Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1897-06-01

dice, announced his determination, under
| the constitution. to faithfully execute the
laws of congress in all the states. In do
ing this he said. there need be nc
| bloodshed or violence, and there shall be
none unless it is forced upon the national
authority, concluding with these memor-
able words: In your hands, my dissatis-
fed fellow countrymen, and not in mine. is
the momentous issue of civil war. The
| government will not assail you. You can
| have no conflict without being yourselves
| the aggreSsors. You have no oath reg
istered in heaven 10 destroy the govern
ment while shall have the most solemn
| one TO preserve, protect and defend IT,.
| The Apostle Paul. as he stood in the midst
Of Mars hill, pleading with the men OF
| immortal Lincoln as he stood that day on
| the steps of the nations capitol pleading
with his dissatisfied countrymen' of the
South.
His words. full of sympathy as they
| were bristling with courage, fell upon
leaden ears. Prejudice and passion had de-
4 throncd calm judgment. In the patriotic
| utterances of the new president the lead
| erS of the South saw, as they thought,
Tbis s OF of nreservin protectnS and e
1 Tending the Union by a president without
| an army, navy, money or munitions Of
! war, they ridicule led. Ordinance after ord
/ nance of secession was passed. South
| Carolina and the other seeded states were
! turned into military camps. Then came
/ That shot ended all talk of compromise be-
| tween the advocates of the right of Sc
| CgSSlOn ana the StalWdfI champions OF an
| indissoluble union, between the advocates
| of human slavery and the champions OF
personal liberty. Thenceforth there, re-
| mained no terms for those i'm armed re-
! sistance against the general government
but unconditional surrender. The slum-
bering giant of the North had been awak-
! ened From every mountain top and from
| every plain, from the Atlantic to the Pa
| cific, was heard, We are coming, Father
Abraham, three hundred thousand more.
'It was then that the American volun--
teer, the citizen soldier, was born, imbued
with the high resolve with the Union to
live, or for it to die, registering with Lin
coin an oath in Heaven 10 preserve, pro-
tect and defend it.
For four long years they endured the
privations of the camp the hardhipS OF the
march. the dangers of the battle, the sut-
ferings of the hospital, the untold horrors
of the prison pen, that a government OF
the people, by the people and for the Deo-
pie should not perish from the earth.
They are the men who without muir
muir and with unfdltering patriotism fol-
lowed Old Glory from Fort Donaldson to
AppOmattox; they are the men who by
their sufferings, trials and death made
atonement for the blighting curse of hui
the shackels from the limbs Of four mili-
ions of men, women and children and es-
tablished the equality OF all men, white
and black. before the law; they are the
men whose de- otion to the Union received
a baptism of blood upon every battlefield
of the civil war; they are the men the
glCry of whose achievements shines forth
from every star and is written by. the
finger of heroism upon every stripe of the
nations flag; they are the men whose valor
ard patriotism rendered possible the i'm
pCrishable halo of glory that surrounds our
flag and country; they are the men who,
on an appeal to the arbitrament of war,
established for all time the principle that
this is an indissoluble union of indestructl-
BILE states, and that there is room in this
country but for one flag.
THE civil war was inevitable. This ma
tion could not continue half slave and half
free. Ever since the morning stars sang
at war. Conservatism and compromise
may for a time check. but can never recon-
cile. these warning principles.
Slavery. protected as II was by the con-
stitution, shrank from the attacks of free
dom. The free labor of the North was to
1t a constant menace. Freedom demanded
came its unwilling instruments to enforce
it's DEGREES. The men of the North entered
the army with an eye single to the preserv-
alton of the Union. They were Unionists,
not abolitionists; they were led. II not driv-
en-. by an all wise Providence to emancipa-
tion.
'The war ended. the Union preserved,
every inch of American soil dedicated to
freedom. liberty thenceforth had new
meaning. The stars and stripes. without
stain. clean ard pure as the CLEAN of dia-
monds, became the gorgeous ensign of the
republic now known and honOred through
out the earth.
when Fort Sumter was fred upon, the
North was lily prepared for war, her sons
were courag geous, but devoid of military
=. /
front gave but faint promise of the veter-
ans of s.. The trained soldier and skilled |
general were yet in the womb of time. |
Sheridan was an unknown second leuten-
ant on the Western frontier; Logan, coun- |
try lawyer in Southern Illinois: Sherman. |
an instructor in a military academy in |
Louisiana; Grant a clerk in his brothers |
tannery in the little town of Galena. yet |
long before AppOmatox these raw recruits |
were the veterans of the world and their |
Incompatible leaders the acknowledged |
captains of the age.
''when the stars and bars went down |
and the stars and stripes went up at the |
lone apple tree. the Union army. ten hun |
dred thousand strong. flushed with victory,
able TO dictate its own terms TO the nation, |
made no demands upon the government, |
amid the plaudits of a grateful people it /
passed in review at the capital of the ma
tion. the reviewing stand passed the citi-
zen soldier disappeared, the American citi- /
zen remained. Tho trials and sufferings |
the victories and defeats Of the American |
volunteer, had imbued him with increased |
reverence for the constitution and INTENSE
fed love for the flag.
1.-THE army disbanded there were those
who prophCsied greater dangers to our free
institutions from the returning veterans
than had threatened the republic from the
armies Of the ConfedeTacy. While the BOYS
were fighting at the front and sleeping up-
on frozen ground, these prophets of evil |
were engaged In a struggle for wealth and
farinE sumptuously. While they were re-
solving that the war was a failure pa |
triots were offering their lives upon the
altar Of their country that this nation !
under God, should have q new birth of |
freedom
THE disbanded veterans of the armies of
Candy. Thomas. Sheridan, Sherman and |
Grant returned to their homes the uncom- |
promising champions of law and order the
implacable enemies of anarchy and COM |
carrying muskets, were tens of thousands
who, in the last score and twelve years |
have graCed every position in civil life men |
who have achieved the highest honor I'm !
the fields of science and literature; men |
who have wisely controlled great banking |
and railroad rOTnOrariCnG. xrbo |
learning has adorned the professors chair |
and the judicial ermine; men whose fer
vid eloquenCe has given a charm TO the |
pulpit and the bar; men whose statesman |
Ship has wisely shaped the policy and con-
trolled the destinies of the republic: men |
whose enterprise has built up the waste
places of the nation: men whose acts were
in battle; men whose stalwart
Americanism sympathizes with and holds
CD the hands of all people struggling for
and towards a larger liberty; men who de- |
mand that the tyranniCal Spaniard be
forced to take his bloody hand from the
throat of the struggling Cuban.
THE men who in the hour of the ma |
ions extremity placed their bodies as a |
living wall in its defense should not be !
in the day OF the nations pros |
lerity. Let those in authority remember |
hat in recognition Of their services, sac |
he promise of the nation of preference |
or appointment TO civil offices, a promise | ,
hat was CrystalliZed into a law when Far |
lgut was lashed to the mast in Mobile bay, F;
when Thomas was hurllng Hood back from |
Nashville. when Sherman was marching
rom Atlanta TO the sea, when Sheridan
vas laundering down the Shenandoah, |