The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1900-06-07


the sun will never shine on a genera
tion OF American birth, which shall
grudge you the honor which is your
due, or fail to learn the priceless
worth of our national ideals and insti-
buttons by remembering their cost
Their price is not to be computed in
coin, but in privations, disease,
wounds; in tears and sorrow and
desolate homes; in the nameless sac
rifices Of patriotic war; and the null
titudinous graves where sleep those,
your comrades, who were cut of ere
their prime ia full food Of young
hope and noble ambition The he
roes of Marathon were buried on the
Geld which they mad e illl,,strioFis;; fer
there they had preserved the hber-
ties Of Greece. Ten columns guard
ing their ashes recorded names
which were read with reverence by
historian 600 years later. But alas
for Greecel A debauched genera
tion soon arose, of the same descent
but not of kindred blood who could
listen with listless indifference to a
recital of the story of Marathon,
and answer every appeal to initiate
the deeds of the patriotic fathers
with snefr. But when that day
came, the Greece that history knows
was dead.
When the sword was thrust upon
you was it wrong for you to grasp
and WELD it? Would you have been.
true to your consciences, enlightened
if not created, by the basal ideas of
the American constitution; to your
children; to the Eternal Righteous
ness, had you summed its edge?
Compromise was cry of peace,
peacel where there could be nopeace.
Men who suffer injustice and do not
insist that Justice shall be done are
not humane; they are pusillanimous.
Men who can see human nature
abused, prostituted to uuholy uses
and destroyed and do not feel dis.
turbed are not humane; they are
Iruel. Such men never help on the
moral order of the world. With
many men horror of war has its
root in greed not in repugnance to
suffering. They fear more the stop
page of trade than the destruction of
life; and if war meant cent per cent
for them, though they would never
smell the smoke Of Q battlefield or
hear the echo Of gun, they would
hold up both hands for war. AS
Phillips once said, there are people
who, like Mammon, see nothing
even in heaven but the golden pave
ment." 1t was the greatest, human
ist, most peace-loving of us all who
said: "Fondly do we hope, fervently
do we pray, that this mighty scourge
of war may speedily pass away. But
if God wills that it continue until all
the wealth piled up by the bonds
mans $50 years of unrequited toll
shall be sunk, and until every drop
of blood drawn with the lash shall
be paid for by another drawn with
the sword, as was said 5000 years
ago, SC, still it must be said, that the
Judgements of the Lord are true and
righteous altogether. +"
Not only do we hold that this war
was just, if ever war was, but be-
lieye God was in 1t and oyerruled it
for the good of mankind. Lincoln
once said, ~ am not controlling
events, events control me-" Never
was there a truer or profounder say
ing. 1t was begun not to free the
slave but to save the Union, Just as
the war of 1775 began, not to sepa-
rate from the mother-country but to
correct abuses against colonial rights.
But in neither was it decreed to that
things should come out in accord
ance with the previsous of men. In
the first case, separation wasfound to
be the only means of protection from
abuse; in the second, emancipation
was the logical conclusion of the
war, for slavery was the underlying
cause. The emancipation proclaim
alton of 1863 was necessity of war.
1t was also the abolition of the sin
which necessitated the sword.
And once more we have seen a
nation suffer for her crimes, and her
suffering, though she know it not
as yet, will be for her health.
And once again, American human
ity, Justice, and manhood have been
impressed into the service of the OPP
pressed. Spain did not come to this
continent to colonize, but to get gold;
she has never loved the people of her
colonies. She has sent out officials
to rule for revenue only,u and has
compelled obedience to her ex-
actions at the point of the bayonet,
if necessary. Perhaps we are too
near these events and their sub
y