Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-07-09

or our wealth, the precious blood of
our young men that filled Lin
coins heart with anguish and
made him old before his time,
but it was the storm of partisan
hostility that ragged against him, fill
ing the air with ISLANDERS and thwart-
ing his most earnest and unselfish
/ efforts for the country's good. But in
spite of it all he persevered, never
\ for moment tempted by the vast
/. power he welded to any action not
justified by the moral and the Or
ganic law. I have always liked the
inscription on the medal which the
workmen of France, by one-cent sub
scrlptions, caused to be struck after
his death: Abraham Lincoln, the
honest man. Waged war Abolished
slavery. Twice elected president with.
out yelling the face of liberty" This
was an achievement new to the world;
] that man and party armed with an
authority SO unquestioned and SO stu
pendous, in the very current of vast
war, should have submitted them
serves so rigidly to the law-and
never have dreamed there was any
thing meritorious about it. Then, if
never before, we proved we were as
/ fit to be free as the men who achieved
our freedom
Close Of the War.
\ The world learned other lessons in
swift succession We disbanded our
army-sent them home to earn their
| li--ings as simple citizens of the land
| Jryifh
tons; they asked none; they wanted
And there were no reprisals, lot a
man punished for rebelllons or trea-
son.; not an act of violence sullied
the glory of victory. The fight had
been fierce, but loyal; we at least
wished the reconciliation to be per-
feet. Then came the paying of our
debts. To whom is the credit due of
/ that enormous task, that sublime eff
fort o. common honesty, if not to the
party which against every assault of
open and covert reputation stood by
the country's honor and kept it free
from stain?
A Story of Progress.
/ Let me hurriedly enumerate few
of the vents in the long and fruitful
career of the republican party which
seem to us to entitle it to the conf,
dence of the country and the final ap
| prevail of history After the war was
ended and peace re-established with NO
damage to the structure of the govern
ment but, on the contrary, with added
I strength and with increased guaran.
ties of it's perpetuity, it remained to
be shown whether the power and sue
cess of the republican party were to
be permanent or whether, born of a
crisis it was fitted to cope with the
problems of daily national life. 1t
had destroyed slavery, or, perhaps we
might better say it had created the
conditions by which slavery had com
nitted suicide. In the absence of this
great adversary, could the party hold
together against the thousand lesser
evils that beset the public life of mod
ern peoples = the evils of ignorance
corruption, avarice and lawlessness
the prejudices of race and of class, the
voices Of demagogues, the cunning OF
dishonest craft. the brutal tyranny Of
the boss, the venality of the mean?
think it is not too much to say that
| the last forty years have given all an
l swer, full of glory and honor to that
3 question. The republican party, il
the mass and in detail, has shown its
, capacity to govern. By the homestead
; law, with equal generosity and wisdom
it distributed the immense national do
main among the citizens who were
willing to cultivate it and who have
converted wide stretches of wilderness
into smiling homes. 1t built the Pa
cific railroad, which has bound the
union together from east to west by
bands of steel and made the states be
yond the mountains among our mos
loyal and prosperous commemorative
!, 1t redeemed our paper currency ant
! made all our forms of money of exactly
equal value, and our credit the best il
: the world. By persistent honesty il
our finances - in the face of obstacles
J which might have daunted the hardi
est statesmen = it has reduced oul
interest charges SO that in any mar
on earth we can borrow money cheaper
than any other people. In the financia
revulsions to which all communitie!
are subject, we are able, thanks to ou
laws and our administrative system, tt
meet and pass the most violent crises
without lasting damage to our pros
perity. We have, by patient labor O
years, SO succeeded in reforming ant
regulating our civil service that pa
tronage has almost ceased to cast it,
deadly blight upon the work of ou
public servants. Human nature il
, weak and offenses happen; but the.
are almost always found out and ar,
punished without mercy when detect
ed. BY persistent adherence to thu
, policy Of protection we have given t,
our inductries a development which
the fathers of the republic neve
dreamed Of; which besides supplyin,
our home markets. has carried on
manufactures to the uttermost ends 0
| the earth.
The Nations Prosperity.
History affords no parallel to tn
vast and increasing prosperity which
this country has enjoyed under repuh
lican rule. l hasten to say we do no
claim to have invented seedtime AM
: harvest and industry and thrift W.