The Oskaloosa herald., 1901-05-02
HONOR GRANTS MEMORY.
enty-Ninth Anniversary of
the HERDS Birth.

Galena, H., April 29.-The seventy
ninth anniversary of the birth of Gen.
Grant was celebrated Saturday. The
occasion was the tenth of the series
and was in every respect successful.
The train from Chicago arrived at 1:1s
p. m. and brought the speaker of the
day-Rev. DR.. Frank w. Gunsaulus-
and a party of distinguished guests,
who were escorted to Turner hall by
the Platteville state normal band and
the E. ID. Kittoe post, G. AR.
The address delivered from the
stage of the hall by DIR. Gunsaulus was
pronounced one of the finest orations
given from that platform and warmly
received by an audience of immense
size. The city was decorated in honor
of the event, which was participated in
by the leading citizens of the towns
and villages within a radius of 100
miles. Letters of regret from Mrs.
Gen. Grant, Mrs. Sartoris, Admiral
Dewey, Chauncey NJ. Depew, Senator
Allison and other prominent Ameri-
cans, were read in connection with the
exercises, which included special
musical features by Miss Clara K.
Sheean, of Chicago; Marion B. Green,
of Dubuque. William Rippin, presi-
dent of the Grant Birthday associa-
ton, delivered address of welcome.
Rev. Frank w. Gunsaulus, the orator
of the day, in his address said:
1--WE are worthy of the memory of Grant
W hoU fynit "
straightforwardness, herosm and sense of
justice toward the oppressed of every race
1t is demoralizing for us to parade our
shallow skepticism as to the value of
emancipation and the necessity of honest
suffrage for the negro in the presence
of this great name and seek to simulate
contentment as to the condition of the
freed men when the thunder of his uncom-
promising righteousness fills our ears.
Justice must be done to the negro who
has the ballot in his hands and the fran
chise must be protected, or we must at last
sink into abysses of hypocrisy with Grants
monument casting a shadow over us.
"Our American life needs now as never
before to emulate the man who was as
gentle as he was strong. who never knew
how to boast and who believed in the sim
plicity of righteousness. 1t was Grant who
prevented the republic from breaking its
moral contract made by the gFeenback,
as we then saw incarnated In Grant at a
moment when dividends were counted
more precious than honor or manhood
which shall now redeem our pledges to
the negro who was as effective as the
greenback in helping TO purify our flag.
when Grant sent Sheridan to Louisiana
to carry justice 10 the negro, his was a
republicanism which must always believe
that a flag worthy of respect Will protect
its citizens, black or white. from outrage
and wrong. 1t will require a stern hero
ism at the north to beat back a wave of
superchious and unmanly prejudice
against the negro which Will as practical
ly deprive him of his civil rights as that
same prejudice once enslaved him at the
south. 1t is a great day when Wise, of
Virginia. who has in his blood the mem
DRY of that Wise of Virginia, who hung
John Brown, stands couTageously against
the apparent decadence OF the Union
League club, of New York city, and helps
to bring It back to the standard under
which it fought in the days of Grant and
lincoln.
at was mercantilisra which was willing
to permit Lincoln and Grant to be inef-
fective against the slave power nearly 40
years ago. II is now sodden and greedy
commercialism which chokes the con-
science of the republic, and nothing but
the love of justice in which the sword of
Grant was sharpened and ground Will save
our nation and our constitution as before
So long as state sovereignty may annul
constitutional amendments and destroy the
liberty or threaten the ballot of an Amer
lean citizen, be he black or white we are
utterly unworthy OF the memory of Ulysses
5. Grant. His spirit alone makes US a ma
uon."