The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1903-06-25

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takes they certainly made and of course
being only human 1t was impossible
that they should do otherwise. In our
career as a nation. covering a period of
n hundred aud twenty-seYen years,
we have amended our constitution but
fifteen times which shows what wonder
full foresight, what wonderful know
ledge of human affairs those men had.
And yet they attempted the impossible
when they built this government, which
breathes freedom and equality from
every pore, upon the social conditions
that then existed in the colonies. When
that little Dutch man-of.war sailed up
the James river in the month of Aug.
1919 and sold at auction to the highest
bidder, twenty African negroes for
slaves, they planted the seed that made
forever impossible a republican form of
government in the true sense of the
term. Abraham Lincoln repeatedly
said that this government could not
exist half free and half slave and time
proved that his predictions were true.
Another cause, small in the beginning,
but which grew as time went on. was
the difference in the construction placed
upon the constitution by the people of
the north and south. The north held
that under tbs constitution the union
of the states was indissoluble; that the
several states was subordinate to the
general government and that the highest
allegiance of a citizen was due to the
general government and not to the state
in which he lived. The south held that
for certain reasons the government might
be dissolved; that the several states had
the right to nullify an act of congress
and that disunion was honorable and
justifiable. Here was an issue that
struck to the very vitals of the republic;
and coupled with the different systems
of labor in the north and in the south
together with other minor causes which
led to the war came as near wrecking
this republic as it will ever come to be
ing wrecked until the curtain of OBJ
livion shall wrap it in it's folds and all is
lost. Chaldea, Babylonia, the Roman
empire and republic aud a host of other
nations have como and gone. The
different causes which led to the down
fall of each we're small and trivial in the
beginning but they grew until at last
they overwhelmed each and every one
AMI today where those beautiful and
prosperous cities once stood, where all
the arts and sciences of the world are
stored, where all he progress and civil
izatiou of millions OF years was conferred
there is what? Nothing. The walls
aud buildings have been leveled with
the ground and only the pick and shovel
of the Archaeological tells to the people
of this generation the beauty and
grandeur that once existed.
Immediately prior to and during the
war I was but a child but I have heard
plenty of persons who took an active
Part in those times cay that no one
thought for a moment that anything
serious would come out Of the differ
ences between the north and south
The south thought the people at the
north were towards and the north
thought the people in the south would
do nothing but bluster. The people
both north and south were reposing in a
false security. They said it would all
blow ovcr after a while but it didn't.
Out of those differences that looked
trivial and harmless at the beginning
came one OF the bloodiest tragedies the
world has ever seen; and as time
drifts UP farther and farther away we
are apt to appreciate less and in time
may forget entirely unless we review it
once in awhile the magnitude of that
awful struggle. To those who engaged
10 it the pictures and impressions will re,
main as long as reason holds it's sway.
They are indelibIy stamped upon the
mind of every man and women who
passed through those awful times. But
- yon and me it is different. I do rot
believe that it is possible for any person
10 appreciate what war really is without
first having engaged in it. Did you ever
try to think how the battle field Of
Gett, sburg must have looked after the
fight was over? Forty thousand dead
and wounded strewn over the ground;
men. horses. guns and accoutermentF
heaped indiscriminately wherever the
Hight was thickest; the gropnd soaked
with blood and torn with shot and shell;
confusion and obstruction everywhere.
It must have been a sight 10 chill the
blood of the bravest, to make the stout
est heart quail. 1t shows as nothing
else can the awful passions Of which the
human heart is capable. Did you ever
try to think What it means to kill and
wound ten thousand men in twenty
minutes as was done at Cold Harbor ?
And yet that is what war means. Did
you aver figure what the war of the re-
bellion cost the people OF this country ?
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