Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1892-06-11

their last gaze at the old flag. still fut.
tering mid smoke and shot and she'll
The old flag! Under whose folds you
marched in sunshine and storm. II
guarded you as yon slept. 1t foated
above You as you fought at Belmont and
assaulted Fort Donelson. When you were
crushed at Shiloh; and while the enemy
was reaping the fruits of victory, snatched
it from him. It waved over You while
you laid in the trenches at Vicksburg.
While you shattered Bragg at Stone
River and Chickamauga. You planted
these colors above the clouds, carried
them with Sherman from Atlanta to the
Sea. It blessed You as you strobe up
Pennsylvania Avenue with Sherman
ahead, Howard, his empty sleeve pinned
by his side, following. Logan, none
asked his name. all knew him, and the
other generals in their respective rank.
But the hosts that followed who could
picture them? They we're the men who
fought at Belmont, Shiloh, The Wilder
ness, had marched, suffered, SWAN rivers
waded swamps, bore such suffering as
only heroes can who love the flag. You
bathed its field of white with your life
blood. Its friends and foes of ten decades
are now as one. Oh, flag of our country
wave. Wave your silken folds over the
graves of our fallen heroes to-day.
Emblem of Liberty may thy beautiful
stripes kiss the .furrowed cheek, the
wrinkled brow and silvered hair of the.
Veteran as he walks beneath. Wave,
thou star of Liberty, and if need be, may
the sons of these wade rivers of blood in
thy defense.
The old soldiers stand before the pub
lie treasury to-day. Not as paupers,
Not as benefcaries. They hold the real
Bond of the national debt. They are the
preferred creditors of this nation. To its
payment the public faith is securely
pledged. We must not question it. We
cannot without infinite penalties repud-
late it. Now is the time to complete the
act of national gratitude. Within twenty
years the most of tie Veterans will be
gone. Already all of the great COM
manders, Grant, Logan, Sherman, Sheri-
dan have joined the innumeral caravan
the countless hosts of the boys in blue,
who waited their coming on the other
shore. Every year time touches their
ranks with heavier hand. Soon the
last will have departed.
do not know what others may think,
but in that day want to feel that the
public faith has been kept in the ample
of gratitude and justice. shut
my eyes while busy fingers count the
cost. 1t makes absolutely no difference
what it costs. The defense of the nation
was an undertaking so vast that no world
ly arithmetic can calculate its expense
But the people we're ready to pay all it
cost even to the last farthing. They were
willing to receive their sick and wounded
from the hospital and battle fields of the
They were willing to receive their loved
ones from the merciless prisons and
nurse them back to strength and health.
They were willing to put the signs of
upon every family altar. They
were willing to take them back and
quietly place them to rest in the quiet
corners of their own church yard, that
the flag of the great republic might live
through the storm of battle.
My countrymen! 1t was costly sac
rifce, but it was worth all that it cost |
and infinitely more. There is not one of |
the men who wore the blue but we are
bis personal debtor. Not one woman
who gave to the nation loved husband |
or noble son but we are her personal |
debtor. Not one old man, stricken by |
years, the staff of his suppot taken away
by the service OF his country. but we are
his personal debtor. When I hear men
idly talking of the extravaganza of the
pension department, and read in the
the silly babble of how the
Did soldiers of the country are trying to
DOT the public treasury, reply that
every dollar of the national wealth, in
he treasury and out of it, is encountered
most of all by the invisible lien of our
luty to the men and women who thought
,ot of their blood and tears in the hour
# the national trial. Ny countrymen!
Before God, I would rather see the
whole framework of our financial system
Int to an open shame before tine world
han to see the care.worn remnants of
he Old Union Army driven from the
public treasury by the money power of
he United States. holding in their tremb-
ing hands the broken promises of
Abraham Lincoln.
Time with its feet wings soon bears
way generation of men, but production
ills the ranks again and the human race
moves on. Like q river that is con-
family flowing on. SO is the unbroked
hahn of humanity coming from the eter-
kA