Fergus County argus., 1906-06-01


way to the grave
A Glorious Heritage.
No feeble words of mine can do JUS
tice to the men. living or dead, whose
splendid heroism preserved the Union.
Their love of country. their devotion
to duty, their sacrifice and sufferings,
have long since called forth the mob
lest efforts of historian and poet. of
painter and sculptor, but no words
written or spoken, no prose or poetry,
nor sculptored marble nor painted can
They left to posterity the glorious
heritage of union undissolved, a con-
stitution supreme. 1t was their match
less valOr which inspired the martyr
Lincoln to write the grandest page
which adorns our splendid history;
that page upon which is written the
proclamation of emancipation, which
struck the shackles from the limbs of
four and half millions OF human
slaves, and which decreed that there
after all men should be born free as
well as equal The fruits of the victory
they won are even now beyond human
computation. and so their name and
fame shall be deathless so long as the
blessing of liberty and the cardinal
virtues of courage and patriotism are
priced and revered among men, and
so long as the mighty fabric of the
union, which they sanctifed and ce-
mented with their blood. shall con-
tinue to endure.
And let me add here that no ref
erence to the great civil war would
be wholly complete which did not take
account of the part played by the
noble women of the land, who in hos
pital and camp, and ON battlefield went
about as ministering angels binding
the wounds and tenderly caring for the
dead and dying on both sides. The
soldiers of both North am, South made
for themselves a name for brilliant
deeds of daring never surpassed in the
military annals of the world, and side
by side with them in the temple of
fame will ever stand the brave, de-
voted and unselfish daughters of the
republic.
The White Flower Of Peace.
But today as we meet here to yield
our tribute of respect and to perform
these tender offices for all our dead
We may reverently thank God that the
sectional hatred and bitterness which
| once held sway has finally. and let us
hope forever, disappeared: and thai
: out Of the soil once Redeemed with
) the blood OF the nations sons, ha:
. blossomed the white flower of peac,
+ and good will shedding its fragrance
: over all the land and at last uniting
p. us in the bonds OF a fraternal brother
Y mood which knows no north, no south
}. no east, no west. which knows but one
4 country and yields allegiance to bu
+ one flag, the beautiful emblem tha
floats SO proudly above us today. An:
d it is cause for universal gratitude ant
d rejoicing that out Of the fierce conten
q tions and sorrows and desolatiol
q wrought by the civil war there ha
,s come to us at last the full realization
Of the prayer of the great Webste
uttered nearly three-quarters Of
~ fact our flag is a gorgeous en-
q. sign Of the republic, known and honor
y ed throughout the earth not
II stripe erased or polluted, not singl
d star obscured, * but everywhere
" spread all over in characters of livin
y light, blazing on all its ample folds a
;. they float on sea and land tha
Al sentiment dear to every true Amer
h can heart, liberty and union now an
. toryer. one and inseparable.'
ii The War With Spain.
d If any doubts had fingered as t
e whether the old antagonisms and pa
5. sions and prejudices of the war +,
II manned they We're, | think, forever di
II sipated by the magnificent wave {
e. patriotism which swept over the Ian
|. eight years ago upon the declaratio
e OF war with Spain. In that brief bl
A. brilliant struggle, which reflected 6
.e much glory upon American arms, an
Ia upon American soldiers and sailor
g, volunteers and regulars alike, the me
Q OF the south We'd with the men of til
I'd north in their devotion to country an
I'd flag. And to those who recall the bi
le ter hatred which marked the old stru
ID gle it was worth all the Spanish w;
in cost to see those old veterans-tho:
ne who had worn the blue and those WI
ne had worn the gray-men who had ia
We ed each other in deadly hostility on
Iu- hundred bloody fields, marching sit
a by side through the deadly hail of sh
and shell at San Juan and Santias
of and at Manila and Caloocan and Nal
I'd los. And there, too was the inspiri,
of spectacle of the sons of each, marchi,
Dst side by side with their sires, the flo
or er of both north and south. all wes
en- ing the uniform of Uncle Sam. all fa
of ing the enemies of their common cou
try, all keeping step at last to Il
At: music of the Union while old glo
nj