Barton County democrat., 1904-06-03

the memories of the war itself. They
fought for four years in order that on
this continent those who came after
them, their children and their child
ren's children, might enjoy a lasting
peace. They took arms not to des-
troy, but to save liberty; not to over
throw, but to establish the supremacy
of the law. The crisis which they
faced was to determine whether or
not this people was fit for self govern
ment and therefore fit for liberty.
Freedom is not gift which can be
enjoyed save bythose who show them
selves worthy of it. In this world no
privilege can be permanently aPpro-
priated by men who have not the
power and the will successfully to as
sumo the responsibility of using it
Alright. In his recent admirable lit
tie volume on freedom and response
bility in democratic government, Pres
ident Hadley of Yale has pointed out
that the freedom which is worth
anything is the freedom which means
self-government and not anarchy.
Freedom thus conceived is a con-
structive force, which enables an in
telligent and good man to do better
things than he could do without it;
which is in its essence the substitu-
ton of self-restraint for external re-
straint-the substitution of form of
restraint which promotes progress for
the form which re;ards it. This is
the right view of freedom; but it can
only be taken if there is a full recog-
milton of the close connection between
liberty and responsibility in every do
main of human thought. 1t was es-
sentialiy the view taken by Abraham
Lincoln, and by those who, when the
civil war broke out, realized that in a
self governing democracy those who
desire to be considered fit to enjoy
liberty must show that they know how
to use it with moderation and justice
in peace, and how to fight for il when
it is jeoparded by malice domestic or
foreign levy.
The lessons they taught US are les
sons as applicable in our everyday
lives now as in the rare times of great
stress. The men who made this field
forever memorable did so because
they combined the power of fealty
to lofty ideal with the power of
showing that fealty in hard, practical,
common-sense fashion. They stood
for the life of effort, not the life Of
ease. They had that love of country,
that love of justice, that love of their
fellow-men, without which power and
resourceful efficiency but make man
a danger to his fellows. Yet, in ad-
dition thereto, they likewise possessed
the power and the efficiency; for 9TH
erwise their high purpose would have
been barren of results. They knew
each how to act for himself, and yet
how to act with his fellows. They
learned, as all the generation of the
civil war learned, that rare indeed is
the chance to do anything worth do
ing by one sudden and violent effort.
The men who believed that the civil
war would be ended in ninety days,
the men who cried loudest "On to
Richmond" if they had the right stuff
in them speedily learned their error;
and the war was actually won by those
who settled themselves steadfastly
down to fight for three years, or for
as much longer as the war might last,
and who gradually grew to understand
that the triumph would come, not by
single brilliant victory, but by hun
dred painful and tedious campaigns.
In the east and the west the columns
advanced and recoiled, swayed from
side to side, and again advanced;
along the coasts the black ships stood
endlessly off and on before the hostile
forts; generals and admirals emerged
into the light, each to face his crowd
ed hour of success or failure; the men
in front fought; the men behind sup
piled and pushed forward those in
front; and the final victory was due to
the deeds of all who played their parts
we'll and manfully in the scores of
battles, in the countless skirmishes, in
march, in camp or in reserve, as COM
missioned officers, or in the ranks
wherever and whenever duty called
them. Just so it must be for us in
civil life. We can make and keep
this country worthy of the men who
gave their lives to save it, only on
condition that the average man
among US on the whole does his duty
bravely, Loyalty and with common
sense, in whatever position life allots
to him. Exactly as in times of war
courage is cardinal virtue, so in time
of peace honesty, using the word in