The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1902-06-08
CHAPTER VI.

Another Declaration of Independence
hope and fear CASTOR had passed, and still
he was no nearer the dream Of realized love.
If anything had changed. the Generals
pride had added new force to his determina-
ton that his daughter should not marry the
man who had defied him.
His chief reliance for Gaston'e defeat was
on time and the broadening of Sallie's mind
by extended travel. He had sent her abroad
twice, and this year he sent her to spend
another three months in Europe.
These absences seemed only 10 intensity
her longing for her lover. On her return
the General would burst into a storm Of
rage at her persistence. She had ceased
to give him any bitter answers, only smil-
ing quietly and maintaining au ominous ef-
lence. :
He had a new cause now of dislike for the
man Of her choice. Castor had become a
man of acknowledged power in politics, and
was the leader Of a group of radical young
men who demanded the complete reorgani-
cation Of the Democratic party, the shelving
of the old-timers, among whom he was
numbered, and the announcement of a rad
zeal programme upon the negro issue.
He tried in a clumsy way to put CASTOR
off the State Executive Committee, nut
failed. He saw CASTOR quietly laughing at
him. Then he opened his pocketbook and
worked up a State machine within the ma
chine to oppose any programme CASTOR
might advocate. 1t was a formidable pow
er, and CASTOR feared its influence IN the
coming convention.
While this fight was in progress, and SAL
lie was in Europe, the destruction of the
Maine in Havana Harbor stilled the world
into silence with the echo of its sullen roar.
There was q moments pause, and the ma
ton lifted Its great silk battle flags from
the Capitol at Washington and called for
volunteers to wipe the Empire of Spain
from the map of the western world.
The war lasted but a hundred days, but
In those hundred days was packed the har-
vest of centuries.
We were afraid that our nation etiIl
lacked unity. The world said We were a
mob OF m~oney-grabbeTS and had lost our
grasp of principle. The President called
for $500 men to die for their flag, END
next morning s00. 900 were struggling for
place in the line.
We feared that religion might threaten the
future with its bitter feud between the
Roman Catholic and Protestant in a great
crises. We saw our Catholic regiments
march forth to that war with screaming
life and throbbing drum and the fog of our
country above them, going forth to fight an
army that had been blessed by the Pope
of Romel The flag had become the common
symbol of eternal justice and the nation the
organ through which all creeds and cults
sought for Righteousness.
We feared the gulf between the rich and
the poor had become impossible and we
saw the millioinaire's son take his place in
the ranks with the workingman. The first
soldier wearing our uniform who fell be-
fore Santiago with g. Spanish bullet in his
breast, was an only son of a palatial home
in New York., and by his side lay a cow
boy from the West and a plowboy from
the South. Once more we showed the world
that classes and clothes are but thin dis
guises hat hide the eternal childhood of
the soul.
S~ectionalism and disunity had been the
most terrible realities in our national his
tory. Our fathers had a poet leader, whose
soul dreamed a beautiful dream called E
Pluribus Unum. But it had remained a
dream. New England had threatened seces-
sion years before South Carolina In blind
rape led the way The Union was saved
by q sacrifice OF blood that appalled, the
world. And still millions feared the South
might be false to her plighted honor at Ap-
pomattox. The ghost of Secession made and
unmade the men and measures of a gener-
alton.
Then came the trumpet call that put the
South to the test of fire and blood. The
world walked next morning to find for the
first time IN our history the dream of union
q living fact There was no North, no South
but from the James to the Rio Grande
the children Of the Confederacy rushed with