Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1879-11-21
Colonel lngersolI.

Colonel lngersolI.
The next toast was as follows: "rho
volunteer soldiers of the union army,
whose valor and patriotism gave To the
world government of the people, by
the people, for the people," To which
Colonel Ingersoll made the following
response:
When the savagery of the lash, the
barbarism of the chain, and the insani.
~ Of secession confronted the ciyili2a-
ton Of our century, the question, VIII
the great republic defend itself trem-
bled on the lips of every lover Of man
kind. The north, filled with intelli-
gence and wealth, products Of liberty,
marshaled her hosts and asked only for
leader.
From civillife man, silent, thought
full, poised, and calm, stepped forth,
and with the lips Of victory voiced the
nations first and last demand. "Uncon-
ditonal and immediate surrender"
From that moment the end was known.
That utterance was the first declaration
of real war and in accordance with the
dramatic unities OF mighty events tho
l
final sword of the rebellion. The sol
diers of the republic were not seekers
after vulgar glory; they were not an
mated by the hope of plumber or the
love of conquest. They fought TO pre-
serve
THE HOMESTEAD OF LIBERTY,
that;their children might have peace.
They were the defenders of humanity,
the destrovers of prejudice, the break
ers of chains, and in the name of the
future they saluted the monsters Il
their time. They finished what the SOL
diers 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 the laws that had been
passed by hypocrites at the instigation
Of robbers, and tore with indignant
hands from the constitution that infa-
nous clause that made men the CATCH
ers Of their fellow man. They made il
possible for judges to be just and states.
men TO be human. They broke tho
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 sepulchre Of progress, and found
therein two angels clad in shining gar
ENTHUSIASTICALLY and liberty.
The soldiers were the saviors of the
nation. They were the liberators Of
man. In written proclamation OF
emancipation, Lincoln, greatest of our
mighty dead, whose memory is as gen.
tie as the summer air when reapera
singing mid gathered sheayes, copied
with the pen what Grant and his brave
comrades wrote with swords.
GRASDER THAN THE CREEK,
nobler than the Roman. the soldiers Of
the republic, with patriotism as shore
less as the air, battled for the rights OF
others, for the nobility OF labor; fought
that mothers might own their babes; thai!
arrogant idleness should not scar the
back Of patient toll; that our country
should not be a 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 foated over the republic with
cut master and without q
slave. Then was asked the
question, Will q free people tar
themselves to pay the nations 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 and mines.
They had not been demoralized. They
had been ennobled. They we're as hon
eat in peace as they were brave in war.
Mocking at poverty, laughing at re-
verses, they made friend Of toll. They