Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1900-06-05
TRIBUTE To SOLDIER=DEAD.
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uH6 mlSlS OF anUlqulIy Wn6D man was
first slave to man. The beauties
of Babylon with her mighty hanging
gardens were purchased at the cost of
property in man. The pyramids. of
the East were dedicated in the blood
OF generations Of men who happened
to have been born children. of the
sod. All the skill of the Grecian
sculptor cannot wipe out with his art
the stain of his brothers. blood on
Attic civilization. A century ago
slavery was firmly established on the
earth and even the Puritan Of New
England was not conscience-free. To
the high-strung, aristocratic, oener-
Gus cavalier of the South, slavery
came welcome element to the
development of a feudal society. 1t
fOstered his economic conditions. and
therefore grew strong. For eight gen
erations it saturated the Institutions
and became imbedded in the every
day life of the South. 1t grew into
their plantations; it sank into their
business life; it sprang into the wool
OF their logic; in the terrible earnest
ness OF Calhoun it clothed itself in
righteousness. In the earnest argu-
ment and warm-pulsed periods of
Robert Hayne it grew giant-formed;
and the "earth born Cyclops'' seces-
sion was conceived, Over Preston G..
Brooks in the senate chamber. slavery
and secession stood forth in their
naked hideousness, twin Simpsons,
big, blind and bloody. With the fir.
ing upon the flag forty years ago, the
Southern states stood forth, the en-
bodiment of an idea which they would
live for, fight for, and die for; slavery
their institution, and secession their
right
Back in a German forest when
Jesus was playing about the carpenter
shop of his father in Nazareth a new
force was springing into being. At
this time Rome had conquered the
world. Her victorious legions had
dotted the shores of the Mediterran-
can With citadels. Capitalization and
the highest development of eastern
civilization, Rome wa the smistress
of the world. Between the caste dis
tinction and force the old world
and the manhood rights and constitu-
tional government of Anglo-Saxon
civilization, there stood but a few
scattered German tribes in the North
From the Rhone the iron legions of
Rome marched northward From the
Elbe these undisciplined Germans
fierce and untamed, instinct with the
idea of personal freedom, united under
common impulse and marched south
ward. In that Teutoberg forest Ro-
man strength, discipline and valor
met the reckless, liberty-loving in
stinct OF the Anglo-SaxOn, and the
destiny of centuries hung upon the
issue. The spirit Of thousands Of
Arnold gon Winkelrieds, untold in
song or story, lived that day in these
SaxOns. Under, over or through the
pixies of those Roman legions the
Saxon battleaxe swung with resistless
fury, and with the subsiding din and
clash of battle came the roar and
rumble of falling institutions. lin
the palace of the Caesars Victory had
fallen from her pedestal" and far to
the west on that day was first seen the
faint day star of constitutional liberty,
of Anglo-SaXon civilization. 1t was
there in that German forest that the
instinct Of Anglo-Saxon freedom be-
spoke the premises of the centuries to
come.
When Luther with his famous words
in defense of his theses, said
Here l stand, God help me, [ can
not 90 otherTis . Anglo-Saxon
strength spoke again. Love of
freedom and that same native
strength spoke again on The field of
Runnymede. Cromwell called his
army not from barracks out from
homes, and to that spirit Of liberty
and strength, was added Anglo Saxon
equality; when Chatham told an Eng
fish minister, eff | were an American.
as | am an Englishman, and a foreign
foe were to invade my country. I
would never lay down my arms. never.
never, never!" 1t was Anglo-Saxon
IOHoClChC0 UHdG SpOho. LII was the
synthesis of this liberty Of the Teuto-
berg forest, this equality of Cromwell's
lronsides, and this conscience OF
Chatham that made the revolution of
'76. 1t was the synthesis Of those
elements in the Anglo-Saxon temper
that made the constitution the most
wonderful political instrument the
world has ever seen and as the
pioneer levelcd the forests and locked
Gods sunshine in the glory of his
harvest, the equality Of the Puritan
developed into the hard independence
of Northern industrialism. The spirit
of the Magma Charta spoke again in
the plain but trenchant homiIies of a
rail-splitter president, and in the
thickening contest the conscience of
Chatham spoke again, with Sumner,
Garrison and Phillips, when they
Numbered forth, Thou shalt not call
thy brother slave!''
1t was the synthesis of Saxon
liberty, equality and conscience that
developed into the strong confidence
of the North that the hope of Anglo