The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1902-06-04

lure raised DY the far-seelng PATRIOTS
II of Washington, Franklin, Marshal
Hamilton, and the other great leade
of the Revolution, great trainers of I'll
: constitution, should not crumble I'M
meaningless ruins.
Il You whom address to-day and yo,
comrades who wore the blue besiC
u you in the perilous years during whic
q strong, sad, patient Lincoln bore th
: crushing load of national leadershi,
E performed the one feat the failure
perform which would have meant d,
struction to everything which make
: the name America q symbol of hop
3 among the nations of mankind. Yo
. did the greatest and most necessar
, task which has ever fallen to the lot G
any man on this Western Hemisphere
Nearly three centuries have passe
| since the waters of our coasts wer
first furrowed by the keels of the MAJ
whose children's children were to in
hent this fair land. Over centur,
and half of colonial growth followe,
the settlement F; and now for over
century and quarter we have been {
nation.
During our four generations of ma
tional life we have had to do man,
tasks, and some of them of far-reachins
Importance but the only really vita
task was the one you did, the task OF
saving the Union. There were other
crises in which TO have gone wrong
would have meant disaster but this
was the one crisis in which to have
gone wrong would have meant not
merely disaster but annlliliation. For
failure at any point atnnement could
have been made ; but had you failed
in the iron days the loss would have
been irreparable, the defeat lrretriev-
able. Upon your success depended all
the fuLm o of the people on this con-
tinent and much of the future of man
kind as a whole.
You left us reunited country. You
left us the right of bro therhood with
the men in gray, who with such cour-
age and such devotion for what they
deemed the right fought against you.
But you left us much more even than
your achievement, for you left us the
memory of how ii was achieved. You,
who made good by your valor and pa
triotism the craftsmanship of Lincoln
and the soldlership of Grant, have set
as the standards for our efforts in the
future both the way you did your work
in war and the way in which when the
war was over you turned again to the
work of peace. In war and i'm peace
alike your example will stand as the
wisest of lessons to us and our children
and our children's children.
Just at this moment the army of the
United States, led by men who served
among you in the great war, is carry
ing to compile ton small but peculiar
ly trying and difficult war in which is
involved not only the honor of the flag,
but the triumph of civilization over
forces which stand for the black chaos
of savagery and barbarism. The task
has not been as difficult or as important
as yours, but, oh, my comrades, the
men in the uniform of the United
States, who for the last three years pa
tiently and uncomplainingly champion
ed the American cause in the Philip
pine Islands, are your younger broth
ers, your sons. They have shown
themselves not unworthy of you, and
they are entitled to the support of all
men who are proud of what you did.
The guilty are to be punished; but
in furnishing them let those who sit at
ease at home, who walk delicately and
live in the soft places of the earth, re-
member also to do them common
justice. Let not the effortless and the
untempted rail overmuch at strong
men who with blood and sweat face
years of toll and days and nights of
agony, and at need lay down their lives
in remote tropic jungles TO bring the
light of civilization into the worlds
dark places. The warfare that has ex.
tended the boundaries of civilization
at the expense of barbarism and sava-
gerry has been for centuries one Of the
most potent factors in the progress of
humanity. Yet from its very nature it
has always and everywhere been liable
to dark abuses.
1t behooves us TO keep viligant
watch to prevent these abuses and to
punish those who commit them; but if
because of them we finch from finish
ing the task on which we have entered,
we show ourselves cravens and weak
lings, unworthy of The sires from
whose loins we sprang. There were
abuses and to spare in the civil war.
Your false friends then called Grant q
"butcher" and spoke of you who are
listening to me as mercenaries, ae
Lincoln's hirelings."
Your open foes-as in the resolu-
tion passed by the Confederate Con.
gress in October, 1862--accused you
at great length, and with much parti
cularity, of contemptuous disregard
of the usages of civilized war;" of sub
jeCting women and children TO "ban
ishment, imprisonment and death;" ol
''mulder," of "rapine," of "outraget
on women," OF "lawless cruelty" Of
perpetrating atrocities which would
be disgraceful TO savages;" and Abra
ham Lincoln was singled out fol
especial attack because of his "spiri
of barbarous ferocity." Verify, thes,
men who thus foully slandered yo,
have their heirs today In those VIII,
traduce our armies In the Philippines
who fix their eyes on individual deed
of wrong 80 keenly that at last they be
come blind TO the great work of peac
and freedom that has already been &C
complished.
Peace and freedom-are there tw
better objects for which soldier cal
fight? Well, these are precisely tn
J objects for which our soldiers are fight
ing in the Philippines. When there
talk of the crueltIes committed in th
. Philippines, remember always that b