Los Angeles herald., 1890-07-05
ANGELES HERALD SATURDAY MORNING. JULY 1890

ton which emancipated four million
black slaves from bondage, he removed
the last possible cause for sectional
division among the people OF the union,
and placed his own name higher on the
arch of fame than that of any .conaueror
IN heroic strife.
Great were Alexander and Napoleon
as generals; but while the one sighed
ior more worlds to conquer, and the
other chafed his proud spirit in his agony
OF ambition on the Isle of Elba, how
grander than they does that great CAP
tain OF the American armies appear
whose best-remembered injunction was,
Let US have peace" or that other great
solulef, whose cause we may not COM
mend, but whose last words, as his gal
liant spirit went forth to meet it's Gre
ator, LET us cross the river and rest
under the trees" will ever be remem-
bered as the reverent thought of dying
American soldier. The fair pale lumin-
airy OF the nightly heavens. which then
as now in calm and serene beauty swept
majestically about the earth in it's ap-
pointed orbit, was alike the witness of
the pomp and circumstance that marked
the burials of the Pharaohs in those
vast tombs which we call the pyramids,
and that which attended the placing of
the ashes of the imperial Caesars in
their sepulchral urns.
The same pale moon now nightly
looks down upon the modest resting
place OF a Washington at Mount Yer
non, Lincoln at Springfield, and
a Grant at Riverside. Were that
superb orb possessed OF the gift
OF omniscience, may we not believe that
upon the last resting places of these
heroes Of later days it would shine with
a halo of peculiar glory?
Great is America in all that consti-
tutes true greatness. Her people are
greater in number and her, wealth is
more vast than were those of imperial
Rome at the height Of her power Nor
was that wealth extorted from the pill
lage of foreign lands or the enforced SER
vice OF unwilling captives. 1t is the ac-
cumulations from the willing industry of
a great and free people.
Great is our country in her statesmen,
great is she in her scholars, and great in
the gifts which her scientists have given
to the world. But greater than allisshe
in the vast sum which she has added to
human happiness.
Happy is she in her hundreds of thou
sands of virtuous American homes,
blessed with the blessings of the Chris
tian religion, whose benefcent influence
is constantly exercised even where it is
not confessed or known. Happy is she
in her public schools, in her millions of
merry and intelligent children, in her
glorious womanhood, whose beauty and
worth is equaled in no other nation.
Let us who have cast our lot in this
the most favored spot in this favored
country, upon its most western border,
where, from the thresholds of our happy
homes, surrounded by our own vines
and fig trees, we may behold the last
rays OF the setting sun as it descends
beneath the waves of the western ocean
and bids America good night, renew our
VOWS of loyalty to our country, and to
our brethren of America east and west !
adopt the beautiful words of Ruth to
Naomi of old when she said: "Entreat |
me not to leave thee, or return from fol-
lowing after thee, for whittier thou
goest will go, and where thou lodgest l
will lodge; thy people shall be my
people and thy God my God"