The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1896-04-04
WHOLE NO., 279.

the world If we were imperiled today
i'll another like crisis, they would fly
and leave us to our fate. My friend Iron
quill of Kansas has happily summarized
the whole thing in few lines
fhe merit of the, country marched and filled
the Union ranks.
The money of the country marched and filled
the English banks.
AT last the war was over. and Johnny ceased
to roam.
He came with bugles playing; the specie
snealsed back home
One day, when lying grapevine tel
egram OF Union disaster had enabled
the brokers in Wall street to swoop
down on the national credit and buy
themselves rich in a few hours, the
gaunt Lincoln went over to the war de-
partment. hoisted himself with swing
ON to long oak table, and bringing
down his clinched fist like a maui said:
Stanton, do you know what I think?
think that the men who are speculat
ing in the life blood of this nation, az
those fellows in New York are doing,
ought to be hanged. Don't you:'
AT all events, the national debt was
confirmed and made valid by the recoil
at Gettysburg. The people did not then
know that the debt was to become the
great fundamental fact in our subse-
quent history. The people were intent
on the battle. They were glorious in
their determination to see the battle
through While they were fighting it
out victoriously an enemy took posses
sion of the house, whose expulsion has
| L I 4
| ly advances his pretensions to be the
original owner Of the premises. He says
that the American people, being bound
to him in contract which he has al
ready changed three or four times in his
own interest, must now either discharge
their mortgage with dollar worth 10
cents, or else he will rightfully fore
close on the farm and make them all
| tenants at will forever. 1t is Il bad bust
ness. Gettysburg made the flag supreme
Our constellation of stars has spread to
cluster of 46, bnt Gettysburg also
brought to loyal Shylock such an oppor-
tunity to spoliate the world as he had
not enjoyed since the Napoleonic wars.
The recoil of the Confederacy on the
3D. of July determined the general linn
its of the conflict. The war lasted for
81 months and days, but never after
ward was the impact OF the southern
armies what it had been before The
Confederates fought on, but it was a
sullen, heavy defensive, despairing
fight. There was no abatement of
courage or of the declared purpose to
win or die, but the fury and arrogance
! oF L. foJ x,,
return. Lee and Johnston knew it. Da-
Wis and his cabinet knew it. and it was
not long until the whole world knew it
also.
After Gettysburg the descent Of the
secession cause down into darkness and
the oblivion of the underworld was
constant and irrevocable. No power
could shore up the totteripg fortunes OF
that brave, i'll starred, reckless thing
called the southern Confederacy. In
prize fight there is always a critical
blow. Sooner or later one of the COM
batants receives a shock that reaches to
the nerve centers and weakens him from
head to foot. He staggers to the ground,
but rises on time and smiles. He throws
himself into posture, and his hackers
shout and bet more money-and lose it.
Their favorite has had bloW from
which he cannot recover, and ere long
he goes to his corner in the unconscious
ness Of semideath and despair.
The strong and defiant south stood
thus in the arena ON the Sd Of July,
1868. About o'clock in the afternoon
blow was delivered by the Union
army which, falling over the heart Of
the enemy, laid him low on the bloody
, slopes That blow l.ade all his future
risings and fencings and bravado to be
no more than the expiring rounds and
dragging afterplay of contest that was
, already decided.
The political structure Of half the
world was affected by the shock of Get
, tysburg. A poet, musing on Little
Round Top in the twilight Of that awful
| day, might see Sedan as well as Apo
mattox in the distance. The French
/ army occupied the City Of Mexico on
the 10th Of June, 1868. Lee had already
3 crossed the Potomac. The foreign regen
. cy was established while he was at
{ Chambersburg. Seven days after the
| great battle the hereditary Mexican
monarchy under Catholic emperor was
/, proclaimed. Napoleon III, that son OF
Hortense and Somebody, hybrid OF
: sphinx and Mephistopheles, had care
Z fully planned to profit by our wreck.
, His idea was to enrich the Latin race,
: with the f1otsam and jetsaln Of the
: American catastrophe. And things wen'
S we'll with him until the recoil of Lee.
t That event showed that the Confed
+ eracy was for the pseudo Bonaparte 4
r delusion and a snare. Ii Lee had won
n Napoleon could have supported hi
usurpation in America. His farreachinl
: intrigue might have been successful, 70
e who was there to impede his purpose
f We may still see the political complex
h ion of France changing-as Eugenie'
: countenanco changed-at the news o
s Gettysburg. The break of Pickett's col
j. umn was also break in the dikes O
z the second empire. Napoleon s abandon
j, ment Of Maximilian and his shrinking
Y back under the menace to Grant wa
Q the emperor's first retreat. After that
j. retreating became his mood and habi
It until he found himself at last begir
J, with hellfire in the crater Of Sedan.