Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1905-05-31

conquest or ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. Neither
side was invading a foreign country
with tn" purpose of extending the ma
| tiOEal domain. In no event could Their
be the return of the Roman legiOns
bringing captivcs and booty in their
train. 1t was Il war of principle the
fundamental principle of union or Sc
ccssion: The right OF any state to
withdraw and thus destroy the Union
was the single issue at the outset,
though the primal cause of slavery lay
back of it. and ripened into the eman-
cipation pr0c!an alton. In the light of
all that | have been able to read or see
or hear | am bound to say that on the
single issue of secession each side
thought that it was right. l do not say
that each side was right, but the hon.
cs conviction of each must be conceded
and both struggled to maintain their
convictions with equal devotion, valor
and selfsacrifice. You veterans who
are before me will agree that the color
of the uniform did not determine the
question of bravery.
In the second place it was in truth
and in fact a war where in the larger
sense brother was arrayed against
brother and friend against friend
Though springing from different
classes we were all of the same old
English stock. The same blood
courscd in our veins and but for the
blighting curse of slavery, both North
and South would then have been vieinG
with each other for the common good
of the Nation. as thank God. they are
today. instead of engaged in a struggle
that well might exhaust both.
AS rule state lines governed in the
question of allegiance. The relatives
of Washington were aiding in the
destruction of the Nation that
he had helped to create. Lee, the
grandson of Washington's adopted son,
became the leader of the Confederate
army, and his beautiful home in Arl-
ngtOn is now a national cemetery.
John Washington, then the owner of
Mount Vernon, threw his fortunes with
Virginia and thus forfeited that ances-
trail homestead on the Potomac which
is now the Mecca of tens of thousands
every year, all Of whom rejoice that
the last resting place of the Father of
his Country is not in an alien land. Oc-
caSiOnaly Southern born place
country before state, Admiral Farra-
gut was native of Tennessee but that
did not hinder his plucky entrance in
70 Mobile bay dashed to the mast, and
General Thomas, the Rock Of Chica-
manga, was son of Virginia. In
many cases brother was actually fight
ing against brother, son against father
I,aI
thrilled my home village when it was
reported that one of our boys had
found after the battle of Bull Run a
testament i'm which was inscribed the
name of his brother and beneath it the
number of the Georgia Regiment to
which he belonged; and remember too
seeing their letters to their father pass
ing through the country postoffice, the
envelope of the one bearing the pal
metto with the stars and bars and the
other with the pine tree and the Stars
and Stripes.
At the second days battle at Gettys-
burg a gunner in South Carolina bat
terry placed his cannon in the garden Of
his boyhood home on the Emmettsburg
road and fred again and again into the
Federal ranks. while in the cellar close
by were his aged father and mother
who had fed there for safety, but were
Union to the core.
In the third place this was an army
of volunteers and the quickness with
which they responded 10 their coun-
try's call was marvellous. Concord
and Lexington saw the like on that
April morning eight-six years before.
but that was a spontaneous gathering