The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1879-10-09

Say by your votes that there must be free
speech and an untrammeled ballot all over this
land. 1t is the duty of the North to see to it
that all the citizens of this great country enjoy
equal rights. If the laws Of Louisiana, South
Carolina, Mississippi, Georgia, and Florida are
powerless to secure free ballot for their citi-
zens, and powerless to punish the men who
murder their political opponents, we will in
woke the majesty of this great nation; we will
bid it tear from the limp and nerveless hand of
these States the criminals who DEFY their DOW
er and der1de their laws, and with an iron hand
mete out to them the punishment their crime
deserves. II the flag of the States is powerless
to protect their humblest citizens, 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
ereign OF sovereigns upon this continent, the
nation.
WHEN PEACE AND HARMONY WILL COME.
MY fellow-citizens II hold no enmity toward
the people of the South. only demand of
them that the same freedom of opinion shall
be found there that prevails here 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
come before those of us gathered here to-day
shall have passed away, would not, to bring
it about, bury in oblivion the memory of the
men whose valorsav the nation in its time of
peril, and whose wisdom embodied in our Or
ganic law the results of their triumph. I some
times think we do not value enough the great
service the soldiers of the republic, living and
dead, rendered humanity Some people, mis-
taking sentimentalism for patriotism, are seek
ipr to raunifa tho ool1pfrv hv ha
of the very ideas for whose supremacy this ma
ton toiled and sweat in the bloody agony Of
battle. / am one of those who believe the ma
ton vas right when it took up arms to pre-
serve its existence 1 believe the men who
sought to destroy the Union, circumscribe free
dom and extend the area of human bondage
were wrong pray for peace, unity and con-
cord between the lately-warring sections of nv
country, but I hold it can come only when
from one end of this continent to the other the
principles for which near 500, 600 men laid
down their lives are recognized in their broad
est sense, made the basis of all our laws,
and enforced with even and unvaryirg hand.
We are sometimes told that now. the
war is over we should seek to forget
it. This is simply impossible. We are
tald that we who saved the nation are
not the only mourners in the land; that grief
as profound and sorrow as deep as shadows our
households cast their gloom over the dwellings,
of the South; that as we mourn for our dead,
so, too, they mourn for theirs. God knows
would not invade the sanctity Of grief That
those who lost sons and fathers seeking to de-
stroy this Government 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 I
would raise no hand to check any expression
of grief that seeks only private channels for its
expression, 1t does seem to me that it is an in
suit to this nation, a 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 de-
stroy 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 have said, would not seek to check
any private manifestations of grief the people
of the South choose to indulge in, I still say
that it does seem wrong that public shafts rise
skyward from the soil of this continent to COM
memorate the deeds and hand down the names
of men who fell battling to destroy my coun-
try.
armies Of the republic displayed splendid val
were all exerted in the wrong direction. I
have not yet reached that state of mind where
valOr and courage, however constant the one
or heroic 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 de-
stroy the republic exalted above those whose
life was given in an effort to save it. I do not
wish to see devotion to lost cause,
North or South, given as a reason why
men should be placed in high position.
made the rulers of the land and intrusted
with the shaping of it's grand destiny. In
word, / am of the opinion, cherished by men
of all parties who love their country, that the
republic is more likely to be zealously watched
and guarded, advanced and gloriied, by the
men whose love and valor saved it than by the
men whose strength was wasted in
the vain effort at its destruction I believe the
right that has triumphed should not go down
before the wrong that was slain. I desire the
work of freedom begun by the fathers, illus
trated and established by their descendants, to
stand forever as memorial of the wisdom
that founded the country and the valor that
saved it when rebellion leveled its lance to
destroy it