The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1895-12-13

At the opening Of the war the COM
ma OF The United States
forces was d man who had been great
III battle, bat Old age had come, with
many in6rmities. and he had right
to quietude. He could not mount
a horse, and he rode on the
battlefield in a carriage, asking
the driver not to jolt it too
mnde. During the most OF. The four
ycarA of the contest, on the south
efn Iide, was man in midlife,
who had in his veins the blood OF
many generatsons of warriors, himself
one ct the heroes Of Cherubusco and
Germ GOrdo, Contreras and Chapulte-
pee As the years passed on and the
scroll of carnage unrolled there came
ont from both sides a heroisu, and
a strength, and determination
tiaFs hailed. And what but exter-
miha lion could come when Philip
Sheridan and Stonewall Jackson met,
and Nathaniel Lyon and Sydney
John tson rode in from north and
south, and Grant and Zee, the TIVE
thdhderbolts Of battle; c1ashcdl Yet
we are a nation, and yet we are 1T
peace. Earthly scourge did not excite
the conflict The upper forces of the
text. They tell us there was battle
fought above the clouds on Lookout
mountain; but there was something
higher than that.
Again, the horses and chariots of
God came to the rescue of the nation
in 1870, at the close of presidential
election famous for feroeity. A darker
cloud yet settled down Upon this
nation: The result of the election
was iii dispute, and revolution, not be-
tween two or three sections, but revo-
luton in every town and village and
city of the United States seemed inn
minent. The prospect was that
New York would throttle New
York. and New Orleans would
grip New Orleans, and Boston,
Boston, and Savannah, SaTan-
nah. and Washington. Washington.
Some said Mr.. Tilden was elected;
others said Mr.. Hayes was elected; and
how near we came to universal massa-
ere some of us guessed; but God only
knew. / ascribc our escape not to the
honesty and Righteousness of infuri-
ated politicians, but ascribe it to the
upper forces of the text. Chariots 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 chatter, the
cavalry of God ga11oped by. 1 tell you
God is the friend of this nation. In
the awful excitement at the massacre
of Lincoln, when there was prospect
that greater slaughter would open
upon the 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. To prove God is on the side of
this nation, l argue from the last eight
or nine great national harvests, and
from the national health of the last
quarter of a century, epidemics very
exceptional, and from the great re-
vivals of religion and from the spread.
ing of the Church of God, and from the
continent blossoming with asylums and
institutions, and from an
Edenization which promises that this
whole land is to be paradise, where
God shall walk.
l am encouraged more than / can
tell you as / sec 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
IF sc Recommendation nE
works through human instrument
talities, and this national betterment
is to come among other things, through
a scrutinized ballot-box. by the law
of registration it is almost ilnpos-
sible now to have illegal voting.
There was a time-yOu and l remem-
Der it very well--when droves of vaga-
bonds wandered up and down on elcc-
ton day, and from poll to poll, and
voted here, and voted there, and voted
everywhere, and there was no chal-
lenge; or, If there were, it amounted
to nothing, because nothing could
so suddenly be proved upon the
vagabonds. Now, in every we'll
organized neighborhood, every voter
is watched with severest scrutiny If
/ am in region where am allowed
vote. must tell the registrar my name,
and how old l am, and how long 1 have
resided in the state, and how long l
have resided in tile ward or township,
and If l misrepresent, fifty witnesses
will rise and shut me out from the bal
lot-box. Is not that great advance?
And then notice the law that pro-
hibits a man voting if he has bet on
the election. A step further needs to
be taken, and that man forbidden
n vote who has offered or taken a
bride, whether it be in the shape of
free drink, or cash paid down, the sus-
picious 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,
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 lands in the
public treasury the most of their life
time, stealing all they could lay their
hands on, discoursing eloquently about
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
is thrust in the face OF
this nation as never before, and takes
a part in our political contests.
The question of national sobriety