The Globe-republican. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1889-1910, 1891-04-22

s5th SILVER ANNIVERSARY a. A. r.
An Grafton by L. KING sOPER, delivered
in Dodge City. Kansas. April 9Th, 1891.
VETERANS OF THE REPUBLIC, AND FELLOW
CITIZENS:
Great are the demands laid upon one who
would adequately address you at this time.
Much of the history of our loved country
during our younger days, and the days of our
fathers, four years of fratricidal struggle,
matchess i'm the annals of recorded time,
with these 3 years of brilliant memories Of
ours. all call loudly upon us here and now
for suggestive review. However we can but
briefly mention few of the many things
properly before us.
How stupendous and startling are many of
the facts of our country's history. as compar-
ed with like points la the history of most of
the nations of the world. Kept by the lazy
redman i'm all its natural beauty as a land Of
resources, and unknown to civilization until
near the dawn of the 18th century; so that
when ou- independence was achieved in l176,
or government founded in 1913, the continent
was still in its maiden freshness, and only
known to history for less than 300 years.
And why settled BY. the way of New Eng
land and not by the Adventures who came
to Mexico and Florida: WhynOt Lovers of
my country, tell me not to-day that il was
merely because from and to and by the north
came greater enterprise and energy, for the
Pilgrims of New England had not the fierce
energy of COrteZ and his followers in Mexico
But tell me rather, that he who counts the
nations as grains of sand upon the shore of
eternity, chose rather the sturdy, conserva-
tive virtues of the Pilgrims, with their liberty
loving English blood, and that they and their
pOsterity and laws should be ut least the
formative power i'm the new nation.
Oh how strangely had we forgotten in 1861,
that our very life and wOndrOus blessings rs
a people, were due to Il love of liberty. Due
to hatred of oppression, tyranny and Unjust
ice. How in the days of your bOyhOOd and
mine, we and our neighbors seemed stupidity
to think that TO this beautiful land men had
fled from persecution and bigotiy, from roy
atty and priestcraft and the inquisitiOn: only
to set up the slave block and live from the
sweat, tears and blood OF others Yea, we
seemed to grow rich and doze i'm content
while shaming the inquisitOn, the rack and
the thum screw, as we Iashed the bleeding
back of the oppressed, sold the wife ana
mother from the child and bred them as beast
for the shambles. Well were we driven to
ask with Hazacl of old, els thy servant a dog,
that he do this thing:
Yea after we had thus prOspered and grown
till the years OF your boyhOod, veterans, how
natural, how pointed, how everywhere, and
Oh, how mighty the reckoning. Every
home was visited, and every heart bore its
mighty weight of woe. Yes, natural and point
ed, for from the very spot where we had nur
tured the wrong. came the retributiOn. The
whole land became vast recruiting field
and the eaIth trembled beneath the tread of
marching legiOns, but for four mOmentOus
years those legions must march and re-march
and camp and despOil, dOin:, battle over the
fair fields where tears of the innocent had
flown and the blood of the oppressed had fol-
lowed the singing lash. Terrible az was the
sorrow in each little neighborhoOd and
school house and church. Aye and the dear
homes of the north, where SD many of us
were reared, yet how much more sad in those
bright and sunny homes of the south, as the
loved ones were not only taken one by one,
but their charms were wasted by Il present
and victorious army. Did we forget to think
thus twenty and twenty five years ago: and
forget to sympathiZe In fraternal interest
with all our countrymen. Yes, how slow we
were again to learn the lesson. The lesson
that only right and justice shall at length
prevail; and that charity in thought and act,
shall soonest make one, shall only make
understand.
Notwithstanding our blemihses, if our coun-
try's free institutions, even more than its
natural charms and boundleSs resources have
caused its citizens to love it; if its beautiful
fields and flag and its victorious defenders on
sea and land. i'm the revolution and in 1872
and I3 made us proud Of it. And in this love
and pride you find the explanation of the
grandest volunteer army which ever trOd the
earth or bore an ensign on to victOry-the
Army of the Republic 1861 to 1865.
Permit me then, for one brief moment, the
high homer, not my rightful due, to address
you as comrades, and to say, as we think of
that historic army; comrades. behold your
renowned predecessor. your prototype. the
cause of which you are the effect. Yea,
mighty. IA brave. an intelligent, veteran ar
my was that. And as the invincible legiOns
of Rome, after the wars of conquest, dictated
for several decades who should be Emperor,
and shaped much of his policy, SO our victO
rious host, some in spotless blue with beauti |
full flags and prancing steeds, some in the
that great host which marched in review
through Pennsylvania Avenue of the Nation
al Capital, those days in May of 1865, might SO
easily have dictated their own pensions and
pay, and were not without both historic and
pl esent suggestions SO to do. Two facts, true !
words in our apostrophe to and description
of that army, saved our country in that hour |
of new and conquered peace. 1t was brave |
and Intelligent army. Too brave to take an |
unfair advantage, too intelligent to distrust !
the patriotism of their countrymen or to stain |
their own exalted name. |
The example of ancient Rome, and recently |
OF France, was not followed, but when that |
review was over that army quietly disbanded |
and dispersed, taking up again the nipple |
ments of peace lain down in the years agone.
But oh how those years in camp and field |
had knit the hearts of men together How |
lying close in tent and barrack those benumb |
ing winter nights in Virginia and Tennessee, |
under soiled and tattered blankets; how the |
hasty coffee and hard tack of the mess in the |
the forming in line of battle when |
you thought that each might die in that fight,