The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1895-12-12
At the opening Of the war the Com
ma ndar-in-chiaf of the IInitnd StAfeS

of the United States
forces was man who had been great
in battle, but old age had come, with
many intirmities, and he had right
to quietude. He could not mount
horse, and he rode on the battlefield
in a carriage, asking the driver not
to jolt it too much. During the most
of the four years of the contest, on
the Southern side, was 4 man in
middle life, who had in his veins the
blood of many generations of war
riors, himself one of the heroes Of
Contreras and Cherubusco and Cerro
Gordo, Contreras and Chapultepec. AS
the years passed on and the scroll Of
carnage unrolled there came out from
both sides a heroism, and strength,
and determination that the world
had never seen marshaled. And what
but determination could come when
Philip Sheridan and Stonewall Jack
son met, and Nathaniel Lyon and
Sydney Johnston rode in from North
and South, and Grant and Lee. the
two thunderbolts Of battle, clashed?
Yet we are nation, and yet we are at
peace. Earthly courage did not ex-
cite the conflict. The upper forces
of the text. They tell US there was
Lookout Mountains; but there was
something higher than that.
Again, the horses and the chariOts
of God came to the rescue of this
nation in 1876 at the close of a presi
Dental election famous for ferOcity.
A darker cloud yet settled down upon
this nation. The result of the election
was in dispute, and revolution, not
between two or three sections, but
revolution in every town and village
and city of the United States seemed
imminent. The prospect was that New
York would throttle New York, and
New Orleans would grip New Orleans,
and Boston, Boston and Savannah,
Savannah, and Washington Washing
ton. Some said Mr. Tildon was elect
and how near we came to universal
massacre some Of us guessed, but God
only knew. l ascribe our escape not
to the honesty and righteousness of
Infatuated politicians, but I ascribe
it to the upper forces Of the text.
Chadiots of mercy rolled in, and,
though the wheels were not heard
and the flash was not seen, yet all
through the mountains Of the North
and the South and the East and the
West, though the hoofs did not clatter,
the cavalry Of God galloped by. 1 tell
you God is the friend Of this nation.
In the awful excitement at the massa-
ere of Lincoln, when there was a pros
pect that greater slaughter would
open upon this nation, God hushed the
tempest. In the awful excitement at
the time of Garfield's assassination
God put his foot on the neck of the
cyclone. 70 prove God is on the side
OF this nation, I argue from the last
eight or nine great national harvests,
and from the national health of the
last quarter of century, epidemics
very exceptional. and from the great
revivals of religion, and from the
spreading of the church Of God, and
from the continent blossoming with
asylums and reformatory institutions,
and from an Edenization which prom
Uses that this whole land is to be
paradise, where God shall walk.
l am encouraged more than I can
tell you as I see the regiments wheel
ing down the sky, and my jeremiads
turn into doxologies, and that which
was the Good Friday of the nations
cruciixion becomes the Easter morn
of it's resurrection. OF course, God
works through human instrumentali-
ties, and this national betterment is
to come among other things, through
a scrutinized ballot box. By the law
of registration it is almost impossible
now to have illegal voting. There was
a time-you and I remember it very
well-when droves Of vagabonds wan
dered up and down on election day,
and from poll to poll and voted here,
and voted there, and voted every
where, and there was no challenge, or,
if there were, it amounted to nothing,
because nothing could be SO suddenly
proved upon the vaga bonds. Now. in
every we'll organized neighborhood,
every voter is watched with severest
scrutiny. If 1 am in a region where I
am allowed to vote, I must tell the
registrar my name, and how old I am,
and how long l have resided in the
state, and how long I have resided
in the ward or township, and if
misrepresent, fifty witnesses will rise
up and shut me out from the ballot
box. Is not that great advance? And
then notice the law that prohibits a
man voting if he has bet on the cleo
ton. A step further needs to be taken
and the man forbidden to vote who
has offered or taken a bride, whether
it be in the shape of free drink, or
cash paid down, the suspicious cases
obliged to put their hand on the Bible
and swear their vote in if they vote at
all. So, through the sacred chest of
our nations suffrage, redemptiono will
come.
God will save this nation through an
aroused moral sentiment. There has
never been so much discussion Of NOR
ais and minerals. Men, whether or
not they acknowledge what is right.
have to think what is right. We have
men who have had their hands in the
public treasury the most of their life
time, stealing all they could lay their
hands on, discoursing eloquently about
dishonesty in public servants; and men
with two or three families of their own
preaching eloquently about the
beauties Of the seventh command
ment. The question of sobriety and
drunkenness is thrust in the face of
this nation as never before, and takes
part in our political contests. The
question of national sobriety is going