The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1895-05-31

IL was waged was so great and the necessity
for settlement upon the battlefield so unavoid-
able that instead of impressing one with horror
| II speaks of lofty conservation to country and
| loyalty to God and man. And just as the child
rem OF Israel heaped up the pile OF stones on the
| banks of old Jordan, provoking there by the
questioning of their children and the telling OF
| the story of the passage of the river through
power of their God so we shall ever tell OF the
| deeds OF the brave men who fought our battles
| and imperiled their lives for brotherhood and
| for country. God was somehow in that affair
| guiding and driving it on TO its issue at Rich
mond.
There were many critical times in the history
| leading up TO the war when If things had just
| turned out differently the war would not have
| followed. The various compromises proposed
would somehow not compromise things. The
measure OF 1850 turned the country into one vast
debating ground passions ran high, families were
| alienated churches were split, and the old
| Wing party was swept away to give place to
another that would stand squarely on the issue.
Directly Lincoln appears and the south secedes.
| Then follow promises by congress to preserve
the institution OF slavery If only the union may
! be preserved, and If the south could have only
accepted some Of those promises made in good
| faith how different it might have all been. But
| no, driven on by some mad destiny the south
| fired the shot upon Sumpter which served as
the bugle call to arms.
From out of the homes of the north
from the hills of New England, from the noun
tain Businesses Of New York and Pennsylvania
and the plains Of the west, loyal men fastened
down to the fray and the war was on. And then
defeat after defeat settled down over the union
forces until the north had been driven to adopt
the high aim for which the war had been in re-
atty begun-the freedom of the slave. On July
ed, 1861 congress, with but two dissenting
| votes, declared the purpose of the north "to de-
fend the constitution with all the rights of the
| slave states"
But God had mightier issues to be decided by
, this war than that Through reverse after re-
verse and through an ever increasing agitation
| of the wickedness of human slavery, it was fin.
| ally burned into the conscience of the north
| that victory could not rest with them except as
| this larger issue was accepted. AS one has
| put it men vowed that as Christ had died to
make men holy they would die to make men
| free"
In September 1862 Lincoln vowed that if Lee
were driven from Maryland he would abolish
slavery; on the nth of that month his prayer
was answered by the victory of Antietiem. His
| provisional proclamation was forthcoming at
| once to be followed by the absolute proclama-
tion Of the LIST of January '63. And the war was
| then on with its real issue defined and stated.
Gods mighty purpose lowered above the smoke
and carnage of every battlefield thereafter, sue
cesses began to take the place of defeats. Di-
rectly that great tide of battle swept across
Seminary hill at GETTYSBURG, the deciding battle
is now on and its issue hangs in the balances.
Directly Pickett's famous charge is repulsed
with the dead strewn over the field by the
thousands and the victory rests with the Fed
eral troops and from this time the shouts of
victory come up almost uniformity from the
Union forces until Richmond is reached and the
war is ended and the slave is set free.
And this is our memorial; il is this that
amid all the wicked wars of the world, this war
has had its carnage and its BLOOD lost sight of
in the sacredness of it's purpose We shall tell
our children with pride, we rejoice not in blood
shed, but rejoice in the exhibition of courage
and loyalty to God and humanity.
know not how others may feel but every
Grand Army badge see invests its wearer with
new dignity as man. That man means more
to me than others. I somehow can not feel
otherwise than that am indebted to him, owe
", L
him something for the greatness of the country
in which live, I owe him something for the
prosperity which has filled this land since '65.
And somehow the old soldier grades up little
taller than the average man because he has
once known the enthusiasms and felt the thrills
Of heart engendered by that great struggle.
Sometimes fear that this is getting to be a
sordid age in which we live that we are so en-
N m fhatx cIoll l,y N
get to have the leaden ring of the very dollars
for which we struggle so hard. Why we have
no wars any more, except those of labor and
those engendered by our very wretchedness.
We assemble men now in mobs to fight for
more wages. God forbid that we should have
another war, but If men must fight thousands
times better that they fight for freedom of their
fellow than for the bread that they eat. would
rather have known the enthusiasts, the hopes
and the fears, the tolls and the dangers, of the
civil war than to have spent whole lifetime in
simply heaping up wealth, and in trying to
guard it from the men who would get it away
from me.
And so old soldier I greet you this morning
with hearty word of gratitude for what owe
you, and give you hearty God speed down
the journey Of life. 1t is almost an unseemly
thing for me to be speaking to you for belong
among the children who must make inquiry for
the meaning of this memorial which you have
builded A few stray memories of seeing some
young men march away from native place, and
q vague childish feeling that awful calamity had
fallen when Lincoln was shot are about all the
acquisition that hold as direct gathering
from the war; all the rest of it has come to me
through books and the lips of such as YOU And
feel as IL this morning would have been more
to the purpose II some of you had done the
talking, even though you did nothing but to
have had an old soldier stand here and show his
SCARED and wounded body it would have been
more to the purpose than all have said. Tell
army stories. In q certain crises day in Roman
history we are told that no one could move the
people to action on behalf of the empire, orator
followed orator in vain then an old veteran came
forward and held up the stump of an arm that
had been lost in battle, he spoke no word but
he fired the common heart and the day was
won So feel about you, your wounded bodies
and furrowed faces speak with eloquence. And
in concluding let me remind you of your common
battle with sin. envy you your past privilege
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