The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1894-06-04
A PATRIOTIC SERMON
Rev. VIM. Powick breaches tc
the Veterans.
VERY ABLE DISCOURSE
It Was the Same Delivered as the Grafton
on Decoration Day and Was Repeated
in the Clergyman's Church Last Evening
Upon Popular Request.

The attendance at the Methodist Epsco-
pal church on East Oak street was very
large last evening to hear Rev. William
| Powick re-deliver the discourse which was
the subject of the clergymen's Grafton on
Decoration Day and which so many
people missed on that day on account of
the meeting being held in a hall. In his
sermon Rev. Powick said
/ Veterans Of the Grand Army of the Re
public and Fellow Citizens Ladies' and
| Gentlemen; Two hundred and seventy
| five years ago Dutch man-of-war entered
the Chesapeake Bay, and sailing up the
james River placed upon the auction
block twenty African slaves who were
purchased by the planters of Virginia, the
mother of the colonies and the home of
the presidents.
| That was the most pOrtentous event of
| our early history for il marked the intro
| duction of the African slave trade upon
American soil and laid the foundation
| of our greatest national peril 1t was
supposed by many to be a real Pandora's
box of blessings, but when their frightful
wings were spread they proved to be the
a matter little fire kindleth" But for
that event we should hardly be here to.
day to engage in these sad and solemn
services. That little cargo OF slaves
proved to be the most costly importation
that ever landed upon these shores. Let
me invite your intention to a few of the
items in its bill of costs.
Look for a moment at its costs in money.
The direct costs of the war is placed at
six thousand five hundred millions of
dollars. Upon this vast sum we have
paid twenty-five hundred millions of
1 Il l1nn int it.v, -
teen hundred millions more for pensions
to the old soldiers and to the leeches who
bleed them.
This shows the first COST to the govern.
ment of that little job lot of slaves to be
Just about five hundred million piece.
But such figures are little more
than meaningless symbols of unimagin-
able bigness. We can apprehend them
better when we are told that if we had
that amount of money here now for dis
tribution we could give $500 to every
family in the land. Truly our ability to
survive proclaims the vastness of our re-
sources, the loyalty of our people and the
stability of our Government.
Now consider the enormous sacrifice of
human life.
The Northern armies alone included in
round numbers about three millions of
the flower of our physical manhood, about
one in seven of the entire population of
the loyal states. If we average their
term of service it will be founded to be
equal to about six yeas IT service for
every wage Garner now in Pennsylvania
And If to these we add to those who were
engaged on the part of the South we shall
have vast army equal in number to all
the employees of all the great manufaCtur-
ing and transportation companies in
the land
Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in
Ascalon" that in "the land of the free
and the home of the brave there were as
many men engaged thirty years ago in
human butChery as are now engaged in
our productive Industries.
In the more than two thousand engage
ments of the war the Union LOSSES mum
bered over 10000 killed and 2SO.000
wounded. Think of it AS many killed
outright on the field of battle as live in
our neighboring city of Reading, and for
every one killed nearly five were wounded,
four were borne from the field of strife to
languish in Southern prisons, three re-
fused to respond to the roll-call and were
included among the missing three died Of
diseases incident to camp life and four
were discharged for disabilities incurred
IN the service and were sent home to die.
, Adding to these the losses of the South
we have great multitude ouUnumbering
the wage earners of our great state.
But these losses take no account of the
! broken health of the survivors, nor of the
! seeds of weakness and disease which have
been transmitted to bring forth fruit unto
, physical degeneracy unto the third and
fourth generations. What mortal tongue
can tell the horrors of such cruel strife
But friends, the sacrifices of war are by
no means restricted to the active partici-
pants in the strife. There is something
in the blast Of the bugle, the beat of the
drum, the wave of the old flag, the magic
: OF the commanders eye, the noise of the
battle and the hope of the victory to nerve
the coward arm, to inspire the dropping
spirit and to stitle thoughts of hardship
and fears of danger. But what about the
vacant hOmey Little else than the occa-
| slOnal letter from the front whose message
of safety had already been dashed to the
ground by tidings of a later battle.
| While we honor the man at the front let
US not forget the brave wives and mothers,
the impoverished sons and daughters the
, tottering fathers and mothers whose hopes
| were blighted, whose homes We're desc
lated; whose hearts were broken as they
were hurried to premature graves.
But no estimate of its costs that leaves
out the moral items can give more than a
hint at its real proportions.
l. The most disastrous results of the war
are TO be seen not in its effects upon the
nations purse but upon its morals. 1t
does not appear in its empty sleeves and
marble slabs so much as in the debauchery
of its public conscience.
Take, for example, the effects of
| Sii w NJ, 3JII IiS uPOH uho t'heCuloilS ol Ine
, family. What angry passions are aroused.
How the moral tone is lowered as the fire
, flashes from the eye and the angry words
escape the tongue. The difficulties may
at length be adjusted, the questions at
issue may be disposed of, but the moral
sense Of all concerned has been impaired
and their finer moral susceptibilities have
been forever blunted, 1t is so with ma
lions Family quarrels on a large scale
, are no less exempt from these evils than
such quarrels on a small scale. And VIXEN
we remember that for four long and weary
years about one sixth of the entire pOpu-