Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1895-12-02

forces Then in 1861, when our civil
war opened, many at the north and at
the south pronounced it rational suicide.
It was not courage against cowardice,
it was not wealth against poverty, it
was not large states against small states
It was heroism against heroism, it was
the resources Of many generations
against the resources Of generations, it
was the prayer of the north against
the prayer of the south, it was one half
of tie nation in armed wrath meeting
the other half of the nation in armed
Indignation What could come but ex-
termination?
At the opening of the war the COM
mander in chief Of the United States
forces was man who had been great in
battle, but old age had come, with
many infirmities, and he had right tC
quietude. He could not mount horse,
and he rode on the battlefield in car
riage, asking the driver not to jolt it
too much. During the most of the four
years Of the contest, on the southern side,
was man in midlife, who had in his
veins the blood Of many generations of
warriors, himself one of the heroes of
Churubusco and Cerro Gordo, Contreras
and Chapultepec. AS the years passed
on and the scroll of carnage unrolled
! there came out from both sides hero
/ ism, and a strength, and a determina-
! ton that the world had never seen mar
shaded. And what but determination
could come when Philip Sheridan and
| StonewaIi Jackson met, and Nathaniel
! Lyon and Sidney Johnston rode in from
north and south, and Grant and Lee,
the two thunderbolts of battle, clashed!
Yet, we are a nation, and yet we are at
peace. Earthly courage did not decide
the conflict. The upper forces of the
text-they tell us there was a battle
fought above the clouds on Lookout
mountain, but there was something
higher than that.
A Friend of the Nation.
Again, the horses and chariots of God
came to the rescue of this nation in
1876, at the close of a presidential cleo
tion 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, ana Boston, Boston, and Sa-
vannah, Savannah, and Washington,
Washington. Some said Mr.. Tilden was
elected, others said Mr.. Hayes was
elected, and how near we came to uni
versal massacre some of us guessed, but
God only knew. [ ascribe our escape
not to the honesty and righteousness Of
Infatuated 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
least, and the west, though the hoofs did
not clatter, the cavalry of God galloped
by. I tell you God is the friend of this
nation. In the awful excitement at the
massacre of Lincoln, when there was a
prospect that greater slaughter would
open upon this nation, God hushed the
tempest. In the awful excitement at
the time of Garfeld's assassination God
put his foot on the neck of the cyclone.
To prove God is on the side of this ma
ton I argue from the last eight or nine
great national harvests, and from the
century, epidemics very exceptional,
and from the great revivals of religion,
and from the spreading of the church of
God, and from the continent blossom
ing with asylums and refOrmatory insti-
buttons, and from an Edenization which
promises that this whole land is to be a
paradise, where God shall walk.
/ am encouraged more than [ can tell
you as I see the regiments wheeling
down the sky, and my jeremiads turn
into doxologies, and that which was the
Good Friday of the nation S crucifixion
becomes the Easter morn of its resurrec
ton. Of course God works through hui
man instrumentalities, and this nation
al 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 time-you and 1 remember
it very well-when droves of vagabOnds |
wandered up and down on election day,
and from poll to poll and voted here,
and voted there, and voted everywhere, |
and there was no challenge, 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 I am
in region where I am allowed vote,
must tell the registrar my name, and |
how old + am, and how long have re-
sided in the state, and how long I have |
resided IN the ward or the township,
and if I misrepresent, so witnesses will |
rise and shut me out from the ballot box.
Is not that a great advance? And then
notice the law that prohibits man
voting if he has bet on the election. A
step farther needs to be taken and that
man forbidden vote who has offered Or