New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1879-10-15

life Of this great Nation at the feet Of the slave
power; we outraged truth; we sc0rned justice;s
set at naught the reason and instinct with
which He has crowned us. The cry Of Gods
poor fell UNDECIDED upon our ears, until at last
ure gathered, and out from it's awful bosom the
bo!ted lightning Of His wrath fell, crushing
and destroying: Near half million graves,
lifting themselves to the quiet skies to-
day, bear silent but mighty witness to us Of
the awful punishment q just God sends upon
those who forget the right in blind devotion to
great question Of right and Justice is not set
aside upon any plea of expediency. Do the
night thing and DO + Say votes
and an untrammeled ballot all over this land.
It Is the duty Of the North to see to it that all
the citizens of this great country enjoy equal
rights II the laws Of Louisiana, South Caro-
lima, Mississippi, Georgia and Florida are pow
erless to secure free ballot for their citizens,
and powerless to punish the men who murder
majesty of this great Nation; we will bid it
tear from the limp and nerveless hand of these
States the criminals who defy their power and
deride their laws and with an iron hand mete
out to them the punishment their crime de-
serves. If the flag of the States is pOwerless
to protect their humblest citizen, then to that
| flag within whose swelling folds the banners Of
all the States are gathered we will look for
help. If the sovereign State cannot do Justice
to its citizens, then we will appeal to the SOW
Nation.
| My fellow citizens, hold no enmity toward
the people OF the South I only demand Of
be found there that prevails here. I pray that
! the time may come, and that quickly, when
the passions and prejudices developed by our
Civil War shall be heard of no more forever,
| when all who live beneath our flag shall point
proudly to it as the symbol of the grandest
! and the freest Nation the sun shines down
upon.
While hope for all this, and trust to see It
l before those gathered
| shall have passed away, L would not, to bring
it about, bury in oblivion the memory of the
| OF peril, and whose wisdom embodied in our
organic law the results of their triumph. 1
| sometimes think we do not value enough the
| great service the soldiers of the Republic, liv-
| ing and dead, rendered humanity. Some peo-
| pie, mistaking sentimentalism for patriotism,
.are seeking to reunite the country by half
acy this Nation toiled and sweat in the bloody
agony OF battle. am one of those who be-
lieve the Nation was right when it took up
men who sought to destroy the Union, cir
cumscribe freedom. and extend the area
OF human bondage, were wrong. pray
the lately warning sections of my coun-
try, but hold it can come only when from
one end of this continent to the other the
laid down their lives are recognized in their
broadest sense, made the basis of all our laws,
ana enforced with even and unvarying hand.
]
| over we should seek to forget it. This is simply
impossible. We are told that we who saved
the Nation are not the only moumers in the
deep as shadows our households cast their
! gloom over the dwellings of the South: that
IS we mourn for our dead, SO, too they mourn
and fathers seeking to destroy this Govern
ment should weep for the dead is but natural;
| that they should cherish their memories
kindly, place headstones to mark their resting
places, and beautify their graves with flowers,
| is human. No one in this land objects to such
tributes from the living to the dead. Such
manifestations of private sorrow do honor to
those from whom they come. While would
raise no hand to check all and any expressions
OF o. grief tnat seeks only private channels for
Its expression, 1t does seem to me that it is an
insult to this Nation, shameful reflection
upon its soldiers, living and dead, that all over
the southern section of the country the virtues
and the heroism of the armies that sought to
| destroy the government are the theme Of every
tongue, and that costly monuments are raised
In public places and dedicated with imposing
ceremonies to the dead soldiers of rebellion.
While, as lhave said, would not seek to check
any private manifestations of grief the people
OF the South choose to indulge in, I still say
| tnat IL does seem wrong hat public shafts rise
| skyward from the soil of this Continent to
| commemorate the deeds and hand down the
names of men who fell battling to destroy my
| country. N
know the men who fell in battle before the
armies of the Republic displayed splendid val
or and heroic courage, but know, too, they
were oil eXerted in the wrong direction. Ihave
not yet reached that state of mind where valor
and courage however constant the one or he.
roic the other, can blind me to the fact that
treason inspired both. do not wish in my
day to see the men who died trying to destroy
the Republic exalted above those whose life
was given in an effort to save it. l do not
wish to see devotion to Il lost cause, North OF
South, given as reason why men should be
placed in high position, made the rulers of the
land and entrusted with the shaping of its
grand destiny: In word, am of the opin.
ion. cherished by men Of all parties who love
their country, that the Republic is more likely
to be zcalously watched and guarded, advanced
and gloritied, by the mon whose love and
volor saved it than it is by the men whose
strength was wasted in the vain effort for its
destruction. I believe the right that has
trillmphed should not go down before the
wrong that was slain. desire the work OF
freedom begun by the fathers, illustrated and
established by their descendants, to stand for
ever as memorial of the wisdom that found
ed the country, and the valor that saved IL
when Rebellion leveled its lance to destroy it.