Morning journal and courier., 1889-05-27
Cannon to right of them. Cannon to left of them Cannon in front ef thenn sTo volIey and thunder

"To voley and thunder
 But this was only one of the things to be dreaded, and the things that were dreadful.
 The weary march, the long night watch, the painful separations, the home sickness gnawing at the heart, the longing for old familiar faces and old familiar scenes, the hated prison, where, at no distant day. they might be thrust in among half-starved com panious. All this was hard to bear.
 ARd yet, strange as it may seem, there are those to ask: "What are the Union soldiers to usi" "Grsclous heavens" what would have been our condition to-day had it not been for these menf
 To have been soldier, good and true and loyal in the last war, ought to cover one all over with glory. It ought to sesure high regard and high respect from every Ameri- can citizen. The farmer, the mechanic, the clergyman, the lawyer, the professor, the man of business; all who remained at home, and are to- day prosperous in the world, owe to such debt of gratitude which can never be paid. They stood between us and power which, had it not been checked, held back and resisted unto blood, would have destroy ed the life of the nation; and the man who can have it written on his tombstone, "Here Union," is a man that you and and all ought to honor; for, under God, he was one of the worlds saviours.
 We are told that the southern soldier was honest and brave, and that by stalking his life on his cause he manifested his sincerity. This freely admit; but that the southern soldier was wrong, and that his leader was wrong, and that they did wrong in firing on Sumpter and engaging in civil strife, this I firmly believe and expect to believe till my dying day. Otherwise the late war has to me no moral significance.
 And there is no charity in heaven or earth which demands forgetfulness of this. It was the boy in blue, and not the boy in gray, who, under God, saved our nationality; and while I would not overlook this, no more would I cherish bitterness toward the mis- guided ones who fought against us. That the southern soldier was brave, heroic, sim cere, self sacrificing, may just as well be ad- mitted; but that his cause was unjust, and had 1t succeeded would have broken up and destroyed the Union, may just as well be re- membered.
 And. while once year flowers are strewn by loving hands on the graves of the dead whether they wore the blue or the gray, ii cannot be wrong for us to discriminate or make difference, so far as to remember that the former did, and the latter did not, die in just and righteous cause, and that impartial history will teach from genera ton to generation. While there should be nc wrathful memory in any heart in all the length and breadth of the land, at the same time nothing should cause us to forget under which flag fought the men, who, in the strength of God, pre- served the Union and kept it from disinte- grafton and ruin. Who was it that said "It is for us. here in the presence of the dead, to resolve that these men shall not have died in vain," It was Abraham Lincoln, our mar tyr President, for whom, as Carlyle said of Luther, ssthis century, and many that are to come yet, will be thankful to heaven"
 And as the years wear on, what better thing can we do, "When the winter is past and the rain is over and gone, and the flow CTS appear on the earth, and the time of the singing of birds is come" than to take our children by the hand, lead them to the graves of our dead soldiers, bid them lay flowers on their quiet hearts, and then and there swea, them to preserve eternally their country.