Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1900-06-05

| Wisconsin furnished four-ffths, a
! total Of 81. 600 men,, and a record
| never to be forgotten. Side by side
with the national emblem, the colors Of
| Wisconsin bore the brunt and heat
of the day. With Hooker above the
clouds, at Lookout Mountain, before
the trenches at Vicksburg and Rich
mond, the Wisconsin volunteer
brought respect and admiration to
himself and glory and honor for his
state
We know the issue of the conflict.
With the arbitrament of the sword,
the God of Jehovah declared that
Anglo-SaXOn conscience spoke truly,
that Anglo-SaXon strength was
righteous. Liberty and Union became
one and inseparable, and Anglo-Saxon
conscience struck the letters from
four million slaves. Anglo-Saxon
liberty, equality and conscience had
proven itself worthy CT it's promise to
humanity, but to these there was
added that which was greater than
all, charity. ''Malice toward none
and charity toward all'' was the judg
ment. At the close of the war there
were no state trials, there were no
prisoners; no con6scatOn for those
who fought for the lost cause; not a
man was even dislrauchised by federal
authority for fighting against his
country. ''Cultivate your farms, and
patriotsm,n was the injunction.
Mercy and peace went hand in hand.
Such is the story of the conflict
With Appomattox the two armies re-
turned home, the one victorious; the
other conquered. The soldiers in
blue came home amid the exultation
of victory to Northern thrift and com
fort, 80 read In his neighbours eyes
the tribute to his honor, Coming
back to the farm, the shop, the office,
the bench, his place was ready.
Social, agricultural and industrial
conditions had not changed. He STEP
ped into conditions he had left, salts
fed with his full duty done. The
rocky soil was being turned more
rapidly IN the fertile meadows: inland
lakes and the borders of two oceans
We're being 9arlanded more profusely
with the sunshine OF his crops; but he
came back to peace and prosperity
which millions of wheels, hammers
aud looms proclaimed Too much
honor cannot be rendered to the blue
that did its full duty in war and in
peace. But while we have honor and
love for the blue, we may patty and
respect the gray.
The army Of the south returned home.
found ruin i'll the place of plenty. Their
agricultural, industrial and social sys-
TENS were demolished The south of
slavery and secession had died hard.
The Office, the soldier in grey returned
to, was covered with dust and cObwebs.
His machinery had ruSted. When tat
tered and fOOt-SOre he came to the old
home, it was to find brambles along the
avenues where there had been roses,
dearth where there had been plenty
and where there had been many q
brlght-eyed slave to welcome his
return he found perhaps but one
faithful old black man to care for
his old horse; the old home was
in ruin; and the only glory he found was
that which he read in the sob and smile
of welcome Of her whom he had left be-
hind. But as recklessly as his southern
blood had prompted his gallantry to the
defense of his sovereign state, as strong
ly and as stubbornly did his proud spirit
bend TO the lathe and to the plOw- share
Those We're hard years for the south
and nObly did she work out her own sal
walton. The years of distrust and mis-
understanding We're many, but gradually
the wounds We're healed The letter
that came to the home of the north from
some daughter Of the southland, bringing
the message Of the boy who never came
home, drew the mother heart near to
those women Of the south who had
smoothed the pillow and whispered
words of hope and divine peace to the
suffering, and whose WOmanly kiss upon
the pale brow was so pure that it took
the last lingering, suffering fancy back
to the mother love at home And when
III the early seventies there came the
tidlngS that those southern women on
this Decoration day had covered blue
and grey alike with their flowers the
north felt thrOb and the chords Of
sympathy grew stronger between the
north and the south, as the mother of
the north mingled her tears with the
mother Of the south. The brave men of
the north who had fought were the first
to magnanimously forget and the first
to forgive.
But stronger than all these bonds
Of sentiment were the links Of mu-
tual respect and common interest arts
ing from common economic welfare;
the industrial advancement Of the south
brought her nearer to the north The
iron, the cotton Of the south We're worth
more with northern capital and free Ia
Dor than with slave labor and southern
inertia, and ere long there came from
the south, the message, F'The1e was a
south of slavery and secession; that
south is dead. There is south of union
and freedom. That SOUTH thank God
is living, breathing, and growing every
hour" And when the sons Of Georgia
We'd with the sons of Massachusetts and
New York in their generous rivalry at
Ell Caney the union was cemented in a
common blood. When at Cavite and
COrregidor the son of the Confederate
soldier that lay III a grave Of the lost
cause up on the Georgia hillside, fought
side by side with the son Of Maine, a ma