Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1885-06-04
Decoration nay.

dent beauty. The committee on ar
engagements had provided commodious
speaking booth in courthouse square
and temporary seats for fully 1000 per-
sons; but this seating capacity proved
far too limited, as a crowd Of fully $500
people was on the grounds at the be-
ginning of the exercises. They began
arriving early in the day, and by 10
O'Clock it was evident that, whatever
ceremonies might be observed at
other points, to detain the people at
their own localities. the number who
would be present in Lancaster had been
greatly underestimated
At few minutes past in the after
noon Tom Cox post, G. A. r., assembled
at its quarters in the Budd block, and,
preceded by the Lancaster city band,
moved thence under command of Capt.
lvey to the monument in the square,
which was tastefully and appropriately
decorated with Grape and flowers. The
veterans, numbering about thirty. hay-
ing finished their tribute of respect,
moved in column to the grand stand.
where seats Immediately in front of the
speaker had been reserved for them.
The exercises were opened by Col
Clark, who gave succinct and inter-
esting history of the Grand Army of the
Republic. to which, he said, had been
relegated almost universally the obser-
vance of the day. The idea of the or
ganization was original with Chaplain
Rutledge, but its practical execution
was the work of Major Stevenson, of
Springfield. ILL.,. who was its first COM
mander and who had lived to see the
roster of this fraternity of soldiers con-
tain 100, 900 names.
Prayer was offered by the Rev. MIR.
Eaton of the Congregational church, and
the choir followed with patriotic Sc
lection.
| With pertinent request for the audi
ence to observe silence. Col. Clark then
introduced the orator of the day, Hon.
r, M. La Toilette, of Madison, whose
effort was an agreeable surprise to all.
Departing from the usual custom of
orators, but in no sense departing from
appropriateness to the occasion. Mr.. La
Toilette spoke almost wholly upon the
problem of race differences in the South
of the danger threatening the peace
of the Union through the antagonism of
the whites and blacks, n danger that is
growing in proportions and urgency
with the lapse of time. He showed in
an eloquent and logical manner how
the Southern people, when at last COM
PEELED by the fortunes of war to lay
down their arms, did not at the same time
lay aside any of those political and
social views which had been instilled
into them from their youth to manhood,
and which. in their ardent and chivalric
natures, had grown to be with them al
most religion. Nor was there any
thing in the results of their struggle
their ruined fortunes. dead comrades,
shattered hopes, and the sight OF their
former slaves raised to political and
social equality with them before the law
that was calculated to change those
views; but on the contrary every condi-
ton and result acted to wed them closer
and iirmer to all their previous ideas
and tenets. With this feeling on the
part of the proud and ignorant whites,
and feeling of growing independence,
but with suspicious of injustice. on the
part of the equally ignorant colored
population, twenty years had passed,
and the two races were farther apart
now, politically and socially, than ever
before. The colored man has achieved
in those years considerable general
knowledge, but little education or re-
finement, an with his general knowl-
edge OF his rights and of his wrongs, he
has come to conceive deep hatred for
his white neighbOrs. He sees himself
ostracised, and disbarred all neighborly
/ intercourse-in the churches, in the
/ schools, on the farm. or in the work
shop and the iron is ut last entering
his soul. On the other hand. the white
is underbid by the negro in all branches
of competitive industry, because he can
perform the labor cheaper, and is I'M
dersold, because the negro can live
cheaper, and conduct his business with
far less costly ostentation. Pride can
not long withstand cupidity, and the
poorer people, yielding to the desire to
purchase of the cheapest seller, deal
with the negro. So constantly and so
generally do the two races come INTO
competition that the spirit of hatred is
constantly fostered. and grows instead
of dying ont. And so strained has the
situation become that the most inteli-
gent whites have already foreseen the
danger and sent up n cry to the coun-
try to save them from war of the
races. Two methods have been pro-
posed () The colonization of the me-
gro By himself. and (2) The education
of the poorer classes south-both black
and white. The first is altogether I'M
practicable, as has been proven, and any
further attempt to put it in practice (by
reason of the increased intelligence of
the negro and the formation of local
ties) would only be fraught with blood
shed and horror. The other suggestion
that of liberal appropriations by the
general government for the education
If the ignorant classes South - the
speaker regarded as the correct remedy.
BY this means, and this alone, he con-
tended, the war of races might be trans
ferred from conflict of brute force to
the FORENSIC arena, and to time and cir
cumstances must be left the final out
come The black man is still ward of
the nation. We have freed him from
the chains of slavery; we are now in
duty bound TO free him from the thrall
OF ignorance, for which condition the
nation is fully as responsible as for his
previous condition of servitude. 1t was