Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1879-11-24

s'The soldiers were the saviors of the Re-
public; they were the libcrators of men. In
writing the Proclamation of Emancipation.
Lincoln. greatest of our mighty dead, ap-
plause, whose memory is as gentle as sum-
mer air when reapers sing amid gathered
sheaves copied with the pen what the grand
hands of brave comrades had written with
their swords. Grander than the Greek. no
bier than the Roman. the soldiers of the Re-
public, with patriotism as careless as the air,
fought for the rights of Others, for the nobili-
tv OF labor. and battled that mother might
own her child, loud and prolonged applause.
that arrogant idleness should not scar the
back of patient toll, cheers, and that our
country should not be a many-headed monster
made of warning States, but a nation, sover-
eipn. grand and free. Blood was water,
money was leaves, and life was only common
air, until one flag floated over one Republic,
without master and without a slave. Pro-
longed applause and ringing cheers. And
then was asked the question. Will free peo-
pie voluntarily tax themselves to pay ma
lions debt? 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 been ennobled.
Mocking at reverses. laughing at poverty.
they madeia friend of toll They said we
saved the nations life. and what is life with
out honor. Loud applause. They worked
and wrought with all of labor's royal sons,
that every pledge the nation made might be
redeemed. Cheers. And their great lead
er, having put a 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.
'sThere is another question still. Will all
the wounds of war Re healed? answer, yes.
"A voice. Good The Southern people
must submit. voice, Thank God. Not
to the dictation of the North. but to a nation $
will and the verdict of mankind. Great ap-
plause. They were wrong, and the time
will come when they will say that the people
are the vlctors who have been vanquished by
the right Freedom conquered them. and
freedom will cultivate their fields. will edu-
cate their children, will weave robes ofwealth,
will execute the laws. and fill their land with
happy homes. Frantic applause. The SOL
diers of the Union saved the South as well as
the North More applause. They gave us
a nation. A voice, with big n They
gave us liberty here. and their grand victories
have made tyranny the world over as inse-
cure as snow upon the lips of volcanoes.
.'And now let us drink to the Volunteers,
to those who sleep in unknown and sunken
graves. " hose 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 Knocked at want. Let us drink to the
manned. whose sears 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
[ringing and lasting applause, and last to
Lincoln, whose loving life, like bow of
peace, spans and arches all the clouds of
war"