The times., 1889-06-07
WHOLE NO. 47e

that great struggle, have won for themselves
the brightest wreaths and fairest fame that
can bedeck and honor the citizen of great
nation. And the fact that you fought, and
made the sacrafice, will always be remem-
bered and pointed at with pride by your
children and your children's children.
The Individual may not be sought out
but the honors you have won will always
remain to you the same; the badge you wear
upon your breast today will always bespeak
for him who wears it rightfully, love of
country and loyalty to the republic that is
more honorable than any other distinction
or rank that can be conferred upon you
for the memory Of the boys in blue who
stood in the breach, in the days that tried
mems souls, will never go out, but, as the
years go by will grow brighter and brighter.
And because of the great honor and dis
tinction you have won, because of the badge
of fraternity, charity and loyalty" that
your brothers and comrades have placed up-
on your breast, and above all because of the
memory of the hOnored dead, L entreat
you today, that you wear your honOrs like
men, and that every man of you live such
upright, honorable lives that not star in
the crown of honor you have won be dimed,
but rather so live and so demean yourselves
that their luster be increased, so that il shall
become to be truism and without question
that to say of comrade he was q union
soldier in the great war of the Rebellion will
be to say, he is an honorable man, q true
and upright citizen.
Months and years have passed and we
have lived until we have spanned nearly a
quarter of a century since the great struggle
was over, and now many of us have children
born since the war that are older than we
were when we wore the blue, but at this
distance of time the historywe made is be-
ing read more generally and with greater
interest than ever before, and how many
things there are that seem so strange that
they could have happened when we read the
reports and consider the situation. Why it
seemsto me, as L contemplate the causes
and results of the war, thatthere is but
one way to account for our great deliverance
as nation, and that, that the hand of
AN ALL WISE PROVIDENCE
guided our tounsels and our arms
and finally brought us the victory.
The very commotion and contention that
brought on the contest bespeaks the truth
of this statement. Think of il. No nation
was boasting more of her free institutions
than ours, our orators, statesmen and writ
ers proclaimed, our poets sung-that this
was the home of the free. 1t ,Uas not true.
Writhing beneath their CALLING chains, dy-
ing from over tasks and the drivers lash,
were four millions of human beings i'm
slavery in this America of ours, and that
slavery protected by law. And for nearly
three-quarters of century the crack of the
slave-driver's whip, that drove these mill
ions of dOwn-trOdden human beings TO toll
In broiling southern sun as slaves, and
the eloquent strains from our great orators
and statesmen proclaiming that this was
the home of the free, the asylum for the
oppressed, and the ''Oh God, we thank thee
for this great free country of ours, with its
institutions so human, and its educational
and moral teachings so free that all may
partake," mingled together and filled the
air with vain bOastings, aye, went up to the
throne of divine and merciful Father, who
with pity looked down upon these oppressed
millions, that we as a nation were driving
like dumb cattle, until out from an Offend
ed God there came the: "Woe unto you
Pharisees, hypocrites! for you are like unto
whited sepulchers which indeed appear
beautiful outward but are within full of
dead mems bones, and all uncleanneSs.
Even so ye also Outwardly appear righteous
unto men, but within we are full of hypOc-
rasy and iniquity."
SO FAR AWAY FROM THE DESIGNS OF OUR
FATHERS
who founded the nation had we drifted
that nothing but revolution could right up
the old ship of state. What wonderful
thing indeed that the nation was saved at all
Think of 1t; after months, IL not years of
deliberate planning, by men who had the
control of the government, to great extent,
Senators and Representatives from the Sc
ceeding states, arose in their places and with
treason in their hearts and on their lips left
their places in the hall to join the enemies
of the republic. The army, with the lead
ers whom the nation had educated in the
arts of war, turned against us largely. Our
navy gone, our treasury bankrupt,
new and untried administration just assum-
lug control. Arsenals, ships, munitions and
ammunition of war seized by those who plotted
our destruction. Guns that had looked out
of their embraziers of defense of our coun-
try, now turned against us, to belch forth
their fire and destruction upon the nation
they had defended.
BUT GOD WAS IN THE STORM
whose terrible blackness over shadowed us
and raised up to us our Moses who was to lead
us out OF the Wilderness tnat seemed some
times to have no ending and out of the dark
ness that sometimes seemed to have no
dawn of light, and today the whole nation
north, south, east and west do but exclaim
with one accord God bless, and forever keep
fresh and green the name, memory and
fame of Abraham Lincoln.
How wisely he led us, how tenderly he
cared for us. In his inaugural address
when surrounded by contending factions
and almost within the shadow and hearing
of preparations for the destruction of the
Union, he uttered those words that today
as we read them and remember what has
transpired seem to us as though they were
directed by divine inspiration. Listen to
them: IF the almighty ruler of nations
with his eternal truth and justice be OH your
side of the north or on yours of the
south, that truth and that justice will
surely prevail by the Judgment of this
great tribunal of the American people,"
and although surrounded on all sides by
bitter opposition, he carried steady hand.
| He weighed well the demands and great
responsibilities of the position he occupied,
and when the time came that he must
make q proclamation calling for troops, he
| an,