Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1882-06-08
NUMBER ID.


idual life become. 1t is an easy thing
to plan great wrongs by first suggesting
heavenly shores; to pirate of honesty,
that dishonesty may thrive, to apostro-
phize virtue in rose colored epithets,
while vice prospers, lost in corruption.
To be incorruptible. in insincere times,
to be sincere, to cultivate virtue where
fraud is fashionable is another and a
harder thirg.
he is the best citizen, whose aim is to
be, rather than be thought to be the best.
Before the broad sweep of such life,
how contemplate the selfishness of the
partisan, how unworthy the petty
schemes of demagogues, how base the
scramble of undeserying men, for I'M
merited honors.
Strange though he be to the arts of
the practiced politician; with voice I'M
trained by tricks of eloquence to tickle
the popular ear, there is power in such
citizen, n mute eloquerce in the exam
pie of such a life, that shall outlast the
transient fame of obtrusive vanity.
Such a life is power in any COM
munity. On such lives rest the pillars
OF free government. Men without merit,
may wear the laurelS, men wanting in
true nobility may ride the popular
wave, but after all, ''Only his word thun-
ders, whose life lightens."
1t is now almost twenty years, since
you were honorably mustered out of the
noblest service, soldier ever gave his
country.
The God of nations, had ordained that
the principle of republican liberty,
planted in cold and famine on the bleak
shores of Massachusetts should triumph
at Appomatox. But that was not all.
The soldiers of the Union, were citizens,
as well as soldiers, and well that they
were. Else in the political contests that
followed the war. the grand results of
that war, would have been well nigh
lost
You were resolved To preserve at the
polls, what YOU swords had won. In the
name of liberty, you girded on the sword
to establish the principle, that in this
republic, the only theory of law, is free
consent. In the name of liberty, YOU
have since, by your votes, maintained
that in free ballot. is the peoples will
only effectively spoken.
As you conscientiouslv welded the
sword so have you used the ballot-that
mighty weapon
That comes down as still as snowhakes fall
upon the sod
But executes the peoples will as light ming does
the win OF God.
And your labor has not been in vain.
Well may your eye kindle, your heart
exult as you to-day review the joint re-
suit of your sword and your vote.
You knew that no nation that dshon-
ored labor was ever free Thanks to
your sword and your ballot, no land ev-
er offered so attractive home to labor,
so honored and blessed labor as YOURS
to-day. You knew that no polity that
confscated industry for the aggrandize-
ment of few was very long prosperous.
Thanks to your sword and your vote no
other system SO secures to every individ-
ual the rewards of honest industry as
does yours to-day.
You knew that no feudal system of
land tenure ever elevated the masses.
Thanks to your sword and your vote no
other county so prodigally showers the
blessings of the small freebooter on
every industrious citizen.
You knew that no government that
disfranchised class upon arbitrary
grounds was ever long at peace. Thanks
to your sword ardyour vote no other ma
ton SO opens eylesE privilege of citizen
ship to every mlan within its borders.
You knew ts.at NJ central power that
overshadowe'S and absorbed subordinate
districts wasY ever long dominant
Thanks toyour s~ord and your vote no
other system leaves individual states so
free and yet preserves so strong the maj
esty of the common nation rs does ours
to-day. No other system of government
since the world began could have suffer
cd so many shocks to liberty and yet
preserved it SO strong and pure.
The secret of our success is in the fact
that the current of political thought and
action of the American people always
sets, in the end, toward justice and right.
In our scheme justice is more than policy
right more than glory, truth better than
power and the full brotherhood of man
the sum and end of man. Such gov
eminent cannot brook low crimes or
narrow policies. When the Greeks
wept for the slain at Salamis they yet
rejo .ced that liberty was safe As we,
from year to year, with dim eye and sad
heart stand o er the graves of those of
your fallen comrades who sleep under
the white marble we yet rejoice that our
Union and our nation is safe.
Ideas that all the world must enjoy
are more than generation of lives or
century of peace. May the same spir-
it that animated them to die for their
country inspire us to live for it.
Oh that leaders and people might
catch something of that divine spirit
that actuated Harry Vane, to whom
liberty was So much dearer than life
that for her dear sake he laid his head
on the block, breathing those words
that shall live so long as man loves lIb-
erty and worships true honor; Father,
glorify thy servant in the discharge Of
his duty to his country" and in later
times so animated John Brown that, alb
sorbed in the cause he had espoused,
being led to execution he was utterly in
different to death, and only spoke of the
quiet beauty of the Virginian Hills.
How can we say that the song Of the
Union soldier. chanted on many
a toilsome march, more inspiring than
martial music, John Browns body lies
a moldering in the grave, but his soul
goes marching on, did not derive its
| inspiring force from the soldiers in
stinctive faith that the power of such a
life, the vitality and might of the prin-
ciples for which the fanatic died did
somewhat survive, and that its lesson Of
grand devotion would be immortal.
II there is secret formative power
behind mankind, slowly but surely lift
ing it toward purer government,
higher liberty, better life, il would seem
| that when that power directed the May
flower TO the storm-washed rock at Ply
mouth, it had great things in store for
the race. A single glance at the Map
| of the United States would long ago
elicit from the dullest seer the prophecy
of her future greatness.
| A study of that map to-day, will lead
/ him to exclaim. what unmeasured adj
vance is in store for her, if she stand
steadfast TO the great purpose, toward
| which her history has been always tend
| ing. What field for industrial progress
| in her wealth of mine and river; what
| incentive 10 skilful invention, in her
countless and new increasing industr es.
What scope for mental expansion. what
enlargement Of social life, what aids 70
broad intelligence, what drafts upon
sound judgment, what incentives to duty
and political wisdom, in her mighty fu-
ture. What energies unseen, what
bonds Of harmony stronger than any
army. what forces to peaceful industry,