Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1906-05-31

lover that people, not to exact tribute
or indemnity, crafty revenge or ex
! tend empire
You invaded the south, YOU waged
that war, for the sole purposerof pre-
serving our national union from dis
/ ruption--our national union, then as
now, bow of promise to- struggling
humanity throughout the world. That
bow OF promise-one foundation on
the Atlantic coast, the arch reaching
across the whole continent, across the
Pacific, the other foundation in ASH
attic islands.
'You only said to the southern peo.
pie, this union shall be one and indi
visible. and you have got to stay in it;
we VIII not allow you to obliterate one
star from its flag; you shall not be
permitted to transfer one foot of its
4 territory to the dominion of any other
flag; give up your unholy purpose of
disruption and lay down your arms
and you shall continue in all your local
matters to govern yourselves as you
please under your respective state gov
ernments, just as we do ourselves, and
and no national exactions shall be
placed upon you, that are not equally
placed upon us in the north.
AwuIness of War.
ut was an awful war. In point of
men, enlisted and engaged in action,
and the daring bravery on each side in
battle, hardships endured on each side.
men killed and wounded in action, it
has scarcely a parallel in history. 1t
was American against American; in
the personnel it was equal against
equal. At the time Of the battle of
Shiloh was mere boy, living with
my mother in Osceola. So soon as
the news of the battle reached the lit
tie town, meeting of citizens was call
ed, because it was known that the
Sixth Iowa must have been in the
battle and that county had a company
in that regiment, besides some twenty
five or thirty men in another company
in the same regiment. 1t was a sad
meeting. A certain, fine patriotic old
gentleman, among others addressed
that meeting. He had two sons in
that battle, one in General Grants
army, the other in that of General Al
bert Sidney Johnson; one in the Sixth
Iowa, one in Louisiana regiment. The
old man was intensely loyal to the I'M
ion, but he couldn't help loving. those
boys equally, and Of course was just
as anxious to hear from that Louisiana
regiment as from the Iowa. "A few
years ago, in an Illinois town, saw
two gray headed brothers meet. They
had not met before for nearly forty-fve
years-one had been a major in an
Ohio regiment during the whole war,
the other e captain in a Louisiana
regiment-time after time they had
been engaged in the same battles In
stances galore could be given.
Items of thousands, possibly a hun
dred thousand men, who had been
born and raised in the north but had
drifted south for business or other
good reasons and had esta blished their
homes there, probably had married
there. fell in with neighbors and shout
dered their arms under the flag of the
confederacy and went to battle for the
cause 1t represented. And the same
was true of the north--many of our
union army's bravest and most patriot
ic soldiers. were men Of southern line
age, teaching and early environments.
have been told that there were no
better troops than those furnished to
the union army by Missouri, Kentucky
and Tennessee.
Americans VS.. Americans.
"Under the flag of the Confederacy
we're lineal decendents of men who
followed Washington in all his CAM
paigns; of men who followed and
fought with Marion and -Moultrie; Of
the sturdy pioneers in their coon skin
caps and homespan clothes; who, I'M
der the command of jackson, with
their squirrel rifles, whipped Parken-
ham at New Orleans, of men who died
fighting at the Alamo; of men who
fought under Houston at San Jacinto
and made Texas an independent repub-
lie, subsequently a state in the union;
of men who were with Taylor at Palo
Alto and who, at Buena Vista, proved
that the daring and courage of Ameri-
Vans when reused to battle are irwin
chile.
II have mentioned all these things,
so as to emphasize the truth, that in
that war from martial standpoint,
equal was against equal. You were
not fighting undisciplined and I'm
equipped barbarians, nor half starved
Spaniards. In one day in the wilder
ness, General Grant lost more men in
battle, than General Shafter had all
told at Santiago. You we're fighting
Americans, hence the greater praise
due your courage and prowess. OF
course it was equal against equal. We
had in both sections men who read and
loved the same Bible and worshiped the
same God. The blood of the Anglo
Saxon was the basic blood from which
the people had come; both sections
had the same traditions; in both sec
lions, the sentiment of patriotism was
a dominant sentiment-in the north
our patriotism acknowledged our high
est allegiance to be to the union in
stead of the state; in the south the
patriotism of the people acknowledged
the highest allegiance to be the state
instead of the union. But both sides
were equally inspired by that living
fire in an American denominated pa
triotism.
TN that war you had to contend
against the best soldiers the world ever
saw, not even excepting the Japanese
soldiers. But now then, north and
south united, all for the union, all for