The Teton peak. [volume] (St. Anthony, Idaho) 1899-1904, 1903-09-24

knowledge that he belongs to a nation
whose glorious past and great present
will be succeeded by an even mightier
future; whereas had you failed we
would all of us, North and South, East
and West. be now treated by other
nations at the best with contemptuous
tolerance; at the worst with overbear-
ing insolence
Moreover. every friend of liberty,
every believer in self government, every
idealist who wished TO see his ideals
take practical shape, wherever he might
be in the world, knew that the success
of all in which he most believed was
bound up with the success of the Union
armies in this great struggle. l conf
IDENTIFY predict that when the final iudg-
ment of history is recorded it will be
said that in no other war of which we
have written record was it more vitally
essential for the welfare of mankind
that victory should rest where it finally
rested. There have been other wars
for individual freedom. There have
been other wars for national greatness.
But there has never been another war
in which the issues at stake were so
large, looked at from either standpoint
We take just pride in the great deeds of
the men of 1776, but we must keep in
mind that the Revolutionary war would
have been shorn of well-nigh all its
results had the side of union and liberty
been defeated in the civil war In such
case we should merely have added an
other to the lamentably long list of cases
in which people have shown that after
winning their liberty they are wholly
unable to make good use of it.
1t now rests with us in civil life to
make good by our deeds which you who
wore the blue did in the great years
from 81 to '65. The patriotism, the
courage, the unfinching resolution and
steadfast endurance of the soldiers
whose triumph was crowned at
AppomattoX must be supplemented on
our part by civic courage, civic honesty,
cool sanity, and steadfest adherence to
the immutabl laws of righteousness
You left us d reunited country; reunited
in fact as well as in IN 2. You left us
the right of broth ,od with your
gallant foes who the gray the
right to feel pride II courage and
|
their high fealty i ideal, even
though they war st the stars in
their courses us also the
most splendid TX le what brother
hood really mea"s; fra your careers
you showed II pract,ca ashton that the
only safety il, onr Am can life lies in
spurning sunder from another,
and in paying homage each man only
because of VIII 10 oe ntially is; in
straipping off theh. eupation, of
position, of accident, unril the soul
stands forth revealed, and we know the
man only because of his worth as man.
There was no patent device for secur-
ing victory by force of arms forty years
ago. and there is no patent device for
securing victory for the forces of
righteousness in civil life now. In each
case the all-important factor was and is
the character of the individual man
Good laws in the state, like a good
organization in an army, are the ex-
pressions of national character Leaders
| Lo in iuil
life alike; and weapons and tactics
change from generation to generation,
as methods of achieving good govern
ment change in civic affairs but the
fundamental qualities which make for
good citizenship do not change any more
than the fundamental qualities which
makes good soldiers. In the long run
in the civil war the things that counted
for more than aught else was the fact
that the average American had the
fighting edge; had within him the spirit
which spurred him on through toll and
J danger, fatigue and hardship, to the
goal of the splendid ultimate triumph.
So in achieving good government the
fundamental factor must be the charac-
ter of the average citizen; that average
citizens power of hatred for what is
mean and base and unlovely; his fearless
scorn of cowardice and his determine
ton to war unyieldingly against thu
dark and sordid forces of evil.
The Continental troops who followed
Washington were clad in blue buff, ant
e were armed with clumsy, flintlocl
: muskets You, who followed Gralt
wore the famous old blue uniform, an
y your weapons had changed as had you
uniform; and now the men of tn
= American Army who uphold the homo
Z of the flag in the far tropic lands are ye
J differently armed and differently ella
Is and differently trained; but the spirl
e that has driven you all to victory ha
q remained forever unchanged. So it
n in civil life. AS you did not win in
le Continued on page 81