The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1880-04-14
OF TENNESSEE.

= grand fabric Of our National Government would
have long since crumbled to ruins.
If, therefore, military power inspired and sane
tilted by patriotism has been 30 essential in the
preservation of the life of the Republic through all
her tragic history if at every step in the pathway
Of that history she has baptized in the blood
Of her soldiers and sailors Who made up that mill
tary power, how vast her obligations to those
soldiers and sailors who have served her so heroic
ally il all her glorious struggles and have barred
/ their blossoms to death her defense They stood
ike wall of fire around her cradle in the dark
days of of the Revolution and parried the death
> blows aimed at her infant breast by the ruthless
hand of British Herod. Again, in the second
struggle of 1872 they paralyzed the of the same
foe and hurled him Keeling, dismayed, AMI defeat
ed back to his distant isles. the bloody conflicts
of hundred years they have crushed the spirit of
the savage Indian, and sweeping him westward
made way for the advancing empire Of Caucasian
liberty. Fighting against overwhelming odds at
every step, they penetrated into the heart of Mex
leo, and vaulting PROSTATE and conquered
armies planted the victorious standard of the Re-
public in the city of the Montezumas And, SIR
in that last great struggle, yet fresh in our own
memories, when the iron tread of that dread 'irre-
pressible conflict" shook the continent and sent a
| shudder through the whole world when ''the sun
1
ments of once glorious Union, ON States dissev-
cred, discordant belIigerent on land rent with
civil feuds and drenched with fraternal blood" it
was then that the triumph of American arms was |
more complete than before; it was then that /
our country received more precious baptism OF |
blood, baptism of fraternaI blood, which washed
out the stain aud blight of glaring national sin
and brought fresh salvation and new birth to
free and reunited America. Far be it from me-
sir to tear open single of the old war wounds
or to awaken a single of its hatreds The
flower of our country bit the dust in that struggle
it is my wish that they may sleep in peace,
Under the roses the blue,
Under the lilies the gray.
My only object is to show that the soldiers of the
Republic have stood by her in all her gloomiest
hours of peril and DISTRESS they have freely laid
their lives willing sacrifice upon her altar; they
have poured out their blood for her like fountains
of water; they have brought the trophies and the
fruits of more than hundred victorious battles
and laid them at her feet; they have kept her flag
proudly floating in mid-air "'with not stripe eras
ed or polluted, nor single star obscured," and
made 1t an object of unfeigned respect in every
land and every cline under the sun wherever the
breezes of heaven have kissed its swelling folds
How vast, then, repeat, the obligations of our
Government to her faithful soldiers. Sir assert
that this debt can never be discharged with mere |
money. They deserve not only material aid from
Aer cohers to make them comfortable in their old
age and decreptude and in their helpessness from
battle wounds, but also halIowed shrine in her n
nost enduring memory and in the hrart of crate D
uI people Toward the soldiers of the Revolution al
oWard those of 1872 and of the recent war of the
'ebelhon, think this Government has disobaroed 4
Ter duty with credit But there is a class of old ri
oldlers whom she to have totally NEGLECTED &C
M ignored. mean those now living who parti- | I
lpated III the Mexican war; and for whom the bill be
10" on the Calendar is designed to provide There 1t
re not more than eight Thousand Of these aged fl
eterans still alive and this little battle-scarre III
emnant OF the once superb and invincibe invad- br
az armies OF the nation are swiftly passing away an
that undiscovered bourne whence no traveller wi
eturns, and are answering to their names Sat the Liz
oil call OF eternity" Alas, sir what sad change fe,
as the sweep OF one-third of century wrought tic
l the personnel of the Army and Navy that NJ,
rough down the pride of Mexico to the str One m.
y one they have obeyed the silent summons and | be-
one to the grand court-martial Scott. who sarv He
1 his country in three great wars, has fallen ev,
leep beneath the folds of the flag he loved so loo
ell The heroic Taylor has departed from the | the
enes OF life. Most of the officers of lesser rank and we
ur-htths OF the soldiers have sunk into the en- Ii
ace OF DEATH And now these their few surviving fen
mrades stand like solitary oaks scattered in | the
Hen forest, bearing the marks and scars of a SAT-
ormy past, hOary with age, and glorious as the dow
ing monuments of the heroic days of the Repub bis
ava
do not propose here to enter into discussioD SAID
the question to the justice or Injustice of the reel
r with Mexico. That is question in which the Mr.
lerican Array who fought it had no respoDsibu- My
and which must be left for settlement to the ting
igment of impartial history. 1t is quite sufic wOr
for present purposes know that these bravo here
n rendered great and meritorious services to here
country in that memorable conflict which. in cred
le respects, may be justly classed among the spar
st wonderful of ancient modern times. In bell
the history of the whole war seems more like cha
,endid romance than sober We of facts out
history of nations is a record checkered with have
'esses and reverses, and few, if any. of the If
It generals and cOnquering armies of the world vii
uniformly won laurels unmingIed with gvm
OF disaster, but to our armies invading Mexj- ID II
lere was no such thing defeat Even the
attled walls Of the gulf city, sent1neled and
ded by the world-renowned castle of San Juan
its hundred frowning embrazures beIchin0 To tn
icanes of shot and shell, presented no obstrue TIL
- was ou' WE'VE days Ju- Of pul
- ~ P0n-As "a tue most mag throu
- 80 s-''' oul history Inc my oh
dies to which our resistless battalious Kent J. ~.
IS they scaled the embattIed escarpments to t. A.
~ 0' - P@ A INC Aer'lio PiaCeSus OF lady.
o; thence sweeping down through the noun vsry, ~
asses they beleaguered the defenses of the aeah1o
WIN S'eei anu streams OF nre' and quaint
he strength of giants and the courage of nIooo
tile band of nine thousand heroes, canopied ar5 l;
moke, torn with musket-balls and shot and lo .
rom hill and plain, from front and flank lo,vs
ed with the rattle of muskery, the clank of sne ~
md the thunders of artillery, hurled forty whose
nd Mexican warriors from their fields and srbaro
SEES, wrung from the conquerors of the Az sisnan +,
arly one-hah of their domain for our cOun A. and
won for themselves the admiration Of the had III
nd immortality. standn
a this war conquered from our sister paptleno
c more than imperial realm, spanning the Iorn cor
Mt from the great gulf to the Pacific Ocean, tbouqbt
assuring more than six hundred thoueand Inns ana
miles, and nearly one-half of Mexico. 1t checks
hat in part consideration for this magniA- rensao
'quisitiOn our Government paid Mexico tai 1