The evening light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1881-1883, 1882-06-07


They were the real philanthropists, the true
patriots. When the will defies fear, when the
heart applauds the brain, when duty throws the
gauntlet down to fate, when honor shuns to
compromise with death, this is heroism. The
aboltionists were heroes. Applause.) He
loves his country best who strives to make it
best. The bravest men are those who have
the greatest fear of doing wrong. Mere poll
ticians wish the country to do something for
them; true patriots desire to do something for
their country. Courage without conscience is
a wild beast patriotism; without principle is
the prejudice of birth, the animal attachment
to place. These men, these women had cour-
age and conscience, patriotism and principle,
heart and brain. The south
RELIED UPON THE BOND,
upon barbarous cause that stained, disfgur-
ed and defled the Federal pact, and made the
monstrous claim that slavery was the nations
ward. The spot of shame grew red in North
ern cheeks, and Northern men declared that
slavery had poisoned, cursed and blighted soul
and soil enough, and that the Territories must
be free. The radicals of the South
cried: "No Union without liberty" APP
pause. The northern radicals were right.
Upon the great issue of free homes for
HCC ulCu Was ClcCtcu ny
the free States. The South appealed to the
sword and raised the standard of revolt. For
the first time in history the oppressors rebel
led.
But let US to-day be great enough to forget
individuals-great enough to know that slav-
cry was treason; that slavery was rebellion;
that slavery fired upon our flag and sought to
wreck and strand the mighty ship that bears
the hope and fortune of this world. ZAP
plause. The first shot liberated the North
Constitutions, statutes and decisions, compro-
misses, platforms and resolutions made, passed
and ratafed in the interest OF slavery, became
mere legal lies-mean and meaningless, base
and baseess. Renewed applause. Parch-
ment and paper could no longer stop or stay
the onward march of man. The North was
free. Millions instantly resolved that the ma
ton should not die; that freedom should not
perish and that slavery should not live. Mil
lions of our brothers, our sons, our fathers,
our husbands, answered to the nations call.
Applause. The great armies have desola-
ted the earth; the greatest soldiers have been
ambitions dupes. They waged war for the
sake of place and pillage, pomp and power;
for the ignorant applause of vulgar millions,
for the tlattery of parasites and the adulation
of sycophants and slaves. Let us
PROUDLY REMEMBER
that in our time the greatest, the grandest, the
noblest army of the world fought not to en-
slave, but to free; not to destroy, but to save;
not simply for themselves, but for others; not
for conquest, but for conscience; not only for
us, but for every land and every race. APP
plause. With courage, with enthusiasm
ton and purity of purpose never equalled,
nd he hiatt IF ~
public for the preservation of this nation; for
the destruction of slavery. These soldiers,
these sailors, on land and sea, disheartened by
no defeat, discouraged by no obstacle, appalled,
by no danger, neither paused nor swerved
until stainless flag, without rival, foated
over all our wide domain, and until every hui
man being beneath its folds was absolutely
free. Thunderous applause. The great vic
tory of human rights, the greatest of all the
years, had been won, even by the Union men
of the north, by the Union men of the south,
and by those who had been slaves. Liberty
was national, slavery was dead. Applause.
WHAT THE FLAG MEANS.
The flag for which the heroes fougt, for
which they died, is the symbol of all we are,
Of all we hope to be. 1t is the emblem of
equal rights. 1t means free hands, free lips,
self government and the sovereignty of the
individual. Applause. 1t means that this
continent has been dedicated to freedom; it
means universal education, light for every
mind, knowledge for every child. 1t means
that the school house in the fortress of liberty.
1t means that governments derive their Just
powers from the consent of the governed"
that each man is accountable to and for the
government, that responsibility goes hand in
hand with liberty. [Applause.] 1t means
that it is the duty of every citizen to bear his
share of the public burden, to take part in the
affairs of his town, his county, his State and
his country. 1t means that the ballot-box
is the
ARK OF THE COVENANT,
that the source of authority must not be poi
soned. Cheers. 1t means the perpetual
right of peaceful revolution. 1t means that
every citizen of the republic, native or nat
uralzed, must be protected at home in every
state, abroad in every land, on every sea. 1t
means that all distinctions based on birth or
blood have persisted from our laws, that our
government shall stand between labor and
capital; between the weak and the strong; be-
tween the individual and corporations; be-
tween want and wealth, and give and guarantee
simple justice to each and all. Applause 1t
means that there shall be legal remedy for
every wrong. 1t means national hospitality;
that we must welcome to our shores the exiles
of the world, and that we may not drive them
back. Some may be deformed by labor,
dwarfed by hunger, broken in spirit, victims
of tyranny and caste, in whose sad faces may
be read the touching record of weary life,
and yet their children, born of liberty and
love, will be symmetrical and fair, intellectual
n