The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1895-02-13
The DUTY OF THE PATRIOT
A Soldiers Ideas on Problems
of the Present
ADVICE TO GOOD CITIZENS
The Present the Heir and Child Of the
Past
Major nerrill's Address at Last Nights Meet
ing of the Loyal Legion AS
ISOLATION

A meeting OF the Southern California
Association of the Loyal Legion was held
last night at the Hollenbeck.
The feature of the affair was an address
OH Our Duty. by Major George W. Merrill,
of this city. Major Merrill has not only
distinguished himself as q soldier and at
the bar, but has notable record as a
diplomat, having been minister to Hawaii
during President Cleveland's first term.
1.-THE address was as follows:
\ With pleasure we have often revivfied
the memories of the brilliant headlights of
the loyal army in the late civil war, and
5 as often been thrilled with exalted senti-
Z ments of patriotism. We have recited or
4 sonal bravery, hair-breadth escapes and
I startling incidents-many true, while
| some perhaps bore the imprint of
the character of Ananias = yet it
may not be Improbable, for a few mo-
ments to step aside from the frequented
path and stand beside the trenches of the
private soldier, or search among the graves
of the uncoffined and unknown for the
key to principle on which to base the
duties of the living and horoscope of the
future.
To my mind those silent mounds scat
tered throughout the land, with the simple
inscription unknown, or John Smith,
Private, ~ rudely carved on the pine slab,
represent the sepulchre of a hero as grand
if not grander, than the one whose bones
are laid at rest amid the pomp and cir
cumstance of official ceremony exacted by
reason of his official rank.
That slab marks the spot where lies an
fnanimate relic which once was the EN-
bodiment OF an Immortality fighting for the
cause OF human progress. That silent
mound, with all it implies, marks the
course which the people have Travelled on
their way to the Mecca Of freedom--it en-
phasizes the triumph of a grand princi-
ple-it is one of the evidences of the born
ing again of that liberty christened by the
immortal Lincoln: "a government of the
people, for the people, and by the peo-
pie" The political. as well as the spirit
ual and material world, now is and ever
has been impregnated with an unquench-
able principle of growth, improvement,
progression.
There is an impulse pervading the army
of humanity to close the ranks, move
upon the Entertainments of antique
thrones, to attack the citadels of fossil
lied ideas, to advance to higher planes of
thought action and better government.
Though battered and DETECTED at times,
yet guided by the Polar star of liberty,
the people have found their Bethlehems
at Thermopyle, Runnymede, Yorktown
and Appomattox. While skilled leaders
and organization are necessity in all adj
vance movements, yet the Abou Ben
Adhems who led all the rest in the cause of
human rights have been discovered amidst
the ranks of and in touch with the sent-'
ments of the people-their swaddling
clothes were not made of purple and fine
linen; but, born in manger and Graded
on the frontiers of advancing civilization,
their lullabys were the creaking winds of
the native forest or the wild zephyrs of
the prairies; and they absorbed the divine
sentiment that all men are endowed with
the inalienable right of life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness.
Amid such influences were developed
the greatest military and civic leaders in
one of the most important of the world $
epochs. The character of the grandest
figure in civil life was moulded in such
school-a man of whom it has been said
he had no ancestors and no SUCCESSORS
communicate with nature in its prime
val state-poverty was his companions
constantly in contact with the people, the
hopes, fears and motives of mankind
were his textbooks. His only inheritance
was large brain, good heart and
mothers benediction. Endowed with
these, he broadened into true greatness
one emphatically of the people and for the
people, on whom God seems to have fixed
his seal of approval and in his honor to
have ordained new trinity-liberty, 10y
atty, Lincoln. In all ages there have been
contentious spirits and opposing forces
struggling for the mastery.
Win tne telescope OF history we can
view the patriots in secret conclave on the
shores of Lucerne, whispering death
knells to Austrian bondage and watch the
unerring arrow of Tell giving freedom to
the shepherds of the Alps. Listening, we
can almost distinguish the Switzer's clar-
ion voice as he stood before an Austrian
phalanx and successfully commanded
MAKE way for liberty" while today the
music of her lassies and the pipes of her
peasantry mingle their refrains among
the hills of her free mountain homes.
Standing upon the crest of centuries
and looking down upon the rudely con-
structed governments of Greece and Rome
we find that nearer the approach to gov
eminent of the people, by the people, the
greater their prosperity, but when the
springs of political life, which were bound
up in miniature republic, had ceased to
act, then it was that their achievements
crumbled before advancing chaos, the ma
tional character declined, and an empire
was unable to preserve what republic
had acquired. These gigantic upheavals,
discordant and contending forces are, in
mining parlance, but the outcropping of
which can be traced through the centur-
les, and from which may be gathered
countless rich and valuable specimens of
the nobler instincts of humanity. True,
its course has often been obscured or
buried under the debris Of ignorance, SUI
INiSeieiO' oPPicooiol, yNb 'tiOilSo
through the histories of ali peoples you
Will lind distinct tracings of loyalty TO
liberty and the right.
In America we have located or the crop
pings and, as we believe, near the apex of
this true tissure vein. The world knows
that our notice of location and history of
title has been written and recorded with
the point of the sabre dipped iii the blood
OF foreign nations and our own kindred
that its side lines, end lines and general
course are so well marked by those silent
graves, yet potent sentinels that it is be-
licveG, should future generations attempt
to upset the title, they would be awed by
The presence OF a mighty principle and
fully realize that the charming notes of
Hal. Columbia were their funeral dirge
Mount Shasta's lofty peak proudly
pierces the clouds. Those who stand upon
It's summit and view the grandeur of the
scene must steadily, cautiously, yet firmly
tread its rugged slope. Those with great
est strength you will see nearest the goal
waving their wands of triumph and hear
Gheir encouraging cheers to those below.
u? the ages the people have travelled in
pursuit of more perfect government I'M
I'll today America stands the highest on
the slope, and in full view waves its flag
of triumph, while the echoes of it's sc, OOO,-
100 shouting peans Of encouragement to
come up higher ominously vibrate
throughout the world.
The war of the Revolution, as well as
the Civil war, were not only conflicts to
establish and maintain the perpetuity OF