The Jersey City news., 1902-05-31

cans do not love war for wars sake; but
in defence of home--as in our lndlan
wars, for principle and for independence,
as in our Revolutionary WARRIOR primer
pie and the freedom of the seas, as in
the war of 1S12-to save the Union from
disintegration and ruin, as in 1S6l-to
succor a helpless and scourged neighbor,
as in 1898, they will make war on a
mighty scale.
sThe war for the Union was great
war, fought over a great expense OF ter
rtory, by great armies, equal in courage
and endurance, and commanded by men
educated in the same military school.
During those four bloody years many
great battles were fought and thousands
of great deeds were done-battles never
surpassed in the history of the world,
and deeds that outshine all that went be-
fore. And yet in the United States
Senate the other day a gray-haired Sen
ator, probably the most eloquent of that
body, a statesman distinguished even in
those war days, said:-
"The world is in profound peace, ex-
''cept in one quarter, in South Africa,
"where a handful of republicans are
''6ghting for their independence. and
"haye been doing better fighting than has
sbeen done on the face of the earth since
'sThermopylae, or certainly since Ban
'.nockburn."
1.-THE noble Senator has simply lost
himself in his wealth of erudition, or
for a resounding rhetorical effect, has
forgotten the history of his own eoun-
try. Living in the shadow of Bunker
Hill he should at least have remembered
the fight there put up by Warren and his
Continentals, which was not surpassed
by anything Leonidas did at Thermopy-
lac or Bruce at Bannockburn, either in
courage or results. Why, down in Tex
as they point with glowing and commen-
dable pride to stately monument upon
which is inscribed these words-sTher-
mopylae had its messenger of defeat,
the Alamo had none" Did the Senator
read of Saratoga and Yorktown, and
many other fields where Continental vol
unteers did better fighting and endured
greater hardships than his antiquated
Greeks and Scots ever thought of doing
or enduring? The Beers have fought
gallantly and well, as hravely and well
as they could with their ideas of war
fare but to compare their battles or their
hattlings to those of our var for the
Union is ridiculous, and their successes
have bean dHe mostly to the 5uaghns of
the English as much as 70 their own un-
doubted courage. But no soldiers ever
did better fighting, since recorded time,
thaa the American soldiers of either side
at Gettysburg. at Chickamauga, at
Vicksburgh, and many other bloody
fields. The charge of the Old Guard at
Waterloo, of the Light Brigade at Bal
aklava, have been immortalized in song
and poetry, but neither these, or any
others of record, are more splendid than
the magnificent charge of the Union
troops at Fredericksburgh when they
crossed the bullet swept plain to the very
foot of Mary's Heights; or than Pickett's
splendid rush at Gettysburg, where with
terrible force he almost engulfed the
Union line and carried the hopes of the
Confederacy to high water mark, only. to
be hurled back crushed and broken.
Comrades of Van Houten Post, you
are members of the grandest organization
on the face of the earth. You have done
great good during the twenty odd years
ol your eAlSleHCt. 1Ou udfS hSpt many
old soldiers from the poor-houses of the
State, and have been instrumental in
founding soldiers homes. You have al
ways been foremost in works of charity.
1t has been said that the Grand Army
was organized to raid the National Treas
ury. 1t is not true. The Grand Army
never made demand that was not just
and proper Churlsh is the man, and
ft only for association with his kind, who
forgets what is due the old soldier of the
Republic
'.The men whose graves we decorate
Better out than in''-that humor that you
notice To be it's out and all out. take
Hoods SarsapariIla.