Mower County transcript., 1904-06-08
DAY ADDRESS.
Eloquent Oration by Hon. #. M. Wilson of Red Wing
Given i'm This City on Memorial Day.

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life, amid problems of civil policy, OF
great difficulty and delicacy. The work
of reconstruction demanded the wisest
caearest, broadest statemanship. It was
the boiling and bubbling of the great
political caldron whose mighty throes
! and rumblings were the terrific reaction
of the great war. The persistency and
vindictiveness of the conflict were so
intense and threatening that to pre-.
serve peace, restore civil authority to
it's natural and rightful domain, faith
fully and efficiently execute the laws,
zealously guard the rights of person
I and property, create a spirit of brother
hood, subdue the desire for revenge,
efface, not intensity, the bitterness,
destroy a system Of vassalage as de-
grading as in the days of feudalism, ex-
tend aid, revive industry, inspire hope
and instil confidence in the south was
a stupendous undertaking surrounded
with so many entanglements that it
seemed that we might go to wreck, but
amid these surging elements the virtue
and intelligence of our people could
DISCERN the coming of the day when
as ia united happy nation we would
gather strength and power and be-
come safe because governed by the
silent providence of law based on higher
principles of justice and right. What
state can fall? What liberty decay?
when charity for all and malice to-
ward none is the guiding star of our
national course, when the virtues of
humanity !liberality and justice aes our
daily actions and not our pretense?
AS the great pendulum of civilization
has been swinging in the nineteenth
century, the world has seen and felt
the mighty influences of our country.
From feeble colonies it's rise and sue
cess was followed by tremendous
revolutions in Europe and in the South
American States.
It was an era OF vast energies and
far reaching results. 1t was the new
world regenerating the old. The hour
had come in the cycle of time when the
immortal principle of mans right to
self government must encircle the globe.
A right, eternal in duration, universal
in spirit, it was liberty enlightening
the world The crisis of that hour be-
History racords I that vast vast empires hi rHgf 81
old were erected on the grave of liberty
but on the grave of destroyed slavery
we have resurrected the noblest nation
on earth, to freedom, learning, art and
commerce. Under the stimulus and
the protection Of wise laws, with all
our mighty collective energies, we are
utilizing for mans needs and progress
our great coal, iron, copper and lead
mines, spanning our great rivers for
the horse of steel, garnering their water
for the wheels of our industries, manu-
featuring our fabrics and carrying our
products to the markets of the world,
Our locomotives whistle as they whirl
on bands of American steel past the
pyramids of Egypt. 1t is the welcome
cry of the new world to the sleeping
centuries. Our mills draw water from
the sacred rivers of the Jordan and the
Nile. Our reapers gather the golden
grain as it waves on the fertile fields of
Slberla.> Our sewing machines, with
their busy hum are heard in the cottage
of the peasants in many lands as sweet
as the tinkle OF the shepherds bell. In
all che varied industries that give en-
ployment to honest toll and reward it
with just wages, we come rejoicing
bringing sheafs. With titanic force and
ever multiplying facilities, we are by
wire, steam and steel developing
wealth, stimulating industry, reward
ing labor, promoting prosperity, en-
couraging art, literature and science,
strengthening, heightening, broadening
and making steadfast the confidence
of the governments of earth in the
integrity of our aims. Aims as high as
the towering mountains whose crowns
are encircled with perpetual and spot
less snow. Aims, as broad, and as deep
as old oceans vast expanse, whitened
by the commerce of the world. But
as OF yesterday Spain whose history is
woven with daring adventure and great
acquisitions in the new world, with
marvellous past like a guided halo
lowering around decay, had for wears
by a system revolving and cruel in
the extreme prosecuted and burdened
her subjects in the beautiful and fertile
Island of Cuba to such an extent that
our government, moved by the FRIGHT
ful sufferings, interposed its good Of
tices and sought to interest the leading
powers to ameloriate their condition.
and cause the government of Spain to
grant it's subjects better protection. But
despite our numerous protests, it.
tlghtened its grasp in appalling tyranny
upon the Pearl Of Antilles, renowned
for its beauty and which at one time:
held the sacred ashes of Christopher
Columbus. On beautiful starlight
night resting on the bosom of the har-
bor at Havana like beautiful swan
was our noble battleship "The Maine"
while the lights from the city cast their
sheen upon the waters and the solitary