St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-05-31


Quartette, Audience and band
BenedictiOn ........... Rev. Robert ChrlStle
A MASPERLY GRAFTON.
Words of Wisdom From the Lips
of Archbishop ireland.
The grafton of Archbishop Ireland
was we'll received. 1t deserved to be.
A more eloquent effort has seldom been
heard in the city. Though the reverend
archbishop had his manuscript before
him, he was so well acquainted with its
contents that there was hardly any
semblance of reading the text = the
words came from his lips like the red
hot sentences of the polished orator.
Archbishop Ireland prefaced his adj
dress with an enlargement OF the
thought-the duty of the state to honor
and revere its warriors and sageS, its
poets and orators, its legislators and
model citizens. Blessed the nation that
owned a great and honored past!
Blessed the nation that fifty remem-
bered and cultivated that past! The
observance of Decoration day was incl
dentally brought out, and the arch
bishop burst forth as follows:
Twenty-Five years ago there was upon the
land fear and stupor. A dread revolution as
a mighty volcano shook the nation from cen
ter to circumference, and darkened with
eyil-bodng clouds the sky above it.
The republic of the Vest seemed fated to
die even before she witnessed her first CEN
tennial, and died she should II she could
not count beneath her starry flag heroes such
in number and in daring devotion as no ma
t,o IoTO hnrh bod
1t was a time of unspeakabie anxiety, not
merely for America, but also for the whole
human race. The promises of new era, in
which government of the people, by the
people and for the people, should replace the
selfish absolutism of emperors and kings.
were wrapt up in the folds OF the stars ana
stripes. The republic crushed out OF exist
ence, the mighty democratic wave which is
now encircling the globe should have lost Its
force at its point CT departure, and freedoms
voice was stilled among the nations OF the
earth; a government by the people should
have been recorded as Utopia fair to dream
/ of but impossible OF practical realization.
The craftsmanship of the great men and
true patriots who had breathed life into the
republic and guided its first footsteps in life
had not been able to save it from that dire
legacy of its colonial ancestry-the sev1tude
of the black man. Strange the anomaly
the Declaration of Independence proclaimed
that all men are born free and equal, and yet
men and women were slaves on American
soil. bought and sold and dashed beneath the
woke as the ass and the horse-chattels as
they, because, forsooth, the skin was OF
darker hue. Darker far than the down.
trodden negro is the stain put by slavery
upon the escutcheon of America. The crisis
came-the mighty struggle for liberty be-
tween freedom and slavery.
l will not utter to-day no word OF dlscord.
Our brothers of the South we must i'll loyalty
to the nation say it, were wrong, but let us
believe that they were honestly mistaken
Circumstances obtain powerful control over
Judgment and action and had their clrcum-
stances, their traditions and government
been ours, might we have not been the
rebels, and they, if in our circumstances, the
defenders OF freedom? At the present date
South and North rejoice that slavery has
ceased; and America is in truth the land OF
freedom to all men.
Archbishop Ireland. proceeding, said
we would not forget the heroism OF the
men who made this country free. Fort
innate fault, might we say OF the re-
bellion, without which we could have
never known the fulness of the patriot
ism of our people. He praised the
patriotism of the men who rose to the
call of the country in Isl, '62, '63 and ga.
Young and old, son and father; out
they came from farm house and work.
shop, from students hall and profess
Sional office room, and southwark to the
CORY field they fastened: He con-
tinued:
oh, noble hearted soldiers, so long as the
stars which witnessed your devotion shall
stream their light through the heavens, SO
long will America cherish your memories
and praise your patriotism. Honor them my
friends, as you will; never will you mete out
to them their due measure, but honor them
as best you can; it is your sacred duty.
Their bravery has borne most precious
fruit. The Union has been preserved. The
republic, conscious of her strength, is more
than ever secure, confident and prosperous.
More than ever before is she respected by
her sister nations who honor her for her
success, even if they do not love her for her
beauty and her merits. No stain now rests
upon her brow. She is truly and beyond
doubt the home of freedom and of equal
brotherhood for all men. Her victory was
the victory of popular sovereignty the world
over. Her spirit has gone abroad, comfort.
ing the oppressed and staying the hand OF
deSpotism The spirit of our republic has
breathed liberty into the serf of Russia. the
negro OF Brill, the pariah of India, and am
not afraid to say that from America comes
the inspiration and the resolve which to-day
give power among ali nations to the millions
of toilers and open to the consideration of
their rights the halls OF international con-
crosses and the cabinet chambers of the
highest potentates Oh that Americans I'M
destand the meaning of their institution to
humanity! Oh, that they understand the
providential mission assigned to them for
the veal of coming generationsi l know of
no more effective motive to make us truly
and enthusiastically patriotic than this great
destiny which opens up before our country,
and which is sure to be hers if we guard well
her heaven-born principles, and initiating
the heroes of the past, be every ready to
spend ourselves for her veal and triumph.
The archbishop next referred to the
horrors of war, hoping that this country
would never have occasion to resort to
such an end for the settlement of dis
putes. We extolled, we admired the
virtues which war evoked, but war
itself was horrid. The nations were not
yet Christianized which took highest
pride in butchering men. He did not
saw that when ruthlessly assailed ma
ton should not defend its life, as law
abiding citizen mnst protect property
and life from the blood-thirsty maraud-
er. But war should only be permitted
in the direst extremes. He referred
with pleasure to the substitution OF ar
bitratiOn for war, as suggested by the
Pan-American convention. From the
Canadian boundary to uttermost south
ern shores OF Patagonia war would S00n
be sad memory Of quasi-barbaric ages.
Let Europe, if the spirit of Christian
progress abide within her, learn from
us the civilization of the future. Arch
bishop Ireland next made the following
weighty utterances:
What, then, of the lessons of heroism and
self sacrifice taught us by Decoration day?
ir. the virtues of our martyred heroes to be
never again accomplished i'll the lives of
their children? The lessons remain and the
need Of them remains. Patriotism has its