Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-10-14

of the Conflict and the Duty of the Coun-
try Toward Those Who Participated
in 1t.
"About thirty years ago there was
seen one of the grandest and most awful
spectacles ever witnessed upon the earth
one of the largest navies ever known
stretched along and blockaded over 9, 600
miles of seacoast At the same time up
ward of 1 200, 900 men. divided into great
armies, formed an almost unbroken line
rom Chesapeake bay nearly across the
continent down to the shores of Mexico.
The men comprising this great navy and
forming these great armies stepped to
the same music. They were moved by
one common impulse-not plumber, not
adventure, not aggrandizement, not con-
quest, but one sentiment actuated them
all. That was This Union Forever
But one resolve ran through these lines
as they stretched along and across the
continent, and that was that the flag
that floats above US must be protected.
''Who were these men and whence
came they? They We're not janizaries;
they We're not slaves: they We're not
hirelings; they were not adventures.
They were freemen and the sons of free
men they were American citizens, and
if it was one of the greatest honors
known TO be Roman citizen it was a
far greater honor to be a citizen of the
greatest republic on earth.
FROM THE HOMES OF FREEMEN.
These men came from the occupa-
tions of freemen, came from the homes
of freemen, from the shops, the fields,
the stores, the schoolhouses, the mines,
and the pulpits of the land. Two and a
half millions from first to last marched
from the north to the south. No state
in the Union gave the flower of its youth
and the strong arm of its men more
freely than did the state of Illinois, and
this is especially true of this section Of
the state. Two and half millions from
first to last left their homes, left every
thing that was dear upon earth, and
marched to the scene of war, and the
numerous soldiers monuments that /
find all over this country, rearing their
heads toward heaven as though silently
over the graves of patriots, proclaim to
the world that hundreds of thousands of
those who went have not returned and
will return no more forever.
They lie in the fields, they rest in
the pine groves, they moulder in the
swamps and dark ravines of the south,
they care for neither friend nor foeman,
neither the hand of man nor the kiss Of
woman, they sleep the sleep that knows
no breaking, they dream no more Of
battlefields; no more of days of danger
and nights of waking. Wrapped in
pale elysian mists they will sleep on
while time endures. When they were
falling victims to disease and to the
bullets of the enemy, and as from time
to time the messages reached the homes
in the north stating that all was over,
how many were there all over this land
who in the anguish of their souls cried
out: All my heart is buried with thee,
all thoughts go onward with theer
10 THE LIVING.
Now, you lived to return to your
homes and your former occupations, you
| lived to see the day dawn, YOU lived to
see the glow Of new era on the eastern
sky, you lived to see this great country
take forward bound in education, in
intelligence, in manufacture in railroad
building, in the development of cities.
| in everything that makes a country
great, such as had never been witnessed
on earth. You lived to see q republic
greater than man ever dreamed of. You
lived to see the shackles stricken from
200. 900 Of slaves, yea you have lived
70 see new troubles arise that may be
more difficult of solution than was the
slave question. Economic and industrial
difficulties have arisen of SO serious a
character that there are good citizens
who feel gloomy over the outcome, who
are in doubt whether we shall have in
this country piutocracy created largely
by governmental aid, naughty, unrea-
sonable, domineering, and protected by
the bayonet, or whether we shall have
anarchy, bloodshed, and general de-
struction and ruin, or lastly, whether we
may find a way and will to subject both
the plutocrat and his victim as we'll as
the wild anarchist to the reign of law;
shall have the Law arise superior and
above every difficulty, guarding and con-
serving the accumulations and the civili-
cation of centuries on the one hand and
protect the poor, the weak, and the
helpless on the other.
1T may be a sore trial for Republican
institutions, but / hope-I believe-that
the good sense and the intelligence of
the American people, those whom we
may call the non-combatants, will be
equal to the emergency, and, instead of
sinking into despotism on the one hand
or drifting into civil strife on the other,
the republic may take a new bound for
ward and reach yet higher planes Of
greatness.
THEIR WORK Is DONE
'But these are chiefly questions for
the younger generation to settle. You
did your work we'll The result of your
| work was the establishment of liberty