The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-05-31

completed, a national sin RENTED through
the shedding of blood, and upon flag un-
torn. At Shiloh, at Corinth, at Antietam,
at Gettysburg, Vicksburg, the Wilderness,
through the crimson strife In every South
crn State you led and dared. You aban-
doned every fond hope, every cherished
ambition, and left all you loved in tears.
"A nation OF shop-keepers,' sneered the
kng-ridedn world, yet you, in the presence
OF supreme duty forsook every desire for
gain and wealth. and forgetting self and
all selfs aims plunged into the strife that
others might, like you, be free.
But patriotism found her crowning glory
at Andersonville. at Libby, at Belle Isle.
Here the sacrificial test pierced nearest the
heart and entered deepest the soul. There
was the supreme test Of human fealty.
Here armies were penned up with no cheer
from comrades at the front They were
with no bed except the frozen earth. no
covering but the sky, no food that worms
would touch. no friends except insanity
and death. Human speech can never tell
what they here suffered, what they here
endured.
I'm the midst of outrages unknown and
horrors unspeakable the gates of those
prisons were thrown wide open TO all who
would desert their country's banner and
enlist under the flag Of the South Yet
such was their sublime devotion to their
cause that out of 1890 men, thank God.
not per cent. were willing 10 escape all
the horrible consequences before them, not
per cent. were willing to turn their backs
glory of its truth.
You struggled, you suffered, you sacri-
feed, you bled, but thank God! you en-
dured; and not until the last armed foe
had cried enough were you willing TO face
toward wife and home"
Continuing. Mr.. Watson said that the
results of the war were embodied in Ger
tain amendments to the Constitution. He
quoted Section 2 of the fourteenth amend
ment, which says that when the right
to vote at any election for the choice Of
electors for President and Vice President
of the United States, representatives in
Congress, the executive and judicial officers
lature thereof, is denied TO any or the
male inhabitants thereof, such State shall
be denied representation. The right 10
vote and have your vote counted, he said.
is absolute; the provision of that amend
ment is sacred and bloOd-bought, and 1t
should be enforced When voters are de-
MED their just rights in any State, then
the right TO representation should be barred
10 the State wherein the right Of suffrage
Is withheld. Union soldiers engaged in
no meaningless task for their fellow-men
they contended, they fought, they died
for liberty and the equality of all men be-
fore the law.
Mr.. Watson defended the American SOL
diers in the Philippines, saying that the
national liberty, while the soldiers of the
United States in Cuba and in the Philip
pines are inspired by the love of universal
liberty and the brotherhood of all men.
The flag of liberty. equality and justice
has been planted in the Philippines to es-
has been the result of "Old Glory's'' un-
furling everywhere. The address was en-
Enthusiastically applauded, and at its close
Mr.. Watson received an ovation.