The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1893-05-30

isnse Of coercion: they coaid not hare ex-
ssosed by searching analysis the faiIaey OF
the policy Of state supremacy; they we're
Itiain people. whose patriotism xas Of tia;
simple. instructive sort that cherishes the
;isg Of the nation with asen.irneut akin 20
slaa, with which ioyai lover prsIes q
Hover that syfnoolixes his lady love.
This honest simplicity of patriotism.
{ais uuerring instinct OF national self
preservation that witaou: any formal al
a3Ysis of the logic Of secession with intai-
Mvs common sense pronounced against II,
aas the prevailing temper of the great
isass Of the plain people rho a: the sound
nj the shot against Samter leape! to their
feet and held up with their bayoness the
Ealing SKY OF our rocking republic. 1t
sas this irrepressibie natural instinct Of
the right OF e.f-preserva.ioa. a right older
than all constitutions, that made var
Democrat and Republican sing with equal
tesvor the songs OF the Union. persuaded
them 10 touch elbows as comrades,
10 endure with equal patience the woes of
a long and weary war when they drank
]at OF the same canteen and were denied
by the same dust of battle. These men Of
instinct never consulted the letter Of the
Constitution to find the RICH; OF nation
% save itself by applying coercion 10 reb-
els against its uthority; they never
chopped logic about the letter of the con-
s.i.ution; they determined TO shoot first
those Who tried TO bur n the roof Of the ma
lion over their heads. and declined to
Scar constitutional arguments on the sub
sect Of arson from fellows who proposed to
ere the Ephesian dome nj the Union.
These men Of instinct were men whose
ssieas, had IL not been for the war, might
Lave been bounded by a farm, family
and the narrow excitements and petty
personal .ivalries of village politics, but
whom the war bugles of 1851 walked to .
higher level and more heroic life; and
their overpowering uprising quelled all
thought of compromise. and made the war
essentially the fight OF the farm, the forge
and the factory for the perpetuity Of free
institutions. The shot at the flag broke
tho spell Of false political philosophy
long taught, and the so-called peddler
nations heart Of ice became sea of fire.
II was an army Of farmers, artisans and
traders who fought for the enlargement
Of civil and religion, liberty under Crom-
well; it was an army of farm ers. artisans
and traders that fought against taxation
without representation under Washing
ton, and IL was an army Of farmers and
ocean in tho armies Of the Union deep
eolted with their swords the republic
which Washington founded, to the bed
rock of nationality. It was a great fight;
bitterly contested; hardly won. and the
victory was worth all it cost, for it has
fixed the fate Of this nation for veal or
woe rs irrevocably a. the great revolution
OF l64l fixed the form and drift Of govern
rnent in England.
Peace has been with Us nominally for
twenty-eight years; real peace will not
come between the sections for many .
without doubt. The quarrel Of the Eng
l,sh revolution began with the S,usrts in
1871 it had another outbreak in 1888; it
was i7s5 before the Jacobites finally ceased
to be rebels. In less than thirty years
&hc North and South are at least nearer
together than were the English Wings
and Jacobites twenty eight years after
1885,
Let US hope that those who died without
knowledge Of the ultimate issue Of the
conflict, in which they lost ali that is
lovely in LIES rosy morning, do at least
know that they did not die in vain; that
che Mississippi flows unvexed to the sea;
shat the flag Of the Union floats from
iscean to ocean. from Maine to Mexico,
from tho Great Lakes to the Gulf, and
that their graves are the Mecca to which
the real salt of the state" they saved an
nually makes affectionate pilgrimage.