The Portland daily press., 1899-05-29
STORY OF SPAIN.
q aar .
Eloquent Address of Rev. DR.. Henry
Blanchard.

In the Congress Square Universalist
church last evening the Rev. DIR. Henry
Blanchard delivered an eloquent and ex
tremely interesting address. before the
memb ers of Bosworth post and Thatcher
post, g. A. r., the Woman's Relief
co1ps, Sons of Veterans and Ladies' Aid
society and q very large gathering of
citizens, on 1.-THE Story of Spain." The
m usic for this service was especially fine
and the opening prayer of the eloquent
divine WAS very impressive. Behind the
altar was displayed. that banner of peace
which was presented to the Department
of Maine 6. A. r. by those who wore the
gray, bearing on its silken folds those
immortal words of Abraham Lincoln,
"W it'll charity for all, with malice TO-
wards none," and attached to a staff the
wood of which came fr ON a tree which
grew on the farm where Abraham
Lincoln was borr.
In opening his address DR.. Blanchard
referred to the fact that in preceding
years he had spoken on Memorial Sunday
regarding the battles of the great rebel
lion, of the valor of the North, and Of the
South. "Let u.s." he said, "honor the
yalor of the South as we'll as the valor of
the North and thank God We have a re-
uni tied nation" He then referred to the
peace banner which has been mentioned
above and said that since the last Memo
rial day. our country had been engaged in
war with Spain. Its battles were but
skirmishes when compared with the great
conflicts Of the OWL war, but the valor
displayed was,as great and We thank God
for the vaIor OF our army and navy. If
we study the story OF Spain We may
understand some Of the causes which
brought about this war and apply the
lessons to be derived from this story to
our own country and to Spain.
DR.. Blanchard then compared the en-
pire Of Spain In the middle of the 10Th
century with the littlensss Of the nation
in 1899. He referred to this century as
one crowded with great events. De Gar
mo had passed about the Cape of Good
Hope and ma de 1t possible for Spain to
bring to the West the great riches of the
Indies. The cities of the Netherlands
were rising IN revolt agai INST the rule of
Spain. Martin Luther had began to
speak, the order Of Jesuits had bee n
formed and when the century closed men
| realized that the world had entered upon
new era. DR.. Blanchard then drew a
word picture of the scene In Brussels in
t1555 when Charles the Fifth, ruler of half
the world abdicated in favor Of his son
Philip the Second, and bequeathed TO
him the greatest empire in the world.
He then drew another picture of Philip
the Second seated in his palace In Madrid
planning for the future and rejecting up
on the glorious history Of Spain up to
that time. He told of the great riches OF
Spain in the old and new world posses-
sions. SO great that to Philip universal
empire seemed possible, and contrasted
Spain Of that day with the nation today
with her colonies lost and her own land
impoverished. With Philip the Seconds
reign the downfall Of Spain commenced.
In vivid language the speaker related
briefly the great struggle for liberty In
the Netherlands, of Philips attempt to
subjugate England by means Of the great
Armada, Of the horrors of the inquisition.
i He said that great results, have great
causes and the littlsness of Spain today
In comparison with Its former greatness
is attributable to four causes
! First, the oyerturning of the greatness
of Spain was owing to ths incapacity Of
the Spanish people to govern other people
because they could not conceive of wise
| government for themselves. The second
cnuse was that they had erroneous ideas
of what they considered wealth. The
third cause was the fact that the repre-
sentatives Of the Spanish people failed to