Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1883-05-28
penetrate hi. being and stir hi. affection.

\
other ideas which filed the soul of dismem-
bered country. which gave each aggressive
movement and each resisting column, thro'
weary months and saddening years, or loss
and bloodshed, such terrible persisfency, was
the nation. 1t may be said indeed. that the
nation was in sense the idea on the other
side as well as on ours, with this difference
I that thev wished to make new Nation: we
wished to keep the old On the one side 1t
was a struggle to create. on the other TO pre-
serve. Both were forceful ideas: both led TO
almost superhuman exertions and untold sac
rifices. Without arguing which, of the two
was right, the result has given tremendous
impetus to that idea. which possessed and
I upbere the successful side. The idea of
the Nation was strong before the contest, but
/ il is UNNECESSARILY stronger since The fact
that IL was called in question, disputed, de-
MED. fought against, and yet thro' all that If
maintained and enlarged its ground. has
placed il now out of the region of doubt, has
given it its proper supremacy. What then:
The Nation stands to-day the solid rock
which has been formed out fthe seething ele-
ments of the cortending forces, out of the ter
rifle struggles, the fire and blood, the CHASTITY
wounds, the perishing life which entered into
the Irresistible conflict" The force, | say.
OF both sides went into this consolidation
Out of the deep of those mutual woes, as
from some subterranean depth. the rock has
been formed anew. 1t is no longer a ques-
ton of sides. The rock is seamless. In
after centuries, some wise professor with his
train of students from Harvard, Yale or
Bowdoin, will strike this rock with his ham,
mer, and pronounce it a politico-geologic
formation. a piece of natures best hsndi
work All. yes: my friends. not one side,
but the contending forces Of both sides, are
- ..-t1 4
sultant of every internal conflict of the Nation.
On the one side there may bea huge bunder,
but the very force with which it is persisted
in. as well as the force which it takes To cor
rect il. enters into and forms part of the
quality and grandeur of the result. The
blander may be most b!ame-worthy, but
neither the evils which gave it occasion. nor
the severe remedy which il took to correct it,
can hide from ou- eyes the fact that the ordeal
is one to which two sides have contributed to
a stupendous result We may not feel even
now like thanking the other side for calling
US out after such fashion. But this is a
day OF reconciliation, and the once contend
ing brothers, now at peace, may calmly and
reverently stand beside the monument of
their sacrifices and labor, and thank God that
he has oyer-ruled them to the common good.
Thus indeed do great states rise into place
before the world, thus the ideal Nation be-
comes an established reality. thus is National
sentiment cemented We are, Them in a
certain sense "a new creation " The union
lives on, but it rests on higher and firmer
ground than before. Some old things have
passed away. some things are become new and
we reach ''forth unto the things which are
before" There is now no occasion for re-
viving sectional antpathies. There no
sections now. What were open questions
once are now closed forever. Ar brethren
had their idea, and we ours. They fought
for what they wanted and found something
else. We fought for our idea and won it;
ours has now become theirs. There is no
''theirs or ours now, but the Nation
one, and inseparable now and forever.
The instrument then which brought this
idea of the Nation INTO its position of
supremacy. So as to make it an irresistible
force-what was it? 1t was war; War has
always been, / believe always will be, an
accessory and yet more condition at some
time or other of national life. If in its
physical effects it is filled with horrors, it
has its solemnizing character, and its moral
effects are unmistakable. As physical scourge
like a pestlence famine, war is hateful;
it is hateful account of the passions of
those who originate it, and on account of the
excuses in those who served in it. And it
may seem strange how Christianity can have
any relation other than hostile to it. But
apart from the fact that Christianity
recognizes the right of war by its original
recognition of Nations, there is one
side of the moral character of war,
which has its counterpart in the Christian
type. In war the individual encounters death
for the sake of the body to which he belongs
The spirit of sacrifice. this makes christian
it, the divinest of revelations, and this is the
noble side Of warfare. War is the heroic
| form among hu nanity's subimer ministries.
BY such ministries, inwrought into Nations
being, the Nation itself becomes sacred
creation-men suffering for each other. one
member of the human body bearing the bur-
den and participating in the grief of another
1t is this serious and sacred function its me-
diatorial significance which consecrates war,
and makes its offerings sacred in the memory
of the living. This is its solemn morality.
This begets the deeper feeling within mems
hearts, after some great National sacrifice of
life. and makes the soldiers grave, National
epic. That the Nation may rise. the individ-
ual sinks into the abyss: he vanishes as
drop that waters the earth, yet he does not
murmur; it is his function, il is his ap-
pontment; the member is bound to
the body. the unit exists for the
whole In battle ITSELF so we have it pic
! tured, a mass moves, advances, wins and oc-
cuplcs without one look 10 ls gaps: re-
morseless identity carries 1t thro' all; the
whole is the same while the parts disappear
at every step, and the great unit moves on
without a pause to its goal. SO it is with the
Nation itself: before it is the glorified whole,
and behind it are the strewn and scattered
fragments everywhere upon the ground. The
Nation pursues its road to greatness and to
the individuals it only belongs to saw, ''Are
Caesar, moriturt te saiutaat Farewell Caesar
those who are about to die. salute thee. Thus
| history is formed. Thus Nations are born.
grow and are glorified. 1t BELTS us to
member that through and out of such ordeals
We have become what we are; that National
sentiment is vain thing. but the incense of
manhoods keenest sacrifices, the Nation-the
price of the rarest offerings in the sight of
God and man.
( The price has been honestly paid; the
Nation is Americas proud and perpetual pos
session. In after generations when our child
ren's children are daudliAg their children on
their knees. and while bows and girls are dog
caring their history, the patre -farnilias will
get off something of this sort by way of
soliloquy. ''By divers old authentic histories
and chronicles. it is manifestly declared and
expressed that these United States of America
/ are a Nation, and so hath been accepted By
the world with pleparv whole and entire