The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1890-06-06
INGALLS, AT GETTYSBURG.

INGALLS, AT GETTYSBURG.
Speech Of the Kansas senator With Refer
4 ences to Recent Occurrences Mt Rich
i mond. -
GETTYSBURG, Pa, May H.-A great
throng of people attended the dedica::
ton exercises here yesterday. The pro-
i gramme consisted of music, the strew-
ing of flowers upon the graves by school
children, G. A. R. exercises and an
grafton by Senator Ingalls,, who was in
troduced by Hon. Edward Mcpherson,
master of ceremonies.
Senator Ingalls, said in substance:
"The highest tide of the rebellion
broke on this field and along theserocky
hills in a flood of blood and flames that
ebbed away at Appomattox. Three sum-
mer days changed this hamlet to an
epoch and gave to this locality an inn
mortality equal to Marathon, Marston
Moor and Waterloo. 1t is thus that we
have assembled twenty-five years after,
to again pay the tribute of homage, re-
spect and reverence to the dead that
sleep here. 1t is just twenty
five years since the last shot
was fired-twenty-fve years since
the hosts were marshaled for the last
review. They assembled within the
shadow of the dome Of the capitol they
had saved. The splendor of the vernal
sun illuminated the scene and SHIN
mered on the flag as it glimmered in its
glory above them. 1t was host without
number welcomed bytumultuous acclaim
1.-The hosts of Grant Sherman, Logan
and Hancock-and above them flashed
and cleaned the redeemed glory of
the flag Had it not been fO- their sac
rifices and that of their sleeping COM
rades this flag would have been dis
honored rag.
81 have some time thought what
would have been our emotions had the
rebellion been successful. Suppose the
dome of the Capitol stopped to its base,
suppose Robert Toombs fulfilled his in
solent menace to count his slaves with
in the shadow of Bunker Hill nlonu-
ment; suppose the stars and stripes had
gone down in defeat before the stars
and bars-what would have been our
emotions? / confess for myself to have
never ceased to implore that all men
might be free to hope that some time by
some desperate battle the Union might
have been restored. should have kept
in some secret repository some emblem
of the stars and stripes which 1 would
have taught my children to love and
cherish.
Now, in view of the occurrences Of
the last few days in the extinct capital
of the extinct Confederacy, wish to
say few words. / have no desire on
this sacred occasion to revert to. any
subject that is inconsistent with the
solemnity of the hour, but unless the
ideas for which our dead died were
right they have died in vain. But the
only regret that seems to be felt by our
adversaries is that in rebellion they
failed to succeed. Robert E. Lee was
undoubtedly one-of the greatest SOL
diers of the age, lofty of char
acter, pure in life and with
lineage dating back to the morning
of patriotism in this hemisphere. He
was without fear and without reproach.
Had Lee adhered to the sentiments ex-
pressed shortly before the rebellion, he
would to-day have been the foremost
citizen of this Republic. He was offered
command of our armies. For twenty
five years his sword had been under the
flag of the Republic. He had been edu-
Gated at her expense and had taken oath
to support her Constitution and her laws,
but he violated his oath, put aside his
sword and took the leadership
of the most causeless rebellion
since the devil rebelled against
Heaven, and yet in perjury and in
violation of faith and honor, on the
day for twenty-five years made sacred,
those who profess to have accepted the
results of the war in good faith select
ing this occasion in the other anniver-
saries of the 365 days of the year, with
every augmentation of insolence point
to the South that this is example after
which they should copy-a Confederate
flag is placed in the hand of Washing
ton. [Cries of ''Shame, shamer'] What
wonder if the dead should cry against
the sacrilegel E EffEf 'EFs' 8
ave are told God alone knows which
side was right To make the Constitu-
ton of the United States the supreme
law of freemen, millions enlisted and
thousands gave up their lives, wives
were widowed, children orphaned and
yet one-half of the rising generation
is being taught that God alone knows
which was right Carnage reigned on
hundreds of battleields. Now the sun
rises on no master and sets on no slave.
"If we were not right, If nationality is
not better than secession, then these
ceremonies are without significance, the
war for the Union was the greatest
crime of the century, and our soldiers
rank with the successful pugilists who
fight in the ring for the championship
belt of the world. If they were not
right National morality is a fiction, 10y
atty mimicry. This tendency Of the
South must be resented. This is
a day of Instructions duty we
owe the future that our relations
to that great conflict be understood
and that our dead died not in vain. 1t
is not necessary to disparage the bravery
| of adyersaries; let them rear more mon.
uments to their dead and cherish their
| leaders; let them eulogize the lost
, cause; let them worship their leaders;
, let them carry their stars and bars
, these are matters of taste which they
must decide for themselves. There is
no other country under the sun that
would permit such transactions. They
|. are our countrymen, united to US by a
common heritage, so they say, but wher
they assert that Lincoln and Davis
Grant and Lee, Logan and Jackson were
: equal and that God alone knows which
was right it is sacrilege Of the vilest
, type and needs rebuke."