The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-05-31

Following is a full summary of the
address delivered on the Custer battle
field yesterday by Hon. w. F. Sanders,
before grand army posts representing
Montana and Wyoming. who observed
Memorial day at that famous place:
Fellow Countrymen of Montana. and
wyoming: By spontaneous impulse,
as creditable and inspiring as it is
unanimous, you have ordained that on
the day set apart in memory of our
dead in our country's wars, there shall
be annually here, upon the field which
practically closed $50 years of battle
between Anglo-SaXon civilization and
the aboriginies Of America, some trib-
ute paid to the brave troopers who, be-
fore a savage and irresistible on
slaught, laid down their lives. Heirs
to the great heritage won through so
many appalling tragedies, we hold its
martyrs in precious and perpetual re-
membrance. In presence conse-
Grated by a sacrifice so supreme and
sincere, words seem impotent and in
appropriate. 1t has been my fortune
to stand in forest and field upon the
theater of many of my country's bat
ties, where great destinies hung on the
issues of the hour, and their weird and
spectral suggestions comprise the deep
est emotions l have known. They are
perpetual preachers, fraught with the
profoundest lessons of life, and from
their conclusions there Is no dissent.
They shame the discordant noises of
our sordid struggles, and their admoni-
lions are inwrought into our very be-
ing.
June 25 1876, on our gladstone ami
Versary year, while yet in a far away
city we were celebrating the triumphs
of peace, General George A. Custer,
Captains Custer Keogh and Yates,
Lieutenants Cook, Calhoun, Crittenden,
Harrington, Hodgson, Mcintosh, Por-
ter, Kelley, Sturgis and Smith and Sur
geons Lord and DeWolf and 245 enlisted
men, themselves the flower of chiValry,
here, in our behalf and at our behest,
laid down their lives. They We're in the
vigor of manhood, surrounded with all
the alluring hopes and ambitions and
possessions which make life to be de-
sired. Were it not that it might eX-
haust your patience, I would fain here
recite the names of 245 soldiers, gal
liant troopers, who also here laid down
their lives obedient to their country's
command. Their names will endure, so
long as marble, or the grateful homage
of their countrymen will preserve their
heroic deeds, and it is useful to the
living that their names be known.
When their contemporaries are num-
bered with the undistinguished dead,
the names of these dauntless heroes
will shine bright on the scroll of
Fame.
If the circumstances which assemble
us here are unique in history, they are
adequate to justify the tribute which
we here and now pay. The regions
which surround us We're the wise acz
QUESTION of President Jefferson, and
promised in his day to contribute to
the welfare of the republic, as do now
the islands which, by the unexpected
fortunes of war, have fallen into our
possession. For more than a third of
a century after they had become the
possessions of the United States, in our
public councils no voice was raised
which did not depreciate their value
and seek to expose them and their ac-
QUESTION to the condemnation of our
countrymen. OF Adventures among
them, there were few. They contrib
uted something of furs and skins to
the commerce of st. Louis and Mon
treal. They were rendezvous for un-
easy spirits, who had repudiated civil
ization and reveled in the impulses of
savage life and the solitudes of the I'M
occupied lands. The super-serviceable
zeal, which would unravel an unknown
future, which was too impatient to
await the developments of time, de-
clared with rare unanimity that a for
bidding land upon our Western con-
West to the immediate shores of the
Mississippi river. The great statesmen,
confronted with the new problem,
which Mr.. Jefferson had thrust upon
their attention, congratulated the coun-
try that an impossible barrier, between
the Rocky mountains and the Missis-
sippi river, rendered it certain that the
danger of national dispersion did not
threaten national extinction. Savage
hords occupied all of this fair land.
The limited number of French and
Spanish citizens of Louisiana gave no
promise that they would subvert or
dissipate the superstitions and cruelties
which characterized the aborigines,
and Louisiana was to many an unwel-
come possession worthless in itself and
fraught with peril to the republic.
Those Who Opposed It.
"A hostility to the acquisition of Lou
isiana buried one political party and
the prophets of evil of that day make
a ludicrous figure in our early history.
Their observations, derogatory to the
country, excite the derson of those
who know it's climate. fertility and re-
sources. Gas to Louisiana, this new.
immense, unbounded world, if it should
ever be incorporated into the union,
will be the greatest curse that could
at present befall u.s." said a distin-
guished senator of the United States in
lSO3. we nave already territory
enough. l would rather see Louis
lana given to France, to Spain, to any
nation on earth on condition that no
citizen of the United States should ever
settle within its limits than to see the
territory sold for hundred millions
and we retain the sovereignty
Another senator in 1924, resisting an
appropriation to establish military
post at the mouth of the Columbia,
said: "Is this territory of Oregon ever
to become a state-a member of this
union? Never! The union is already
too extensive" He demonstrated that
a senator from Oregon could only spend
from 16 to 40 days in congress. the bal
ance of his time being necessarily con-
sumed in earning his mileage. The
whole country west of the hundredth
meridian was denounced as unfit for
an abode of civilized man. To the sug-
gestion that steam might bring far
away Louisiana and far away Oregon
nearer, another senator evidently in
all