The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1891-05-28
THE DEAD HEROES.
Robert G. IngersolPs Famous Speech at
Indianapolis.

Robert G. IngersolPs Famous, Speech at
indianapolis.
Tire past, as it were, rises before me
like dream. Again we are in the great
struggle. for national life. We hear the
sound of preparation-the music of
boisterous drums-the silver voices Of
heroic bugles. We see thousands of>aS
semblages and hear the appeals of ora
tors; we see the pale cheeks of women
and the flushed faces of men; and in these
assem- blageS we see all the dead whose
dust we have covered with flowers. We
lose sight of them no more. We are
with them when they enlist in the
great army Of freedom. We see them
part with those they love. Some are
walking for the last time in quiet woody
places with the maidens they adore We
hear the whisperings and the sweet VOWS
of eternal love as they lingeringly part
forever. Others are bending over era
dies kissing babes that are asleep. Some
are receiving the blessings Of old men.
Some are parting with mothers who hold
them and press them. to their hearts
again and again, and say nothing; and
some are talking with wives and.endeav-
oring, with brave words spoken in
bold tones, to drive away the awful fear
standing i'll the door with the babe in
her armszstanding in the sunlight sob
bling. At the turn of the roadea hand
waves. She answers by holding high in
her loving hands the child. He is gone,
and forever.
We see them all as they march proudly
away under the Haunting flags, keeping
time to the grand wild music of war;
marching down the streets of the great
cities, through the towns and across the
prairies; down to the fields of glory, to
do and to die for the eternal right.
We go with them one and all; we are
by their side on all the CORY fields, in all
the hospitals of pain, in al the weary
marches. We Stand guard with them in
the wild storm and under the quiet stars
We are with them in the ravines running
with Dlood-in the burrows of old fields
We are with them between contending
hosts, unable to move, wild with thirst
the life ebbing slowly away among the
withered leaves. We see them pierced
by balls and torn with shells in the
trenches of the forts, and in the whirl-
wind OF the charge, where men became
iron with nerves Of steeE
We are with them in the prisons of
hatred and famine, but human speech
can never tell what they endured.
We are at home when the news comes
that they are dead. We see the maiden
in the shadow of her sorrow. We see
the silver head Of the old man bowed
with grief.
The past rises before us and we see
4, ZOO, 00O human bongs governed by the
lash-we see them bound hand and foot
we hear the strokes of the cruel whip
coo tho bOuOdC frookinr IUOnon
through tangled swamps-we see the
babes sod from the breasts Of mothers.
Cruelty unspeakable; outrage infinite!
-Four million bodieSin chains, O0O, 600
souls in fetterS-a.i the sacred rela-
tions of wife, mother, father, and child
trampled beneath the brutal feet Of
might-and all this done under our own
beautiful banner of the free
The past crises before us. We hear
the roar and shrek of the bursting SHE'LL
The broken letters fall. Their heroes
died. We look and instead of slaves we
see men, women, and children. The
wand of progress touches the auction
block. the slave pen, and the whipping
post, and we see homes and fresdes,
schoolhouses and books, and where all
was want and crime and cruelty and
fear, we see the faces of the free.
Those heroes are dead. They died for
liberty: they died for Us. They are at
rest. They sleep in the land they made
free, under the flag they rendered stain
less, under the solemn pines. the sad
hemlock, the fearful willows, the en-
bracing vines. They sleep beneath the
shadows of the clouds, careless alike Of
sunshine or storm, each in the window
less palace of rest. Earth may run red
with other wars-they are at peace. In
the midst of battle, in the roar of con-
flies they found the serenity of death. /
have one sentiment for the soldiers liv-
ing and dead-chcers for the living,
tears for the dead.