The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-02-13

united for the protection of a vast ma
terial interest. With the seeding states
have gone senators, representatives,
secretaries. federal judges. foreign min
listers and consuls. army and navy com
manders, inferior officers, heads of de-
partmentS and clerks without number
carrying over to the enemy all their re-
sources of KNOWLEDGE skill, experience
and leadership-depriving the federal
government of its very memory and
leaving every department confused, I'M
nerved and paralyzed. Hidden dlsioy-
atty, more deadly than open desertion,
turks IN every branch of the civil ser
vice. No man knows whom to trust
The treasury is empty Arms, arsenals.
ships, navy yards, fortifications and
garrisons have been betrayed or aban-
doned. Foreign governments are un-
friendly, prejudiced, and ready to in
tervene. The people of the north are
torn with conflicting views.
The tasks are gigantic enough; the con-
ditions to the last degree perpleXing; his
experience and preparation almost MOTH
On the other hand there is the. just God
power he understands. He trusts in God;
The American people! All. there was
the arsenal! There was the courage, there
whelming power Latent, dormant for
the time being, yet there was the power;
like a sleeping sea. There it lay in the
hearts of some millions of common Amer
it lay as it lies now, in the stored intelli-
gence. skill. conscience. self-control, devo-
can people Intelligence, conscience.
strength, heroism We're common then-as
today. What we had then. what we have
now, was. and is, almost limitless store
which constituted our real wealth then:
1t is this which constitutes our real
coin understood He Knew the common
people. He knew the farm BOYS, who
good enough in time of war. He knew
the canal drivers, the real estate agents
and the tanners who could command arm
FOUR YEARS OF BLOOD AND FIRE.
those four years of blood and fire-We
can not tell the story of the war-but
him pleading with the south uniting the
north, holding on to the border states,
lions. Watching public DEMONSTRATIONS
watching congress, controlling the various
heads and peace Democrats, thanking his
own unreasonable friends, Ranking regi-
well as regiments of rebels, raising troops,
ting a navy. studying maps, planning
lating. rebuking and unmaking generals;
protecting the public credit, ponderlng for
problems, encouraging and comforting his
soldiers and his people, issuing steady
ions and various state papers-alf calm,
matured. prudent, eloquent, wise; destroy
places TOUR nillon Tree men, reDunulns
from the outside loyal state governments;
millions of wealth: holding as in the hol-
low of his hand the lives and properties of
power really as great and absolute as any
despot ever had in history, yet exercising
with scrupulous and painful regard to ev-
cry. constitutional limitation and every in
dividual right.
There he stands for four awful years.
hasting not, resting not, looking forward
all caring for all, like Fate or Providence
itself Calmly he takes each mans CEN
ment; nothing too soon; nothing too late.
The people must have time to think; the
at once: its necessity must be seen; the
border states must. if possible, be held.
people and the army could see him as he
is Negro regiments will not do at first;
prejudice melts. on this general and that.
on this question and on that: ne bides ms
future. The army is not all; there are
the people. -.
pride and dignity and honor. so-called, and
reputation-every feeling and emotion of
but principie-he is ever willing to sacri-
flee to attain the great end
his fairness toward the south, his sym
pathy with the southern people, his mag
nanimity toward even the leaders of the
HIS MAJESTY OF CHARACTER.
He did not Slur over or ignore the quit
of secession, but if you will observe him
throughout the four years of his service,
with the press miSrepresenting him; radi-
cal anti-slavery leaders stabbing him; the
public at times misunderstanding him; the
governors and the generals complaining of
him: his enemies jeering: his friends fall
tering. doubling and scolding; with armies
union he loved shattered into fragments;
with the slavery he hated securing per-
haps a still firmer fOothold: with the cause
of popular institutions trembling in the
balance; with the shrek of the wounded,
widowed and fatherless ringing in his
ears; torn. wounded, crushed IN every
there vet is not a note of scorn, not even
an epithet of hate or a word of bitterness
in all that matchless record. Oh. the
greatness of it Oh, the majesty of it!
Nowhere any room for malice or hatred
or cruelty, or revenge.