Northern tribune. [volume] (Cheboygan, Mich.) 1875-1885, 1879-11-29
final eward of the rebellion. Loud
appla ise.1

1ndl ~eWaIu OF the reDelllOn. lLOuu
appla 'se.
The soldiers of the Republic were not
seekers after vulgar glory. They were
not animated by the hope of plumber or
love of conquest. They fought to pre-
serve the blessings 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 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 filled the world again with
light. They blOtted from the statute
books laws that had been passed by
hypOcrites at the instigatiOn of robbers,
and tore with indignant hands 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 humane and
for politicians to be honest. Applause.
They broke the shackles from the
limbs of slaves, from the souls of mas
tiers, and from the northern brain. They
kept our country on the map of the
world and our flag in heaven. [Great
applause.
They rolled the stone from the sepul-
cher of progress and found there two
angels clad in shining garments
tiOnality and Liberty. The soldiers were
the saviOrs of the nation; they were the
liberatOrs of men. In writing the proc
lamatiOn of independence, Lincoln, the
greatest of our mighty dead, whose men,
DRY is as gentle as the summer air when
reapers sing amid the gathered sheaves,
copied with the pen what Grant and his
brave comrades wrote with their swords.
Grander than the Greek, nObler than
the Roman, the soldier of the Republic,
with patriotism 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 should not scar the back of pa
tient toll, and that our country should
not be many headed monster made of
warning states, but nation, sovereign,
great and free. [Applause.]
Blood was water, money was leaves,
and life was common air until one flag
lOated over Republic without master
and without slave. Applause.] Then
was asked question: will free people
tax themselves to pay the Nations debit"
The soldiers went home to their want
ing 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 demOralized. They had
been ennObled, [Applause.] They were
as honest in peace as they had been
brave in war. MOckiDg at poverty,
laughing at reverses, they made friend
of toll: "We saved a Nations life, and
what is life without hOnOrp" They work
ed and wrought with all of labOr's sons
that every PLEDGE the nation gave should
be redeemed. lApplause.] And their
great leader, having put shining of
friendship-a girdle Of clasped and hap
py hands-arOund the globe, comes home
and finds that every promise made in
war has now the ring and CLEAN of gold.
Prolonged applause.]
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 YER
dict of mankind. [Applause.] They
were wrong, and the time will come
when they will say they are victOrs who
have been vanquished by the right.
freedom conquered tnem- ana freedom
will cultivate their fields, educate their
children, weave for them the robes of
wealth, execute their laws and fill their
lands with happy homes. [Applause.]
The soldiers OF the Union saved the
South as well as the North. They made
us Nation. [Applause,] Their victory
made us free and rendered tyranny i'm
every other land as insecure as snow up
on volcanoes tips.
And now let us drink to the volunteer,
to those who sleep i'm 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.A
OLet us drink to those who died where
| lipleSs famine Knocked at want-tO all the
MANNED whose scars give mOdesty a
| tOngue-tO all who. dared, and gave to
chance the care and keeping Of their
lives-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. prolonged ap-
plauSe1