The record-union., 1898-08-25


ing you high upon the scroll of fame
ana In your case the others will be
taught for all time the lesson that re-
publlcs are, after all, not ungrateful.
(Applause)
1 have often said that we don't love
our country half we'll enough. We
i don't. We don't realize what a heritage
we nave. We don't realize how it is
that In century and a quarter we
nave nearly hundred millions of free
men, the church, and schoolhouse, and
Iarfn, and shop, and the means Of liv-
ing nave grown here, so that we can
never fear being hemmed in by any
people on the face of the globe. What
q thought it is, that if all the world
were 10 unite to shut up the United
states and blockade it's ports, from in
SIDE and outside, an embargo on the
receiving or sending out of any prod
uct of this earth coming from the in
dustry Of man, nobody on this conti-
nent of hundred million people would
nave less to eat, less to wear, or know
except for the historical fact, that we
were al war with anybody. applause. }
| We are queer people. We went out
into this war without getting mad.
(Laughter) We haven't got mad yet.
| (Applause)
I'VE spent a hundred and fifty mill
ions of dollars and nobody thought of
1t. And when at last the protocol was
signed and peace was practically as
sured, nobody cared anything about
| that. Gaughter) All we did was to
haul down the flag that had been float
ing and needed mending, and our wives
mended them up and laid them away
for the next fight. daughter and ap-
| plause) 4
I wonder is there is any people On
the face of the globe that can pre-
| sent such a record-that can permit
the people of the nation with which
they are at war to live among them
in the enjoyment of all the blessings
of peace, without disturbance of any
kind. Is there people on the face of
this earth that can be as magnani-
NOUS as the American people? His
/ tory presents no record of such a ma
tion.
And We shall go on until, in the
great war for commercial supremacy
| that within the next. ten years is TO
involve this nation, because the differ
| ence in exchanges is getting to be so
vast in the life of this nation, for we
sold the world a billion of dollars more
| last year than we bought, and five
years of that will bankrupt the world.
bankrupt the world. (Cheers) What
will happen? They will attempt-and
the cause of war is always easy to pe
found-to make check to the inroads
of American commerce, and then it
will come again. And I hope to God
that when it does the world will find
us in a better condition than when the
war began (cheers); that we shall not
send troops to camp barefooted, shirt
less, ragged.
L shall never forget the day I stood
in the streets of San Francisco, and
saw that regiment of Tennessee, under
the leadership of that splendid old
Confederate Colonel, Smith (cheers),
marching through the streets of San
Francisco, some hatless, some in rags,
some as shoeless as the army of Wash
| ington that winter at Valley Forge,
but every one his face lit up with the
light of patriotism, singing and shout
| ing as he went for the flag of his
country. (Applause.) 1t was shame
that these men have suffered as they
have. What touching scenes have oc-
Cured in these camps!
/ Il heard of one he other day-of a
| gentle, lovely boy-father and moth
er's only trust and hope-who enlisted
and was sent to sleep upon damp sand !;
drilled in the daytime until the per-
spiration ran from every pore, and
then turned loose without a coat to
shiver in the cutting fog of the after
noon wind. And at last came disease,
and he lay sleeping for the hour of hs
death, and beside him, the Captain of
his company, the Chaplain of his regi-
ment and the Surgeon of the resi-
ment and in this windswept camp
where the night winds fiickered the
| light of the candle and the torch, that
young soul ebbed out, the victim of
mismanagement and inattention. He
will live perhaps, till taps come said
/ the Captain. He will not said the
| Surgeon.
But he did! and when the last mel
ancholy note of the soldiers good-by
f1oated over the camp, and as it ceased,
the boys breast gave one last heave.
| the convulsion of death ran through
/ his limbs, his eyes closed, and as the
breath went out of him the sentry
/ matted IN front OF the leIil, Drought
/ his piece to a port, and said: 10
/ O'Clock: and all is WELL
so it was, all Well! but it shall
never be we'll until the American Gov
ernment shall have learned that the
/ life of a single soldier is worth as
much as the life of the nation. Never
shall we do our duty until, when we
have a call for men, we shall send
them out equipped and ready for the
discharge of the great duties of war,
and not keep them imprisoned in such
sinks of misery and iniquity as that
which lay upon the edges of San
Francisco. (Great applause.) Sick
ness, misery horror, has reigned. and
there on one range of the cemetery
of the Presidio are 230 graves of Amer
| ican boys-murdered before the battle
by neglect and want of proper at
| tention.
Let us learn this lesson, and those
who legislate, whether here or at
Washington, let the lesson be incul-
Gated there: That from this hour. on,