The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1898-06-03
BRILLIANT WORDS.
Gen. Bakers Address at Yester-
days Exercises.
A World Policy and An Alliance With
England Advocated for
the Future.

MIR. COMMANDER AND COMRADES:
Again we are convened to celebrate
the memories and heroic deeds OF our
comrades who fell and persisted IN the
titanic struggle of liberty and union,
and to mark their sepulchers with
flowers, strewn by affectionate hands,
above the martys of our cause.
Veterans, let me- felicitate you that
God has bounteously heightened out
your lives to again behold the day so
sacred to us all A day that is to us as
a great Sabbath, which is sacred as a
holy time, when we mingle regrets and
memories, tears and flowers; when sor-
row comes in dreadful reality, to our
bosoms, over the mighty tragedies
which absorbed every energy and feel
ing of the martial days of our earliest
manhood This day we unveil our
hearts and lay our loving thoughts with
our flowers above the sepulchers OF our
dead. This day a special conservation
is shed over our fallen comrades, and
an exclusive glory plays around the
scene. The very tone of sancity rests
upon the hour, and therefore it is sac"a-
lige to do aught on this day which would
mar its august purpose, or turn the peo-
pie from the just contemplation of the
heroes whose deeds and death brought
us sweet and prosperous peace. and the
glory and grandeur of a preserved
union. And now, upon this day, amid
these memories, these flowers and these
flags, veterans, salute you!
When, one year ago, we met to per-
form these same memorial rites, little
did we think of the mighty changes
soon to take place in the condition of
our country, and in the very tone and
character of the nation itself. We find
our nation embarked in great war.
A new generation of soldiers is in the
field. Armies are organized, navies
are equipped, and the blood of our sons
has already been shed. Those who in
dulged the hope of universal peace,
that arbitration might supplant armies
and navies, are doomed to disappoint-
ment. What becomes of the dreams of
a worldwide tranquility, when every
so-called Christian nation in Europe
expends fabulous sums in supporting
vast armies and the most formidable
navies? They watch each other with
all the benevolence of jungled tigers,
tapping their jaws for human bloodl
Possibly day may come when human
passions may be subdued or eradicated,
and injustice cease. But not until the
spirit of the divine Christ enters the
hearts of men and nations, will that
halcyon day dawn.
thank God that we did not pricepi-
lately rush into war, nor did we move
without an adequate and al1-suficient
cause. We can appeal to heaven for
the purity of our purpose. Through
the most extraordinary provocations
the people remained calm, and the gov
eminent at Washington bore itself with
dignity, while the president of the
United States exhausted the last ex-
treme measure that peace, with honor,
might be preserved. The whole man
agement of the questions involved, is
splendid tribute to our national
character and to the GOODNESS, calm
ness and considerate conduct Of the
chief executive, The Christian senti-
ment of our nation is against war. but
we recognize the fact that there are
things far more injurious to be borne
than war.
In no spirit of revenge, with no lust
of conquest, with no unholy OF selfish
ambition, calmly and with elaboration,
war was levied against Spain. Not
since Peter, the hermit. preached his
memorable crusade against the profana-
ton and indignities heaped upon the
sepulchre of Christ, has there been a
war so utterly without selfishness. 1t
is waged solely for liberty and hui
manity.
In the very opening of the twentieth
century we found Cuba at our own door
within the precincts of our American
hemisphere, within the range of the
Monroe doctrine, pillaged, robbed, beg
CARED by extorsion to enrich prof1igate
mobiles; her people pitilessly starved and
her fair daughters doomed to worse
than death, to feed the lust of Spanish
brutality; we found crimes, nameless
and unsurpassed in human annals, as
proven by our own senators in congress
and official reports, and what could we
do and maintain our own self-respect
and the. conscience of universal justice
but stretch forth our mailed hand and
interpose our authority and power tc
stay these unparalleled outrages and
guarantee to our smitten neighbor free
dom and good government by her own
people?
What did not the Christian world de-
mand of the great Christian nations
when Armenia was wronged and out
raged7 And yet here was a case il
which Armenian atrocities were fa1