Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1894-06-07

many of us have witnessed. 1t must be
a source of qualification to the loyal SOL
dier to recognize his flag in the heart of
the South, planted firmly in the midst of
a people who once dragged it on the
ground. but who now exalt it to the
skies.
You have done more than this. You
have graclously delivered from cruel
bondage over 100000 of men, women
and children. You have extirpated
that Infamous nstitution-slavery.
You have opened the prison doors and
set the captives free. You have demol-
ished the old plantation system, the
breeder of false and corrupt. and indo-
lent society. You have silenced the
crack of the overseer's whip. You have
demolished the auction block. You
have drled up the bitter tears and quiet
ed the dreadful shrieks and walls of the
bond-men, and brought together again
father and mother, brother and sister,
husband and wife. Never since the
days of Moses, when 2,5OO,OOO slaves
ers-aye, never in the history of the
world has their occurred such an eman-
cipation. By the pillar of fire were they
led out of servitude by the Lord of hosts.
Other men labored and these freedmen
have entered into their labors.
And another thing have you done.
You have set the ball of self government
a-rolling. 1t takes long time to
evolve to perfection a race born in igno-
rance and superstition. The wrongs of
centuries cannot be made right IN a few
years God led Israel out of bondage,
but kept them wandering up and down
the desert forty years before they were
in any wise competent to govern them
selves. The black man was not compe-
tent to maintain himself, but his eman-
cipators had unbounded faith IN his
possibilities and therefore they brought
about national citizenship. Time proves
all things, and it is becoming our con-
victiOn that this policy was not a mis-
take. Slowly, yet surely, the black man
is finding his real freedom. The negro
of today is not the negro of. ante bellum
days. He is being forced to think and
to struggle for himself, and this is Gods
path to freedom. In some respects the
condition of the negro race is worse
than before the war; poverty, filth, dis
ease, ignorance, license, are the charac=
teristics of host of them: but all these
are but evidences that they are in tre-
mendous struggle for liberty, moral, in
tellectual and spiritual liberty. Not
withstanding all this, there are any num-
Der of negroes who stand at the very
front of industrial, educational and re-
ligious enterprises. OF one of these a
southern white man recently said, "It
was all 1 could do to keep from saying
mister to him"
Three great issues were settled by the
war; first the supremacy of the Nation
al government; second, the emancipa-
ton of the negro; third, National Citi
zenship. What a grand work this has
| beeni
| All honor to these self-sacrificing he.
roes! All honor to the dead! All hon
or to the living! A service so heroic, sc
noble, can never be compensated. We
ought never attempt to cancel this gi
gantic debt with money. About one
year ago stood by the side of a mauso
leum under which were buried DBL
unknown soldiers of the American re
bellion. Who, thought I, is to to re
ward these nameless boys, each of whom
is worthy of as rich reward as those
who are known and living? And whc
can adequately compensate the living
who through manifold tribulations anC
extreme privations, lost their limbs anC
suffer permanent injuries? We canno
hope to pay the debt in dollars ant
cents, and if I interpret your feeling
Alright you did not enter the service t,
be rewarded. And yet the rising gener
alton, in whose control this great nation
and its politics will soon be, would b,
a lot of ungrateful and vile wretche:
should they refuse to uphold a gener
Gus pension policy for the support @
the old soldier and those who are dea
to him.
But soldiers work is never done
The shot and shell, the bayonet an
sword, the fire and smoke were but tn
forerunners of mightier conflict, tn
mere incidents in the great work of re
constructing society. These were use
merely to repress cruel passions and dis
) order, that the real work might go OF
And the question now arises, What
the soldiers present duty? What is th
duty of the Sons of Veterans? What
the duty of us all? 1t cannot, it mus
not be our duty to fight the same battle
over again, or to sit and sing praises IN
} to those who have labored. 1t is wors
} than folly to organize for such val
, purpose. Soldiers, your own ritual ar
swers that question satisfactorily: MA
) we honor our country by serving it.
The best way to honor your country
l to put the same old time earnestnes
l and self-sacrifice into the great problem
: which confront US at the present da,
The problem of today is but the contir
, uation and amplification of the one grea
problem of thirty years ago. Sons of We