The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1889-06-06


Rest on, embalmed and sainted dead |
Dear as the blood ye gave,
No impious footsteps here shall tread
The herbage Of your grave.
Nor shall you glory be forgot
While Fame her record keeps,
Or Honor points the hallowed spot
Where valor proudly sleeps.
You marble mnstrel's voiceless stone,
In deathless song shall tell,
When many vanished year hath flown,
The story how ye fell
Nor wreck.nor change, nor winters blight,
Nor Times remorseless doom,
Can dim one ray Of holy light
That glide your glorious tomb.
Let US hope that the time may never
come when these graves shall be deco
rated by unworthy hands-when they
who approach these shrines shall but
dishonor those they seek to honor. II
in time to come Americans shall aban-
don the cause OF civil liberty, renounc.
ing the faith that inspired these men,
let them not come here to pronounce
eulogies in solemn mockery lest these
very stones cry out against them and
proclaim their shame.
It is, however, an idle task to antici-
pate the future and enforce the duties Of
prosperity; let us rather enquire how
we may ourselves best honor the men,
ory OF our country's heroes. We may
scatter the choicest flowers upon their
graves, we may build monuments of
fairest marble, we may pronounce
eulogies in the finest rhetoric, but
neither now or hereafter can we honor
their memory, unless true ourselves to
the cause for which they fought and the
principles for which they died.
The problem of republican institutions
has ever been, is now, and always will
be, whether the full measure of individ-
ual freedom can be conceded without
impairing the just and necessary re-
straint of law; whether liberty can be
disassociated from license.
1t is asserted by the adherents of
monarchical government that, when the
people at large make and unmake laws,
their enactments lack the authority of
laws emanating from governing power
independent of popular control; that,
when the people make and unmake the
officers charged with the execution of
law, its efficient administration can not
be secured; that the mere will of ma
jority, however solemnly clothed in the
forms of law, will not secure the acqui-
escence or command the obedience of
opponents privileged to question their
policy or justice. Hence it is argued
that the personal freedom secured by
republican institutions is subversive OF
law, and fatal to the authority OF gov.
ernment when the minority is numerous
and influential and their opposition is
determined.
Our own century of national existence
has demonstrated that an intelligent
people will generally recognize the au-
thority of law, and will submit to it's
enforcement however impolitic or even
unjust they may deem it. During the
excitement of political campaign the
character and qualification OF candidates
are discussed with freedom oftentimes
bordering upon license, yet faithful
officer seldom lacks support in the per.
formance of his duties from those who
opposed his election. It is true that at
times our institutions have been sorely
tried, and contempt of lawful authority
and defiance of law have sometimes
threatened serious calamity, but such
dangers have been for the most part
transitory, and our people have proved
themselves worthy of the privileges OF
freemen.
Never has this danger seemed 80 i'm.
minent as in 1861. Long years of violent
political agitation and bitter controversy
had eliminated in closely contested
Presidential election, wherein neither
candidate secured popular majority.
The new administration, though chosen
in unquestioned conformity with law,
had no material support in one section
OF the country, where vast interests were
supposed to be affected by its principles
and policy, and the people of that sec
ton were easily persuaded by ambitious
leaders to set its authority at defiance,
Armies were forthwith raised, forts. ar
senals and ship-yards were seized, officers
who did not voluntarily join the rebell-
ion were driven from their posts. and
the national authority was practically
overthrown in eleven States OF the Union,
Unless the laws could be enforced the
Government was at an end unless the
duly chosen officers of the law could be
sustained in the exercise Of their rirhtful
authority, the failure of Republican in
stitutions was demonstrated, and the
confident assertions Of its enemies veri-
How this terrible issue was met is re.
corded in history, and requires no recital
IN this presence. The defeated standard
bearer OF one great party proclaimed in
no uncertain tones that the existence of
Republican Government was at stake,
and called upon his followers TO Join
their late opponents in maintaining the
authority OF law. Men, who had been
srrayed against each other n bitter po.
litical strife, selsed their 'muskets and
stood shoulder to shoulder In the ranks.
That issue called these men we honor to-
day from their homes, their farms and
their workshops. To battle for the Union.