Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1882-06-15

bleeding backs Of slaves; mercy heard
the s0bs Of mothers reft of babes, and
Justice held aloft the scales in which
one drop OF blood shed by a masters
lash outweighed nations gold. Zap
plause.l
There were few men, a few women,
who had the courage to attack this
mOntrous crime. They found it en-.
trenched in constitutions, statutes and
decisions, barricaded and Fashioned by
every department and by every party.
Politicians were its servants, states
men its attorneys, judges its menials,
presidents its puppets, and upon its
cruel altar had been sacrificed our
country's honor. 1t was the crime of
the nation. of the whole country,
North and South responsible alike. To
day we reverently thank the abolition
ist. Earth has produced no grander
men, no nobler women. They were
the real philanthropists, the true
patriots. When the will defies fear,
Shen the heart applauds the brain,
when duty throws the gauntlet down
to fate, when honor scorns TO comprO-
abolitionists 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 politicians wish
the country to do something for them !;
true patriots desire to do something
for their country. Courage without
conscience is wild beast patriotism;
without principle is the prejudice of
birth, the animal attachment to place.
These men, these women had courage
and conscience, patriotism and prin-
ciple, heart and brain. The South
RELIED UPON THE BOND
upon barbarous cause that stained,
disfgured and de6led the federal past,
and made the monstroas claim that
slavery was the nations ward. The
spot of Shame grew red in Northern
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 slavery" Tho radicals
of the North replied; ''No union with
out liberty" Applause The North
ern radicals were right. Upon the
great issue of free homes for free men
a president was elected by the free
states. The South appealed to the
sword and raised the standard of
revolt. For the first time in history
the oppressors rebelled.
But let us to-day be great enough to
forget ndividuals-great enough to
know that slavery 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. APP,
plause. The first shot liberated the
North. Constitutions, statutes and de-
cisions, compromises, platforms and
resolutions made, passed and ratified
ID the interest of slavery, became mere
legal lies-mean and meaningless, base
and baseless. Renewed applause
Parchment and paper could no longer
stop or stay the onward march of man.
The North was free. Millions instant
1y resolved that the nation. 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 desolated the earth; tbs
greatest soldiers have been ambitious
dupes. They waged war for the sake
of place and pillage. pomp and power
for the ignorant applause of vulgar
millions, for the flattery of parasites
and the adulation of sycophants and
slaves. Let us
PROUDLY REMEMBER
that in our time the greatest, the grand
est, the nOblest army of the world
fought, not to enslave, but to free; not
to destroy, but to save; not simply fol-
themselves, but for others; not fol
conquest, but for conscience; not only
for US, but for every land and every
race. Applause With courage
with enthusiasm, with devotion never
excelled, with an exaltation and purity
OF purpose never equaled, this grand
army fought the battles of the repub
lie for the preservation of this nation
for the destruction of slavery. These
seldierA these sailors, on land and sea
disheartened by no defeat, discouraged
by no obstacle, appalled, by no danger
neither paused nor swerved, until q
stainless flag, without rival, flo ted
over all our wide domain, and, until
every human being beneath its folds
was absolutely free. Thunderous ap
plause] The great victory for human
rights, the greatest of all the years
had been won, even by the Union mer
of the North, by the Union men oil
the South, and by those who had beer
slaves. Liberty was national; slavery
was dead. [Applause.
WHAT THE FLAG MEANS.
The flag for which the heroes fought
for which they died, is the symbol o.
all we are, of all we hope to be. 1t i.
the emblem of equal rights. 1t means
free hands, free lips, self government
and the sovereignty of the individual