Roseburg review. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 1885-1920, 1885-08-07
4 Reunited Country.

While listening to the simple and
joyous melodies of the Nashville Stu
dents last week our mind wandered
back to the olden days when these
people were the children of bondage.
We thought of the wild and exces-
siYe sympathy which stirred the soul of
John Brown; of the heartfelt enthusi-
asm that inspired the tongue Of Wen
dell Phillips. The stirring invectives
of Garrison and Sumner came to mind
mingled with the Political prescience of
the great Seward. Lincoln's kind and
homely face, with its great wrinkles of
pity and sorrow stood cut in massive
relief For an instant we wandered to
the coffin of him who yet lies in state
the great leader of the sword-U. S.
Grant. Fancy clustered the scenes of
olden days together from the first
whisperings Of abolitionism up through
the grand eloquence of the clash of
arms. The defeated were there too.
Lee, with his manly and great attri-
butes, the idol Of lost cause. Stone
wall Jackson as he passed out of the
great strife to ''rest under the shade
of the trees" Yancey ever the typ
ical hre-eater of the south with his
magic eloquence, and in the back
ground, the frm-cut, classic features
of the great logician John @. Calhoun
Out from the contest of arms, out of
the settlement of the inevitable con
f1ict we came to look upon our country
to-day. We see it united and in a
vigorous strength. We see the old
sectional lines wiped out. There is no
longer any South or North as in years
gone by. The victor and the van
quished have shaken hands in sacred
fellowship over a reunited country.
The hero of the North has become the
hero of the South. Around the bier
Of Grant the confederate bows his head
with as much tenderness aud respect
as he who in the olden time followed
the hero from Donelson, Vicksburg,
Shiloh on to Richmond Aud why
noN 1t was tie one sole and single
issue of slavery tEat caused the war;
It has Teen wiped from the face
of the civilized world and those
who were blind have received the
light The dead past should bury
its dead Its dead are the anmosities,
prejudices and the wicked institution
that caused the war. But the past
must ever live green in the hearts of
Americans. 1t must be sung in songs
of transcendent glory, the minis rel=boy
must strike his sublimest notes, his
tory must glow as though receunting
the splendor of fabled age. The
wreaths of laurel must be twined by
the hands Of genius to place upon the
brow of the victor The lessons of
moderation, of quiet faith and exalted
patriotism must live forever and burn
into the hearts of our youth!
How exalted is the character of the
American Union. The sword that
flashed in victory at Shiloh, at Donel-
on, at Vicksburg has answered that
the Union is indissoluble and eternal
Abide with us sweet faithl We will
not doubt. The great questions of the
past have only been answered to the
glory of our country; and when, If ever,
the days grow dark again. If capital
should become two selfish and labor
unable to protect itself, we should re-
member the patriotism and the yalor
of the American people is as limitless
as space; and although the heart may
grow heavy and the soul fear the future
yet within all there is the grand faith
that God himself has chosen the new
world to demonstrate that self-govern-
pent shall be an eternal and perpetual
Effet,