Lyon County times. [volume] (Silver City, Nev.) 1874-1907, 1879-12-13
A PROSE GEM.
Colonel Ingersoll's Eulogy Of TIL
Union Soldiers.

colonel 1ngerSOiIS EutOgy VI tne
Union Soldiers.
At the reunion of the army of the
Tenpessec in Chicago the other day
Colonel Robert Ingersoll, in response
to the toast, The Volunteer Soldiers
of the Union Army, whose valor and
patriotism gave to the world gov
eminent of the people, by the people,
for the people," said:
When the savagery of the lash, the
barbarism of the chain and the in
sanity of secession confronted tho
civilization of our century, the ques-
ton, Will the great Republic defend
itself2 trembled on the lips of every
lover of mankind. The North, filed
with intelligence and wealth, pro-
ducts of liberty, marshaled her hosts
and asked only for leader. From
civil life man, silent, thoughtful,
poised and calm, stepped forth, and
with the lirs of victory voiced the
nations first and last demand: "Un-
conditional and immediate surren.
der" From that moment the end
was known. That utterance was the
real declaration of real war, and in &C.
cordance with the dramatic unities of
mighty events the great soldier who
made it received the final sword of
the rebellion. The soldiers of the
Republic were not seekers after vul-
gar glory; they were not animated by
the hope of plumber or the love of
conquest. They fought to preserve
the homestead 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 flu
ture they saluted the monsters of their
time. They finished what the sol
diers 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 books the
laws that had been passed by hypo-
critics at the instigation of robbers,
and tore with indignant hands from
the Constitution that infamous clause
that made men the catchels of their
fellowman. They made it possible
for judges to be just and statesmen to
be human. 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. They rolled the stone
from the sepulcher Of progress, and
found therein two angels clad in
shining garments--nationality and
liberty. The soldiers were the saviors
of the Nation. They were the liber-
ators of man. In written proclama-
ton of emancipation, Lincoln, great
est of our mighty dead, whose men,
DRY is as gentle as the summer air
when reapers sing mid gathered
sheaves, copied with the pen what
Grant and his brave comrades wrote
with swords. Grander than the
Greek, n0bler than the Roman, the
soldiers of tho Republic, with patri-
otism as shoreless as the air, battled
for the rights of Others, for the nobil-
ity of labor, fought that mothers
might own their babes; that arrogant
idleness should not scar the back Of
patient toll; that our country should
not be . many headed monster, made
of warning States, but . Nation
sovereign, great and free.
Blood was water, money was leaves,
and life was only common air, until
one flag floated over the Republic
withou a master and without slave.
Then was asked the question, Will
free Ieople 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 the mines. They had
not been demoralized. They had
been ennobled. They were as honest
in peace as in war. Mocking at pow.
erty, laughing at reverses, they made
friend of toll. They said, We have
the Nations life, and what is life
without honorl they worked and
wrought with all of labor's royal sons
that every pledge the Nation gave
might be redeemed. And their great
leader, having put shining band Of
friendship, a girdle Of clasped and
happy hands, around the globe,
comes home and finds that every
promise made in war has now the
ring and CLEAN of gold. There is an
other question still. Will ell the
wounds OF war DO healeda answer
yes. The Southern people must sub
NIT 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 como when
thew will aAY that thew are viCtOre