The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-05-31

pital, the hardships of the prison-all
! the vicissitudes of a soldiers life, and
/ fought battles by comparison with
which Austerlitz and Waterloo and
Borodino lose their colossal proper
tons.
Was a Grand Ending.
But grand and stupendous as were
the events of that war, grander still
was the ending. Up to that time our
| government had been simply an ex-
pertinent. Founded upon the principle
of popular sovereignty, making the
will of the people the highest law, it
stood in direct antagonism to the mon
archical ideas of the old world, and
the time honored dogma of the "di-
vine right of kings" 1t had maintained
itself for seventy years, but it had been
under peculiarly favorable circum-
stances. 1t had studiously avoided all
European complications, and
separated from that continent
10y the broad Atlantic it had been in
large measure free from foreign ag
gression until the republic had ac-
quired a strength ample for cur own
defense.
The Real Danger
was from within. 1t remained to be seen
whether such a government could
Withstand the strain of civil war. At
last the trial came. The tempest
broke. The skies were black over
head, the waters were beaten into
foam below. the angry lightnings
flashed, and the hurricane roared, but
Columbia rode safe through The
Storm"
The crowned heads OF Europe were
amazed AID disapp1inlsd, bot the
hopes Of the oppressed and down.
trodden We're frightened in every
land and cline. The conflict proved
the strength of true republican insti-
tutions; it proved the boundless cOu~-
age and patriotism Of the American
people; it proved that they had not
been enervated by a peaceful life, and
intelligent and manly race a govern
ment Of the people by the people and
for the people," is the best and strong
est government that the world has
ever seen.
1t did more. The dawn of peace
when it finally came not only brought
joy to the home of the freeman, but
it broke the chains of the slave and
made him a freeman too. AS a re-
cessary inevitable result, the triumph
of the union arms sounded the death
knell of human slavery on the Ameri-
can continent. No longer are we jeer-
ingly asked why we do not practice
what we preach and free our slaves.
Neither native nor foreigner can now
hail our national ensign as a 'haunt-
ing lie and tell us that the extreme
limit of poetic license was passed,
when the Star Spangled Banner
was written
Every stain has been washed from
! IN cd
beauty, the symbol of absolute free
dom for every human being who lives
beneath its sheltering folds.
No Right to Secede.
There is today no party, no faction,
no state that even pretends to be-
lieve that the right of secession eX-
lists. The doctrine of state sove-
reignty'' in its extreme sense is as
dead as if it had never been. No
party, no faction, no state now under
takes to defend human slavery or
would restore the system it it could.
All are agreed that it was wrong, that
it retarded our progress, as a people,
and national unity and universal free
dom are the twin principles that con-
stitute the GROWING glory of our
land.
These are the results of the Ameri-
can civil war and the story cannot be
too frequently told. But they We're
achieved at a fearful cost. The purest
and best blood of the nation was
poured out like water that the re-
public might i've.
Four hundred thousand of the boys
IN blue laid down their lives in the at
tainment of the end. In he earliest
dawn of 'life's morning march" with
the brightest of hopes swelling their
bosoms, they died for the land they
loved. Since the return OF peace the
seeds of mortal disease, all unper-
ceived at the time they were sown,
have carried hundreds C thousands
more into premature graves. In our
great national cemetsTias the soldiers
and sailors of the union lie buried rev
after row and thousand after
thousand. Their headstones dot the
hillsides Of the north, their unmarked
graves are scattered Ger the sunny
plains of the south.
The Honored Dead.
Far and wide they have wandered
since the close of the war; everywhere
they have fallen by the wayside. AT
home and abroad; in the crowded bur
ial places Of vast cities; in the solitude
and silence of the primevaI forest; up
on the heights of Storm-Swept mount
aims, and in the deepest, darkest cav
ems of the sea, they are sleeping their
last sleep, land awaiting the judgment
day."
But wherever their mortal remains
may rest, their services and their sac
rifices are not forgotten. In an over
flow of patriotic sentiment, tender and
beautiful, the American people have
spontaneously adopted the 30th day of
May as one sacred TO the memory Of
the nations dead.
While we are assembled here. with
the glistening peaks Of the Wasatch
looking down upon us, away TO the
eastward where the Surges of the At
lantic break upon the shore-away to
the westward where the blue waters
of the Pacific flash upon CALIFORNIA;
golden sands, and through all the vast
country that stretches between, other
assemblages are performing the same
labor of love.
Tribute to the South.
Suppose our gallant gray-coated an
tagonists do also honor the memory of
their dead, It is but natural that they
should do so. The men whose graves |
they deck were their comrades and
their friends. However misguided they
may have been when they aimed their
heavy blows at the flag of their coun- !
try, we should be proud to rem ember |
that in the cause for which they
fought they displayed a magnificent
courage, the thought of which sends |
a thrill of admiration to every true |
American heart. They were defeated |
in that struggle upon which they |
staked their all, and thousands upon |
thousands of those nearest and dear |