The Portland daily press., 1898-05-31

one moral support of the Union women
the Union army never could have con-
quered peace. Wherever the flag went 1t
carried with it the hopes and fears, the
prayers and tears of mothers, sisters,
wives and sweethearts. Wherever the
BATTLE ragged, there close at hand were the
samaritan oil and honey, the assuaging
Daim and comfort, suggested by tender
loving hearts, and wrought by eager, will
ing hands. Wherever the yellow hospital
nag hoated, beneath its missionary folds
were felt and heard and seen the delicate
touch, the soothing comforting word, the
angelic ministration of the Sisters Of
Mercy, the Sanitary Commission and the
Woman's Relief Corps. Their only enc
mics We're sorrow, suffering and pain. In
their campaigns were no defeats, and
though their victories were not emblaz-
oned on the flag, they are inscribed upon
the hearts of all who followed 1T.
do not think that I shall violate the
proprieties Of this occasion, If before cou-
Guiding | say few words upon subject
which materially concerns some of the
surviving comrades of those whose men,
DRY we celebrate today. There are few
of our fellow citizens who seem to have
forgotten and some of the younger who
perhaps have never realized the magni-
tude of the debt which the people of the
United States owe to the Union army and
navy. You have been often told certainly
that the annual cost of the pension roll
exceeds the annual cost of any standing
army of Europe. I 90 not know If the
statement be true but l am quite willing
to accept it as fact If any care to urge it
as an argument. l do not believe that
any considerable portion of the people OF
the United States measure patriotism by
purse strings or count the drops of blood
shed in their defence, or the sufferings
endured, as so many dimes or dollars,
h,-& 10 Df h. ri
insist upon the mere mercantile view of
the matter, then in all fairness, they should
present both sides of the account. When.
France lay PROSTATE at the foot of Ger
many at the close of the Franco Prussian
war, the conqueror demanded as q war
indemnity 81 600, 900, 900, and the provinces
of Alsace and Lorraine, the gardens of
the Rhine, the fairest, richest vine-clad
hills and citron groves of all the Rhenish
provinces. Those provinces embra oed 3D.
800 square miles, contained population
of SOB, 987, and paid public revenue cf
about $22, 900, 900.
Europe stood aghast at the enormity of
the demand and the London Spectator
characterized it as IAN attempt to make
the German Empire. 1t was the heaY-
lest war indemnity ever imposed; but
Germany exacted it and France paid it.
Compare it If you please with the indem-
nifty which the Union army and navy
reconquered and turned over to the gov
eminent of the United States at the close
of the War of the Rebellion. Compare
the $3.50 square miles of Alsaoe and
Lorraine with the 100000 square miles,
600, 000 600 acres of the most fair, most
fertile and most productive section of
earth that the sun of heaven shines upon
today, contained within those states
which but for the Union army and navy
would today be under flag hostile to
the stars ana stripes, now peopled by 30
00O,0 600 loyal oitizens of the United
States, more than all the Spaniards in
Spain, Cuba, Porto Rico, the Philippines
and the world; and whose loyal sons are
marching to the front shoulder to shout
der with ours, keeping step to the music
of the Union, and whether the music be-
Yankee Doodle or Dixie is all the same
to every one of them. gs
The entire cost of the pension roll for
the present year is less than one and a
half per cent of the present value of the
country that the Union army and navy
reconuuered and turned over the United
States government at the close of the
war, constituting q permanent invest
ment, which when the last war bond and
the last pension to the old soldiers and
their dependents shall have been paid,
will have discharged the pecuniary obli-
CATION of the account over and over
again.
So much for the old-blooded arithmetic
of the question. Now let us glance for
moment at it's moral and sentimental
aspect. OF the four million slaves whom
the Union army and navy made free,
There was not father who could legally
claim the paternity of his offsp ring nor a
mother who had legitimate child. For
1hem the sacred names of father, mother,
son, daughter, wife or husband were as
empty and unmeaning as If the words had
never been composed The Union army
ana a navy rlghted that wrong, and wiped
away forever tho foul blot that for nearly
"a n III years had made the starry flag
OF ene United States Haunting lie. The
mora eject eject OF emancipation in America
s sfo.I To-, every serf in Russia; broke the
snaokies OF every slave in Brazil, Spain
ana cuba. SO that today throughout all
whers maos There is no spot or place
take the form of human slavery i' '- %
| Mr. Swert closed with few aloouent
| words on tne patriotism of the Maine men