The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1898-06-02

81, to the last gun heard near Apo
mattox c.. H. in April, IS, and spoke
IN the rattle of musketry, in the charge
OF cavalry, and in the thunder of artil-
lery, a language which echoed round
the world the sentiment of the immor-
tai Webster, 1.-THE Union it must and
shall be preserved We would teach
our children and our children's chill
dren, that the cause for which our
comrades then fought, was eternally
right. and that the cause against which
we then contended, was eternally
wrong. There is no more appropriate
occasion on which to impress this
truth, than upon Memorial Day.
Towards the men who forced upon US
that fierce conflict or fought or fell
therefor. we have no words save of
friendship and brotherly love; they
were brave foes: they were and are
again, our countrymen; many of them,
have since the war, become as loyal to
the Union as the Union Soldier him
self; and are to-day wearing the uni
form of the Union Soldier and fighting
under the folds of Old Glory But to
the cause for which they then fought,
and for which some of them still
mourn as lost, we were and are. unal-
terably opposed.
What was this cause, submitted to
the arbitrament Of civil war, won by
the Union Soldier and lost to the Con-
federate. The inquiry BELTS the occa-
sion: for if humanity was not benefited
by the struggle, then was every death
On battlefield worse than useless
mere butchery. ss
-Four hundred years ago Columbus
gave not alone to Castillo and Leon but
to mankind a new world. A hundred
years. were next spent by the mariner
in learning the pathway across the
sea, to. and the extent of, this new
CONTINENT: another hundred years in
planting colonies along the Atlantic
coast.
During the first three quarters of
the next century, 1.-THE 18TH the col
onies had, in their contests with the
French and Indians, become conscious
Of their rights, and of their power to
maintain them: in the last quarter, of
this third century of American hist
DRY, came the wonderful transforma-
ton, Of the thirteen colonies, gov
erned by a King across the sea, recog-
nizing the principle of the divine right
of kings, into thirteen sovereign states,
founded upon the principle of self
government, and recognizing the
rights Of all (''white'') men before the
law. ---.' @s.=.
This marvellous transformation, was
not mere accident; not brought about
by magic-by rubbing some Aladdins'
wonderful lamp-but was the result of
centuries of honest thought, and years
of bloody war. Perhaps the most
dramatic point of this transformation
scene was the Declaration of hide
pendence. It certainly paved the way
| for the. confederacy, under which the
war of the Revolution was fought to a
successful issue. ST
In all nature we find one Of two agen-
cies or tendencies at work, viz: growth
or decay. The same is true of the
forms of government, which states or
nations adopt in which we find either
the upbuilding force or tendency to
growth, or the overturning force or
tendency to decay. And, as when we
wish to erect the mansion house on
the site OF the primitive cabin, we
must first pull down the cabin and
clear away the debris, before the man
sion house can be erected, so when a
Republic, is to be erected on the site
of an Empire or Kingdom, the Empire
or Kingdom must first be destroyed;
such destruction, is however only a
step in the. upbuilding process; but a
step fraught with great danger.
When the French people in the last
decade, of the last century, attempted
to pull down a monarchy and found a
Republic, they soon discovered that
| the pulling down process, is not so
difficult, as dangerous. It required
only three years, for Frenchmen to
pull down and destroy the last vestige
of their kingdom; but it required three
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