The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-10-18


of the third of March, 1861, in the gall
lery OF the United States Senate Cham
Der; to breathe an air rife with coming
revolution. to hear the threats Of
Southern Senators, the defiant answers
of those from the North, and the de-
Spairing pleas of others, as the debate
on the Crittenden Compromise resolu-
tions waxed high.
For the first time in many weeks the
diplomatic gallery was crowded with
the representatives of foreign kings and
eyAperors.
THE thought that came to me was
that these men were there to watch,
and possibly to rejoice. over what they
believed to be the last hours OF the
great American Republic.
Lord Lyons was constructing the
stately periods in which he would an
nounce to Her Majesty's Government,
that the American Republic was disin-
tegrated, and its experiment OF SELL
government had failed.
The Count De Sartigues was viewing
with compiacency the future OF the
Latin Race .in America and dreaming
of Mexican Empire for his ImDeriai
master, and wondering If California
would form a part of the French pos
sessions when the American Union
should be no more. And every petty
representative. of every petty principal
ity, was gazing with patronizing pity
upon the supposed end of the govern
ment framed by dreamers, who believed
that the people could govern them
selves.
The conditions were appalling. The
public treasury was empty. The pubic
credit Frustrated, the public confidence
paralyzed and with empty armories
dismantled forts and banished ships, we
awaited the shock of Civil War.
On the floor of the Senate Chamber
on that eventful night, the last effort
at compromise was made in vain.
William H Seward. with cold, grey
eyes, and a weak mouth, that belied his
real strength, paced up and down the
outer aisle, listening and silent. john
c. acknowledgements, dark and reso-
lutte, was the presiding officer. White
haired Crittenden of Kentucky plead
ed for the Union in vain. Swart-broW-
ed Andrew Johnson roared his defiance
to Wigfall of Texas, when that Senator
pointed his finger at the Republican
side and exclaimed: why do you not
send here either Christians or gentle
men? Men who will not either insult
the South, or else will hold themselves
personally responsible for their In
SultS?"
Douglas argued for the passage or the
pending Peace Resolutions. Mason, OF |
Virginia, declared them to be bread |
pills, Douglas rejoined that hypochon- |
driacs are best cured Of imaginary dis
- Il .slf W..
man Trumbull of Illinois, with cold and |
logical precision, denounced both trea-
son and compromise.
The blackness of the night which /!
precedes the dawn, environed the domes
and pillars of the Capitol building as
1 left it. When / reached the avenue, |
and turned to look, 10! streaming, as in
a cloud of flame the Stars and Stripes
illumined by the lights in the roof OF |
the Senate wing and tossed by the
March breezes, sent forth their gleam- |
ing promise to the Nation, that neither |
the treachery of the trusted, nor the |
supineness of the Indifferent nor fleets |
nor armies should serve to permanently |
displace the flag.
A 4 A
The North astonished the South, the |
Nation, and the world by its response to |
the call to arms which followed the as |
sault on Sumter. Out of the farms and |
the factories, out of the shops and the |
foundries, out of the club-rooms and |
the contingencies they came. mer- |
chants and mechanics, farmers and
doctors and lawyers, and millionaires |
and paupers Joined hands, and went
forth to marches and wounds and |
death. They had foemen equally in |
whom only themselves
could Conquer. Why" said a sarcas-
tic Briton, interrupting Henry ward |
Beecher. at a great and turbulent meet |
ing in London, why didn't you conquer |
the South in 80 days as Mr.. Seward
said you would do?" Because, re-
Joined Beecher, I'VE had Americans and
not Englishmen to fight.
AAA
Nearly forty years has the grave
grass been growing over those VINO
sleep
Under the laurel the blue,
Under the cypress the gray.
Yet unto this day their deeds are
fresh and undying.
Farragut dashed to the mainmase
and sailing into the flames. Sheridan
whirl retreating bayonets into an ire
sistible column of advancing steel,
Sherman writing history with MS
sword point upon American SOIL ana
his sentences with victor
les all the way from Atlanta to the
sea. Grant:
Patient of toll, serene amid alarms.
Infiexible in faith, invincible in arms
army after army and huri-
ing men by thousands to Wiling
death in order that the nation might
live. These are the paintings that
the American people hung in the great
gallery of the ages. These are tue
pictures that the cameras OF armies
have photograD hed with crimson war
fire upon the sensitive paper OF MS
tory, never to fade or fall while the
world goes round.
AAA
And not alone on fields whose sur
face mems feet shook like thunder ana
whose turf WAS their last pillow, Out ~