The Portland daily press., 1892-05-31

higher virtue which comprehends pat
Ilotlsm, loyalty to truth and the cause OF
humanity. However the true issue OF
the war may have presented itself to the
minds OF the unthinking, those who had
long studied the growth of slavery in our
country, and saw it's corrupting infiu-
ence, knew that the republic could not
exist with it, and when the war broke
out foretold its doom. But it is not ne
cessary to say more to enforce this opin-
ion. History will make it clear; slavery
is dead; the republic lives. ''Long live
the new republic" says uaited country
There comes up frequently from the
South hearty assertion that old things
are passed away, and all things are be-
coming new. That section of our country
is now spoken of as the New South, con-
trolled and governed by new ideas and
new sentiments, and knowing as we do
the character of it's people, we may look
with confidence to see them join with US
IN leading the newssrepublic in paths of
glory and honor.
have you ever considered, my friends,
with what steadfastness of pur-
pose, and direetness of aim, the
civil war was conducted by the
North? There was no wavering; no
haldng; no attempt to settle the contest
by diplomatic arrangement; only one
authoritative effort was made for peace,
and that an abortive one; the whole
strength of the North was turned to the
destruction of the Confederate armies,
and when that came, peace came, and
reconcllment, and sincere acceptance
by the South of the result of the war;
the soldiers of both armies quickly laid
aside their arms and devoted themselves
to avocations of a peaceful life. What a
commentary upon the character of the
men who formed our armies, that such
vast number of men, accustomed to the
excesses of war, should quickly disperse
and leave no mark of their presence in
our midst, except renewed prosperity
in every department of life as result of
their diligence and energy.
The men whom we today honor have
left to us a priceless heritage. They have
given to us a neao Republic, whose corner
stone is liberty; they have given
a force and effect to the principles
of the Declaration of Independence that
they had never before; they have expand
ed and Christianized the meaning of the
word liberty, until it embraces in it's in
1uence all races, classes and conditions
OF men, except land say it with shame),
the outcast Mongolian. (The influence
of the results of our Civil War is not re-
stricted to our country alone; it is world
wide). Glass distinctions have been
broken down, except such as wealth or
merit raise. The social transformation
that has been going on in the South will
be of great benefit to her. Labor is be-
coming dignided and the industrial deg
radiation of large part of its white pop
ulation will gradually be re-
moved. Foreign immigration which
loathed the touch of slavery has in
creased in the Southern states in large
measure. Northern men are seeking
new fields for enterprise in the South,
and Northern capital is finding its way
into the south to stimulate new indus
tries. A new industrial South is rapidly
springing up as well as new political
and social South. The compensations,
which the extinction of slavery has
brought to the South will soon outweigh
the misery and desolation, which the
war wrought and the South, itself, will:
kiss every ruin joyfully and say,
Ruins, if so, must be, but slavery never"
But, if as result of the war, prosper
Ity has come to the South as a section.
what can we say of the country as
whole?
The immediate results of the war were
great and glorious, but the blessings
that have come to the whole country
from the extinction of slavery, and
restoration of the Union on the basis of
equal rights to all, are unnumbered 1t
seems as if the benifcent Ruler of the
universe had poured upon us the bound
less mercies of his favor. Peace and
reign within our borders.
Our people have been enormously in
creased in number; our inhabited do
main has been rapidly extended through
the breadth of our country; the earth
has never failed to give its increase; our
and our barns are full of
the plenty of the fields; with lavish
hand we feed the millions of other ma
tions, and scatter with prodigal freedom
among the famishing peasantry of Russia
substantial proofs of our gratitude to
God, and goodwill to our fellowmen.
What new ideas these great ships,
freighted with the gifts of happy people
to the oppressed and starving subjects of
the Gar must impress upon the people
of that country! They must believe that
a new type of manhood has developed on
the Western continent, one that can sac
rifice itself to give liberty to the black
man of the South; that proclaims to the
VI cll tACGpU Uu6
the principles of liberty,
equality, fraternity, and the brotherhood
of man; whose ear is ever open to hear
the cry of distress, and whose hand is
ever ready to relieve.
Our foreign and domestic commerce
has multiplied beyond the conception of
man; every remote part of our broad
land is united in commercial and social
relations by great highways of steel.
Perhaps the energies of our people have
been spent with too much prodigality in
subduing nature and in material advance
ment. But the refinements of civilized
life have not been wholly neglected in
the intense activity of our new life. Our
Institutions of learning. from the public
school to the university, have grown in
argeness of aim and purpose; the rever-
snce and gratitude of our people to God |
finds expression as never before in costly
temples of worship, and the new liberty
that has been infused into our political |
ife is tending to remove the bitterness
Of former years from religious contro-
versies and to promote unrestricted free
lom of thought.
But time fails me to pursue the subject |
further, and to point out how every rela-
ion of our political religious and social |