Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1891-05-07
INGERsOLL ON sUMPrER.
The Greatest Orator Talks About the First Gun
of the War

For about three-quarters of a cen.
tury the statesmen, that is to say, the
politicians OF the north and south, had
been busy making ngcompromises, adopt.
ing constitutions and enacting laws;
busy in making speeches, framing plat.
forms and political pretenses to the
end that liberty and slavery might
dwell in peace and friendship under The
same flag, says Robt. Ingersoll in the
New York Morning Journal.
Arrogance on one side, hypocrisy OH
the other.
Right apologized to Wrong for the
sake of the Union.
The sources of justice were poisoned
and patriotism became the defender
of piracy.
In the name OF humanity mothers
were robbed of their babes.
Thirty years ago to-day shot was
fired, and in a moment all the promises,
all the laws, all the constitutional
amendments and all the idlotic and
speeches OF orators inspired by the
hope OF place and power, were blown
into rags and ravellings, pieces and
patches.
The North and the South had been
masqueI aiding as friends, and In a
moment, while the sound OF the shot
was ringing in their ears, they faced
each other as enemies.
The roar nf thut cannon
the birth of new epoch. The echoes
of that shot went out not only over
the bay of Charleston, but over the
hills, the prairies and forests of the
continent.
These echoes said marvellous things
and uttered prophecies that none were
wise enough to understand.
Who at that time had the slightest
conception OF the immediate future?
Who then was great enough to see the
end? Who then was wise enough to
know that the echoes would be kept
alive and repeated for years by thou
sands and thousands of cannon, by
millions of muskets, on the fields OF
ruthless war?
At that time Abraham Lincoln, an
Illinois lawyer, was barely month in
the presidents chair, and that shot
made him the most commanding and
majestic figure OF the nineteenth cen
tury-a figure that stands alone.
Who could have guessed the names
OF heroes to be repeated by countless
lips before the echoes OF that shot
should have died away,
There was at that time young man
at Galena, silent, unobtrusive, un-
known; and yet, the moment that
shot was fired he was destined to lead
the greatest host ever marshalled on
a field OF war, destined to receive the
final sword of the rebellion.
There was another in the Southwest
who heard one OF the echoes of the
shot, and who atterward marched
from Atlanta to the sea; and another,
far away by the Pacific, who also heard
one OF the echoes, and who became one
of the immortal three.
But, above all, the echoes were heard
by millions of men and women in the
fields of unpaid toll, and they knew
not the meaning, but felt that they had
heard a prophecy OF freedom. And
the echoes told of death and glory for
many thousands-of the agonies OF
women - the sobs OF orphans-th the
sighs OF the imprisoned and the glad
shouts of the delivered, the enfran-
chised, the redeemed.
They that fired that gun did not
dream that they were giving liberty to
millions of people including themselves;
white as well as black, North as well
as South, and that before the echoes
should die away all the shackles would
be broken, all the constitutions and
statutes OF slavery repealed, AMI all
the compromises merged and lost in a
great compact made to preserve the
liberties OF all,