Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1896-10-16

! vas, but all In vain. Engraver knlie anu
reporters skill, and telegraphic wIre,. ana
| daily press, which have made US acquainted
| with the horrors OF modern battlefield, had
not vet begun their vigilance, aud the story
| of the American Revolution has never Deen
told. and never will be told. 1t did not take
much ink to sign the Declaration OF lnde-
pendence. but it took terrific amount OF
| blood to maintain it. 1t was an awful gaze
! OF opposition that the men and women
and the women as much as the men
pushed back. 1t was gate OF self-sacrince'
1t was q gate of blood. 1t was gate OF
carbu lcle.
We are not indebted to history for our
knowledge OF the greatest OF National
+ crises. Many Of us remember it, and fathers
an mothers now living had better keep tell
ing that story to their children, so that in
stead OF their being dependent upon cold
| type and obliged to say, son such page OF
| such book you can read that" will they
rather be able to say "My father told me
SOL" "My mother told me So" Men and
women who wildly remember 1861, and
1862, and 1853. and 1864, be yourselves the
historians, telling it, not with pen, but with
living tongue and voice anil gesture. That
Is the great use of Memorial Decoration Day,
for the Gala lilies on the grave tops soon be-
come breathless OF perfume, and in week
turn 10 dust unto that which lies beneath it.
But the story OF courage and selfsacrihce
and patriotism told on platforms and IL
households and by the roadside and III
churches and in GENE. cries by that annual
recital will be kept fresh in the memory OF
generations as long as our American institu-
lions are worthy Of preservation. Long
after you are dead your children will be ne
to say, with the Psalmist "We have herd
with our ears, o God, our fathers have
told US, what work Thou didst in their
days. In the times OF DID," But what
time it was! Four years OF home
sickness! Four years OF brotherly
ana sisterly estrangement! Four years OF
martyriom! Four years OF massacre Put
them in long line, the confagration OF
cities, and see them light up whole CONT
nent. Put them in long rows, the hospitals,
making vast metropolis Of pain and
paroxyism! Gather them in one vast assem-
hage, the millions of bereit from the St.
Lawrence to the Gulf and from the Atlantic
10 the Pacific beaches! Put the tears into
lakes, and the blood into rivers, and the
shrieks into whirlwnds! During those four
years many good and wise men at the North
and South saw nothing ahead but annihila-
tlon. With such National debt we
could never meet our obligations! Wfh
such moral antipathips Northern and South
ern men could never come into amity! Rep
the Caroinas could never again sit side by
side with the Representatives OF Maine,
Massachusetts and New York at the Ma
tional capital. Lord John Russell had de-
clared that we were "a bubble-bursting Ma
tIonali1y," and 1t had come true. The Ma
tions Of Europe had gathered with very re-
signed spirit at the funeral OF our American
Republic. They had tolled the bells on
Parliaments and ReichstaRs aud lowered
a 1ot~ 90. . 1.o1f md oxyon
on the other side of the sea had whined for
the dead eagle on this side. The deep grave
had been dug, and beside Babylon, and
Thebes, and Tyre, and other dead Nations OF
the past our dead Republic was to be
buried. The epitaph was all ready; Here
lies the American Republic, Born at Phila-
delphia, 4th of July, 1776. Killed at Bull
Run, July 81, 1851. Aged eighty-fve years
and seventeen days. Peace to Its ashes."
But before the obsequles had quite closed
there was an Interruption of the ceremon-
ies, and our dead Nation rose from its
mortuary surroundings. God had made for
it q special Resurrection Day, and cried,
Come forth, thou Republic OF Washing
ton, and John Adams, and Thomas Jeffer-
son, aud Patrick Henry, and John Hancock,
and Daniel Webster. andS. s. Prenttss, and
Henry Clay. Come forth" And she came
forth TO be- stronger than she had ever been.
Her mightest prosperlties have come since
that time. Who would want to push back
this country to what II was In 1869 or lSoOf
But, oh, what high gate, what strong
gate she had to push back before she could
make one step in advanced! Gate OF flame.
See Norfolk Navy Yard, and Columbia, ana
Chambersburg, and Charleston on fire!
Gate Of bayonets! See glttering rifles and
carblnes flash from the Susquehanna, and
the James, to the Mississippi, and the Ar
kansasl Gate Of heavy artillery, making
the mountains of Tennessee and Kentucky
and Virginia tremble az though the earth
itself were struggling in its last agony. The
gate was so fiery and so red that can thinK
of nothing more appropriate than to take
the suggestion of Isaiah in the ter and call
1t n gate OF carbuncles.
This country has been for the most part
Of its history passing through crises, ana
after each crisis was better OIL than before
it entered it, and now we are at another
crisis. We are told on one hand that II gold
is kept as a standard and silver is not ele-
vate l. confidence will be restored aud TINS
Nation will rise triumphant from all the
financial misfortunes that have been af1ict-
ing us. On the other hand we are told that
If he free coinage of silver is allowed, all
the wheels Of business will revolve, the poor
man will have better chance, and all our
industries will begin to hum and roar.
During the last six Presidential election
have been urged 10 enter the political arena, !
but never have and never will turn the
pulpit in which L preach iato a political
stump Every minister must do as he feels
called to do, and will not crltcise him for
doing what he considers his duty; but all
the political haraDgues from pulpits from
now until the | Of November will not in al
the United States change one vote, but VIII
leave many ears Stopped against anything
that such cergymnn may utter the rest OF
their lives. Az general rule the laymen
of churches understand politics better tnan
the clergy because they (the laymen) study
politics more than the clergy, and have pei
Ter opportunity ofbeing intelligent on these
subjects. But good morals, honesty. loyal
". Christian patriotism and fhe Ten Com
mandments-i ese WE must prea n. Goo
saws distinctly in the Bible, "The silver and
the cold are Mime and He will settle the
controversy between those two metals III
ever this country needed the divine rescue IT
needs II now. Never within my memory
have so many people literally starved 10
death as in the past few months. Have you
noticed in the newspapers how many men
and women here and there have been found
dead, the Dost-mortem examination statlnR
that the cause of death was hunger! There
is no; day that we do not hear the crash OF
some great commercial establishment, ana,
as consequence, many people arc
thrown out OF employment Among
what we considered comfortable homes
| have corae'privation and close calculation and
| an economy that kills. Millions OF
| people who say nothing about It are at
| this moment at their wits end. There are
4 orsfU