friendships
girdle of clasped and happy hands-around
the globe, comes home and finds that
every promise made in the war has now the
ring and CLEAN of gold.
There is another question still Will all the
wounds of the war be healed? answer, yes.
The southern people must submit not to the
dictation of the North, but to the nations will
and to the verdict of mankind They were
wrong and the time will come when they will
say that they are Yictors who have been van
pushed 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 homea
The soldiers of the Union saved the South as
well as the North. They made us a nation.
Their victory made us free and rendered
tyranny in every other land as insecure as snow
upon the volcano'slips.
And now let us drink to the volunteers. to
those who sleep in unknown, sunken graves,
whose names are only in the hearts of those
they loved and left-of those who often hear in
happy dreams the footsteps of return
Let US drink to those who died where ipless
famine Knocked at want-to all the manned
whose scars give modesty tongue-to all who
dared, and gayeto chance the care and keeping
of their iives-to all the living and to all the
dead-to Sherman, to Sheridan and to Grant,
the foremost soldier OF the world, and last to
Lincoln, whose loving life, like bow of peace.
spans and arches all the clouds of war
New ORLEANS is considering thor
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