The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1895-06-07
INGALLS, AT lola.
The Decoration Day of 1895 made Mem.
orablc by an Eloquent Address by the
most Distinguished Orator In the
United states.

In spite of the fact that the rain
was so much needed, thousands of
people were doubtless grievously dis
appointed when the downpour COM
menced early last Thursday morning
and they knew they were to be pre-
Guided from coming to lola and hear
ing the Memorial address by Senator
Ingalls,. 1t was glorious rain,-two
inches and quarter MIR. Dibble says,
but why could it not have come
day sooner, or a day later? Every
body asked the question, but nobody
answered it, and so we took the rain
and were thankful.
Fortunately the clouds broke away
about noon and the rain ceased and
by the time the procession had re-
turned from the cemetery, where the
usual ceremony had been performed,
the park was provided with seats and
was in excellent condition for the re-
ception of the thousands who had as
sembled in the expectation of hearing
an eloquent and thoughtful and forci-
BILE address.
And they were not disappointed.
We regret that our space will not adj
NIT the speech in full, but the follow
ing extracts may serve to give some
idea of it and to show those who were
not here how much they missed by
not hearing all of it. After abiding
in a humorous way to his own mill
tary service, which he characterized
as "brief, obscure anu inglorious,"
the Senator began as follows:
Other wars have been waged for conquest, for
ambition for dynasty. for throne. Cesar
"
empire But no such passions animated the
souls of the soldiers of the Republic They
went to battle for q moral idea, for the pre-
Rule as the fundamental law of our National
existence. Life was as sweet and love as al
Turing and the world as bright to them as to us;
but they deliberately put them all at hazard
and for four years endured the march, the
bivouac the camp. the battle and the hospital,
they voluntarily encountered hardship, priva-
ton. disease and death. to save our cities from
sack, eur homes from spoilation, our flag from
dishonor and our country from destruction,
that personal liberty might be preserved, the
will of the majority the supreme law. and the
federal union of independent States remain
perpetual and indissoluble.
go
More Of your numbers persisted than Europe |
has lost in all her wars since Waterloo, more |
than Great Britain has lost in all her battleelds
BOEWOrth thousand
millions of treasure were lost and spent miriads
of wives made widows and children made or |
people and for the people might not perish from |
the earth But for these incredible sacrifices, |
these tears and sighs this blood. those sacred
and unconscious ashes we tenderly covered |
with flowers today, this flag would have been |
rag, the centennial of the Republic /
would not have been celebrated, the geography |
of the continent would have been changed, the |
United States would have disappeared from the /
map, an incoherent aggregation Of petty COM
discordant beligerent like the petty /
States of Mexico or Central America, would /
have been substituted for this continental. in
dissoluble. indivisible nation, whose banner is
destined to float from the equator to the pole Of
this hemisphere. The Declaration of Independ-
enee would have been an antiquated relic, the
Fourth OF July jubilee of despots, the consu-
tuition and laws of the Uuited States would |
hrve been like the codes OF Justinian. All the
glories and traditions of our history, the valor
Of our heroes, the wisdom Of our sages the elo-
luence Of our statesmen, all that is inspiring in
our annals or resplendant in eur example, all
these would have been scattered and dispersed
ike the trivial assets of an insolyent partner
ship. Freedom would have been phras Sc, po-
pular government a definition. liberty of
thought and conscience would have been SEN
fences whose meaning would have been found
n dictionaries and not IN the statutes Of free
people. Our present would have been an armi-
itice with standing armies in every capital and
.ustem houses on every frontier; our future
would have been an abyss which no sagacity
sould penetrate; our past would be catastrophe
by tyrants with derision and by
heir victims with despair. Millions of human
beings would have been held In slavery, incon-
,ievably, monstrous in its conditions of degra-
alton, dishonor. endless unrequited toll, help
ess ignorance, mothers and children separated
n the shambles, babes begotten aHd sold like
he young of beasts. to read the Bible crime,
o strive TO be free sentence Of death.
To me this is no frivolous and empty cere- ,
nony. do not disparage the valor or doubt
he sincerity Of your adyersarieS but were this !
My question Of the relative courage OF the
Contestants, ] should not be here t0day. Brav-
~ in the presence of danger is not an uncom- ,
non trait in the unconquered and unconquer-
BILE race TO which we belong; The Anglo sax
IN is too proud to shirk or skulk or run away.
Bis body may tremble and grow pale In the