Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-05-30

citizen, the American volunteer; ne
was at Concord bridge and Lexington,
at Bunker Hill and Saratoga, and fol-
lowed Washington thru the fields of the
revolution to the final triumph at
Yorktown; then the soldier faded into
the citizen, to come again clad in the
armor Of war to register a second trl-
umph over English arrogance in 1914.
He came again in 1S47 to follow the
flag with its increasing stars to the
halls of the Montezumas. The great
body of the American people had made
no effort TO interfere with slavery In
the south and there was no excuse for
the attack upon the union: there We're
millions Of free American citizens in
the north. and the first citizen of the
republic was man who had come from
the common people to do the work OF
God in the greatest crisis that the
world had ever seen. They felt that
the free institutions of the United
States has been ordained of God and
that the Americans of 1861 held them
in trust for ell coming time: they also
felt that God had given life and that
the call of country was the call of God,
hence they We're willing to offer their
lives that the right to life. liberty and
the pursuit of happiness might still be
preserved to the children of men. So
they came from every nationality and
of all ages and conditions of life; there
was no distinction of creed: the Roman
Catholic and Protestant felt that civil
and religious liberty must ever go hand
in hand. There was on distinction of
sex. Woman did not muster in the
ranks, but in the homes and in the
schools she had been creating the spirit
that famed out in 1776 and with re-
newed vigor and splendor in 1861. She
felt that the United States was her
country, and while she might not offer
her own life in it's defense she could
offer the lives of those who We're dear
er to her than life. She inspired tho
father, husband. brother and son to go
cut in defense of what was also dearer
to her than life. She felt that If God
willed that there should be no more
meeting on earth that there would be
another meeting; that as liberty and
justice are immortal. so those who die
to sustain them live beyond time and
space. The first two years Of the great
civil war were filled with much of de-
feat and disappointment. The south
were barve and terribly In earnest:
they thought they were right; the ar
mics OF the union We're untried; they
We're the victims of incompetent Off
GERS; the effort was being made to save
the union with slavery; thousands and
thousands of noble lives went down IL
Death, seemingly merely useless sac
v. 21,,T
cellorsvile, Stone River stand in Amer
lean history for valor unequaled, but
indecisive contests. Overwhelming
victory wac impossible, because neither
side would run as they ought when
beaten. The best blood that ever
warmed the veins of men redeemed the
waters of the Rappahanock, the
Chickahomony, the Tennessee and the
Mississippi. The monarchies and en-
pires of the old world began to hope
that the peoples government would
fade from the earth England opened up
a confederate recruiting station and
union deserving station in her province
of Canada: the upstart emperor of the
French came over and took possession
of Mexico. With all the disaster and
defeat, there was no faltering or wa
vering by the union soldiers, nor by
the great people who stood behind. As
the word came back to the home in the
northern hills that the father or hus-
band had fallen just beneath the guns
at fredericksburg or in the wild COR
charge at Shiloh, wife and
daughter spread the flag over the va
cant chair and prayed to God that the
sacrifice might not be in vain, and 9TH
err fathers and husbands went forw ard
to take their place in the ranks. The
soldiers of the union We're inspired with
faith, that would take no denial, that
those who have God on their side are
always in q majority at last. and the
greater the sacrific the greater
and more abiding would be the
glory of the final triumph
With January !. 1863, came turning of
the tide. Abraham Lincoln, speaking
for the American people struck from
the bright coronet Of American liberty
the accursed stain of African slavery.
The conservation of the United States
to the work Of liberating humanity from
human Tyranny became complete. AS If
in vindication of this act of national
Justice, July 4, 1863. saw the heretofore
invincible army of northern Virginia
driven back from Gettysburg by the
army of the Potomac, whose bugles
We're thenceforth destined never to
sound a retreat. On the same day the
old flag guided the father of waters
past Vicksburg and Port Hudson on an
course to the sea- with
the autumn leaves a blight came upon
the second army of the confederacy.
The recruits of 1861 had become the
veterans of 1863 and scattered as with
4 mighty wind the defenders of Lookout
and Mission Ridge. Not with
Boosting does the Grand Army of the |
Republic speak of these things: they |
were but instruments in the hands of |
God to work out his right and justice.
All things have been possible in human
affairs to those who We're inspired to
stand for the true and the right and the |
union soldier living passes today by the
grave of his dead comrade to give hon
or and glory to the God of Liberty, who
was also the God of battle and who |
gave him the victory. The year 1864 |
was the year of jubilee, the line of blue
stretched from the Atlantic coast thru
down the Ohio, over the |
of Georgia, on by the
;wamps of Louisiana to the gulf. For
ward moved the whole line; the air ever
resounded to sound of the guns: the
music of the drums and bugles never
ceased; the line went on thru the
angied tracks of the wilderness, over |
.he towering hills of the Spotsylvania;
~