Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1905-06-03

to come will strive to conform to
that type no harm can come from
without, and no danger can threat
en- the nation from within. Aud our
simple truth is that these two
colossal heroes became the men
they were, and accomplished what
they did, because they believed that
their work was the work of God,
and that their battles were the con-
flicts of the Almighty Jehovah.
And may we remember this day that
if the struggle for independence was
inevita bly.confned to the east, for the
inland states were not yet born, the
struggle for the Union finds it's high
est glory in the west. Enthusiasm
may exalt too highly the object of it's
song, but it need not disparage the
work of other hands. The heart, then,
is forgiven it's exaltation. Men edu-
Gated in the cultured east moved west
ward. They were the vanguard of
civilization. They carried in their
hands law and order; church, home
and school house. They were rugged
and even stern in their religious con-
victions. In spirit they were all mar
tyrs. Eastern manhood and woman
hood were planted in the virgin soil
of the west. In the west they breathed
in the atmosphere of freedom. Here
they were trained and disciplined in
the school of nature to be impatient
with bigotry, slavery and personal res
traint. Moving with the sun in it's
journey, they bridged rivers, crossed
prairies, leveled mountains and laughed
at little hill-tops. This passion for
victory. and this flaming ambition for
freedom made conditions for the birth
of Abraham Lincoln and made possible
the birth of the giant liberty, which
was to be baptized and consecrated in
the blood of civil strife. Lincoln and
Sherman and Grant are stars that
shine in the western sky. 1t was a
voice in the wilderness Of the west
that proclaimed for the first time that
slavery and freedom could not exist
together. 1t was voice in the west
that laid down the principle that the
new states that entered the Union
must be free, even if such truth
should lead the nation to the field of
war. And the conflict came. The
storm burst in alits fury. And he
who cannot see the onward march of
human progress, and cannot read the
divine logic of events, may exclaim
"What follyw "Are not these who are
wounded and dying and dead all
brothers?" why should brother-man
tarnish and stain with the blood of
brother-man, the fields rich with velvet
grass and beautiful with many-colored
flowers" Such mind and heart must
wait until the smoke of the conflict is
swept away, and the dead buried on
the blood-stained field. And then see
new men; new times; a new civiliza-
ton and redeemed Republic emerg-
| ing out of the heart-rending and ghast-
| ly scene.
Sad, indeed, are the barren wars Of
history. When we read Tennyson's
great war lyric, "The Charge Of the
Light Brigade" we are overwhelmed
by the heroism of the six hundred"
and the dreadful disaster that over
took them
"Stormd at by shot and shell
| Boldly they rode and well,
| into the jaws Of Death
| Into the mouth of Hell
| Rode the six hundred
But there is. no massive truth or
principle to allay cur grief over such
a carnage. We all ask in vain the rea-
son of such slaughter. There is no
deep meaning to the field Of Balaklava.
In all poetry, there is not. perhaps,
any description equal to Byron's pict-
ure of the battle of Waterloo. He
tells us of the "revelry by night in
Belgium's capital" and the "deep
sound like striking knell" that
brought fear and trembling to the
hearts of the jewellers.
And there was mounting in hot haste; the
| Steed,
The mastering squadron and the clatter-
ing car
Went pouring forward with impetuous
speed
And swiftly forming in the ranks of war;
And the deep thunder peal on peal afar,
And near, the beat of the alarming drum
Reused up the soldier ere the morning
star:
While thronged the citizens, with terror
dumb
Or whispering with white lips, 1.-THE foel
They come! They come!
"The midnight brought the signal sound
of strife.
The morn the marshaling in arms-the
day,
Battles magnifcently stern array
The thunder clouds close DER it, which
when rent
The earth is covered thick with other
clay,
Which her own clap shall cover. heaped
and pent,
Rider and horse-friend. foe, in one red
burial blent'
But the battle of Waterloo offers no.
thing but sadness to all thinking minds
and all feeling hearts. 1t ~ewas simply
a question of despotism. If there was
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