Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1889-05-11

the nation in armed Indignation. What
could come but determinations
AT the opening Of the war the com
mander-in chief Of the United States
forces was a man who had been great in
battle, but old age had come with many
lnfirmities, and he had a right to quletude.
He could not noun a horse, and he rode
on the battle field in a carriage, asking
the driver not to jolt too much. During
the most of the four years Of the contest,
on the southern side was a man in mid
life, who had in his veins tho blood OF
many generations OF warriors, himself
one Of the heroes of Cherubusco and
Cerro Gordo, Contreras AID Chapultepec.
As the years passed on the scroll OF car
mage unrolled. there anne out from both
sides a heroism and a strength and a de-
termination that the world had never
seen marshaled. And what but extermi.
nation could come when Philip Sheridan
and Stonewall Jackson met, and Ma
THAMES Lyon and Sidney Johnston rode
in from north and south, and Grant and
Lee, the two thunderbolts OF battle,
Clashed? Yet, we are a nation, n yet
we are at peace. Earthly courage did
not decide the conflict. The upper forces
of the text. They tell us there was a
battle fought above the clouds on Look
out mountain; but there was something
higher than that.
Again, the horses and chariots Of God
came to the rescue of this nation in 1876,
at the close of a presidential election
famous for devilish ferocity. A darker
cloud yet settled down upon the nation,
The result Of the election was in dispute,
.nJ rnunlrt;ap ,Nnt hof uynon tUn m fh roe
sections, but revolution in every town
and village and city OF the United
States, seemed imminent. The pros
pect was that New York would
throttle New York, and New Or
leans would grip New Orleans,
and Boston, Boston, and Savannah,
Savannah, and Washington, Wash
ington. Some said Mr.. Tilden was
elected, others said Mr.. Hayes was
elected; and how near we came 10 uni
versal massacre ONE OF us guessed, but
God only knew. | ascribe our escape
not to the honesty aud righteousness of
infuriated politicians, but | ascribe 1t to
the upper forces Of the text. Chariots OF
mercy rolled in, and though the wheels
were not heard and the fash was not
seen, yet all through the mountains Of
the north and the south and the east and
the west, though the hoofs did not clat-
ter, the cavalry of God galloped by. /
tell you God is the friend of this nation.
Ia the awful excitement at the massacre
Of Lincoln, when there was a prospect
that greater slaughter would open upon
this nation, God hushed the tempest. In
the awful excitement at the time Of Gar
field 8 assassination, God put his foot on
the neck Of the cyclone.
To prove that God is on the side of
this nation, | argue from the last eight
or nine great national harvests, and from
the national health Of the last quarter OF
a century, e~pidemics very exceptional,
and from the spreading of the Church of
God, and from the continent poisoning
| with asylums and reformatory institu-
tons. and from an EdeniZation which
promises that this whole land is to be a
paradise where God shall walk in the
cool of the day.
If in other sermons | showed you
what was the evil that threatened to up
set and dcmolish American institutions,
| am encouraged more than ] can tell
You as | see the regiments wheeling down
the sky, and my ieremiads turn into dox-
ologies, and that which was the Good
Friday Of the nations cruCifxion be
comes the Easter morn of its resurrection
OF course God works through human in
strumentalities, and this national better
ment is to come among other things
through q scrutirized ballot box. BY
the law Of registration it is almost i'm
possible now to have illegal voting.
There was a time-you and | remember
:. .,,,- ,,.l uhnn Iyny.g nf UAnahDnfF
wandered up and down on election day
and from poll to poll, and voted here,
and voted there, and voted everywhere.
and there was no challenge; or, if there
were, it amounted to nothing, because
nothing could go suddenly DC PROVED
upon the vagabonds. Now, in every
well organized neighbOrhood, every
voter is watched with severest scrutiny.
must tell the registrar my name, and nov
old | am. and how long | have resided II
the state, and how long have resided II
the ward, or the township, and II mis-
represent fifty witnesses will rise an(
shut me out from the ballot box. Is no
that q great advance? And then motto
the law that prohibits a man voting it h
has bet on the election. A step turtle
needs tc he taken, and that man forbidde
a vote who has offered or taken a bride
whether it be in the shape of a free drin
or cash paid down, the suspicious case
obliged TO put their hand on the Bib
and swear their vote in if they vote a
all. So through the sacred chest OF OF
r nations suffrage redemption will come.
God also will save this nation throug
an aroused moral sentiment. There ma
, never been so much discussion OF mora
and immorals. Men, whether or nc
they acknowledge what is right, have
think what is right. We have men VIII
> have had their hands in the publ
| treasury the most Of their lifetime, stea
: ing all they could lay their hands on
{ discoursing eloquently about dishonest
liz public servants. and men with two O
, three families Of their own, preachin
=. eloquently about the beauties OF tn
seventh commandment. The questio
> of sobriety and drunkenness is thrust i
9 the face Of this nation as never before
and to take a part in our political COZ
tests. The question of national sobriet
: is going to be respectfully and different
ally heard at the bar of every legislatul
. and every house of representatives al
every United States senate, and an omn
: potent voice will ring down the sky al
: across this land and back again, sayir
. - a., r., S;o.-x t;Io. ~ H. r , xrhi<