The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1900-06-01
interest and was followed closely to the end

The general arrangements at the grounds
were better than usual in some respects.
One thing in particular was worthy of men,
tion and that was that, by the spacing of of
the ground Immediately in front of the
speakers stand by rope and the station
ing OF the police to keep back the crowd
until the marching orders who wished to
remain to hear the address should be seat
ed, the usual confusion was avoided and
as soon as these had been seated the rest Of
the people were placed as near as they
wished to get without any confusion what
ever. After the close of this part of the
afternoons program the Post, Co. ii,
the Relief Corps, and others went to the SOL
der's lot In the cemetery where the solemn
service of the g. A. r. was performed over
the graves of those whom Owosso was
once pleased to call her SONS and whose
memory she still loves to honor. These
rites concluded the exercises of the day and
the remainder of the crowd soon returned
to the city. The synopsis of the address
delivered by Rev. j. P. Warner during the
program on the Sanitarum grounds is as
follows:
When Sir Phillip Sidney was only
boy he wrote as one Of the settled
rules of his young life: ''If there are
any good wars l shall go to them. I"
There is soldier side to every man.
A man who knows what he ought to
do, and yet permits himself to be
scared or futtered or in any way
wheedled out of it, is breaking down
the wall of his soldier power, in which
his manhood lies. Even our Lord, who
was full of tenderness and love,
showed that there was soldier side
to his nature. He wept over Jerusa-
lem and at the grave Of Lazarus, but
He also knotted a scourge of small
cords, and overturned the tables of the
money changers, and drove forth those
who made the house of His Father a
! den of thieves. 1t is clear that He
had soldier side to his nature.
War is the outcome of sin. Our
civil war originated in the hearts Of
civil men, but there is no doubt that
God controlled it, and brought out of
it liberty for the oppressed, and made
of it a step towards the establishment
of the brotherhood of man. The
Pilgrim fathers came to this country
seeking only religious liberty, but God
was forcing them toward govern
ment, whose chief corner stone should
be the equality of man. When the
colonies wrote the declaration; "We
hold these truths to be self-evident
that all men are created equal, that
they are endowed by their Creator
with certain inalienable rights, that
among these are life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness, they were doing
the bidding of God. Never had that
| truth been the corner stone Of a
government, and it started the world.
Never was a more difficult problem
submitted for solution, than presented
itself to the farmers of our national
constitution. Around the southern
colonies, slavery had already wrapped
itself, and they refused to enter the
Union unless it were permitted. If
permitted it would be in direct con-
flict with the great principle upon
which the government was to be built.
A compromise was reached which left
the slavery question to be dealt with
by the individual states. A number
Of compromises between the North
and South were made on the slavery
question, but could not settle it. 1t
never does settle questions of right
and wrong. God was constantly
crowding the slavery question to the
front. Finally it became debating
ground on the platform and in the
pulpit. Churches were rent by it,
political parties fell into pieces over
lit, and new ones were formed, mobs
were created, and the. press burned
with the passion of the hour.
| Suddenly the crack of John Brown IS
rifles among the hills of Virginia gave
warning of what was coming. The
Republican party met In convention
| to nominate. Seward for the presi-
dency, but God interferred and Lin
coin was the man. The South
understood and answered by secession.
The North fell on its knees and offered
to compromise by amending the
constitution, forever forbidding the
abolition of slavery. But God would
not allow the question settled that
way. The South instead of accepting
the compromise turned and made her
supreme blunder by firing on the flag
at Sumpter. That shot on Fort
Sumpter plunged the nation into war.
The North fighting to preserve the
Union: the South fighting to destroy
the Union in order to preserve slavery.
On July %, 1861, with but two dis
senting votes, congress declared the
purpose of the North was defend the
Union with all the rights of the Slave
States, and for that purpose the North
sent out her armies. Again God inter-
fered and would not have 1t that way;
for in his sight the Slave States had
M rioht tO mt the chain Of bonda ape