Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1883-08-18
SPRINGFIELD.

SPRINGFIELD.
All the speeches at Springfield were
eloquent. When we say this it Is moi
to pay . stllted compliment to the
speakers, or to utter a commonplace
simply to be polite. We know very
well that all the speakers we,e not ora
tors. Still, all the speeches were elo-
quent. Why? Some of them were
neither grammatic nor ornate, proba-
bly,, but nevertheless they were elo-
quent. The reason is not hard to find.
It is very simple. The speeches were
eloquent because they were felt. They
came from the heart. The surround
ings inspired. The warm pressure Of
the olasped hands; the occasional tear
dimmed eye, IS the memory of q dead
comrade was revived; the patriotism
of love which filed the blue for the gray
and the gray for the blue; the bearing
aloft by Union and confederate SOL
diers of both flags intertwined upon
the same staff; the weeping of widows
as they pressed the folds Of either to
their hearts in memory Of their loved
and lost heroes-all Of these were there
to elevate the soul above the mean or
narrow thoughts of life, and the men
who were chosen to give voice to the
of the thousands assembled,
pervaded with their thoughts, moved
by the fire of their enthusiasm, spoke
and spoke eloquently. All did well.
All spoke of love, not one Of hate. All
the vslor and the manhood and
the patriotism of their opponents. The
placed first the names Of Lee
and Jackson; the confederate first
the valor and ~generalship Of
Grant and Sherman.
Occasionally sven now there Is found
some person with whom the war is not
over. Invariably on inquiry it il ascer-
tanned that people Of that sort waited
to do their fighting tin the war was
over. At Springfield there were no
persons Of that kind. There We're too
many genuine veteran soldiers for pre-
tenders to be loud.
The men who were boys and young
mon twenty-five years ago marched
side by side with grixzled boards and
whitening hair. The better part of
these mems lives lies buried In the past.
They lost fathers, brothers, friends, in
that terrible carnage of four years.
Since that time they have buried, here
. wife, there . tender, lovely daugh-
ter; another, perhaps, . well-beloved
and sturdy son, the pride and hope Of
his parents.
Twenty two years. il.
TWENTY-FIVE years out of the lives Of
men who were men when they began.
What changes have been wrought in
those ysars2 Then these men were
enemies. They met to fight to the
death. They were at war in its Bit
terest sense. They hated each other
and desired nothing so much as to
MAIN, to kill, to embarrass their enemy.
War is . cruel thing. 1t means sword
and fire, death and desolation. Inspir-
I'D each by . sense Of duty these men
were at war in earnest. Who upon
sither side on the 10th day of August,
l86l,oould have forseen this 10th day of
1882 Not one. Who would
have believed that tho mon who led the
opposing legions then would now speak
each other the loving words and true
which we quote elsewhere?
There was no gush at Springfield.
Those who did the talking were not
aamby PANTY creatures, but stalwsrt
'oldiers and able bodied men. They
and grandly came together,
'ormer foes, present friends. They tes-
flied n to another, ss in 1861 the
nation fought a civil war
'uch as no nation ever fought before, so
when it was ended they set to the
world in their mutual forgiveness and
an example of magnanimi-
~ and generosity such a. the world
had never seen.
There have been meetings of the blue
and the gray before. Soldiers of other
wars have afterward met in peace and
but nowhere that we recall have
the soldiers Of two armies, upon the
battlefield where they looked into each
others eyes in hate, all snimosity de-
afterward met In brotherly
love and f~raternal union.
There were none at Springfield to
say that all this was due to the mercy
Of the conqueror. 1t is always harder
for the beaten to forgive. The battle of
the Boyne was fought nearly two hun
dred years ago. Still to-day the mar
tial strains of the music which bears its
name will stir almost to riot the Irish
populace Of eur cities. The republic is
well established in France, The en-
preceded It. Still La Vsndee IL
oven now loyal to its anointsd sover-
eigns and to the cause Of monarchy.
The highlands and the lowlands have
ceased their forays upon each other,
but there still pulsates In the bosom of
every loy.l Scott = Jealousy and dis
trust Of tho people of the south. The
Teuton and the Gaul patch up peace
but are sver enemies. The Israelite,
himself for centuries at war with all
his neighbors, has since for other GEN.
turtles found almost all other people at
enmity with his. And 30 history goes
on to multiply the instances Of the per-
manence of hate. But q benignant
Providence has in this instance quick
ly and radically converted former foes
into present friends.
At Springfield no martial music was
tabooed. The anthems of the union
were echoed by the airs which inspired
upon the march the soldiers of the
lost cause, and as the stars and stripes
and stars and bars lovingly 1oated
from the same staff, the men who bore
them sang the measures of each others
music. The blue and the gray mingled
as occupants of the same tents. shared