The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1892-06-04
Rev. Father Christie Speaks Flo.
quently Upon the Causes That
Led to the Rebellion.
TRIBUTE TO THE LOYAL DEAD
A Large Audience Listens With
Marked Attention to Bril-
liant and Able Address,.

address delivered by Rev. Father Christie
of Ascension parish, in Austin and at ST..
Anthony hall, East Side, on Decoration
day. 1t was a magnificent effort, full of
fervor and patriotism and will be found
interesting and instructive throughout.
Father Christie said, substantially
Soldiers of the Grand Army, LADIES
and Gentlemen-We behold to-day the
anniversary of Decoration day spectacle
unequalled in the ages of the past, for
on this day the people of America come,
with hands filled with natures fragrant
gifts, and souls stirred by the virtue OF
patriotism, to visit the resting places of
our veterans and renew again the mem
DRY of our country's SORROWS with en-
blems of forget-me-nots moistened with
tears of truest affection. We come to
strew the graves of husbands, fathers,
sons and brothers with falrest flowers,
for there is 10 decoration SO appropriate
for the patriots grave as the fragrant
gifts Of spring.
These are their tokens of love and
gratitude for those who donned the blue
and sacrificed more than tongue can tell
or pen describe to save the Union. And
yet Notwithstanding this annual and
universal manifestation of our country
gratitude to the heroes of the late war,
there are those who hold that the war
for the Union was caiamitous mistake,
that it was unnecessary, that statesman
ship could have averted it, that it was
precipitated by few extreme radicals of
the North.
There are those again who say that all
war is evil, and that the best results are
too dearly bought by deadly strife.
"War is a crime,'' said Brougham,
(which involves all crime" II prefer
the hardest terms Of peace to the most
just war;" said Fox. And O'Connell,
while earnestly endeavoring to hberate
his people, declared that even the life of
the nation was mot worth a drop of
blood" "War," said Napoleon, sis the
trade of barbarians.'' "Although a SOL
der by profession" said Grant, II have
never felt any fondness for war, and I
have never advocated it except as a
means Of peace
Now, with all due respect for the opin-
ions of such eminent statesmen as have
quoted, I assert that war is not the
greatest calamity that can befall La nation,
neither is it, in itself, a crime which in
wolves all crimes. We must distinguish
between war that is just and war
that is unjust, between war that is
optional and one that is absolutely me-
cessary for the preservation of the ma
TONS life.
War is never lawful for its own sake,
and can only be righfully undertaken for
the sake of true and lasting peace; but
when necessary to that end, it is not
only Unsuitable, but sacred and obligatory.
War can never be so fatal to nation as
the loss of virtue, courage, manliness and
love of glory. What is the loss of blood
or treasure in comparison with the loss
of country and national life? What are
all the losses war can occasion IN COM
parison with the possession of our man
hood and of those self-denying and self
sacrificing virtues which war demands
and seldom fails to develop?
Next to religion, and never separable
from it. is the cause Of our country. The
Church honors next to her saints the
brave heroic soldier, and next to her
martyrs those who nobly fall in battle
for the honor, dignity and defense Of
their country. The Church agrees with
the human race in all ages in her estl-
mate of the soldier, and bestows pecu-
liar privileges on those who fall in fighting
for just and sacred cause. He who
marches to the battlefield aud pours out
his life in defense of his country is the
brother of him who marches to the stake
or the scaffold and gives his life for his
faith. In both it is the heroism that the
world loves and worshipe,-the forgetful-
ness of self, the power of self-sacriice,
the devotion to the great, the noble, the
true, the good.
War. therefore, is not the greatest evil;
the real evil is in the causes that precede
and lead to it. One OF the chief causes
Of the late war was the false and dema-
gogical Interpretation of the doctrine of
state sovereignty. Secession is only a
logical deduction from the theory Of state
sovereignty. which has been favored to
some extent almost from the formation
of the federal government, and in the
North as we'll as in the South. In
speaking of the doctrine of state SOW
eereienty, and of the evils to which it led,
i shall be guided by just and sound
principles; shall appeal to reason, not
10 passion and prejudice.
The principles Of government, which
are as necessary under republican as.
81, aor any other form of government,