The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1881-11-30

OF these line PATRIOTISM OF our poOple Is
deep and fervent and quickly responsive,
because it has cost them something. There
is one deep, tender chord in the American
heart which the events of the year have
strung to its utmost tension. No one has
yet described it so well as Elizabeth Stuart
Phelps, in her wonderful Afterthought"
Referring to the emotions of the people
over the sufferings and death of Garfield,
she says:
sssince Lincoln fell; since we counted the ghosts
in the grand review at Washington; since we gath
cred the solemn blossoms for our first Decoration
Day, nothing has so cruelty recalled for us the
memories Of the war. Distant, like sentries await
ing summons, they have stood upon their shadowy
| posts At this bugle-call they have come trooping
back. Their halfforgotten tread marches with
military inexorableness over our hearts.
The clinical record OF those last days at Elberon
has fallen upon nerves strained to forget and forced
to remember. The minutie Of agony have been
urged upon the consciousness, which protected
itself by its ignorance, and criesi Forbeari to
knowledge"
"Thus my boy lay sinking eighteen years ago."
"Thus and thus the pangs he never spoke we
never knew"
$50 he suffered So he conquered"
"Like this he bore without q murmur. Like this
his heavenly patience. Like this his more than
mortal courage. Like this, bless God, his Christian
DEATH
"Not like this our soldiers passing on. Oh. not
like this his hnal struggle. Not like this those
hours il were madness to remember. Not like this
| the rude tenderness OF the barraek hospital. Not
like this the neglect the delay, the imperfect ser
vice. the solitary torture the unspeakable detail OF
the cruel best that could be done. Oh! not like this
his lonely death-bed, the last delirum to which we
might not minister, the cry for those who could
| not answer"
"It is as natural as life !" that these out-bursts
of private feeling, stealing to the lips or smothered
in the thoughts, should follow the public grief 1t
has been a part Of the afiiction. 1t must bring q
part of the discipline"
And what discipline it has beenl am
not thankful for the affiiction, but since il
has fallen, am glad and thankful for the
noble qualities Of heart it has revealed.
know we belong to an earnest race, but
there is something Individual and peculiar
in our patriotism. The days of the military
virtues may be said to be past. Our peo-
pie, as people, are the best living realiza.
tion of the finer and more sensitive qualities
of soul which constitute the real nobility
of the born freeman. Our graces and vir.
tues are those of the mind and heart. II
cost more suffering to endure what we en-.
dured than has fallen to the lot of any
other people. That dreadful conflict OF
thirty years which eliminated and ended
in onr civil war, has brought us such de
velopment of heart and soul as has not
been equalled in modern times. Our land
is full of men whose character in all its
breadth and strength, has been developed
by the nobility of that conflict. We had
almost forgotten the cause of our strength
The events of this year have brought il
home TO us In all its vivid lights and awful
shadows.
Take it all in all, there is an earnest
purpose and quiet determination about the
average American citizen, which you find
nowhere else. He goes unassumingly about
the various duties of life-for We are a
busy people-but beneath the bustling ex,
terror there is nerve and grip and reliance
which does not mark the reserve forces of
any other nation. These are the sinews
which give strength to our moral purposes
and force to our religious convictions.
1t is for the high patriotism of such
hearts, and the well proven devotion of
souls, that am thankful today. 1 do not
deny our frailties or forget our faults. ] do
not excuse our national sins. But / do
maintain that many Of them are the frail-
ties and faults of frontier people, and are,
therefore such as time will cure.
Time will do great things for us. But
after all, time would do but little if moral
earnestness aud integrity-the foundation
of all advancement-were not already pre-
sent am satisfied that we are, now, a
deeply earnest race, with noble self-reli.
ance and loyalty to convictions. For this
/ am thankful today above everything else.
The people can be trusted The moral foun-
dation is good. Wrongs and abuses may
go great ways, but when they have gone
far enough the people win rise up and
crush them forever.