The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-05-31

rights that 10 secure these rights in
sttuted amongst men, and that they derive their Just
powers from the consent of the governed. At that
time the assertion of these truths meant war. 1t
meant war with tho greatest power On earth For
issue regardless of the inequality of the conflict In
material resources the United Colonies seemed naked
to their enemy. Weak as they were they entered
tSgp sr sas need no re
call its history. You know it by heart
1t is full of inspiration There is wholesome tonic in
Barefoot and bleeding unfed and unpaid the ragged
Continentals carried that unequal struggle for
eight long dreary years. Need ! pause to eulogize
thems Their fame is craven On your memories.
Patriotism and valoy lave not, and cannot have,
nobler exemplaEs. The statesmen of that period by
their untirIng devotion to freedom, divided honors
with the gallant men who wore the buff.
life may be given in many ways,
And loyalty to truth be sealed
AS bravely in the closet as the field,
So bountiful is fate
1t Is their glory to which superlative adjective and
ford rhetoric can add nothing that they made the
Constitution of the United States. 'The American
Constitution. said Gladstone is the most wonderful
work struck off at given time by the brain and
.magnifes that wonderful work 1t is the first
welldefned and limited written scheme
Of pss i EVER It's ssasnss and IS
classification of powers, and in its details it is
model for all time and it is without possibility
of Improvement 1t organized the first government
founded on religious and civil liberty
Looking back century at the work of the
revolutionary fathers, only mistake is alleged
ton of the equality Of all men, they had in the
ganic law recognized and tolerated the sin of human
slavery. 1t was done in evil hour, in spirit of
concession and compromise Nations sin well
men. and nations sin is to find it out
mans sins will find him out. Sin is the hardest of
creditors and the most heartless of usurers. Its
debts payable without relief of limitation, and
without benefit OF exemption. 1t relentessly en-
forces full payment of It's bond and takes its pound of
flesh with blood. The truth will not be denied
As long there slave in the land it was de-
nia of the truth of the equality of men. The slave
power grew by what it fed on Itgrew strong and ar
rogant. Cotton was crowned king and slavery
declared its prophet It soon dominated both the
government and the people of this country. The
masters of slaves the masters of politics and of
free government earth was controlled and oper
ated for the most part of the first seventy years of its
existence by oligarchy Of shareholders. The land
of the FREQ was the home of the slave This condi
Freedom and slavery are born enemies, and between
them there is irrepressble and everlasting conflict
MED TO others the liberties they themselves enjoyed
Conflict was inevitable. Concession and compromise
served only to delay the day of final struggle.
The war of the Rebellion al Ike the test and the
perfection of the work of the fathers Slavery forced
the issue. The alleged dogma of State rights
only polite pretext and apology for the real
cause of Had there been no slavery there would
have been no The salvation of slavery was the
moving cause in which the mad guns trained on
Sumter The dogma of State rights rested on slavery
and 1t formulated and advocated in its interests
The trainers Of the Constitution recognized slavery in
roundabout phrase, but carefully omitted any express
mention OF it by name. So too the Shareholders of
and the State rights dogma was made to do duty for
slavery. Naturally enough slavery subjected popular
government to its severest test.
The of the Rebellion was the supreme and final
test of free government earth. The highest hopes
and nobest aspirations of humanity involved in
the issue 1t mighty struggle of ideas supported
" mat ayap
before engaged in The conflict from first to last
armed nearly 1000 900 of men. For four years war
was the business of nation of 30 600 900 of people
Across continent from the great to the great
rivers. mountains aud plains, the smoke of
battles darkened the skies with pillars of clouds by
day and the camps of bivouacked armies lighted them
with pillars Of fires by night The thunders of the
heavens silencsd by the thunder of the guns
"Such din there
AS if men fought on earth below
And fends in upper air.
The very waters turned to blood, and the thirsty
earth drank it like wine. 1t wine fit for the
munion of freedom. The lives Of more than half a
million Of men were offered up as willing sacrifices
and the blood were not in vain. God
went before and led the Union hosts through the red
of There is time of peace and time of
war; and the time Of war was come The cause of the
Union was the cause of mankind 1t was freedoms
war. They who died in its unfolding died for their
deaths and consecrated the ground where they sleep
Alas, few are left. the dead many. The majority
OF the gallant men that under the flag OF country
battled for it's -ife, sleeping their last sleep.
''The sleep that knows no breaking
Morn of toll nor night of waking
They are halted the wide plains, on the big
mountains by the sweet-watered rivers and by the
salt seas Their graves are scattered over half
tnent. Nay not scattered, they close together and
side by side thick the stars that brighton the dark
nights The time is not far and the years will not be
cross the dark river to join the great armies gone
before.
My fellow-citzsns the duty will then devolve upon
YOU each returning Memorial Day, to scatter oyer
their graves the first sweet flowers of spring The
memory of the Union soldier must not die. The
he fought for must not be obscured forgot
ten. The for the Union conflict between
right and wrong, between truth and error The
Union soldier stood ombattod the side of right and
truth. The confederate soldier stood arrayed the
side of wrong and error The Union canse right,
and it is right forever The cause of the Rebellion
wrong and it is wrong forever. Always. my fell
owcitzens remember this; and whom the last soldier
is gone remember too. there must never be any
cessions OF compromise upon that. Right is right
and wrong is wrong to the end of the worlds reckon
ing. The success of the Union arms the triumph
of right over wrong, OF truth over
The escaped corpse of the lost cause, that few
weeks since staked abroad and squeaked and gbbsred
in the streets burst his cerements in vain Tho cause
which had for its object the establishment of gov
eminent founded slavery In the last half of the
nineteenth century, cannot liye save the memory
will always be linked with the of slavery while
the of mad John Brown, of Kansas whose white
soul is marching on. will always be battleery of
freedom The lost is lost and it is lost forever
1t is dead, past revival resurrection 1t ia dead
and it is damned The relish of salvation Is not in it,
1t is the castout devil of the Nation 1t is
q lost hope and lost fear It's flag is furled
forever II down in deserved defeat and doomed
disaster There is place in all the wide universal
try and without To fly it on the high seas
would be piracy. and to faunt it a living emblem
as the emblem of not dead-any where in this
broad land is eason. There is In this coun-
try but for flag This banner Of the stars and
stripes is the flag of country. 1t floats from
to from the North to the South every inch
of vast national domain the sign and the symbol
of the Nations sovereignty and supremacy In this
free the confederate flag is as much out
In the recognition of the valor of the confederate
sodierin the recognition of all his rights as citizen
lin kindly and fraternal feeling toward him per-
sonally the Union soldier yields to none. All honor
the confederate soldier, such, for his courage
Honor be to him and praise for his devotion to a
cause, though wrong, he believed was right Scatter
n - - all Hl