Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1880-01-15
COL. II. G. INGERsOLL.

At the Grant Banquet held in TIN
Palmer House, Chicago, Thursday
November 18th, 1879, the twelfth toas
was-"The Volunteer Soldiers of thu
Union, whose valor and patriotism
save d the world "a government Of thu
people, by the people, and for the peo-
ple.'" +" This toast received the follow,
ing beautiful, eloquent, and patriotic
RESPONSE BY COL. uSGERsoLL.
When the savagery Of the lash, the
barbarism of the chain, and the insanity
of secession confronted the civilization
of our century, the question "Will the
great Republic defend itself?" trembled
on the lips of every lover of mankind
The North, filed with intelligence
and wealth-children Of liberty-mar-
shalled her hosts and asked only for a
leader. From civil life man, silent,
thoughtful, poised, and calm, stepped
forth, and with the lips Of victary vote
ed the Nations first and last demand
Unconditional and immediate surren-
der" From that moment the end was
known. That utterance was the first
real declaration of real war, and, in
accordance 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 vulgar glory. They
were not animated by the hope of plum
der or the love of conquest. They
fought to preserve the homestead of lib
erty, and that their children might
have peace. They were the defenders
of humanity, the destroyers of preiu-
dice, the breakers of chains, and in the
name of the future they slew the mon
ster of their time. They finished what
the soldiers of the Revolution COM
menced. They re-lighted the torch
that fell from their august hands, and
filled the world again with light.
They blotted from the statue books laws
that had been passed by hypocrites at
the instigation of robbers, and tore
with indignant hands from the COnsti-
tuition 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 human, and
for politicians to be honest. They
broke the shackles from the limbs of
slaves, from the souls of masters, and
from the Northern brain. They kept
our country on the map of the world,
and our flag in heaven. They rolled
the stone from the sepulchre of pro-
gress, and found therein two angels
clad in shining garments-Nationality
and Liberty.
The soldiers were the saViours of the
Nation; they were the liberators of
men. In writing the Proclamation of
Emancipation, Lincoln, greatest of our
mighty dead, whose memory is as gem
tie as the summer air when reapers
sing amid the gathered sheaves, copied
with the pen what Grant and his brave
comrades wrote with swords.
Grander than the Greek, nobler than
ihe Roman, the soldiers of the Repub-
lie, with patriotism as shoreless as the
air, battled for the rights of others, for
the nobility Of labor, fought that moth
ers might own their babes that afF6.
CANT idleness should not scar the back
of patient toll, and that our country
should not be many headed-monster
made of warning States, but a nation,
sovereign, great, and free.
Blood was water, money was leaves,
and life was only common air until one
flag floated over a Republic without
master and without slave.
And then was asked the question:
"Will a free people tax themselves to
nav a nations debt?"
The soldiers went home to their wait
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 ennobled. They
were as honest in peace as they had
been brave in war. Mocking at prov
erty, laughing at reverses, they made |
friend of toll. They said: "We saved |
the Nations life, and what is life |
without honor?" 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
girdle of clasped and
happy hands-around the globe, comes
home and finds that every promise
made in war has now the ring and |
gleam of gold.
There is another question still VIII
ID the wounds of war be healed? l
answer, Yes. The Southern people
must submit, not to the dictation of the
North, but to the Nations will and to
he verdict of mankind. They were
wrong, and the time will come when
hey will say that they are victors who
AVE been vanquished by the right.
Freedom conquered them, and freedom
will cultivate their fields, educate their
weave for them the robes of
wealth, execute their laws, and fill
heir land with happy homes.
The soldiers of the Union saved the
outh as well as the North. They made
S a Nation. Their victory made us
rec and rendered tyranny in every
cher land as insecure as snow upon
Olcanos' lips.
And now let us drink to the volun-
,ers-to all those who sleep in un-
nOwn, sunken graves, whose names
re only in the hearts of those they
wed and left-of those who only hear C
/ happy dreams the footsteps Of re- Il
i'm. Let us drink to those who died a
here lipless famine Knocked at want Il
all the MANNED whose scars give y
odesty a tongue-tOrau who dared, d
Id gave to chance the care and keep Il
g of their lives-to all the living, and \