The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-02-10

were looking into the future. forecasting the
dangers that are to be avoided And well
would IL be for US If we heed those words
and avoid the dangers which he pointed out
while yet there is time. ! do not care.
neither would 1T be proper for me on this
occasion to speak as I otherwise would. yet
I want to say that. speaking for myself. /
have no use for an Irish-American, a Ger
an English-American or any
other American with a foreign prefix. |
care not where you We're born or whence
you came, but when you plant your feet
upon American soil and swear allegiance TO
the stars and stripes / want you to stand
erect as an American citizen, owing al
legiance only to the government and laws
OF the land and to no other power. whether
located on the banks of the Seine, the
Thames or the Tiber: that no flag save the
stars and stripes shall be flung TO the breeze;
that the red flag of anarchy shall not be
schools of this land guarded as you would
guard the citadel of your souls; that the
hand should be withered an the brain par
allied that seeks its destruction.
4 am not aware that Grant was ever
known to pray in public, and vet l feel war
ranIed in asserting that he was a man VINO
prayers are not always evidence of piety.
It is not the eloquent professions nor the
rhetorical sermon, but the life that we lead
which tells for God and immortality. Be-
fore the war. while a resident OF the city
or Galena, he was a regular attendant upon
service in the First Methodist Episcopal
Church, the same church in which George
B. Swift, cheated out of being the present,
cago, worshiped. His children attended the
Sabbath school of that church, and while his
name may not have been upon the church
to its support.
NEVER USED PROFANE LANGUAGE.
THE whole life of General Grant is au-
thority for saying that he never supported
that which he deemed unworthy. In CONVEX
sation with o. 3. Epson, whose name l use
by authority, who is employed in the city of
Galena, and who, perhaps, was as familiar
with Grant before the war as any other citi-
zen of that city and who is a liberal If not a
free thinker, said to me that in all his inteF-
course with Grant he never heard him take
the name of God in vain or utter a word
which bordered on the profane. That in all
his intercourse with him he never heard the
General use a slang expression. That he has
known him to exhibit great interest in the
church of his choice. l regard this as valu-
able along the line of his Christian life, COM
ing from the source it does, bearing in mind
ing in obscurity. Those of you who have
read his memoirs will remember the fact
his belief that the federals could have
marched all over the southwest, but adds
that Providence ordered otherwise You
all remember the singing rebuke he admin
istered to the man on the train who dared
presence. After his return to Galena from
Appomattox, Senator Mcclellan remarked to
him that in the opinion of some the re-
bellion might have been crushed early in
hand of Providence in this, Mr.. Mcclellan
Had that desire been accomplished. while
it might have saved precious lives Tor the
present the future would have been most
dark; the providence of God was that
African slavery upon the American CONT
nent had to be destroyed and DESTROYED
forever.
ing the highest honors ever paid to mortal
NY ouypn hoodG of the East When MS
fame was filling every land, he quietly and
modestly on every Sabbath morning found
Episcopal Church in which he worshiped
when he was unknown. 1t was my great
pleasure at that time to % pc w usner w IN i his
pew, and / assure you 1t anorded me no
small degree OF pleasure to escort him up
"And / want to say another thing-that.
like all good Methodists, We took up a col
Without a contribution. On one Sabbath
morning ne put into that collection box four
fve-dollar bills, and personally wrote his
bath day, With the amount he contributed.
I marked those fve-dollar bills and sent
I have never seen them since, but nave re-
GREETED many times that I did not keep
{seF1or The h t General sEsrc alwas of P Pae h marke and II /
never recollect of his failing to bow his head
during prayer.
last illness the General received the rite of
baptism-not while unconscious, as some
have suggested, but while in possession of
all his faculties, knowing full well that the
sacred rite was being performed and what
it meant.
"While a nation held its breath. Grant.
with calm, Christian resignation, knowing
that death was near but fearing 1t not, IN
recognition of the kindly expression of feel
ing, quietly said: The expressions of kind
ly feeling are not restricted to a section
of the country. nor to a division Of the
people. They come from Individual citizens
of all Municipalities; from all denomina,
tions, the Protestant, the Catholic and
the Jew, and from the various soci-
cites of the land. scientific, educational.
religious or otherwise. Politics did not en-
ter into the matter at all. I am not ego
fist enough to suppose all this significance
should be given because / was the object of
it. 1t is a significant and gratifying fact
that confederates should have joined heart
lily in this spontaneous move. / hope the
good feeling ~inaugurated may continue to
the end'-and this great soul passed to its
God. Moses was not permitted in the flesh
to enter the promises land, yet in the spirit,
upon Mount Tabor, in the presence Of the
Savior, he saw all and more than all he de-
sired while on earth. Is not Grant, from
the summit of some spiritual mountain, wit
Messing the progress of this nation In Its
grand march toward the dawning of the
morning that shall usher in the great Prince
of Peace?"