Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1900-06-12

ument was then presented to the city
by w. +. Nash, representing the q. a.
L. post.
Monument Unveiled.
After the presentation speech the mon
ument was unveiled by Miss Mae B.
Hurst. As the flag which concealed the
shaft fell, a mighty chez: ;Tent up from
the assembled multitude and the United
States revenue cutter Morrill,, in the har-
bon fired salute.
The monument was then formally ac-
cepted by the mayor. y poem, Ito the
Silent Soldier" was read by Rev J. w.
Davidson.
Judge Anderson's Address.
The address of the day was made by
Judge j. 5. Anderson of ManitoWoc.
Judge Anderson said in part:
We come together in time of great pros,
perity, high national honor, distinction and
power, drawn by love Of country admira
ton for high exalted character for patriot
ism and by gratitude for patriotic devotion
and signal services rendered by one genera
ton of citizens now passing away to the
nation at large and the generations yet to
come.
Cur nation at the outbreak of the Civil
war was less then 100 years old. Thought
full men looked with apprehension upon the
conditions which confronted u.s. The con-
tinual aggressiOns of the slave power To-
Gated as it was in the southern half of our
country, was incensing and arouSing the
liberty people TO greater opposition.
The doctrine of state rights was pushed to
an extreme. 1t aroused sectional feeling to
a dangerous degree. leading thinker and
writer declared the struggle to be an TIRE
pressibie Conflict. And even the thought
full, wise and conservative Abraham Lin
coin declared that this country could not
exist half-Slaye and hnlf-free. Either it
must become all free or all slave, or it must
cease to exist
The Union was saved, the shackles of four
and half millions of slaves were broken
= H. I,,,.I
a fearful cost. More than three hundred
thousand men died, and twice many re-
turned to their homes crippled from wounds
or broken by disease, while the material
loss to the nation amounted to millions of
dollars.
Every nation has in it's course developed
some leading characteristic, which we may
call it's ideal, and the topic l desire to dis
cuss is: What is our national ideal.
What is the ideal of the American people
A nation whose highest ideal is that of
military glory is neither a lasting nor Il
beneficial nation. 1t has been written from
of old and it is written large in the pages
shall perish by the sword No. my friends
the love of war, the love of military glory
is not the ideal Of the American people.
What should be the ideal of the American
nation, the true ideal of all nations? Tho
answer is Liberty"
And what is liberty but the law of right
as We would that they should do unto
you" Liberty in its highest and truest
sense does not mean the right to act as an
individual may elect, regardless of how it
may affect another. 1t means only freedom
to act so far may be in strict con-
sOnance with law and order and the welfare
Of society. Unbridled license is as far re-
moved from true liberty as is the veriest
despottsm. Liberty means righteousness,
and we read that righteousness exalteth
nation. 1t means exact justice to all men
1t means social purity and purity in public
affairs.
1t is not the function of this monument,
so grandly conceived and SO beautifully
founded, to convey the information of the
deeds of the citizen s0ldiery OF this nation.
There is no land where they are not known.
There is no language in which they are not
recorded. The fame Of those in whose
honor it is erected is universal. 1t is known
of all men. 1t is entrenched in the univer-
for ages to come it will be handed down
from father to and to grandson as u
priceless heritage 1t will be embodied In
the traditions of millions of families who
will claim an ancestry among the soldiers
of the Civil war.
No monument that we can build will
make their herosm and self-sacrifce, their
glory and renown more widely known or
more surely perpetuate it in the ages to
come. In the words of Horace, They have
builded unto themselves monument more
lasting than perennial brass
SO long as the knowledge of letters exists
among men, so long as the records Of the
Shiloh and Antietam, Chickamauga and
Fredericksburg. Vicksburg, Gettysburg and
ApDomattOx will live.
And these shall recall the names of Grant
and Sherman, Sheridan and Meade, and
Thomas and the hundreds of thousands of
less illustrious but equally devoted citizen
soldiers who followed where they led, some
to death and all to glory.
Emil Baensch followed with an address
in German
The movement to have a monument
erected in memory of the soldier dead
originated with the G. A. r. post last
of
Letting subscriptions were appointed and
met with hearty response from the peo-
pie. After the money had been raised
the contract for the monument was let
to Chicago parties. The base of the
monument is made of Connecticut gram
lite, upon which the statue, representing a
soldier with gun at rest, is placed. The
figure is eight feet in heighth and made
Of bronze.