Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1906-06-05


our forefathers. the American soldier
who sleeps the sleep of death.
Whether Americans after the manor
| born, or whether naturalized citizens
OF this mighty republic, on days like
this, we are united, one and all, in the
loving task of honoring the memory OF
our dead heroes. And why should il
be otherwise2 Should not men love
the land of their birth, especially when
they may find in that land freedom and
| equality, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness? This republic, as history
tells us clearly, was established and
baptised in the blood of the lovers of
liberty from all lands. Lafayette, the
beloved OF Washington; Hamilton, who
rode by his side and assisted to organize
the government; Pulaski, who fell at
the head of his legions at Savannah;
montgomery, who gave up his life in
the storming of Quebec; Kosciusko,
with his, genius and daring; Meagher
and his brave Irish brigade-t these and
countless nurlbe of their countrymep
were here in the long and bloody
struggle for independence and for the
| preservation of the union, and came to
the banquet of battle and death be-
| cause of their love for human free
dom.
The memory of these men, whether
native or foreign born, we hold in pious
| benedlction today, and recall their
deeds of valor in story and in song
And it is well thct it is so. 1t is hope
| full sign of the times; it augurs we'll for
the future Of our nation that the men,
ory of our dead soldiers is kept fresh
and green in American hearts. Let us
ever honor the living ST. 3Ier; let US
revere the dead, and government of the
people, for the people, and by the peo-
ple'' is safe and secure for generations
yet unborn.
But the great question for us of the
Goth century to solve is this: How are
we to preserve intact and to hand down
to our osterity inviolate the liberties
secured and the institutions established
In the blood and sacrifice of our fore
fathers? What do we of today learn,
as we stand in this silent city of the
dead? Why recall those bloody days
of yore? Why this gathering, why
salute the starry banner, why this
mournfnl music, these sweet smelling
howe ess
These things all, my fellow citizens,
should rem ind us not only of the tre-
mendots price which our forefathers
paid to establish and to conserve Amer
ican institutions in the past, but also to
warn us OF our sacred duty and solemn
responsibility of guarding and guiding
the ship of state safely and securely
on her course in the future days of this
glorious republic, that government of
the people, by the people and for the
people may not perish from the earth"
For dangers, shoals and rocks, shall
rise up before the ship of state in the
future, as they have risen in the past,
and they will appear when the Ameri-
can people least expect their existence,
aye while they are boasting of their
progress and enlightenment, of their
power and of their glory. For the
history of the civilized nations of the
past warns us that this civilization
bears within its own breast the ele-
ments of it's probable dissolution. The
highways of history are strewn with
the wrecks which time has made in the
civilized nations of the globe. So it
was in the lays preceding the REBEL
ion.
Our nation seemed secure, our peo-
pie rested calmly and slept peacefully,
while ''the mills of the gods ground
slowly, but ground exceedingly tine;"
while the enemy, darkling, soWed tares
among the wheat. Slavery, that foul
blot on Americas fair name, was slow
ly eating away the very vitals of our
free institutions; but few of our people
realized the danger. But suddenly the
storm cloud arose, the rumbling of the
distant thunder which precedes the
storm was heard in the South and in
the North; then the war broke forth in
all it's fury So. too, shall come the
storm-clouds CT the future, the dangers
to our republic, silently, covertly, but
none the less surely, Enthusiastically.
What these dangers shall be, we of
this generation do not now see clearly,
though we may imperfectly divine them
in the distant future. 1t may be con
fiict between capital and labor; it may
be the menace of socialism or anarchy;
it may be national corruption, or it
may be atheism, the denial of the God
of nations. That it shall be an internal
disorder, a danger from within our
body polite, or a social disorder, no
thinking man in our day will deny.
But whatever the nature of the
dangers which shall threaten our ma
tional institutions in the future, we
must meet them and overcome them,
as did our fathers in the bloody days of
the rebellion. But in order to conquer
these dangers successfully in the future,
our citizens of today must be men and
women of character, patriotic citizens,
who bow reverently to the authority of
law, who are ever ready to stamp out
corruption in public and private life,
who worship not at the shrine of man.
mon, who are ready to assist the needy,
whenever possible, who offer the hom-
age of their being to the God of nations,
who worship reverently the Son of God,
the lowly Nazarene. This is the ma
terial out of which good character is
formed, from which the right kind of
citizenship is made.
He who bows not reverently to the
sovereign majesty of the laws of our
country who obeys the mandates of
law only when forced TO do so who is
a good citizen only in public, when the
eyes of the officers of the law are upon
him-such man is dangerous charac-
ter and criminal.
He who is guilty of corruption in poll
tics, or condones or conspires to assist
others in defrauding the government,
whether he be of the rank and file, or
whether he be president of our country,
he is traitor to his country, man un-
worthy the sovereign dignity of Ameri-
can citizenship.
The man who seeks wealth for the
sake of wealth, who barters honesty at
the shrine of mammon; who defrauds
the laborer of his hire; who is deter
mined to get rich at any cost-such
man is not worthy to be called an
American citizen-he is a dangerous
character.
Likewise, the man who believes not
in God. who worships not the lowly
Nazarene, is not a good citizen, for
morality and honesty and probity are
founded on religion. AS the great
Washin gton said; Reason and ex-
perience both forbid us to expect good
citizenship where religion is wanting"
He, therefore, who is wanting in any
of the civic or moral virtues, or to put
it more plainly, he who openly and
brazenly violates these virtues is not
the kind of citizen we should expect to
rush to the assistance of his country in
times of national dangers.
Character is made of sterner stuff;
morality is not builded on sand;
grapes are not gathered from thorns;
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