The Saline County journal. [volume] (Salina, Kan.) 1871-1893, 1883-03-15
iNGERsoIL's ELOQUENT VISION.

The following remarkably eloquent
words are taken from Col. 1ngersolfs
brilliant address To the veteran SOL
diers Mt indianapolis
The past, rs IL were, rises before me
like "A dream. Again We are in the
great struggle for National life. We
hear the sound of preparation-the
music of the boisterou- drums-the
silver voices of the heroic bugles We
see thousands of assemblages, and hear
the appeals III orators: we see the pale
checks of women, and the flushed
faces of men; and in those a>-cInbiages
we see all the dead whose dust we
have covered with flowers. We lose
sight OF them no more. We are with
them when they enlist III the great
army of freedom. We see them part
with those they love. Some are walk
ing Cor the last time in quiet woody
places with the maidens they adore
We hear the whisperings and the
sweet VOWS of eternal love as they lin
geringly part forever. Others are
bending over cradles kissing babies
that are asleep. Some are receiving
the blessings of old men. Some are
parting with mothers who hold them
Itfs- kfltlfl III tIltlE
and again, and say nothing and some
are talking with wives. aud endeavnr-
ing, with brave words spoken i'm the
old tones To- drive away the awful fear
W. see them part. We see the wife
standing in the door with the babe i'm
her arms-slanding ia the sunlight
~Ohhing-at the turn of the road IA
hand wavcs-she answers by holding
high i'm her loving hands the child.
He j. gone. and forever.
We see them all ~ they march
proudly away under the Haunting
flags, keeping time Ia the wild grand
music of merchandising down I'll.
streets of the great cities-throush the
towns and across the prairieS-dewn
tn the fields of glory, To do and Ia die
for the eternal right.
We go with them one aud all We
are 10y their side on all the glorious
fields. in all the hospitals of pain-on
all the weary marches. We stand
guard with them ia the wild storm
and under the quiet stars. We are
with them in ravincs Running with
blood-in the burrows of old fields, we
are with them between contending
hosts, unable To move, wild with thirst
the life blood ehbing slowly away
among the withered leaves. We see
them pierced 10y balls and torn with
shells ia the trenches of forts. and in
the whirlwini of the charge, where
men become iron with nerves of steel
We are with them in the prisons of
hatred AMI famine. but human speech
can never tell what they endured.
We are at home when the news
comes that they are dead We see the
maiden in the shadow OF her sorrow.
We see the si!veretl head OF the old I
man bowed with the las, grief
The past rises before Us. and We see /
four millions of human beings gov |
erned 10y the iash-we see them bound 4
hand aud foot-we hear the strokes of
cruel whips-we see hounds tracking I
women through tangled swamps We !
see babes sold from the breasts of /
mothers. Cruelty unspeakable, Out /
rage infinite,
-Four million bodies i'm chains-four
million souls in fetters. All the sa-
:red relations of wife, mother. father
in1 child, trampled beneath the foot
VI might. And all this was done TN
Ter our own beautiful banner of the
rec
The past rises before us. We hear
the roar and shrek Of the bursting
hell The broken fctters fall. There
heroes die. We look Instead of slaves
y" SEE men and women and children
| he wand of progress touches the auc.
the siavepen, and the whip
ling post and we see homes and fire
iacS, ami school houses ana books,
mi where ali was want STE the faces of
he free.
These heroes are dead. They died
or liherty-they died f1r us. They
ire AT rest. Thcy sleep in the land
hey made free, under the solemn
lines, the hemlock. the fearful will
ows, the embracing vines. They
leep beneath the shadows of the
LIQUIDS, careless alike of sunshine or
torn. each in the windowless palace
4 rest. Earth may run red with other
rars-thcy are AT peace. In the midst
{ battle. in the roar of death have
me sentiment for the soldiers living
nd iead-cheors for the living and
ears for the dead.