Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1892-06-04

OIcdI OCyOuu, ID Jill ASS
that their surviving con1rndes, to the
last man, are awaiting the call OF
the bugle to join them.
REASONS FOR OBSERVING DECORATION
DAY.
may err in the attempt to state
the principal reasons for the observ-
ance of Decoration Day. They
should, however, be matters of gen
eral comprehension, and | shall
essay the task Of stating them.
Governments, like armies, must
sustain an esprit de co,ps-an anima-
ting spirit-or go through decline
down to death. In all nations and
ages the army has been the bulwark
Of the citizen. An army, guided by
the animating spirit of serving faith
fully its country, never yet failed to
find response in the dignity and
usefulness of the great body OF the
citizens. Where the soldiery and
the citizen are.in complete harmony,
there is found the highest type of
government. Rome was taken be-
cause of the effeminacy of the troops
comprising her garrison. These
same troops, when in the campaigns
of the East, possessed remarkable
physical endurance and courage and
rendered heroic services. Acting in
Rome the part of bandbox soldiers
emasculated their energies. To
realize the pleasure of a good soldier
in the faithful performance Of his
duty, and the gratitude of good
citizen in being defended in all his
rights by the army, is to understand
the natural relations existing be-
tween the civil and the military
factors Of a stable, progressive
government. Self preservation
itself is bound up in the solution of
the problem. 1t is at least illogical
to say, then, that the graves of our
Nations dead are decorated for the
sake of the dead alone. The act
covers every home and every soul in
our broad land. The life of the
country rests upon the preservation
of the animating spirit of patriot
ism which binds with golden cords
the living heroes and the dead.
THE REBELLION NATURE OF
THAT STRUGGLE.
The great civil war in the United
States was a protest against the
right Of state or any aggregation
of states to withdraw from the
central government welded into
the assertion by the arms Of the
Union. That the Nation is one and
indivisi5le, is the phraseology of
papers issued in recent years from
the office of the secretary of state in
Washington. This phraseology
consists in treating the United
States in the singular number. It
may be illustrated thus: The
United States is = y the
United states demands 4 \
ETC., instead of this not-the-old
phraseology: The United States
are ;, the United States
demand etc. This, so
far from being a small matter, illus
trates the logical growth of a vital
principle of free government de-
velopment which, although resting
upon the dy ing groans of thousands
Of slaves, the scars of other thous-
ands, the bones Of more than half a
million Of soldiers, the heartaches of
the philanthropists Of the ages, has
not been dearly purchased. The
development was the decree of God.
The cost was incurred under his
orders. The late civil war was an
indispensable step toward the early
establishment Of the principle Of
free government. The conceded
right Of one state to secede from
the Federal Union would have been
the conceded right Of all. The
southern leaders well knew this
when they, late in the fall Of 1850,
sought to use the menacing attitude
of South Carolina as the Herculean
lever to compel upon the the part of
the north peaceful acquiescence in
the secession of all the slave states.
And yet, in the infatuation of their
blindness, these Southern leaders
were then nursing to their breasts
the deadly poison springing from
the seeds Of a successful attempt at
disunion. That is to say, the
principle Of secession once estab-
lished, no confederacy Of states could
longer haye hung together than
their interests harmonized to the
satisfaction of all, unless the general
government had mterposed its OBJ
lection. Any attempt of central
government, existing upon the ruins
of the American TTnion to nroyon+