Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1886-06-03
and nights they pass without a DIR,


mud without shelter or food or fire? of
the march through snow storms, over
frozen roads where the soldier can be
tracked by the blood from his lacerated
! feet? of their sickness and sufferings in
hospitals far away from home and all
its comforts. unsoothed by the loving
, hands; at home themselves aching that
they cannot soothe; or yet of the great
est Of all the trials, sufferings and hor-
rors, the search over the battlefield for
the missing. That word missing speaks
volumes to soldier Those who have
not answered roll-call, are wounded
prisoners, or dead. These are the chances
soldier takes, but fortunately he has
no choice among them How many com
rades who are living to-day when with
ing with suffering from their wounds
envieds and would have joyously changed
places with his peaceful dead comrade
by his sidel And how few of the An
Jacksonville prisoners who have not a
thousand times prayed for death to re-
lease them from their miseries that were
beyond the power Of words to portray
and beyond the power of anyone not a
prisoner to conceive; but thank God
they could not choose, and many are
with us to-day
But we are on the battlefield; here
| is death in all its horrors; ave, and
worse, for the dead are at rest, peaceful;
but here lies our beloved comrade
wounded, plaintiyely imploring drop
OF water or some other small service.
| Others wounded 50 as to destroy their
self-control, screaming such screams
that the heart shudders at the memory.
| But who can describe it. Here rider
and horse fallen together; here one com
rade torn asunder by she'll; there one
wounded and his dead horse lying upon
him; another whose features are SO torn
and mangled by artillery horses and
wheels passing over him that identified
ton is impossible; here again lie scores,
fallen as in wind-rows the wounded, the
dying, the dead. But why extend this
picture? This is war, and what can they
know of war?
| War is the aggregation of all horrors,
all villianies; and that potentate and
statesman who, having the power I'M
looses the dread demon, War, except it
be in the defense of some inalienable
human right, is himself demon.
What can they know of the determin-
alton of loyal men of the Nation to save
its life? History tells Of the hundreds
of thousands of lives laid down to save
it, of the mountains Of debt it cost.
These tell much, but they give no ade-
quate conception to one not of that
time.
Our martyred Emancipation with his
unequaled powers of COMPRISING much
in the fewest words, in the last inaugur-
al, thus gives the best expression to
this determination: "Fondly do we hope,
fervently do we pray, that this mighty
scourge of war may speedily pass away;
yet if God wills that it continue until
all the wealth piled by the bondsman's
two hundreds and fifty years of unre-
Quilted toll shall be sunk, and until every
drop of blood drawn by the lash shall be
paid with another drawn by the sword, "
so still must it be done. And it was
| done
What mighty power was this loyal
determination was best shown by that
central astounding fact that President
Lincoln, as the mouthpiece Of this loyal
determination, with the warrant of no
other law, could, with the breath of
speech, sever the shackles that bound
four million bondmen, and bid them
stand erect before God and man, forever
| free.
Oh, what sublime power, born of
sublime determination Through it and
by it, by the expenditure of mountains
of debt, of rivers of loyal blood, and by
the infinite sacrifices of our hundreds of
thousands of honored dead, the Union
was saved, and better yet, was purified
of the one blot that had Heretofore
sullied and befouled our national cs
cutcheon.
The cost Of that struggle was stu
pendous, immeasurable-- infinite to these
dead heroes whose memories we to-
day especially revere, for what more can
a man give than his life? But it had
many compensations, and one the most
enduring, one which shall certainly en-
dure and illume with halo of hope the
darkest hours of the future, so long as
the Nation shall have history or tradi
ton, is the glorious name and public
career of Abraham Lincoln It is the
proudest boast of the generation of 1861
that Abraham Lincolnis ours.
We and our dead comrades gave much
to our country, but the choicest gift of
that generation and all that they added
to the common heritage of the fore
fathers, clusters around the name of
Abraham Lincoln Pinnacled by cir
cumstances upon the mountain top. the
central figure of the world, standing
there through those terrible four wears
in the MONDAY glare of sunlight, the
scrutiny of world focused upon him
could find no blot upon his patriotism
no impurity in his unselfsh love of
country and humanity.
His attributes were Godike. And
when the war was ended God himself.
knowing this patriot had reached the
summit of human fame and that another
step might be downward, in mercy to
him. and as an inestimable boon to all
future generations as shining exem-
plar of American patriotism, permitted
him, through the agency of a human
tiend, to step from that highest ring of
the ladder of human greatness into
eternal rest, eternal fame-into heaven.
/ The Union was saved That phrase
is pregnant with meaning; volumes
could not tell all it means
Astronomers tell us that the sun is
Approximately 90 millions Of miles from
the earth That statement gives a
meager idea of the distance. To realize
it we must pick it to pieces. We say it
! is ten miles to Georgetown. We get a
better understanding of 1000 miles
, when we say it is approximately 100
times 10 to New York, 25 times 1000
miles around the earth and $3.50 times
J around the world gives the distance to
the sun. So with this pregnant state
ment THE Union was sayedr | can't
divide this up into figures, but | will
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