The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1890-07-11
THE LOYAL LEGION.
The Annual Session at Indianapolis s-Ura-
tion BY Hon. George X. Peck, of Kans4s-
A Tribute to the Declaration of In de-


ton BY Hon. George X. Peck, of kansas
| A Tribute to the Declaration of In de-
pendence.
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind, July s. The
/ Loyal Legion of Indiana met here yes
terday in annual session. Prominent
members of the order were present from
all points of the Union The grafton of
the day was delivered by Hon. George
r Peck, of Kansas. Following is an
extract from the speech:
Companions, Ladies and Gentlemen
From the distant West, the historic. fruitful
and now peaceful fields of our first civic
strife. bring you a salutation and greeting.
The day and the occasion are happily mated.
From immemorial times, mon who have
borne arms have enjoyed certain distinc-
tion, the tribute that human nature yields
to those who have played the big stakes OF
life and death Responsive to, or perhaps,
created by this sentement is the tendency of
those who have been in the stress and rigor
of the game to look back with a feeling
which is partly love and partly pride on the
old days and the old cause.
1t matters little that many seasons have
passed since arms were stacked nor that
we, who where young and gay, have felt the
frost in our joints and on youthful forms the
rust of the implacable years The soldier
must not question fate This much is ours
to know that if eyes beam somewhat less
brightly and heads reveal the gray autumnal
touch, the things that once were dear are
precious yet, and the faith of other days has
not departed.
The Loyal Legion signifies to us at least
that loyalty is virtue which should never
go out of fashion. Love of country is not,
and should n OF be- sentiment that responds
only to the bugle and the drum. 1t is indeed
true that the finest impulses lie dormant
waiting the call that shall transmute them
into vital convictions But yet it is also true
that nation is best endowed when 1t has the
common every day affection of its people,
in peace as well as in war.
The people of the United States call them
selves Americans, claiming the name of the
, continent to mark their aspirations
and their destiny. But what is that
ideal feeli we sometimes call "the
American spirit?" Surely it is not a selfish
lust of possession; the vulgar satisfaction
of knowing that we inhabit an imperial do
main, and that no one must espass on
what we call our own. Some better re son
must be in our hearts, some truer feeling
must inspire our lives, before we can know
what patriotism is Even the brute loves
his own Jungle. The tiger will fight to the
death for the greensward en- which it has
played, or the spr ng at which it has
quenched it's tn rSt Only men fight for "a
I sentiment; only men give up their lives for
the things they have not seen. Fields of
cotton and fields of corn VIII grow under
harvest cares not what sickle shall reap it.
Nature is calmly indiff rent deal n out the
rude Justice of the seasons, and needing not
the losses nor the gains. But men think I;
they alone have "that large discourse look
ing before and after' which is the real
basis of moral responsibility. The true
American loves not simply the United
States, but tn at for which the United States
stands. The American flag is someth ng
more than a harmonious blending of colors
Who has not felt the awe and mystery that
DIV II in holy EN- ilems? What faith has not
been quickened by signs and symbols that
represent those invisible and eternal things
of which human lips can never rightly
speak7 The United States is greater in what
it means than in what it is
The Declaration of Independence is incom-
parably the greatest. wisest and clearest
statement tf human rights ever put upon
paper And it is a curious fact that neither
the men who framed it nor their contempo-
raries were always successful when they
put their hands to the pen. The articles of
, confederation were, from the first, hope
less failure. Ten amendments to the Consti
tuition were made almost Immediately after
its adoption, two shortly atterward, and
finally, as you know too well, three more were
written in HOOD. Even now there are many
respects in w'fMch it doubtless could be i'm
proved. But the Declaration of Independ-
ence remains forever Zone entire and per-
feet chrysolite," and is confessedly the ne
gospel of our freedom, the true standard of
American rights. In that great statement of
the equality of men s found the best inedi-
cine for National dis ease, the best balm for
the hurts and bruises of the body polite.
1t means equality of opportun Uy; just
share in the gifts of nature; Il fair chance
in the race of life under laws that
all have helped to make. The right to these
hings Is inalienable. They can eth r be
taken away nor can they yo UNFAIRLY be
given up. for the Declaration of Independ-
ence means that you can not rightfully
make your brother a slave even by his own
consent. In short, this great charter, in the
ines and between the lines, declares that
the golden rule of legislation and govern
ment, like the golden rule of human con-
iuct, Is the unselfish recognition of the
rights of others. 1t is high deal too high
perhaps for the eighteenth or nineteenth
century, but not too high for the age that is
coming, when the ashes of the dead shall
blossom in hopes made real, and the blood
of martyrs shall crimson the flower that
truth sets in the wreath of the immortals.
Something 1 might say, If it were right to
hy any thing, of a somewhat effusive JOY
hat marked recent tribute to grrat SOL
lier, who gave his name and his sword to
cause we believe to be un-peakably wrong.
is not for us to decide how far military
<ill or personal character can lessen the
guilt of treason. But of this, oh, loyal
hearts, be sure, neither bronze nor marble
can endure long enough to change
wrong into right nor to cure the broken
oath of Robert K. Lee. Some day, perhaps,
another colossal fot IN will stand by the side
his, grand, massive ard heroic. the s atue
of one who simply thought that soldiers
plighted word meant what it said; man
who spoke little of his honor, but kept it
stainless as the snow; sol lier of the an
.ique type, the greatest son Virginia gave to
the war-George II. Thomas, the Rock Of
Chickamauga.